I snorted. Everyone knew Astra was averydominant female. Barek was hers to do with what she willed, and he loved every moment. He was a monster, but he was her monster. Her lover. Her servant. Her killer. One whispered order from his mate, leader of Astra Legion or not, and he would obey. In fact, since Ivy brought us the antidote, I’d never seen him so settled, so clear headed. I hadn’t seen them together, but on the rare occasions when Barek met me on my smuggling route, and we shared a drink or a meal, he seemed different. Changed.
Content.
Looking at Breanna’s worried frown and full, kissable lips, I finally understood.
“Leave us. I need a few minutes alone with my mate.” I lifted my gaze from Breanna’s to look first at Barek, then the guard.
“No. I can’t leave her wandering around down here.” The guard sounded irritated that I would ask.
“Then lock me in with him.” Breanna’s suggestion shocked me. “Give us an hour. I need to speak to him. Alone.”
“No.” My mate did not belong behind bars, locked away like a criminal.
“One hour.” The guard glanced up at Barek as he reached for the control panel that would allow Breanna to enter my cage. “You going to start trouble?”
Barek crossed his arms. “Place the female in the cell, where her mate can protect her.” He turned to meet my gaze. “I will be back in one hour to escort her back to Astra territory.”
“Thank you.” This detention facility was in the heart of the neutral zone, where no Legion held sway, but all respected the peace. Every Legion acknowledged the rules here. The neutral zone contained most of the markets and trading areas. No one would attack me, or threaten Breanna, while we were here. If Siren or Cerberus—Astra’s two enemies—attacked me here, they would risk the wrath of all other Legions, as well as lose the privilege of safe passage in the neutral zone for their own people.
No one would be that foolish. Especially when Drakdak Trach intended to make a very public spectacle of my execution tomorrow.
The guard opened the door to my cell and Breanna slipped inside. Shocked by her bravery, I hesitated, unsure what she wanted from me until she ran into my arms.
“You have an hour.” The guard locked her inside with me and I gave Barek a slight nod. She was with me now. I would protect her should the need arise. I doubted the Scion’s guard wanted to risk his life threatening my mate. And unlike when they escorted me to this cell, he was one male, not twenty. I doubted he wished to die tonight.
The moment the guard, and Barek, disappeared down the corridor from which they came, Breanna slipped both hands into my hair and used the dark strands to pull my head close, her lips settling on my ear. “You have to escape. Tell me what to do. I’ll help you get out of here.”
“No.” I’d thought long and hard about what I might do if this day ever came. I fully intended to face Drakdak. There was only one way to take care of this once and for all.
My mistake was allowing either of the Silver Scion, House of Trach, brothers to live. Both Tarduk and Drakdak were notorious for being equally cruel and paranoid. The fucker who put the bounty on my head was no better than his meatsack brother, who I’d killed eight years ago. Perhaps, even worse. Sadistic. Insanely wealthy. Used to getting anything and everything he wanted with a snap of his fingers. Drakdak Trach was the worst kind of enemy. Trying to get to him was like trying to target a single drop of water in a constantly moving ocean.
After Tarduk’s death, Drakdak’s paranoia increased tenfold, as did his security. He rarely left his home planet, and never without a small army of vicious, half brain-dead mercenaries for protection. No one would speak of it in public, but the Silver Scions were becoming a problem, enslaving the minds of some of their ‘customers’ just like the Hive did their prisoners. The Scions engaged in the practice insisted the ‘enhancements’ were all voluntary. They had the signatures and testimonies of their ‘subjects’ to prove it. As it was, the Coalition was not eager to divert resources away from the Hive war when the Silver Scions slinked by on legal technicalities.
This was my only chance. If I ran now, Drakdak might not emerge from his fortress again for years.
Breanna blinked her big, beautiful eyes at me as if I’d lost my mind. “No? What do you mean, no? Astra is awesome. So is Barek. I met Ivy and Zenos and a few of the others. You have to get out of here. You can’t just let these Scion guys kill you. You have to fight.”
I was beyond being rational. I had a mate to protect. Drakdak had to die.
Breanna pleaded with me to see reason. “You have a family. People who care about you. A good life. Astra Legion is your family and they arewonderful.”
Wonderful? Was she talking about my people? Smugglers, killers and thieves? Those people? I appreciated them. I cared about them. I suffered no delusions about what we did to survive. I placed my thumbs just under her eyes so I could check her pupils for unnatural dilation or other strange effects. I didn’t think Astra would drug my mate, but I’d been gone a long time, and Breanna was talking nonsense. Barek was like me, as was Zenos. Brutal when we had to be. Killers.“Did they give you drugs?”
My fellow Forsians were notwonderful.The idea that my mate might admire the males, might find them attractive, drove a spike of jealous rage through my jaw. I clenched my teeth. If they touched her, I would kill them. All of them.
No one touched Breanna but me. My hands. My tongue. My cock.
“No. Of course not.” My mate scoffed at the suggestion and shoved my hands away. Unwilling to allow any distance between us, I reached for her and locked my arms around her, pulled her in so her face was pressed to my chest.
“I can’t see your face.”
“You don’t need to see me.”
“Yes, I do. I’m sorry I lied to the guard about being your mate, but I didn’t think he was going to let me see you.”
“He would not, if you were not mine.”
She sighed. “That’s what I thought.” She wiggled, but I did not let her go. Could not let her go. I needed to feel her safe and warm against me, breathe her in. I’d forced down my worry, my terror that Astra would not administer the antidote in time to save her. That I’d lost her. Failed her. That I was once more alone in the universe.
