Authors: Evanne Lorraine
The big guy didn’t laugh at his lame attempt at lightening the sitch. Instead he pushed up his sleeve and flexed an awe-inspiring bicep. “My tattoo still reads F-class, and there’s been no message informing me of change in status. Under the circumstances, it is illogical to assume the match communication is anything other than a system error.”
“I don’t care about logic. Until someone tells me different, I’m the luckiest space jock flying,” Jaxon grumbled.
His bud almost smiled. “For your sake, I hope the message is semi
-accurate.”
Jaxon nodded, keeping his grin wide. “I’m going
try to boost the forward shields.”
“Nothing lost in the attempt,” Aegis said without any real conviction.
As soon as Jaxon cleared the cabin, his mouth curved downward. Semi-accurate wouldn’t cut it for him. He wanted the breeder, but this was a new want—a hunger that did nothing to lessen his feelings for Aegis. Getting it on with both of them at the same time was his ultimate fantasy.
A fantasy he damn well planned to make come true.
Aegis kept his attention on the display while waiting for Jaxon to leave. The ship’s computer showed the defensive barriers at ninety percent of maximum effectiveness.
“Might be condensation in the circuits.”
Jaxon hovered in the hatchway.
“Possible,” Aegis allowed, mourning the theoretical waste of water. A minor leak could mean the loss of gallons and further sanitizer restriction
when regular showers were the only thing keeping him sane.
“I won’t claim her without you.” Jaxon muttered.
Aegis swallowed a sentimental lump of distress. “You must think of the woman.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to hurt her.” His friend shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
Aegis recognized the familiar sign of his friend’s discomfort. The warrior needed time and privacy to assimilate the match.
“
You will do the right thing.”
Jaxon nodded, clearly not convinced
“
Now please ensure the circuitry is dry.”
“I’m on it.”
He wriggled his broad shoulders through the narrow opening and disappeared into the ship’s underbelly.
Though alone in the cabin,
Aegis dared not drop the glamour he had maintained for years. The last survivor of his Tethysian race, Aegis had vowed to avenge his family before he died. Called demons by the humans, his people had been hunted almost to extinction. New Eden, as the other free worlds, had classified them inaccurately as a violent, non-humanoid species. Considered a clear and eminent danger to all intelligent life forms his kind lived under threat immediate execution.
The
only safety lay in maintaining the illusion of humanity. No matter how much he cared for Jaxon, disclosing his natural form would put his friend in the untenable position of having to choose between honor and friendship.
A whoosh of compressed air yanked Aegis back to the present moment. The hum of a handheld vacuum followed, indicating Jaxon recovered the precious water.
For such a large man, his co-pilot had a deft touch with delicate instruments needed to maintain the craft’s systems. The drawback to his friend’s size was the subtle pressure of the warrior’s probe whenever they made contact. In the tight quarters of the fighter, brushes and bumps happened.
Thanks to whatever gods might be listening, Jaxon could not read his thoughts the way he did everyone else’s.
For almost four years, Aegis had resisted the temptation to ease his need in the warrior’s perfect body. His relief would have soon faded, but the only true friendship he had known since leaving Hakan, his home planet, would be shattered forever and Jaxon’s life ruined.
An echo of his mother’s screams as the mage squeezed the life out of his father’s heart
still played in his mind. The smell of royal Baldorean blood dripping from his mother’s claws after she’d slashed the mage’s right cheek remained fresh and potent. The memory lost none of its power during the passing decades. Aegis’s drive to deliver justice to his enemies canceled even the pull of Jaxon’s charms.
When he regained
full control of his emotions, he wondered if his friend would be able to read the Earth woman.
Camille appeared to have a strong will. He hoped she pair
ed with Jaxon. Such a match would be the best possible outcome. The warrior deserved someone free to love.
Aegis closed his eyes and let go of the selfish desire to keep Jaxon with him. No matter how much he cared, he couldn’t be more than a friend to anyone.
Certainly not the beautiful Jaxon, whose gleaming bronze skin rippled over steely muscles and strong bones. His eyes were dark pools of erotic hunger when he thought himself unobserved.
A few moments of bliss were not enough reason to destroy his best friend.
As certain as the seven hells burned sinners, he could not be near a beautiful Earth woman designed to breed. Even with limited contact with such a one, his body would override his honorable intentions. He was a survivor—a burden he had begged whatever gods existed to take from him—and he was a realist. Some wounds never healed.
H
e lived to avenge his family. This meant killing as many Baldoreans as possible, especially H’nai, his parents killer. When the evil one was nothing other than a bad memory, Aegis could die content.
New Eden’s Space Corps
battled the same enemy, which was why he had enlisted four years ago. The simple truth was he would have served the great Satan himself if that was what it took to deliver death to the blood mage.
Jaxon angled his shoulders to pass through the narrow hatchway. “
I found a few drops of condensation and blew off the circuits.”
After a quick scan of the shields rating, Aegis cocked
one eyebrow. “The vessel’s functions are at ninety-eight per cent—a slight improvement.”
“Don’t try to cheer me up.”
Aegis shrugged. “I made a statement of fact. What happened to your elation?”
“I’ve been thinking.”
He resisted the easy opening, waiting for his friend to continue.
Jaxon scowled. “You might have a point about the match thing.”
“That the message was in error?”
“Yeah, probably someone’s idea of a joke.”
“I do not understand
the humor in the sending of such a notification.” Aegis’s features scrunched into an angry glower, to echo Jaxon’s outrage or express his own? Either way strong emotion further eroded his control, bringing the threat of exposure closer. He smoothed his human illusion back to calm.
