Since he was a boy, he had been taught that it was like a spider web - light but strong, beautiful but deadly to those who would try to escape its hold.
But the poets had gotten it all wrong. It wasn’t like water in the desert or a rope to a drifting aeronaut.
It wasn’t like anything.
It just… was.
A fully realized force all its own. As real as the one that held the very particles of his being together. And just as undeniable.
He was in trouble here.
And he hadn’t even seen her face.
Metal shivered in his blood again and he felt himself drawn almost magnetically to follow her.
He dropped the machete and jogged for the glass doors that separated him and the trees from the rest of the ship, his thoughts of anonymity among the trees all but forgotten.
But by the time he reached the exterior and sealed the doors again, she had moved out of sight.
His heart pounded in dread.
Think, he told himself. Surely there was a sane way to deal with this.
He spotted Vaxyn walking slowly back to the spa, arms drifting as if underwater.
He should turn back to the forest, lose himself in the work. Maybe the feeling would pass with time.
“Vaxyn,” Zane heard himself shout.
Vaxyn looked up as if startled. “Zane?”
“The woman you were with, who is she?” Zane demanded. He knew his voice was too loud, his posture too aggressive, but he couldn’t stop himself.
“She’s a princess,” Vaxyn replied with quiet dignity. “She’s in the wardrobe station, awaiting a valet.”
Fantastic. A fucking princess. Of course she was.
“Thanks,” Zane yelled over his shoulder as he sprinted towards wardrobe.
Vaxyn shrugged five shoulders and slid gracefully back into the spa.
Zane raised his wrist to his mouth as he ran. “Anna,” he said into his communicator. “Change of plans. I want to valet the princess in the wardrobe station.”
“Juno Adair?” Anna’s tinny voice answered back a moment later.
“Dark hair, white gown,” Zane barked.
“Uh, yes, that’s her,” Anna said. “Are you, um, sure about this?”
“Very sure,” he said.
“I’ll let them know,” she replied.
He tapped the bracelet again, satisfied, and tried to force himself to slow down.
He hadn’t shifted to prime state involuntarily since he was a nestling, but he could feel the buzz in his blood.
He called on his discipline, breathing deep of the ship’s recycled air. Spending time in the forest had almost been enough to convince his senses he was actually outdoors. But traveling only a few meters away brought him back to his reality. He was onboard this luxury cruiser, for better or worse, for as long as he could manage it. It was a simple situation. The last thing he needed was to complicate it by involving a woman.
Especially a princess.
When he reached the door marked Wardrobe, he paused and ran a hand through his hair. It had grown longer since his stint on this ship. Back home there were servants to tend to his every need and whim. Here, he was just a member of the general population and maybe more likely than most to lose track of mundane details like haircuts, since he had never had to keep track of them himself.
If she’s my mate, it doesn’t matter. I could be wearing a bucket over my head…
At least that’s what he hoped.
She was human. Had such a pairing ever happened before?
What if the bond didn’t even work between them?
Or worse, what if it only affected him?
There’s only one way to find out.
Zane took a deep breath and opened the door.
3
Zane
Zane stepped inside and time seemed to slow.
The princess stood before two large wardrobe carts. The bright light of the room set highlights gleaming in her dark hair - glimmers of red and light brown that almost sang to his eyes, like playing the harmonics on a pipe lute.
Her dress sighed as she bent to look at a tag and the light played off the satiny fabric too, sending it dancing as if it were on fire.
She turned to him and her eyes widened slightly. They were brown with a ring of blue around the iris, a color the humans wrongfully called hazel or green.
“How may I assist you?”
The BFF droid’s demanding voice cut through Zane’s haze.
He blinked away from the girl to look at the metallic drone that hovered in the air before him, its wings a blur.
“I’m to be the valet for Princess Juno Adair,” he said.
“Princess Juno already has a valet headed down from sector three,” the BFF replied.
“Not anymore,” Zane said, barely restraining a snarl at the impudence of the tiny machine. He reminded himself that as far as these people knew, he was just a commoner. And after his stint of physical labor in the forest and his sprint to get here, he probably didn’t paint the most presentable picture of himself.
“Anna Nilsson gave me the assignment,” he informed them.
“Verifying,” the droid chirped.
He fought the temptation to look at the girl. He needed to stay sharp in case there was any problem.
“Confirmed,” it sang out. “We look forward to working with you.”
“We?” he asked.
“This BFF droid has been assigned to help me,” the princess said softly, with a touch of amazement in her lilting voice. Her wondrous smile confirmed that she was impressed with the little droid.
Maybe she ruled over some backwater planet where the tech was still low-grade. Plenty of human settlements were like that, especially in the outer rings.
Hope blossomed in his heart.
It was extinguished almost immediately when he remembered the gown she was wearing. He knew first-hand the value of that kind of craftsmanship. Hell, the materials alone amounted to more than most colonists brought in over a full cycle.
This princess clearly had money, and plenty of it. Maybe her parents hadn’t wanted to spoil her with her own droid, that was all. But she could clearly afford several. She was all the more likely to become a petulant diva now that she was traveling alone with access to all their credits and connections.
He’d already known enough spoiled, trust-fund babies to last him a lifetime.
But what was he supposed to do?
She called to him like a missing piece of his own soul.
Maybe he could find a way to see past the gown.
He lost himself for a moment, picturing exactly what it would be like to get her out of that gown…
“My name is BFF-67,” the droid said happily, bringing him back to his senses.
“Nice to meet you,” Zane replied. “I’m Zane. Let’s get you both to your room.”
The princess nodded, looking a little dazed.
“Do we know where we’re going?” he asked.
“The Cloud Suite,” BFF-67 said helpfully. “Penthouse level.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said.
Red rings of Cylonius, she’s staying in The Cloud Suite.
The Cloud Suite was a set of rooms so decadent, so wildly expensive that they went empty more often than they were occupied. The Cloud Suite wasn’t a room, or even really a suite. It was practically a palace.