Rebel Mate

by Grace Goodwin

  Half a dozen guards stood outside. My mother’s personal guards. They fought for the right to protect her every year in a tournament. It was the most exalted position in my father’s army, and he paid them very, very well.

  I traced the line of Zara’s cheek and pretended her smile was real. She would be safe.

  It wasn't much, but it was all I could give her.

  14

  Isaak

  * * *

  Sitting in the pilot’s seat of my favorite fighter, Malik’s identical ship visible on my flight screen, I finally felt like I had come home.

  My father’s silence from the seat next to me was all too familiar as well, so I chose to ignore it and addressed Erick through the comms rather than fumble my way through awkward conversation with a male who clearly did not wish to speak to me. I’d never once flown with him, learning from instructors or by pure seat-of-the-pants instinct.

  “Coordinates transmitted, Erick. Verify,” I said.

  “Verified. What’s the plan, Isaak?” There he was, my old friend. If he touched Zara again, I’d have to rethink his role. Out here, flying, I was in command, but we were more than soldiers to one another. We had always been close, me, Malik, and Erick. Brothers of a sort. The familiar tenor of his voice made me realize there were things on Trion I had missed. I’d walked away from more than my parents.

  “Destroy them,” I told him, steering us around the nearest asteroid belt to where the Cerberus ship was. “No prisoners. No mercy. They are here to kill our people. We take them out by whatever means necessary.”

  I’d fought the Hive before. Not as a fighter but as a rebel. I’d never once considered the Cerberus legion to be an enemy. Most steered clear while I was aiming my ship right for them.

  My father made a noise that sounded like a groan, but this was not up for debate. Cerberus wanted Zara for himself. No farking way that was happening. He was going to destroy a city on Trion. No farking way that was happening either. If I didn’t stop him, no one would. It would be too late for any Trion military to put up defenses.

  I needed the leader of one of the most notorious Rogue 5 legions to hear me loud and clear. Go after Zara, you die.

  Go after my people, you die.

  In this, Zara was correct. I was not my brother. I would not negotiate. Fark that, I wouldn’t even listen to people from such a vile criminal organization. I was not a diplomat or a politician, I was a hunter, a killer, a warrior without mercy if someone threatened what was mine.

  But then, Zara wasn’t truly mine. Neither was Trion… not anymore. But I buried those thoughts. They were not for now. Later, I would deal with the fallout of this fight. Later, I would deal with my father’s disapproval and my mother’s sorrow because this time. I would leave, and they would know the true reason. While we all mourned Malik still, the truth couldn’t hide behind his loss. Right now, I had to protect them all.

  “I have nothing on my scanners. Are you sure this is the right place?” Erick asked.

  “Yes. Trust me. They’re here.” I reached forward and adjusted my ship’s scanners to a frequency that would detect the stealth technology I was sure the Cerberus ship was using. Zenos had it, could see them. He was used to the Hive tech. I knew because I’d sold it to them. “Adjust your scanners to match mine. You won’t see the ship, more like a shadow.”

  “Fark. I see it.” Erick sounded shocked. My father leaned forward in the co-pilot’s seat and reached for the controls.

  “Targeting their ship’s engines.” My father’s nimble fingers moved over the controls with a practiced ease that reminded me he’d once served in the Coalition Fleet, that he’d been a fighter before becoming a diplomat. That my mother, like Zara, was an Interstellar Bride.

  “Don’t activate the ion cannon yet,” I told him. “As soon as you lock on target, they’ll know we can see them, and they’ll attack.”

  “They could fire on Bakkarholt at any moment.” There was no censure in my father’s voice, mere statement of fact.

  He was right, but we could not destroy their ship, not yet. “We need them to set their target before we take them out. We need proof to take down Bertok. He’s too powerful and has too many friends on Trion. Just being here isn’t enough.”

  “It’s a risk.”

  “A necessary risk, Father. Trust me, Bertok is too dangerous. We have to finish this.”

