Chapter Twelve
Rezzer, In the tunnels beneath Base 3
We all followed Kiel through the dark tunnels. Strange alien worms lined the walls lending an eerie glow with their bioluminescence. We were deep underground, deeper than we'd ever been on these tracking missions before. But I did not doubt Hunter Kiel's, prowess. He had been methodical and efficient before meeting his mate, a human woman named Lindsey, and adopting her son as his own. But if he had been brutally efficient before, having a mate had not softened him. The opposite, in fact. Of all the warriors on the Colony, he would be the one I might struggle to defeat in battle.
Everian Hunters were fast. But Kiel was Elite, even among his own kind. He could move too quickly to track with the naked eye, and was nearly as strong as my beast when in hunting mode. Hunters were notorious throughout the Interstellar Fleet as bounty hunters and assassins. That Kiel was the only Hunter on the Colony had made him something of a legend. And when his mate had mysteriously appeared out of thin air, sent in a shipping crate by traitors from Earth, his legend had only grown.
The Hunters were notorious for being able to track their prey across solar systems on instinct alone. Some believed he’d used his abilities to magically lure a mate to him because she was here, and he hadn’t even been tested by the Interstellar Brides Program. Superstitious nonsense, but Kiel did nothing to quell the rumors. I knew better.
He’d gotten lucky when Lindsey showed up here. Damn lucky.
“Report, Captain.” The governor's voice came through all of our helmet communications systems. We remained silent waiting to see if Kiel deemed it safe to answer.
“Nothing so far, Governor,” Kiel said. “But we’re close. I can smell them.”
I couldn't smell them, but every instinct I had was screaming at me that something was wrong. And my beast was holding on by a thread. The intermittent electric shocks blasting through the mating cuffs on my wrists helped keep me sane, helped remind me that my mate was waiting, that she needed me to finish this mission and return to her. Still, my hackles were up, my instincts roared through me. “Something’s not right.”
I was in the back, protecting our flank, and every second we lingered, my heart raced faster. The last time I’d been down here, I’d been captured. This wasn’t a place I wanted to linger, but this time, I wasn’t alone. Still, my gut was telling me—
“He’s right. Something's not right, Kiel. I feel it, too.” Captain Marz, the Prillon warrior, looked to Trax and they fanned out to my sides. We had come down in a team of eight, but divided in half about fifteen minutes earlier when the tunnel had split.
“Has the other team reported back in?” Kiel asked.
The governor’s voice was hoarse. “No. But I need you to get Rezzer back to base.”
My head snapped up, and I felt my eyes glaze as the beast fought for freedom. “Why?” It was less a question than a demand.
Maxim’s voice came through clearly but did nothing to help calm my beast. “We need you back at Base 3, Rezzer. That’s all I can tell you for now.”
Something had happened to Caroline. It was the only explanation. He wouldn’t pull me from a mission for anything less. And since he wasn’t stating the reason through the comms, it was bad. “Tell me now, Maxim. Tell me now, or I'm going to rip the base to shreds looking for her.”
“Control yourself, Rezzer.” He didn’t contradict my words about Caroline being missing. “Then get your ass back to base.”
“We go back to base. Now.” The change was right there, just under my skin, but I held onto control by my fingernails. For her. But when I met Kiel’s gaze, he knew that if he didn’t turn the team around right now, they’d be going on without me.
“Agreed,” Kiel said. He nodded at Marz and Trax, and they began to walk toward me. Two steps later, all three of them had their ion blasters drawn and pointing at something behind me. I turned and saw what we’d spent the last three hours hunting.
Three Hive soldiers stood at the end of a long cavern, an offshoot we had yet to search. Unfortunately, they were just out of blaster range. Fuck. My beast snarled and grew.
“Hunter?” Marz asked Kiel for orders.
As the Elite Hunter on the team, Kiel was in command, and as much as I wanted to go full beast, run down the hallway and rip those bastards to shreds, I had a mate to get back to. These assholes were so far down my priority list, they barely registered. As soon as Maxim indirectly told me there was something wrong with Caroline, they were nothing but in my way to get to her. Period. “Shoot them and let’s go.”
“They're out of range,” Kiel said.
“We’re not out of their range. Look at that rifle. What kind of weapon is that? I’ve never seen it before.” Marz narrowed his eyes, and I knew his cyborg implant allowed him to see farther than the rest of us. “Take cover!” he shouted.
Too late. A sharp pain stabbed me on the left side of my chest, and I looked down to find an odd dart protruding from my uniform. With a growl, I reached up and plucked it from my flesh but a strange disc about the size of my fingernail remained attached in my uniform. “What the fuck?”
“Take cover!” Kiel was yelling now. He was on the ground, as were the other two.
I wasn’t sure what was happening. The Hive could have killed me. They could have blasted my head off or poisoned me with that dart. But they’d done neither. I studied the object stuck to me, craning my neck to get a better look. The others stood and Marz came up on my left side, pulled my arm.
“Come on, Rezzer. Move it.”
As soon as I started moving, he let me go and I followed him. I wanted as far away from these damn caves as possible. With each step I took, I was closer to Caroline. The pulsing pain from the cuffs was my reminder. We darted down a side tunnel. The moment we were out of their line of sight, we stopped and the other two gathered around me to inspect the object.
“Get that off your uniform. Now!” Even as he said it, Kiel took a step back. “Get it off. It’s a remote transport beacon.”