Angh, Vice Admiral Niobe’s office, Coalition Academy, Zioria

“Come in, Warlord,” the Vice Admiral said, rising from the chair behind her desk. Her office was in a prime location. On the first floor of the administration building—on the far side of the campus from where Kira’s classroom was—she was afforded views of the central quad from windows on two sides.

From my quick assessment of the female, the Academy head was my age. She wore the uniform of the Coalition Academy, the dark black color signifying her role as an instructor, but the epaulets on her shoulders indicated her superior status. Her manner was crisp, her chin tilted up in a way that indicated this wasn’t a social call.

Fine with me. I was in no mood to talk. I was in no mood for anything but having Kira back in my arms. But that was not to be.

I took a deep breath as I stepped into the tidy office, trying to keep my beast under control. Ever since Kira had told me the truth, it had raged, howling in frustration and agony. The cuffs about my wrists were the only things keeping the animal within in check. My beast should have been eased by the fact that I’d just spilled my seed deep inside Kira’s pussy, again, but facing the truth was like jumping in a freezing Atlan lake. Any sexual satisfaction I’d felt was gone. Especially standing here. I wanted Kira. I had no desire to be summoned by the Vice Admiral. While attractive enough, she wasn’t the female I wanted to fuck. To mate. To claim.

I assumed she was adding me to the next scheduled transport slot for The Colony, although she could have just directed me to the transport center instead of her office. I had destroyed Academy property, fucked an instructor and probably broken ten other Academy rules. It wasn’t as if I’d been subtle in my behavior, and as leader, she’d have to set an example of me, or at least get me the fuck off Zioria.

I didn’t care. It didn’t matter what she did to me now. Kira and I couldn’t be together. Nothing else mattered. My beast growled and I closed my eyes, breathed through my nose to keep from going into beast mode. The heat, the craze of the fever was building. I knew it. I felt it. My beast was succumbing to it with Kira’s situation, the desolate future we faced without her. There was no reason for me or my beast to keep fighting, to hold the fever back any longer.

The Vice Admiral’s eyes narrowed as she watched me try to gain control. I sighed. The pain I’d endured at the hands of the Hive was nothing in comparison to the ache I felt now. Losing Kira was the worst torture imaginable. Death was something I now welcomed. It was now the only thing that could bring me the peace I so desperately desired. I’d stolen moments of it with Kira in my arms, but she wasn’t meant to be mine. I had offered her everything I had, heart, body and soul, and fate was against us.

This war was against us.

The Hive had taken everything from me after all.

I hadn’t thought I could survive the Hive Integration Unit, or the endless agony of their modifications as they forced me to become one of them. Then I had faced the desolation and loneliness of life on The Colony. I’d survived all of it. But this? I wasn’t wrong, hadn’t been wrong even when I’d told Seth, my friend on a ReCon team who had refused to put me out of my misery. Instead, he’d saved me. I had no idea why, now. I was better off dead than without my mate. And leaving her? The ion blast that would ultimately kill me would hurt less.

“I am unstable,” I said simply. “I am prepared to die.”

One dark brow cocked upward, but otherwise she offered no emotion. “I would tell you to sit, Warlord, but I doubt it would be comfortable for you in your current state.”

No, being forced into a chair while my beast prowled and all but howled in agony would be impossible.

“I am glad you are prepared to die, as all fighters going into battle must come to terms with that reality,” she continued. “In the Intelligence Core, the chances of survival are even lower than on standard battle ops.”

I remained silent, hoping she’d get to her point quickly enough. I knew everything she said was the truth, but I was no new recruit. I was old. Not in body—I was an Atlan in my prime—but my soul? I felt like I’d been alive too long already, been through too much. The burden was heavy. For Kira, I could face it. But alone? Alone, the beast would rise to the surface and force my hand. I would become a danger to everyone I encountered. A truly merciless beast with no thought but destruction.

I could not allow that to happen. I’d fought too long, too hard to be honorable. To hold true to the teachings of my father and grandfather. They were long dead, but they lived on in me, in the strength of my will and the determination I had to survive. I was not weak, but I was tired. A walking time-bomb. I had neither the time nor patience for games. “Why am I here, Vice Admiral?”

She leaned back in her chair, her pointer finger tapping slowly on the top of her desk as she held my gaze. “I met a colleague of yours the other day. A friend, from what I’ve been told. Commander Chloe Phan.”

It was my turn to raise a brow. “Yes. I am familiar with the commander.” I wasn’t going to say anything more about my friend, or her mates, until I knew where this was going.

“I heard a rumor that the two of you brought one of the webs down together. The very first mine attack, on Battlegroup Karter. I was told you were there.” She watched me for a reaction. Silence filled the room and I refused to confirm or deny anything. What was she doing? Had Chloe somehow gotten into trouble? “Well? Are the rumors true?” Silent, she stood in front of me and waited, the desk the only object between us.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said through gritted teeth.

