Page 31 of Jewel of the Alien Bandit
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Vareo
THE ESTRELDEZ ALMDERappeared on the vidcomm, and I could see Luan visibly tense up even after the pain relievers that should have made her whole body feel like a cloud. It was the good stuff, the kind of med treatment never afforded to me except when I was a kid and they feared their investment would die too soon.
I wanted to reach out for her, but there was no way I was showing my face to her mother while she saw her daughter in a med tank.
“Almder,” Luan spoke first.
“My Jewel, you’ve troubled my heart with your reckless behavior. I know you took the transport pod to a mate’s ship without consulting me. If you had wanted to mate with him, all you had to do was say so, I would have negotiated his return.”
I grinned to myself, letting myself believe for a second that Luan had come onto my ship to mate with me, and not to convince me to help her clan. The idea that she could want me as I wanted her, made my blood heat, but images of her with the krelin shut those feelings down as soon as they rose.
“One of my mate’s crew members betrayed us," she explained, and I nearly rushed to her at the sound of her calling me her mate. Did she mean it?
I needed to hold her, to have her say it again to me directly. I needed that melodic voice of hers no longer strained with pain to say my name, to call me hers.
My body pulsed, and it urged me to complete the mate bond with her, despite her current state. Or perhaps because of it. If our mate bond was consummated I could share my strength with her, be there to help her heal.
My thoughts were interrupted by what she had to say next, bringing me back to reality, “She didn’t agree with my request to get an audience with King Sylve.”
It was Almder who spoke now, “What on Estreldez would you want to do that for?”
“Because they were planning on forcing us into an agreement whether we talked with them or not. We are much too isolated and rely too heavily on the words of our treaties. We should have been sending diplomats, and not just having them come to us during our mating ceremony.”
“We have many diplomats,” she disagreed with Luan’s assessment.
“All of them speak with our trade partners when they visit and through vidcomm. How are we supposed to verify information?”
I could tell Luan was tiring, and even without the sedative she didn’t have much time left before her body needed to recover.
She was right, plenty of their traders could have been coerced into lying to the estreld diplomats through vidcomm. Without a diplomat on site to check on things, there could be broken relationships.
She’d make a great leader one day.
Without me, I thought sadly, but dismissed it.
“I send out a team of diplomats regularly to our partners, My Jewel, but there have been other priorities,” her mother explained.
“I know Almder. That is why I needed to leave to help with those priorities.”
“You don’t look well, what kind of damage have you sustained by the traitorous crew member?”
“It isn’t good, mother.” Luan’s voice grew softer, more distant.
“Come home immediately,” she demanded.
“I won’t make it in time. My fate is in the hands of this med pod.”
Luan lied to her mother, we could make it on time if King Sylve demanded it of the Viper Raul. It was the fastest warship with the latest technology, both legal and black market. I’d try my hand at subterfuge taking this ship’s command and take her myself if her reports declined.
The Almder finally showed some emotion on that hard face of hers. She took off her crown and held it to her chest while shaking her head in denial.
“My Jewel,” she choked out. “The Krelis Prince has sent his warships in search of you. Just send your coordinates and I’m sure there is a fast ship nearby. Loric is also eagerly awaiting your return, he has offered to be sired to you and any offspring you may have with the Krelis Prince.”
Of course Loric would be diplomatic enough to know Luan would need to mate with another for their planet, but he still wished to be her mate. I had once thought I could be okay with leaving her in Loric’s care… How stupid had I been?
“Almder, we are on the brink of war, how can you speak of mates? I do not wish for our clan to suffer. I’ve made an agreement with King Sylve that as long as they provide Estreldez with technology and research to assist with our clan’s needs,and leave our planet unharmed, then we will not go to war with them, and I will stay on Necias to be a diplomatic liaison.”
