Page 46 of Star Crossed Delta

MAK

T he Sombra’s intricate hour matched lighting created a stunning amber haze over the ship’s interior.

The shadows in Mak’s office stretched long across the floor, the ethereal light filtering through the towering windows illuminating the polished marble floors.

He was deep in a meeting, surrounded by various representatives from families throughout the flotilla, discussing a new supply deal.

It was all routine. Stale, predictable.

His mind wandered as he gazed out over the view of space outside the port window.

His thoughts flicked to Saba, the one wild card in his life, the one soul with a key to his heart.

The one woman he was getting freakin’ addicted to.

He couldn’t wait for this day to be over so he’d rush home to her, see that soft smile on her face, and how her eyes lit up when -.

A knock on the door snapped him back to the present, as Miral and Kaal strode in.

Both their faces were carved in stone, their urgent prowling raising Mak’s hackles.

‘Give us the room,’ Kaal barked, his utterance commanding.

Mak’s brow arched, but when their eyes met, a cold chill crept up his spine.

The tension in the room shifted, the air thickening with foreboding.

The executives shuffled out, their furtive glances filled with quiet curiosity.

Kaal’s voice cut through the silence.

‘She’s gone,’ he growled, his tone barely a whisper.

Mak’s world tilted. ‘Who?’ he rasped, already fearing the reply.

‘Your wife,’ Miral said. ‘She didn’t show up at the labs this morning. I tried calling her, and when she didn’t answer, I attempted to locate her using her ring pings. I found it in pieces on the aft hold floor. We can’t find her.’

His heart skipped a beat, and every muscle in his body tensed. ‘Saba? Are you sure?’ His voice was tight with a panic he didn’t often feel.

Kaal nodded grimly. ‘This time, it wasn’t her will. We’ve got footage of her at the rear deck, getting bundled onto a ship by masked figures. She didn’t leave on her own.’

Cold dread washed over him as his gaze swept to the view beyond the window.

The ship outside blurred as the horrifying realization sank in. She hadn’t left of her own volition. She’d been taken.

Rage flared within him, dark and fierce, a firestorm threatening to consume him.

Mak’s eyes narrowed, a quiet fury simmering beneath the surface. ‘Any idea who’s behind it?’ he rasped, not needing to hear the answer.

Kaal’s eyes glinted as he stared back at Mak, then shook his head.

‘ Nada ,’ he said after a beat.

‘ Fokk , get everyone in here.’

The boardroom quickly transformed into a war room.

The Signet brothers arrived.

Xander stalked to his pack mate and clapped a hand on Mak’s shoulder. ‘We’ll find her.’

Mak jerked his chin, his face a stony visage, while inside his emotions churned.

Miral took the lead, data pads and screens came online, and the atmosphere shifted from business as usual to a tactical execution.

‘A stealth shield activated as soon as they left the Sombra ,’ Miral said, his voice clipped. ‘We can’t trace them.’

‘Also means she’s with someone who has the tech to disable her ring locator,’ Kaal muttered. ‘We’ve likewise found no flight records or logs for the ship. It’s like she’s vanished into thin air.’

Mak’s frustration boiled over. ‘Does this read of Nightshade? Could this be a retaliation for Deimos?’

Kaal shrugged. ‘Not sure, brother, can’t make assumptions.’

Mak growled. ‘ Fokk !’

His roar filled the room, a manifestation of the inner turmoil, sorrow, and rage he was fighting to contain.

He stalked to the viewport and glared at the void beyond it, heart aching for his woman as Miral brought up a jagged waveform of comms traffic.

‘There’s something else,’ she said, fingers flying across the interface as intel flickered to life. ‘Right before the abduction, Shiloh’s and Saba’s holo devices were lit up by a spike in data transmission, way over and above normal encrypted chatter.’

Kaal, who’d been pacing behind them, stopped cold. ‘Spyware?’ His voice dropped to a hoarse timbre. ‘Don’t tell me they breached The Sombra .’

‘Not quite,’ Miral answered. ‘But they used the virtual connection between Shiloh and Saba like a bridge. Whoever was on Shiloh’s end embedded a passive siphon into the call. It slipped through our defenses and mirrored internal Sauvage Corp protocols.’

