Her Rogue Mates

by Grace Goodwin

  “Bite me, Styx. I want you both to be mine.”

  “We are already yours.”

  “Forever, Styx. I want forever. I want that bite, and you’re going to give it to me.”

  “Bossy. I like it.” I grinned—showing her my fangs that appeared because of her tone—kissed her once more, then was gone.

  * * *

  Blade

  Leaving Harper was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do. The brush of her lips on mine wasn’t enough. She’d said she was ready to be claimed, ready for us to bite her, and yet we had to go track down traitors. I’d never cared before about cleaning up scum. It’s what we did. But now? Now I had more. Now I had Harper.

  I knew she was safe.

  We tasked Scribe and Ivar with protecting her while we were gone and they’d do so with their lives. Neither Styx nor I could sit out this fight. The need for blood was like a fever inside me. These traitors had attacked Harper, tried to kill our mate. Orchestrated an attack at our mating feast.

  They were dead. Every fucking one of them was dead. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night until this was done.

  Blood for blood.

  They went after Harper. They would die.

  The coordinates were programmed in, and within seconds of stepping on the transport pad, we were with Mervan. He stood next to Styx at the front of the bay talking to our enforcers and his Coalition warriors. There were close to a hundred killing machines listening. These weren’t standard Coalition warriors. These were Intelligence Core. Killers, spies. A good number of Everian Hunters stood among us and more than two dozen Atlan beasts. The rest were Prillon warriors, hunting in pairs.

  I’d never considered my people small. Weak.

  But in this room of elite killers, we’d barely be able to hold our own.

  For once, I was fine with that. I was fine to be considered less. If Mervan thought that and used his very large, very skilled resources to root out the fuckers, then I was fine with that. Whatever needed to happen to keep the Coalition away from Rogue 5 and us in bed with Harper as soon as possible.

  Styx stood next to the doctor, arms crossed, a fierce scowl on his face. He looked exactly like what he was—a brutal, merciless killer. A king among outlaws. As I watched several of the Coalition warriors watch him with nervous glances, I was proud. Pride that these big, huge fuckers were wary of my leader made me want to grin. But I stifled it. Stifled everything but my need to kill.

  Fuck the Coalition. Fuck the Atlans and the Prillons and the Everian Hunters. We were here for our people. For our mate. And Doctor Mervan didn’t want anyone in the Coalition to know he was on to the smuggling ring. Which was why every killer in the room wore black and silver. Styx colors.

  It was the only time Styx would allow such a thing. Only those honorable enough wore our colors, but this time, this one time, we’d follow Mervan’s plan and everyone would appear to be part of the legion.

  Styx was using the Coalition to send a message to Kronos they wouldn’t soon forget. All the legions would hear the news, about the monsters about to descend on their cargo ship and wreak havoc. Styx’s legend would grow. No one would fuck with us, or our mate. Not the Coalition, not Kronos or any other legion thinking of fucking with us.

  With the fury building in me, the others would have to get in line if they wanted vengeance of their own. I’d see mine done first. For Harper.

  “I want the leadership alive,” Doctor Mervan announced to the warriors, but Styx’s response was immediate.

  “Then you’d better get to them first.”

  A couple of the Atlans chuckled at Styx’s quiet proclamation, but everyone in the room knew he was completely serious. There would be no mercy from him. From the Styx legion. I moved to stand beside Styx, shoulder to shoulder. There would be no mercy from me either. Not when they’d attacked what was mine.

  Beside me, Cormac’s grin nearly split his face. His hunger, his need to protect his people, his leader, his family, was even more primitive and instinctive than most. The rage emanating from him fed my own until it took everything I had to wait. To listen. I had no idea how he managed to control himself.

  “Wager?” Khon spoke from Cormac’s right, keeping his voice tipped low.

  Silver leaned around me and the huge warrior and shook her head at Khon. “Bet against Styx and you’ll lose.”

  Khon smiled, slapped me on the shoulder. “My money’s not on Cormac, it’s on Blade.”

  Silver laughed at that. “How can I bet against my own brother?”

