Between Two Evils: Chapter 23
Yup, another one.
Previous Chapters Here
Allura sat on the edge of the wing and looked down at Lotor as his hands closed around her waist. He lifted her down, and with a hand at the small of her back, escorted her toward where her teammates were silently waiting. Keith. She surveyed them all, but her gaze kept returning to Keith. He was very much alive and whole, perhaps a bit thinner.
Smiling, she took a slow, full breath and let it out again. A band of tension around her ribs that she hadn't even been aware of was gone, allowing her to breathe deep, stand tall, for the first time since his ill-fated rescue attempt.
Keith didn't seem nearly as surprised to see her. He was watching Lotor. A glance at her husband revealed he was returning the favor. Lotor was smiling, but Allura knew that smile.
The etiquette of the situation was rather complicated, what with Lotor having tried to kill them all any number of times, and them having done the same, and frankly, the insults alone would have caused a diplomatic rift… Judging from the uncertain, wary expressions, her friends didn’t know what to say or do either.
Lotor had no such difficulties. “Your Liege has brought you a Yule gift,” he announced as they came to halt.
It was Yule?
Allura saw Hunk snatch at a forgotten wreath he had been wearing on his head, and noticed Pidge’s ridiculous sweater for the first time. Lance had a sprig of mistletoe tucked behind his ear... They must have been celebrating. She looked at them each, taking in the more subtle changes that time had wrought and tried a tentative smile.
“Allura…”
She felt a touch on her hair and turned her attention to her husband, just as he dipped his head and kissed her. She stiffened, knowing exactly what he was up to. Unfortunately, resisting would make things so much worse.
His mouth moved over hers as if he had all the time in the world, and nothing else he would rather be doing with it. When he finally lifted his head, there was a gleam of satisfaction in his half-lidded gaze.
The silence from the direction of her teammates was quite loud. And then there were the guards and assorted personnel... She was sure the silence was equally deafening inside the castle, from whence they were no doubt being closely surveilled. Allura got a sudden vision of their clinch on the huge screens in the control room and closed her eyes.
“I hate you,” she murmured, too low for anyone else to hear, and waited to hear his self-satisfied laughter.
It didn't come.
“I know,” he said quietly, and released her. She felt his fingers trace down her arm to her wrist as though reluctant to relinquish her completely. With one last, intent glance at the Lion Force he turned and walked with long strides back toward his ship.
Frowning, Allura turned to watch him, one hand tugging at the food taster’s tail which had become rather tight around her throat. Without a backward look, he leapt to the wing of his craft, slid into the cockpit and closed the hatch. He was going.
And then he was gone, the swift ship rising, turning, climbing. Allura watched until it was lost to sight.
The bells on her comb chimed faintly as Allura squared her shoulders and turned to face her subjects, her head high. She probably looked a proper pirate’s wife. The food taster was perched on her tanned shoulder and her hair tumbled loose, held back only by an ornament worth a royal’s ransom. She stifled a shiver. Her dress was suited to someplace rather warmer and more exotic than Arus at Yuletide.
This time it was Pidge who knew what to say.
“Princess!!” He dashed forward and threw his arms around her waist. Allura laughed, surprised, and hugged him back. She had missed them so much, more than she had ever let herself feel. Now it was a great ache in her chest that made her joy all the sweeter. And then she was in their midst, and they were all talking and smiling.
She felt a touch on her shoulder and there was Coran, so much emotion in the faded blue eyes. She turned to put her arms around him in a rare embrace.
Allura closed her eyes and felt truly whole for the first time in a very long while, years perhaps.
She was home.
***
Allura had too much energy to sleep in, even though the Yule celebration she had joined so unexpectedly had continued late into the night. On the surface everything had seemed very much the same as before. Yet, Allura had savored it as though it were new and felt it more deeply than ever.
Only the babe made her take time for breakfast, and then she was knocking on Keith’s door.
He seemed as pleased to see her as she was to see him. “Come in, Princess.”
Keith stepped back and gestured with the steaming mug in his hand toward the utilitarian furniture. “Have a seat.”
Allura crossed instead to the clear panels that made up the outer wall. Her view was of the lake; his was dominated by the head and shoulders of Black Lion set against a magnificent sky. Allura looked out with satisfaction at the massive mecha. The sun reflected off its silver shoulders, painting the room with light.
“She looks good.”
“She is good.” Keith came to stand beside her. “We’ve been able to complete all the repairs that we’d been putting off before. Replace interim measures with real solutions.”
