Chapter Nine
Rachel
These warriors on the Colony planet were hurting and lost. I didn’t understand when Warden Egara had tried to tell me how important the Interstellar Brides Program was. I didn’t get it. But seeing Captain Brooks bare himself to all, vulnerable and ashamed, was like a knife to my heart. He was human, a former special ops soldier. Tough as nails, reduced to shaming himself in public and defying me to reject him.
I stood slowly, feeling the weight of every word before I spoke it. “Meeting a matched mate for the first time goes far deeper than anything you can imagine. I knew as soon as I saw them. I felt the connection. I can’t describe what happened to me when I first glimpsed Maxim, when I heard his voice, or the first time Ryston kissed me, but had one of them been like you, Captain Brooks, nothing I see now would stop me from wanting them.”
Maxim’s hand settled on the back of my thigh, Ryston’s reached for mine and entwined our fingers as a cheer went up in the room.
Hope was like a drug, and now it appeared every warrior in the room was drunk with it.
The rest of the meal passed in a blur. Captain Brooks put his shirt back on and we ate a feast of fresh fruit that burst on my tongue like half-melted orange sherbet and blueberries with lime. The main course served to the men was some strange type of meat nearly two inches thick. Ready to groan in protest, I was delighted when a plate of fresh lasagna loaded with marinara and cheese was placed before me.
Happy, I looked to Jessica, who grinned at me like a coconspirator. I noticed that Captain Brooks, too, had been served the Earth dish. It seemed that conformity on the Colony was to not conform. No one had the same Cyborg integrations. Everyone was different. Different planets, different experiences, even different tastes in food.
As the meal progressed, so did Maxim’s hand, moving from my shoulder to my back, then to my knee. That lasted a few minutes before his hand tugged on my right knee and Ryston’s on my left, pulling my legs apart beneath the skirted table.
I really should have protested, but the lust and pride, the raw desire and tenderness bombarding me from my mates made me helpless to resist them as they teased me, their fingers so very close to my center, but never quite touching.
Not that I was a horny teenager, and I knew this wasn’t the place, but their hot, heavy hands so close to my pussy kept me on edge, a constant reminder that they were mine.
Several times I glanced at Captain Brooks to find him watching me with a strange look in his eye.
Once dinner was done, I swatted my mates’ hands away and rose. “I want to go talk to Captain Brooks.”
“I will go with you,” Ryston offered at once, and I was glad of the company. I liked the captain, but being in a room full of strange men, all of them capable of literally ripping my body in half with their enhanced cyborg strength, did make me a little nervous.
Maxim nodded as we passed. He had been pulled into a conversation with Governor Bryck seated on his right, a giant brute of a man, an Atlan Beast, Ryston told me, who ruled Base 2. I thought my Prillon warriors were big, but an Atlan…
I approached the captain slowly. His plate of food barely half eaten. He looked a little off, as if ill.
My hand was on his shoulder before Ryston could stop me. “Are you all right, Captain? You look a little green. And not because you’re a frog man.”
He’d told me earlier that he was a Navy SEAL and had volunteered to fight in the Coalition Fleet with his older brother two days after the first Prillon ships made contact with Earth.
He raised his head to look at me and I gasped. The black streaks I’d noticed earlier on his chest and shoulder had spread up his neck onto his cheek, like infection spreading out from a wound. “No. Something isn’t right. I can’t—my head—it hurts.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. He toppled over and I tried to hold him up, but he was a lot bigger than I was, and dead weight.
Ryston’s arms grabbed him from behind and kept him from pushing me down with him. My mate shouted over his shoulder. “Get the doctor. Now!”
Everyone scrambled and the doctor, the asshole I still hadn’t quite forgiven for that almost “exam” he’d wanted to give me, rushed forward with his little wand as Ryston lowered Captain Brooks to the floor.
“What are those black streaks?” Prime Nial’s voice broke through the silence.
The doctor answered, but did not look up from his patient. “We don’t know. They started showing up a few weeks ago. Nothing shows on the ReGen scans. After a few days, they fade. I assumed it was a new virus or other antigen native to the Colony. We are still discovering new things about this world every day.”
“That doesn’t look like it faded, Doctor,” Ryston added.
“He’s the first human to be infected. Their immune system and physiology is different.” The doctor looked into the captain’s eyes, checked his pulse, looked at his little wand thing again as I held Captain Brooks head in my lap. Brooks was still breathing, barely, and I didn’t want him to feel like he was alone, just in case. I ran my hand through his hair, over and over, just holding him, soothing him as much as I could.
“He’s got trace amounts of Quell in his system.” The doctor’s words made Ryston stiffen beside me and I ran my fingers along the captain’s brow, hoping he could feel my touch even as I wondered what the hell was going on. Was some kind of infection spreading through him?
“Quell? Are you sure?” Maxim asked.
“Yes.” The doctor answered without looking up.
What was Quell? Why was Maxim’s rage so strong that my throat tightened and I had to fight not to vomit lasagna all over the floor? And was it true, Captain Brooks was the first human affected? Did they not understand human physiology? Didn’t Earth give the Coalition doctors data on human physiology before we sent our soldiers, and our brides, out into space?
Three stuttering breaths and the captain went into convulsions.
Ryston yanked me back, out of the way, as four huge warriors came to hold Brooks down. It seemed to go on forever and I held onto Ryston for dear life. Maxim joined us, placing his body between me and the sight of the captain shuddering and shaking on the floor.
When it was finally over, the doctor shook his head.
“He’s dead.”