Dragon Lords Books 1 - 4 Box Set: Anniversary Edition (28 page)

Ualan nodded, sad. He waved to his bedroom. “The communicator is up there. I thought you might wish to contact him with your flight information, and I have left orders that your communication not be monitored.”

Morrigan stood, walking slowly to the stairs. The communicator and weapons were put back on the shelf. Next to them, she saw her crown. It looked different than she had first remembered it. The queen had told her in the hospital that it had been broken when she fell ill. Picking it up, she realized it glistened with the shards of Ualan’s broken crystal. He must have had it inlaid when he ordered it repaired. It was beautiful.

Setting the crown down, she picked up the communicator and turned it on. The floating screen popped up and, with a
click-click
, she dialed Gus.

She didn’t have to wait long before she heard the man bellow, “About damned time, Rigan. Where the hell have you been?”

“Hi-yah, Gus,” she forced her tone to sound light.

“Hi-yah? Hi-yah, Gus?” he demanded before calming himself. “I’m opening the lines, Rigan, send your story. It goes to press tomorrow. I’ve been holding the front page of the intergalactic edition for you.”

“I can’t do that, Gus. I don’t have it.”

“What? You still writing? Hmm,” he pondered, “well I guess you’re calling for your annulment papers. I tell you what. You send me a story and I’ll give you everything you need to get out of that marriage—first class ticket and all. How does that sound, Rigan?”

“Sorry, Gus. There is no story here. I was wrong. Oh, and I quit.”

“What?” the man screeched. “You can’t quit on me, Rigan. You’re the best damned reporter I have. No one could cover that slime planet like you did.”

“That’s because I’m the only reporter you have that would go to the slime pits,” she corrected.

“Is that what this is about? Fine. Your next assignment will be about spa treatments. Come on, you can’t leave this business. It’s in your blood. You’ll go crazy without it.”

“I found a prince, Gus,” she said, a soft smile on her lips. “And I think I am going to keep him.”

Morrigan glanced up to see Ualan standing in the doorway of the closet. An affectionate smile formed on his lips. Emotion flowed sweetly and openly between them, the one last obstacle having been torn down by her words.

“Rigan?” Ualan whispered, hope shining brightly in his handsome eyes.

“It would make my career, Ualan,” she whispered back. “But you make my life.”

“Rigan!” Gus screeched. “I can’t hear you, what did you say? Oh, never mind, you’re talking crazy anyway. Listen, I’ll let you out of your contract no problem, but you’ve got to give me an exclusive.”

“Gus, my contract expired years ago,” she said.

“Rigan, girl,” he insisted.

“Sorry, Gus.” She stared boldly at Ualan. “Take care of my apartment would you? Sell everything, but mail me my maid units—all of them.”

“I got it,” Gus said, not listening, “Star reporter falls for story.”

Morrigan smiled, not really paying attention to the blustering man. Her eyes shone with love for her husband.

“No, wait,” Gus broke in, clearly growing excited, “Princess reporter finds her prince.”

“No,” she said, her gaze traveling over Ualan’s firm body. He lifted a brow, moving to take off his shirt at the come-hither tilt of her head.

“Rigan, come on girl, you have to give me something.” Gus’ words were followed by the sound of a slamming fist.

“Sorry, Gus, no can do.”

“What about a book chip deal?” he offered. “I’ll give you a huge advance.”

“No. I want to live life for a while. I’m tired of watching it from the sidelines.”

“What about the princes?” His words almost sounded like a whine. Morrigan’s eyes were busy devouring her stripping husband. She stood to join him, pulling at her own top and throwing it aside. “What can you give me on them?”

“There’s not much,” she answered with a devilish wink.

Ualan’s brows rose high on his head in mock affront. He threw his shirt at her head. She caught it and tossed it away.

“They’re completely uninteresting,” she insisted, pursing her lips with a pretend sigh of boredom.

