Varra was a perfectly ordinary looking woman, the kind you wouldn’t give a second glance to in a crowd. But then she would smile, revealing two serrated rows of monstrously pointed teeth. Criminals, pirates, the most hardened scum of the universe would bow and scrape before her. In fact they were mingling before her as she sat on a jewel encrusted seat on a dais presiding over it all. The room was painted with an eye-screaming shade of pink and yellow, a bright, expensive contrast to the usual grim grayness one usually encountered in deep space habitats.

I was trapped in a holedark metal slag of a shell watching her play queen with her people. I always figured I would die wearing exo-armor, but not like this. In all the ways I had thought I could possibly be tortured, being paralyzed with unscratchable itches all over my body was not on my list of favorites.

I had relied so much on my pilot’s exo-armor for my identity and for protection I had forgotten that there could even be weaknesses.

And now I would possibly pay for it with my life.

There had to be some irony in this. The very thing that I believed to protect me the most, the very thing that had become an almost essential part of who I was, had become my prison.

Unless somehow I got out.

Ral and Anduin were still out there.

Ral.

Despite everything, the truth that I had fought so hard not to see was finally revealed, ironically in one of the darkest spaces I had ever found myself in. With more certainty than I had ever known anything in my life, I knew he would come for me.

That knowledge kept me on the edge of sanity in the face of all the itching. I had been frozen for hours. They brought me to Varra, who didn’t even say anything to me. She'd gestured them to put me in the corner in her little “throne room.” And then she went on ignoring me, doing her business like she always did. It wasn’t personal with her. I was a debtor, and debtors had to be dealt with severely.

Anduin and a tall cloaked figure showed up. My heartbeat sped up.

“Anduin.” Varra had a glorious smile on her face; the kind you knew was the exact opposite of what she was really thinking. “So nice to see you again. You’ve recovered from our last meeting.”

“I can heal a broken leg, but a broken heart?” Anduin put his hands over his heart dramatically. “I will never recover.”

Varra laughed. “Stop frosting things so sweetly, merc.” She glanced over at me. So she knew Anduin had come in with me. Once they fried my exo-armor, it was a matter of relying on her network of spies and informants to find out who I came in with. “Trying to fulfill a contract?”

“I always am.”

She sighed. “At least I know where we stand.”

Anduin shrugged. “You took someone that my current employer doesn’t want to replace. He would really like his pilot back.”

“Her?” Varra didn’t even glance in my corner. “I like my room ornament too much. Though everything has its price, I think that the price of this one is too high even for you, my dear old friend.”

“You don’t know my employer.”

“Then have him step forward, and reveal his high wolfy Nightclaw self,” she said, revealing she knew exactly who stood before her.

Ral pulled back the hood. The crowd hushed. The blue print was gone from his face, as was the crooked nose. His face was one of the more famous ones throughout the galaxy. Silence curtained the room. Then whispers exploded everywhere.

“Your Wolfiness honors me with your presence,” she said, sounding completely unimpressed.

“I want my pilot back,” he said.

Varra leaned forward.

“Let’s hear your offer, werewolf prince.”

“A skeleton key to the Teeth. One time use only.”

My mouth dropped open, about the only part of me that could still move. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. Would he?

The only change in Varra’s expression was a glint in her eye. She tried to sneer, but the giddy prospect of something that rare and priceless was starting to leak through. “What good is that to me? Useless you can’t get past the Tigrantine orbital defenses.”

Ral shrugged. “Not my problem. Doesn’t reduce its value, which more than makes up any debts or interest.”

I struggled, screamed, did everything I could to try and make this holedark useless metal shell move, respond, do something to get Ral to stop. He couldn’t be so stupid. I was one pilot. I wasn’t even one of his people.

My face dripped with tears because deep down, I knew the holedark answer.

“No. Not for a mere skeleton key.” Varra smiled a smile full of sharpened teeth. “I want something more than that. I want something that only you can give me. I want to see you in action.”

