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  There was, however, a series of messages from Ella, growing more and more insistent over the last three days when Peyton had gone completely dark. She rolled her eyes at the urgency of her sister’s messages. It wasn’t like she’d disappeared without a trace. She’d explained that work was taking her off the grid for up to a week and she’d be in touch when she got back. But Peyton was still reeling from those memories of her dad and she realized that she wasn’t the only surviving member of her family who might have some issues associated with someone leaving for work with little explanation.

  Peyton: Calm down, kiddo! Job isn’t over yet, but I’m on a break.

  Ella: Where have you BEENNNNNNN???????????

  Peyton: At work, drama queen. What’s up?

  Ella: Eh, just bored. Come over.

  Peyton rolled her eyes. Typical Ella, everything was an emergency until she got attention, then it turned out she was just looking to pass the time.

  Peyton: Sorry, no can do. Call your friends. Gotta go.

  Ella: Boo! See if I throw you a birthday party next month.

  Peyton: I’ll be heartbroken. Talk to you later.

  She shut off her communicator before Ella could drag her into anymore conversation. She knew it wouldn’t take much to have her spilling the goods on Dryce and DF, and while she could get away with talking about her mysterious messenger, there were probably security reasons she shouldn’t mention Dryce. And the fact that her sister was a total alien groupie. She did not want to find out that Dryce was one of Ella’s conquests. Or the other way around. However that worked. No. No way.

  Though, that would go a long way to erasing the weird attraction she couldn’t seem to get over. Nothing cleared that up better than knowing the guy had slept with her sister.

  She almost powered her comm back on just to confirm that he hadn’t. But that was crossing a line that Peyton didn’t want to admit she was getting close to, and she had no reason to believe that the two of them knew each other or knew each other. Not in any meaning of the word. Hell, DF had a better chance of knowing her sister, seeing as he was at that bar the night she’d lost her communicator. Gross, no, she didn’t want to consider that.

  If her conversation with Ella did one thing, it was calm her nerves enough to give Peyton the strength to go back outside and face the debrief and Dryce. She wanted this mission to be over, she wanted the Earth to be a safe place again, and she wanted to be able to forget the sexy alien who’d wormed his way into her thoughts and had already burrowed so deep that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to excise him without hurting herself.

  But first she had to finish the mission, and they weren’t done yet.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Iris had practically worn a hole in the floor over the last two days. Her nails were bit down to the quick and if she didn’t have news soon, she was scared she might start pulling out her hair. And all of this because her mate was on a support mission. She hated to think what she’d be like if he had to go out to fight. No, she could imagine. They’d probably need to sedate her.

  After a month of mated bliss it was like the real world had come crashing down on her. Hard. She knew her mate was a warrior, knew he had duties to his people that he could not ignore. But it was easy to forget when his days were spent in training sessions and meetings with his fellow Detyens and the humans at the Sol Defense Agency.

  But with the apprehension of Brakley Varrow things had sped up. And Iris shuddered to think of that man. His brother had been bad enough, and if it were up to her, both of the Varrows would have been consigned to hell without a second thought. More strategic minds than hers were the ones in charge, though, and with the Oscavian warships getting closer by the day, battle was no longer a possibility, it was only a matter of when.

  But Iris needed to see Toran. She wanted to hate this needy feeling within, wanted to ball it up and throw it into a deep hole with all her other unpleasant emotions, but if it was the cost for the soaring highs of loving him, she’d take it. There was nothing on Earth, nothing in the galaxy that would make her give him up, not now that she’d found him. She’d never realized just how perfect a match she could have, what it was like to engage with someone mentally, physically, and emotionally so completely that sometimes it was like they were one being split into two parts.

  And right now one half of that whole was crying out for its other half, and she just wanted Toran home. Now.

  She heard the lock engage and her head snapped up, her eyes watching the door open slowly with the desperation of a starving person watching meat sizzle on a grill. A flash of gold skin was all she needed to see before she was sprinting across the rooms and wrapping her arms tightly around her mate, holding on almost hard enough to cut off his airflow.

  But Toran didn’t seem to mind. He held on just as tightly, his big hands a familiar presence on her back, the warmth of him suffusing her, heating her even though she hadn’t realized that she’d been cold.

  Someone observing them would have thought they hadn’t seen each other for months, maybe years, rather than the span of a weekend, but since their mating they’d spent every night together and this was the first time Toran had been called away, the first time that danger was a real possibility.

  A cool burst of air ruffled her hair and Iris realized that the door was hanging open with them embracing for anyone to see. Iris’s cheeks flamed as she realized someone would have been treated to quite the view if things had gone on for a few more minutes. She untangled herself from Toran’s grip and shut the door, engaging the lock and sealing them off from the rest of the world.

  “Is the mission over?” she asked. He’d said it would be a week or more, so it was hard to believe that he’d come home so soon, no matter how much she wanted it. “You didn’t sneak away, did you?” The thought of being wanted that much was humbling, but she didn’t want her mate shirking his duties and putting others in danger just to see her. Well, most of her didn’t want that, but the needy part who’d paced ten kilometers in her small house was jumping for joy at the thought.

