Struggling to keep my true feelings from showing, I scrambled for an excuse to keep my siblings out of his grasp.
“The young ones will suffer,” I argued. “I keep them on Umbra not only to hide them from the Queen, but because their lungs take longer to develop properly. You’ve lost many sons that way in the past.”
“And the fittest survived,” he countered, gesturing at me. “Bring them all. I have no use for weaklings. Best they be weeded out now. Prepare to meet the fleet in two days,” Khutu said, opening the ‘door’ to his quarters. He paused before entering and gave me a warning look over his shoulder. “And Bane, see that you do not disappoint me again.”
I don’t know how long I stared at the thick membrane that served as a door after it closed behind him. I no longer doubted that he knew. This was a test, my ultimate chance to choose right—to choose him—and his opportunity to secure even more hostages to keep me and my adult brothers in line.
I will choose, all right, you demented fuck. And it will never be you.
Chapter 1
Tabitha
I swallowed a sigh of relief and gave Myriam a grateful smile as she mind-spoke to me that she could handle the rest of the guided tour without my assistance. As the two most senior Veterans at the Vanguard HQ, it was our duty to receive the newbies—formally called Aspirants. Less than a week ago, they had successfully passed their qualification test on Earth. Now, one final month of intense training here on Khepri would determine whether they’d become our psychic sisters.
I envied their awe and innocence, remembering my own all too well when I’d first set foot on Khepri a little over eight years ago. How humbled I had felt standing in front of the tall building of the HQ framed by the ghostly arcs of the planet’s three rings gracing the clear blue sky above. This was the homeworld of the bioengineered Xian Warriors, guardians of our galaxy, and the heroes who had saved the human race from extinction at the hands of the Kryptid invaders.
Born and raised in a military family, there had never been any question I, too, would join the military. While the Vanguard had always been my ultimate goal, I literally wept when I scored a rank four in my psychic test, guaranteeing me a spot as an Aspirant. Of course, leaving Earth had been difficult as I came from a close-knit family. But the call of adventure, duty, and the ability to truly make a difference that would save lives was too great to ignore.
Myriam’s mind brushed mine as I exited the Aspirants Residence.
“Good job getting in touch with your softer side,” she telepathically said to me. “The newbies are commenting on how sweet you are.”
“Bite me,” I retorted with false aggression, although smiling at the laughter in her voice.
“Don’t get so caught up in your work you forget dinner. You wouldn’t want to deprive the newbs of a chance to fawn over you, AND Robert is making beef bourguignon tonight.”
“No worries, Mother Goose, I’ll be there,” I replied.
I heard Myriam’s laughter again as she disconnected from my mind.
As I hurried to the bubble transport, my gaze lingered on the Aspirants Residence’s three flame-shaped towers that seemed to dance on top of a turtle’s carapace. It was a woman’s dream home with the first tower containing individual luxury condos for each of the Aspirants—on the lower floors—and the higher ones occupied by many of us Veterans. The second tower contained a grocery store with pretty much any ingredients and spices you could possibly want, no matter how exotic, and then floors after floors of shops with the latest in human and alien fashions. The third tower had a medical center, a gym, a spa, a movie theater, a dance club, and every other form of entertainment you could want. It would even have included a theme park if it could have fit inside, although their holodeck-like virtual entertainment center pretty much compensated for it.
The best part? Absolutely everything was free: clothes, food, entertainment, you name it.
It had been another wondrous perk added to the mind-blowing experience of being part of the Vanguard. But I’d only enjoyed it for the first couple of months of my arrival on Khepri. Five weeks after first landing here, I’d completed my training and received my golden Vanguard insignia, which indicated I would join the Raiders division: the suicide squad. We were always first into battle, clearing the way for the others. I couldn’t have been prouder. A short while later, I found out that they had considered sending me to the Science and Engineering division who wore the blue insignia because of my strong analytic skills. I was in fact headed there now.
The door of the transport bubble opened as it detected my approach. I stepped inside and selected the HQ on the interface, snubbing the comfortable bench that circled the circumference of the glass sphere. I’d reach my destination in seconds anyway.
Receiving my insignia hadn’t just given me the right to serve the Vanguard, it had also come with Rage—the Xian Warrior whose soul had been put in my care. He was so incredibly beautiful. All the Warriors were, but he had moved me to the core with his golden skin and scales, big, black, alien eyes, his boyish smile and cleft chin. And let’s not talk about that body, hard, firm, with bulging muscles. For Rage and me, it had truly been love at first sight. Within a month of our pairing, I’d left my fancy condo in the Residence and moved in with him.
In retrospect, I’d been stupid. Rage had been honest with me from the get-go that as beautiful as my aura was to him, and as drawn as he felt, I was not his soulmate. Foolish girl that I was, I’d convinced myself that I’d be fine with just an affair with him. But over the four years that followed, our bond just grew stronger and stronger. While Rage loved me—and I know he did—his mating glands never swelled for me. As it didn’t systematically happen with all the Warriors, I kept deluding myself that in time it would happen for us. And then his glands awakened, a little over three years ago, the day he met Violet upon her arrival with the latest batch of Aspirants.
The sphere dropped from its high speed to come to a smooth stop right outside the HQ. I stepped out on the left side of the massive plaza where alien dignitaries mingled near the giant Gomenzi Dragon statue gracing the plaza. The golden beast—the color Xian Warriors had inherited—whose head pointed at the sky with his wings spread wide, stood facing the three buildings constituting the HQ. The one on the left served as Conference Center and dignitaries’ residence, and the one of the right sheltered the medical research lab.
I nodded at the Xian Warriors and Veterans along the way as I headed to the third floor of the HQ which housed the Intelligence and Communications services. The number of friendly smiles I received brought Myriam’s words back to mind. I had indeed been in touch with my softer side for a while now... and it felt good.
It still shamed me to think back on how Rage breaking up with me had not only nearly destroyed me, but turned me into a bitter, nasty bitch. For three years thereafter, people had mostly avoided me, fearing a tongue lashing at the drop of a dime. I isolated myself and kept everyone at arm’s length—everyone but Myriam who had been my rock. To see her going through the same pain I did when Legion cast her aside upon finding his soulmate Ayana had felt like Rage ditching me all over again. How I had hated his poor mate despite how classy and respectful she’d been of Myriam throughout the whole ordeal.