Chapter 29
Jasmine
Skye's name glowed on the holographic display, fifth from the top of the Imperial execution list, and I couldn't breathe.
My best friend. The girl who'd known me since we were children playing in the frozen streets of the colony.
The woman who'd stood beside me through my parents' deaths, who'd helped me build the resistance network from nothing, and who'd offered to fight the Vandar warriors to give me a chance to escape.
I yanked the sheet back up to cover my breasts and whirled around to face the Raas.
"When were you going to tell me?" My voice came out strangled, barely above a whisper.
Then louder, fury rising like a wave. "When were you going to tell me that someone from my colony, my rebel network, my best friend was on the Empire's hit list? "
Wrexxon's expression had shifted from hungry desire to something guarded and shuttered. “She was not always on the list. We received this intelligence after the attack.”
“But you knew.” My voice cracked, betraying my dismay. “You knew she was someone to me.”
“I suspected she must be, which is why I did not want to worry you.”
I pulled the sheet tighter around my body as if shielding me from his words. “Worry me? You were more interested in fucking me than in protecting me.”
Something hot flashed in his eyes that wasn’t desire. “You are upset.”
“You’re damn right I’m upset.” I flailed a hand at the workshop. “You have me fussing with fabrics while my best friend is in danger.”
The heat that had sparked in his eyes hardened. “You think I am doing nothing? You think I don’t want to save your friend? You think I wouldn’t do anything in my power to save you from pain?”
I drew in a breath, stunned into a moment’s silence. “So, we’re going back for her?”
“We are.”
I eyed him, sensing something else skittering beneath the surface of his reassurance. “You aren’t still planning to drop me off at the Vandar hidden hole, are you?”
His brows quirked at the term hidden hole. “I am not.”
Breath rushed from me in a whoosh.
“But you cannot be a part of the mission,” he continued. “You cannot leave the ship.”
I snapped upright. “What? But it’s my home. You’re insane if you think I’m going back without seeing my sisters.”
He mumbled something under his breath about feeling insane, but then he held up a hand to forestall my complaints.
“Jasmine, I think it’s a trap."
The words sliced through my arguments like a blade. I stared at him. "What?"
He crossed his arms tightly over his chest. “Don’t ask me to prove this because it’s a warrior’s instinct, but your friend’s name appearing on the list after you were rescued feels too easy. Not to mention the fact that the source of this information has now gone silent.”
“You have a source for Zagrath information?” My voice fell to a whisper. “Do you have a spy?”
“One we can no longer reach.” He ground out the words. “It's bait, Jasmine. They're trying to draw you back to that frozen planet. They'll be waiting. Not just for her. For you."
As much as I wanted to argue, his reasoning made sense. If I were in his shoes, if my resistance had received intelligence from a now-missing source, I would have questioned it just the same.
“But what if it isn’t,” I said, my voice softer. “It might be real intelligence and a genuine threat to Skye's life. And even if it’s a trap, that meant the Empire was still going after her. Using her as leverage still puts her and my sisters and friends in danger.”
”All this is true,” he said with maddening calm.
I glanced at the list again, scouring the names. I frowned. “This is wrong. Skye’s middle initial isn’t S.”
Wrexxon peered at the list, his eyes narrowing. “Each name has a middle initial.”
My rebel instincts took over as I scanned the list quickly and then my excitement deflated. “Aktashef? That doesn’t mean anything.”
The Raas’s lips flattened into a hard line. “It does in Vandar.”
I read worry in his gaze. “What does it mean?”
“Discovered.”
A breath escaped me. “So, whoever sent you this list knew they’d been compromised.” As a former rebel, my heart twisted with sympathy. “Maybe that’s why you can’t reach them. They knew they’d been discovered and have gone into hiding.”
His only response was a pained grunt.
"I know this makes you want to trust the intelligence less, but I think the fact that you received an altered list shows that it’s real. The danger to my best friend is real." I pressed my palms to his chest. "Please, Wrexxon. Let me help save my friend. Let me see my sisters.”
Something cracked in his controlled mask.
I pressed my advantage, hating myself even as I did it. "If you do this for me, “I’ll do anything you want. I’ll wear anything you want. I’ll do the ceremony you want right now, today, I’ll—“
"Stop." His voice was sharp. "You would do this, even knowing it might be a trap designed specifically to capture you?”
I swallowed hard, meeting his gaze even though everything in me wanted to look away. "I would do anything."
And I knew it was true. I knew it with a certainty that went bone deep. I understood exactly what being his war bride meant. It meant belonging to him. Sharing his bed. Bearing his marks. Never returning to the colony or a normal life.
"You are the most infuriating, stubborn, impossible woman I have ever encountered," he rasped, his voice like velvet over gravel.
My heart sank. That sounded like a refusal. Like he was about to tell me no, that he couldn't risk it, that—
"And I would burn the entire galaxy for you if you asked me to."
I stopped breathing.
“You will come with me, but after this mission, you and I are going to have a very long conversation about the things you offer so recklessly."
Relief crashed through me so powerfully my knees nearly gave out. He caught me, his arm sliding around my waist, holding me steady.
"Thank you," I whispered. "Thank you, thank you—"
"Don't thank me yet," he said grimly. “You haven’t been on a mission with me as your commanding warlord before. I do not tolerate dissent or disobedience.”
I gripped his armor, looking up at him and feeling my stomach flutter.
“I don’t mind following all your orders.
” Then I straightened, going into rebel mode.
“But before any of that, I need to tell you everything you need to know about Lexxona and how to trick the Zagrath into thinking they’re trapping you. ”
He tilted his head at me. “I’m glad you’re using your rebel skills and intel for the Vandar instead of against us.”