“Tread carefully.” Bounding to his feet, Valdus shoved his captive behind him, his blood pumping hot, his weapon raised high.

His second in command, Ryker, froze. “Do I suddenly look like the enemy to you?”

Heat blazed across the back of Valdus’s neck. “What you look like is a man ruled by emotion. Exactly what we don’t need right now.”

He was a royal hypocrite, but he wasn’t wrong.

Following his own advice, he lowered his weapon. Though he couldn’t quite make himself sheath it. Not with his naked captive’s fingernails digging into his back, her fear crashing over him in waves, making him twitchy, making him stupid.

What had developed between them had been more than he’d anticipated.

The addictive look in her gaze as she experienced pleasure for the first time. The heady power of her submission and her need. The reminder that his hands were good for something besides blood and pain. It had…affected him.

Made it impossible for him to dismiss her as nothing more than bait.

And the thought of that same female screaming someone else’s name in pleasure dropped a curtain of crimson red across his vision.

“Put your clothes back on.” Stepping more fully in front of his teammate, he hid her from view. “Where are the others?”

“You signaled a meet at the mess hall.” Blood seeped from a cut above his second’s eye. “When you didn’t show, we thought you’d been taken out.”

The words struck like frigid water.

They’d been worrying over him while he’d been getting off. “There were…complications.”

He sheathed his weapon.

“Complications?” Ryker’s nostril’s flared as if he smelled something foul. As if he scented how his leader had forgotten duty and escape as he wrapped his captive’s legs around his hips and drove hard. Not to punish, but to make her moan with pleasure. “You know break time is more than halfway over for our part of the team, right?”

“I know.” The rustle of movement at his back reminded him of the need for control.

“You also remember none of us have had sleep or food?” His teammate’s voice rose. “That once break ends, we’ll be slaving like beasts for the next twelve hours? That the rest of the team will be coming off their shift, wondering what happened at the neutral zone to make us late? Maybe even thinking they should go in search of us?”

“You know I fucking know all of that.”

There was no one who could piss him off as easily as Ryker. Probably because they weren’t just teammates. At one time, they’d been like brothers. Two kids who’d lost their parents to the dust storms and banded together to survive. Joined the Academy together. Climbed the ranks together. Hell, he’d given the bride away at Ryker’s joining and agreed to act as guardian for his kid. He’d been so damn happy his restless friend had finally found the kind of belonging for which they’d both been searching.

But that was before it all fell apart, they both lost everything, and Ryker had retreated behind an angry wall, morphing into a bloodthirsty asshole who only came out from behind his hard shell to lob sarcastic comments.

If the man wasn’t so rabid about protecting their team, they’d likely have come to blows long ago.

“So, let me get this straight. You know all that and still you decided a little fuck was in order?” True to form, his second went straight for the jugular.

“Watch yourself, soldier. You’re dangerously close to a line you don’t want to cross.”

“I wasn’t criticizing. I was celebrating.” Ryker held up his hands in false surrender. “For our great Commander to let go of that precious discipline even for an instant is huge.”

A muscle twitched in Valdus’s jaw. This wasn’t the first time his second had tried to piss him off. But it was the first time it seemed to be working.

“Struck a chord, have I?” Ryker’s considering gaze shifted over Valdus’s shoulder. “Breeder pussy must be even better than advertised.” A leer twisted his features. “And if our esteemed Commander is willing to prioritize it over the team he loves above all else, I’m in.” He stalked toward their captive once more. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she’s intact enough for you to return for seconds. A little revenge fuck is exactly what I need right now.”

The hands that had been clinging to Valdus’s shoulders dropped away.

He wanted to roar with the fucked-up-ness of it all.

Instead, he stepped fully into his teammate’s path, the ominous clap of muscle hitting muscle sending red dust and barely leashed violence swirling between them.

“You are not to touch her.”

“But you did.” Genuine surprise bled into Ryker’s tone, wiping away his usual hard smirk. “And you don’t claim anything for yourself. Unless it’s risk.” His second’s words were slow and deliberate, as if trying to work out some thorny problem. “Otherwise, it’s always everyone else first.” The man’s eyes went hard and mocking, the wall coming up once more. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

Valdus instinctively knew the woman behind him wouldn’t want others to know about the heat.

“Heart’s got nothing to do with it,” he growled, defensive though he wasn’t sure why. “I’ve got a plan to get us out of here. One that requires her alive and mobile. Able to move where we tell her. Capable of hauling her own weight so we don’t have to. Being a workable bait and bargaining chip that will draw Hollisworth to us. Nothing more, nothing less. And we both know that’s not how your fuck companions tend to end up.”

The spark of rage in his second’s gaze—proof Valdus’s verbal strike had hit home—brought a flare of satisfaction, but it was tempered by the sharp intake of breath behind.

Shit, he’d let his second bait him into being as much of an asshole as he was.

Shoving his friend back a step, he opened his mouth to soften his words—

“Valdus? Ryker? You in there? Everything okay?” The voice of their top scout, Griffin, echoed from outside the cave. “We’ve managed to ditch the last of the packs in pursuit, but they’ll find us eventually. Are we settling in to fight or heading back to quarters? What’s the plan?”

Another reality check.

There were men right outside this cave and others currently scratching away in the mines counting on him to do what was best for them.

His gaze locked with Ryker’s.

They both dropped their fists. Whatever was brewing between them would have to wait. The safety of the team came first.

Above all else.

Even the confusing female at his back.

Maybe it would have been better if he’d just shoved his cock inside her. If he never knew those sweet, willing sounds she made. The tight grip of her pussy as it rippled against his cock. The look of surprise and hope in her gaze.

But what was done was done. He couldn’t change it.

Nor could he change what was to come.

“Rest will have to wait.” He unsheathed his ax, hardening his heart. “We head to the mess hall.”

Because his captive was right.

Neither of them had a choice in what happened next. Hollisworth had taken that from them long ago.