Boris walked into the main bridge area, Nassir just behind him. It was hard to keep a smile of satisfaction from filling his face. His vow was fulfilled. All of the people responsible for the murder of his family had paid the price. He could finally move forward.

It felt a little odd. He’d lived with his vow for most of his life and now he had a sense of a weight being lifted.

Of being happy.

Because of Nassir.

“What is it?” he asked, nearly grimacing at how rough his voice sounded. That was going to take some getting used to. He would need some practice. Although he got the feeling that even if he never spoke again, Nassir would not mind.

Pleasure filled him at the memory of her coming over his mouth as she shouted her satisfaction.

No, she did not seem to mind at all.

Rafal turned to them, his eyebrow raising. “No need to ask what the two of you have been doing.”

Boris saw Nassir turn red and he glared at the warrior.

Wyan grinned. “Leave them be. They are newly mated. If I had a mate, I would not come up for air for weeks.”

“Unfortunately, we do not have weeks. Or even hours.” Rafal pointed at a spot on the radar screen. “A large ship is approaching. We do not have visual yet.”

Boris frowned. They were still in Alyyan airspace. Friend or foe?

“We don’t get many outside visitors,” Nassir said quietly. “And my uncle is not known for having friends.”

Tell them to make contact. We need to know who it is.

“Boris says to make contact with them,” Nassir told them.

Rafal’s eyebrows rose. Boris felt a moment of déjà vu, for he looked so much like Dex.

“You could tell that from his facial expression?”

Nassir shook her head with a small smile. “No, we can communicate telepathically. My grandmother came from the same planet as Boris.”

Wyan looked up at Rafal. “What do you think?”

Looking serious, he nodded. “We cannot fight them or outrun them. Our best course is to understand whether we deal with someone friendly or not.”

Wyan snorted. “Not certain why they would be interested in us. This old spaceship is practically falling down around us. What did Zoey call it?”

“A heap of junk.”

“She has amusing sayings.”

“Perhaps I should go check on her and Jecan,” Nassir said quietly.

Rafal shook his head. “They are still asleep. Thank the stars. They were giving me a headache with their arguing.”

“I’ve sent out a request to speak to the other ship,” Wyan told them. “Now we wait.”

But they didn’t have to wait long. A signal beeped back and when Wyan pressed a button, a hologram of Dex appeared.

The knot in Boris’s stomach eased. Dex looked shocked for a moment then scowled when he saw Wyan then Rafal.

“You! What are you doing here? Do you have something to do with my mate’s kidnapping?”

Rafal raised his eyebrows and looked over at Wyan. “We rescued your mate.”

“Where is she? If you have hurt her, I will tear you limb from limb then scatter the bits of you to the far ends of the universe.”

Nassir gave a small shiver beside him and Boris stepped closer to her. Dex had yet to see him, but that small movement had him turning towards Boris.

“Boris.” The relief on his face was easy to see. He moved his gaze to Nassir then looked behind her. “Where is Zoey?”

“Safe,” he croaked out.

Dex’s eyes widened. “You speak? Your vow?”

“Fulfilled.”

Dex looked from him to the males who looked so like him. “I can see there is much I have to catch up on. Where is Zoey? I have not been able to reach her for hours.”

“She is sleeping,” Nassir said, her voice quiet but calm.

“Sleeping? Zoey?” he asked suspiciously.

“She was injured by my uncle, but she is not in any danger. She is sedated.”

Dex’s jaw went tight, his eyes narrowing. “Your uncle?”

“He is the one who hired Tazan to find me. But he took Boris and Zoey at the same time. He intended to ransom Zoey back to you, but you never answered.

“I never received a ransom!” Dex boomed. “Where is Tazan?”

“Dead,” Rafal answered. “By my hand.”

“And your uncle?” he asked Nassir.

“Boris killed him.”

He placed his hand on his hips. “Is there no one left for me to kill?” he asked, sounding disgruntled.

Nassir looked up at him. Boris smiled. “You have not met your other cousin yet.”

Wyan and Rafal scowled at him.

“We will lock your ship onto our tractor beam. From the visuals we have, it does not look fit to be flown.”

