The em­per­ors re­garded the dancer with undis­guised de­light. Zarl nod­ded as the other two men bowed.

  Tidro said, “Such a pretty greet­ing. Rise my dears and ac­cept our wel­come.”

  “She is de­scended from roy­alty her­self,” Cla­jak said as Michaela and Jes­sica straight­ened. He too was im­pressed with the grace­ful salu­ta­tion. “Dramok Em­peror Zarl, Imdiko Em­peror Tidro, Nobek Em­peror Yuder, I present Clan Ko­rkla’s Matara, Michael-Michaela Blake. She is ad­dressed as Michaela, if it pleases my fa­thers.”

  Zarl bowed his head briefly at her. “In­deed it is a plea­sure. It will give me great hap­pi­ness to wel­come you to Kalquor in—” he frowned and looked up at Yuder “—I be­lieve the jour­ney takes six Earther weeks?”

  “That is cor­rect.” Yuder also nod­ded at Michaela be­fore switch­ing his sharp gaze on Jes­sica. “And this one for whom my son has such ob­vi­ous af­fec­tion?” He smirked, his amuse­ment at Cla­jak’s lat­est dal­liance ob­vi­ous.

  Jes­sica’s face col­ored, and she looked at Cla­jak, her ex­pres­sion hint­ing at the same ner­vous­ness he felt. Cla­jak glanced at Be­vau and Egilka, and they nod­ded, step­ping for­ward to flank him and Jes­sica.

  Here we go, he thought. “My fa­thers, I present Jes­sica McIn­ness … my clan’s Matara.”

  The wel­com­ing smiles on the em­per­ors’ faces froze. Their gazes si­mul­ta­ne­ously moved from Jes­sica to Cla­jak. The dock­ing bay was silent. Cla­jak couldn’t even hear any­one breathe.

  Zarl’s voice was care­ful in its con­trol. “You have made this woman part of your clan?” He looked over the four of them, his gaze com­ing back to rest on Cla­jak. His eyes nar­rowed. “Is this in re­sponse to end­ing Egilka’s re­search?”

  “I hope you do not be­lieve us to be so petty,” Cla­jak an­swered. “We know this will cause dif­fi­cul­ties—”

  “That’s putting it mildly,” Yuder in­ter­rupted. His face was ex­pres­sion­less, but the tem­per Cla­jak had in­her­ited was ob­vi­ous in his voice.

  “We love Jes­sica,” Cla­jak con­tin­ued. “She is the woman we wish to spend our lives with.”

  Yuder stepped for­ward un­til his face was only inches from his son’s. Cla­jak was care­ful to meet the Nobek’s gaze with­out flinch­ing. Show­ing weak­ness now would be a huge mis­take.

  Yuder said, “Jes­sica McIn­ness, we have long de­spaired of Cla­jak will­ingly ac­cept­ing a life­long mate. You must be a trea­sure in­deed to have con­quered my son.”

  Cla­jak an­swered, “She is, my fa­ther. She is be­yond com­pare.”

  Yuder glared at him. “Did you stop for even a mo­ment to think of the reper­cus­sions of re­ject­ing Nar­pok? Or of how this de­ci­sion will af­fect all of Kalquor?”

  Tidro spoke calmly. “They have never cared for Nar­pok. She would only bring them un­hap­pi­ness.”

  Cla­jak de­cided he might as well de­liver the fi­nal blow. “I also have the joy­ful news that Jes­sica car­ries my clan’s child.”

  That brought gasps from Zarl and Tidro. Yuder’s eyes widened, and he stepped back. He looked down at Jes­sica. Cla­jak felt her trem­ble, but she re­turned Yuder’s stare with her own steady gaze. Stay strong, he men­tally urged her. Yuder was a just but fierce man. While he wouldn’t phys­i­cally harm any fe­male, his words could cut as sharply as his knife. Cla­jak would have hap­pily traded many of the Nobek’s tongue lash­ings for phys­i­cal beat­ings.