Mak’s gaze sharpened. ‘A backdoor into my company systems?’

Her nod was grim. ‘Yes. They utilized it to extract technical specs on the hydrogen core project, troop movement logs tied to our logistics branch, and trace-level data on the Sedevan alloy program. All of it routed through Shiloh’s device.’

Xander’s vocalization cut in as he sat at the head of the table. ‘You’re sure it originated from her locale?’

‘Ninety-nine percent. The packet trail is dirty, but I ran a cross-layer traffic analysis. It spiked from her location during the call and died the moment the transmission ended.’

Kaal let out a growl. ‘Hell. They used Saba’s trust to punch a hole through our firewalls.’

Mak’s voice turned cold. ‘Then this wasn’t just an abduction. It was a coordinated strike. For intel.’

Miral nodded. ‘They almost got away with it.’

Mak’s jaw clenched. ‘Find out who else touched that stream. And Miral, lock down every comm node across our command fleet. No more blind spots. Not with my wife involved.’

‘Already on it,’ she said, her eyes hard.

Just as Mak was about to unleash an unholy war, a knock came at the door.

Mak stiffened, exchanging a glance with Kaal before barking, ‘Come in.’

A courier entered, his demeanor casual, with a lopsided smile on his face.

He wore a standard flotilla dispatch rider uniform, with a logo embroidered on his cap, holding out a small parcel.

‘ ?ar Sauvage?’

‘Who’s it from?’ Mak’s brother asked, his voice tight, reaching a hand for it.

The delivery person shrugged. ‘Just got the job to dispatch it. Into the ?ar’s hands, and no one else. No name, no sender.’

Mak’s gaze sharpened as he prowled to the messenger. ‘I’m who you’re asking for,’ taking the bundle.

The man scanned the room, a slight smirk tugging at his lips, before he slipped out.

Kaal looked at Mak, his jaw clenched. ‘What do you think?’

Mak tore the parcel open, his fingers rough with impatience.

Inside was a small, unmarked black case, its weight ominous.

He removed the contents, a data cuboid nestled in foam.

The sight of it made his stomach tighten with instinctive unease.

‘No note,’ Kaal muttered, examining the box it had come in. ‘No clue who sent it.’

Mak’s grip on the device tightened. ‘It’s her,’ he growled, a cold certainty in his rasp.

Without further word, he crossed the room and plugged the cube into the nearest interface. The monitor flickered before stabilizing, and his woman glimmered into view.

Saba.

She sat in a bare room, her back straight, hands folded in her lap.

Her hair fell around her shoulders, her posture composed despite the circumstances.

Her gaze locked onto the camera, her face tight with tension.

Mak’s entire body lurched, hands twitching, itching for her.

‘Mak,’ she said. ‘I’m safe, for now. However, if you would like to see me again, please follow these instructions. Come to The Selburnia . The location is in the data cube. Bring a small team, no more than three people. They’ll give me back to you if you comply.’

Mak’s grip on the desk tightened, rage and helplessness intertwining.

He studied her, searching for any sign of harm or injury, but found none.

Her eyes flicked away for a fraction of a second before meeting the camera again, the moment of hesitation not lost on Mak.

The display flashed, revealing map coordinates, then it went black, plunging the room into a thick silence.

Mak’s fangs elongated in fury. ‘Asivan,’ he growled.

Kaal cursed. ‘ Fokk . Only he can stoop to the sewers in retaliation for our raids.’

Mak’s eyes narrowed, staring at the dark screen as if willing it to give him more. ‘No doubt it is,’ he muttered, blood pounding in his ears.

Kaal curled his lips. ‘We have the option of going in hard.’

Mak shot him a glare that spoke volumes. ‘What? Kick off a battle that might harm her? Hell, you know better.’

Kaal sighed. ‘Just trying to help.’

‘If I may,’ Xander drawled.

They turned to their pack leader.

‘Follow their instructions, but have Santi and me stealthed nearby in our corvettes, out of reach of their sensors. If anything kicks off, we’ll come in with force. However, a prudent approach is safest for now.’

