wrong guy. I never intended to fall in love with you. I wanted to protect us both. It just happened.” He looked exhausted. “I don’t know what Rissallen told you, but now you’ve heard it from me, at least.”
“But, what about your sterility?”
For a few seconds, he stared at her in total confusion. “My what?”
“Your sterility!” Her frustration reached its limit. Her temper was ready to boil over. “Rissallen says you must have known of your condition. You knew, and yet you didn’t say anything.”
“What condition? I don’t have one, unless you’re talking about a major case of confusion.”
“I just told you! Your inability to sire children.”
Jared didn’t seem to be listening to her at all. He rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth. Then he let out a quick, disbelieving laugh. “That’s all he said? Nothing about Earth? Just that I’m sterile?”
“Just?” She could not believe he wasn’t upset. It showed just how unimportant continuing the Sakkaran line was to him. “Were you ever planning to tell me?”
“About my fake royal title, yes. Tonight, in fact. But, Keira, I’m not sterile. Not by a long shot. I had a complete physical before coming here and everything checked out fine. I don’t know where they’re getting this information.”
“It’s been two cycles and I’ve not gotten pregnant.” She hated that her voice shook. “How do you explain that?”
“Think about it. What we’ve been talking about. Someone probably doesn’t want you having the wrong man’s kids. I bet your computerized sperm patrol is doing the opposite of what it’s supposed to be doing.”
“Goddess…” What if he was right?
Of course he is right. Why would Jared lie to you?
But he had—about his title.
He lied.
Keira covered her ears to block out her internal dialogue. What was true and what wasn’t? She didn’t know anymore. Traitors had masterminded everything from her family’s massacre to her monthly cycle. All without her knowing.
Nobody tells you anything. You’re always the last to know.
She dropped her hands. “To tamper with a goddess’s fertility is sacrilegious enough without attempting to do so without permission.”
“The conspirators are nonbelievers, remember? They killed your family.”
Jared could state the obvious better than she ever could. She nodded. “I will call their bluff by demanding a medical exam, right here, right now, in front of many witnesses.” She turned. “Taye, fetch my personal physician!” The eunuch scurried off. “Now we shall see what the conspirators have flowing in my bloodstream. Let the damning evidence be revealed. Come, let us return to the hall!”
Jared frowned as he paced in front of his wife’s throne. He’d come here expecting Star Wars. This was Reproductive Wars!
Several members of the palace medical staff surrounded Keira. She offered her arm for bloodletting. Granted, only a pinprick was taken, but the entire thing struck him as medieval. Or was it because the issue of his manhood was on the line?
Parliament had turned into a circus. The hall was packed to capacity with people watching the show.
Keira curled her arm on her lap. The procedure was done. The sample was brought to a computer. Results scrolled past. The physicians huddled together, conferring.
Jared couldn’t stand it anymore. “What’s in her blood?” He hoped to God it wasn’t anything that had harmed her. It boosted his protective instincts. He wanted to put this whole bizarre episode behind them and retreat to their chambers where he could get her alone.
They had some patching up to do and some preparations to make. With accusations of collusion flying, life was going to get a whole lot more dangerous. Secretly taking her to Earth for safekeeping wasn’t out of the question. If the Coalition couldn’t take care of their queen, he’d do it for them.
“The results are in,” the chief physician announced. She played the suspense to the hilt, letting the anticipation in the audience build. “The queen’s blood levels are…”
Jared braced himself, even though he knew all was well.
“Normal!”
Boos rumbled from the audience. Keira shut her eyes. She seemed to be fighting tears. Jared, on the other hand, was fighting disbelief. Normal meant that he wasn’t.
“Wait a second.” He pushed his way to the readout. “Where does it say that?”
The physician acted with open contempt. He was, in her view, worthless as the goddess-queen’s mate. “All her fertility readings are at proper levels.”
“Could these results have been altered by some other means?”
The woman rolled up the computer screen and slipped it in her pocket.
“Test me, then,” he insisted. “Take a sample. Right here!”
She gave him