“Wait,” Rafal interjected. “We wish to have some assurances first.”

Dex raised an eyebrow, looking exactly as Rafal had a few moments earlier.

“What assurances? Do not think that I do not know there has much that has not been said. I know that Tazan had help kidnapping my mate.” He gave them a suspicious look. “And you did not make our meeting that was scheduled for the same time my mate was taken.”

Dex was supposed to meet with them? Boris thought. He knew of them?

“We were working for Tazan,” Rafal admitted. “But we did not know that the King of Maalika would arrange for us to collect Nassir at the same time as the meeting with you.”

“What did you say?” Dex asked in a soft whisper. “What has Rohan to do with this?”

“You do not know?” Wyan asked. “How did you find us?”

“I knew Nassir’s background. One of my people is very good at research. It was not too hard to discover who she truly is. Why was my bond blocked from Zoey in the beginning?”

“Tazan has a blocker on his ship,” Wyan told him. “It’s black-market. Cost him a lot.”

“When we grew close to Alyya I managed to reach her. I could tell she was frightened. And hurting.” Dex’s hands clenched into fists. “Tell me. What does Rohan have to do with you kidnapping my mate?”

“We did not kidnap her. Tazan did. We did not know he would take her,” Rafal repeated. “We were there for that one.” He nodded at Nassir.

“Oh, but it is all right to hunt and kidnap a tiny female? A female who was under my protection?”

Nassir started slightly at Dex’s words.

Rafal narrowed his gaze. “We thought her guilty of theft.”

“Because she was living such an extravagant life on her ill-gotten gains? I think the truth is that you did not care what she had or had not done. You were only interested in the credits her capture bought in.”

“Not all of us are emperors who live in palaces with endless credits at our disposal,” Rafal countered bitterly.

Dex gave a bark of laughter. “You wish to have my life? Is that it? I take it that you are Rafal?”

Rafal nodded.

“Where is the third one?”

“He has been injured,” Rafal admitted.

“Look, I do not know why you are here now or where you have been, but if you wish to take over as Emperor of Zerconia then you are welcome to it. I will not even make you challenge me for it.”

Rafal and Wyan both stared at Dex in amazement.

“You would give up your rule to me?” Rafal asked.

Dex ran his hand over his face. “Is that not why you wished to speak to me?”

“No. I never thought…” Rafal straightened his shoulders. “It is not a burden I wish.”

“My estimation of your intelligence just went up,” Dex told him. “Then what do you want? Why contact Rohan? And what does he have to do with all of this?”

“When we came to Maalika, it was not with the intention of contacting you. We were chasing this one.” Rafal nodded at Nassir with a hint of respect. “She is very good at hiding.”

Boris scowled at him.

He shrugged. “It was a job. Nothing personal.”

“Get to the point,” Dex snarled.

“Our father sometimes spoke about Rohan’s father. Told us to go to him if we ever needed something.” Rafal looked uncomfortable for a moment.

“We do not wish to be like our father was,” Wyan told them. “And there have been some signs of mating fever.”

Dex’s eyes widened. “You wish to find mates.”

“Yes,” Rafal said stiffly. “We asked Rohan to set up a meeting with you. We thought it would be good to meet on neutral territory. If you do not wish us to come to Zerconia, we would find some other way.”

“You do not wish to be Emperor?” Dex asked.

Rafal shook his head. “No. Never.”

“Rohan took our credits to set up the meeting, but then contacted Tazan when this one ended up in his palace.” Rafal pointed at Nassir. “He took payment from Tazan for arranging for her to be at a certain place at a certain time. We were late to get there as we were already on our way to meet you when Tazan contacted us. I am guessing King Rohan wished to keep you occupied while we took Nassir.”

“That bastard!” Dex spat out, his eyes glowing red. “How did he not think I would find out?”

“I think he is so arrogant that he did not believe he would get caught,” Wyan said. “Nassir would be gone and so would we. Or perhaps he meant to arrange another meeting.”

“So there is still someone for me to kill,” Dex snarled.

“I do not believe killing the King of Maalika would be a good move,” Rafal said dryly.

Dex just growled. “No? We shall see.”