Chapter 2: A Mother's Interrogation
The scream tore from Elona's throat before she even understood what she was seeing. Albert's body had gone slack in the chains, his head lolling forward, the rise and fall of his chest so shallow it was almost imperceptible. Through the bond, she felt it—his life force flickering like a candle guttering in the wind, threatening to snuff out entirely.
"No!" She lunged forward, her small hands cupping his face, feeling the clammy coldness of his skin beneath her palms. "Albert! Albert, stay with me!"
His eyes fluttered, unfocused, meeting hers for just a moment before rolling back. The blood from his wounds had slowed to a sluggish ooze, and his lips had taken on a bluish tinge that had nothing to do with his alien surroundings.
"Help!" Elona screamed, her voice echoing down the corridor, raw with desperation. "Someone help me! Please!"
Her telepathic bond flooded with his fading consciousness—fragments of memory, shattered pieces of his life bleeding out like the blood from his wounds. She saw his ex-wife's face, beautiful and cruel, heard his brother's laugh, felt the crushing weight of six years of lies. And beneath it all, a stubborn, defiant spark of life that refused to surrender.
But that spark was dimming.
Guards appeared at the end of the corridor, their crystalline armor gleaming in the blue torchlight, their faces masks of confusion and alarm. Behind them, a tall figure swept into view, her presence commanding immediate attention and absolute silence.
Queen Nyxara Solen was everything her daughter was not—towering, statuesque, with skin the color of deep amethyst and hair that flowed like liquid silver down her back. Her emerald eyes, the same shade as Elona's, took in the scene with cold, calculated precision before her lips pressed into a thin line of controlled fury.
"Cut him down," she ordered, her voice like velvet wrapped around steel. "Now."
The guards scrambled to obey, their weapons drawn to slice through the chains binding Albert's broken body. Elona caught him as he fell, his weight nearly crushing her small frame, but she held on with desperate strength, cradling his head against her chest as his blood soaked through her thin silks.
"Mother, please," she gasped, looking up at the Queen with tear-filled eyes. "He's dying. You have to save him."
Queen Nyxara's gaze lingered on her daughter's face for a long, agonizing moment, something unreadable flickering behind her eyes. Then she turned to her guards, her voice sharp as a blade.
"Take him to my private healing chamber. Summon the Royal Physician. Now."
---
The healing chamber was a cathedral of light and sound, its walls pulsing with bioluminescent veins that throbbed in rhythm with the machines humming throughout the space. Violet light bathed everything in an otherworldly glow, casting long shadows across the obsidian floor where Albert lay suspended in a crystalline cocoon of medical technology.
Elona stood at the window overlooking the chamber, her arms wrapped around herself, her skin flaring through shades of red and blue and violet as her emotions churned beneath the surface. Through the translucent crystal, she watched the Royal Physician work, his skilled hands weaving streams of glowing energy over Albert's body, sealing wounds and knitting broken bones.
"He'll live."
Elona spun around to find her mother standing in the doorway, framed by the shimmering light of the corridor beyond. The Queen's face was unreadable, but there was a dangerous edge to her posture that made Elona's stomach clench with unease.
"His injuries were severe," Queen Nyxara continued, stepping into the room with measured grace. "But the Physician has placed him in a healing coma. His body will repair itself over the next several days. He'll wake confused and disoriented, but alive."
Relief flooded through Elona so powerfully that her knees nearly buckled. "Thank you, Mother. Thank you—"
"Don't thank me yet." The Queen's voice cut through her daughter's gratitude like a blade through silk. "Because now, you and I are going to have a very frank conversation about exactly how you knew that human was in my dungeons. And precisely what nature of connection you share with him."
Elona's blood ran cold. She could feel her mother's presence probing the edges of her mind, testing the barriers Elona had spent years perfecting. But the bond with Albert had weakened those defenses, cracked them open like an eggshell, and she knew she couldn't hide the truth.
"Mother, I can explain—"
"Can you?" Queen Nyxara stepped closer, her emerald eyes burning with cold fire. "Because from where I stand, my daughter—my heir, my only child—appears to be harboring secrets I was not privy to. Secrets that led her to a prisoner whose existence I was unaware of entirely."
"That's the thing, Mother." Elona swallowed hard, meeting her mother's gaze with a courage she didn't quite feel. "Albert Voss was never supposed to be in our dungeons. He was taken by mistake—"
"He was taken at My command," the Queen interrupted, her voice sharp. "I ordered his capture when I received intelligence that Earth was sending a spy to infiltrate our court. A human operative with ties to the Terran Alliance military."
