Page 26 of The Rebel and the Rogue

I gave her a pointed look, and she did, for a moment, l

ook contrite. I continued on. “Astra does not deal in slaves. We sell weapons and armor, food, medical supplies. We steal from whomever we have to in order to make sure the people on the outer fringes survive. As I said, we are not part of the Coalition of Planets. We do not have ReGen wands in every room or ion blasters to fight off a Hive attack, not that they’d come here. We are, fortunately, irrelevant to them. So far. The people out here are forgotten and small. Our ruthless reputation helps keep us from their thoughts. We aren’t chosen or included. We like it that way. We do whatever we need to do to survive.”

She remained silent. I paused to regain control of my rage and asked the question I most needed an answer to. “Is that what you believe? That I am evil?”

There. For a moment, a fraction of a second the gentleness returned to her gaze, and she lifted her palm to cup my cheek. “No, Zenos. I know you are not evil. I’d say you’re Robin Hood.”

“Who?”

She shook her head. “No one.”

I let it go, even though I had to wonder if this Robin Hood had been a previous male in her life. One who had also pleasured her into forgetting. One she’d fucked and left behind. Was he a fighter? A fellow rebel like her roaming the universe, bounty by bounty?

I gritted my teeth, then finally said, “Good.” If I said anything more, I would make a fucking idiot of myself, worse than I already had over this female.

“Good,” she repeated, lowering her hand, and my cheek went cold without her touch. “Let’s go kick some ass.”

9

Zenos

Her expression changed to fierce determination in the blink of an eye.

“What? No!” I barked a protest, but Ivy was on the move, swinging her hips like a siren as she sauntered across the street to the waiting crowd of enemies.

Fuck me. I dashed after her… toward sixteen fucking Cerberus males. If we survived this, she was going to get one hell of a spanking.

“Hi, boys.”

Her smile was bright. The ignorant fools actually smiled back at her, pleased to see someone so attractive and appealing walking up to them—until I stepped into the light. Then their interest faded and several reached for their weapons. Ivy stopped just a few steps in front of the two largest males and spread her legs, her stance wide and bracing. She tilted her head in my direction and held up her hand toward me, palm out, in a silent order to stop moving. Shocked at the odd request, I did so.

“Don’t worry about him, he’s not so bad once you get to know him.” I wasn’t sure if she was taunting me or the Cerberus males.

Not so bad? What was this insane female doing? Was she trying to enrage seventeen males… me plus all of them? Apparently the Cerberus males had no idea how to deal with her either. What female sauntered up like this and had the audacity to confront them? With a smile and a swagger? She exuded sex, and they all were no doubt thinking dirty, filthy thoughts about what they wanted to do with her. To her.

No fucking way.

The two nearest her, both Prillon hybrids, paused their movements but kept their hands on their weapons. “What do you want, female?”

She shrugged. Holy fuck, she actually shrugged.

“Nothing, really. I’m just looking for an old friend of mine. Heard he likes to hang around here.”

“Old friend, huh? You’re not from Cerberus. You’re not even from Rogue 5.” A third hybrid—this one looked part Viken—stepped up to form a semicircle around Ivy, eyed every inch of her. I moved closer, but Ivy flashed her palm at me again.

Oh no, she didn’t. She was worse than Astra, giving commands without saying a word. What fucking game was she playing here?

“Yes, an old friend,” she repeated. She stood calm and quiet as the three males took their time answering her because they were looking her over. They would die.

“You are tall for a female,” one stated. “Yet you do not look Atlan. What planet are you from?”

They knew she was an outsider. That probably made them lust for her more, to give a female from another planet a good Cerberus fucking.

“A little one,” she replied vaguely. “Blue and white. A fair amount of green. But we don’t like assholes much, so I don’t recommend a visit.”

Oh fuck. Not only did she walk right up to them, she poked at them with verbal jabs. She was doing it on purpose. This wasn’t some naive female here, and that made me more pissed, more afraid.

The hybrid Prillon on her right growled at her insult, but the larger of the two held out his arm, holding his friend back. “I prefer to fuck females, not kill them, so state your business and get out of here or I’ll quiet you and sample your pussy. When I’m done with you, I’ll lock you in a cage on my ship and sell you to the highest bidder.”

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