To Love a King [The Reformation 1] (Siren Publishing PolyAmour)
The Reformation 1
To Love a King
After an alien occupation and civil wars brought Vaturia to its knees, a new king is crowned. Antares is determined to restore his world with his brother by his side. However, Nikolai isn’t interested in restoring Vaturia. What he does want is to correct a dark moment in Vaturian history when females deemed compatible for mating were kidnapped from other worlds. He negotiates a deal between Antares and a human woman. If Antares can’t convince her to mate with him within one year, Nikolai will be allowed to free all the women and leave Vaturia forever.
Naveenah survived a kidnapping and the ensuing years of imprisonment on a hostile, alien planet. Antares is determined to bring reformation to Vaturia. Nikolai wants to leave the desolate planet. They agree on only one thing: both crave Naveenah. Can she survive two brothers who both want to claim her?
Genre: Futuristic, Multiple Partners, Science Fiction
Length: 71,857 words
TO LOVE A KING
The Reformation 1
Samantha Lucas
POLYAMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: PolyAmour
TO LOVE A KING
Copyright © 2011 by Samantha Lucas
E-book ISBN: 1-61034-555-X
First E-book Publication: July 2011
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2011 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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DEDICATION
To my editor, Caroline: Working with you on this book was an extreme pleasure. Your suggestions were thoughtful and enthusiastic. They pushed me in exactly the right direction and I sincerely hope we get to work together again on the next one.
An extra special thank you for Wendy and Valerie, whose encouragement after reading the rough copy of this story kept me going and gave me the faith I needed to submit it at all. I appreciate you ladies every single day I’ve worked on this book.
And to Rene, by just being yourself, you’re changing who I am and how I write, allowing my imagination freedom its never had before. This book was just barely touched by your essence, I can’t wait to write the next.
To my readers: Five years ago, as a newly published author it touched me that so many of you read my books and supported me through your comments and emails. You have no idea how I treasure your encouragement.
For those of you who stood by me through the heartache of my life the past three years, this book is my thank you. I hope it is as much a gift to read as it has been a soul satisfying experience to write.
To new readers, I hope we start a long fulfilling journey together. To Love a King is just the start of this new world I’ve created. Many more stories remain for us to experience together.
TO LOVE A KING
The Reformation 1
SAMANTHA LUCAS
Copyright © 2011
Chapter One
Antares kicked the rotting body of a dead soldier, dislodging it from the vines that had attached themselves to the skeletal frame and rolling it to the edge of the ruin. Bones cracked with each turn of the half-decomposed corpse, and a stench arose that assaulted his nose.
Little remained of the legendary castle, the interior now mostly exterior. Many of her walls had fallen and wild vines slowly consumed the ones that had yet to fall. Overlooking its current condition, he envisioned the future of not only the structure but the legacy he would build here. Now, with the planet he loved under his command, no one would dare to stand in his way as he brought not only this castle, but all of Vaturia Splendor back to its legendary glory along with her architecture, her forests, her cities and—most importantly—her people.
“You’re awfully quiet, brother.” Nikolai’s words broke into the new king’s reverie.
Antares tugged on his long coat—formally buttoned over a waistcoat—and dusted his hands together. Frowning, he yanked a strand of vines from their hold on the ancient stone walls, barely registering the thorns that pierced his flesh.
“I am thinking. Plotting.”
Antares climbed atop a pile of rubble that had once been a stone wall. He halted, spellbound once more by the stark majesty of the vista before him through the fallen wall of the castle—nothing but ocean and cliffs stretching to the horizon. As always, the salty air and the melody of waves crashing upon jagged rocks hundreds of feet below refreshed his spirit and revitalized his sense of purpose, of mission.
“Last time I saw you like this, you were about to stage a coup, start a civil war and declare yourself king. Should I be worried?”
Antares let out a single bark of rough laugher, his brother’s remark catching him by surprise. Nikolai, cloaked in rich fabrics of dark coloring, looking like he couldn’t care less about a damn thing, closely resembled him in appearance. A fraction of an inch apart in height, they both had their mother’s ice-blue eyes, and their father’s dark hair. Much to their frequent mutual frustration, the similarities ended there. He adored the older brother who had come back to raise him after both their parents were dead, but their diff
erences brought him little joy. He longed for a closer bond, but two sons rarely diverged more in character and temperament, and finding common ground was often difficult, occasionally painful.
