Ever After Read online

  Table of Contents

  Excerpt

  Other Candace Sams titles

  Ever After

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  “I believe this is yours?”

  she remarked as she held up the small, silver burnt casing of his bugging device between her right thumb and index finger, leaving her gun hand ready. What was left of the device after being remotely fried—in such a way that it wouldn’t even produce a small puff of smoke or any odor—wasn’t much. But the casing had stayed attached to the underside of the embassy desk. No bugging device could be completely eliminated from a remote local, though she was sure he’d counted on her ignorance in even knowing what the remnants of the little round case were.

  “The device you used was so highly advanced it heavily scrambled our security camera’s recorded images,” she claimed, “but I managed to piece enough of the video together to see who you were and the date. There was no mistaking a megalithic Mythrealian planting something beneath the general’s desk. All I had to do was check the damned guest list for the last time you were in our compound. The date you were there matched what was on the image!” She slowly shook her head. “Did you honestly think nobody would ever run a security scan? Do you think we’re that backward?”

  He lifted his chin and came clean. “I’ll say this for you…your technical skills are beyond good. You managed to reveal my actions so let’s not tarry. Let’s get straight to the point.” He took a deep breath. “Yes…I’ve done exactly as you claim. I bugged your embassy. The act was mine and mine alone. I had no orders to execute this plan.”

  She slowly shook her head. “Why? Why, in the name of God, would you do such a thing?”

  “Because of you!”

  Other Candace Sams titles

  available from The Wild Rose Press, Inc.:

  THE SLEIGH MAKER

  ETERNALLY CHAINED (Night Watchers, Book 1)

  DARK SINS (Night Watchers, Book 2)

  UNWRAPPING MISS MILKY WAY

  GALACTIC HEARTS (Men of Austoura Series)

  Ever After

  by

  Candace Sams

  A Candy Hearts Romance

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  Ever After

  COPYRIGHT © 2016 by Candace Sams

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  Contact Information: [email protected]

  Cover Art by RJ Morris

  The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

  PO Box 708

  Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

  Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com

  Publishing History

  First Fantasy Rose Edition, 2016

  Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-0500-4

  A Candy Hearts Romance

  Published in the United States of America

  Dedication

  To Lee,

  and to all the dreamers out there.

  Good reading to you.

  Chapter One

  Inside Earth Embassy, Planet: Mythreal

  “General Albright, the pirates will be forced to negotiate if we cut off their supplies. We don’t need to send in our forces. In three months’ time, they’ll be begging for help, and we’ll provide it.”

  “Why would we do that, Keira? Why would we help the same scum who’ve attacked every colony in this entire quadrant for the past two years?”

  Lieutenant Keira Foley pressed her point. “Sir, the food and medicine these criminals have stolen from outlying colonies is of poor quality—no longer fit for consumption by the time they get it home. And outlying colonists learned to hide all their most valuable commodities years ago so that attacking thieves couldn’t find their stores.”

  “Go on,” Albright prompted.

  “Once pirate sympathizers realize we’ll give them better food and medicine than stealing can provide, they’ll force their own cutthroat leaders to the bargaining table. They know Mythreal has the best food, the most advanced medicine, and the best doctors in five sectors. This planet is not only safe, it’s a model of industry and progress.”

  She continued slowly. “Sir…while our allied patrol cadres are second to none, they won’t need to fire on any vessels in the vicinity of Oristus Seven or any of the other pirate-held harbors. You won’t have to order anybody into battle if this plan works. All our law enforcers need to do is stop all cargo vessels in and around any known pirating populations. Stop anything that moves and board it for inspection.”

  Keira then continued the plan with fervor. “The law gives us, as the only code enforcement planet in this quadrant, that right. It’s been my experience that no vessel operates on a completely legal basis, all the time. Typically, foodstuffs are out-of-date and can therefore be seized under Health Safety Article 197 (A) of the uniform transport codes governing this entire parsec. On finding any infraction…if any can, bottle, or jar is even one day older than the marked expiration on the sellers’ manifests…we can legally seize those goods and any ancillary products that might have made contact with this so-called contaminated cargo.”

  “There must be over five thousand flight regs giving us the right to stop any vessel in space. Every craft has something wrong with it no matter how minor,” the general remarked.

  Keira smiled and nodded. “Precisely, sir!”

  “Better still, normal cargo vessels rarely carry arms. Certainly nothing that would pose a problem for our forces.”

  “If captains won’t comply with the command to be boarded for inspection as the law allows, they risk losing their flight status as well as their entire ship and all their cargo. Even their personal belongings can be confiscated on the spot,” Keira assured him.

  “In due course, we’d be making the pirating populations dependent…on us. What you’re suggesting is a slow embargo process that will keep most pirates in this entire sector from being able to feed and clothe their own populations. Is that right?’”

