In the process of trying to escape from tiger shifter zombies, I started thinking of the prince as Ral, rather than His Highness. I knew this kind of thinking was dangerous, like flying into a fight with cold weapons dangerous. Fighting together against a common undead enemy that was trying to eat your brains undoubtedly created a simulation of closeness. I shouldn’t let him have a name, shouldn’t let him be a person, because then I might actually start to like him.

And at the end of the path was a black hole even I’d have trouble escaping.

I had to admit though, he was efficient at lifting heavy sheets of metal shielding off the ship and hauling them off into a pile by himself. And with those muscles rippling, that sweat rolling down his back and chest, he looked all too good doing it. Even wearing powered exo-armor, the job should have taken at least a day because of how heavy the damn shielding was.

With Ral, it took three hours.

What made it worse was that oddly enough he wasn’t being such a pain in the ass about it. He nodded when I told him where to put the shielding and went to work.

The final piece of mottled blue-green metal was the size of an air truck. A piece of metal that seemed designed to crush someone into the ground. He lifted it, hauling the thing atop his shoulders, lifting with his knees, and carefully carried it over to the pile of scrap metal, the weight of his load forcing deep footprints in the damp ground.

He had some poppin’ abs.

I had to stop watching him.

I turned my attention back to the Star Serpent. It looked vulnerable and naked. The ship wasn’t programmed with an AI but I still felt for it. I remember how it was to be unprotected without exo-armor. It was in part, why I knew I belonged in the military. Military grade exo-armor like mine was not only extremely expensive, but highly restricted. As a civilian, even if I had the credits, I still wouldn’t be able to obtain a suit on my own, especially not like this one.

Now, any stray space garbage could rip through the thin skin of the ship. If we jumped through a wyrmhole with a rip, the stresses would tear it to pieces. Actually, if I came in too hot on a planet with an atmosphere that would probably break the ship open too.

I didn’t like the odds. But we didn’t have a choice. We weren’t going to leave those kids behind.

Ral thrust the massive piece of shielding into the ground, creating a barrier for a makeshift yard. Initially, when he’d brought up the idea, I had been against it. Ral pointed out that the kids had survived on their own for months with the tiger zombies hunting them. I was about to get in his face, until Red showed me she could create a small protective field bubble outside the ship. She also reprogrammed the weapons sensors to track for speed and motion rather than heat, and deployed a few hovering drone mines. If the tiger shifter zombies came back, the ship’s auto targeting would eliminate them, or at least give us enough warning to take care of them.

With a little coaxing and food, the kids opened up. Not to me, of course, but Ral and Seria. Maybe it was a shifter thing. All Seria had to do was give them a firm look and you never saw such sad oh-shit-I-disappointed-her faces.

But as for Red and I, the kids didn’t quite know what to make of us. When they thought we weren’t looking, they kept sneaking close, sniffing us, and then running away.

At some point, I asked Ral about it.

“You and Red are the first non-shifters they’ve ever seen. They’re afraid it’s contagious.”

There was a yowl, followed by a crash and more screams. Seria’s sharp warning whistle cut through the air. Silence followed.

Ral jammed the shielding further down into the dirt. “Teaching children is a matter of drawing boundaries and being firm and consistent.”

“I’m surprised the kids actually respect you, considering the natural enmity between tigers and wolves.”

He gave a test shove at the shield wall. “‘Natural enmity?’ You’ve been watching too many First Earth vids. Human media likes to make the tension between wolves and tigers as a racial thing. But it’s not.”

“What is it then?”

“Power, territory, and the ability to live out your life as you see fit,” he said, in between grunting and digging the piece of metal into the ground. “The same thing humans have always fought over, even before they reached the stars. There are wolves on Altai and there are tigers on Alzar-4. There are tigers in the House of Night Claw. Crossbloods are everywhere.” He stood up, his muscles flexing as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. Ral looked at me. “Things are not always as sharp and clear as you humans make it out to be.”

He was looking at me, challenging me for a response.

