Saved by the Alien Crime Boss (Aliens Among Us #4)

Chapter 29

TWENTY-NINE

Brekker is here.

Brekker has my mate.

He touched her. Took her.

Those thoughts tore Sevik apart, devoured him, and spat him back out again and again as he sped out of Sullford. Nothing could silence them—not the thunderous pounding of his heart, not the groaning of the steering wheel in his ever-tightening grip. Not the engine’s rumbling growls, nor the rattling, creaking, and snow crunching under the tires as miles of driving brought him to the narrow access road leading to the location on the holo.

He needed to lash out, to rend and destroy, to violently dismantle everything in his path until he had Mina back. He needed to spill so much blood that the snow would weep crimson beneath his boots.

He needed to see Mina, to smell her, to hold her and kiss her and swear to her that he would never let anything like this happen again.

Brekker is here.

He has her.

Sevik struck the steering wheel with a snarl. “ Fuck! ”

This was why he’d tried to stay away from Mina in the beginning, this was what he’d sought to protect her from.

But he never would’ve been able to stay away from her forever. She’d been his from the moment he first saw her.

Sevik didn’t slow the truck as it neared the clearing. There was no time to case the area and assess what he was up against; he already knew. This was a trap, and if he refused to walk into it, Brekker would make Mina suffer.

He raked his gaze over the clearing when he entered it. The few structures it contained were made of weathered, rotting gray wood, and were in varying states of disrepair and collapse. A black SUV was parked near the clearing’s center. The tire tracks worn into the snow looped back to the access road, meaning the SUV—or other vehicles—had come and gone numerous times over the recent days.

The headlights revealed two large males in heavy coats standing between the SUV and Sevik’s approaching truck. One wore a black hat and dark sunglasses despite the gloom. The other was bald with a bushy beard. Though their faces appeared human, the plasma rifle in the bearded male’s hands certainly hadn’t come from Earth. Both stood with the practiced confidence and performative indifference of seasoned thugs.

Neither of the males raised a weapon.

And neither of them was Brekker.

“Fucking coward,” Sevik growled, bringing the truck to a stop.

They were just another obstacle between Sevik and Mina. Another thing in his way, another thing to fucking destroy.

He threw open the door and leapt out of the cab, pistol in hand.

The male in the hat grinned; the expression seemed to have too many teeth to be human. “You finally arrive. We?—”

“Where is she?” Sevik demanded. He could smell neither Mina nor Brekker here, and he felt time slipping away with each heartbeat. Every moment apart from her was one during which she could come to harm.

The male in the hat chuckled. “You korasi, always so direct.”

Sevik raised his pistol, aiming it at the male. “Where?”

Now the bearded male turned his rifle toward Sevik. “Weapon on the ground.”

Sevik knew that voice. Jakalg, a burly navat who served as one of Brekker’s enforcers. Another fucking traitor. Another obstacle to be destroyed.

Fury boiled in Sevik, tensing his muscles and making his teeth grind. … “Where. Is. My. Mate?”

Jakalg braced the rifle’s stock against his shoulder. “Drop the gun.”

The other male shook his head. “He won’t do anything. He?—”

Sevik shifted the angle of his pistol and fired. With a high, whining thump, the weapon spat a bolt of plasma that passed within inches of the male’s cheek.

The male in the hat hissed an ilventyrian curse and ducked, while Jakalg swayed aside.

“Where the fuck is Mina?” Sevik roared, recentering his aim on the male in the hat and advancing toward him.

“Drop the fucking weapon!” shouted Jakalg once he recovered.

“Answer me esklaat , or the next one won’t fucking miss.”

Sevik’s heartbeat pounded in his ears, but his hand was steady. He didn’t pry his attention from the male with the hat—the unknown. He knew Jakalg had orders from Brekker, or else the navat would’ve fired already.

Again, the male in the hat chuckled. He braced a hand on the SUV and righted himself. “From what your associate told me, Sevik, you know how this works. You understand the consequences, yes?”

Sevik stared at the stranger, barely managing to keep his trigger finger still. Every bit of him, down to the tiniest sliver of his being, was driving him to get to Mina at all costs. To attack without mercy, without hesitation, to destroy this world piece by fucking piece until she was back in his arms. To let his rage seize control and turn him into a vengeful engine of death.

His rage only intensified now because this fucking stranger, this ilventyr, was right. Sevik knew very fucking well how this worked.

Giving in to his fury would only bring Mina suffering.

A torrent of curses swirled in his mind as he forced his arm to move, first pointing the pistol skyward and then stiffly, reluctantly, tossing it aside. It landed in the snow with an insignificant pff .

