I set my fork down, my appetite gone. “Are they in danger? Why aren’t you worried if one of your mates is meeting with the Intelligence Core? Those guys are serious business.” In fact, one of the top guys, a doctor named Helion, had recently tangled with Mikki and her two Prillon mates.
Mikki was sitting next to Lindsey across the table, and I shrugged my apology. “Sorry to bring up the IC. I know you aren’t a big fan.”
Mikki shrugged right back. She’d been quiet until now, her perma-smile in place and her long, sleek black hair looking too perfect for morning brunch. I wanted to get my hands on it and style it, but the simple cut suited her. She had been a world-class surfer on Earth, and the surfer attitude hadn’t disappeared once she’d arrived on The Colony. In fact, she seemed even more relaxed. But then she’d found her place in this world, teaching swimming and diving lessons at the Coalition Fleet’s academy. When she was on The Colony, she was helping her mate, Dr. Surnen, catalog and explore new species and plants from oceans on other worlds. She was useful.
I was just… me. Nothing special, really. I cut hair sometimes, and occasionally helped with makeup. Most of the time I helped Olivia with Tanner and Emma. So not sexy. Or exciting. Boring, really. Why would a high Prillon lord who was one of the Prime’s top ambassadors want to tie himself to me when he could hop in that testing chair and get a perfectly matched female from any world in the Coalition? Not attach himself for life to a random, horny woman who’d practically tripped and fallen into his arms doing a country line dance.
Sheesh. I was a mess.
Jessica squeezed my arm, apparently misreading my distress. “Ander will be fine. So will your two guys. Besides, all three of them have reason to fight hard and get back here.”
When I frowned, she added, “You. Niklas and Sambor aren’t going to let you go.”
Well, she was wrong there. “Yes, they will. I’m not an Interstellar Bride. And I leave in less than two days. I told them from the beginning. I’m game for another night of fun, but then I’m going home. And this time the fun can’t start until after the ball’s over.” I didn’t want to offend her by ducking out of all the birthday party events.
Rachel and Jessica exchanged looks. So did Mikki and Kristin. Caroline just stared at me with a growing smile on her face.
“No way, girlfriend,” Caroline said. “No way.”
“What? What am I missing?”
“When Jessica said they’re not going to let you go, she means they’re going to keep you. Make you theirs,” Rachel clarified. “Put a collar on your neck.”
“Claim you,” Linsdey added.
My mouth fell open, my heart pounded in my chest and my hand flew to my bare neck, massaging the soft—and very unclaimed—skin. “No way. I’m just an unmated hairdresser.”
Jessica turned as a woman came to join us. I recognized her only because she’d had the three Viken hotties trailing behind when I’d first seen her yesterday, and because she had red hair like me. It was Leah, queen of Viken. Three mates! Yet she was alone.
Jessica stood and hugged her, then made introductions. I was thankful I wasn’t the only one who was new to her. She wore the traditional Viken dress, but her red hair was long down her back and she had no makeup on her face, not that she needed any. She was beautiful.
“We were talking about Lucy’s new Prillon hotties.”
Leah looked to me. “You’re mated to Prillons?” Her gaze dropped to my neck, and she frowned in obvious confusion.
“Unmated,” I replied, as I took a sip of my water. “That’s me.”
“She had a fling with two Prillon warriors last night,” Caroline clarified.
“Answer this, oh Queen of Viken,” Jessica began, sounding all formal, although by the look on her face, she was amused. “A gorgeous redhead rocks two Prillons’ worlds last night. What are her chances of going back to The Colony?”
“Alone? Or for a visit with a collar around her neck?” Leah asked.
“Alone,” Jessica, Lindsey, Rachel and Caroline all said at the same time.
“No chance.” Leah hadn’t even taken a second to think about her answer. Not. One. Second. And there was no hint of laughter in her gaze. No joking. No hope that she was having a bit of fun at my expense.
“What?” I asked, stunned. Then I realized who I was talking to. “Sorry. I’m not sure if I should call you Your Majesty or what.”
The queen cocked her head to the side. “If you call me that, I’ll be really pissed. I’m Leah to my friends, and that includes you.” She shrugged her slim shoulders. “Besides, we redheads have to stick together. I think you might be the only other ginger in twenty sectors. Even up in a bun like that, the curls are perfect. What do you use?”
“Lucy’s a stylist,” Rachel said. “Did everyone’s hair and makeup last night for the party.”
I rolled my eyes, plucked a wayward curl. “You wouldn’t know it by looking at me now.”
Leah pursed her lips. “If you’re styling everyone for the ball tomorrow night, I want in. I wonder if the kings would like me with a nose ring.”
I couldn’t help but smile. Leah was cool, and she did have crazy red hair like mine, although hers was sleek and styled and my curls were messy and tangled as if a guy had gripped it while he took me from behind. Which had happened. The fact that she wanted hair advice proved she was just being nice.