Chapter 14

14

M ikos, Sixteen Hours Later

The metallic taste of blood lingered on my tongue. My mouth was dry as cracked paper. The pounding in my head worsened when I opened my eyes, the faint illumination in the underground holding cell like liquid daggers in my eyes.

They drugged me. Smart, as I wasn't opposed to killing them.

Unfortunately, I didn't know if I'd been locked in this prison for twelve hours or twelve days. If they'd given me the usual dose, I'd probably been down for half a day.

I didn't know if Breanna made it to Astra or if she had received the antidote. I didn't know if she was alive or dead. I'd been forced to trust Ruk and Shade. They weren't exactly friends, but I didn't think they would do anything to harm my female.

After the first bite, the one required to save her life on the Hive ship, I never should have touched her. Never should have bitten her. Never should have fucked her with my mating fist locked to her body, claimed her in every way. She was mine, and she had no idea what I'd done. Fuck the Coalition Fleet. Fuck Earth. Breanna was mine.

Even now, I wasn't honorable enough to regret any of it. Not one time that I had both fangs and cock buried deep. I'd warned her. I was no noble warrior of the Coalition, fighting to save the universe from evil.

I didn't fucking care about evil. I cared about Rogue 5, Astra Legion, about my people, my family, my Forsian brothers. I cared about Breanna, my mate. That was it. Everyone else in the universe could go fuck themselves. I'd lie to protect the people on this moon. Cheat. Steal. Kill. I had no rules and no boundaries when it came to protecting what was mine. I'd spent nearly half a century alone, without hope of finding a mate.

The day I eliminated Tarduk of the Silver Scions, I'd done it because the evil bastard needed killing. He tortured females and children. I'd caught him with a five-year-old male from Cerberus Legion.

Cerberus Legion was no ally of Astra. I could have walked away. Could have let it go. But the child's screams woke the monster in me. Leaving the child to his fate was not an option. Didn't matter that the Scions were given diplomatic immunity on Rogue 5 due to the quantity of high dollar tech they sold to the Legions. They were supposed to be untouchable. Free to come and go in all Legion territory. Treated like valued guests with autonomy to do whatever they wanted, short of killing one of us.

Not that night. I'd removed the fucker's head and told the boy to run. He had, not looking back. I'd confessed to my leader, Astra. She'd helped me leave, given me a ship and a smuggling route that would allow me to help my Legion and keep me out of sight.

Neither of us anticipated the rage of Tarduk's vile brother, Drakdak. The bounty on my head could literally pay for a small space station or a fully armed battleship. Ruk had not been jesting.

I respected Shade's need to collect the bounty. He had not explained himself to me, and I did not ask why he needed the reward, but I believed him. He was one of the few reasonable males in Siren Legion, had dedicated his life to doing what he could to protect his own people. I could not fault him. Business was business.

If I could have, I'd have turned myself in for that large a sum.

Shade would be paid at the hearing. If Drakdak was on Rogue 5, they probably would have executed me already. The assholes who dragged me down here taunted me with the information that he would arrive within a day. They were saving the spectacle of my death for the vile fucker. With no idea how long I'd been out, I knew one thing, his arrival, and my possible execution, were imminent.

Which meant I had to figure out a way out of this mess now so I could get back to Breanna. I'd been on the run for eight years, alone for much longer. Breanna's existence awakened something dark and dangerous within. Life or death had never mattered much to me before her. Now, I wanted to live. I wanted to be with her, watch her grow old, sleep with her in my arms every night.

I could do none of those things if I were dead.

"Get out of my way." Breanna's voice carried to me from farther down the corridor outside my cell. I rose from the pathetic excuse for a mattress and walked forward to grip the heavy metal bars. The cell was equipped with an energy barrier as well, but Rogue 5 didn't care much for fancy tech when brute force worked just fine.

"Mikos of Astra Legion is being detained."

"Oh, I know. I'm not asking you to let him out. I want to go inside. I need to see him. Now." Yes. That was my female, and she did not sound intimidated by whatever fucker they'd left here to guard me.

"This is not a scheduled visit. I cannot allow?—"

"Mikos is her mate. Get out of her way or I'll kill you myself." That deep voice belonged to Barek, Astra's mate. Relief flooded me. This wasn't my imagination. Breana was here. Alive and well. Protected by one of the few Forsian hybrids I'd known since I was young. Barek wasn't as old as I, but he was no young, impulsive idiot. He was big, mean, and almost as good at killing.

"I'm not—ummm—" Breanna's protest stopped abruptly. I'd heard her say she was not mine too many times. If she made such a claim now, the guard would not allow her to pass. Mates had rights others did not. Even this Silver Scion piece of shit guard would know that. My smart little female apparently worked that out for herself. "I demand you let me see my mate. Now."

After a bit of grumbling, three sets of footsteps approached my cell. There were five other cells in this hole in the ground. All empty but mine.

"Mikos!" Breanna rushed forward as soon as she saw me, her hands wrapping around mine where I held the cold bars. "Are you all right?"