"He's not a spy!" Elona's voice rose with desperate conviction. "He's a civilian, a cargo pilot, a man who was betrayed by his own family and fled Earth to escape his past. He knows nothing about our politics or military or—"
"And how, exactly, do you know this?" The Queen's voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. "How do you know the contents of a man's soul, Elona? What gift have you been hiding from me?"
The question hung in the air between them, heavy and accusing. Elona felt the walls closing in around her, felt the weight of secrets she'd carried for years pressing down on her shoulders.
"I... I'm a telepath, Mother." The words tumbled out before she could stop them, raw and desperate. "And an empath. I've always been. I just... I never told you because I was afraid of what you would do with that power, how you would use it."
Queen Nyxara's face went utterly still. For a moment, Elona thought she saw a flicker of something—hurt, betrayal, fear—cross her mother's features. But it vanished as quickly as it appeared, replaced by the mask of cold control she always wore.
"You've been hiding your gifts from me for thirty years," the Queen said slowly, her voice measured and precise. "Gifts that could have been instrumental in our diplomatic relations with other worlds. Gifts that could have given us unprecedented advantage in our negotiations with the Terran Alliance."
"I didn't want to be a tool!" Elona cried, tears streaming down her face. "I didn't want to be used like you've used everyone else in this court! I wanted to be more than just another weapon in your arsenal!"
"And instead, you've bonded yourself to a human?" The Queen's voice was withering. "A creature from a species we barely understand, with whom you share an intimate psychic connection that I can sense radiating from you like a beacon?"
Elona's skin flared a deep, shameful crimson. "It's not... it's not something I chose, Mother. It happened. I felt him across the void, felt his pain and his loneliness, and something in me responded. I can't explain it, I can't control it, but I—"
"You feel him sexually."
The words were blunt, brutal, and Elona felt her face burn with humiliation. "Mother—"
"Don't deny it." Queen Nyxara's eyes were merciless. "I can see the arousal patterns in your skin, smell the pheromones you're releasing. You're not just bonded to him—you're in heat for him. You want to spread your legs for this creature and let him rut inside you like an animal."
Elona's breath caught in her throat. "Mother, please—"
"Answer me truthfully, daughter." The Queen stepped closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "Have you already given yourself to him? Did you spread yourself open for him in my dungeons like a common whore?"
"No!" The denial burst from Elona's lips with righteous fury. "I never touched him like that! He was barely conscious, bleeding out from the wounds your guards inflicted on him! I would never—"
"But you want to." The Queen's voice was silk wrapped around venom. "I can feel your desire through your emotional projection. You crave him with an intensity that borders on obsession. You've spent the past two weeks bathing in your own fantasies of that creature, haven't you? Touching yourself in the dark and dreaming of his cock inside you?"
Elona felt her body betray her, her skin flaring a brilliant crimson that pulsed with every heartbeat. "I... I don't..."
"Answer me," Queen Nyxara demanded. "Has he invaded your mind so completely that you're willing to throw away everything you've ever known for him?"
"He's not invading anything!" Elona's voice broke with emotion. "He's not even aware of the bond! He doesn't know who I am or what we share! He's an innocent man who was torn from his life and thrown into a cell, abused and beaten until he was nearly dead, and I—I can't stand the thought of losing him when I never even got the chance to know him!"
The silence that followed was deafening.
Queen Nyxara studied her daughter for a long moment, something unreadable passing through her eyes, before she finally spoke. "Do you know what it means to be a Solen?"
Elona blinked, confused by the sudden shift. "What?"
"We are more than just rulers of this world—we are its heart. We are the beating pulse of Andorra, the lifeblood of our people. And when we love, we love with everything we are, everything we have, everything we ever will be. It's not a choice—it's a fate. An unbreakable fate that has driven our ancestors to madness and greatness in equal measure."
The Queen moved to the window, her silhouette outlined against the violet glow of the healing chamber below. "Your grandmother loved a human once. Did you know that?"
Elona's eyes widened. "What?"
"He was an ambassador from Earth, sent to negotiate a trade agreement during the first contact conflicts. They met in this very castle, fell in love against all odds, and she chose him over her duty to our people." The Queen's voice was distant, tinged with ancient sorrow. "She was killed by orbital strikes from the Terran Alliance nine months later. He died protecting our castle from an invasion force. His sacrifice saved thousands of Andorran lives."
"Mother..." Elona whispered.
"I used to hate him," Queen Nyxara continued, her voice barely audible. "I used to blame him for my mother's death, for the burden that was thrust upon me at too young an age. But as I grew older, I realized that their love was the most beautiful thing I've ever witnessed. It was pure and selfless and utterly impossible. And it still burned bright enough to light the whole universe."
