The Sister Who Pushed Me, The Fate That Swallowed Her Chapter 04

The Sister Who Pushed Me, The Fate That Swallowed Her Chapter 04

Everything about him read as authority, the kind that didn’t need announcing. Broad shoulders, narrow

waist, the build of someone who’d earned every inch of his rank.

No wonder Sloane had thrown herself at him the second she saw him last time. He’d sidestepped her

without a second glance.

If he’d given her even a fraction of his attention back then, she might have secured at least one real

guardian–mate before everything fell apart.

He must have felt me staring. His eyes cut toward me, flat and cold.

But on top of his head, a pair of fuzzy triangular ears gave a tiny twitch.

A shifter. The general was a shifter.

One second, all ice and authority. The next, those ears made him look almost cute.

Then it hit me. Interstellar society had a pecking order.

Most Federation citizens looked human enough, but the galaxy was full of shifters and other species too.

And humans looked down on every one of them.

A shifter who’d climbed that high had to be extraordinary. Most of the military was made up of shifters, but

the upper echelons were strictly gatekept.

This man had fought his way to the top of a system built to keep him at the bottom.

I smiled at him before I could stop myself.

His mouth thinned.

“Gideon. You think you’re just walking out of here with them?” Derek’s voice came from behind the soldiers. “They already have my genetic toxin in their systems. Three days without the antidote, and every

last one of them is dead.”

Gideon’s jaw just set harder.

He turned. The soldiers parted.

Derek stood there with Sloane in his arms, a wall of pirates at his back.

“What do you want?” Gideon’s voice was flat.

“One billion galactic credits.” Derek grinned. “Pay up, and they’re all yours.”

“Done.” No hesitation.

Sloane’s head whipped toward me. The look in her eyes was pure venom.

“Audra stays.” Sloane’s voice went sharp. “She’s family.”

My chest locked up. I hadn’t seen that coming.

“General, please. I want to go with the others. I want off this ship.”

I didn’t think. I just stepped forward and grabbed Gideon’s hand.

Even through his glove, his palm burned against my fingers.

He let me hold his hand? He’d dodged Sloane last time without a second thought.

The surprise flickered and died. No time.

“Please. Take me with you.”

“All right.” He didn’t even turn around.

Derek looked at me, amused. “Letting her go would upset my wife.”

“Do you want a war?” Gideon didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to.

“Relax. I’m just saying she’s a separate line item. Five hundred million galactic credits.”

Five hundred million galactic credits. That was five billion in New Terra money.

My fingers dug into Gideon’s hand.

“Done.” Same flat voice. Same zero hesitation.

Sloane lost it.

“Five hundred million, on her? The Alliance will never sign off on that!”

“Every woman is a priority citizen of the Alliance. This doesn’t need their approval.” Gideon’s tone didn’t shift at all. “It’s coming out of my own account.”

That only made it worse.

“That much money, for her? You want her? How could you possibly want her?”

Derek had been riding high on two massive paydays. Sloane’s outburst killed it.

His hand closed around Sloane’s throat. “Why do you care so much? You want the general too?”

Fear snapped her back. “No. No, of course not.”

“I just meant she’s not worth it. She doesn’t deserve anyone important.”

Derek just laughed. He didn’t believe a word of it.

Gideon paid. Only then did Derek hand over the antidote.

It was over. I tried to pultiny hand free.

The second I tried to let go, his hand tightened around mine.