“Yes. And why I made myself look—”
“In need of protection?” I provided my own answer. I did not know what she would have said, but I doubted I would approve of any word she chose. Fragile. Weak.
“Non-threatening.” She began to stroke my chest with one hand. I had no idea if the action was unconscious or deliberate. Either way, the contact did not help me focus on her words—until what she said shocked me. “But you saw through me. How? No one else ever did. Not once. Not even—”
“Your mate?” She stopped petting me. I never should have mentioned Helion, but he was already in the room.
She was quiet far too long. I wondered what she was thinking. Feeling. Did she regret leaving him behind? For the first time that night, I resented the intimacy of the darkness surrounding us, wished I could look into her eyes.
“Yes. The commander. I should have told him.”
“He should have asked.” I was not going to help her make excuses for that selfish—
“He did.”
What the fuck?
She resumed stroking my chest through my uniform. “I—distracted him.” She sounded like a naughty child.
“What did you do?”
Arousal. Wet heat. Her scent assaulted me as whatever thought she had wreaked havoc on her body. And mine. My heart pounded. My cock was hard and heavy. Ready to fill her. Fuck her. Make her come.
Fuck. How was I going to keep my hands off her for two more days? I didn’t want to push her, officially claim her, until the mission was over. We were going into battle. I would not claim her and leave her in a span of hours. Not after everything she had shared.
There was one vital piece of information missing. I needed to know who to kill.
“Who took you from Earth?”
“Those fanged criminals from Rogue 5.”
“What color were their armbands?”
“What?”
“The males who took you from Earth. What color was the band they wore on their arms?”
She stilled. “Why?”
“There are five legions on Rogue 5. I want to know which legion I should hunt.”
“Oh. I thought they were all the same.”
“No. Each legion has its own laws, set and enforced by their leader.”
“But they are all criminals.”
“Yes. Strictly speaking, but they have a unique code of honor, and they protect their own. Two of the legions are respected by the Coalition. One is—irrelevant.”
“The last two?”
“Vile. There are few limits to the evil they are capable of.”
“Like a group of competing mafia families.”
“I do not know this term, mafia. I only wish to know the color they wore.”
“Blue.”