  I didn’t look at either of them, instead stared out at the group of warriors who would have our backs, then at our leader. “You’ll lose.”

  Silver punched me on the other shoulder. “Fifty on Styx.”

  “Done.” Khon held out his hand and they shook on it as Mervan and Styx led the way to the transport pads.

  I stepped in behind, my heart rate kicking up, my senses sharpening. Time to hunt.

  Chapter Twelve

  Styx

  The moment the twisting pain of transport loosened its grip on me, I spun, blades out. Ready. I had no intention of using ion blasters. I wanted my enemies to look into my eyes when I gutted them.

  The cargo ship was large for a vessel of this type. And the traitor told us to expect a crew of close to fifty with twice that many prisoners and several bays full of stolen weapons, medical supplies, and almost a thousand mobile transport tags used by the medical teams to evacuate the wounded.

  They were worth more on the black market than everything else combined—including the ship itself.

  Apparently, Kronos legion had been busy raiding, stealing, looting. Harper’s team was one of many that had been attacked. The Intelligence Core wanted some of them alive. I grimaced at that, the word some. They didn’t give a fuck about them. They were commodities, and it was a good thing Harper was safe on Rogue 5 or Mervan would be a dead man along with the traitor for his indifference. But in this moment, I needed that indifference to get what I wanted. Mervan was looking for the traitor on their side of this mess, the medical officer feeding Kronos the locations and other information on the MedRec teams when they went out into the field.

  I didn’t care about what Mervan wanted. He could find that traitor and lead me directly to Kronos.

  That legion needed to go down. I wanted blood.

  Mervan split his men into teams with a wave of his hand, and a group of Prillon and Atlan warriors moved quickly in the direction of the prisoner holding cells. Fortunately, we were not only given the location of the ship, but the blueprints for them as well. We’d studied them, knew where to go.

  His second team moved to attack the cargo areas and recover the weapons and other goods stored there.

  A third team would head for the command deck and take over the ship, capture their leaders.

  They moved quickly, silently. Efficiently. But not fast enough.

  Blade ran beside me, Cormac, Silver and Khon right behind us as we moved so quickly I knew we were barely more than a blur. Only the Everian Hunters could outrun us, and they’d been sent to the prison block at my insistence. They could get there with their intense speed and save the innocent.

  The sounds of battle and ion blasts echoed through the corridors. The ship’s alert system went to flashing red. Beside me, Blade growled. “They know we’re coming.”

  They’d known the second our group touched down on the transport pad.

  The smile that stretched my face was feral. “Good.”

  Behind us, the pounding boots of at least two dozen Coalition warriors thundered down the narrow walkway, but they were nearly a minute behind us.

  Everyone on the command deck would be dead before they arrived.

  Kronos had betrayed not just Styx legion, but all Hyperions on Rogue 5 when they pulled their raids. They threatened our existence. If the Coalition Fleet decided to wage war on us, one battleship would be all it would take to turn our moon base into a crater in seconds.

/>   We were smugglers, pirates. We didn’t draw attention to ourselves, and we didn’t bring down hell itself with uncontrolled greed.

  The Fleet ignored us because we made it easy for them to do so. We operated, we kept the peace, we kept the black market under control. Every once in a while, tossed them a bone and offered assistance. Like now, although this time, we only let them think they were in charge.

  But if we slipped the leash, pulled too hard, men like Mervan would destroy everything our people had built. Our truce was uneasy, balanced on a razor’s edge. And Kronos had fucked with the system. Gotten greedy. Tried to take too much. To take people. We didn’t do slaves.

  Astra, Cerberus and Siren had all agreed with my plan when I contacted them to let them know my intended course of action. I hadn’t asked their permission to kill the bastards either. Luckily, the others had been in agreement. Every Kronos legionnaire on this ship would die today.

  We met little resistance as we rushed down the hall. Two guards stood at the entrance to the command deck, their bodies blocking the large doors, their arm bands telltale yellow. Not red.

  They were not hiding who they were here. Either they were cocky fuckers who didn’t care or they never imagined we’d find them and bring them down. That cockiness was at the core of every Hyperion, but today, it would destroy them.

