“So, why aren’t you guys still in the Hive mind, or whatever? How did you turn it off?”
The doctor twisted at the waist and looked up at me over his shoulder. “The Colony is deep in Coalition space. None of the Hive broadcast frequencies, so far, have been able to penetrate this deep into our territory. Also, this planet was chosen because it has an extraordinarily strong magnetic sphere. We use specialized satellite relay systems for communications and transport. Without them, the planet’s natural magnetic field would disrupt everything.”
I bit my lip and thought of the little cyborg cells swimming around like fucking tadpoles on the slide I’d taken from Maxim’s back. “So, if someone could get a Hive frequency to broadcast down here, what would happen?”
He shook his head, but it was Ryston who answered. “That’s impossible.”
“Why? Do you monitor for it? Would you even know?”
Ryston’s gaze narrowed. “No. I’m on the security team, Rachel. We don’t scan for that. In sixty years, there has never been a Hive broadcast down here. They can’t get through.”
I glanced at the slides, then back to my second mate. “Well, something is getting through. Your implants are still dead. Stuck on that slide like sludge. But Maxim? And the captain? Their implant cells are alive. They’re moving around, dividing, spreading. Something turned them back on.”
“Gods, no.” The doctor swayed, as if I spoke a terrible horror. But Ryston rose like an avenging angel, fearless and filled with rage. God, he was magnificent.
“Can you find it? Someone is broadcasting. If you don’t shut it down, it will kill all of you.”
“They might be trying to kill us or possibly enslave us,” the doctor added. “We just don't know.”
I hadn’t considered that. “They want you back?”
Ryston walked to a communication station near the door. “Of course. We have an entire planet of integrated soldiers for their war. Biological material already processed and controlled. It’s why we were never allowed to go home. This was everyone’s greatest fear, that they’d somehow figure out how to turn us back on, take control of our bodies and our minds. Make us kill for them.”
Ryston lifted his hand and called someone on his security team. “Do a sweep for all known Hive broadcast frequencies.”
Less than a minute later, a string of loud cursing filled the room via the speaker. “Captain. We found something. Sending a team to investigate.”
“Where?” Ryston demanded.
“Medical.”
I turned to the doctor, to my mate. Puzzle solved. I couldn’t find their broadcast thing, and I couldn’t track Hive gadgets. I’d done my job. “Doctor. How do you turn that crap off? There’s got to be a way to turn if off before it kills him.”
“Of course. Of course.” As if in a daze, the doctor rushed to a drawer that slid out from the smooth, green-and-cream-striped wall. He lifted another wand-looking gadget from the hidden space and hurried back to Maxim. I knelt on the floor and lifted my mate’s head into my lap. “Stay with me, baby. Just hold on. I’m right here. Don’t leave me.”
The doctor turned on the device and a bright light flickered from red to blue as the doctor moved it over Maxim’s body. “What are you doing?”
“This creates a highly charged magnetic field. It will wipe the programming from the Hive implants at a cellular level, rendering them innate.”
Three giant men burst into the room, with Ryston waiting for them. He held out his hand and one of the security officers placed a scanner of some sort into his palm. Ryston turned it on and the four immediately disappeared into an adjoining room.
Not two minutes later they were back, something no larger than a golf ball in Ryston’s palm. “I’m going to rip his cock from his body and shove it down his throat.”
“Who, Captain?”
The doctor lifted his gaze from treating Maxim to sigh. “That belongs to Krael. My top medical officer.”
I blinked, slowly. Was he serious? The helpless, worthless idiot who’d shadowed me for hours? “Krael?”
“I’m afraid so.”
Ryston looked to his team. “Go get him. I want him alive.”
“Yes, sir.” They left at once and a cold, completely illogical shiver ran through me when I thought Ryston would leave as well. I recognized the feeling, had felt it often in the prison. Terror. Lonely, helpless terror.
I needed my mates. Both of them. They were fierce and protective and stronger than I could ever be. I’d grown accustomed to having them beside me. The thought of Ryston walking away with Maxim hurt, leaving me to deal with it alone?
I felt like a weak fool, but the idea of him not being with me nearly made my heart stop beating. I wanted him to stay. I needed him. But I wouldn’t ask. I couldn’t ask. Not if he had a job to do. I wouldn’t stop him. Wouldn’t stand in his way. “Ryston.”
Ryston walked to where I sat on the cold, hard floor with the doctor and crouched beside me. His big, warm hand settled on my shoulder and just like that, I settled. “I’m not leaving your side, Rachel. I’ll never walk away when you need me.”
The tears came automatically, a silent river down my cheeks. I ignored them. Let them fall. I wouldn’t stop touching Maxim to wipe them away.
Ryston addressed the doctor. “Is he going to make it?”
The doctor nodded and just like that I could breathe again. “Yes. He’ll need a full cycle in the ReGen pod, but now that we’ve stopped the reactivation process, he’ll survive.” The doctor’s gaze shifted to me. “Thanks to you, Lady Rone.”
I lifted my gaze to Ryston, my body burning with equal parts relief and love. Soul-searing, all-consuming love for my second mate, with his temper and his passion. Maxim was my hearth, my home, but Ryston was my fire. I needed them both. “I love you.”
His hand dropped to my collar, the look in his eyes one I’d never seen before. “I know, love. I know.”