who’s sniffing around their territory. In comparison, I cross my arms with an air of nonchalance that seems to irritate them more with every passing second. Good. I enjoy watching them suffer after they pointed a gun at my mate.
Although, this is hardly enough. Death is preferable in my opinion.
“We’re thankful you saved Ella,” Markel says, his cold eyes like shards of ice. “But what I want to know is why. What is she to you? How can we be sure you don’t want to harm her or use her to do more than infiltrate this military facility?”
The female tenses at my side, and two red spots appear on her cheeks, staining her ivory flesh quite beautifully.
My reply is instantaneous. “Ella is my mate. Would you not risk your life to save yours?”
The male beside Markel laughs sharply. “We don’t have mates. We’ve got wives who nag us till they’re blue in the face. Or, in Ella’s case, a sister-in-arms who wants to piss us off by bringing an unwanted alien to a place he has no right being.”
For the first time since the guard opened my cell, Ella laughs in her species’ company. It’s a quiet, almost scathing sound.
“You always treat me like a kid. I’m just as skilled as the rest of you. You know that. J…Jacob knew that. He believed in me. He trusted me. Why the hell can’t you guys?”
Markel narrows his eyes and digs his fingers into the surface of the table. A tense silence stretches between us. It’s Markel who breaks it with his fist slamming on the table. Ella flinches, and I seize her hand, ready to protect her no matter what it takes. Markel sighs and drags a hand through his hair. He pulls at the strands, his expression contorted in a moment of unchecked anguish until the red blotches in his face fade away.
“Did he suffer?” he asks after a moment.
There are tears in Ella’s eyes when she answers him. “Not for long. He died after we crashed. I gave him the poison to ease his suffering, because he was fatally wounded, and he drifted to sleep right before I passed out.”
“Jacob was a good kid,” he says, then clears his throat. “Ella’s a good one too. What do you want with her?”
“Only to be with and protect her,” I answer truthfully. “She’s my mate.”
It’s clear she means a lot to these humans. And it’s also clear in the way she’s looking at them right now that she, too, cares for them. I may not have liked the manner in which they greeted us, but if I want to be in her life, I need to accept her family. These warriors might be all she has. Well, for now. I plan on officially breeding with her the moment she sets foot on my planet.
I just need to ensure she comes with me.
I lean back in my chair and fix the males with a leveled stare. “Look, here’s how I see it. You need allies, and I need the serum contained inside the weapon you shot me with. Now, to my reckoning, that puts us both at an advantage. What do you say we create an alliance? My species’ aid in battle in exchange for your serum?”
They trade long glances.
The unknown male straightens in his chair and slides me a curious look. “What makes you think we’d even want you as an ally? We have allies.”
“Then why have I never heard of your species?” I ask, cocking my head to the side. It’s clear the male is bluffing; otherwise, I’d have heard through my travels of their existence some way or another. “You saw what happened back in the woods. My species is powerful. With our help, your planet will be safe until we gather enough allies to defeat the G.C. entirely.” I lean slightly over the table. “We both despise the G.C. You because they’ve enslaved your people, and we because they allow Captain Rovak to thin our herds. We both want to bring them down.”
Ella starts in her chair, evidently surprised by this information. I try not to think, let alone talk about it, for fear of losing control. Nothing angers an Incarus more than the mere mention of Captain Rovak and his fleet of hunters.
“I met Rovak once,” Markel says, assessing me through shrewd, pinched eyes. “Nasty piece of work. What does he want with your kind?”
“To slaughter us for our horns. They use them in their weaponry, but