  Patient as a spider, my father sat with his hands hovering over the controls. “Agreed.”

  “Intercept in two minutes. Target acquired but not locked,” Erick reported.

  “Perfect. They won’t lock on to Bakkarholt until we fly past their ship. They think we can’t see them. Be ready to reverse course and fire immediately from the rear. If we’re fast enough, we’ll catch them with their shielding down.”

  Erick mumbled through the comms, just as eager as I to end the enemy. “Trust me, we’re ready.”

  The longest two minutes of my life ensued as I watched the Cerberus ship grow closer and closer. But they were smart. Sneaky. They did not activate their ion cannon. They did not activate their targeting systems. They flew like a ghost ship. Had Zenos and Ivy not warned us, there would have been no way to stop them. None.

  We flew past them as if out for a practice run. No hurry. No shielding. No weapons. Two ships flying a routine patrol.

  “Get ready.” I inspected the Cerberus ship as we flew by. It was twice the size of the ship I flew and loaded with three times the weapons. “Don’t miss, Erick. They’ve got enough firepower to take out a small fleet.”

  “Holy gods, what the fark is that?” Erick’s shock had my father leaning forward.

  “Drift up, son. Get a closer look.”

  I followed Father’s words, so I could get a good look at the top of the Cerberus ship.

  “That farking Xeriman. She bought my Spectra IV.” The irony was not lost on me. There, mounted atop the Cerberus ship was the Spectra IV ion cannon I had ordered from the Silver Scions. I knew it was mine because I had requested a special insignia be embossed on the side of the cannon. My family crest.

  “Is that… is that our crest?” Father asked, wide eyed.

  “That was to be mine.”

  “You negotiated with the enemy?”

  I looked to him, his gaze serious and dark.

  “You negotiate with the enemy, Father. What I’ve done is diplomacy. Watched. Listened. Fark, if I hadn’t been selling to them, we wouldn’t be here right now saving the planet.

  Father listened, studied me, then nodded.

  I didn’t know what it meant, but it wasn’t hurtful words.

  “She probably used my money to buy it.”

  Now Ulza, or one of her sons, was probably on that ship. And they intended to use my Spectra IV to kill an entire city full of people.

  “What is a Spectra IV?” Erick asked through the head set.

  “It’s a specialty cannon built with Hive tech. They could take out a city five times the size of Bakkarholt with that cannon.”

  “And what were you going to do with an ion cannon with our family crest emblazoned on the side?” My father’s voice was deadly quiet, and I knew the sight had angered him as nothing else might have.

  “Because it’s mine. I ordered that cannon to help me hunt and kill Hive. I didn’t have a weapon big enough to take down their Integration ships.”

  “By the gods, son. You’ve spent the last four years hunting Hive? On your own?”

  There it was, the criticism. The disbelief. The blatant disapproval.

  The Cerberus ship saved me from the need to respond. “They’re locking on target.”

  “I see it.” Now that their weapons were activated, our ships could detect the signals. I frowned. “Something's not right. They’re going the wrong…”

  “Fark. They’ve locked onto Outpost Nine.” My father’s skin paled. “Eela.”

  “What?” Shocked, I double checked my father’s data. “Fark. Zara.”

  “Why would
they--?” Erick made a choking sound as he answered his own question. “The High Councilors’ meeting.”

  “They’re taking out Bertok. He didn’t hold up his end of their bargain. Fire, Erick! Do it now. Take them out!” I shoved my father’s shocked hand out of the way and fired everything I had at the Cerberus ship’s engines from the back, their flank.

  Confident Erick would keep up the tirade, I shifted my target to the glowing Spectra IV ion cannon on top of the Cerberus ship. “Fark you, Ulza. That cannon has to be mounted internally.” I knew because I had helped the engineer working with the Silver Scions to design it. The cannon was insanely powerful but had one major weakness near the center top panel. The cannon couldn’t withstand a direct shot, which was why I had redesigned my ship to create a housing for it that would protect the body of the cannon from Hive attack.

