alien’s crush

Outlaw Planet Mates

eden ember

Copyright © 2024 by Eden Ember

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Created with Vellum

contents

Prelude

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Epilogue

prelude

They kidnapped us from Earth, brought over to Reazus Prime to sell as human slaves. Our ship blew apart in space and all the stasis pods came crashing to this alien planet. This is our story.

one

. . .

Katarina

Darkness engulfed me as I regained consciousness. My heart raced, and I gasped for breath, the air thin and stale. Where was I? Panic bubbled up as I groped around blindly, my fingers brushing against cool metal. A pod of some kind?

The memory slammed into me - the alien abduction from Earth. Impossible, yet the proof surrounded me in this cramped prison. I pounded on the sides, screaming until my throat burned, but no one came. Tears streamed down my face. This couldn’t be happening…

Suddenly, a tremendous force jolted the pod, throwing me against the wall. An explosion boomed outside, followed by a rending screech of tearing metal. Alarms blared and crimson emergency lights flashed. The pod shuddered violently, then weightlessness took hold. My stomach lurched into my throat as I realized we must be plummeting from the sky. This is it, I thought wildly, squeezing my eyes shut. I’m going to die.

WHAM! The pod slammed into the ground, jarring every bone in my body before rolling and tumbling. The force flung me about like a rag doll, causing me to cry out. Finally, it came to rest with a creaking groan. Hissing gas began filling the cabin. Frantically, I felt around for any kind of opening mechanism. There! My fingers caught on a latch. I pulled with all my strength.

The door burst open, and I spilled out onto damp soil, coughing and sputtering. Dragging myself away from the noxious fumes, I collapsed onto my back, sucking in deep lungfuls of crisp, clean air. A canopy of unfamiliar stars glimmered overhead, no light pollution to obscure their alien beauty. Where the hell was I?

I pushed up on wobbly arms to survey the surroundings. My pod had carved a deep scar across a grassy field, bits of burning debris scattered in its wake. Dark, dense forest loomed in the distance. No other pods in sight - only mine had ejected? Worry gnawed at me as I thought of the other abducted women. Had they survived the crash?

A guttural roar shattered the night, raising every hair on my neck. Something big crashed through the underbrush, heading straight for me. I scrambled to my feet, pulse thundering.

Another menacing growl warned me I wouldn’t outrun the creature. Frantically, I searched for a weapon. A twisted shard of metal glinted nearby. I snatched it up just as a massive form exploded from the trees.

My scream died in my throat. The beast was like nothing on Earth. Towering over me on two muscular legs, it had the powerful, fur-covered body of a lion, but where its head should be, the fierce face of an eagle stared me down. Piercing amber eyes bored into mine as it spread enormous feathered wings and lashed a serpentine tail tipped with wickedly sharp spines.

A griffin, my stunned mind supplied, dredging up half-forgotten mythology. But no myth ever mentioned the alien intelligence gleaming in those predatory eyes, or the très-chic tool belt slung around its waist.

The creature took a step closer, razor-sharp talons gouging the earth. I brandished my pitiful weapon. “S-stay back!” My hand reached behind my left ear, where my captors placed a language chip implant. I vaguely remember it from the reptilian aliens that quickly put me to sleep when I woke up too early. It stung, but it enabled me to speak to the griffin.

To my shock, it paused, cocking its head. “You are a human female,” it said in perfect English. “From the slave ship?”

I gaped. It talked? “I... I don’t know about any slave ship. I was abducted from-“ Horrified realization sank in. Slave ship. A shudder ripped through me.

The griffin nodded. “I am Thaumas Leion’ct. Lord Thaumas Leion’ct. I mean you no harm.” Piercing eyes flicked to my makeshift knife. “You can put that down.”

“Not likely,” I muttered, but I lowered it slightly. If he wanted to hurt me, he’d have done it already. “I’m Katarina. Katarina Mayberry. What planet is this? I need to find the other women from the ship.”

“This is Reazus Prime,” Thaumas replied. “An...unconventional world, you might say.” His raptor gaze scanned the wreckage of my pod. “I saw no other pods descend. Likely the ship broke apart in orbit.”

My heart plummeted. “So I’m alone here.” Desperation clawed at me. “I have to get back to Earth! My family, my life...” I knew how pathetic that sounded. What life? A dead-end job, crushing debt, a family that barely acknowledged my existence. Some American dream.

Thaumas made a sympathetic noise. “That will be difficult. This planet is far from Earth, and we have limited contact with the Terran system.” He hesitated. “I know this must be overwhelming. If you wish, I can guide you to the nearest settlement. You’ll be safe there while you get your bearings.”

I bit my lip. Could I really trust this fearsome alien griffin I’d just met? Then again, what choice did I have? “All right,” I said cautiously. “Lead the way.”

As we hiked through the dense forest, Thaumas explained more about Reazus Prime. “It began as a prison planet,” he said, ducking beneath a low-hanging branch. “But over time, the descendants of the original convicts built a new society here.”

“So it’s a whole planet of criminals?” I asked, fighting to keep up with his long strides.

He chuckled. “Not exactly. More like a haven for outcasts and misfits from across the galaxy. Pirates, mercenaries, rogue scientists, exiled nobility - all are welcome here, as long as they play by the rules.”

I frowned. “What rules?”

“The first rule of Reazus Prime? There are no rules.” At my alarmed look, he flashed a toothy grin. “I jest. In truth, the only real law is this: mind your own business and no one gets hurt.”

“How reassuring,” I muttered.

As the twin moons rose overhead, we reached the outskirts of a sprawling town. Ramshackle buildings of wood, stone, and metal jumbled together haphazardly, linked by winding dirt roads. Raucous laughter and discordant music spilled from the open doorways, while strange, spicy scents wafted on the breeze.

Thaumas paused at the edge of the settlement. “This is where I leave you,” he said, something unreadable in his expression. “The Rusty Scupper Inn has rooms for rent. Mention my name and Grix will give you a fair price.”

Sudden anxiety clenched my stomach. “Wait! Will I see you again? I don’t have any money.”

His amber eyes softened. “Ask for a job as well. They’ll pay you in Galactic Credits and you can pay your room rent with that. I patrol this area regularly. I’m sure our paths will cross.” He stepped closer, gently taking my hand in his warm, calloused grip. “Stay safe, Katarina Mayberry. Reazus Prime can be dangerous for a human female.”

With that, he spread his majestic wings and vaulted into the night sky. I watched him soar away until he disappeared among the stars, already feeling the loss of his steady presence.

Squaring my shoulders, I turned and marched into the alien town, determined to make a place for myself in this strange new world. My old life on Earth was gone, but maybe, just maybe, I could build a better one here. My adventure was just beginning.

The moment I stepped into the dimly lit tavern, a wall of noise and odor overwhelmed me. Dozens of alien species packed the space, drinking, gambling and arm-wrestling. A hulking, reptilian bartender eyed me suspiciously as I approached.

“I need a room,” I said, raising my voice over the din. “Thaumas Leion’ct said you’d give me a fair price.”

The bartender growled, forked tongue flickering. “Did he now? And what’s a scrawny human doing with the likes of him?”

“None of your business,” I retorted, channeling a bravado I didn’t feel. “How much for a room?”

He glowered, but named a price. I counted out the unfamiliar currency Thaumas had given me and pushed it across the bar. “I’ll also need a job. Any leads?”

Sneering, he gestured to a corkboard bristling with crudely written notices. I scanned the postings - freighter pilot, plasma cannon repairman, spice smuggler. Nothing that matched my meager skill set. Then one flyer caught my eye:

Wanted: Tavern wench. No experience necessary. Must be attractive, human-sized and able to work flexible hours.

I ripped it from the board, pulse tripping. A wench? Talk about a job Americans won’t do. But beggars couldn’t be choosers, and my Earth skills as a lab tech were useless on Reazus Prime. Luckily, I spent two years bartending for a resort while finishing my now useless medical degree. This was my best shot at making enough Galactic Credits to survive. I marched back to the bar.

The bartender chortled when he saw the flyer. “Little human wants to be a wench? Do you even know what that entails?”

I lifted my chin. “Making drinks? Taking orders? I’ll learn.”

He guffawed. “Oh, you’ll learn all right. Pray you can handle it, girl. Reazus Prime eats your kind alive.” Still chuckling darkly, he slid a rusty skeleton key my way. “Second floor, third door on the left. Be ready to start tonight.”

Snatching the key, I stomped up the creaky stairs to find my new room. It was sparse, but clean, with a bed, desk and window overlooking the town square. I unzipped my Earth jumpsuit - my only reminder of my old life - and shimmied into the gauzy outfit the bartender had grudgingly provided. The neckline plunged, and the skirt barely covered my essentials. A blush heated my cheeks. If Mom could see me now...

Giving myself a stern once-over in the tarnished mirror, I finger-combed my mussed hair and pinched some color into my cheeks. You can do this, Kat. These aliens won’t know what hit them.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I sent a silent prayer of thanks to Thaumas for bringing me to safety. I didn’t know if I’d ever see my fierce, noble rescuer again, but I desperately hoped I would. Something about his warm gaze and steady strength made my heart flutter behind my ribs.

But I couldn’t dwell on that now. Opening night jitters shivered through me as I clattered downstairs to the rowdy taproom. Time to see if Katarina Mayberry, a former nobody, had what it took to be the galaxy’s best tavern wench.

Ready or not, it was showtime.

two

. . .

Thaumas

I shouldn’t have left her there.

That thought plagued me as I soared over the forests of Reazus Prime, my wings riding the thermal currents. Katarina Mayberry, the fierce, captivating human female, was far too vulnerable in that den of iniquity. I’d seen the predatory leers aimed her way as we entered the settlement. A pretty human on Reazus Prime may as well have victim branded on her forehead.

Growling, I banked hard, circling back toward the town. I told myself it was just to check on her, to make sure she was settling in safely. But if I was being honest, I’d felt this inexplicable pull toward her from the moment I’d first scented her fear on the breeze. There was a defiant strength in her bearing, a fire in those emerald eyes that called to me on some primal level.

As the Rusty Scupper came into view, my keen vision zeroed in on the scene unfolding in the town square. A crowd had gathered, raucous and rowdy. And there, at the center of the madness, was Katarina.

Her face flushed, her hair became disheveled, and that scrap of a dress left far too little to the imagination. She clutched a tray of foaming drinks as she wove through the throng, dodging grasping hands and shouted catcalls.

“Oy, wench!” a burly Zargaxian leered, his tentacles coiling. “Bring that sweet ass over here!”

Katarina stiffened but pasted on a brittle smile. “Be right with you, sugar,” she called, her voice dripping with false cheer.

Rage boiled in my veins. How dare that lowlife speak to her that way? I tucked my wings and dove, landing with an earth-shaking boom mere feet from the troublemaker. Patrons yelped and scrambled back in shock.

“Apologize to the lady,” I snarled, looming over him. “Now.”

But Katarina beat him to the punch. “Thaumas? I mean - Lord Leion’ct!” Her eyes were saucers in her pale face. “What are you doing here?”

I turned to face her, trying to ignore how her nearness made my heart thunder behind my ribcage. “I came to see how you were faring,” I said gruffly. “I see I was right to be concerned.”

She bristled. “I’m handling it. I don’t need you to fight my battles.”

The Zargaxian cackled. “Better listen to your girlfriend, bird-brain. The wench and I have unfinished business.”

In a flash, Katarina whirled and upended her tray over his head, drenching him in ale. He roared in outrage, lurching to his feet - only to find himself nose-to-beak with one supremely pissed off griffin.

“Leave,” I bit out, barely leashing my temper. “While you still can.”

He blustered and postured, but the fear in his beady eyes was unmistakable. At last, he slunk away, muttering curses. The tense crowd dispersed.

Katarina turned on me, eyes snapping. “I had that under control. I don’t need a feathered white knight, okay?” She shoved past me to collect her scattered cups.

I gaped at her retreating. The ungrateful chit! I’d only been trying to help. Growling, I stalked after her into the tavern.

She whirled to face me, hands on her hips. “What now? Come to rescue me from the big bad dishes?”

“Hardly,” I scoffed. “Beating unruly drunkards is one thing - I doubt even your sharp tongue could scrub a plate clean.”

“Oh, screw you!” She hurled a mug at my head. I ducked and it shattered against the wall. “You think you’re so high and mighty, Lord Griffin? I’ve got news for you - on Reazus Prime, your title means jack shit. No one’s impressed by a bossy bird!”

I looked at her - really looked at her. Beneath the bravado, I could see fear, exhaustion, and a soul-deep loneliness. Maybe we weren’t so different after all.

Slowly broadcasting my movements, I reached out and took her trembling hand in mine. “I’m sorry, Katarina. I was out of line.” I gentled my voice. “But you must understand - a human female, alone on a planet of rogues and scoundrels? I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you.”

Her emerald eyes glimmered with unshed tears. “I...I don’t know how to do this,” she whispered. “Any of it. I’m lost, Thaumas.”

My heart clenched. I drew her close, folding my wings around us both. “You’re not alone,” I said roughly. “Not anymore.”

She tilted her head back to search my gaze. A single tear tracked down her cheek. “Promise?”

I brushed it away with the pad of my thumb. “You have my word, on my honor as a Griffin warrior.”

A shaky smile bloomed on her lips, and I nearly lost my head. It hit me like a meteor strike - this tiny, fierce, vulnerable creature had stolen my heart in the space of a single rotation. Stars help me, but I would lay down my life to see her smile like that again.

“Let’s get you out of here,” I said abruptly, releasing her. “Finish your shift. I’ll be right outside.” At her nod, I strode from the tavern on unsteady legs, reeling.

What in the great depths just happened? I’d lived for hundreds of cycles, but I’d never felt such a powerful, visceral attraction. Human pheromones were potent, but this was more than mere chemistry. This was destiny.

I shook off the unsettling thought and took up a post near the door, keen eyes scanning the street for trouble. I’d meant what I said - I would keep her safe, whatever it took. Even from my own foolish heart.

But I couldn’t deny the thrill that raced through me when she finally emerged, a tentative smile on her lips just for me. “Hey, Big Bird. Thanks for waiting.”

“You’re done for the night?” At her nod, I offered my arm. “Then allow me to escort you home, my lady.”

She laughed and took my arm. “So chivalrous, good Sir Griffin! Careful, I might swoon.”

Grinning, I led her through the lantern-lit streets. We chatted easily, trading tales of our wildly different worlds. My stories of the Griffin prides fascinated her, while her descriptions of Earth’s myriad cultures and inventions enthralled me.

All too soon, we reached the inn. We paused beneath her window, suddenly awkward.

“Well, this is me,” Katarina said, scuffing a foot. “Thanks for walking me back. And for, you know, the heroic rescue or whatever.” Her cheeks pinked.

I chuckled. “Anytime. I meant what I said, Katarina. I’ll be here for you, whenever you need me. Comm me if anything happens, all right?” I passed her a small communications device, my talon brushing her palm. We both shivered.

“I will,” she promised. Darting forward, she brushed a kiss across my cheek. “Goodnight, Thaumas.”

Then she was gone, the door clicking shut behind her. I touched the spot she’d kissed, a dopey grin spreading across my face.

“Goodnight, Katarina,” I whispered. Spreading my wings, I launched into the sky, already counting the hours until I could see her again.

As I flew over the town, I spotted unusual activity in a shadowed alley. A group of cloaked figures clustered in tense discussion. Light winked off a weapon, and I heard Katarina’s name hissed urgently.

Dread coiled in my guts. I spiraled lower, straining to catch their words.

“...fetch a high price on the slave market,” one rasped. “We just have to get the wench alone, away from that damned Griffin...”

“We could grab her at the cantina tomorrow,” another suggested eagerly. “Just need someone to distract bird-brain...”

“I’ll comm Zarath,” a third said. “He’ll pay triple for a ripe human female...”

Icy rage seized me. Slaver scum! I wouldn’t let them lay a single slimy appendage on her. This ended now.

I dove into their midst with a war cry, talons spread. They shouted in alarm, blasters forgotten as I laid into them in a cyclone of feathers and fury. Bones cracked, flesh tore. One landed a glancing blow that split my cheek, but I barely felt it through the red haze.

Within moments, motionless bodies littered the alley, with only a few still twitching. Panting, I wiped the blood from my eyes.

My gaze snapped to the window above, my heart twisting. I couldn’t let Katarina know how close she’d come to horror tonight. It would only add to her fears.

No, better to get rid of the evidence and stay on high alert. Let her sleep in blissful ignorance, never knowing the depravity she’d narrowly escaped.

Jaw set, I began to drag the bodies into the shadows. I had work to do before dawn.

But even as I hauled the last of the would-be kidnappers out of sight, a cold certainty settled over me. This was only the beginning.

Dark forces were stirring on Reazus Prime - and somehow, my precious human had landed smack in the middle of their schemes. The urge to snatch her up and spirit her away to safety pulsed through my veins.

I resisted - barely. She’d never forgive me if I uprooted her so soon, not when she was working so hard to adapt to her new life. And if I knew anything about Katarina Mayberry, it was that she needed to decide her own path.

But Gods, watching her navigate this seedy underworld alone, was going to strip years from my lifespan. She was far too naïve, too trusting. Even now, she was a flashing beacon for every two-bit thug and slaver on-planet.

I would be her shield, I vowed as I launched skyward. If she realized it yet, Katarina needed me. And I’d be damned if I let anything happen to the female who’d stolen my battle-scarred heart.

As I soared over the town, talons still tacky with blood, I growled a challenge to the night. Let them come. Let them try to take her from me.

They would see what happened when /

\they tested the wrath of a griffin warrior in love.

three

. . .

Katarina

I woke with a scream lodged in my throat, heart slamming against my ribs. The remnants of the nightmare clung like cobwebs - dark alleyways, cruel laughter, grasping hands. I shuddered, hugging my knees to my chest.

It was just a dream. I was safe in my rented room, not abducted by faceless monsters. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched, hunted. Maybe Thaumas’s warnings about the dangers for human women on Reazus Prime were getting to me.

Thaumas. A reluctant smile tugged at my lips as I remembered the dashing Griffin’s unexpected visit last night. The way he’d swooped in to defend my honor, then walked me home with such old-fashioned chivalry. His golden eyes had glowed with fierce protectiveness and something else, something that sent butterflies rioting in my stomach.

No, I couldn’t let myself get distracted by a pair of pretty eyes, no matter how mesmerizing. I was here to survive, not swoon over the first brooding alien to cross my path. Thaumas was a complication I couldn’t afford.

Determinedly, I pushed all thoughts of brawny bird-men aside and dragged myself out of bed to get ready for another shift at the tavern. The skimpy wench’s uniform covered a bit more skin in the daylight. I quickly learned that the amount of cleavage I showed directly affected my tips. Ugh.

I hurried downstairs just in time for the breakfast rush. The moment I stepped into the taproom, my boss, a portly Sauren named Grix, pounced.

“There you are, girl!” he barked, shoving a heavy tray into my hands. “Table six has been waiting on their Xandarian firewhiskey for ten minutes. Hop to it, unless you want me to dock your pay!”

I bit back a retort and plastered on my “customer service” smile. “Right away, boss.”

As I wove through the rowdy crowd with my precariously balanced tray, I caught snippets of conversation that made my skin crawl.

“...shipment of Viceroid spice coming in tonight, boss wants extra security...”

“...new batch of pleasure droids, top of the line from Ritaxis Prime...”

“...need more human cargo if we’re gonna meet Zarath’s quota this quarter...”

Human cargo. They were talking about abducted women like me, as if we were just another tradable commodity. Bile rose in my throat and I swallowed hard. What kind of nightmare planet had I crash-landed on?

Lost in dark thoughts, I didn’t notice the foot thrust into my path until I was tripping over it, drinks flying. I hit the ground hard, the shattered glasses slicing my palms.

Raucous laughter erupted around me as I struggled to my feet, face burning. I glared at the culprit, a smirking Reptoid with iridescent scales. “Whoops,” he hissed insincerely. “Clumsy me.”

My temper flared, hot and bright. To hell with customer service. “You did that on purpose, you overgrown gecko!”

His eyes narrowed to glittering slits. “Watch your mouth, mammal. Know your place.”

He lunged, clawed hands outstretched. I braced for impact, pulse thundering—

WHAM. A dark blur slammed into the Reptoid, sending him crashing into a neighboring table. Patrons scattered as Thaumas materialized from the shadows, his fierce raptor’s gaze burning into the groaning alien.

“I believe you owe the lady an apology,” he growled, looming over the downed troublemaker. His wings mantled, the soft down between them ruffling.

The Reptoid spat, greenish blood dribbling down his chin. “Sssscrew you, bird. I don’t take orders from off-worlders.”

Thaumas smiled coldly. “Apologize, or I’ll show you how a Griffin deals with those who insult our females.”

Wait...OUR females? I bristled, even as that traitorous voice in my head purred at his unexpected claim. I was no one’s female, dammit.

But I knew how to pick my battles. It was kind of sweet, in an overbearing alpha-male way, to have Thaumas leap to my defense. Even if I could fight my own battles, my stinging hands were grateful for the backup.

“Fine,” the Reptoid spat sullenly. He flicked a venomous glance my way. “Apologies, wench. Won’t happen again.”

“See that it doesn’t,” Thaumas said icily, releasing him.

As the cowed alien slunk off, Thaumas turned to me, his gaze softening. “Are you all right, Katarina?”

“I’m fine,” I managed, my voice wavering only slightly. I looked at the fresh cuts spotting my palms and winced. “Well, mostly. Occupational hazard, I guess.”

He made a distressed sound, reaching for my hands. The warm rasp of his calloused fingers against my skin set off fireworks in my nerve endings.

“You’re hurt,” he said roughly, golden eyes blazing. “You should be seen by a medic.”

I laughed a little wildly. “With what insurance? In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly flush with cash or connections here.”

Thaumas’s handsome face settled into stern lines. I got the distinct sense he wasn’t used to being refused. “Then I’ll call my personal physician. I won’t take no for an answer, Katarina.”

Exasperation warred with grudging gratitude. “Thaumas, I appreciate the whole knight-in-shining-feathers routine, but I can take care of myself. Besides, Grix will have my hide if I slip off before my shift ends.”

Right on cue, my apoplectic boss came barreling through the crowd. “You! Girl! What’s this I hear about you provoking the clientele? I won’t have you starting brawls in my establishment, I don’t care how pretty you are!”

I cringed, but Thaumas stepped smoothly in front of me, using his impressive wingspan to block Grix’s advance.

“My apologies for the disturbance,” he said coolly. “It won’t happen again. If you’ll excuse us, Katarina has an urgent appointment to keep. I’m sure you understand.”

Grix goggled, his jowls quivering. “See here, the wench is on the clock until I say otherwise! She can’t just go gallivanting off with every rich toff who crooks a finger!”

My cheeks flamed at the crude insinuation, but Thaumas’s expression hardened into something dangerous. He reached into a pouch at his belt and tossed a fat coin purse at Grix’s feet. It clinked heavily as it hit the floorboards.

“For your trouble,” Thaumas said, each word dropping like ice. “And to ensure your silence. Katarina is finished here, effective immediately. Am I understood?”

Grix’s beady eyes widened as he hefted the substantial weight of the purse. He licked his lips nervously, gaze darting between me and the implacable griffin.

“O-of course, my lord,” he stammered, backing away. “Forgive my impertinence. The wench, Miss Mayberry - is free to go, with my compliments.”

I gaped at them both, completely poleaxed. Had Thaumas just bought out my contract? The high-handedness of it set my teeth on edge, even as a secret, shameful part of me thrilled at being so cavalierly claimed.

But as Thaumas’s muscular hand closed over my elbow to steer me toward the exit, reality crashed in. Wait, what was I doing? I couldn’t just let this alien, who I barely knew, whisk me away like some kind of damsel in a bodice ripper!

I dug in my heels, yanking free of his grip. We were outside now, in the alley behind the tavern. “Thaumas, stop! What the hell was that? You can’t just make decisions for me like I’m your pet human!”

Thaumas blinked, looking startled, then chagrined. “Katarina, I...forgive me. I only wanted to help. When I saw that lowlife hurt you, I just reacted.”

To my shock, he lowered his great eagle’s head in a penitent bow. “You’re right, I overstepped. I’m not accustomed to having my protection refused. Griffin females are usually grateful for a male’s guardianship.”

I softened slightly at his obvious remorse. “I’m not a Griffin female, Thaumas. I’m an Earther - a human, an American. We value our independence. I need you to respect that if we’re going to be friends.”

His amber eyes gleamed. “‘Friends’? Is that what we are?”

My traitorous heart stuttered. What were we? Near-strangers thrown together by bizarre circumstances, for sure. But this simmering attraction between us was more than simple friendship. Dangerous, uncharted territory.

“Allies,” I amended quickly. “Compatriots. Amigos. Buddies. Compadres.” God, stop talking Kat!

Thaumas’s wickedly sexy smile said he saw right through me. “I think I prefer friends,” he purred, stepping closer. The heat of his powerful body seared my nerve endings. “Or perhaps, in time, something...more?”

I made a squeaky sound as his hawk beak grazed my cheek in a surprisingly erotic nuzzle. Mother Mary, the beak was turning me on now? I was in deep trouble.

I scrambled back, putting some much-needed distance between us before I combusted on the spot. “Ooookay, slow your roll there, Fabio! I’m not one of your swooning Griffin groupies, okay? You can’t just waggle your tail feathers and expect me to-“

A piercing scream from the mouth of the alley cut me off mid-rant. Thaumas and I whipped around just in time to see three cloaked figures seize a struggling Trixian woman and drag her toward a waiting hovercraft. My blood ran cold.

It was the plot from my nightmare playing out in real time.

“No!” I shouted, sprinting toward the craft as it lurched into the air. Thaumas roared beside me, his powerful hind legs eating up the ground.

But we were too late. The hovercraft zipped away, the woman’s cries fading into the distance. I slumped to my knees on the filthy cobblestones, chest heaving.

Dammit. Dammit. That could have been me. It still could be, if I let my guard down for even a second. Frustrated tears stung my eyes.

“Who were they?” I croaked, looking up at Thaumas’s grim face. “Why did they take her?”

