Page 45

The Wolves and Ravens

XANDER

T he blue glow of holo-reports bathed Xander’s face, casting long shadows across the metallic lines of his jaw as he sat hunched in his office.

His gaze swept over requisitions and security breach updates, fingers tapping against his desk in a restless rhythm.

Now and then, he scrawled a note with his stylus, his mind flickering between duty and distraction, the former in the image of his lover, whom he was missing.

His neural node pinged.

He glanced up at Miral’s identifier. Naam?

Her utterance came across clipped and tense. Commander, your racer just disappeared from long-range radar.

Xander shot to his feet, the chair behind him scraping back with a screech. Repeat that?

Gone. No trace, no echo. One second, she was in the Aralon Belt on the edge of our safety perimeter, and then, there was nothing.

He was already striding out the doors, moving hard and fast over the polished deck.

‘Bridge. Now!’ he growled out loud.

‘Already at comm controls.’

The portal hissed open.

As he stalked into the command center, his prowling urgency turned heads.

‘Miral, pull up all signals in as extensive a radius as possible. Thermal, pulse, ripple, shadow net, everything.’

The AI’s projection shimmered in the air, her form rigid as she complied.

Whirls of data spiraled outward, layering across the primary holo table at blinding speed.

Then, black. Empty. Nothing but space and silence.

Xander’s fists clenched.

‘ Fokk . There is no way her transponder would not ping us even if she were days away. Someone’s taken her.’

His heart thundered against his ribs, a storm of dread rising in his chest.

‘Find her,’ he snapped, voice dark. ‘I don’t care what you must rip apart to do it. Hunt her down and whoever the hell dared take her.’

Ten minutes later, after endless sweeps, a call came through the Sombra’s central console, startling the bridge crew.

It was an insistent trill, the pulse of an old-world telephone ring.

Xander jolted in his captain’s seat. ‘The fokk ?’

Miral’s shimmer-skin pulsing with a subtle red warning glow. ‘It’s encoded, with an alien encryption.’

Xander locked eyes with the synth AI. ‘Eugene.’

The sound vibrated across the encrypted lines like a mocking heartbeat.

Miral turned to Xander, whose fists were clenched, shoulders coiled like wire. ‘Shall we answer it?’

‘ Naam , and trace it too.’

‘On it.’

As she spoke, his fellow pack members folded around him, apprised of the matter.

Santi leaned back against a console, one boot braced, chewing a toothpick. Kaal stood still as stone behind them, his enormous frame unnervingly still.

The screen bloomed to life, revealing a facsimile of Eugene.

The synth bot lounged in an opulent, high-backed throne, shaped like a lion’s mouth.

He wore a ridiculous crushed-velvet smoking jacket in deep plum with exaggerated lapels trimmed in gold piping.

Beneath it, floral-print pajama shorts in garish neon clashed with the elegant black slippers tipped in crimson tassels.

A cigar burned in one corner of his smirking lips, and his synthetic hair had been styled into a tousled pompadour that gave off unhinged playboy energy.

Sweet stars, Santi whispered into the team’s neural nodes. He’s quite the picture of an intergalactic cult leader with a fashion death wish.

Eugene leaned into the screen, lips curling. ‘Hello, darlings! Did you miss me?’

Xander chose silence, his jaw clenched so tight it rippled through his skin.

Miral narrowed her eyes.

Kaal just glowered, his violet eyes aflame.

‘I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that I’m hosting one of your own.’

Eugene leaned forward, elbows on his knees, voice silk over razors. ‘Trust, she’s been well taken care of.’

The image shifted, and Xander’s chest went still.

Savvine .

She sat slumped in a chair behind Eugene, wrists bound, her face marked red and bruised.

Her lower lip appeared split.

One cheek was red and swollen, and he growled, his spectral form rising from him at the sight of blood on her face and jumpsuit.

Yet her back remained straight. Her chin lifted. Still clear and defiant, her eyes pierced through the feed like arrows.

‘Xander,’ she said, voice hoarse, ‘I’m so sorry. I was reckless and went off course. Please don’t come for me. I’m not worth it. If you can spare it, please focus on saving the Eterna and my family.’

