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She pulled away and stared at him. “They sent you to hunt me down? And you came? Like a bloodhound? Like a fucking dog?”
Her anger was immense and immediate, and there was no chance to explain any of the complexities.
“They sent you, and you came. But you wouldn’t come on your own, huh? You wouldn’t come unless someone gave you an order. Because you’re a fucking puppet!”
He was on the verge of losing his temper, the only reason he did not take her in hand immediately and whip her recalcitrant, disrespectful ass. Instead, he tried to talk sense into her. “You tried to defect to the Dinavri! That’s treason. That’s punishable by death.”
“Yeah,” she said with a contemptuous curl of her upper lip. “I guess it is. But do I care?”
“I don’t know if you do. I don’t know what you have been thinking. Your recklessness has reached new extremes. Unbelievable extremes. You’re the first and only cadet in Authority history to steal an entire ship.”
“So you’re saying I’m legendary.”
“I’m saying you’re going to be tried for treason and executed. There are bounty hunters looking for you with kill on sight orders.”
“No, I’m not. Because I’m never going back into Authority space.” She stared at him defiantly with those big blue eyes of hers, the ones that were always full of sass and life, but never so much determination as they were now. She had crossed a line that could never be uncrossed, and he knew very well he could never drag her back to face justice. He was as stuck here as she was now.
Spinning on his heel, Atlas left the room, full of disappointment and rage, mostly at himself. If he had begun to punish her then and there, he would have hurt her. He needed to think. He needed to calm down.
“I thought you would be longer with the human,” Sithren said, coming up beside him like a smug, scaled shadow.
“I needed to think.”
“Females do make it hard to think,” Sithren admitted. “At least, until you have mated them.”
“Lord Sithren—” he began to tell the Dinavri to fuck off as politely as possible. Sithren interrupted him.
“She intends to live here, among our people.”
“That seems like a very bad idea for so very many reasons.”
“And yet what other choice does she have? She is wanted under pain of death in your territory.”
“She is highly unlikely to adapt to Dinavri society given she was unable to follow the rules and protocols of the Authority.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Some just need a firmer, more consistent hand. Your Authority seems to assume obedience. We enforce it, especially where young, brash females are concerned. If you wish to leave her here, that would be acceptable.”
Leave her there? With Sithren? No. Mine, Atlas thought. Jerri is mine.
His possessive streak was rearing its head. He had tried to suppress it, thinking that it was for the best, but he couldn’t, and he should never have allowed his vow to serve the Authority to interfere with the much more primal truth of the matter. Jerri was his. She had been from the moment he first laid eyes on her.
“Or, of course,” Sithren hissed. “It strikes me that the opportunity to have an Authority commander in our midst could be very useful to us. We might be able to tolerate the presence of the human, assuming she is well disciplined, in return for your assistance.”
“So we would both be defectors.”
“You are welcome to take the human back to Authority territory, see her executed for treason, and be the official hero you may have been born to be.” Lord Sithren smirked as he laid out the options, knowing full well that there was no way Atlas would see her harmed.
As much as he loved her, Jerri had trapped him with her reckless actions. It would serve her right if he were to drag her back to Authority territory, but the horror of that was worse than the reality of a reluctant alliance with the Dinavri. Atlas was faced with the fact that his Authority career was over. His name would be entered on the list of hostile actors. He would never again be permitted safe passage through Authority space.
“I liked you when you were here. I must say, I missed you. I will enjoy having you as an advisor. You have a unique perspective, Atlas. You will be embraced here. Now. Please. Go handle your female. Or have a drink with me. You look like you need one. We never did drink the v’kar.”
Atlas took a deep breath. “There is something I need to do before I drink the v’kar.”
“You’re back.” She wiped her eyes quickly, but not quickly enough to hide the tears she had been shedding. She seemed surprised to see him again. It occurred to him that she fully expected him to abandon her again. And why not? He had left once under less shameful circumstances. He felt a pang upon realizing that not only did she not know he cared about her, much less loved her, she thoroughly expected to be abandoned.