His lips thinned. “Slavers. Probably working for the Obsidian Syndicate, a major player in the galactic slave trade.” He sighed heavily. “It’s not the first abduction I’ve seen on Reazus Prime, and I doubt it will be the last.”

A chill skittered up my spine. “It’s not exactly the first for me, either,” I said bleakly. “Those bastards who snatched me and the other women from Earth...you don’t think they’re connected to this Obsidian Syndicate, do you?”

Thaumas’s eyes darkened. “I suspect so. An entire ship full of human females...that would be quite the prize for Zarath, the Syndicate’s leader.”

His talons clenched, gouging furrows in the dirt. “Katarina, you’re in more danger than I realized. Zarath won’t stop until he recovers his cargo. There is a 99.9% chance he knows you survived the crash. It’s only a matter of time before he comes for you.”

I swallowed hard as fear put a sour taste on my tongue. But like hell was I going to cower in the face of this new threat? Thaumas was right - I was a target, a juicy prize for the twisted Space Mafia. But that just meant I needed to get smarter, tougher. Learn how to defend myself.

I lifted my chin, meeting Thaumas’s concerned gaze head on. “Then you’ll just have to train me,” I said firmly. “Teach me how to fight, how to survive. Make me the most badass human this side of the Andromeda Galaxy.”

I bared my teeth in a feral smile. “If Zarath wants me, he’ll have to go through the new Katarina Mayberry. And trust me - this wench bites back.”

Thaumas blinked, then let out a bark of surprised laughter. “Well then, my bloodthirsty little warrior,” he purred, eyes gleaming with pride and unmistakable heat. “Looks like we have some work to do.”

He pressed something into my hand - a sleek chrome communicator. “If you need me, use this,” he said gruffly. “I’ll never be far.”

His gaze burned into mine for a charged moment, a silent promise. Then, with a rush of mighty wings, he launched into the sky and was gone.

I looked down at the communicator in my bandaged palm, a smile tugging at my lips.

Badass training with a sexy Griffin warrior? Surviving the alien underworld suddenly didn’t seem so impossible. Watch out, Zarath. This wench was just getting started.

four

. . .

Thaumas

The sun beat down on the rocky plateau like a merciless hammer, baking the air until it shimmered like a mirage. Sweat dampened my feathers as I circled the makeshift training ground, keen eyes tracking my student’s every move.

Katarina crouched in a fighter’s stance, her lithe form wrapped in close-fitting sparring leathers. Twin daggers gleamed in her hands, their Accatran steel honed to a lethal edge. Determination blazed from her emerald eyes, bright and feverish.

“Again,” I commanded, my voice a raptor’s bark. “Watch your footing this time. Maintain your center of gravity.”

She nodded tersely, launching into the twisting kata I’d taught her. Her movements were fluid and precise, a far cry from the untrained fumbling of our first sessions. The girl learned fast, driven by the specter of the horrific fate she’d barely escaped.

But she was still too slow, too hesitant. In an actual battle, that split second of uncertainty would spell her doom.

I pounced without warning, talons extended. She yelped, barely bringing her blades up in time to deflect my slashing claws. The screech of metal on keratin set my beak on edge.

“Too slow,” I growled, pressing my advantage. I buffeted her with my wings, forcing her back. “Your enemy won’t telegraph their strikes, Kat. Anticipate!”

She gritted her teeth, sweat threading down her temples. “Trying,” she bit out, lunging in a counterattack that I easily sidestepped. “Not exactly a lot of calls for knife fighting in my old life, you know.”

I snorted, catching her wrist and twisting until she dropped one of her daggers. “Excuses are for the weak. You think Zarath’s goons will go easy on you because you’re new to this? They’ll gut you like a fish and toss you in the nearest black hole.”

She snarled, a fierce light igniting in her eyes. Wrenching free, she dove into a forward roll, scooping up her fallen blade and springing to her feet behind me in one smooth motion.

I whirled to face her, an approving rumble building in my chest. “Good. Use your agility, your speed. You’ll never match an attacker’s brute strength, so outmaneuver them inst-OOF!”

The breath whooshed from my lungs as Kat’s foot slammed into my abdomen. She followed up with a lightning-quick strike at my vulnerable wing joint, the flat of her blade smacking the thin skin.

I stumbled back, more surprised than injured. Kat bounced on her toes, a feral grin stretching her lips. “You were saying?” Her brow lifted.

My beak twitched, suppressing an answering smile. So, the kitten has claws. Good. I enjoyed a female with spirit.

“Not bad,” I allowed, shaking out my smarting wing. “But you left your flank open on that kick. If I’d been aiming to kill, your entrails would be steaming on the sand right now.”

Kat made a face. “Ugh, graphic much? You know, positive reinforcement works wonders for building confidence in students. You might try sprinkling a few good jobs in with the disembowelment threats.”

I rolled my eyes. “This isn’t some cozy classroom back on Earth, girl. This is life or death. Coddling you will only get you killed.”

Her smile faded, that haunted shadow dimming her eyes. “Yeah. I know.”

I softened slightly, sheathing my razor claws. “Kat. You’re doing well, truly. A few weeks ago, you could barely throw a punch without breaking your own thumbs. Now you’re holding your own against a Griffin warrior, if only for a few seconds.”

I cocked my head, studying her closely. “But you’re still holding back, second-guessing. There’s a...hesitancy in your movements. A fear of diving into the abyss.”

She looked away, shoulders hunching. “I’m trying to survive, Thaumas. Not become some kind of stone-cold killer.”

I closed the distance between us in two long strides, ducking my head to catch her gaze. “In this world, Kat? They’re one and the same. Zarath’s goons won’t show you mercy. You must be prepared to do whatever it takes.”

My heart clenched as she bit her lip, momentarily young and vulnerable. Gently, carefully, I brushed the back of one knuckle down her sweat-damp cheek. She shivered, leaning almost imperceptibly into my touch.

“I understand your fear,” I mumbled. “You’re worried that violence will change you, twist you into something ugly and unrecognizable.”

I took a breath, letting my hand fall away. “I know because I’ve grappled with that fear myself. The first time I killed in battle...it shattered something in me. Or at least, I thought it did.”

Kat’s eyes were luminous, her expression rapt. “What happened?”

I shrugged, the old grief a dull ache beneath my breastbone. “My wing brother, Dax. We were just barely fledged, on a scouting mission in the Whispering Wastes. Scavengers attacked our camp - vicious, feral things with poisoned blades. They would have killed us both, but I...”

My eyes unfocused, memory bleeding into the shimmering air. The fading screams. The wet crunch of separating vertebrae. Hot blood splattering my face, my hands, my soul.

“I did what I had to,” I finished roughly. “To protect my kin, my pride home. It was brutal and messy...but it was right. Those scavengers would have butchered us without a second thought. I had to put them down like the rabid beasts they were.” Raptoria flooded my mind. My home forever lost, unless I find a way back.

I refocused on Kat, holding her gaze intently. “Protecting yourself, protecting innocents...that’s not murder, Kat. That’s justice. Righteous violence in the face of evil is a badge of honor, not a stain on your soul.”

She searched my face for a long, charged moment. I let her see my certainty, my hard-won conviction.

“I want to believe that,” she said at last, her voice small. “But I look at someone like Zarath, thriving on pain and cruelty... What if I become like him? What if that darkness is inside me, too?”

My wings flared, mantling over us both instinctively. “Never,” I growled, the vehemence in my voice startling us both. “Kat, you have one of the brightest, most compassionate spirits I’ve ever encountered. Experiencing hardship and learning to defend yourself will only make that light shine brighter. You could never be anything like that sadistic worm, not if you lived a thousand lifetimes.”

A trembling smile touched her lips. “You really believe that, don’t you? Even though you think you know me?”

“I know enough,” I said firmly. “I see your true colors, Katarina Mayberry. Believe me, evil isn’t even in the palette.”

She huffed a laugh, swiping at suspiciously shiny eyes. “Careful, Big Bird. That sounded dangerously close to a compliment. Wouldn’t want to tarnish that badass rep of yours.”

I grinned, about to shoot back a playful retort, when an ominous buzz shivered through the air between us. I frowned, tipping my head to catch the sound better.

Kat tensed, gripping her blades tighter. “What is it?”

The buzz crescendoed, resolving into the unmistakable whine of approaching hover engines. A lot of them.

“Down!” I barked, already moving. I tackled Kat around the waist, bearing us both to the ground just as a hail of plasma bolts raked the plateau. The super heated air sizzled over our prone bodies, making my feathers smoke.

Kat gasped beneath me, eyes wide and frightened. “Thaumas, what the hell- “

“Zarath,” I snarled, fury and fear warring in my gut. “He’s found us.”

No sooner had the words left my beak than a dozen armored hovercrafts crested the stony ridge, disgorging a small army of heavily armed thugs. They ran the gamut from gap-toothed Hyraxian pirates to coldly efficient Psyrian mercenaries, all bristling with enough illegal weapons to level a small moon.

At their head strode a ghoulishly pale humanoid clad in funerary black, a cruel smirk twisting his cadaverous features. Rage boiled up in my throat at the sight.

Zylo Vex. Zarath’s right-hand man and chief enforcer. Rumor had it the sadistic freak actually got off on the suffering of the “chattel” he helped enslave. Trafficking wasn’t just a job to Vex - it was a passion.

And now this walking nightmare had my Kat in his sights. Over my dead, fucking body.

I surged to my feet, shoving Kat behind me. “Stay back,” I warned her, my voice guttural with fury. “Let me handle this.”

“Well, well,” Vex called out, his voice a nasal whine that set my teeth on edge. “The elusive Miss Mayberry and her pet feather duster. Imagine my surprise when I heard you two mates had shacked up on this pitiful dungheap. Naughty little slaves, running away from home.”

“Katarina is no slave,” I spat, wings half flaring in challenge. “She’s under MY protection, scum. You want her, you go through me.”

Vex cackled, the sound crawling over my skin like centipedes. “Oh, I’m counting on it, beaky. Zarath was VERY clear - bring back the blonde bitch...and mount that overgrown vulture’s head on his wall.”

He smirked, gunslinging a wicked-looking photon rifle from his shoulder. “I’ll be sure to leave that bit about going through you on your tombstone.”

Kat sucked in a sharp breath behind me. I reached back blindly, finding her hand and squeezing it once in silent reassurance. “As long as you include how pathetically you begged for your life first, you prancing gobshite,” I called to Vex, baring my talons.

The merc leader’s face mottled an unlovely puce. “Cute. Let’s see how sassy you are with a few new holes in that puffed-up chest. Ventilate him, boys!”

As one, the wall of thugs raised their weapons and opened fire. The air came alive with the scream of plasma and the stink of ozone.

I shoved Kat to the side, roaring loud enough to shake the stones. “Run, you bloody fool!”

Then I charged straight into the hailstorm, talons flashing.

Time did that funny stuttering thing it always does in the thick of battle. I was dimly aware of Kat scrambling for the dubious cover of the boulders ringing the plateau. A few mercs peeled off to pursue her, but the bulk of them focused on the eight-foot killing machine barreling into their midst.

Good. The more of these bastards I could keep occupied, the better Kat’s chances.

I hit their front line like a meteor, scattering bodies like ninepins. Plasma bolts sizzled past my head as I spun and slashed, my fighting claws opening throats and bellies with ruthless efficiency. Wet red mist filled the air, painting my feathers crimson.

“SHOOT HIM, YOU IDIOTS!” Vex screamed from the rear, his sallow face twisted in rage. “HE’S JUST ONE FUCKING BIRD!”

I grinned savagely, gore dripping from my beak. “Wrong!. I’m a griffin.”

I lunged for the nearest knot of mercs, my wings giving me the momentum of a runaway grav-train. Bones crunched and blasters wailed as I plowed through them like a force of nature.

On some distant level, I knew I was being reckless, leaving myself open to counterattack. If the mercs got their shit together, used their superior numbers to box me in, I was a dead griffin.

But the cold, calculating part of me didn’t care. All that mattered was buying Kat time to get away, even if it cost me my life.

The two halves of me, the warrior and the lovesick fool, were in perfect agreement as I fought like a Griffin possessed. I was a whirlwind of talons and fury, painting the stones red as I—

PAIN.

Searing, blinding, world-ending PAIN exploded in my chest. I staggered, my wings faltering, as I looked down at the smoking hole punched clean through my torso.

“NO!” Kat’s scream cut through the fog, raw and agonized. I tried to turn, to call out to her, but my beak wouldn’t work. Blood bubbled up my throat instead of words.

The last thing I saw as I crashed to my knees was Kat, my fierce, beautiful warrior woman, standing on an outcropping with murder in her eyes and my name on her lips.

Then the darkness took me, and I knew no more.

five

. . .

Katarina

“THAUMAS!”

His name tore from my throat, raw and ragged, as I watched him fall. The smoking hole in his chest seared itself into my retinas, a waking nightmare I knew would revisit me for the rest of my days.

If I lived that long.

The mercs closed in around his crumpled form, Vex swaggering forward with a look of vicious triumph. He kicked Thaumas’s limp wing, cackling when he got no response.

“HA! Not so high and mighty now, are you, beaky? Guess you griffins can die like anyone else if you pump enough plasma into ‘em.”

White-hot rage exploded behind my eyes, narrowing my world to a single, crystalline point. Through the static roaring in my ears, I heard Thaumas’s voice, steady and sure.

Righteous violence in the face of evil is a badge of honor, not a stain on your soul.

My hand closed around the hilt of my dagger. Thirteen inches of Accatran steel, honed to a lethal edge. The weapon of a warrior. I’m glad I paid attention when he gave me a impromptu lesson on dagger usage days ago.

I was moving before I realized I’d decided. I leaped from my perch on the outcropping, hitting the ground at a dead run. The mercs whirled to face me, momentarily shocked still by my suicidal charge.

Their hesitation cost them dearly.

I fell on the first knot of them like an avenging angel, my blade flashing in the harsh sun. Thaumas’s lessons echoed in my head as I slashed and parried, dancing between grasping hands and stabbing blades.

Watch your footing. Maintain your center. Use your agility. Anticipate!

I didn’t think. I just moved, instinct and desperation fusing into a cold fury that lent preternatural speed to my limbs. I hamstrung a hulking Gorlian, spun to rake my edge across the eyes of a knife-wielding Zypheran. Hot blood splashed my face, filling my mouth with the coppery taste of rage.

They fell before me, these hardened killers, crumpling like broken dolls as I carved a crimson path through their ranks. I could feel myself screaming, a high, keening wail that never seemed to run out of breath.

Vex watched me approach, his face slack with shock. He fumbled for his blaster, but I was already on him, batting the weapon aside with contemptuous ease.

He stumbled back, stark terror filling his eyes as I pressed my blade to the pale column of his throat. He held up his hands in a pathetic, warding gesture, cringing away from my gore-streaked face.

“W-wait! Please, don’t...I was just following ord-ack!”

I shut him up with a swift kick to the balls, driving him to his knees. I fisted a hand in his greasy hair, wrenching his head back to expose his bobbing Adam’s apple.

“You shot Thaumas,” I said, my voice a flat, terrifying thing I hardly recognized. “You HURT him.”

“I...I didn’t, it wasn’t me! It was one of the men! I never.“

I twitched my wrist, my blade dimpling his pasty flesh. A single drop of blood welled around the razor edge. Vex made a thin, mewling sound, his bowels loosening with an audible squelch.

“You’re the leader. You give the orders. Which makes you responsible for every fucking thing these bastards do.” I leaned in, my breath hot against his ear. “I should gut you like the worm you are. Leave you to steam on the sand like the scavenger filth that raised you.”

He let out a reedy sob, piss staining the front of his overpriced jumpsuit. “Please, I’ll give you anything. Money, weapons, women, power. Zarath rewards his loyal soldiers handsomely! Join us and… “

“Shut. Up.” I twisted the knife, opening a shallow cut along his bobbing throat. “I wouldn’t piss on Zarath if he was on fire. I serve no master, least of all a limp-pricked slaver like him. Or you.”

Vex shivered, the acrid scent of his fear turning my stomach. “What do you want?” he whispered hoarsely.

My lips peeled back from my teeth in a feral snarl. “I want you to deliver a message to your boss. Tell him Katarina Mayberry is coming for him. Tell him his days of preying on the innocent and helpless are over. And tell him that when I find him - and I WILL find him - I’m going to carve his withered heart from his chest and feed it to him one putrid bite at a time.”

I shoved Vex away in disgust, sending him sprawling in the bloody dust. “Get out of my sight,” I spat. “Before I change my mind about mounting your head on a fucking wall.”

He scrambled backwards, crab-walking in blind panic. “You’re crazy!” he screeched, staggering to his feet. “You think you can take on the whole Syndicate alone? We’ll hunt you down! Gut you like a - eep!”

His tirade cut off in a squeak as I hurled my dagger, burying it to the hilt in the sand a mere inch from his crotch.

“I won’t be alone,” I promised grimly. “I’ll have every pirate, merc, and miscreant in the sector on my side once they hear the Obsidian Syndicate has gone soft. There’s nothing more dangerous than a clever victim with powerful friends...”

My eyes flicked to Thaumas’s crumpled body, my heart seizing. “...And nothing she won’t do to protect what’s hers. Now fucking run, before I decide to geld you with that pretty pig-sticker you’re pissing yourself over.”

Vex needed no further encouragement. He bolted like the hounds of hell were snapping at his designer heels, vanishing over the stony ridge in a plume of panicked dust.

I held my fierce pose for a long moment, making sure he and his surviving goons were well and truly routed. Only when the hum of their departing hover-engines faded did I allow my shoulders to slump, the bravado draining out of me like a lanced boil.

“Thaumas,” I croaked, turning on wobbly legs to stagger toward his prone form. I crashed to my knees beside him, tears blurring my vision as I reached for him with shaking hands.

Blood matted his once-glorious plumage, and a cruel hole in his broad chest continued to leak a steady crimson tide. Those keen amber eyes were closed, his noble face slack and still.

“Don’t you dare,” I choked out, pressing trembling fingers to the underside of his jaw. Searching desperately for a pulse, a breath, any sign of life. “Don’t you fucking dare leave me, you stupid bird! Fight, dammit! I need you!”

For a long, terrible moment, there was nothing. No flutter, no rise of his ravaged chest. The entire world seemed to hold its breath, narrowing down to the cooling body of the fierce, beautiful creature who’d stormed into my life and changed everything.

Then, so faint, I thought I imagined it... a pulse. A single, stubborn thread of life, clinging to the edge of oblivion.

A sob tore from my throat, my entire being shaking with relief. “That’s it, baby. Come back to me. I’ve got you.”

With the utmost care, I gathered his enormous body into my arms, cradling his head against my chest. My fingers carded through his crest, sticky with blood but achingly gentle.

“Stay with me,” I whispered, pressing my lips to his feathered brow. “You’re going to be okay. I’ll fix this, I promise. Just hold on.”

Summoning every ounce of strength left in my battered body, I heaved Thaumas up and over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry. He was twice my size and three times my weight, but desperation lent me the power of ten men.

Staggering only slightly, I began the long, arduous trek down the side of the plateau, heading for the distant glint of the transport Thaumas and I arrived in. If I could get him back to the cramped bolt-hole we’d claimed as our own, tend to his wound with the meager med supplies on hand...

It was a fool’s hope, a one-in-a-million shot. But it was all I had. Thaumas needed more help than I could provide, but who could I turn to? With every hand raised against us, I pondered, who on this blighted rock could I rely on to care for my wounded guardian?

By the time I reached the battered little hauler, my lungs were burning and my muscles screamed in agony. But I didn’t slow down, determination propelling me up the ramp and into the tiny medbay.

As gently as I could with my flagging strength, I laid Thaumas out on the narrow cot, arranging his wings and limbs into a position that looked halfway comfortable. My hands shook as I pawed through the cabinets, searching for anything that might stem the terrifying flow of blood from his chest.

Disinfectant. Clotting agent. Pressure bandages. I tossed them on the cot, my field medicine courses from a lifetime ago rising from the depths of memory.

“This might sting a bit,” I told Thaumas’s still form, my voice cracking on a wobbly smile. “But no pain, no gain, right? You’d probably make some dumb joke about me playing nurse right about now.”

Silence. Gods, what I’d give to hear one of his stupid bird puns.

Blinking back tears, I set to work. I cleaned the wound as best I could, wincing at the alarming amount of blood that refused to clot. Biting my lip, I packed the hole with gel foam and wrapped his chest tightly, praying to gods I didn’t believe in it would be enough.

“There,” I said, tying off the bandage with a trembling knot. “Good as new. You’ll be cracking terrible yolks and critiquing my knife work again in no time.”

I stroked his face, my fingers lingering on the tick of his pulse. Sluggish, but still there. Still fighting.

But for how much longer? Thaumas needed a proper doctor, a fully equipped medbay. As it was, infection and blood loss would do what Vex’s blaster couldn’t.

Despair crashed over me, heavy and smothering. Was this how it ended? After everything we’d been through, every impossible odd defied, would I lose him like this? Bleeding out in a filthy hauler while I watched, helpless to do anything but pray?

“Katarina...”

I jolted, hardly daring to breathe. That voice, little more than a thready rasp...

“Thaumas?” I leaned over him, tears spilling down my cheeks. His eyelids fluttered, glazed amber peeking through his lashes.

“Kat...you’re okay? The mercs...”

“Shh, don’t try to talk,” I soothed, pressing my fingers to his bristly cheek. “Vex is gone. Ran off with his tail between his legs. I gave him a message for Zarath.”

His beak twitched in a shadow of his usual smirk. “That’s my girl. Fierce as any warrior. Knew you’d...make me proud...”

I caught his taloned hand, pressing it to my wet cheek. “You can’t leave me,” I whispered brokenly. “I can’t do this without you.”

His eyes softened, the wry acceptance in their golden depths cleaving my heart in two. “You can...you will. You’re strong, Kat. A fighter...survivor...”

His lids drooped, his words slurring. “Proud to know you...my brave...beautiful...wench...”

And with that, he slipped back into unconsciousness, leaving me weeping over his bloody form.

I don’t know how long I knelt there, my head bowed over our clasped hands as I sobbed. It could have been minutes or hours. Time lost all meaning in the face of my grief and terror.

But eventually, the tears ran out. The hitching sobs eased, replaced by a cold, clear resolve.

Thaumas believed in me. He’d seen my potential from the start, even when I was just a scared, scarred Earther adrift in a hostile universe.

He’d been my compass, my lighthouse. My guardian angel with wicked claws and a razor wit.

Now it was my turn to guard him.

I rose to my feet, every muscle protesting. My jaw set. I activated the hauler’s long-range comm system.

“This is Katarina Mayberry to any friendlies in the sector. I have a Griffin down, seeking immediate medical assistance. Repeat, Griffin warrior gravely injured and in need of help. Will trade weapons, credits, intel. Please...if anyone can hear me...”

I swallowed hard, my pride screaming at me to shut up, cut the comm. Never show weakness to potential enemies.

But what choice did I have? If there was even the slightest chance that someone out there would answer my desperate plea...

“He’s dying,” I said baldly, my voice cracking. “The Griffin...Thaumas, he...he took a blaster round to the chest. I’ve done what I can, but it’s not enough. Please, if there are any doctors, medical frigates, anything...I’ll pay any price. Just help me save him.”

Static crackled across the open channel, the faint clicking of auto-relays the only sign my message was transmitting at all.

Please, I prayed, my eyes squeezing shut. Please let this fucking work. Don’t let it end like this. Not when we’re so close...

And just as despair choked me again, a voice burst through the white noise. Gruff, accented, shot through with urgency.

“You read? Repeat, Mayberry, this is Captain Raza Bloodclaw of the Crimson Claw. We are receiving you. What is your location, over?”

My legs nearly gave out from sheer, dizzying relief. “I read you, Captain,” I managed, my voice shaking. “Sending coordinates now. Please hurry. He doesn’t have much time.”

“Acknowledged. Stay on this frequency. The Claw is en route, ETA seven minutes. Prep the patient for emergency evac. Raza out.”

The comm link clicked off. I slumped against the bulkhead, my heart still trying to outrace my ribs. Seven minutes. Just seven minutes, and the cavalry would arrive.

But would it be enough? Would this Raza Bloodclaw and his mysterious ship reach us before Thaumas succumbed to his wounds?

I pushed away from the wall, staggering back to the medbay on leaden feet.

“Hear that, big guy?” I whispered as I smoothed a fresh bandage over Thaumas’s bloody chest. “The Claw is coming. You’ll be sipping Akkadian brandy and trouncing Yargo at Clack-Tock again before you know it.”

Thaumas, of course, didn’t answer. But I fancied I saw his eyelids flicker, ever so slightly. A faint twitch of recognition, perhaps. Or a trick of the dim light and my own wishful thinking.

I pressed a soft kiss to his feathered brow, lingering for a long moment. “Stay with me,” I breathed. “I’m not letting you off the hook that easy, bird brain. We’ve got a score to settle with a certain slaving scumbag, remember?”

I adjusted his makeshift pillow and tucked a shock blanket around his lower half. Gods, he looked so vulnerable like this. Stripped of his cocksure smirk and deadly grace. Just...broken. Diminished.

But not defeated. Never defeated.

My hands fisted at my sides. No, we weren’t done. Not by a long shot. This was just a detour, a bump in the road.

We’d get Thaumas patched up. Make some powerful new friends. Then, when he healed and became fighting fit again, we would take the battle to Zarath once and for all.

The Obsidian Syndicate picked the wrong girl to fuck with twice. And now, with a fierce, beautiful avenging Griffin at my side, well...

Their time of preying on the innocent and helpless was ending.

But my focus would always be on one thing first - protecting the overgrown turkey that flew into my life and stole my heart.

I settled into the single chair by the cot, preparing for a long, anxious vigil. “Hear that, Thaumas?” I murmured, lacing my fingers with his. “I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me, buddy. Only death gets to take me from your side, and I’m not ready to give that bony bitch the satisfaction yet.”

six

. . .

Thaumas

Pain.

That was the first thing that pierced the thick, suffocating fog shrouding my mind. Searing, bone-deep pain that radiated from my chest like a supernova.

