14
Mikos, Sixteen Hours Later
The metallic tasteof blood lingered on my tongue. My mouth was dry as cracked paper. The pounding in my head worsened when I opened my eyes, the faint illumination in the underground holding cell like liquid daggers in my eyes.
They drugged me.Smart, as I wasn’t opposed to killing them.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know if I’d been locked in this prison for twelve hours or twelve days. If they’d given me the usual dose, I’d probably been down for half a day.
I didn’t know if Breanna made it to Astra or if she had received the antidote. I didn’t know if she was alive or dead. I’d been forced to trust Ruk and Shade. They weren’t exactly friends, but I didn’t think they would do anything to harm my female.
After the first bite, the one required to save her life on the Hive ship, I never should have touched her. Never should have bitten her. Never should have fucked her with my mating fist locked to her body, claimed her in every way. She was mine, andshe had no idea what I’d done. Fuck the Coalition Fleet. Fuck Earth. Breanna was mine.
Even now, I wasn’t honorable enough to regret any of it. Not one time that I had both fangs and cock buried deep. I’d warned her. I was no noble warrior of the Coalition, fighting to save the universe from evil.
I didn’t fucking care about evil. I cared about Rogue 5, Astra Legion, about my people, my family, my Forsian brothers. I cared about Breanna, my mate. That was it. Everyone else in the universe could go fuck themselves. I’d lie to protect the people on this moon. Cheat. Steal. Kill. I had no rules and no boundaries when it came to protecting what was mine. I’d spent nearly half a century alone, without hope of finding a mate.
The day I eliminated Tarduk of the Silver Scions, I’d done it because the evil bastard needed killing. He tortured females and children. I’d caught him with a five-year-old male from Cerberus Legion.
Cerberus Legion was no ally of Astra. I could have walked away. Could have let it go. But the child’s screams woke the monster in me. Leaving the child to his fate was not an option. Didn’t matter that the Scions were given diplomatic immunity on Rogue 5 due to the quantity of high dollar tech they sold to the Legions. They were supposed to be untouchable. Free to come and go in all Legion territory. Treated like valued guests with autonomy to do whatever they wanted, short of killing one of us.
Not that night. I’d removed the fucker’s head and told the boy to run. He had, not looking back. I’d confessed to my leader, Astra. She’d helped me leave, given me a ship and a smuggling route that would allow me to help my Legion and keep me out of sight.
Neither of us anticipated the rage of Tarduk’s vile brother, Drakdak. The bounty on my head could literally pay for a smallspace station or a fully armed battleship. Ruk had not been jesting.
I respected Shade’s need to collect the bounty. He had not explained himself to me, and I did not ask why he needed the reward, but I believed him. He was one of the few reasonable males in Siren Legion, had dedicated his life to doing what he could to protect his own people. I could not fault him. Business was business.
If I could have, I’d have turned myself in for that large a sum.
Shade would be paid at the hearing. If Drakdak was on Rogue 5, they probably would have executed me already. The assholes who dragged me down here taunted me with the information that he would arrive within a day. They were saving the spectacle of my death for the vile fucker. With no idea how long I’d been out, I knew one thing, his arrival, and my possible execution, were imminent.
Which meant I had to figure out a way out of this mess now so I could get back to Breanna. I’d been on the run for eight years, alone for much longer. Breanna’s existence awakened something dark and dangerous within. Life or death had never mattered much to me before her. Now, I wanted to live. I wanted to be with her, watch her grow old, sleep with her in my arms every night.
I could do none of those things if I were dead.
“Get out of my way.” Breanna’s voice carried to me from farther down the corridor outside my cell. I rose from the pathetic excuse for a mattress and walked forward to grip the heavy metal bars. The cell was equipped with an energy barrier as well, but Rogue 5 didn’t care much for fancy tech when brute force worked just fine.
“Mikos of Astra Legion is being detained.”
“Oh, I know. I’m not asking you to let him out. I want to go inside. I need to see him. Now.” Yes. That was my female, andshe did not sound intimidated by whatever fucker they’d left here to guard me.
“This is not a scheduled visit. I cannot allow?—”
“Mikos is her mate. Get out of her way or I’ll kill you myself.” That deep voice belonged to Barek, Astra’s mate. Relief flooded me. This wasn’t my imagination. Breana was here. Alive and well. Protected by one of the few Forsian hybrids I’d known since I was young. Barek wasn’t as old as I, but he was no young, impulsive idiot. He was big, mean, and almost as good at killing.
“I’m not—ummm—” Breanna’s protest stopped abruptly. I’d heard her say she wasnotmine too many times. If she made such a claim now, the guard would not allow her to pass. Mates had rights others did not. Even this Silver Scion piece of shit guard would know that. My smart little female apparently worked that out for herself. “I demand you let me see my mate. Now.”
After a bit of grumbling, three sets of footsteps approached my cell. There were five other cells in this hole in the ground. All empty but mine.
“Mikos!” Breanna rushed forward as soon as she saw me, her hands wrapping around mine where I held the cold bars. “Are you all right?”
“Did you meet Astra? Did she… give you what you needed?” I could not discuss the antidote, or the nature of my curse, in front of the Scion. We worked to keep the limitations of our Forsian members to ourselves. No one needed to know Astra Legion’s weaknesses. As ours was the only Legion with Forsian hybrids—other than Makarios of Kronos, but he hadn’t been seen in years—we gave Astra a significant amount of strength. We would do nothing to undermine our influence or reputation. On Rogue 5, power was everything. The only thing. Power kept our people safe.
“Yes.” Her smile brightened her warm brown eyes with happiness and I realized I’d been seeing my mate in pain during our journey. “Everything is perfect. Except this.” She kicked a bar with one booted toe. “We gotta get you out of here. How do we get you out of here?”
“You should not be here, mate.” The word, my claim on her, felt good on my lips. I’d thought the wordmatehundreds of times. I’d never said it to her. It felt right. “Barek, she should not be here.”
Barek shrugged his massive shoulders. “Astra’s command.”
