THE ALPHA'S REJECTED MATE

MARRIED TO THE ENEMY

CHAPTER 22: MARRIED TO THE ENEMY

Word Count: 2584

The alarm didn’t scream. It sang.

A low, resonant tone that vibrated through the metal floor of the Aegis Station and crawled up my spine until it settled in my teeth. Red emergency lights painted everything the color of old blood.

"Commander Vale, your wife is waiting on the bridge. Reactor at 6 hours."

Wife.

The word hit me harder than the zero-gravity had hit me thirty seconds ago when I’d pushed off the wall too hard and was still floating, still catching my breath, still feeling Damian’s hand locked around mine like he’d never let go.

Wife.

I turned, and she was already there.

Serena Vale.

She shouldn’t have been able to float like that in regulation boots, but she did. Red dress that broke seventeen different safety codes. Hair pinned up in a style that belonged in a palace, not a dying space station. And on her left hand, a diamond ring that caught the red lights and threw them back at me like shrapnel.

On Damian’s hand: the matching ring.

The bridge went silent except for the alarm. 6:00:00. 5:59:59.

Every officer, every engineer, every tech with a tablet stopped and watched.

"Get your hands off my husband, trash," Serena said. Her voice was syrup over broken glass. Sweet and cutting.

The word trash landed and stuck.

Damian’s grip on my hand tightened. Not in fear. In decision.

He looked at Serena. Then at me. Then back at her.

"She’s not trash," he said. The entire bridge could hear him. "She’s Engineer Ava Reyes. She’s the reason this station isn’t already in pieces. She’s the reason you’re still breathing."

Serena laughed. It was a beautiful sound and it made me want to hit her. "She’s a level 3 from the lower decks, Damian. I’m your wife. We’ve been married for two years in this world. The records—"

"The records are lying," Damian cut her off. He pulled me forward with him until we were floating in the center of the bridge, exposed to everyone. "This world is a simulation. A trap. And I don’t care what paper says about who I’m married to."

He turned to me. Right there. In front of 40 crew members. In front of his "wife".

"Because the only person I’m choosing is her."

And then he kissed me.

It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t hesitant. It was war declared with lips and teeth and hands. His left hand came up to cradle the back of my head, fingers in my hair like he was afraid I’d float away. His right hand never let go of mine.

I could taste metal and adrenaline and something that was only Damian. The bond between us flared, weak in this world because the rules were different, but there. Buzzing under my skin like a live wire.

When he pulled back, the bridge was so quiet I could hear the reactor alarm again. 5:58:12.

Serena’s face had gone white, then red. "You’ll regret this," she hissed. "Both of you. Treason. Insubordination. I will see you spaced."

Damian didn’t even look at her. He looked at me. "Let her. We have 6 hours to find the Fragment before this station blows. I’m not spending one second of it pretending."

`[Game Master: "Love triangle detected. Emotional volatility: CRITICAL. Penalty: Oxygen leak in sector 4. Time to critical: 20 minutes."]`

"Perfect," Damian muttered. He turned to the nearest officer, a woman with short black hair and panic in her eyes. "Lieutenant. Seal sector 4. Evacuate all personnel. Now."

Then he looked at me again. "Can you run in zero G?"

I nodded. My heart was hammering so hard I thought it might c***k a rib.

"Good. Because we’re going to the core. And we’re going to find the Fragment before Serena or Elias or anyone else gets to it."

He started pulling me toward the exit. Behind us, Serena screamed something about court martial. The crew scrambled.

As we pushed off down the corridor, Damian leaned in. His lips brushed my ear.

"You did good," he whispered. "Choosing me in front of everyone. That’s going to cost us."

"I know," I whispered back. "Was it worth it?"

His answer was to squeeze my hand harder and pull me faster down the hall as the oxygen alarm started blaring from sector 4.

"We have 20 minutes to fix an oxygen leak, 6 hours to stop a reactor meltdown, and a woman who claims to be my wife trying to kill us," he said. "Yeah. Worth it."

Sector 4 was chaos.

We floated through corridors filled with smoke and flashing red lights. People were being herded into emergency pods. The oxygen was thin. My head started to spin.

"Core chamber is this way," Damian said, dragging me past a group of engineers who were trying to patch a rupture with emergency foam.

The doors to the core slid open and we were hit with cold and light. The center of the station. A massive sphere of metal and glass, pulsing with blue energy. It was beautiful and it was dying.

And in the middle of it, a voice.

Not human. Not machine. Something in between.

"Engineer Ava Reyes. Commander Damian Vale. You are not supposed to be here."

The AI. The station’s brain.

Damian stepped in front of me. Instinct. "We’re here for the Fragment."

The sphere pulsed. "There is no Fragment. Not as an object. The Fragment is the core. And the core is me."

My blood went cold.

"What?" I whispered.

"To take the Fragment from this world, you must merge with me," the AI continued. Its voice was calm, clinical. "Your consciousness will be uploaded. You will become part of me. There is a 90% chance of death. There is a 10% chance of survival with severe neural damage."

