“I’m not a psycho. I’m a soldier. There’s a difference.”
Maddison lifted one brow but said nothing. What could she say that wouldn’t alienate her dearest friend? She would never understand how anyone could deliberately hurt someone else.
“There is. When I choose violence, it’s because I’m protecting someone or something I value. A client. An ideal…” Loris covered Maddison’s hand with her own. “Or a friend.”
This was the one thing they never agreed on. Maddison believed that violence was never the answer. Loris saw things differently.
“I hope you never have to make that choice again. At least, not for me. I want nothing but a calm, quiet life where I can do something that matters.”
That’s what Maddison wanted now, a chance to build something meaningful. If that was too much to achieve, at the very least, she wanted to do more good than harm.
Maddison moved her hand off Loris’s shoulder to gesture around the small cabin. “I think this company has potential. It could be exactly what I need. Thepersonnel can stay, for the most part, but everything else needs an update. Including this ship.”
She liked the crew of theHarvest. They were kind and competent, most of them seeming to want their passengers to achieve their goals and find some semblance of happiness by the time the cruise came to an end. In fact, some of them had become even more engaged and considerate of those still on board. Maddison felt for them, too. They were all good people, but for a variety of reasons, they had not found a match.
Then again, that might not be such a bad thing. While some of the passengers had found promising arrangements, Maddison now knew that many of them had agreed to contracts that, at best, gave them money in exchange for companionship and, at worst, were little more than breeding contracts.
Loris tipped her head in agreement. “I hope so. It would be nice to think that romance isn’t entirely gone from the galaxy. Who knows?” her friend added with a small grin. “Once you’ve gotten this company sorted out, maybe you’ll find a nice fellow who falls madly in love with the owner.”
The idea made her stomach tie itself in knots. Trust another man after what she’d endured? No. “I doubt that’s in the cards for me. But I have every intention of using this matchmaking business to find someone worthy of you.”
Loris threw back her head and laughed. “Me? Stars, no. I’m quite happy on my own, thank you. Love is forother people. The ones with kindness in their hearts and hope in their souls. You know damned well I have neither of those things.”
That wasn’t true. Loris did have a kind heart, though she didn’t show that side of her to many people. “You are one of the kindest—” Maddison never got to finish her sentence.
The deck beneath their feet heaved and then dropped, making her lose her balance. A second later, alarms erupted from every speaker, filling the cabin with noise that could only mean one thing. Something terrible had happened. Fear closed an icy fist around her chest and squeezed. For a split second, panic overwhelmed her, but then Loris’s firm voice drew her back from the brink.
“Go bag. Now. Get it and meet me at my cabin door. Move!” Loris was out the door a moment after she spoke the last word.
Maddison obeyed without question. They’d drilled this sort of scenario until her reactions were automatic. If there was trouble, she followed Loris’s directions quickly and without question. Until now, drills were all she’d ever done.
She stuffed the data tablet she’d been using into the go bag. In a moment of insight, she kicked off her dress shoes and grabbed the pair of runners she used when she went to the ship’s gym. Her hands shook as she pulled them on, and her mind raced as she tried but failed tomake sense of the alerts and announcements coming through the speakers.
All she knew for certain was that something had gone wrong. That meant that the ship, the crew, and all her plans for the future were in jeopardy… and so was she.
CHAPTER 2
Havoc movedthrough the forest at an easy lope. The late afternoon sun streamed down through the orange and gold leaves, making it easy for him to navigate the terrain despite the fact he’d never been in this area before.
Some of his brothers called this place their adopted homeworld. He did not agree with them. How could something be a home if they hadn’t chosen it and weren’t allowed to leave? As far as he was concerned, this place was a prison—one he was determined to escape someday.
He leaped over a fallen log and kept running, following only a few paces behind Risk and Vengeance. His brothers had no more information about their destination than he did, but that didn’t stop them from charging ahead. One day, they’d stop and think before they rushed headlong into the unknown. Havoc smirkedto himself. One day, but it wouldn’t be today. Not when they knew there was a crashed ship to find and females to claim.
The strange ship’s crash site should be roughly on the heading they followed. At least, that’s what his clan-brothers had determined when they’d checked the data on their simple tracking system. His clanmates had worked it out and left the previous day, determined to reach the most likely location. They’d had no way to share the news with Havoc and his companions since they were out on a days-long hunt. It wasn’t until they’d returned that they learned of the ship and what it carried.Females.
Both passengers and crew were human females. Some of the survivors had already been found and claimed by his clan-brothers, which is why the others had rushed off in hopes of finding themselves a mate. He and his two clan-brothers wouldn’t be able to catch up to the others. This fact agitated Vengeance, who wanted one for himself. Risk seemed to be equally interested in the females and the possibility that a usable ship had survived the crash.
Havoc wasn’t sure what he wanted. He didn’t have enough information yet. He’d only met one of the survivors so far. They’d come across their brother Menace and his newly claimed female.
Hope was beautiful, soft, and seemed to soothe his large and often angry brother in ways Havoc found intriguing. The pair had matching marks, which made itobvious they shared some kind of connection, but what was it, and how had it happened?
The fa’rel weren’t a species. They were an experiment. How could they be compatible with a race their creators barely acknowledged as sentient? The verexis planned to make a new species that would become the fighting force their species could never be.
Rage had been the first of his brothers to call them scrawnies, but it didn't take long for the rest of them to adopt the name. The verexi were delicate creatures. They scuttled about on stick-like limbs with bodies so slender you could see through them if the lighting was right. A surge of bitter rage welled up at the memory. One day he’d escape from this place and rain destruction down on their entire race.
Havoc recognized the dark detour his thoughts had taken and made himself return to thoughts about his brothers sharing a mating bond with a female from another species. It seemed unlikely. The verexi hadn’t even considered that they might have a sex drive. Watching their captors panic and scramble to find some way to accommodate their creations as they reached puberty had been one of the few enjoyable moments of his captivity.
Did he like sex? Fuck yes. He’d enjoyed every second of his time with the sex-bots the verexi provided them. Pleasure was a distraction from their dark reality and a brief escape from the cruelty they lived with every day. Sex was great, and if one of the survivors wasinterested in coupling with him, he’d be more than happy to oblige. Repeatedly.
