Page 103 of Heir of Draga

Adelina didn’t want to know anything about the Neprijat. She just wanted to get away – to escape and hide in the eyrie until someone else finished the war. Adelina regretted not handing the throne over to Asher. Her blasted honor had trapped her, allowing Drozer to take her as he’d predicted the outcome of Giselle’s abdication and Asher’s message.

An alarm went off and Drozer in Alpha’s body checked his wrist-cast. “It seems your husband has found us and he’s brought the pirates along,” he mused.

Varan – and the bracelet he’d given her. Adelina’s tears turned into laughter as she remembered the tracker in the bracelet – and the weapons.

“It’s probably best this way,” Drozer said. “Taking out Varan and the other two males will make it easier on you in the long run and I’m sure my king will be pleased to have those loose ends wrapped up. It’s such a shame. It’s not even really a fight with the difference in our tech.”

Adelina clenched her teeth as she angled her hand, ready to break her own wrist if necessary. She refused to let this monster kill any more of her family. Biting the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming, she managed to bend her wrist and press the back of her hand against her thigh. Still, she couldn’t get her finger to the bracelet to activate it.

She glanced at Drozer and shoved her wrist at the same time she pressed as hard as she could with her leg. The snap was loud in the silence and she had to bite down, drawing blood, to keep from screaming in pain. Drozer dove for her, but Adelina pressed once more and her finger hit the bracelet.

The shield activated right before Drozer reached her. It sliced through the bonds holding her down. Adelina jumped up and aimed at the monster, holding her broken wrist up with her other hand. “Stop the ship and allow them to board,” she ordered.

Drozer held up Alpha’s hands and gave her a sympathetic look. “It’s already done, my queen. The weapon is locked and about to fire.”

“Then stop it!” she yelled, coming around the table and stalking toward the male.

He wiggled the hand with the wrist-cast. “I can’t. It’s done. Only you as queen can override my command, and I can’t let you.”

Adelina’s hand snaked out and wrapped around his throat. “You can’t stop me.”

He smiled at her, so calm and patient. “You will have to kill me to access my tech. And you won’t do that. Not with Alpha still in here waiting to be let out,” he said, tapping his forehead.

Instantly she froze.

If Adelina let Drozer take her it would be billions of lives in the balance. Her entire galaxy would fall to their knees for the Neprijat with her by the king’s side. Adelina didn’t even think Asher would fight them with so much already lost.

She searched Alpha’s face desperately and knew she was running out of time. Her heart clenched and she breathed so hard and so fast it was all she could hear. Adelina’s chest felt like a raw gaping wound and the pain lanced through sharp and ragged as a thousand razors.

Adelina knew what she had to do – she knew what the right answer was, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Tears streamed down her face as her hand shook on his throat. Drozer didn’t move a muscle, he just watched her – completely in awe.

“You have seconds to decide,” he whispered.

Goddess, please watch over Alpha’s soul – tell him…tell him I love him and I’m sorry. Tell him I will see him in the next life.

And before she could second guess herself Adelina sank her deadly, sharp claws into the throat of the male who she’d laughed with through the halls of the royal palace as children, who had been her constant companion her entire life – the male who had been her first lover, who had sworn to protect her in every possible way…

As the blood started to run down his throat Drozer didn’t try to fight her. He simply smiled with something like relief on his face. “My queen…what our people could be if we had someone to care for us like you care for them.”

Those words…broke something in her. She tightened her grip and Adelina ripped, tearing his throat out. Drozer slumped to his knees and she went down with him, sobbing as she caught him in her arms. Alpha’s face looked up at her and he gurgled as blood gushed.

“I knew—” Drozer gasped. “I knew how right you would—look…covered in blood…” His eyes closed slowly as his—Alpha’s blood pooled around them, drenching everything.

Sobbing and cradling him to her chest, Adelina tapped the wrist-com and deactivated the weapon headed toward Varan, her DNA scan allowing her control.

“Alpha,” she murmured with her lips against his hair. “Please forgive me.”

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