Chapter 1

It was darker now it seemed.

Darker than usual anyway at least as far as Yuri Moran was concerned, though not in terms of the weather, for the weather on Usu Ozeib 7 rarely varied. It was always dark in some manner as the sunlight actually only bathed the planet for four hours a day and the rest of the hours were spent in a perpetual gray color. The mood of the people was very different now than she remembered, more open than what her father had allowed, but yet much more subdued as well. She guessed that over twenty-five years of sustained warfare punctuated by short lulls would do that to you. The many purebloods and turned vampires who lived here were a more sullen bunch now as they moved about the surface of the planet, going about the daily chores of their lives. Many of the things they had taken for granted for so long were no longer available to them, and hadn't been for some time. While there was no poverty per say, there was definitely an upper and lower caste. Most of them had never and would never experience the horrors of the war with the Kavalian animals first hand. That was left to the High Coven Officers, the normal and cloned soldiers and the fleets that viciously guarded their planet and the thousands more throughout the Empire. The High Coven was no longer as large as it had once been, but then the Kavalians had never reached this far into High Coven space, though three attempts had been made throughout the over two decades of on-again, off-again sustained combat.

The initial invasion of the Kavalian and Zaleisian forces had taken two hundred and fifty-six High Coven planets in the first five years. The Kavalian Federation Imperium, as they now called themselves, though Yuri knew full well who ruled who in that regard, had poured across the borders of High Coven space in two different locations with just over five thousand ships and nearly twenty million of the savage, biogenic Kavalian ground troops. The first years of the war had been nothing but a scramble to survive as more High Coven planets were attacked at one time than they could possibly hold and defend. The actions of her father and then her mother when she had assumed power, which was rightfully hers anyway, had thrown the High Coven into chaos and disarray. Thousands of their men and hundreds of ships had betrayed them and defected to the Federation within the first few months after seeing what was aligned against them. Many of them were now long dead Yuri thought smugly, either killed by the Kavalians themselves for failing to do what was ordered or butchered horribly by High Coven forces in battle over the years when they were discovered or encountered. Traitors were looked down upon as the lowest kind of scum and they were treated as such.

It had not been until almost three quarters of the way through the third year of the war that the newly chosen High Coven Supreme Military Commander had finally been able to make a stand and throw the KFI forces back by force.

The Battle of Diela Luavor had signaled a new day to the High Coven forces, and soon after that they had begun making the KFI troops pay in blood for every single inch of High Coven territory and planet they claimed. The Supreme Commander had shoved backbone and courage back into his forces, and they began fighting as if their very existence depended on it, which it did. Two additional years of war had seen them lose another seventy-three planets, while only regaining nineteen, but then the KFI reached a point where they could not get past. Constant raids behind the enemy lines by Shrouded High Coven Fleets had ravaged their supply lines and two dozen covert missions by Immortals and Elite Shock Troopers of their Cloned Divisions had put fear into the minds of Kavalian leaders who were outside the control of the main forces. The High Coven's own cloning process had been streamlined and improved and they were able to field new troops almost as fast as the KFI. Troops that were better trained and led in many instances, but the Kavalians had superior numbers. The biogenic created Kavalian troops were utterly ruthless, savage and very hard to kill, though surprisingly it had been a misguided attempt by a rogue KFI leader to attack and hold a Lycavorian Union planet in the third year of the war that showed the Supreme Commander what his course of action should be.

Barely five thousand Union Spartans and fifty of their Mjolnir's Hand, led by that pig Leonidas and his lap dog Daniel Simpson, had turned back over twenty-five thousand Kavalian troops in a matter of weeks. They had butchering them almost to the last man, while Admiral Riall had set about obliterating their space fleet overhead. They had used surprise and superior training and skill to win that battle and the Supreme Military Commander took it to heart. It should have drawn the Lycavorian Union into the war but it hadn't. Many of the VHC officers and her mother had wondered what had held the Union back, and to this day no one knew what the answer to that question was.

