Page 50 of Lacey's Warriors

Looking at the magnificent creatures, a few of the tamer horses now getting rub downs from the adoring crowd of Kadothian males, Lacey said, “They, and you are welcome here for as long as you need. I promise you, we’ll take good care of them.”

“Horsey!” came Jillian’s piercing scream, loud enough that most of the horses halted their movements and turned to see what that noise was.

Her daughter ran up to the fence, fearless as always, with her personal guards in tow.

Jillian, wearing jeans and a plaid shirt like Lacey’s, climbed up onto the railing next to Lacey, while Wythe stood a respectful distance away, but always on guard.

Life wasn’t always easy, or safe, on Madre Tierra. There had been a few attacks, both by bounty hunters and anti-Earthers, but they had all been unsuccessful. Mainly because Kadothia took its defenses seriously, but also because Lacey’s people were loyal and loved their Matriarch and her family. It was weird at first, she wasn’t used to feeling like royalty, but as time went on she got more and more used to the idea that they didn’t view her as a Queen, but a mother.

“Horsey!” Jillian yelled out again, holding one hand out as the other clutched the railing, her sunflower yellow hair streaming about in the breeze. “Come here horsey, please.”

“Honey,” Michelle said with a smile, “these are wild mustangs. They aren’t used to humans—”

Michelle’s jaw dropped as two horses, a big red with a white blaze on his nose and a pretty mist gray mare with black ears, walked up to Jillian and lowered their heads so she could scratch their necks.

“What the…?” Michelle whispered as Lacey smiled.

“My daughter has a way with animals,” Lacey said as she watched Jillian love all over the horses.

“I see that,” Michelle said in a soft voice. “Is that her…gift?”

“We aren’t sure,” Lacey said as she hooked a finger in the back loop of Jillian’s jeans to keep her from falling. “Everyone said Jillian’s dad, my first husband Nathan, had a way with animals, that they just responded to him like they knew what he was saying. Same thing about his dad. I remember when Nathan and I first started dating—I drove out to the fields where he was mending fences and didn’t notice the bull was out in his pasture and had spotted me as I got out of my car. I swear, that old bull looked about the size of a house as it came charging at me. Nathan, without an ounce of fear in his heart, put himself before me and yelled at the bull to stop. It did, about two feet from us, and actually looked guilty as Nathan yelled at it for scaring me.”

Jillian was hanging almost all the way over the railing now, three different horses all vying for her attention.

Hauling her daughter back by the band of her jeans, Lacey swooped her off the fence and set her down. “Come on, Jillybean. We need to get back and cleaned up for supper. Will you and your husbands be joining us, Michelle?”

“Not tonight. I wanted to take them to the diner in town.” An excited gleam lit Michelle’s brown eyes. “Do they really make Earth style diner food?”

“They do,” Lacey held Jillian’s hand in her own, tugging her daughter away from the now mournful looking horses leaning their heads over the railing. “While the kitchen staff may not be from Earth, my mom’s family ran a diner in our hometown for generations. She taught them how to make a bunch of different diner favorites. Make sure you try some of the peach pie. It’s made with real Earth peaches.”

Michelle’s eyes went wide. “How did you get peaches out here?”

“Being from Georgia, one of the first things I started growing in my Territory is peaches.”

“I can’t believe you have real Earth peach trees,” Michelle marveled as Jillian swayed, pulling on Lacey’s arm as she leaned back.

“You’d be surprised what the Kadothian’s have managed to clone. The trees are a little different than on Earth, they had to be modified to thrive on Madre Tierra’s slightly different dirt, and the unique type of sun, but they’re doing well. I can’t wait to walk through the orchards when the trees are all blossoming.”

“Let me know when that is going to happen,” Michelle smiled and waved over to her husbands. “Thanks again for doing this, Lacey. I owe you one.”

“No problem, have fun tonight!”

“Oh, I totally will.”

“If I wasn’t so pissed about the Territorial Congress fu—” Michelle looked down at Jillian and corrected herself, “fudging me over, I’d be tempted to claim a Territory and open a horse ranch here.”

Wythe drove them back to their temporary manor home, the miles flying by in seconds as they zipped along the gravity tracks. They passed a terrain that looked like it could be any countryside on Earth, at first glance. There were subtle differences, unexpected shapes and bursts of color from plants native to Kadothia. According to the biosphere engineers, the plants would work together to create a prime habitat for the insects and animals that were being slowly introduced.

One technician, a big Warrior with fists like boulders who looked like he should be breaking rocks, not building worlds, told her that creating a planet was a delicate ballet with one million dancers all wielding razor-sharp swords. If everyone gets their moves right, it is perfect beauty and balance, but if just one thing goes wrong, the stage becomes a killing floor.

While the idea was a little grotesque, she could see what he meant and was glad that she didn’t have to deal with that aspect of her Territory.

She had more than enough to deal with as it was. There were always a hundred mental messages waiting to be answered, a thousand people that wanted to see her, and a hundred and fifty billion things to do. Thank God she had her husbands and inner court to help her deal with everything. One by one she’d bonded with Gwarnon’s crew, welcoming each of them into her home. Wythe had left her mother’s service to come serve at Lacey’s court, but maintained his bond with her mother for obvious reasons. She’d never asked how far intimately her mom had to go to bond her Warriors to her because there were some things she just didn’t want to know. The fact that her mom had bonded Wythe was enough for Lacey.

Heat tickled her belly as she drifted through some memories of bonding various members of her inner circle, and how much each bonding had aroused her husbands.

They were close enough to the manor now that she could see the impressive three-story home that was a blend of Kadothian and Earth architecture. Made to resemble a log cabin, the home was more rounded than Earth’s typical square structures, and there were a good deal more windows. There was also a large porch attached to the front with dozens of chairs, and climbing pink roses grew up the posts, softening the look of the big home.

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