Can Aelon put his future above his need to battle? Can he choose his Fated Mate over his bloodlust?
My eyes flicker down to my charts. My HUD is finally clearing. It’s staticky, but that means we’re getting out of range of the Toads’ jammers and signal disruptors.
We’re twenty minutes out from Tarrion. If the Toads keep their pace, I’ve gained ten minutes on them – but that’s only if they’ve kept their pace. Toads usually wait until the last second and then come in at attack speed – hurtling towards their enemy fast enough to totally blindside them.
Suddenly, my HUD flicks back on fully. I focus every thought I’ve got towards my triad, trying desperately to bring them back into my mind like the sensors and HUD came back to life.
The Aurelians suddenly blink back into my mind. I focused so hard on finding them again that when they do reappear, their presence is so powerful and overwhelming that I lose my own identity for a moment.
A triad of anger, confusion, grief, and loss floods my mind. My hands twitch, pushing our ship off trajectory. Sawoot looks over in concern.
Overshadowing all of the emotions flooding through the Bond is one of horror – horror so deep it erases my mind. Loss so poignant it rocks me to the core. My hands are shaking, the ship responding as tears well up in my mind from the second-hand emotions.
I force myself to be strong – and the Aurelians’ pain suddenly winks back out of existence, replaced by joy and relief.
“Making contact!” I get the ship back under control.
“Aelon! There’s a Toad Mothership with a full battalion of assault ships thirty minutes away from you. Did you regain control over the ship?”
“Aye.”
I was expecting him to curse at me through our telepathic communications. I was expecting him to question me on why I’d left. Iunia and Vinicus’s auras are still brimming with relief, but Aelon’s instantly changes. All emotion disappears into cold certainty.
This is the aura of Aelon the Commander. This is how he is when his ship faces a foe. I was worried that Toads would bring out the rage inside of him.
Instead, it brings out the coldness of a passionless executioner.
“Tasha! Comms-links are back up! There’s an incoming communication from The Instigator!”
“Accept it.”
11
Aelon
There is no bliss greater than to find your Fated Mate.
There is no horror greater than losing her.
When Tasha blinked out of my mind, I knew she was dead. There was no other explanation.
My triad felt the same – the instant loss of her from our shared Bond. Vinicus and Iunia instantly delegated command of the anti-air batteries to another triad and returned to The Instigator – flying their Reaver at breakneck speed without a thought.
None of us had said anything to each other through our minds. When my two battle-brothers had come and joined me on the bridge, not one of us spoke.
We just stared out through the viewscreen – to where the emptiness of space opened up before us. The three of us looked out into the void, feeling that our future was now as bleak and empty.
We waited. That’s all that our life would be. Waiting for death. Our primal drive to find our Fated Mate is the force that powers all Aurelians forward. We spend our whole lives yearning for her, searching for her – and if we’re astronomically lucky, finding her.
But, when she’s gone, there’s nothing more to search for.
We sunk into the bleak, empty, oblivion…
…and that’s when her aura suddenly returned to our minds.
It was like the world suddenly regained color. Vinicus fell to his knees, overcome by emotion. Iunia couldn’t believe it for a second, thinking it was his mind playing tricks on him – that he’d finally succumbed to madness.
As for me? I quietly said my thank you to the Gods, and then I reached for her aura, basking in Tasha’s being.
I’d failed my Fated Mate.
I’d allowed her to escape my protection. The Gods had given me another change to claim her, but I knew this would be the final one. I’d been given a gift that all Aurelians spend their lives searching for, but few ever find. I’d let my emotions and actions nearly cost me that incredible gift.
Now, I know Tasha is still alive.
Emotions well up in me, but I rip their roots from the ground and crush them beneath my boot. A commander must be passionless. The enemy force arrives, and to earn back my Fated Mate I must wipe them all from the skies.
We’re facing a Toad mothership, according to Tasha’s report. An immense behemoth capable of blocking communications and even the telepathy of the Bond.
This changes everything. The anti-air battery plan is now useless. Not only are we undergunned against such a formidable fleet, but it’s doubtful the Toads will even launch their attack against the mining colonies – so our weapons aren’t even in position to use as a defense.
Everything I’d planned was wrong. The Toads aren’t planning to try and split us up. They’re not going to divert my forces. They’re just going to come at The Instigator in a frontal assault, with ten times the number of assault ships I’d anticipated, and overwhelming firepower.
My mind races.
First they’ll try to cripple The Instigator with a burst of firepower that will shred through our shields. There’ll be no surrender accepted – not that I’d give it. The Toads won’t take prisoners. They know the only way to get away with this affront is to leave no witnesses of their crime. The Toads will obliterate us into dust, and then pick up the Orbs they seek from the remains.
Then, they’ll go down to Tarrion and wipe out the mining crews – slaughtering them to the last man. They’ll steal
