1
“Now, whatever you do, doll, don’t take this off!” Kat lectured sternly as she fastened the bright yellow, silk ribbon with its official-looking royal blue seal around Selena’s left wrist.
“Yes, Ma’am.” Selena Bates sketched a salute with her free hand and smiled at her friend. “I’m just glad it’s not on my bow hand,” she added. “It would be really distracting while I was trying to play.” She was a professional violinist—well, she was on her off time, anyway, away from teaching—and she didn’t like distractions.
“You’ll be plenty distracted if you lose your Seal or take it off,” Kat warned her grimly. “The Ma’shorkans don’t play around when it comes to their women. Either you’re a certified and sealed Independent Female, or you’re some man’s property. Don’t forget that.” She sighed and shook her head. “I still don’t know if it’s a good idea for you to go to Ma’shorka Centra without a guard.”
“Jessica is going to be there,” Selena reminded her. “And her husband, Tolern, too. They can look out for me.”
Kat sighed. “I guess so. I just worry about you going alone—that’s all. The Ma’shorkans seem so nice and civilized on the surface, but some of their ideas are…pretty strange. Especially when it comes to women.”
“Why do the Kindred do business with them at all, then?” Selena asked, frowning. “I thought they only traded with cultures that had respect for women.”
“Well, in this case they really don’t have much choice,” Kat said, pushing a strand of auburn hair out of her eyes. She had finished fixing the official yellow silk seal on Selena’s wrist and now she was fussing with the hem of her long, black concert gown. “See, the Ma’shorkans control the largest stable worm hole in twelve quadrants. And it’s the only one we know of that leads into a neighboring, parallel universe.”
“So the Kindred deal with the Ma’shorkans in order to be able to visit the neighboring universe?” Selena asked.
“No, they deal with them because the Ma’shorkans guard the worm hole and keep anything from that other universe from coming out of it and invading ours,” Kat explained. “Let me tell you, it is not a nice place—according to Sylvan, it’s a nightmare realm. A place where every bad thing that could have happened in our own universe but didn’t, did in fact, happen.”
“Really?” Selena widened her eyes. She knew that Sylvan was the Head of the Kindred High Council—he was also somehow related to Kat’s two Twin Kindred husbands, Deep and Lock. Anyway, he must know what he was talking about.
“Yes, really,” Kat said, frowning. “And we don’t want any of the nastiness from the other universe invading ours, so the Kindred—along with most of the other civilized, space-faring races in the universe—play nice with the Ma’shorkans and pay them tribute so they’ll keep guarding the gateway.”
“Wow, I had no idea!” Selena shook her head. “Jessica didn’t tell me any of this—it’s amazing.”
Jessica was a good friend of hers—a fellow teacher—who had married a Blood Kindred warrior named Tolern, who just happened to be the Ambassador to the planet of Ma’shorka Centra.
Tolern had dreamed of Jess and came to Claim her, right out of the third period Pre-Algebra class she’d been teaching at the time, in the high school she and Selena both worked at. Jess had been dreaming of him too, and when he showed up at her door, she had fallen willingly into his muscular arms and given up teaching math to angsty teens forever.
After that, Selena’s friend had been whisked away to a life of luxury, wealth, and power in a whole other galaxy, with a husband who adored her and who had literally crossed oceans of time to Claim her.
It was an incredibly romantic tale and her good friend seemed to have it all now. So much so that Selena couldn’t help being just a teensy bit jealous, especially when she compared Jess’s life to her own.
She was still teaching orchestra to a bunch of rowdy teenagers at Herbert Humphrey Memorial High School, while she played gigs—mostly weddings—on the side. Also, the closest she had gotten to true love was her failed relationship with Gary Willis, who was a Chemistry teacher and both eminently practical and mind-numbingly boring. He had absolutely no imagination—especially in the bedroom.
But, Selena reminded herself, having a friend involved with the Kindred had gotten her an invite to the Kindred Mother Ship in the first place. She had played Jessica’s wedding with the rest of her string quartet and Kat had heard her and hired her for other weddings. Her reputation had grown and now…
Now I’m going on my first interstellar solo gig! Selena reminded herself. Even if true love isn’t in the cards for me, I’m still going to have an amazing adventure!
“Okay, I think that looks good—turn around and have a look,” Kat commanded, breaking into her train of thought.