I patched Red’s com. “Bring out the kids.”

Within seconds, the tiger kids streamed out, screaming at the top of their lungs. They were prone to biting when stressed, which wouldn’t have been so bad if they stayed in human form. They were actually kind of cute in tiger form, but the sharp claws and super-strength made that dangerous on our passenger transport, even if it was a military grade ship. One tussle between the kids had nearly taken out one of the emergency escape pods. No amount of admonition from Red had any effect, but after Ral gave them a low growl all were quiet for several hours.

Ral let loose with a sound that made one kid lose control of his bladder. No one was about to try any more shifting or biting on the ship after that, at least while the wolves were around. They surrounded Ral and begged him to chase them.

“You’re the monster,” one high pitched girl squealed, my exo-armor translating her words. “You have to catch us!”

Ral’s hands shifted to monster-like claws and he ran after her.

Despite the gruesome sight of his hands, the sight of him playing with those kids twisted me inside in an odd way. I knew the life I planned on living had no room for children. But there was a deep primal part of me that ached for that kind of life and love, even as I knew it wouldn’t work.

I turned to go back inside.

Red was prepping the common area to enable it to secure the kids in transit. Frizzled strands escaped from the dark single braid in her hair. She still wasn’t enthralled with the idea of removing the ship’s shielding, but she carried out her orders anyway.

“Any more crazy ideas, like dismantling the drone deployers to save the rest of the universe while we’re at it?” said Red, drilling extra straps into the bulkhead. We had so little space on the ship we had resorted to creating additional restraints in the common area. I had to give up my crew bunk to two of the girls. Now I shared my bed in my own quarters with Ral, via alternating shifts. It wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t leave the sheets smelling so damn good.

"We're doing the right thing here," I said, with a confidence I didn’t feel.

Red put down the drill. Her eyes flickered to the open bay door. “We’re not really going to return Seria back to her father, are we?”

This conversation had been coming. Red and her mother had lived in hiding from an abusive father for years. I knew where her sympathies would lie. They were where mine lay too. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the luxury of acting on them.

I couldn’t look at her. I picked up the drill. “You know what we have to do.”

She turned her back on me, paced a few steps and then back. “Yes. But I don’t have to like it.”

“We have to do what we have to do, to complete the mission. Unless someone catches up with us or we have to halt for repairs, we are to proceed as planned, Lieutenant.”

She gave me a level look. “I understand, Captain.”

An alert beeped and a screen appeared in front of us, displaying a problem in the engine room. Red punched the bulkhead in frustration. “Remind me next time that messing with other people’s hacks is among my least favorite things to do. I have to show you what those idiots back on base did to the engine.”

As we walked over to the engine room, Red launched into a tirade about the amoebic intelligence of the Section Nine black ops mechs. Like I hadn't already heard her opinion eighteen times this month alone.

I knew my way around most military grade flight engines. Red, however, was one of those inventor-engineer pilots you could imagine building hyperjump engines with nothing more than rocks, sand and one of those derelict alien ships you sometimes found drifting around.

After listening to her vent, I held my hands up. “Okay, I get it. The engine is in imminent danger of falling apart if we enter a wyrmhole the wrong way.”

“Or if we jump. It would have been fine, if they hadn’t vented the coolant through the plasma ionizer.”

I rubbed the palm of my hand against my forehead. “If we put sudden stresses on the engine core, it might explode.”

“Like a firefight or a hyperspace jump.”

Red ran a hand underneath a tank, pulled out a coiled wire attached to a slab of blinking purple lights. “See what I’m talking about? This variceptor shouldn’t even be here! Best case nothing goes wrong, worst case..." She pushed her hands out, simulating a massive explosion. "So I’m going to have to be here, physically monitoring the starfucked core myself.”

“Solo is my normal mode.”

Ral startled me with his voice. “I can fly co-pilot.”

“Stop sneaking around!” I was suddenly aware of an eerie lack of noise. “Wait, why is it so quiet?”

