Valdus plowed forward, his ax swinging wildly from side to side, trying to draw on the cool logic that had sustained him for so long. No luck.

The monster he despised loomed over his woman, whip in hand.

“You want to hit someone, you sick bastard. Come and get me.” Burying his ax in another Council soldier, his gaze never wavered from Ava.

He didn’t need to look behind. He knew his crew was right behind, swarming like locusts, ready to protect his back, like always.

“Kill him!” shouted the Councilman, his voice smug. “Kill them all!”

It was almost a pleasure to watch the stupid look of disbelief that crossed Hollisworth’s face as the droids revved up—and no one on his team flickered orange.

“Surprise!” he crooned.

She’d really done it.

“What the hell is going on?” The bastard’s panic was music to his ears. “Why aren’t those inmates lighting up? Writhing in agony?” He was screaming up at whoever was controlling the droids. “Start their tracker’s self-destruct sequence immediately!”

For so long, Valdus had imagined killing the Councilman nice and slow. Making him suffer for every rotation he and his crew had been stuck down here, for every brutal rape and murder he’d witnessed, for every hellish time he’d had to say goodbye to one of his own. Now, all he wanted was to kill the bastard nice and fast, wiping him from the universe so Ava could be safe.

Then, he wanted to get down on his knees and stop wasting time. To tell her he was strong enough to stand by her side whatever she decided to do. That he was so damn thankful for each moment he’d had down here with her—and if this was the last of them, he’d never be anything but grateful. That he’d hold her while she injected the serum into her blood and fight with her to see it cleared from her system. And if it didn’t work, he’d lay down next to her and follow her to wherever the stars led them next. Together.

He’d vowed to find her where she went. To do whatever it took.

And he would.

Because she belonged to him. Just as surely as he belonged to her.

“Trigger the trackers, you idiots, or you’ll suffer a worse fate.” Hollisworth’s shouts at his men were becoming sharper and more desperate.

Jumping over a fallen body, he buried his ax deep in the chest of one more Councilman lackey. His sole focus on closing the distance between him and Ava.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, a blur of movement. Griffin’s shout. Swiveling, he saw his teammate stumble, his grip on his weapon loosening as his stomach seeped red. His wound had reopened.

Acting fast, Valdus hurled his ax, taking down the bastard about to strike Griffin. His friend regained his footing. Shot him a grateful nod.

Turning back, he froze

Shit. So many grappling forms. He’d lost sight of Ava.

Chest tight, he struggled to find her, shoving his way through the crowd, taking out as many as he could.

“Barrett!” To his right, Darvish’s voice reached him, heavy with worry.

Valdus cursed. The sick man had been ordered to hide out with the other non-inoculated crew during the battle. Of course, he hadn’t listened.

Following Darvish’s line of sight, he saw the young man warding off two soldiers. When healthy, he’d been one of their best fighters. But now his swings were slow and clumsy. Worse, he was flickering orange. The working tracker inside him turned on by the droids overhead.

With a roar, he sprinted toward Barrett.

Only to hear the young man shout, “Darvish, no!”

He swiveled in time to see the red-haired man go down, blood streaming from his side.

“Valdus, on your right.” Ryker’s warning sent him dodging left. The searing heat of a laser strike missed his chest by inches, lashing his shoulder, instead. Painful, but nothing incapacitating.

He turned to thank his second—and found him down on his knee, his arm wrapped around his belly, his breathing rasping in and out. He’d been hit.

“How bad?”

Ryker waved him off. “I’m fine.”

The scent of burning flesh flooded Valdus’s nostrils. His friend wasn’t fine. And he wasn’t standing back up, either.

He stabbed at another soldier. Took him down.

The battle was everywhere now, the two sides totally intermingled, skirmishes breaking out in every direction.

“It was supposed to be me.” Barrett had somehow made his way to Darvish, and the young man’s cries echoed through the room as he cradled the big man in his arms. “It was only supposed to be me.”

“We go together.” His friend’s hand cupped the younger man’s jaw, his big red beard glowing bright in the flickering orange light. The love in his eyes glittering even brighter. “There is no life for me above or below without you in it.”

Valdus threw back his head and howled. Despair a blinding pain in his gut.

“Take out the droid,” he shouted.

But Barrett was too weak. Darvish was too injured. And he was too far away—with an injured Ryker to defend.

“Look out.” Griffin’s warning reached him just in time.

Ducking, Valdus barely missed a gun to the face. With a roar, he thrust his weapon forward. Another man down. Then, leaning down, he yanked his second to his feet and repeated his earlier question. “How bad?”

And through it all, the chaos of flashing weapons, flailing limbs and dying men, he searched for Ava.

How the fuck was he supposed to save his men and her, too?

“Go to her.” Ryker swayed on his feet, but managed to stay upright.

“You’re wrecked. Barrett and Darvish are in trouble and—”

“We’ve got this.” Griffin swept in front of Ryker, his eyes glittering with adrenaline, his pupils small pinpricks. The man loved a battle. Maybe too much.