‘Fine,’ Mak grunted. ‘I’ll play by their rules, but eventually make them regret it.’

Kaal nodded, a grim resolve in his eyes. ‘I’ll gather the best men,’ he rasped. ‘We’ll get her back, no matter what it takes.’

Mak remained standing, forearms crossed over his chest, his eyes fixed on the now-blank screen. His mind raced, but his determination was evident.

‘Conceding to their demands isn’t me going soft,’ he muttered, more to himself than anyone. ‘It’s me saving my woman. After she’s secure and in my arms, there won’t be a place in hell deep enough for Zolan to hide from my fury.’

Kaal’s voice echoed back from the doorway. ‘Understood.’

Mak stared out at the viewscreen of the Corvette, which Koda piloted as it banked toward the map coordinates provided in the data cube.

Brooding, Mak attempted to gather his thoughts, but his mind kept returning to one thing: Saba.

Was she safe? Had Zolan harmed her?

His wrath intensified, but he forced himself to push the worst-case scenarios aside, focusing instead on the mission ahead.

Kaal, seated beside him, glanced his way. His concern was apparent, but he remained silent, understanding the storm that brewed in Mak’s chest.

Mak bestowed him a chin lift, a subtle acknowledgment of his presence. He had to stay strong for Saba.

Kaal gave a nod, his lips pursed, and his eyes firm. He had Mak’s back, always.

Behind them sat Asa, another strongman, also here to back them up.

The four of them were dressed in the latest gray man gear, with no labels, brands, or identifiers.

Their IDs were perfect forgeries, and if they were caught in crossfire and mortally wounded, identifying them would be almost impossible, except for Mak.

Kaal swiveled his chair to address the two strongmen, discussing the final details of their plan before turning his attention to Mak.

‘We’ve cross-checked and confirmed the location provided,’ Kaal said. ‘Brother, we’re walking into a Sidan protectorate, into an unknown enclave.’

Kaal reclined deeper in his seat, lost in thought. ‘Zolan is a badass mofo. From what I know of him, he also has no qualms fighting dirty when he chooses to.’

Mak leaned back in his plush crash couch, nursing his second kahawa of the day. ‘Well, I wasn’t counting on smooth sailing whatsoever,’ he drawled, the strong, bitter flavor of the drink waking his senses and keeping him alert.

Kaal’s expression grew grave as he reached into his leather carryall. He pulled out a firearm and handed it to Mak.

Mak studied it, shaking his head. ‘Think we’ll need this?’

‘ Fokk yeah,’ Kaal muttered. ‘Don’t know what wild Sidani hell we’re walking into.’

The weapon in Mak’s hand was sleek, a semi-automatic, cold-hammer-forged, polymer-framed handgun with a high price tag.

It was one of the latest designs, capable of firing high-tech, energy-diamond-charged casings that could eviscerate flesh.

The slugs could regenerate and reform, a feature that Kaal had kept secret until now.

Mak slipped the armament into his bag, nodding. ‘We’ll have to tread with care when it comes to Zolan. He now has both of his sisters under his control. No telling what he’ll do to them to get what he wants.’

‘I get it,’ Mak growled, his fists tightening at the thought. ‘I’ll hold off from tearing the man apart till they’re safe. After that, all bets are off.’

Kaal raised his chin to Mak, wisely choosing not to argue.

He knew better than to challenge Mak’s rage when it was simmering so close to the surface.

The rest of the journey was spent discussing strategies and the potential risks ahead. Time seemed to drag on as they neared their destination.

Finally, The Selburnia appeared.

The ship was older, dated, and not as well maintained as The Sombra .

The contrast was stark, and a slight shiver ran down Mak’s spine as they landed.

On disembarking, they were met by a small flyer, flanked by Sidani armed guards.

Mak raised his chin to them, his mind racing.

In the grand scheme, he was ?ar over the Sauvage clan, but Zolan was the rebel ?arkhan of The Sidan.

If anything went wrong today, it could ignite an all-out war between them.

The stakes were high, but there was no turning back now. Only time would tell who would prevail.