Page 57 of Possessed By the Dragon Alien
Nena activated the internal comm system. “Madrian, can you hear me?”
His voice came through immediately, tight with tension. “Yes, Nena.” She could hear the relief in his voice.
“We’ve been listening to everything you’ve been discussing down there. We’re prepared to take over command when you leave,” she said firmly. “But those mines came as a surprise. I need to know what you’re thinking.”
A pause. Through their bond, she felt his spike of protective instinct warring with respect for her capabilities. “The mine network changes everything. If we can’t get to Zarux’s atmosphere, we can’t attack.”
“How close do you need to get to fire on the dome?” she asked calmly.
“Close enough to breathe the atmosphere,” Madrian replied. “Dragons can handle thin air and cold, but not vacuum.”
“So we need a way through the mine field.” Nena turned to Cerani. “You see patterns better than any of us. What are you reading?”
Cerani bent over her displays, her artist’s eye tracing the energy signatures. “The mines are arranged in overlapping spheres. Without being set off, there’s no way to avoid them.”
“There must be another way.” She glanced at her friends, drawing strength from their presence. They had survivedabduction, auction, and imprisonment. They’d found love and purpose among the stars. They weren’t about to give up now.
“Nena, I’m not sure I can transform,” Madrian’s voice was barely above a whisper. “What if the Axis conditioning runs too deep? What if I fail you all?”
Nena leaned forward, surprised by his raw vulnerability. Her chest ached for her mate. “I’m not afraid,” she continued. “You know why? Because I knowyou. You chose me over an empire. You brought us all together.” She paused. “Your dragon will protect his mate, his brothers, and his planet. The Axis made you into a weapon, butwemade you into something better. Trust that.”
“It may irrelevant. This net of mines cannot be breached by anything other than a ship impact,” he said. “I will not ask any ship here to—”
“We’ll figure out the mines,” Lilas interrupted over the comm. She’d been listening in—well, they all had—but only Lilas would interject with her opinion. “But you can’t dragon-fire anything if you’re too scared to try shifting.”
“Lilas, stop eavesdropping,” Turi muttered.
“It’s true though,” Lilas added. “We didn’t come this far to watch you second-guess yourself. If Nena believes in you, youcando this.”
Sevas looked up from her tactical display. “Besides, if you don’t transform, I’m coming down there to kick your scaled ass myself.”
Despite everything, Nena heard Madrian’s rough chuckle through the comm. “Five against one hardly seems fair.”
“Six against one,” Nena corrected gently. “I’ll kick your ass, too.”
The ship shuddered under another barrage. Sparks showered from an overhead conduit, but Nena barely flinched. Her friends calmly rerouted power to maintain systems.
“Nena,” Madrian’s voice carried a new weight. “If something happens to me—”
“Don’t. Nothing’s going to happen,” she cut him off, unable to eventhinkabout such a thing. “But if it does, you shouldn’t worry. I have five sisters beside me.” She gestured at her friends. “We can and will handle whatever comes next.”
“She’s right,” Cerani said simply. “We’ll be here for each other no matter what.”
“But youarecoming back,” Fivra added. “All of you are. Nena loves you so much.”
Nena felt something settle in her chest. Leadership had always felt strange to her, and this was as official of a role as she’d ever had.Thiswasn’t about keeping crops growing or settling disputes. This was about freedom for entire worlds.
“You hear that?” she said to Madrian. “We’ve got this. All of it. The ship, the battle, the aftermath. You just focus on breaking that dome.”
Through the comm, they heard alarms blaring on the main deck. New ships were dropping out of fold space around them—massive Axis dreadnoughts that dwarfed their rebel fleet.
“The real battle’s starting,” Fivra reported from communications. “Our casualties are mounting fast.”
Nena closed her eyes, feeling the weight of thousands of lives pressing down on her. All those ships that had answered their call. All those people fighting for freedom. They needed this plan to work.
“Nena.” Madrian’s voice was steady now, drawing strength from her calm. “If the fortress is breached, you need to—”
A new voice crackled through the comm system. Male, bitter, speaking on the in-ship frequency. “Razion, you bastard. Can you hear me?”
