She blinked, seeming dazed. “Ah, well… it’s fine. I just have more chores to do today. It’s fine. Listen, you go see about your ship thingy.”
“You don’t wish to accompany me?” Maelic’s hackles rose. “Is that male troubling you?”
It was against multiple laws to harm a safeguarded species, but he wouldn’t hesitate to hunt that male down.
He growled. Delaney gave a halfhearted laugh, shaking her head.
“No, no. It’s not really him. Rus isn’t a bad guy, I’m just not very happy with him. But it’s not his fault.” She rubbed her thumb between her brows.
Maelic felt jealousy flare hot in his chest. He swallowed, doing everything in his power to keep his lumin glands from releasing pheromones. The urge to strengthen the scent mark on her was intense.
“I see… if you’re sure,” he grumbled, but something felt very off.
He didn’t know this female. Not really. But his body did. His soul did.
He was at a loss. He’d never thought he would have a mate, that fate would see fit to give him anyone. He’d never even considered it. But did it really matter? He had to finish hismission. The nightmare of his parents’ death was a clear sign, a reminder that he must not stray from his objective.
He moved against every base instinct. “I’ll go see about getting an extraction set up.” The words tasted wrong. Like he was betraying something very sacred. “But I won’t leave without telling you. I’ll say goodbye.”
Even though he knew—standing there, watching her try to hold herself together—that goodbye might kill him.
Delaney seemed to notice him again. She gave him a hard look, eyes closing for a moment before she nodded.
“Okay. That’s fine. Well… I’ll get to it then.”
She turned on her heels.
He fought not to follow her, like a piece of his very being was walking away. It was madness. He barely knew her.
But luminance was said to be inevitable once it began.
He would prove otherwise.
Maelic stood in front of the husk of his escape pod and deactivated the cloaking. He winced at the wreck. It would never be able to operate again. This type of tech wasn’t designed to be used like a flier. Once it served its emergency deployment, theyusually turned to scraps. Safe and hyper-fast, but horrible to repair.
The gravitors had prevented massive damage to himself or the land, but the blasters from Barvarti’s attack had mangled it.
He sighed and climbed into the hull.
His mind replayed it all as he worked on the ruined escape pod.
How many cycles had he spent hunting for Barvarti? The male was scum, slippery too. But it wasn’t just his ability to shake off Axioms.
Barvarti was a symptom of a much larger disease. Maelic suspected the slaver had connections—powerful ones, the kind that bought silence and looked the other way. The kind that made males like Barvarti untouchable.
But Maelic didn’t care about corporate shadows or galactic politics. He cared about one thing: Barvarti had killed his parents. And for that, the male would die.
If he could apprehend data from Barvarti’s ship log in the process, all the better. But revenge was personal.
It had been a long time coming. That male had ruined Maelic’s life. Set him down this path. All it cost was his parents’ lives.
He could still see it in his nightmares. Still heard his Papeer’s voice begging. Still smelled the blood.
Barvarti had smiled the entire time. Smiled while Maelic’s Papeer bled out. Smiled through every casual word, every mocking laugh. And he’d made sure Maelic watched every second of it.
Some males killed out of necessity.
Barvarti killed because he enjoyed it.
