The Alpha King (11 page)

"We have located the exact slave ship holding the two younger Versuthions and are monitoring its progress," Nortuvious stated.

"Good, we need to make sure nothing interferes with that ship. No one boards it without us knowing about it," Torqran commanded.

He gasped when Lorthander turned him onto his back quickly and then gave a small groan when Lorthander took his weeping cock between his lips and began to suck.

"Are you okay Master Torqran?" Nortuvious asked.

Torqran nodded his head frantically before he realized Nortuvious couldn't see him. He had a hard time focusing with his cock being enveloped in the hot, wet heat of Lorthander's mouth.

"Y-yes, Nortuvious. I'm fine. If that's all, then very good," Torqran panted.

Lorthander swallowed his cock fully and the head entered the other man's throat. He clutched the bedsheets beneath him. Lorthander had to be trying to drive him crazy! But what a way to go.

"No, Master Torqran, it isn't! I… um… well…" Nortuvious hedged, his agitation and fear penetrating the wavelengths of the communicator.

"You what? Just spit it out, Nortuvious, otherwise get the hell off of my com link!" he yelled and then groaned when Lorthander chuckled, his mouth still full of Torqran's cock, the vibrations sending waves of pleasure washing through Torqran's body.

"Yes, sir! You see. The oldest boy. The oldest Versuthion. He's not going to show up in Strawxig, sir. His shuttle crashed," Nortuvious stated.

Torqran rolled his eyes. "I know this Nortuvious, we gave him the exact coordinates for the space storm we saw coming. He was supposed to have a shuttle crash and die in it. And that's what happened, right?" he asked.

Lowering his hands to the back of Lorthander's head, he lifted his hips and began thrusting his engorged cock within the other man's mouth.

"Um… no, Master Torqran. He did crash. He and his sister both, but according to our spies, they both survived," Nortuvious replied.

Torqran froze and pushed Lorthander away from his groin. "What the fuck do you mean they survived? They were supposed to die in that crash! Then where the hell are they?" he yelled into the com link.

He could almost hear Nortuvious's wince. He didn't care. The stupid clowns were fucking up his plans.

"They apparently came out of warp during the storm and crashed on Tumaro, right within the palace walls," Nortuvious responded, his voice filled with trepidation.

Icy heat flared up in Torqran's veins and his breath locked in his lungs. Tumaro? How the hell did that Vermithian freak and his Edifician sister wind up on Tumaro? The one place Torqran would never want them to end up. There were way too many 'moral' and 'upstanding' factions in play in Tumaro, not to mention the former Alpha King. Torqran shivered again, this time in fear as if the man stood right in front of him.

"Please tell me that they were arrested," Torqran pleaded.

He couldn't let Tal and Blaze meet. It couldn't happen at all.

"Well the girl, Josepire, was taken by the guards, but Talon… he was taken to the clinic, met Alpha King and from what our sources say, the two of them have already mated," Nortuvious stated.

Torqran yelled out in anger and swept his arm out furiously, grabbing the first thing he could get his hands on, a glass figurine given to him by his wife of convenience. He tossed it against the wall and watched with satisfaction when it shattered. He ignored Lorthander who immediately pressed the button on the wall for the maid bot to come in and clean the mess. Once the offending machine left, Torqran had calmed down enough to speak again.

"Now you listen to me, you little shit. I don't care what you have to do, how much you have to pay him, but you get in contact with Elder Bryce on Tumaro. He hates Alpha King Blazell, wants the throne for himself, and he especially hates gays. You get him on board and let him know it's up to him to get rid of the Vermithian."

Without waiting for a reply Torqran turned off his com link and looked up at Lorthander who smiled.

Standing, he lifted his hands to the other man's face. "I'm sorry Thander, but I must go and sort this. Forgive me?" Torqran asked.

"Of course, love," Lorthander responded.

Torqran struggled not to shiver at the sound of the other man's deep voice. With a smile at his lover, Torqran grabbed his robe and quickly slipped it on before striding quickly out of the room.

* * * *

Lorthander breathed a sigh of relief once Torqran left. He didn't know how he could still love the man, especially after all the horrible things he'd already done, but love him he did. But sometimes, love wasn't enough. With a determined glint in his eyes, he walked over to his bag beside the bed and pulled out his encrypted messenging device. With a few taps of his fingers, he sent a quick command to someone who would get him killed if Torqran ever found out about it.

* * * *

The man looked down and read the message before nodding with a grim smile. Just as he suspected, Elder Bryce had become a pawn of the corrupted GPA. He would do everything he had to do to keep the new Alpha Queen safe.

Closing out the message, he deleted and scrambled his cyber footprints within the Elder's system before checking his own personal messages. He still hadn't received a response from his friend. He hoped nothing majorly bad had happened to him. Hearing footsteps approaching, he lifted his head and smiled at the man before him.

"Elder Mailon? You called for this meeting since you were the one who noticed the candles. Aren't you coming?" Elder Prixton Foeul asked with a smile.

Elder Mailon nodded and gave him an answering smile. He had to make sure he attended that meeting. He'd now unofficially become the new Alpha Queen's personal bodyguard.

THE ALPHA QUEEN

CHAPTER NINE

Tal squared his shoulders and lifted his head, trying desperately to look taller than his five foot six inch height when he walked beside Blaze to the Hall of Elders. He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so nervous… okay, more than nervous, he was scared out of his fucking mind. This counted as worse than when he snuck off to have sex for the first time with a lion shifter. What had been his name? Oh yeah, Frank Mufariso. He calmed down somewhat when he thought about how sweet and gentle Frank had been, although the fear still permeated his pores. He also pretty figured it would be the height of impropriety to be remembering your first time with another man with your mate right next to you.