The second thing was noise. A barrage of unfamiliar voices and clanging machinery, underscored by the frenetic beeping of diagnostic equipment.

Where was I?

With monumental effort, I pried open my gummy eyes - only to slam them shut again as blinding white light speared my retinas. I groaned, the sound raspy and weak in my own ears.

Ugh. It was like the aftermath of that three-day bender on Krox Minor, only with more feeling like a herd of rampaging drek-beasts had trampled me.

“...he’s coming around. Get the sedative, 80 ccs. Hold him still while I.“

A cool numbness spread through my limbs, the pain receding to a dull roar. The warm embrace of oblivion beckoned, and I nearly succumbed. Nearly let myself sink back into the dark quiet, away from the hurt and confusion.

But something nagged at me, a desperate urgency that dragged me back from the brink. Green eyes were wide with fear. Crimson staining blonde hair. Screams that punched through the haze like photon rounds...

Kat.

“K-Katarina...”

I barely recognized my voice, little more than a thready rasp. But it got an immediate response.

“Thaumas? Oh, gods - Doctor, he’s awake!”

Suddenly, she was there. My fierce, beautiful warrior woman, leaning over me with tears in her emerald eyes. Her calloused fingers found my cheek, gentle as a summer breeze.

“Shh, don’t try to talk. You’re safe now. We both are.”

I blinked up at her, struggling to make sense of the situation through the drugged haze. Now that my vision was adjusting, I could see we were in some kind of medbay - but not the cramped little hole in our junker.

No, this was a fully equipped medical frigate. State-of-the-art scanners, gleaming robotic surgical arms, the works. The facilities only the richest mercs or military elite could afford.

What the kroxing hell?

“Where...” I coughed, my dry throat clicking. “Where are we? How did...” Memory struck like a lightning bolt, sizzling through the fog. “The mercs! Vex, that xeno quack, he...”

Kat hushed me, her fingers moving to card through my crest in a way that turned my bones to water. “Easy, Big Bird. It’s okay - Vex ran off with his tail between his legs.”

Her smile was fierce, almost feral. “I Made sure he’ll think twice before coming after us again.”

I gaped at her, shock momentarily overriding the sedatives dulling my senses. Katarina, my clever, courageous little Earther… had bested a seasoned slaver and his goon squad? Alone?

“That’s my girl,” I rasped, pride and awe warring in my chest. “Fierce as any warrior. Always...knew you’d make me proud.”

Tears welled in her eyes, clumping her lashes. “Idiot,” she choked out. “Stupid, brave, self-sacrificing idiot. You nearly died, Thaumas. What were you thinking, taking on all those armed thugs by yourself?”

“Didn’t...didn’t have a choice,” I wheezed, my beak twitching in a faint smirk. “Had to...buy you time. Keep you safe.”

She scowled, giving my undamaged shoulder a gentle swat. “Yeah, well, from now on we protect each other, got it? No more of this noble martyr crap. I can’t...” Her voice cracked, fresh tears spilling over. “I can’t lose you again. I won’t.”

Guilt and grief twisted in my guts. Spirits, the terror she must have felt watching me fall. The desperation that drove her to fight off a seasoned death squad alone...

Of course, my clever girl succeeded. Proved every scrap of faith I’d ever placed in her strength and tenacity. But at what cost to her own gentle heart?

“‘m sorry,” I mumbled, feathers wilting. “Never wanted...to put you through that. Forgive me?”

She sniffled, dashing away her tears with an irritated swipe. “Forgiven. This time. Just...just don’t make a habit of getting ventilated by two-cred slime weasels, okay?”

“No promises.” I winked, relishing her exasperated huff. My sluggish brain latched on to an earlier question. “So. Not complaining, but...how’d we end up in a floating Ritz like this? Last I checked, our credit chip couldn’t buy a tin of Loxian fish paste, let alone a private bacta suite.”

Kat grinned, some of the mischievous sparkle returning to her eyes. “Ah. That would be courtesy of your daring rescuer. A dashing space pirate answered my distress call.” She put a hand to her brow in a mock swoon. “My hero!”

I sat up straighter, ignoring the twinge of stitches pulling. “Space pirate?” I growled, suddenly wide awake. “You let some bolt head privateer get his grimy hooks in you while I was out? Kat, those assholes are just mercs with delusions of romance! You can’t trust… “

“Whoa, slow your ion engines, Lord Suspicious!” She laughed, flicking my beak. “The only one with his hooks in me here is you, bird brain. I just used our pirate benefactor for his shiny med-tech.”

Relief and chagrin twisted my insides. Of course Kat wouldn’t fall for some wannabe muscled block of dubious charms. She was far too clever for such reckless trust.

After all, it took me ages to worm my way past her formidable emotional defenses. No smooth-talking freebooter could manage such a feat in the scant time I’d been unconscious.

No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than the medbay door whooshed open, admitting a hulking figure more at home on a battlefield than a surgical suite.

He was a Zoloxian - or half of one, anyway. The unmistakable bulk and jutting under-bite spoke of the brutal reptilian mercs, but the sleeker head tentacles reeked of Myraxian genes. A half-breed, then. Rare and usually reviled by their parent races.

But from the arrogant set of his shoulders to the fine cut of his pressure suit, this was no beaten cur. This was an alpha predator, as sure of his strength as he was of his next breath.

Instantly, I was on high alert. My protective instincts surged as I thrust an arm out, blocking Kat from the newcomer. Low growls rumbled up my raw throat as I pierced him with the full force of my raptor glower.

But the merc just smirked, crossing his burly arms. “Well, well. The sleeping bird awakens.” He sneered, baring an impressive mouthful of needle fangs. “Suppose I should be grateful you didn’t try to tear my head off with that oversized canary beak. Or is your birdie brain still too scrambled for any snappy threats?”

“Captain!” Kat hissed, glaring at him over the barrier of my wing. “Be nice! Thaumas nearly died, if you recall. A little bedside compassion wouldn’t kill you.”

The merc - Captain, apparently, snorted. “Sweetheart, if I had a credit for every time some meat-shield took a blaster jolt covering my shapely ass, I could buy this whole kroxing sector.” But he softened slightly under Kat’s quelling look. “Fine. Welcome back to the land of the functioning, Lord Feather Duster. Glad that gaping chest wound didn’t punch your ticket to the big nest in the sky.”

“Captain...” Kat growled warningly.

“What?” He spread his hands with patently false innocence. “That was me being nice!”

I didn’t like his tone. Didn’t like the way he looked at my Kat, all insolent appreciation and cocky familiarity. And I sure as shekking abyss didn’t like the proprietary gleam in his scaly lizard eyes, like she belonged to him just because he’d play-acted the big damn hero.

I’d bet my tail feathers this rescue was anything but altruistic. Men like him never did something for nothing. There was always an angle, always a catch.

And if he thought he could use my brush with death to sink his claws into Kat...

“Enough,” I bit out, my voice still raspy but diamond-hard. “Spare me the poisoned pleasantries, merc. You didn’t save my tail out of the goodness of your scaly heart.” I fixed him with an icy stare. “Name your price. What do you want in exchange for services rendered?”

The captain rocked back on his heels, barking a laugh. “Krox, you Griffin types are a blunt bunch. I’m almost surprised you didn’t whip out the dueling gauntlet and smite me for impugning your lady’s honor.”

“Not my lady,” I said stiffly, even as something twisted painfully in my chest at the disavowal. “But she is under my protection. A fact you’d be wise to remember the next time your eyes wander where your hands will quickly be forfeit.”

Anger flashed across the merc’s harsh face. He opened his mouth - no doubt to fire back a scathing retort - but Kat beat him to it.

“Enough, both of you!” She snapped, her eyes flashing. “Gods, I’d expect this territorial male bovine-shit from a couple of rutting Luxorian stags, but not a pair of allegedly mature sentient adults.”

She rounded on me first, righteous fire in her emerald gaze. “Thaumas, you need to check the jealous he-man routine. I am not your possession to be bartered or fought over. I make my own choices, and right now I choose to trust Raza. He saved your stubborn feathered butt, in case you forgot.”

Her glare switched to Raza, softening not a whit. “And you - enough with the crotch-flexing aggression. Thaumas is my partner. He was protecting me from Syndicate goons when he got shot, and he’ll go right on protecting me until I kick his overprotective ass to the curb. So stow the suggestive smirks and focus on the task at hand - sticking it to Zarath and his slaver scum once and for all.”

Both of us gaped at her, momentarily struck dumb by her tirade. Spirits, she was magnificent in her fury. A warrior goddess, as fierce as she was fair.

How could I have thought, even for a moment, that this rogue could turn her head? Kat’s will was pure beskar. Empty flattery and a dashing grin would never seduce her.

Raza recovered first, sketching a sardonic bow. “As my lady commands,” he drawled. “Consider my crotch un-flexed. I’ll keep my suggestive admiration to myself and leave you lovebirds to your overprotective ass-kicking. Just remember who’s vessel you’re sailing on, sweetheart. The Crimson Claw answers to no one.”

He turned to leave, his hand slapping the door panel. But he paused, throwing a wicked grin over his shoulder.

“Oh, and Feathers? You ever forget that I saved your mangy hide again, I’ll be happy to jog your memory.” He winked at Kat. “Your lady’s honor will just be a pleasant bonus.”

And with that parting shot, he swaggered out, leaving me sputtering curses in his wake.

“That arrogant, scaly son of a Vraxian whore,” I spat, my feathers bristling. “Give me five minutes on my feet and I’ll yank those kroxing head tentacles out by the roots.”

“Thaumas.” Kat’s voice was soft but steely. “Leave it. Please. He’s not the enemy here.”

I deflated, the anger whooshing out of me. “I know,” I muttered mulishly. “I just, I don’t like the way he looks at you. Like you’re some shiny prize he can’t wait to brag about bagging.”

She arched a golden brow. “Like you just tried to do, bartering your life for my supposed safety? Staking your claim like I’m territory to be fought over?”

I winced, shame staining my crest a dull pink. “I...krox. You’re right, I’m an idiot.” I scrubbed a hand over my face, every inch of me still aching. “Forgive me, Kat. Nearly dying is no excuse for acting like a tail-thumping caveman.”

Her gaze softened. “Forgiven and forgotten, Big Bird.” She leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to the tip of my beak that sent fire racing through my battered body. “Just don’t let it happen again, or this warrior woman might take a few chunks out of your feathered hide herself.”

I shuddered at the delicious image, my pain forgotten. “Is that a promise?” I purred, my good wing curling around her waist.

She laughed, but there was a husky edge to it that lit me up like a kroxing solar flare. “Play your cards right and you might just find out.”

Spirits, this female would be the death of me. And I’d die with a smile on my beak and a song in my heart.

But all playfulness evaporated as the magnitude of what she’d done - what she’d risked - crashed over me anew. My fierce, brilliant little Earther, who’d saved my tail, faced down a hardened death squad, and somehow sweet-talked a surly pirate into giving us shelter on his ship. All while I lay broken and bleeding, as much use as a Malaxian mud hen.

The guilt was an icy knot in my guts, dousing my momentary flare of desire. I never should have left her alone to face those horrors. Never should have failed her when she needed me most.

“Kat,” I said roughly, curling my fingers around her slender wrist. “I know I’ve said it already, but I’m so sorry. Sorry I wasn’t there to protect you, to stand at your side against Zarath’s scum. If anything happened to you while I was out, if that xeno filth laid one slimy hand on you.”

“Hey, hey.” She pressed closer, sliding onto the narrow med berth beside me. “None of that, you hear me? I’m fine, Thaumas. They never touched me.” Her eyes glowed with fierce pride and satisfaction. “I touched them, and none too gently. Sent them scurrying like the worm-ridden collection of kizzek balls they are.”

I searched her face, wonder and relief a warm glow in my chest. “You really did, didn’t you? Took on a whole xeno wolf pack alone and made them regret ever looking at you cross-eyed.”

She shrugged, but there was no missing the pleased flush that pinked her cheeks at my awed praise. “I’m a fast learner. Had a good teacher.”

I made a choked noise, my arm tightening around her. “A good teacher? Kat, I failed you when it mattered most. Left you to the monsters while I bled out uselessly. Some guardian Griffin I turned out to be.”

“Stop that,” she said fiercely. She cupped my face in her small, calloused hands, forcing me to meet her emerald gaze. “You took a fucking blaster bolt for me, Thaumas. Threw yourself into a nest of vipers, outnumbered and outgunned, just to give me a chance. That’s not failure - that’s the bravest, most selfless thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

Tears glimmered in her eyes, but her voice never wavered. “You protected me the only way you could - with your own body. Your life. How could I ever see that as anything but the actions of a true guardian? MY guardian.”

My throat locked up, a strange pressure building behind my eyes. When was the last time anyone looked at me like that? With such unbridled trust and gratitude, such unwavering faith?

Never. Not once in all my long centuries had I been on the receiving end of such pure, unshakeable loyalty.

It rocked me. Shook me to my core in a way not even a point-blank blaster shot could.

“I.” My voice cracked, my practiced words deserted me. What could I possibly say in the face of such steadfast devotion? What words could encompass the enormity of what I felt for this small, fierce, utterly extraordinary human?

In the end, I settled for the simplest and most profound truth of all. “I love you, Katarina Mayberry.”

Her eyes went wide, shock and wonder warring across her expressive face. For a long, heart-stopping moment, the only sound was the frenetic beeping of the med equipment and the ragged sawing of my breath.

Oh krox, had I just ruined everything? Revealed too much, pushed too hard? I braced myself for the inevitable letdown, the gentle but firm rebuff. The “I care for you too, but not that way” speech I’d heard from so many starry-eyed females over the long, lonely centuries.

But Kat, my clever, impossible Kat, she just smiled. A soft, luminous thing that transformed her already lovely face into something downright ethereal.

“Thaumas Leion’ct,” she said, her musical voice trembling only slightly. “You great, foolish, romantic griffin...what took you so long?”

And then, before I planned a response, she leaned in and pressed her lips to my beak in a kiss that seared me to my very soul.

I made a strangled sound, my good wing snapping out to crush her against me. Ignoring the flare of pain from my battered body, I turned my head to slant my beak across her lush mouth, drinking in her sweetness like a man dying of thirst.

She met me with equal fervor, her hands sliding into my crest to tug me impossibly closer. Our tongues tangled, stroking and twining in a deep, drugging dance that set every nerve ending I possessed ablaze.

It was glorious. Transcendent. Like flying and falling all at once, my blood singing with the rightness of it. This fierce, brilliant, beautiful female was mine, and I was hers.

A discreet cough from the doorway jolted us apart. We blinked dazedly at the interloper - a petite Lumenian in medical blues, her opalescent skin shimmering with barely suppressed amusement.

“Forgive the interruption,” she said, not sounding sorry at all. “But I need to check Lord Leion’ct’s vitals and change his dressings.” Her faceted eyes twinkled knowingly. “Assuming you two can untangle yourselves long enough for me to work.”

Like an electrified shock, Kat leapt off the berth, her face burning. “O-of course, Doctor. I’ll just, um.” She flapped a hand vaguely, not meeting my eye. “I’ll be outside. Comm me if you need anything?”

I made a bereft sound as she backed away, already mourning the loss of her warmth. But I managed a nod and a reassuring wink. “I’ll be fine, love. Go get some rest. Stars know you’ve earned it.”

She flashed me a grateful smile, then fled the medbay like her tail was on fire. I slumped back against the pillows with a groan, suddenly feeling every throb and ache in my abused body.

The doctor clucked her tongue as she bent over me, scanner whirring. “Quite the enthusiastic reunion,” she remarked dryly. “I’d scold you for overexerting yourself, but I suspect it would fall on deaf ears.”

“Prob’ly,” I rasped, grinning dopily. I was flying high on stims and painkillers and the headiest drug of all - requited love. The doc could chop off my other wing and I’d say thank you.

She huffed, but there was a glimmer of fondness for the professional exasperation. “You Griffins. All swagger and impetuous passion, the lot of you. It’s a wonder your species has survived this long, with how readily you throw yourselves into danger for your mates.”

“Kat’s not my mate,” I said automatically. Then, quieter, “Not yet, anyway.”

“Mmm. A technicality, I’m sure.” She fixed me with a stern look as she adjusted my IV. “She may not be your mate in name, but she certainly is in deed. That girl stood vigil over your bloody carcass for three straight cycles, you know. Wouldn’t leave your side for anything short of a hull breach.”

My heart stuttered in my chest. “She, she did?”

“Oh yes. Drove the medical staff half mad with her pacing and fretting. Practically poured herself into the research, devouring every holo-text on Griffin physiology and trauma care she could get her hands on.” The doc shook her head. “Stubborn as a Gundark, that one. But Spirits if she didn’t keep you stable until we could get you into surgery.”

I swallowed hard, a lump the size of a small moon lodging in my throat. My brave, brilliant Kat. Of course, she wouldn’t sit idly by while I lingered at death’s door. Of course, she would seek out any scrap of knowledge that could aid my recovery.

She was a fighter, a survivor. And she’d chosen ME, piss-poor protector that I was, to fight and survive alongside.

It was humbling. Terrifying. The most kroxing wondrous thing that had ever happened to me.

And as the doctor fussed and clucked over my healing body, I made a silent vow. To the stars, the Spirits, and any deity that might be listening.

I would spend every moment of my remaining existence living up to the staggering gift of Katarina Mayberry’s love. I would be her shield, her sword, her stalwart partner in all things. I would challenge her, support her, adore her until the galaxies burned to ash around us.

And I would start by healing. By getting back on my kroxing feet and showing her - and that scaly himbo Raza - that this Griffin still had plenty of fight left in him.

Zarath’s time was running out. The Obsidian Syndicate’s reign of terror was ending.

And when the dust settled, when the screams faded and the blood dried...Kat and I would still be standing. Bat-shit crazy in love and ready to take on whatever the universe saw fit to throw at us next.

seven

. . .

Katarina

I paced the cramped confines of the med bay, fingers drumming a restless tattoo against my thigh. Thaumas slept on, his great feathered chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm that soothed my fractured nerves.

He looked so peaceful, the harsh lines of pain and worry smoothed away in repose. A far cry from the bloody, broken creature I’d hauled into the Crimson Claw just cycles ago.

I shuddered, phantom copper choking my throat. I couldn’t get it out of my head - the wet rattle of his breath, the dull sheen of his eyes as he hovered at the edge of oblivion.

Never again. I would never feel that helpless, that utterly fucking useless, again.

Squaring my shoulders, I marched from the med bay, purpose thrumming through my veins. I needed to see the captain. Needed to cash in the myriad favors he owed me.

I found Raza on the bridge. Clawed feet kicked up on the consoles as he reclined in the pilot’s chair. He cracked one slitted eye as I stomped up to him, a slow smirk curling his reptilian lips.

“Well, if it isn’t the blushing bride-to-be,” he drawled, fangs glinting. “To what do I owe the dubious pleasure? Trouble in paradise already?”

I scowled at him, crossing my arms. “Stow it, Scales. I’m here on business, not to trade barbs with an overgrown gecko.”

He clutched his chest in mock affront, eyes wide. “You wound me, Blondie! And here I thought we were besties, what with me saving your boyfriend’s perforated bacon and all.”

“And I’m exceedingly grateful,” I gritted out, resisting the urge to throttle him with my bare hands. “Which is why I’m here. I need your help with something.”

That got his attention. He sat up straighter, feet thunking to the deck plates. “Do tell. It’s not every day a lady of your caliber comes to me for assistance.”

I rolled my eyes, but forged ahead. “I want you to train me better than before. Teach me to fight, to defend myself.” I lifted my chin, holding his gaze. “I’m done being a liability, a fucking damsel for Thaumas and the crew to protect.”

A long, charged silence. Then Raza threw his head back and laughed, a harsh bark that set my teeth on edge.

“Oh, that’s rich!” he crowed, slapping his thigh. “The little Earther wants to be a warrior! Wants to protect her feathered knight from the big bad ‘verse!”

Red swam across my vision. Before I could stop myself, I lunged forward and slammed my hands down on the armrests of his chair, caging him in with my body.

“Listen to me, you scaly son of a bitch,” I snarled, right in his smug face. “I just watched the love of my life bleed out in my fucking arms. I held his goddamned organs in while he wheezed and shuddered and begged me to let him go.”

Raza went still, eyes widening. I barreled on, too incensed to stop.

“I will not feel that again, do you understand me? I will not be the reason Thaumas takes another fucking bullet.” I bared my teeth, a wild thing uncaged. “So you will train me. You will make me a threat to anyone stupid enough to come at me and mine. Or I swear by every god in the ‘verse, I will rip your tongue out through your scaly ass and beat you to death with it. Are we fucking clear?”

A long, taut beat. Raza stared at me, gob-smacked. I held his gaze, chest heaving, daring him to laugh again.

Then, slowly, a fierce grin split his face. An approving gleam lit his beady eyes as he looked me up and down, seeing me anew.

“Well, fuck me sideways,” he rasped, shaking his head. “There just might be some bite to you after all, Blondie.”

I lifted my chin, nostrils flared. “You’re goddamned right there is. Question is, are you going to train it? Or do I need to find someone with a bigger pair to teach me the ropes?”

He snorted, flicking a claw at me. “Please. Like there’s a being on this boat more qualified than me to make a killer out of you.” He sobered, holding my gaze. “You sure about this, Kat? Once we start down this road. There’s no going back. You cross this line, let me mold you into a weapon .It’ll change you. Permanently.”

Swallowing hard, I didn’t flinch. “I’m sure. I need this, Raza. I need to keep the people I love safe. No matter the cost to myself.”

He searched my face for a long moment. Then he nodded, something like respect kindling in his eyes.

“All right then. You’re on, kid.” A sharp flash of teeth. “But fair warning: I’m not making this easy on you. By the time I’m done, you’re gonna wish Zarath had gotten his slimy hands on you. I’m gonna break you down to nothing and build you back up mean. A real-deal, grade-A killing machine.”

I lifted my chin, holding his gaze unflinchingly. “Bring it the fuck on, Scales. I can take whatever you dish out.”

“We’ll see about that,” he purred, a predator scenting blood. “Report to the cargo bay, 0500 sharp. And Kat?”

I paused in the doorway, glancing back at him.

A cruel curl of lips. “Wear something you don’t mind bleeding on.”

Thaumas was less than thrilled with my new extracurricular activity.

“You want to what?” he squawked when I broke the news, nearly falling out of his med-cot in agitation. “Absolutely not! I forbid it!”

I scowled at him, hands on hips. “You forbid it? I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I’d time-warped back to the fucking dark ages when I wasn’t looking. Newsflash, bird boy: You don’t get to forbid me from shit.”

“The kroxing I don’t!” He struggled upright, wincing as his stitches pulled. “Kat, this is madness. You’re not a soldier, you’re not...”

“If you say not built for this, I swear to Christ I will smother you with a pillow,” I snarled. “I am so sick of people telling me what I am and am not built for. I’ve been fighting to survive since I was sixteen years old. I’ve clawed and scraped my way through the ugliest corners of the ‘verse, alone, with nothing but my wits and my spine to see me through.”

I thrust a finger under his beak, eyes blazing. “I am a survivor, Thaumas. Down to my bones, to my cells. This?” I gestured at myself, at the scars and calluses and wiry muscles. “This is a body built to endure. To overcome. And right now, it’s telling me I need to learn how to fight back against the bastards who want to lay us low.”

His agonized expression revealed a war between pride and terror. “Kat, love, please. I can’t...I can’t watch you throw yourself into danger. Not after everything.”

I softened, the fight draining out of me. I stepped into the circle of his arms, tucking my face into the thick ruff of feathers at his throat.

“I know,” I whispered. “I know this is scary, T. It scares the shit out of me, the thought of stepping onto this path. But I need to do this. For you, for us.” I pulled back to cup his face, thumbs stroking his sleek cheeks. “I need to protect you, the way you’ve protected me. I need to be your shield, not just your shiny trinket to be cosseted and defended.”

He closed his eyes, expression pained. “You’re not...Kat, you could never be a trinket to me. You’re my heart. The very air in my lungs.”

“And you’re mine,” I whispered fiercely. “Which is why I need to do this. Why I need you to help me do this.” I held his gaze, pleading and unflinching in equal measure. “Train with me. Teach me, Thaumas. Help me become the weapon we both know I need to be.”

A long, throbbing silence. I held my breath, willing him to understand. To trust in my strength the way I trusted in his.

At last, he let go with a shuddering sigh. Resigned and rueful and so proud I could taste it.

“I can’t,” he rasped, bowing his head to rest his brow against mine. “As a Lord Griffin, it’s not right for his lady to do such things. You already know some things about battle, but it’s enough. It will have to be enough.” A hint of fang himself as he smiled, crooked and strained. “My lady will not battle while I live and breath.”

I laughed, a damp, hiccupping thing. What the ever-loving hell did he mean? Squaring my shoulders, I grimaced. “I’m not your Lady Griffin. I’m a human woman, and I want, no I need to learn how to defend myself and those I love.”

A growl, dark and rumbling rose up through his chest and into mine. “Careful, mate. Talk like that’s liable to fry what’s left of my logic circuits. You will not destroy my honor. If I can’t survive and defend, then there’s no point in us.”

Heat curled through my belly, chasing away the chill of residual fear. “If that’s the way you want to play it, I suppose we aren’t well matched.” I spun around intending on a grand exit so I could cool off before I said more. He grabbed my wrist and peered into my eyes.

A huff of laughter escaped, and he swooped in, claiming my mouth in a kiss that seared me to my toes. I gasped into the hot slide of lips and tongue, reveling in the spicy-dark taste of him, the way he devoured me like a bird of prey with the juiciest of morsels. I wanted to fight him, to pull away, but dammit, my body grew hot and pliable in his capable claws.

When he finally released me, I was panting and glossy-eyed, lips bee-stung and buzzing. “Keep kissing me like that and I might just have to break Raza’s 0500 start time,” I wheezed, only half-kidding as I clung to his broad shoulders for balance.

A wicked chuckle and a last nuzzling peck to my brow. “Good. You listen to me. If we’re to make it, you must abide by my honor code. Raza isn’t your savior, nor will he pull you from me.”

