Breaking the Admiral. Copyright © 2017 Ella Drake.
All rights reserved.

Chapter Two

Tay woke with a splitting headache, a dry mouth, and a grinning Nick leaning over him. Tay’s brow ached and he tried to smooth the squinting look of confusion he shot at the other Scoriah. He muttered, “Wrong brother.”

Nick’s mouth slanted in a half frown. “Yeah, they dumped everybody but you and Ash before they high-tailed it here to Station Viesel to rendezvous with their ship and us.”

“What?” Aching, Tay rolled his head to see where he was. Blinking and coming around, Ash lay on the floor next to him. They were on a mattress in a big room. Quad sat next to Ash. Chaz—he had green streaks in his hair this time—stood at the wall and poked at a comm unit he had busted open. Tay licked his dry lips. “Chaz getting us out of here?”

They had to be locked in here. Some impenetrable prison somewhere.

“Oh, no. The door opens fine.” Chaz demonstrated by running his hand over the panel. The door swished open and closed. “Just seeing if this comm unit has any green wires I can use. The ones I have are gold. Want to match my hair. This matches the streaks I got rid of.”

Waving a hand, he showed a gold wire bracelet woven around his wrist.

“Let’s get out of here.” Tay surged to a sitting position and the room spun around him. He swallowed hard to keep the bile down.

“Easy. You could have clutch sickness.” Nick pressed on Tay’s shoulder until he sprawled on his back again.

“How long have I been out?” Had to be more than a day if Nick thought it was clutch sickness. The warnings and fears from when they were young, so young, skittered through him. Part of their nature acted like the bugs they’d borrowed DNA from—they had to stay in family groups of at least six or they’d sicken and die. Biofeedback or something.

“They took a risk. They didn’t really know how you two would react.” Quad’s tone showed he wasn’t as calm about this as Nick seemed to be.

“What’s going on?” Ash croaked from nearby. His brother rolled to his side with a grunt and Quad settled more closely to him.

“Near as I can tell, they put you under for several days. I’m not sure how long.” Nick put a bottle of water to Tay’s mouth and he drank greedily. “The Geonate pulled a switch at the end, there. The Nex wouldn’t go along with ceasing their hunt for us unless they could ensure the fewest number of Scoriah left Ferrashi. They agreed to allowing only two of us to leave so that the total off planet was six. So that meant rendezvousing with us where we’d been feeling a bit of clutch-sickness without Tee and Beck. Then leaving as many behind as we could. A lot of shuffling. Everybody else is safe at home.”

Nick gave him a significant look. No talking about the secret family compound where everyone had retreated. At least they were all together. For now, he put aside the need to pry retribution from his Admiral’s little neck for the double-cross because the news Nick shared was most welcome. “So Beck is alive, then.”

“And mated.” Chaz grinned over his shoulder and slammed the console shut. Green wires gripped in hand, he strode toward the nest and settled in the middle of them all. “Speaking of, your wife said to let her know when you woke up.”

Tay leapt into a crouch and snarled. His fangs bared and his claws sank into the mattress. On his hands and knees, his nose lifted in the air to take in the clues around him, his gaze tracked the room. With a short growl, Ash struggled to his side in an attempt to join Tay in the attack but Nick pushed his brother onto his back with a tsk.

“Easy, boy. She’s not here.” Quad gave a lazy chuckle. “Scoriah never go down easy.”

“I’m not going down,” Tay ground out. Shaking his head, he tried to pull the anger back in. Taking deep breaths, he filled his lungs, held it, and expelled slowly.

By instinct, he followed his need to ground himself. Grabbing Ash by the neck, he tugged his brother too him, ran his knuckles over Ash’s short hair, and purred. Soothing his brother calmed him and Ash relaxed, the tension visibly leaving him as he let the other five handle whatever was going on. A little guilt tried to roil his stomach, that he let others handle this mess when he should take charge, but he couldn’t make sense of everything, yet. With the combined heat, touch, and sensory feedback provided from the nest, Tay was able to process his surroundings.

From the corner of his eye, he caught a flash of yellow—the nest was decorated in the usual haphazard collection of coverings. The floor vibrated in that subtle way humans didn’t notice but told a Scoriah he was on a ship, not on planet or on station. The uniformly gray metal of the walls nearly blended with Nick’s skin, who’d rounded toward the door and crouched next to Tay. Then his brother visibly released his tension.

Nick reached out and patted Tay on the shoulder in a soothing gesture. “The food’s good here.”

“The food.” Tay grinned at Nick and let the rest of his turmoil fall away. He had brothers near. He could face anything. “The Geonate can cook?”

“They don’t have any of the really good Ferrashi food, but it’s not too bad.”

“Did you eat my share of the dessert?” Tay teased and, shoving Ash aside—making his brother yelp—he dove at Nick.

“Sure as hell did,” Nick insisted even as he flew through the air and landed on his back on the mattress next to Ash.

Tay threw a swat at Nick, catching him on the shoulder as the rascal rolled away. Grunting, Tay bowled into Nick head first. With a whoof, his brother hit the mattress again and laughed. Tay’s claws slashed Nick’s arm and his brother laughed harder.

“Baby scratch,” Nick taunted as blood ran down his arm.

Tay bared his teeth, his body bunching for another pounce. A nearby vibration distracted him and a second later the door slid open.

“Break it up,” a soldier barked and marched into the room.

Quad, his lazy tone still unmoved, warned, “You really don’t want to get involved in a play fight.”

“No,” a woman replied with a commanding tone. “You don’t want to get involved, Ensign.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The greenie stood to the side and glared at Tay.

“You’re awake.” The woman gave him that same cursory but full-bodied gaze and Tay realized who she was. When he’d seen her in the dark bay of the shuttle, he hadn’t gotten a good look at her. In moments, he memorized the broad outline of her form, if not her features. This was who he had to confront head on to be sure his family wasn’t betrayed. Beyond the usual human elements of no-claws, no-fangs, and puny, non-Scoriah musculature, she had a prosthetic of some kind along her lower jaw. The gray metal had been the gleaming he’d seen before. She’d been injured and her jaw rebuilt. She’d seen some pain, then. She’d have that in common with the Scoriah.

“My wife,” he muttered. “Who shot me in the back.”