“Then she will make a good war bride? You will take a human Raisa like many a Raas before you?”
I dredged up a low sound from the back of my throat, an answer and not an answer.
"It is time to fight,” I said, my voice harder than I'd intended. Then, louder, for all the warriors to hear: "Are you ready to fight?”
The transport erupted in roars of approval, weapons raised, voices blending into a war cry that made the hull vibrate.
I moved to the center of the transport, releasing the overhead beam so I could face my warriors fully. "Brothers," I called out, my voice carrying over the engine noise. "We raid today not for plunder, but for purpose. Every supply ship we disable, everyconvoy we scatter, every Imperial soldier we defeat is one less resource they can use to conquer and subjugate."
The warriors were listening now, weapons lowered, attention focused.
"We fight for the continued liberation of the galaxy," I said, the familiar fire building in my chest. The rage that I'd learned to channel into purpose. "We fight for the settlements that depend on our protection. We fight for the Vandar who have been slaughtered by the Zagrath. We fight so that no one else has to watch their home burn, their families destroyed, and their future stolen."
I thought of the Vandar home world that had been decimated in the first wave of Zagrath attacks. It had been the reason we’d taken to the skies to fight them and the reason our people were scattered among hidden colonies or flying in cloaked hordes of warbirds.
"Today, we remind the Empire that we are not defeated," I shouted. "We are not broken. We are Vandar, and we will never stop fighting!"
The roar that followed shook the transport's frame. The handles of axes pounded the floor like thunder rolling across a stormy sky. My warriors were ready. They were hungry. So was I.
The transport's proximity alarms chirped to indicate we were approaching the supply ship. Peering through the front glass, I spotted the Imperial insignia stark against the gray metal of the hull.
"Locking on," the pilot called out. "Brace for contact."
The transport shuddered as our hull made contact with the supply ship's exterior, magnetic clamps engaging with a series of heavythunksthat reverberated through the frame. The fusion cutters activated immediately, their high-pitched whine audible even through the hull as they began slicing into the supply ship's armor.
I raised my battle axe, feeling the familiar weight, the perfect balance of the weapon my father had carried until his death in battle.
"For Vandar!" I roared.
"For Vandar!"
The response was deafening, drowning out the fusion cutters completing their work. The breach hatch exploded outward with a controlled charge, connecting us to the enemy vessel.
Adrenaline surged as Kolt and I rushed first through the breach, my warriors flooding behind me in a wave of fury and steel. The interior of the supply ship was chaos with alarms blaring, emergency lights flashing, and the few crew scrambling for weapons and positions. They'd been caught unprepared, as many of our targets were since they couldn’t see our cloaked ships before we were locking onto them. Their mistake.
I moved through them like a storm, my battle axe singing through the air. Block, strike, turn, strike again. The movements were burned into muscle memory through a decade of battles. Imperial soldiers fell. We advanced.
This was what I knew and understood. Fight, win, take what we needed, and escape before reinforcements arrived.
I should have felt relief mixed with the exhilaration, but as I fought my way deeper into the supply ship, as I cleared corridors and disabled soldiers, I realized something that made my next strike falter for a beat. I was still thinking about her.
I was haunted by the softness of her skin and the fire in her eyes and the tremor in her chin that she'd tried so hard to hide.
Combat was supposed to clear my mind, but instead, even here, surrounded by enemies and immersed in violence, I couldn't stop thinking about the woman alone in my quarters.
An Imperial soldier lunged at me from an alcove. I reacted on instinct, my axe catching his weapon and sending it flying, my follow-through strike putting him down before he could recover.
Focus. I needed to focus. This was just what I needed to clear my mind of thoughts of the human.
I repeated it like a mantra as I fought deeper into the ship and tried to ignore the fact that it wasn't working at all.
Chapter 15
Jasmine
Isat at the dining table, staring at the empty wine glass in my hand, wondering how it had gotten empty so quickly and trying to convince myself that I could actually go through with my ridiculous plan.
I'd never seduced anyone in my life, and now I was supposed to transform into some kind of temptress who could make a terrifying Vandar warlord bend to my will through the power of. . . what? Batting my eyelashes? Touching his arm? I didn't even know what seduction looked like beyond observing Kaya with a heavy dose of judgment.