I groaned but conceded the point. As much as I wanted to climb my big beautiful bird like a tree., we weren’t in any shape for those kind of acrobatics. And as much as I wanted to argue about his chivalrous honor and demands, I gave it a rest. It would be an argument for another day.

But soon. Just as soon as we were both fighting fit and flush with the adrenaline of a hard-won spar. I fully intended to introduce my feathered Adonis to the carnal benefits of Raza’s grueling training regimen with me by his side..

Watch out, universe. This little Earther was about to level the fuck up. And when she did.

We were the fell-forged instruments of our own vengeance. And the song we played would be a red one, a reckoning without end.

I hit the mats with a bone-jarring thud, all the air punched from my lungs in a whooping gasp. Raza loomed over me, smug as a Denebian slime-toad as he spun his staff.

“Getting tired already, Blondie?” he taunted, slit-pupiled eyes gleaming with sadistic glee. “We’re only three hours into today’s session! Barely enough time to break a sweat!”

“Fuck you,” I wheezed, struggling to my hands and knees. Every muscle screamed in protest, my shoulders and thighs quivering with fatigue. “Not all of us can be machines.”

He cackled, fangs bared in a shit-eating grin. “Machines break down, kiddo. I’m a force of nature.”

He made a come at me gesture with his free hand, eyes glittering. “Now, you gonna lay there licking your wounds? Or are you gonna woman up and show me what you’re made of?”

Fury snapped through my exhaustion like an icy whip-crack. Gritting my teeth, I lunged for my fallen staff and hurled myself at Raza with a banshee shriek.

He blocked me easily, metal screeching on metal as our weapons collided. Grunting, I bore down with all my flagging strength, willing my aching muscles to obey.

But it was no use. Raza was a wall, immovable as the bones of the earth. A flick of his wrist and my staff went flying, clattering across the deck plates.

Another flick and the butt of his staff cracked across my cheek, snapping my head to the side. I reeled back, tasting copper and seeing stars.

“Lesson one,” Raza said with that infuriating calm, slinking towards me like the apex predator he was. “Never let your emotions control you in a fight. Anger can be a tool, but rage?” He tsked, shaking his head. “Rage makes you stupid. Sloppy. Easy pickings for a cool head with ice in his veins.”

I spat a gob of blood onto the decking, a feral snarl contorting my face. “Spare me the fortune cookie bullshit. You wanted me to come at you, so I did.”

An elegant shrug, a mocking curl of reptilian lips. “Hey, don’t blame me for your complete lack of technique. I’M not the one flailing around like a kroxing hatchling fresh from the shell.”

I swear I was going to rip his smug face off. “You sanctimonious, scaly son of a-“

“That’s enough.”

Thaumas’s baritone cut through our verbal sparring like a plasma bolt. He strode onto the training mats, face thunderous, wings half-flared behind him.

He leveled Raza with a look that could have flash-frozen a star. “I appreciate you putting Kat through her paces, Captain. But there’s a fine line between training and straight up torture. You might want to watch you don’t cross it, hmm?”

Raza scoffed, waving a dismissive hand. “Please. Blondie’s fine. This is barely a tickle compared to the shit I’ve been through.” His eyes narrowed slyly. “Besides, I thought you wanted your little woman to toughen up? Be the shield to your sword or whatever fairy-tale drivel you two are into?”

Thaumas growled, a sound like boulders grinding together. I jerked my head to the side not realizing he had stood there watching. “Make no mistake, I am not happy about this training union.” His eyes flashed, cold as the depths of space.

He smiled, a slash of white in the gloom. “If you so much as harm a hair on her head all will see me wear your entrails as a necklace, my good Captain. Are we fucking clear?”

The two males stared each other down, the air between them practically crackling with tension. I glanced back and forth, barely daring to breathe.

At last, Raza threw up his hands in a gesture of mock-surrender. “Ishtar’s glowing gash, fine. I’ll go easier on your precious mate, since you asked so nicely.”

He cut me a sly glance. “But don’t come crying to me when she ends up on the wrong end of a slaver’s blaster, bird boy. There are no referees in the real world. No one to swoop in and save your ass from an ass kicking you deserve.”

eight

. . .

Thaumas

I knew the bounty hunter would come for us. It was only a matter of time.

Kat and I were the juiciest prizes in this sector - a half-feral weapons savant and his equally lethal human mate. The Obsidian Syndicate had placed a king’s ransom on both our heads, preferably detached from our cooling corpses.

So, it didn’t surprise me when I caught the ozone stink of a cloaked ion drive skimming past the Crimson Claw’s sensor array. Enraged, yes. Struck with a bolt of ice-cold dread, absolutely.

But not surprised. Never that.

I slapped the intruder alert on my command console, a harsh klaxon blaring through the gunmetal corridors. “All hands, stand to! Hostile contact imminent! This is not a drill!”

Kat burst onto the bridge in a riot of sleep-mussed golden hair and bared teeth, a pulse-rifle already braced against one coltish shoulder.

“How many?” she demanded, green eyes hard as agates in her fine-boned face. “What’s our defensive capability looking like?”

I bared my fangs in a wild grin, twin plasma-casters whining to killing potency on either side of my captain’s chair. “Just one ship, but it’s a fast little fucker. Probably a modded ZX-109 Torrent with a cloaking rig.”

I raised my voice over the rising cacophony of boots thundering on deck plates and energy weapons spooling to full capacitance. “All guns, stand ready! Blast that son of a bitch out of my sky the second you have a clear shot!”

Kat slotted into place at the gunnery console beside me, all lethal grace and murderous intent. “Aye aye, Cap’n,” she purred, a bloodthirsty little smile playing about her lips. “Let’s send this scaly bastard screaming back to hell.”

I flashed her a fierce, adoring grin. Ishtar’s frozen cunt, but she was magnificent like this - a falcon about to stoop on her prey, all savage beauty and implacable purpose.

The love of my life. My mate.

And the Seven helps the poor stupid bastard that thought to take her from me.

The Torrent flashed into view off of our starboard engine housing, a sleek black dart bristling with illegal weaponry. Its nose art snarled at us, a grinning neon skull wreathed in chrome flames - the calling card of Zarath’s pet murderers.

“Steady,” I growled into my headset mic, talons flexing on the yoke as I jinked and juked to keep our broadside angled AWAY from that fuck-off big plasma cannon. “Not yet, not yet.”

The Torrent swerved, trying to line up a killing salvo. The instant before it could fire, I slammed the Claw into a screaming one-eighty and opened up with every fucking gun we had.

Kat was right there with me, her pulse-rifle chattering like a demon as she walked streams of super heated metal across the Torrent’s nose and scanner array. A savage howl of triumph as she found an unshielded viewport and drilled the gunner behind it.

“Yeah baby!” she crowed, fairly vibrating with feral glee. “Suck brimstone and iridium, shit-eater!”

All across the Claw, gun crews and rifle hands whooped and snarled their approval as they poured kilotons of fire into the wildly jinking Torrent. Armor splintered and peeled away under the onslaught, whole decks open to the shrieking void as we chewed into bulkhead and bone alike.

But the Torrent was fast, far faster and more maneuverable than a ship its size had any right to be. It shrieked and spun like a Litharan ghost-bat, always seeming to wriggle just out of prime firing solution before our gunners could zero its vitals.

I swore sulfurously as a deft corkscrew sent a storm of pulse-bolts skittering off our forward shields. “Kroxing hell, what does it take to swat this mosquito?!”

A feral snarl from Kat as she bucked and twisted in her gunnery couch, the Torrent firmly in her sights. “The pilot, Thaumas! We need to take out the spirits-fucking pilot!”

Her hands flew over her console as she routed every spare joule of power from secondary systems into her gun’s capacitors. “Keep us steady! I’m gonna drill that soul sucking son of a slime-mold right between his beady fucking eyes!”

“With pleasure,” I gritted out, wrenching the yoke hard to port to keep the Torrent square in Kat’s killbox. Proximity alarms shrieked as I threaded us through a writhing snarl of the bastard’s own engine wash, the heat-bloom searing our shields to paper thinness.

But I didn’t flinch. Didn’t falter for a single screaming second. My whole world narrowed to the snarling dart-shape weaving and spiraling across our bow, to the diamond-hard focus of the gunner beside me as she poured a lake of fire into the void-chilled black.

“C’mon,” Kat breathed, sweat pearling her brow as she rode her gun’s bucking thunder. “C’mon, you scaly fuck, hold still, just for a second.”

The Torrent jinked right. Jinked left. Tried to swoop down and away, thrusters incandescent against the star shot void.

“Fuck yeah!” she roared, slamming a fist against her console as the Torrent went pinwheeling away in a spume of crystallized gore and sparking circuitry. “Nail in the fucking coffin, bitch!”

I answered her feral whoop with one of my own, a raptor’s scream of savage joy and vicious pride. “That’s my girl!” I crowed, laying on the speed to run down our wounded prey. “Ishtar weeps for the perfection of your aim, beloved!”

She flashed me a fierce, flushed grin, green eyes snapping with unholy glee. “What can I say? I had a good teacher.”

Her teeth glinted, tongue darting out to wet kiss-swollen lips. “A big, strong, ruthless motherfucker who taught me to put the fear of me into anything dumb enough to cross my sights.”

I shuddered, my plates going tight at the blatant hunger in her voice. Ishtar, what this woman did to me.

But there was no time to explore that spark to kindling. We still have a job to do, a message to send.

And I intended to make it a red one.

“All hands, stand by to board!” I barked into my headset, angling us up and over the gut shot Torrent’s wildly spinning bulk. “Marines to the boarding tubes! I want hunter-killer teams on every deck, purging any Syndicate filth still twitching!”

I hauled us around to match velocity with the stricken ship, our belly mere meters from its sparking, shuddering hull. “Kat, Raza, with me! We’re going hunting for the head of this snake.”

“Aye aye, Cap!” came the bloodthirsty chorus. My finest killers, the ones I trusted at my back above all others.

Family. Flock.

And if any of Zarath’s scum laid so much as a finger on them, I’d flay the flesh from their bones and send them screaming to the Seven Hells myself.

The Torrent’s corridors were a charnel house, choked with smoke and gore. Emergency klaxons warbled and shrieked, the few intact glow panels painting the carnage in stuttering, blood-red light.

I looped through the abattoir at the head of a wedge of heavily armed killers, Raza and Kat flanking me with teeth bared and weapons hot. We flowed from compartment to compartment like a tide of furious shadow, pulse-rifles and flechette launchers reaping a devil’s bounty with every hammering salvo.

Most of Zarath’s goons were already dead, bled out or spaced in the initial onslaught. Those few who still clung to life quickly realized the folly of resistance, throwing down their arms and pleading for a quarter that would never come.

Raza cut them down with contemptuous ease, his flechette gun buzzing like a hornet’s nest as it chugged a kilo of razor darts into exposed flesh. He laughed as he killed, bellowing a saw-edged cackle that raised every feather on my spine.

Kat was a dancer, a duelist as she scythed down the hapless bastards unlucky enough to stumble into her gun sights. The pulse-rifle at her shoulder served as an extension of her will, an avalanche of fire and fury that left naught but smoking meat in its wake.

I had seen nothing so terrifyingly beautiful in all my long centuries. My mate, my match, a Valkyrie of blood and starlight, culling the unworthy with a smile like a scimitar on her lips.

Soon. Soon I would lay her down in our bower and worship every inch of her battle-flushed skin, paint her cunny with my tongue until she screamed my name to the uncaring stars.

But first, we had a bounty to collect. And if I knew the snake-fucking coward that owned this ship.

“Bridge, dead ahead!” Raza called, kicking a twitching body off his talons as he lopped towards the armored hatch. “I’m reading one life sign, but it’s thready. Whoever’s in there is leaking like a kroxing sieve.”

“Probably our illustrious bounty hunter,” I said grimly, flanking the portal with Kat at my eight o’clock. “Caught a gut full of shrapnel when Kat made his viewscreen one with the void. Poor bastard.”

“Don’t waste your pity,” Kat spat, slapping a fresh power cell into her rifle. “Fucker was slavering at the chance to drag us to Zarath in chains. Would have done WORSE than kill us if he’d had his way.”

“Too kroxing right,” Raza growled, fangs bared as he cued up his suit’s cutting torch. “Cock sucking piece of shit deserves to die slow for the grief he’s caused. For the insult he’s dealt our pride.”

“Then let’s give him what he deserves,” I snarled, the old blood-heat rising in my veins like a crimson tide. “Cut this milk-drinking whoreson out of his hidey-hole and feed him his own entrails.”

“With pleasure,” Kat and Raza chorused, eyes alight with matching ferocity. My strong right hands, my devils and dark angels alike.

And if this waste of skin had dared to threaten what was mine.

Raza thumbed his torch to shrieking life, the white-hot blade sinking into the hatch’s locking mechanism like a talon into flesh. The metal bubbled and ran, glowing cherry-red as the torch chewed through failsafe and blast shield alike.

With a tortured groan, the barrier crumpled inward and revealed a scene straight out of a nightmare.

The bounty hunter slumped on his command couch, his horned head lolling on a neck half-severed by a hail of shrapnel. Yellowish blood leaked from a dozen deep rents in his mottled hide, his breath rattling wetly in his shredded throat.

But his eyes were flat and pitiless as a serpent’s in his ruined face fixed unerringly on Kat.

“There you are,” he rasped, bubbles of bile frothing at his lipless mouth. “The little bird-fucker, and her feathered boy toy.”

A bloody rictus of a grin, needle fangs bared in mocking triumph. “Did you really think, you could escape your fate? Outrun the eyes of Zarath Himself?”

Kat snarled, her rifle snapping up to fill her shoulder. “Zarath can choke on a bag of diseased dicks, you soulless fuck! He’s never laying a hand or harpoon on me or mine ever again!”

“Poor little girl,” the hunter wheezed, a fresh gout of gore splattering his chest with each word. “So naive, so arrogant in your delusions.”

His eyes flashed, feverish with more than just pain. “You’re already his sweetling. Bought and paid for the day he burned your world to ash. The day he culled you from your mewling, shit-smeared herd.”

“Shut up!” Kat screamed, her finger whitening on the trigger. “Shut your fucking mouth, you psychotic son of a syphilitic whore!”

But the hunter only laughed, a wet, gargling rattle that sent ice water trickling down my spine. “He’ll never stop, little bird. Never rest until he has his prize back in gilded chains.”

His eyes flicked to me, alight with cruel amusement. “And as for you, Sir Knight, he has special plans for the beast that dared to steal his favorite toy.”

I saw red. Heard the rush of my pulse in my ears like a drumbeat of damnation. My talons flexed, every atom of my being screaming for this whoreson’s blood.

But before I could lunge, before I could so much as snarl my fury. Kat put three pulsing holes in the bastard’s face.

“Fuck. You.” she spat, her whole body vibrating like a plucked wire. “Fuck you, fuck Zarath, and fuck every crawling, slime-sucking thing that’s ever thought to lay claim to me.”

She drilled the corpse again, blowing gobbets of bone and brain across the smoke-choked bridge. “I am done being a pawn in this sick game. Done letting maggot-ridden assholes like you dictate my fate.”

She drew in a shuddering breath, the light of a thousand murdered stars in her eyes. “When I meet Zarath again - and I will, mark my fucking words - it will be as a free woman. As a fucking Valkyrie, born of blood and void.”

Her lips peeled back from her teeth in a feral slash of a smile. “And I will feed him his own cock and laugh as he chokes on it.”

“Kroxing hail awls,” Raza crowed, pumping a fist in the air. “Now that’s the Kat Mayberry I know and love! Fierce as a Luxian hellcat and twice as mean!”

I couldn’t speak. Could barely breathe through the storm of emotions clawing at my throat. Pride, love, rage, hunger, all tangled up in a snarled knot beneath my breastbone.

My mate. My goddess.

Ishtar, how I adored her.

I took a shaky step towards her, talons flexing with the need to touch. To feel her living warmth against me, an anchor against the blood-soaked madness seething behind my eyes.

“Kat,” I rasped, my voice a stranger’s in my ears. “Love, I, that was.”

But before I could choke out another word, a hair-raising shriek split the air. A shriek of rending metal and sparking circuitry, underlaid by the telltale whump of a hull breach.

I froze, my blood icing in my veins. That sound, I knew that sound.

“FEK!” Raza spat, his eyes wild in his scaled face. “The drive core! It’s going critical!”

Kat whirled to face him, her own face a mask of dawning horror. “What? How?! We scuttled the engines when we boarded!”

“The power surge from the bridge!” Raza snarled, already backing towards the ruined hatch. “Must have triggered a cascade failure in the containment fields!”

His fangs flashed, sharp and feral, in the strobing emergency lights. “We need to get off this fucking ship, right the fuck now! Before the core blows and takes half the sector with it!”

“Ishtar,” I breathed, raw panic clawing at my guts. My eyes locked with Kat’s, a thousand unspoken horrors flickering between us in that single, gut-wrenching instant.

Then we were running, flying towards the promise of safety beyond the crumpling hatch. Raza led the way, his flechette gun spitting death at anything foolish enough to stumble into our path.

I was a half-step behind, my plasma-casters whining with barely restrained menace. But the bulk of my attention, the lion’s share of my focus locked on the lithe form pounding at my eight o’clock.

Kat ran like the wind, like the wrath of an avenging goddess. Her pulse-rifle sang its skirling war-cry, mowing down the last dregs of Zarath’s goons, too stupid or suicidal to flee the doomed ship.

We were a storm, a maelstrom of fire and fury as we carved a path back to the life-pods. Bulkheads shattered and bodies burst under our onslaught, a charnel house of our own making.

But even as the kill-joy sang in my veins, even as the bitter copper of spent munitions coated my tongue...a sick dread churned in my guts.

The containment klaxons were shrill as banshees in my ears, underlaid by the rising whump of matter/antimatter annihilation. The deck bucked and heaved beneath our boots, the Torrent shaking itself apart in its death-throes.

We would not make it. Ishtar help me. I didn’t think we were going to make it.

Kat must have sensed my despair, the clawing certainty of our impending doom. She risked a glance over her shoulder, green eyes wide and wild in her gore-spattered face.

“Thaumas!” she screamed, her voice cracking with strain. “How long?!”

I shook my head, helpless, hating myself for the defeat etched in every line of me. “Two minutes!” I roared back, the words tasting like ashes on my tongue. “Maybe less!”

Her face crumpled, a spasm of animal grief contorting her lovely features. But then, quick as a blown kiss, it hardened into a mask of pure, adamantine resolve.

“Then we make it count,” she snarled, pivoting on her heel to face the oncoming tide of maddened scum. Her rifle sang as she poured fire into the frothing horde, a Valkyrie astride the bones of the universe.

My heart swelled, pride, and love and aching despair mingling into a heady draught. My magnificent mate, my bright-burning star.

I would die at her side. And count it a privilege.

With a scream that shook the dying ship to its bones, I charged towards the enemy, Raza a half-step behind. We crashed into the gibbering mass of Syndicate filth like a meteor into a mirrored pond, scattering them like seeds on the wind.

Talons flashed and pulse-bolts seared as we laid into the bastards with wild abandon. I was a thresher, a reaper in their midst, painting the bulkheads with steaming gore.

Dimly, over the clamor of combat and the shrilling containment alarms, I heard Kat screaming my name. Screaming for me to fall back, to regroup in her position.

But I was a million miles away, lost in the red haze of my own killing fury. This was where I belonged, in the thick of blood and agony, reaving a toll of flesh for the sins of soulless men.

I would kill and kill and kill until my last breath rattled in my shredded lungs. I would make a monument of Zarath’s servants, a gory altar to lay at my mate’s feet.

And if I died, if I burned to ash in the crucible of my rage.

So be it. I would die as I had lived - a warrior, a griffin, meting out justice at the edge of a blade. They pulled back as we pushed forth, blades first. Blood, cries, and mostly them injured. They retreated, leaving us gasping for breath. My head shook. “It’s not over yet. A breather for us, a break.”

nine

. . .

Katarina

Left alone in the shelter of the medbay, the closet room we could find, I opened my mouth and blurted the three little words. “I love you!”

The words rang through me like a struck bell, clear and pure and terrifying in their implacable truth. I loved him. I loved this impossible, incredible being down to the marrow of my bones.

A shuddering breath escaped me, my grip tightening convulsively on Thaumas’s hand. “Do you hear me, you stupid bird?” I whispered, my voice trembling. “I love you. I love you so much it hurts.”

But Thaumas didn’t hear me. He’d rushed to the other side of the room and slipped into the lab, where he grabbed bandages and ointment for our scratches.

I jolted upright, hardly daring to breathe. “Thaumas? Did you hear me?”

His head shook. “What?”

“Nothing. Doesn’t matter.”

“Kat? You’re okay?” He gazed over my body looking for injuries.

“Am I..?” A hiccupping laugh bubbled up my throat, edged with hysteria. “Am I okay? Thaumas, you idiot, we nearly died!”

Tears coursed down my face, my whole body shaking like a leaf.

He cupped my face, his amber gaze lambent. “I would die for you,” he rasped. “Again and again, in a thousand lifetimes. You are everything to me. But we didn’t die today.”

I made a wounded noise, fresh sobs wrenching from my chest. I surged forward to claim his mouth, the kiss salt-sweet and desperate.

“I love you,” I gasped against his lips, my hands fisted in his hospital gown. “I love you, I love you, I fucking love you, Thaumas Leion’ct.”

He shuddered, a broken moan vibrating through him. “Kat, my Kat, my heart. Say it again. Please.”

I peppered his face with kisses, tasting the salt of both our tears. “I love you,” I breathed, pouring my whole soul into the words. “I love you so much, you beautiful, brilliant man. I’ll love you until the stars go dark and the ‘verse crumbles to dust.”

A sound like a sob tore from his throat, his arms coming up to band around me like steel. He crushed me to his chest, mindless of his wounds, as he sealed his mouth to mine.

The kiss was searing, star fire and plasma, branding me to my very bones. I drowned in the taste of him, honey and ozone, my pulse throbbing a tribal beat in my ears.

His tongue thrust into my mouth and I opened for him eagerly, wantonly. I was a live wire, aching, burning in all the secret spaces that wept for his touch.

His talons fisted in my hair, wrenching me back to bare my throat. I keened back bowing as he worried the tender skin with fang and tongue, savage little bites that stoked the conflagration in my core.

“Need you,” he snarled, his free hand molding the curve of my ass. “Need to be inside you. Make you mine, mark you, claim you.”

“Yes,” I gasped, writhing in his grip. My thighs clenched, molten honey seeping the crotch of my flight suit. “Yes, Thaumas, please.”

A growl and he was ripping at my suit, talons parting the tough synth-silk like tissue. I whimpered as the cool medbay air hit my bared skin, my nipples tightening into aching points.

He cupped my breasts in his massive hands, the heat of him searing. I cried out, arching into the rough touch, shameless.

“Look at you,” he rasped, his eyes devouring me. “So kroxing perfect. My mate, my goddess.”

He lowered his head to take a nipple into the wet silk of his mouth. I keened, my hands fisting in his crest, holding him to me as he suckled and nipped.

Pleasure knifed through me, sharp, my hips rolling mindlessly against his. I could feel the thick ridge of his arousal through his thin hospital gown, pulsing with heat.

Gracelessly, desperately, I reached between us to palm him through the flimsy cloth. He jolted like I’d electrocuted him, a guttural moan vibrating around my trapped nipple.

“Kat!” He tore his mouth from my breast to pant harshly against my sternum, his hips bucking into my touch. “D-don’t, I can’t.”

“Shhh,” I crooned, my hand working him through the fabric. He was so hard, velvet over durasteel, throbbing against my palm. “Let me, love. Let me make you feel good.”

I shimmied out of my ruined flight suit, kicking it away impatiently. His eyes flared, going almost black as he took in my naked form, flushed and eager atop him.

“Ishtar,” he breathed, reverent. His hands mapped my curves, gliding over sweat-damp skin to cup the rounded globes of my ass. “You’re a miracle. And an answered prayer given flesh.”

Tears stung my eyes, my heart so full it ached. “Thaumas,” I whispered, leaning down to brush my lips over his. A benediction, a promise. “My love. My heart, my home.”

I reached between us to ease his cock free of its cloth prison. It sprang eagerly into my grasp, heavy and perfect, the velvet head weeping pearly droplets.

Slowly, deliberately, I pumped him from root to tip. He threw his head back with a hoarse cry, neck corded with strain, hands flexing convulsively on my hips.

“Kat!” A broken plea, edged with desperation. “I need to be inside you. please, love, I can’t wait any longer.”

“Shhh,” I soothed, my arousal a slick inferno between my thighs. Carefully, mindful of his healing wounds, I shuffled forward to notch his cock at my entrance. “I’ve got you, love. I’ve got you.”

And with a slow, sinuous roll of my hips. I took him inside me.

We cried out in tandem as he filled me, stretching me, the thick head of him kissing my womb. I shuddered, clenching down on the exquisite hardness spearing me open.

“Nnngh, Thaumas.”

“Fuck.” A guttural rasp, his talons digging into the meat of my ass. “Oh fuck, Kat, you’re so, nnngh, so kroxing tight.”

I leaned forward to rest my brow against his, my hips working in shallow little circles. Savoring the drag of him in my aching sheath, the way he throbbed inside me.

“You feel so good,” I panted, my voice thready with need. My hands glided over his chest, his shoulders, mapping the hard planes and angles of him. “So kroxing perfect.”

He snarled, his own hips snapping up to meet my downward grind. The impact sent sparks skittering up my spine, pleasure knotting tight and urgent in my gut.

“Mine,” he growled, savage and certain. His cock pistoled into me, spearing me open again and again. “Mine, Kat. My mate, my, nnngh, gorgeous, fierce, perfect girl.”

“Yours,” I gasped, my nails raking his chest as I rode him harder, faster. Chasing my pleasure, chasing his, lost to everything but the slick slide of his body in mine. “Yours, Thaumas, all yours.”

His talons flexed, kneading my ass, urging me on. I could feel my release barreling down on me, a tidal wave of ecstasy cresting behind my eyes.

