“Xander, please!” I begged.

He lifted his dark head from between my thighs where he'd been teasing me mercilessly with his wicked tongue.

“You have no idea what those words do to me,” he growled.

“I think I've got a pretty good idea.”

Twisting to reach down between us, I lightly ran my fingernails down his hard length and he shuddered.

“We've got more rooms to break in,” I murmured. “Aren't you curious about the kitchen?”

He wouldn't be hurried. “We've got plenty of time.”

With one broad hand he pinned my wrists together against the back of the couch then lowered his mouth to my aching nipple.

Licking and nipping at the tight bud until I arched against him, the fingers of his other hand brushed the edges of my slick folds, taunting until I lifted my hips, desperate for more.

The tip of one finger teased at my opening then slid in, pumping, followed by a second, his thumb flicking over my clit.

My breath caught, and I groaned as he switched attention to my other breast, the light touch of his teeth on my sensitive tips stretching my tortured nerves until I shattered in his arms.

Still quivering, eyes unseeing, I felt him shift over me and in one powerful thrust he buried himself to the hilt. His arm snaked beneath my back to grab my shoulder, keeping him deep inside me.

“I am never. Letting. You go.”

Hands still bound I was helpless to do anything but rock my hips up as he slammed into my core with each word, the overwhelming tide of sensations peaked and spiraled until we both lay a tangled mass in each other's arms.

“Good thing there's not that many more rooms left,” I panted.

“I don't know, I think we need to-”

Incoming transmission

chirped the wall unit. I squeaked, pushing Xander off me while I scrambled for his shirt, tossing it on in time for the screen to resolve.

Xander hastily pulled a pillow over his lap.

Doc. Of course.

“Why aren't you down here yet,” she scolded. “Your new friend is going to be here any minute. I'm sure the rest of us don't really care about him.”

I glanced at the panel.

Oh.

We had rather lost track of time.

By quite a bit.

“We'll be down there in just a minute, mom.” Xander promised.

“I don't know why you call me that,” she muttered, blushing. “Come down here, get the circus over with.”

The screen went black and I sagged against Xander's shoulder.

It flipped back on.

“And put some pants on before you get here for Void sake.” She turned away. “Seriously.”

Five very busy minutes later I stood at the mirror fighting with my hair. Xander gathered my restored auburn waves in his hands and pulled it to one shoulder. “Leave it.” He kissed the side of my neck, his dark gaze meeting mine in the mirror. The haunted look was gone from his eyes. Mine too, I supposed. We still weren’t getting much sleep, but nightmares weren’t to blame anymore.

“Think he's going to be wearing that stupid cape?” he asked.

“I don't know. I thought it was kind of cute.” At the look on Xander's face I relented. “No. I suggested if he wanted to make any progress with the Pack, he might want to tone the act down a bit.”

We arrived just as the shuttle crossed the first energy barrier. “See, we're not technically late,” Xander whispered to Doc as he gave her a one armed hug.

The shuttle bay was possibly the ugliest site I could imagine for an official meeting.

But Ronan wasn't comfortable about anyone connected with the Empire coming further into the station. And to be honest, Prince Vandalar's guards weren't thrilled about coming here at all.

Lucky that the Prince didn't seem to be in the habit of listening to them.

Or anyone.

I gave Xander's arm a squeeze and left him to discuss Pack strategy with his brothers while I went to find Nadira.

“How do you think this is going to go?” she asked.

“No telling.” I started to braid my hair, gave up. “Vandalar is smart. But he has a habit of playing the idiot.”

“Maybe we should be the ones running the meeting. We've got experience handling that.” I hadn't spent much time with sharp-tongued Kara before, but I could tell I was going to like her.

“As long as they don't cause trouble ,” Eris said, hand protectively over her belly. “All of the guys are on edge, and Connor's a little worse than usual.”

“And we'll notice how?” Nadira answered, and we burst into giggles.

Geir and Valrea rushed in, her cheeks pink.

“I knew we wouldn't be the last ones here,” I muttered. “She didn't have to remind us.”

“Doc messaged you too?” Eris covered her face with her hands. “I'm sorry, she had Nixie set up a drop-in program in all of our quarters. I'm trying to talk Nixie into undoing it, but between Doc and Granny Z we're kind of short of good role models for her.”

Her silver bracelet chirped.

I still don't understand, If we're a family, shouldn't we be happy to see each other?

“We'll talk about it tonight,” Eris soothed. “Funny human rules again.”

“You've been very helpful setting everything up, Nixie,” I praised the AI. “We couldn't have done any of this without you.”

It was true.

Everyone in the Empire knew that the legendary pirate station had joined forces with a group of mercenaries. We didn't mind that.

But nobody needed to know how much contact we now had with the heart of the Empire.

Doc and the scientists at Themis had a permanent comm channel, trying to safely deactivate Stanton's mind control virus bomb. Another group of scientists clamored for her notes on the victims she'd already examined.

Otherwise the Empire was going to have to limp by after amputating its entire security service.

Landing sequence completed, the shuttle settled to the deck and we joined our mates.

I stood in front of Xander, leaning against his chest.

