Page 34

“Then you’ll throw everything away, and for what? You’re our leader, Aelon, and…”

“Aye,” I say, cutting Iunia off. “Iamour leader – and while you two get to fight and kill, I have to sit back andlead.”

Vinicus is a silent hulk, watching us argue. He’s eager – eager for a fight, but not against me.

“Iunia,” my battle-brother eventually injects, “we follow where Aelon leads. It’s our fate. It’s our karma. If that means we go Rogue, we go Rogue.”

Rogue.

Once you go Rogue, there’s no turning back. We’ll be lumped in with the rapists and killers who dishonor our Empire – who’ve been exiled, or have exiled themselves to pursue slavery and other atrocities forbidden by the laws of our species.

Each year now, more and more Aurelians go Rogue. More of our kind rankle under the leadership of the human Queen Jasmine. She’s been the reason human women and human-inhabited planets have gained more rights and independence; and not always for the best.

Some Aurelians ache for the old ways – for the times during which Aureliansclaimedhuman women, forcing them to obey and serve us.

Gods – I’d be lying if I claimed some base part of me didn’t want that – to justtakeTasha and find out for myself whether or not she is our Fated Mate. In fact, if we’d been alone in my chambers, uninterrupted for just a moment longer, I might have snapped and done exactly that.

Tonight, it will take every ounce of my discipline not to succumb to my burningneedas she’s bent over my lap, getting spanked like an unruly little wench.

But such a decision comes at a serious cost. If the Empire discovers we’re harboring a criminal, and that we have no plans of turning her in, we’d instantly be branded as Rogue – all three of us. We wouldn’t be placed on the Kill List, but we’d becomepersona non-grataacross the Empire, and on all Empire-affiliated worlds and systems. That means never being able to return to our home world of Colossus. It means being hunted down for the rest of our lives – and Aurelian Law Enforcementneverstop hunting.

It would mean never settling down – and I’d always thought I’d settle down eventually; even if I wasn’t lucky enough to find my Fated Mate.

I’d always hoped to one day find a nice, warm planet with cool breezes and clear oceans. There, I’d build my harem. I’d always imagined that would calm the anger that’s always boiling up inside of me. I’d keep adding women to my harem, one after the other, always hoping against hope that one of them would beher.

And, if not? I’d still have a home base – somewhere stable, to put down roots.

But, if we’re branded as Rogue, we’d never be able to settle down. We’ll never again have a moment to relax. The Aurelian Law Enforcement would never stop pursuing us…

But perhaps that’s fate’s sick way of ensuring I don’t achieve my goal. After all, what would ‘settling down’ look like? My own nature rebels at the thought of being like those degenerate Aurelians back on Colossus – who wear their togas and discuss philosophy and politics, while drinking wine and lying by their pools.

Such a fate sounds like death to me. In fact,giveme death – the dead of space. It’s only in the dead of neutral space that you can kill Toads.

Toads.

Just the thought of them makes my huge hands ball into fists.

The only good Toad is a dead Toad – and I make it my mission to put as many of those slimy, warty bastards as I can into a cold, empty grave. I hope those fuckers from earlier – Captain Hoplan and his cowardly crew – are as stupid as I’d pegged them for, and decide to come back for the Orbs and prisoners I refused to hand over to them.

Through our Bond, I suddenly feel Iunia find his calm.

Maybe he feels the rage building in me through my aura and feels he must calm his own to compensate. Whatever the explanation, his own aura becomes certain again, and even the hint of a smile forms on his normally serious face.

“Then, let us win the very prize that could destroy us.” He takes a deep breath. “Battle tomorrow will help me focus. I need to forget this business for a moment, and the thought of crushing more Scorp helps with that.”

I raise my hand.

“That’s another thing. You and Vinicus won’t be going back to the moon’s surface tomorrow. I have other plans for you…”

My two battle-brothers look up at me uncertainly.

“I’ll explain later,” I promise. “For now, we must decide who gets the privilege of turning that beautiful little minx’s bottom red tonight. Now, I’m our leader – but that doesn’t mean I’mselfish…”

6

Tasha

Ihear the dreaded knock at the door.