Ral only smiled, a dazzling seductive thing that somehow managed to be terrifying at the same time. “Be wary of what you ask of a wolf.”

Varra snapped her fingers. “Bring me the other wolf.”

In moments, a primitive cage of bars and rust was hauled out. A force grid was set out in square around the floor and the cage was placed in the center. Barely contained within it was a massive wolflike monster. There were bare patches in its dull brown fur, revealing vein and corded bulging muscle. On its head sat an enslavement crown. They had been universally banned in recent years, though some subjects had been grandfathered in. In the past, one could rid themselves of debt by selling themselves into permanent slavery. Enslavement crowns were wired into the brain of the subject, allowing masters with a control to do what they wished, creating a living automaton. By the surgical scars, this one had been subjected to experiments.

Ral narrowed his eyes. “This is barbaric.”

The monster opened red eyes. It sniffed the air and began to growl. It scented Ral, turned and grabbed the bars. The metal whined as the cage began to deform.

“It was a prototype for a warrior project. It only eats what it kills,” said Varra. “And it hasn’t been fed in days.”

Ral glanced at the cameras being set up around the room. “You want a show.” The cage rocked and banged against the floor as the monster tried to attack Ral.

“The Prince versus the monster.” She snapped her fingers and one of her lackeys offered Ral a fingerprint pad. Varra smiled. “And you will sign all rights over to me.”

“I will kill this thing,” he said to Varra, holding her gaze with that mesmerizing Alpha stare. “And you will give me my pilot.”

“If you kill this thing.”

Ral placed his fingers on the print pad, documenting his acceptance. He stepped into the square as the cage rattled to the ground. The monster sprung up on two clawed feet. It unfurled into a thing that towered over Ral. There were far too many rows of serrated teeth in that saurian-sized mouth. It roared.

The monster moved wickedly fast with a claw strike. Ral leapt back, but not before a talon sliced across his chest.

The crowd went ecstatic.

Ral backed away as if weary, luring his opponent toward him.

It charged. Ral leapt into the air, above the monster’s snapping jaws, and came down on the monster’s head, punching it to the ground with a loud crack.

The crowd booed.

The enslavement crown cracked.

The monster wolf shook its head and howled in brain-shattering pain. Enslavement crowns couldn’t simply be taken off. They were wired and networked into a subject’s brain.

Ral said something to the monster. The monster charged again. Ral leapt again, flipping around to the back of the monster. Ral could have kicked the thing in the head again, but he didn’t. Instead, he leapt, flipped over the monster and took hold of the enslavement crown and crunched it with his bare hands.

He landed on the ground with a crouch. The pieces of the crown glittered across the monster’s face.

“Stand and fight!” yelled Varra.

Ral faced the monster, his lips moving, the roar of the crowd obscuring his words. The monster roared at him. The crowd pressed against the box, and I lost my view of the fight. The crowd screamed into a fury. Someone in the crowd actually fainted, and just as I could see the square, the monster fell limp to the ground.

It was over.

And Ral stood there, his hair tousled, his chest damp, taking careful measured breaths. His gaze swept the crowd. He snarled, his mouth widening, his fangs emerging. Instantly the noise died down.

His voice was like thunder. “I want my pilot back.”

Varra waved lazily in my direction. “I suppose I could do you a favor.”

Ral approached me. He placed little disks all over my armor. Micro-bombs. The only thing that could quickly cut through the slag of a metal shell I was in. “Sorry, Captain,” he said, quietly. “This might sting a little.”

I gritted my teeth.

“Ready?” he said, even though there was no way he could hear or see me.

I closed my eyes.

There was a high pitched sound that quickly rose to unbearable proportions. My ears split. Millions of hot metal shards slammed into my skin. My flesh burned in sharp searing pain. The ground rushed to meet me, but Ral caught me.

I couldn’t control my limbs at first, but as the blood returned to flesh that had been held still for too long, my body was pierced by sharp spines of awareness.

I’m ashamed to say I was screaming from the pain.

Which is probably why Ral injected me with something to knock me out.

