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  Half a dozen messages were waiting for her when she started to scroll through, but nothing too important. And just like Ella had said, she’d contacted Peyton and told her she was coming home.

  Right under that message was one from a contact she didn’t recognize. She scrunched her brows together as she racked her brain to think of who DF could be, but she couldn’t figure it out. When she read the message, she realized it was whoever had recovered her phone. Apparently he’d added himself to her contacts and left her a text. She almost deleted it on principle; she wasn’t about to flirt with some guy who went to that kind of bar on a Wednesday night, but on the other hand, he’d been kind enough to turn in her comm and she’d be helpless without it. The least she could do was respond.

  Once.

  DF: Sorry I couldn’t return this in person. I saw you across the room and it shined.

  Peyton rolled her eyes. Did lines like that actually work on people?

  Peyton: Thanks for turning it in. You’re a life saver. :)

  There. Simple, thankful, done. She put thoughts of DF and Ella out of her mind as her bus pulled up in front of her office. Rumors of a big assignment going out had been running rampant, and she needed to have her head in the game if she was going to be the one chosen. Her comm beeped again with an incoming message, but Peyton ignored it. She had work to do.

  The incoming alien fleet wasn’t going to defeat itself.

  Chapter Two

  Dryce stared at his comm waiting for Peyton to reply to his message. It felt almost intrusive to know her name, but the info had been right there in her contacts. She’d thanked him, so he knew she’d retrieved her comm from the bar, but after he replied to her, she hadn’t said anything. And as the minutes ticked by he feared that she wouldn’t reply again. He wanted to prompt her, but he knew enough about flirtation to know that no person liked to be hounded for a response.

  He shoved the comm back in his pocket as Sandon opened the door to the small conference room they were meeting in and took a seat. “I’ve sent a list of interviews you’ve been scheduled for to your communicator. They will be happening over today and tomorrow. We’re getting reports of amateur detection of the fleet at the edge of the solar system and our joint leadership team does not want to incite panic. Do you understand?”

  Dryce understood that he was stuck in a job he had no skill for just because he had a pretty face and an easy smile. He was a warrior, not a puppet, but for some reason both the SDA and Detyen leadership had decided he was the perfect person to liaise with the media about the Detyen presence on Earth.

  “Sir, is this—”

  “I wouldn’t assign it to you if it wasn’t necessary, would I?” Sandon didn’t let him get the question out. It was times like this that Dryce remembered Sandon wasn’t that much older than him. He wasn’t yet thirty, though the day was drawing close. Soon the commander would need to make a decision, whether he would die or sacrifice all of his emotions to buy a few more years in service of his people. The stress of the past months was wearing on the man, and from the pinched look on his face, he seemed to be living with a constant headache. Dryce could add to the man’s problems by rebelling at his assignment, or he could do his duty to his people, no matter how unpleasant it seemed.

  “I’ll keep news of the fleet out of the interviews,” Dryce promised. “But do we have any updates on that?”

  Sandon shook his head. “They’re holding steady on this side of the Kuiper belt.” Dryce had learned that the Kuiper belt delineated the outer edge of the main Sol system. The system continued on for a long distance past that, but it was mostly uninhabitable rocks and radiation. “No matter who questions Brakley Varrow, he won’t give up any information. The Oscavian we captured with him is just as reluctant to divulge their secrets.”

  That was beyond frustrating. Brakley Varrow was an Oscavian scientist who had held Dryce’s fellow warrior Dru as a captive for months aboard an Oscavian scientific vessel. He’d also experimented on a human woman named Laurel who had turned out to be Dru’s denya. The pair had managed to escape Varrow, but in doing so had led him and his allies to the Detyen headquarters. The Detyens had been forced to evacuate and destroy their former home before it could fall into the wrong hands. Dryce hadn’t been there, having arrived on Earth months before his fellow Detyens, but everyone in the Legion had a different version of the story to tell.

  “Have we heard anything about Yormas of Wreet?” Dryce asked.

