Asteron

ASTERON

" B oard! Board! Board!" I yell as the airlock engages and we're clamped onto the head Habosu ship.

The only one with a human signature.

Ginny. My queen, my mate, my reason to be.

"Give no quarter!" Ginny's scent is in the air, I'm sure of it as I charge ahead of my guards, following the handheld screen which Phinade has given me as he takes up the rear.

"There are Xnosson signatures here too," he barks at a cohort. "Find them!"

There is the scent of pulsar fire in the air, but I'm returning far more of it than is coming my way because I can see a dot on my screen.

It is my Ginny, and nothing is going to stop me getting to her. I pull a few psi-grenades from the bandolier on my chest and throw them down the passages at a crossroad. Chaos ensues as they explode.

My heart soars at the sound and the smoke. Nothing is going to stop me getting to my queen.

The dot, however, is on the move. It is coming towards me. As is more pulsar fire. I let rip with my pistol, taking out the resistance with little effort.

"!"

And then she is there. In my arms. My Ginny. My mate.

"My wife," I croon into her hair, cradling her ripe little body as if it's the most precious thing in the universe.

Because she is.

"You came for me," she sobs.

"I would burn the universe down to get to you, little queen," I murmur as I kiss her sweet face. "Black holes and all—it would be ash because you are not at the center of my world."

A pulsar bolt buzzes past my horn, and I release my Ginny briefly to take out the Habosu who dared to fire at my mate.

"As much as I haven't enjoyed my stay at Chateau Ew, I'd very much like to go home and take a very long bath," Ginny says to me, attempting a smile.

"Chateau Ew?"

She waves her hands at the typically Habosu surroundings. "Ew," she says.

I clutch my mate to me once again, not wanting to let her go, delighting in the fact she can still joke, that she is alive, well, and back with me.

"King !" A roar behind us has me tucking my mate away from harm, using my body as a shield.

A large Habosu, unpleasant even by Habosu standards, stands in the smoke-filled passage, battle axe at the ready.

"Is he the one who took you?" I say to my mate.

She wrinkles her nose. "Yes."

A number of my warriors appear next to me. I wave them back.

"This one is mine," I snarl. "He took my queen and he dared to threaten her."

"I think you'll find he took our queen," a familiar voice, Minoran's voice, says.

"Weren't you supposed to be dealing with the other Habosu ship?" I ask as the clan leader shifts his pulsar pistol and short gladius sword in his hands, deflecting a number of pulsar bolts back in the direction they came from.

"Dealt with. They won't bother anyone again. So, I'm here, by your side, sire," he says with a grin.

It's a smile I return with ease.

"Go with my warriors. I want you somewhere safe, little queen," I murmur to Ginny. "This ends here and now."

Ginny grips my arm and then is spirited away by my guards, leaving me, Minoran, and the remaining Habosu.

"You took my wife," I growl at the defiant Habosu. "No one takes what is mine. You picked the wrong species to tangle with, Habosu."

Together, Minoran and I let rip with our pulsar pistols. The Habosu lifts his axe and charges at us, regardless of the pulsar bolts zipping through the air.

"This one belongs to me," I snarl at Minoran, unsheathing my broadsword. "The rest, do with what you will."

I leap into the air, pulsar bolts ricocheting off my horns as I drive forwards. To give him his due, the Habosu keeps coming at me, even while I slam bolt after bolt of pulsar power into his axe.

I want this to be close quarters. I need this foul creature to feel my horns.

He swings the weapon, lifting it high above his head as I drive forward. My horns meet flesh, scoring through sinew as I toss him aside easily. The axe arcs through the air. I clip the pulsar to my belt and catch the thing before it hits the ground.

"Now." I stand over him with the axe. "Tell me about your terms for the return of my mate again."

He grimaces up at me, mouth filled with blood.

"You can go fak yourself, Xnosson. You might have won this time, but the Habosu will not stop at one single human."

"Then I will be there, in your path, every nova-hour of every nova-day, in order to protect my people and those in the galaxy who are unable to protect themselves," I snarl.

He coughs, fluid bubbling out of the wounds to his body inflicted by my horns. One arm wraps around his waist as pain flits over his ugly face.

"You can't be everywhere, ." He laughs harshly. "Especially if you are dead."

He pulls out a pulsar pistol from where it's been hidden by his body, but before he can fire, his head drops back, a hole right in the center.

Phinade is standing to one side of me, the pulsar pistol I gave him in one hand. He's staring at it, then at the Habosu. I rise, slowly and carefully, approaching him with care, and gently take the weapon from him.

"Thank you, my friend. You saved my life."

"." He looks up at me as if coming out of a dream. "The baby is coming. The queen is going to birth."