“The kids are having a snack in the common room. Eating makes them silent. And I’m not sneaking. You don’t listen.”

“I appreciate the offer, Your Highness, but this isn’t your standard ship.”

“I’ve flown in the Endurance Quint-Klick Race on Furyon-7.” That was one of the most well-known starship races in the galaxy. Fast, dangerous and deadly. If he survived that, he would have the reflexes, and more importantly for a shifter, control. Shifter pilots tended to get bitey and furry when engines got hot and bothered. Part of me suddenly wondered why that didn’t happen during sex. Then the rest of me realized I shouldn’t be letting myself go there.

Obeying orders wouldn’t come easy.

I took a page from Ral’s dominant shifter trick book and walked into his space. Of course it worked better for him since he was so much taller than me. “You have problems taking orders. And I won’t tolerate anything less than obedience in my cockpit.”

Ral looked down at me, something in his eyes I didn’t want to name. “Afraid you can’t handle me?”

“No, I’m afraid you’ll hesitate and get us all killed.”

He leaned even closer to me, knowing exactly what I was doing. “Demand my obedience and I’ll be yours, Captain.”

I looked him up and down, slowly, refusing to back away. Even his submission was a challenge.

I met his gaze. “I look forward to your service, Your Highness.”

Red rolled her eyes and pushed past us. “Oh, go get a room, for stars’ sake.”

I clenched my fists. Nothing was happening between us. Nothing.

* * *

We waited until nightfall to avoid the drones that occasionally tracked overhead. We were crammed full with kids strapped in the common area, crew bunks and our quarters. The Princess was in her cabin, Red was prepped in the engine area, ready to jump on any malfunctions that might happen.

Which meant that Ral was in the cockpit with me. This time he was wearing a shirt, a sleeveless one that framed those distracting shoulders and massive biceps all too well.

The algorithm of Ketu-7’s orbital defense systems had modified itself, right on schedule. We had to fly out at what seemed like a stroll-in-the-park pace to avoid the speed detectors. Because you know, nothing was more relaxing than leisurely soaring off a hostile planet into enemy space.

I could feel his gaze on me as I switched between screens. “So you’ve done this before, I take it,” he said.

Nope. “Why? Are you afraid?”

“Should I be?”

“You should be cautious. I am.”

As we cleared the atmosphere, I saw a golden spark near the horizon, right where it shouldn’t be. The tigers must be trying to fly staggered patrols.

“Red, prep the engine for jump. We’ve got Cometkillers heading our way. Estimated time to contact, four minutes.”

“I’m not sure the core will make it for a jump. How far is the nearest wyrmhole?” asked Red. Things were desperate. There were two ways to engage in faster-than-light travel: a jump engine or going through ancient alien portals in space. The wyrmholes were named after the extinct space-faring leviathans that made them. It was about as much fun going through them as it sounded. Human-based life forms weren’t meant to travel through them. But it was better than death.

I checked the screen, entered a quick calculation. “Ten minutes without intercept. Make sure the engine doesn’t explode. I’ll get us to the wyrmhole.”

I took a deep breath. Red dots rose on from the screens surrounding us like bloodsucking insects from stagnant water. Only way to go was away from the planet. “Here we go,” I said to myself. Without the outer hull, there were no more dumb avian games. This would be as much of a straight shot as I could make it.

He made a rumbling wolf noise. “Command me, Captain.”

“Drop the mini drones. Fire when targets in range. Take out as many as you can.”

More and more dots peppered our screens signaling more fighters. Why did the tigers have so many fighters for an uninhabited planet of no strategic value? The flashes on the horizon resembled the lights of deep space emergency beacons.

I veered the ship starboard into a corkscrew. The stars spun around us. The first Cometkiller and wingship came within range. Ral used one drone to slice off the wing of a fighter. Another drone hooked onto another fighter and nulled it with a localized EMP burst. Two more came within range and Ral managed to hit them both.

Not bad. “Who knew a Prince could obey so well?”

