“Khar, what happened? Tell us about her.”
Khar flicked open one of Lily’s images on the display. His grin, big enough to split his face, blurred his grief for a heartbeat. Then he glanced at his brothers and felt a sudden, lethal stab of jealousy.
“She is a…”
Ikar narrowed his eyes, thinking. “Human? Incredible.”
Khar looked at Ikar with pride, not only because Lily was extraordinary and he loved sharing that truth, but because his brother recognized such a rare, pre-IMPERIUM species. Then Aros let out a noise that was unmistakably suggestive.
Khar surged to his feet, ready to knock sense into the gold-horned clown, but Ikar held him back.
“Easy. He is trying to rile you. He missed you. But while we are here, humans are rare. I heard of one who made a name as a mercenary, spent his life searching for his homeworld in vain. There are rumors.”
Aros perked up. “Yes, for instance that sex with them—”
He did not finish, because Ikar cuffed him. The youngest sighed as if unbearably tired of the whole interaction, which Khar knew by now meant he was pretending.
“So this human female took pity on you somehow,” Ikar said. “What triggered the imprint? You would need hormonal cascades. Unless you were losing in fights, repeatedly…”
Khar nodded happily. Ikar and Aros stared at each other, startled at the implication.
“You mean she was stronger than you,” Ikar said.
“And she still chose you?” Aros gaped.
Khar’s embarrassment was almost palpable.
“I do not think she realized how much stronger. You know I do not show it because—”
All three recited their mother’s favorite axiom in perfect unison.
“Because it is not enough to be strong, you must look strong.”
“So, the vukri attacked us,” Khar continued. “The Vitro, the Herion-12 class cruiser she’s being held on, has one single weakness: its instruments can’t detect vukri until they’re already inside. Doesn’t matter. I was injured, and she protected me. You should have seen her. She took down six of them with her bare hands and didn’t even break a sweat. Then she hugged me and said I was her only friend. And before that, I’d spent every waking moment scheming against her. Humans are astonishing. It’s probably for the best that the IMPERIUM keeps them confined to their own system.”
He told them everything he’d experienced working beside Lily. His brothers listened in stunned silence. When he finished, all three fell quiet, lost in thought.
“So this exceptional human female accepts you,” Aros said at last.
“That is the part I still find unbelievable,” Ikar admitted.
Khar forced himself to stay calm and answer seriously. What he had with Lily was sacred. He would never make light of it, not even with his brothers.
“I give her no reason to refuse me. When the imprint started, I had to face myself. If I had not been such a stubborn fool, I could have moved toward her the first moment I saw her. Instead I spent my energy feeling inadequate and resenting her for it. If the Cradle, fate, or pure chance hadn’t been so merciful, I might never have had the chance to make up for my stupidity. She was perfect then, and she’s perfect now. The bad slides right off her, and she accepts everything good I can give. It’s as if we were made for each other. I will never give her up.”
Ikar placed a supportive hand on his brother’s shoulder. Aros sprang to his feet and strode to one of the crates.
“We will not let harm come to her, brother,” Ikar said.
“And speaking of harm,” Aros added, “I hope your ship is stocked with a standard incubator. We brought a few vukri eggs, just in case.”
For the first time in his life, Khar felt grateful to be an elder brother.
“Of course it is.”
Aros’s smile turned wicked, and Khar had the odd sense of looking into a mirror.
“Then let us kick that Corvus’s bony backside with them.”
