Page 108 of Command

Orion Halen.

He came out of the shadows ahead, sparkling eyes visible before anything else. It was like looking in a mirror, really, when you looked at nothing but those cyan slits. Despite a more human appearance in those pinprick pupils, the inner core of them was all uhyre. They were kin.

“What happened?” The rest of Orion came into view. He had his hands shoved into the front pockets of his pants, striding forward calmly. He stopped a few paces away and waited.

“Leave me, human.” Threxin was not in the mood to deal with anyone else.

“I can’t. You reek. It’s making me want to go kill something. Or fuck it. Or both. Probably both.”

“Good you have your female then, no?” Threxin snarled, the limiter banging a futile protest in his head.

Orion Halen’s mouth quirked into a smirk, one eyebrow rising. “Jealous?”

Threxin’s fist was around Orion Halen’s neck before his head had realized what he was doing. He’d dragged the human sideways and slammed him into the wall, talons wet with droplets of blood seeping from Halen’s skin. For a moment he thought the human might try to fight. He saw the flash of it there, on his face. Instead, Orion’s mouth twisted into a mocking smirk as he fought for breath.

“So did it work?” he choked out.

“What?” Threxin growled out a low mutter, fingers flexing into the human’s broken skin. Orion didn’t even flinch.

“The vaccine,” he coughed. “Did it work on my wife’s assistant while you two were sneaking around behind her back?”

He froze, limiter churning as apprehension and fury washed over him by turns. Threxin released the human’s neck, backing away. Orion Halen seemed entirely nonplussed, pressing a palm to his neck and watching with mild curiosity as his hand came away red with blood.

“When did you know?” Threxin asked dryly, deciding how he was going to hide the body.

“Oh, months ago, of course. Did you enjoy watching me fuck my wife? Is that what did it? No…” Orion Halen scratched his chin with his bloodied hand absently. “You were in the passage together by then. You must’ve already been… involved.”

Threxin’s talons twitched. “Who else knows? Your female?”

“Of course not. Kaia has enough to deal with. Like usingher blood so you can have your vaccine for your little fuck toy. I’m surprised you even bothered to wait for it. I thought you’d already had her hooked long ago, until I saw how enthusiastic you were about the vaccine. Then I realized you care about this one.”

Threxin was tempted to finish strangling him, but Orion’s eyes turned suddenly serious, the smirk leaving his face.

“Well? Was the vaccine effective?”

Of course it was.

Threxin thought back, reflecting on Alina Argoud’s physical state after she had ingested his exorin for the first time. Arousal was expected. It could be difficult to tell apart the symptoms of normal arousal and an exorin response, but Threxin had observed the test subjects closely enough to feel confident in his ability to tell.

“It worked,” he concluded gruffly.

Orion studied him with a knowing look in his eye that Threxin did not appreciate. He remained very still, body seemingly relaxed but in that false way that told Threxin he was actually really shoqing tense. “Is she alive?”

It was, of course, a reasonable question considering what had almost just happened, but he hated that Orion Halen was the one confronting him with it now.

“Yes,” he ground out.

A short nod from his lowly kin, and then Orion unwound and began to move past him. “Keep it that way, all right?”

“I intend to.” Threxin tracked the ousted commander of his ship as he walked past.

Threxin told himself it was simply Orion’s knowledge of their destination that was keeping him from murdering the man who had discovered their secret on the spot. Discovered it long ago, apparently. But that wasn’t it—not really.

Orion Halen knew what it was to care for a human. He may be mostly human himself, but Threxin had smelled andwitnessed the uhyre within him, and Orion had no limiter to keep him in check.

If anything, Orion was stronger than Threxin could ever hope to be.

CHAPTER 46

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