  He was re­lieved when Zarl beck­oned. “Come closer, Jes­sica.”

  Yuder stepped back to his for­mer po­si­tion next to his Dramok, al­low­ing Jes­sica to ap­proach. “What would you have of me, my em­peror?” she asked.

  “Were you aware our son’s clan was al­ready be­trothed to an­other?” Zarl’s gen­tle tone held no ac­cu­sa­tion.

  “Yes, my em­peror. My clan told me they would take no woman but my­self as their life­mate.” Jes­sica dropped the for­mal­ity to add, “I swear to you, none of us meant for this to hap­pen.”

  Yuder said, “But it did be­cause you are in love?” The sneer in his voice made Cla­jak stiffen.

  Jes­sica looked him in the eye once more. In­wardly Cla­jak ap­plauded her in­stincts on show­ing Yuder as lit­tle weak­ness as she could man­age. “Yes, my em­peror.”

  “These men you have agreed to spend your life with; you find them to be ut­terly per­fect, I sup­pose?”

  Jes­sica stared at him, her mouth twist­ing. At first Cla­jak couldn’t fig­ure out what was wrong with her, and then it hit him. She was fight­ing not to laugh.

  “Some­thing amuses you?” Yuder’s eyes dark­ened with threat.

  “My apolo­gies, my em­peror. No in­sult is in­tended. To an­swer your ques­tion, these men are far from per­fect.” A hic­cup of a gig­gle es­caped Jes­sica. “Be­vau is by far the most agree­able of the three, but even he can’t make up for the short­com­ings of the oth­ers. I think Egilka is a pompous jerk and Cla­jak a self-ab­sorbed brat. Be­vau has his mo­ments too. He can be a big bully. I spend a lot of time yelling at them.”

  Cla­jak’s fa­thers stared at her, non­plused. At last Zarl asked the his son’s clan, “Were you aware of her feel­ings?”

  It was Egilka who an­swered first. “Yes, my em­peror. I pay lit­tle mind to the im­ma­ture opin­ions of this bit of Earther fluff.”

  Cla­jak couldn’t con­ceal his own grin. “I see her more as a stub­born beast. She is the most ob­sti­nate per­son I have ever met.”

  Be­vau chimed in. “And that tem­per is def­i­nitely Cla­jak’s match. I can’t be­lieve I’m clanned to two of them … whoo!”

  Cla­jak forced him­self to be se­ri­ous as the em­per­ors con­tin­ued to look con­cerned. “My fa­thers, it doesn’t seem that it should work with our clash­ing tem­per­a­ments. Yet I can’t imag­ine hav­ing any­one else as my Matara. Los­ing Jes­sica would tear my heart out.”

  Egilka and Be­vau nod­ded their agree­ment. Jes­sica smiled up at them all, her eyes shin­ing.

  Yuder re­laxed, but he still wasn’t sat­is­fied. “Are you pre­pared to be Em­press of Kalquor, Jes­sica McIn­ness?”

  “Ab­so­lutely not.”

  Cla­jak’s heart dropped to his belly. Why would she say such a thing? He opened his mouth to protest, but she waved him silent be­fore con­tin­u­ing to an­swer.

  Jes­sica ad­dressed all three em­per­ors. “I don’t know the lan­guage or the cus­toms of your peo­ple. I have no right to claim the ti­tle of em­press sim­ply be­cause I carry Kalquor’s fu­ture heir. How­ever, I prom­ise to ded­i­cate my­self to learn­ing all I can and to be­ing the Matara my clan de­serves. I will not fail the faith they have in me.”

  Zarl stud­ied her face. He looked at his clan, then at Cla­jak. He smiled, and Cla­jak’s legs wob­bled with re­lief. “You have cho­sen well, my son and my son’s clan.”

