Where the Admiral commanded, others obeyed. He expected a flawless execution, and refused to settle for less. It was a mixture of tactician intelligence and unflinching discipline that had made his brand of leadership so successful, and the loyalty he had earned so great that his men had fervently followed him even after he had passed the threshold of death's gates. Few others could sustain the willpower it took to pull one's soul back together and reform their murdered body into some semblance of what it had been before.

His orders were always followed – but with her, it was different. He was used to compliance, but she carried them out exactly as she pleased. If, she pleased to follow them. Perhaps it had been a mistake, incorporating her into his fleet, allowing her to thrive amongst a misfit band of his best blockade runners. He had expected the difficult crew would temper her. Instead, she'd come back with a surprising amount of sass. The only rules she should have learned were the ones that he had authored, but Signy had returned with a set of her own drafting.

That had never been more apparent then the time she'd squared off with him on the observation deck, all over a set of fresh orders that would have relocated her to his own dreadnaught. Not only had she'd confronted him directly, she'd done it by arguing her objections as loud as possible. The negotiations that had followed had been undeniably hostile.

He demanded more of her, the feint of a fencer, testing to see where her weakness might lie, and where the hard walls of her resolve lay. He'd called in that pesky little debt she owed – the survival of her entire species – he had calmly commanded that she remove her bottoms for him. She had done it with the slow tease of a temptress, letting them side down her pretty legs without the slightest effort. She'd tossed her head, stepped clear of them, and turned to bend as she slowly picked them up off the floor. Then she'd taken the time to fold them before she'd placed them on top of her uniform, as though she weren't completely naked and vulnerable before him.

It fascinated Reign, where it should have infuriated. It was submission, but submission on her terms. Signy was a challenge he was going to overcome. Watching her finally fall was going to be his greatest pleasure, and watching her do it with all that confident defiance she wielded against him now was going to make it all the sweeter.

I had to keep Fortuna's original title. It was too perfect to pass up. And in case you were wondering, Signy totally won't loose to Admiral Sexypants even though he outranks her by a Ton. ;P

Art by fortuna.
Admiral Reign was designed by Keedot.