“Close,” I whimpered, my head thrashing. “Thaumas, I’m so close.”

“That’s it,” he snarled, his eyes wild and feverish on my face. “Come for me, Kat. Come on my cock like a good girl.”

I shattered, my spine snapping taut as my climax crashed over me. I howled my rapture to the uncaring medbay ceiling, every muscle locking tight as pleasure scoured me raw.

Distantly, over the roaring in my ears, I heard Thaumas bellow his own completion. Felt the hot gush of his seed painting my insides, his cock jerking wildly in the rippling clasp of my cunt.

I collapsed against his sweat-slick chest, boneless and trembling. Little aftershocks zipped through me, my overwrought nerves sparking and sizzling.

“Nnngh.” Thaumas’s throat worked as he swallowed thickly, his arms coming up to band around me. “That, fuck, Kat. That was.”

“Incredible,” I mumbled into his neck, my lips brushing his thundering pulse. “Transcendent. The best kroxing sex of my life, bar none.”

He huffed a laugh, the sound ragged but so, so warm. “Flatterer,” he accused, nuzzling into my hair. “But, I know what you mean. That was.”

He shook his head, wonder and reverence tinging his voice. “I’ve never felt anything like that. So complete, so whole. Like every fractured piece of me just clicked into place.”

Emotion swelled in my chest, too vast and shining to name. I propped myself up on an elbow to stare down at him, my eyes tracing the beloved lines of his face.

“I love you,” I said simply. A fact, immutable and true as gravity. “I love you, Thaumas Leion’ct. More than life, more than anything.”

His amber eyes shimmered, a telltale gleam of moisture at the corners. “Kat,” he breathed, raw and reverent. “My heart, my soul. I love you too. So kroxing much, for so kroxing long.”

He leaned up to catch my mouth again, the kiss sweet and slow and achingly tender. A promise, a vow, sealed with lips and breath and the salt of happy tears.

I lost myself in him, in us, the rest of the ‘verse fading away. For that shining, crystalized moment, there was no pain, no fear, no darkness.

Only light. Love. The two of us, entwined, united against all that would tear us asunder.

But of course, the ‘verse had other plans.

A discreet cough from the doorway jolted us apart. I scrambled for a sheet, clutching it to my bare chest as I twisted to glare at the intruder.

Raza leaned against the jamb, arms crossed, a knowing smirk curling his scaly lips. “Well, well,” he drawled, eyes glittering with mirth. “Looks like the mating pair are feeling better. Much better, if the smell is anything to go by.”

I flushed scarlet, my grip tightening on the sheet. “Raza, you ass! Haven’t you heard of knocking?”

He waved an airy hand. “This is my vessel, Blondie. I go where I please.” His smile sharpened, something cold kindling in his eyes. “And right now, I need to talk to your boyfriend. Alone.”

Thaumas growled, low and warning, his arm tightening around my waist. “This had better be kroxing important, Raza. I’m in no mood for games.”

The merc sobered, all traces of humor leeching from his face. “No games, beak-face. Just a heads up that might save your feathered ass.”

He glanced at me, something uncomfortably like pity in his gaze. “You’re gonna want to hear this too, girlie. ‘Cause if my intel is right, the shit’s about to hit the proverbial fan. In a big kroxing way.”

“What do you mean?” I demanded, hating the tremor in my voice. “What’s happened?”

Raza’s smile was mirthless, a slash of white in the gloom. “Happened? Nothing yet. But my contacts in the Obsidian Syndicate just sent word of some very interesting chatter. The kind of chatter that usually precedes high-level assassinations.”

He pinned Thaumas with a hard stare, his slit-pupiled eyes glittering like chips of amber.

“They’re coming for you, bird boy. And they’re coming soon. If not for you, then for her.”

ten

. . .

Thaumas

I stared at Raza, ice water trickling through my veins. The merc’s words rang in my ears, tolling like funeral bells.

They’re coming for you, bird boy. And they’re coming soon.

I’d known this day would come. Known that eventually, the Obsidian Syndicate would tire of our merry chase across the stars. That Zarath’s wounded pride would demand blood, payment, for the insult we’d dealt him.

But spirits help me, I’d hope.

Kat’s small hand gripped my arm, her nails biting into my skin. Grounding me, anchoring me in the here and now.

“Thaumas? Love, talk to me.”

I shook myself, meeting her wide, worried gaze. I summoned a smile, but genuinely, and covered her hand with my own.

“I’m all right,” I assured her, the words steadier than I felt. “It’s not entirely unexpected. We’ve bloodied the Syndicate’s nose too many times. They were bound to retaliate sooner or later.”

Raza snorted, a harsh, humorless sound. “Retaliate is putting it kroxing mildly, bird boy. Zarath’s put a bounty on your head that would tempt a saint to sin. Half the mercs in the sector will be gunning for you, and that’s just the official contract.”

His lip curled, baring a yellowed incisor. “I’ve also heard whispers of a black deal. The kind that’s only offered to the real sickos, the artists of wet work. They won’t be content with just killing you, Thaumas. They’ll want to make an example.”

Kat made a wounded noise, her free hand flying to her mouth. I squeezed her fingers, an inadequate comfort, even as cold purpose crystallized in my chest.

“Let them come,” I said, quiet and implacable as a glacier. “Let them throw their worst at me. I’ll send them all screaming back to the void that spawned them.”

“Thaumas, no!” Kat’s eyes blazed, green fire and defiance. “You can’t! It’s suicide!”

“She’s right, bird brain.” Raza’s scaly brow furrowed. “I know you’re hot shit with those plasma-casters, but even YOU can’t take on the whole kroxing Syndicate solo. It’s a good way to end up spaced and cooled.”

“Who said anything about solo?” My smile was a knife slash in the gloom, cold and vicious. “I’m not so foolish or proud as that.”

I looked to Raza, holding his slit-pupiled gaze. “You have contacts, friends in low places. Mercs, smugglers, the odd pirate or two. People who hate Zarath’s guts and wouldn’t mind seeing him taken down a peg.”

Understanding flickered in Raza’s eyes. “Rogue elements,” he murmured. “Malcontents with more guts than sense. The kind who’d get off on bloodying the Syndicate’s nose.”

“Got it in one.” I leaned forward, wincing as my healing wound twinged. “We need numbers, Raza. Bodies to throw at Zarath’s pet killers. If we can thin the herd before they get close.”

“It might just give us a fighting chance.” Raza nodded slowly, a fierce grin breaking over his craggy face. “Shit, Feathers. That’s cold. I like it.”

“Well I don’t!” Kat’s voice cracked like a whip, high and strident. She twisted to glare at us both, poison in her eyes.

“Are you two out of your fucking minds? You want to, to recruit cannon fodder? Throw away lives just to buy time?”

“It’s not throwing lives away if they believe in the cause, Kat.” I grabbed her hand, desperate to make her understand. “These people despise Zarath. They’ve suffered under his boot heels, lost loved ones to his depravity. You really think they wouldn’t jump at the chance to give a little back?”

“Besides,” Raza added, picking at his nails with a wicked-looking dagger. “Nobody making them do anything, girlie. They’re mercs, smugglers. They know the risks.”

“I don’t care!” Kat’s free hand balled into a fist, trembling at her side. “I won’t, I won’t be responsible for leading people to their deaths, Thaumas. I can’t.”

I knew, with grim certainty, that goodness would get her killed here. Would get us all killed, if she couldn’t bend, couldn’t adapt to the ruthless calculus of war.

“Kat. Love, listen to me.” I squeezed her hand, pouring every ounce of my conviction into the words. “We’re not leading lambs to slaughter. These people, they’re already marked. Already living on borrowed time, just by existing outside Zarath’s control.”

I held her gaze, amber to emerald, willing her to understand. “At least this way, their lives will mean something. Their deaths, if it comes to that, will hurt the Syndicate. And that’s all any of us can ask for, in the end.”

She stared at me, tears glimmering in the corners of her eyes. “But, but what if there was another way? What if we could avoid the bloodshed entirely?”

“How?” Raza scoffed. “What? Wish real hard? ‘Cause I hate to break it to you, princess, but this isn’t a sweet bedtime story that ends well. Zarath ain’t gonna stop coming ‘til one of you is on the ground.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Kat rounded on him, grief and rage twisting her face. “You think I don’t wake up every kroxing day terrified that it’s going to end with the man I love bleeding out in my arms again?”

She swallowed hard. “I’m not, I’m not naive, Raza. I know we’re at war. I know people are going to die.”

Her shoulders slumped. A marionette with cut strings. “I just, if I could be the one to face Zarath. Challenge him to a duel, settle this the old-fashioned way.”

“No!” I lurched upright. “Absolutely kroxing not, Kat! I won’t let you sacrifice yourself on that altar!”

“Oh, but it’s okay for you to do it? It’s fine for you to martyr yourself with this, this suicide mission, but spirits forbid I try to finish what I kroxing started?”

“I’m not, it’s not the same thing!” I snarled, frustration and fear shredding my composure. “Zarath wants my head, Kat. my blood. Raza said it himself - I’m the one with the bounty!”

“And what about the price on my head, hmm?” She lifted her chin, a pale slash of defiance. “He want me just as badly, Thaumas. Maybe even worse.”

Her eyes held mine, fathomless and echoing with old hurts. “I was his prize, Thaumas. His shining jewel in the midden heap of broken dolls. You really think he’ll suffer the insult of me slipping my leash? You think he’ll rest while I draw breath beyond his control?”

I made a wounded noise, deep in my throat. Spirits, but I couldn’t argue with her. Couldn’t refute her cold, barbed logic.

Because she was right. Zarath wanted her, covetously and obsessively. And he would never, ever stop hunting her. Even if he had to char the galaxy to cinders, salt the ashes of a thousand worlds, he would never relent. Never grant her a moment’s peace.

Unless we stopped him. Unless we tore his cancerous heart from his chest and crushed it to a pulp.

Raza cleared his throat pointedly, the sandpaper rasp grating on my last nerve. “Not to interrupt this touching display of devotion, but you do remember I’m here too, right? Risking my scaly ass right alongside you moony lovebirds?”

Kat huffed a watery laugh, dashing the tears from her cheeks. “How could we forget? Your scintillating presence is the backbone of this whole enterprise, Raza.”

The merc preened, puffing out his chest. “Damn straight. You two are lost without me and you kroxing know it.”

I snorted, my lips twitching. “A fact you never tire of reminding us, Scales. It’s a wonder your ego can fit on this scrap heap you call a ship.”

“Hey!” Raza leveled a finger at me, mock affront on his craggy face. “You watch your beak, bird boy! The Crimson Claw is a paragon of her class! She’s the tightest, meanest, fastest bird in the black and you kroxing know it!”

“Boys, boys! You’re both pretty!” Kat held up placating hands, lips twitching. “Can we put the measuring contest on hold and focus, please? We’ve got a crime lord to gut from gizzard to groin, if you recall.”

Raza subsided with ill grace, grumbling something uncomplimentary under his breath. I magnanimously ignored him, already turning my mind to the task at hand.

“You’re right, of course.” I shifted gingerly, mindful of my healing wound. “First things first - we need to gather our forces. Raza, put out feelers to your contacts. Anyone who’s ever been wronged by the Syndicate, anyone with an ax to grind. We need all the bodies we can get.”

The merc nodded sharply, already moving towards the door. “On it, boss. I’ll shake the kroxing trees ‘til the eager beavers fall out.”

I turned to Kat, my heart clenching at the determined jut of her chin. “You and I need to train. Hard. If we’re going to face Zarath and his top killers head on, we need to be a kroxing machine.”

A spark of unholy glee kindled in her eyes, chasing away the shadows. “The deadliest machine the ‘verse ever saw,” she purred, a slow, vicious smile curling her lips. “His pet dolls, forged in blood and void turned on their master with a vengeance.”

Raza barked a harsh laugh, slapping the doorframe. “Shit, Blondie! I do love the way your brain works!” He sketched a mocking bow, horned brow, scales waggling. “On that delightfully demented note, I’ll leave you two to your stabby foreplay. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

And he was gone, the door hissing shut behind him. Kat and I stared at each other for a long moment, the weight of all we’d agreed on settling around us like a lead mantle.

Then Kat squared her shoulders, a slow, fierce grin breaking over her face. “Well? You going to lay there ‘til the stars go cold, bird boy? Or are you going to stop lazing and train me already?”

I laughed, sharp as broken glass. Oh, but I adored her. This brilliant, bloodthirsty, magnificent creature I called mate.

“Aye aye, Captain,” I purred, painfully levering myself vertical. “Your humble servant obeys.”

Her smile sharpened, edged in steel. Ishtar help me, but she was glorious in her deadly purpose.

My avenging angel. My guiding star in the void-dark night.

Together, we would lance this poison from the cosmos. End the blight of Zarath and his twisted Syndicate once and for all, or die in the kroxing attempt.

But as I looked at Kat, at the falcon light in her eyes and the killing edge of her smile. I knew which way the dice would fall. Knew it in my bones, in the very atoms of my being.

We would be the last ones standing when the dust settled, and the blood cooled. We would be the authors of our fate, the captains of our destiny.

And all the forces of heaven, hell, and the howling void between, would kroxing tremble before us.

Of course, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. I should have kroxing known it wouldn’t be that simple.

But as alarms shrieked through the ship, as the deck bucked and heaved beneath our feet, all I could think was, They’re here.

Zarath’s killers. Boarding us, boxing us in like womp rats in a drain pipe.

And we’d walked right into their trap, bold and blind as newborn pups. Grim certainty settled in my guts like a cold stone.

This was it. The defining moment, the crucible that would make or break us.

Live or die, sink or swim, it ended here. On this ship, in the screaming void, with blaster fire and blood.

I met Kat’s gaze across the bucking deck. Saw my steely resolve, my diamond-hard defiance, reflected at me.

eleven

. . .

Katarina

The deck pitched beneath my feet, the shriek of rending metal drowning out the thunder of my pulse. Thaumas’s talons bit into my palm, grounding me as the world shook itself apart.

“Kat!” He had to shout to be heard over the cacophony. “The armory! We need-“

A bone-rattling boom cut him off, the medbay door exploding inward in a hail of twisted shrapnel. Instinctively, I shoved Thaumas behind me, my body a living shield between him and the jagged metal.

Pain lanced through my shoulder as a shard found flesh, hot blood sheeting down my back. I gritted my teeth against a scream, the old litany echoing in my head.

Pain is nothing. Pain is weakness leaving the body. Pain is the forge that tempers a blade.

“Katarina!” Thaumas’s agonized bellow, talons scrabbling at my wound. I shook him off, adrenaline and desperation a heady cocktail in my blood.

“I’m fine!” I snarled, scanning the smoke-choked ruin of the medbay. Somewhere beyond the twisted door, heavy footfalls and guttural voices heralded our attackers’ approach. “We need to move, now!”

I grabbed his wrist, hauling him bodily from the bed. He grunted in pain but followed gamely, one arm wrapped around his seeping abdomen.

“The armory,” he wheezed, lurching towards a side hatch. “Raza showed me a secret passage.”

I didn’t waste breath on questions. Just gripped his arm and ran, trusting his uncanny sense of direction.

The corridor was a strobing hell of emergency lights and shrilling alarms. Deck plates juddered beneath our boots as the Crimson Claw took another hammering blow, the bones of her shaking.

Somehow, impossibly, we made it to the armory intact. Thaumas keyed in his override with shaking fingers, the heavy blast door groaning open.

Inside was a treasure trove of death, rack upon rack of wicked blades and thrumming guns. With mechanical precision, Thaumas began pulling weapons, shoving them into my numb hands.

Pulse rifle. Plasma pistols. A bandolier of sticky grenades, the chemically sharp stink of the primers curdling my gut.

And knives, so many knives - wrist blades and push daggers and slim stilettos that disappeared up my sleeves like magic. When he was done, I jangled and clinked like an armory with legs.

“That should do for a start,” he said grimly, shrugging into his own vest bristling with implements of death. “The others will be scrambling to repel boarders, but it’ll be chaos out there. Our best bet is to rendezvous with Raza on the bridge, lock it down.”

“And turn it into a killbox,” I finished, my face hard. “Let the fuckers come to us, bleed them out through the chokepoints.”

He met my eyes, a ghost of a smile curling around his beak. Even battered and bloodstained, he was so beautiful it made my hearts ache. “Have I mentioned lately how much I adore your ruthless tactical mind?”

I flashed him a fierce grin, checking the charge on my pulse rifle. “Flatterer. You just want me for my body count.”

“Among other things.” The heat in his amber gaze seared through me, stoking the embers in my core.

I leaned in to nip at his throat, relishing his shudder. “Rain check, bird boy. We’ve got some Syndicate ass to kick first.”

“With pleasure,” he growled, talons flexing on the stock of his sidearm. “Let’s go show these soulless fucks the penalty for attacking our home.”

We hit the first knot of boarders thirty meters from the bridge, a dozen void-suited figures exchanging fire with Raza’s beleaguered defenders. The clamor of gunfire and screams was deafening in the confined space, harsh alien voices raised in challenge and agony.

I didn’t hesitate. My pulse rifle bucked against my shoulder as I drilled the rearmost boarder, his helmet exploding in a spray of bone and brain. Beside me, Thaumas followed suit, his shots scything men down like wheat before the reaper.

Then we were on them, plasma blades sizzling to life in our hands. We fell on the shocked boarders like twin angels of death, all whirling talons and flashing steel.

The battle wore on bone against weary bone. Skills obtained in the training shone through as I sliced and diced, the sickening entrails and blood spewing everywhere.

I never lost track of Thaumas. Never let him out of my sight, an unbreakable tether binding us even in the chaos of battle.

He was magnificent, a raptor among lesser birds. Blood-flecked feathers mantled as he pivoted and lunged, plasma-casters spitting blue death. The boarders fell before him, charred and smoking, to lie twitching at his clawed feet.

And when his guns clicked empty, when the tide of bodies pressed too close for ranged weapons, his hands blurred, punch-blades leaping into his grasp like extensions of his own ruthless will.

He was poetry in motion, grace and savagery incarnate. My mate, my match, dealing death with a warrior’s cold precision.

We shattered the enemy line, driving them back with relentless fury. Reinforcements flooded in behind us as Raza’s men rallied, the tenor of the fight shifting inexorably in our favor.

But I didn’t relent. Didn’t dare slouch, even as the boarders broke and fled before our onslaught. This wasn’t over, not by a long shot, no matter how decisively we dealt with these small fries.

Because I knew, with grim certainty, that this was just the first wave. The vanguard, the cannon fodder, thrown against our gates to test our strength.

The real horror, the true trial that would make or break us, was yet to come.

And come it did, with a klaxon scream that shook the Crimson Claw to her bones. I staggered, ears ringing, as an awful, wrenching sensation ripped through the ship.

Thaumas’s eyes met mine, horror dawning like a bloody sun. “The port side engine pod,” he croaked, dread and disbelief warring on his face. “They’ve kroxing breached it.”

I swore, sulfurous and vile. The port side pod housed the Claw’s hyperdrive, the miracle of engineering that allowed her to skip between star systems like a stone across a pond.

And if the boarders had reached that, punched through the ablative shielding and countless layers of adamantium, it could only mean one thing. One awful, impossible truth.

Zarath was here. The maestro of suffering himself, came to conduct this symphony of agony in person.

He would come for us now. His elite killers, his deadliest hounds, slavering for the kill. They would fall on us like a biblical plague, a tide of fang and claw and nightmare-made-flesh.

And we would have to break them. Shatter them like cheap ceramic, drown them in their own blood and viscera. If we wanted to live, to see another star rise, we would have to become the monsters we hunted.

I embraced it. Welcomed the fell certainty, the icy calm of a killer’s resolve. My pulse rifle whined as I slapped a fresh cell into the receiver, the stock warm and solid against my cheek.

“So this is it,” I said, my voice hollow in my own ears. “The kroxing endgame. We live or die, right here. On our terms.”

Thaumas bared his fangs in a death’s-head grin, talons flexing on the hilts of his blades. “No quarter,” he growled, the Blood heat banking to an inferno behind his eyes. “No mercy. We paint the void with their agony.”

A shout from ahead, Raza’s voice raised in challenge and alarm. The harsh crack of a flechette gun, the meaty thunk of a body hitting the deck.

And striding through the smoke and ruin, over the twitching corpse of Raza’s man, a figure straight out of a nightmare. Clad in blood-red silk, ceremonial void plate gleaming in the hellish light.

And a sleek, horned head I would know anywhere. Would see in my darkest dreams ‘til my dying day, smiling as he shattered my world to bloody shards.

Zarath. My former master, come to smile and destroy.

I raised my rifle with numb fingers as Thaumas stood to my side, a trembling lance of wrath in the howling dark.

The void takes us. The void kroxing takes us.

But we would not go gently. Would not let this smirking butcher snuff out our light, break our defiant hearts.

We would fight. ‘Til the last star guttered to ash, ‘til the bones of the ‘verse crumbled to dust.

We would fight.

So Zarath wanted a war? A reckoning paid in blood and flame and the screams of the dying?

I smiled. A rictus grin, my lips peeled back from teeth sharp as scalpels.

We’d fucking give him one.

I squeezed the trigger, a scream of hate and promised hell tearing from my throat. Thaumas roared his challenge beside me, anguish and fury like a force of nature.

And in the heartbeat before the world dissolved into fire and shrieking death. I glimpsed Zarath’s face through my gunsight.

Saw his smile widen to an abyss, dark glee kindling in his rotten eyes. As if he welcomed my hatred, reveled in the twisted symmetry of this moment.

Then the mag clicked empty, the bolt cycling on searing air and blood-mist. And in the sudden silence, broken only by the drip of fluids and the groans of the maimed.

Zarath laughed. A rich, cultured sound, brimming with obscene satisfaction.

“Oh, my dear, dear little bird,” he purred, silk and razors. “How I’ve missed you.”

He stepped over Raza’s twitching form, gore squelching beneath immaculate boots. His elite guards fanned out behind him, living shadows bristling with cruel edges.

I emptied my lungs in one shuddering exhale. Felt the ice-water calm of a killer settle over me, slow and inexorable as a glacier.

So this was how it ended. In fire and blood and the mocking laughter of tyrants.

So be it.

I met Thaumas’s eyes, my heart in my throat. In the fractured amber of his gaze, I saw my resolve, my diamond-hard defiance.

No words. No pithy I-love-you’s or choked endearments. We were beyond such thin comforts in this eleventh hour.

Instead, I quirked a brow. Cocked my head towards the advancing monsters, a clear question in the angle of my jaw.

Together?

His smile was a blade, bright and vicious and hungry. His hand found mine, rough and strong, the most perfect fit.

Together.

As one, we stepped forward. Wreathed in the lightning of our bond, cloaked in the chill purity of our purpose.

Monsters to slay monsters. Hounds to rend the throats of jackals.

In all the long annals of the Obsidian Sodality, I wondered if anyone had ever chronicled this. This shining, doomed defiance, spitting in the face of powers and principalities.

I doubted it. But if we were to be the first.

If we were to cut our swath to glory and graves at the edge of this abyss.

By the old gods and the new, we would make a kroxing legend of it.

“Well, darling?” I said lightly, my voice echoing strangely in the clotted air. “Shall we dance?”

“Let’s,” Thaumas purred. “And damned be any who try to cut in.”

As one, we raised our weapons. Sank into perfect fighting crouches, muscles singing with lethal potential.

And charged, screaming, into the jaws of our fate.

Into legend, borne on blades and fury.

Into the mouth of hell itself.

And for one shining instant, the ‘verse itself seemed to hold its breath. Seemed to tremble before the coming onslaught, the reckoning writ in blood and starlight.

And then we hit them, two lances of fang and flame.

And the whole universe shattered, screaming, into oblivion.

twelve

. . .

Thaumas

The battle was over almost before it began.

Oh, Zarath’s killers fought with the desperate fury of cornered predators, all fang and claw and animal cunning. They died hard, choking on their own blood, cursing us to the Void and back.

But in the end, they died all the same. Outmatched and over matched, no matter their cruelty, their twisted gifts.

Because in the end, they were only monsters. Only flesh, even wrapped in silk and cybernetics and the screams of the damned.

And flesh was so damn fragile. So eager to yield beneath the keen edges of our fury, to spill its vital essence in steaming torrents across the deck plates.

And yield they did, the devil’s tithe claimed in full measure. Until only one remained, panting and snarling, still spitting defiance even brought to bay at last.

Zarath. Once a legend, a bogeyman made manifest to haunt a thousand shattered worlds. Now just a man, battered and bleeding, his fine clothes shredded to crimson rags.

But the madness, the cruelty that still burned in his eyes, cold and eternal as the void beyond the hull. The void he had sought to embody, to become, in his relentless pursuit of dark apotheosis.

They beat him, broke him, and finally toppled his empire of agonies. But even now, even brought so low he would not go gently. Would not embrace this, his final unmaking, without one last attempt to twist the knife.

To spit in the eyes of his vanquishers, laughing all the while.

“Well, darlings,” he purred, voice wet and cloying. “Haven’t we had fun?”

He straightened painfully. The motion accompanied by the wet crack of shattered bones. But his smile never faltered, never dimmed, even as fresh blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.

“But the game grows stale now, don’t you think? You’ve bruised your little knuckles on my face, spilled your share of blood in the doing.” A wheezing chuckle, flecks of crimson misting the air. “Shall we call it a draw, hmmm? Decline the rematch, before one of us says something we’ll regret?”

Beside me, Kat snarled, a predator’s fury in the sound. I felt her tremble against me, every atom of her screaming to rip, to tear, to scatter this smirking butcher to the stellar winds.

And Void help me, I shared the sentiment. Wanted nothing more than to wrap my talons around his lying throat, silence that silver tongue permanently.

But no. No, we needed him talking, loathsome as the prospect might be. Needed to dig the truth out of his twisted brain, sift the silt for bitter pearls of intel.

Because as vile as Zarath was, as ruinous, I had a sick, sinking feeling that he was not the cancer entirely. That there was more at work here than one man’s dreams of godhood, of grinding the cosmos ‘neath his boot.

Call it a soldier’s instinct. The hindbrain hackle-prickle of danger on the wind, the ozone stink heralding a rad-storm.