Ualan’s eyes turned to golden fire. Danger and excitement coursed through her at the look. She smiled with a beckoning heat. Ualan slid his pants from his waist, standing proud. Morrigan opened her mouth in artificial surprise as she stared naughtily at his erection.

Wickedly, she added, “And they’re very, very,” her eyes got rounder with each word as she finished coyly, “small.”

Ualan growled, pouncing forward. He swept her into his arms and pressed his naked body to her.

“Rigan? Rigan!” came Gus’ voice. They ignored him.

Ualan nuzzled her throat before bringing his eyes to bore into hers. Morrigan grinned. His hands were traveling over her back to press under her pants to her warm ass.

Quietly, she drew her finger over the muscles of his chest. “The doctor was here earlier to check on me.”

His eyes narrowed. Morrigan bit her lip, hesitantly moving his hand around to touch her stomach.

“What do you think?” she asked, almost shyly.

“I think, no, I
know
I’m in love with you,” he whispered, realizing she’d told him she was pregnant.

Morrigan’s expression shone brightly. “Really?”

He chuckled, leaning to kiss her deep and tender, his expression saying,
Of course, silly woman.

“Oh,” she gasped when he let her reclaim her breath. Weak-kneed, she stared dreamily at him. “I love you, too, Ualan. I could never leave you.”

“Rigan,” Ualan growled, crushing her with a deeper passion. Gus kept yelling but they ignored him. “I’ve loved you since that first moment. I’ve loved you and only you my entire life. I promise to make you happy. You’ll never regret choosing to be my queen.”

“You’ve already made me happy,” she whispered, her heart in her eyes. Then, pulling back, she grimaced. “Queen?”

“Didn’t you know? I’m the oldest.” He leaned to sprinkle kisses over her nose and cheeks. “When my parents decide to step aside, you will be my queen.”

He tried to claim her mouth and she let him for a brief second. Then, pushing his arm, she asked, “Wait a minute. How old are you anyway, dragon?”

Ualan merely grinned. He supported her back, as he leaned her over his arm in an embrace that stole her words and her heart. Their souls were forever joined. No more talk was necessary.

“Rigan, blast it, you got…”

Morrigan was intent on having her way with her husband. By the look in his eyes, he was going to have his way too—for a very long time. His hands worked on her waistband before pushing her pants down to the floor.

“Rigan!”

Ualan grinned at her, wickedly gazing at her lips as he lifted his foot to the blaring communicator.

“Rig—!!”

Crunch.

P
erfect Prince (Dragon Lords
) © copyright 2004 - 2015 by Michelle M. Pillow

Previously Titled: The Perfect Prince (Dragon Lords)

10
^th
Anniversary Edition, Third Electronic Printing June 2014, The Raven books

Second Electronic Printing August 2010, The Raven Books

First Electronic Printing September 2004

Cover art by Ravven © Copyright 2015

ISBN 978-1-62501-085-8

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

All books copyrighted to the author and may not be resold or given away without written permission from the author, Michelle M. Pillow.

This novel is a work of fiction. Any and all characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or events or places is merely coincidence. Novel intended for adults only. Must be 18 years or older to read.

A
Perfect Escape
…

Nadja Aleksander has everything she could ever want in life, except her freedom. Skipping out on her engagement, to a man her controlling father has chosen for her, Nadja books passage on the first spaceship she can find. Bound for a planet of primitive humanoid males, Nadja plans on finding a simple, hardworking man who will allow her to live out her days in total obscurity.

A
Perfect Mistake
…

Dragon-shifter Prince Olek is pleased with his refined and blushing bride. When she chooses him to be her life mate, appearing happy in her decision, his heart soars—until the next morning when his new princess wants nothing to do with him. Olek doesn’t know what he’s done to upset his alluring bride, but he is determined to reignite the hot sparks that burned the night they met.