  Tidro touched Zarl’s chair. It floated back­wards to­ward the door they’d en­tered through. “No doubt your nar­row es­cape has left you all in need of rest,” the Imdiko em­peror said, ex­pertly guid­ing the hover chair. He smiled at the en­tire group. “We will meet again for din­ner and cel­e­brate your unions.”

  Be­fore fol­low­ing his clan­mates out, Yuder stared at Jes­sica, his eyes nar­rowed in eval­u­a­tion. “I hope you are ready for the ob­sta­cles that await you, Jes­sica McIn­ness. They will be nu­mer­ous and per­haps in­sur­mount­able. Be pre­pared for the chal­lenges com­ing your way.”

  Be­fore she could re­spond, he swept out of the bay, his red robes flap­ping.

  Cla­jak re­laxed with a gust of air.

  “That went much bet­ter than I ex­pected,” Be­vau said.

  “But Yuder doesn’t like me,” Jes­sica said. She bit her lip.

  Cla­jak hugged her, his face beam­ing. “Ac­tu­ally, he does. You have to know how to read him.”

  “I did okay?”

  “What is the say­ing on Earth? You passed with col­ors that fly.”

  “What?”

  Egilka laughed, a rare smile light­ing his en­tire face. “You passed with fly­ing col­ors. They ap­prove of the match.”

  “They do?”

  Cla­jak scooped Jes­sica up in his arms, hold­ing her close with an air of tri­umph. “In­deed they do, my sweet.”

  * * * *

  Din­ner started off pleas­antly enough with the em­per­ors toast­ing the new Mataras and the com­ing child. Jes­sica warmed to her new in-laws quickly, par­tic­u­larly Zarl. For all his phys­i­cal in­fir­mi­ties, the Dramok’s mind was sharp, and his wit, hi­lar­i­ous.

  Near the end of the meal, the con­ver­sa­tion turned to se­ri­ous con­cerns. The most cru­cial mat­ter re­garded the in­evitable show­down with Head Coun­cil­man Dramok Pwal­dur.

  “It’s not sim­ply a case of his daugh­ter bear­ing in­sult,” Yuder said, his brow fur­rowed. “The man is am­bi­tious enough to have his eye on the throne it­self. Nar­pok was his door through which he hoped to wield power.”

  “There is no proof of that,” Tidro gen­tly re­buked. “How can Pwal­dur gain the throne with Cla­jak, Be­vau, and Egilka sit­ting on it? Be­sides, he’s with­out a clan. No sin­gle per­son can rule Kalquor.”

  “Cla­jak’s re­luc­tance to as­cend de­spite Zarl’s phys­i­cal dis­abil­i­ties has left many de­bat­ing our son’s readi­ness. I think Pwal­dur has hopes of be­ing a pup­pet mas­ter.”

  “I’m no pup­pet,” Cla­jak hotly replied.

  “We know you’re not,” Zarl an­swered. “Nei­ther be­ing your em­per­ors nor your fa­thers has given us any real con­trol over you.”

  That earned chuck­les all around, but Yuder’s ex­pres­sion re­mained dark. He mut­tered, “Pwal­dur will use this sit­u­a­tion to di­rectly chal­lenge Cla­jak’s right to rule.”

  Zarl smiled at his Nobek, but the warn­ing in his voice was clear. “This is a cel­e­bra­tion. Let’s not up­set the mother-to-be.”

  That shut down the de­bate, at least for the rest of din­ner. De­spite putting on a happy face for the em­per­ors, Jes­sica spent the rest of the meal fret­ting.

  She con­tained her anx­i­ety un­til she and the clan re­turned to their spa­cious quar­ters aboard the trans­port. No sooner had the door closed be­hind the group when she whirled to con­front them. “Can Pwal­dur re­ally chal­lenge our union?”

  Cla­jak seemed un­con­cerned. He sat on the thick sleep­ing cush­ion that took up most of the room and re­moved his boots. “He can try.”

  Be­vau sank into the bed next to Cla­jak. He also pulled off his boots. “Stop wor­ry­ing.”

