Chapter 1
I had a feeling the skinny beta prick was cheating me as I watched the hands being played. Kade was knocking back drinks like it was an Awakening Day celebration, but I wasn’t in the mood. The spaceport, Kix29, was situated in the Sirius system, supporting a substantive mining operation. They liked to claim they were part of the Empire, but in truth, it was fringe. How the fuck had we ended up here? A long fucking story, but I suspected our boss’ hacker friend had something to do with it. This whole operation had been bullshit from the start. My skin was itching, but I got like this sometimes. The only thing that would make me relax was beating the shit out of someone. The skinny beta was looking like a promising candidate. Yeah, I understood that I was unhinged. A lifetime of therapy couldn’t sort my demons out, not that I was interested in discussing my feelings with anyone. I figured there was no point in trying, so I might as well embrace the dark and all that jazz. The bouts of insomnia weren’t ideal, but they hadn’t killed me yet. A few other people might have died because of my less than congenial mood swings, but hey, they’d had it coming. Kade kicked me under the table. “Got that eye twitch going on there, buddy,” he said, smirking. I scowled at the fucker, although he didn’t lift his eyes from his hand of cards. Little punk knew that was baiting. My communicator bleeped, so I excused myself from the next round, rising from the table where five other players sat smoking and drinking, and clipped my earbud in. “What the fuck are you doing in Sirius?” Lucian demanded. Our boss was a straight talking alphahole with more money than god and a snarky attitude if things didn’t go to his exact plans. He also had a hacker in his pocket that we’d nicknamed the Gecko because the freak was always going on about them and who delighted in making my life hell. I’d never met the Gecko, but I’d be sure to acquaint him with my fist if I ever did. “Ask your dickhead gecko lover,” I snapped. I wasn’t one for mincing words either—not always the best approach with Lucian, but given he was light years away, I felt safe to vent. “I’m gonna strangle the fuck,” Lucian snarled. I didn’t need the visual to know he would be prowling back and forth in front of the windowed wall that looked out onto his club, likely wearing a smart dark suit, hair impeccable. Depending on the time of day, a couple of beta pets might be waiting to attend to Lucian’s every need. Peppermint Moon catered to the dynamic elites and wannabes—just one of many interests the corrupt business mogul had on his books. “You’re gonna need to get in the queue,” I replied. My eyes were on the table, where Kade was tossing down another lost hand. “We’ll be back in a week. Due to ship out tomorrow.” “Got the package?” Lucian asked, all business again. “Yeah, we got the package. Let’s hope it’s worth this bullshit.” “Fine then,” Lucian said, and the communication closed out. “Do you know any computer hackers?” I turned back to the table and pinned the slimy beta clearing up the shiny credits with a look. “H-Hacker?” Bobby, Bobbit, Bobbin? Whatever the fuck his name was, he gave a telling stutter in his vague response. He didn’t know a hacker, but he was up to something here and had guilt written all over his face. My eyes narrowed on the squirming man. “Fuck, Jordan,” Kade muttered. “Can you give it a rest? He’s not here. These are real cards. Drop it, will you?” My head swung in Kade’s direction. He raised both hands in silent surrender. “Whatever,” he said. “Sorry, guys, we’re out.” His chair scraped across the floor as he stood and pushed out the door. I pinned Bob the beta with a glare before pivoting and stomping after Kade. “You don’t need to be a dick all the time,” Kade said as I fell in step beside him. I didn’t answer. He was mouthy when he’d had a drink, and I’d learned not to rise to the bait. He was built like a tank, so beating on him was spectacularly unrewarding. “One of us needs to be a dick, or you’d have your ass handed to you daily.” Okay, I’d gone there. We were deltas, a complicated dynamic. We were rare. I was five years older than Kade. We’d both come through the orphan’s program on Chimera, the unwanted offspring of a drug addict and alcoholic. Kade’s mother was a drug addict, but he didn’t do drugs. My father was an alcoholic, but I didn’t drink. We both had plenty of other vices, so it wasn’t like we were missing out. I was a lost soul until the day Kade’s scrawny ass was dumped in the home by law enforcement after they’d found his mother dead. He’d wanted to fight everyone, tried it too. He was nine, and I’d been fourteen. I’d let the little punk wear himself out by beating on me every day in the gym. He’d had a lot of anger, but I didn’t care. I’d found my missing piece, and we’d been inseparable ever since. That was the thing about deltas—we were always in pairs. Part of that was because we were rare, and part was because of our unusual situation regarding our most compatible dynamic partner. Kade stopped abruptly. “Did you hear that?” I stopped too. “Hear what?” Before he could answer, my communicator beeped, and a voice that made me want to pummel on the owner said, “Incoming. It’s about to get busy.” I fucking hated the Gecko, but there were times when he was useful… The spaceport alarms blared, and orange ceiling lights began to flash. “What the fuck is happening?” I snarled into the communicator. “Raiders,” Lucian’s hacker said.