The first five years of war were followed by almost five years of random and sporadic combat, but nothing like the initial invasion and subsequent early years. That had changed in the eleventh year when the KFI attacked once more in massive force and numbers. The High Coven fared much better this time because they were prepared, but still they were pushed back and only some reckless, yet brilliant military operations devised by the Supreme Commander saved the High Coven from total defeat after another five years of sustained combat. They had not fought any major engagements since the end of that second five year span, mostly minor but vicious encounters scattered across High Coven space. That was all about to change Yuri knew with the intelligence they had just been able to confirm. The intelligence that was forcing them to do something they had never thought possible.

Her mother was now the High Empress of the Coven, and while she was much more approachable than her father had ever been; her mother was far more vicious and devious when angered. That did not bother Yuri in the least, and she and her much younger sister Narice had no qualms about speaking with their mother in regards to anything. In truth ... they held nothing back from her, much as Yuri had once held nothing back from her father. This also allowed their mother to open up further to them, and they now knew she and Admiral Tesand would never part. Yuri hadn't thought it would last in the beginning ... but she had underestimated what the Admiral had given to her mother. It was something that her father Veldruk had never given her, and while she was still very stern and formal with Tesand in public, at least now she had become comfortable enough to show the man affection in front of family and those that her mother considered loyal. The last years had seen her become so much closer to her mother than ever before, mainly because she was now a mother herself but also because Narice was older and becoming her own woman. Yuri and Narice were close ... but not as close as Yuri would have liked. Her sister was very unique and much more introverted in many respects. She kept mainly to herself, studying endlessly from the data pads and history scrolls aboard the remains of the Mindvoice ship even though much of the ship had long ago lost any kind of power to it, as well as training with her dragon Deneth.

Yuri was a mother now and had given birth to four children total, yet she only truly cared about three of them.

Yuri Moran had given her devoted husband Robert three strong children, two very tough and handsome young men and a stunning daughter who was the youngest. The daughter she bore with the pureblood scum Vavant, who her father Veldruk had chosen for her, was the oldest at twenty-five but Yuri had no love for her and only a grudging respect for the skills she had developed all on her own. In fact Yuri hated her more than anything, mainly because she had taken the cerise colored dragon that had been meant to serve Yuri.

They had discovered the forty-three dragons in The Wilds after a Lycavorian Type I Dragon Transport had been damaged by Unsaur mercenaries out for revenge after that pig Leonidas had destroyed their base of operations within The Wilds for some perceived wrong they had committed. Forty-three of the dragon eggs and very young hatchlings had survived the crash of the ship. A High Coven intelligence operative who had been working on the planet and who had more brains than most had taken it upon himself to insure the eggs and very young hatchlings were spirited back within High Coven space before the Lycavorians could descend upon the planet in an effort to rescue them. The dragon eggs and hatchlings were a combination of breeds and almost immediately the eggs had begun hatching upon being placed in advanced incubators on Nuwaroa. Yuri had chosen the cerise colored male to serve her when it hatched, but those hopes were quickly dashed when the pure Firespitter dragon hatchling had shunned and refused her and then bonded almost immediately with her then eight year old daughter Carisia. It was a bond that no matter how much she tried to interfere with, only grew stronger. Yuri had finally given up and began working with another of the dragons that she favored, while three of the other new hatchlings bonded immediately with her other three children. It was a struggle for Dante at first, but over the years he and his dragon had become better at working together. As young as they were when they hatched, it was easy to control their very limited perceptions and for the most part shape their minds so that they considered themselves superior to any others, unlike the dragons that called the Lycavorian Union home. Yuri was very pleased now with Vollenth and the progress they had made together ... for they were a powerful and cruel pair when together, and Vollenth seemed to feed off of that from within Yuri, for he was very protective of her.

