Savage Prince by Alison Aimes

18

Fury slammed through Maxheim.

Tess’s reaction told him all he needed to know about the fucker who’d just disabled the Federation ship.

A moment ago, she’d been staring up at him with a just-fucked flush and big, gorgeous violet eyes. Her gaze full of the kind of warmth and wonder he’d intended to ensure was there every rotation—if not two to three times a rotation—when bam, it all disappeared.

“Byrel.” Knot retracting at the very thought of the asshole, Maxheim lifted Tess off his cock and, shoving his dick back inside, laced up his trousers.

Just as another warning shot off to the side shook the ship. Everything tilted.

Tucking her beneath him, Maxheim rolled and took the brunt of the hit as they slid into the base of one of the pilot chairs.

Fucker was going to get her killed trying to get her back.

“You okay?” He swiped her hair out of the way and did his best to give her a quick once over.

Her breathing escalated, her perfect tits mashed against his chest and rising fast.

“It’s Rav.” Her eyes were darkened by fear, but she looked physically unharmed. “I recognize his voice.”

“Yes. He traced you through the tracker inside you.”

She sucked in a harsh breath. If she’d harbored any doubts about whether Byrel was truly her owner, the bastard’s actions had just confirmed it. Only the owner of the tracker had access to its beacon.

“He really did betray me.” Her voice shook. “It’s finally real.”

Not quite the way Maxheim had hoped their post-rut basking would go.

He honestly hadn’t expected Rav to take such a big risk and come into Federation territory when he had to know the soldiers—and a death squad—were after him.

That he’d come for Tess anyway left Maxheim wanting to slam his fist into the shuttle wall.

Instead, he handed her back her blanket. “Cover yourself.” He couldn’t wait to get her some damn clothes.

“Send her to me now, Skolov.” Byrel’s voice echoed through the ship, thin and jingly thanks to the voice amplification device he was using. “Federation backup won’t arrive for at least thirty minutes, and I’ve disabled the ship’s weapons. You’ve got nothing to fight back with and nowhere to go.”

That’s where the fucker was wrong.

Byrel clearly had no idea about his brothers.

No surprise. Maxheim had wanted his enemies to think he and Tess were on their own.

The plan called for his brothers to purposely look as if they’d fled the Federation soldiers and gone for backup—only to circle back once their enemies’ guard was down. Then, taking the transpo shuttle by surprise, his brothers would help Maxheim free himself and his omega.

Thanks to the gassing, Maxheim hadn’t been able to wait for their arrival.

But they’d get here soon enough. Long before the Federation back up, and way before Byrel became an issue.

Just in case, Maxheim fired up his comms and typed out a new plan. But rather than urging Damien and Alexi to speed up, he told them to slow down.

Byrel wasn’t an idiot. He would never be accommodating enough to stick around and let himself be caught once he detected an arriving ship in the area, but that didn’t mean Maxheim couldn’t put his enemy’s unexpected appearance to good use.

Byrel didn’t know it yet—he thought he was the one with the advantage—but in his zeal to get Tess back, he’d just made a huge mistake and handed Maxheim a golden opportunity.

One Maxheim would now put to good use.

“We need to speak with him.” Tess turned toward the door.

Maxheim caught her arm and whipped her back around. “You’re not getting within a thousand feet of that scum.”

Her chin lifted. “He has answers we both need.”

“I’ll get them.”

“I need to confront him myself. I need to understand.”

And they needed to stall.

But still . . .

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Every bone in Maxheim’s body screamed in protest at involving her.

She’d come to him. Purred for him. Made her choice.

But he could tell she needed this, a reckoning with the male who’d hurt her.

Except what if Byrel only hurt her more?

A different memory emerged. One of him hovering over Alexi when his brother was learning to walk, catching him every time he fell—until Nikolai shoved him in the back of the head and told him to get a fucking grip, that it was necessary for the kid to fall.

Sure enough, Alexi had gone down hard the next time. A total face plant that had left him howling—until he’d shoved to his feet and stood on his own, his smile so wide and full of pride it was easy to see the bleeding hole where the kid had knocked out his baby fang in the process.

Maxheim had forgotten that memory until now.

He suspected that over the years, as the risks had piled up and the stakes rose, he’d forgotten the lesson behind it too.

It wasn’t in his nature to sit back. But for Tess, he’d try.

As long as it happened on his terms.

He blew out a breath. “Okay, you can talk to him.”

She started, her nose crinkling in surprise. She hadn’t expected him to concede even that. He suspected his family wouldn’t have believed it, either.

“But you’re definitely not going out there.” He moved toward the main modem in the Federation control room. “Give me a second. I’ll reroute this to match his signal. Then, you’ll be able to communicate from here.”

Relief brightened in her gaze. “Even better.”

And the only way he was allowing it.

But he kept that last part to himself.

Pulling out wires and reconnecting others, he worked fast. He had no idea how much time he had until Byrel got impatient and took another shot at the ship. He knew the guy would never lob a direct hit and hurt Tess, but the bastard could do a lot of damage by accident.

