The Alpha King (2 page)

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Talon Versuthion whispered to his pet flower. The stalk swayed and the petals bobbed in reply, and then Talon smiled up at his parents when they rushed into his room. He loved talking to the flowers and plants his parents had put up all around. His younger brothers had pet animals, most of which had to be kept outside, but Talon's flowers were with him. He loved the fact that when he woke up every morning they were right there, waiting to talk to him. It made him feel special and loved. Well, more so than he already felt. His parents were pretty awesome.

His father, Taltrentuvaro, knelt down and put his hands on either side of Talon's face and Talon smiled again. His father didn't return the gesture and Talon tilted his head to the side. Why didn't his father seem happy? Known for always being happy and laughing, his father looked almost… broken. He looked away as his mother rushed around the room, the distant sound of crying and sniffling, beeps and slamming noises indicating she opened his drawers and toy chests for some reason.

Looking back up, Talon found his father's eyes were filled with tears. Talon lifted his own hands and put them on his father's cheeks to wipe away the drops. He had never seen his father cry and it scared him like never known before.

"Papa? What's wrong?" he asked.

Taltrentuvaro shook his head and then turned to kiss the palms of Talon's hands. "Nothing, my son. Your mother and I are merely going out for a drive. We're going to send you over to Mrs Lorankia's house for a while."

Talon gasped and backed away. He hated Mrs Lorankia! They all did, especially his two younger brothers. Trenton said she smelled like the replicas of the ancient humans they saw in the museum, whereas Tuvarion thought her just as stupid as the ancient humans. Talon just thought her mean. She spent a lot of time telling the three Versuthion boys they were abominations and their parents were going to get what they deserved one day. Mrs Lorankia wasn't Vermithian like they were. Being Edifician, Mrs Lorankia should have been more at home in her own skin, especially in a galaxy that looked down on Vermithians. But she always acted like the sky would fall on top of her, even though she also looked down her nose on anyone who didn't have Edifician blood running through their veins. Most people of her race believed in equality, they were known for it, and his parents told him her point of view didn't make her better, just different.

Talon didn't too much like different right then.

"No, Papa! No! We hate Mrs Lorankia! Please don't make us go! What if she tries to eat Tuvarion again? She says he's way too pretty to be a boy," Talon pleaded, distantly aware of the looks of grief and horror passing between his parents. It confused him. Didn't his parents know how Mrs Lorankia felt?

"Well, no worries there, my son, Trenton and Tuvarion aren't going to stay with her. Only you. They have already left… to go visit some friends and that's where your mother and I are going right now, to pick them up," his father reassured him.

Talon didn't miss the looks passing between his mom and dad. If he didn't know better, he'd think his parents weren't being honest. But they never lied. If Talon had asked, his father would have confessed his younger brothers had been kidnapped for a ransom amount. Only Talon's fascination and obsession with his pet flower had rescued him from the unknown fate his brothers currently suffered. His father would have told Talon that he and his mother were heading out to go and save their children but that they didn't have a good feeling and because of that they were choosing to hide what might be their only surviving son with their dreaded neighbor. But Talon didn't question his father.

Instead he nodded, because as long as Tuvarion didn't have to go and deal with Mrs Lorankia and listen to her say mean things that made him cry, Talon guessed it would be okay if he went alone. His father kissed his forehead and then his mother came over and clutched him fiercely to her chest. She hugged him so tightly he flushed hot and the air left his lungs. She had never embraced him so hard and instead of filling him with love and a feeling of security, it scared him. Not because his parents weren't affectionate. Vermithians, in fact, were very affectionate people. They were known for being overly sexual and loving, oftentimes being arrested for breaking public indecency laws. Talon's parents, however, weren't this overly demonstrative. They were only going to go and pick up his brothers, right? Why were they acting as if they would never see him again?

Filled with a gripping fear that he just couldn't shake, Talon grabbed hold of his mother and sobbed. "Please, please. Take me with you. I'll help with the boys. I promise I'll be good," he pleaded.

"No, son, no. You must stay with Mrs Lorankia. We couldn't bear to lose—" Taltrentuvaro began and then his words cut off abruptly.

He sighed and started again, clutching his son by the shoulders, "You must stay here. We will return for you with your brothers, but you must. Stay. Here."

Talon hated being left behind. He didn't like having to go to Mrs Lorankia's all by himself, but he wouldn't want Tuvarion there. His baby brother was too fragile and sensitive to deal with Mrs Lorankia. Tuvarion felt and sensed the emotions of everyone around him and had the power to change those emotions. Trenton always laughed when Talon tried to tell him their baby brother had this power, but what did Trenton know? At six years of age, Talon was practically a man already, while Trenton at four and little Tuvarion at two were still just children. Neither of them old enough to know anything about life or people yet. Not like Talon. He had pointed out they could talk to the heavens, animals, and plants even at their young age. With that thought in mind, Talon squared his shoulders and nodded at his father once again. Before being rushed out of the room, he grabbed his pet flower and held it tightly against his chest. He would need his precious little friend, he didn't know why, he just knew he would.

His parents hurried him over to a reluctant Mrs Lorankia's care and then with a final hug and kiss, they left to go and pick up his brothers from wherever they were. They would return soon but he couldn't seem to shake the bad feeling that had taken up residence in his stomach.

He waited and waited for their reappearance. So did Mrs Lorankia. When the miserable old woman turned to him days later and accused his parents of deserting him on her doorstep, Talon lashed out verbally. He never saw Mrs Lorankia's hand reach out to slap him and when he fell he had no time to stop his head from connecting with the edge of the glass pot that held his pet flower and he had no control over the memories that left his mind. Of his brothers, of what occurred moments before leaving his parents' home, or even the faces of his parents. They seeped out like the blood from the wound on his head.

