Chapter 6 Dante
DANTE
This plan has not come together.
I’m still in the cell. It’s clear Dart hasn’t managed to put anything in my food. My head is a jumble of optics, all firing in different directions, which is not going to be good for the upcoming trial.
Dalox needs my sector and my crew. I thought he needed me, but given the way the old warlord has been recently, my reliance on his patronage is going to be tested.
But Dalox will let me off. He always does.
I do not regret sinking my fangs into the soft, sweet flesh of the little female. The noise she made as I bit down echoes in my head, my cock pushing from its sheath, leaking everywhere until I manage it over and over again.
I need this trial to be over so I can claim my female and retreat to my sector. So I can breed with her, sheathe myself in her, pleasure her, and give her my hoard. She deserves everything I have.
She should be worshipped.
My Rosalie. My mate.
“Nev’s sake, Dante. Put your cock away,” Darax growls from outside.
“Female,” I snarl.
“Yeah, the reason you’re going on trial,” he huffs.
The door slides open, and I lift my head, scenting the air for any trace of her. Darax grabs me round my neck and pulls me out of the cell. He glares. I release a stream of smoke at him. He shoves his arm out to hold me further away.
I could fight him. Darax is a good fighter, and he’s always fun to fight, but I want my female more than I want to fight with him today.
“You’re a disgrace, Dante,” he says.
“I aim to please.”
He releases me, and I use my hand to steady myself against the wall, not allowing my gaze to leave him.
“How the nev did you ever end up like this?” he rumbles.
“I’m just the way I want to be. Being part of the fleet was boring anyway.” I inspect my claws. “Now am I going to get my female or not?”
“You are on trial. Dalox will decide what to do with you,” Darax snarls.
I could shift now. I could get away from here, from this cell deep within the neutral sector, but without my mate, without my crew, I am nothing.
I want her, and I will have her, just as soon as this situation with the trial is over. I give Darax my best grin.
“I look forward to it.”
Darax motions over his shoulder to his guards who surround me.
“Wait!” I call out as we move forward. “I want to see Dart.”
“You don’t get to make demands,” Darax growls back at me. “Your second will be at the court.”
We ascend into the neutral sector’s upper level. The scent of the weaponry we were testing last night still hangs heavy in the air. I draw it into my lungs, allowing it to mix with my accelerant and create some sort of peace within me.
“Nev it, Dante.” Darax glares at me. “Nothing is off limits, is it?”
“Not at all.” I shake my head. “The more, the better.”
Darax releases his own smoke, a mass of frustration which will do him no good in the long run, as we march through the zone to the clan chamber which will serve as my court.
I catch it, on the slightest breeze…
“My female…she is here…” I don’t recognize my own voice, the growl is so deep and low.
“She is here to give evidence against you,” Darax says. “Don’t even think about getting to her.”
It is all I can think about. It is the only thought in my head. Being with her, holding her, worshipping her…
“Boss?” Dart is next to me before Darax and his guards can stop him. He slides the needle underneath the scales on my right hand and delivers the dose before they see anything.
“Dart.” I nod as the narcotic fills my system.
“Nev off!” Darax roars. “He doesn’t get any assistance.”
“I have to do this for myself.” I blink hard as finally there is some semblance of order in my thoughts.
Except, this time, there’s something else, something not cleared by the medicine all my crew have to take since we came through the worm hole. The reason we’re all considered feral and good for nothing save the star fuel we create.
Star fuel they all need.
“We’ll be waiting, boss,” Dart says before being shoved to one side by Darax’s guards.
I’m marched down the passage and into the main chamber rather than the side chamber we usually use for general meetings.
Dalox is waiting for us, sat on the elevated platform in the chair he took as plunder from one of the pirates we caught the first nova month we were in this nevving galaxy. He gazes down at me with empty eyes.
“Prisoner,” he intones as Darax takes his place just below him, alongside Daxx and Driok, neither of whom owe me anything, despite the recent battles we have all undertaken.
Driok in particular wants to reduce my influence on Dalox. He’s always been the most dangerous of all the warlords. He releases a stream of smoke from his nose as I’m marched past them and onto the platform.
“Dante, we are here to determine the punishment for your transgressions,” Dalox intones. “Namely using a claiming bite on a female who was not in your sector at the time.” He growls. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
I would reply, but my nostrils are filled with her scent to the point I think I might just burst. Sat above Dalox, her face very pale, sits my female. My Rosalie. My heartsfire. I cannot look at anything else. My tail lashes behind me and I’m struggling not to shift.
“How do you plead?” Dalox roars.
“Dalox.” Darax gets to his feet before I can open my mouth. “Before we continue, you must know, Dante ruts for the female.”
“He does?”
“I do?” I stare at Darax, as confused as I was without the narcotic in my system.
“Then it changes everything,” Dalox rasps. “Now I don’t have to kill you after all.”