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Only the candor and lust of need, of two warriors still buzzing with the rawness of battle, hearts hammering like war drums.

He buried his face in her neck as they trembled together and came hard, her fingers tight in his hair, her thighs wrapped around him.

After, he held her in the quiet.

He nuzzled her nape, overwhelmed by his visceral reaction to her.

She shuddered under him even as he growled into her ear.

‘Fokk, that was hot.’

She lay beneath him, body sensual, skin soft, her breathing slowing as the wild, untamed savagery of their shared adrenaline bled away.

That Savvine Bianchi was becoming his orbit was no question; she was everything he never knew he needed.

In time, he carried her to his office couch, where, still naked and rooted in her, he half lay and sat with her draped over him.

He held her close, running a lazy finger down her arm.

The muted golden lights of the room cast a halo around her dark hair.

Outside the porthole, the stars shimmered over the gentle curve of the Sombra’s hull.

He gazed into her eyes and caught the question lingering in her gaze. ‘Ask it, woman, you know you want to.’

‘Tell me about your life. How did you grow up?’

‘He huffed, his eyes shadowed with memory. She caught a flit of sadness across his face and regretted the question.

She was just about to stop him, tell him he didn’t have to say anything, when he spoke anyway.

‘I had it rough. My mum was eighteen when she had me. By the time she was twenty-three, she had four of us: me, my sister, and two brothers, all with different dads. None of them stayed. She did what she could, but the drugs got to her in the end. I was thirteen when she died. After that, we were split up in the system, shuffled into different foster homes. I haven’t seen my siblings since. I tried searching for them, butnada.’

He paused, his jaw tightening.

‘I ran away. Ended up joining the Eden Guards at seventeen. Kainan Sable vouched for me. But the military and I never saw eye to eye. Too rigid. Too clean. So I left and found my way. I became a rebel, and the rest you already know.’

She reached a hand and stroked his arm.

Their eyes met as her compassion leaked from her, and he raised a china cup, acknowledging her care.

‘What about your powers? How did you get them? How do you all shift so fast?’

He exhaled. ‘You’re sure you want the whole story?’

‘I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.’

He dragged a hand down his face, the burden of memory oozing from his soul like a slow freeze.

She stayed silent.

He stared past her shoulder, into the dark, clearing his throat before speaking. ‘We were prisoners. On Earth. Maximum security, deep beneath the soil, in a place no one was ever meant to crawl out of.’

His voice dropped a register. ‘The official charge was sedition. Unofficially? We were rebels who pissed off a swathe of United Earth officials and Eden Army command. They all conspired to bury us in concrete and forget we existed.’

Savvine’s lips parted in concern, but she said nothing.

‘It was hell,’ he rasped. ‘Every day, they tried to break us. The guards. The beatings. We’ve all got scars on our backs?’