Ruled

Chapter One




Corrine Idesa’s chapped hands ached and her lower back was sore, but the embassy’s spacious kitchen was nearly clean. She surveyed the shining counters and neatly stacked cookware with satisfaction. Even if the permanent staff were doing their best to ignore her, she refused to feel denigrated. Her stipend for the day’s work would not only help pay her share of room rent that was due, but she’d even be able to spare a bit to buy some hard candies for the children. Honest labor for honest wages.

“Just sanitize the cooler floor and then you can go,” the head chef, an arrogant shouter who liked to throw produce at those who displeased him, told her with a sneer. She nodded obediently and watched him and his minions head out the back door to the loading dock where they’d undoubtedly smoke and congratulate each other on pulling off a successful reception for the powerful citizens of Atlanta and the newly-arrived and haughty aliens everyone was clamoring to impress. She didn’t know much beyond rumor about the Alphans and had never seen one in the flesh. Nor would she, being as far away from the social whirl as the Earth was from the Sun.

She went to the supply closet and selected a metal scraper attached to a long handle, which would, she hoped, allow her to reach underneath the metal shelving in the walk-in. Collecting a bucket of caustic cleanser, she headed for the cooler doors and pulled both open, carefully propping them with wooden wedges. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck inside the cold, damp space. After checking the containers and bags of sturdy produce to make sure all was secure, and envying the embassy’s ample larder in the process, she went to work scraping and sweeping grime from the floor, removing the accumulation of several weeks of food residue and tracked-in grease from the poured concrete. Obviously no one had done this task in weeks, and the chef had decided to exploit her for every bit of labor she could provide. Her tired body protested, but she pushed on.

The scraper caught against something under the section of shelves holding bags of carrots and turnips, and she leaned over to see what might be obstructing it. There was a sudden bang from outside the walk-in, and she stumbled, startled. Just as she turned toward the door, two huge golden-skinned men leaped into the small room, the larger of the two immediately pulling the heavy metal doors shut behind them. They closed with a solid thunk, and Corrine’s heart, already racing from the sudden appearance of the men, fluttered into an even more rapid pace. She was trapped.

The tall one strode to her with one, long-legged step and wrenched the scraper from her hands. He stared at her with narrowed, tawny eyes and gave one small shake of his head. The movement drew her attention upwards, and with a gasp she noticed black horns protruding from the thick, dark hair covering his scalp in long waves. He was an Alphan, one of the powerful aliens all the rich people in town were trying to impress. He was so bulky in his dark blue uniform she almost couldn’t see the other man, who now that she was looking, also turned out to be an Alphan. This one was wearing a light grey uniform and a pleasant expression.

“Who are you?” The larger one barked at her, and she jumped again, her vocal cords momentarily frozen.

“Please, Mallet, she’s completely shocked by our sudden appearance.” The Alphan in grey came closer and smiled at her. “Our apologies for bursting in so rudely. My name is Edem, and this is Mallet. Mal to his friends, of which he has few.”

The slimmer man extended his hand, and she automatically reached for it, her childhood training in polite behavior emerging in an encounter her late mother never would have been able to envision. Introducing oneself to an alien while locked in a refrigerator unit wasn’t detailed in any of the etiquette books. Before she could offer her name or even touch his fingers, the larger one, Mallet, shifted his big body and blocked the contact, then grabbed at her arms. The sudden contact, combined with her rising anxiety at being in the enclosed space, broke her composure, and she struggled against the large man’s inexorable exploration of her body. He tapped at her arms and sides and ran his big, hard hands down her legs and over her back and buttocks all while she wriggled against him and protested wordlessly. When he slid his hands between her legs and squeezed at her sensitive thighs, she squealed and pushed at his shoulders to no effect. Her whole body flushed at the uninvited intimate contact.

With a slight grunt, Mallet took half a step away from her. “She’s unarmed.”

Edem tilted his head and stared at his companion. “So good of you to verify the young lady working diligently to clean our refuge wasn’t actually a Xyran assassin in disguise.”