Page 39 of The Rebel and the Rogue

I’d underestimated him. Or I’d overestimated myself. I had the Hive tech. I was practically invincible, except for one way I’d never expected. There were no integrations to fortify your heart.

He’d killed Zenos? Slit his throat? Bile rose in my throat, and it felt as if one of those explosives had detonated in my chest. Blown up my heart.

“No.”

He grinned. Jesus, he fucking grinned. “Yes, Ivy. Just like last time, you’re too little, too late. You can’t save him because all that’s keeping his head attached to his body is his spine. No ReGen pod will save your hybrid. You didn’t protect him. You can’t protect any of them.”

Something in me snapped as pain. Heartbreak. Loss. I’d felt all of that when my teammates had died, but this was different. Zenos was different. I’d wanted it all from him, even his bite. My heart longed for his bossy ways. The arguments. That was all gone now. I hadn’t even had a chance to argue with him about the bite, to fight with him. To tell him to fucking get over it already. But no, I couldn’t do that now.

I pulled both blasters and fired. Direct hits to his chest.

He laughed. He fucking laughed. The weapons had no effect. He had to have some kind of internal armor. Hive tech. Something I’d never seen before.

I was Hived-Up, but even I couldn’t take direct fire at this close proximity. He was something more. And I didn’t care.

Throwing my blasters to the side, I met his gaze. Held it. “I’m going to kill you with my bare hands.”

He held up his, showing me he had no weapons. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

My own words, thrown back in my face. I’d uttered those same words moments before I’d killed his people, members of his legion, people under his control and protection.

Cerberus launched himself at me, his body slamming mine with a staggering amount of weight. Too much, even for a male of his size. He knocked me back and I stumbled. I summoned every ounce of strength, calling on my Hived-Up enhancements to come to my aid. But it wouldn’t. Not with a body blow like that. It was impossible to fight inertia, and I went down. I rolled, coming up to my knees, but he was right there.

His right arm swung wide, a boxer’s haymaker punch, and I dodged it. The follow-up left hook hit me beneath the arm, cracking my ribs. I groaned, the air knocked from me.

I rolled, spun and lashed out, arcing a kick to his head. I heard the crack, felt it in my heel. It knocked him back, blood spurting from a wound at his temple.

He paused, blinked, and I took advantage, pulling out my knife, ready to slice his throat.

He growled, lunged, grabbed my wrist, knocked me back again. This time I fell to the floor, Cerberus pinning me. His grip was sure. Powerful and the knife clattered to the ground. He grabbed it, ready to slice out.

I pushed off, knocked him back so he was no longer upon me. We stared at each other, him with my knife. He was strong. Really strong. I was breathing hard, my ribs screaming. I’d fought dozens of males the night before without even blinking, but Cerberus? I now understood why he ruled the legion.

“You,” I panted, eyeing him. “You didn’t need to know who did my enhancements. You’re already Hived-Up.” The accusation burst from my lips as I realized I couldn’t beat him. Not like this. He wasn’t holding me down, but I might as well be pinned, at his mercy. He was going to kill me.

This wasn’t an even fight. Cerberus had been humoring me all along, ever since he’d stood before me earlier in that meeting room. He didn’t want me for his own—well, maybe he did if I’d have sworn allegiance—but instead wanted me dead.

“No, I don’t need his help. But I do intend to kill him.”

More blood on my hands. “Why?”

He laughed and the sound made my blood run cold. “There are already too many of us. And that idiot ruler of Prillon Prime is allowing the others on The Colony to return to their home planets. Stronger. Bigger. Faster. Better.”

He thought the fighters who’d been taken and tortured by the Hive were better? He was so evil.

“You don’t want the competition,” I said, trying to understand.

“I am a king, not a gladiator. I take what should be mine.”

“You’re insane.” That was the truth, and I didn’t care to hold my tongue. I was going to die down here in this fiery shithole anyway.

“Perhaps.” He launched then, knocking me back once more. I groaned at the smack of my body against the hard ground, the weight and energy of Cerberus knocking the air from my lungs. Again. He held my hands pinned above my head, his body atop mine, holding me down on my back so I was helpless to do anything but stare up into his crazy eyes and hope for a miracle.

It had all come to this. Every waking moment—and my nightmares during sleep—were to avenge my teammates. Now I would be dead like them. Cerberus getting away with it all. They would have died for nothing. Their l

ives, for nothing. They mattered.

Me? I didn’t matter. No one would remember me. Not on Earth. Not in the Coalition. Not on Rogue 5. One slice with the knife and it would be over.

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