“Wonderful,” Allura smiled. “Keith, I’ve come to ask you a favor. Two favors actually. If you aren’t too busy, I’d like to continue my lessons with the sword.”
Keith took a sip of his drink. Then he said, “I’d be happy to.”
Allura glanced at him, sensing some unspoken reservation.
Keith had always been something of a closed book to her, and his calm expression told her nothing. She did not doubt his loyalties; that was the one thing he was utterly transparent about, in word and deed. He had been a better friend to her, a greater advocate, even than the others who had come to Arus with him. Yet he had somehow kept her at a greater distance.
Allura smiled a little. Perhaps that was just another way that he was a good friend. If he had ever noticed that she was female, and considered rather an object of attraction by some - emphasis on ‘object’ - he had never given any sign of it.
She hoped that she could say the same. That she had given no sign that is, because she’d definitely noticed him as a man. Idolized him, really.
Allura bowed her head as she felt a sharp pang of sadness. In the past, she had entertained herself with remote, someday possibilities, with fantasies of a future in which she chose a husband to suit her heart as well as her reign. But the future had arrived with rather startling suddenness.
Aware that a silence had fallen, she looked up at Keith and surprised a look of such sorrow on his face that she reached for his hand without thinking about it, and squeezed it hard in both of hers. Knowing him, he had probably blamed himself for everything.
“I-I understand that you tried to bring me home,” she said. “Thank you.”
She laughed, a shaky sound. “It was incredibly foolish, and I ought to demote you-but thank you.”
He squeezed her hand in return, “Any time, Princess.”
Allura looked down at their clasped hands and swallowed. With a last squeeze she pulled her hands away, and strove for an even tone of voice.
Swiping quickly at her cheek, she said, “Perhaps we could start the lessons next week. And that brings me to my second favor, I would love to go and retrieve Blue. On the way you perhaps could fill me in on what else has changed?”
“Of course, Princess,” he said, his voice a little rough, and he smiled. For just a moment, for no reason she could understand, that smile made new tears well up in her eyes, but then his expression shifted, lightened. He shrugged, “Hey, maybe I’ll even let you drive.”
***
A bit of Lotor’s imperiousness had rubbed off on her, or perhaps distance had given her perspective. Or perhaps she had changed. She felt different - harder. Whatever the case. Allura was liking the result.
When Coran had approached her for a debriefing on her marriage, she had put him off with a calm, “Give me a week, Coran. Then we’ll talk.”
The first time Nanny had attempted to lecture her, she had cut her off.
“I’m sorry. You can’t speak to me that way.”
And though it was the impulse of a moment, the week’s reprieve that she had given herself from answering questions about her marriage had worked out very well. Her days were full, and seeing her planet and her people at peace was a balm like no other. Even her pregnancy seemed to be giving her a break. She rarely felt sick and didn’t think of it at all for long stretches.
Every evening she had returned to her quarters, feeling tired and replete.
And then the food taster would come to greet her at a lalloping run, its long, red tail curled over its head, and memories from an entirely different life would crowd in, terrifying and sublime.
She would stroke the creature’s smooth pelt and wonder when her life would change again. Something about the intensity in Lotor’s voice when he spoke of their son told her that time would be measured in months rather than years.
Tomorrow she had a morning meeting with Coran. She intended to announce her pregnancy.
She wasn’t nervous about it, and she didn’t intend to tolerate any hand-wringing. If this week had shown her anything, it was that she had made the right choice when she had made her deal with the devil.
As she sat down on her bed the sparkling comb on her bedside table caught her eye. Abruptly she wished for the trainer. She really wanted to hack on something with a sword.
***
Allura stood. Placing her fingertips carefully on the cool surface of the table, she looked at each face in turn. She saw varying levels of concern on the faces of her teammates - except Keith who was looking down at his clasped hands. She looked at Coran, sitting opposite her.
Coran seemed rather braced for what he was about to hear, though she doubted someone who knew him less well would know it. For herself, the serene countenance that she had learned to wear as a public figure and had polished to an art form as Lotor’s bride was comfortably in place.
“Prince Lotor and I are wed,” she began in an even tone.
“On October 8 I took Blue out and encountered the Prince Imperial alone. He offered to bring an immediate end to Imperial hostilities and to extend his personal protection to Arus in exchange for my hand. I accepted his offer.”
She listened to the sounds of shock and disbelief.
Hunk spoke, “Now wait a minute. Are you trying to tell us that you went with him willingly? That words came out of his mouth and you believed them?”
