Page 80 of Rebels Rising

‘You’re not going to hurt me, baby. I promise.’

‘You can’t know that,’ I argued.

‘I can, and I do. There’s nothing you can do to me that hasn’t already been done before, and there isn’t a moment where I won’t consent to you, do you hear me? You have my eternal, unwavering consent.’

‘But-‘

‘No, Bromm. There isn’t anything left to say about it. You didn’t hurt me, you were never going to, and I’m not complaining about needing to fuck you to make you feel better.’

‘Why are you so sure?’ I asked her.

‘I have spent my entire life being tortured both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Things were done to me that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, and I’ve also been forced to do things to others I wish I could take back, but I can’t. I’m not a good person, Bromm, even if I wouldn’t call myself a bad person either. I’ve had to do terrible things just to survive, and I would do them again in a heartbeat. Our lives are not so black and white, especially with the nanites coursing through our veins and altering the very core of our beings.

‘You have shown me grace on countless occasions, and now it’s time for me to do the same for you. Please don’t let this weigh you down. We’ve figure out a way to stop it, even if it turns out to be temporary, but looking back isn’t going to fix things. The only thing we can do is look to the future, support each other, and I’m telling you now, you’re stuck with me. I’m not leaving you over something that was out of your control, so no moping, got it?’

I choked on a disbelieving laugh, my love for this woman swelling to heights I could never had imagined existed. ‘Okay. No moping.’

She grinned at me before swinging her leg around and de-straddling me. My lower tentacles stroked down the naked flesh of her thighs before curling back up at the base of my shaft that slid from her wet heat with a slick pop.

‘Good. About time we got that cleared up. Dave Junior’s been scratching at the door since I left him outside,’ she teased.

My eyes widened with alarm. ‘Oh, shit. He’s not gonna try to eat me now, is he?’

She shrugged nonchalantly, though I was feeling anything but. ‘Probably not, but make sure you’re not alone with him just in case.’

I huffed another disbelieving laugh. ‘Right.’

She unlocked my restraints, freeing my limbs from their cage, and then tossed me a fresh jumpsuit as she redonned her own. One glance down at my half naked body and it was clear what had happened.

‘Come on, baby. We’ve still got work to do,’ she said once we were covered again and opened the door. Dave Junior bounding in to place himself protectively in front of her. My chest clenched with guilt, but she told him off and he obeyed her order to move aside.

Dave Junior may have been walking on her other side, but he still managed to crane his neck around her to level me with his best warning glare. I was going to have to do damage control with the beast too, it seemed.

We were met with a crowd of our friends as we exited the room. Tormik was closest since he was guarding the door, but Henrik leaned casually against the wall beside him. Cadmus and Reece were eyeing me with concern while Addy threw herself on me, her arms wrapping tightly around my larger frame with a strength that should not have been possible with someone so small.

Xander chuckled as he pried her from me and patted me on the shoulder. ‘You’ve got to stop scaring us like that, Bromm. You good now?’

I cleared my throat uncomfortably while I shifted my weight from foot to foot. ‘Um, well I’m not feeling like a raging lunatic at the moment, so I guess so.’

‘Glad to have you back,’ he said, then was apparently done with the conversation because he turned his back to me to address Artemis. ‘You needto get back to the other ship, Captain. We need to disconnect the ships before you enter the asteroid field.’

‘Of course,’ she said, grabbing my hand and tugging me along behind her. ‘We’ll see you on the other si-‘

‘Captain!’ a voice shouted as feet booted feet stampeded down the hallway. It was a harried looking, Tarren, of all people, who turned the corner. His wild-eyed gaze and mussed hair, like he’d been anxiously running his fingers through it drew me up short. Something was wrong.

‘What is it?’ she asked him, her voice hard.

‘You need to see this. And you, sir,’ he gestured to Xander.

‘See what?’ Addy asked, stepping protectively in front of her lover. It was a strange sight, what with her head only coming up to his waist, but I knew she was more than capable of disposing of anyone who dared try to attack him. Not that I believe Tarren was going to attack. No, he seemed far more likely to faint from the way the blood had dropped from his sheet-white face.

‘We’ve received a transmission on the bridge. A video.’

‘A video of what?’

He hesitated, his eyes darting nervously to Xander before scanning the rest of us for any indication we would attack him for relaying this message. His eyes lingered a little longer on Reece, though he quickly averted them to level them back on Artemis.

‘Hostages, Captain. The pirates… They have hostages.’

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