Guarding the Goddess Read online

  Guarding the Goddess

  A Kindred Tales Novel

  Evangeline Anderson

  www.evangelineanderson.com

  Guarding the Goddess, 1st Edition,

  A Kindred Tales Novel

  Copyright © 2020 by Evangeline Anderson

  All rights reserved.

  Cover Art Design © 2020 by Reese Dante

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writers’ imagination or have been used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to a retailer of your choice or evangelineanderson.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only.

  Any person depicted on the cover is a model.

  Contents

  Guarding the Goddess

  Author’s Note

  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

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Epilogue

  The End? Of course not!

  Lock and Key

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

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  Also by Evangeline Anderson

  About the Author

  Guarding the Goddess

  A Queen in need of a Bodyguard

  A Warrior who is determined not to love her

  But what happens when she needs him

  To Quell the Heat inside her?

  With Ty and Ellina survive his quest of...

  Guarding the Goddess?

  Y’res the Fourth—otherwise known as Ellina—the newly crowned ruler of Helios Beta, has a problem: someone is trying to kill her. There has already been one assassination attempt on her life and she fears that soon there will be another. She needs someone to guard and protect her—someone she can trust. Which is why she calls on the Kindred.

  Commander Ty'rial is a Kindred warrior in the Elite Espionage Corps. He takes the job of guarding the new ruler of Helios Beta with some reservations. For Ty is a Modified Kindred—his DNA was manipulated before his birth to make him the perfect slave, fit only to serve a spoiled, rich Mistress. Rejecting this fate, Ty has made his own way in life and he has no interest or intention of falling for a female in power—even one who feels frightened and powerless, as Ellina does.

  Two worlds collide when Ellina admits her fear and Ty begins to see her as a person—not just a Potentate. Feelings between them grow but they can never be together—for Ellina must choose a consort from among her own people—one who can give her an heir with the same Sacred Blue skin tones which she alone possesses. But when another assassination attempt and a villainous plot sets off Ellina's Heat Cycle, can the two of them stay apart?

  And will either of them ever be the same after Ty is tasked with...Guarding the Goddess?

  Author’s Note

  Though Guarding the Goddess may be read as a stand-alone book, you will probably enjoy it more if you read the previous Kindred tales novel, FALLING FOR KINDRED CLAUS.

  Hugs and Happy Reading!

  Evangeline

  One

  Y’res the Fourth, the newly crowned Potentate of Helios Beta, paced her royal apartment, her hands clasped behind her back, a frown of worried concentration on her face. Her sleeping chamber was all it should be—her bed hung with gold cloth and the walls covered in murals grown of the soft ura moss depicting her ancestors ruling the people, but she had no eyes for the grandeur around her. It had been only a week since the assassination attempt at the Feast of all Feelings during her coronation and now she was called upon to appear in public again.

  Another appearance. Another chance to die, she thought, her stomach fisting tightly as she paced. Another assassin could be out there, waiting.

  And this time they might succeed.

  She brushed a strand of hair behind one ear and felt her chewchie, Lor, scramble nimbly to one side to avoid her hand. It might have been hard for an onlooker to see the small, fluffy creature who was so much more than her pet. He was the same color as her hair—the same color as her skin and eyes, for that matter.

  Sacred Blue.

  The brilliant, royal blue color was a rare mutation of the usual skin color of her people. The Chorkay came in every shade of blue from a pale blue-gray to bright turquoise but only those royal females with the Sacred Blue hair, skin, and eyes were deemed fit to lead their people. It made Y’res the Fourth, not only a ruler, but a goddess among her kind.

  But even a goddess can be killed, she thought grimly. By someone determined enough to see her die.

  And her death would mean disaster for her people.

  Currently, she was the only female besides her grandmother, who had passed the crown to her, who had the Sacred Blue skin and the mandate of the Chorkay god, Thufar, to rule. Which meant if she was wiped out, her kingdom would fall into chaos. It was her duty to lead her people well, and to produce an heir as quickly as possible—a female who had the same Sacred Blue skin and eyes who would take the crown when she was deemed ready and worthy to do so. It was the only way to ensure the throne and the continued peace and prosperity of her planet.

  Produce an heir. Right, she snorted to herself. If only it were that easy.