Allura shook her head. “The potential benefit was great: to end a conflict with no further casualties that might have gone on for years. Would it be so foolish if the possibility of Prince Lotor’s sincerity seemed of greater value than my certainty that the G.A. would mourn us properly?”
Suddenly, none of the team of “military advisors” that were the sum total of the G.A.’s assistance seemed inclined to look her in the eye.
Coran laced his fingers together, his expression grave. “Princess, if you were no prisoner, why did you not contact us?”
“I missed you all so much. But what was there to say? The potential was great but the risks were great as well. I could hardly discuss that in front of Lotor. In such a situation, assurances about my well-being would have been pointless. I hope you will all forgive me. I am here now. I am well.”
“Are you? Well?” Coran hesitated. “Did he mistreat you?”
“No.” Allura frowned. “We are all aware of Lotor’s capacity for violence, but I have come to learn that he is not impulsive or capricious.” Allura glanced thoughtfully at Keith. “Far from it. He’s quite capable of ignoring even the most extreme provocation if it suits his ends…”
“And what are his ends?” Coran asked.
Allura considered this for a moment. ”And I will have what I want, you as my wife.” The look on his face when he’d found her at Merta’s. The lingering trace of his fingers the last time he’d let her go. How was she supposed to bullet point that exactly? His odd and fleeting infatuation with her seemed to be over in any case, not relevant.
“He wants to rule,” she said, pleased to hear that her voice was clear and even. “I don’t think there is any love between himself and Zarkon.”
“How does your… alliance meet that end?”
Allura considered her words. It didn’t, on its surface. Yet he had not only ‘allied’ himself with one of his father’s most effective and implacable enemies, he had also shielded and aided them in secret. Was that hers to reveal?
“The lions.” Keith’s quiet voice interrupted her deliberations. She looked over to see that he was looking at her, meeting her eyes for the first time since the start of the meeting.
“He’s got a point,” said Lance.
“He could have killed me several times,” Keith added. “He didn’t. He went to a lot of trouble to get me off-planet unharmed-and undetected.”
Allura felt a chill wash over her; how closely Keith had trod the edge of the abyss. “I don’t know what stars aligned for that to happen, but being less murderous than expected is hardly going to win Lotor access to the lions.”
Hunk scoffed, “Does he know that?”
Coran leaned forward, his brow furrowed. “Did he give any hint as to why he aided Captain Kogane?”
“No.” Allura sighed. “He told me only the barest facts of the matter. But I don’t see how he could expect to gain control of the lions. The most likely scenario is that we are minor players in some sort of power struggle between the Prince and his father. Perhaps marrying me was less about what Lotor hoped to gain and more about how much his father would lose.”
Allura squared her shoulders. “Which would be ideal, because then we both got what we wanted from the arrangement. For myself there has been an added benefit. You all know that as the last of my line, I was being urged to marry as soon as a proper candidate should be found. Now everyone can relax. I’m pregnant.”
***
The castle was darkside when Lotor landed his ship on the concrete, well away from other craft, and strode to the entrance. He ignored the guard that tried to address him and the stares of the other personnel as he walked into the atrium and waited. A moment later, the Red Lion pilot entered the area at a trot and approached him. He stopped a generous distance away, his body angled to provide less of a target.
“What's crackin', Blue?” The man’s words were flippant, but his gaze was cold.
Lotor smiled. “Take me to my wife, Lieutenant.”
“It’s 0300 hours.”
“Are you saying I’ll find her snug in bed? What a shame.”
He watched, amused, as McClane contemplated violence on his person.
The man thought better of it, and also of engaging him in further conversation. He indicated some lifts with a sharp gesture of his head and stalked toward them, not waiting to see if Lotor would follow.
When they reached the princess’s door Lotor said, “Open it. No need to disturb her.”
The lieutenant keyed in some numbers and then put his palm on the keypad. It beeped its rejection. He cursed under his breath and repeated the process, this time correctly. But Lotor had little attention left for him now. Allura was behind that door. He’d scarcely left the atmosphere of this wretched planet before he’d fought a strong urge to turn around and fetch her back, and that had been over three weeks ago now.
It slid open and he walked inside, hesitating only long enough to be sure that it was closing again. He entered her bed chamber with silent steps, and there she was, curled on her side. Snug in her bed. Beautiful.
And beautifully alive.
He pondered the state of his marriage as he watched her slow, even breaths. “I hate you.” He sighed and slowly toed off his boots. He pulled off his left gauntlet then his right.
