Chapter Sixteen
CJ
“I still think you need to go to the doctor to be monitored.” Rezzer’s deep voice carried over the splash of water, and I sighed, putting the back of my head under the hot water and letting the heat stream over me like a caress.
I was standing in the shower tube, rinsing off the time with the Hive. Rezzer and his beast had saved me from the creepy triplets. But still, being held as a breeder to make Hive babies? Yeah, that was something I wanted to forget.
We’d all been seen by the medical staff. I’d had my hand healed by a thing called a ReGen wand. It was an incredible piece of technology. The baby was fine. I was fine. The others were fine, too. Only minor injuries to the ReCon group, and the wand had healed them, too.
But now, Rezzer worried I would need constant medical monitoring to make sure that Nexus 4’s threats about our baby didn’t magically appear. Testing every day. Hell, he was so freaked, he had walked me to Doctor Surnen at least three times since we’d been back. If he had his way, the doctor would just move in with us. Not happening.
This baby was fine. Rezzer was fine. His beast had won, beaten the stupid genetic splicing. The doctor said Rezzer’s natural physiology destabilized the proteins created by Hive biosynthetics. Basically, Rezzer’s body chemistry was a hostile environment for Hive technology. And when an Atlan went beast, it was even worse.
So this baby? Our baby? Perfect. Healthy. But everyone was concerned with what the Hive had said to me. Pure born? Breeding programs? Rachel especially had been fascinated by the concept that Nexus 4 said integrating other species into the Hive was contamination.
Nexus 4 had wanted my baby to save his race. To be a bridge between the synthetic, created Hive and a new generation of babies born to them. The thought was both frightening and unbearably sad.
I slid my soapy hand over my belly, wondering what had happened to their people. How they’d gotten to this place, where they could no longer survive on their own. Have their own children...
“What’s wrong?” Rezzer yanked open the door, looking down at me with a fierce scowl, yet a hint of fear in his green eyes. The spray coated his uniform with drops of water, then seeped into the black material.
I rolled my eyes. Damned possessive mate.
But he was ridiculously concerned for me—and rightly so—and I had to indulge him. While he was the Atlan version of the Incredible Hulk, he had a tender heart. Besides, he did just say he wanted me to go to the doctor, but he wasn’t tossing me over his shoulder and forcing me there.
And so I soothed my big mate. “Nothing is wrong. The baby is fine. I’m fine.” I lifted my hand, curled my fingers into a fist so he could see that was all better. “Doctor Surnen has run every test he has. The baby is fine. Healthy. You were there. I was just thinking about how much I want this baby, Hive parts or not.”
He softened then, the hard lines of his body easing. “Our child will be loved, Caroline. Protected. Nothing will ever hurt either of you again.”
And that was the crux of my problem. The reason I was trembling. Worried. “I just worry they will keep coming after us. Try to take me again. Take the baby.”
He reached in, touched my chin, forced me to lift my eyes to his. “The Hive know their little experiment didn’t work. They have the data in their computers, witnessed my beast defeating their genetic splicing as well as the attack of microtech and activation frequencies in that lab. I am beyond their reach now, because of you. You made my beast stronger than ever. Their experiment failed.”
“But what will keep them from trying again?” I shivered, even under the warm spray.
He dropped his hand. “They most likely will try again, but not with me. I am a failure to them, and they will try to find a weaker test subject.”
“A weak beast?” I couldn’t imagine such a thing.
He studied me, his eyes dark. Serious. “The ruling Senate of Atlan has been notified of all that occurred. They will be vigilant. Even now, word is being spread throughout the Fleet. Within a few days, every elected Atlan commander will know what is at stake when they face the Hive. It is all we can do.”
“But why an Atlan? Why not a Prillon or one of the other races? If you guys are almost impossible to integrate in the first place, why did they choose a beast for this experiment?” I didn’t like the idea of the Hive using some other Coalition male for their breeding program, but the analyst in me was crunching numbers, thinking about the odds. “You know that you probably aren’t their only test subject, right? It doesn’t make sense that you’d be the only one.”
God, I hated even saying it out loud, but it had to be said. The governor and the Fleet, the scientists or whoever was in charge of that kind of thing, needed to be thinking straight. “This isn’t the end, Rezz.”
“It is for us. I fought my war, mate. I gave my life and my body. And now, do you know what I want?” His eyes were dark, but not with concern. No. I’d seen this look too many times to mistake it for anything but what it was. Lust. Love. A combustible mix of the two that made my knees weak and my heart race. We’d survived. Our baby was well. That was all that mattered now.
“No. But I know what I want,” I teased.
He ripped his shirt off, dropped his thigh holster to the floor, then stripped bare at a record pace. His mood shifted faster than a teenaged girl. “Tell me.”
I eyed him. Every big, hard, delectable inch. My mouth watered and even under the hot spray, I knew my pussy was wet. My nipples pebbled, and my already high-revving libido kicked into overdrive. Now that we were free of the Hive, for good this time, I just wanted Rezzer. Nothing else. “You. I want you.”
We’d been in danger I wouldn’t have been able to fathom on Earth. When it came to life and death, we’d made it out alive; I just wanted to validate that. To feel, knowing that we’d survived. That we were whole. To prove my love for Rezzer.
He pushed forward, and I held him off with a hand on his chest. “You can’t think to get in here with me,” I said with a laugh. “You won’t fit.”
The shower tube was big enough to fit Rezzer, but not both of us. It wasn’t a two-person marble shower with six showerheads like they had on Earth. This was utilitarian. Hmm. Maybe this was something to talk about with the other ladies from Earth. Getting them made. Surely, they’d like some shower nookie.