Born of Defiance

Pulling out his wallet, he flipped it open and held his badge toward her.

She gasped the moment her gaze fell to the black card that was bisected diagonally with a burgundy stripe. She recoiled from his badge as if it were poisonous. “I’m sorry, Major Batur. I can’t sell this to you.” She immediately returned the ring to the display and locked it in the case.

Confused, he scowled at her. “I don’t understand.”

She gestured toward his card. “You’re a lack-Vest bastard. Your kind can’t buy a ring, for anyone. If I sold that to you, we’d both be arrested.”

Hurt and stunned, he stared at her in disbelief. “I have a legal contract with my lady.”

Her jaw dropped as if she couldn’t believe it. She quickly snapped her lips together. “It doesn’t matter. It’s against the law to allow a lack-Vest to buy a ring. For anyone,” she repeated harshly.

Feeling slapped and humiliated, Talyn watched as she quickly sidled over to another counter to help a giddy male and female who were there to pick out pledge rings.

Something he’d never be able to legally do. That reality hit him like a kick in the crotch.

As he walked away, anger scalded every molecule of his being. He’d always hated showing his ID. Since they were color-coded, all anyone had to do was see that his was black and they instantly knew his caste. Now that same damn card kept him from buying Felicia a simple gift.

This is bullshit!

“Major?”

Talyn hesitated at the sound of an older male’s call as he moved to cut off Talyn’s path to the register. He just glared at the older male.

“I overheard you with Vyra, and I’m very sorry about the law.”

Really don’t want to fucking relive this. He was humiliated enough.

“Excuse me.” Talyn started around the male.

He cut his path off again and gave him a fatherly smile. “I’m a big fan of yours, Major. And since we can’t allow you to buy a ring, I wanted to show this to you. If you want it, I’ll discount the price by half.”

Still pissed, Talyn looked down to see a pretty hugging heart necklace that matched the ring he’d wanted to buy.

“I can even waive the courier fee for its delivery. If your lady lives here in Eris, I could get it to her tonight.”

Pressing his lips together, Talyn picked the necklace up to see it better.

“It has the same legend of bringing good luck. A lot of pilots send these to their mothers and wives, instead of the rings.”

Talyn wanted to throw it on the ground and stomp it. But the laws weren’t this male’s fault. And there was no need in depriving Felicia of something she’d like because his own feelings had been hurt.

If it made her smile, it would be worth it.

He returned the box to the clerk. “Thank you. I’ll take it. Her condo is in Brooksyn, North Eris.”

“Very good. I’ll see it to her in less than two hours.”

Talyn nodded before he went to pay for it. But still the burn was in his blood. A simmering heat that only increased once he returned to his barracks and saw that someone had placed a collar and leash on his locker with a black card attached to it. Ha, ha. Real fucking funny. You’d think by now the prank would have grown as old for them as it was for him. Even so, he knew better than to feed into their juvenile shit.

Grinding his teeth, he picked it up without comment and stored his purchases.

He grabbed a towel and started for the showers.

“It’s not mongrel time, Batur. There’s Vested in the latrine.”

Biting back a nasty retort, Talyn returned to his bunk to wait while he listened to the others talking about their future plans.

With nothing else to do, he pulled out his link and started running stats on his next Ring opponent.

“You okay, Pinara?” one of the captains asked.

Talyn glanced over at the major who was a year older than him. The male was a cousin to the female pilot, Syndrome, who flew in Talyn’s squad.

Fidgeting, Pinara kept shining his brass, and looking around as if waiting for something bad to happen. “Fine.”

Yeah, he was lying his ass off. But like everyone else here, Talyn knew what that word meant. Something had gone down with the higher-ups and the major wasn’t at liberty to talk about it.

Pinara looked over and caught Talyn’s gaze. “What you staring at, mongrel?”

Without a word, Talyn returned his attention to his link. As he was logging on, five provosts came in and surrounded Pinara.

“Major, you are to be remanded into custody.”

Pinara went pale. “For what?”

They didn’t say as they cuffed him and hauled him out.

Silence echoed in the barracks as everyone tried to hide how disturbed they were over this. It could have been any of them, and they knew it.

Normally, it was Talyn who was singled out for trumped-up, bullshit infractions and punishment. Made him wonder what the high-caste Pinara had done to get on Anatole’s bad side.

“WAR’s right —”