Nothing was going to get in my way. Not Dax, not the guards. Nothing.
In my periphery, I saw Dax by the doorway with the others, waiting. He would step in, but not now. Now it was time for me to end this once and for all.
It was me and my beast against the danger to my mate.
He was going to die.
“It does not appear you have recovered from the fever, Commander,” Engel taunted me, especially since he remained calm, unaffected by my beast.
“You die.” Two words, and even that was an effort. My beast simply wanted to fight.
Engel circled, his own eyes turning black in response to my threat. Still, he shrugged. “Losing a mate is worse than death, isn’t it? Perhaps when your cherished Tiffani is dead, you will see that perhaps you should have made different choices.”
I stalked forward, my armor tight and my heart pounding. The beast did not charge. He was still too close to our mate. And I knew exactly what he was talking about. His drugs and guns, the shipment I’d denied him. “Xerima.”
Engel placed himself between me and Tiffani, who remained limp on the floor. My beast could hear her heart beating, but it seemed sluggish. Slow. Soon, I would have no choice, I would have to charge and hope I could get to Engel before he killed her.
“What’s the point of having family in high places if they can’t help? It was simple, Commander. A signature was all it would have taken to prevent all of this.”
He was admitting his crime. Perhaps he knew he was going to die. Perhaps he knew that everyone was aware of his crimes. He’d drugged my mate. For that alone, he’d be put away for life. The rest, it was punishable by death. Execution.
“Greed. No honor.” My beast voice raged at him and I took a step closer.
Engel’s eyes were completely black, his face elongating as he began to change. “I have money, you idiot. Money and power.”
And that was true. He was one of the most powerful leaders on our planet. Honored. Revered. Richer even than the most decorated warlords returned from the war. So why would he deal in Rush and illegal weapons? It didn’t make sense to me. “Why do this?” Three words. A complete sentence. Before Tiffani, that would have been impossible.
“I was bored, Deek. Really. I spent ten years tearing Hive soldiers limb from limb. I came home and wore slippers and sipped wine.” Engel lifted his arms and waved around the rich tapestries, art and elegant furnishing of the sitting room. “This is all nothing, Deek. In time, you will see that. I had a chance to change the outcome of the war on Xerima, to influence the development of an entire civilization.”
“You play god.”
“We are gods, you fool. Most are simply cowards, too afraid to rule.”
I shook my head, slowly, curled my beast-sized hands into fists. He was insane. I saw it then, the maniacal belief in his gaze.
I lunged for him then. He was expecting it, let me come into his space, allowed me to grab him. The aggression fed his own beast, fueled the inner animal to rage, transforming Engel into his beast form as well. He grew to my size, his graying hair strange to my vision. Not many men of his age or stature transformed, and the sight was strange. But his body was pure muscle, his shoulders and chest equal in size to mine. He was huge, powerful, and he knew how to fight.
But I was fighting for more than my own ego. I was fighting for Tiffani.
We struggled, testing one another’s raw strength. Back and forth, neither gaining the upper hand. I heard the guards arrive, but ignored them. Their blasters would simply piss me off in this form and they would do little to stop Engel. Warlords who’d fought on the front lines learned to deal with the pain of a blaster.
“No, don’t intervene.” I heard Dax’s words, but focused on Engel. He shoved me away and we circled one another as he wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. His beast was breathing hard, sweat dripped from his brow.
“Never get between warriors in beast mode. Do I have to send you back to basic training? Get a ReGen wand in here. The commander doesn’t need our help, but his mate does.”
Engel lunged and I deflected his punch, parried with a strike of my own to his kidney, hooked his face and pulled back and down, forcing the bastard’s head up. Using my claws, I ripped across his face, twisting his neck. Unfortunately, he turned his body as I would have snapped his spine, only scarring him with deep gouges of my beast’s nails horizontally across his face. Blood poured from the wounds as a howl emerged, shook the room.
Panting, I leaned forward, arms out in front, ready for more. Seeing my mark on his face, knowing that he’d go to his death with this shame upon him, had my beast howling in triumph. But we weren’t done yet.