I glanced at the list again, scouring the names. I frowned. “This is wrong. Skye’s middle initial isn’t S.”
Wrexxon peered at the list, his eyes narrowing. “Each name has a middle initial.”
My rebel instincts took over as I scanned the list quickly and then my excitement deflated. “Aktashef? That doesn’t mean anything.”
The Raas’s lips flattened into a hard line. “It does in Vandar.”
I read worry in his gaze. “What does it mean?”
“Discovered.”
A breath escaped me. “So, whoever sent you this list knew they’d been compromised.” As a former rebel, my heart twisted with sympathy. “Maybe that’s why you can’t reach them. They knew they’d been discovered and have gone into hiding.”
His only response was a pained grunt.
"I know this makes you want to trust the intelligence less, but I think the fact that you received an altered list shows that it’s real. The danger to my best friend is real." I pressed my palms to his chest. "Please, Wrexxon. Let me help save my friend. Let me see my sisters.”
Something cracked in his controlled mask.
I pressed my advantage, hating myself even as I did it. "If you do this for me, “I’ll do anything you want. I’ll wear anything you want. I’ll do the ceremony you want right now, today, I’ll?—“
"Stop." His voice was sharp. "You would do this, even knowing it might be a trap designed specifically to capture you?”
I swallowed hard, meeting his gaze even though everything in me wanted to look away. "I would do anything."
And I knew it was true. I knew it with a certainty that went bone deep. I understood exactly what being his war bride meant. It meant belonging to him. Sharing his bed. Bearing his marks. Never returning to the colony or a normal life.
"You are the most infuriating, stubborn, impossible woman I have ever encountered," he rasped, his voice like velvet over gravel.
My heart sank. That sounded like a refusal. Like he was about to tell me no, that he couldn't risk it, that?—
"And I would burn the entire galaxy for you if you asked me to."
I stopped breathing.
“You will come with me, but after this mission, you and I are going to have a very long conversation about the things you offer so recklessly."
Relief crashed through me so powerfully my knees nearly gave out. He caught me, his arm sliding around my waist, holding me steady.
"Thank you," I whispered. "Thank you, thank you?—"
"Don't thank me yet," he said grimly. “You haven’t been on a mission with me as your commanding warlord before. I do not tolerate dissent or disobedience.”
I gripped his armor, looking up at him and feeling my stomach flutter. “I don’t mind followingallyour orders.” Then I straightened, going into rebel mode. “But before any of that, I need to tell you everything you need to know about Lexxona and how to trick the Zagrath into thinking they’re trapping you.”
He tilted his head at me. “I’m glad you’re using your rebel skills and intel for the Vandar instead of against us.”
Chapter 30
Wrexxon
Istrode across the hangar bay, my boots ringing against the metal deck with each step, the sound swallowed by the cavernous space that soared overhead. Tipping my head up, I watched warriors moving through the meshwork of steel walkways and suspended bridges like blood coursing through veins.
The raiding ships were returning from the extraction of the governor from Meridian colony, their engines powering down with a descending whine, and I strode to meet my battle chief and receive his report.
Kolt leaped from a lowering ramp before it hit the floor and landed in a crouch, one forearm braced on his knee. The fierce grin when he looked up told me the mission had gone better than expected.
He stood languidly, rolling his shoulders as if he’d just come from a session in the sparring rings and not a retrieval mission on an alien planet. “We extracted the governor easily. No resistance. No Imperial interference at all.”
