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“Are you going after her?” It didn’t surprise Alex that his father knew the topic of conversation. He and his mother could easily communicate with each other telepathically thanks to years of practice with their connection as soul’s mates.

“Would it do any good?”

Kahn didn’t bat an eye. “Probably not, if she was angry enough to leave in the first place.” There was a brief pause. “You realize she’s not coming back.”

Alex’s stomach gave an awful lurch.

“What do you mean?” He had to ask, but deep down inside, he knew what his father meant.

“She’s been planning on leaving for months now. Moving to Academy housing. In your… umph!” His mother punched Kahn in the ribs, even as she clung to him. “Inour--” he glanced down at Anna, “-- zealousness to protect her, I fear we’ve pushed her away from us.”

“She wouldn’t dare.” Even as he said it, he knew how false that statement was. Doriena would most certainly dare. “Can’t you stop her -- forbid it or something?”

“If I thought it would help, I would.”

“I think the two of you have done enough.” Anna sniffed. “I should have intervened a long time ago.”

“Maybe if you had, she wouldn’t feel like she had to leave home to enjoy freedoms every other Gothe’maran female has here.” Kahn sighed, nuzzling his wife’s head in a gesture Alex had seen a thousand times when something worried his mother.

Without warning, Anna pushed away from Kahn and moved from the two of them a few steps. “Men,” she muttered under her breath. “You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.” When Alex opened his mouth to say something, she cut him off. “As usual.”

“Anna.” Kahn’s voice should have sounded reprimanding -- would have with anyone other than his wife -- but the effect was ruined by the wince as Anna turned her sharp, intelligent, angry eyes on him.

“Oh, come on! Listen to what you’re saying,” she spat. “You really think Gothe’maran females enjoy as much freedom as men?”

“Now, Anna.” Kahn’s tone suggested he would try to reason with Anna, but Alex knew his mother all too well. When she was in this kind of lather, it was best to let her have her say. He’d also seen his father try to reason with her almost every time she got this angry, and he always failed. He would have thought Kahn would have learned better.

“Don’t take that patronizing tone with me, Kahn Mak’un! You know very well what I’m talking about. If men and women were equal here, my Doriena wouldn’t be the only woman in the Academy. You’re ruler here. Do something!”

Alex’s father sighed. “Anna, you know this is a male dominated society. Men have always been the warriors protecting Gothe’mar in Military Command. It’s going to be hard to change over a thousand years of thinking.”

“Which --” Alex cringed when his mother turned her angry, piercing gaze on him, “-- is why I wanted her to stay here instead of at the Academy.” She poked him in the chest. “Get her back here.”

“I don’t think it’s up to me, Mom. She’s got to do what’s best for her.”

“So?” Anna shrugged. “Make herwantto come back home.”

He blew out an exasperated breath. “And just how in the Universe am I supposed to do that?”

Kahn placed a hand on Anna’s shoulder. “You’ll have to figure that one out on your own, son.”

Alex ran a hand through his hair. Yeah. Right. A surge of anger went through him as he thought all of this could have been avoided if he’d only come home like he’d promised Doriena he would. That feeling intensified every passing second, and when he reached his suite, he punched the wall just to relieve a little tension.

It might have helped if he wasn’t so worried about Doriena. He had a bad feeling something was very wrong.

Chapter Two

Leaving home was the hardest thing Doriena had ever done. A little more than a week after she’d left the relative peace and tranquility of the royal estates, explosions flashed and boomed all around her. Men shouted orders and fired all manner of exotic weapons at an enemy none of them could see.

Doriena should have been at least a little bit scared, or excited, or… something.

What she was, was pissed as hell.

None of it was real.

This was a Gothe’maran military academy. Gothe’marans never did anything halfway. Until she joined the Academy. This was the first exercise where live ammunition wasn’t used. Ever.

At first she thought it was because she was a woman. Her mother had alluded to that assumption several times, but in recent months, she had discovered it was because she was the daughter of General Kahn Mak’un. One simply did not put the general’s daughter in harm’s way. Foranyreason.

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