  She had only been crowned a week ago—she certainly wasn’t ready to look for a proper consort yet. A man of noble birth and a skin color as close to Sacred Blue as possible in order to be certain that at least one of their daughters would also have the royal skin tone.

  The thought of doing that—of taking a consort and having his baby—turned her stomach. She knew what the nobles thought of her—had known it from an early age. The common people loved their queen—their “Goddess in the Flesh” as the reigning Potentate was often called. But they only
saw her from afar. The nobles were close enough to see her differences—to understand that her Sacred Blue skin was not the only mutation she carried…

  Suddenly her chewchie, Lor, scampered down her arm and perched on the back of her wrist. He looked up at her, with his wide, dark, liquid eyes and spoke.

  “Ellina, my dear, are you tying yourself in knots again?”

  The voice was familiar and she knew it wasn’t her chewchie who was speaking. Rather, it was her grandmother speaking through him.

  Because it was so important that there always be a female with the Sacred Blue skin to rule Helios Beta, they were almost never allowed in the same place together. This was a hardship for Ellina, who wished she could spend more time with her grandmother in person.

  However, their chewchies were linked, which meant they were able to communicate constantly—a true blessing, especially when she felt in need of guidance, Ellina thought. Also, she liked that her grandmother still called her by her first name—everyone else in the palace referred to her only by her title now. Y’res the Fourth sounded so stiff when she had been Ellina all her life up until a week ago.

  “I’m all right, Grandmamma,” she murmured, speaking to Lor and knowing that the little chewchie would send her words telepathically to his counterpart—her grandmother’s ancient old chewchie, Shel—who would speak them with her own voice to her grandmother. “I’m sorry,” she added. “Were my feelings disturbing you?”

  Normally a chewchie would only convey thoughts and emotions to another if it was part of a matched pair. But though Lor and Shel were not mated, they shared a special link because of their Sacred Blue color, (though Shel was so old she was more silver than blue at this point.)

  Lor, like Ellina herself, was unmated and likely to remain so. Sacred Blue chewchies were almost as rare as the nobles they were paired with. In fact, it was said that the Chorkay god, Thufar, would not allow any egg to hatch a Sacred Blue chewchie until a worthy candidate to be paired with one was found.

  Lor’s egg had hatched on Ellina’s third name day—which was the usual time for a child to be paired with his or her chewchie for life. She had looked into his liquid black eyes and stroked his soft, Sacred Blue fur and an instant and life-long bond had been formed in that moment. The little chewchie was her constant companion and the only one in the world—besides her grandmother—that Ellina trusted completely.

  “What’s that about not trusting anyone?” Lor asked in her grandmother’s voice and Ellina realized her thoughts were going through their shared connection as well. Her anxiety must be broadcasting loud and clear to sharpen the link between the two chewchies so drastically. “Don’t you trust the new Kindred guards our allies sent us?” Lor continued, somehow managing to speak in the exact tone of gentle reproof that Ellina knew her grandmother was using. “The commander, especially—the one assigned to you—seemed very sincere when he swore his oath of loyalty. You ought to trust him, at least”

  “I…suppose I trust him because you do,” Ellina said reluctantly. In fact, the big Kindred, Commander Ty’rial was so aloof and businesslike it was difficult to know how she felt about him. “I guess I’m just missing Guffin,” she admitted.

  Guffin had been her bodyguard and the captain of her own personal royal guard from the time she was a little girl. A battle-hardened soldier and the scarred veteran of many campaigns though he was, the old guard had always been gentle and kind to her, especially after her father and mother had been assassinated, not long after her fifth name day. He had been utterly devoted and loyal beyond question—someone Ellina knew would die to protect her.

  Which is probably what happened, she thought, feeling a mixture of grief and guilt course through her.

  A few weeks before the coronation, Guffin had taken ill. So sick was he that Lord Kikbax, the High Priest of Thufar, had even sent his own personal physician to look in on him.

  The High Priest was a blustering, officious man whom Ellina had never cared for but she had been grateful for his care of Guffin. Yet, even his physician seemed unable to cure the old soldier. A “wasting disease,” he called it and indeed, Guffin—who had been so fit and hale despite his sixty years—had wasted quickly away to a mere shadow of himself. And then illness had led to death—and all within a matter of weeks—so quickly that Ellina was still reeling from his loss.

