Arrangement with the Alien Prince: A Sci Fi Shifter Romance (Bonded Mates of the Aedini) by Shona Mira

Author:Shona Mira [Mira, Shona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: needs an amazon review
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2022-09-30T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18: INAHO

My name is Kinteiku-Inaho’mek.

For the past forty-five years since my ascendance to the royal status as a Prince of Aedin, I have been tasked with a few things. My people have been at war for fifteen hundred years, and while all have experienced its effects, very few people have actually lived through them.

I’m different from the High Princes—the direct line of Solim and the supreme commanders of the Aedin Empire beneath our father, the High Emperor of the Aedin. They bring forth New Ages, oversee the state of the Empire from the vantage of our home planet. They stand apart, able to think objectively and clearly, and they can afford to offer opportunities of peace to the Imperial Federation—to the Terrans.

And while they can command the Imperial Fleets through the expanses of the galaxy, hear the stories of the troops, see the losses tallied on parchment, and have to deal with the economic fallout of our engagements with the Federation, I know for a fact they have never actually seen the war.

Not like I have.

I’ve watched Aedini and Aediyah experience it firsthand. I’ve seen Kahlians and Jiraca carry the bodies of their loved ones to the Rings of Sorrow and cast them into the mists below, never to see them again. I’ve seen the pain of the Hirama, the anger of the Ku. I’ve stood and delivered the news of death to a Ku fighter’s nearly immortal mate, knowing she will live for centuries to come and never recover from the agony the loss will have on their ruptured telepathic link.

In my time overseeing the front lines and standing by the other Lords of Kayne, my own personal hopes for peace died beneath tallies and numbers the High Princes would never see beyond the ink on their reports. No, I don’t think even the High Emperor himself knows, and that blasphemous thought is proof enough of my soul’s exhaustion with the fighting, the death, the desperation.

For forty-five years, my hatred and disdain for the Terrans were a poison in my blood, a searing in my bones, one I never thought I would ever willingly let go, even during the start of the High Prince Yuei’s New Age. I was always too eager to pin the blame on the Terrans and their allies for living in arrogance.

But as I stand and watch Brisea’s heart shatter and all manner of hope fade from her beautiful face, I feel like a monster.

Because I remember now. Everything has finally returned to me, and when Keio brought up the attacks on Atreyu, I remembered why Andry’s name sounded familiar. It’s because I had sneered at the news of his execution. My only thought had been that he got what he deserved, and justice had been served.

Not once did I ever think to spare a microgram of sympathy and regret for those who would miss him. Who would mourn his loss? I saw a criminal and allowed experience to harden my heart… and now

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