"Did you meet Astra? Did she… give you what you needed?" I could not discuss the antidote, or the nature of my curse, in front of the Scion. We worked to keep the limitations of our Forsian members to ourselves. No one needed to know Astra Legion's weaknesses. As ours was the only Legion with Forsian hybrids—other than Makarios of Kronos, but he hadn't been seen in years—we gave Astra a significant amount of strength. We would do nothing to undermine our influence or reputation. On Rogue 5, power was everything. The only thing. Power kept our people safe.

"Yes." Her smile brightened her warm brown eyes with happiness and I realized I'd been seeing my mate in pain during our journey. "Everything is perfect. Except this." She kicked a bar with one booted toe. "We gotta get you out of here. How do we get you out of here?"

"You should not be here, mate." The word, my claim on her, felt good on my lips. I'd thought the word mate hundreds of times. I'd never said it to her. It felt right. "Barek, she should not be here."

Barek shrugged his massive shoulders. "Astra's command."

I snorted. Everyone knew Astra was a very dominant female. Barek was hers to do with what she willed, and he loved every moment. He was a monster, but he was her monster. Her lover. Her servant. Her killer. One whispered order from his mate, leader of Astra Legion or not, and he would obey. In fact, since Ivy brought us the antidote, I'd never seen him so settled, so clear headed. I hadn't seen them together, but on the rare occasions when Barek met me on my smuggling route, and we shared a drink or a meal, he seemed different. Changed.

Content.

Looking at Breanna's worried frown and full, kissable lips, I finally understood.

"Leave us. I need a few minutes alone with my mate." I lifted my gaze from Breanna's to look first at Barek, then the guard.

"No. I can't leave her wandering around down here." The guard sounded irritated that I would ask.

"Then lock me in with him." Breanna's suggestion shocked me. "Give us an hour. I need to speak to him. Alone."

"No." My mate did not belong behind bars, locked away like a criminal.

"One hour." The guard glanced up at Barek as he reached for the control panel that would allow Breanna to enter my cage. "You going to start trouble?"

Barek crossed his arms. "Place the female in the cell, where her mate can protect her." He turned to meet my gaze. "I will be back in one hour to escort her back to Astra territory."

"Thank you." This detention facility was in the heart of the neutral zone, where no Legion held sway, but all respected the peace. Every Legion acknowledged the rules here. The neutral zone contained most of the markets and trading areas. No one would attack me, or threaten Breanna, while we were here. If Siren or Cerberus—Astra's two enemies—attacked me here, they would risk the wrath of all other Legions, as well as lose the privilege of safe passage in the neutral zone for their own people.

No one would be that foolish. Especially when Drakdak Trach intended to make a very public spectacle of my execution tomorrow.

The guard opened the door to my cell and Breanna slipped inside. Shocked by her bravery, I hesitated, unsure what she wanted from me until she ran into my arms.

"You have an hour." The guard locked her inside with me and I gave Barek a slight nod. She was with me now. I would protect her should the need arise. I doubted the Scion's guard wanted to risk his life threatening my mate. And unlike when they escorted me to this cell, he was one male, not twenty. I doubted he wished to die tonight.

The moment the guard, and Barek, disappeared down the corridor from which they came, Breanna slipped both hands into my hair and used the dark strands to pull my head close, her lips settling on my ear. "You have to escape. Tell me what to do. I'll help you get out of here."

"No." I'd thought long and hard about what I might do if this day ever came. I fully intended to face Drakdak. There was only one way to take care of this once and for all.

My mistake was allowing either of the Silver Scion, House of Trach, brothers to live. Both Tarduk and Drakdak were notorious for being equally cruel and paranoid. The fucker who put the bounty on my head was no better than his meatsack brother, who I'd killed eight years ago. Perhaps, even worse. Sadistic. Insanely wealthy. Used to getting anything and everything he wanted with a snap of his fingers. Drakdak Trach was the worst kind of enemy. Trying to get to him was like trying to target a single drop of water in a constantly moving ocean.

After Tarduk's death, Drakdak's paranoia increased tenfold, as did his security. He rarely left his home planet, and never without a small army of vicious, half brain-dead mercenaries for protection. No one would speak of it in public, but the Silver Scions were becoming a problem, enslaving the minds of some of their ‘customers' just like the Hive did their prisoners. The Scions engaged in the practice insisted the ‘enhancements' were all voluntary. They had the signatures and testimonies of their ‘subjects' to prove it. As it was, the Coalition was not eager to divert resources away from the Hive war when the Silver Scions slinked by on legal technicalities.

This was my only chance. If I ran now, Drakdak might not emerge from his fortress again for years.

Breanna blinked her big, beautiful eyes at me as if I'd lost my mind. "No? What do you mean, no? Astra is awesome. So is Barek. I met Ivy and Zenos and a few of the others. You have to get out of here. You can't just let these Scion guys kill you. You have to fight."