  She closed her eyes, remembering how she had held the old guard’s hand as he drew his last breaths, his pale blue eyes sunken in his grayish face…

  “So sorry…to leave you, little one,” he’d rasped, clutching her fingers in his rapidly weakening grip. “Especially just before…your coronation.”

  “Don’t speak so! You’re not leaving me—you’re not going anywhere.” Ellina had fought back tears and tried to smile, to keep a positive note in her voice as she spoke. “You’ll be right behind me, guarding me, for the coronation and every day after that. See if you’re not!”

  But Guffin had shaken his graying head. His chewchie moved feebly at the gesture of negation—it too, was dying by then, since a chewchie could not live without its host.

  “I am sorry, little one,” he had whispered. “But now, unto Thufar, I must go. Trust Fundreg—he will be my replacement. I have trained him well.”

  And then he had given one last, deep breath and his eyes no longer saw her. His chewchie—a small black beast with silver stripes in its fur—had uttered a terrible wail and breathed its last as well—following its master into death.

  “Guffin? Guffin, don’t leave me!” Ellina hadn’t wanted to believe the old guard was gone. She had sat there, holding his hand and hoping for another word, another breath, until Lor had sat up on her shoulder and began a soft, sad howling filled with grief and respect.

  It was the death howl which brought Ellina to her senses and made her realize that Guffin was truly gone. The chewchies performed it for one of their own who had served faithfully and well and they were never wrong. Sadly, she had released Guffin’s hand—already going stiff and cold in her own—and left the room. She had hoped that his last words of advice would carry her through the difficult time to come.

  But her old bodyguard had been deceived in his replacement. Fundreg and all the royal guards under him had been bribed to look the other way during the coronation when a terrorist posing as an Ambassador from the Southern continent had tried to kill both Ellina and her grandmother at the same time. If it hadn’t been for the quick intervention of a Kindred diplomat, they would both be dead and chaos would rein.

  Ellina knew that Guffin could never have been bribed to let her be assassinated—he would have put his dagger hilt-deep in the guts of anyone who even suggested such a thing to him. So now she wondered if maybe the “wasting sickness” that had taken him had really been a sickness at all. Perhaps it had been a slow-acting poison instead—one which mimicked all the signs of the disease and got her faithful old guard out of the way so that the attempt on her life could be made in the first place.

  He died because of me, she thought, guilt and grief rising inside her like a dark tide. Because he couldn’t be bought and they knew it.

  “I know you miss Guffin,” Lor said in her grandmother’s voice. “But Ellina, my child, his death is not on your head. You do not know for certain that it was poison and not the wasting sickness that took him.”

  “No, and we never will know now—since he’s already been burned in state and the ashes scattered in the desert above,” Ellina said, frowning. Her kingdom was entirely underground, burrowed deep under the vast, shifting dunes that covered the upper world. And that was where Guffin’s ashes were now—mixed with the green sands—irretrievably gone.

  When Kikbax, the High Priest had offered the old guard such a splendid funeral, which was usually reserved for nobles and royalty, Ellina had agreed gratefully. She loved the idea of a common guard being so honored, so that everyone could know his true worth—including the snotty, self-centered nobles who surrounded her in daily palace life. Guff
in had been worth more than all of them put together, as far as Ellina was concerned and it pleased her to see them have to go to his funeral, though he had been considered beneath them in life.

  Now, though, she wished she hadn’t been so hasty to agree to the rites. Maybe a more thorough examination of her old bodyguard’s remains would have revealed something—though she could barely stand to think so. Something she ought to know…

  “You’re letting your imagination run away with you, my child,” her grandmother scolded through Lor. “You must stop being so paranoid and looking over your shoulder—trust the new guards the Kindred sent to us. Remember that I told you the Kindred will never hurt a woman—they revere all that is feminine and worship a female deity. They are consummate warriors too—you are safe in their hands and they will not leave until a new personal guard has been trained and vetted for you.”

  “Yes, Grandmamma—I know you’re right,” Ellina said dutifully. “It’s just so difficult to trust someone I barely know. This new guard—this Commander Ty’rial—is nothing like Guffin. He’s so cold—so businesslike. I know he’s bound to fulfill his oath to keep me safe at all costs, but it seems like he doesn’t care if I live or die.”