Page 45 of The Rebel and the Rogue

Turning to her side, she moved so I did slip from her. She climbed from the bed. She had red marks on her pale skin where I’d kissed and licked, sucked and grabbed. Her arousal coated her inner thighs. Her nipples were hard points. Her cheeks were flushed, her damp hair a wild tangle.

“It’s completely different.” She paced the room, looking down at the ground. All at once she turned and left the room.

I followed her to the bathing room. She’d been searching for her clothes. They were in a pile on the floor.

“What are you doing?” I asked. I was still aroused, my cock hard and dark with my blood. Engorged. Glistening with her pussy juices. Pre-cum oozed from the slit.

“I’m getting dressed. What does it look like I’m doing?” she snapped.

“Why?”

“I don’t know how many times I have to say the same thing. I won’t die from your bite.”

I shook my head. “I won’t risk it.” I ran my hand through my hair.

“There is no risk.” She looked to me, her eyes bleak. “You don’t trust me.”

“I don’t trust me,” I countered, setting my hand on my bare chest. “I won’t risk it. I almost lost you once today. I won’t risk it again.”

She tugged her shirt over her head, stalked out and straight for the exit. The door slid silently open, and she stepped out. Turning on her bare heel—she hadn’t put on her underwear, only her shirt and pants—she stood before me, her face emotionless. Flat.

“You already did.”

With those three words, she slapped her hand on the exterior wall and the door closed between us.

15

Ivy

“I’m sending this comm to notify you that Gerian Eovara, of Cerberus Legion, Rogue 5, has been captured. He was running a Quell production lab. Sending vids now.” I looked to the comm tech and nodded. He did some fiddling with the controls in front of him, sending the recordings Barek and Nev had taken in the destroyed lab. I’d learned early on that the Coalition wanted proof to claim any bounty, and I would not let something like lack of proof or evidence of capture make this one null and void.

This bounty, the destruction of the lab and Cerberus’s death closed the case on my unit. It brought finality to the Coalition, which they liked. With proof. They would contact my teammates’ next of kin and let them know justice had been served. Perhaps it would bring them closure to what happened to their loved one, or at least allow them to grieve knowing the perpetrator was no longer free to harm others.

As for me, I felt no closure as I’d expected. I’d been driven these long months for it, so the pain at the loss of my friends would go away. The pain and suffering I’d survived had been for something. That my remaining alive had been for something.

Lately I’d thought I’d survived because I was meant to be with Zenos, to live on Rogue 5 and be a part of Astra Legion. To belong. With one word from my lover, that had been shot to hell.

No.

Zenos wouldn’t bite me. Wouldn’t claim me as his. He didn’t believe the tests that had been conducted that proved the serum would work. He didn’t trust me with the truth. Didn’t love me enough to believe in me, to believe in us. I couldn’t remain here. I felt like an Earth mistress, a woman a guy would fuck but not commit to. I’d never wanted commitment before, but I’d never met Zenos before. Never realized what he meant to me until I thought him dead.

I’d never been in love. I hadn’t known what I was missing. And now I did, because it was so close, so attainable, especially the night before. Zenos had been deep inside me, his head right beside my neck. He only had to turn, sink his fangs deep into my shoulder. Somehow a mating fist would have swelled and locked us together, the combination of fangs and fucking would have been a claiming. A hybrid Forsian marriage of sorts.

So close, but never further away from a true bond.

Fuck that. Fuck the Coalition. Fuck everything. I was a rebel. Wild. Free. A fucking bounty hunter. I’d been alone all my life. I could remain alone. It would hurt, but it was better than being unloved.

That was why I’d walked out. I couldn’t have slept in his bed, in his arms, knowing it was less than everything. I’d found someone in the hallway and asked him to find me empty quarters for the night. He’d been courteous—I was somewhat infamous within the legion—and took care of me. I’d climbed into the cold bed, cried. Sleep wouldn’t come, but surety of what I had to do next had.

If Zenos didn’t want me, then I wasn’t staying. I’d take care of the bounty and be gone.

Astra came through the door into the comm room. Behind her was Gerian Eozara, primitive chains restraining his wrists and ankles. Behind him were Barek and Nev, ion pistols raised and ready to use. The prisoner was remarkably sedate, and I had to wonder if they’d stunned him into compliance.

I tilted my head toward the comm screen. “This is Elite Hunter Sabir with the I.C. He’s the contact for external projects.”

Astra’s pale brow went up. “He handles the off-the-record investigations.”

“Exact

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