“Very good,” the ilventyr said. “You will get to see the female, and I will collect the remainder of my fee. Everyone wins.”

“Tell that coward to come out,” Sevik said.

“Shut the fuck up,” Jakalg commanded, neither his glare nor his rifle wavering. “Laszlo, restrain this jattosh .”

“Hands behind your back,” Laszlo said as he approached.

Sevik’s jaw ticked, and his every instinct screamed in protest as he complied. Laszlo stepped around him. Warm metal clamped around Sevik’s wrists before the thrum of a magnetic seal forced them together. The cuffs struck each other with a dull clank and locked in place.

Reflexively, he strained against the bindings. His muscles bulged, the hard metal bit into his skin, and a harsh exhalation escaped through his nose.

The cuffs did not give.

Chuckling again, Laszlo frisked Sevik with rough hands. He took Sevik’s wallet, pistol and holster, boot knife, and the little case containing his injector and the remaining serum cartridges, dropping them all into the deep pockets of his coat.

“Good,” Laszlo called.

Finally lowering his rifle, Jakalg walked over, crunching snow beneath his heavy boots. He took position behind Sevik.

A low, barely perceptible hum vibrated the air, followed by the muffled hiss of an airlock releasing. On the other side of the SUV, reality rippled, warping the trees seen through it in fleeting waves. A horizontal line of light appeared at least ten feet off the ground.

That light stretched downward as the ramp of a cloaked spacecraft lowered. The opening stood like a tear in the universe, a gateway to another world—a world to which Sevik never wanted to return.

A world to which he’d never wanted Mina dragged.

“All this fucking trouble,” Brekker said as he emerged from the cargo hold to stand at the top of the ramp. He wasn’t shrouded; those sharp features, piercing, malicious blue eyes, and backswept black horns were all his. One of his arms was banded around Mina’s middle, holding her against him.

Sevik’s heart stilled, and the heat and pressure inside him swelled, making it impossible to breathe.

Mina’s head lolled, and her eyelids fluttered, giving him a glimpse of dark, glossy eyes. Her arms hung before her, bound at the wrists with the same sort of magnetic cuffs Laszlo had put onto Sevik.

No one could touch Mina but Sevik.

No one could touch her and live to do so a second time.

“Release her!” The words erupted from Sevik’s chest, raw and ragged, as he ran forward on a surge of fury.

Astyr, another korasi who’d been Brekker’s lieutenant for the last few years, rushed around Brekker and descended the ramp to intercept Sevik. He too had a plasma rifle hanging from his shoulder on a sling.

But Sevik hadn’t made it even three steps before the back of his leg was hit by Jakalg’s boot. Sevik’s leg buckled, and he dropped onto his knee.

Jakalg and Astyr allowed him no chance to rise; they were on either side of him in an instant, clamping their hands on his shoulders and pressing their weight onto Sevik to lock him in place.

He growled and pushed against them. His leg muscles quivered with strain, and the enforcers grunted with exertion.

“Let her go, you honorless rheveshk !” Sevik shouted. His clenched fists buried his claws into his palms, and the wounds oozed blood. His boot slipped on the snow as he threw himself forward.

His captors dragged him back, one of them grabbing a fistful of his hair. He snarled.

“Sevik?” Mina’s eyes flared and sought him, unfocused and filled with confusion.

“I’m here, Mina,” he replied. “I’ll keep you safe. Bring you home.”

“You talk to me, not her,” Brekker commanded. He walked down the ramp, half dragging and half carrying Mina, who he kept in front of him. “Even now, you think you’re in control. Fucking blind.”

Laszlo strolled through Sevik’s peripheral vision, returning to the SUV to lean against it with his elbows on the hood. “You said yourself that he was stubborn.”

“Take your fucking hands off her,” Sevik ordered in a low voice.

Keeping their hands on his shoulders, the enforcers grasped Sevik’s upper arms, wrenching back in their attempt to keep him in place. He barely felt the strain in his joints as his arms were pulled past their normal range of motion.

“You must’ve hit your head in the fall.” Brekker halted several paces away from Sevik. “Could’ve spared her all this if you’d just spilled your fucking brains in that alley.”

Mina’s head was drooped forward, and her messy curls dangled in her face, but her gaze met Sevik’s through those locks. Her bottom lip quivered erratically as shallow breaths escaped her in little clouds.

She was still dressed in the clothing she’d worn for work—a loose, knitted cardigan over a thin shirt, denim jeans, and tennis shoes, which were covered in snow.

She must’ve been freezing.

