COWBOY ROMANCE: Justin (Western Contemporary Alpha Male Bride Romance) (The Steele Brothers Book 1) (85 page)

Chapter 4

“What happened?” Jane asked as she gazed around at her unbelievable surroundings. “Where am I?”

“You are on your way to Cartonia,” he announced. “You are my mate now, and you must change your body. I brought one for you.”

“Cartonia? Where’s Cartonia? I’ve never heard of it.”

“It is my planet. We need females from Earth to repopulate our land because Earth comes closest to our planet. Now I will take you to the body you will use. It will help you adjust to our planet’s atmosphere easier, and you will be able to understand what our people are saying.”

“What if I don’t want to go? What if I want to go back and bury my husband?”

“You cannot. We have mated, and now you are bearing my child.”

“For heaven’s sake,” Jane exclaimed, “we
just
had sex. You can’t possibly know that yet.”

He held her hand up in front of her face and said, “You are changing color already.” Stunned, she stared at her fuchsia hand as he continued. “Taking the new body will erase the memory of your mate. You are now mine. You will not remember him or the pain of losing him.”

“But I love him. I don’t
want
to forget him.”

“I am afraid you must. You are Cartonian now, and you will take the body I brought for you.”

What a fantasy this is!
she thought in wonder. She had no idea how all of this came to her, but she knew it couldn’t be true.

“Everything you see, everything you feel, everything you remember will be gone soon. You will know only about Cartonia.”

Taking her hand, he started away from the controls of whatever kind of spaceship they were in, but she didn’t move. She wasn’t about to let him take away her memories.

“Who
are
you, anyway?” she demanded. “You’re certainly not my husband.”

“I am Tyr. I am a soldier of Prince Odin. My grandfather was king, but he abdicated the throne to Prince Odin’s grandfather because he did not want it. You are now royalty and will be treated as such when we arrive on Cartonia.”

“This is ludicrous,” she said as she went with him down a silver-lined hallway to a different room. “This couldn’t possibly be real.”

“It is very real,” he insisted. “You will take a nap, and when you awaken, you will remember nothing of Earth or the ways they live on Earth. You will only know about Cartonia, even though some things you will need to learn.”

They approached a door, which opened automatically. A beautiful female lay on a table, her skin nearly a translucent yellow. When he motioned to a nearby bed, she sat down on it. If she really was pregnant, how would that transfer to a different body? Curious, she posed the question aloud to Tyr.

“Your body is on Earth, but your soul is with me. The child will remain with your soul as if you are connected to it physically. The body assigned to you will carry the child and love the child as you would on Earth.” He held a glass of water out toward her, so she took it. She could use a drink right now, but she wanted the kind of drink that had some alcohol in it. While she drank, he explained further.

“The woman you saw collapse at the site of your mate’s accident was you, but your soul had already moved on. That woman on Earth will not feel love as you did, but the female on the table will. Therefore, you will still know the feeling.”

Unexpectedly feeling groggy, she returned the empty glass to Tyr and lay down on the bed. This had been a very long couple of hours, and she was exhausted.

“You will sleep now,” he told her. “I will check you to determine if you have completed the transfer. When you do, I will awaken you, and you will be refreshed and ready to meet your people.”

Before Jane could respond, darkness engulfed her.

***

Jane opened her eyes to a bright room. The four-poster bed in which she lay appeared to be made of brass. Brass beds weren’t uncommon on Earth, so someone must have taken her in when she fainted upon … upon … For the life of her, she couldn’t remember why she had fainted, only that she had.

Sitting back against the brass headboard, which was engraved with several fleur-de-lis symbols, she surveyed the room. The walls were of silver, not stone or wood. Where was she?

A silver door across the room opened, and a lovely female with pastel green skin entered.

“Terrific!” she exclaimed. “You’re awake. We thought you would be about now. My name is Lynne, and I understand you’re Jane.”

Lynne approached Jane with a tray containing some unfamiliar items. Setting the tray on the bed, Lynne continued as though she was very comfortable.

“I hope you speak English because I don’t know any foreign languages.”

“I do,” Jane replied. “Where am I?”

“Cartonia. Didn’t Tyr tell you?”

“I don’t know. I don’t remember much right now.”

“I’m not surprised. A lot of things will come back to you in time, but I wouldn’t mention it to Tyr if I were you. The men here think we can’t remember anything from Earth. Fenrir doesn’t know that I remember a lot of things, either.”

“Who are Tyr and Fenrir? And what is Earth?”

“Tyr and Fenrir are our … spouses, I suppose you could call them. They call us their mates. You must be famished. Go ahead and eat. The food here is actually pretty good.”

Picking an item from the tray that looked like a cross between a pear and a peach, Jane bit into it. It tasted like neither, but Lynne was right. It was good.

“I think I remember Tyr now,” Jane said. “How long did I sleep?”

“I don’t know. Time is weird here, not like it is on Earth. You’ll like it here, though. Most people are friendly, although they don’t usually want to
be
friends. Princess Melanie is from Earth, too, so those of us who are here have a bit of a bond if we can speak the same language. We can understand Cartonian, but we still can’t understand other languages, like French or Swahili.”

Jane studied the woman in the white jumpsuit then looked at her own jumpsuit, also white.

“Don’t worry. Everybody wears white jumpsuits. Only the direct royalty—the prince, princess, and their children—wear colorful or silver ones.” Lynne paused then said, “Take some food with you, and I’ll show you around the castle. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen, not that you would remember yet. You will, though.”

Not knowing what else to do, Jane took another pear/peach and a flat, indescribable piece before she followed Lynne.