“When all this nonsense is done, I need to ask you something,” he whispered.

Connor elbowed Xander. “Hush or we'll-”

Doc leaned over and smacked both of them on the shoulders. “Manners.”

Immediately all ten of Lyall's Wolves stood, spine straight, at full attention.

Ronan. Davien. Mack. Geir. Conner. Aedan. Hakon. Lorcan. Quinn. Xander.

All that was left.

But the man who had engineered the catastrophe at the Daedalus was defeated.

Dead.

Now to see what we could build from the ashes.

The shuttle door opened and as the ramp extended, I held my breath.

Pairs of the Crimson Guard marched down the ramp and recorded fanfare blared.

“I said knock it off,” Vandalar shouted then pushed his way through and jumped off, striding towards us.

No cape this time, just a serviceable black suit with crimson and gold accents.

Please slow down, Nixie chirped, her voice ringing from every speaker in the bay.

Vandalar ignored her, so she snapped an energy barrier in front of him.

“Well, that's interesting.” Vandalar said. “Hey,” he waved at me ,”would you tell your friend it's all right?”

“Nixie, scan him,” Ronan commanded.

A blue light centered over the Prince, then withdrew.

He appears to be unarmed.

“Let him go.”

The barrier disappeared.

“You can't blame us for being cautious,” Ronan said, stepping forward. “We don't have many reasons to trust the Empire.”

Vandalar's lips narrowed. “I've been made aware of that. Loree has sent me records to review. Including a disturbing amount of system security files that appear to have been thoroughly decrypted, I might add.”

Ronan gave him a bland smile. “Perhaps you need better protocols.”

“I'm sure we do. And along those lines, I'd like to offer-”

“Don't believe anything he says,” a whip sharp voice lashed out from the back of the bay. Granny Z stomped in, skirts flying and Vicki on her hip.

“Is that the Prince? Can we plunder him?” piped Vicki's high voice.

“Later, sweetling.”

She looked him up and down. “You don't much look like him. Maybe you got more of Trina in you than the old goat.”

“Ma'am,” Vandalar said slowly. “At some point in this visit, might I speak with you for a while?”

“I don't know, what do you have to trade?” Granny Z snapped.

He blinked and the rest of us fought down smiles.

“I could likely come up with something that might interest you.”

Her eyes gleamed. “Well, you've got a date.” She stomped back to stand next to Doc. “Back to what you were doing.”

“As I was saying,” Vandalar said, looking flustered. “I'd like to offer you a position as Imperial advisors.”

“Not a chance,” Nadira said. “I'm not going back to the Hub.”

“Not happening,” Ronan seconded.

“You misunderstand me,. I don't need you in the Hub. I need you out here. For too long the Fringe has been ignored. Monsters like the General were allowed take seed.”

“General Malchior didn't come from the Fringe,” Valrea reminded him. “He was all yours.”

Vandalar inclined his head in acknowledgment. “But if we had better communications, better observational agents out here, maybe he could have been stopped sooner.”

Geir's face grew stony, and he wrapped his arm around Val. “What you think you're going to do about it?”

“We all want to the Fringe to be safer. Safe to travel, less trafficking. Fewer pirates.”

“Wait a minute, young man,” Granny Z flared.

Vandalar rubbed his temple. “We can negotiate on that.”

“What do we get out of it?” Zayda asked. “We'd rather be left alone by the Empire and all its agents.”

“Authority.”

Mack snorted. “We've got that. Fought for it. Plan to keep it.”

“Legal authority. No need to hack files to travel, use disguises, take over ships,” Vandalar pressed on. “I know you're good at all of that, but you wouldn't need to.”

Connor stepped forward. “What about just starting with citizenship? Can you guarantee us that?”

Vandalar pulled a tablet from his pocket and offered it to Ronan.

Ronan scanned it, grunted then passed it over to Davien.

“Full citizenship,” Davien said, voice tight. “Us, our children. A full pardon for Doc.”

“For everything?” Doc asked.

“Only if you promise not to tell me details,” Vandalar begged.

“Done.”

I clutched Xander's hand. He was offering us a new life. No more fighting from the shadows.

Eris and Connor looked at each other, arguing between them.

But I knew what their decision would be.

I touched my own stomach. Too soon to tell, and until Eris had another talk with Nixie about privacy, I'd wait to be tested.

“While you're considering.” Vandalar turned to Nadira. “I have a message from your father.”

“I don't want it.”

“But - “

Ronan raised his hand. “As your advisors, we'd suggest you listen to what our women say.” He smiled for the first time. “It does make life easier.”

“Now that that's settled.” Xander swung down, knelt in front of me. “Fancy making that name change you rigged permanent?”

My knees wobbled, but he caught me. He always would.

“Goof,” was all I managed to say, throat tight and eyes tearing.

His brows drew together. “Is that a yes? Please tell me that's a yes.”

I nodded, and he sprung to his feet, wrapping me in his arms.

Nadira and Zayda pressed on either side of us, already making plans.

Plans for our future.

We were more than a Pack. More than a scattered group of outlaws, rogues and strangers.

We were a family.

And whatever waited for us in the stars, nothing could break us.

The End…

for now