Maybe it was.
Warriors. For the first time, I considered just what that really meant.
I wasn’t one. Just a woman on a mission. My own arm had been healed, but it still ached slightly, as though it hadn’t yet forgiven the insult of being clawed.
Kurt appeared in the doorway. His brows dropped when he saw the Drakes, but he directed his question to me.
“So now that you have royally farked things up, what is our next step?”
I stiffened, and so did all three Drakes.
“We haven’t discussed that yet,” I said.
“We?” His gaze darted around the room. “Clearly, as soon as we emerge, we need to report to the slipstream authorities. They can deal with the Drake issue.”
The Drakes in question turned hard stares on him. Kurt took a step back.
“Once we have decided on a course of action, we will notify you,” Zyair rumbled.
To give him credit, Kurt tried to match glares with him. But he looked away almost immediately. He clearly didn’t know where he stood within the new hierarchy—Tazier Drakes were our overlords, while these Drakes were not.
The glance he shot me was less certain than it had been. “Keep me posted,” he said, and vanished back into the hall.
I sat down. All three sets of Drake eyes rotated to me as I placed the cube in the center of the table and pressed a button on the side, before tapping a few controls.
It obediently called up the starmap I’d last requested, which was our destination. It projected the map above it as a hologram, showing the resident systems and other features, each labeled.
They all stared at the starmap.
And then Zyair revealed the brainpower that Xandros had previously mentioned. My mind reeled at what he suggested, but the respect with which the other two listened to his plan revealed much.
They were brothers, but each so different. Xandros was a mountain of muscle who was once again stroking a purring and now stuffed hedgegopher.
His contribution was, “I will take the starboard gun.”
Rhodes was icy calm as Zyair went over the plan. He offered critiques with impeccable logic and listened to why his alpha thought they would, or would not, work.
They were balanced, these three, with Zyair as the leader.Alpha,the Drakes called it.As he concocted a plan that left myhead spinning, the word took on new meaning—Zyair combined Xandros’s passion and Rhodes’s logic. And while what he outlined would be dangerous as hell, neither of his brothers protested.
I would have liked to, because I liked living.
But try as I might, I couldn’t come up with anything better.
Finally, after much discussion, there was silence as we all chewed on a combination of food and our thoughts.
Yani stood and started putting away the leftovers. She paused with her hands on a package of meat.
“Are we feeding the prisoner?”
“No.” Xandros may be a softie with Sookie, but he clearly had no love for Senaik.
Zyair’s nostrils flared. “He will live for a while without nourishment.”
Yani cast him a look. “It’s dangerous to keep him on board.”
I didn’t know if she was suggesting we dump him on a planet or kill him outright.
“He has information we require,” Rhodes rumbled.