She turned to face her daughter, and for the first time, Elona saw a crack in her mother's armor—a moment of genuine vulnerability that stole the breath from her lungs.
"If this human is truly your fate, then we must approach this situation with care. I will not have you repeat my mother's mistakes. I will not lose you to a war I never wanted." The Queen's voice hardened once more. "But I will also not let you be used by a creature who might only be seeking a way to escape his bonds."
"He's not using me, Mother. He doesn't even know—"
"Then that's where we begin." Queen Nyxara's voice was decisive. "When he wakes, we will keep him alive. We will tend to his wounds. We will watch him carefully, learn his true nature, determine whether he is worthy of you or whether he considers you simply a means to an end."
"But Mother—"
"This is not negotiable, Elona." The Queen's voice brooked no argument. "You will speak of your gifts to no one. You will continue your duties as princess of Andorra as if nothing has changed. And you will keep your distance from the human until I give you permission to approach him."
Elona felt her heart shatter. "You can't keep me away from him. The bond—"
"The bond can wait." Queen Nyxara stepped forward, placing a hand on her daughter's cheek with unexpected gentleness. "A few days of distance will not break what fate has forged. But if you rush this without proper preparation, you could destroy everything—including yourself."
Tears streamed down Elona's face, her skin flickering through shades of despair, but she knew better than to argue. Her mother had already made up her mind.
"I trust you," the Queen whispered, pressing her forehead against her daughter's. "I trust that you have inherited your grandmother's courage and wisdom. I trust that you will know when the time is right to act."
She pulled back, her eyes boring into Elona's with fierce intensity. "But if that human harms so much as a single hair on your head, I will not hesitate to have him executed. Do you understand?"
Elona swallowed hard, feeling tears crystallize in her eyes. "Yes, Mother."
The Queen nodded once, satisfied, then swept from the room with all the grace of a predator on the hunt.
Elona stood alone in the shimmering light, her hands pressed to her heart, feeling the distant pulse of Albert's soul through the bond. He was alive. He was healing. And despite her mother's warning, she knew with absolute certainty that she would not be able to stay away from him for long.
The bond demanded completion. Her body ached for his touch. Her cunt clenched with phantom need every time she closed her eyes.
And somewhere in the depths of her being, Elona Solen knew that all her mother's careful plans were about to go up in flames.
---
Three days passed in agonizing slow motion.
Elona went through the motions of her royal duties—attending diplomatic functions, blessing ceremonies, greeting ambassadors and dignitaries alike—but every waking moment was consumed by the burning presence of Albert at the edge of her consciousness. Through the bond, she felt his body knitting itself back together, feeling his dreams growing more complex as his brain repaired its damage.
And his dreams were filled with her.
She saw herself through his eyes—her delicate features, her cascading red hair, the intricate patterns of bioluminescence that danced beneath her skin. She felt his confusion at finding her beautiful, his frustration at his own attraction, his desperate need to understand what was happening to him.
More alarming were the dreams where he wasn't dreaming at all.
Those were the dreams where his subconscious mind conjured images of them together—her beneath him, his thick cock buried deep inside her, her legs wrapped around his waist as he fucked her with a ferocity that bordered on worship. In those dreams, she could feel the phantom stretch of his massive length filling her, hear his filthy words echoing in her mind, taste his desperate need on her tongue.
She woke each morning drenched in sweat, her fingers buried between her thighs, her body shaking with climaxes that left her weak and wanting. Every time, she cursed herself for her weakness. Every time, she found herself reaching for more.
On the fourth day, the Royal Physician announced that the human was stable enough to be questioned.
Elona stood at the door to his recovery room, her heart pounding so hard she could feel it in her throat. Through the crystal window, she could see Albert sitting upright in his healing cocoon, his eyes open and alert, suspicion and anger radiating from him in waves that made her skin prickle.
He was naked beneath the thin blanket that covered his lower body, and even from here, she could see the faint outline of his cock through the fabric. It hung soft against his thigh, four inches of unassuming flesh that she knew held the potential to become so much more.
"Princess."
His voice was rough from disuse, but steady. He'd noticed her standing there, watching him through the translucent wall.
Elona forced herself to move, stepping through the doorway into the room. The air was thick with the scent of antiseptic and ozone, the machines humming a quiet melody in the background. She stopped just out of arm's reach, hyperaware of his gaze on her, raking over her body with a mixture of hunger and wariness.
"You're awake," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Yeah." Albert's lips curled into a bitter smile. "Small mercies. Your doctors still won't tell me where I am or why I was locked up in the first place."
"You're on Andorra," Elona said, and watched confusion flicker across his features. "It's a planet in the Selene system, roughly eight hundred light-years from Earth. You were captured by our security forces when you entered our sovereign space."