  “His people claim he’s been stripped of his ambassadorship and that any action he takes is on his own, not in any capacity as a Wreetan official.” Sandon’s droll tone told Dryce all he needed to know. Wreet may have disavowed the man, but they wouldn’t lift a finger to stop him from destroying Earth.

  For more than a hundred years, the mystery of who had destroyed Detya had haunted the Detyen Legion. A single ship had managed to rain down fire and death and only those lucky enough to already be off planet, or within close proximity to escape ships, had managed to survive. In the century since, the Detyens had cobbled together a culture across the stars, but there’d been no clue as to who had destroyed them or why. No clue until a team of warriors had been sent to a desolate place called Fenryr 1 where they discovered a recording that implicated Yormas of Wreet and promised to let the Detyen Legion fulfill their true purpose.

  It was there that Dryce’s brother, Raze, had met his own denya, and at the time that had been impossible. Raze had been soulless, had sacrificed his emotions to extend his life beyond the thirty years an unmated Detyen could live. Somehow he’d recognized Sierra Alvarez as his and the next time Dryce had seen him, he’d been a changed man.

  So much had changed in less than half a year, but now the Legion was in more trouble than ever, and full of more hope than they could have dreamed. If they could defeat Yormas of Wreet and his allied Oscavians, they could finally have their justice for what was done to their ancestors. And once that was over, perhaps they could grow beyond their original mission and find a home for their people on Earth where it seemed that Detyens were finding denyai by the day.

  Dryce included. He couldn’t help but smile as he remembered the sight of Peyton. Maybe he should have felt guilty for stealing her name from her communicator and taking her number for himself, but all was fair when it came to claiming a mate, and he would show her he was a worthy companion, just as soon as he could convince her to text him again.

  “What’s that look?” Sandon asked, jerking him out of his memory.

  Dryce schooled his expression into something more serious. “Nothing, sir. Thank you for the update. I’ll complete the interviews and make sure not to shirk my training.”

  Sandon nodded. “See to it.” He glanced down at his watch and grimaced before shaking his head. “I think I’m wishing for an attack just so I can avoid all of these meetings.”

  There was the Sandon Dryce had once known, before the weight of leadership had overwhelmed him. “Don’t pray too hard, or our ancestors might do you a favor.”

  The commander gave a short laugh as he pushed himself up from his chair and left Dryce alone. Dryce pulled out his own communicator to find the schedule of interviews that Sandon had left for him. They were scheduled throughout the next two days, but luckily he’d be able to do them all from SDA headquarters. He’d been forced to do a few in front of media cameras in studio and that had eaten into most of his time. He was a warrior, not a decoration, and he didn’t want to spend his days smiling for the media and assuring the public that there was no incoming threat. Especially when he knew that threat was waiting for them to show a single sign of weakness.

  His communicator beeped and a message from Peyton flashed up.

  Dryce: Sometimes I wish I could throw my comm away, but I’m glad you have yours back.

  Peyton: Too many of your conquests trying to get ahold of you?

  Her response startled a laugh out of him and he couldn’t stop grinning. Maybe another man would have been reb
uffed, but he liked that his mate had claws of her own.

  Dryce: Do you think I give my conquests my contact info?

  He sent the response before he could think better of it and as soon as he realized what he’d typed he winced and wished he could call it back. That was no way to ingratiate himself with his mate. She should never have to doubt her place beside him, and his days of picking up people in bars and clubs were past now that he’d found her. Even if she never wanted him, he didn’t think he could take someone else to his bed; he wouldn’t even want to try.

  Despite his inelegant message, she replied almost immediately.

  Peyton: So what makes me so special? Or is it because you don’t want to make me one of your conquests?

  His fingers itched to tap out a message, but he forced himself to slow down, to think before he replied. If he told her too much too soon, he risked scaring her away before she could accept what she already meant to him. If he made light of how he’d been on the planet up to this point, she might never take him seriously as a romantic partner.

  Dryce: I needed to make sure you got your comm back. It’s more important than a blaster on Earth.