She gave a slight nod of her head. Her dark hair was pulled back severely, parted down the center and tucked into a bun at the nape of her neck. “Good, you’re able to keep secrets.”

“Vice Admiral—” I began, but she lifted her hand to cut me off.

“Your classified work with Commander Phan is the only reference needed for what I have planned. I need you to come work for me.”

The corner of my mouth tipped up. It would normally be a small smile, but now, it was all sneer. “I doubt the doors here at the Academy would survive my employment as an instructor.”

“Yes, that is true. However, your role will not be here, at the Academy, but with the I.C. And this will not be a one-time mission, like you experienced with Commander Phan, but in a full-time capacity. I need someone with your skills, with your expertise.” She pointed to my head and I knew she referred to the implant the doctors on The Colony had been unable to remove, the Hive technology imbedded so deeply inside my brain tissue that removing it would have killed me.

I crossed my arms over my chest. I stood over a foot taller than the female and was easily twice her weight. She did not seem concerned I might hurt her or that my beast might rage and snap her like a twig. “You work for the I.C.?” Gods curse the I.C. and these females. First, I lose the only female I’ve ever loved, and now this one wanted me to be her puppet.

She nodded once, succinctly. “That is correct. Your ability to hear the Hive is crucial to moving our battlegroups forward. As you’re well aware, the removal of the network of mines that initially attacked Battlegroup Karter was a success, but the Karter is stalled. Blocked by a new Hive deployment. They updated their systems after their mines were destroyed in that sector and we have not been able to duplicate your success. The Hive continues to deploy new minefields like spiders spinning their webs. They are surrounding us, Warlord. I need you to work with Commander Phan to bring the other Hive minefields down. You’ll start with the Karter and go from there.”

“It’s going to be pretty hard to fight the Hive if I’m dead.”

“We will do everything in our power to keep you alive. The I.C. has fighter groups, squadrons of Prillon flyers, even other Atlans at our disposal if we need them.”

I shook my head slowly. “I won’t make it that long.” I held up my cuffs so they were between us. She couldn’t miss them. “I might survive one of your missions, two if we’re both lucky, but I’ve got Mating Fever.”

She swore under her breath. It was the first time I’d seen any kind of emotion from her. Being an Everian Hunter, I expected her to be a little less…pent up, their Hunters infamously calm under pressure. She fit that, but she was also passionate about her job. A requirement in her two roles as Academy leader and I.C. Vice Admiral, but not normal for the females I grew up with, the serene and compassionate females on Atlan.

Staring at her, I wondered why she had yet to mate, to find a worthy Hunter from her home planet to take care of her in a way only he could. Wondered if the mark on her palm had ever flared to life, made her go crazy to find the one person who was her perfect match. To be with the one male in the universe, in a custom to which she was familiar. I could only surmise a night with her mate would make her far less…prickly.

“I assume, based on the fact that you came to Zioria and ripped the door off of Instructor Dahl’s classroom, that she is your mate.”

“She is.”

“Very well. I will pull her from active duty at once.”

“No.” The one word sounded like an ion cannon in the small room. Kira was an honorable warrior. She would not want to live with the fact that she was being forced to sit on the sidelines when she was clearly needed.

“Get those cuffs on her, and I don’t much care how you do it,” the Vice Admiral commanded, as if it were as simple as clicking the cuffs closed.

“She works for you,” I replied, as if that explained everything.

The Vice Admiral’s brow arched and she was less than pleased at discovering Kira had shared secrets. “So, she is also a confidentiality risk.”

“No.”

“Then how do you know she works for me?”

“Look, I’m not in the mood for this and neither is my beast. Captain Dahl is an honorable warrior. I want the cuffs on her. Do you think I want to succumb to the fever when I can have her?” I sighed, but it did nothing to calm me. “She confessed to me that we couldn’t be together because she works for the I.C. She didn’t name names or tell me what she does, but I am not a cadet. I know what’s out there. You know what I’ve done. I’ve seen better warriors than you die. I’ve survived the Hive, fought in so many battles I lost count. Do not insult my intelligence. And do not insult me or my mate again.”

The idea did not sit well with my beast. In fact, the thought of Kira being insulted or maligned in any way made my beast furious. She’d lain in my arms last night, completely broken, and for what? This woman and her lack of respect? I would not allow that.

“You will die if you don’t get those cuffs on her,” she countered. “You’ll be executed. I spoke to Governor Rone about you, and Lieutenant Denzel. I know why he was ordered to accompany you, Warlord. And I am not amused.”

“Yes, I will. I will die before I force her to be my mate. She made her choice. It is her decision and only hers.” I touched the other cuffs affixed to my belt, the small set that should have been about her wrists. “She refused my cuffs. She refused me.”