Yuri hated Carisia and that hatred carried over to her actions toward her as well. No matter how much Carisia did to try and win her affection and approval, Yuri put her down and made her feel small and unloved until finally Carisia eventually stopped. She had wanted to abort the pregnancy after the events with her father unfolded, but her mother convinced her to keep the child and secure the loyalty and support of Vavant's family. Once Carisia had been born, Yuri's mother Aikiro had her sent to Nuwaroa to be schooled and trained. When Vavant mysteriously ended up dead in an alley in the capital city only months after her birth, Aikiro had almost immediately dissolved their union and allowed her daughter to marry Robert Moran openly, removing the title of consort from him and giving him the title of husband. It was a day that Yuri relished, and it was also the day their oldest son was conceived.

Her sons Dante and Javier had their father's height while Lucia was slim and shorter like her. Her sons had the build of their father, well muscled and very well defined and they had continued to shape their bodies as they grew and became stronger not only physically but with their Mindvoice powers as well. Lucia trained beside her brothers and was equal in skill and Mindvoice abilities and considered an extremely lethal fighter by her Royal Instructors. All of them carried their father's last name as it was now customary among the younger generations ... those born within the last thousand years ... to take two names as opposed to one. Many took the name of their father as their last name. It was a human trait from Earth that had made its way even here as more and more humans were turned throughout the centuries, and it set them apart from the older generations of vampires. Yuri had been incensed when Robert told her Carisia should carry his name as well after he had killed Vavant, until he had explained it would allow them political capital in the future since many did not know who Carisia was, as hidden away on Nuwaroa as she had been for most of her life.

Yuri had acquiesced finally and now she saw the wisdom of that decision as she and Robert had given Carisia's hand to a much older pureblood. Arranging the Union had been joyous for Yuri as Thast was a swine of a man, vile and foul and one of the ugliest men she had ever seen. He was a cruel and competent officer and commander however and his family was powerful and knowing that Carisia had to endure his foul touch made shivers of delight sweep through Yuri every time she thought about it.

She...

"Yuri?" The male voice spoke from behind her and Yuri smiled an uncharacteristic smile that caused her cold, emotionless demeanor slip away and allow her real, exotic Asian beauty to come through. She turned slowly.

"I truly hate it when you sneak up on me Robert." She spoke gently.

Robert Moran grinned and moved close to her, heedless of the male and female officers and enlisted that crowded the corridors of the High Coven Military Headquarters. He wore the formal uniform that he always detested wearing, yet knew he had to wear in this building. Many rows of High Coven decorations dotted his lean, broad chest now and Yuri felt a warmth stir in her belly as she looked at him. He had come so far since she had turned him over five hundred years ago. He was a genome soldier at the time she met him, a creation of super enhanced DNA making him one of the Super Soldiers the government of that time so desired. She may have been a pureblood vampire, but somehow he had known what she was. He had taken her that first night, taken her roughly, but with a passion she had never tasted before. It was the third night she remembered vividly, and she had been sitting in his lap sweaty and sore after he had practically fucked her senseless. She had stared into his dark blue eyes long and hard and found knowledge within those orbs, cold, calculating knowledge. Robert had returned her gaze without flinching and only nodded his head. When Yuri tasted his blood that night she knew then she would never get enough of him. As more time passed and she lived her false life, she returned many times to see him for she found she craved his attentions to her.

Whatever he had accomplished after returning with her to High Coven space, he had achieved all on his own, to include her undying love and devotion. He had stood beside her through the highs and lows, his love for her never wavering in its intensity or power, and it was that love that had gotten Yuri through the first years of the war. A love she had almost lost by her own actions.

Moran took her hands in his, not going so far as to crush her to him openly, at least not in this setting. If they had been outside this building he would have lifted her into his arms and set her hair on fire with a kiss, as he had done many times before this day. Surprisingly ... the war had brought out many such emotions from the populous within the Empire, and her mother allowed it to occur when before Veldruk had forbid open displays of emotion.