  Peyton: You’re right about that.

  She left it there without another response, but Dryce smiled down at the message history before flicking back to his schedule. It wasn’t much of a conversation, but it was a beginning. Now he just had to stop the world from ending to make sure that it could continue.

  “WHY ARE THE OSCAVIANS so fucking formal?” Jessa Stewart slumped against Peyton’s door as she lobbed her complaint into the air.

  Peyton looked up from her communicator, hoping her dark hair hid her blush. She wasn’t supposed to be using the device for non-work purposes, and messaging DF surely couldn’t count as official business. “Oscavians?” she asked. “Since when do we care about Oscavians?” The empire was on the other side of the galaxy, and though its tendrils spread every day, Earth was in no danger of falling under its dominion. They were too far away and too insignificant to matter to such a powerful nation.

  Jessa stepped forward and melted into the other chair in Peyton’s office. Well, the office Peyton had claimed for the day. She was normally down in the lab dissecting alien tech, but today several of their new alien allies had taken over and kicked her out, so she was stuck looking at teleporter schematics on a borrowed computer and filing paperwork that she’d let get backed up.

  “We care because a bunch of them are sitting in space a bit too close to home.”

  The hairs on the back of Peyton’s neck stood up at that. Whispers had been snaking their way through the SDA research labs for the past several weeks, but as far as she could tell, all information was on a strictly need to know basis. And Peyton hadn’t needed to know. But Jessa wasn’t likely to let something as silly as rules about classified information keep her from complaining. “How close?” Peyton asked. It was one thing to worry about nefarious aliens kidnapping her sister off the streets. Even at her most paranoid, she knew it wasn’t that likely to happen. An actual interstellar army sitting at their doorstep was another matter.

  “Close enough for civilians to pick them up. I hear our new alien friends are going to run interference with Star Hottie, but I don’t think that will work for long.” Jessa leaned forward and picked up a paperweight that sat at the edge of the desk and tossed it from hand to hand.

  “Don’t break shit that isn’t mine,” Peyton begged. And then her mind caught up to the rest of what Jessa had said. “Wait, who’s Star Hottie?”

  “That hot alien guy that’s done all the interviews over the past few weeks? Haven’t you watched?” Jessa was another woman completely obsessed with their new interstellar friends.

  Peyton didn’t get it. Sure it was kind of fascinating to think about all of the things the Detyens and the other aliens who’d come to Earth had seen, but that didn’t make her want to run out and climb on the dick of the nearest eligible alien. Did they even have dicks? She bit her tongue to keep from asking. “You’re talking about the Detyen media liaison?” Yeah, even Peyton could admit he was hot, maybe a little too hot, but she didn’t want to tell that to Jessa.

  Jessa’s eyes brightened. “Any chance I get I’m talking about him. I’ve been praying every day that he gets assigned to our team for something.”

  “Somehow I doubt that’s going to happen.” She and Jessa worked for the SDA, but they were both science grunts. Peyton spent most of her days tearing apart scavenged alien tech and trying to rebuild it for use on Earth. Jessa was a report writing machine. She could translate all of the science crap—Jessa’s words—to something that the higher ups understood. Her memos had been singlehandedly responsible for expanding the entire department’s budget on more than one occasion, something she didn’t let their supervisors forget when it came time for annual raises. “How did you hear about the Oscavians?”

  Of the many aliens on Earth, Peyton didn’t think she’d ever met an Oscavian. They were mostly characters in stories, used in media shows as distant princes or evil villains bent on galactic domination. She’d heard rumors that one was being held captive on an SDA base, but even that seemed farfetched. Though if Jessa’s gossip was true, maybe the other rumors were as well.

  “I have my sources.” Jessa grinned.

  Peyton’s communicator beeped and she could feel herself blush. God, barely a few lines of text flirting and her heart went pitter-patter. How pathetic was that? She reached out and tried to casually cover the device so that Jessa couldn’t reach for it, but that somehow brought more attention to it.

  “What’s that?” Jessa asked. “Who’s messaging you?”

