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“No. We take a body from the morgue and give her a funeral. No one can know she is gone, or she will become a priority for Queen Jasmine’s operatives. It was an accident, and she’s dead. If we go looking for her, we damn her.”

I stand, stock-still. My heart is pounding faster than when we Orb-Shifted. “Ra’al, she’s out there, in space, alone and scared…”

Ra’al turns to me. His eyes seem to be molten metal, gleaming with his strength. While Orr and I are panicked, he is strong. “She is smart. She is capable. The biggest threat to her is the Aurelian Empire. We have one purpose now. Get to Colossus and put our swords in the hearts of the three Emperors if they will not surrender. When the Aurelian Empire is destroyed, we will find her.”

33

Rachel

I’ve been floating for I don’t know how long.

It’s been more than a week since I stopped watching the holo-vid feeds, broadcasted through the universe. When I had pangs of missing them, I would check the news, looking for any sign of them.

To my shock, I watched my own funeral.

A black casket, the triads standing over my body, cold and angry. It was an accident, they said, rubble that crushed me instantly. I felt strangely out of body, not understanding at first, when it made sense.

If I’m dead, I can’t be used against them.

Ra’al gave me the last gift he could. I’m dead, and because of that, I’m truly reborn, truly free. I can become anyone I want. I can go anywhere, and if people think I look vaguely familiar, it will only be that I pass a resemblance to the tragic Queen who ruled for a month before meeting her fate.

Out here, in the darkness of space, I long for them. Orr’s fiery need. How when he holds me, I’m owned and protected. Kriz’s smile as he looks down at me, wrapped up tight with black vines in the pleasure room, both of us loving how helpless I am.

And Ra’al’s eternal strength. His certainty. His power. He is truly a force to depend on. He always knows exactly what to do.

The Bond is cut off completely. There’s nothrumurging me to spread my legs to them and take their seed. I shiver, remembering the pure ecstasy of when the brutal alphas seed me, filling me, the way we lie together in a tangled, sweaty mess afterwards. Standing by his side and looking out at the city, the three men surrounding me protectively.

I run my hand over my collar. I still haven’t found a way to get it off. Luckily, Kat left some hoodies, and I’ll be wearing high-necked clothes until I find a way to get it off.

I yearn for them, but all the reasons I left them only increase. I needed to be free, and if I go back to them, every hard-fought freedom would be stripped from me. They wouldn’t let me even go for walks anymore. And nothing has changed. They still believe they must follow Obsidian. Whether it’s a sense of duty that he brought them to me, and that I would be dead if it wasn’t for him, or if it’s because they really believe he is the only way to save trillions of lives, it doesn’t matter.

They’ll go to war, no matter how much I beg for them to stay.

I sit in the captain’s chair, looking out at space. The stars were so brilliant before, with no light pollution, like brilliant diamonds just out of reach, but now even they look dull.

I put the power to the bridge at the lowest. The lights are off, except for the constant blinking of consoles as I float in space. It reminds me of the pleasure room, when I was hugged by the darkness and emptiness, tortured by the auras of the three men.

Now there’s nothing. I’m alone. The ship can take me to any planet or space station. I can just…disappear into that endless space.

I pull myself up from the seat. The stars lookwrong.I walk down the hallway and open the door to the sleep chamber.

Rows of capsules. Ten of them, one for each of the crew members, while the captain has to keep his command, months or years of his life slipping by while the rest of his crew are put to sleep, their bodies barely aging. I open one up. The glass covers are gleaming and polished. I could go in it and set it for years. Decades. Maybe when I wake up, it would be all over. All the war, all the fighting, all the horror.

I run my hand over the side of the glass. Oblivion. So easy to slip into.

I pull myself away, remembering their bodies at my side, their strength and vitality that bolstered my own spirits. With them, I was truly alive.

I walk back to the cockpit. My heart pounds.

The dull stars that filled the sky were not suns.

There’s thousands of them. Tens of thousands. Tiny, dull white dots growing larger and larger. One hurtles by me, a Scorp Org-Ship ten times the size of my shuttle, twisting in space, going straight towards the human territories.

The ship’s AI tracks them and starts firing, the las-cannon blasting through them, ripping holes in the white, fleshy material. Scorp fall out in their cocoons, but for every one cut down, a hundred more are filling the sky.

Nothing could stop that.

Nothing but my triad.