Rezzer was in a fight for his life. And I was in a fight for mine. Mine and the little one I carried now.
The ankle restraint pulled in half and Nexus 4’s hands wrapped around my thighs, pulling me toward him, off the table. His strength reminded me of Rezzer, but his touch…
I knew where he wanted to take me. Out the back door of the little exam room. Away from my mate. And once he had me away, he’d do unspeakable things. I was a breeder. While I wasn’t Hive, or even had any Hive integrations, to them I was still a machine. A baby making machine. Nothing more.
I couldn’t go with him.
I clung to the table, but my broken hand and lack of grip made it all too easy for Nexus 4 to pull harder, breaking my hold. “No.”
I scrambled back, trying to get away, but his hands were nearly as large as Rezzer’s. And strong. “Do not resist. I do not wish to harm you.”
“Said every psychopath ever,” I snarled at him.
That made him blink, the translucent, fish-like eyelid creeping me out as Rezzer and the Prillon Hive rammed into each other, locked arms and smashed against the side wall so hard the floor rocked below me. “I am not a psychopath. It is illogical to hurt you or the Atlan. It does not serve our purpose.”
Since he wasn’t pulling on my legs at the moment, I tried to stall, looking around for a weapon. The light glinted off the needle-like thing they’d been about to prod me with. The thing they were going to use to kill my baby. “So, what is your purpose?”
“To create a perfect race free of contaminated integration. A pure race.”
“What?”
His gaze drifted to where Rezzer and the Hive still fought. The sound of fists pummeling flesh was loud. I wondered why Rezzer hadn’t just torn the guy in half already and been done with it like the other. “Kill him, Rezzer!” I yelled.
Nexus 4 shook his head. Calm. Too calm when he was facing down a beast. “Your mate lives because he must.”
I turned and saw that Rezzer’s chest was heaving. He was covered in blood, the killing rage in his eyes still there, but cold. Calculating. The Hive he faced did not advance, simply stared. And waited.
What the hell?
That was when I smelled it. Sickly sweet. My head started to spin, and I gasped, looking up to see a faint, misty presence of something being pumped into the air in the room. “Gas. They’re poisoning us with gas.”
I tried to yell, but already I had to fight just to form the words. The Hive didn’t kill Rezzer because they wanted him alive. They wanted us both alive. For breeding.
Rezzer heard me and charged the Hive the same moment I reached for the needle, yanked it from its metallic arm and jammed it into the Nexus’s cheek. He calmly lifted his hands to his face to remove the metal, and I rolled backward, off the table, away from him. Not the response I wanted, wishing he’d at a minimum shriek in pain, but it had bought me some time.
I was running the second my feet hit the floor, trying not to breathe in the gas. Even if Nexus 4 and the Hive were knocked out, wherever we were, outside the room we were still surrounded by enemies. They were not. If we fell now, we’d wake up exactly where we’d been before. Prisoners. Helpless. And I had a sinking feeling my baby would be gone.
Rezzer threw the Hive halfway across the room, his body slamming through the thick walls before sliding to the ground, stunned. He wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t moving too quickly either.
I clung to the wall as far away from the Hive Rezzer fought as I could get and moved toward my mate. Nexus 4 just watched me with an expression devoid of emotion. He knew the gas was going to take us all out. Knew, and waited like a spider in the middle of his giant, nasty web.
I fucking hated spiders.
“Rezzer, they’re pumping knock-out gas into the room. We have to get out of here.”
The beast turned to me, his green eyes practically glowing with battle lust, but he was gentle as he pulled me to his chest, picked me up and swung me around onto his back.
“Hold. Tight,” his beast ordered as he turned his attention to the wall in front of him. I wrapped my legs around his beast-sized hips the best I could, my arms around his neck and plastered myself to his back to protect him as he raised both fists over his head and roared. Nexus 4 might shoot at Rezzer, but he wouldn’t shoot me, his prize breeder and future Hive baby-maker. Rezzer might be able to survive a blast from the space weapons, but me? I was human. If Nexus 4 shot me, I had no idea how much damage would be done. Whether or not I would survive.
Apparently, Nexus 4 didn’t either. Our gazes met and held as Rezzer struck twice more against the wall in rapid succession. The blue creature looked almost…sad.
The wall crumbled on Rezzer’s third strike, and he kicked his way through. The blast of fresh air hit me like an icy breeze, and I sucked in deep, gulping breaths trying to clear my head and my lungs. We were so out of here.
Darting low, Rezzer ducked through the opening and out into a long gray corridor.
But I was slipping. My bloody, broken hand shooting agony through me every time I tried to tighten my hold.
“Rezz.”