Page 25 of Alien Devil’s Prey (Vinduthi Stolen Brides #1)

W e met the team in the debriefing room. Tamsin's hand was warm and solid in mine as we faced them.

Rylos stood with his arms crossed, his expression carved from stone. Zarek flanked him, a mountain of barely contained violence. But it was Varrick who broke the tension, pushing off from a maintenance console with that infuriating grin of his.

"Well, look at this," he drawled, gesturing toward our joined hands. "This jerk finally found something worth warming up for. Welcome to the family, little navigator."

The comment hung in the recycled air for a heartbeat before Rylos's cold voice cut through it. "We need to debrief. Now."

I squeezed Tamsin's fingers once before releasing them, but she stayed close, her shoulder brushing mine as we moved toward the main holo-table. Good. She understood what this was—a united front against whatever storm was coming.

The room felt smaller with all of us gathered inside. Rylos wasted no time on pleasantries.

"You compromised everything for an attachment." His voice carried the weight of judgment. "The mission?—"

"The mission succeeded," I interrupted, my tone leaving no room for argument. "Tamsin's intel was the only reason. She is my mate, and she stays."

Silence stretched between us, thick with unspoken challenges. Rylos's jaw tightened, but before he could respond, Zarek shifted forward, pulling a data pad from his belt.

"The intel from this piece of the Regalia," he rumbled, his voice like grinding metal. "It points to a high-security correctional facility. The warden is a man named Joric Slade."

I felt the tremor that ran through Zarek's massive frame, saw the way his hands clenched into fists. The darkness that rolled off him promised a new, brutal chapter of our war.

Rylos's attention shifted to the data. "We'll need to?—"

"Later," I said, cutting him off. "We've been running for days. We need rest."

His eyes narrowed, but he nodded curtly. "Twelve hours. Then we plan."

The meeting dissolved. Tamsin walked beside me through the corridors of The Penumbra . When we reached my quarters, I palmed the entry pad and gestured her inside.

She moved to the large viewport that dominated the far wall, gazing out at the star field beyond.

I watched her silhouette against the cosmic backdrop, and a knot of fear tightened in my gut.

After everything—the chase, the claiming, the desperate flight to safety—would she see these walls as just another cage?

Had I forced her to trade one prison for another?

The question escaped me before I could stop it, my voice quieter than I intended. "This ship... it's not another cage for you, is it?"

She turned from the starfield, and the fire I’d seen in her when she faced Kelloch was back, but now it was aimed at me. "This isn't about being trapped, Talon," she said, her voice low and intense. "I'm not afraid of your ship. I'm not afraid of this ."

She held up her arm, the cobalt sigils a stark, beautiful brand against her skin.

"You did this to save me. Because I was broken and bleeding out on a deck plate.

" Her voice dropped, laced with a fear more profound than any she'd shown in battle.

"Tell me you'll still let me fight. That you'll still see the warrior, and not just the woman you had to save.

Don't let your love become another cage. "

The truth of her words struck me silent. She wasn't afraid I would leave her. She was afraid I would smother her, that my protective instincts would erase the survivor she had fought so hard to become. That in saving her life, I had stolen her purpose.

I closed the distance between us, taking her marked hand in mine and lifting it to my lips, pressing a kiss to the sigils I had put there.

"When I look at you," I said, my voice thick with an emotion I couldn't name, "I see the woman who walked into the heart of her own personal hell and burned it to the ground. I see the navigator who flew a dying ship through a gas giant. I see the partner who taught me how to fight with dishonor."

I met her gaze, letting her see the awe, the reverence I held for her.

"Yes, I see the woman I saved. And I thank the stars every day that I could.

" The words tore from my throat, a confession that shattered the last of my control.

"But I fell in love with the warrior. I love you for your fire, Tamsin.

Not just for your heart. I would be a fool to try and cage that. "

She grinned, stepping towards me. My perfect, deadly mate.

"Good," she whispered, her hands coming up to frame my face. "Because I have no intention of standing behind you."

The kiss was not the desperate claiming from before, but a vow. A quiet promise made in the heart of a ghost ship, on the edge of a new war.

He thinks he's the apex predator. Adorable.

brONWEN

Five years stuck on this prison planet taught me one thing—everything here wants to kill you, so you'd better be the thing they fear most. Now a hulking Vinduthi warrior has crashed into my kingdom, all horns and fangs and delicious violence.

He thinks he's rescuing me. Poor beast has no idea I'm the monster in this fairy tale.

ZAREK

I came to this hellscape for revenge. Instead, I found her.

Bronwen—soft where I'm scarred, smiling where I snarl.

She walked into a death trap, whistled once, and sent the beasts that were tearing me apart slinking back into the dark.

Then she offered me a bargain: her secrets for passage off-world.

Because when a scarred alien beast meets a sunshine psycho with murder on her mind, the only question is who claims who first.