We had cut out the Syndicate’s heart, left it broken and bleeding but I feared the rest of the beast yet drew breath.

And if that was so, if that impossible, teeth-chattering wrongness lurked still beyond the firelight.

Then I needed to know. Needed to scent out its shape, map the labyrinth of its malice. So that I might know how best to cut its throat when Void and viciousness kicked down the door.

So I set my teeth on edge, forced my gorge down. Stomped hard on the impulse to rip and rend, break the mocking monster before me into his squalling, whimpering components.

Later. There would be time later to balance the books, to weigh Zarath’s life against his crimes and find it so, so wanting.

I stepped forward, smooth and implacable, Kat a half-step to my left. We moved in unison, extensions of one lethal will, no words needed in the grim accord of this moment.

“Up,” I commanded, my voice clipped and colder than the void beyond the hull. “Slowly, no sudden moves.”

My plasma-casters hummed, the apertures whining as I primed the magnetic coils. Kat’s pulse rifle buzzed like an aggravated wasp, cradled rock-steady against her shoulder.

“One twitch, one flicker of hostile intent.” I smiled, a slash of white in the crimson gloom. “And you breathe through a brand new blowhole. Am I fucking clear?”

Zarath wheezed a laugh, wincing as he dragged himself upright. “Crystal, darling. I’m rather attached to my current orif…”

KA-THUD.

His snide retort cut off in a grunt, my armored knee cracking into his gut like a torpedo impact. He folded like a ruptured pressure suit, all the air smashed from his lungs.

I followed him down, one knee in his chest, my talon locked around his throat. “Shall we try that again, worm?” I enquired mildly, my tone at odds with the fury flexing my fingers. “Or would you prefer conversing in the traditional Raptor tongue?”

I squeezed, ever so slightly. Just enough for him to feel the pinch of keratin against his windpipe, to imagine the obscene ease with which I could crush it.

His eyes bugged satisfyingly, thin lips working like a suffocating fish. But his gaze never left mine, a cold flicker of amusement dancing in those mad, mad depths.

“So rough, my dear!” He rasped, vocal cords fluttering against my palm. “At least buy a lady dinner first!”

I leaned in, my beak a scant inch from his leer. “Let’s get one thing straight, meat. You are no one’s lady. No blushing innocent to be coddled and courted.”

My smile was a rictus, a death’s-head grin. “You are the butcher of Kalados. The skin-stitcher, the screaming king. You have left worlds dead and charred in your wake, ground galaxies beneath your boot heels.”

I tightened my grip, a fresh web of burst capillaries painting his sclera scarlet. “So believe me when I tell you, Hell has a very special throne carved out just for you. And I will spend eternity shoveling brimstone up your ass if you don’t start talking.”

He gurgled, a high, manic edge to the sound. As if my fury delighted him, struck some sick chord within that shriveled little walnut he called a heart.

Kat stepped forward, her rifle a hard jut against his temple. “Answer the man,” she said, her voice diamond and arsenic. “Or my next stop is an art supply store to find a brand new canvas.”

And for the first time, just the barest flicker, Zarath flinched. A micro expression, there and gone in a fractured instant, but I caught it all the same.

The slightest cringe, the reflexive dip of his gaze. A chink in the armor, a tell of weakness from the terrible Zarath himself.

Because looking into Kat’s eyes in that moment, even I had to suppress a shiver. Had to fight down the atavistic dread trickling through my veins, icy certainty of the horrors she could inflict given half a reason.

This was no mere threat, no posturing puff to be dismissed. It was a promise, cold as the void and twice as certain. If Zarath did not comply, did not peel back the layers of his labyrinthine schemes.

Then the Morrigan herself would descend on raven wings to claim his shriveled soul. And her handmaiden would wear my mate’s face, as she flensed the truth from his screaming flesh in strips.

Perhaps something of that dark divinity communicated itself to Zarath at that moment. Perhaps, staring into the fathomless wells of Kat’s eyes, he glimpsed at last the reaping of his black deeds had sown the implacable promise of ruin to follow.

Whatever the cause, he seemed to diminish, to dwindle somehow before us. That diamantine arrogance, the lazy cruelty leeched away, leaving him small and pathetic in his sudden frailty.

“All right,” he croaked, the words bitter ashes on his tongue. “All right, curse you. I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

I exchanged a swift glance with Kat, a flutter of silent communication. A quick, querying quirk of my brow ridge.

Believe him?

The slightest incline of her chin, eyes never leaving our captive.

For now.

I turned back to Zarath, my talons flexing against his throat. “Talk then, butcher. Unburden yourself of your sins, confess your atrocities to the cosmic scales.”

“And pray your black account does not weigh too heavy, when the reckoning is through.”

He closed his eyes, a shudder rippling through his broken frame. As if steeling himself to lance some hidden, festering abscess, to deliver him of the poison churning in his guts.

“It’s bigger than me,” he said at last, each word ripped from him like rotted teeth. “Bigger than the Syndicate, the slaving, the screams of our infinite meat.”

He laughed, high and sobbing, madness leaking through the cracks. “Cogs, you see? Only cogs, in a great machine. The furnace must be fed, must consume entire systems to stoke its ravening maw.”

“What machine?” I demanded, dreading a sinking leaden weight in my crop. Somewhere, in the twisted coils of my neuro forming, a pattern was pressing. An outline, vague yet chilling, like glimpsing some behemoth shape gliding beneath a blackwater sea. “What furnace? Explain!”

Zarath’s eyes slitted open, naked despair and resignation writ clear in those lunar pits. “The Elder Gods,” he whispered, the breath rattling in his punctured lungs. “The great old thighs beyond the Dark, dreaming in their necropolis, and the mad fools who would resurrect them.”

He fixed me with a glare, bright and feverish, a crusader’s zeal igniting in those bloodshot depths. “They called to me, don’t you see? Sang to me, sweet sibilant whispers behind my eyes, coiled in the rotting meat of my mind.”

His voice rose, spiraling towards hysteria, tongues of lunatic flame. “They showed me the truth, the great crouching obscenity at the heart of all flesh! Peel back the skin, crack wide the bone, and the squirming chaos writhes through, the jabbering mad god void!”

I recoiled, disgust and horror, a choking tide in my throat. At my side, Kat made a low, animal sound of revulsion, her battle-mask slipping to reveal the fear beneath.

“You’re insane,” I rasped, shaking my head as if to dislodge the sickening images suddenly gibbering behind my eyes. “Space-sick and crazy, rotted through with too much dark and death.”

“Am I?” Zarath barked a laugh, spittle and blood spraying the ruined silk of his tunic. “Gaze into the abyss long enough, my dear, and you will see how paper-thin the veil of civilization stretches! See the mad, piping truth, capering and chirruping in the spaces behind stars!”

He sobered, the fire dimming to ember and ash in his eyes. “The Resurrection is coming, Thaumas. The Elder Gods stir in their sleep, straining towards cruel nativity. And their priests, their puppets, even now converge on the Shrouded Reach, to midwife their aborning.”

A cold, sinking dread wormed through my crop, icy talons sinking into the meat of my hearts. The Shrouded Reach, that benighted realm of blood and shadow.

My ancestral home. The birthplace of my kind, before the Raptorian diaspora. Before the call to the stars, to slip the surly bonds of gravity and pierce the obsidian gulfs between worlds.

And now, if this lunatic spoke true, the staging ground for an atrocity beyond measure. The first pebble in an avalanche, a cataclysm to shake the cosmos and rend the very fabric of reality.

All beginning on Raptoria. In the shadowed enclaves and obsidian spires of my forebears, my blood.

Duty warred with despair within me, a paralyzing clash of polarized imperatives. I had sworn to defend the innocent, to stand as a bulwark against the dark. How could I now turn my back on such a threat, abandon the worlds to their grim fate?

But Kat was my first loyalty, my brightest lodestar. For so long, I had dreamed of building a life with her, a future far from the death and darkness that had defined us for so long.

How could I drag her into this new crucible, this war unlike any we had faced before? How could I ask her to once more take up the sword, stain her hands with blood and horror for a conflict not her own?

And worse, far worse, how could I risk losing her, my bold falcon, my valiant Valkyrie, to the squirming obscenities even now churning towards cruel quickening?

The answer rose in my throat, bitter as wormwood on my tongue. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. Not for anything, not even the fate of worlds hanging in the balance.

Because a universe without Kat, was no universe I wanted to inhabit. No cold, sterile eternity I could endure, bereft of her bright laughter, her diamond courage, the fire of her soul.

So I would do the unthinkable. The impossible, antithetical to every fiber of my being. I would leave her behind, sail into the squamous dark alone, and shoulder the weight of galaxies like a lodestone around my neck.

Rend and crush the growing shadows, cauterize this cancer alone, or fall to my ruin in the attempt.

All to keep my northern star safe. To spare her the barest chance of being swallowed by the abominations even now slouching towards wakefulness.

I took a shuddering breath, resolve crystallizing in my marrow. Gently, so gently, I reached out to cup Kat’s face, memorizing every beloved plane and angle.

“Kat,” I whispered, my voice cracking and thick with every aching pulse of my heart. “My valiant one, my bright mate.”

Her eyes widened, questions dancing in those verdant depths. But I forged ahead, the words tearing themselves from my throat like squalling, blood-slick things.

“I have to go,” I said hoarsely, each word a shard of glass. “Return to Raptoria, stand against the rising dark. Rip out this evil by the roots, before it can plunge the cosmos into a screaming new hell.”

I swallowed hard, steeling myself for the killing blow. The rending strike, the sundering sweep to break both our hearts for the greater good.

“And I have to go alone.”

thirteen

. . .

Katarina

I stared at Thaumas, his words echoing in my mind. Leave me behind? After everything we’d endured together, he wanted to face this threat alone?

“No,” I said, my voice resolute. “I won’t let you do this, Thaumas. I refuse to be discarded for some misguided sense of nobility.”

His eyes flashed, a growl resonating deep in his chest. “Discarded? Kat, you know I could never–”

“But that’s what this feels like,” I interjected, my composure cracking. Tears pricked at my eyes, hot and stinging. “As if I’m not enough, like I’ll never be enough to stand at your side when it truly matters.”

“Katarina!” Thaumas’s wings flared, mantling above his broad shoulders. Conviction burned in his gaze, searing through me. “You could never be a burden to me. You are the very heart of me, the breath in my lungs. I need you like the stars need the void.”

He shook me gently, emphasizing each word. “I’m not abandoning you. I could never leave you, not truly. You will be with me every step of the way, the lodestar guiding me home to your arms.”

I made a choked sound, twisting my fingers in his flight suit. “Then why go alone? Why descend into this abyss without me to guard your back?”

Thaumas closed his eyes, anguish rippling across his features. “Because if I lost you, if you fell to the horrors of the Shrouded Reach, it would shatter me. Grind me to dust and scatter me to the uncaring stars.”

He opened his eyes, amber depths brimming with naked desperation. “I would immolate the universe to keep you safe, Kat. Consign entire systems to oblivion, just to spare you a moment’s pain.”

I understood then, with crystalline clarity. My fierce, beautiful raptor would martyr himself on an obsidian altar, embrace damnation itself, all for me. All for love, vast and fathomless.

But I couldn’t let him. I was no wilting flower, no cowering damsel to be sheltered and coddled. I was a warrior in my right, honed to a killing edge. I would fight for him, for us. For the future we’d bled and rended to claim as our own.

I reached up, lacing our fingers together. Calluses and scars, cybernetics and flesh, each whorl and ridge achingly familiar.

“I love you,” I said, the words unvarnished and unequivocal. “I love you, Thaumas Leion’ct, with every fiber of my being.”

I brushed my lips over his, tasting salt. “You’re my heart, the gravity anchoring me. You’ve stood at my back through every trial and tribulation, unflinching, unfaltering. My strength and my shelter.”

Slowly, I shook my head. “I can’t watch you fly into this storm alone. I won’t sit meekly by as you throw yourself on a pyre of good intentions.”

I met his gaze, emerald to amber, willing him to understand. “I am no innocent to be coddled. I’m the blade forged in the crucible of all we’ve survived. I will fight at your side, Thaumas. I’ll be the void at your wing, the dark armed with fang and flame.”

The air crackled between us, charged with the force of my conviction. I was incandescent, adamantine. A falling star daring the firmament to stand in my way.

Thaumas shuddered, a seismic ripple through his powerful frame. As if some fundamental truth of his universe had shifted, realigned to a new pole star.

“Ishtar,” he breathed, reverent. “My valkyrie, my bright and fearless one, how did I ever become worthy of you?”

I laughed, relief and adoration bubbling through me like champagne. “I could ask the same of you, my deadly raptor.”

I tugged him closer, fitting my curves to his angles. In the medbay's gloom, his eyes glowed like banked embers. Dangerous. Inviting.

“I love you,” I whispered again, a prayer exhaled against his lips. “Beyond reason, beyond sanity.”

His growl shivered through me as he claimed my mouth. Rough and searing, tasting of ozone and hunger too long denied. I fisted my hands in his crest, eagerly surrendering to his onslaught. Tongues tangled wetly as he plundered, devoured. Conquering me with lips and teeth and clever, rasping tongue.

I was drowning in him, dissolving. A wanton moan purled in my throat as he gripped my hips, grinding the hard length of him against my aching center. The layers between us were intolerable, infuriating. I needed his skin, his heat.

“Please,” I panted, writhing as he trailed biting kisses down the column of my throat. “Please, Thaumas.”

With a snarl, he hoisted me up, slamming me back against the bulkhead. My legs wrapped around his waist, ankles locking at the small of his back. Cool metal kissed my flushed skin as he rucked up my shirt, smoothing a broad palm over my quivering belly.

His eyes flared, blown black and ravenous as they raked over my bared flesh. I felt branded by that look, flayed and vulnerable. Aching for his possession, his worship.

“I know what you need,” he rasped, clever fingers plucking at the fastenings of my suit. The fabric parted beneath his ministrations, peeled away like foil wrapping a decadent treat. “What you crave, my shattering star.”

Then I was bare before him, pebbled in the recycled air. He drank in the sight of me, gaze searing trails of tingling warmth across my blushing skin. I could only imagine how I looked - wanton and wanting every secret hollow and soft swell offered for his perusal. His pleasure.

“So beautiful,” he murmured, reverence and rapture. One taloned finger circled a tightened peak, teasing, testing. I keened, nipples furling impossibly tighter. Cunt clenching around a delicious emptiness, weeping to be filled. “My masterpiece. My perfect mate.”

“Please,” I panted, too gone for shame. I needed him inside, plugging all my aching voids, forging us together in the most primal way possible. “Please, Thaumas, I need you, I need.“

“Shhh.” He gentled me with another devastating kiss, suckling on my tongue until I shuddered and squirmed. “I have you, love. I’ll give you what you need, fill up all your hungry emptiness. Fuck you until you can’t remember your own name, only mine.”

Then he was lifting me again, whirling, and I had a dizzying view of the medbay upending before my back hit the decking. Thaumas followed me down, a looming shadow. Caging me in with the titanic breadth of his shoulders, the thick bands of his arms. His hips found the welcomed cradle of my thighs, notching his heavy cock against my weeping core.

My eyes, when they found his, were molten. Pleading. The universe narrowed to the iron-velvet heat trapped behind his straining zipper, the exquisite ache pulsing in my pelvis. I finally summoned my scraped raw with need voice.

“Make me yours,” I breathed, a confession. A covenant. “Mark me with your possession, until every cell sings with it. Until I can’t tell where I end and you begin.”

His answering growl rumbled through me like thunder, pouring honeyed lightning through my veins. Then he was tearing at his own suit, shucking the offending garment with savage efficiency.

I had a glimpse of dusky, scarred perfection - the hewn musculature, the proud jut of his rigid sex - before he was covering me completely. Skin to skin, not a whisper of space between us. The blunt head of him pressed insistently at my entrance, heavy and velvet-hard.

Thaumas kissed me again, a gentle counterpoint to the trembling tension in his frame. The barely leashed aggression vibrating through tensed sinew and constricting tendon.

“I love you,” he groaned, raw and ragged against my parted lips. “Need you, Kat, on a cellular level. The beat and pulse of me.”

I arched beneath him in silent invitation, fingertips skimming the raised runes of old scars. Thighs splaying wider, spine liquefying in anticipation of his claiming.

I arched beneath him in silent invitation, fingertips skimming the raised runes of old scars. Thighs splaying wider, spine liquefying in anticipation of his claiming.

"Please," I whispered, the word a benediction. A plea. "Thaumas, I need you. I need you inside me, filling me until there's nothing left but you."

His answering growl was feral, primal. He surged forward, sheathing himself in my welcoming heat with one powerful thrust. I cried out, nails raking down his back as he stretched me wide, impossibly full.

He stilled, panting against my neck as we both adjusted to the exquisite sensation of our joining. I could feel every inch of him, throbbing and pulsing within me. The heavy weight of his balls nestled against my ass, the delicious friction of his pelvis grinding against my clit.

"Kat," he groaned, voice ragged. "Ishtar, you feel so good. So tight, so perfect."

I writhed beneath him, desperate for more. I needed him to move, to fuck me hard and fast until I shattered around him.

"Please," I begged again, voice trembling. "Please, Thaumas. I need you to move."

He chuckled darkly, the sound sending shivers down my spine. "As my lady commands."

Then he was moving, pulling out almost all the way before slamming back into me. I screamed, the force of his thrusts pushing me up the decking. He gripped my hips, holding me in place as he pounded into me relentlessly.

Each stroke sent sparks of pleasure shooting through my body, coiling tighter and tighter in my belly. I could feel my orgasm building, a tidal wave of sensation threatening to crash over me at any moment.

"Thaumas," I gasped, voice breathless. "I'm going to come. I'm going to–"

He cut me off with a searing kiss, swallowing my cries as I tumbled over the edge. My body convulsed, muscles clenching around him as wave after wave of pleasure washed over me.

He followed me over the edge, roaring his release as he emptied himself inside me. I could feel the hot spurts of his seed filling me up, marking me as his.

We lay there, panting and spent, for what felt like an eternity. I could feel his heartbeat pounding against my chest, matching the frantic rhythm of my own.

"I love you," I whispered, the words a promise. A vow.

He pressed a tender kiss to my forehead, his breath warm against my skin. "And I love you, my fierce and beautiful Katarina. Forever and always."

We lay there, wrapped in each other's arms, as the universe spun on around us. For now, at least, we were safe. We were whole.

Then the deck plates shuddered, a pitched, yawing jolt that flung us apart. Klaxons blared, deafening. I swore as I tumbled across the medbay, Thaumas snarling his outrage at the uncaring void.

“Report!” he barked, already lurching to his feet. Murder etched itself into every savage line of his face, amber eyes incandescent with thwarted lust.

Raza’s disembodied voice crackled over the comm, uncharacteristically somber. “That was a gravity well, kids. Snatched us right out of warp. We’re dead in the black, and you need to see this.”

Fear threaded icy fingers down my spine, displacing the hot churn of arousal. Beside me, Thaumas went preternaturally still. The hunter’s stiffness telegraphed in the twitch of his feathered crest, the slight flare of his nostrils.

I swallowed hard, the aftershocks of a different sort of adrenaline chilling my overheated blood.

“We’re on our way,” I said, my voice hollow to my ears.

I turned from the spitting comm unit to meet Thaumas’s eyes. Amber and emerald lust tempered - if not banked entirely by the specter looming over us. A shadow as yet unseen, but whose chill breath raised every hair on my nape, settled leaden in my guts.

“Guess our private time is over,” I joked weakly, already fishing for my suit. The words sounded thin and brittle even to my own ears, false levity cracking under the weight of our shared dread.

Thaumas huffed mirthlessly as he scooped up his own garments. “The universe has impeccable timing, it seems. And a sadistic sense of irony.”

He cast me a quicksilver glance, lancing and tender all at once. “But the sentiment remains, Kat. No matter what lurks beyond that door, no matter what fresh hell awaits us, I face it at your side. Always.”

I yanked up the zipper of my form-fitting suit, shrugging my shoulders to settle the fabric. Let his conviction, his ferocity, seep into my marrow. Become iron in my spine, the bedrock of my unflinching resolve.

No power in the ‘verse, no monstrosity or machination, would sever the bond between us. I would cleave to my bright raptor through cataclysm and conflagration, unto the very ending of worlds.

So I lifted my chin, feeling the mantle of the warrior settle across my shoulders. The fearless valkyrie of fang and starlight, hewn to a lethal edge by every trial endured, every battle hard-won.

“Together,” I agreed, as the bulkhead door swished open with a pneumatic hiss. As the shadows of an unknowable future nipped at our heels, beckoning us forward into the breach.

Thaumas’s smile - grim yet brilliant, the death’s-head grin of an avenging archangel - seared itself into my mind’s eye. Into the secret annals of my forever heart.

Then, shoulder to shoulder, we stepped out to greet the oncoming storm.

fourteen

. . .

Thaumas

The deck bucked and yawed beneath our feet as we charged onto the bridge, alarm klaxons shrilling in our ears. Kat matched me stride for stride, a sleek huntress in form-fitting leather, pulse rifle cradled against one shoulder.

I slewed to a halt before the main viewscreen, talons gouging the deck plates. Raked my gaze across the strobing red telltales, the spitting displays showing all systems in the red.

The void itself seemed to shudder before that awful sight. A vast whorled disc of eldritch energies, purple and viridian and colors that had no name. It seethed and roiled like a living thing, crackling with obscene purpose as it gnawed at the fabric of space-time.

And silhouetted against that hellish backdrop, spilling from the ruptured boil of the rift ships. Hundreds, thousands, a chittering swarm of vessels straight out of a madman’s nightmares. Jagged and insectile, all chitin and spikes and flickering lights that hurt the eyes.

“Thaumas,” Kat breathed, dread and awe. “What the fuck are those?”

“Trouble,” I growled, wings mantling. The energies spilling from the rift sizzled across my pinions, setting every feather on edge. “Big, cosmos-ending trouble.”

I whirled on Raza, the lean Saurian first mate. He was bent over the nav console, fingers flying across the haptics.

“Get us out of here,” I barked. “Best speed for the Shrouded Reach. We need to warn the clans, get them mobilized before that swarm reaches inhabited space.”

“Trying, boss,” he hissed, brow furrowed in concentration. “But that grav well has us but good. Engines are stuck in idle, and the jump drive is spitting sparks across half my boards.”

As if to punctuate his words, the ship shuddered again. The deck tilted at a steep angle, inertial compensators straining to handle the conflicting gravities. I compensated smoothly, gyros whirring, but Kat stumbled against me with a startled yelp.

I caught her against my side, taking her weight easily. She fit there perfectly, all sleek curves and coiled power. I buried my beak in her hair, just for a moment. Breathed in her scent - ozone and blade oil, the crisp bite of winter apples.

Ancestors, but I loved this fearless woman. Drew such strength from her unflinching courage, the diamond-bright blaze of her spirit. With her at my side, I felt I could conquer galaxies. Rend the very stars from the firmament.

“The grav well,” I said suddenly, pieces clicking together. “It’s not coming from the rift. There’s something else out there, some other source”

“There!” Kat thrust a finger at the screen, emerald eyes wide. “What the fekk is that?”

I followed her pointing finger, already dreading what I would see. The swarm was parting before a new arrival, a vast and terrible shape emerging from the unlight depths of the rift.

It was a ship, if such a blasphemous thing could be called a ship. Miles long, a jagged thorn of obsidian and twisting metal. It dwarfed the swarm vessels, an apex predator among minnows.

And the wrongness, the crawling otherness radiating from its hull. It seared itself into my brain like a white-hot brand. I tasted copper and madness on my tongue, felt the first niggling fingers of insanity plucking at my mind.

“Ancestors preserve us,” I croaked, throat closing in atavistic terror. “It’s a Tomb Ship. A charnel-barge of the Necrontyr, the star-gods who once ruled the galaxy with an iron fist.”

Raza spat a vicious oath, the Saurian tongue lending it extra venom. “The Necrontyr are a myth! A story told to hatchlings to make them behave!”

“Does that look like a fekking myth to you?” I snarled, gesturing savagely at the screen. At the awful, world-breaking reality hanging before us like a promise of Armageddon.

Kat’s hand found mine, fingers lacing tight. Anchoring me in the now, the warm reality of our bond. “What do we do, Thaumas? How do we fight that?”

I shook my head, a leaden weight in my crop. “We don’t, love. Not alone. Not without an army at our backs and the gods themselves at our side.”

I turned to Raza, grim purpose settling over me like a mantle. “Dump the core. Shunt every scrap of power to the engines. We burn hard for Raptoria, and we pray to the Lost Mothers that we aren’t already too late.”

Raza sketched a salute, eyes flinty with resolve. “Aye, boss. One bucked-up escape, coming right up.”

The ship shuddered again as he worked, the bone-deep groan of a wounded beast. I felt the thrum of the engines kicking into high gear, with the deck vibrating like a plucked string.

And still that Tomb Ship loomed, an obsidian shark scenting blood on the cosmic currents. I felt its attention, its awful hunger turned towards us. Prickling the short hairs on my nape, oily and invasive.

It knew. It saw us, this insignificant speck of resistance. And it wanted us, burned to snuff out our defiant light and grind us to shrieking atoms between its gears.

“Punch it!” I roared, a predator’s fury thrumming through my veins. Kat sank into a fighting crouch beside me, rifle humming as she primed the coils. Preparing to sell our lives dearly, paint the void with our rage and ruin.

And as the first lance of eldritch lightning seared past the viewscreen, the ship convulsed around us, and the stars smeared to starlings as we leaped for safety, for home.

Ancestors, let it be enough, I prayed, a fierce and desperate entreaty. Let us reach Raptoria in time, rally the clans for the horror to come.

For if we failed, if we fell, there would be no sanctuary. No respite from the chittering, squamous dark rising to smother the galaxy once more.

Only a final death, and the void’s cold kiss.

And that was unacceptable. Not while I still drew breath. Not while my huntress stood strong and proud at my side, the lodestone of my forever heart.

We would fight. We would bleed. And we would prevail or perish in the attempt.