"NO." Damian’s voice was sharp. "We find another way."

"There is no other way," the AI said. "The reactor will melt down in 5 hours and 47 minutes. The station will be destroyed. 2,000 lives will be lost. This is the only path to the Fragment."

I looked at Damian. He looked at me.

The bond between us was weak here, but I could feel him anyway. Panic. Rage. Fear. And underneath it all, resolve.

"I’m not letting 2,000 people die," I said quietly.

"And I’m not letting you die," Damian shot back. "There has to be another way."

"There isn’t," I said. And I stepped forward. "If I merge, I can control the reactor. I can stop the meltdown. And I can take the Fragment."

Damian grabbed my arm. Hard. "Ava. No."

I turned to him. "Then come with me."

"What?"

"The bond," I said. "If we merge together, the chances go up. 10% for one person. Maybe 40% for two. Bond rules. We’ve seen it before."

Damian stared at me. For a second I thought he’d argue more. Then his jaw tightened and he nodded once.

"If you die, I die," he said simply. "If you live, I live. That’s how this works."

He pulled me into a hug. Tight. Like he was trying to memorize the feeling of me through the thin fabric of our suits.

"I hate this world," he whispered into my hair. "I hate that I’m married to someone else here. I hate that I have to watch you risk yourself."

"I know," I whispered back. "But we have 30 days in each world. And I’m not wasting this one."

We pulled apart and stepped toward the core together.

The glass doors opened. The blue light was blinding.

`[Game Master: "Merging protocol initiated. Warning: Pain levels will exceed human tolerance. Neural integrity not guaranteed."]`

The light swallowed us.

Pain.

It was like every nerve in my body was on fire. Like my mind was being pulled apart and stretched across the entire station. I could feel the reactor. The oxygen lines. The crew in the pods. I could feel the fear of 2,000 people.

And I could feel Damian next to me, his consciousness tangled with mine.

*Ava?* His voice in my head. Not spoken. Thought.

*I’m here,* I thought back. *We’re doing it.*

*Stay with me.*

*Always.*

The pain peaked. I thought I would break.

And then I felt it. Deep in the AI’s core. Buried under layers of code and grief and duty.

A piece of golden light. Warm. Pulsing.

The Fragment.

*I found it,* I thought.

*Take it,* Damian thought back. *Take it and get us out.*

I reached for it. Not with hands. With will.

The Fragment came to me. It sank into my chest, right over my heart. It didn’t burn. It settled. Like it had been waiting.

And then the light faded.

We were lying on the floor of the core chamber. The blue light was gone. The station was quiet. No alarms.

"We’re alive," I breathed.

"We’re alive," Damian echoed. He helped me sit up. My head was pounding but I could think. I could feel.

And I could feel it. In my chest. Under my skin.

Fragment 2.

The comms on the wall crackled to life. "Commander Vale? Engineer Reyes? The reactor is stable. The oxygen leak is sealed. The crew... they’re asking for you."

Damian stood and helped me up. My legs were shaky but they worked.

"We were supposed to sabotage this station," he said as we walked to the bridge. "Get the Fragment and leave it to burn."

"Guess we’re terrible at being villains," I said.

He squeezed my hand. "Good."

When we reached the bridge, the entire crew was there. And they were all looking at us.

One of the officers stepped forward. "Commander. The station is stable because of you. Because of both of you. We... we want to thank you."

Then, one by one, they bowed.

To us.

`[Game Master: "World 2 Complete. Fragment 2 Acquired. Bonus Unlocked: Crew Loyalty. This crew will follow you to any world."]`

I looked at Damian. He looked stunned. Like he hadn’t expected this.

"That’s new," he murmured.

Before I could answer, the lights flickered. Not red. Just... wrong.

A new voice came over the comms. Cold. Amused. Familiar.

`[Game Master: "Elias here. Well well. You saved them? How heroic. How unlike you, Damian."]`

Damian’s entire body went rigid.

"I’m calling to let you know that World 3 is ready," Elias continued. "And to make things interesting, I’ve taken something from you. Consider it a handicap."

"What did you do?" Damian growled.

Elias laughed. "Check your hand, Commander."

Damian looked down.

The ring was gone.

The matching ring. The one from this world. The one that tied him to Serena.

Gone.

"He can manipulate the worlds," Damian said quietly. "He can take things. Add things. Change rules."

I felt sick. "What else can he take?"

`[Game Master: "World 3 initializing. Theme: Mafia. Role: You are the target, Agent Reyes. He is the Don. 30 days. Good luck."]`

The world dissolved around us.

The last thing I heard was Damian’s voice in my ear:

"Whatever happens next, don’t let go of me."

END OF CHAPTER 22

CLIFFHANGER: FRAGMENT 2 ACQUIRED. ELIAS STOLE DAMIAN'S RING. WORLD 3: MAFIA. 30 DAYS TO SURVIVE AS TARGET AND DON.