  They didn’t flinch as they fired at us in a steady stream, their blasters set on the highest setting.

  The first shot hit me in the shoulder, but I barely felt the sting. Our bodies were different than the other races in the Coalition. Our armor custom made to distribute ionic charges—something Mervan knew nothing about. I wasn’t injured like a fighter would have been. No, I was enraged. The strike only grew my need to kill.

  I rushed the guard on the left as Blade ran toward his companion.

  A killing rage was upon me as I wondered if this man had laid his hands on my mate. Had shot that ion blaster at her on Latiri.

  Blade’s bellow echoed down the corridor like a cannon blast as he shoved his guard up against the door and buried a blade in his throat. The strike was ruthless, the death swift, but it no doubt helped his blood lust.

  I was feeling less civilized, but more in control. I wanted to kill the guard before me, yes, but I also wanted to send a message.

  Holding the Kronos soldier up against the wall by his neck, I looked over my shoulder at Silver. “Record this. I want it played on every comm on Rogue 5.”

  Her grin was pure evil as she adjusted a sensor on her uniform and nodded.

  Looking into the recording device, I narrowed my eyes and held the Kronos soldier still, my grip sure. His hands wrapped around mine, tugging, fighting for air. I ignored him and addressed my people.

  “I am Styx. This soldier from Kronos is part of an operation that attacked the Coalition MedRec teams. Not only did Kronos disobey Legion Law in attacking outright, endangering all of us with their reckless taunting of the Coalition Fleet, he attacked my mate.”

  Blade stepped next to me, his gaze fixed on the man I still held pinned to the wall. Face sprayed with blood, hands coated with it, he turned and faced the camera, fangs on display as he snarled his own version of a warning to anyone who might be watching.

  “This is what happens to my enemies.” Turning, I ripped the offender’s throat from his neck with one hand and dropped his body to the ground with the loosening of my fingers. The scent of blood and death filled the air, filled my nostrils, making my fangs drop, too. Dangling the remains of his breathing tube and bloody flesh in my hand, I turned back to the camera and spoke in the calmest, coldest voice I could manage. “This is not Styx legion in a rage. This is not Styx losing control. This,” I dangled the bloody mess one more time before lowering it and taking a step closer to the camera. “This is what I do to my enemies. This is what I do to those who harm my mate. The rules about mates is bigger than Coalition Law. Than Legion Law. No planet, no leader in the universe will deny the need for revenge against those who would harm a mate. Let it be known what they have done and how I will finish them.”

  “Send that to Rogue 5 now,” I said. “Right fucking now. We should play it morning, noon and night on every broadcast channel.”

  I wanted the truth known. Unrest to end. The betrayers to cease to exist.

  The Coalition fighters caught up to us in the hall. Their leader, a huge Prillon warrior with dark skin and amber eyes, frowned when he saw the carnage. “We were to take them alive, Styx.”

  “They went after our mate,” I said, telling him what he missed because of their slow approach.

  Apparently, that was enough explanation, because the Prillon dismissed the bodies with barely a flicker of his eyes as he pointed his ion blaster toward the door. I had to wonder if he had a mate and a second back on Prillon Prime. “Let’s end this,” he said. Duty and honor were both reasons for him to complete his mission.

  Blade looked at me. No question, we were going in first. “Ready?”

  I nodded, and he lifted the dead guard’s hand to press it to the door scanner, blood smearing as he did so.

  The door slid open and we rushed inside, ready to fight. Ready to kill.

  But Mervan was already there. The entire Kronos command crew was on their knees, their hands and feet locked in metallic restraints so strong even an Atlan in beast mode couldn’t break them.

  The doctor stood over the highest-ranking enforcer from Kronos, a man Blade and I had known for years.

  “What are you doing here, Mervan? These men are mine.”

  Doctor Mervan tapped the mobile transport beacon stuck to his chest. “You’re too slow, Styx. They’re mine now.”