“That is understandable.” The Vice Admiral sat back down, her arms crossed over her chest and she did not look any happier than I felt. “She is an instructor here, yes. But she works for me. For the I.C. She is an indispensable asset to the team. You may have decided she is your mate, but she’s not free to make such a choice. She belongs to the Coalition. There are not enough I.C. assets with Hive communication implants to go around. I can’t afford to keep you two together. Unless the implants in both of your heads have somehow magically connected?” Her voice was not hopeful, but curious. “Heard any strange buzzing when you’re together? Like the implants in your head and hers are trying to communicate?”

What the fuck was this woman talking about? I lifted a hand to my neck and traced the thick outline of the scar there with my fingertips. Kira did have a scar on her neck, but it was off to the side, closer to her ear.

Just like Commander Phan’s.

But even if my mate did have the implant, there was no connection between the two of us that I was aware of—other than being mates. I would not lie, not about this. Too many lives were at stake.

“No. I’m sorry, but there was nothing. I didn’t know Kira had an implant similar to mine.”

“That’s what I thought.” She leaned forward and used her fingers to manipulate the digital files just visible on her desktop workstation. “I will pull her from field ops effective immediately.”

“No.”

“Look, Warlord, she tried to work with Commander Phan and failed. Right now, I’m staring down the potential loss of Battlegroup Karter and all of Sector 437. There are several planets in that sector that the Hive will overrun in a matter of months if we can’t maintain Coalition control. I need you more than I need her, and I need you alive. She’s out. You’re in. I’ll throw her in the damn brig if I have to, to force your cooperation. It’s not up for debate.”

“Are you threatening Kira?” My voice was low, too low. I was riding the razor’s edge of control.

The Vice Admiral didn’t bother to look up at me, as if my compliance were guaranteed. The threat I posed one not worthy of her attention. She was a fool. She had just threatened my mate. Atlans had killed for less and they hadn’t been in Mating Fever.

She moved her fingers over the screen and I saw an image of Kira in a cadet’s uniform. She looked so much younger, innocent. Her eyes in the photo were sparkling with excitement and hope. Not the devastated look I’d seen in them last night, heard in her voice, felt in her every touch as we’d fucked one final time.

“I don’t think you understand, Warlord. Kira is mine. I own her. By Coalition law, the only way out of her contract with the I.C. is to die or be injured so severely she is unable to continue.”

“She has a mate. If she accepts my cuffs, she will be free of you. I’ll go direct to Commander Karter myself.” He owed me, that Prillon bastard. I’d saved his entire Battlegroup with Chloe. If I needed something, he’d come through. He’d go to Prime Nial if he had to. I’d see to that.

“Makes no difference. She’s human. They don’t have the same…issues the rest of you do. As an Everian, I understand. But there is no relief clause in a human’s contract for mating.”

I thought of Denzel, of the way he watched Melody, the way his eyes never left her and his entire being focused on her wellbeing. I wanted to see this cold-hearted bitch say that to Denzel and watch the monster she would unleash. “You will leave Kira out of this.”

“I won’t. She’s your mate. I need you alive. If she’s not willing to cooperate, I will force her compliance. A few years in confinement won’t hurt her. You’ll be granted conjugal visits. The faster you get the Hive threat taken care of, the sooner your mate will be free.” She glanced up from the desk, her gaze like ice. The female thought she’d won, that I would do what she commanded simply because she threatened my mate. She was wrong, but she kept talking. “After that, you can go to Atlan or The Colony or wherever you want to and start making little Atlan babies. That will be all. Don’t try to leave the planet. I’ve placed a transport block on both you and Captain Dahl. You’re dismissed.”

My beast went deadly still. This female had threatened my mate. Threatened to use me as a means of hurting Kira. Conjugal fucking visits? Transport block? Years in confinement?

The beast took control in the space between one heartbeat and the next and I transformed. My shoulders thickened. The bones in my face shifted as the monster she’d roused burst from me with a roar of rage that rattled the lights.

I gave in to the rage, tearing the mating cuffs off my wrists and dropping them, forgotten, at my feet. Nothing could hold back the fever now.

No one was going to use what was between me and Kira to control her, to manipulate her or me. To use us against one another.

I’d tear this fucking planet apart piece by fucking piece before that happened.

I lifted the desk from the floor and threw it at the wall so hard it imbedded in the rough surface. The Vice Admiral had the sense to look scared. My beast wanted to kill her, rip her arms and legs off her body like a tortured insect before finishing her.

She’d threatened our mate.

The doors opened and I took several hits of blaster fire before falling to my knees. This was what I’d wanted. The beast wanted to hurt the one who’d threatened us, but I was smarter than that. I knew we couldn’t do what the Vice Admiral wanted us to do. I would not condemn Kira to years in prison so this bitch could play with me like a toy, sending me out on pet projects and rewarding me with my mate’s pussy when she felt I’d earned it.

I’d rather die. And the beast agreed.

The blasts increased in intensity. I smelled the burning of my own flesh and smiled, the beast meeting the Vice Admiral’s gaze with a giant grin.

“Fuck. You.” He spoke for both of us.

The Vice Admiral screamed that she wanted me alive, but I was still grinning when everything went black.