A flash of pain carved across Xander’s expression before he locked it down. His fists clenched harder, knuckles bone-white.

‘What do you want, Eugene?’ he gritted.

Eugene chuckled and stood, sweeping a theatrical hand. ‘Here’s the deal. You give me the Sable AI tucked in your precious data banks.’

‘You mean me?’ Miral murmured, stepping out in front.

Eugene leaned in. ‘Well, well, tis you. A worthy treasure, I see. Name, please?’

‘Miral.’

‘A beautiful moniker for an alluring creature.’

‘Get on with it.’ Xander ground out.

‘Ah, where was I? Miral and her mother-node, Mirage, were originally Technocracy property, before the Sable Riders enhanced them into sexy little super soldiers. I want them back.’

‘Why?’

Miral’s voice was ice.

Eugene turned toward her and inclined his head.

‘Why, my dear, the crats would like to rebuild what you, your mother-node, and her Khan , Kainan Sable, ruined. Fifty-one capital destroyers, dreadnoughts, and gen ships were no small loss. You likewise slipped noids into our tech that ate us from the inside out. Cruel, but effective.’

He shrugged. ‘With the Sable schematics, weapons blueprints, and your delightful little AI, perhaps the crats might eliminate the Riders and slither back into relevance. We’re all just trying to evolve here.’

‘You’re insane,’ Miral spat.

‘Potentially.’

Eugene tapped his temple with a long, synthetic finger.

‘But I’m also practical. I offer you an exchange.

Bring your beautiful self with all your manifolds intact to the coordinates I’ll send.

Oh, and I’d like you to come out and confront me, shimmer girl.

I’d love to meet you face to face when I take you over. ’

Xander stepped in, glowering. ‘First, Savvine is returned safe, then we talk.’

Eugene waggled a finger in front of the lens. ‘ Nada , tis not how it works. I get to play with your lover until you put up.’

Xander took a dangerous step forward. ‘Hurt another hair on her head -,’ he snarled.

‘I’ve so much left to toy with,’ Eugene said, gesturing behind him. ‘Come a little closer, won’t you?’

He snapped his fingers. The camera zoomed in on Savvine.

Her lip trembled, but her voice was unmistakable. ‘Xander, listen to me. Don’t do this. You need to focus on those in need more than I. Just don’t let him win.’

Xander’s breathing turned shallow, his fury just chained beneath his skin.

‘Three hours,’ Eugene chirped, wagging his hand. ‘Alexandr, here’s the kicker, if you fail to deliver-.’

He leaned into the camera, his false eyes flickering with unnatural glee. ‘Well. What you can do to a woman with a little time, a little tech, and no one watching is amazing. Also, the Eterna goes up in flames, with the families that Savvine Bianchi loves so much burning away in seconds.’

He began to hum.

Savvine stiffened.

‘Perhaps I might carve her face up, for fun, see if I can improve her cheekbones.’

Xander’s vision darkened. ‘ Carajo. You’re dead, you monster. '

‘Ta-ta now!’ Eugene beamed. ‘See you soon. Or not.’

The display went black.

Xander stood frozen before the blank screen, muscles locked, chest heaving with silent, blistering rage.

The air around him vibrated with heat, not from the ship’s systems, but from him.

From the fury rolling off him in waves.

Savvine’s bruised and bloodied face swam in his vision, as did the recall of her whisper, and her calm defiance, which burned his soul like a brand.

He let Miral lead him into his ready room, away from the curious eyes of the Sombra’s junior bridge crew.

They were joined by his pack, who took their places around his conference table and eyed him warily.

He let his emotions rip, his spectral form snarling above him.

‘He laid hands on her! I’ll tear the mofo apart myself.’

His untamed rage ripped through the room.

Kaal stepped back, brows arched.

Santi whistled in shock.

Even Miral, always unfazed, gave him a wary glance.

Xander paced the room like a caged beast, jaw clenched so tight that it pulsed.

His eyes were wild, his breath ragged.

‘She asked to take my racer for a spin. All she needed was some relief, and now that fokk bot’s parading her on holo like a prize.’