  I had no problem with Cerberus finishing Bertok. There was a decent line of people waiting for a turn. But my mate was at the meeting. My mother. Use my farking cannon to kill my mate!

  Everything around me faded to blank space. Nothing existed but the Cerberus ship and that cannon.

  I fired my weapons, adjusted, fired again.

  “Direct hit!” Erick yelled the news, but I already knew. I’d known from the moment I fired the shot and waited, watched it explode into the ion cannon as if my entire existence was happening in ultra-slow motion. Zara was down there. If I missed the shot, Zara would die.

  You can’t outrun pain…

  Her truth hit me hard, like a punch to my gut. I couldn’t breathe. If I lost her, there would be nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. There weren’t enough Hive in the universe to erase the agony losing her would be. I could travel the galaxy like I had been the past four years, but I’d never find what made me happy.

  I’d rather be dead.

  The Cerberus ship exploded into tiny pieces, and I watched with satisfaction as they fell toward Trion, burning up in the planet's atmosphere like a meteor storm.

  I was an idiot.

  “Outpost Nine, Erick. Now.”

  “Right behind you.”

  I didn’t look at my father, but I could feel his assessment, his eyes burning into me in the way only a stern parent’s could.

  I no longer cared. Zara. I had to get to Zara.

  The ion cannon was gone, but Bertok? That asshole was down there, on the surface, with my mate.

  My father leaned forward to activate the comms.

  “What are you doing?”

  He grinned, the happy look in his eyes one I hadn’t seen in years. “I am notifying the council that there is a traitor in their midst, and that my brilliant, fearless son just saved them all.”

  Brilliant? Fearless?

  “Your female was right, Isaak. The years away have made you smarter. Stronger. Your brother was kind and funny, but he was soft. Weak. I loved him, but our people will fare very well under your protection.”

  Once, I would have sold my soul to hear such praise from my father’s lips. Now? I needed to reach Zara. I cared about nothing else.

  “Thank you, father.” Simple words, but I had nothing else to say.

  15

  Zara

  * * *

  “They will not let us within,” Eela said.

  We walked down a grand hallway in some fancy building. Just outside were a group of tents, and outside those tents stood dozens of armed guards.

  Inside the building, which would put any stone castle on Earth to shame, there wasn’t anyone around, and I had to assume everyone was in the meeting. I didn’t know where we were because I’d only been in the transport station and then in Isaak’s house for the duration of my time on Trion. We were obviously in a town, a desert town where Isaak’s dad was the head guy. They called them Councilors. Bertok was one for his area. Perhaps like governors or presidents of different parts of the planet.

  Now wasn’t time to have a civics lesson about the place, but I didn’t understand Eela’s statement.

  “Why not?”

  We had three guards with us. They loomed and looked somewhat frightening, but she didn’t pay them any attention. As for me, I wasn’t used to protection. To being supervised. I wasn’t used to wearing a see-through dress either. I’d changed a lot.

  One thing that hadn’t changed was that I wasn’t going to listen to what Isaak or anyone else said. I wasn’t being defiant, I was doing what I needed to do. Staying out of sight and trying to be safe was a good idea, but it wasn’t going to get the job done. And that job was to see Bertok taken down.

  I wasn’t going to do that from Isaak’s posh mansion.

  Thankfully, Eela knew that too.

  That was why we were here. Wherever that was. All I knew was there was a Councilor meeting, and Isaak’s dad was supposed to be a part of it. Same went for Bertok.

  “Why not?” I asked. We had three big goons, and I had my titan stick.

  “Females are not allowed in these meetings alone. Not that I wish to attend. I sat through several meetings after I took Henrick as my mate. The pillow was comfortable, but the conversation was very boring.”

  I turned to face her, the closed door behind me. “Okay, we’ve got to work on this females-not-allowed thing. There aren’t any female Councilors?”

  She shook her head.

  “Don’t you want to have representation?”

  She gave me a smile. A sly one. “I do have representation. My mate sits up on the council.”