"I don't normally accomplish that unless you are deep in thought." He spoke leaning over to kiss her forehead softly. It was a soft kiss of deep feeling and not the passionate ones he usually gave to her simply because of where they were.

Yuri blushed slightly and looked around. "Robert Moran we are in the corridors of the High Coven Supreme Commander's building. Such open displays of affection by the Princess of the Coven should not be for public eyes."

Moran grinned and did not release her hands from his. "Yes I know ... but the Supreme Military Commander of High Coven forces seems to think it is just fine between you and me."

Yuri couldn't help but smile at his expression. Perhaps it was because he was turned and not raised among the restrictive moral standards here on Usu'Ozeib 7, but Robert Moran was granted much freedom in his actions because of who he was and what he had accomplished over the last twenty-five years.

"I was thinking of everything that has led us up to this point." Yuri spoke finally as she dismissed protocol all together and slid her arms around his waist and allowed him to draw her close to him.

"Are you having second thoughts now? After so long and what we now know?" He asked.

Yuri drew back her head without releasing him. "About us?" She stammered.

Moran chuckled. "I meant about this plan we are about to undertake." He said touching her perfect skin. Her exotic oriental features had always been able to incite passion within him, and she was just as beautiful to him now as that first night.

"What other choice do we have?" She spoke. "Our intelligence is very accurate. Once my mother took a personal interest in the commander of the Intelligence Section, it has never been better."

Moran nodded. "Then we should go inside. The meeting is going to start soon, and your mother, Narice and our children came in ten minutes ago."

Yuri looked at him. "I suppose that wench Carisia is among them?"

"She is your daughter Yuri. And you know how your mother likes her family to at least observe these meetings." Moran spoke.

"Why do you even show her the least amount of sympathy Robert?" Yuri asked. "She is not of your blood. It was you who killed her father. I relish the fact that she must endure that idiot Thast slobbering all over her."

Moran grinned at her. "No ... but she is part of you Yuri. That gives her a step up on most others as far as I'm concerned." He spoke. "I may not like her Yuri ... that doesn't mean I have to let it affect how I treat her. She's a superior fighter, and she can do things with her dragon that our children and you can't, at least not yet. We need to respect that ... at least for now Yuri. When we get what we want from Leonidas and his ilk, we will be in far better shape to make demands."

"You believe he will help us then?" Yuri asked.

Moran nodded. "Like you said before ... it will be in his best interests to help us. If we are defeated by the Kavalians, they will most likely go after the Union."

Yuri met his eyes with a cruel glint. "Then you have made your decision in regards to what we discussed with Carisia as well?"

Moran nodded. "When we get what we want ... I'll take her out myself if that is what you wish to rid yourself of that part of your life." He spoke.

Yuri smiled and pressed her head close to his chest once more. "Thank you Robert." She said softly. "I..."

"Supreme Commander?" The voice broke into their moment.

Moran turned his head quickly annoyance in his eyes, but he kept his arms around Yuri. "What is it Lieutenant?"

"Everyone has arrived Admiral Moran." The young pureblood spoke quickly, his words nervous but clear. No one liked to interrupt Robert Moran for he had a volatile temper when roused.

Moran nodded and looked at Yuri with a smile. "Let's get this over with so I can take you home tonight and fuck your brains out." He spoke softly so only she could hear him.

Yuri grinned and squeezed his waist before releasing him. "I do so like the sound of that Supreme Commander of High Coven forces."

Her jungle green eyes gazed at the rising sun as it filled the balcony doors of her modest sized apartment in Palno City, while her fingers delicately stroked the coral red pendant she had worn for as many years as she could remember.