T
o Mandy Roth
: A Wonderful Author and Friend

N
adja Aleksander inhaled
a troubled breath as she took one last look around her room aboard the medic ship. Rich and luxurious silk draped the walls to hide the metal plates underneath. Every modern convenience known to space was at her disposal. She had a beauty bed, maid service, and a personal medic unit that checked her blood levels every morning and automatically wrote out her diet for the day.

Nadja had grown up in spacious rooms just like this one, traveling the galaxy with her surgeon father as he moved from medical assignment to medical assignment. She had seen many things, discovered many cultures and places. She had been accepted into the most royal of homes. She had been given everything she could ever want, except her freedom. It was a prison of gilded bars, but a prison nonetheless.

She wrapped her light brown hair into a bun at the nape of her neck and whipped a cloak around her shoulders. The thick folds enveloped her completely in its fur lining. She’d thought about changing the color of her hair to better hide her appearance, but she was sure her droids recorded every procedure she had done into a file for her father. If she tried to stray from her diet or cut her hair too short, the units would unexplainably have a mechanical glitch, stop working and her father would know about it.

Her heart thudded nervously as she contemplated what she was going to do. She had never been on her own before, never been without family and robot guards close by. For a moment, she hesitated, letting the fear of the unknown stop her progress. This was her only opening. It was tonight or possibly never. If she was leaving, she needed to go now. Setting a letter on her dresser for her mother, she hoped the woman would forgive her, even if Nadja knew she wouldn’t understand her daughter’s need to leave.

Going to the metal door, Nadja slid it open with the push of a button and then paused to listen. Below her deck level she could hear the celebration that would last well into the early morning. It was her engagement party and no one had noticed that the bride-to-be had been missing for nearly two hours. The event wasn’t about her anyway. It was about the joining of two men—Doc Aleksander and Doc Hank, two Medical Alliance associates.

She grabbed her bags, flung them over her shoulders and made her way across the ship’s hall to the small lift that would take her to the escape hatch. With a press of a button, she was whizzed down to the exit where it was only a few short steps to the dock below. She crouched under the ship, struggling with her bags as she tried to find where to go next. When she neared the pilot’s open ventilation grate, she heard a woman giggling within the cockpit. Irvette would be keeping the guard posted there occupied for the rest of the night, so Nadja wouldn’t have to worry about him paying attention to the docks below.

No one seemed to notice her as she rushed from the massive MAPH spacecraft, through the darkened hanger. The hanger’s bay doors were open, letting in a cool night breeze. She hurried past the small luxury crafts and the personal units waiting in line for maintenance the next morning. She didn’t want to risk taking anything that wasn’t in a condition to fly—not that she was the best pilot to begin with.

Nadja came to a corner and kept walking, not knowing where she would go. A local docking guard smiled kindly at her as she passed. He glanced at her bags and motioned her to move farther down the corridor to a carpeted gangway reserved for first class. She followed his direction curiously and saw a bunch of women loading into a nearby spacecraft. Above them was a banner that read Galaxy Brides in curving script. She took a deep breath and pulled down the hood of the cape.

A uniformed man with an electronic clipboard looked her over and smiled.

“Are you here for a last minute replacement?” he asked.

Nadja nodded.

“Sign here,” he said, handing over the clipboard. “We are several short so they will take care of your health screenings in flight. You’ll have room 206 on platform two. It’s the room all the way to the back. Ship orientation is tomorrow at 9:00 AM Earthtime. The ship runs on Earthtime, but there are conversion units in your room if you need them.”

Nadja signed her name on the digital line and handed the clipboard back. Her fingers shook nervously. She waited for the sound of her father’s voice ordering her to return, terrified that he would find her gone and come looking. As scared as she was to step on this unknown ship, she feared her father more. That’s how she knew she was making the right choice. Whatever waited for her at the end of the Galaxy Brides’ gangway was better than a golden cage.

“Galactic identification?” the man asked. Nadja gave him the card and he barely glanced at it. “Perfect, Miss—
ah
—Aleksander. Welcome aboard the flight to your future!”

