Off Balance Read online

  First Published by Ink Monster, LLC in 2020

  Ink Monster, LLC

  4470 W Sunset Blvd

  Suite 145

  Los Angeles, CA 90027

  www.inkmonster.net

  * * *

  ISBN 9781943858675

  * * *

  Copyright © 2020 by Ink Monster LLC

  * * *

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  * * *

  Cover by Jenny @ Seedlings Design Studio

  Also by Aileen Erin

  The Alpha Girl Series

  Becoming Alpha

  Avoiding Alpha

  Alpha Divided

  Bruja

  Alpha Unleashed

  Shattered Pack

  Being Alpha

  Lunar Court

  Alpha Erased

  * * *

  The Shadow Ravens Series

  Cipher

  * * *

  The Aunare Chronicles

  Off Planet

  Off Balance

  On Mission

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  On Mission

  To My Readers

  Afterword

  Dying for more by Aileen Erin?

  Also by Aileen Erin

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  For Jeremy.

  I love you more.

  There. It’s in print. I win.

  Chapter One

  LORNE

  Earth.

  13 Years Ago.

  Six days before Liberation Week.

  * * *

  The air whistled past my face, and I fell to the mat, rolling.

  Clang.

  The metal baton missed me by too little.

  I rolled.

  Clang. Right by my face.

  Rolled.

  Clang. I needed to get off the floor.

  A hand pinned me, shoving my back hard into the mat. Cool metal touched my neck.

  “That’s match.” Rysden didn’t need to say the words, but I hated the finality.

  I tapped my hand on the floor, and Rysden let me go.

  I’d failed. Again. For the fourth time in twenty minutes.

  My breathing was already slowing, but the disappointment lingered.

  “Your head’s not present, Lorne.” Rysden sat next to me. His long blond hair was pulled away from his face. It didn’t even have a hint of gray in it yet, but he had scars from hard battles won. We both wore only loose pants, but my chest was covered in sweat while he looked like he’d been having a nice relaxing time.

  “You wanted to talk, but you haven’t said anything yet,” Rysden said.

  “I’m too angry to talk. I thought sparring first would help gather my thoughts so that we could have a rational discussion, but that’s not working.” I sat up, resting my hands on my knees.

  “Because your mind isn’t in tune with your body. You’re thinking about one thing while pushing your body through the paces, but you can’t win if your focus is divided.”

  I could beat him. I usually did. But not today.

  This room was smaller than our practice room at home, but it was the best Rysden could do on Earth. The black Earther practice mats were more unforgiving than the high-tech flooring at home, but that had improved my fighting. One splat on this floor was enough for me to try harder. He’d set up a forty-foot climbing wall on one side, similar to the one at home, but with the difference in flooring, this one was far more dangerous.

  But not even the fear of broken bones would help my focus tonight. Rysden was right about that.

  “I know you’re angry with me, Your Highness. But everything will be okay.”

  He was reminding me of my status—like I could forget it—but he knew me better than most. And what I had on my mind was something my father would hate. “No. I’m not sure that it will be. I think we should leave all SpaceTech-owned space. All the Aunare. Not just me. Not just Amihanna. Anyone with even a drop of our blood in them should go. Now. Today.”

  “Why?” There were warring notes of hope and fear in his voice. “Did Declan say something?”

  I wished I had something that concrete. Something that I could take to my father’s advisers, but I didn’t. “My father thinks everything’s fine. That Earthers don’t like the Aunare, but he believes things are stable.” I ran my hand through my hair, pulling it free from the tie. “He doesn’t see the way they look at me or what’s whispered behind my back when I’m in public. They don’t think I speak their language.”

  Rysden let out a deep laugh. “They’re idiots if they think that wasn’t the first thing many of us did over a decade ago.”

  “They didn’t take the time to learn our language, so they make assumptions.” In this case, their assumption was in my favor. “The reports are getting worse across all the SpaceTech-owned colonies. No matter what Declan thinks, Earthers are getting violent. And you had to have seen what SpaceTech’s fascist CEO and his protégé son said on the news today.” There was no way Rysden missed the call to action the Murtaghs gave the Earthers. I knew he was paying as close attention to it as I was, if not more so.

  Things were escalating quickly, but I was leaving tomorrow, with my best friend—and the black sheep of the Murtagh family—Declan. Our fathers cooked up this sham of a treaty as a way to grow a bond between cultures. Our friendship would serve as an example for both our people. It was supposed to be a show of faith between leaders.

