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The shame I feel for letting Sawoot fall into danger is even worse than the shame I felt from being spanked in front of the crowd of Aurelians and my own snickering crew.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” Sawoot reassures me, her voice shaky but strong. She’s vulnerable, yet powerful at the same time. Sawoot’s a survivor – just like me.

Captain Aelon steps forward. He now stands in front of the three accused Aurelians. Behind them stand another triad, holding them in place – as if they don’t trust the handcuffs to do the job. The Orb-Weapons of the captured men are placed on the floor behind them – just useless hilts, with the unspoken promise of deadly power waiting to be unleashed.

“Let them go!”

Captain Aelon barks the command – and the Aurelians holding the would-be rapists step back, releasing them.

Now, Aelon stands facing his crew alone.

7

Aelon

Istare at the three accused men.

We grew up together.

I remember laughing in the courtyards with them – during those brief moments of shared emotion before Aurelian culture taught us to hide our feeling, and conceal both our happiness and pain.

These three men and I… We’d laughed about our old professors together, far past their prime. We’d scoffed at the likes of them – former warriors who now spent more time indulging in their harems than fighting the battles we were poised to. They taught us basic strategies, and we mocked them for it.

These three men had joined my crew after our hundred years of service because I knew them, trusted them, and had served with them.

Their names were Kit, Anton, and Gaul.

Three good men. They’d served in my unit during our hundred years of service. When the incident with the Toads had happened – the one that fills me with hatred for that species, even now – they’d been the ones who’d wanted to go against our leader’s orders and save the women with me.

They’d had to be held back by our General, just as they’d been restrained moments earlier by another of my triads.

These men… When I’d gone off on my own to form a protection business, they stood loyal by me. They’d followed me into the private sector. They were with me when I’d started my business with three other triads – offering to provide protection to the humans who dared do trade in the untamed sector between the Human Alliance and the Aurelian Empire – where Scorp attacks and space pirates filled their routes with danger and uncertainty.

I even remember a Scorp Queen once rearing up over me, in the midst of one of our early battles – when I’d been able to fight side-by-side with my men, rather than commanding them from the safety of The Instigator.

I’d have been a dead man, if Kit hadn’t pulled me away at the last second. The sound of that Queen’s barb clinking against the stone – instead of piercing my body and pumping me full of venom – still haunts my dreams.

If it wasn’t for these three men – the men now currently on their knees in front of me – I’d have died deep underground, screaming in agony as my blood boiled. Kit saved my life.

Now look where we are.

I study him as he kneels in front of me. He’s grown a beard since those early days, and he’s earned a patchwork of scars from his decades of service in my agency. He has the same hard look now that he did as a fresh warrior. Kit’s never been a man to back down. He’s always been a man you could rely on to have your back.

Why would you do such a stupid thing?

“Let me stand and face you like a man,” Kit growls.

I can grant him that. I pull him up to his feet, helping him since his hands are cuffed behind his back.

I demand: “Why?”

Kit holds his head up high. He has no shame – as if he hadn’t just attempted the most heinous crime possible in the eyes of Aurelian law.

Rape. Taking what’s not yours. Given the value women have to our species – reliant as we are on them for our very survival – such an offense is seen as the most egregious; worse than even murder or theft.

“I did it because she’sours,” Kit growls. “I smelled it on her when she was walking out of the mess hall. She smellsright, Captain Aelon. She’s our Fated Mate – I know it in my soul.”

“So, you tried to take her by force?”