He lifted the cover and slid in next to her warmth, feeling an echo in his bones of all the times he had done this before, and with a small sound, Allura rolled toward him. He slipped an arm under her head, knowing it would not be enough to wake her and stuffed her pillow behind his own. Allura slid her hand part-way across his chest and shifted until he could feel her warmth all along his side. Lotor closed his eyes and stifled a groan as all the tension in his body seemed to release at once. Well, almost all of the tension. He covered her little hand with his, and drifted into what he felt certain would be a dreamless sleep.
***
Nanny was baking Yule cookies… Allura pressed her face against a warm, muscular shoulder to shut out the morning light and drowsed.
But it was more than halfway through January...
Allura lifted her head, blinking, and surveyed her dozing bedfellow from the silvery crown of his head to the stocking foot that was hanging off the end of the mattress.
When she looked back, he was displaying the points of his overlong canines in a yawn.
“Wha-what are you doing here?”
Lotor blinked at her.
Just when she wondered if he was going to answer, he raised one brow a little and spoke, his voice low and rough with sleep. “It’s been thirty days, Allura.”
The faint rasp in his voice sent a quiver down her spine. As she stared at him, wide-eyed, she saw his amber gaze warm in a very familiar way, became aware of her breasts pressed against him, the intimate tangle of their legs.
So it was time she resumed her marital duties was it?
Fine.
Her mouth set in a firm line, Allura pushed off him and sat up and yanked her nightgown over her head. It tangled a little in her arms, but then she succeeded in throwing it to the floor. Crawling up over his prone body she planted herself on his chest. She caught a glimpse of wide cat’s eyes and felt a certain satisfaction that she had managed to surprise him.
Taking his face in her hands, she slanted her mouth over his, bit at the maddening curve of his lower lip. She had her needs too didn’t she?
Lotor was rigid beneath her for an instant, and then a long-fingered hand tangled deliciously in her hair, another hunted frantically beneath the cover for her thigh and pulled it up and open. Something that had been on low simmer inside of her for days, weeks, flared to vibrant life.
He felt so good. He was kissing her now, the warm pressure of his mouth and the velvet stroke of his tongue made her skin heat and her pulse pound. Her hands slid hungrily down his throat, over his shoulders, plucked at his tunic, wanting badly to feel the warm satin of his skin under her hands. He shifted her, fitting them together. A feverish ache began to pulse between her legs at the feel of him.
Allura kicked the leg that was now dangling off the side of the bed. “Over. Roll over,” she gasped.
With a low sound, he obeyed, and then she felt him everywhere, heat and hardness, pressing her into the mattress. She cried out and twisted against him as he moved over her in agony of need. She whimpered when he pulled away from her to tear at his clothes, and then he was back. She felt the hot, satin brush of his sex against her inner thighs. His hands moved over her in undisguised hunger. Her body ached as if he had been licking and teasing her for hours. The emptiness inside her hurt, hurt so badly.
“Please,” she breathed. “Please, please, please…”
He moved over her, biting at her exposed throat. She hooked her legs around him, pulling him in as he pierced her with his heavy sex. Allura shrieked as he slid deep. He arched up, gasping.
So good. Everywhere. Oh, God. He slid into her again, and then again, his breath huffing out as if he’d been struck, and then he came undone with a soundless cry. Allura felt the first throb and slickness of his release, and she was lost, everything unraveling in waves of ecstasy from where they were so tightly joined. She ground against him with her hips, her arms and legs holding him tight. And when the last bit of pleasure was wrung, she went limp, her hands releasing their death grip on his clothes, able only to breathe. He lay panting against her, in her, some his weight held from her by one quivering arm.
After a long time, he rolled away from her with a groan, “Gods, Allura, how am I to be expected to fly now?“
Allura said nothing while he rearranged his clothes and rose, rather unsteadily from the bed.
She rolled up on to her side when she realized that he was putting on his boots, or trying to. After a moment he gave in and sat down on the bed to do it. So he was going, now that he was done. He did look thoroughly satisfied, practically giddy with it. She bit her lip.
When he had his boots on, he turned to look at her. And then she found herself scooped up and deposited onto his lap. His eyes were bright, his hair mussed. Another time she would have said he looked absolutely besotted. Warm, knowing fingertips traced over the sensitive hollow at the base of her spine. He gave her a firm kiss, and then another and another.
“Get dressed,” he said between kisses, though he shifted her still closer in his arms. “We can bathe when we get to Nephalem.”
“What-why are you taking me to Nephalem?”
Lotor raised his brows and pulled back a little to look at her. “I told you. It’s time you saw the physic again. It’s been thirty days since the last time.”
Allura gaped at him, and then she blushed harder than she ever had in her life.