  Cla­jak stripped off his shirt, and Jes­sica wanted to be dis­tracted by his mus­cu­lar torso. Even the half-naked Kalquo­rian physique couldn’t calm her con­cerns, how­ever. “Right Be­vau, just snap your fin­gers and my world will be all sun­shine and sweet­ness.” She snorted. “Af­ter see­ing Yuder’s un­ease, I don’t think so.”

  Egilka was al­ready naked, hav­ing dis­robed be­hind her. He tou­sled her hair as if she was a child be­fore sprawl­ing on the bed. “This is a mat­ter you need not con­cern your­self with. You are preg­nant, and stress must be kept at a min­i­mum. Calm your­self by tak­ing deep breaths.”

  Jes­sica’s tem­per took over. “I’m ex­pect­ing a child, not be­com­ing one my­self. Stop be­ing so con­de­scend­ing, you pompous ass.”

  The se­vere look Cla­jak gave her let her know his tem­per was also on the rise. “Egilka’s right. A preg­nant Matara has enough to worry about. Now that we’re through Earth’s block­ade and you’re safe, all stress is to be re­moved from your life.”

  Jes­sica crossed her arms over her chest and gave him her most ob­sti­nate look. “That’s not go­ing to hap­pen un­til this sit­u­a­tion with Pwal­dur and Nar­pok is re­solved.”

  Egilka sat up and ad­dressed the other two men. “One of us can bite her or she can be se­dated.”

  She stomped her foot. “Don’t you dare! And stop talk­ing about me like I’m not in the room.”

  She picked up a boot and threw it at the Imdiko. Stone-faced, he eas­ily bat­ted it away.

  Naked, Be­vau stood and loomed over her. “You will calm your tem­per right now. Stop ar­gu­ing or I’ll pun­ish you.”

  The dark prom­ise in his eyes told Jes­sica he wanted her to quar­rel. One cor­ner of his mouth twitched up­ward, invit­ing her to in­cite dis­ci­pline.

  Damn him, Jes­sica thought, her in­sides turn­ing wob­bly. What warped part of her made her so ea­ger to sub­mit? It didn’t mat­ter how strong willed she was out­side of sex; the mo­ment arousal hit, the urge to sur­ren­der to their ev­ery whim took her over.

  Her heart be­gin­ning to pound, she said, “You’re such a bully, Be­vau. No doubt you’ll share how to keep me in my place with what­ever clan Pwal­dur ships me off to.”

  The Nobek growled through the sav­age grin that spread across his face. Honey gushed be­tween Jes­sica’s legs at the sight. “Dis­ci­pline it is then,” he said.

  Cla­jak rose to stand next to him. “I’ll help you. On your belly, my sweet.” His gaze was dark with min­gled anger and de­sire, mak­ing Jes­sica shiver. She had got­ten her­self in trou­ble again. Her sex spasmed in an­tic­i­pa­tion.

  She bowed her head and ap­proached the bed. Egilka laid back. His cocks were livid ex­cla­ma­tion marks. “You may plea­sure me with your mouth while you ac­cept your pun­ish­ment,” he told her.

  Jes­sica crawled be­tween his legs, lick­ing her lips in an­tic­i­pa­tion. “Ass in the air,” Be­vau or­dered. He and Cla­jak po­si­tioned them­selves on ei­ther side of her.

  She du­ti­fully crouched on her knees and el­bows. One hand closed over Egilka’s smaller shaft, and she used the other to brace her­self against the bed for the com­ing spank­ing. Her mouth slipped over the Imdiko’s larger prick, tast­ing his cin­na­mon-y good­ness. He smoothed his hands through her hair, pulling it back so he could watch her suck in his flesh.

  Hands hiked her skirt over her waist. The men pulled her panties down, leav­ing her but­tocks ex­posed. Jes­sica whim­pered a lit­tle, the churn of fear adding to her arousal. She bowed her back­side up­wards, of­fer­ing her flesh to her mas­ters.

