Savage Prince by Alison Aimes

19

Tess braced herself for Maxheim’s biting claim.

Somehow, of all the betrayals she’d suffered, she knew this one would hurt the worst.

Except it never came.

Instead, on a low, pained growl, he stilled, his fangs a hairsbreadth from her skin, his ragged breaths rasping against her throat.

“P-Please.” Her words were a low whisper, her body deliberately still so as not to provoke him, as she issued her plea. “Don’t be another disappointment I have to weather.”

With a roar, he reared away, backpedaling across the length of the room before he turned and smashed his fist into the shuttle wall.

Crash.Once. Twice. Three times.

It was a testament to how far she and Skolov had come that she wasn’t afraid.

Her hand stretched toward him, hovering in mid-air.

She hadn’t meant to hurt or insult him. In truth, she wanted to help. She could sense how much it tormented him that the twins were still out there, unclaimed and unprotected.

He might not admit it, but she felt how it weighed on him, a terrible guilt that pressed down on his chest.

But fixing this mess didn’t have to be all on him.

When he whirled back around, his knuckles were bloody, but his gaze was clear. “I thought you were more of a fighter.”

The accusation sliced deep, but she tossed her head and lifted her chin high. “I am fighting. Just not on your terms.”

“Bullshit.”

Tension vibrated in the air between them.

“You think I don’t want to stay with you?” Her voice shook. “I do. But the truth is . . .” She swallowed hard and forced the words out. “I am a killer and a danger and the only real value—the only true and good contribution I can make—is that I can save my friends, and now your brother and sister. Let me.”

His amber eyes blazed brightly. “Bullshit. You’re worth far more than that to me.”

She looked away. How could that be? She was a hunted female. All she had to offer him were more complications and risk.

“You say you’re willing to fight, but this feels a hells of a lot more like giving up.” Frustration sharpened each one of his barked words. “Don’t run back to your old cage just because things have gotten hard. Think bigger.”

She reeled as if struck, his words hitting with enough force to steal her breath.

She wasn’t sure how everything had suddenly gone so wrong. Moments ago, Maxheim had been holding her close and it had seemed as if anything was possible, the galaxy full of opportunities. Then, Rav had come and reality had intruded with a brutal punch. She could never escape what she was, nor what life demanded from her.

“Damn it, Tess. You are not sacrificing yourself. I won’t allow it.”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “I don’t know what I am . . . what my purpose is without that.”

“Then we’ll find you one.”

She swallowed hard. She only wished it was so simple. “What happens next?”

His gaze narrowed. He looked as hard and cold as when she’d first seen him. “Byrel will run—if he hasn’t already. My brothers are only fifteen minutes away, so they’ll be in range and detectable to his ship. He won’t stick around to be caught, but I don’t need him to anymore. I’ll follow the tracker and go after him.” He paused. “You will be going back with my brothers to the Skolov compound.”

“Where I’ll be locked up.” In the end, despite all his promises, she was trading one prison for another and this time, she wouldn’t even be of help to her friends. She’d be more useless and helpless than ever.

“If that’s the way you want to see it.” Maxheim’s gaze locked with hers. “I’ll damn well make sure he never gets his hands on you and that you’re safe.”

“The same excuse Rav used to explain why he kept me enslaved all these years.”

“Damn it, Tess.” A muscle jumped in Skolov’s jaw. “This is nothing like that.”

“You said I could have choices. You said—”

“Enough. I know what I said. There are limits.”

Bitterness slammed through her. “Then you’re no different from Byrel.”

“I’m nothing like that bastard.” He was across the room and looming in front of her in the next heartbeat.

She regretted her words in the next instance. “You’re right.” Her gaze flickered from his. “But somehow that only makes it worse.”

His free hand gripped her chin and drew her to face him. “Don’t let Byrel get in your head. Don’t let that bastard manipulate you, playing on your guilt and doubts, like he did for so long. Choose to believe in me. In you. Don’t let him win.”

