So this was my mate. My hard as nails, take no prisoners, no bullshit mate. Cormac. Cormac with fangs.
I wanted him to bite me. Fill me with his cock and claim me. Like, now. Right freaking now.
Maybe I didn’t need an Atlan warlord after all. I’d met several, and not one had made me want to rip his clothes off and demand sex.
Warden Egara waved her hand at me as the chair lowered me, gown and all, into the warm, blue water. I had to admit, the bath felt heavenly. Soothing. So relaxing.
“Good luck, Abby!”
I tried to smile, but I was suddenly so very tired. My eyelids were so heavy.
The last thing I remembered was Warden Egara’s voice.
“Your processing will begin in 3…2…1…”
2
Cormac of Styx Legion, Moon Base Rogue 5
Enforcer. The word made my blood sing with purpose, with my place in the universe. I hunted. I punished. I killed our enemies. I served our people the only way I knew how, and I was very good at my job.
Killing had become too easy.
“You cannot hide from me, Siren scum.” I yelled the truth to the male I sensed cowering just ahead. Twenty paces and I’d be on top of him, my Styx legion armor specialized to deflect an ion blast. He would have no choice but to fight me in hand-to-hand combat. One on one.
Or surrender and face my leader, Styx himself, for judgment.
Neither option would end well for this fucker. He’d attacked one of our delivery vehicles, tried to steal our cargo and had injured our pilot badly enough that he was currently unconscious in a ReGen pod.
Maintenance lights lined the corridor. The sickly green glow added to the resignation flooding my body with every step. I did not enjoy killing, but I accepted that protecting the legion was necessary to our survival. I did what needed to be done.
The sound of grinding machinery filled the cold air with a distinct metallic hum. Condensation dripped from the walls, created by water vapor leaking into the area from the filtration and waste recyclers. The bowels of the shipping port on this side of the moon were colder than the rest. This area was not heated to accommodate Rogue 5’s inhabitants. Instead, it was kept just warm enough to prevent the water and machines from freezing. No energy was wasted in space. It was too fucking difficult to survive out here. The Coalition Fleet was too busy fighting their war to spare resources for us. For centuries we’d been left to fend for ourselves.
Weary to the bone, I forced my boots to move forward through the dim corridor beneath the docks. I had a job to do, and I would complete the mission my brother Styx had given me, or I would not return to him. That was my way and the reason every member of our legion stepped aside and dropped their gaze when I entered a room. None but my legion’s top-ranking members would dare speak to me. The thought made me grunt with disgust at the others for their cowardice and at myself for the hurt that wormed through my heart like a parasite.
Ignoring the pain, as I had since I was old enough to remember, I checked my scanners. There. Three corners down. A heat signature on the left. It was faint, but I knew the Siren legion smugglers had the most advanced body armor and weapons they could steal. If not for his need to breathe, I’d have nothing to go on but instinct.
Even that would have been enough. The ancient Everian Hunter in my ancestry had given me certain gifts. Combined with my Prillon and Hyperion blood, I had the loyalty of a warrior, the instincts of an Elite Hunter and the savagery of the Hyperion race that gave me the fangs I felt breaking free, fully extending in anticipation of battle.
“Siren!”
“Fuck off, Cormac. Don’t make me kill you.” An ion blast hit the floor and exploded a few steps in front of me.
I knew that voice, knew the male I hunted was as dangerous and deadly as I. “You want to start a war, Shade?” I stopped walking and lifted my blaster to take aim at the corner, waiting for him to show himself. Fuck it all, I didn’t want to kill this particular male.
“I didn’t kill your pilot.”
“He’s in a pod.”
“He isn’t dead.”
Shade had a point. He could have killed our pilot during that attack. He’d chosen not to. The male had honor, and he had proven it many times over the years I had known him. “Why the fuck are you still with Siren legion?”
“Someone’s got to do it.” Shade stepped out from behind the corner, and I held myself steady, blaster raised, but I didn’t pull the trigger. “There are children, Cormac. Females. Elders. You know what it is to protect your people.”
I did. Fuck it all. Shade was like me, an enforcer for his legion. He just happened to work for the most vile, evil bitch on all of Rogue 5. Siren had no moral compass, no honor. She was ruthless, cruel and ambitious.
Shade lifted his helmet off his head and stared at me. “You going to kill me, or can we both pretend you never saw me and get the fuck out of here before we freeze to death?”