On to Chapter 24
Previous Chapters Here
Allura sat on the edge of the wing and looked down at Lotor as his hands closed around her waist. He lifted her down, and with a hand at the small of her back, escorted her toward where her teammates were silently waiting. Keith. She surveyed them all, but her gaze kept returning to Keith. He was very much alive and whole, perhaps a bit thinner.
Smiling, she took a slow, full breath and let it out again. A band of tension around her ribs that she hadn't even been aware of was gone, allowing her to breathe deep, stand tall, for the first time since his ill-fated rescue attempt.
Keith didn't seem nearly as surprised to see her. He was watching Lotor. A glance at her husband revealed he was returning the favor. Lotor was smiling, but Allura knew that smile.
The etiquette of the situation was rather complicated, what with Lotor having tried to kill them all any number of times, and them having done the same, and frankly, the insults alone would have caused a diplomatic rift… Judging from the uncertain, wary expressions, her friends didn’t know what to say or do either.
Lotor had no such difficulties. “Your Liege has brought you a Yule gift,” he announced as they came to halt.
It was Yule?
Allura saw Hunk snatch at a forgotten wreath he had been wearing on his head, and noticed Pidge’s ridiculous sweater for the first time. Lance had a sprig of mistletoe tucked behind his ear... They must have been celebrating. She looked at them each, taking in the more subtle changes that time had wrought and tried a tentative smile.
“Allura…”
She felt a touch on her hair and turned her attention to her husband, just as he dipped his head and kissed her. She stiffened, knowing exactly what he was up to. Unfortunately, resisting would make things so much worse.
His mouth moved over hers as if he had all the time in the world, and nothing else he would rather be doing with it. When he finally lifted his head, there was a gleam of satisfaction in his half-lidded gaze.
The silence from the direction of her teammates was quite loud. And then there were the guards and assorted personnel... She was sure the silence was equally deafening inside the castle, from whence they were no doubt being closely surveilled. Allura got a sudden vision of their clinch on the huge screens in the control room and closed her eyes.
“I hate you,” she murmured, too low for anyone else to hear, and waited to hear his self-satisfied laughter.
It didn't come.
“I know,” he said quietly, and released her. She felt his fingers trace down her arm to her wrist as though reluctant to relinquish her completely. With one last, intent glance at the Lion Force he turned and walked with long strides back toward his ship.
Frowning, Allura turned to watch him, one hand tugging at the food taster’s tail which had become rather tight around her throat. Without a backward look, he leapt to the wing of his craft, slid into the cockpit and closed the hatch. He was going.
And then he was gone, the swift ship rising, turning, climbing. Allura watched until it was lost to sight.
The bells on her comb chimed faintly as Allura squared her shoulders and turned to face her subjects, her head high. She probably looked a proper pirate’s wife. The food taster was perched on her tanned shoulder and her hair tumbled loose, held back only by an ornament worth a royal’s ransom. She stifled a shiver. Her dress was suited to someplace rather warmer and more exotic than Arus at Yuletide.
This time it was Pidge who knew what to say.
“Princess!!” He dashed forward and threw his arms around her waist. Allura laughed, surprised, and hugged him back. She had missed them so much, more than she had ever let herself feel. Now it was a great ache in her chest that made her joy all the sweeter. And then she was in their midst, and they were all talking and smiling.
She felt a touch on her shoulder and there was Coran, so much emotion in the faded blue eyes. She turned to put her arms around him in a rare embrace.
Allura closed her eyes and felt truly whole for the first time in a very long while, years perhaps.
She was home.
***
Allura had too much energy to sleep in, even though the Yule celebration she had joined so unexpectedly had continued late into the night. On the surface everything had seemed very much the same as before. Yet, Allura had savored it as though it were new and felt it more deeply than ever.
Only the babe made her take time for breakfast, and then she was knocking on Keith’s door.
He seemed as pleased to see her as she was to see him. “Come in, Princess.”
Keith stepped back and gestured with the steaming mug in his hand toward the utilitarian furniture. “Have a seat.”
Allura crossed instead to the clear panels that made up the outer wall. Her view was of the lake; his was dominated by the head and shoulders of Black Lion set against a magnificent sky. Allura looked out with satisfaction at the massive mecha. The sun reflected off its silver shoulders, painting the room with light.
“She looks good.”
“She is good.” Keith came to stand beside her. “We’ve been able to complete all the repairs that we’d been putting off before. Replace interim measures with real solutions.”