Sevik’s muscles bulged, flooded with fresh rage. He stilled himself as it built, as heat gathered under his skin, as electricity crackled through his bones. “It’s going to be all right, Mina.”

Brekker growled and tugged Mina closer as he stalked toward Sevik. “ Zekt’al , you fucking talk to me or I will rip out your tongue.”

Sevik lifted his gaze to Brekker’s. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

“You shouldn’t have taken my mate,” Brekker grated through bared fangs.

Mina was so close. Her scent filled Sevik’s nose, obliterating all others. She was right there, and he couldn’t reach for her, couldn’t free her. His arms strained against the cuffs.

“Enthi was never yours,” he said.

With a snarl, Brekker hammered his fist into the side of Sevik’s face. The impact snapped Sevik’s head aside and sent a blast of pain across his cheek.

Mina gasped his name. The fear and concern in her voice hurt far more than any blow Brekker could ever have landed.

“She was always mine,” Brekker said, “and you?—”

“Enthi belonged to herself. She came to me by her choice. And you killed her.”

Brekker struck Sevik again with a ragged growl. “You made me kill her! You drove me to it! You tried to fucking take her from me, tried to take everything.”

“Please stop,” Mina breathed, her shoes scraping the snow as she struggled to reach for Sevik. Brekker’s iron hold kept her at his side.

“Equals,” Brekker spat. “That’s what you told me, Sevik. That we would rise to the top together.”

“We did,” Sevik replied. “I brought you with me.”

Brekker answered with another punch, intensifying the pain in Sevik’s cheek and filling his mouth with the taste of blood. “You brought me? You brought me ? You betrayed me over and over, Sevik. Fucking chose that organization over me every time you could.”

Sevik’s lips peeled back. “That what you think?”

“I know. All you do is take”—another blow to the face—“and take”—and another—“and fucking take!” Brekker put emphasis on those words with a final strike that nearly knocked Sevik out of the enforcers’ holds.

“You took opportunities from me,” Brekker continued. “Took favor. Took control. And then you took her . I could’ve forgotten everything else, but you. Took. Her.”

Sevik squared his jaw and looked at the male who had been his only friend for most of his life. “ Aggaan sin thar , you’ve fucking twisted this in your head, haven’t you? I built the Syndicate with you. The three of us were equal partners. I gave you everything, and you betrayed us to walk the coward’s path, yet you dare to fucking question my honor?”

“No.” Brekker stepped back, taking Mina with him. “You are not in control anymore. You’re nothing. Less than nothing. Now, everything that belonged to you is mine .” He unwound his arm from Mina’s middle to grasp her hair at the back of her head.

Mina cried out in pain. Moisture gathered in her eyes as Brekker forced her to face him.

“Don’t fucking touch her!” Holoshroud dropping, Sevik shoved himself up, propelled by fire.

Jakalg and Astyr swayed, but they quickly forced him back down.

“You took my mate, Sevik.” Brekker stared down at Mina with a malevolent gleam in his eyes. “And before I kill you, you’re going to watch me take yours.”

Brekker slammed his mouth down over Mina’s.

Her eyes rounded, and she released a muffled cry. She pushed against Brekker’s chest, digging her feet into the snow in a vain attempt to free herself.

A roar burst from the depths of Sevik’s soul, from the most primal, bestial part of him, and tore across the heavens with enough force to split them open.

Sevik flung himself forward with fangs poised to sink into flesh. His boots gouged the ground as he kicked his legs for purchase. He was only distantly aware of hands pulling him backward, of a rifle’s barrel being braced across his neck, crushing his throat.

My mate!

My Mina!

She’s fucking mine !

Brekker snarled in pain and pulled away from Mina. For an instant, his lower lip stretched outward, caught between her teeth. Dark blue blood ran down his chin. He yanked her hair, making her gasp, and her teeth lost their hold. As soon as Brekker broke free, he backhanded Mina across the face. The dull thwap of the impact resonated in Sevik down to his bones.

Mina crumpled into the snow, landing on her side.

“Mina!” Sevik fought harder still to escape the enforcers as his mate groaned.

“ Hruta .” Brekker ran the back of his hand across his mouth and glanced down at the blood smeared upon it. His lips curled into a grin. “She marked me. Can’t wait to return that bite and leave a mark of my own. I will enjoy her, Sevik. She’s not as meek as she appears.”

“As I said earlier,” Laszlo said from his place at the SUV, “I know buyers who will pay very well for a female like her.”

“No.” Brekker met Sevik’s gaze. “I’m keeping her. Give my friend something to make him more manageable. Just make sure he’s still aware enough to watch.”