  “Yeah, but you could sit there yourself.”

  She gave a slight shrug of her dark shoulders. Her skin practically glowed. At a later date, I’d have to ask her about her lotion.

  “Males give their ear to their mates. And their voice.”

  I stared at her, tried to figure out what she meant. “You mean… pillow talk?”

  She quirked her lips. “Males like to think they are in charge, but it is the females who truly run this planet.”

  “But Bertok is planning on blowing up a huge city. Are you saying his wife gave him a hummer and told him to do it?”

  Her eyes widened. “I have not heard the term hummer before, but I can imagine. It is possible, but I know his mate. She would not be so cruel or cunning. I would assume there is evil on Earth as well.”

  I nodded. “It is why I volunteered.”

  She laughed then covered her mouth with her fingers. “I’m sorry. It isn’t funny. You’ve been through much. Isaak, I assume, was not keen to return to Trion. He and his father have always clashed. But here he is. Because of you. And perhaps… a hummer?”

  I didn’t convince Isaak to return to Trion because of a blowjob, but I wasn’t going to mention that in any way to Isaak’s mom. Not a chance. She might be able to see my nipples, but I wasn’t telling her about my sex life with her son.

  “If we can’t get in, then why did you say you would hold the council off until your mate could return? Wouldn’t it have been better to get on that ship with Isaak and have Isaak’s father sit in on the meeting?”

  “I do not care for space travel. I become unwell. I am needed here.”

  “Then how do we get in?” I wondered.

  “We open the door.”

  She went over to the closed door and opened it, walked inside, two of the three guards following her. The third remained with me. I glanced up at him, but his expression was neutral.

  I wasn’t sure if Eela was ballsy or what. It was time to find out.

  I followed her in to find a bunch of guys in white robes like weird sheiks standing about squawking like pigeons, offended that Eela was there. The room was arranged in a U shape, with three tiers of chairs that all faced the door. It was as if we’d walked into the men’s locker room by mistake and caught them all with their pants down.

  Eela stood poised and calm. Well, I assumed she did, since I couldn’t see her around the guards. But she remained quiet and let the roomful of guys make their noise. She must have raised her hand or flashed a boob or something because they al
l fell silent.

  “Right now, Cerberus from Rogue 5 is within striking distance of Trion with the intention of destroying Bakkarholt.”

  Pandemonium broke out.

  Again, Eela waited. The males in the room were a variety of ages, but they leaned toward the gray-haired crowd. I took them all in, calmly inspecting faces until I saw Bertok. I froze. He was two rows up and directly at the back of the room. He looked exactly as I remembered, wearing the same outfit. His gaze was direct and dark. I recognized the glare well as he’d pierced me with it before. He wasn’t pleased with Eela or her announcement but remained silent.

  “Where is this information coming from?” A Councilor asked from our right.

  “It matters not, and you will not believe me. You wish for proof. Comm the central command and have them ping the space defense patrols.”

  The guy looked like he had indigestion at the idea of taking orders from a female. The guy nodded to someone beside him, and the second male started speaking into a wristwatch or what looked like one.

  “Where is your mate, my lady?” another guy asked. “High Councilor Henrick should be here to share this revelation himself.”

  “It matters not whether the news is from a male’s or female’s lips. The truth is the same. Bakkarholt will be destroyed within the hour. As for where my mate is, he is with our son, fighting the Cerberus craft in space.”

  Shouting began again. I watched Bertok. He didn’t say a word.

  This wasn’t getting anywhere fast. Perhaps that was Eela’s plan. Stall and stall some more.

  Eela might be here to delay the meeting.

  I was here to take down Bertok.

  I stepped around the guards and moved to stand beside Eela. The room grew quiet again. I, too, waited, but for something different. I waited for Bertok to speak. I knew he would. He had to.

  “Arrest her! She is the fugitive bride who murdered her matched mate. She killed Naron, one of my guards.”

  The protection behind us didn’t stir, our guards impervious to Bertok’s lies.