Battle Queen: Red Ruler Series (Book 1) Read online

  The Battle Queen was nowhere and everywhere at once. I licked my lips again, remembering that deep and lingering taste of her pheromones on the air. I saw my skin shimmer briefly and frowned. What in the Darkness? I shook out my hand and the shimmer stopped. I felt a bit hotter than I had before and my cocks pushed against their protective slit. What the fuck is going on with my body?

  “Sir?”

  “What?” I looked up and saw the table was looking at me expectantly. I had lost track of the game. I snarled at my loss of focus internally and doubled down my bet in punishment. If I lost this round then I deserved to lose big since it was my own fault for letting my mind wander.

  The game continued on but to my joy and my chagrin the others folded or had subpar hands. My royal flush had won me this round. “Send my winnings as a credit to my room’s account, please.”

  “Yes, General.”

  I stopped up short and eyed the dealer but only a tiny smirk showed from the edge of his lips before his face blanked. Getting up from the table I felt my Sylean shadows shift as I walked out of the Pleasure Palace’s massive first floor.

  The building itself was wide and long. Easily four times the size of my warship. Interestingly enough it was also only four stories, albeit with incredibly high ceilings. Gaming and shopping consumed the first floor while brothels and drug dens of all types covered the second floor. The third and forth floor were for guest accommodations. There were surveillance bots and bugs over every inch of this building. Some visible and some much harder to detect.

  I had no idea how the Battle Queen kept on top of everything. I knew the Syleans were in charge of planetside security but how could they have any time for physical patrols with so much surveillance to watch and maintain? My jaw tightened and I clenched my teeth.

  According to the sparse details my team could get, there had barely been a few thousand Sylean slavers and slaves here when Welo first arrived. That was four planetary rotations ago. One rotation of this giant planet around its suns was long but still! The math wasn’t adding up, even when I took into consideration an estimation of new additions to their staff and population after their slave revolt.

  By all accounts they shouldn’t be able to handle upkeep, much less proper security. After the fall of the Sylean Empire their people had descended into a kind of madness. Their depravity destroyed their society beyond recognition. Most Syleans born now, didn’t even know there had ever been a Sylean Empire.

  All of it had happened in The Shift. Over a thousand years ago, when my parents were just small children the galaxy had been plunged into darkness. The details of why and what happened were a closely guarded secret by whatever races had survived those turbulent times. Most were washed away as myths and cultural remnants that were hollow echos of their origins.

  My feet had carried me far from the Pleasure Palace and the screaming cheers of the Blood Arena. I stood before the two massive temples that belonged to the personal Goddesses of the Battle Queen. Each temple was unique. With my own eyes I could tell that they came from two separate and distinct cultures.

  Columns like at the arena framed the giant temple to my distant right. The Temple of Menrva. A battle Goddess. I knew that inside sat a helmeted Goddess of War.

  Ding!

  “General L’Ryx,” my second in command R’tok’s voice rang clearly in my ear.

  “Yes, R’tok?”

  “I was able to appropriate some new information for you,” he said slyly. I wandered over to the Temple of Menrva and entered the quiet space. Muscular female guards in black and red uniforms lined with gold turned their heads and gave me their hard stare. The message was clear: Behave or else.

  “Continue,” I prompted R’tok.

  “Well, you know how Earth is supposed to be off limits,” he asked but I knew he was just building up to something he felt was exciting. Whether it actually proved to be something exciting to me, was a whole different matter, “I was able to purchase some data packets with cultural information!” I rolled my eyes, R’tok loved gobbling up information. It made him a hell of a second in command, but I also knew I was probably in for a long educational lecture if I didn’t direct him.

  “Anything specifically pertaining to the Battle Queen?”

  “Yes,” he said excitedly. I smothered a small smile at his teacher like tone of approval. “Menrva is the Roman Goddess of Knowledge and Defensive War. And some other smaller stuff like weaving and such.”

  “Hmm. And Haumea?”

