“It was fortunate for you that we were triplets, wasn’t it, regent?” Lev added. He moved to a high-backed chair, his short hair and fierce scowl somehow making him appear colder then Tor, but I knew that to be a misconception. Both of my brothers were hardened warriors, rulers of their sectors as I ruled mine. The fact that they’d survived these three decades was evidence of their strength and intelligence.
I could see similarities between myself and Lev. The way I, too, sat in a slouch with my long legs stretched out before me. I saw Lev’s brow arch and, except for the scar, it was like looking in a reflecting glass. He also shared my disgust and disinterest in the maneuvering and scheming ways of politics. Neither brother was enjoying this meeting any more than I. It was an inconvenience, something we all had to tolerate.
The older man nodded. “It was fate, I believe, that your births brought peace to Viken.”
I glanced at one brother, then the other, before I spoke. “And yet we have no peace. We are to mate a woman from another planet. We are to leave behind our homes, our people to live here, to live together and share a bride? You ask this after we have lived our entire lives in different sectors.”
“We may have been born brothers, regent, but we are now enemies,” Tor added. I nodded, as did Lev. I had no desire to leap across the room and murder my brothers, but my loyalty was to the people in my sector, as my brothers’ loyalty was to the people in their own home sectors. We were born brothers in blood, but our loyalty belonged to our homes. To the people who we ruled. To the people who needed us to protect and provide for them.
“Enemies?” Regent Bard questioned. “No. Brothers. Identical brothers, with identical DNA, who will now claim one mate and breed her.”
“So it is not us that you want.” Lev steepled his fingers together. While he looked relaxed, I knew he was anything but. How I knew, I wasn’t sure, but I could sense things in these two other men that I couldn’t in others. Was it because we were triplets or was there some other way we had a bond? “It is the babe that we will make.”
The old man didn’t argue. “Yes. This child will unite the three sectors once again, become the ruler of all three. Equally. United. Together. Viken will once more come together under a single power, a single ruler. The wars will end once and for all.”
“I, for one, do not desire an alien bride. If unity is your goal, we should claim a mate from Viken,” Tor said, leaning against the wall of the room.
We were on Viken United, a small island with a handful of government buildings. This was the place all interstellar visitors arrived, where all formal meetings between sectors occurred. The giant white center building with its steep pinnacles and statues dedicated to all three sectors—the arrow, the sword, and the shield—was the one place considered neutral territory for all three sectors.
Weapons were left at the border. It was a safe area, a peaceful zone where tension could be resolved.
While the war had ended decades ago, animosity ran deep. Cultures varied. I disliked my brothers out of principle alone. I knew nothing about them besides what they looked like. Our bodies were identical, therefore I knew that Tor’s cock angled to the left and Lev had a birthmark on his upper back. The rest, we were creatures of our people, creatures of our sectors.
“There is no Viken woman alive that can be truly neutral.” He looked between the three of us. “Would you claim a mate from another sector?”
We each shook our head. It would be impossible to mate and fuck a woman from another sector. She would detest me and I would tolerate her. That was not the way of a mate and we all knew it. The bond had to be strong, powerful. Once mated, the connection was more powerful than anything else on Viken.
“Therefore, you have been mated to a woman off-planet. An Earth woman.”
“Which one of us?” I asked. “Not all three of us are required for this. Surely one of my brothers knows enough about a woman to breed.”
The men didn’t argue with me. If they were anything like me, breeding a woman would not be a hardship or a problem.
“One is not sufficient.” I swear Regent Bard
paused for effect. “All of you must breed her. And it must be done within minutes of each other. You all must have an equal chance of siring the child.”
The three of us glanced at each other, but said nothing. However, I knew what they were thinking. I couldn’t hear their exact words, but I knew them just the same. “I don’t share, regent. I’ll take a bride, if you insist, but I will not share her.”
“Then there will be war.” At the regent’s words Lev shifted his stance and Tor’s scowl deepened. “You three are the last of the royal bloodlines. The entire planet acknowledges your claim to the throne of Viken. You must claim a bride together. You must overcome your differences and lead your people to a new age of peace. We must stop fighting with each other and focus on the interstellar battle groups. We are no longer at liberty to fight amongst ourselves as children. The outside enemy draws near, and our warriors do not volunteer. Instead they stay home and raid one another’s territory like spoiled children.”
The regent took a deep breath, his rant one I’d heard many times. From the look on my brothers’ faces, the regent’s words were not new to them either. “You three are identical in every way. Your seed is identical, therefore any child from the mating union will represent all three of you, all three sectors.”
“So we don’t have to do this together,” I said. “Either one of them can have the woman.” I tilted my head in my brothers’ direction.
As long as it wasn’t me who ended up with the female. I didn’t need one. Vikens treasured their females and children, but since I didn’t have to worry about pleasing a woman, or taming one, life was so much simpler. When I wanted a woman in my bed, I took one. When I was done, she returned to her life as I returned to mine. I certainly didn’t need to breed a female for any reason. Children meant devotion and a family, which I did not want. By all accounts, our parents had a loving mating, yet look where that got them. Dead. I didn’t need to bring a woman to Viken and have her be killed for political reasons.
“I don’t want a mate,” Tor said. “He can have her.” He pointed at Lev.
“Me? I don’t want a mate.”
The regent was so damn calm, so intent to set the planet to rights before his death. He was old and frail. Unlike the three of us, he’d witnessed a peaceful Viken. “It is done. She has been matched to all three of you. As Vikens, you know your responsibility.”
Responsibility. That had been forced upon me from a very early age. There was responsibility to lead the planet, but not to breed a woman with my estranged brothers.
“We didn’t ask for this,” I said, speaking for my brothers as well. When they nodded, it was perhaps the first thing we’d ever agreed on.
“And will you all accept and name the child of your brother as your successor?”