“If you’d killed him, you’d be dead.” I lowered my blaster as my comm alerted me to an incoming message. “Cormac.”
The comm device implanted behind my ear buzzed as the transmission came in. “Cormac. This is Styx. You have to get to Transport Station Zenith right fucking now.” My adopted brother, Trace, now known as Styx, the leader of our legion, sounded worried. And Styx never fucking sounded worried.
Ignoring Shade, I turned back the way I’d come, already breaking into a run. “What’s happening?”
“You’ve been matched to an Interstellar Bride.”
I skidded to a stop. “What?” Confusion swamped me. The words he’d spoken did not make sense. Impossible.
“Listen to me. You have an Interstellar Bride. That Prillon fucker, Helion, put you in their system, remember?”
I did. Vaguely. But that had been years ago. I’d long since believed the so-calledprocessingI’d gone through had been another empty promise from another asshole. I’d played along because it had been what was best for the legion back when my brother and I were both Enforcers, running wild and causing problems. Before he’d become Styx. Before he’d met his mate, a human female named Harper from a planet none of us had heard of at the time. I recalled the matching process clearly. On my brother’s insistence, I had allowed Helion himself to shove me into a chair and sedate me, and then I had dreamed about sex, about gifting a female my bite and my venom as my cock was buried deep, as my seed pumped into her body. To be fair, the vision had been more intense than anything I’d ever experienced before or since. I’d woken up covered in my own cum, ready to kill Helion for pulling me away from an imaginary female.
That female was a ghost. She had never been real. And no fucking female was going to want me for more than a hot, dirty ride. I had years of experience and solid evidence to prove that truth. I was the monster they fucked in an alley, not the male they chose for a mate, to be a father to their children.
“That was years ago. And I don’t trust that Prillon.” I’d thought the entire matching process a cruel joke. But still, I’d never been able to stop thinking about it. Not for one fucking day. Helion had given me a private hell to suffer. More than once I’d considered hunting that Prillon down and ending him.
“No one trusts him. But he gets things done.”
“If neither one of us trusts him, what the fuck are we talking about?” I was running again. I was at least thirty minutes from the boundary of Styx territory. Officially, the docks were neutral ground, but I didn’t want to talk about the work we’d done for Dr. Helion or the Coalition Fleet’s Intelligence Core anywhere outside the safety of Styx legion’s protected meeting spaces where our technology—and our well-armed guards—kept things private.
“Cormac, brother, stop moving and hear what I am telling you.”
I did as he commanded. Always. Styx was the only living soul who had my complete and total loyalty. He’d fucking earned it.
My feet stilled. I took a deep breath. Gods be damned. This was insane. Had to be a cruel joke. “I am listening.”
Styx sighed. “You, Cormac of Styx legion, have been matched to a female with a ninety-eight percent compatibility rating. She’s yours, your perfect match. She is your mate, an Interstellar Bride. As we speak, she is being transported from Earth—”
“She is human?” Styx’s mate was human. Harper. An excellent female. I felt the first stirrings of hope and hated the feeling immediately, shoving it back down.
“Yes. And right now, she is in the middle of transport. She will arrive at TSZ in the next few hours. And if you aren’t there to claim her—”
“Fuck.” TSZ was short for Transport Station Zenith, a Coalition-controlled space station frequented by every type of criminal, killer and scum out here on the edges of space, including members of the other legions—our enemies. They would love to get their hands on a female from Styx legion, doubly so if she were mine. I had made many enemies over the years.
“Exactly. Get back here. I have them fueling my ship in our private dock. Fastest thing we’ve got. It will be ready when you arrive.”
“I am on my way.” I would need to fly directly to the station. Rogue 5’s legions had made navigating the labyrinth of asteroids, space mines and gravity wells impossible for outsiders. The natural energy fields surrounding Hyperion and the moon base we lived on made using transport impossible. The only way in or out of Rogue 5’s solar system was to fly.
I looked down at myself. I was covered in dust and grime, armed to the teeth with dark hunting paste covering my face and neck in a pattern I’d learned years ago that confused the eye. I’d been hunting. Now, with my new mate in danger, I didn’t have time to clean up and look like a prince when I greeted her.
Mymate.How was this possible? But my brother would not lie to me. Ever. And never about something as sacred as a mate.
My pulse sped, and my cock stirred at the thought of having a female of my own. The processing dream from all those years ago swirled in my mind, and my fangs descended. Ached. Eager to bite. Bury my cock deep. Claim a mate.
First, I would see to her safety. Then I would worry about my appearance. It wasn’t like she would want to fuck me the moment we met. It would most likely take months of wooing her, of slow seduction, to convince her I would never harm her. Females and children—fuck, even the males in our legion—kept a safe distance from me. This female, myperfect match,must be fierce. She would probably be muscular and strong. Tall. Perhaps a soldier from Earth. That would make sense, a female who would not fear me nor be taken aback by my appearance, my duties or my past.
She would be stern. Hardened. Wise. Fearless. A warrior like me.
My mate would be perfect.
3
Abby, Transport Station Zenith
My head spun, the dizziness so total I didn’t dare move. I was lying on something cold and hard that felt like metal. I pressed my forehead down and took a few deep breaths, trying to make the floor beneath me stop moving.
This was like motion sickness on top of food poisoning when I already had the flu. Thank god my stomach was empty.