“Wonderful,” Allura smiled. “Keith, I’ve come to ask you a favor. Two favors actually. If you aren’t too busy, I’d like to continue my lessons with the sword.”
Keith took a sip of his drink. Then he said, “I’d be happy to.”
Allura glanced at him, sensing some unspoken reservation.
Keith had always been something of a closed book to her, and his calm expression told her nothing. She did not doubt his loyalties; that was the one thing he was utterly transparent about, in word and deed. He had been a better friend to her, a greater advocate, even than the others who had come to Arus with him. Yet he had somehow kept her at a greater distance.
Allura smiled a little. Perhaps that was just another way that he was a good friend. If he had ever noticed that she was female, and considered rather an object of attraction by some - emphasis on ‘object’ - he had never given any sign of it.
She hoped that she could say the same. That she had given no sign that is, because she’d definitely noticed him as a man. Idolized him, really.
Allura bowed her head as she felt a sharp pang of sadness. In the past, she had entertained herself with remote, someday possibilities, with fantasies of a future in which she chose a husband to suit her heart as well as her reign. But the future had arrived with rather startling suddenness.
Aware that a silence had fallen, she looked up at Keith and surprised a look of such sorrow on his face that she reached for his hand without thinking about it, and squeezed it hard in both of hers. Knowing him, he had probably blamed himself for everything.
“I-I understand that you tried to bring me home,” she said. “Thank you.”
She laughed, a shaky sound. “It was incredibly foolish, and I ought to demote you-but thank you.”
He squeezed her hand in return, “Any time, Princess.”
Allura looked down at their clasped hands and swallowed. With a last squeeze she pulled her hands away, and strove for an even tone of voice.
Swiping quickly at her cheek, she said, “Perhaps we could start the lessons next week. And that brings me to my second favor, I would love to go and retrieve Blue. On the way you perhaps could fill me in on what else has changed?”
“Of course, Princess,” he said, his voice a little rough, and he smiled. For just a moment, for no reason she could understand, that smile made new tears well up in her eyes, but then his expression shifted, lightened. He shrugged, “Hey, maybe I’ll even let you drive.”
***
A bit of Lotor’s imperiousness had rubbed off on her, or perhaps distance had given her perspective. Or perhaps she had changed. She felt different - harder. Whatever the case. Allura was liking the result.
When Coran had approached her for a debriefing on her marriage, she had put him off with a calm, “Give me a week, Coran. Then we’ll talk.”
The first time Nanny had attempted to lecture her, she had cut her off.
“I’m sorry. You can’t speak to me that way.”
And though it was the impulse of a moment, the week’s reprieve that she had given herself from answering questions about her marriage had worked out very well. Her days were full, and seeing her planet and her people at peace was a balm like no other. Even her pregnancy seemed to be giving her a break. She rarely felt sick and didn’t think of it at all for long stretches.
Every evening she had returned to her quarters, feeling tired and replete.
And then the food taster would come to greet her at a lalloping run, its long, red tail curled over its head, and memories from an entirely different life would crowd in, terrifying and sublime.
She would stroke the creature’s smooth pelt and wonder when her life would change again. Something about the intensity in Lotor’s voice when he spoke of their son told her that time would be measured in months rather than years.
Tomorrow she had a morning meeting with Coran. She intended to announce her pregnancy.
She wasn’t nervous about it, and she didn’t intend to tolerate any hand-wringing. If this week had shown her anything, it was that she had made the right choice when she had made her deal with the devil.
As she sat down on her bed the sparkling comb on her bedside table caught her eye. Abruptly she wished for the trainer. She really wanted to hack on something with a sword.
***
Allura stood. Placing her fingertips carefully on the cool surface of the table, she looked at each face in turn. She saw varying levels of concern on the faces of her teammates - except Keith who was looking down at his clasped hands. She looked at Coran, sitting opposite her.
Coran seemed rather braced for what he was about to hear, though she doubted someone who knew him less well would know it. For herself, the serene countenance that she had learned to wear as a public figure and had polished to an art form as Lotor’s bride was comfortably in place.
“Prince Lotor and I are wed,” she began in an even tone.
“On October 8 I took Blue out and encountered the Prince Imperial alone. He offered to bring an immediate end to Imperial hostilities and to extend his personal protection to Arus in exchange for my hand. I accepted his offer.”
She listened to the sounds of shock and disbelief.
Hunk spoke, “Now wait a minute. Are you trying to tell us that you went with him willingly? That words came out of his mouth and you believed them?”
Allura shook her head. “The potential benefit was great: to end a conflict with no further casualties that might have gone on for years. Would it be so foolish if the possibility of Prince Lotor’s sincerity seemed of greater value than my certainty that the G.A. would mourn us properly?”