  Toran tipped her chin up and kissed her, obliterating all thoughts as his tongue tangled with hers, giving her the taste of home she’d come to associate with him. She couldn’t believe how tangled up together they’d gotten in the past month, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.

  Her mate finally pulled away to respond, even as she chased him for another taste. “There was a bit of a complication. I’ll need to go back out again shortly, but they’ve given us the night to rest.”

  “Huh?” Why was he talking when they could be kissing? Oh, it took Iris’s brain a moment to catch up to the fact that he was answering her question. “What kind of complication? Was anyone hurt?” His entire team had been involved and she knew how much he cared for them all. It would weigh heavily on him if anything were to happen to them.

  “No,” he said to her relief. “We had multiple locations to scout and one of them was too hot to get close to.” His hands landed on her hips and he pulled her close until she could feel every centimeter of him. Every hard centimeter of him. “Now, do you really want to know all about the mission? Or was there something else you wanted?”

  Iris moaned as his fingers found their way under her blouse and made contact with her naked flesh. “You can tell me the rest later,” she managed to get out before she crushed her mouth over his and hooked her legs around his hips. He could tell her all about the mission later, but right now she needed him to show her just what they’d been missing by being apart. She’d need it if he was about to go back into the field.

  TORAN AND KAYDE HAD made themselves scarce the moment that Sandon cleared the team to leave, but Raze had surprised Dryce by volunteering to go with him to observe this meeting. Then again, Raze was the only member of the team who hadn’t recently been separated from his denya, and while Dryce was sure they’d be all over one another the moment they were behind closed doors, it probably gave Raze and Sierra a little more sel
f-control than the rest of the team.

  Dryce envied them all. He hadn’t known what kind of torture it could be to be so close to his denya and yet be unable to touch her. If anything, their kiss had only made it worse. Now whenever he closed his eyes, and sometimes while his mind simply wandered, he could remember the taste of her, the press of her lips against his, and he hungered for more, for anything and everything she could give to him. Could she not feel the burning pulse of need that he did? How could the denya bond affect him so strongly and leave her immune?

  Maybe he would have posed these questions to his brother, but where they were standing at the moment was no place to think of the kinder emotions.

  Brakley Varrow sat in the middle of a dark room, his hands bound behind his back and his ankles shackled to his chair. His formerly bright purple skin had taken on a sickly gray tinge and his dark hair was greasy and in desperate need of a wash. His bright blue eyes, however, remained defiant. Since his failed escape attempt after he’d been apprehended, he’d offered the SDA and the Detyen Legion no information. He seemed confident that Yormas of Wreet would prevail in the coming battle and rescue Varrow before the planet was destroyed.

  The Oscavian who’d been captured at the same time wasn’t so sure. It had taken him some time to crack, but now he was talking and the SDA interrogators were ready to use their new information to see if Varrow had anything he wanted to share.

  When Dryce heard that the interview was happening, he’d put in a request to observe. If there was any information that would tell them how to find or disarm the weapons that were waiting somewhere on the planet and promising Earth’s destruction, he wanted to know. And he wanted to know it as soon his possible. His family, his friends, and his mate all called this place home and now Dryce did too. He wasn’t ready to see his new home destroyed and if he could do anything to prevent the kind of pain that lived within the surviving Detyen people, he would do it.

  But every time Varrow spoke, Dryce wanted to punch him. His tone was slimy, slippery, like he believed that if he just found the right set of words he’d be able to talk his way out of any situation. He said he was a simple scientist with no military knowledge, but Dryce could tell the man was hiding things from his past, and it wasn’t just because he had an Oscavian fleet under his command.

  Or he had before he’d been captured.

  Now Yormas of Wreet controlled it all, and he was showing no signs of a willingness to retrieve his captured partner.

  “How long do you think it will take him to crack?” Dryce asked. The SDA interrogators had been speaking to Varrow for more than an hour, but the Oscavian had done little more than twitch since they’d started asking questions. He seemed nervous, like he expected violence, but the SDA didn’t use torture. Not unless asking questions nonstop, until it felt like each one hit with the crack of a whip, counted.

  “I’m not sure he will,” Raze replied with narrowed eyes. He was staring at Varrow hard enough that the man should have spontaneously combusted, but Varrow didn’t even know that either of them were there. “From what Laurel has said about him, he’s not exactly the most... sane. He very well might choose to die on this planet rather than save himself by telling us where the weapons are.”

  “He’s dead either way. Dead or stuck in a cell for the rest of his life.” Perhaps there was nothing crazy about making that choice, but Dryce wanted to grind his teeth together in frustration. “This is pointless. He’s not going to talk.” He pushed away from the observation post and spun on his heel, knocking on the door and signaling that he wanted to be let out. The door opened and Dryce was through it before the guard could completely step out of the way and Raze followed close on his heels.