I was beyond being rational. I had a mate to protect. Drakdak had to die.

Breanna pleaded with me to see reason. "You have a family. People who care about you. A good life. Astra Legion is your family and they are wonderful."

Wonderful? Was she talking about my people? Smugglers, killers and thieves? Those people? I appreciated them. I cared about them. I suffered no delusions about what we did to survive. I placed my thumbs just under her eyes so I could check her pupils for unnatural dilation or other strange effects. I didn't think Astra would drug my mate, but I'd been gone a long time, and Breanna was talking nonsense. Barek was like me, as was Zenos. Brutal when we had to be. Killers . "Did they give you drugs?"

My fellow Forsians were not wonderful. The idea that my mate might admire the males, might find them attractive, drove a spike of jealous rage through my jaw. I clenched my teeth. If they touched her, I would kill them. All of them.

No one touched Breanna but me. My hands. My tongue. My cock.

"No. Of course not." My mate scoffed at the suggestion and shoved my hands away. Unwilling to allow any distance between us, I reached for her and locked my arms around her, pulled her in so her face was pressed to my chest.

"I can't see your face."

"You don't need to see me."

"Yes, I do. I'm sorry I lied to the guard about being your mate, but I didn't think he was going to let me see you."

"He would not, if you were not mine."

She sighed. "That's what I thought." She wiggled, but I did not let her go. Could not let her go. I needed to feel her safe and warm against me, breathe her in. I'd forced down my worry, my terror that Astra would not administer the antidote in time to save her. That I'd lost her. Failed her. That I was once more alone in the universe.

If Breanna were dead, execution would be a mercy.

"I need to see your eyes. I want to know what you're thinking."

Fuck no, she did not. Not thoughts of death and loss.

She tried to free her arms from where I had them pinned to her sides, but I wasn't feeling particularly generous. I turned her around so her back—and that sweet, round ass—pressed to my front. My cock settled against the swell of her curved bottom and I squeezed tighter, a shudder passing through me as my hard length sank into her lush ass.

"Mikos!" Her protest was half-hearted at best. I ignored it and shifted my hips to rub against her as she continued. "Barek and Zenos said they would help. I talked to all of them. Astra said she wouldn't stop you, if you could come up with a plan. I can help, too." A shudder passed through her body and she gave in, leaning into me, her head resting against my chest. "I won't let you die. This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. And Barek said the alien you killed liked to torture kids. He totally deserved it."

Shock at her easy acceptance of the deed lifted a dark shadow from my soul, one I didn't realize I'd been carrying. I did not regret what I'd done, but my mate's support lightened the burden. I'd killed many to protect my Legion, would do so again. No regrets.

No love, either. I was an Enforcer, a soldier for Astra Legion, a warrior. We were neither noble nor honorable, but we protected our own, lived by our own code. For nearly fifty years, I'd been alone. Breanna was a miracle, a gift I never imagined I would receive. Now that I had her, the cold, dark pit where my soul preferred to hide was suddenly warm and full of light. I couldn't go back into the dark.

"Why are you so quiet? Are you angry that I came?" Breanna whispered the question and I could not bear her to suffer uncertainty, not when she was in my arms. She was mine, my life, my soul, my everything.

"No, mate. I am not angry. I missed you. I worried you did not receive the antidote in time, that I had killed you."

"No. Don't ever say that. I'm fine. I'm perfect. You saved me."

So forgiving, my female. So trusting. So na?ve. Would she be so generous when she realized I'd lied to her? When she learned the truth?

"Mate." I said it again, because I could, because I needed to. "Tarduk did need to die. He was a plague on our people, so I killed him. His brother, Drakdak, is just as evil. As is his son, Slomak, who took over his father's business. Drakdak will arrive on Rogue 5 any moment. He may already be here." I had no way of knowing, but the more I thought about my plan, the better I liked my odds. "You are not to go anywhere without escort. I will take care of things tomorrow and I will come for you. Stay in Astra territory. Do not wander. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

I waited in shocked silence for an argument from her, for defiance. Instead, she melted against me with a soft sigh that conquered my heart. Gods forgive me, I became truly hers in that moment, would give her anything, do anything to keep her safe and happy. Maim, kill, torture. Innocent or guilty, young or old, would make no difference, not if she asked it of me. Every living being in the universe should thank the gods she was not politically hungry, greedy, or vicious. For her, I would start wars. Annihilate worlds.

My mate had no idea the power she wielded.

"Drakdak is the one who put the bounty on you? And he's the dead guy's brother?"

"Tarduk's brother. Yes."

"If Tarduk was so terrible, and his brother is just as bad, why is the bounty so high? I wouldn't think he would care about his brother at all. Not if he's an actual psychopath."

She smelled so fucking good. She was so soft. So gods damned perfect. I slid my hand under her armor so I could cup her breast. She gasped but didn't bother trying to move my hand. I was easily ten times stronger, and I wasn't moving unless it was to bury my cock deep and make her scream my name.