Page 33 of Guardian’s Destiny (Space Guardian’s Mate #3)

VRAAX

That female was too damn stubborn for her own good. Frygg. I paced the small space, kicking up rocks here and there just to vent some of my frustration while listening to every sound from outside. Not that I would have heard the sound of a blaster, but I was sure an alarm would be rung if they caught Sloane.

"Will you sit down?" Craygh asked for the sixth time.

I didn't give him an answer, just like I had the previous times. Instead, I kicked another rock, hard enough for it to bounce off the wall and hit Moddekdum in the thigh. Oops.

He glared at me.

If he was waiting for me to apologize, he would be in for a long wait.

As much as I strained for the slightest noise, I didn't hear Sloane approach. One moment, the gap in the wall was empty; the next, she slid in. I nearly pulled her into my arms, my relief was that strong, but her face was closed off, reminding me of her traitorous nature.

"Well?" Craygh asked.

"He's right." Sloane's eyes turned to me; they were cold, and nothing was left of how she used to look at me, sending another jab through my heart. Damn her. "I didn't see any patrols on the backside of the hangars, and there is a dark path along the wall from here to them."

"Sounds too easy," I remarked.

She nodded. "Yes. There are several motion sensors along the way." She stared contemplatively at Moddekdum. "One wrong move, and they turn on."

"How did you figure this out without being caught?" Craygh asked the same question burning in my mind. I was so focused on Sloane, so happy to have her back, that once again I ignored Craygh's aura as it turned darker.

"With patience," she looked smug. "There are several small critters running around, setting the sensors off. I waited, but no guards appeared. They must be used to it."

"Probably darts, those damn things are everywhere," I wagered. "I bet those sensors are set to their bodies. They probably scan the area immediately, and whatever alarm the sensors send out was simultaneously voided by a threat assessment."

Sloane's head turned to Craygh as she looked at him thoughtfully. "That might pose a problem."

Why hadn't Craygh said anything? "You didn't know?"

"Things change in a year," he said defensively.

"You should have thought of that before," Sloane accused. "Had we listened to you, we'd all be prisoners now or dead."

"I would go with prisoners. They'd want to torture you," Moddekdum added gleefully.

"I apologize." Craygh didn't look apologetic. His aura was, without a doubt, darker now, and I wanted to slap myself for not having seen the warning signs sooner. Well, I had, but I had ignored it, and that was on me. Worse, I could have lost Sloane, and that thought made me want to kill the frygging Ohrur.

"What were you hoping to gain?" Sloane demanded, reminding me once again why, by the seven suns, I was so in love with her.

"You miserable little creature, you're nothing but a little traitor, aren't you?" Sloane stepped right in front of him; she was tall enough to look him straight in the eyes. Hers were narrowed and her expression one of malice. I had seen that look before, right before she took Possedion's hand off. She was magnificent.

I grabbed Craygh by the scruff of the neck and lifted him up. Something in his aura had changed. It wasn't evil, not quite, but it was there. Sloane had to crane her head now, but that couldn't be helped. Craygh squirmed under my hands, and I slammed his body straight into the next wall. Not hard enough to break bones, but hard enough to bring the message across.

"You wanted to buy yourself a new life with the other Ohrurs, didn't you?" I accused, kneeling to where his body had landed.

"Vraax, watch out!" Sloane screamed, and I had barely enough time to slide to the side. Craygh's blade only grazed my skin instead of embedding itself into my gut. With a snarl, I turned his wrist until he was forced to let go of the blade. I twisted his body and pulled one weapon after another from him.

"When did you come up with this plan?" Sloane wanted to know.

"When we got here, when he looked out at the spaceport," I guessed. I should have picked up on the change in him, but my mind had been too occupied with other things. With Sloane.

Moddekdum laughed hysterically behind us, but we ignored him. "You fool, they would have never taken you in."

"They would, too. I have valuable information," Craygh argued.

Moddekdum laughed only harder. "They would have given you a taste of our life and then locked you up."

Craygh shook. It was hard to tell if it was in fury, disappointment, or resentment. Or maybe he realized what he had thrown away for temptation.

"All my life, I've lived underground," he wailed.

"So you did, but you were so close to getting out," Sloane shook her head. "We were offering you a way out."

"You don't know Lord Hyugh," Craygh's anger rose to the surface. "It doesn't matter what you offer him. You could bring the entire Space Guardian force to him, and he would still never give up his power over our underground shelter. Never!"

Balefully, he stared from one of us to the other. "So yeah, I was going to betray you. I would have taken the life the other Ohrurs live."

