Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

THREXIN

T hrexin had considered torturing the information out of Orion Halen. Humans broke easily. The panicked, slobbering group cowering against the wall was a testament to their fragility. But he was not human.

His eyes were human, to be sure, though not entirely. The relative dullness of them, in contrast with his own, reminded Threxin of an immature uhyre. But compared to the eyes of the red-haired female seething behind him, they may as well have been glowing blue.

Exorin practically reeked from her pores. Threxin's stomach turned at the thought of this creature's dependence. It was disgusting—and Orion Halen had clearly been promoting it. How many others were there?

Threxin forced himself to get back to business. No—this male would not break readily. Besides, Threxin had time. He had given his kind four ship hours to transport themselves to Clossal if they wished to join him. Now that their leader was dead, they had to choose. They could attempt to survive on the barely habitable triple system of Apth without the support of the Elssian 's technology or facilities orbiting between them. Or they could accept Threxin's command and follow him to his Clossal. So Threxin would wait. Four hours, and no longer.

"Take the others," Threxin instructed his cohort in Apthian.

"Dispose of them?" Renza checked.

"Not yet. Just keep them… somewhere."

His brother did not require management. He would find a place for the creatures. Renza dragged the female he had dispatched before, hauling her off the floor by her collar. She looked differently distraught from the others, her stare traversing time and again to the female at Orion Halen's side. Threxin briefly wondered if they were related. But as Renza approached him and he got a better look, he saw that was unlikely. The human dangling in his outstretched arm had rock brown hair, deeper coloring, and black eyes that were less round. Her bone structure was different too, more angular than the red one's mushier facial features.

The red female slapped away Renza's free hand with a sound that was almost a hiss. Oh, she was frightened. He smelled it.

But not as much as she should be. Something was off about this one. Perhaps she was not sound of mind.

"She stays." Orion had inserted himself between his female and Renza, who regarded them with indifference. He turned instead to Threxin.

Threxin flicked his fingers dismissively, and Renza released the bristling red one. For now Threxin would watch their interactions. He would deduce just how important she was to Orion Halen, and whether she could be used to force his hand. Renza lifted a shoulder and turned, plopping the brown-haired female in his arm to her feet. She stumbled as he shoved her into a questionable semblance of a line with the rest.

The remainder of the humans were herded from the chamber and out of sight. His cohort was efficient about it. Peyata was a little too harsh with the barrel of her weapon as she jabbed a slobbering male in the spine to make him move faster. He buckled to the floor, but there were no other damages and it was effective in making the others pick up their feet.

When they were alone, Threxin faced the former commander of his Clossal . He appeared occupied with trying to shoo away his addicted female, motioning her off the platform. She was defiant, speaking quickly in hushed tones into the male's ear.

Her words came too fast to be intelligible, save for the occasional "ours" and "promise."

Finally Orion Halen had had enough. His hand extended with impressive speed to grab his female's chin and drag her face toward him. His words were biting, but slow enough for Threxin to make out: "Pipe the fuck down and let me handle this, princess."

Upon release, he gave her cheek a rough pat. The flint in his gaze softened when he saw the look in hers. Threxin observed as Orion Halen rubbed a thumb across the female's bottom lip, hooded eyes flicking to her mouth.

"Trust me, Kaia," he murmured.

Kaia, Threxin made a mental note. Seeing human dramatics play out in person only doubled his skepticism. Threxin doubted anything these creatures could offer him would be worth dealing with their living presence.

The female glanced toward him, the fearful gleam in her weird green eyes drawing him out of his disposal plans. Now she was afraid? Threxin's apertures twitched.

Orion Halen was watching him through narrowed eyes that almost humorously reminded him of his dead birth father's mannerisms. He was weary, and maybe it would be good to just sit and listen to the human's likely futile attempts to bargain with him. What Threxin could really use was a drag of hak. He hoped some of the joiners would find the foresight to bring their stash.

"All right, human." Threxin leaned back in his seat, rolling his tired shoulders. "Convince me."

They had spent three ship hours poring over what evidence Orion Halen had been willing to share.

Threxin was familiar with subspace resonance imaging, of course. The data presented appeared promising enough. But the strange way Orion hesitated as he explained the methodology, as if expecting Threxin to be discouraged, confused him. Was there something wrong with this ship's subspace wavelength detection equipment?

"I will observe this and think," Threxin finally said, unconvinced but unprepared to dismiss the offer outright. "If I say, I will consider keeping your humans."

"And if not?"

"Then you are not worth any effort. You will go now. Remain in your habitat until I provide my answer." Threxin lifted a chin at one of his cohort guarding the door. "He will escort you."

Threxin turned back to the thermaview, bringing up the radar projection to check who was coming. In the merciful silence that ensued, Threxin's thoughts drifted to his brother. He had not told Renza of his plan to kill their— his father. It was the right decision, but he had seen the limiter haze in his brother's eyes earlier. Renza would see reason eventually. He always did. But he may need time to come to terms with Threxin's judgment.

Threxin stared at the thermaview as he pondered this. There was less than one ship hour left until his deadline and several markers were already blinking toward his Clossal .