  “Well that one was harder to pin down,” he said grumpily, “All I could really get was that she’s a Hawaiian Goddess.”

  “Hawaii is the region of Earth the Battle Queen is from so that’s not too much of a surprise,” I agreed. In front of me a group of tourists were listening in rapture to a female guide. “Hold on, R’tok.”

  “...And so what you see here is, in a small way, a recreation of Athena’s temple in Greece on Earth. However, if you look closely you’ll see that the Battle Queen herself made sure that the Etruscan Menrva and Roman Minerva are the main influence in this modern temple.” The crowd ooh’ed and awww’ed at the tour guide. I pinched the bridge of my nose and suppressed a small laughed. Of course. Of course, she would have cultural tours available. “Oh, I’m sorry, sir but this is a paid guided tour.” As one the group turned around to stare at me.

  “I would have signed up if I had known they were available,” I smiled.

  “They only started up a few days ago,” there was as sharp gleam in her eye, “since there was such an interest.” Was she not so subtly telling me what I think she was? “However, I can make an exception and charge the tour fee to your accommodations, if you like?”

  “Please do,” I didn’t hide the quirking of lips into a smirk of admiration. The guide tapped her wrist and continued speaking. I stepped back a few steps but listened in intently, “R’tok how much did you pay to appropriate your information?”

  “It was a pretty steep amount,” he whistled, “but I felt I got a good deal.” I shook my head and laughed low in my throat, ignoring the looks the other tour participants threw my way.

  “And where exactly did you purchase this information from? And when?”

  “Well it took a few days and I had to go through a few information dealers, even pay a few bribes but I think it was originally from a Sylean slaver ship,” he replied.

  “I’ll bet you a year’s salary that you just purchased information from the Battle Queen’s own people,” I chuckled.

  “What? No,” he scoffed, “I was careful!” I let the silence drag on, waiting for him to ask me the real question he wanted to know. “L’Ryx, why do you think I was just swindled?”

  “Oh, I don’t think it, R’Tok,” I smiled, “I know you were conned into purchasing low grade information.”

  “How?”

  “Because I’m standing in Menrva’s Temple while a guide is sharing all the information as part of the tour,” I rubbed my ear in pain as R’tok’s yell of exclamation was followed by a string of creative curses, “The tour guide also happily charged me for the tour. As a one time exception, of course, because I hadn’t pre-booked my spot. She also had a pleased as shit smirk when she told me the tours only started up a few days ago, because, and I quote ‘since there was such an interest’.” Stunned silence cut off the string of curses R’tok had been shouting.

  “Oh, she’s good,” I could hear the appreciation and something akin to awe in his voice. I didn’t like it.

  “Of course she is. That’s why I was sent here,” I growled. A few others moved not so subtly away from me and closer to the guide who was now leading us across the open space to the giant statue at the end of the building. A large trough like brazier was held up before the sandled feet of the Goddess. Wisps of smoke from burning incense rose up and I was hit with a smell and sacredness I had not felt in a long time.

  Menrva’s face was set with a fierce gaze. She may have been sitting but there was nothing casu
al about her stance. She was poised. She was ready. She was ever watchful. Her divine gaze reminded me so much of Welo’s. Welo’s eyes were always piercing, whether she stared across the blood sands at me or peeled away my facade from across her desk.

  Vigilant didn’t begin to cover the truly regal set of her jaw or the straightness of her spine. It wasn’t tense or tight like the shaft of a spear or gun. She was more like a coil of wrath and fury, ready to spring at those who dared tempt her patience. Looking at the bright colours painted everywhere in and outside of the temple reminded me just how lucky I had been in that match.

  Centuries of living and she could have snuffed out my life. I swallowed back the traitorous shiver that ran down my chest, making my cocks squirm and bulge. Again I saw the shimmer race along my uncovered hands and I couldn’t stop the frown. These pangs of arousal were being accompanied by a longing like I had never felt before. I made a point to thank the tour guide before I walked out and over to the Temple of Haumea.