  “Are you trying to play me for a fool?” I took two steps forward, ready to rip his head from his shoulders, but the Prillon at my back raised their weapons. I wouldn’t make it. They’d won.

  “Stand down, Styx,” Mervan ordered, not looking at me.

  I knew he was right, knew I needed to let him do his job, track the rest of the traitors, discover what their plans were, if they had other cargo ships. Other contacts. More informants scattered throughout the Coalition Fleet.

  But that was Mervan’s problem. Not mine.

  “You can have the rest, Mervan.” I pointed to the Kronos leader. “He’s mine.”

  The doctor shook his head. “I need him alive.”

  I glanced around the room, at the eight additional captives Mervan had taken. None enforcers in Kronos, but all Hyperion people I recognized. “You have more than enough prisoners.”

  “Gods be damned, Styx, he’s mine.”

  Mervan was an ally. He was the only contact I had powerful enough to make sure Harper was removed from the Coalition Fleet’s claws. They owned her. I’d break the law, fight a war to keep her. But that would make my people bleed. Better to sacrifice this one kill. For Harper. For all the people of Rogue 5. For my legion. “Get him out of my fucking sight.”

  Mervan nodded at the other Coalition warriors around the room and they affixed mobile transport tags to their prisoners. One by one, they disappeared into thin air as we watched. They would go to a Coalition prison. Stand trial, ultimately be executed for their actions. They would die, but I was denied the blood we wanted. Denied our vengeance.

  I met and held Mervan’s gaze. “Promise me he will suffer.”

  The curl of Mervan’s lips was cruel. He was supposed to be a healer, like Harper. But his heart was as black as hers was light. In this moment, I was glad. He knew my need, shared it to a certain degree.

  “You have my word, Styx.”

  Blade’s chest heaved beside me, his hands clenching into fists at his sides as the prisoners around us disappeared, until only the enforcer was left.

  The bastard raised his eyes to mine, looked behind me at Blade, Silver, and the others, his gaze flickering as he took inventory of the enforcers who had come to end him. He grinned at Blade, his fangs showing.

  “How’s your pretty little mate? She’s quick
on her feet. I missed her three times before that Atlan bastard started firing back.” He tilted his head to the side, as if pondering a philosophical question during a grandmother’s dinner party. “Tell me, did you bite her when you took her ass? Or did you save her for me?”

  Blade moved so fast even I didn’t see him.

  “No!” I yelled, the one word echoing off the walls.

  Mervan didn’t get the chance to protest, his Prillon reflexes too slow for Blade’s rage.

  Blade’s hands wrapped around the enforcer’s neck and he twisted. Hard. Fast. Too hard.

  He bellowed when the bones snapped, cracked. Kept twisting, rage on his face and in his eyes. There was no thinking man beneath the instincts raging at him.

  I realized, as the enforcer’s head was detached from his body, that he was smiling. He’d taunted Blade, known his protective rage would save him weeks or months of torture at Mervan’s hands. He knew he would die and chose his own ending. Chose to fuck with Blade and get exactly what he wanted. Instant death.

  Mervan snarled at him, but I moved quickly, stepping between Blade and the Prillon spy. If Blade hadn’t done it, I would have. “You have other prisoners, Mervan.”

  “He was their leader,” he shouted, raising his arm in the direction of the headless Kronos. Blade could end up in jail himself for what he’d just done, gone against orders.

  “No,” I countered. “He was a Kronos enforcer.”

  The Prillon took a moment to calm himself as Blade threw the detached head against the wall with a bellow. The sound of flesh striking metal was thick and heavy, sloppy and wet. Blood streaked down the wall, began to pool on the floor. The scent of it was strong, cloying.

  The sound was extremely satisfying. I smiled as Blade walked back to us, covered in blood from the enforcer and the guard he’d ended in the corridor outside. He’d gotten the revenge he wanted. I had gotten mine, although by Blade’s hands. That was good enough for me.

  “By the gods, let’s get out of here, Mervan.” The Prillon commander who’d followed us into the room from the hall spoke now. “The charges are set. The prisoners evacuated. All the cargo has been off-loaded and transported out.”