Jorox’s mandibles quivered, and he nervously scratched the chitin plates covering his left shoulder with the claws of his three-fingered hand.
“I don’t give two shits about the Soldiers larvae or Drone eggs. As the humans say, your kind are a dime a dozen. I didn’t come to babysit grunts but to take the General’s brides and offspring to the safety of Zekuro. Those ships are only extra baggage to tow along. What condition they travel in is of no concern to me.”
Jorox opened his mouth to argue, a look of outrage on his bug face, but wisely caught himself before he interrupted me again. I almost felt sorry he hadn’t given me a good reason to go through with my threat. But dismembering Kryptids, as pleasurable as that would be, didn’t fit in today’s agenda. Getting that Brides Ship to safety was all that mattered.
“Have all of your vessels link into my ship’s hive mind as surrogates—yours included,” I said with a taunting smirk, letting him know I hadn’t missed how he’d almost screwed up. “You may now speak.”
“I will need the General’s authorization to link into your hive mind as a surrogate,” Jorox said with a haughty tone, trying to at least partially save face. “Why do you even want to have so much control over our ships?”
“Because you are clueless,” I said, matter-of-factly. “Because if we come under attack, I want to be able to command our fleet into appropriate action immediately and not have to rectify your fuck ups first. But if you want to contact my father first, feel free to do so and enjoy explaining why you had to relinquish command due to your incompetence. Once the General finds out in what state I found your so-called escort of his females, I will be in the front row enjoying the punishment he’ll mete out on you. Now prepare for our first vessel to dock with the Brides Ship. Bane out.”
Efficient as ever, Viper terminated the communication without giving Jorox a chance to respond.
“You’ve always had such a gentle way with words,” Dread said teasingly.
“It’s a fundamental part of my charm,” I said, flicking my shoulder-length silver-blond hair over my shoulder like a diva.
My brothers on deck chuckled, the sound filling my hearts with affection for them. They had too few opportunities to be happy or laugh. But as long as I drew breath, I would do everything in my power to grant them a happier future than whatever the General had in store for us.
“I guess I should go prepare our little ones for transfer,” Dread said with a sigh.
My chest constricted with worry for my young—and still mostly defenseless—siblings. But the lancing pain clawing at my hearts also stemmed from my mother being so very close to me and yet completely out of reach. Visiting her would be a dead giveaway of the undying love I bore her. However, if all went well, soon, very soon, I’d be able to hold her in my arms. For now, I would hold off touching her psychic mind, at least until we had everything under control and the fleet had resumed its journey to Zekuro. If she was lucid enough, I would take her on a mind-walk, a dream world where we would be free and happy for a short while.
Two days after us joining the escort, we still hadn’t encountered any type of trouble, not that we truly expected any—at least not trouble against the breeding ships. The General’s complete silence had my teeth on edge. I continued to believe this was either a test or a showdown where he would attempt to wipe us out. But for now, I could do nothing more than play along and prepare for our defection.
I still hadn’t managed to get through to my mother. After nearly thirty-three years as the General’s broodmare, not much remained of the strong woman she’d once been. Her mind had begun to fracture more than two decades ago. She would find refuge in self-induced dream walks. At first, Mother would draw me into hers whenever I reached out to her. But more and more, as she remained isolated for extended periods, I would simply meet an impenetrable wall whenever I tried to reconnect, and she would remain deaf to my calls. As a Soulcatcher, she had a limited psychic range which had prevented me from reaching out to her at will. Ayana, Legion’s mate, was the only psychic human with endless range like us.
My hearts warmed thinking about the young female. Beautiful inside and out, her depth of empathy had struck a special chord with me, echoing greatly my mother’s personality. Had she birthed a daughter, Ayana is exactly what I’d imagine my baby sister would have been. That she had helped saved Dread’s life had earned her an even bigger place in my hearts alongside Liena, another beautiful soul.
How I envied the Xian Warriors being surrounded by women with such wonderful souls, strong both physically and mentally, loyal to a fault, and willing to follow their men to the ends of the galaxy and even into death for the greater good of their people. Although they didn’t have Gomenzi Dragon blood, they were very much Dragons like us.
And my Queen ranked high among them.
I immediately chased the stunning elven face with the black pixie haircut that haunted me since the first time I’d laid eyes upon her onboard Sornax’s liveship. He’d abducted her and two other Soulcatchers after their Xian Warriors had fallen into a trap on Jaylon. But that mere thought of her had sufficed to awaken my mating glands. The last thing I needed was for them to swell and throb painfully for the next few hours while my fangs burned with the need to bond with the only woman I could ever mate and yet could never have.
With a sigh, I turned back to my monitor to finish the message I’d be broadcasting in the next fifteen hours to the Intergalactic Council and the allied planets closest to Arkonia. I couldn’t send this request of a peace treaty between our peoples just yet. As soon as the word was out, the likelihood of leaks was too high to risk until we’d already made a clean break. I still couldn’t decide whether to reach out to the Vanguard, or more specifically to Ayana. While Legion didn’t trust us, the blossoming friendship between his mate and me was genuine. Although she would undoubtedly sway him into assisting us, I didn’t want to use Ayana that way unless we truly faced desperate times that I hoped would never come.
The high-pitched sound of the ship-wide alarm going off startled me. It stopped within seconds though, slow-blinking red lights broadcasting that all hands were needed to battle stations. I jumped to my feet, my back stiffening as a million questions popped in my head, the main one being whether the General had unleashed his troops against us.
“A hostile fleet just dropped out of warp south from our position. They will be upon us in less than five minutes,” Dread said telepathically just as I reached the door to exit my quarters. “Bane, they are Xian Warriors.”
My hearts skipped a beat, and my brain froze for half a second. What the fuck were the Warriors doing here, and so deep into Kryptid space? My blood turned to ice at the thought that the General could have tipped them off. It seemed far-fetched, and yet what better way for Khutu to eliminate his enemies than by having them fight each other? If we survived, he’d have thinned our numbers and proven our loyalty. If we died, we’d be unfortunate casualties of war and not an admission that yet another of his projects had failed, especially one three decades in the making.
“On my way to the bridge,” I said, breaking into a half-run. “Have the bugs detected them already?”