I punched the drive engines to the next level. The wyrmhole was too damn far away. I dropped more drones in our wake. At this rate, we’d be out of them before we got to the wyrmhole.

He took out three more targets. “I strive only for your pleasure, Captain.”

I laughed like a junkie snorting happy gas. It was like he was at a shooting range and they were lining up targets on cue. Well, maybe a shooting range that kept accelerating and spinning around at near light speeds. “You’ve got some experience.”

I saw his screen out of the corner of my eye. Target acquired. Target down. Target acquired. Target down. He was like a machine, only better. He had to have some precog ability to predict the future. People like him were why nobody used AI targeting computers; the unpredictability of human error and action made them near useless. “I have many talents. Would you like me to show you sometime?”

"Pass," I said, hoping he wouldn't hear the lie in my voice.

Another alert beeped. “Seven fighters on intercept, two below, two behind us, and two in front and one above us.” His voice dropped sexily. “How about now?”

He tapped on the screen. One by one, drones he had dropped previously exploded, each perfectly timed. Now there were none.

That wasn’t normal. Not even for a Starbolt pilot.

My jaw dropped. The chances of that were infinitesimal.

He grinned at me. “Impressed?”

He had to be a precog. No wonder he knew exactly how to push my buttons. “If you can shoot like this,” I yelled at him, “why the hell do you need me to help rescue your crew?”

Ral’s voice remained calm. “Targeting is one thing. Flying is another.”

Red’s voice came over the com. “Try not to use the starboard lasers.”

“That’s not going to be easy,” said Ral.

I fired upon one of the tiger drones with the rear ion gun. It exploded into a multitude of flying deadly shards of shrapnel, each capable of piercing our hull. I had to change course. “Surely, you’re up for the challenge?”

The stars spun around us. “With you by my side, Captain, we could conquer the galaxy.”

“Right now, I’ll settle for the damn wyrmhole. We’re going to have to make it fast and hard. The engine is hot. Are you ready?”

“Don’t keep me waiting.”

I put everything into the core engines and shoved a final burst. We ejaculated missiles and lasers as we spun fast and hard for the swirling hole of light. As we entered the event horizon of the wyrmhole, every fiber of my being felt as if it were being set on fire and stretched.

I screamed.

New constellations appeared all around us.

The screens, the alerts, were all silent.

I had fucking done it. I had flown free of planetary orbital defense systems and a squadron of Cometkillers, essentially fucking naked.

I let out a scream, punched the air, and then promptly slumped into my seat. My heart was pounding so fast it felt like it was almost outside of my chest.

I flipped the gravity back on, and felt reality settle back into my bones. “Red, can you check on the princess and the kids?”

“They’re fine.”

Ral looked at me with hungry wolf eyes. An unwanted heat, as welcome as a lick of flame to an oil slick near a fusion core engine, ignited within me.

He grinned. “That was a crazy edge-shard piece of flying.”

I shivered. I tried to ignore how coiled he seemed, as if he were waiting for the right moment to spring. “Thanks. You certainly got over your queasiness.”

His seat safety released him with a hiss. “It takes some getting used to.”

He stood up, and stretched, delicious muscles flexing. He loomed over me and it felt as if he were stealing all the space and oxygen in the cockpit. I was hot and lightheaded. It was the aftermath of adrenaline and near death still racing through my system, trying to manifest itself as desire. Fuck if I would let it. “Precog?”

His voice was so calm, so casual. “A minor bit. Can’t see the future, can’t predict an opponent’s moves in a fight, but I can find targets with long distance weapons.” He looked at me with those wolf eyes. “Something like you, I would guess.”

Coalition forces didn’t really like shit that couldn’t be measured. “I have a really good gut about where things are and what’s coming.”

He looked down at me, his gaze intense. “You’re trembling.”

“A-adrenaline aftermath.”

“You don’t trust me.”

“Not in the least.”