"And betrayed your people? You would have condemned them to death or slavery just so you could… what, live above ground?" Sloane's disgust with him was obvious now.

"It wasn't my finest hour," Craygh admitted. "Once I started down that path… I couldn't stop."

"Fucking coward. Now what?" Sloane turned to me.

That little development changed our plans. Not the main plan, we still had the required two Ohrurs in our possession, but now we had to keep an eye on two prisoners. Frygg.

"We'll keep watch. As soon as the traffic slows down, we'll make our way over to the hangars. Just not the way Craygh suggested." I formed a plan.

"Great, just great!" Sloane huffed and moved back to the peephole in the wall.

Craygh slowly rose, his hands out in defense, but I wasn't going to pounce on him again. The bastard would get what he deserved later. For now, it would be easier to pacify him and make him believe we might forgive and forget the entire incident.

"I'm sorry," he began his apology. "I lost my head, alright?"

From the wall, Sloane snorted.

"I understand that you won't trust me again, but… I will do what I can to prove to you?—"

I waved my hand to cut him off. "Spare your breath."

This mission was turning into a clustered nightmare. I couldn't wait for us to be away from here and on our way to Darlam and… frygg. My gaze moved to Sloane. She wanted to go to Astrionis. Damn as if this wasn't all bad enough already.

I would have to lock the two Ohrurs in separate quarters and let the drones bring them food, while I would sit alone in the cockpit or my room, with nothing to do for weeks besides thinking of her .

A sharp intake of breath from Sloane made me slide to her side. "What's wrong?"

"Zapharos," she hissed.

"What?" I gripped her shoulder and moved her to the side. Out on the airfield, a new spaceship had landed. Right in the center. From it, four Space Guardians escorted a mountain of a male, the likes I had never seen before. He was taller by several handspans than the Space Guardians, more muscular as well. His skin was darker than mine, not silver, but in places, it shimmered silver. It took me a moment to realize that the shimmer came from scales that shone iridescently underneath the artificial light. It made him glow… like he wasn't a physical being but something else entirely. Whitish hair gleamed under the lights just like his skin. He turned his head, amber eyes piercing his surroundings, and for a moment, it felt as if he was seeing me on the other side of the field, inside an old ruin, as if he could look right through the small opening.

Frygg!

I took a step back. What was this creature?

His face looked angelic and demonic at the same time, creating a cold prickle that rippled down my spine. What in the name of the Black Abyss was he?

He strode between the Space Guardians like their master, not a prisoner as if they were his guards. I shook my head. My first impression had been he was a prisoner, but that didn't hold up to closer inspection. As he kept moving, one of the Space Guardians jabbed him in the side to make him change his direction. The male didn't falter. He barely turned to look down at the Space Guardian with an expression I had never seen before. Pity? A threat?

"Who or what is Zapharos?" I asked Sloane. "I've never seen his kind before."

"Nobody has." Her voice was so quiet that I had to strain to hear her. I had to force myself to stop looking at the male and turn my attention to her. I had never seen her this distraught before, and my heart squeezed in pain.

"This is my fault." The despondence in her voice tore at me.

"What do you mean?"

"I was supposed to warn him of the Moggadesh. They must have gotten to him sooner than I thought." She slammed her palm into the wall.

"Warned him? Moggadesh?" I still didn't quite get what she was saying.

"Fuck," she exhaled deeply, contemplating what to tell me. I gave her time to decide. When she looked up, determination filled her eyes. She must have decided to trust me, and somehow that made me feel even worse because obviously she hadn't before. Not fully.

"The discovery of Earth did something… set things in motion… I don't fully understand yet. The bottom line is, the Arkhevari came forward. They had?—"

"Arkhevari? The same the Ohrurs have been talking about? The same with the Archegene?" I stopped her. Who was this female? If she had kept this from me, what else was she hiding? Anger roiled in my gut, but I managed to swallow it down for now.

"Let me finish," she hissed, irritated. "Yes, the same. I couldn't tell you before because I was on a mission and sworn to secrecy, even from you. I wanted to tell you a few times, especially once the Arkhevari were mentioned, but… You have no idea what this means, Vraax."

I leaned against the wall. "Then enlighten me."

"We don't have time," she moved back to the opening. "That ship is in the perfect position."

My cheek brushed hers as I joined her looking out. She was right. The ship that had brought the Arkhevari was in perfect position for us to sneak aboard. Frygg, her nearness was intoxicating. I was frygging furious with her, yet all I wanted was to take her into my arms and kiss her.

