Page 95 of Her Lawless Prince

“I’m a better programmer than you.” Yevgen gave a cocky grin over Payton’s head as she continued to hug him.

Nyle felt his irritation surface. Yep. Same Yevgen, different giant-sized body.

“What were you thinking pulling that sacrificial stunt?” Payton demanded, pushing out of his arms. “You should have fought, not jumped into the flames!”

“Self-preservation?” Yevgen chuckled as he shook his head in denial. “Nice try, my love, but you have shown me the royal path by example. A prince must live honorably and do his duty above all else. He must sacrifice all that he is for his people and his family. You would have jumped onto the fire.”

“Yev…” Payton sighed as she looked at Nyle. He saw the torment in her expression. He knew she loved him, felt it, believed it with all his heart.

Nyle did not want to share his wife. The very idea burned inside of him like the plague. But worse was the notion of not having her at all. Yevgen was right. Payton would always do the honorable thing by others. She would not abandon the cyborg any more than she could stop from being a princess. She talked of staying with Nyle in the skies, but he could not let her do that. She loved the wilds of Qurilixen. She loved her family and her life. He would be taking her home.

“I had to place myself on the funeral pyre,” Yevgen reasoned as he looked at Nyle. “I was following my new program directive. I am to take care of Princess Payton and consider her safety and happiness as my primary function. My death freed you to fully mate to a man you love more than me, and it saved the man you love from death. I have fulfilled my honorable mission.”

“But you are alive,” Payton said.

“I was dead.” Yevgen gave her a pat on the head. “I will always love you, princess, but I cannot marry you in this life. Logic says you will have life mated to Cysgodian Nyle, bastard son of an unknown off-worlder and Diana. A full mate cannot take a half mate. The mating math does not add up. You must learn to go on without me, my love. I will always be here to protect you, just as I protect the Cysgodian people.”

The pressure on Nyle’s chest lightened as relief flooded him.

“I don’t mean to interrupt this—whatever it is—but virus formula?” Rick prompted, tapping his monitor. “We’re on limited time. We must head back to the ship.”

“Over here.” Nyle moved past the stasis pods. “Yevgen, can you interface with the facility?”

“Of course.” Yevgen’s heavy footfall followed him.

Nyle activated the disposal fires and began pushing buttons to storage containers. “Are the fires operational temperature?”

“Yes,” Yevgen answered.

Nyle purged the first row of containers, not knowing what exactly was in them. “Help me get rid of these.”

“Which one?” Yevgen asked.

“All of them. The logs were corrupted. We don’t know which one had the contaminated formula.” Nyle kept pushing buttons when suddenly they all became selected. He drew his hand back, and they purged on their own.

“All formulas have been disposed of,” Yevgen said. “Fires are set to burn the requisite three days.”

“Make it ten,” Nyle said.

“Is that it?” Rick asked. “We done?”

Payton glanced around the storage facility before settling her gaze on the pods. He knew what she was thinking, felt the thought as if it were his own.

“You can’t stay like that, Yevgen.” Nyle gestured at the cyborg’s new body. It would be cramped in the air lock and could carry the virus.

Yevgen stepped back. “Your obsession with removing my legs is disconcerting.”

Payton lifted her hand toward the cyborg. “He means we can’t take you home in this body.”

“We have to destroy the shells,” Nyle explained. “That means all the clones. They could be carriers. There was no oversight when they were grown, and we don’t have the months to test them.”

Yevgen rushed to put himself between the stasis pods and Nyle. His chest puffed up, and his arms lifted as if ready to fight. “You will not touch them.”

“They’re shells,” Nyle insisted.

“I have a directive to protect the Cysgodian people,” Yevgen stated.

“They’re all on Qurilixen waiting for you.” Payton showed him the canister. “We have your memories right here. I promise we’ll figure out a new body for you.”

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