The Prillon looked from Styx to me, and finally to Harper, who clung to me, her hands shaking despite the brave face she was putting on. “She’s your mate? And he’s your second?”
When Prillons mated, there was a primary male and a chosen second to claim their female together. Styx and I were equals. Neither would be a second, even if everyone else would think me one. We would claim her evenly. We’d fuck her together and often apart.
Styx narrowed his eyes. “Yes. And we’ll kill anyone who tries to stop us from taking her.”
The Prillon almost grinned, just the far corner of his mouth twitching up, clearly understanding that a mate came first. “May the gods witness and protect you.” He spoke the formal Prillon ritual words and lifted his chin in the direction of the transport pad. “I never saw you. I’ll erase the transport record, but you need to go now. Right now.”
“What is your name?”
The Prillon started. “Mykel.”
“I am Styx, of the Styx legion on Rogue 5. If you have need, call for me. For helping save my mate, I owe you a life debt.”
The Prillon ignored his words, quickly working the controls as I led Harper back up to the transport pad.
“Are you sure about this? They were from your planet,” she said, her voice cloaked with exhaustion.
I lifted my hand to her head and held her to my chest, gently stroking the silken strands of her golden hair, soothing her. “Trust us, Harper. We will take care of you.”
She had reason to worry. Until we knew why Cerberus was attacking Coalition fighters—and MedRec teams—we would be vulnerable. Cerberus the legion, but also Cerberus the leader. He knew what was going on, what his people were doing. He knew everything.
But we’d be on our turf. Our rules. Our battleground. Thousands of lethal warriors willing to kill to protect Styx, and our new mate. With Harper between us, nothing else mattered. Just her safety and happiness.
I clenched my jaw, hugged Harper tighter to me, feeling the strongest bout of possession.
“By the time I’m done, Cerberus will beg me to end him,” Styx said with dark intention, jumping up onto the platform to join us right before the transport began.
Chapter Six
Styx, Rogue 5, Styx Legion Core Command Room
“Cerberus doesn’t deal in slaves. The female must be mistaken.”
“We can’t trust her, she’s Coalition.”
“What is Cerberus doing in that Sector? Is he trying to bring the entire fucking Fleet to our door?”
Raised voices filled the meeting room, jumbled and arguing, one on top of the other in a cacophony of noise.
Still, it felt good to be home, to have my mate tended to. To know she was safe.
I let them argue, waiting for the inevitable verbal battle still to come. I’d told them about Harper, about the attack in Sector 437, the Cerberus uniforms. All of it.
I had yet to reveal to the men and women in this meeting room that Harper, a female from Earth, an active duty Coalition officer, a woman I’d taken from Zenith without permission or following protocol, was my mate.
Standing at the head of the table, I gripped the back of my chair and let the chaos roll through me. I was impervious to the din, knowing Blade had our mate somewhere safe, bathing her, tending her, feeding her. Caring for her as was right and proper. As leader of the legion, I could not always care for a mate as I should, which was why Blade would claim her, too.
When I failed her, called away by duty or necessity like now, Blade would not. Were he out fighting, I would tend to her. This moment I knew I’d made the correct decision, for as disorder swirled around me, knowing my mate was safe and secure with Blade, I was content.
The large stone table before us had been transported from the Hyperion surface to our moon base, the cold connection to our home world a reminder that grounded us in our past, our duty to the ancestors, to protecting not just this moon base, but the sacred beasts on the surface below. The table normally held six seated around its broken edges, myself plus five lieutenants. Soon, with a mate, that number would increase to seven.
If I thought my legion was agitated now—
“Styx saw the uniform as well. Cerberus legion raided Latiri 4. We need to know why.” Silver sat opposite my position at the end of the table, Blade’s seat next to her noticeably vacant. Khon sat on her right, silently taking in the argument with intelligent pale green eyes and his arms crossed over a massive chest. His face might as well have been a stone wall. He shaved his head, claimed the dark hair interfered with his ability to sense the wind when he was on the surface. Of all of us, he went to the Hyperion surface the most, to hunt. To check on the well-being of our ancestral families, the wild ones still living below. He was brutal and efficient, and slow to anger. Which was why he occupied one of the chairs. “Do we not have spies in Cerberus?”
“Cerberus killed both of our spies last month.” Silver’s long hair was pulled back tight in a braid, the pale color nearly identical to Blade’s, their features similar enough to make their shared mother obvious. But that was where the likeness ended. Blade was quick to fight, quick to anger, and quick to forgive.
Silver was a woman, a Hyperion female. She rarely raised her voice, and like Khon next to her, was a cold, calculating strategist. But lose her trust and she’d kill you as soon as look at you. There was no forgiveness in her. Her gaze met mine, and what I saw there made me ball my hand into a fist at my side in silent warning. She was tall, like all Hyperion females, and strong. But it was her mind the others feared. And her ruthlessness. Like all females from our world, she was merciless when it came to protecting her family. And this legion was her family now. Her brother, Blade, my second-in-command, and now my mate-bonded, was the only blooded family she had left.