“Excuse me.” Nadja kept her voice low. The man turned back around to look at her. “Do I owe you anything for the flight?”

“No, Miss. Galaxy Brides Corporation owes you.” He smiled happily.

“I wish to invoke the right of privacy law. If anyone asks, I’m not here,” she said, her voice naturally demure.

“Police?” the man questioned in surprise, though the idea didn’t seem to concern him. He had a quota to fill.

“Stalker,” she whispered. The man nodded in understanding. Nadja glanced around and saw a red headed woman standing in line behind her. She lowered her voice, and added, “He won’t leave me alone, so I am leaving.”

“I’ll make a note, Miss. That won’t be a problem.” He began writing on her file.

“And, by the way, where are we going?”

The man laughed. “Most women ask before they come down here. It must be some maniac you are trying to get away from.”

Nadja nodded but said nothing. She was too scared to turn around and look.

The man reined in his humor, and answered, “You’re heading to Qurilixen, Miss.”

Nadja nodded and the man left to check in the redheaded latecomer. She hesitated, looking at the banner, not really seeing it as thoughts swirled in her head. A droid came forward to grab her bags and began transporting them up the gangway.

There was no turning back. This was it. This was her ticket to freedom.

O
ne month later
…

Nadja smiled, looking nervously around the spacecraft’s beauty parlor at the other brides. They hardly seemed like the same women she had shyly met that first day of orientation. Since then, all of them had been enhanced with beauty machines. Their breasts had been lifted and enlarged using the latest technology in modern genetics. They’d been offered permanent body hair removal. The hair on their heads had been made to grow long, which Nadja had learned was the Qurilixian people’s traditional style.

Due to her upbringing, she did not need most of the services offered. She’d already been sculpted into her mother’s perfect doll and her father’s favorite bargaining chip. Had she stayed, she’d be Doc Hank’s new bride. A small chill of disgust worked over her skin leaving her sick to her stomach.

The ship provided educational uploads designed to teach the brides everything they needed to know about their new home through a few short hours of brain wave transfer. When Nadja stepped aboard the ship, she had no idea who the Qurilixian were. She only vaguely remembered learning the planet’s name in astronomical geography as a student.

Since the details hadn’t mattered, she’d signed her agreement without even reading it. This was part of her new life of taking chances, and any fate would be better than the one aboard a medic ship with Hank. She had decided she was going to take the first available transport and that is exactly what she had done. Her father and the fiancé he had picked for her would never expect her to make such a bold move. She was going to be free.

Free.

That one idea filled her with longing and hope.

Freedom.

It appeared taking chances was going to pay off. She didn’t miss the irony that she ran away from one arranged marriage to another. But, at least this one was of her doing and her doing alone. She was the only person who had anything to gain or lose. Or, more correctly, she and whoever she married.

Nadja couldn’t have been more pleased to discover the ship had set course for the outer edge of the Y quadrant, to a place inhabited by primitive males in need of wives. It’s exactly what she would have asked for. It was perfect. Qurilixen was far away from where her father would think to search for her, and the planet wasn’t a member of the Federation Alliance and thus didn’t recognize Federation laws. Without planetary participation, her father wouldn’t be able to use the extradition act to register her name and force her to come home. If he tried, he risked causing an intergalactic incident. Since the Medical Alliance for Planetary Health (MAPH) where her father worked was a big part of the Federation Military’s Alliance, along with several other key agencies, Doc Aleksander would have to answer to a lot of powerful people if he went rogue over a missing daughter.

If Nadja’s new home was truly primitive, they might not even keep a digital record of her being there. She could fade away from the technological world.

Freedom.

The very idea of not being monitored and watched caused little bursts of excitement to jump through her. She could hardly imagine it—not having to stand properly, with a smile pasted on her face because of her position, not worrying about what she said because someone might record her and quote her on it and embarrass her family, not worrying about her hair being perfect because she was about to meet royalty or Docs or…anyone.

