Engel’s smug voice caused me to turn back to the monitors. I realized I had nearly rushed from the room with the earpiece still in my ears. “Not quite what I had in mind.”
“What…?” Tiffani sounded confused. Weak. I watched her go slack, her body slipping from her control and a low rumbling growl filled the room.
“Stupid Earth girl. Did you really think you could outwit me?” He peeled the gloves off his hands and stuffed them in his pocket. “The gloves weren’t coated with an antidote for Rush, sweet cousin.”
Poison. He?
?d fucking poisoned my mate. Right before my eyes. And Dax’s. And the guards.
”Fuck,” I growled.
Dax hissed and the guard on my left tightened his grip. “Don’t move, Commander. We need to know what he gave her.”
Engel put her necklace back around her neck and I had to turn away, unable to bear the sight of him touching her. “The necklace really was for you, dear. And now, you will tell me where the real one is.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
Chapter Fifteen
Deek
There was my beautiful, stubborn mate. Pride filled me at her open defiance, her courage, even as I fought to let her finish this, to make sure Engel had no options, no way out. I had to honor her courage, her desire to help, but I didn’t have to like it. Then rage took over. It took all of Dax’s strength and two guards to hold me back as Engel’s voice grew more demanding.
“Where is the necklace?”
“You poisoned Deek.”
There was nothing sane in his laughter. I raised my gaze to the monitor to find my mate dangling from his huge hands, hands that were wrapped around her soft throat.
And the beast broke free.
I barreled down the hallway and into the room where Engel stood over my mate. The growl from my beast shook the walls. It had been crazed when the Rush had hit my system. I’d been enraged when the Hive had hurt my warriors. I’d even been infuriated when I’d learned from Seranda that Tiffani had left me. But this, seeing Tiffani on the floor, under the influence of another fucking drug, indefensible and weak, was when my beast erupted. As an Atlan, I had no control over it, nor did I want any. I wanted it to rip Engel limb from limb. I wanted to destroy him.
Nothing was going to get in my way. Not Dax, not the guards. Nothing.
In my periphery, I saw Dax by the doorway with the others, waiting. He would step in, but not now. Now it was time for me to end this once and for all.
It was me and my beast against the danger to my mate.
He was going to die.
“It does not appear you have recovered from the fever, Commander,” Engel taunted me, especially since he remained calm, unaffected by my beast.
“You die.” Two words, and even that was an effort. My beast simply wanted to fight.
Engel circled, his own eyes turning black in response to my threat. Still, he shrugged. “Losing a mate is worse than death, isn’t it? Perhaps when your cherished Tiffani is dead, you will see that perhaps you should have made different choices.”
I stalked forward, my armor tight and my heart pounding. The beast did not charge. He was still too close to our mate. And I knew exactly what he was talking about. His drugs and guns, the shipment I’d denied him. “Xerima.”
Engel placed himself between me and Tiffani, who remained limp on the floor. My beast could hear her heart beating, but it seemed sluggish. Slow. Soon, I would have no choice, I would have to charge and hope I could get to Engel before he killed her.
“What’s the point of having family in high places if they can’t help? It was simple, Commander. A signature was all it would have taken to prevent all of this.”
He was admitting his crime. Perhaps he knew he was going to die. Perhaps he knew that everyone was aware of his crimes. He’d drugged my mate. For that alone, he’d be put away for life. The rest, it was punishable by death. Execution.
“Greed. No honor.” My beast voice raged at him and I took a step closer.
Engel’s eyes were completely black, his face elongating as he began to change. “I have money, you idiot. Money and power.”