“If we’re lucky,” he explained his plan as he worked, “I can lock on the signal he’s using to track you and return the favor. Then, we’ll be able to follow him and pin down a location without him knowing. It will be a game changer, making it impossible for him to hide from us as long as he’s tracking you.”

“You can do that? All from fiddling beneath there?”

He winked at her from under the console. “I’m good at a lot of things with my hands. You know that.”

She flushed, her nipples going tight.

His dick responded, pushing at the seam of his trousers. The need to be inside her, to make her smile, to make her burn and scream his name, was his new favorite calling.

She may not have realized it yet, but he was eroding her defenses bit by bit, laying siege to the pieces of herself she guarded so fiercely. However, now was not the time for another frontal strike, but rather a subtler engagement—even if his dick did not agree.

Through sheer force of will, he forced back the urge to rut. “You ready?”

She nodded.

He jumped up to stand by her side. “Keep him distracted. Stall as long as possible. It may take a bit for my tracer to find and lock on his signal. But don’t worry, my brothers are on their way. They’ll arrive before the Federation backup as planned.”

“As planned?” She looked stunned.

“Plan C, D, and E.” He winked once more. “With a few modifications. We just need a little time.” He took a deep breath. “You ready?”

The comms monitor in the room blinked on. Then, a moment later, Rav’s silver-skinned face came into view.

The asshole was busy yelling into the voice amplification device, but he cut off in mid-sentence as his monitor filled with Tess’s image. Maxheim had purposely stepped off to the side, but he could still see his enemy.

Byrel was older than Maxheim, with a few more lines and some gray threaded in his dark hair. He was also slighter, but still heavily muscled, with the kind of hard, cold eyes that came from battling every rotation to survive. His pupils though were pinpricks, a sure sign of a Xtatal addiction.

“Tessie, is that you?” The fucker lurched close to the screen, an actual look of concern painted on his devious face. “Has Skolov hurt you? Did that bastard touch you?” His voice rose to a roar. “Did he fuck you?”

It took everything inside Maxheim not to shove himself in front of the screen and pound his chest and tell the fucker that’s exactly what he’d done. Over and over.

But unlike him, Tess played it cool. “Where are my friends?”

The lines at the corners of Byrel’s eyes tightened. “They’re fine. Safe and sound in my keeping. Worried about you—and thankful we’re all going to be reunited soon. One big happy family. Now, answer my damned questions. Did that bastard put his dick inside you?”

She didn’t take the bait. “So, you had a ship all along. Another truth you kept from me.”

“It’s not what you think,” protested Byrel.

“I think you pretended for years that you were my friend and all that time you lied to me. Used me.”

“I fucking saved you!”

“You nearly destroyed me.” Her breathing hitched. “The Feds told me. There’s no Aldar. Only you.”

Rav’s eyes narrowed. “Stay away from the Feds. Commander Anderson is an asshole and Hawke even worse.”

“You’re not my owner anymore.”

Maxheim was proud of her.

“I wanted to tell you.” Byrel was busy trying to explain the unexplainable. “I knew you wouldn’t understand.”

“Understand what? That all these years you were playing some sick game.” Her voice broke. “Why?”

Crack. Maxheim looked down and realize he’d squeezed the edge of the desk so hard it broke. Fuck. He’d rather have boiling lava poured over his balls than hear the sorrow in her voice.

“Why?” Tess shouted at Rav again. “That time I was put in the dark cell and left for dead. Was that your doing?”

“No. That’s the whole reason I did what I did.” Rav spoke fast, his voice low and defensive. “You were still a kid. I was seventeen. Aldar told me if I didn’t do what he wanted, he’d let you die in that dark cage. I refused to let that happen.”

“My hero.” She sounded so bitter it actually made Maxheim nervous. That depth of hurt was going to be hard to get beyond.

Rav pretended not to notice. “I did what I had to do. I made a deal with someone far more influential than Aldar. I agreed to do his dirty work and go after the Skolovs and, in return, he backed my power grab. That was the same rotation I killed Aldar and pulled you from that cage. Because of what I did, you lived.”

The storm inside Maxheim raged higher.

Tess was alive, but the twins had paid the price. His enemy had destroyed two souls he cared about to save the life of someone else important to him.

How did one come to grips with a revelation like that?

He’d told himself to be tactical and non-emotional. He’d said to stall. It was proving harder than expected.

Maxheim checked his comms. Less than nineteen minutes away and closing in fast. He checked the signal on his tracer. No lock yet.

“I did what I did for you, Tessie.” Byrel was still insisting. “Can’t you see that?”

Maxheim opened his mouth to step in, but Tess got there first. “Tell me the name of your employer.”

Genuine panic sparked in Byrel’s gaze. “Forget he exists, Tessie. He’s more dangerous than you can imagine.”

“If the Skolovs can take him out, it will only benefit you.”

“Do you think I haven’t thought of that?” He scoffed. “I’d give them the bastard’s name in a heartbeat, but I don’t know who he is. He always communicates via a secure line and blurs his face and voice. The funds deposited into my account are equally impossible to trace. He’s a damned ghost, and despite all my efforts to track and kill him before he became a problem for me and you, Tessie, I couldn’t find him.”

