Page 127 of Star Claimed Omega
But she wasn’t his in that moment.
She belonged tothem.
Santi’s heart fractured in his chest asThe Red Queen’scrimson aether flared bright, licking the edges of the prison walls like spectral fire.
Varnok stood beside her, armored and gloating, his grin a blade sharpened on betrayal.
In Soleil’s paw, the bomb thrummed. Pulsing in time with his heartbeat.
Nada.
The denial ripped through him like a shattering wave of thunder.
He didn’t hesitate.
Heshifted.
With a roar that rattled the girders of the ship’s inner hull, Santi let go of his human form and summoned the beast that dwelled in his blood.
The transition was violent, magnificent.
His skin split with radiant force, bones elongating, muscles spiraling outward in coils of molten strength.
Amethyst fire coursed over his limbs, followed by threads of gold that raced across his shoulders like lightning traced by a god’s own hand.
His eyes ignited into twin suns, brilliant violet-sapphire, glowing with the full might of his ancient Signet power.
A mane of storm light burst down his spine as translucent energy shimmered and vanished, leaving only trails of aureate light in their wake.
His complete form towered, colossal and spectral, his fur composed of living starlight and void-thread.
Every claw gleamed like an arc-forged blade. Each breath steamed with divine wrath.
He bounded forward in three blinding lunges, ether warping and enveloping his stride.
But she moved faster.
With a flick of her wrist,The Red Queenunleashed the device.
It tumbled through the air, radiant with modulated heat, and struck the inner barrier of the prison with a solidthunk.
The bone-deep resonance was final, almost like a dirge drum.
A high-pitched hum followed, rising and cycling through vibrational frequencies until the wall around it began to shimmer.
With a crack, fracture lines split outward in a spiderweb of glowing weakness.
Santisnarled, a terrible, soul-tearing sound, as he attempted to launch himself between the detonation to come and his woman, trying to shield her, to stop what was already unraveling.
Santi’s body was a blur of distortion.
Shields pulsed, encircling him, humming with plasma charge. He sprinted toward her, his woman, knowing he might be too late.
The hull cracked apart.
The light flickered along its seams. A shrill modulation whined into the air.
Santi’s heart plummeted. ‘Take cover!’ he roared, voice like thunder. ‘If you can get thefokkout of here, move!’
