The massive auditorium could seat 18,000 people. Although the seats were not assigned, people’s natural tendency to congregate as a pack was reflected here. There were clear regroupings in different spots, with most of us female psychics hogging the lower right section of the U-shaped area. A lot of the Warriors had taken the balcony section with some of the dignitaries from the Coalition outpost.
I was semi-slouching in my black, padded seat with the golden armchair and the golden dragon logo embroidered on the backrest. The entire room was decorated in the standard Vanguard black and gold with lighter gray walls. Giant screens covered the circular wall behind the stage in the central area of what could almost be deemed an amphitheater. People continued to trickle in minutes before the presentation was set to begin. While curious about the various alien species and fashions from the countless outposts in attendance, I couldn’t seem to draw my eyes away from my hopeless crush, Bane’s brother Reaper.
Casually sitting with a handful of his brothers, he looked sinfully sexy in the form fitting black Vanguard uniform that hugged every line and crease of his scrumptious, muscular body. There was something irresistible about his face, with lips to die for, those unsettling multifaceted eyes, the high cheekbones and noble nose that would have given him an aristocratic air if not for the mischievous smirk that eternally sat on his lips.
I couldn’t say why he so insanely appealed me, far more than any of the other Dragons. I suspected it was largely due to the heroic way he had single handedly dispatched the bugs that had attacked us the day his brothers had rescued us from our crashed ship about to topple into a bottomless chasm.
It made it all the more painful to be pining away for the elusive stunner that he belonged to our unit. It sucked the big one knowing that no amount of charm or attempts at seduction would ever yield any result. The Dragons only ever mated once with their one and only. It almost seemed criminal that so many breathtaking males were all virgins waiting for the special girl to come and snag them.
“Next time, I’ll make sure to bring napkins to wipe off all that drool,” Myriam said teasingly. “I hadn’t expected to have to deal with that since my little monsters are at daycare.”
Sabra, Tabitha, Tyonna, and Ayana all chuckled at my embarrassed expression. I glared at Legion’s former Soulcatcher, now happily married to Dread—Bane’s closest brother.
“Bite me,” I said with false anger. “It’s always the same bitches that have all the luck.”
Sabra gave me an odd look. “It has nothing to do with luck. You’re just looking in the wrong place and at the wrong guy. Yours may be a lot closer than you think.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, my suspicious expression reflected on the faces of the other psychic girls.
On top of being the first Black Soulcatcher, Sabra—Chaos’s newfound mate—possessed empathic abilities. Whenever she spoke in such an enigmatic way, there was always an underlying meaning if you knew how to interpret it. She wouldn’t come flat out and say it, usually in order not to betray someone whose emotions she had perceived unbeknownst to them.
“Only what I said,” she replied with a smug smile. “Unless you’re willing to wait fifteen plus years to see if one of the younger Dragons mature into a possible soulmate, you should start looking elsewhere.”
“Figures Linette would be a cougar,” Tabitha set tauntingly.
“That’s more like a cradle robber,” countered Ayana—Legion’s mate—with a mocking smile. “But now that you mention it, I am curious at what age Dragons are able to detect their soulmate.”
“Probably once they reach puberty, and they start developing their mating glands,” said Tabitha pensively. “Either way, the later the better. My little hellion is not allowed to get flirty for the next twenty years.”
We all laughed, although a pang of envy still lingered while I observed her. However, I was genuinely happy for Tabitha. She had earned her happily ever after the hard way. I’d been so career focused, I hadn’t spared too much thought to the matter. But now that my closest friends from the Vanguard—my sisters really—were all settling down and popping out kids left, right, and center, I was starting to feel like the odd man out. Similarly, my poor Warrior, Wrath, was seeing all his brothers finding their other half.
No wonder he and I were matched as a Warrior-Soulcatcher pair. We’d end up the spinsters of the Vanguard.
A hush fell over the room as Chaos, Bane, and Legion walked onto the stage closely followed by two men, easily recognizable as Scelks by their cloaks adorned with Janaurian patterns around the edges of their hoods. It always bothered me that they would hide themselves this way for public gatherings. Although I understood it made the rest of the population less uneasy, it felt wrong to me. I never really interacted with them outside of missions, and even then, being my team’s main pilot, I rarely had any reasons to mingle with them.
They fascinated me in a creepy kind of way. To my shame, I had to admit that they scared me, too. I had not forgotten our first encounter with the Scelks on Janaur. I had never been so terrified in my life. Even though it had not been them specifically, the power yielded by a little Scelk boy named Hepon had nearly destroyed our entire unit, rendering four of our most powerful Warriors completely helpless.
“Greetings everyone,” Legion said into the microphone barely visible on his lapel. “Welcome to our extended family from the Coalition, and thank you for coming in such large numbers. You’re all probably wondering what this gathering is about, and I cannot blame you. Apologies for all the mystery, but we would rather keep potential leaks to a minimum.”
He turned to look at his companions and gestured towards them one by one. “I do not need to introduce you to Chaos, the other face of the Vanguard, or Bane, the leader of the Dragons. However, fewer amongst you have likely ever met Varnog, the leader of the Scelks, and his right hand, Tremak.”
A light murmur rose from the center and the back of the room mostly occupied by Coalition members. Although I couldn’t make out the words, I didn’t like the general vibe I got from it. The ever so slight hardening expression on Legion’s face confirmed he had perceived the same thing I had, as did the stern glare that Sabra cast over the crowd. Many in the room squirmed in their seats, their unease, and in some cases their fear, plain to see.
It angered me.
I could understand their worries after hearing what a threat the original Scelk had represented for the Coalition. However, our Scelks were part of the Vanguard for well over two years now, and were the reason countless Warriors had been saved from a permanent death. Did they think Chaos and Legion would ever expose them to a threat?
“Those whiny bitches need to suck it up,” Tabitha uttered under her breath, echoing the thoughts apparently crossing the collective minds of our little group. “The Scelks are more of the Vanguard than any of them.”
“Amen,” Tyonna said.
Myriam and Ayana gave Tabitha an indulgent smile, while Sabra nodded in approval. I didn’t hide my own amusement at Tabitha showing her Dragon Queen claws. She’d always been a rabid protector and defender of anyone she considered of the Vanguard. The mumbling fools had no idea what kind of pain she would bring down on them if they didn’t get their shit together.