Page 26 of Viken Command

“When will you be back?” I looked up at Alarr and knew I blushed. Again. “I wanted to be with all three of you tonight.”

Alarr lifted his gaze from mine and looked at Oran over my shoulder. Some kind of silent message passed between them, one that made Alarr’s thighs tense beneath me and his pulse change pace. Not a lot, but enough. I noticed because my ear was pressed to his chest, and the soothing rhythm had kept me content as a kitten for the last half hour.

Alarr cleared his throat. “All three of us must meet with the king. I must go as well. I am sorry. I know the Seed Power will be upon you again soon, but our time in the pleasure hut should keep you sated until our return. There is food and drink for you, and there is a comm screen on the wall across the room. I will show you how to use it before I leave.”

“Where are you going? I thought the king was with the other two and their mate?” I asked. “And what about Teig?” Surely, I would have one of my men tonight? I’d only been here since yesterday. Were they going to leave me alone all damn night? I did not like the sound of that.

“Teig is on patrol. I am sorry, Whitney.” Alarr leaned down and kissed me on the temple. “We must work tonight. But tomorrow we will take care of you. I give you my word.”

“Tomorrow?” I asked, stunned. “You promise? I want you. All three of you.”

Oran came over and leaned down, kissing me on the lips. “Yes, mate. We will give you what you need. I promise.”

Well, what freaking choice did I have?

They left me alone, so I took a nice long bath—after trying to figure out how to turn the water on—and then slipped back into Oran’s shirt for pajamas. I didn’t want to watch their comm screen—which was basically like alien television—naked. And I liked the scent of him on the clothes.

I’d settled in, feet tucked beneath me when I felt an even smaller disk in Oran’s pocket.

Grinning, I pulled it out and I recognized it as similar to the one he’d used to record our conversation earlier. I barely remembered most of what we’d talked about, but I would re-watch that again later. This disk was new to me, and theirs. I wondered what was on it. I imagined all the events humans loved to record… weddings, sporting events, graduations, birthday parties.

Grinning now, I set it on the table and studied it. It was exactly like the other one, except less than half the size.

Sneaky. And easy to lose. Back home, I never would have found the damn thing in the bottomless pit of my purse. Which was why it had probably remained buried and forgotten in the depths of Oran’s pocket.

I pressed on the section I knew would make it play, just as Alarr had done to the larger disk still on the table. I couldn’t wait to get a glimpse into their lives, their real lives, before me.

Except is wasn’t a birthday party or anything adorable. It was my mates. Teig, Oran, and Alarr. They were talking to someone I didn’t recognize, someone who looked mean. He was scarred and ugly. Not because of his face, but because of his eyes. I knew that look. I’d seen enough gangsters and drug dealers to know that look.

He was bad news. But that wasn’t what made my heart feel like someone had driven a dagger through it. No, that was the huge, very illegal, Coalition weapons my mates were exchanging with the ugly alien. For money of some kind. They were making a trade.

What the fuck?

What was this disk? Why was it in Oran’s pocket? Had he made this recording like he’d done with me? Had someone else done it and he’d found it? Was someone trying to blackmail my mates? Was this where Oran had been last night? Obtaining this disk? Did he kill whoever had recorded it?

Fingers shaking, I turned the disk over and inspected it as best I could. I didn’t see any dried blood, but that didn’t mean anything. Queen Leah had told me that they’d tracked illegal weapons to Viken. To this area. And maybe even to this resort.

Had they tracked it to my mates? Had I somehow jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire? On Earth, I’d left behind liars and thieves who liked to break the law. I’d lived with them my entire life.

Fuck me if I could live that way for the rest of it. I was not a bad person. Why did this happen to me again? Was there something wrong with me in the head? Did I have some kind of mental weakness that matched me up to bad people?

I should have just married one of those Wall Street bankers or a goddamned drug lord on Earth if this was what I was going to be dealing with. That would have been one asshole, but here on Viken, I had three. Now, I was in outer space, and I couldn’t go home. It was too late to go back. I couldn’t go back.

But it wasn’t too late to correct this mistake.

My mind recalled the odd looks my mates had given each other when they were talking about patrol. Or work. Or meetings with the three kings.

I’d thought I was missing some kind of silent signal, and I’d been right about that. It just hadn’t been the kind of signal I’d been naïvely thinking it was. No, the disk in my hand was proof my mates were on the wrong side of the law.

They’d tricked me, kept me… what, under Seed Power, so I would be too blissed out to discover the truth? They were like my dad and brother, hiding their evil in plain sight. From the outside, my human family hadn’t looked bad, but once the veneer was rubbed off, once th

e truth had come to light and they were wearing orange jumpsuits and had bars around them, they were just bad.

And my mates? Fuck. They weren’t security guards for the pleasure resort… they were arms dealers. They were the illegal gun runners Leah had spoken about. My mates were the very criminals the three kings were hunting.

And liars.

They were fucking liars.

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