* * *

When I awoke, I was in a med-bunk. I had aches and pains all over as if I had bruises from being hit several times with a rubber mallet. As I tried to sit up, the glass casing above me opened.

Ral was slumped against the wall, sitting on a stool in an impossibly uncomfortable position, asleep. I looked around. We were in the common area of the ship that he had apparently bought from Lin. Wall screens showed us already in transit toward Altai.

I looked back at Ral, sleeping. Handsome was still his middle name, but he looked tired, more tired than I had ever seen.

I rubbed my head. There was an all too familiar fogginess in my head that told me I had been under medical sedation. Had my injuries been that bad? I stood up, brought up the control panel and turned on a self-cam to act as a quick mirror.

No more exo-armor. Just ordinary human me.

I glanced at the ship around us. I took a breath.

The confidence that having an armored shell that would protect you from the vacuum of space should you be blown out of your ship was missing. Or knowing that you could protect yourself from most attacks without much problem.

But for some reason, I didn’t miss it as much as I thought I would.

“You shouldn’t be up,” Ral said.

I turned. He remained in the same position, eyes closed.

I went back to the bed, sat on the edge, legs dangling off. “How long have I been out?”

He stretched, sat up, and moved closer to me. “Two days.The nano-nurses have removed all the shrapnel from your skin. You’re still on some heavy painkillers, but you should quickly regain normal function within the next day or so.”

I rubbed the dull ache in my forehead. “Lin’s ship huh? Who's flying?”

“Anduin, for now. We won’t really need you until the final approach into Altai.”

I looked up at the screen that projected our location. “No. You’ll need me once you get to Tigrantine space in a day or so. You’ll have to get past the border patrol. Anduin thinks he knows, but the merc’s specialty is hand-to-hand combat, not flying.”

“As you wish.”

“During the fight, were you trying to talk to the wolf?”

“I was. I reminded him of what he had been. He asked for death.”

He had killed someone to save me. And yet, I was more troubled by the fact that he didn’t address me by the title Captain. Or by my name. Yes, I was definitely dented in the head.

I remembered every thought I had about him when I was trapped.

Yet, confronted with the reality of him, everything was as uncertain as quantum entanglement.

I fell back to insults. “You’re foolish, wolf. You should not have given her the key.”

He shrugged, as if he knew what I was going to say. “We couldn’t fight our way out of there. It’s useless when you’re outnumbered in an artificial habitat where every single hallway and room has gas vents that will incapacitate or kill anyone who even remotely causes a disturbance.”

I pushed at him as I attempted to struggle off the bed. My voice rose. “You didn’t need to do that.”

His hands were on my shoulders, holding me in place, as he forced me to look him in the eyes. “When it comes to you, I will do as I please. It pleases me to have my pilot, regardless of whether or not she realizes how important she is to me or how much she tries to convince herself otherwise.”

His words reminded me of my thoughts when locked in that armored shell. I had been cursing myself for not taking advantage of what was offered, for forgetting exactly how brief life could be. Even if there was nothing but a long dark future ahead.

I tried to respond, but he put a finger to my lips. His voice was raw. “No one will take you from me. I will come for you, every time.”

He crushed his mouth to mine. It was like the microsecond before a ship jumps from imminent death, still and full of heartbeat. He demolished my wall of misgivings, demanded my acceptance with his relentless persistence. No more armor, no more resistance, no more denial, no choice but surrender. I wanted more, I needed more, and if I didn’t, I would evaporate into nothing if I didn’t have him now.

He went stiff, breaking away. He held himself at arm’s length, tense all over as he forcibly restrained himself. His voice was rough. “Skye, you need to heal.”

I slid off my bunk, inserted myself between his strong thighs, and pushed him back. I undid the snaps of his pants. His eyes darkened. His full, male attention was in my hand. I lowered my head. I wanted him in my mouth, wanted to taste all of him, to remember him for all the dark days to come. A large hand wrapped around my wrist. “Stop that.”

