Page 12 of Claim
“I am apex.”
“Mag—”
He thrust off the dais.The seat, though it was sized for him, suddenly felt too confining.“June.Will you protect the peace of this ship or not?”When she wavered, literally swaying on her feet, he growled and descended a step to grip her arm, lest she fall.“Vug.I should not have even asked.This is not your fight.”
She gazed up at him, her eyes flaring wide.“But you asked me to be your wife-mate.”
And she had said no.“That also I should not have asked.It was a mistake.”It had been a moment of weakness—a wanting he could not afford.
And admitting as much was another mistake.He realized that the moment the words passed his tusks.Her cheeks, still touched with color from her outrage on his behalf, blanched.
But she didn’t back down.“Regardless, yes it is my fight.Because theDeepWanderis my home now.And no, I will not tell anyone.Because…because you are apex.”
He stared down at her, his fingers a loose manacle around her arm.Though his hide was thick, he did not have the heavy calluses of some of his orcs, and in the whispering drafts of the gather-hall, her scent teased him and her body was an alluring warmth.
More than her body, her presence.
She matched his grip, pivoting her elbow under his hold to lay her palm on his forearm, barely halfway up.Measured against him, she was so delicate.But maybe that diminutive size made her seem like less of a threat: she would not try to take theDeepWanderfrom him.
Or beyond that: maybe—just maybe—he might protect at least her when the ship felt like too much.
“Mag,” she whispered.“If we only have a day…”
We?The word more than the power of her five-fingered grasp held him fast.“Fortunately, the Ajellomenes homeworld orbits its star relatively slowly.Before the planet’s next ‘day’, the Luster will be over, and I’ll be able to clear the debt to Illgattoa.”
Unless, of course…
No, that was a thought he could not entertain.
June clenched her fingers tighter on him.“If we tell everyone what’s going on, I bet Roxy would share more of its dust.And I know your brother would sing every minute of the work and sleep cycles to create wonders for the highest bidders.And Teq would crush a galaxy of asteroids with his bare hands until the cargo holds are overflowing.”Her voice edged with vehemence.“Whatever we have to do.”
We.Mag’s antennae shivered, partly matching the intensity of her tone but equally buffeted by such vows.On too many occasions, he’d had to speak to his orcs with the same unyielding zeal—only to dread the outcome should he fail to fulfill.
“There is no we, no place for others where I sit,” he said roughly.“There can be only one apex.”
“No one is trying to take your throne, Mag,” she said.“Just some of your burden.Amma might’ve marked your egg, but I’m sure she didn’t mean for you to suffer alone from that glyph.And Sil will be furious and hurt if he finds out you kept him in the dark.”
“The dark is exactly what I’m holding at bay.”He let out a slow breath.“I don’t blame Amma.She was desperate.Our sire, the apex before me, had been killed in a mining accident.He was apex, not a charge-layer, but the asteroid he’d taken under contract—a bad contract, one no other crew would take, because he was desperate too—was unstable and he would allow no one else to break it.He had to place the charge deep.Too deep.It fired before he made it back to the surface.”
Her hold on him tightened again, almost too much.“Oh, Mag.I’m so sorry.”
“My brother and I never met him.But his blood is ours, genetically of course, but also by the chunks of ore, stained with his death, that kept theDeepWanderalive.”His muscles ached under her gentle touch.“How can I do less?”
“You won’t,” she said.“You’re already the most, right?”
But for all his size and strength, he was helpless to do anything, say anything, as if any promise would be enough to protect her.“I will not lose this ship.”
“And we will not lose you.”
She tugged at him.Chagrined at his weakness, he yielded to her small pressure, and she boosted herself up to brush her lips across his cheek.
Rather than let her fall back to the deck, he held her against his chest, at eye level.She gazed at him, the quartz-shine of her eyes piercing him.
And she’d told him she was afraid of everything.
“You kissed me,” he said.
“Sorry,” she whispered.“You are apex.But I—”