Sadi loved watching the sun rise over the far horizon, backstopping the majestic Palno Mountain Range only twelve kilometers to the east. She sat on the small cushioned bench just inside the open balcony doors of her small bedroom allowing the morning breeze to caress her flesh. Her apartment wasn't very large, only one of the three hundred and thirty in her building, but it was all hers. It was comfortably furnished with practical yet elegant furniture and several moderately expensive, yet stylish pieces of framed holo art on the walls. Half a dozen framed holo images also sprinkled the walls and surfaces across the apartment, most of them of her father and two older brothers. Sadi received a generous monthly stipend from her father and that she usually put towards purchasing things for her apartment and some rather expensive clothes that she hardly ever wore, if at all. Her father had paid for the apartment, and was now holding the deed for her until she graduated from the Union Fleet Academy.

The apartment and building had been newly built when she had returned to Apo Prime to attend the Union Fleet Academy and she had fallen in love with it almost immediately upon touring it. Unfortunately, when she inquired about purchasing the unit, she had been told all of them were long filled and far outside her range of income as an Academy Cadet to purchase. Disheartened she had begun searching for another place to live, until just a week before she was to enter the Academy, she got a transmission from the building's manager. He had told her the exact apartment she had toured when she had first seen the units had surprisingly become very available. Sadi knew then her father must have purchased it outright, for she had mentioned to him how much she loved it. She had scolded him sternly because of the cost and what he must have done to purchase it, even as well off as they were, but she loved him even more after that day. The small kitchen was fully modern, though her cupboards were only pseudo stocked with food. She spent most of her time transiting from Palno to Tuya, either to the University or the Fleet Academy and there was never time for her to fully sit down and eat a complete meal. The only thing she really kept a large supply of was the type of coffee she drank.

Sadi had discovered this brand of coffee while on the Royal Island Palace all those years ago and she was surprised to rediscover it in a small eatery in the Elven Quarter of Tuya, not far from Fleet Academy headquarters. It was a special blend of four different types of coffee bean found only on Earth that Queen Aricia had made while pregnant with Androcles in Sparta. She had spent days and weeks while pregnant, experimenting and blending certain amounts of each of the four bean blends to extract just the flavor she wanted. No one who had tried it could stop raving about it, and at her mother's suggestion Aricia had begun marketing it in the Merchant Quarters on Apo Prime. Over the past years it had quickly become one of the most sought after items to be found in the many café's on dozens of worlds across the Union. It was now an exclusive item that only one merchant supplier on Apo Prime had, but it succeeded in bringing customers back to her establishments for more. When Sadi inquired of the older Lycavorian woman who surprisingly owned and operated the eatery where she had purchased it, the woman just smiled and told her she would purchase extra each week just for her and only charge her the reduced price she got from her supplier.

Unbeknownst to Sadi, that supplier was Queen Aricia herself, and the eatery was one of three owned by the woman on Apo Prime and two that she owned on Earth, one in Eden City and one in Sparta. Sadi also didn't know that they were the only eating establishments that the members of Mjolnir's Hand and the Durcunusaan came too exclusively, for the owner was the mother of the Earth Sector Commander, Star Colonel Isra. The eateries were always busy when Sadi went to get her coffee or was just stopping in to have lunch with her friends. The patrons were very respectful and polite with many handsome, young male wolves that frequented the particular eatery she went to. Many of them were Durcunusaan soldiers in fact. Her friends were always popular among the men there, and they had made it known they were available, yet no one had ever approached her Sadi now thought to herself. None of those young men had ever tried to get her attention and for the first time she began to wonder why. The smell of the coffee filled her scent glands and drew her thoughts from that as she brought her other hand down from the pendant and held the mug tightly between her two hands only inches from her nose.

Sadi wore only the thin, almost transparent white robe of satin like material, which did little to hide her deeply tanned and svelte frame. She stood five foot seven inches tall, and her hundred and sixteen pounds was lean and muscular. Sadi had curves upon curves, from the full and very firm breasts topped by credit chip sized nipples, to the graceful slope of her hips and petite waist. Sadi had worked hard on her body over the past years, even more so since entering the Lycavorian Fleet Academy six years earlier. She was now a skilled hand to hand fighter, very fast and deceptively strong for her size.

