Jacinda's Challenge (Imperial 3) Read online

  Jacinda’s Challenge

  By M.K. Eidem

  Jacinda’s Challenge: The Imperial Series

  By

  M.K. Eidem

  Copyright © 2015 by Michelle K. Eidem

  Cover Design by Judy Bullard

  Edited by: [email protected]

  All rights reserved: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means. This includes electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without the author’s express written permission.

  All characters, places, and events in this book are fictitious or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events, locale, or organizations are strictly coincidental.

  License Statement

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Synopsis

  Jotham is King of the House of Protection. He is the youngest male ever to assume the position because of the sudden death of his father in Jotham’s twentieth cycle. In the forty cycles since becoming King, he married his life mate, Lata, and lost her in a transport accident. He had two sons and lost his youngest, Dadrian, due to his son’s own treachery. Now his first son, Barek, is interested in a woman and Jotham is going to find out everything about her that he can.

  Jacinda is from the House of Healing. She is the widow of an Assemblyman for the House of Protection. Stephan was her life mate even though he was twenty cycles older than her. His sudden death devastated her and if it weren’t for her three children, she isn’t sure she would have survived. In the cycles that have followed his death, she has learned to live with her loss and more importantly has learned that life can still be good.

  When Jotham summons Jacinda to the Palace, his only intent is for her to help him gather information on Amina, Jacinda’s great-niece. That plan goes out the window when Jacinda refuses. She challenges not only his right to interfere in Barek’s life but questions how he's lived his own since Lata’s death.

  Two strong personalities come together after having loved and suffered the loss of that loved one. Can they find enough common ground and courage to chance a new love? Or are they destined to live the rest of their lives alone?

  Prologue

  “Brac, have my personal transport brought around,” Lata told the head of her security detail.

  “Queen Lata, there is a stoirme approaching.”

  “I don’t care, Brac. I need to get out for a while. Inform the rest of the guards and have it brought around. I’m going to go see Barek and then I’ll be down.” Turning away, knowing Brac would follow her orders, Lata went to her son.

  “I don’t want to!” Lata heard her son’s angry words before she sees him and smiles. Her son is so stubborn, so like his father.

  “And just what is it that you don’t want to do, young man?” she asks as she enters the room.

  “Mama!” The angry, little-boy look immediately leaves Barek’s face at his mother’s words. Running across the room, he jumps into her arms knowing she will always be there for him, will always catch him.

  “Hello, baby.” Lata wraps her arms around her son’s small body, kissing the top of his head before staring down lovingly at him. “So what is it you don’t want to do?”

  “I don’t want to study, Mama! I want to play! I want to play with you!” He wiggles until his mother sets him down, takes her hand, and tries to pull her deeper into the room. “Come play with me, Mama!”

  “Oh, Barek, I wish I could but I’m going out.”

  “Can I go with you, Mama? I always learn so much more with you.” His violet eyes plead with her and he gives a smile so like his father’s that it melts her heart. That smile had gotten him out of more scrapes with her than anything else. She just could never tell him no and the little scamp knew it.

  Lata almost gave in. She loved spending time with her son. He always made the worst day bearable, but today she needed some alone time; time not to be the Queen, not to be a wife, not to be a mother, to just be her. Lata. A woman. She could not do that if Barek were with her.

  “Your argument is very convincing, young man, and one day you will be an amazing Consul, but today you need to stay here with Nana.”

  “But, Mama, you always say you have more fun when I’m with you.”

  “And I do. I’ll tell you what,” she said quickly, her look stopping him from saying more. “You stay here and be a good boy for Nana and when I get back, we will go play in the gardens.”

  “But, Mama…”

  “Enough, Barek!” Lata cringed at how sharp her words were. She really needed to get away. “I need to go.” She pulls her hand from his and watches him cross his little arms across his chest, his eyes glaring at her. “You do as I say, young man, or I won’t come back to see you today.” Spinning around, she leaves the room.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Lata was cursing herself as she drove through the strengthening stoirme. Why hadn’t she listened to Brac? Why hadn’t she stayed and played with Barek? Jotham was going to be so angry when he finds out she was out in this… and he had every right to be.

  This was not an ordinary stoirme. This one had released its baisteach all at once, and now the roads were flooding making driving treacherous. If she hadn’t been on the narrow road when it had started, she would have pulled over and allowed one of her guards, that were behind her, to drive. Instead, she forces herself to concentrate on her driving, to focus on making it home safely to her family. She finally relaxes as she rounds the final curve at the bottom of the hill.

  A sudden rumbling sound catches her unaware and her eyes widen as she sees the hillside in front of her begin to move. Slamming on her brakes, she tries to stop her forward momentum but it is too late. The road is gone and the landslide sweeps her transport away.

  “Jotham! Barek!” she screams, her last thoughts on her husband and son.

