Page 43 of Her Alien Prince
"As your second in command, I've been waiting a long time for someone like her to come along. A new queen," he laughed heartily, "Fuck, it's a miracle, and we can finally shunt our mother out of our hive. As long as you don't fuck it up, that is."
Was he saying what I thought he was saying? "Brother..."
He smacked me on the shoulder with glee. "I knew from the moment I tried your nectar cycles ago. It's why I worked so hard to become your second in command. So, I could be ready to help you once there was a chance to topple the crown so to speak. You thought I liked all this responsibility," he scoffed. I stared at him stunned and he proceeded to make himself at home within my chambers, lounging on a chair, and kicking back, while wiping his blood on his chest like it was a tiny papercut. "You don't know how long I've waited to finally tell you. Well," he paused thinking about it, "I guess you do, since I just told you cycles before I was your second, and that was several cycles before now..."
"Just shut up," I snapped, needing some space and silence to think. He was always a chatty one, and overly jovial towards me, which I found odd in the beginning until it grew on me over the cycles. It was like lifting a mask from my eyes, to look at him now, and having thought about the possibility of having blood family that escaped the fate my mother would have given spawn that didn't meet her standards. He survived.
After a few minutes of quiet he couldn't take the only sound being the pacing I made across my room, while the soft hum of Mabel's breath lifted and fell in deep sleep behind us. Gho-ran was never really one for controlling his mouth, though he seemed to do just fine when the pressure was on for him to lead the warship when I wasn't present. I trusted him, and now there was a bit more sense to why I could tolerate his annoyances.
"I had this whole plan of taking the time to make my own nectar. Having you try it. You know, give me pointers and stuff, only for your eyes to grow wide with recognition of being connected by blood and we would bond and all that nonsense. You're really messin' with my plans."
"I think you did that all on your own," I pointed out, considering he was the one that decided to tell me now, while my mate slept in the bed behind us. "You said your father was hooman…” I shook my head, trying to wrap my mind around his admission. Then if he was hooman… he would be even more susceptible to my venom. “For your sake you better not be lying on drinking the nectar or being my blood." My poison would still make any krelin sick regardless of if they drank my nectar, but if he was my brother by blood, then the poison wouldn't be as affective, and adding the nectar would make him immune for a time. But I still couldn’t account for how his hooman half would react. It was only a drop that entered his system, so as long as he was truthful, I hoped he’d be fine. "Why tell me now?"
"Right." He leaned forward with a serious expression that I was now searching for the hints of familiarity that I'd missed over the cycles he'd been by my side. "I thought that would be obvious."
"I'd like you to confirm it," I stated bluntly.
He frowned, but complied, "Queen Mab is too new to the hive to match up with Queen Kai, even with her waning influence. You need to complete your bond, so you can block any attempts at controlling the new queen, not that I trust you to do a good job of that when I saw how zoned out you were earlier. That's why I decided to intervene a bit."
"I didn't take into account, opening myself up to the bond with My Kansa," I made a point to mention she was mine, because I didn't like the way he glanced over my shoulder at where she lie there sleeping, and his tone about intervening spoke of a fondness he was developing for her, "also opens my mind up to being influenced by Queen Kai if she's actively probing. I've pretended I was still under her thrall when the effects broke, but she'll notice soon enough, and double her efforts."
"So, to complete your bond, you run the risk of breaking it while Queen Kai tries to bring her under her control."
Sighing with frustration, I rubbed at my face, knowing I'd have to speed up my plans. "Mabel isn't safe here, until she gains the support of the hive."
"Sure, sure," he dismissed, and I felt my anger from before boil, my patience was wearing thin. It was like he didn't care about Mabel's life, and I didn't care if he was my blood or not, I took a foreboding step forward. He threw up his hands in surrender. "We both know her life is in danger. That's just fact, right? I was going to say, the fastest way to gain the hive's respect is to prove to them that she can lead."
"She doesn't know how to control her kan like that." A more selfish part of me knew that for her to connect the hive and have us work as an immutable force together would require her to open her mind to not just me... but to the hive.
"That's why I'm here," Gho-ran said grinning like a fool, relaxing like this was some game. A game with lives at stake, including my mate's.
"And why is that exactly?"
"I'm your blood, and she just drank your nectar not that long ago in a bowl made from my glands. She has a bit of both of us in her as she sleeps—"
"You had no right," I bellowed, before I heard her stir behind me, and I softened my voice, "What are you playing at, Gho-ran?"
"I've proved my blood connection with you, by staying alive, and without illness after deliberately taking your venom. I've also proved my loyalty to you, by not making any moves on your mate while she sleeps before you arrived. I also brought her to this room instead of wherever Li-aq planned on taking her."
I scowled at the mention of Li-aq, thinking of his under-winged plans to seduce and addle my mate into submission.
Gho-ran continued, "Brother, I will call you that from now on, since that is what we are, brothers. I've been waiting in the shadows for a time to finally seek my revenge on our mother for what she did to our sister, and what she did to the last queen to rise."
A sister? I stayed still, not daring to breathe as he explained, "We were twins... it's why I even survived, because there was only one kantos and I was not awakened immediately after our sister. I've named her Panala, since no one else dared to name a queen dead at spawning. She had kan sprouting from her first light, and a sign of a powerful queen to be, despite being only half krelin. Our mother tossed her to the heart and left the kantos to be cleaned up by whoever came next."
"For such a quiet spawn, you turned out to be talkative," I joked with a tight smile, trying to lighten the mood, but there was nothing funny about what he was saying. He was accusing our mother of more than merely sending our warriors out to die in needless wars under the guise of protecting our sector, our planet, but of deliberately putting our hive in jeopardy by murdering a future queen. And proving that she had mated with a hooman around the time…, calculating how many cycles Gho-ran was, the time she stopped being able create more spawn.
I had gauged the appropriate response based on the many cycles we had served together aboard the ship. Gho-ran would not wish for me to pity him, but I had to respect the loss of our sister. I cleared my throat to add, "You chose an apt name for our sister. Panala. Heart of the Goddess. Our mother will answer for her crimes against the hive." I promised.
"I believe the only reason why your mate is not dead is because Queen Kai realizes that her connection to the hive is failing. Her only shot at keeping the hive together and keeping her position is to turn Queen Mab into a mindless breeder, while she rules in her."
"I will not let that happen," I hissed, my throat glands clucking in warning. I knew his assumption to be correct. I'd heard it for myself. She fully intended to pick and choose mates for her benefit, and political sway with the hive. Starting with Commander Li-aq.
"Yah, I'd rather not take your word for it. You have an entire horde of warriors willing to fight for you to become the next leader of the hive. No offense to your mate, our new queeny, or anything, but she doesn't need to sway the hearts of the hive today. You do. Horn up, and protect your mate, protect this hive. You need to show everyone at tonight's party that you are first mate to Queen Mab and claim your Kloaph Rite to take her to Kai Mountain, show them that you are not controlled by Queen Kai, and take your place as Prince in more than name, or perhaps you'd rather I do the honor myself?"
"She hasn't fully accepted me," I admitted with shame.
"Who's fault is that? Have you told her about the nectar?"