Suddenly, none of the team of “military advisors” that were the sum total of the G.A.’s assistance seemed inclined to look her in the eye.
Coran laced his fingers together, his expression grave. “Princess, if you were no prisoner, why did you not contact us?”
“I missed you all so much. But what was there to say? The potential was great but the risks were great as well. I could hardly discuss that in front of Lotor. In such a situation, assurances about my well-being would have been pointless. I hope you will all forgive me. I am here now. I am well.”
“Are you? Well?” Coran hesitated. “Did he mistreat you?”
“No.” Allura frowned. “We are all aware of Lotor’s capacity for violence, but I have come to learn that he is not impulsive or capricious.” Allura glanced thoughtfully at Keith. “Far from it. He’s quite capable of ignoring even the most extreme provocation if it suits his ends…”
“And what are his ends?” Coran asked.
Allura considered this for a moment. ”And I will have what I want, you as my wife.” The look on his face when he’d found her at Merta’s. The lingering trace of his fingers the last time he’d let her go. How was she supposed to bullet point that exactly? His odd and fleeting infatuation with her seemed to be over in any case, not relevant.
“He wants to rule,” she said, pleased to hear that her voice was clear and even. “I don’t think there is any love between himself and Zarkon.”
“How does your… alliance meet that end?”
Allura considered her words. It didn’t, on its surface. Yet he had not only ‘allied’ himself with one of his father’s most effective and implacable enemies, he had also shielded and aided them in secret. Was that hers to reveal?
“The lions.” Keith’s quiet voice interrupted her deliberations. She looked over to see that he was looking at her, meeting her eyes for the first time since the start of the meeting.
“He’s got a point,” said Lance.
“He could have killed me several times,” Keith added. “He didn’t. He went to a lot of trouble to get me off-planet unharmed-and undetected.”
Allura felt a chill wash over her; how closely Keith had trod the edge of the abyss. “I don’t know what stars aligned for that to happen, but being less murderous than expected is hardly going to win Lotor access to the lions.”
Hunk scoffed, “Does he know that?”
Coran leaned forward, his brow furrowed. “Did he give any hint as to why he aided Captain Kogane?”
“No.” Allura sighed. “He told me only the barest facts of the matter. But I don’t see how he could expect to gain control of the lions. The most likely scenario is that we are minor players in some sort of power struggle between the Prince and his father. Perhaps marrying me was less about what Lotor hoped to gain and more about how much his father would lose.”
Allura squared her shoulders. “Which would be ideal, because then we both got what we wanted from the arrangement. For myself there has been an added benefit. You all know that as the last of my line, I was being urged to marry as soon as a proper candidate should be found. Now everyone can relax. I’m pregnant.”
***
The castle was darkside when Lotor landed his ship on the concrete, well away from other craft, and strode to the entrance. He ignored the guard that tried to address him and the stares of the other personnel as he walked into the atrium and waited. A moment later, the Red Lion pilot entered the area at a trot and approached him. He stopped a generous distance away, his body angled to provide less of a target.
“What's crackin', Blue?” The man’s words were flippant, but his gaze was cold.
Lotor smiled. “Take me to my wife, Lieutenant.”
“It’s 0300 hours.”
“Are you saying I’ll find her snug in bed? What a shame.”
He watched, amused, as McClane contemplated violence on his person.
The man thought better of it, and also of engaging him in further conversation. He indicated some lifts with a sharp gesture of his head and stalked toward them, not waiting to see if Lotor would follow.
When they reached the princess’s door Lotor said, “Open it. No need to disturb her.”
The lieutenant keyed in some numbers and then put his palm on the keypad. It beeped its rejection. He cursed under his breath and repeated the process, this time correctly. But Lotor had little attention left for him now. Allura was behind that door. He’d scarcely left the atmosphere of this wretched planet before he’d fought a strong urge to turn around and fetch her back, and that had been over three weeks ago now.
It slid open and he walked inside, hesitating only long enough to be sure that it was closing again. He entered her bed chamber with silent steps, and there she was, curled on her side. Snug in her bed. Beautiful.
And beautifully alive.
He pondered the state of his marriage as he watched her slow, even breaths. “I hate you.” He sighed and slowly toed off his boots. He pulled off his left gauntlet then his right.
