king and queen said together and then laughed.
Ryan downed the ale and then pantomimed a large yawn. “So, in other words, I haven’t missed a thing.”
Alyssandra shot Ryan a mock caustic glare, and he grinned at her, obviously unrepentant. “I was trying to convince Grayson to let one of the maids help him heal his shoulder before the Seer wakes up.”
“Are we going to talk about what to tell her, or are we going to argue over my health and welfare?”
The queen gave him a meaningful look, clearly communicating that she would drop the subject…for now. However, Grayson had no illusions that she would give up permanently. She was one of the most tenacious people he’d ever met.
Alyssandra poured a new goblet of ale for Grayson and laid the dinner tray on his lap. “If you refuse to find sexual sustenance, then you need food, so eat.” Her voice was firm and told him this was the price for her dropping the earlier subject.
He smiled, picked up a piece of bread, and bit off a corner.
Ryan refilled his borrowed goblet of ale. “From what you’ve said, Gray, the Seer is an independent and very stubborn woman. She has her own business and a life back on Earth. We can’t just huddle around her bed and when she wakes up tell her she’s been chosen to give up her entire life, move to a different planet, and participate in a triangle that resembles Earth’s Roman orgies so we can save our planet.”
A dull throb started behind Grayson’s temples and slowly radiated outward until the pain in his shoulder throbbed with the same rhythm. All his energy had been focused on finding the Seer. He hadn’t given much thought to breaking the news to her about what they hoped she would give up, and do, for a planet she knew nothing about.
A quick glance around the room assured Grayson he wasn’t the only one who had put off that particular line of thinking. Everyone’s faces darkened with concern.
The queen sat on the foot of Grayson’s bed, careful not to jostle his food tray. “We’ve found her—we can’t just give up now. There have obviously been women in the past who were willing to do this—from what I can tell from the queen’s archives, the triangle has been instituted at least three times in our history.”
Alyssandra had been kidnapped when she was an infant and taken to live on Earth with the losing faction of a quarter of a century old civil war. The kidnappers had raised her ignorant of her true heritage, and Alyssandra’s mother, Annalecia, had slowly weakened on Tador from grief and strain. Annalecia’s symbiotic relationship with their home planet had deteriorated until Tador had slowly begun to sicken and die.
Luckily, Alyssandra had been recovered and was able to ascend the throne in her mother’s place, but now the planet was too far gone for only the queen and king to repair through their generation of sexual energy. Their only hope seemed to lie in some obscure references in the queen’s archives—something called the triangle.
Unfortunately, time was extremely short. The Seer had to be taken through the Klatch coming-of-age ceremony on her twenty-fourth birthday, which was just a handful of days away. Only then could the triangle ritual be completed.
Alyssandra chewed her bottom lip and shook her head, the beads in her scattered braids clinking together softly. “I think we need to convince her to stay for a while and get to know the planet, the Klatch, and Grayson, and hope she falls in love with all three enough so she will want to stay here with us and perform the triangle.”
Grayson let the idea roll around in his mind for a minute. “She’ll be angry when she finds out we lied to her.” A large fist closed around his heart at the thought of starting a relationship on omissions and lies. But even if the civil war hadn’t happened, he would’ve been slated to marry another full-blooded Klatch and produce heirs, regardless of his personal feelings. How was this different, except that he had found the woman himself?
Ryan leaned forward, setting his goblet of ale on a nearby table. “True, but once she calms down, she’ll understand why we had to omit a few facts up front.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” King Stone’s expression showed nothing but doubt.
“It’s not like we have much of a choice. Otherwise, we’ve lost before we’ve started.” Ryan stood and gazed around the room. “We said we were willing to do whatever it took to save the planet and institute the triangle. Are we, or aren’t we?”
Stone scrubbed a hand over his face, his appearance suddenly tired and sad. “It’s up to you, Grayson. She’s slated to be your mate. Do we tell her outright, or go with Alyssandra’s plan?”
The weight of three heavy gazes pressed down on Grayson, and he looked away. They were right, this was his decision, and he would bear responsibility for whatever he chose.
His thoughts strayed to Katelyn as he’d seen her fighting off the Cunts in her shop.
Her fiery red hair had billowed around her, and she hadn’t cowered or screamed. She had somehow attacked the Cunts with some type of energy from a handheld weapon. The sound of her scream of rage when the Cunt’s beam had sizzled against her chest reverberated through his memories, and he smiled. “My Seer is a warrior, even if she doesn’t yet realize it. If we tell her up front, she will try to keep the control of the situation firmly in her own hands.” He glanced up, and his smile turned grim. “I agree that we don’t tell her until the time is right.”
3
Misty fog drifted around Katelyn’s ankles, even as she recognized the vision for what it was. Twenty-three years of experience made it almost impossible for her to mistake a vision for anything else.
Yet, this one was more vivid than usual—less déjà vu and more current somehow. She couldn’t pinpoint the differences, but she knew.
The air was heavy with water and ripe with the scents of plants and earth. Katelyn couldn’t see anything past the mist even though the sun warmed her and shined off the soft green grass under her bare toes. From the smells, this place reminded her of the beautiful, grassy meadow in her last vision.
“Good morning, Katelyn.”
The deep bass rumble that made her name sound like an exotic delicacy startled her, and she turned toward the voice.
Grayson emerged out of the mist, looking much as he had when she’d first seen him walk into her shop. A plain black T-shirt stretched over broad shoulders and down to a tapered waist. Tight jeans molded over muscular thighs before covering the tops of well-worn black cowboy boots.
His dark hair gleamed with amber highlights in the sunlight. He’d pulled it back into a simple ponytail. It looked soft and satiny, and Katelyn’s fingers literally itched to reach out and touch.
Grayson’s chiseled jaw and sensual lips would be enough to make him handsome, but those eyes the color of deep melted amethysts made him breathtaking.
Unease skittered along Katelyn’s spine as images of the battle inside her shop flooded back.
Shit! Did that actually happen?
It must’ve been another vision. Yet, it hadn’t felt like a vision, but rather like something that had actually occurred. And why would she have a vision of something so bizarre when all her visions usually came true in some form?