Miral crossed her arms. ‘We have to act. Fast. We don’t know what that thing might do to her. I can take him.’

Xander stopped pacing. His head snapped up. ‘I’m coming with you.’

Miral arched a brow. ‘Xander -.’

‘I said I’m joining you.’ His command was hoarse and final. ‘He’s got my woman out there.’

A beat of silence.

Kaal’s smirk slid into place. ‘Your woman now, huh?’

Xander shot him a lethal glare, but it was too late.

Santi chuckled under his breath. ‘ Fokk , he’s in deep.’

‘Neck deep,’ Boaz chimed from the shadows, arms folded with amusement.

‘He’s drowning,’ Kaal added, hand on his heart like he was narrating a tragedy, ‘underwater with no re-breather.’

Xander whirled on them, eyes blazing. ‘Shut your damn mouths.’

The room went quiet.

‘You saw her face. Heard the pain in her voice. This is no fokkin ’ joke.’

His words hung like lead.

The bravado drained from his brothers’ faces.

Santi’s grin faded, Boaz glanced away, and Kaal’s smirk disappeared.

Xander swallowed. ‘He freakin’ hit her.’

Silence.

Xander turned away again, one hand braced on a bulkhead. ‘He laid his hands on her, and I wasn’t there.’

His growl leaked despair.

Santi moved first, stalking to Xander and placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. ‘ Lo siento mi amigo , for being assholes.’

Miral stepped forward, eyes flat, voice quiet. ‘We’ll get her back. If you promise to have my six, I’ll destroy Eugene.’

Kaal cracked his knuckles one by one. ‘She’s family and for her, I’ll tear him into atoms.’

‘We’ve got your back, brother,’ Boaz added. ‘Just say the word.’

Xander stood motionless, shoulders rising and falling.

No one spoke. No one moved. The only sound was the murmur of the ship’s systems all around them.

Xander wanted to raise his head to the heavens and howl, instinct screaming to unleash all his spectral powers to find her, but he clamped the urge down.

What Savvine needed was his head screwed on right, not a wild, feral reflex.

Nada !

The savage roar came from deep within him, and he lurched as the spectral spirit jolted out of him, unseen to anyone but him.

With a whip of untamed energy, it raced away from him and glimmered through the walls of the ready room.

His eyes tracked it as it disappeared into the void.

Fokk.

He knew where it was headed and exhaled, leaving it to its own devices.

He had a rescue to mount.

Then, finally, he turned.

His eyes weren’t red, they were burning.

‘No mercy,’ he snarled. ‘We plan this to the nth degree and hit hard. We take her back, and once she’s safe, we finish this.’

Silence answered.

Then Kaal’s voice cut through it with a snarl. ‘Let’s fokk him up.’

SAVVINE

On the Veleno di Sogni , Savvine’s head throbbed as the luxury of Eugene’s pleasure yacht pressed in around her, glass, velvet, and suffocating silence.

Eugene was flitting around the room, muttering like a madman.

He slumped on the dirt-streaked velvet divan at one point between torturing her with his endless humming, his ceaseless pacing, and his occasional sips at her.

He appeared to nap, and she wondered if synth bots ever dreamed of electric sheep.

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flicker of spectral violet and gold in the shape of a wolf.

Its glowing form prowled the edges of the room, unseen by Eugene,

Her breath caught, her heart clenching with emotion and sorrow.

She recognized the wraith from her dreams, now also, unmistakably Xander’s Lycan spirit.

She realized he’d been with her since they left Earth, as tears poured down her face.

His soul made manifest had come for her; despite her cautionary words to her lover, his spirit refused to let her suffer.

He glimmered closer to her and then hunched over, washing her in its aetheric power, giving her immediate relief from her aches and pain.

She closed her eyes as his energy glided over her, calming her.

Eventually, she opened them, her gaze locking with the shimmering beast.

‘I’m holding on. You have to go back.’

The wolf hesitated, muzzle dipping.

‘He needs you more than I do right now. He has to lead the crew. Rescue me when it’s time.’

She pressed her fingers to its spectral heart, touched its aetheric heartbeat, and drew strength from it.

Then it vanished like mist in the wind, returning to the man she adored.