Freedom.

Qurilixian women were incredibly rare because the natives had been affected by a blue radiation that altered their reproductive capabilities. From all indications, the radiation sounded harmless to everything but male sperm. But, it’s not like the universe was narrow. They might be primitive, but the Qurilixian had access to bridal procurement corporations like Galaxy Brides to fulfill their need for women, and they had an abundance of rare ore that they could mine to pay for those women. The ore was a key ingredient needed to make a high grade fuel that could power larger ships for longer distances. This was business economics in its purest form—supply and demand.

The rest of the details didn’t matter. They would supply a home. She would supply whatever it was wives needed to do. Hard work didn’t scare her and she could learn anything she set her mind to. She doubted Galaxy Brides would be able to stay in business if they traded with disreputable planets, so she really had nothing to fear as far as physical safety.

Nadja smiled, liking the idea of such a future. She had been born on a ship going light-speed and she was tired of moving around. She wanted to stay put for once and develop roots. She wanted to make a friend and keep her, and not because the friend was a paid servant who her father fired when he thought Nadja had become too attached. It was hard to develop friendships when the other person realized exactly who her father was. She’d seen more people pale and back away from her than she cared to remember.

As to the grooms, she didn’t care what they looked like. She wasn’t picky. It’s not like she planned on falling in love. She’d been smothered in the so-called love of her parents her whole life. No, she did not look for love. Nadja would be happy with her freedom.

Anything was better than the pervert her father had chosen for her. Medical advancements might allow Hank to regrow his thinning hair and trim his thickening waist, but all the technology in the world couldn’t make that man’s personality tolerable. She should have known something was up when their ship changed its scheduled course. In hindsight, it was easy to see they’d purposefully flown to a region where the laws permitted her father to select her husband for her.

Soon it wouldn’t matter. Tonight was the night. She’d be married by morning.

Qurilixen only had one night of darkness a year, and it was only during that time that men could find a partner at an event they called a Breeding Festival. Nadja thought it a fitting name for such a primitive ceremony—Breeding Festival, simple and straight to the point. And honest. She respected honesty. They didn’t call it True Love Night or make promises of fairytale romance. Instead, they gathered together for a single, efficient ceremony that combined an engagement, wedding, honeymoon and, presto, you were a married couple who could get on with life.

Nadja held still as the six robotic hands of the beauty droid flew around her head, putting her hair into a traditional Qurilixian upsweep. She glanced to where Morrigan Blake sat nearby. The woman was quieter than the rest and always appeared distracted, as if her mind swam with thoughts that had nothing to do with her surroundings. Nadja had tried to talk to the woman a few times over the last month and found her to be rather intelligent and polite. Truthfully, Nadja was surprised that an independent woman like Morrigan would choose to go to a place like Qurilixen as a bride. But, then again, she supposed all the brides had their reasons for being there.

Still looking at Morrigan, curiosity got the better of her, and she asked softly, “What about you, Rigan? Have you finished your Qurilixian etiquette uploads?”

Morrigan blinked in surprise at the sound of her name. Nadja guessed she had disturbed her thoughts. The woman gave her a distracted smile.

“Rigan?” Nadja repeated, really hoping to have someone to talk to. As much as she wanted friends, she’d discovered she wasn’t very good at making them. Her reserved nature and a lifetime of trained behaviors made it hard for her to socialize. A lot of the women on the ship were loud and vivacious. It was hard for her soft-spoken nature to get noticed.

It took Morrigan’s dark eyes a moment to focus, and before she could answer, another voice boomed into the conversation. “Didn’t you know?”

Nadja politely looked toward the sound of trilling laughter to where a beauty droid was placing the customary short veil over Gena’s curly red hair. The woman was crass and obnoxious, but Nadja found herself patiently waiting for her to continue. Gena practically snorted, as she added, “Rigan finished her Qurilixian uploads first. It would seem she is most eager to please her new husband.”