  Cla­jak struck first, his hand crack­ing against her left butt cheek. Pain erupted, and she moaned against the cock in her mouth. Be­vau’s heavy palm fol­lowed on the other cheek.

  Jes­sica con­cen­trated on main­tain­ing her rhythm as she fel­lated Egilka, work­ing hard to plea­sure him. Mean­while her hindquar­ters warmed as the other two dis­ci­plined her, their hands beat­ing a rapid tat­too on her flesh. Her mouth and hand never fal­tered in their work. Nei­ther did she flinch from the tor­ren­tial blows rain­ing down on her ass. The gasps of the three men told her she pleased them all with her obe­di­ence. Even as her but­tocks pulsed with pain, her womb con­vulsed with stabs of plea­sure. Pun­ish­ment felt a hell of a lot like re­ward to Jes­sica.

  “I can’t wait any­more, my Nobek,” Cla­jak groaned.

  The spank­ing ceased. The bed­ding be­neath Jes­sica’s knees sank as Cla­jak climbed be­hind her. He grasped her hips, push­ing him­self be­tween her thighs. She moaned as his cocks slid into her, the now fa­mil­iar ache of his in­va­sion de­light­ful.

  The liq­uid sounds of love­mak­ing punc­tu­ated by groans and sighs filled the room. Well schooled now in oral plea­sur­ing, Jes­sica took Egilka deep into her throat. She pressed the tip of her tongue against the thick puls­ing vein on the un­der­side of his rigid shaft. The Imdiko’s hands, buried in her chest­nut locks, clenched as he arched against her face.

  Cla­jak lifted her off her knees, an­gling her so he could pen­e­trate her as deeply as pos­si­ble. Jes­sica groaned, awash in plea­sure as the length of his larger cock dis­ap­peared into her nether ori­fice. His smaller pe­nis found the nest of nerves in her vagina. It rubbed the ten­der spot, and only the sweet gag of Egilka’s flesh kept her screams muf­fled.

  Egilka’s breath caught as her cries vi­brated around his shaft. She felt the first pulse as his or­gasm be­gan and pulled back un­til only the tip of his cock rested against her tongue. Still wail­ing with the sweet agony of her own plea­sure, she opened her mouth wide so the Imdiko could watch his spice-fla­vored seed slide back into her throat.

  Egilka yelled. He filled Jes­sica’s mouth with bursts of thick honey. She swal­lowed ea­gerly. Giv­ing her­self to him so com­pletely height­ened her own plea­sure, and she shud­dered anew as cli­max gal­loped through her.

  Cla­jak’s thrusts grew more force­ful, let­ting Jes­sica know he too was close. His groin pounded against her sore but­tocks, height­en­ing the heady mix of pain and plea­sure. Their flesh slapped to­gether louder than the pre­vi­ous spank­ing. Then he too split the air with his cries. He jerked hard against her, his fin­gers dig­ging into her flesh where he held her. She knew she’d wear his marks for the next cou­ple of days.

  Jes­sica col­lapsed be­tween Egilka’s legs, un­der­stand­ing the respite would be brief. Be­vau still awaited his turn with her, and he tended to be much more phys­i­cal than the other two.

  As if dis­cern­ing her thoughts, Cla­jak said, “I’m glad I have only one clan­mate to ser­vice right now.”

  “I’m sure she’s tired, but she’s been naughty.” Jes­sica heard the smile in the Nobek’s voice. “Turn her over, Egilka.”

  Cla­jak slid out of the way, let­ting the Imdiko com­ply with Be­vau’s re­quest. Jes­sica lay on her back be­tween Egilka’s legs with her head pil­lowed on his lower ab­domen. Be­vau crawled over her, his eyes dark with need.

  “Hold her wrists,” he in­structed as he ran his hands over her torso. Egilka did so, ren­der­ing her just as Be­vau liked her best: help­less.