“I see your beast has no concern for her beyond simple anger. Excellent.” The blue Nexus unit spoke, and I chose not to respond.
“I will do as you say,” Caroline replied, obviously trying to redirect their connected attentions away from me. “Leave him alone.”
Beeping began. From the testing unit. From the wall. Caroline glanced at me, her eyes wide in panic as a strange moldable object was placed across her abdomen, down low, over her womb. It settled there, the interior of the jelly-like capsule flickering and sputtering with faint lights that coincided with new data streams appearing on the screens behind my mate’s body.
“Protein A-T-Five-Seven not present. No Hive integration present. Genetic splice absent from the progeny. Recommend termination.” A computerized voice came from the wall repeating the same thing over and over.
The testing showed what Caroline had guessed. She’d summoned the beast, healed me in a way I didn’t fully understand, and my beast had taken over. Overridden or destroyed any Hive integration. My seed wasn’t contaminated. The baby was beast and human. Not Hive. Not theirs.
Mine.
One Hive pressed a button on the wall and restraints came from the table, wrapping around my mate.
“What are you doing?” she cried.
“Fetus termination will commence immediately.”
“Fetus termination?” Caroline asked, her voice shrill.
What? I growled, held my beast back. My mate was in danger. My baby was in danger.
“Subject Zero-One is not properly integrated. Therefore, the subject will be terminated, and you will be bred again.”
“Rezzer!” Caroline cried, trying to wriggle free, but the restraints were too tight. The table shifted and moved automatically, her pinned legs lifting and spreading, her dress sliding up her thighs with the motion. A device lowered from the ceiling, a large needle affixed to the end.
Holy. Fuck. No.
“Rezzer!” she screamed.
My beast broke free.