“Ridiculous. There is no one left to overthrow.” Antares turned to his brother, satisfaction pulsing through every fiber of his being. “We won!”
Nikolai stood silent, his expression impassive.
Antares jumped down from the rubble and crossed. He slapped Nikolai on both shoulders. “Brother, we have won. We will now rule Vaturia.” He dropped his head back and spread his arms wide, taking in every sensation of the moment. “We will restore her.”
Antares was practically drunk on the victory. There was so much to be worked out, pockets of resistance still to be overcome, ragtag bands of people who believed the only option was to rebuild the technology and space-going vessels, to get Vaturia back on the interplanetary council of trade. Others believed a monarchy was staid and out of touch, that a new society would need to be built on a democracy. These factions would have to be dealt with, but the treaty had been signed, the surrender entered into the record. He had been established as king, and his loyal seven as the king’s council, despite none of them being of royal blood. It was an enormous victory, and together, they would rebuild Vaturia.
“I love you, Antares, but you are a fool.”
Antares stiffened, folding his arms tightly across his chest. “I am king!”
“King of what?” Nikolai turned in a slow spin, presenting the entire ruin as evidence. “A pile of rubble. A broken people. A dying species.”
Not wanting to dignify his brother’s petulance, Antares stormed out of the large room into an open field of lush green grass.
Nothing, no thing and no man, brother or not, will bring me down. Not today.
The mountains around them were full of trees, the grass beneath his feet thick and healthy, and fish teemed in the rivers. If all of that could come back from the destructive forces of a thousand-year reign of the Vraigor, then with the right leadership, so could his people. He refused to believe otherwise.
“Antares, wait!” Nikolai came running after him. “Wait.”
He stopped and turned, facing his brother in silence, inwardly fuming. Nikolai might be the older brother, but as Antares had essentially grown up alone—mother dead, father staging battles, and Nikolai who knew where in the galaxy—he had always felt like a firstborn. Though Nikolai’s support during the war had been invaluable, his attitude now infuriated the king.
Why can Nikolai never act as an older brother should?
“You always think anything is possible. Well, I’ve seen with my own eyes that there are times when no matter how hard you want something, or how hard you try, it doesn’t work out. We are a defeated people. What the Vraigor didn’t destroy, we did ourselves with a corrupt council, then this damned decade of civil war. And now, our females are barren. When last I checked, the youngest living Vaturian was a seventeen-year-old female. There is no point to restoring something that is dead.”
“I refuse to see it that way.”
In his heart Antares knew he could restore Vaturia, that he’d been born for exactly that, and he would not rest until he had accomplished his mission, his destiny.
“Yes. We have a lot to overcome. I was born during Vaturia’s dark time, after the occupation when everything seemed lost. Since, as you may recall, I did not have the luxury of growing up anywhere but here, I saw the devastation firsthand. The Vraigor had raped our planet, devastating all its advances and technology, polluting our waters, killing the very essence of Vaturia. A destructive time, I must admit.”
Nikolai snorted. “Destructive? It decimated us! What wasn’t destroyed by their strip mining, or seized for its value, or simply killed straight out, like our last royal family, isn’t worth saving now.”
Nikolai’s cold words punched Antares in the heart. He longed for his brother to see what he did. He wanted to rebuild Vaturia with his brother at his side, mending once and for all their own personal differences as they brought Vaturia into a new age. He had hoped that with the victory Nikolai would come around, see what this had all been for, but that did not look like it would happen after all.
“I disagree. Our way of life is worth saving. Our culture. Our heritage. These things matter. Yes, we have been decimated! I see that, Nikolai. I am not blind. But what do you suggest? That we just run wild like animals until the last of us die off?”
“Why not?”