“It’s not funny.” Jaxon shrugged. “Just some clown’s idea of a laugh. We get kitted out in full dress uniform, march into a mating ceremony, and get ourselves kicked right back out. Huge chuckles for some sick bastard.”
“Is there a specific date for the ceremony?”
“Nah, only the match number and our names.
Just for grins and giggles, I’m going check and see if we’re on the mating roster.” Jaxon activated the social calendar and keyed in the number from the original message. His eyes widened in surprise. “Gods damn me for a fool.”
“Your name is not on the list?”
“Nah, I’m there all right, big as life and twice as stupid. So are you, my man.” A small tic twitched in Jaxon’s left cheek.
“The message
is accurate?” Aegis’s jaw loosened for a second before he caught the lapse and snapped it closed.
Jaxon glowered at the comlink. “Looks like.”
After a few seconds of contemplation, Aegis conceded defeat. Unfortunately he didn’t read Jaxon any better than his friend read him. He quit trying to puzzle out his friend’s behavior. “Then why are you no longer elated?”
“Ceremony
happened this morning.”
Aegis’s brow wrinkled again as he considered the illogic of sending notice of a match too late to claim the female. “Check the date on the GAIS hologram. The calendar may be in error.”
A data malfunction of some description was a strong possibility. If the genetic program had truly analyzed Aegis’s DNA, he would have been ousted from the Space Corps and summarily executed. Although their common enemy the Baldoreans were the chief reason for his people’s endangered species status, Aegis had no illusion that the good citizens of New Eden would suffer a demon to live.
Jaxon’s scowl vanished as he thumbed through the incoming
comm log. “GAIS message received at thirteen hundred today. Hold on a sec. Accessed at fifteen hundred, not bad, considering we were in two dogfights.” He paused, checking another register. “Damn, the notification was dated last week.”
“
Subspace interference likely caused the communication delay.”
“
Sure, bud. That ain’t gonna make her feel better about gettin’ left high and dry. We need to track her down and do some real fast talkin’.”
“Then I hope she
is inked.” Every New Eden resident received an identifying tattoo. The ink used for the mark included nano-chips that allowed location monitoring.
Jaxon nodded grimly.
“Right.”
A blast from the ship’s alarm ended the
ir discussion.
As Aegis scrambled through the tight passage to the tail fighting chair, he considered his friend’s pain for failing his mate. His own
pride had been stripped long ago when he’d stayed quiet and hidden during his family’s slaughter. His only hope for redemption lay in avenging their deaths.
By the time he slid into
his harness, he had channel the ancient pain into lethal energy. His aim was uncanny. In rapid succession, three of the enemy’s fighters exploded from his blasts.
“Should I take a nap? Or do you plan to let me shoot some Eagles?” Jaxon yelled from the
ship’s nose.
“Kill any enemy craft that escapes my blaster.”
Another pair of Baldorean fighters swooped into range. Aegis blasted one out of the sky. The second’s hull rippled with the force of a solid hit, but the craft’s shields held.
Deceptively quiet interior thuds followed as Jaxon fired. “
Thanks, bud. For a while there I thought you weren’t gonna share the fun.”
Aegis bit back a grin at his friend’s mocking bravado. Three years, eleven months, two weeks, one day, and twelve hours ago, he had met Jaxon. After the first hour, he fought to resist his copilot’s charms.
The warrior’s appeal never lessened.
Again he reminded himself that acting on the attraction simmering between them
meant the destruction of their friendship. Of almost equal importance, if such a forbidden relationship happened and was discovered, it would finish Jaxon’s Space Corps career. To risk his own personal disgrace was acceptable. To ruin his friend’s life was not.
The Earth woman, a breeder deliberately designed to inflame a man’s natural desires, added a dangerous complication.
She pulled at Aegis like the moons ruled the tides. Breeding instincts ran strong in Tethysian males. Such a powerful a reaction to a hologram concerned him. In person, she would be more difficult to resist.
His cock twitched behind its pocket, the weakness of desire constant and undeniable. He shuddered with shame at
the loss of control.
Jaxon’s honor
must remain unsullied. A tri-bond would rip away Aegis’s veil of humanity even faster than a forbidden sexual liaison with his co-pilot. Participation in the double match meant disaster for Jaxon and the lovely Camille. Aegis couldn’t live with such a stain on his soul.
In addition, there had recently been rumor
ed peace talks with Baldor. The tri-mating added conviction to his growing awareness he need to find an alternative venue to wage his private war. Their next furlough started tomorrow. He would resign his commission and seek another way to destroy the enemy.
A pair of Eagle fighters screamed into range. Aegis reacted without thought, taking aim and firing in quick bursts. The vessels exploded without returning fire.
Then a Baldorean Lion loomed in front of him. The warship was heavily shielded and even more heavily armed. Jaxon, he, and their fighter would soon be blown into cosmic dust unless they could outmaneuver the huge craft.
Distances in space were deceptive.
He had no more than three seconds to take evasive action. He seized control, locking out the ship’s computer and Jaxon then dove under the larger ship.
“Fighter’s not responding. What in the seven hells happened?” Jaxon yelled.
“Hold on,” Aegis grated as centrifugal force slammed him into this chair and made speech difficult.
He reversed the thrusters, quickly killing the power during the split second the engine kicked in. The ship quivered to a dead stop directly beneath the warship’s vulnerable underside. He sighted in on the duranium fuel line, following it to the vessel’s main engine. Already pulling the Fire button, he emptied the blaster. When the last pulse left the weapon, he dove again.
Angling hard to port, he pushed the engine past maximum power. The craft shook under his palm, bucking against his too-rapid demands. Above them the enemy vessel shimmered and rippled as the blasters hits imploded.
Though clear of the Lion, the
y failed to clear the danger zone. The first shock wave sent the small fighter tumbling out of control.