“I saw it, too.”

That quieted the dissenters.

She nodded at them. “That’s right. Darling was trained to fight by Nykyrian himself. He is a soldier well—”

One of the men snorted derisively, interrupting her. “He’s a stupid faggot. He can’t protect himself. How—” Before he could finish those words, Ture got up and punched him so hard, the man went sprawling to the deck.

His nostrils flared, Ture stood over the man with his fists clenched. Never in her life had she seen him like this. For that matter, she’d never known Ture to lose his temper before. Not over anything. He was normally the most laid back person imaginable.

“I have news for you, breeder,” he growled. “Just because we’re homosexual doesn’t mean we lack the physical strength of men. We can still fight. Most of us better than you, because we’ve had to defend ourselves our whole lives from jerks who think it’s funny to attack us. There’s a big difference between not wanting to or liking to fight, and not knowing how.”

Zarya pulled Ture back and separated them. She patted him on the shoulder in sympathy and passed him a silent look that said she not only approved, but was proud of him.

However, they couldn’t afford to fight among themselves. They had the League for that, and she was sure they’d be more than willing to lend a hand in the beatings.

Right now, they needed to stand together or else they’d die alone.

As Ture resumed his seat, she returned to the subject. “I know the governor better than anyone. He will not tolerate the League coming into his territory and taking his people prisoner. Not for any reason. He will come for us.”

The woman to her right shook her head. “No offense, but he has to find us first. Have you any idea how many prisons the League runs? Over a thousand on hundreds of planets and outposts. No matter how angry or determined Governor Cruel is, it could take him years to locate us.”

Yeah, okay in her exuberance, she’d overlooked a few small details. That was definitely one of them, and with the League, those prisons were impregnable.

And with that, came a whole new fear.

Instinctively, Zarya placed her hand on her stomach. It was also League policy that any child born to a female prisoner would to be taken away for assassin training. If it had any kind of abnormality, it was killed immediately after birth.

More than that, her child would have Trisani in its DNA. Would the League view that as a defect? Or worse, would they sell her baby into slavery or experiment on it?

And once they tested the child and found it was part Trisani, they’d test her. And when they found no trace in her genetics, they’d know that Darling and his family were partially Trisani…

Panic seized her. It would mean the death of them all.

They can never know I’m pregnant.