“He’s right. We’ll take care of the men.” Ryker’s face was tight with pain, but there was a purpose in his gaze that hadn’t been there in a long time. “Go to her. You’ve still got a chance at the kind of life we always wanted. Let us do this for you. It’s a long time coming.”

He held his second’s stare, the bond he’d thought lost reappearing as if it had never been missing.

For once, the choice was easy. “I’d say good luck, but I know you don’t need it.”

The flash of satisfaction in his second’s eyes erased the last of his doubt.

Turning back in the direction he’d last seen Ava, Valdus plunged forward once more. Swinging wildly, his heart a hammer against his ribs.

He’d taken out three more before he saw her. Still on the ground. But definitely alive. Her chest rising and falling in slow, steady breaths.

The flood of relief had him locking his knees to stay upright.

“I don’t understand what’s happening. Trigger the droids, damn it.” Hollisworth’s commands had grown in pitch and fervor, his usually slick and perfect hair now standing on end, his once-white robe now covered in red dust as it flapped wildly with each of his enraged gestures.

“Won’t do you any good.” Close enough now to be heard without shouting, Valdus did his best to focus the unstable bastard’s attention squarely on him. “They’ve been disabled.”

“No!” Hollisworth’s rage was palpable. “Can’t be. That’s Council property. You’re Council property.”

The man’s arrogance made him want to laugh.

Until Valdus got close enough to get a good look at his woman. Then all he wanted was to rip the bastard’s head from his body and feed both to the sabanthers slowly.

There were rips in her uniform that could only have been made by a whip. And the way she lay so still at the bastard’s feet…her body limp, her breathing slow and shallow.

It fucking tore his chest in two.

“Do you want to know who disabled those trackers?” He circled closer, calming himself with the reminder that this would all be over soon, Ava in his arms. “The woman you treated like a thing. The very warrior and scientist you were too arrogant and fearful of to realize could have been your greatest strength.”

Her fingers twitched.

“What are you talking about?” Stumbling back a step, Hollisworth’s gaze flickered from Ava to him.

Still advancing, Valdus sliced his ax through two more soldiers stupid enough to stand between him and his goal, stepping over their fallen corpses like the trash they were. “You never knew what a brilliant mind was housed in that body. What intelligence and courage she possessed.”

All the while, he tried to will Ava to scramble back and away.

Because, fuck him, but it almost seemed as if she was creeping closer to the bastard.

Then, suddenly, there were no more soldiers between him and his enemy.

Only a straight, clear path between him and what mattered most in the universe.

Unfortunately, Hollisworth noted it at the same time he did.

“Stay back.” Eyes alight with terror, the bastard grabbed her by her hair, wrenching her head back as he pulled her half off the ground. In his hand he held a small, blinking device. “Come any closer and I’ll destroy her here and now.”

Ice slid across Valdus’s skin. In Ava’s eyes, he saw the truth of the Councilman’s claim.

Fucking new twisted toys. He should have known. “What do you want?”

“That’s right. I’m in charge. Me.” Hollisworth’s tone was cocky once more. “I—I am the Supreme Council ruler, the only hope for New Earth, and you will die for this show of resistance.”

It was hard to believe this pitiful bastard had ruined so many lives.

Stripped of his troops, the Councilman was nothing more than a coward clinging to a useless title, a false prophecy, and his pathetic blinking devices.

Even without looking behind, Valdus could feel his men gathering at his back. A silent show of support. Always there. A team. Together until the end.

His eyes locked with Ava’s.

He tried to will every bit of love, every bit of faith and trust, and apology he had into his gaze.

Her stare flickered to the ground.

“Drop your weapon.” Hollisworth’s shrieks were beginning to grate. “All of you.”

“Do it, my love.” Ava’s voice, huskier than he’d ever heard, rang through the corridor, strong and true. “For your men. For you. You owe it to all of us to take this bastard down.”

Raw love thundered through him. Had he ever thought this female useful only as bait? She was strength and courage and kindness. And he gave thanks for every rotation he’d been stuck in this hellhole because it had led him to her.

“The person I owe most is you,” he told her. “And I will never stop showing you how much I believe in you.”

He hurled his ax.

Jerking his robe up and out to block the coming strike, Hollisworth laughed. “So predictable. But—”

His words cut off, his gaze going wide.

Because, unlike what the Councilman had expected, Valdus hadn’t hurled his ax straight at the bastard. Hadn’t tried to take care of this mess all by himself.

Instead, he’d slid it along the ground to the woman he loved. Because he trusted her. Because he knew she’d always been the one capable of saving them all.

“Surprise, you arrogant prick.” Rearing upward, her two-handed grip tight around the ax, Ava slipped the weapon beneath the folds of his robe and buried it between her ex-husband’s legs, slicing upward. “Looks like I win, after all.”

Was it any wonder this woman-warrior had become Valdus’s everything?