  They walked in silence through the dreary halls of the sub-basement in a building where the SDA kept their highest value prisoners. The whole place stank of desperation and despair and Dryce couldn’t stand waiting there for another minute. He needed fresh air.

  When he made it outside, the sun nearly blinded him. Still, he tilted his head up and soaked it in.

  “What is it you really want, brother?” Raze asked after several moments. He stood off to the side of Dryce, out of his direct line of sight, as if he was afraid to spook him. It was something he would have never thought to do in the three years that he was soulless, and Dryce was thankful for the reminder that he had his brother back, even if he didn’t want to discuss his problems at the moment.

  What he really wanted, the only thing he wanted, was somewhere in the administration building and getting ready to go back to her home. And he’d walked out of their debrief without more than a bland farewell. Dryce kept screwing up, saying the wrong things, doing the wrong things, but maybe this was the worst of all. Putting this space between them only gave her more time to convince herself that he was made of wholly bad qualities and that he’d never be the right man for her.

  For the first time he had the opportunity to show her who he was when he was off the job and able to give her all his attention. They had until morning to relax and recuperate before being sent out again. And if he didn’t take this chance he could end up regretting it for the rest of his life, which was growing shorter by the hour.

  He pulled out his communicator and smiled at his brother. “I know what I want. I have to go.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  It took Peyton about fifteen minutes to crack and turn her phone back on. In her defense, she did it so she could call a taxi to come pick her up and take her home. But as soon as the screen came up she saw the message from DF and her heart flipped over.

  DF: Can we meet tonight? There’s something I need to tell you. I’m on the SDA base if you’re around.

  He was here? Peyton’s head shot up and looked around for anyone that could be DF, but she was standing in the lobby of the admin building and plenty of people were milling around. All she knew was that DF was Detyen, so he could have been anyone that wasn’t human in the building. That didn’t exactly narrow it down.

  Did she want to meet him now? She had to look horribly sleep deprived and her outfit was far more functional than cute. If she’d had time to plan a date, she would have allowed at least an hour to get ready to make sure she could look her best. Could she run home, change clothes, put on makeup, and make it back before it got ridiculously late? With traffic, probably not, and if she made DF wait too long he’d probably lose interest in meeting tonight. She checked the timestamp and saw that thirty minutes had already passed from when he’d sent the message. What if he’d already headed home?

  Peyton: Can you meet in the cafeteria in fifteen minutes?

  Her hands shook as she typed out the message. It was really going to happen. She was going to meet the mysterious stranger that she’d been messaging for weeks. The mystery would finally be solved and she might finally get to see where things were going to go between them.

  Or it would all be a giant letdown and she wouldn’t have anything to look forward to after the end of her mission. Except the survival of the planet. That was ultimately a good thing, she supposed.

  DF: Yes, that’s great.

  DF: If you’re surprised, give me a chance.

  Peyton’s eyebrows scrunched up at that ominous request. If she was surprised? She wanted to message back and demand what he meant, but she was going to see the guy for the first time in fifteen minutes. She could ask him what the hell he was talking about once they were face to face.

  But would it be the first time? If. Surprised. They were anonymous message buddies, why would surprise come into it at all? Unless they already knew each other outside of that context. But Peyton could list the number of Detyens she knew beyond a passing acquaintance on one hand. And only one of them was single.

  Dryce.

  Oh god, it was Dryce, wasn’t it?

  She stumbled and had to catch herself on the wall before her body could crumble and collapse back to the floor. Dryce NaFeen. DF. It wasn’t an exact match, but it was close.

/>   He’d known about her dad. Had that only been this morning? But if Dryce and DF were one and the same, then Dryce hadn’t snatched that information from a file somewhere, he’d known it because she’d told it to him. And if Dryce was DF, then he’d known who she was since the moment they’d met in person, but had kept that from her for some reason.

  Some powerful emotion washed over her and Peyton couldn’t tell whether it was good or bad. But it propelled her towards the cafeteria and she walked with such intensity that everyone in her path got out of her way when they caught sight of the look in her eyes.

  It never occurred to her to turn around and go home, or to text DF and tell him the meeting was off. If he was Dryce, she needed to know. She needed to know if the weird companionship she’d felt with the Detyen Legion’s biggest playboy had been some sort of fluke or if it came from the fact that they’d been developing a friendship over their communicators for weeks.

  And then she needed to know why he’d lied to her.

  She was going to yell herself hoarse demanding those answers.

  The automatic doors to the cafeteria slid open, but Peyton wished that they were the kind you had to push. She needed to hit something, and the fewer inanimate objects in her way, the more likely it was that she was going to hit Dryce.

  He was big, he could take a shove.

  But she had no idea what she was going to do after that. Hug him? Kill him? Kick him? Kiss him? Climb him?

  And what if it wasn’t Dryce?

  That thought stopped her in her tracks and she stood in the entrance of the cafeteria momentarily consumed with such a swell of disappointment that she didn’t know how to process it. Did she want DF to be Dryce?