Captured By her Alien Mate by Ava York

Kator

The coronation had been a quick affair, but this was a more proper celebration. And I had to admit, it was something I had never dreamed was possible.

Here, in the streets of the Aetam city, D’Tali and Aetam alike were mingling, laughing, shaking hands, learning about each other.

It was an incredible sight to see. As Riley and I walked through the partygoers, we were greeted with joy and welcome. I could see now, perhaps more than ever before, how much damage Mofat and his regime had brought upon these people.

There was a sense of relief in the air, that a long national nightmare was finally over. I learned in talking with the common people of Aetam there truly had been long-standing resentment towards Mofat and his officers. They had felt powerless, as if there was nothing they could do but bend the knee and capitulate to the cruel whims of their ruler.

Now, though, their spirits were unshackled and their hearts soared.

Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t about me. It was about freedom. A freedom from tyranny that all sentient beings deserved.

When Dojak, Sofia and their retinue arrived, it was like nothing the city had ever seen before. There were banquets which lasted hours on end, balls and dances in every part of the city. Aetam and D’Tali huddled together, going over family trees, learning how and why they were related.

Long-lost cousins were reunited, and families grew stronger as their roots grew deeper. And babies would now be raised in a world joined together and working towards peace.

It wasn’t all sugar and light, however. I wasn’t naive to think that. I knew there were elements within the Aetam kingdom reluctant to give up their power, who preferred the authoritarian rule of Mofat to the one I hoped to impose.

That was a problem for another day, one I was sure would rear its head soon enough.

For now, though, we celebrated. And looked to the future with hope for the first time in many, many years.

Riley was thrilled to see her friends again, Sofia, Isabella, and even Camilla made the journey.

They joked that since there were now two queens amongst them, the others would have to get competitive to get some titles of their own. They fussed over Camilia, who looked radiant and full of life. They doted on Sofia’s own child, still a baby himself, over how handsome he would grow to be.

Isabella dazzled us all with her latest discoveries and inventions. She was going to transform this whole world, it seemed to me. Both kingdoms would be the beneficiaries of her skill and knowledge.

As night descended, fireworks started to shoot off all over the city. A magical, dazzling glow filtered through everything and children ran in the streets, chasing the sparks down.

Riley came to me, slipping her arm into mine and pulling me away from a small group which had gathered around me, all asking questions animatedly about plans for the city, proposals for farming, new housing and on and on.

“Pardon me everyone, I’m so sorry, but I need the King for a moment, if I may,” Riley said, and everyone immediately demurred and offered apologies for monopolizing my time.

She nodded, offering a regal smile (she had been practicing since she had become queen) and promised to bring me right back.

“Don’t feel like that’s a promise you have to keep,” I whispered out of the side of my mouth as she took me away.

“A corrupt politician already,” she said back to me with a wink. “It takes so little for power to go right to the head.”

I put my hand around her waist and gave it a squeeze.

“You have no idea,” I said with mock seriousness.

I followed her as she led me through the corridors of the palace and up a winding stone staircase, our footsteps echoing off the marble with a clacking clarity.

Riley pulled me out onto a refurbished balcony that overlooked the city square and we looked out over the celebrations that filled all Aetam.

Taking me by the hand, she drew me in close to her and kissed me softly on my lips. It was as electric as it had been the very first time. I suspected it would always be that way.

Breaking the kiss reluctantly, she looked at me with her eyes full of promise.

“Look what you’ve done here, Kator,” she said, sweeping her hand out over the balcony and taking in the scene below. “You’ve given these people hope for the first time in their lives.”

I shook my head.

“No, that’s not what I did Riley. I ended a tyrant’s reign, yes. But hope? Hope has always existed here. It was just buried for a time.”

“Well, at the very least, you dug it up for them,” she said with a smile.

“I will say I handed them the shovel. How’s that?”

She gave me a playful smack on the arm.

“C’mon! You did an incredible thing. You can take some credit! You deserve it, honey.”

“I hear and appreciate what you’re saying, love, but I can’t take that credit and I won’t. You start taking credit for things like that... then the slope gets more and more slippery. And you end up just like Mofat. And that’s not anything I would ever want.”

Riley looked at me then, with an understanding in her expression, then she put her hand on my face. That feeling of her hand on my face was still maybe the single greatest feeling I’d ever had in my life. I would do whatever I could to hold onto it.

“And that’s why you’re going to be a great king,” she said.

I smiled at her then, marveling at my good fortune to have found someone like this, to have found a love like this in my life. There was a time, deep undercover within Mofat’s regime, that I had feared I would end up like them: cruel, ugly, corrupt and violent.

I knew now I had escaped that fate. And the woman in front of me was at least part of the reason why.

“Thank you,” I said impulsively.

She looked at me curiously. “Thank me? For what?”

I shook my head. I wasn’t sure that I could explain.

“I’m just... I’m just thanking you for being with me. Here and now. It’s what makes this all matter. You helped me survive this whole ordeal. I love you, Riley.”

“I love you too,” she replied without hesitation. “So much.”

At that moment, there was a massive burst of gold and silver fireworks and we could hear the cheers of delight from the people gathered below.

I watched with as much wonder as any of the children on the streets. I felt Riley looking at me and I turned to face her.

“What? What is it?” I asked.

She paused, then took both my hands.

“Your mother. She would be proud of you, Kator. Proud of who you are. Proud of the honor you’ve brought to her memory. I thought you should know that.”

Tears sprung from my eyes unbidden as Riley spoke.

My mother.

I looked up to the stars as I cried, tears rolling freely down my face.

As the fireworks continued to dance before me, I closed my eyes briefly and told her, my mother, to rest now. It was over—that I loved her.

I thought for a moment I felt a hand brush gently against my face again. I assumed it was Riley. But when I opened my eyes, Riley was facing out, both her hands on the railing.

I looked up again and I swear to you... I saw a silver star brighten slightly at me. As if saying goodbye.

The wounded part of my heart where I held the pain of my mother’s tragedy all these years emptied.

I exhaled a deep breath of relief. When I inhaled. Riley filled that place. I slipped my arms around her waist, inhaling her perfect scent.

With Riley, I was whole

And together, we could reshape this broken kingdom.

Together.