  This temple was so different from the other that I had to stop and just take in what I was seeing. My brain could barely process it all. The temple itself had been built onto a pedestal of dark red blocks veined with shimmering black. The columns and roof were more of the same. Instead of feeling like a giant foreboding monolith, it felt like the welcoming darkness of space.

  Seemingly random pools and waterfalls dotted the insides and greenery of all kinds grew on every internal and external space. Lush wasn’t enough to describe what I was seeing. In the center of it all rose a statue of a vaguely human female made entirely from shimmering black rock. Veins of gold and red winked at me as if beckoning me further into this paradise.

  The closer I got the more Haumea’s statue shimmered and danced. Her skin was like looking out at the blackness of space and seeing the stars themselves wink back at you in benevolent amusement. All around me females and their offspring ran and played. Some naked, some clothed. The sound of their laughter and giggles were only rivaled by the splashes and playful shouts of scolding.

  “...you don’t have to if you don’t want to...”

  “It’s ok, Welo...”

  My ears perked up and I stealthily scanned my surroundings for the conversation I was overhearing.

  “Bibi... I want you to really...”

  “I have... you’re saying... I want to do it.”

  Do what? Damnit, where the hell are they. I turned slowly in a circle as if I was trying to take in the temple and its beauty. There! Behind the Goddess’s statue!

  “Then it will be done.”

  Welo’s eyes connected with mine. Her brow pinched in irritation as she led the Pxylar female away from me. I huffed in irritation and left the soothing oasis of Haumea’s Temple.

  “General?! General?!” R’tok’s voice blasted into my ear painfully.

  “What,” I asked frustratedly as I rubbed my ear, “Why are you yelling? You know this implant is directly in my damn ear canal.”

  “Holy Darkness, it’s good to hear your voice!”

  “Cut the dramatics I only went inside the second temple for a short period,” I rolled my eyes in irritation. I seemed to be doing that a lot since I got here.

  “You disappeared,” R’tok screeched, “As soon as you stepped inside that temple your entire signal dropped. Not just audio or planetary location either. Your life signs—everything!”

  “What?”

  “We thought you had been captured or made to disappear.”

  “Hold on, let me re-enter the temple.”

  “What? Wait—“

  “Can you still not see or hear me?”

  “What the...,” R’tok trailed off completely perplexed, “We’re getting all your signals just fine now.”

  “I accidentally overheard the Battle Queen talking to a Pxylar female, by the name of Bibi,” I turned and walked out of the temple again, “maybe it was some sort of personal dampening field. The Pxylar was agreeing to do something for her but Welo sounded reluctant.” I heard a swoosh and knew R’tok had walked into my secure captain’s quarters.

  “L’Ryx listen to me,” he whispered, “Nothing, and I mean nothing, that I know of has the power to cut off the life signal of a High Command General.” I sucked in a breath letting what he said fully sink in, “What the fuck is going on down on that planet and what the fuck did High Command send you into?”

  Welo

  My mind was blown. No, scratch that. My brain’s atoms had been scattered across space and time by a violent supernova. “Fuck, me...,” I sat in my office chair and just stared off at nothing. After seeing L’Ryx in Haumea’s Temple I had escorted Bibi directly over to Mel’s office at the Blood Palace.

  I hadn’t told her what her girls had said but I knew that conversation was coming. I took in a shaky breath and exhaled slowly. I had already read the communication from the tour guide at Menrva’s Temple that L’Ryx had joined the educational tour. She had not so subtly smirked when she explained to me how she made it clear we had conned them into purchasing low grade data from us via our proxies. Payback is sweet asshole.

  Logically I knew he was sent here on assignment but when the opportunity presented itself to make a bit of extra profit at his expense I was all too eager to oblige.

  “Commander Hs’tar, Planetside Security.”

  My face scrunched up in confusion. Why was Hs’tar coming to my office? “Enter.”

