Chapter 24

Arrival is like being welcomed into hell. Heavily armed soldiers line the dock—I guess they called in reinforcements from somewhere, finally. Barely have we stepped down from the shuttle than they move to peel Isla away from Seb.

“What the fuck?” I find a wall of soldiers between me and them. Seb’s fist swings. He cops an immobilizer rod in the back.

Isla screams as Seb crashes to his knees. He surges up again, kicking the feet out from one of the soldiers and smashing his fist into another, as Isla is dragged from his side.

We’re upsetting her. It pulls me back from the brink of full-blown mutiny. I shove the nearest soldier out of my way and get right up into Seb’s face. “Enough!” He’s being held back by two thick-necked alpha elites and in the time it took me to reach him he’s taken another two hits with an immobilizer rod. “You’re not helping her, Seb. Find control. I’ll handle this.”

“How?” His voice is an inhuman growl.

“Let her go. You’re upsetting her, and she has enough to deal with. We’re not going to take out fifty alphas, asshole.”

The fight goes out of him.

I nod at the one holding Isla, and they hustle her away.

My gut twists. Letting her out of my sight is fucking me up. I can’t imagine what it’s doing to Seb.

“Bellingham, in my office now. Colton to the brig. St. James, give my men any trouble, and you’ll be right there with him,” General Rylan barks at us.

The use of surnames reminds me that we’re back in the Empire’s fold. It makes me feel like a kid at school when asshole generals start yelling ‘Bellingham’ at me.

Noah holds up both hands and smiles. He’s got bloody teeth, so it makes a grisly sight.

I roll my fucking eyes at him before I look to where General Rylan is stalking from the flight deck toward the administration suites.

“Stay out of trouble, Noah,” I say. “And Seb. Fucking trust me to sort this out.”

Seb is hauled one way. Noah, wiping blood off his face, leaves in the other direction.

I stride after the general, ready to face the music.

The moment the office door closes he unleashes on me. I take it. He outranks me—for now—so there is nothing I can do. But it burns all the same.

When he’s finished, I let him seethe for a few minutes before I drag up my least combative tone and ask him what he would have done differently.

That throws him. He’s an asshole and a bully and he doesn’t like being put on the spot.

“No bonding. Was that not clear to you?”

“She’s a singular. 99.99%. A walking EMP, as we’ve just discovered. I reported her numbers at the start. But there wasn’t enough manpower to send a shuttle down. I did the best I could.”

“Don’t give me fucking attitude.”

His comment stings, as I’m sure he intends. I’m thirty-eight, and I used to run a business empire that covered every dome on the planet. I knew they were coming long before they made their presence known. I was one of the first to be assimilated.

They thought I’d become a theta that they would whisk away to their home world, where I would join the many other thetas plotting how to kick the Uncorrupted’s ass. I guess you can’t always predict the way the virus takes, so here I am, an alpha, with all the body modifications that go with that caste, but with an intellect closer to that of a theta.

My mere existence pisses the general off.

I really lucked out. There is an unofficial caste war going on between the alphas and thetas, in that they hate each other’s guts. Thetas are hyper-intelligent and more often driven toward accumulating wealth, prestige, or both. They think they should be at the top. They’re not—alphas are—and the push and pull between us makes for some robust conversations.

So, I got the best of both worlds, so to speak. If the general thinks I’ll continue to play at soldier longer than the mandatory conscription, he’s going to be sorely disappointed. Seven years is more than enough time to get to know the power plays, and I’ve already been making some of my own.

“Let him go to her. He’s going to tear up the brig if you don’t. She’s going into heat. Whether you like it or not, she’s also bonded with him. She went through the change with alarming speed, probably driven on by fear and everything that happened. If we make a mistake here, there’s a chance we’ll lose them both.”

“Don’t tell me how to do my job.”

“With all due respect, sir,” —the sarcasm is front and center of my tone— “your job is to keep them alive.” Yeah, I went there. I have a lot of issues with authority, and common sense is not my specialty, as Noah will attest.

“You let them bond. He’s not even a Controller!”

“And she is a singular. I called it in on the very first day. Did you do anything? No. You sat on it and nearly got all of us killed. No shuttles or resources? You should have figured something out. Two alphas from my team didn’t make it, and that’s down to you.” And going in my report.

“You really think you’re something, don’t you, Bellingham, just because you’re the governor’s little pet.”

I grin. Kathryn Lange is a ball breaker who could chew up and spit out General Rylan for fun. “She recognizes my value.” My smile drops. “Give the singular to Colton. Shit has happened. We all need to move on.”

“I’m surprised you’re not hedging for a piece of that. Or are you worried you’re nothing, without the governor?”

General Rylan never made Controller rank and has never claimed an omega. An idiot could figure out he’s bitter about it.

“My aim is a hell of a lot higher than a hot cunt, singular or otherwise.” I know I’m burning bridges, but fuck it if this man doesn’t make my blood boil. “But thanks for looking out for me. Make your decision, General. But make the wrong one, and you may as well lock me in the brig next to Seb. Then you can explain to Kathryn why I’m there when I don’t answer her call.”

He grinds his teeth.

Yes, I just dropped the first name of a member of the Empire’s ruling council. I have no planned call with Ms. Lange. She would be pissed if she thought I was throwing her name around to get what I wanted. But I promised Seb I would sort it out, and it’s easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission, it would seem.

Rylan grinds his teeth some more.

I wait him out.

He cracks first and nods his head at the door. “I’ll give my approval if her report allows for it. Dismissed.”