Leo, Battleship Karter, Private Guest Quarters
A monster sat across from me. Scarred from temple to chin, Prime Nial’s second, a warrior named Ander, was the most intimidating Prillon fighter I’d ever seen. Like other Prillons, his skin was golden-hued, eyes a rich brown. Nearly as thick and tall as an Atlan, his shoulders were heavy and muscled, his gaze penetrating and unapologetic. The thick scar that ran from the top of his forehead, down the outside of his eye socket, along his check and down into his neck was hard to miss. It proved his fierce bravery, his time fighting the Hive. He was infamous as the male who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the most powerful leader in the galaxy. Word was that Ander could not be bought. He could not be bargained with or cajoled. He was Prime Nial’s dark side. Quiet. Observant. Direct. The enforcer.
And on his lap? A female, curled up and resting her head on his chest as if he were her favorite chair. While seated, she appeared to be quite tall for a female. Blonde, like my mate, yet so different. My cock didn’t stir for this female. Completely relaxed, Lady Deston was petting her mate’s chest, so content that her eyelids drifted closed for long moments as he held her, stroking her hair with one of his large, scarred hands. Their connection was palpable, but the red collars proved their mated status to anyone not as observant.
The scene was surreal.
Next to them on the sofa, Prime Nial ignored the byplay, completely focused on the female, my female, seated next to me on a couch facing them.
Not in my lap, no matter how many times I tried to pull her there.
And she was far from content.
“I will not tell anyone where my sisters are. With all due respect, Prime Nial, we had a plan. I don’t want to be a bitch, but after the attack at the penthouse, I don’t trust any of your people. You’ve got a mole. Someone leaked information.”
I leaned back until my body rested against the cushions and satisfied myself with running my hand up and down my mate’s rigid spine. “She is correct, Nial. If the traitor is not among your people, then he is on Alera, in Lord Jax’s household.”
Prime Nial closed his eyes with a sigh. Opening them, his gaze—the left eye completely silver from Hive integrations—darted to where his mate and his second were sitting calmly, staring at him. But I watched as something passed between them, something intangible, and Nial lifted his hand, rubbing the red collar there. That collar linked him psychically to his mate, and to Ander. I could only imagine the level of intimacy and found myself wishing I were a warrior of Prillon Prime so I could slap a collar around Trinity’s neck and get the truth from her once and for all. Know, without question, exactly what she was feeling. What she needed.
Every single one of her secrets.
But if I were Prillon, I would have a second, another male devoted to my mate. Fucking her. Protecting her. And selfish as it was, I didn’t want to share her tight pussy with another. Nor her kiss. Her sighs. Her screams. Trinity was mine and mine alone.
She’d screamed my name, mine, just as I’d promised she would, the sound making me come so hard I’d nearly blacked out.
My mate awakened something in me that was difficult to control. With the rise of my cock, this unfamiliar demand to be with Trinity, inside her, next to her, touching her, talking to her was never-ending. My need was an obsession and I wasn’t coping well.
Even now, with Nial and Ander, their mate happy between them, I felt unease at having the males so close to what was mine.
Completely and totally irrational, but all I could do was keep my mouth shut and pretend to be civilized. Perhaps, once the mating had settled in, I wouldn’t be so edgy, so territorial and protective. Maybe.
From what Nial had said, we were the only Alerans on the ship. It wasn’t as if I could ask someone about the Ardor, or about my awakening. I mentally shrugged. Being ignorant only meant we would fuck more until we discovered the truth.
I wrapped my fingers in Trinity’s long, golden hair and tugged gently. Relenting at last, she sat back and leaned into my side. Her floral scent filled my nose. It was enough.
“I know I am nothing more than a lowly soldier, Nial, but I am less concerned with your traitor than the assassin who nearly killed the princesses within hours of their arrival on Alera. I saw his face. I knew him from my days in the Fleet. He was with IC. The Shadow Unit.”
Ander lifted his perceptive and intense gaze from his mate’s face to mine. “What is this Shadow Unit?”
Prime Nial sighed, his silvery gaze shifting from Ander to me, then back. “They are assassins, Ander. Most of them are Everian Hunters, but every once in a while, a warrior with a very elite set of skills is invited to join them.”
“I have never heard of this unit within the Intelligence Core. Under whose command?” Ander asked.
“Mine. Mine and, soon, Queen Celene’s. Alera has always held a seat on the royal council. The Shadow Core answers to the council, maintaining order and stability within the Coalition.” Nial ran his golden-hued hand through his hair and Lady Deston moaned softly, slipping off Ander’s lap and going to Nial in response to some hidden pain. She wrapped herself around him and he pulled her onto his lap. Ander stood, pacing the small room in agitation. What the fuck were the feelings they shared through the collars?
“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” I said.
Trinity glanced at me, clearly confused as well, but remained silent. While the queen may have shared details—including the Aleran language—with her daughters, I saw now that she hadn’t told her daughters everything.
“It is a secret organization, Princess. One day, you will sit on that council.” In a complete change of tone, Nial chuckled, and sliced his hand through the air. “And you, Leo, a lowly soldier?”
“You move like a killer,” Ander muttered.
“You are no ordinary soldier, Leo, and we both know it,” Nial finished. “It was no accident I chose you. Who else would be best served to protect the three princesses of Alera?”
“Besides her mate?” I countered.
“Good fortune, indeed, that you are mates. Besides your level of skill and experience to assist you in her protection, claiming Trinity certainly makes it easier. If your instinct to protect is anything like mine, it is intense.” He kissed the top of Lady Deston’s head.
Beside me, Trinity stirred on the couch cushion. “Leo? If it’s all top secret, how do you know about this uber-top-secret guild of assassins? And what one of them looks like?”
I couldn’t face her, didn’t want to see the look in her eyes when I shared what I was. I took my hand off her body because touching her felt wrong right now, when I was forced to remember what I’d become in the Fleet. The things I’d done to protect my planet. My people. I wasn’t just a lowly Aleran guard monitoring a watch tower. As if.
I’d fought in the Coalition Fleet, defended all worlds, but in the end, I’d killed for Alera. No one else. “Because I was one of them.”
“Who? One of those shadow people?”
I nodded once. “I was a member of the Shadow Unit. Yes.”
“Who was it? What’s his name?” Ander asked, clearly not interested in the clandestine group, but solely the assassin who had once been one of us.
When Trinity remained silent, I answered him. She hadn’t run away screaming. We both had secrets. We both had a depth, pasts, that affected what we were now. It was Trinity’s heritage, her very DNA, that set her course in life. She might have lived on Earth, but it was her purpose to be on Alera. It was my purpose to be her mate. Perhaps my time serving the Fleet, all the horrors I’d seen, the battles I’d faced, the people I’d killed, were to bring me to this moment, to protect her. To be skilled enough to keep her alive.
I’d been groomed to be hers.
“We don’t have names,” I replied. “We called him Nix.”
Nial lifted a tablet from the table and began entering data onto a screen I couldn’t see. He used voice recognition and a bunch of code numbers and words none of us would remember. After a moment, he sighed and placed it on the table before me, the assassin’s familiar face staring up at me next to a complete military dossier. Including his real name. Vennix Blyndar. Nix. Aleran.
Trinity leaned forward to look, a shudder racing through her when she saw the male’s face. “Yep. That’s the guy who burst through the window, killed the… um, consort, then tried to kill me.”