“Blade.” Styx’s voice cut through the haze, and I released the transport technician from my gaze, irritated when his shoulders slumped in relief. I turned to my friend, worried for Harper. “He was from Cerberus.”
I took a deep breath, let it out. I knew that face. Had seen it on Rogue 5 before. “And?”
“Harper isn’t safe here. The Coalition can’t protect her. Not from Cerberus.”
“Cerberus?” she asked, but I didn’t clarify. Now wasn’t the time. This wasn’t the place.
I narrowed my eyes, glanced at Harper who now clung to Styx as if her life depended on it. She was in shock, although she was exceptional at trying to calm her nerves. The panic had lessened in her eyes and some color had returned to her cheeks.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I gritted out, responding to Styx’s statement.
“We must get her out of here,” he added. “Away from this station. We need to take her home. We need her deep inside Styx territory where no one can reach her.”
I sighed, let some of the tension leave my body. Styx and I were in complete agreement on this
one. “Fuck, yes.”
Zenith was under Coalition control. We had no guards here, no one from our legion to offer protection. No one here was loyal to Styx. Here, Coalition rules applied, like keeping the transport pad open to any fucker willing to kill my mate. But within Styx? We ruled. No, we made the rules. We could take care of Harper and this new Cerberus problem. I glanced at the dead Hyperion. The uniform.
Why was Cerberus here? Scavenging weapons, yes. But taking survivors? And attacking a Coalition MedRec team? That didn’t sound like Cerberus. Their leader kept them focused on covert assignments, high-level assassinations. Thievery. They didn’t traffic slaves, and they did not attack Coalition forces. Moreover, how had they known the MedRec team would be on that planet?
Nothing added up. And why attack Harper? Why follow her here? What had she seen? What the fuck had happened down there?
We weren’t going to stay around and find out. More fighters stepped up onto the pad and transported out. They were instantly gone. The injured would come this way next. We weren’t needed. Harper had done her job and almost died for it. She wasn’t going back out there. No fucking way. Someone would have to snap my neck for that to happen and then get through Styx. And I knew enough about protocol here on Zenith to know what she would face next. I definitely wasn’t letting Harper get pulled into hours of questioning with Coalition investigators only to be sent out into the field again. Worse, if we left her here, she’d be vulnerable to any traitor or killer who could make his way onto the station.
Fuck their rules. She’d served them long enough. She belonged to us now.
“We need to get her out of here,” Styx repeated. “Now.”
“What? Where are you taking me?” Harper asked.
“To Rogue 5, where you’ll be safe,” I told her.
Her cheek was pressed against Styx’s chest, but she glanced up at me. Frowned.
“Why? It’s not even Coalition. How can I be safer there?” she asked.
“You’ll be protected by us,” Styx vowed. “And you’ll be safe because there isn’t any Coalition.”
“But he…he’s dressed just like you.” She reached her arm out, pointed to the dead Cerberus who’d been tugged off the transport pad and now lay sprawled in the corner awaiting some kind of investigation. “He was from Rogue 5, right?”
I nodded and she closed her eyes, her fingers gripping Styx’s biceps even harder. “Then we can’t go there.”
I reached out, pulled Harper out of Styx’s hold. Hugged her. Felt her fully against me for the first time. Gods, she felt good. Soft, gentle, small.
“Mine,” I growled.
“We will take you to our home where you belong,” Styx added.
“Between us,” I added.
“It won’t be any safer, not if the people who attacked are from your home,” she insisted.
“Mate, we are the only ones who can keep you safe.” Styx approached the lead technician. “The next free transport window, you will send us to Rogue 5, Styx legion.”
“There is an open window now,” he replied, but did not look up from the controls.
“You didn’t see us leave.” Styx waited for the Coalition warrior to look up from his controls. “She’s my mate and she’s being hunted.”