Read Camille's Capture for Free Online

deserved someone free to love.
    Aegis closed his eyes and let go of the selfish desire to keep Jaxon with him. No matter how much he cared, he couldn’t be more than a friend to anyone. Certainly not the beautiful Jaxon, whose gleaming bronze skin rippled over steely muscles and strong bones. His eyes were dark pools of erotic hunger when he thought himself unobserved.
    A few moments of bliss were not enough reason to destroy his best friend. As certain as the seven hells burned sinners, he could not be near a beautiful Earth woman designed to breed. Even with limited contact with such a one, his body would override his honorable intentions. He was a survivor—a burden he had begged whatever gods existed to take from him—and he was a realist. Some wounds never healed.
    H e lived to avenge his family. This meant killing as many Baldoreans as possible, especially H’nai, his parents killer. When the evil one was nothing other than a bad memory, Aegis could die content.
    New Eden’s Space Corps battled the same enemy, which was why he had enlisted four years ago. The simple truth was he would have served the great Satan himself if that was what it took to deliver death to the blood mage.
    Jaxon angled his shoulders to pass through the narrow hatchway. “ I found a few drops of condensation and blew off the circuits.”
    After a quick scan of the shields rating, Aegis cocked one eyebrow. “The vessel’s functions are at ninety-eight per cent—a slight improvement.”
    “Don’t try to cheer me up.”
    Aegis shrugged. “I made a statement of fact. What happened to your elation?”
    “I’ve been thinking.”
    He resisted the easy opening, waiting for his friend to continue.
    Jaxon scowled. “You might have a point about the match thing.”
    “That the message was in error?”
    “Yeah, probably someone’s idea of a joke.”
    “I do not understand the humor in the sending of such a notification.” Aegis’s features scrunched into an angry glower, to echo Jaxon’s outrage or express his own? Either way strong emotion further eroded his control, bringing the threat of exposure closer. He smoothed his human illusion back to calm.
    “It’s not funny.” Jaxon shrugged. “Just some clown’s idea of a laugh. We get kitted out in full dress uniform, march into a mating ceremony, and get ourselves kicked right back out. Huge chuckles for some sick bastard.”
    “Is there a specific date for the ceremony?”
    “Nah, only the match number and our names. Just for grins and giggles, I’m going check and see if we’re on the mating roster.” Jaxon activated the social calendar and keyed in the number from the original message. His eyes widened in surprise. “Gods damn me for a fool.”
    “Your name is not on the list?”
    “Nah, I’m there all right, big as life and twice as stupid. So are you, my man.” A small tic twitched in Jaxon’s left cheek.
    “The message is accurate?” Aegis’s jaw loosened for a second before he caught the lapse and snapped it closed.
    Jaxon glowered at the comlink. “Looks like.”
    After a few seconds of contemplation, Aegis conceded defeat. Unfortunately he didn’t read Jaxon any better than his friend read him. He quit trying to puzzle out his friend’s behavior. “Then why are you no longer elated?”
    “Ceremony happened this morning.”
    Aegis’s brow wrinkled again as he considered the illogic of sending notice of a match too late to claim the female. “Check the date on the GAIS hologram. The calendar may be in error.”
    A data malfunction of some description was a strong possibility. If the genetic program had truly analyzed Aegis’s DNA, he would have been ousted from the Space Corps and summarily executed. Although their common enemy the Baldoreans were the chief reason for his people’s endangered species status, Aegis had no illusion that the good citizens of New Eden would suffer a demon to live.
    Jaxon’s scowl vanished as he thumbed through the incoming