She turned so suddenly that our noses collided. Mine was still sore from before, when a rock had hit me right before she had almost fallen to her death , eliciting a sharp curse from me, not only because of the pain but also because of the reminder of how I had almost lost her. I never wanted to go through that experience again.

"Sorry," she mumbled, but she didn't look sorry. Her expression was set in a determined mask I had come to get to know.

"Oh no." I waved my hands.

She took the hem of my shirt into her hands, fisted it, and looking up at me, said, "I need you to trust me on this Vraax. I swear I will explain everything later. But right now, I need to free Zapharos, and you need to get that ship going."

"No way," I growled.

She pulled me down until we were nose to nose again. Her eyes threw flames at me. "You owe me, Space Guardian. You owe me a lot, so I'm calling it in. You will take those Ohrurs to that ship and get it ready to take off the second I'm back with Zapharos."

Words escaped me. I had never seen her this commanding before, and honestly, it was not only hot as hell, but part of me was ready to obey her.

Her features softened slightly. "Trust me, Vraax. I was trained for this, and now I have even better weapons than I ever had on Earth."

I had seen her fight, had seen her in action. Had sparred with her, watched her fight the damn robot. She was a force to be reckoned with, but every part inside me screamed at me to not let my mate out of my sight. To not let her walk into danger by herself.

"Don't ask this of me," I pressed out.

"Alright, I won't ask you. I command you to," she replied, mystifying me. She snatched my comm and logged into a Pandraxian database. She pulled up a cube and turned it to stare me right in the face before I had a chance to laugh at her ridiculous statement. Nobody commanded a Space Guardian.

Once my eyes adjusted to the screen right in front of them, I felt my jaw drop wide open. What the frygg? There, right in front of me, was an Imperial Seal. I had only ever seen one in my life before, and that was when a mandate came through from the Ohrurs that these writs had to be followed.

This Seal gave Sloane not only authority to command whatever Imperial Forces she deemed necessary but also any other organization that worked with the Pandraxian Empire. Including me, or it would have included me when I was still working for the Ohrurs…

I didn't even finish the thought because something else entered my mind. The Seal was signed by no other than Emperor Daryus. "Daryus? This is the Daryus you needed to send a message to?"

She nodded.

I swallowed.

Well, frygg.

I stared at her in utter disbelief, feeling like a fool. A complete fool.

"I wouldn't do this if I didn't have to," she urged. "So much depends on you and me right now. You don't even know the half of it yet. Please. Trust. Me."

Trust her .

She had requested the very same thing from me before, and I hadn't given it to her then.

"You were right when you said earlier that I don't know the first thing about spaceships, which is why you need to get it ready while I'll get Zapharos." She added.

Frygg, she was right. I hated it when she was right.

"Now, go get our prisoners and get to that ship, Space Guardian." Again, her voice was commanding, proving she was used to giving orders to soldiers, lots of soldiers. And again my cock strained against my pants. I wanted her now more than ever. But I was also very aware that I had messed up.

Big time.

I should have trusted her and taken her to Astrionis when she asked me to.

Now, I had a choice to make.

If I fought her on this, she would never forgive me. I knew a thing or two about duty, and she was just as loyal to hers as I had ever been to mine. She might forgive me for being a jealous ass, if I asked her for it, but she would never forgive me if I stopped her now. I could throw her over my shoulder and the two Ohrurs to boot and take her aboard that spaceship, but I would lose her.

But she would be alive , my mind whispered.

That she would be, but I also knew that she wasn't a person who would get over her failure. And that was exactly how she would look at this for the rest of her life. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I was in her shoes, and I couldn't expect any less of her. Frygg.

I grabbed her hair and pulled on it hard. Her mouth opened in protest, and her eyes screamed at me, but if I had to let her go right now, I needed this one last kiss.

Her hands tore at my shirt before they reached around my neck as she responded to my kiss with the same desperation raging through me.

Breathlessly, we parted way too soon.

"I trust you," I rasped as my voice broke.

A small hint of a smile acknowledged my admission. She checked her body for weapons, her eyes turned from glassy to battle ready.

Without a word, she moved to the crack in the wall she had left through before. When she vanished into the shadows, I whispered, "I love you." Sure, she wouldn't hear me.

Then she was gone, and I hit the wall with my palms a few times, hoping the stinging would distract me from the pain in my heart. If something happened to her now, I knew I would never forgive myself. I would die. I kicked the wall for good measure, before I felt heat rise from my mating marks and a new hope rose up inside me. Maybe those damn things weren't that cursed after all, maybe they wouldn't let her go without me after all.