Page 306 of Hunters and Prey

Chapter 8

Chiara

Skye Palace

Planet Anarr

The Hai System

Chiara sighed when there was a knock at the door. Hopefully it was Gabe with her lunch and not someone there to ask her another question. “Come in,” she called, setting down her shreve.

But it wasn’t Gabe who came through the door. It was Princess Zoya.

Instantly Chiara got to her feet and bowed the appropriate depth for a royal. “I apologize, your highness. I didn’t realize it was you.”

“Don’t worry, I never sent a message to tell you when I would be arriving. Did my mate, Eduard already stop by?” Zoya set two plates of food down on the low table before one of the couches.

Chiara watched as the princess, ruler of Anarr and Roman’s mother, sat down and patted the space on the couch next to her. Chiara went to a nearby armchair instead. Such close proximity would make it impossible for her to carry out a proper conversation.

She took a syringe from her pocket and held out her hand, silently asking for Zoya’s arm. “He did. The results have already been entered into the database for comparison.” As had the bloodwork for the two deceased mates.

The syringe pressed quickly and Zoya didn’t even flinch. Chiara got up and plugged the syringe into one of the larger machines where it would run the full workup of tests on the blood. The individual data would go into Zoya’s personal file along with the workups of those directly related and mated to her. Then it would be tossed in the main database for comparison to all Drakesthai tests.

Thank the Three-faced Goddess for the advancements in med-tech otherwise all this would take decades, not weeks or months.

Chiara had spent a good portion of the morning studying the royal family of Anarr’s results. Out of all of them only one was at all fertile. Alexei still had lower numbers in his sperm than there should be per the scan, but they were active. Per older tests Eduard had low numbers at one point as well, but now they were at zero.

But in Roman? There was nothing.

It was something she was trying to figure out how she felt about. On one hand, Chiara didn’t care. It was simply the result that was provided to her from the testing. As a physician it was her job to try and fix it.

On the other hand, this male was a potential life partner. And Chiara had occasionally felt the urge to have a babe of her own. It wasn’t strong enough to pull her away from her work, but it was enough she’d planned to adopt in her second century regardless of if she had a partner or not. After all she still had at least another two and a half centuries left barring any unnatural causes of death. There was plenty of time.

But a mate bond…that was something different. And she was aware of the changes to some degree. After all, Prince Ian was completely devoted to Nadyah, touching her every chance he could. Though it didn’t seem to affect his work at all.

That was a relief at least.

Grabbing her shreve she selected Zoya’s blood test. “Stand please, your highness.” Chiara set the shreve down and grabbed her scanner. One quick pass from the princess’s head to her toes and they were done.

“You may sit again if you wish, Princess.”

Chiara sent the scans to the main database as well as her personal shreve, narrowing her eyes as the formulas and results started scrolling down the shreve in bright holos against the plas-glass.

The princess smoothed her skirt. “Please, call me Zoya.”

So she wished for things to be less formal. Chiara was flattered, yet also nervous. She had a hard time with other people without protocol. They never quite understood her – assuming she was ignorant or rude.

“You may call me Chiara.” She sat back in her armchair, food forgotten as she flicked through the information. A Drakesthai female was far more fascinating than a male.

“Don’t forget to eat, Chiara.” Zoya’s words were just firm enough to catch her attention.

Chiara looked up and blinked. Right, this was her mate’s mother. She should probably…spend some social time with her. Deliberately she set down her shreve and grabbed the plate of food.

She was supposed to be working, but Chiara would do this for Roman. She would try.

“I apologize, Zoya,” Chiara murmured, making sure to keep her eyes down. “Thank you so much for bringing the food.” The bright sunlight from outside was welcome after so much time in the darkness of space and Hai Delta. Chiara was already starting to feel the difference in her body.

Zoya smiled slightly. “I ran into someone outside your door with two plates and offered to take them to you.”

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