said as she placed her booted foot on the railing. “I can’t believe they’re being such assholes about my Territory.”
Lacey sighed, tearing her gaze from the horses to consider the freckled young woman standing next to her. “Well, we have plenty of room on Madre Tierra. We’d be happy to have you and your family here helping us settle the planet.”
“Thanks,” Michelle said with a distracted smile, “but my bondmates worked too hard to win their Territory to just give it up because some Kadothians are anti-Earther assholes. I’m going to get my Territory, even if I have to strangle the Regional High Congress myself.”
Lacey gave the other woman’s shoulder a pat, both of them quiet as they watched the horses grow bolder, to begin to run around and whinny beneath the eyes of an adoring crowd.
If Lacey had been asked a year ago where she thought she would be today, it certainly wouldn’t have been standing in her Territory, on a newly forming planet, hanging out with a cowgirl from Wyoming and the wild horses she rescued from a government horse slaughter. Across the arena, a large group of Kadothian males, scientists mostly, stared and pointed at the horses like a bunch of excited little kids. Michelle’s husbands were both biologists and they were fascinated by Earth creatures.
“You got this place built pretty quick,” Michelle said as she took in the large red Earth style barn and the cottages still being constructed for the people that would be learning to work on the horse ranch. “Wish it only took a day to build a barn back on Earth.”
Lacey nodded in agreement as she took a slow look around the land, at once familiar yet different than the Earth she’d grown up on. Only half of Madre Tierra was habitable at the moment, the Kadothian engineers responsible for transforming the frozen moon into a livable planet were still working on some of the trickier terrain. But the oceans and ice caps were in place and functioning, and the weather was at times a little temperamental, but seemed to be settling into a normal pattern.
“I have to head back up to the manor,” Lacey said as she gave Michelle a hug. “My men know that they’re to assist you in any way you need. Just give me a call on the old head phone,” she tapped behind her ear where the crystal implant was, “if you need anything.”
Michelle hugged her again, harder this time as she whispered, “Thank you. I hated the idea of the horses being kept in stasis for maybe years while the Territorial Congress debated allowing Earth animals in their Region.”
Looking at the magnificent creatures, a few of the tamer horses now getting rub downs from the adoring crowd of Kadothian males, Lacey said, “They, and you are welcome here for as long as you need. I promise you, we’ll take good care of them.”
“Horsey!” came Jillian’s piercing scream, loud enough that most of the horses halted their movements and turned to see what that noise was.
Her daughter ran up to the fence, fearless as always, with her personal guards in tow.
Jillian, wearing jeans and a plaid shirt like Lacey’s, climbed up onto the railing next to Lacey, while Wythe stood a respectful distance away, but always on guard.
Life wasn’t always easy, or safe, on Madre Tierra. There had been a few attacks, both by bounty hunters and anti-Earthers, but they had all been unsuccessful. Mainly because Kadothia took its defenses seriously, but also because Lacey’s people were loyal and loved their Matriarch and her family. It was weird at first, she wasn’t used to feeling like royalty, but as time went on she got more and more used to the idea that they didn’t view her as a Queen, but a mother.
“Horsey!” Jillian yelled out again, holding one hand out as the other clutched the railing, her sunflower yellow hair streaming about in the breeze. “Come here horsey, please.”
“Honey,” Michelle said with a smile, “these are wild mustangs. They aren’t used to humans—”
Michelle’s jaw dropped as two horses, a big red with a white blaze on his nose and a pretty mist gray mare with black ears, walked up to Jillian and lowered their heads so she could scratch their necks.
“What the…?” Michelle whispered as Lacey smiled.
“My daughter has a way with animals,” Lacey said as she watched Jillian love all over the horses.
“I see that,” Michelle said in a soft voice. “Is that her…gift?”
“We aren’t sure,”