Page 7 of Bonded Queen: to the Alien Warlord Triad

I ignore her. “I won’t just wait around for it. Who wants to take a stand with me? I’m going to the armory.”

“How will you get in?” Summer’s got short black hair and clever eyes. She’s wasted cleaning the palace, but that’s the way it goes. The rich get to enjoy life while we serve it.

Now the palace is ours. We inherited a gilded tomb.

I was never good at making friends before I came to this planet for work, and Summer’s the only one of the twelve I got semi-close to. Sure, I make small talk and chat with everyone, and I know them all well over the years, but she’s the only one I felt any sort of kinship with. I guess I’ve always had walls.

We roomed together, until Brianna made me take a room next to her chambers, little maid quarters to keep me at her beck and call. Maybe she wanted me to be closer to serve her better. Or maybe it was just another one of her petty power trips. It doesn’t matter now.

None of it matters now. Useless memories, like my teenage years struggling on a space station to afford the ticket to a world where the chance of serving a wealthy family seemed like a dream, so much better than eating grey protein slop under an artificial light, each day a battle to survive. I had a sort of freedom on that space station. I traded it for safety and the chance of feeling a real sun’s rays on my skin—only to learn it was an illusion.

I tried to keep positive as a servant. No matter how overworked I was, I could breathe in fresh air and count myself lucky. Now I’m wondering how many breaths I have left.

My mind races, trying to find a way into the heavy doors of the armory. It hits me in a flash. “Princess Bitch has an extra set of scanning cards in case she loses her—” I wait until the sirens stop wailing so I can continue. “I bet she left them in her rush. They could be in her chambers.”

Brianna was no princess, though she wished she was. Her father Paulus spoiled her like one. Try as they might, they could never forget they were born common stock, or how they had to pay to attain a baronship, the highest position a commoner can attain on Trebulous. They both resented that common birth.

Brianna took it out on us. As her personal servant since she was sixteen years old, I took the brunt of it. I was not even twenty, fresh on this planet, ready to start my ten-year contract. Yesterday, I thought I was in my final year, counting down the days to freedom. Three hundred more days of service, then I could choose my future.

It was all a lie. Nowhere is free in this universe anymore, unless you’re strong enough to protect yourself.

I wish I could say Brianna matured in the nine years I toiled for her. She tried to make herself bigger by bossing us around. Being forced to take orders from a bratty teenager who only got worse with age would have driven most mad. I’m not most.

I never let it touch me. Growing up on a derelict space station clutching a thin blanket against your body for warmth, only sleeping because of the back-breaking labor…petty things like Briana’s power trips are a small place to pay for warmth, safety, and the sun on your face.

The lie of safety. Nowhere’s safe anymore. Nowhere.

Except maybe intheirarms.

The deserted entrance hall barely feels real when I remember back to that moment that I’ve been trying to push out of my mind. It made me question my own sanity.

I was walking up the stairs, carrying a tray of fresh fruit, when I saw them. Felt them. As if I could look through their eyes, peer into their terrifying minds.

Aurelians.

I felt them in my mind so intensely I nearly dropped the platter of fruits I was carrying. A nightmare, a vision, temporary insanity. I don’t know what it was, but I saw them. Three huge, dominant, powerful alien warriors. They look grizzled, in their late thirties or early forties, with an intensity in their eyes that spoke of centuries of warfare. I closed my eyes tight when they appeared, terrified, but some part of me, deep down, started to dream of their power, how easily they could pick me up, press me against the wall, and rip my clothing off. I had to look.

They had marble skin that glowed, slate-grey eyes that stared at me, with a promise that rippled through my being.

These three would not set me free. And if they Bonded me to them, it wouldn’t just be a decade of service before I could make my own way in the universe. Aurelians don’t let go of their Fated Mates, the Bond lengthening the lifespan of their human mate…and doing much more than that. I’ve heard all the stories. That whatever you crave, deep down, will come to the surface, and you’ll be helpless to your darkest desires.

They would claim me. Take me. Own me, and breed me. My body reacted to their power instantly. My nipples hardened, heat flooding between my legs, and I let out a whimpering moan that I was thankful no one was around to hear. My cheeks flushed red with embarrassment as they disappeared as quickly as they appeared, and I was back to my humdrum life. I shook off the vision and returned to my duties, picking up fruit and checking for bruises, wiping off specks of dust.

Gods, but I wish I could go back to that humdrum life, when my biggest problem was dealing with a bratty nobleman’s daughter.

I push the thoughts out of my head, as goosebumps form on my skin. No one’s coming to save me. Least of all the brutal Aurelian warriors I saw for an endless moment, a waking dream more real than life itself. If I’m going to save myself, I’ve got to be strong.

“Alright. Summer, meet me in the armory. Anyone else?”

“I’m coming.” It’s Katerina, Brianna’s athletics instructor. She got back this morning from a trip into the city. She returned empty handed, with bruises on her cheek, and when we asked her the state of the royal city, she answered us with silence.

I don’t know what she saw in the chaos of the city now that everyone knows it’s Armageddon. I don’t want to know. I’ve seen what desperate people do. Katerina is in her forties, with a lean face and a calm strength to her. I realize she’s the only one without the blank, scared expression the rest of us have. I didn’t notice in my own terror. She’s cross-legged with a straight back, and though she’s tense, she’s in control.

I watched her teach Brianna riding, running, and even basic self-defense, though Brianna was a sulky pupil.

Once, I looked out of the window of Brianna’s room at the top of her tower, listening to Princess Bitch whining that I got her the wrong perfume at the market and that I’d have to go back the next day. I hid my smile as she chewed me out, because I knew tomorrow would be a sunny day, and I picked up the wrong scent on purpose.

Katerina was cutting down a tree by hand. Her wiry arms flexed as she swung with a conventional axe instead of using modern tools, working up a sweat under the sun. There’s a reason Paulus had her go into the city—she was one of the only people who can handle herself enough she’d have found a way on the ship. He sent her there to die, knowing Scorp were coming and scared she’d see through his lies and force her way on the ship with him. I think she would have told the rest of us if she figured it out. I hope so, because she’s the strongest person left, and I need to trust her.

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