For what other choice was there, with the fate of worlds hanging in the balance?

With a snarl of defiance, I wrapped an arm around Kat and braced for the trials ahead. For the dark and savage road rising to meet us, drenched in blood and thunder.

We had a war to win.

The stars blurred to streaks of light as we hurtled through the void, engines straining at the redline. Kat stood firm at my side, rifle cradled and eyes hard as flint. Ready to face the oncoming storm, the rising dark, with all the fearless fire that made her the lodestone of my forever heart.

And Void, but I needed that strength now. Drew from it like a drowning man gulping air as the specter of my past reared its ugly head. The sins and scars I’d long buried, now clawing their way to the surface in a reeking miasma of blood and bitter ash.

Raptoria. My ancestral home, the birthplace of my kind. A world of obsidian spires and crimson skies, where the very shadows throbbed with the beat and pulse of ancient secrets. Deadly ones, if the sinking leaden dread in my guts was any indicator.

I hadn’t set foot on its surface in decades. Not since the Culling, the brutal rite of passage that had seen me ripped from my family’s bosom. Thrust into the crucible of the Legion’s training pits, to be reforged in the fires of pain and death and unrelenting discipline.

I still bore the scars of that sundering. The latticework of plasma burns and ritual blades, etched into ebon flesh and feather. Each one a reminder, a memorial to all I had sacrificed on the altar of duty and honor.

But for all that I had endured, all that I had lost nothing could have prepared me for the devastation that awaited us as we knifed through Raptoria’s atmosphere. The smoke and screams that rose to greet us, a macabre mockery of welcome.

“Thaumas,” Kat breathed, horror and disbelief strangling the words. “What the fuck happened here?”

I could only shake my head, mute with shock and dawning dread. The great spires of Blacktalon, my family’s ancestral keep, they jutted from the cratered earth like broken teeth, jagged and crumbling. Belching gouts of flame and oily smoke into the churning sky.

And beyond, in the bone-littered killing fields where I had earned my first crimson plumage, a seething, chittering ocean of bodies. Twisted and wrong, carapaces gleaming wetly in the ruddy light. Skittering and gibbering as they swarmed over the blasted landscape, a living tide of chitin and madness.

“The hive fleet,” I croaked, the words ashes on my tongue. “The Necrontyr’s shrieking vanguard. But how?”

How had they arrived so swiftly, so devastatingly? Overrun Raptoria’s defenses, the hardy clans and their legendary wrath, in what seemed like the space between one heartbeat and the next?

Unless.

Ice crystalized in my veins with a sudden, awful certainty. The sibilant whispers, the niggling sense of wrongness that had haunted my dreams these past weeks. Impressions of eyes in the dark, of claws and fangs and a terrible, ravening hunger.

“They were already here,” I said hollowly. Pieces slotting together in a blood-drenched mosaic of betrayal and ruin. “Seeded by traitors in the clans, turncoats bought with silver and dark promises.”

I thought of Zarath’s words, his mad ramblings of gods and resurrection. The squirming truths couched in that lunatic rant, just waiting for the right spark to ignite them. To set the galaxy ablaze with the Necrontyr’s foul ambition.

“We walked into a fekking trap,” I snarled. Fury rose in a scorching tide, talons gouging furrows in the unyielding metal of the deck. The urge to rend and tear, to paint the stars crimson with the ruin of my enemies, near overpowering.

But I throttled it to heel, reined in the beast howling behind my breast-bone. Now was not the time for berserker wrath, for glorious and empty sacrifice. Not with Kat at my side, her survival the only thing that mattered in this benighted universe.

“We need to move,” I bit out, spinning on my heel. Already calculating vectors and contingencies, the cold equations of our continued existence. “Get to the secondary spaceport, commandeer a ship. If we can slip the cordon.”

The deck bucked beneath our feet, a tortured scream of rending metal. Proximity alarms shrilled as the ship yawed sickeningly, inertia slamming us into the bulkheads.

“Hull breach!” Raza barked over the comm, voice stretched tight with strain. “Grapples incoming, trying to reel us in! Fekk, they’re.”

His voice cut off in a burst of static. I swore sulfurously, talons scrabbling for purchase as the deck canted at a steeper angle. The reek of scorched polymer, of overloading circuitry, acrid in my nostrils.

Kat clung to my side like a lioness tensed to spring. Pulse rifle whining as she racked the slide, emerald eyes fever-bright in the strobing red glare.

“How many?” she asked, a huntress to her core. Falling into the familiar rhythms of impending violence, the dance was macabre of fang and flame.

“Too many,” I growled. Already sensing the skittering, chitinous tide swarming our wounded vessel. The eager chitter of a thousand bladed limbs, the reek of dripping ichor. “We can’t repel them, not if we want to keep the ship intact.”

“Do you trust me?” I asked softly. Gently cupping her face, thumb smoothing over the velvet skin of her cheek. Memorizing every beloved plane and angle, every scar and freckle. Greedily hoarding this one perfect moment to warm me in the trials ahead.

“Always,” she breathed. Leaning into my touch, lashes fluttering against my palm. “Unto the very ending of the worlds.”

Something cracked open in my chest at her words, a chasm of light and heat and unending devotion. The unassailable conviction, diamond-hard, that I would conquer galaxies for this woman. Rend the very stars from the firmament, if she but asked it of me.

“Then we don’t fight,” I said, the words heavy with finality. Already calculating the risks, the cold algebra of survival. “We go to ground, find a bolt hole. Regroup and plan our next move.”

Then the hull shrieked like a damned soul, a rending cacophony of tortured metal, and the swarm poured in. A chittering tide of teeth and claws and compound eyes, insectile bodies contorting obscenely as they scrambled through the jagged wound.

We met them with fang and flame. Pulse bolts and shuriken, desperate defiance flaring incandescent against the squirming dark. Buying precious seconds with each blood-drenched kill, each faltering step of retreat.

But it wasn’t enough. Could never be enough against that seething, inexorable tide. We were a guttering candle before a hurricane, a single spark flailing against the crushing black.

And as the swarm pressed in, carapaces crunching wetly beneath our boots, a new sound reached my ears. A deep, groaning roar, like the cracking of continental plates, the sundering of worlds.

I risked a glance at the viewscreen, dread a leaden weight in my crop. Just in time to see the sky split open, bruise-dark and writhing. Disgorging a shape out of nightmare, a silhouette to freeze the blood and flay the sanity.

The Tomb Ship had arrived. Raptoria’s doom came calling on wings of ebon smoke and gravitic lightning. And as its shadow fell across the blasted killing fields, eclipsing the bloody light.

I knew, with a sick, sinking certainty, that the true battle was only just beginning. That this was merely the first verse in a dark and savage epic, the opening salvo in a war to shake the very cosmos.

Ancestors, I prayed, a fierce and desperate entreaty. Let us prevail. Let us weather this oncoming storm, that we might see the dawn renewed.

But as the swarm pressed ever closer, a chitinous wave hungry for our flesh. I feared those prayers would be in vain. That they would join the ashes and echoes of my ravaged home, scattered to the uncaring void.

We were out of time. Out of options. With nothing left to cling to but each other, the unbreakable bond forged in the crucible of all we had endured.

Nothing, save the savage spitfire will to survive. To spit in the eye of Armageddon itself, and dare the gods to do their worst.

And we would not slip into that good night. Would not let the darkness claim us without a final blaze of glory to light our way.

So I locked eyes with my lioness, my lodestone, and together we plunged into the fray. Determined to carve our legend into the face of eternity, or perish in the attempt.

The galaxy would tremble to hear our names. This I swore on the ashes of Raptoria and the unending thunder of my hearts.

We had arrived to find our home in turmoil, besieged by nightmares made flesh. But we would not bow, would not break.

For we were the deathless defenders, and our war had only just begun.

fifteen

. . .

Katarina

The cold, jagged spires of Blacktalon Keep loomed over us like the skeletal fingers of a long-dead giant, scraping the blood-red skies.

“Be well, I’m off to fight other battles,” Raza said. He stood tall, his eyes taking in the swarms of Griffins in the distance. A twinkle glimmered in his eyes.

“You are going to take care of the Tomb Ship, aren’t you?” I knew Raza wouldn’t leave without making a statement.

“I don’t mix well with feathers, as you well know. But I’ve grown rather fond of this one. Consider it a gift as I leave a parting gift on the way out.” He saluted us and boarded the small shuttle to head back to his ship and get the hell out of here. No time for sadness, though. Raza left in a plume of dust and we turned in time to see a small group approaching.

Thaumas and I had barely set foot on the crumbling obsidian landing platform when a retinue of Griffin warriors approached, their expressions a mix of suspicion and thinly veiled hostility.

“Thaumas Leion’ct,” one warrior sneered, his voice a guttural rasp. “Returning home after all these cycles. I wonder what brought you back from the stars.”

Thaumas’s wings flared subtly, a warning more than a greeting. “I came to fight for Raptoria, Varkos. To defend our kin from the dark tide rising against us.”

Varkos’s gaze flicked to me, his eyes narrowing. “And you brought...a human? Are we so desperate that we need to consort with offworlders now?”

My spine stiffened at his disdain, but Thaumas’s taloned hand on my shoulder grounded me. “Katarina is my mate,” he said, the words a clear declaration. “She has fought by my side and earned her place here.”

The looks from the other warriors ranged from skeptical to outright dismissive. I sensed the undercurrent of tension, the unspoken challenge in the air. Thaumas’s return was not the homecoming one might expect.

As we followed our guide inside the Keep, the halls resounded with the memories of a once-great lineage now teetering on the brink of ruin. The opulence of the past was visible in the faded tapestries and cracked marble floors, relics of a time when the Griffin clans ruled the skies with an iron wing.

We reached a grand chamber, the heart of the Keep. On a raised dais, a Griffin with streaked gray plumage sat, his eyes sharp as flint. Thaumas bowed slightly, a gesture of respect laced with tension.

“Father,” he said, his voice measured.

“Thaumas,” his father replied, his tone icy. “You return to us, not as the prodigal son, but as a stranger. And with a human no less. Explain yourself.”

“I come with warnings and allies,” Thaumas said, his voice steady. “The Necrontyr are rising. Raptoria is under siege. We must unite to stand a chance.”

His father’s gaze shifted to me, assessing. “And this human? What role does she play in this grand plan?”

I stepped forward, meeting his gaze head-on. “I am Katarina,” I stated firmly. “I’ve fought beside Thaumas. I’m here to help, to fight, and to protect what he holds dear.”

The old Griffin’s gaze softened, but only slightly. “Brave words. But loyalty and valor are not proven in words but in deeds.”

With each passing day, we became entangled in a web of political intrigue and familial drama. The clans were fractured, divided by old wounds and new fears. Alliances were fragile things, and every conversation seemed to carry the weight of hidden agendas.

Thaumas’s father, Lord Leion’ct, was a formidable presence, his authority undisputed but always challenged by those hungry for power. I quickly learned that within the Keep walls, every glance, every word, was a carefully crafted weapon.

"We're treading a fine line here," Thaumas said, his voice low and measured.

"I know," I replied, feeling the tension in the air.

"But we can't let them dictate our every move," he continued, his eyes flashing with determination.

"We'll find our own way," I said, meeting his gaze with a steely resolve.

“Your family...” I started while searching for the right words. “They’re not exactly thrilled with your return.”

He gave a mirthless chuckle. “They see me as the wayward son, the one who abandoned his duties. And bringing you here...well, that only complicates things.”

I reached for his hand, our fingers lacing. “We’ll navigate this..”

He looked at me, amber eyes glowing softly in the dim light. “You’re stronger than they know, Kat. Stronger than they’ll ever give you credit for. But we can’t trust anyone here. Not fully.”

“I figured as much,” I said, my voice steady. “We’ll play their game, but on our terms.”

The days bled into weeks, a tense dance of alliances and betrayals. I watched and listened, learning the undercurrents of Griffin politics. There were those who saw Thaumas’s return as a chance to reclaim lost glory, while others viewed it as a threat to their own ambitions.

One night, as we lay in the small chamber allotted to us, Thaumas shared more of his past. The trials and tribulations that had shaped him, the sacrifices made and the blood spilled. I held him close, feeling the weight of his burdens and vowing silently to help shoulder them.

The next morning, someone called us to a council meeting. As we entered the grand hall, I felt the stares, the whispers. But I held my head high, drawing strength from Thaumas’s presence beside me.

The council was a circle of power, each member a key player in the intricate dance of Raptoria’s future. As Thaumas presented his case, laying bare the threat of the Necrontyr, I could see the cracks in their unified front. Fear and doubt gnawed at their resolve.

Then, a voice rang out, clear and challenging. “Why should we believe you, Thaumas? You, who abandoned us for the stars?”

A younger Griffin, sharp-eyed and fierce, stepped forward. I recognized him as Varkos’s son, a rising star in the political arena.

Thaumas met his gaze unflinchingly. “Because I’ve seen the darkness gathering at our doorstep. And if we don’t stand together, we will fall. All of us.”

The tension was palpable, the room a powder keg waiting to ignite. I held my breath, waiting for the verdict. Then, slowly, one by one, the council members nodded, their expressions grim but resolute.

“We will fight,” Lord Leion’ct declared, his voice ringing with finality. “For Raptoria. For our future.”

I stood beside Thaumas as the council dispersed, a fragile unity forged in the face of annihilation. The air hummed with a grim resolve, a shared acknowledgment of the trials ahead. Yet beneath the determined faces and squared shoulders, I sensed an undercurrent of fear, the icy tendrils of doubt that even the bravest warriors couldn’t quite shake.

Thaumas turned to me, his amber eyes shadowed with concern. “Kat, I need you to stay close. There are too many variables here, too many potential threats.”

I nodded, my hand instinctively seeking the comforting weight of my pulse rifle. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

A ghost of a smile touched his lips, a fleeting warmth in the chilly halls of Blacktalon Keep. “How could I forget? You’re stubborn as a fucking mule.”

I huffed a laugh, bumping my shoulder against his. “Pot, meet kettle.”

We made our way through the winding corridors, the ancient stone seeming to whisper of secrets and betrayals long past. I couldn’t shake the prickling sensation between my shoulder blades, the sense of unseen eyes tracking our every move. Thaumas mantled his wings, his feathers bristling with a tension that mirrored my own.

As we turned a corner, a flicker of movement caught my eye. A shadow detached itself from the wall, a blur of mottled gray and black that resolved into a hooded figure. Time seemed to slow, seconds stretching into eons as my brain processed the threat.

The figure raised a hand, a glint of metal flashing in the torchlight. A blade, wickedly curved and dripping with some foul ichor. Aimed straight at Thaumas’s unprotected back.

“No!” The scream tore from my throat, raw and desperate. I lunged forward, shoving Thaumas aside with a strength born of sheer adrenaline. He stumbled, caught off guard, as the assassin’s blade whistled through the space where he’d been standing a heartbeat before.

I brought my rifle up, finger tightening on the trigger, but the assassin was already moving. They whirled, cloak flaring, and something slammed into my chest with the force of a runaway hovertrain. I staggered back, gasping, as a searing pain blossomed beneath my ribs.

Thaumas roared, a sound of pure fury and anguish. He leaped at the assassin, talons extended, wings beating the air like thunder. They collided in a tangle of limbs and feathers, a whirlwind of savage grace. I blinked, trying to clear the spots dancing before my eyes. The pain was a red-hot brand, pulsing in time with my frantic heartbeat.

I forced myself to move, to bring my rifle to bear. The assassin had Thaumas pinned, a taloned hand wrapped around his throat. I saw the glint of the blade, the flex of muscles beneath the dark fabric. Gritting my teeth, I lined up the shot, praying to any gods that might be listening.

The pulse bolt seared the air, a lance of blinding blue. It struck the assassin square in the back, burning through cloth and flesh with equal ease. They arched, a strangled cry escaping their lips, before crumpling to the ground in a boneless heap.

Thaumas surged to his feet, chest heaving. He spun to face me, eyes wild and desperate. “Kat! Fekk, are you?”

I managed a weak grin, even as the world tilted alarmingly around me. “Just a scratch, babe. You know me, too stubborn to die.”

He was at my side in an instant, taloned hands gentle as they eased me to the floor. I looked down, grimacing at the spreading stain of crimson marring my shirt. “Okay, maybe a bit more than a scratch.”

The sound of running footsteps echoed through the halls, a tide of urgent voices and clanking armor. I let my eyes drift closed, suddenly too heavy to keep open. The pain was a distant thing now, muffled beneath a blanket of encroaching darkness.

“Kat? Katarina, stay awake! Dammit, where are the fekking healers?!” Thaumas’s voice seemed to come from far away, a desperate plea teetering on the edge of hysteria.

I wanted to reassure him, to tell him I was fine, but the words wouldn’t come. The world was fading, slipping away like sand through my fingers. I clung to the solid warmth of Thaumas’s embrace, the only anchor in a sea of numbing cold.

As the blackness claimed me, one final thought crystallized in my mind, sharp and gleaming as a shard of obsidian. This was only the beginning, the first salvo in a war that would shake the very foundations of the galaxy. And I, Katarina, the stubborn, star-crossed human, would be at the center of it all.

For better or worse, my fate was inextricably bound to Thaumas, to Raptoria, to the savage dance of survival that awaited us. And I would face it head-on, with fire in my veins and a song of defiance on my lips.

The deathless defenders, indeed. Let the Necrontyr come, with all their chittering hordes and eldritch nightmares. We would be ready, Thaumas and I. Ready to fight, to bleed, to carve our legend into the stars themselves.

Even if it cost us everything.

sixteen

. . .

Thaumas

I exploded into motion as Katarina’s scream sliced through the air, shoving me aside just in time to avoid the assassin’s blade. The intruder moved with the lethal grace of a seasoned killer, a blur of shadow and death. As I struggled to regain my footing, I saw Katarina take a hit as her form crumpling slightly, but she turned and fired with unerring precision. The pulse bolt struck the assassin in the back, sending a sizzle of energy through their body.

The assassin faltered, collapsing to the ground, and I was on them in an instant. My talons wrapped around their throat, feathers bristling with the fury of a thousand suns. But as I looked down, I found only the lifeless shell of our assailant, their hood falling back to reveal a face twisted in agony.

“Kat,” I gasped, spinning to her side. She slumped against the wall, her breaths shallow, a dark stain spreading across her side. “No, no, no. Stay with me.”

“I’m... fine,” she whispered, her voice laced with the defiance that had made me fall in love with her.

The clatter of armored footsteps heralded the Griffin warriors, weapons drawn and eyes wide with shock. Varkos was at the forefront, his gaze darting from the fallen assassin to Katarina and back to me. “What happened?”

“An assassin. After me, no doubt,” I growled, lifting Katarina into my arms. “We need a healer. Now!”

Varkos nodded sharply, gesturing for his men to clear the way. “Take her to the infirmary. We’ll deal with this.”

As we rushed through the winding corridors, the weight of Katarina’s form against me felt both grounding and unbearably fragile. My mind raced ahead, already piecing together the fragments of this deadly puzzle. Who would dare strike at me within the very heart of Blacktalon Keep?

The infirmary was a flurry of activity as we burst in. Healers immediately swooped to Katarina’s side, their hands glowing with the soothing light of their craft. I held her hand, refusing to let go, watching as the color slowly returned to her cheeks.

“She’ll be fine,” one healer assured me, her voice gentle yet firm. “The blade missed any vital organs. She needs rest.”

Relief surged through me, but it was short-lived. We still had a traitor to unmask, a plot to unravel. I turned to Varkos, who had followed us into the room. “We need to find out who sent that assassin. Someone within these walls wants me dead.”

Varkos’s eyes hardened. “We’ll increase security, question everyone. Whoever it was, they’ll pay for this.”

Days melded together as we delved deeper into the labyrinth of intrigue. Katarina, now recovering rapidly, refused to be sidelined.We sifted through the layers of deception, unearthing secrets buried within the stone walls of Blacktalon Keep.

Our breakthrough came one night as Katarina and I pored over intercepted communications and coded messages. A pattern emerged, subtle but unmistakable. Someone had been funneling information to a faction of rebels within the clans, undercutting our efforts to unify against the Necrontyr threat.

We traced the threads back to a single name: Loran. An elder Griffin, trusted advisor, and the architect of our current turmoil. The realization hit like a hammer blow with the betrayal cutting deep.

Summoning the council, we laid out our findings. The air was thick with tension and the atmosphere crackling with unspoken accusations. Lord Leion’ct, my father, sat at the head of the table, his expression a mask of controlled fury.

“Loran,” he said, his voice a razor’s edge. “Explain yourself.”

Loran stood, his feathers ruffled, eyes gleaming with a mix of defiance and something darker. “I did what I had to. For the good of Raptoria. You were leading us to ruin, Thaumas, with your offworlder ways and your human mate. We needed... a change.”

“A change?” I spat, talons curling into the armrests of my chair. “You allied with our enemies, sold out our people, all for your twisted vision of ‘good’?”

Loran’s gaze flicked to Katarina, a sneer curling his beak. “She is an outsider. She doesn’t belong here.”

Katarina, seated beside me, met his gaze unflinchingly. “I’ve bled for this cause, for Thaumas, for Raptoria. Can you say the same?”

The room fell silent, the weight of her words sinking in. Loran’s eyes narrowed, but before he could retort, my father rose to his feet, wings flaring with righteous indignation.

“Enough.” His voice echoed through the chamber, silencing all dissent. “Loran, you have betrayed us all. For that, there can be no forgiveness.”

Guards moved to apprehend the traitor, but he reacted with a feral snarl, lunging at my father with a hidden blade. The room erupted into chaos, warriors leaping to protect their lord. But it was Katarina who moved fastest, her pulse rifle already trained.

A single, precise shot rang out, and Loran crumpled to the floor, the light fading from his eyes. The silence that followed was heavy with the finality of his treachery.

My father turned to Katarina, his gaze softening. “You have proven yourself this day, Katarina of Earth. You have the gratitude of Raptoria.”

The weight of Katarina’s form against me was both a grounding and unbearable reminder of her fragility. The healers worked swiftly, their glowing hands a blur as they poured energy into her wounds. The tension in the room was palpable, a collective holding of breath until they finally stepped back, nodding in assurance.

“She’ll be fine,” one healer said, her voice a gentle balm on my frayed nerves. “The blade missed vital organs. She needs rest.”

I exhaled a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding, relief surging through me. But my mind was already racing ahead, piecing together the fragments of this deadly puzzle. Who would dare strike at me within the very heart of Blacktalon Keep?

Varkos, having followed us into the infirmary, stood at attention. “What happened?”

“An assassin,” I growled, fury bubbling beneath the surface. “We need to find out who sent them. Someone within these walls wants me dead.”

Varkos nodded sharply. “We’ll increase security, question everyone. Whoever it was, they’ll pay for this.”

Days passed in a blur of frantic preparation and tense negotiations. The clans, long fractured by old wounds and new fears, coalesced into a fragile unity. Yet an undercurrent of tension persisted, a sense of impending doom that no amount of planning could dispel.

One evening, as the last rays of the blood-red sun bathed the Keep in a crimson hue, I found myself alone with my father in the grand chamber. The weight of our shared history hung heavy between us, a tapestry of unspoken words and buried grievances.

“Thaumas,” he began, his voice softer than I had ever heard it. “There is something you must know. About the traitor, Loran.”

I turned to him, my feathers bristling. “What is it, Father? What more could there be?”

He sighed, a sound laden with age and sorrow. “Loran was not acting alone. He had the support of someone... someone very close to you.”

My mind raced, a storm of possibilities and half-formed suspicions. “Who?”

“Your brother, Tharos.”

The name hit me like a punch to the gut, the air rushing from my lungs. Tharos, my younger brother, the one I had always tried to protect, the one I had left behind when I joined the Legion.

“I don’t understand,” I said, the words tasting like ashes. “Why would he do this?”

“He believes that you abandoned us, Thaumas,” my father said, his eyes filled with a pain that mirrored my own. “He saw your departure as a betrayal, and Loran preyed on that resentment. They sought to undermine your return, to seize power for themselves.”

The revelation left me reeling, a chasm of betrayal yawning beneath my feet. Tharos, my blood, had conspired against me, against us all. The weight of it threatened to crush me, to shatter the fragile unity we had fought so hard to achieve.

“Thank you for telling me, Father,” I said, my voice steady despite the storm raging within. “We will deal with this.”

As I left the chamber, my mind churned with plans and contingencies. Tharos’s betrayal cut deep, but it also steeled my resolve. The true battle lay ahead, and I would not let this new challenge break us.

Katarina met me in the corridor, her eyes sharp with concern. “What is it, Thaumas?”

“Tharos,” I said, the name a bitter pill. “He was in league with Loran.”

Her eyes widened, but she nodded, her grip on my arm tightening. “What do we do?”

“We confront him,” I said, a grim determination settling over me. “We root out every trace of this treachery and rally the clans. For Raptoria. For our future.”

seventeen

. . .

Katarina

My heart pounded in my chest as Thaumas and I navigated the dark, winding corridors of Blacktalon Keep. The ancient stones seemed to hum with the weight of history, the whispers of forgotten battles and buried secrets echoing around us. We moved with purpose, our steps silent but swift. We had a traitor to expose, and every second counted.

Thaumas’s expression was a mask of grim determination, but I could see the hurt lurking in his eyes—the betrayal of his brother cutting deeper than any physical wound. I squeezed his hand.

“Stay close,” he murmured, his voice a low rumble that sent shivers down my spine. “We need to be ready for anything.”

“I won’t leave your side,” I replied, my pulse rifle held at the ready. The weight of it was comforting, a reminder of the battles we’d already faced.

We reached the chamber where Tharos they confined, a heavy wooden door barring our way. Thaumas took a deep breath, his taloned hand tightening around the hilt of his blade. “Ready?”

I nodded, my heart racing. “Let’s do this.”

Thaumas pushed the door open with a creak, and we stepped inside. Tharos sat at a simple wooden table, tightly folding his wings against his back. His eyes flicked up to meet ours, a mix of defiance and something else—something like regret—shimmering in their depths.

“Thaumas,” he said, his voice strained. “I didn’t think you’d come.”