  “Yes, sir. Pirate leaders need tribal cooperation, or they’re nothing more than figureheads. Oristus Seven is home to most of their remaining hoards. Once that planet gets its food and medical supplies from us—”

  “Of course…hostilities will ease or cease altogether,” Albright triumphantly muttered.

  “It’s just a matter of time before pirate leaders are irrelevant,” Keira insisted. “There’ll be no need for them. And that means no more pirating.”

  “But do you actually believe this plan will stop them all, Keira?”

  “I think it’ll greatly diminish their collective powers. They’ll be outnumbered and outgunned. Their leaders will be expendable.”

  “I’ll pass on this scheme to Allied High Command,” the general told her.

  “It won’t happen overnight, sir. But in time, the citizens of pirating worlds will realize we have all the goodies they want. To get them, they’ll legally trade and barter for them like everyone else. In peace. But…”

  “Yes?”

  “There is a way to move this plan a little faster,” she added. “We can bring them to their knees sooner…hit them where they live.”

  “Explain.”

  “We c
an offer immediate assistance to their children—no strings attached,” Keira added. “We don’t want to come off as having starved infants. That’s morally repugnant and against everything we stand for. Offer the first relief to those with the least ability to help themselves. Thousands of mothers on pirate outposts will do anything to get their babies better food and medicine. They need it now. Desperately,” she asserted. “As we’ve just discussed, the damned leaders take all the best booty for themselves. This idea might be a way to force the issue quickly.”

  “Very true,” Albright agreed. “The average bandit leader is greedy to the point of making their own people despise them. Only fear keeps pirate planets under their control. All things considered, I can’t imagine the medical circumstances on their worlds these days.”

  “Let’s offer assistance to the most needy among the pirate hoards,” she reiterated. “Ask Allied High Council to broadcast our offer in allowing mothers with ailing children a very rare opportunity to come to us. Unarmed and willing to abide by our laws…obviously.” Keira paused before continuing. “Details need to be worked out. All contingencies having to do with transportation and housing must be considered. But if Allied High Command is willing to take on this challenge, I can have an outline on your desk by the end of the week.”

  “Splendid, Keira…splendid!”

  ****

  From his bedroom across the lush, floral-covered hills, Dillon Greenleaf—first cousin and best friend to the next king of the Mythreal—listened intently. As well as being related to the next monarch, he was also much favored and beloved of the current king and the entire royal court. The current ruling clan on Mythreal adored Earthers and anything to do with them. Spying on Earth’s embassy, therefore, was beneath contempt. In fact, it bordered on treason resulting in a possible death sentence if anyone found out what he’d done.

  His actions—planting a listening device as well as a camera within Earth’s embassy—were an unmitigated breach of trust. If any of the eighty embassies on the planet discovered his actions, Mythrealian reputation would be destroyed. Nobody would ever work with his world again if they believed diplomats weren’t safe in speaking and moving about freely in their own compounds.

  While he’d trust all the other Earthers in that embassy with his life, he’d come to doubt two of them specifically—General Trenton Albright and the new, relatively unknown female, Lieutenant Keira Foley.

  A parade of fresh, strategic maneuvers to outwit pirates and brigands of low repute were steadily flowing from Albright. However, prior to the lieutenant’s arrival, Albright had been the only person in Allied High Command who’d never agreed to or suggested a single battle maneuver, not for the twelve months he’d held his current position. In short, General Trenton Albright had been sitting on his ass for a full year.

  The man’s inaction caused all kinds of problems for everyone else.

  Due to treaty stipulations requiring all embassy heads to agree on any law enforcement action unanimously, the general’s constant inaction meant no one could do a damned thing. While outlying colonists cried for law enforcers to help fight pirate raids, every single ship in the combined embassy fleet sat and waited—because one man wouldn’t or couldn’t do his job.

  Then Foley arrived three weeks ago. Albright suddenly got off his butt. In fact, the plethora of brilliant new ideas flowing from his desk seemed totally out of character with his procrastination of the past year.

  The general was so personally close to Foley that he hadn’t minded using the woman’s first name in an official meeting—the meeting he’d just spied on. Knowing what he did about protocol, even in closed spaces, a man of Albright’s rank would never do such a thing.

  Suspicion grew.

  Due to his covert actions, he now had proof of what he believed to be a pirate infiltration of the general’s command staff—Lieutenant. Foley being the main suspect.

  As far as anyone else was concerned, the situation with the general’s former inaction seemed happily resolved. All other dignitaries in Allied High Command registered motivation again, presenting their own ideas for attacking the pirate threat.

  Some time ago, Albright had been referred to as ‘a warrior’s warrior’. The man’s tactics for the last twelve months belied that reputation. Indeed, before Lieutenant Foley arrived, there’d been nothing to suggest Albright would ever alter his lackadaisical attitude.