  Chapter One

  Jotham entered the royal tomb and froze, surprised to find Barek sitting on the bench Jotham had placed in front of Lata’s final resting spot shortly after she met the ancestors. He was about to speak when Barek reached out to run a reverent finger over his mother’s mouth in the portrait Jotham had carved into her tomb. He must have made a sound because Barek suddenly stiffened and looked his way.

  "Father," he said pulling his hand away.

  "Barek. I didn't realize you had returned to the Palace. I thought you would have stayed longer at the House of Knowledge."

  “Victoria and Lucas were anxious to start their honeymoon. I can’t blame them, not with the Guardian leaving so soon. So there was no reason to stay.”

  “Not even Amina?” Jotham watched his son’s reaction carefully.

  “Amina? What are you talking about?” Barek raised an eyebrow at him.

  “You seemed interested.”

  “Amina is a child.” His gaze returned to his mother.

  “I was under the impression that she was the same age as Victoria.”

  “She is, but she hasn’t had the same life experiences Tori has.”

  “No, but the first nine cycles of her life were spent on the Retribution. She has also been working with her father on the cyclotron propulsion system. I would say she is very mature for her age.”

  “What has you so interested in her, Father?”

&nbs
p; “You were immediately at her side when Stannic appeared.” Jotham again watched his son closely.

  “She needed to be protected and I was the one closest to her.”

  “I see. My apologies, I must have misunderstood.” Jotham looked to his wife’s tomb. “Why are you here?” When Barek didn’t immediately answer, Jotham gave him a sharp look. “Barek?”

  “I found I couldn’t remember her smile,” Barek finally admitted quietly.

  “What?” Jotham couldn’t hide his shock.

  “Tori had visuals of her family and I realized she looked like her mother. When the Chamberlains were rescued, even with Cyndy so sick, the resemblance was undeniable. Today at the Union, I realized that her brother, Brett, has Cyndy’s smile too. That while he is her son, a part of her still lives on in him. It made me wonder about Mother’s smile. If any of her lived on in me. This is the only place where I could come and see her.”

  “You know her royal portrait is in my private office.”

  “Yes, but as you said, it is your private office and I would never think to enter it without your knowledge. Here,” Barek gestured to the tomb, “is the only other place besides the archives that has her image, and I couldn’t remember…”

  Jotham was at a loss for what to say to his son. When Lata died in a transport accident, Barek had only been five cycles and Jotham had been devastated. The pain he experienced every time he saw her image somewhere in the Palace had been unbearable. Therefore, he ordered them taken down, all except the one in his private office. That one he had covered. It took him nearly a cycle before he could finally uncover it. He had never given a thought to the fact that Barek might need to see her.

  “I’m sorry, Barek. You should have said something. I never considered you would want a visual of her.”

  “You did what you needed to do.” Standing, Barek turned to face him. “I knew how it upset you to hear her name, so I would just sneak out here to see her.”

  “You shouldn’t have had to.”

  Barek just shrugged his shoulders. “It no longer matters, Father, and I have my answer.”

  “Which is?”

  “I am my Father’s son. I have nothing of my mother in me, which is what I deserve.” Spinning on his heel, Barek left the tomb.

  Jotham silently watched his son leave, too stunned by his words to try to stop him. What did he mean, ‘which is what I deserve?’”

  Moving, he sat down and looked to Lata. “What have I done, Lata?” he asked. “How have I failed not only you but our son?”

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Jotham let his mind wander back to when he first met Lata. It had been at the start of his fourth cycle at the Academy. He and Will Zafar had been joking around on their way to class. Will had pushed him as a dark-haired girl, chatting with another girl, stepped out of an open door. Lata’s books went one way and Lata the other. Jotham had barely caught her before she hit the floor. She’d looked up at him with her incredible, brown eyes and he had been captivated.

  He silently thanked the ancestors when he found out she was from the House of Protection, for he knew his father would never allow him to pursue her otherwise. The heir to the throne was not permitted to have a Union with anyone outside of his House and Jotham quickly realized that Lata was his life mate.

  Jotham courted her for two cycles. It nearly killed him when he finished his last cycle at the Academy and went to serve his mandatory time in the Fleet. Royal family members were only required to serve one cycle in the Fleet. But he and Lata had kept in contact and she’d encouraged him to serve another cycle when he told her how much he enjoyed his duties. She still had another cycle in the Academy and then she could join him in the Fleet.

  Lata had been excited to get into space, had been excited for it to be just ‘them’, away from all the prying eyes. Jotham had too, but it seemed the ancestors had other ideas. Jotham returned to Carina for Lata’s graduation and as they prepared to go back to the Fleet, Jotham received word that his father and mother, King Kado and Queen Johanna, died in an accident.

  Jotham and the entire planet had been in shock. With King Kado’s sudden death, Jotham became the youngest person in Carinian history ever to assume a throne. At that moment, Jotham’s world forever changed.