He made it seem so easy. When it felt anything but.

Maxheim’s mouth closed over hers.

Red hot heat.

There was no purr vibrating between them now, only the rough, violent rumble of their shared anger. At each other. At the situation. At the loss of a beautiful moment that had slipped away because of a cruel liar and a circumstance she wanted to believe wasn’t as hopeless as she feared it was.

With a snarl, he tore his mouth from hers and challenged. “You want to leave me, omega. Try it.”

She opened her mouth to respond, to tell him that was the last thing she wanted, when a pounding shook the control room door.

“We thought you said the battle was over, Maxheim.” A deep voice she recognized as one of his brothers rumbled through the door. “But from where we’re standing, it sounds like you’re in the fight of your life.”

* * *

“Your timing is even worsethan the Federation soldiers.” Maxheim barked at his brothers, though he was willing to admit his frustration might have to do more with his omega than anything else.

He’d heard his brothers docking their ship, but he’d thought he’d have more time to finish his argument with Tess before they came aboard.

He was willing to admit that might not have been his only miscalculation.

He definitely hadn’t anticipated how the presence of other males so close by—even his own brothers—would set him off. He suspected it was because so much was still uncertain between him and Tess.

Bam. The door to the transpo control room shook. “You can’t keep me in here forever.”

His muscles flexed as he held it shut from the outside—and ignored the chuckles behind him.

For such a tiny thing, she was strong.

“If you hurt yourself, I’m going to be pissed.” His warning echoed through the door where he’d left her.

She responded with a low huff. But, on the plus side, she didn’t charge the door again.

He turned back to the blank-faced crowd at his back. “Not a fucking word.”

Filling the corridors of the Federation shuttle, Damien and Alexi nodded.

Not an ideal introduction, but he didn’t blame Tess.

At the sound of his brothers’ voices, he’d gone full beast, shoving her behind him, and insisting she was not coming out of the room until every male in the vicinity was gone.

After their recent back and forth, it probably hadn’t been the best reaction.

She was already raw and feeling pushed around by not just Byrel, but him too.

He hadn’t been thinking too much about any of that, however, when he’d reattached the two wires in the door panel and opened the portal just enough from him to slip into the corridor and greet his brothers, shutting the hatch soundly behind him.

She hadn’t liked that.

His omega’s fury was blaring loud and clear through her gift, slipping beneath the cracks of the door and ramping up the aggression in the air.

Thankfully, his brothers were both in masks and gloves, as instructed.

“No judgment here.” Of course, it was Alexi who broke the silence first. “It’s just, you’ve got a little something,” he pointed toward Maxheim’s chin and then, eyes crinkling in a way that suggested the bastard was smiling wide beneath his mask, waved his hand wildly, “pretty much everywhere.”

Damien’s usual scowl disappeared too as he barked with laughter. “You do look rough, brother. Never seen you with a hair out of place and now . . . look at you.”

“Blood on your cheek. Claw marks on your back,” observed Alexi. “You’ve been busy.”

“And I used to think all he did was work all rotation,” joked Damien.

Great. They were finally bonding. At his expense.

“Fuck off, both of you.” Maxheim lowered his voice. “And keep your voices down. I don’t need your idiotic attempts at humor pissing her off even more.”

The edges of Alexi’s eyes crinkled once more. Same with Damien. Fuckers seemed to think this was hilarious.

“Doesn’t she weigh like twenty-five space stones soaking wet?” laughed Damien.

“Don’t even think about her soaking wet.”

Alexi laughed harder.

“So, what’s she upset about?” Damien, at least, was trying to be helpful.

“Well,” Maxheim considered all the options, “she didn’t like it when I told her she wouldn’t be meeting you, or any other male, until those marks on her were darker and she wore my bite.”

His brothers exchanged a look.

“So not so different from Nikolai, after all,” observed Alexi with a smirk.