  Because nothing had been done to quell the pirating for the entire year, divisiveness had surged among council members. If he was a pirate, that resulting chaos was exactly what he’d welcome.

  What did the girl have on Albright? What pirate faction was she working for? Why had she arrived unannounced, only to be given such an important position as advising Earth Embassy’s supreme commander? Did that mean she had high connections on Mythreal that he had yet to discover? Finally, why was Albright listening to every syllable she uttered?

  He’d tactfully tried to change rules in lieu of having only a majority of councilmen or women agreeing to any strategic maneuver. But Mythreal’s ancient laws governing concord got in the way, over and over. One diplomat was afraid of offending another. With eighty embassies to please, it’d been long-ago decided that all must share the responsibility of policing the sector, or the strongest among them ended up footing the entire bill. Hence the need and legislation regarding unanimous action.

  Not knowing how Foley wangled her way into the general’s affections—thereby changing his attitude—elevated his distrust. No one was above suspicion, not even a seemingly bland little lieutenant. History, in regards to spying activities committed by pirates on Mythreal, was foremost in his mind.

  First, a representative for the Kryllian planet had been caught handing over attack strategy to his Pleidian mistress—a pirate spy. Though done in the throes of passion, after much wheedling and alcohol had been applied, those plans had still been compromised. Oh, the man hadn’t meant to discuss the location of Allied Command law enforcement vessels in deep space. And he was extremely apologetic when Mythrealian guards had questioned him on the subject. Still, the girl had pulled that classified information out of him. And in such a way that the poor man had never caught on until it was too late to save his career. He was summarily but quietly dismissed from duties. An excuse had been given to everyone else for the change in Kryllian leadership, thus keeping the rest of that planet’s innocent staff from suffering great embarrassment.

  Then there was the incident where household cleaning staff had been hired by the Sagittarian embassy. Though politicians there claimed their employees were all scrupulously vetted, maids and groundskeepers were proven to be pirate spies; men and women who’d been given too much access to sensitive parts of that contingent’s compound. The result—pirate operatives collected computerized memorandums for attack plans.

  Several other incidents followed these. The amalgamation made Dillon suspect anyone whose presence was as innocuous as Lieutenant Keira Foley’s. Though the girl advised General Albright in ways that made perfect sense, Albright always presented those new strategies as if they were his. This situation mimicked those spying incidents from the past.

  Dillon released a deep sigh of frustration.

  If anyone knew he’d surveilled Earth embassy, he’d be in such serious trouble that noble lineage couldn’t save him. In fact, what he’d done was so insidious that he’d committed to the deeds secretly. Neither his cousin—the heir to the throne—nor his ruling uncle could be blamed.

  Disgustingly, the actual commission of the plot had been far too easy.

  He’d simply planted a coin-sized voice/camera bug under the general’s desk during a very recent tour of Earth’s embassy—a tour given to trusted members of Allied High Command. During that visit, security was exceedingly lax. There’d been an extremely late party going on in the massive ballroom attached to Earth’s Embassy and staff quarters. Libation was heavy. No one paid any attention to the wanderings of a reliable Mythrealian noble,
a beloved nephew to the planet’s honorable monarch.

  He felt like dragon dung.

  There were insects crawling under rocks with more dignity, yet suspicion made him commit the act. However, what made his spying even worse was Mythreal and Albright’s home world of Earth shared common ancestry though that first thread took hold many millennia ago.

  The two planets were staunch allies. His skin might be light aqua, he might have elongated ears, long blond hair, and a physique that dwarfed humans several times over. He might appear to Earthers as what they gently and jokingly referred to as a ‘very big elf’. But there were many more similarities between the two races than physical differences implied. Indeed, his race and Earthers’ had been inbreeding for the last two centuries, accepting of each other in every way. Of all the allies in High Command­—a staunch set of law enforcers who collectively patrolled this entire sector of space—Earth and Mythreal were the closest. They took each other’s side on almost every issue. Earth had been the very first ally to ever have an embassy constructed on Mythreal. His own, much beloved grandmother was an Earther.

  He hated what he was doing mostly because of friendships and trusted companions held dear within Earth’s embassy. But when a man of General Albright’s previous languor suddenly changed—and for no other reason than a newly installed officer made suggestions far beyond her rank—he had to take notice. He had to. Too many law enforcers’ lives were at stake. Too many breaches of classified information had put them all in precarious positions.

  Sadly, something told him the crafty lieutenant had been sent to do exactly what she was doing.

  Maybe someone back on Earth got wind of Albright’s failure to act, and feared it was hurting allied relations on Mythreal—which it was. But why not just say so? Why not just let Mythreal’s king know what was happening and why? Other ambassadors had tactfully called in replacement strategists and with no loss of face. Albright wouldn’t be the first general or diplomatic envoy to need help with his work.