Seth walked over then, handed a drink to the commander. Karter nodded his head in thanks and took a sip as Seth sat across from me. Five Coalition fighters sitting around drinking and looking at me. Probing me for my inner thoughts and feelings.
What the hell was this? An intervention?
“Commander Karter.” A voice came from the leader’s comm unit on his wrist.
“Go ahead,” he said, lifting his arm to speak into it.
“The data you requested from Prillon Prime has arrived.”
“Send it to my comm,” he replied.
“Affirmative.”
“Sorry, Commander, direct interrogation doesn’t seem to be working with this very stupid Everian,” Dorian said when Karter was done with his communication.
Dorian was trying to coax me out with humor, a little lighthearted banter to get me to talk. Karter, the opposite.
I took a swig of my drink. This was my second, not enough to get me drunk, which I wanted to be, so I could wallow in my own anger. How many males in the galaxy had their matched mate transport away on their first day together?
Karter sighed. “Fine. I shall handle this a different way.” He pulled his ion pistol from his thigh holster and aimed it at me. Seth pushed his chair back two feet to get out of the line of fire—but the bastard still laughed.
I could see the weapon was set to stun and I rolled my eyes.
“Talk or I stun your ass and take you to Dr. Moor for counseling.”
My eyes narrowed at the battlegroup leader. “You play dirty,” I countered.
“Don’t try to pull that Hunter shit and run off faster than I can blink. I’m a fast shot. I hear Dr. Moor has a couch for you to lie on. Says it helps a patient to relax while they share their feelings.” A slow smile spread across Karter’s face. “Talk.”
It had grown quiet in the canteen, conversations dropped to whispers and no one was eating. I couldn’t hear one scrape of a fork across a plate. And I heard everything if I let it in. I doubted everyone had paused to listen me baring my soul. But waiting to see if their commander intended to shoot me? That was high value entertainment.
“Commander,” someone called.
Karter lifted his free hand, waved it in the air, but didn’t look away from me. He didn’t need help.
I sighed. “My answer to your question is, I’ve been working.”
“Why aren’t you with your mate?” he countered.
“If you remember, my mate transported off of Latiri 4 with the Nexus.”
The Nexus who had murdered my friends, tortured them in front of me, forced me to listen to their screams. I was confident the blue fucker had worked on Zan’s integrations, too, but I didn’t look his way. This wasn’t about him.
“She didn’t kill him, didn’t end him. She should have let me kill him so that no one else’s life could be destroyed by him and his minions,” I continued. “She transported him to some… some I.C. base. She saved his life.”
“You’re pissed because your mate saved the Nexus’s life?” Karter asked. He hadn’t lowered his weapon. Yet.
I leaned forward, set my glass on the table. “He was mine to kill. He controlled me. Controlled all the prisoners who went through that base.”
My sensitive ears heard Zan’s deep growl, knew it was his inner beast. He’d wanted the Nexus dead, too. I looked into his eyes, knew it.
“And you think Niobe is yours to control?” Karter asked.
I whipped my head around and glared at Karter. “She’s my mate!”
&
nbsp; “She’s also a vice admiral.”