Chapter Ten
Angh, Vice Admiral Niobe’s office, Coalition Academy, Zioria
“Come in, Warlord,”the Vice Admiral said, rising from the chair behind her desk. Her office was in a prime location. On the first floor of the administration building—on the far side of the campus from where Kira’s classroom was—she was afforded views of the central quad from windows on two sides.
From my quick assessment of the female, the Academy head was my age. She wore the uniform of the Coalition Academy, the dark black color signifying her role as an instructor, but the epaulets on her shoulders indicated her superior status. Her manner was crisp, her chin tilted up in a way that indicated this wasn’t a social call.
Fine with me. I was in no mood to talk. I was in no mood for anything but having Kira back in my arms. But that was not to be.
I took a deep breath as I stepped into the tidy office, trying to keep my beast under control. Ever since Kira had told me the truth, it had raged, howling in frustration and agony. The cuffs about my wrists were the only things keeping the animal within in check. My beast should have been eased by the fact that I’d just spilled my seed deep inside Kira’s pussy, again, but facing the truth was like jumping in a freezing Atlan lake. Any sexual satisfaction I’d felt was gone. Especially standing here. I wanted Kira. I had no desire to be summoned by the Vice Admiral. While attractive enough, she wasn’t the female I wanted to fuck. To mate. To claim.
I assumed she was adding me to the next scheduled transport slot for The Colony, although she could have just directed me to the transport center instead of her office. I had destroyed Academy property, fucked an instructor and probably broken ten other Academy rules. It wasn’t as if I’d been subtle in my behavior, and as leader, she’d have to set an example of me, or at least get me the fuck off Zioria.
I didn’t care. It didn’t matter what she did to me now. Kira and I couldn’t be together. Nothing else mattered. My beast growled and I closed my eyes, breathed through my nose to keep from going into beast mode. The heat, the craze of the fever was building. I knew it. I felt it. My beast was succumbing to it with Kira’s situation, the desolate future we faced without her. There was no reason for me or my beast to keep fighting, to hold the fever back any longer.
The Vice Admiral’s eyes narrowed as she watched me try to gain control. I sighed. The pain I’d endured at the hands of the Hive was nothing in comparison to the ache I felt now. Losing Kira was the worst torture imaginable. Death was something I now welcomed. It was now the only thing that could bring me the peace I so desperately desired. I’d stolen moments of it with Kira in my arms, but she wasn’t meant to be mine. I had offered her everything I had, heart, body and soul, and fate was against us.
This war was against us.
The Hive had taken everything from me after all.
I hadn’t thought I could survive the Hive Integration Unit, or the endless agony of their modifications as they forced me to become one of them. Then I had faced the desolation and loneliness of life on The Colony. I’d survived all of it. But this? I wasn’t wrong, hadn’t been wrong even when I’d told Seth, my friend on a ReCon team who had refused to put me out of my misery. Instead, he’d saved me. I had no idea why, now. I was better off dead than without my mate. And leaving her? The ion blast that would ultimately kill me would hurt less.
“I am unstable,” I said simply. “I am prepared to die.”
One dark brow cocked upward, but otherwise she offered no emotion. “I would tell you to sit, Warlord, but I doubt it would be comfortable for you in your current state.”
No, being forced into a chair while my beast prowled and all but howled in agony would be impossible.
“I am glad you are prepared to die, as all fighters going into battle must come to terms with that reality,” she continued. “In the Intelligence Core, the chances of survival are even lower than on standard battle ops.”
I remained silent, hoping she’d get to her point quickly enough. I knew everything she said was the truth, but I was no new recruit. I was old. Not in body—I was an Atlan in my prime—but my soul? I felt like I’d been alive too long already, been through too much. The burden was heavy. For Kira, I could face it. But alone? Alone, the beast would rise to the surface and force my hand. I would become a danger to everyone I encountered. A truly merciless beast with no thought but destruction.
I could not allow that to happen. I’d fought too long, too hard to be honorable. To hold true to the teachings of my father and grandfather. They were long dead, but they lived on in me, in the strength of my will and the determination I had to survive. I was not weak, but I was tired. A walking time-bomb. I had neither the time nor patience for games. “Why am I here, Vice Admiral?”
She leaned back in her chair, her pointer finger tapping slowly on the top of her desk as she held my gaze. “I met a colleague of yours the other day. A friend, from what I’ve been told. Commander Chloe Phan.”
It was my turn to raise a brow. “Yes. I am familiar with the commander.” I wasn’t going to say anything more about my friend, or her mates, until I knew where this was going.
“I heard a rumor that the two of you brought one of the webs down together. The very first mine attack, on Battlegroup Karter. I was told you were there.” She watched me for a reaction. Silence filled the room and I refused to confirm or deny anything. What was she doing? Had Chloe somehow gotten into trouble? “Well? Are the rumors true?” Silent, she stood in front of me and waited, the desk the only object between us.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said through gritted teeth.
She gave a slight nod of her head. Her dark hair was pulled back severely, parted down the center and tucked into a bun at the nape of her neck. “Good, you’re able to keep secrets.”
“Vice Admiral—” I began, but she lifted her hand to cut me off.
“Your classified work with Commander Phan is the only reference needed for what I have planned. I need you to come work for me.”
The corner of my mouth tipped up. It would normally be a small smile, but now, it was all sneer. “I doubt the doors here at the Academy would survive my employment as an instructor.”
“Yes, that is true. However, your role will not be here, at the Academy, but with the I.C. And this will not be a one-time mission, like you experienced with Commander Phan, but in a full-time capacity. I need someone with your skills, with your expertise.” She pointed to my head and I knew she referred to the implant the doctors on The Colony had been unable to remove, the Hive technology imbedded so deeply inside my brain tissue that removing it would have killed me.
I crossed my arms over my chest. I stood over a foot taller than the female and was easily twice her weight. She did not seem concerned I might hurt her or that my beast might rage and snap her like a twig. “You work for the I.C.?” Gods curse the I.C. and these females. First, I lose the only female I’ve ever loved, and now this one wanted me to be her puppet.
She nodded once, succinctly. “That is correct. Your ability to hear the Hive is crucial to moving our battlegroups forward. As you’re well aware, the removal of the network of mines that initially attacked Battlegroup Karter was a success, but the Karter is stalled. Blocked by a new Hive deployment. They updated their systems after their mines were destroyed in that sector and we have not been able to duplicate your success. The Hive continues to deploy new minefields like spiders spinning their webs. They are surrounding us, Warlord. I need you to work with Commander Phan to bring the other Hive minefields down. You’ll start with the Karter and go from there.”
“It’s going to be pretty hard to fight the Hive if I’m dead.”