He knelt before me. He was so big, he was still taller than me when I was sitting. He placed a hand on my cheek. I could feel calluses on his fingers. I was going to jump out of my skin.

I could see hints of the wolf, prowling behind his eyes.

“I am but yours to command, Captain.”

I was helpless. “Kiss me.”

His mouth met mine.

My brain melted. My arms went around his torso. The one time he had to be wearing a shirt was the one time I wish he hadn’t.

I wanted more.

There was pounding on the cockpit door.

I pushed him away, but he refused to be moved. Instead he kissed a line down my neck. He was all coiled tension and muscle.

The pounding on the cockpit door continued. I shoved at him harder and this time he drew back. “No. We’re done here.”

“What are you afraid of, Captain?”

My heart was pounding, my face hot. And he stood up. I could see the wolf straining in his eyes, ready to escape.

“This is a fucking mistake.” I turned back to the safety of my screens.

There was a whisper in my ear. “Come find me if you’re brave enough, Captain.”

The door opened letting in a nauseating stench. Red’s voice echoed in. “Captain, there is vomit all over the common area. The kids did not take going through that wyrmhole well.”

I sighed, got up and walked past him without looking. “Of course they didn't.”

* * *

To my surprise, Ral pitched in with the clean up of the common area, while I remained in the cockpit. Hours had passed since the firefight, and we were now in a relatively uninhabited area of space. Red had managed to even get the cloaking working. Now she insisted on taking a shift in the cockpit. In space this deep, the chances of us running into any ship was fractional.

“You need a break, Captain,” Red said, taking her seat. “Once we get to the boundaries of Ingo’s Wall, we need you as fresh as possible.”

“Thanks, Red.”

“It’s only my life on the line here. What the holedark did that werewolf do to my chair?”

I stood up and walked to the door. My quarters were behind the cockpit. I glanced into the common area. Ral was sitting there, his back to me as he played some table top game with the kids. Good. I didn’t have the energy to figure him out. Hopefully, if I pretended the kiss had never happened, he would get the hint.

The door to my quarters slid closed behind me. A white spartan space greeted me. A gray chair hovered in the corner. The walls were bare, save for a single First Earth poem projected on my wall. I sighed and the exo-armor scales slid back, exposing, my neck, torso, legs and finally bare feet. It became a heavy dark brick laying next to me on the floor. A drawer in the wall opened beside me and I deposited it there.

Stepping on the cloud-soft synthpelt on the floor felt good on my feet, one of the few luxuries I carried with me in my deployments. I tapped a panel in the wall and my bunk emerged from another drawer. I flopped down, drew the blankets up around me and sighed. It was good to be back in my own bunk.

Except that it smelled of him.

He had lain here, slept here, in my bed.

In the privacy of my own quarters, I wondered if he had thought about me.

I rolled over and pulled the pillow over my head, but all it did was magnify his scent.

This was stratospherically stupid.

Pretty men were always trouble. The most handsome man I had ever met, well up until Ral, was a space pirate who had tried to kidnap me when I was younger. I had already spent years unpacking the trauma. I was fine now, but suffice it to say I knew not to trust the promises of gorgeous guys. I was no hag but I knew I wasn’t shiny enough to attract their attention on my own.

But even so, I couldn’t stop my body’s response to a living, breathing embodiment of male virility.

Or think about his impossible response to mine. A response that had to be manufactured, and calculated, I reminded myself.

Damn him to the cold moons of Antares.

A screen flashed on the wall. We were now within range. I sighed. Duty always called.

I turned and enlarged the screen. A few swipes and taps got us into the secure military network. We exchanged call signs and codes. I reported what had happened. To my surprise, Commander Singh got on the line herself.

“I don’t like it, pilot.” There was a small lag. Seconds seemed to slow to a tense crawl. “You don’t know what those tigers are carrying.”

“They’ve been through decon and scanned for trackers.”

Another lag, another batch of seconds gone. “You should have requested permission to deviate.”

“Ma’am, I wasn’t in range to do so.”