He lifted the cover and slid in next to her warmth, feeling an echo in his bones of all the times he had done this before, and with a small sound, Allura rolled toward him. He slipped an arm under her head, knowing it would not be enough to wake her and stuffed her pillow behind his own. Allura slid her hand part-way across his chest and shifted until he could feel her warmth all along his side. Lotor closed his eyes and stifled a groan as all the tension in his body seemed to release at once. Well, almost all of the tension. He covered her little hand with his, and drifted into what he felt certain would be a dreamless sleep.
***
Nanny was baking Yule cookies… Allura pressed her face against a warm, muscular shoulder to shut out the morning light and drowsed.
But it was more than halfway through January...
Allura lifted her head, blinking, and surveyed her dozing bedfellow from the silvery crown of his head to the stocking foot that was hanging off the end of the mattress.
When she looked back, he was displaying the points of his overlong canines in a yawn.
“Wha-what are you doing here?”
Lotor blinked at her.
Just when she wondered if he was going to answer, he raised one brow a little and spoke, his voice low and rough with sleep. “It’s been thirty days, Allura.”
The faint rasp in his voice sent a quiver down her spine. As she stared at him, wide-eyed, she saw his amber gaze warm in a very familiar way, became aware of her breasts pressed against him, the intimate tangle of their legs.
So it was time she resumed her marital duties was it?
Fine.
Her mouth set in a firm line, Allura pushed off him and sat up and yanked her nightgown over her head. It tangled a little in her arms, but then she succeeded in throwing it to the floor. Crawling up over his prone body she planted herself on his chest. She caught a glimpse of wide cat’s eyes and felt a certain satisfaction that she had managed to surprise him.
Taking his face in her hands, she slanted her mouth over his, bit at the maddening curve of his lower lip. She had her needs too didn’t she?
Lotor was rigid beneath her for an instant, and then a long-fingered hand tangled deliciously in her hair, another hunted frantically beneath the cover for her thigh and pulled it up and open. Something that had been on low simmer inside of her for days, weeks, flared to vibrant life.
He felt so good. He was kissing her now, the warm pressure of his mouth and the velvet stroke of his tongue made her skin heat and her pulse pound. Her hands slid hungrily down his throat, over his shoulders, plucked at his tunic, wanting badly to feel the warm satin of his skin under her hands. He shifted her, fitting them together. A feverish ache began to pulse between her legs at the feel of him.
Allura kicked the leg that was now dangling off the side of the bed. “Over. Roll over,” she gasped.
With a low sound, he obeyed, and then she felt him everywhere, heat and hardness, pressing her into the mattress. She cried out and twisted against him as he moved over her in agony of need. She whimpered when he pulled away from her to tear at his clothes, and then he was back. She felt the hot, satin brush of his sex against her inner thighs. His hands moved over her in undisguised hunger. Her body ached as if he had been licking and teasing her for hours. The emptiness inside her hurt, hurt so badly.
“Please,” she breathed. “Please, please, please…”
He moved over her, biting at her exposed throat. She hooked her legs around him, pulling him in as he pierced her with his heavy sex. Allura shrieked as he slid deep. He arched up, gasping.
So good. Everywhere. Oh, God. He slid into her again, and then again, his breath huffing out as if he’d been struck, and then he came undone with a soundless cry. Allura felt the first throb and slickness of his release, and she was lost, everything unraveling in waves of ecstasy from where they were so tightly joined. She ground against him with her hips, her arms and legs holding him tight. And when the last bit of pleasure was wrung, she went limp, her hands releasing their death grip on his clothes, able only to breathe. He lay panting against her, in her, some his weight held from her by one quivering arm.
After a long time, he rolled away from her with a groan, “Gods, Allura, how am I to be expected to fly now?“
Allura said nothing while he rearranged his clothes and rose, rather unsteadily from the bed.
She rolled up on to her side when she realized that he was putting on his boots, or trying to. After a moment he gave in and sat down on the bed to do it. So he was going, now that he was done. He did look thoroughly satisfied, practically giddy with it. She bit her lip.
When he had his boots on, he turned to look at her. And then she found herself scooped up and deposited onto his lap. His eyes were bright, his hair mussed. Another time she would have said he looked absolutely besotted. Warm, knowing fingertips traced over the sensitive hollow at the base of her spine. He gave her a firm kiss, and then another and another.
“Get dressed,” he said between kisses, though he shifted her still closer in his arms. “We can bathe when we get to Nephalem.”
“What-why are you taking me to Nephalem?”
Lotor raised his brows and pulled back a little to look at her. “I told you. It’s time you saw the physic again. It’s been thirty days since the last time.”
Allura gaped at him, and then she blushed harder than she ever had in her life.
On to Chapter 24