The hailing signal rang out while Vlosh slept. Claiming his mate in an advanced stage in his mating impulse had taken a lot out of him. When he woke, his dragon was quiet, but the hailing buzz was not.

He groaned and sat up in bed. Vlosh flicked the base of his neck and caused his uniform to cover his body. Using two fingers, he slid them over the inside of his wrist to communicate with the bridge.

“What is it?” he asked groggily, the sight of his first officer’s face on his arm.

“Sir, I have important information to bring to your attention.”

“What is it?” He was in no mood to be bothered over trivialities.

“Sir, there seems to have been a defection of one of our men to the Mulgor.”

“What? Who would do such a thing?”

“He was one of our junior pilots. He went out for the first time during the missile attack. He flew straight for the Mulgor mothership and they took him inside.”

“I want every piece of information on this man immediately,” Vlosh growled.

The idea that one of his men was a traitor grated on his nerves and filled him with beastly rage. The incoming information downloaded to his data banks, and he began to read the files.

The young pilot had been recruited just as the war with the Mulgor began. He’d grown up on a colony on a distant moon where the Draconians mined minerals they needed for their propulsion systems.

The young man came to Draconia to train as a pilot. He’d been on board Vlosh’s fleet since they were sent from Draconia to Earth.

Why would a Draconian ever side with the Mulgor? The Mulgor believed themselves to be a superior race and wanted to wipe Draconians out of the universe. No Draconian would align with them.

Vlosh continued to study the young man’s file when Indigo roused at his side. He smiled down at her, then looked back at the files. He flicked on the files that covered the pilot’s parents’ information.

His father had been born on Draconia and went to the mining moon as a young man. The mother on the other hand, Vlosh could not find any information on her history. She had apparently been born on the moon, but the first colonist had only arrived around the time the young man’s father had. That would make her much younger than the father, by about twenty years.

Even in the last generation, female Draconians were rare. So every single female birth would be meticulously recorded. This one was not.

Could it be possible that the young man’s mother was really a Mulgor spy posing as a Draconian? Because the races had once been one, some Mulgor sometimes had recessive genes that made them look like Draconians in humanoid form. It was very possible that this woman had been one.

This traitor could explain the attacks on Indigo. The thought made his head burn with anger, and he growled deep in his throat.

“What is it?” Indigo asked by his side, taking his arm in her delicate hands.

“I have learned there was a traitor among us. He is probably the one who informed the Mulgor of your existence and got your family killed.”

“What? A Draconian did that?” She pulled away. Vlosh glanced at her and saw a bright tear in the corner of her eye. She sniffed and it slid down her face.

“Half Draconian. I must admit, my beloved human mate, that not all Draconians uphold the values of Draconia. There have been traitors and spies aboard our fleets before.”

“God damn them to hell,” she said, shuddering with stifled sobs.

“All we can do is find a way to defeat the mothership. That should destroy the spy.”

“What else could he have told the Mulgor?” she asked, the tears streaming down her cheeks unabated.

“Any number of things he had access to. But he was a low level pilot. He didn’t have very high clearance.”

“What a d-bag,” she muttered.

“What is a d-bag?” he asked, confused.

“Nothing, it’s just a saying. So, how do we take these bastards out?”

“My engineers are working night and day on that problem. You need not worry about it.” Her expression fell and she turned away.

“I’m not totally useless, you know,” she muttered.

Suddenly, a light exploded in his mind and he drew back to look into her eyes. “How did you know to shoot at the Mulgor laser?”

“It was just my tennis instinct to shoot at it. I had no idea that it would work.”

“Do you think you could do that again?”

“What? Shoot a laser?”

“Yes.”

“Sure. But I’m sure anyone could do it.”

“But not as well as my beautiful bride. You are the only person I know who has taken down a Mulgor vessel in this way. So, if anyone is going to execute my new plan, I believe it should be you.”

“Really?” she said in a surprised voice.

“I also want you to know how much I value you.”

“Aww. I know you do.”

“I will prove it. Let’s try my plan.”