Chapter Four
Kiel
I had a set of warriors in the air shaft following the intruder’s path. I led two others and took a route outside, narrowing down the exits he might take, hoping to cut him off. The directions coming through the comm had us heading in the direction of the fighting pit and I had to hope we’d get there before he blended in. The space held over a hundred warriors. It would be easy for him to get lost in the crowd. It wasn’t just my Hunter senses that were guiding me. No. That was enough for the governor to request me personally and be able to find the intruder easily enough. I was also guided by my mark. For some reason, each step I took closer to the fights, my mark pulsed and became hotter. It was not something I could ignore.
Why the fuck was my mark drawing me? There were no females on The Colony besides the few who had been matched and mated. No unclaimed female warriors were on Base 3. My mark would have awakened long before now if the area of proximity was enough for any one of them from the other Bases to be mine. I hadn’t been on The Colony long, but the dreams had just started. That meant she was new. Newer here than even me. But how?
“No one is in the air shafts now. The exhaust expulsion occurred two minutes ago. Any heat signature the intruder left behind is long gone.”
We stopped not far from the fighting pit. I could hear the shouting, the fighting from here. The other two warriors assisting with the search, Prillons, looked to me. They knew my skills, knew I could find the trail of someone or something where no one else could see. Or sense.
“Which opening did he use to escape?” I asked, my wrist lifted.
“The south side of the pit.”
“Of course,” I muttered, the most crowded area here. More scents to track. I turned to the Prillons and wished I had my normal team with me, but Captain Marz was being tested for the Interstellar Brides Program, Kristin was spending time with her mates, and Rezz? Well, I was pretty sure the Atlan was down in the pits blowing off some steam. “Let’s go. I’ll have to pick up his trail at the vent.”
“What about the fights?” I was asked.
“The less distraction from us, the better. I don’t want everyone to know we’re hunting.”
They both nodded and we moved quickly to the fights.
“What the fuck?” one of the Prillons said, stopping and putting his hand on the ion pistol in his thigh holster.
I stopped as well, not only because I was surprised by what I was seeing, but because my mark flared as if a blade had been shoved through my palm. The sensation so painful it made me hiss out a breath. Instead of readying for danger as the Prillons were with their hands on their weapons, I pressed my thumb against my mark in the hopes of easing the burn.
“This is insane! I don’t belong to you,” a woman shouted.
I heard the feminine, melodious voice and I was forever changed. It was as if the ions in my body rearranged and I became someone else. My mark flared with erotic heat, sending a pulse of lust straight to my cock. My heart flipped, then settled. I felt as if those uttered words settled over me like a heavy cloak wrapping me in heat. Lust. Need. An instinctive drive to possess and protect.
Lindsey. She was here. She was mine.
My mate.
And then, with the same swiftness that brought about this knowledge, I picked up the scene before us. The two fighters—one of them was Rezz, my Atlan friend who had arrived on the Colony the same day as me. The other, I didn’t know, but he was Atlan as well. With sweat on his face and torso, red skin in spots where blows had landed, blood trickling from a cut above his eye, it looked like Rezz had been fighting challenge matches for a while. But no one was battling now. No, they weren’t even circling each other. Rezz was facing another Atlan and two Prillon warriors. Everyone else around the arena settled in with a quiet expectancy not common in a pit fight. This was something else, something much more serious than the normal chest pounding tests of strength and skill that the warriors used to vent some aggression and relieve hours of monotonous boredom.
I could see pushing and heard raised voices and somehow I knew she was in the middle of it. The cause.
I didn’t need to be a Hunter to know where she was.
“She is mine.” The huge Atlan facing Rezz was in full beast mode, and I recognized him now. His name was Braun, and he was strong. Fast. Like all Atlan Warlords.
I didn’t fucking care how many of these warriors I had to take down, Braun was wrong. Lindsey didn’t belong to him. Lindsey, with her golden hair and blue eyes, those full pink lips and her sassy mouth…was mine.
I stalked forward, heading for the center of the pit, not waiting to see if my team backed me up. I didn’t need them. Not for this. Anticipation surged through my blood. I hadn’t had a real fight, a good fight, in weeks. Not even the Atlans could stand against me as long as I stayed out of their grasp. If one got ahold of me, they could rip me in two. But first, they’d have to catch me. Which, when I used my Hunter’s speed and strength, was damn near impossible.
Pushing through the growing crowd I heard her again. “This is not what I wanted. Just take me to your leader, or whatever. I’m sorry.”
Rezz, equal in size to Braun, roared out over the crowd. “The female is under my protection. None of you will touch her.”
I knew Rezz, knew he’d never touch her. He was still too broken. He’d refused to go through the Interstellar Brides processing protocols even after Kristin arrived from Earth and became part of our hunting unit. The two human females who had arrived on the Colony loved their mates, despite the contamination the Hive had left behind. Captain Marz had practically begged the Atlan to submit to testing.
Rezz refused. Said he was not fit to serve any female of worth. Whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean.
I didn’t care about Rezz’s personal demons at the moment. All I knew was my friend had stepped between Braun, the two Prillon warriors, and the female who was mine. He was protecting her, a fact that I would not forget. Seemed I would owe the Atlan a favor.
“Get out of my way, Rezz.” The deep, growling voice belonged to Braun but I heard Rezz chuckle in response. By the gods, that Warlord loved to fight.