The castle was quite bright and airy. Open windows faced all directions, capturing any breeze that happened by. Anything lightweight was held down by bronze or silver knick-knacks of various shapes. However, Jane couldn’t place any of the shapes to even connect them to something on Earth, like she had the peach and pear.

The interior walls of the castle were silver, just as the bedroom walls. Why was nothing made of stone or wood? She remembered enough to know that’s what a building on Earth was made of.

Lynne led her to a window. A breeze caught them. Jane remembered the scent; it was that of the ocean. Outside, beyond the sand dunes colored like a rainbow, stretched a vast aquamarine ocean.

“We’re on top of a small mountain here,” Lynne said, “so we can see all around us. This is my favorite view, but I love just staring at Prince Odin’s palace, too. We can see that from Fenrir’s office. He’s out right now, so I’ll show you that, too.”

They went through silver walled corridors lined with three-dimensional photographs, which were framed in copper. Jane could hardly believe that there was so much metal in the building and wondered what the smaller houses, the houses of ordinary people, were made from.

As they approached a large, shining copper door at the end of a hallway, Jane heard muffled voices. Apparently, Lynne did, too, because she told Jane to be quiet before they approached the closed door.

To her surprise, Jane understood every word she heard.

“You do not have an option, Tyr,” a male voice said. “You are in my command, which is why I am allowing you to live in my house. That and because you are my favorite nephew and heir. You will do as ordered, and you will not complain.”

Chapter 5

That didn’t sound good to Jane, and given the look on her face, Lynne agreed.

“I recognize Tyr’s voice,” Jane whispered, “but who’s the other person?”

“Fenrir,” Lynne replied in a like tone. “He wants to overthrow Odin and take the throne back. I’ll explain later. Be quiet so I can hear.”

While they listened, Fenrir told Tyr that he needed to go to the palace and request to be posted as a guard for Odin. Every time Odin had a meeting with his chiefs, Tyr was to report to Fenrir about exactly what times and dates were mentioned, as well as what was discussed. Tyr balked at the order, but Fenrir insisted that he would have Tyr stripped of his higher echelon position and put into a labor position if Tyr refused.

This obviously angered Tyr, who began shouting at Fenrir that he thought Odin was a fine man and a wise ruler, that he refused to be a spy for Fenrir. In turn, Fenrir remained calm, using threats to get Tyr to calm down.

Eventually, Tyr acquiesced, and Lynne pointed down the hallway. Then she pushed Jane in that direction. In only moments, they came to a copper door that swung open as they approached. Lynne gave Jane a small shove toward the door, and they entered the room. The door shut quietly behind them.

“Did I understand them right?” Jane asked, keeping her voice low. “Are they plotting against the prince?”

“That’s exactly what they were doing,” Lynne replied in a normal tone. “You don’t have to be quiet now. This is a room where you can’t hear through the door.”

“Then you’d think your husband and Tyr would have used this one instead.”

“One would think. Then again, they might not know that we can hear through their doors. I haven’t even come close to telling Fenrir everything I can do here on Cartonia.”

“Do we have special powers or something?”

“I wouldn’t say that, but I know I can do a lot more than Fenrir would ever think. He believes that Cartonians have the highest intellect of any planet out there.” Lynne chuckled at the notion. “We’re going to have to be very careful that they don’t find out what I know—and now what
you
know.”

After several minutes of waiting, Lynne moved toward the door, which swung open for them. From that room, they went to Fenrir’s now-free office. Lynne led Jane to the window which overlooked the valley below. Jane stared down in awe.

The colors of the mountain were vibrant, but the buildings appeared gloomy and unappealing—except one. The palace in the distance, its front facing the ocean, glistened in the sun. At least, it would have been the sun on Earth. The gold walls, the magnificent copper turrets and parapets all screamed wealth and high class. Even from this distance, Jane could see that many of the windows were stained glass or something equivalent.

“The palace makes everything else look like peasants live there,” Jane said with a hint on wonder in her voice.

“Doesn’t it, though? And it’s just as beautiful inside.”

Lynne’s voice sounded as though it came from somewhere else, so Jane turned from the window and found Lynne rifling through some papers on the brass desk in the middle of the room.

“What are you
doing
?” Jane asked as she rushed to the door to see if anybody was coming.

To her relief, the silver-walled hallway was empty of people, or Cartonians, or whatever she should call them.

“I have no clue,” Lynne replied as Jane joined her. “I thought I might find something here I could read, but no such luck.”

“Are you crazy? Anybody could just walk by the room and see you.” Jane strode over to the desk and leaned against it.

“Maybe I am crazy,” Lynne answered with a laugh. “I have no clue how long I’ve been here, but I know that Fenrir is plotting against Prince Odin. I just don’t know which side I should be on. Fenrir says that he should be king, but it kind of reminds me of something in the back of my mind that I can’t quite bring forward.”

“What do you mean?” Jane asked.

“Fenrir’s grandfather didn’t want to be king, so he abdicated. That reminds me of something I’ve heard before. I just don’t know what it is.”

“Well, I think you should stop snooping—even if you can’t read what’s written there.” She grabbed Lynne’s wrist and tugged on her arm until Lynne acquiesced. Once out of the room, Jane changed the subject. “Do you like living here?”

With that question, Lynne babbled about how happy she was since she arrived on Cartonia. She loved the country and the people, and she had decided never to leave, not even if Fenrir waged an unsuccessful coup on the prince.

Jane wondered if she could be as happy there. From the sound of things, Tyr was perfectly happy letting Odin rule his domain. In fact, he’d come straight out and said that he thought Odin was doing a fine job. So why did Fenrir want to oust him? Was it just because he wanted the throne? Or was there something else behind his plan?