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Mak tore the legs from another and dragged him screaming across the floor before slamming his skull into the bulkhead.

Savvine got into the fray, her laser blade slicing a throat clean open, and a geyser of black blood fountained.

She ducked beneath a leaping beast and fired twin arc blades through its spine. It shrieked, twisting, and exploded in a burst of dark matter when Xander raked through its gut mid-air.

Xander bounded, his form pulsed with lycan fury as he clashed with Salvadore’s XO, teeth devouring, claws gouging as they wrestled.

Savvine’s eyes locked onto Xander’s aura, coiled around him like a firestorm.

The Lombardi consigliere fought hard, his talons digging deep, jaws tearing. But Xander was wrath incarnate. With a final roar that echoed through every panel of the ship, he clenched his jaws onto the wolfish brute’s throat and tore.

Silver-black light erupted. The Lombardi beast convulsed, then shattered into nothingness.

When another Lombardi lackey lunged, Xander flicked his wrist, and his assailant screamed as a lashing of violet gold aether snaked into his flesh and combusted him from the inside out.

With a leap, Xander’s spectral form landed on Salvadore, sinking his gilded fangs into the wolverine mob boss’s neck.

Tendrils of dark aetheric force snapped outward like leashed lightning, wrapping around the Don’s limbs in fractal webs of living force.

The energy pulsed, once, then sank deep into Salvadore’s cellular structure.

As the Lombardi boss screamed, Xander withdrew the nucleic cells fueling the Don’s enhanced strength, stripping them from his DNA and absorbing them into himself.

The Don, having lost his werewolf abilities, collapsed into human form and onto his knees with a choking grunt, his muscles locked, spitting curses through gritted teeth, his sweat beading like oil down his temples.

‘You bastard,’ he rasped, quivering. ‘You just stripped me of my lycan legacy.’

‘I did. You don’t deserve it.’

The Don cried out, inconsolable. Holding onto the last tendrils of his defiance, he snarled.

‘You fokkin ’ mongrel. You’re no alpha, you’re a freak, your lycan powers are unnatural, freakin’ alien.

You and your men are abominations, created by a nuclear accident, not handed down in generations through pure blood. ’

The room fell silent.

Limping, bleeding, and trembling, the remaining Lombardi wolves transformed into humans again.

They stood stock still but brandished their weapons, which they must have scooped off the floor during the fight.

The menace of Boaz and Mak held them back.

Xander shifted to his human form and Savvine had never seen him appear so menacing, yet so freakin’ hot at the same time.

He prowled to Salvadore’s side and gazed down at the cowering man.

‘Is this what this feckless war is about? Genetics? We didn’t ask to be lycans.

We are who we are, and we bleed the same at the end of the day.

Well, some more enhanced than others. Still, at the core, we are human, all sons and daughters of Earth.

Your war is not about heredity, but your decreasing power and reach.

It’s fear-induced aggression, battling to stay relevant, instead of understanding that to survive, you must adapt. Sí ?’

Xander cocked his head. ‘Any other course of action means you’re extinct.’

Salvadore spat on Xander’s boots.

The Signet leader huffed. ‘We didn’t choose to be spectral wolves.

The lycan spirits chose us, which makes us worthy, too.

As for losing your powers, naam , you played with fire and got burned.

Tis the price you pay for starting a war, killing innocent souls, and waging terror across the flotilla. Deal.’

One of Salvadore’s lieutenants attempted one last defiant attack, lifting a plasma rifle to fire.

Xander didn’t flinch. He flicked a lazy wrist, and a black matter maelstrom erupted midair between them.

The man didn’t even scream.

He was there one moment, and gone the next, ripped backward with a sickening pop into the devouring swirl of dimensional void.

The vortex closed behind him, leaving nothing.

Xander sighed, brushing off imaginary lint on his trousers. ‘When will your men learn?’

He looked down at the trembling Don and tilted his head.

‘You may want to tell them to stand down,’ he rasped. ‘Lest they find themselves floating in the Lazarith Wastes, trapped in frozen aetherium, screaming for rescue that’ll never come.’

The mob boss shuddered, lips twitching, then with a snarl raised his hand. Around them, the remaining henchmen dropped their weapons one by one, faces gone pale.

Savvine stood at Xander’s side, breath still caught in her throat, eyes wide.

He turned to her with a quiet glance, hand brushing hers. ‘You good?’

She nodded, heart racing. ‘I think so. You went hard.’

He smirked. ‘All so I might save you, again, mi reina .’

Their eyes locked, and once more, Savvine was rocked by Xander’s ability to make her feel like she’d met her fate in him.

Destiny sometimes appeared along the journey one took to avoid it.

She shivered, reminded of the words of that old saying.

They resonated deep within her, as if this was her truth now.

Still stricken before them, with his limbs slowly returning to life, Salvadore Lombardi glared at them, sweat glistening at his temples despite the frosty chill of the bridge’s climate control.

His fingers twitched at his sides, eyes darting between Savvine and Xander like a cornered animal trying to bluff strength. ‘Signet will pay for all its transgressions.’

‘Did I hear someone cry wolf?’ Xander drawled, tilting his head.

The mob boss erupted in a torrid stream of Italian, profanity-rich and spittled.

His spittle flecked the air, his face purple with rage.

Xander just stared at him, his lips twitching with amusement.

Salvadore faltered.

The silence said more than anything could.

Savvine stepped forward, eyes cool and flint-hard. ‘The person you should be having a good look at is yourself. You’ve got a lot to answer for, Salvadore. Like playing delivery boy for whatever alien freak show gave you those drones. Had you not done so, perhaps your legacy might still be alive.’

As she spoke, the side doors hissed open, and the Signet team swept back in, black armor gleaming, rifles raised but not needed.

‘Clear,’ Kaal announced. ‘We’ve routed out any stragglers and hiding rats, and they’re all in our various brigs.’

Xander nodded. ‘ Sante . Now add these kinais to the complement.’

The Signet pack advanced, and the Lombardi crew flinched, not wanting a repeat of the earlier battle.

Xander lifted two fingers, crisp. ‘Take them to the Sombra . They can sit in the can until Savvine and I decide when we want to talk.’

Salvadore twisted, eyes feral. ‘I won’t say a word.’

Xander just smiled, a cold, terrifying smirk.

‘Oh, but you won’t be able to resist,’ Xander purred. ‘Especially when you meet Miral. She’s an outstanding member of our crew and has a fantastic ability to induce loose lips.’

Salvadore’s face paled. His breath hitched, and he tried to laugh and failed.

The Signet guards clamped energy cuffs on him and the rest of his cowed capos and marched them out.

Salvadore went last, silent now, his face paler than ash.

Xander reached out for his woman as the mob boss disappeared into the corridor. ‘After you, my lady?’

She waggled her brows at him as she stalked past. ‘I’m no lady.’

‘See?’ he murmured, leaning in as she slowed her roll, her eyes flush to his chest, then tilted to his handsome, craggy face. ‘You are a lady. Just one who doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty.’

Savvine smirked. ‘You haven’t seen filthy yet.’

‘That a promise?’

‘ Fokk yeah.’