“I will kill anyone who so much as twitches,” he growls, eyeballing the cluster of ship personnel.
I believe him.
I believe they believe him, too.
“And you’re exhausted and stressed to the max.” He turns back to me. “You probably have no idea where your limit is. I’m not taking the risk.
Now he’s just being insulting. “I know my goddamned limit!” I suddenly feel irrationally annoyed that I’ve spent more time looking at this ugly Uncorrupted soldier that everyone seems to recognize and not the handsome alpha from the ship. I gesture in his general direction. “What do you even look like? Do you have hair?”
“Hair?” His face is a picture of outrage and confusion. “Of course I have hair! What kind of question is that? If I want hair, I’ve got hair in any color of the damn rainbow.” His eyes narrow, his nostrils flare, and his voice drops to a growl. “I know where this is going. I’m not an alpha, and I’ll never be good enough for a healer. Not the right type of dynamic.”
“That wasn’t what I said!” I can feel my temper rising. “You’re putting words in my mouth!”
His laugh is bitter. “Only stating the obvious, baby.”
“Don’t you dare ‘baby’ me, or I will…”
He raises a brow as if waiting to see what the worst is I can do… and clearly, I’ve got nothing.
Someone moans on the other side of the room… the captain, I think.
“Shut the fuck up or I will break your damn jaw,” he throws over his shoulder.
The moaning ceases, although I’d barely noticed it over the alarm.
It’s been twelve hours since we left, and a hell of a lot has happened in between. Now we have another twelve-hour journey back home. Despite his words about using his signature, I’m still freaking out about what will happen when we arrive.
I’m also terrified that something will go wrong before then… that someone will override the lockdown… Launch an attack… That an Uncorrupted ship will turn up and blasts us out of space rather than allow us to be taken.
The possibilities are endless, and it feels like only one of them is good.
Zeb’s chest is heaving. He stabs his finger at the floor. “Sit. Rest. We’ve got a long journey ahead of us.” He smirks, and that smirk is all him, I just know it is. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten your punishment is due.”
Damn him, it’s hard to stay mad at a man who can have your libido rocketing with a promise wrapped up in a threat.
The fire in his eyes says he’s thinking about enacting that punishment right now.
I swallow hard.
Sudden movement on the other side of the room registers too late.
A shot goes off. Blood splatters.
I gape, stupefied by my horror. The blast took his ear clean off, splattering it all over the floor, wall, and me.
I scream.
He roars and spins around.
The air crackles with electricity like it does right before a storm. Zeb’s body begins to judder and contort.
His cry is inhuman. Not even animal, but something else, something dark and terrifying. His chest arches up. I hear bones snapping, his ribs popping one by one, his arms, his thighs… even his fingers. Another blast hits him, his body jerking with the force.
Oh god, they’re killing him!
Think! Project!
I’m too late, too slow.