“I need this. I need you. Please.”

The ‘please’ halted him.

He hauled me on top of him.

“Ral! What are you doing?”

He flipped me on my back. His fingers were already at the slickness of my core.

“Taking proper care of a patient who just emerged from a medically induced coma.”

I sighed as he slipped a finger inside me. My pussy clenched around his finger.

I looked at this impossibly beautiful man, mine for the moment. I wanted him to be mine forever. My voice was husky. “What are we doing, Ral?”

He gave me a deliciously smoldering smile, the kind that could actually distract me from my flying.

I tingled with realization. That smile was mine and mine alone.

“Right now, I’m getting ready to make love to you. Stop fighting me. Let me take care of you.”

I placed my hands on his chest, taking in those hard plates of muscle. He lowered himself to me. We both sighed at the delicious connection, that incredible feeling of him deep in me, stretching me. I squeezed him. It started him like a rocket. I let out a cry.

He buried himself hilt-deep, touching his forehead to mine. “You take me beyond reason, Skye.”

He stretched me, filled me until he was a part of me that I would never forget. All the days of my life I would remember him, remember this, his cock inside me, possessing me, taking control of me. Deep in my heart, I knew I was forever irrevocably his.

“You’re mine.”

“Yes,” I breathed

“What?” he growled, my response stunning him.

I couldn’t even respond, couldn’t even speak, other than to urge him faster, faster, more, more. I closed my eyes, trying not to let the sensation overtake me so soon, but I was so close.

“Skye, look at me.”

I looked at this amazing man. “Yes.”

We both fucking exploded.

* * *

Later, I lay in his strong arms, breathing him in, savoring his smell. His hand skimmed my back. At some point, he'd gotten some wipes and cleaned us both up. Now, we were savoring each other, me on top of him in the tiny little med-bunk.

I didn’t want to ask, didn’t want to break the spell, but I knew I couldn’t pretend forever. “Why me?” It couldn’t be just the way I smelled.

“Because, my brave stubborn Captain, you never let me intimidate you. I couldn’t convince you, bribe you, or seduce you otherwise. No, what finally shook you from your mission was a realization that it wasn’t fulfilling any of the goals you thought you had signed up for. And when you realized it, you took the risk of defying your superiors to protect the helpless, at the cost of everything you thought you worked for. Not everyone would do that.”

I pulled away so I could look him in the face. “I would be lying if I said you didn’t have a great deal to do with it.”

He smiled a smile that could defrost a cryochamber. “That is probably the most agreeable statement you’ve made.”

I looked away. I had asked him why, and he had answered. And yet, it wasn’t enough. It couldn’t be that simple.

He cupped my chin, made me face him. “War is coming and it’s not going to be limited to distant colonies and outer rim planets that no one cares about. I need you to keep me honest, to remind me of what we’re truly fighting for.”

“That’s a lot to put on a random pilot.”

“You’re not a random pilot. You are the most edge-shard psychotic pilot in this galaxy.” He stroked my arm slowly.

I tried to ignore the slickening warmth between my legs. How was it possible that I wanted him again?

His voice lowered, “Watching you with that yoke in the cockpit was sheer sexual torture.”

“That’s good, right?”

“I didn’t think so at the time. I was hard all the time, walking around your ship, surrounded by the scent of you."

“And now?”

He kissed a trail down my neck, down my chest, going down even further. “Now I want to eat you, constantly,” he rumbled with a grin as he lowered his head.

I shuddered and grabbed his shoulders. “You’re trying to distract me.”

“You, my Captain? You have the focus of a laser.” He blew a warm breath across my inner thighs. My core clenched in response. “Surely nothing so common as physical distraction can undo my dear Captain’s focus.”

My fingers wound their way into his hair. “How are you going to get into the Teeth?”

“Don’t worry. I have a plan.” He gave me that brilliant knowing smile of his that made me melt into a helpless puddle. “Breaking into the Teeth was never going to be the hardest part, Skye. The hardest part was always convincing you to get us there.”