Free Match Made in HeVan by Lucy Kelly Page B

Ben thought she’d never looked so beautiful.
    Looking neither right nor left, she walked straight to her husband. Putting her arms around his neck, she leaned in to kiss him hello. The kiss quickly turned hot and carnal. The sound of someone clearing his throat loudly finally had them remembering their surroundings. Laughing, Malpha pulled back her hands but not without first sending her nails down Ben’s chest and over his nipples.
    “Malpha, behave yourself. I would like to introduce you to someone,” he said with a smile.
    Turning to the man standing on the king’s left side, Malpha listened as Ben introduced Councilor RubEn. She held out her hand in greeting. She was surprised when he clasped it in a strong grip. She had expected him to touch the tips of her fingers only and to do so reluctantly.
    Suddenly, she was pulled forward and felt a sharp pain. She tried to cry out but was having trouble taking a breath.
    GemMa had left the shuttle at the end of the group and was walking toward the lounge carrying the queen’s smaller bag. She watched the king and queen greet each other. Looking away from their passion, she glanced at old Councilor RubEn standing beside them. He had such a look of anger and hatred in his eyes. She started to rush forward.
    Then she saw the king introduce his wife and a flash of metal; RubEn had stabbed the queen.
    “No!” she yelled.
    Swinging her arm, she smashed the queen’s bag into his elbow. As he fell back, she kept swinging the bag at him, beating him away from Malpha.
    Ben watched Malpha and RubEn greet each other when Malpha seemed to lose her balance and lurch forward. RubEn leaned over to steady her. Just as he took her arm, she straightened on a gasp and he heard GemMa shout and attack the councilor.
    “Stop, GemMa, what are you doing?” he released Malpha’s arm and stepped around her to come to the aid of the councilor, pulling GemMa off the man.
    Before he could ask her what was going on, someone behind him screamed. Turning to see if there was a new threat, he was just in time to catch Malpha as she crumpled to the floor. Looking down, he saw the knife sticking out from her ribs.
    He roared his anger. Looking over, he saw that others had stepped forward to take hold of RubEn. Ben yelled for a doctor, only to find that emergency aid was already on its way. Holding his wife still in his arms, he turned to make sure RubEn couldn’t attack again.
    “Why? Why did you try to kill my queen and unborn child?” he asked in a harsh voice filled with tears.
    “Don’t you see the havoc she’s caused in the short time she’s been here? She’ll change everything. I had to stop her, can’t you see that?” he explained in an eerily patient voice.
    “I see you’re insane. Take him away,” Ben said to the guards who had rushed over. He turned his head back to Malpha; the aid worker was trying to help her.
    “Majesty, I need you to let her go. We’re going to help her but you have to let us put her on the travel bed,” the man urged.
    Ben noticed they had wrapped padding around the knife. They couldn’t remove it until they had taken scans. When Ben finally pried his hands away, they quickly picked her up, and readied her for transport to the closest hospital.
    “Tell the doctors to save my queen and my daughter!” he said as they rushed away with her.
    The transport was too small for him to go along.
    PetruChio ran up to him, “Ben, I have a transport waiting. Let’s go. We’ll follow them to the hospital.”
    The two of them took off at a run, everyone backing away quickly from the look on the king’s face.

Chapter Ten
     
    Ben was only minutes behind Malpha getting to the hospital, but when he arrived, she had already been rushed into surgery. People were still getting out of his way so he took a deep breath and then approached the work station. The nurse looked up as he cleared his throat.
    “Majesty,” the young man said, looking around.
    He saw the