  There was no way he could return to the Fleet and there was no way he was letting Lata go without him. Twenty days after his birthmark filled with color, Jotham took the throne and became the King of the House of Protection.

  The next day, he made Lata his Queen.

  Lata had been his rock through the entire ordeal. Never once had she faltered or complained. She had fully supported him as he assumed the responsibilities that so often took him away from her even as she struggled to understand her own responsibilities. They had both believed they would have cycles to learn about those responsibilities, but they’d been wrong.

  They had both been so young at their Union and thought that as long as they were together they could handle anything. They had already decided that they wanted to wait a few cycles before they would start their family, giving each of them the time they needed to adjust to their new lives. Then Lata conceived.

  It had been a joyous time in the House. It had also been a stressful time, for Lata insisted she continue her duties as Queen. However, she became so ill that the Royal Healer ordered her to remain in bed. Jotham tried to spend as much time with her as he could, but there was only so much time in the day.

  Barek’s birth had not been easy for Lata, and Jotham decided then and there that he would make sure he never forgot to take the Ollali juice again. Not until Lata was ready for a second child. She had died before that happened.

  After Barek had been born, Lata became restless and returned to her Queen’s duties. However, the enthusiasm she had for her duties was not the same as before she conceived. Classmates began returning from their tours with the Fleet telling Lata their tales of adventure. Lata felt it was the tour Jotham and Lata were supposed to take together. The adventures they were supposed to have together. Instead of her being able to experience them, she had become a mother and a Queen, all by the age of twenty.

  Jotham had tried to be understanding. He knew that Lata’s dream had been to travel the stars, a dream she’d willingly given up for him. Lata seemed to settle, seemed to return to her old self, but only after he finally allowed her to escape the Palace by driving her own transport. He hadn’t liked it, but it seemed to give her the freedom she craved, and she returned to being the gentle, loving woman Jotham had fallen in love with.

  “I shouldn’t have allowed it, Lata,” Jotham spoke quietly, raising tortured eyes to her portrait. “If I hadn’t, you wouldn’t have been driving that day. You wouldn’t have lost control. You wouldn’t have died and then Barek would know that while he doesn’t have your smile, he has your laugh and your gentle ways. Not that he reveals either very often.” Reaching out, he gently caressed her cheek. “What am I to do, Lata? I know what I saw today. Barek is interested in this girl, but can she handle being his Queen? I need your help, Lata. Our son needs your help.”

  A warm breeze brushed his cheek. It was his only answer and he lowered his head. After several moments he rose, kissing his fingers and placing them on her lips. “I will talk to you later, my love.”

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Jotham entered his outer office to find Chesney, his personal aide, sitting at the desk he always seemed to be at. He rose as Jotham entered.

  “Majesty, I’ve compiled for you the list of Assemblymen that will be attending the Annual Ball next week.”

  “List?” Jotham frowned at Chesney. “Chesney, I know who my Assemblymen are.”

  “Yes, Majesty, but if you remember there are several new ones with the recent elections. I’ve compiled a biography on each so you will be more familiar with them.”

  “Yes, of course. Thank you, Chesney.” Taking the folder, Jotham entered his office and began to read.

  Jotham frowned as he
opened the last folder and looked at the visual. Why did this man look so familiar? Learning his name, his frown grew. Danton Michelakakis? Reading on, his eyes widened.

  Was this possible?

  Could one of Stephan Michelakakis’ sons really be old enough to be an Assemblyman? Suddenly he realized he had just done the same thing Barek had with Amina because Danton had been born a cycle before Barek. He remembered how proud Stephan had been when he announced the birth of his first son, remembered how the man had shown everyone Danton’s first visual, including Jotham.

  Where had the time gone?

  Leaning back in his chair, Jotham began to remember more about the Assemblyman that had died suddenly ten cycles earlier. Stephan had been an outspoken Assemblyman with strong beliefs and passionate delivery. He’d had definite ideas about what the House of Protection’s role should be in the Coalition. Some Jotham had agreed with, others not so much, but all were well thought out and always presented with respect.

  Jotham also remembered Stephan’s wife… what was her name…? Looking back to the file in his hand he found it.

  Jacinda...

  Yes, that was it. She’d been a stunningly, beautiful woman. A great deal younger than Stephan, if Jotham remembered correctly. She’d also been from the House of Healing, her father being a powerful Assemblyman there. It had caused some debate within the Assembly, some felt that an Assemblyman’s wife should be from the same House. It was an unrealistic expectation and Jotham had quickly weighed in, silencing Stephan’s critics.

  It had proven to be the right choice, for Stephan had gone on to be an Assemblyman whose opinion Jotham could rely on. His death, shortly before the destruction of Earth, had left big shoes to be filled and no one really had. Perhaps his son would.