Maxheim didn’t let the dig slow him down. He’d have the last laugh when Alexi stumbled across his fated mate. “But what really set Tess off was when I told her she wouldn’t be exchanging herself for information and that she’d be going back with you while I went after Byrel. She didn’t like it. She wants to accompany me and find her friends. She wants to barter herself for them.”

He knew why, too. Somewhere along the way that bastard Byrel had made her think that’s all she was good for: death and destruction and penance through self-sacrifice.

Maxheim needed to show her that wasn’t true, he just wasn’t sure how.

His brothers traded another look.

“What?” He’d had enough of the shared glances.

“You might not want her out of eyesight after you hear the latest,” cautioned Damien.

Maxheim stifled a curse. “Tell me.”

“Prendel, Kuril, and the rest of Brotherhood are growing pushier. They want whoever is responsible for killing their own at the auctions and they want the identity of the enemy trying to bring down the Brotherhood. They’ve been conducting their own investigations. Everyone suspected of being remotely connected to either the auctions or the big bad enemy is being dragged in for questioning and they don’t care if innocents get taken out along the way.”

“Some within the Brotherhood are using it to settle scores and get rid of the competition,” added Alexi. “It’s causing rifts. Probably exactly what this faceless enemy of ours wants, but the Council is too stirred up to care.”

Damien’s scowl deepened. “As usual, we’re under suspicion. We’ve discovered several Council spies lurking around our hotels, and we’ve had a few uninvited guests try to get into the private family section of the compound.”

“Nikolai must be losing his shit.” His eldest brother would never be happy about that under any circumstances, but with his omega about to give birth, it had to be worse.

“Yup,” agreed Damien. “Those uninvited guests are in pieces now, but that hasn’t made the Brotherhood any happier.”

“Understood.” Shit. All of this was his mess.

But handing over Tess to get the Brotherhood off their backs was not an option and, thanks to Byrel’s lack of cooperation, he didn’t know the identity of their enemy yet.

“I just need some time,” he assured his brothers. “I’ll get the name they want. That should buy us some goodwill.”

“In the meantime, Andor Stormhart is offering to help by talking to the Council on our behalf,” added Alexi. “Assure them we’re doing all we can, that we are loyal, that we would never hold anything back from the Council, blah, blah, blah.”

Maxheim grimaced. Andor Stormhart was the head of the Stormhart crime family, and while not exactly an ally, not an enemy, either. He’d helped them during their last run-in with the Council, but he hadn’t stuck his neck out any more than was safe. Maybe he was looking to make up for it now? Or make more trouble? It was hard to know with a Stormhart.

Alexi went on. “I’m not telling you this to make you feel guilty, but just so you’re up to date. The Sartins are still pissed about the broken omega contract and rebuffing even my charm. Stormhart has suggested he can help smooth things over.”

Maxheim growled low. “Anyone starting to notice how often Stormhart is sniffing around our business.”

Alexi shrugged. “Nikolai likes him.”

Damien cocked an eyebrow. “Nikolai likes you, too, so what does that say?”

“Alright, new plan.” Maxheim refocused. He was just getting defensive. He didn’t like having to owe favors. It was usually the other way around. But he’d have to suck it up. Pride was the last thing he could let stand in his way. “Alexi, thank Andor for me and tell him I’ll owe him one.” He forced the words out. “In the meantime, Tess stays with me. I’ll take the smaller ship with as many soldiers as will fit, and we’ll follow Byrel. Catching that little shit has never been more important. Though, truth be told, Brotherhood business aside, all I really want is to find our brother and sister. Which is why I’m also going to take a closer look at those Federation assholes. Something about our recent interaction doesn’t sit right.”

“Agreed.” Damien nodded. “I’ll stay on board and get this baby up and running.”

“Federation troops will be here any minute.”

Damien grinned, fangs flashing. “Exactly, but I’ll be ready and waiting. I’ll fly this rusting bucket as if I’m trying to get away, but not so fast or far they can’t chase me. That way, I’ll get them off your back and give us one less thing to impede the search for the twins.”

“A good plan.”

“I’ll lead those fuckers on a nice detour before losing them altogether.”