Her golden blond hair was very long and wavy, cascading elegantly down around her face past her shoulders to the middle of her back, just above her impeccably shaped ass. Her hair framed high cheekbones and full, sumptuous lips. Her father had called her wolf nose adorable a few months ago, and she smiled at this description. She was still her father's baby girl even though she was now a hundred and twenty-seven years old and well beyond her Coming of Age, though for all her four attempts at relationships, none had ever lasted more than a few months. Not since those few days at the Island Palace she thought. Sadi was looking for something different in a male wolf ... something that would stir her in ways others could not. Many young Alphas had tried to get her attention, some of them even starting rumors about her when she rebuffed their attempts at drawing her interest. Sadi wanted more than what they had offered and part of her wondered if she would ever find that except in her dreams. When Sadi was in wolf form, she was larger than the average female wolf, a hundred and forty pounds of muscle and teeth. Unlike many of the females she knew, Sadi enjoyed immensely the time she spent in wolf form running through the timber of her father's estate. The King's return so many years ago had brought their people closer to their base instincts and now there were far more men and women both who would freely run about in wolf form rediscovering what their ancestors once cherished. Sadi was one of these people. Perhaps it was because of those nights and what it had done to her, but Sadi cherished it now.

She was a hundred and twenty-seven years old and no doubt the only female on Apo Prime her age to have experienced what she had in her very young life. Sadi did not often think back to that time almost twenty six years ago, but the events of her life then defined her as a woman and a wolf now.

She had been a tender eighty years of age, still very much a baby in Lycavorian terms, when the Vampire High Coven had used her step-mother to forcibly recruit her as a low level intelligence operative. Her step-mother had told her if she refused, information would be released on her father that would show him to be a collaborator with the High Coven. He would have been disgraced and banished or worse, executed as a traitor depending on the directives of the Senate. Sadi adored her father, those feelings only increasing after the death of her real mother in a transport accident. She had sworn to her mother's spirit she would always look after him, and in Sadi's mind she had been protecting him then with her actions. Twenty years of enduring the High Coven and her step-mother's directives, acting as a messenger or courier, or worse still being forced to bed with her depraved and disgusting half brothers. Sadi shuddered slightly, whether from the memories or the cool morning air it did not matter now.

Thanks to the elven female she had once tried to murder, her life had taken a dramatic turn for the better. Sadi had finally been able to slip off the evil and cruel bonds of High Coven servitude, surviving the battle that had raged for six agonizingly long hours on the Royal Island Palace, and earning the gratitude of not only For'mya Leonidas, who was now a Queen herself to the King, but also the King's most beloved Queen Aricia as well. Outside of those few who were members of Mjolnir's Hand and the Durcunusaan, Sadi didn't doubt she was one of only a handful who had fought beside dragons.

She remembered vividly those golden eyes of Elynth, and those incredible azure blue orbs of the boy Prince Androcles. Elynth had told her she was chosen because she could speak easily with the then dragon hatchling at the time. She had discovered some months later what For'mya had told her, that her Mindvoice skills, while only a Tier Two before the events of those few days, had since been elevated to a very strong beginning Tier Six level. No one had been able to explain it, but because of this fact Sadi was drafted to study in the First Oracle's new School of the Mages, in order to help her better learn to control her new level of Mindvoice abilities. An appointment that was, Sadi learned later, made by the First Oracle herself. Sadi had willingly studied there for six years total, throwing herself into her schooling to forget all that had happened, but since she did not want to pursue a life as an Oracle, Sadi had elected to enter into the newly established Annacdorne. An organization created by Queen Dysea to help others and Sadi had spent the next thirteen years devoting her life to people on under developed worlds in The Wilds.