The defeated look on Nikolai’s face left Antares taken aback. Had it always been there? Had Antares’s focus on the future left him blind to it? Did Nikolai honestly prefer death to rebuilding? That was not the Nikolai he knew. He refused to believe his brother really felt so beaten down.
“Because that would not be right. As long as I have breath, I will continue to fight for Vaturia and her people any way I can.”
“Even by becoming like one of the animals that killed her in the first place?”
Antares lashed out without thinking. He reacted from his gut, punching his brother hard on the jaw. He heard a crack. The pain searing through his hand told him it had been one of his own fingers, but he hit Nikolai again before he could start a defense.
The two rolled on the cool grass. Punches flew, and rage filled Antares, setting his blood aflame. He stood, only to take a hard hit to the side that knocked him back to the ground, winded. Nikolai threw his body at Antares, only to have Antares roll away so fast that soon he was atop Nikolai, punching hard into his face and body. A hot rage fueled every punch until something flashed in Antares’s mind that made him stop.
He rolled off his brother. “Stop! Goddamn it, Nikolai. What are we doing?”
Nikolai stopped as requested. He stood, bent at the waist, hands gripping his thighs while he panted for air. “Being assholes?”
Antares lay back in the grass and laughed. He watched clouds roll by overhead as his anger dissipated and that feeling of wonder filled him again.
“Can you not see, brother? So long as we live, we have a duty, both to the planet and the people. I cannot turn my back on that.”
Nikolai came and sat beside him. “You want the impossible.”
“Impossible? We do not know that.”
“And we don’t know the ocean has a bottom, but I imagine it does.”
Antares sat up and stared at his brother. He needed him. Outside of the seven warriors who had fought beside him every step of the way to his victory, he did not have any idea whom he could trust. He constantly received conflicting information about the support of his people. This was a new day, a new world for them. He believed in his ability to lead his people back from the brink, but he wanted to do that with Nikolai.
“The planet suffers most now from a lack of leadership. Give me one year. If in one year, you still think it impossible…”
Then what?
He knew he could never give up, not on the planet, not on the bond he wished to build with his brother, not until the day he took his very last breath. He would agree to these demands for now, but before the year ended, he would persuade his brother to embrace his vision. A year would be time enough to convince Nikolai.
“I will release you. You can go. Leave the planet. Live in the woods if you wish. I do not care, and I will not ask. But stand by me for this next year. Help me. I believe in this, Nikolai, more than I have ever believed in anything.”
Nikolai was quiet, picking blades of grass.
“I love you, brother.” Antares waited through another prolonged silence. The road for them had already been a long and treacherous one. He had put Nikolai through hell during the civil war, asked him to perform tasks no man should be asked to perform. Nikolai had done every single one of them, no questions asked. If not for Nikolai, there might not have been a victory to celebrate and he knew the burden this placed on him.
But if we give up, then the civil war was for nothing.
Nikolai finally broke the silence. “O
ne year, but here is what I want in return. I know you don’t want the people to know we still have several working space vessels on the planet, and I’ll keep my mouth shut about it. But in one year’s time, as payment for my service, I want one of them. I will leave Vaturia, find myself a new life, and never look back.”
“Deal.” Antares extended his hand with a silent prayer that the day Nikolai left Vaturia never came to pass. Then he stood. “We have much to accomplish.”
Nikolai stood as well, straightening his clothing.
Antares sensed the shift in him immediately. Nikolai had reverted back to the soldier who had fought beside him for the last ten years. Antares knew he should question the sudden, drastic attitude change, should make certain his brother was all right, but he honestly didn’t want to know the answer to the questions that only Nikolai held locked in his brain. Nikolai held many secrets. He’d seen it from the day he surfaced at their father’s funeral and introduced himself. Antares, just ten years of age and isolated by grief, had latched onto this brother he’d never known like a lifeline. As time passed, Nikolai kept himself distant, but Antares had seen the darkness in him, though his gut told him to avoid close scrutiny of his brother. He ignored much where Nikolai was concerned, from the markings on his skin that he always tried to hide, to the fact that they now seemed the same age, though Nikolai had been a grown man when they met. He loved his brother and simply could not afford to notice anything that would threaten their relationship.