Page 35 of Ulfar

My—no,ourchild.

A fury the likes of which I’ve never felt before surges through my veins, activating every possessive alpha instinct I have to claim, pillage, and destroy. Our intelligence showed that the Syndicate’s forces had been largely wiped out years ago. I thought they were a long-lost foe, nothing more than a specter of the past haunting my memories.

But they fooled us once again.

I won’t let them slip through my fingers twice.

“Thank you for letting me know,” I tell Vi, pressing my fist to my chest in gratitude. “You have done me a great service, and I am in your debt.”

She waves me off. “Oh, hush with all that formal crap. I don’t need anything in return. Go get your girl and give ‘em hell.”

I bark out a laugh. I like this one. She’s feisty. “That I can do.” I head for the door, rapidly formulating a plan in my mind. “May the stars guide you, Vi.”

“And you, Ulfar.”

With a salute, I’m back on the move. I know I can’t go to the ISA with this. They wouldn’t take kindly to one of their ‘assets’ going missing. It was my responsibility to look out for her, after all. I failed in my job as a man and as an alpha, and now I’m going to make it right.

The ISA with their regulations and red tape would take too long. Sarah could be on a Syndicate slaver ship right now, jetting off to who knows where. I have to catch up with them, and fast.

And to do that, I’m going to need a little help from my friends.

“Soren, you there?” I tap the comm at my ear as I ride toward our village. He’s the war leader and my superior, so he needs to know about this.

“What’s up, Ulfar? Thought you were on leave.”

“Change of plans. The Syndicate’s back.”

“What?! Are you serious?”

“Dead.” The wind whooshes through my hair and across Enebris’s fur. My eyes burn and my muscles ache, but I’ve come too far to stop now.

“How did you hear about this? What happened, Ulfar? Do I need to sound the alarm?”

“It’s my mate, Sarah. They took her. Right from under our noses.”

Soren’s curses are drowned out by the sound of a wailing siren echoing from his location. “Damn! Thanks for the intel—grab the boys and let’s move.”

The comm line clicks off and I roar a defiant cry to the heavens. If they think they can steal my heart-mate and live to tell the tale, they have another thing coming.

They might have beaten me before, but this time it’s personal. They’re going to pay for every drop of my kinsmen’s blood spilt. And if anything happens to Sarah, mark my words—I will go to the ends of the universe to eradicate them once and for all.

MIGHT OF AESIRHEIM

ULFAR

I’m standing on the ship’s bridge with Soren, Rathgar, Orri, and Djorn as we look out into the gathering expanse of space. We’re just now leaving Aesirheim’s atmosphere, and while the ship’s engines roar in my ears, I’m hunched over the scanner with Orri looking for any trace of the rogue vessel.

“We’re picking up activity near Yarilo-V,” Orri says, looking at the monitor. “It looks like one of our transports was attacked en route yesterday afternoon.”

Yesterday afternoon.That would have been right when I was away fetching that book for Sarah. Did she know? Was it all planned?

A looming fear sinks in and festers. What if Sarah has been with the Syndicate this entire time? What if she’s a spy or agent sent to seduce me so that she could gain intelligence and leave when she’d seen enough? The thought makes bile rise in the back of my throat. Even if it’s true, it’s not the first time I’ve been betrayed. I swallow back the fear and focus on the mission. I’ll find out if it’s true soon enough.

“Why are we just now hearing about this?” I ask. “I shouldn’t have had to wait until a human girl tracked me down to know there was a problem.”

“You see this?” Orri points. It’s a standard readout of the supply routes usually taken by the merchant ships.

“Yeah, it doesn’t look like anything to me.” I squint, trying to figure out what he’s getting at.

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