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Dallin didn’t miss the hint of regret in her voice. “I’ve been thinking about that.”

Sloane looked over at him and smiled. “Have you got a new project you want us to set up?”

“No, but I think we should get off the Apocalypse more.”

Everyone stared at him.

He looked around the group. “Will that be a problem?”

Ash barked a laugh. “What was that you were saying about side effects, Angel? There’s something wrong with Dallin if he voluntarily wants to leave the ship.”

Georgia shushed him, although there was a grin on her face.

Dallin glowered at Ash, but he understood why he thought he was being weird. Dealing with the Siblet had opened his eyes to the possibility of adventure elsewhere, especially if it made Sloane happy. He’d never be more content than when he was alone with her in his room, or the lab, but she needed this. And maybe he did, too.

“I’m not saying we’ll go on dangerous missions all the time, or I’ll expose you to wild animals regularly, but it wouldn’t be so bad to take over visits to the sanctuary, like you suggested,” Dallin said to Sloane. “It would be good to see what the work we do here achieves.”

Sloane wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him until he was dizzy and his cock was throbbing. “Thank you.”

Everyone in the room cheered and applauded.

Dallin smiled at Sloane as she pulled back from him, her eyes shining. The noise and talking no longer bothered him, not when he had this beautiful human as his focus.

“You finally got your Apexian,” Wren said. “Good for you, Sloane. Was he worth waiting for?”

Sloane grinned. “He was. The best things are always worth the wait.”

Cleo’s smile was warm as she gestured for quiet. “I’ve been talking a lot with High Command and the Apexians.”

“All the time,” Hunter muttered as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “High Command are chasing their tails and grovelling to the Apexians because they almost missed out on this opportunity to destroy the Siblet.”

Cleo raised her eyebrows and nodded. “It seems there’ll be a few changes at the top of High Command after this incident. The Apexians aren’t impressed with our leaders. Is anyone here interested in getting out of a life in space to deal with administrative matters and protocol on behalf of High Command?”

Everyone shifted in their seats and looked away.

Cleo laughed. “I figured as much. It’s not a life any of us want. I think we should all stay here and do what we’re best suited to.”

Everyone visibly relaxed.

“The good news is, the Siblet rebellion has been squashed. The Apexian squad thoroughly searched the mine and confirmed access to the salnite ore is no longer possible. They found a few stragglers on the planet, too. They’ve been arrested and questioned.”

“If the Apexians were in charge of that questioning, it wouldn’t have ended well for the Siblet prisoners,” Blaze said.

“From everything I’ve heard, the Siblet are being cooperative now they’ve been beaten.” Cleo puffed out a breath of relief.

“Probably because they want a reduced sentence,” Striker said. “Bad luck. Apexians don’t make deals with space scum.”

“And with all the data we’ve collected on them, we also know every place the creatures were sent to,” Cleo said. “Troops have been deployed to those areas, and any remaining creatures will be captured and put out of their misery.”

“Those poor things.” Daisy’s eyes misted. “It’s so unfair what happened to them.”

“I feel so sorry for the animals lost to their cruel experiments,” Eden said. “The Siblet have been abusing their power for far too long.”

“And they’ll probably keep on abusing it when they get back on their feet,” Cleo said. “But we’ll be waiting for them when they do. For now, their plans have been defeated.”

“Which means we can get back to normal.” Georgia cracked her knuckles.

“You mean, kicking alien butt and rescuing vulnerable animals?” Ash pressed a kiss to the top of her head.