  For nearly seven years, I’d spent six months on Earth with Declan, and then he’d spent six months with me on Sel’Ani. As far as I could tell, it only cemented a friendship between Declan and me. Everyone else hated each other as much as the day the treaty began, if not more so.

  The treaty would end in six months—just a few weeks shy of Declan’s eighteenth birthday. His father wanted him back by then so he could start working up SpaceTech’s ranks, just like his older brother Jason. I was beyond glad that this was the final day of my final stay on Earth. This place would never be home, and I was a couple months shy of my nineteenth birthday. I needed to start focusing on something other than the obligations of the treaty.

  Usually, Rysden’s family traveled with me, but tomorrow, he was leaving his wife and daughter behind. If they meant nothing to me, I would fight him on this, but they’d become my family, too. I couldn’t let this happen.

  “I know we have six months left in the treaty, but you cannot leave Amihanna here tomorrow. It’s getting bad here. It’s a death sentence for both of them.”

  Rysden looked off at something beyond me, and I wondered how much of this he already knew.

  �
�She’s only six years old, and she’s your daughter.” If things went badly—like we both thought they would—then Amihanna was in danger. “Don’t you want to protect her? To protect your wife?”

  “Of course I do!” His skin flared bright as he screamed the words. The fao’ana across his chest and arms burned with a bright blue light that was almost too bright to look at.

  He clenched his hands tightly and let out a long slow breath. As the air left his lungs, the glow of his skin dimmed a bit, but it didn’t go away. Not entirely.

  “By order of your father, the king—I’m to escort you home. As soon as I’ve followed through on that order, I’ll come straight back.” His voice was steady and calm again as if he hadn’t just lost his temper.

  “But why?”

  “I’m the head of the military. Apparently, I’m supposed to leave my family here as a show of my confidence in our alliance, even during tense times.”

  “That’s idiotic. No. Worse. It’s reckless.”

  “I had the same reaction you did, but your father worries that if Amihanna came with us, then it would be taken as an insult. It would say that I don’t trust the Earthers enough to leave my only child here.” He breathed out hard—a sign that he was trying to keep his anger in check.

  Seeing his struggle calmed me a little. At least we agreed about how stupid my father was.

  Rysden covered his mouth with his hand as he took in the rhythmic Aunare breath, slowly gaining his composure. After a moment, he dropped his hand and cleared his throat. “The important thing to remember is that we’ll have Declan with us. SpaceTech won’t act while we have one of its heirs, and if they move against us, at least we’ll have a bargaining chip.”

  “We’ll have a bargaining chip? I don’t want it to ever get that far.” That was unacceptable, and clearly he agreed if he needed breathing exercises to maintain his temper. “My father’s a coward. We can’t risk losing my betrothed just to stave off some stupid insult.” I was trying to think this through rationally, but there was no logic here. “I have this feeling that if we leave Amihanna and your wife here…”

  Rysden stared at the ground. “I have it, too.” His words were barely audible.

  “Then say something to him!” I gripped his wrist, pulled him toward me. “Tell my father no. For once in your god’s damned life, stand up to him!”

  I was yelling in his face, and he still couldn’t even look at me. I wouldn’t have thought he’d heard me at all, but his skin was slowly brightening again. Another sure sign that he was waging a battle inside himself.

  “I can’t.” His voice was soft and low. “If I go down that road…I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to follow your father again, and I have to wait. You and Amihanna are the ones that need to take over. You’re too close to being able to take the throne. As long as you’re twenty, we can make the argument that you’re ready. It might take us longer since you’ve split your time on Earth, but I have to hope that the people will see reason.” He sighed. “And in thirteen years, when Amihanna turns twenty, she’ll be old enough to rule at your side. Together, you’ll be unstoppable. You both are already a force together, and she’s only a child. You are our future.” He breathed out a slow, long breath, and his skin dimmed by a few degrees. “So, I’ll continue to guide your father’s decisions the best I can and bite my tongue when he doesn’t listen to reason and…”

  He was quiet again. I wasn’t sure he was going to say anything else.

  But then he looked at me. “It would be foolish of me to act against your father now. I can’t take over without starting a civil war. If that happened, SpaceTech would act, and we would lose everything.”

  But a year before I became king? Maybe more? How would we survive when even a few weeks might be too long to prevent disaster?

  The Aunare couldn’t afford to let my father rule for that long. He didn’t care about the mistreatment of Earthers at the hands of SpaceTech. He didn’t listen when our allies came to us with concerns about SpaceTech’s aggressive and violent expansion into their territories. And he certainly didn’t seem concerned when his own citizens were treated as worse than trash.