When the Interplanetary Children Defense Services came and took him away from Mrs Lorankia, he left the only home he'd ever known. He didn't see his parents again, and he learned he had brothers no one could find, brothers he couldn't remember and would forget existed. He'd been abandoned and from that moment, Talon decided he'd never give someone else the chance to leave him behind again.

THE VERMITHIAN

CHAPTER ONE

Farbu 18, 2456

Talon Versuthion, affectionately called "Tal" by his adopted sister, Josepire "Josie" Laungford, had not set out to become a history maker. In fact, he had been questioned many times about his plans for the future, and surprised many people by adopting an almost glazed look in his golden eyes and letting stuttering words emanate from his mouth. Tal just wanted to live in the moment. He didn't have a life's goal. And living didn't have to be exciting or filled with parties and drinking, or sleeping around with as many men, women, or species as he could. For Tal, living equaled just that… living.

Although he did enjoy parties and drinking Vamprincian Flow, the most potent drink around, and of course, the endless parade of men that flowed in and out of his apartment, he didn't crave either. They were things to do and to experience to pass the time in between the endless deliveries f
rom his shuttle to
other planets, things to take his mind off of the loss of his parents thirteen years ago and the huge chunk of his memory he just couldn't recall. Tal only wanted to wake up every morning and breathe and move, eat, shower, sleep, and occasionally read a book or watch a vid.

His family didn't understand. At nineteen passings they expected him to be experiencing the galaxy, exploring the different planets, excited about the prospect of having a family and settling down. They definitely thought he should at least have a serious boyfriend. They didn't understand Tal didn't care. He didn't want a serious relationship. He didn't care about finding love or even settling down with a career. He only cared about living… living alone.

Wendiford and Markaela Sothsberg adopted him and Josie, since Markaela couldn't give his father children. They decided the death of his birth parents caused him to be so apathetic about his own future. Because they never got a future of their own, Tal never considered having one either. In essence, he waited to die and be reunited with his parents in the Great Beyond.

Tal simply smiled and nodded, indulging their need to explain his behavior. His lack of a personal drive had nothing to do with the untimely death of the two people who had by some twist of fate created him. Their deaths had left him at the mercy of the ICDS, and that led him to being adopted by two upstanding leaders of the Edifician Branch of the Galaxy Peace Allegiance. But none of those reasons had anything to do with the fact he only wanted to live and everything to do with boredom.

Bored. Utterly and unbelievably bored. Of the small, two-bedroom apartment he shared with his older sister Josie in the city of Grulion on the planet of Edifice. Bored of his job as a delivery boy for the GPA, and of having to always be so careful when it came to having sex with a man. He'd even grown tired of having sex with men, and for Tal that definitely said something.

Coming out about being gay and telling his parents hadn't been all that hard for Tal. At the age of fourteen, he'd simply told them over breakfast. They'd looked at him, then at his sister, then at each other, and said they understood, still loved him anyway, but they needed to talk to him later. He hadn't really questioned their response to his declaration. While their planet, Edifice, like Volantic, Doral, Tumaro, and Zeelith, had a lot more tolerance for and was accepting of homosexual relationships than other planets, like Strawxig, Prinktakium, and Bolauntiq, his parents had kept a vital piece of information from Tal. A life-changing piece of information. In their defense, they thought he'd known his heritage, his bloodline at least, and at most his destiny, but it hadn't taken them long before they realized Tal had lost much of his memory. He knew his name and that his parents were dead.

So when he walked into the family room of his parents' home that morning for breakfast, their faces indicated they were about to tell him something big and he'd completely called it. The information his adopted parents shared rocked him to his core and forever changed his outlook on his future. He found out about his birth parents and what they looked like; though the details on them had been sparse, stopping right after Tal's birth. He learned his medical history, his species, and most of all about his species' secrets.

In short, Tal discovered his Vermithian heritage.

Vermithians had secret abilities, all were able to communicate with nature, the heavens, and animals, and all had the ability to heal and conceive… all of them, male and female alike. The Vermithians were one of three forms of humanoid species that were descended from ancient humans, born when a few surviving humans had offered themselves up to both the gods and to the inhabitants of other planets when Earth had been on the verge of complete destruction.

Journals had been found and passed down from the first Vermithian, and Joshua Roughshire, a Tumaron royal, made them public centuries before, detailing the fact that the humans had ignored the cries of their planet. The cries and voice of a planet were to be cherished and listened to intently, at least the rest of the galaxies saw it as important. The humans' apathetic attitude towards their planet caused them to be looked down upon and disparaged at every turn. The fact Earth had turned on the humans surprised no one in the least. Tal had heard countless stories about the 'common' human who had mated with both a Tumaron and a Volauntician becoming the first known Vermithian, a man able to give birth, able to talk to the heavens and plants, able to heal people, and how he survived the destruction of Earth, even though his Tumaron mate didn't.

From the old to the young, the humans had been slowly dying off and the GPA had to step in to do something. They were saved and three different breeds of humanoids were created as part of the terms of their agreement.

The remaining three hundred humans were taken from Earth and then separated and spread out among five different planets. On two of those five planets all of the humans died in childbirth or after breathing in the air of the planet's atmosphere. On the other three, they thrived and the humanoids were birthed from the unions that took place there, something the GPA had not planned on or intended.

The Vermithians were the biggest shock of all, in no small part because of the Versuthions. Namely, Traven Versuthion, the first Vermithian in existence and his mates, Joshua Roughshire and Paris Luklinn. Traven's relationship with Joshua and his mating with Paris had sparked the prophecy that had driven fear in the heart of the GPA and even some of the other humanoid breeds.