That was a clue in itself, mused Maxheim.

Tess pressed on. “Then, tell me about the twins.”

“And lose my only bargaining chip? I don’t think so.” Byrel’s eyes filled with hate. “I know that bastard is listening just off the screen. Thinking he’s won. But I’m not giving him a damned thing he wants until he gives me what I want.”

“I didn’t think you could be so cruel. Those are children.”

“Just like we were. You think anyone gave a shit about us? I did what I had to do to keep us safe. I still am.” His expression hardened. “He’s Brotherhood, and you killed his kind. They don’t forget or forgive. If I tell him what he wants, you’re dead, and so am I.”

“Shut the hells up, Byrel.” Maxheim pushed into the screen view and spoke over the fucker. Mostly because Tess had gone disturbingly silent. “I would never harm her.” He ripped off the leather band at his wrist and shoved it into the monitor. “She’s mine.”

Byrel’s gaze narrowed. “No.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“She. Is. Mine.”

“No! Put her back on the screen. Only her!” Byrel’s roar shook the room.

Until that moment, Maxheim hadn’t been sure if Byrel’s interest in Tess was due to her lucrative gift or if the obsession ran deeper.

Now he knew. Deeper.

It only made Maxheim want to kill the fucker more.

“That bond is nothing but a trap, and it will snap easily in the face of your Brotherhood demands.” Byrel’s gaze traveled over Maxheim’s shoulder to where Tess stood, his expression pleading. “After what you did—killing all those Brotherhood associates—he won’t have any choice but to turn you over to them, fated mate or not.”

“You forced me to kill them.” She pushed her way to the front of the screen once more. “You used the omegas against me. You knew I would do whatever it took to protect them.”

Byrel shrugged. “I was ordered by my employer. Same as you. But the Brotherhood won’t care. He’s playing you, Tessie. Come on. Choosing an omega slave over blood? Not going to happen. You know how this world works.”

Maxheim’s fury blazed hotter.

Worse, he could sense the way Byrel’s words ate at her, playing on her doubts.

Eighteen minutes flashed through Maxheim’s comms. His brothers were closing in. His signal tracer beeped, as if it, too, was close to locking on Byrel’s tracer beacon. He just needed a little longer.

“Don’t let him get in your head.” Maxheim gripped her hand.

She didn’t squeeze back, but she did tell Byrel. “I don’t need your kind of help, Rav.”

“I guess it’s not surprising you’d believe Skolov’s bullshit promises,” responded the male. “Considering you believed mine for so long.”

The pain cut through Maxheim, so sharp and fast, it took him a moment to realize it wasn’t his anguish, but his omega’s.

Just as the tracer signal steadied and Maxheim locked on the bastard’s beacon, making it possible to track him even if he tried to run and hide.

It was a hollow victory.

Because the tracker might have found its mark, but so had Byrel, punching holes in the fragile trust forming between him and Tess, making her doubt herself—and him—all over again.

Maxheim shoved his face into the monitor. “I will gut you, Byrel.”

“Think again.” His enemy lunged toward the monitor as well. “You need information from me about what happened to your baby brother and sister, and you’ll do anything to get it. So, know this: the only way you’ll find out anything is if you send Tessie to me.”

“Not happening. Tess is no bargaining chip. She’s just mine.”

“Stop. Both of you.” Tess placed her hand on his chest and pushed.

Maxheim barely felt it, and for a moment, he didn’t move, but the look on her face had him stepping back.

His omega leaned into the monitor. “I will never care for you again, Rav. Not like before.”

For a moment, there was utter silence.

The finality of her words was brutal. Her tone absolute. That kind of devastating, irrevocable loss was so harsh, Maxheim almost couldn’t wish it on his worst enemy. Almost.

Byrel’s face was more white than shimmery silver when he finally opened his mouth. “You don’t mean it.”

“I do.” Her voice was colder than Maxheim had ever heard, and his gut blared in warning. “But I will also do whatever it takes to save my friends, as well as the twins, so if it’s me you want in return, I—”

“No fucking way.” Maxheim jerked the wires from the monitor.

The screen went blank.

“What did you do?” Tess spun to glare at him.

“You were going to trade yourself to him.”

“Yes.” She spoke in that same icy cool as before.

His rage grew.

She was going to take herself away from him, just as she had Byrel.

Another irrevocable loss.

But hadn’t he already lost too fucking many? His mother. Father. The twins. Raquel.

“No,” he snarled. “That’s not happening.”

“It’s the only way to save them and get the information you need.”

“That’s not your choice to make.”

Her eyes blazed. “It is!” The ice fractured and her pain and rage emerged. “It is my choice to make.” She hissed the words at him. “The only one I can.”

Her chin tipped up, and Maxheim felt it in the pit of his stomach as the fragile, shimmering bond between them dimmed and cooled.

“Rav is right,” she whispered. “There is nothing for us in the long run, so at least let me make the right choice now.”

Every low, brutal word only added to Maxheim’s fury.

“I am not going to let Byrel—or you—come between us.” He yanked her to him. “No more fucking choices. You are mine.”

With a roar, his mouth descended, fangs aimed at her throat.