Page 283 of Hunters and Prey

“When do I leave?” Chiara asked, already mentally considering who she wanted to be on her team.

“Can you leave in the hour?” Nadyah asked, leaning on the prince.

Chiara considered the two of them and the amount of touching they seemed to require. Were all mates like this, even the Drakesthai? She supposed she would find out when she met Zoya and her mates.

“Yes, I can leave within the hour. I’ll have my team set up and prepped by then.” It was a lot to ask of her. Chiara didn’t deal with change well – especially sudden change. But she had to prove she was just as capable as everyone else despite her…abnormalities.

“Excellent,” Ian said, standing to take Chiara’s hands. “I’ll take care of all the medical supplies you’ll need. Report to me once every solar day. And Chiara? Enjoy Anarr. Adelina said it was one of the most beautiful places she’d ever seen.” The prince gave her the brief kiss of farewell.

Chiara released him as quickly as she could and nodded. “Thank you for this opportunity, Prince Ian. I won’t disappoint you.”

“I’m sure you won’t,” Nadyah reassured her.

Nadyah and Ian smiled at her like proud parents and it made Chiara uncomfortable. She’d never had parents so all the attention was discomfiting. Chiara bowed to both of them per their rank, and then went into her room to pack.

She had an hour to choose one hundred personnel and get them packed up and ready. Chiara shook her head as she threw everything into a suitcase. At least she didn’t have much to bring with her.

Listing off the people she wanted on the top of her head, her simulcast recorded as she worked. When she was finished, Chiara considered her small room one last time.

Instead of living in a royal eyrie carved from a mountain that housed a volcano she would be in a palace on another planet. Chiara had never traveled so much in her life. All the change wasn’t easy – though she’d been mentally prepared for it to some degree.

But she’d gotten used to the capitol planet. Hai Delta left much to be desired in the way of scenery, but it was a quiet planet with few living on it – it mostly housed the Drakesthai Council. How they had so many royals in one place to rule as a council? It seemed odd. Chiara never knew who was higher in rank so she’d deferred to the eldest.

It was safer that way she supposed.

What would Anarr be like? There would only be the team she brought with her from the Draga System. The rest would be Drakesthai – as foreign to her as the Corinthians.

Chiara shook her head and sent off the messages from her simulcast to the team that she’d decided on. Then she checked the cast Nadyah had sent her with the info on the starship they were to take. Thankfully the message was brief.

She slipped on a coat, grabbed her suitcase, and strode into her connecting lab – now empty. Walking from her lab into one of the main spaces they’d been given as part of the hospital, she considered all those still working and nodded at the ones gathering their things to leave with her. Chiara could do this. She could manage her own team on a foreign planet without the protection of the Draga royals.

She sent up a silent prayer to the God of Science for help. Kienz wouldn’t abandon her.

Drakesthai males watched and moved aside as she stepped into one of the main corridors. The floor-to-ceiling windows framed the fiery landscape outside the eyrie. Rivers of lava glowed while lightning cracked across the dark red sky.

She couldn’t say she was going to miss the constant darkness. Chiara had grown up on Draga Terra where the warmth of the Kala sun had drenched her skin – setting only for a few hours each night.

But there was something about the fire and lightning she liked.

Two guards opened the massive doors for her and Chiara stepped out, walking across the narrow bridge carved from rock to the landing station. One of the starships waited to take her to Anarr and the royal family that resided there.

Learning protocol and relying on dominance in Draga helped her blend into the crowd and appear normal. Being atypical…wasn’t easy, but most of the time she’d been fine. Now she would be in a new environment surrounded by a different race with their own, slightly different culture.

She had no idea how she was going to manage, but she would have to find a way. Rank and a professional attitude could help her muddle her way through until she figured things out. It would be okay. She would manage like she always did.

Chiara considered everything they had on the Drakesthai and their royals. If she wasn’t mistaken there were five unmated princes. Perhaps one of them would be the last unmated Drakesthai female’s – Princess Kalene of House Obsidian – mate.

As she entered the designated starship, Chiara looked back just once. Whatever happened on Anarr, she would do her best to find a cure before she had to return to Hai Delta.

Chiara would prove to Prince Ian and Queen Adelina she could carry her weight in this war.

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