"I didn't enter anything," he growled, his fists clenching. "I was kidnapped. I was on a cargo ship heading to Mars when your people ripped me out of hyperdrive and dragged me here."
Elona flinched at his anger, but she understood it. She could feel it through the bond, his rage and frustration mingled with a desperate fear he couldn't quite hide.
"I know," she said softly. "I know. And I'm so, so sorry for what they did to you."
Albert stared at her for a long moment, something flickering in his blue eyes. "Why are you apologizing? You're one of them. You're their princess, for Christ's sake."
"Because I know what happened to you was wrong," Elona said, stepping closer. "I know that you're not a threat, that you were taken by mistake, and I'm trying to fix that."
He laughed, harsh and bitter. "Fix it? You can't fix what's already been done. I was beaten, tortured, left to rot in a cell—by your people. You can't just apologize that away."
"Maybe not." Elona moved closer still, until she was close enough to touch him. "But I can try."
Her hand reached out before she could stop it, her fingers brushing against his bare shoulder. The contact sent a jolt through both of them, and she gasped at the flood of emotion that poured through the bond—confusion, anger, and beneath it all, a desperate, aching need that mirrored her own.
Albert's breath caught in his throat. "What... what the hell was that?"
Elona pulled back, her skin flaring crimson with embarrassment. "I told you before. We're bonded. Psychically. When we touch, I can feel everything you feel, and you can feel everything I feel."
"That's impossible." He shook his head, denial warring with curiosity. "I've never felt anything like this in my life. This isn't real."
"It is real." Elona's voice trembled with conviction. "Just close your eyes and focus. You can feel me too, can't you? The warmth, the connection, the sense that you're not as alone as you thought you were?"
Albert was silent for a long moment, his eyes closed, his brow furrowed in concentration. When he opened them again, there was something new in his gaze—a dawning awareness, a reluctant acceptance.
"How?" he whispered. "How is this possible?"
"I don't know." Elona admitted. "I've never heard of a human-Andorran bond before. But it happened when you were brought through our barrier. I felt you for the first time, felt your pain and your rage and your... your loneliness."
She swallowed hard, her skin flushed with embarrassment. "And I've been dreaming of you ever since."
Albert studied her for a long moment, his gaze intense and searching. "What kind of dreams?"
Elona felt her face burn. "I... I don't think you need me to answer that."
"Maybe I do." He leaned forward, his voice dropping to a low, possessive growl. "Maybe I want to hear you say it. I want to hear what you've been dreaming about, princess."
"Elona." She corrected him softly. "My name is Elona."
"Elona." He said her name like it was a curse and a prayer. "Tell me what you've been dreaming about."
The air between them felt charged, electric, full of unspoken possibilities. Elona's skin was glowing a deep, pulsing red, her breath coming in shallow gasps as she felt his desire rise through the bond.
"I've been dreaming about you," she whispered, unable to look away from his burning gaze. "About your hands on my body, your mouth on my skin, your... your cock inside me."
Albert went still, his eyes darkening with a hunger that made her feel weak in the knees. "Is that so?"
"Yes." Her voice was barely a breath. "And every time I wake up, I'm drenched. I'm aching. I'm desperate for something I've never had."
Something flickered in Albert's gaze—a struggle, a moment of resistance that was quickly overcome by raw, primal need. And then he was moving, reaching out, his hands closing around her wrists and pulling her toward him with an urgency that stole her breath.
"I've been dreaming about you too," he growled, his voice rough and low. "Every goddamn night. Dreaming about burying my cock so deep inside you that you forget your own name. About making you scream loud enough to wake the whole planet."
Elona trembled in his grasp, her body responding with shameless need. "Then why are you still holding back?"
"Because I don't know if I can trust you," he admitted, his voice cracking. "I don't know if this is real or if I'm trapped in some elaborate fantasy designed to break me. And I don't know if I can survive another betrayal."
Elona reached up, cupping his face in her hands. "Do you feel me?" she asked softly, pouring every ounce of her emotion into the bond. "Do you feel how much I want you? How much I need you? This isn't a trick, Albert. This isn't a game. This is real."
For a long, agonizing moment, he just stared at her, his blue eyes searching her face for any sign of deceit. And then something inside him seemed to break.
"Fuck it," he muttered, and pulled her against him.
His mouth crashed against hers with desperate hunger, and she melted into him like she'd been waiting for this moment her whole life. His hands tangled in her hair, tilting her head back as he deepened the kiss, his tongue plunging into her mouth with possessive heat.
Elona moaned against his lips, her hands fisting in his shirt, pulling him closer. She craved his touch like she craved air, and now that she had him in her arms, she never wanted to let go.