Chosen Bride of the Seven Dark Princes

[BOOK TWO: THE PRINCES STRIKE BACK]

Early the next morning, Dante received a brief but detailed message from Mattheus Cordera.

Without waking anyone up, he threw on his warrior gear, left his sleeping quarters, and grabbed a transport pod from the hangar.

This one thankfully, DID NOT have a yellow smiley face painted on its side. It was one of the sleek ultra-modern ones that Slate kept on his Mother Ship, the Raptor 600 for his personal use.

With him came one-hundred of his own guard ships that had turned into full-fledge warships. They had been on full alert stand-by the night before, ready to take off at a moment\'s notice.

He flew to his own Mother Ship, the Chiroptera 450, and took immediate command of the squadron.

Their first stop was the single moon above the beautiful ocean world of Emporia.

His hundred warships, along with two hundred of Mattheus\' pirate ships, were cloaked and huddled on the dark side of the moon in fight formation.

It was all touch and go at this moment.

Dante stood at the command deck with a hot cup of coffee in his hand to warm his insides. The view from the large ship window was breathtaking.

Even hidden behind Emporia\'s moon, he could see the large crystal blue world peeking from the moon\'s horizon.

Emporia truly was an amazing and beautiful world. Once this war was over, he could turn establish a few of his resorts here and turn a tidy profit from tourism.

For now, it was going to get worse before it got better.

He sighed.

Sometimes, an establishment needed to be gutted in order for a new and better establishment to be built. This was one of those times.

Although they had left before sunrise, Standard Galactic Time, they were waiting for the perfect strike zone which would happen within the hour of nightfall on the capital city of Emporia.

As the capital city slowly slipped into darkness, all its city lights began winking into life.

An alert sounded.

Dante waved a finger and the virtual monitored popped open, showing the comely face of Mattheus Cordera.

His eyes were dark as if he hadn\'t slept in awhile, and his chin was unshaven and coarse with an entire day\'s worth of stubble.

"Looks like you didn\'t get any sleep."

Mattheus narrowed his eyes.

"Sleep is a luxury I don\'t have right now."

"It\'s your show, man. I\'m just here to back you up." Dante took the last swallow of his coffee and put the mug down.

"Understand, Dante, that this show of military force is mostly just that." Mattheus stressed.

"All you have to do is fly your Erenveil warships around and make it look as if your entire fleet is going to come down on their heads if they don\'t comply."

"Matt. I\'m telling you right now, it\'s not just for show. Those people kidnapped me and my brothers. I lost my Crown Prince title because of that."

His green eyes were bloody red.

"It only takes one word from me and the entire Erenveil armada is going to encircle this world and turn it as holey as Swiss cheese."

Mattheus shook his head.

"Hold your gunfire, Dante. We can\'t just fly into Emporia with weapons blazing! Most of the merfolk are innocent of any crimes at all. There has to be an intact world for me to rule over after overthrowing my uncle."

"As long as you hand over the king and his wife Beatrice to me, I will agree to not use any force unless you ask for backup."

Mattheus shook his head again.

"Sorry man. That\'s not part of the bargain. You can have his old lady, but that man\'s ass is mine. He tried to kill me when I was barely ten years old. I\'m not handing him over to you."

"Fine. It was Beatrice who arranged for the kidnapping of my brothers and myself, so I\'ll take her."

"And her daughter?"

"Who?"

"Helene Cordera."

Dante shook his head. "Never heard of her."

Mattheus burst out laughing. It was just as well.

It was better that Helene sank into obscurity than to be remembered as the woman who tried to kill the Primary Avgo Female Candace Farrah.

He didn\'t know a whole lot about the First Prince, but he knew one thing.

Prince Dante was head over heels in love with the Prime Avgo Female, Candace Farrah. Any threat to this woman was a death sentence to whoever was foolhardy enough to attempt that threat.

"Oh wait a minute. Isn\'t she the one who tried to hurt my woman and got her back broken as a result?"

"That would be her." There went her chance to go under Dante\'s radar.

"I\'ll take her too."

Mattheus nodded. "Stand by, Prince Dante."

========

Under the stealth of darkness, the masked warriors infiltrated Emporia\'s Royal Palace.

First to die were the gate guards. Soon thereafter, the remaining royal guards were taken out, one silent man at a time.

It wasn\'t that the Emporian Royal Guards were not good at their job. It was because they had suddenly been inundated with thousands of masked men armed to the teeth and highly skilled in the art of killing without making a sound.

The masked intruders were so stealthy, they had inadvertently caught the King of Emporia with his willy hanging out as he pumped himself into one of his newest concubines.

"Aaaaaaahhh!!!" The concubine shrieked as she tried to hide behind the king. Unfortunately, he was one step ahead of her.

With a swift boot to her shapely buttocks, he kicked her at the assassins who had flooded into his bedroom to gain a few precious seconds of time.

Without looking back to see what would happen to her, he hightailed it to his secret trap door.

It had been prepared twenty years ago, when he took over the Royal Palace in anticipation of this event. He had known that this day was coming ever since he\'d bombed that facility with the young king and his mother still trapped inside.

King Mortimer didn\'t think they survived it because they had been part of the huge number of people who had turned up unaccounted for.

It was to have been their fate to be unidentifiable bone fragments, and yet, two decades later, karma finally swung back around and was now after his blood.

As the trap door swung open, the king ran into the dark corridor. The door sprang shut behind him with a BANG!!! locking out the assassins who were in his bed chamber.

There was very little light in this darkened area because it had never been used, but King Mortimer knew that this passage continued straight for awhile before it opened up onto Plumeria Beach.

All he had to do was run his hand along the wall and keep running!

King Mortimer felt to his right until his palm hit the smooth stone wall of the tunnel. Even without light, he could follow the length of the wall until he reached the end of the tunnel.

He would escape this Royal Palace without even a stitch of clothing, but at least he would still have his life.

Perhaps he could find his way to Erenveil and throw himself upon the mercy of his youngest sister, the Royal Consort Fatima.

King Mortimer had been running for a few minutes, full steam ahead. His body was starting to feel the exertion and he was starting to lag.

Panting with effort, he began to slow his roll. Although his legs were weak and his lungs were burning, he could not afford to stay in this palace any longer.

He had to make it out to the beach and go underwater where he could transform back into a merman and escape into the depths.

BAAAAAMMM!!!

"Aaaargghhhh!!!" He grunted as he slammed his face into something huge and solid in front of him.

There should be nothing and no one in this tunnel!

Reaching out blindly, King Mortimer encountered something massively solid.

It was a male chest!

SNAP!!!

There was the sound of fingers snapping as a bright light beamed directly into King Mortimer\'s face.

For a moment, he was blinded.

He winced, looking away from the bright flood of light.

"So…we finally meet again. Uncle.." A deep voice rumbled out from the solid male chest that was standing before him.