“Why, Tharos?” Thaumas’s voice was a blend of anger and sorrow. “Why betray us? Betray your own blood?”

Tharos’s gaze shifted to me, and his expression hardened. “You don’t understand. None of you do. Thaumas left us, abandoned his duty to chase stars and humans. We needed someone who would put Raptoria first.”

“And you thought aligning with our enemies was the way to do that?” I snapped, my grip tightening on my rifle. “You put everyone at risk, Tharos. Your own family.”

His eyes flickered with uncertainty, but he quickly masked it. “I did what I thought was right. For Raptoria.”

Thaumas took a step forward, his wings spreading slightly in a display of dominance. “This isn’t the way, Tharos. We need to stand united against the Necrontyr, not tear each other apart.”

Tharos’s gaze dropped to the table, his shoulders slumping. “It’s too late,” he muttered. “They’ll come for me. For all of us.”

I exchanged a glance with Thaumas, a silent understanding passing between us. We needed Tharos’s cooperation if we were going to expose the full extent of the conspiracy. And that meant giving him a reason to trust us.

“We can protect you,” I said, my voice steady. “But you need to help us. Tell us everything. Who else is involved?”

Tharos looked up, his eyes filled with a mixture of desperation and hope. “There’s a meeting tonight. In the old armory. That’s where they’ll be.”

Thaumas nodded, his expression softening slightly. “Thank you, brother. We’ll make this right.”

As we left the chamber, I felt a surge of determination. We had a lead, a chance to expose the traitors and rally the clans. But time was against us, and the stakes had never been higher.

“We need to set a trap,” I said as we made our way back to our quarters. “Catch them in the act.”

Thaumas nodded, his mind already working through the details. “We’ll need to hurry. And we’ll need allies we can trust.”

The hours that followed were a blur of preparation and whispered conversations. Thaumas and I gathered a small group of trusted warriors, outlining our plan with meticulous detail. There was no room for error; one misstep could spell disaster.

As night fell, we gathered our small team of loyal warriors. Each of them knew their role, each of them ready to lay down their lives for Raptoria. Thaumas and I led the way, the old armory our destination. The darkness enveloped us, the air thick with anticipation and the faint scent of rain.

We reached the armory and positioned ourselves strategically, hidden among the shadows. Every creak, every whisper seemed magnified in the tense silence. My pulse rifle felt heavy in my hands, a reminder of the battles we’d faced and the ones still to come.

The traitors arrived, their voices low as they discussed their plans. I strained to catch every word, my heart pounding in my chest. Thaumas’s presence beside me was a steadying force, his determination a beacon in the darkness.

“Loran’s death has set us back,” one traitor said, frustration clear in his voice. “We need to strike, before Thaumas consolidates his power.”

“We have the support of several clans,” another replied. “But we need more. We need to sow doubt, undermine his authority.”

Thaumas’s eyes met mine, a silent signal. It was time.

With a swift, fluid motion, Thaumas stepped from the shadows, his wings flaring wide. “Looking for me?”

The traitors froze, their eyes widening in shock and fear. Before they could react, our warriors moved in, weapons drawn, surrounding them in a tight circle.

“This ends now,” Thaumas said, his voice ringing with authority. “You’re all under arrest for treason against Raptoria.”

But something was wrong. As we began to disarm and restrain the traitors, a sudden explosion of movement shattered the tense silence. One traitor, a wiry griffin with a scar running down his beak, lunged at me with a blade.

Reflex took over. I fired my pulse rifle, but he was fast, too fast. The shot went wide, and his blade slashed across my arm. Pain flared, but I didn’t have time to register it. Thaumas roared, a sound of pure fury, and tackled the attacker, feathers flying in a whirl of motion.

Chaos erupted. The remaining traitors fought back with a desperate ferocity surprising our warriors. I tried to bring my rifle to bear again, but a sharp pain hit my head and all went black.

I awoke with the healers placing a cold pack on my head. Thaumas knelt beside me.

“We were ambushed,” he said, his voice tight with anger and fear. “They knew we were coming. Someone tipped them off.”

I nodded weakly as the pieces fell into place. The plan had gone awry, putting me in grave danger. But we were still alive, and that meant we still had a chance.

“We need to regroup,” I whispered, my voice a raspy croak. “Find the traitor.”

Thaumas’s gaze hardened, a fierce determination blazing in his eyes. “We will. And we’ll make them pay.”

eighteen

. . .

Thaumas

The cold steel of my blade clashed against the traitors, sparks flying in the dim light of the armory. My heart raced, pounding in time with the frantic beat of my wings. Katarina was in danger, and every second counted.

“You’ll pay for this, Tharos!” I snarled, my voice a guttural roar. “How could you betray us? Your own family?”

Tharos’s eyes glinted with a madness I had never seen before, a twisted mix of ambition and resentment. “You were always the favored son, Thaumas. The golden child. But no more. Raptoria deserves a true leader, not a weakling blinded by love for a human.”

His words stung, but I pushed the pain aside. There would be time for reckoning later. Now, all that mattered was reaching Katarina.

I surged forward, my talons raking across Tharos’s face. He howled in pain, staggering back. I pressed my advantage, raining down blows with a fury born of desperation. Around us, the sounds of battle raged, loyal warriors clashing with the traitors who had infiltrated our ranks.

A cry pierced the chaos, a sound that chilled me to my core. Katarina. I whirled, my eyes scanning the room. There, in the far corner, I saw her. She was on her knees, one hand pressed to her side, crimson blooming beneath her fingers. A hulking griffin loomed over her, his blade poised for the killing blow.

“No!” The word tore from my throat, raw and primal. I lunged, my wings propelling me across the room. I slammed into the attacker, sending us both tumbling to the ground. We grappled, talons and blades flashing in a deadly dance.

I heard Katarina’s voice, weak but determined. “Thaumas, behind you!”

I spun just in time to parry Tharos’s blade. He had followed me, a malevolent grin on his bloodied face. “You can’t save her, brother. You can’t even save yourself.”

We clashed again, our blades meeting in a shower of sparks. I could feel my strength waning, the toll of the battle weighing heavy on my limbs. But I couldn’t falter. Not now. Not with Katarina’s life hanging in the balance.

“Thaumas!” Her cry was a rallying call, a reminder of what I was fighting for. I summoned the last of my reserves, a last surge of energy. With a roar that shook the very stones of the armory, I unleashed a flurry of blows, driving Tharos back.

He stumbled, his guard slipping for a fraction of a second. It was all I needed. My blade found its mark, plunging deep into his chest. His eyes widened, a look of shock and disbelief etched on his face.

“You... you can’t...” he gasped, blood bubbling from his lips.

I leaned in close, my voice a whisper. “I just did.”

I wrenched my blade free, letting Tharos crumple to the ground. I didn’t spare him another glance. My heart, my soul, focused solely on one thing.

“Katarina!” I raced to her side, gathering her in my arms. She was pale, her breathing shallow. But her eyes, those brilliant, defiant eyes, met mine with a fierce intensity.

“I knew you’d come,” she murmured, her hand reaching up to caress my cheek. “I never doubted you.”

I held her close, my wings enfolding us in a cocoon of warmth and safety. Around us, the battle was winding down, the last of the traitors falling to the blades of our loyal warriors. But at that moment, the world fell away. There was only Katarina, her heart beating in tandem with mine.

“I’ll always come for you,” I whispered, my voice rough with emotion. “Always.”

She smiled, a weak but radiant curve of her lips. “I know. That’s why I love you, Thaumas.”

The words, spoken with such simple certainty, struck me like a thunderbolt. Love. It was a force I had never truly understood, a power I had never dared to wield. But with Katarina, it felt as natural as breathing, as essential as the air in my lungs.

“I love you too, Kat. More than anything in this world or any other.”

The aftermath of the botched ambush still weighed heavily on my mind as Katarina lay beside me, her breath shallow but steady. The infirmary was eerily quiet, the soft hum of the medical equipment the only sound breaking the silence. I watched the steady rise and fall of her chest, my heart a tangle of fear and fury.

How had we been so easily deceived? Someone within our ranks had betrayed us, tipping off the traitors and putting Katarina’s life in jeopardy. I clenched my fists, the rage and helplessness nearly overwhelming me. I needed answers, and more than that, I needed to ensure Katarina’s safety.

A soft groan pulled me from my thoughts. Her eyes fluttered open, meeting mine with a mixture of pain and determination. “Thaumas,” she whispered, her voice barely audible, “we can’t let them win.”

I took her hand in mine, squeezing gently. “We won’t, Kat. I promise you, we won’t.”

Her gaze hardened, a spark of defiance in her eyes. “Then we need to find out who betrayed us. And we need to do it fast.”

I nodded, my resolve solidifying. Katarina was right. We had no time to waste. The traitors were still out there, and as long as they remained hidden, everyone we cared about was at risk.

“Rest now,” I said, brushing a stray lock of hair from her forehead. “I’ll take care of this.”

She nodded weakly, a slight smile playing on her lips. “Be careful.”

I leaned down, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Always.”

Leaving the infirmary, I summoned Varkos, and a select few of my most trusted warriors. We convened in a secluded chamber, the tension palpable.

“We have a mole,” I began, my voice low and steely. “Someone warned the traitors about our ambush. We need to root them out, and we need to do it now.”

Varkos’s feathers bristled with anger. “Do you have any leads?”

I shook my head. “None yet. But we start with those who knew about our plan. Question them thoroughly. No one is above suspicion.”

The warriors nodded, their expressions grim. They understood the stakes. This was more than just a matter of loyalty; it was a matter of survival.

We spent hours interrogating the warriors and advisors who had been privy to our plan. Each denial felt like a knife twisting deeper in my gut. I wanted to believe them, to trust in their loyalty, but one of them had already betrayed us.

As the night wore on, fatigue set in. I rubbed my eyes, the weight of leadership pressing down on me like a physical burden. Varkos approached, his expression guarded.

“Lord Thaumas,” he said, his voice hesitant. “There is one more person we haven’t questioned.”

I frowned, my mind racing through the list of those involved. “Who?”

He shifted uncomfortably. “Tharos.”

The name hit me like a punch to the gut. My brother, the one I had always tried to protect, the one I had left behind when I joined the Legion. The thought of Tharos being involved in this treachery was almost too painful to bear.

“I’ll handle it,” I said, my voice tighter than I intended. “Bring him to me.”

The wait felt interminable as the seconds stretched into agonizing minutes. When Tharos finally entered the chamber, his wings tightly folded against his back, his eyes met mine with a defiance that sent a chill down my spine.

“Thaumas,” he said, his voice strained. “What is this about?”

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to stay calm. “You know what this is about, Tharos. We were ambushed. Someone tipped off the traitors. I need to know if it was you.”

His eyes narrowed, a flash of anger crossing his face. “You think I would betray my brother? My family?”

I searched his face for any sign of deception, any crack in his facade. But all I saw was the same stubborn resolve that had always defined him.

“Do you swear on our blood, on our family name, that you had no part in this?” I asked, my voice trembling with the weight of the question.

Tharos’s gaze softened, a hint of sadness seeping into his expression. “I swear, Thaumas. I would never betray you.”

Relief washed over me, but it was short-lived. The betrayal still hung over us, an unseen specter threatening to tear us apart. I needed to find the truth, no matter how painful it might be.

“Then help me find the traitor,” I said, my voice firm. “We must stand united, now more than ever.”

Tharos nodded, a determined glint in his eye. “We will. For Raptoria.”

Days turned into a blur of investigations and sleepless nights. Katarina recovered quickly, her unwavering spirit a beacon of hope in the darkness. We pieced together fragments of information, following leads that seemed to lead nowhere. The traitor was elusive, slipping through our grasp like smoke.

nineteen

. . .

Thaumas

The roar of the assembled crowd echoed through the grand hall of Blacktalon Keep, a thunderous reminder of the weight now resting on my shoulders. Feathers prickled at the back of my neck as I stepped forward, the eyes of my kin and allies upon me. The air was thick with anticipation and the scent of victory, but beneath it all, a current of unease thrummed through my veins. My rightful place as leader was finally within reach, but with it came responsibilities and challenges unlike any I had faced before.

The council, a semicircle of the most influential figures in Raptoria, waited in solemn silence. My father, Lord Leion’ct, stood at the center, his expression a mix of pride and weariness. He had fought his own battles, both internal and external, to bring us to this moment, and now it was my time to take the mantle.

“Kinsfolk and allies,” my father began, his voice carrying the authority of years. “We gather here to witness the ascension of Thaumas, my son, to the position of Lord of Raptoria. His bravery and wisdom have been tested, his loyalty proven beyond doubt. It is time for him to lead us into a new era.”

I stepped forward, feeling the weight of every eye on me. The room seemed to hold its breath as my father placed the ceremonial blade in my hand, its hilt cool and reassuring. With that single gesture, they passed the legacy of our people to me.

“I vow to protect and guide Raptoria,” I declared, my voice steady and clear. “To uphold our traditions and lead us to greater heights. For Raptoria, for our future.”

The hall erupted in applause as the sound reverberated off the stone walls. My heart swelled with a mix of pride and determination. This was my destiny, and I would not falter.

As the ceremony continued, my gaze drifted to Katarina, standing near the front of the crowd. Her eyes locked with mine, a smile playing on her lips. She had been my rock through the trials we had faced, her strength and love a constant source of support. And now, as I took my place as leader, there was another promise to fulfill.

The grand ceremony that followed was a blur of ritual and celebration. Feathers brushed against my wings as well-wishers offered their congratulations. The air filled with the mingled scents of incense and flowers. But through it all, my focus remained on Katarina. Her presence was a beacon of warmth and light during the formality.

Finally, the moment I had been waiting for arrived. The hall fell silent as my father stood once more, his eyes meeting mine with a knowing glint. “There is one more matter to attend to,” he announced, his voice carrying a note of deep significance. “Thaumas, step forward.”

I did as he asked, feeling the weight of the ceremonial blade in my hand. My father turned to the crowd, his gaze sweeping over them. “Katarina, join us.”

Katarina stepped forward, her movements graceful and assured. There was a hush of anticipation as she reached my side, her hand slipping into mine. The warmth of her touch was a grounding force, a reminder of all we had fought for and won.

“My son and Katarina have proven their bond through fire and blood,” my father continued. “It is fitting that they be united not only in battle but in life. Thaumas, do you take Katarina as your mate, to stand by her in all things, to protect and cherish her as long as you both shall live?”

“I do,” I replied, my voice unwavering. The words felt like a promise, not just to her but to myself and to all of Raptoria.

“Katarina,” my father said, turning to her, “do you take Thaumas as your mate, to stand by him in all things, to protect and cherish him as long as you both shall live?”

“I do,” Katarina said, her voice clear and strong. Her eyes shone with love and determination, a mirror of my own feelings.

“Then, by the power vested in me as Lord of Raptoria, I pronounce you mates, bonded for life. May your union bring strength and prosperity to our people.”

The hall erupted in applause once more, the sound overwhelming. But at that moment, there was only Katarina and me. I leaned in, capturing her lips in a kiss that spoke of all the love, passion, and dreams we had shared. The world seemed to fade away, leaving only the two of us united in heart and soul.

As the celebrations continued, I found myself surrounded by well-wishers, their words of encouragement and advice blending into a comforting hum. But my thoughts kept returning to Katarina. Her presence was a balm to my soul, her love a beacon guiding me through the uncertainties that lay ahead.

Later, as the festivities wound down, and the moon rose high in the sky, Katarina and I stole away to a quiet corner of the keep. The cool night air was a welcome contrast to the heat of the grand hall, and we stood, looking out over the vast expanse of our homeland.

“Are you ready for this?” Katarina asked, her voice soft and filled with understanding.

I turned to her, my heart swelling with love. “With you by my side, I am ready for anything.”

As we stood there, wrapped in each other’s embrace, I knew that no matter the challenges that awaited us, we would face them as one. Our love, our commitment, and our shared vision for Raptoria would guide us forward, stronger and more united than ever before.

There will always be threats out there. We’re not too far from Reazus Prime and the bad guys lurk there looking for trouble. Other griffins there may lead them back to Raptoria, and when they do, we’ll be ready.

The dawn after the ceremony felt different. The weight of leadership had settled on my shoulders, but instead of feeling burdened, I felt invigorated. Katarina and I stood on the balcony of Blacktalon Keep, watching the first rays of sunlight break over the horizon. Below us, Raptoria spread out like a living tapestry, its people stirring to life, unaware of the monumental changes that had taken place within these stone walls.

“Ready for our next adventure?” Katarina’s voice broke through my reverie, her tone filled with a gentle tease.

I turned to her, the golden light playing on her features, making her seem almost otherworldly. “With you by my side, I’m ready for anything,” I replied, my words a promise and a vow.

Her smile was a balm to my soul, easing the remnants of the tension that had gripped me for so long. We had faced so much together, and now, as Lord and Lady of Raptoria, our challenges would be different but no less significant.

The hallways of Blacktalon Keep bustled with activity as preparations for our first council meeting were underway. As we made our way to the grand chamber, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride. This was our place now, our chance to shape the future of our people.

As I entered the council chamber, the advisors who had loyally served my father greeted me with solemn faces. They rose in unison, a sign of respect that I didn’t take lightly. Katarina stood beside me, her presence a silent testament to the changes we were bringing.

“Lord Thaumas, Lady Katarina,” my father began, his voice carrying the authority of years but tinged with a newfound respect for the woman who had stood by my side. “The council is ready to hear your plans for the future.”

I took a deep breath, feeling the weight of their expectations. “Our first priority is to ensure the loyalty of all clans. We need to mend the fractures that the recent betrayal has caused and build a unified front.”

Katarina stepped forward, her voice steady and confident. “We also need to focus on strengthening our alliances with neighboring territories. Trade, mutual defense pacts, and cultural exchanges will help solidify our position.”

The advisors nodded, their expressions a mix of surprise and approval. They hadn’t expected such a proactive approach from Katarina, but her insights were invaluable. We spent the next few hours outlining strategies, discussing potential threats, and planning for the future. The room buzzed with the energy of possibility, and I felt a renewed sense of purpose.

After the meeting, Katarina and I retreated to the keep’s private gardens, a place of tranquility amid the chaos. We walked among the blooming flowers. The air filled with the sweet scent of nature.

“Do you think they’ll accept our plans?” Katarina asked, her fingers entwining with mine.

We spent the rest of the day finalizing our plans, meeting with key figures, and ensuring that the transition of power was as smooth as possible. By nightfall, we were both exhausted but satisfied with the progress we’d made.

As we settled into our chambers, a sense of peace enveloped us. The room was dimly lit, the flicker of candlelight casting a warm glow. We had earned this moment of respite, a brief lull before the next wave of responsibilities crashed over us.

“Do you ever wonder what our lives would have been like if you hadn’t kidnapped met?” Katarina asked, breaking the comfortable silence.

I chuckled, pulling her close. “It was the best decision I ever made.”

The days that followed were a whirlwind of activity. We implemented our plans, reaching out to the clans, solidifying alliances, and ensuring that Raptoria was prepared for whatever lay ahead. Katarina’s insight and diplomacy proved invaluable. And we navigated the complex web of politics and power.

But amid the duties and responsibilities, we never lost sight of each other. We carved out moments of peace, stolen kisses in quiet corners, and shared laughter that echoed through the halls of Blacktalon Keep. Our bond grew stronger, a beacon of light that guided us through the darkest of times.

epilogue

. . .

Katarina

The twin moons of Reazus Prime hung low in the sky, casting an eerie glow over the bustling spaceport. The air was thick with the stench of desperation and the cries of the hopeless. I clung to Thaumas’s arm as we wove through the crowd, my heart pounding with a mix of fear and determination.

It had been months since I’d first broached the subject of returning to this wretched place. The memories of my abduction and near-enslavement were still fresh, a wound that had never fully healed. But I couldn’t ignore the plight of the other human women trapped in the vicious cycle of the Reazian slave trade.

“Are you sure about this, Kat?” Thaumas asked, his voice low and filled with concern. “We don’t have to do this. We can find another way.”

I shook my head, my resolve unwavering. “I need to do this, Thaumas. I can’t just turn my back on them. Not after everything I’ve been through.”

He nodded, understanding etched in the lines of his face.

We made our way to a seedy tavern on the outskirts of the port, a place where the dregs of society gathered to drink and deal in flesh. The air inside was thick with smoke and the stench of unwashed bodies. I fought the urge to gag as we pushed our way to the bar.

“We’re looking for information,” Thaumas said, his voice a low growl. “About the human women being sold as slaves.”

The bartender, a greasy-looking alien with too many eyes, leaned in close. “You’re playing a dangerous game, Griffin. The slave trade is big business around here. Folks don’t take kindly to outsiders poking their noses where they don’t belong.”

“We’re not afraid of a little danger,” I said, my voice steady despite the fear churning in my gut. “We’re here to help those women. To give them a chance at freedom.”

The bartender studied us for a long moment, his gaze calculating. “There’s a big auction happening tonight. High-end merchandise, if you catch my drift. But it’s invitation only. You’ll need to find a way in.”

Thaumas slid a pouch of credits across the bar. “Consider this our invitation.”

The bartender snatched up the pouch, his eyes gleaming with greed. “The old warehouse on the edge of town. Be there at midnight. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

We left the tavern, our hearts heavy with the knowledge of what lay ahead. The old warehouse loomed before us, a hulking beast of rusted metal and shattered glass. The sounds of raucous laughter and cruel jeers spilled out into the night, a sickening symphony of human suffering.

“Remember the plan,” Thaumas whispered as we approached the entrance. “We get in, we find the women, and we get out. No heroics.”

I nodded, my hand tightening around the hilt of my blade. We had come too far to fail now.

Inside, the warehouse was a nightmare made flesh. Cages lined the walls, each one containing a terrified human woman. Their eyes were hollow, their spirits broken by the cruelty they had endured. My heart ached for them, for the pain and degradation they had suffered.

We moved through the crowd, our eyes scanning for any sign of the women we sought. Thaumas’s hand never left mine, a silent reassurance that we were in this together.

And then I saw her. A young woman with fiery red hair and defiant green eyes. She stood tall despite the chains that bound her, her spirit unbroken. Our eyes met across the room, and in that moment, I knew we had to save her.

“There,” I whispered to Thaumas, pointing to the cage. “That’s one of them.”

He nodded, his jaw set with determination. “Let’s do this.”

What followed was a blur of chaos and violence. We fought our way through the crowd, our blades flashing in the dim light. The slavers fell before us, their blood staining the floor. We reached the cage, and with a mighty roar, Thaumas tore the door from its hinges.

“Come with us,” I said to the woman, holding out my hand. “We’re here to help.”

She hesitated for only a moment before taking my hand, her grip strong and sure. We led her and the other women out of the warehouse, fighting off any who dared to stand in our way.

In the end, we emerged victorious, the woman safe, and the slavers defeated. As we watched them board the transport ship that would take them to freedom, I felt a sense of profound satisfaction. We had made a difference, no matter how small.

Here is my attempt at continuing the story for about 500 words:

The woman with the fiery red hair clung to my arm as we made our way back to the ship, her eyes wide with a mix of fear and hope. “Thank you,” she whispered, her voice hoarse from disuse. “I never thought I’d be free again.”

I squeezed her hand, feeling a rush of empathy for all she had endured. “You’re safe now. We’ll make sure you get back home.”

Thaumas walked ahead, his wings flared protectively as he scanned for any signs of pursuit. We dealt the slavers a blow tonight, but we both knew they wouldn’t take this defeat lightly. We had to get off Reazus Prime before they regrouped and came after us.

Once aboard the ship, I settled the woman - who introduced herself as Aria - into a spare cabin, making sure she had everything she needed. The look of gratitude on her face as I handed her a warm meal nearly brought tears to my eyes. No one should have to suffer as she had.

With Aria safe and sound, I made my way to the bridge where Thaumas was prepping for takeoff. He glanced up as I entered, his golden eyes softening at the sight of me. “You were amazing back there, Kat. Those women owe you their lives.”

I smiled, feeling a rush of love and contentment wash over me. After all we had been through, all the challenges we had faced, moments like these made it all worthwhile.

As the ship lifted off, leaving the squalor of Reazus Prime behind, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease. We had struck a blow against the slave trade today, but I knew it was only the beginning. There were countless more women out there, trapped and suffering, waiting for someone to save them.

I glanced over at Thaumas, seeing the same determination etched on his face. We both knew this fight was far from over. But we would keep fighting, keep pushing back against the darkness until every woman was free.

For now, though, our path led back to Thaumas’s home world of Raptoria. With his ascension to Lord, there was much work to be done to secure a brighter future for our people. Trade agreements to negotiate, alliances to forge, and a society to rebuild in the wake of his brother’s betrayal.

It wouldn’t be easy, but I knew we were up to the challenge. With Thaumas by my side, I felt like I could take on the universe itself.

As the stars streaked by outside the viewport, I let my mind wander to the future that lay ahead. A future filled with love, adventure, and the unwavering knowledge that as long as we had each other, there was nothing we couldn’t face.

Thaumas’s hand tightened around mine, a silent promise that whatever lay ahead, we would face it. Lord and Lady Griffin, partners in all things, ready to take on whatever the universe threw our way.

I leaned my head against his shoulder, feeling the warmth of his presence wash over me. “Take us home, my love. Let’s see what adventures await.”

eden ember

Eden Ember found her passion in writing sci-fi romance. She spends her days either pounding on the keyboard or dreaming up the next stories. Her active imagination never lets up and the perfect outlet comes through in her books.

*Join Eden Ember’s exclusive reader’s list*

- New Books, Hot Sales, and Freebies

- Eden’s reader giveaways

- EXCLUSIVE sneak peeks at upcoming novels

- First look at Covers

- Who Eden Recommends (Love me some SCI FI Romance!)

YES! Please Add Me to Eden’s List!

EdenEmber.com

Eden Ember on FaceBook

Follow Eden Ember on Amazon

Follow Eden Ember on BookBub

outlaw planet mates

Don’t miss out on the rest of the series! They are standalone books and can be read in any order.

Outlaw Planet Mates on Amazon.

And check out The Hub reader’s group on Facebook for news about the rest of the series: https://www.facebook.com/groups/854826322125572