"Calm down, gorgeous, I can smell your fear and I don't like the way that it smells on you," Blaze whispered when they stopped before a large wooden door. "It's making my wolf nervous and he's trying to get out in order to protect you from whatever is threatening you. Just take a deep breath and ease your mind."

"Easy for you to say," Tal mumbled. "You aren't the humanoid about to be in a room full of wolf shifters."

Blaze chuckled and grasped the handle of the door. "Don't worry, baby, I'll protect you."

Tal opened his mouth to give his mate a scathing retort only to be cut off by the loud introduction given by the servant standing right inside the room.

"Elders, behold Alpha King Blazell and his newly mated… um… husband, Alpha Queen Talon!"

Tal rolled his eyes at the reference of him being the Alpha Queen but maintained the falsely peaceful smile and what he hoped to be a serene look on his face. His eyes took in the opulent surroundings and furniture of the Hall of Elders. Not so much a hall as a giant room where conferences were held, treaties and negotiations were carried out, and where the Alpha King could meet with his trusted advisors. Tal started to see the Tumaron pack and kingdom still ran under a lot of the traditional rules and standards, and while the buildings had grown and changed and advanced, it seemed as if the laws and titles and mindsets hadn't done anything to grow with the times. Then again, he based that particular perception on the fact they called him the Alpha Queen. Also, the archaic ideas regarding the royal heirs being cared for by a nanny wouldn't be something Tal could put up with and he had direct control over how his children would be raised. Although as the 'Alpha Queen' he had control over a lot of things, right?

The walls gleamed silver, a dark brown trim around the ceiling and floorboards. The room appeared completely sparse otherwise, except for the large conference table sitting in the middle of the room, surrounded by cushioned chairs. Turning his head to the right, Tal noticed two large thrones that sat against the wall facing the conference table. An indefinable something drew him in that direction and he fought the instinctive need to go and sit in one of the chairs. It didn't make sense, but he felt as if he belonged up there, that the space belonged to him. Like the chair called for him.

"It is,"
a tiny voice said, one that didn't belong to his mate.

Turning his head slightly to the left he saw a tall, living, Totchoo plant in its glass pot resting beside the very doorway he'd just entered. He hadn't seen a Totchoo plant in years. They were some of the rarest, most treasured plants in the galaxy. Their branches were covered in leaves so dark green as to almost appear black and they flared out like spades and on each branch nestled between each leaf a brilliant red Totchi flower bloomed. The Totchi flower never withered, its color never faded, and they never fell off of the branches. They could only be removed, and once removed, the Totchi flower had the ability to heal within seconds, if placed directly on an open wound; the ability to bring someone back to life if their entire body could be covered with flowers and if they had been dead for no more than an hour; and the flowers also had the ability to compel someone to tell the truth, but only if it were brewed and made into a tea.

Tal had always been fascinated by the Totchi flowers and the Totchoo plant. As far as he knew, since he'd a lot of study about the Vermithians over the past five years, only the most special of his kind were able to talk to them.

"How am I able to speak to you?"
he asked the plant, ignoring Blaze while he accepted the greeting of each Elder and offered one in return.

"Do you still not know who you are, Vermithian?"
the plant responded.

Tal glanced subtly back at the chair.
"I am the Alpha Queen."
His statement sounded more like a question.

The plant chuckled. Wow, Tal didn't even know they had a sense of humor.

"Oh my dear Vermithian, it goes beyond that. You are special, very, very special. But you will learn all that you are in time, for you are one of many and together you will all change history. Only when it is time will all be revealed."

Tal blinked at the cryptic message from the Totchoo plant.
"How do you know this?"
he asked.

"The One tells us all. Nature, animals, the winds, the sky, the suns, the moons, space, the stars, the galaxy, we know all, as the One tell us all. She used to speak to all life forms, to every species, but you all have just stopped listening."

Tal blinked when he realized the Totchoo wouldn't be saying anything more. With the words of the plant burning in his heart, he turned his mind back to everything happening around him, and not a moment too soon. It seemed as if every eye had all turned to look at him.

His gaze took in the appearances of the Elders standing around the table. There were fifteen… no, sixteen Elders, he amended when another one, much smaller in stature than the others, rushed towards his chair from a door at the back of the room. Tal shivered slightly with arousal when Blaze's hand came to rest on the small of his back. He allowed himself to be led to the smaller of the two thrones, the one made for the 'queen', no doubt. He snorted internally before a nod from Blaze in the direction of the throne had him taking a seat.

"That was perfect, love. You handled that as if you were made to be the Alpha Queen,"
Blaze complimented him.

He still stood with his back to Tal, but he communicated his pleasure with his mate's actions.
"Although, since you are my mate and born to be with me and I was born to be the Alpha King, that means you were born to be the Alpha Queen,"
he amended.

Tal sent Blaze a mental image of him rolling his eyes before he replied,
"We are seriously going to have to find another title because I am so not cool with the whole queen thing. Even if I can be a bitch from time to time."

He smiled when Blaze laughed, although physically the Alpha did not move. Tal's left eyebrow quirked in confusion. Blaze and the Elders stood perfectly still, none of them moving, barely breathing.

"Um… Blaze?"
he asked mentally.

"Yes, love?"
Blaze responded, still not turning to face him.

"What the hell are you doing? Why haven't you sat down and why is no one moving or talking? I thought I came here to be introduced and interrogated or something?"

Blaze sighed through their link and Tal grew concerned.

"When the Alpha King finds his mate, they are brought before the Elders. The queen sits and the king stands, along with the Elders as the One weighs the bond between the mated pair. If the One finds they are indeed true mates, a sign will be given, something pleasant, something visual. If they are not a true mated pair—"