It was no hollow boast. Damien’s flying was legendary. It was almost as good as his fighting abilities. Even on a ship like this, he’d have no problem outmaneuvering the far less skilled Federation pilots.

“Then,” continued Damien, “ I’ll bring their ship back home and break this ship into pieces for parts. No point in letting good material go to waste—and Federation transpo shuttles are solid quality.”

“Don’t break it apart.” The words were out before Maxheim realized what he was about to stay. “I’ll refurbish it.”

Crazy or not, this ship held special meaning and memories. It was the first place Tess had truly made her choice, claiming him just as he’d claimed her. He wasn’t about to consign a place of such importance to the trash heap.

“Sure.” Damien agreed, but he was definitely looking at him like he was crazy. Or maybe he was just disappointed he’d be losing out on a little destruction. That wild, angry edge still seethed beneath his surface, even now while he was playing nice. “If that’s what you want.”

“I’ll take the main ship and get the omegas settled.” Thankfully, Alexi was moving on. “Having them around when dealing with the Federation or Byrel will only slow us down. They were treated like hells. They’re frightened. Terrified we’re going to torture them or auction them off again. It doesn’t matter what I say to reassure them.” He paused. “Your omega’s assurances would go a long way in soothing them. Maybe we could video her in once you’re underway?”

“Yes!” The agreement came from the other side of the door.

Maxheim muffled a curse. His brothers chuckled outright.

Of course, she was listening. He wasn’t surprised.

On the plus side, maybe talking with the omegas and seeing with her own eyes that he was keeping his promises would offset some of the wounds Byrel had reopened with his bullshit.

This one step forward, two steps back business was killing Maxheim.

He ran a hand down his jaw. “I need to talk to the doc.”

Another one of those amused looks passed between his brothers. “We put him on comms speed dial.”

Speed dial?Oh, how low he’d fallen. But all he said was, “Good.”

“Here.” Alexi passed along the bag of clothes. “These are our sister’s. She left them last time she rode in your shuttle. Anya is taller, but I figured your omega could still make them work.”

“Thanks.” There was a thickness to Maxheim’s voice that hadn’t been there before. “I appreciate it . . . I appreciate all you’ve both done and are planning to do.”

Damien’s chest puffed wide. Even Alexi looked pleased.

“You know, Maxheim.” Alexi sounded almost cautious, “You need anything from us, you just have to ask.”

He started. The warmth in his brothers’ gazes surprised him. He hadn’t seen it in a long while—and all it had taken was him fucking up his own plans, getting imprisoned by the Federation, acting insane over one tiny, perfect omega, and completely losing his shit.

Who would have thought it?

“Thanks.” He cleared his throat.

“We always got your back.” Damien punched his shoulder.

Could it really have been that easy? All the time he’d been doing more to get them to step up . . . was the answer that he should have done less?

He took his brother’s hit without complaint and offered a chin thrust in return. “I’ll let you know what we find. Hopefully, it will be Byrel.”

His brothers’ warm expressions disappeared, replaced by hard looks Maxheim was pretty sure echoed his own.

Anything related to Byrel pissed him off.

Except for his omega.

She was a different story altogether.

Speaking of which, “I’m going to ask you guys to do us all a favor and head to the other side of the shuttle for the next few minutes and tell the other males to clear out as well.” He eyed the door, the hair at his balls twitching in warning as he realized how long it had been silent inside. “Until I have this fated-mates business under control, and she and I are a bit more solid, it’s probably not time for introductions.”

His brothers both nodded, that look of amusement returning to their gazes.

This time, though, it didn’t piss him off quite as much.

Truth be told, the corners of his lips turned up too.

She might be wrecking all his plans, but he was getting the sense his life was going to be a hells of a lot better for it in the long run.

Especially once he convinced her that being his was in her best interest as well.

But that moment was not yet here.

Sucking down a deep breath, he lifted his palm from the door and, deciding to go in low and fast, prepared to do battle.