  “I didn’t look, so how could I know?” Peyton shot back. It had been a weird night and day, and her thoughts were all jumbled up, that was all. No reason to get tripped up over the mysterious DF.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you blush.” Jessa leaned forward and reached out for the hand covering Peyton’s comm. Peyton yanked it back and stuck it in her pocket before it could be stolen. “And you’re not usually so possessive. Come on. Spill! I don’t give a shit about our imminent destruction if you’ve got something fun to share.”

  Peyton weighed her options. No way was Jessa walking out of this office without something, well, not unless there was a fire drill. But the alarm trigger was down the hall, so that option was out. She didn’t know why she was so reluctant to share. It was just some harmless messages. But there was something about them that she wanted to hold close, to keep to herself for a little longer. Ugh, maybe she just needed to get laid. It had been too long and if she was mooning over a mystery man, a man whose name and face she didn’t know, she definitely needed to get out more.

  And as it always went, Peyton relented. “I lost my comm last night.” No need to admit she’d been trailing her sister to make sure she didn’t do anything too stupid. “And this guy turned it in. When I picked it up this morning, we started chatting. It’s nothing. He seems nice.”

  “Nice?” Jessa practically jumped up in her chair. “What’s his name? Is he cute? Is he single?”

  “I don’t know!” Peyton clutched her comm tight to her chest and squeezed, as if she could pry information out of it. “I’m sure it will end up being nothing, but it’s a nice distraction. Seeing as you’re telling me about the potential end of the world!”

  Jessa rolled her eyes. “Shut up, you’re fine. And if it is the end of the world, maybe you should see where things with your mystery man go. If we’re all about to die fiery deaths, you have literally nothing left to lose.” She checked her watch and heaved a sigh before pushing up from her seat. “Duty calls. I’m going to want a full report on how things go.”

  Petyon shook her head. “Yes, boss, I’ll get right on that.” But as soon as Jessa was gone, she glanced down at the screen and couldn’t help her grin at the message waiting from DF.

  DF: You took off quick last night. Next time you should let me buy you a drink.

>   Maybe next time she would.

  Chapter Three

  Peyton: I can be pretty picky about my drinks. Do you think you’re up for it?

  Dryce grinned as he slipped his comm into his pocket. He wanted to reply, but he had to get to the third floor to start his first interview of the day and if Sandon heard he was late there would be hell to pay. Once he was situated in a different conference room he read through all of the information that the Detyens and the SDA wanted to get out to the public. Most of it was a bid to reassure everyone that the Detyens had come to Earth seeking shelter and new lives and that they meant the humans no harm. And when he was asked about the fleet just waiting to attack them, he knew what he’d have to do.

  But the interview went smoothly enough. Dryce flirted with the woman who’d been sent to interview him, charming her just as he charmed everyone. It went so well that she almost forgot to ask him about the imminent threat, but as they got to the end of the interview, he realized that it was possibly him who’d been lulled into a false sense of complacency.

  “Is this Oscavian Empire responsible for the fleet of ships waiting at the edge of our solar system?” The reporter, Holly Fordham, asked so casually that Dryce almost answered without thought.

  Almost. He took a moment and kept his smile in place. “The Oscavian Empire?” He laughed. “I may be new to Earth, but last I heard, they had no reason to want anything from this planet or system. If any Oscavians are here, I’m sure they just want to see the sights.”

  “And the fleet amassing in our system?” Holly pressed.

  “Ships come and go every day, Holly.” Though his job was to redirect attention, he’d been cautioned to lie as little as possible. And Dryce knew that outright denying a fleet sitting somewhere in the solar system would only draw attention to it. He didn’t want more amateur astronomers pointing their telescopes taking a peek. But he could see that she was gearing up to press him further, so he kept talking. “My people are warriors, so we’ve dedicated our entire existence to the protection of our people, and now that Earth is our home, our protection extends here. If there were any sort of threat, we would be first in line to fight it. Earth is safe, and I will give my last breath defending it.”