  “Welo,” Hs’tar gave me a small hesitant smile. Ok, what the fuck bizarro world did I wake up into this morning? “Have you eaten, yet?”

  “Uh...”

  “I, um...,” he lifted a box and put it on the table before clearing his throat. “You always work so much that you forget to eat and I thought I could make sure you did since you’re probably incredibly busy with all the contracts stuff going on.”

  “Uh...” I didn’t have an intelligent response. This was probably the most I had heard Hs’tar speak to me directly in what felt like forever. He reached up and ran his hand along his scalp and blinked up at me. My couldn’t decide if my ovaries were going to explode or if I was going to jump out the window at the sheepish look on his face.

  “It’s your favourite,” he said quietly. I just gaped at him for a beat more. He shifted from foot to foot for a moment. I could see him start to pull away in his eyes.

  “What is it?” I blabbed. What the fuck, self! You’re making us sound like a teenage idiot! I cleared my throat and straightened my back, “I mean, what did you get?” My stomach growled and Hs’tar smiled as I blushed. Blushed like a complete tool. Oh this was just getting better and better.

  “I see you haven’t eaten yet today. Like always,” he lightly scolded. ‘Like always’? What does that mean? Had Hs’tar been watching me?

  “You don’t have to concern yourself, Commander Hs’tar,” I said angrily, “it was a busy morning but I would have taken care of it when I had the time.” He frowned and his eyes flashed icily. I could tell he was biting back a scathing retort.

  “I’m sorry,” he gritted out, “I didn’t mean to make it seem like I was... I was just trying to...,” he blew out a breath, “How about we just eat? It’s your favourite curry and flatbreads from that vendor down in the central bazaar.”

  “I...,” I eyed him suspiciously, “Fine.”

  “Ok. Good,” a small smile of relief touched his lips.

  We ate in companionable silence for ten minutes. Only the noises of chewing and swallowing ringing out in the otherwise quiet office. The food was delicious, and it really was my favourite. It was as close to Indian food as I was going to get on this planet until I could actually import some real spices from Earth itself.

  “So, how was your day so far?” He asked casually. As if we regularly had lunch like any other couple who worked in the same company together. That got me irritated all over again. If he wanted to play house all of a sudden then I wasn’t going to let him get away without a few bruises.

  “Well,” I drawled out, “It
started with me waking up alone from a nightmare about the old leader,” Hs’tar’s body stiffened and he seemed laser focused on eating the last bit of his food. “Then I had a shower, again, alone, and learned we had been inundated with thousands of new contract requests.”

  “What?”

  “Oh, didn’t Mel tell you,” I asked sweetly.

  “No, she didn’t say,” he replied tightly.

  “Well apparently we’ve hit the big leagues and now entire outlier worlds and a good smattering of rich fucks from the central worlds want pleasure and breeding contracts,” I put away our plates and dishes back into the takeaway box, setting it aside. “Hells, a bunch are breeding contracts for me.”

  Hs’tar’s jaw locked up and his burnt copper eyes took on a deadly gleam. “Then they’ll be shit out of luck when you turn them down.”

  “I don’t know,” I said innocently, “It’s a lot of credits and we could always use more to help our people here.”

  “You’d never willingly give away one of your children,” he excoriated. “There’s nothing more precious to you than a child would be.” I stalled at his words; he had cut right to the heart of me in an instant. The parting ‘gift’ that the old leader had given me was control over my fertility. With a single thought I could release my own eggs, and even fertilise them with a pattern or patterns of DNA of my own choosing.

  Before my capture and slavery I would have given anything for such a gift, and I’m sure billions of women on Earth would have said the same. But for me, it became a symbol. It was the last bit of my humanity ripped away from me. The old leader had given me choice because he wanted to control me with his threats always hanging over my head. If I did choose to activate my fertility, even if it had been done subconsciously, he would rip the child from my body and sell it. Or worse. He would rip it apart as a companion experiment right alongside me.