  For now, my father’s keep-the-peace mentality meant that the Aunare on Sel’Ani were happy and living a life of prosperity, but his complacencies would come at a high cost. Eventually, SpaceTech would make their move, and when they did, we wouldn’t be ready.

  My father would ruin us.

  There was a reason only the one with the proper fao’ana born on their skin could rule, and my father didn’t have them. He was born into the right family, and when his father died, there was no one to contest his taking the throne. That was it. But Rysden did have fao’ana. He could have ruled, but…

  Goddess take it all.

  Rysden was right. If he took the throne now, it would cause a civil war. We couldn’t afford to have our attention divided. Not now. Not when I was so close to being of age. Not when SpaceTech was waiting to strike at the most microscopic sign of weakness.

  “Then we can’t do anything.” I couldn’t quite believe it, but that’s what Rysden meant. “It’s already too late.”

  “You have time.”

  I dropped his wrist. “But if I leave Amihanna here, will she have time? Will she be okay?”

  I didn’t need to tell him who I was talking about. He knew.

  Amihanna was just a child. Our fao’ana showed that we were destined to be together—to rule together. That’s why our betrothal was put into place when she was a newborn and I was eleven. But that didn’t necessarily mean we’d wed. It was a suggestion of the possibility of future courtship.

  All I knew was that Amihanna had become an essential part of my life. When we were in the same room, our base frequencies moved to complement each other. When she was upset, mine matched hers and then calmed hers. When I thought I couldn’t take any more of my idiot father, she was the first person I went to see. It didn’t matter that all we did was build sandcastles or have a tea party. Just being in the same room with her was soothing.

  She was my mirror soul.

  My shalshasa.

  No distance or years or life could change what we were for each other.

  Balance.

  It was the key to every aspect of Aunare life. She was the one thing in the galaxy that would balance me, and I would do the same for her.

  I couldn’t—wouldn’t—leave Amihanna on a planet that was about to self-destruct.

  “You can do what you want, but I’ll not leave my family in danger. She’s coming with us.”

  “She’s not your family.” He blew out a breath. “Not yet. I don’t want to leave her either, but…”

  His resignation to what would happen had my heart pounding, my breath quickening, and my skin glowing bright. “But what?”

  “I’m dropping you off and leaving. I won’t even get off the ship. Just refuel and back. I have to have faith that she’ll be okay for a few days.”

  My fao’ana lit. “And if she’s not okay?”

  “She will be.”

  That wasn’t acceptable. “Will you stay with her? I can go home by myself. I can—”

  “I can’t risk you being ambushed alone.”

  The man was frustrating me to no end. “Then I’ll wait for the convoy to arrive and leave when they go back. Who cares if I’m late a few days?”

  “Please hear me, Lorne. If the treaty were ending now, I’d agree with you. I’d be running—no matter what your fool of a father said—with my family so far away that SpaceTech would never touch them. But right now, we can’t risk being the ones to break the treaty, especially for something so small.” He took a breath. “While we’re gone, Amihanna and Elizabeth will continue to be heavily guarded. They’re going to spend as much time in the underground shelter as possible, including nights. There are three escape routes from it. They know what to do if they need to run. It only takes five days at worst to get back—”

  No. That wasn’t good enoug
h.

  My fao’ana flickered. “A lot can happen in five days.”

  “It won’t.”

  I stood up. “If something happens to her after I leave—”

  He stood, facing me, meeting my gaze. “Nothing will happen. I’m sure of it.”

  I stepped close to him. My skin burning twice as bright as his, and with my fao’ana shimmering, I could burn his skin from his body with a thought. All I had to do was relax. Ever so slightly. “Swear it. Swear it to me that nothing will happen to Amihanna. That she will be safe when we leave. That you’ll come back for her immediately.”

  “She might be your shalshasa, but she’s my daughter. Believe me when I say she’ll be fine. When I get back, I’ll make an excuse to get them off this planet, and she will never come back to Earth. Not while things are this tense. But she has to stay here for now.”

  I turned away from him and pressed my fist into my stomach. This still didn’t feel right. “I just…I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to her. She will be the key to our survival. We should be protecting her, not leaving her behind.”

  “I don’t know how many times I can say it. You have to trust me—”

  A flash of light barreled into the room and straight at me. I had a fraction of a second to think before I caught her.