Page 27 of The Rebel and the Rogue

That would have scared anyone away. Not Ivy. Fuck.

That was going to happen over my dead body. This was just as I’d expected. She knew the Cerberus Legion was filled with a bunch of ruthless, lawless assholes. They didn’t see her as as anything more than an object to use, to sell. And yet she was standing before them, taunting them.

Ivy’s back stiffened at his remark, but not enough for the other males to notice. Only me. I knew her body. Knew the way she moved. Knew she was angry, but she had a plan, a reason for doing this. I just wished she’d clued me into it before now.

“I’m looking for someone, name of Gerian Eozara. Is he around?”

The hybrid Prillon who’d growled at her seconds ago now chuckled. “You have a death wish, female? Leave.” He pointed toward the direction we’d come.

Ivy pulled a blade free from a hidden place on her body, and my blood ran cold. He’d given her a chance to walk away, and she hadn’t taken it. Did she really want to be raped and sold as a slave? If she had a death wish, there were simpler and less painful ways to die.

Fuck.

“I really, really need to talk to him,” she said, pushing on with her agenda.

“Leave,” the Viken hybrid repeated, this time looking up at me, assessing the situation. Giving me one last chance to drag the little rebel off before he carried through with his threats. “Leave here, both of you, before you spill blood.”

Ivy continued to eye him, and I could hold still no longer. I moved forward, flanked her so no one could attack her from that direction. Starting a fight now was too dangerous. Sixteen to two. I had not been lying when I said I could kill them all, but I could not fight and watch over Ivy at the same time. If someone put a scratch on her, my focus would be gone. I’d be overtaken. We both would. We had to leave.

“Listen, I don’t know you and you don’t know me, but I’m not leaving this moon base without Gerian Eozara,” she said. “Hand him over and I’ll give you half the bounty on his head.”

The two Prillon hybrids looked amused. “You’re a bounty hunter? A small female from a small blue and white planet? How much is he worth these days? It must be quite a bit for you to dare come here like this.”

Ivy shared a number that was staggering. The three males blinked. Slowly. But the hybrid Viken spoke for all of them, and I knew his words were true.

“We are Cerberus.”

And that was that. Gerian Eozara was from the Cerberus Legion. He was one of them. The bounty could be worth ten times that amount, and no one from Cerberus Legion would even think of betraying one of their own. We were not like the other worlds. We were Rogue 5. Legions. We lived and died by the code of loyalty, and no one, not even the vile Cerberus or Siren Legion members broke that one, universal law. To break the code, to betray one’s legion was certain death. It simply was not done. Ever.

They would not give up Gerian Eozara. We would get nothing further out of these males. We should leave now. Regroup… after I spanked Ivy’s ass and set her straight once we were safely back in my quarters. Hell, setting her straight would mean tying her to my bed so she wouldn’t pull a stunt like this again.

“And his little side business?” she prodded. “Dealing in Quell? You all know anything about that?”

The taller of the two Prillon hybrids answered this time. “It’s the family business.” He obviously felt no shame in what was peddled. Addiction and death.

Ivy paused and nodded, seemed to understand that these males were not going to lead her to her quarry, or at least I assumed she did until she grinned. “I was hoping you would say that.”

I had seen her naked, coming all over my cock. I had seen her argue with Astra and hold a small boy in her lap. But I had never seen her fight and I didn’t want to.

Fuck, those were fighting words. I recognized them and her tall stance. The tension in her muscles, the gleam in her eye.

“Ivy, no,” I warned.

Other members of Cerberus Legion poured out of the building in a flood to see what was occurring. Their numbers doubled, then tripled. They circled around us.

And Ivy, my beautiful Ivy didn’t cower, didn’t even blink. She fucking smiled. “Now this is more like it.”

She wasn’t panicking, but I was. I’d lost count of the number of Cerberus who now surrounded us.

“Ivy, we are leaving. Now.” I put every ounce of dominance in my voice. It was a command, nothing less. My fangs were fully extended, and every instinct I had raged at me to get both of us the fuck out of here. There were too many of them now. I couldn’t protect her against this many, not alone. We were going to leave or die. I was in charge here, assigned to protect her. She’d given me her word to obey if her life was in danger.

And… she wasn’t listening. She wasn’t obeying.

She was smiling.

What. The. Fuck?

We were riding the edge between life and death. We were deep in Cerberus Legion. We had no legion armband on. No one from Astra knew where we were. No one was coming to help us. Not here. We we

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