“Follow orders, pilot. What are we supposed to do with a bunch of tiger-shifter kids?”

“I don’t know, ma’am. Try to figure out what the tiger shifters are doing?”

There was a sudden reply that was as steady as real-time. Coms in deep space were often like that; random lags followed by real-time bursts. “You know what it looks like? You snuck into their planet and illegally abducted their children. It’s your word that they’re being experimented on because supposedly, the Coalition has nothing to do with the whereabouts of their highnesses. Things are tense enough as it is. Are you trying to start a war?”

“Ma’am, after Aurelia, we’re already at war.”

“The Council will be notified of your actions. Get your ship back here ASAP. Any more deviations from your orders and you’ll be grounded…permanently.”

“Sir, wait. The Prince has requested to speak with you.”

There was another silence, another lag. “What does he want?”

“I’ll let him explain.”

I triggered the coms. “Your Highness, Prince Ral, I need to speak with you.”

A moment later, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

The door slid open and he stepped in. I suddenly felt as if the oxygen in the room had vanished. Stars, I should be used to the way his broad shoulders filled up the spaces in the ship by now.

He gave me a look as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.

“Captain,” he said, by way of a greeting. His voice was polite, but the look in his eyes was not.

What was he expecting? Me to succumb to uncontrollable hormones and drag him into bed? I was not.

“Sit down,” I gestured to the bed. I spun my chair, turned my back to him. I wouldn’t be so juvenile as to watch his face when he realized that I didn’t call him here for sex.

I flicked open the screen, typed a code. A static picture of Commander Singh, with her severe face and left eye patch appeared.

“Commander Singh, Prince Ral is now present. The Commander has some concerns about our mission.”

I floated my chair out of the way.

To his credit, Ral took it all in stride. “I appreciate the Coalition’s assistance. But I left soldiers behind in our escape. Once we arrive in Chaandrayaan Station. I need this pilot to take me back to Altai and a special team to meet us to help me extract them.”

There was a lag before the Commander’s voice responded with a rather irritated quality. “Your Alpha predicted this might be a request. He stated that you were both to be taken to safety as soon as possible.”

“My Alpha is there, isn’t he?”

I almost laughed. That didn’t make any sense.

To my surprise, Commander Singh asked Ral to hold.

Suddenly a deep drawling voice startled us. “I’m here, Ral.”

“Father,” Ral said, standing up. You know I’m not coming back without those soldiers.”

“This is not a game. You think I don’t know what you’re doing? What you’ve done? That pilot needs to bring you home.”

The screen vanished.

Ral turned and punched at the bulkhead, letting out a snarl. White fur rippled across his arm, his back, and just as quickly was gone. He rested his forehead against the wall for a moment, his body tense.

I didn’t blame him. He was trapped between honor and loyalty in a way that made rocks and hard places seem like feather pillows.

He turned slowly toward me, his eyes circumspect as he took me in.

I knew what he was asking, without even asking. “Absolutely not. No way to the holedark moons of Antares 3.”

“It’s a smaller risk than you think with the right team.”

I shook my head. “What team do we have? A bunch of emaciated kids?”

His eyes glowed. It was the look of a wolf before it attacks. “I will get back my people, with or without you.”

My armor solidified around me, responsive to my spike of alarm. Even with my exo-armor, I wasn’t sure I could restrain him quickly enough to knock him out with a sedative. I forced out an even voice. “Are you threatening me now?”

The glow dimmed. He straightened, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The sudden calm and control was actually more frightening. He opened his now human eyes. “I’m not going back without my people.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. I sympathized. I wanted to help. But I couldn’t do it. Not after the last time I disobeyed orders. “It won’t work.”

He tilted his head. “Do you think that will stop me?”

If you asked me, one should always go back for those left behind. I should lie and tell him yes. But the way that he looked at me made that lie stick in my throat. I couldn’t help him. But at the very least, I wouldn’t lie to him.

“No. You need to do what you think is right.” I paused, then added, “As will I.”