“No, mate. Stay where I can see you with my own two eyes.”
“Mate?” Gwen shrugged off my grip. “That’s ridiculous. That’s like, three feet.”
“I will not argue with you, female.”
“Female?”
I should have taken note of Braun’s earlier words about Earth females. I should have remembered that they had to be tricked into allowing for their own protection. But my body raged at me to protect her, to stay next to her, to keep her safe. I imagined her hurt, caught by the Hive once again, and my mind seethed. My fangs dropped and my voice was part growl, part hiss. “You will obey me in this. You are mine. I will protect you.”
Gwen patted me on the arm, her head tilted to the side, a look of seeming innocence on her face. “Get a grip, fang boy. Not gonna happen.”
Before I could argue, she was gone, disappearing into the swirl of fog, nothing more than a small green dot inside my helmet.
“Gods be damned! Gwendolyn. Get back here!” I roared into the microphone, but that little green dot kept moving farther and farther away and at a pace too fast for a normal human.
The husky masculine laughter I knew was coming from base didn’t help my mood. Neither did Captain Marz’s amused chuckle in my ear.
“Shut the fuck up, Marz. Or I’ll remove your arms from your body,” I growled.
Now Vance was laughing at me, too.
“Fuck both of you.”
And my sweet, docile female’s voice chimed in last. “No, Mak, the only person on this planet you get to fuck is me.”
The laughter continued, completely at my expense and that only angered me further.
“Gods damn all of you, stay on task and shut the fuck up.” The governor’s order shut down Marz and Vance’s laughter, but I should have known it wouldn’t stop my Gwen. That female was too fierce and stubborn for her own good.
Again, advice I should have heeded from Warlord Braun.
“Sorry, Governor,” she said sweetly, almost too sweetly. “Just staking my claim on Mak’s magnificent cock.”
What. The. Fuck?
“Shut it, Lieutenant.” The governor meant it, but it was my mate’s distant laughter echoing in the background that made me grin. Yeah, that was my mate. That, and the fact that Gwen had just told everyone on the planet that my cock was magnificent. Which it was.
Giving up on taming the wildness out of my female, I followed her little green dot on the helmet display, determined to protect her, whether she wanted my protection or not.
* * *
Gwen
Icouldn’t see a damn thing… but I could hear them. The Hive. In my head. The subtle vibration of multiple high-ranking Hive Soldiers moving over my flesh, under my skin, like the subtle stroking of a thousand mosquitos’ wings hovering over my body, ready to bite. The Hive hadn’t given me this technology to use against them, but that’s exactly what I was doing now.
They were here. Somewhere. And I had to find them, kill them, before they could hurt Mak again.
When I’d been a prisoner, I’d vowed to fight them until there was nothing left of me. I’d hunt and kill the Hive with my dying breath. But that was my choice. Not Mak’s.
All he wanted was his freedom. To get away from all this madness and forget, go back to his old life. To just… fly away.
I couldn’t do that, but he could. And I could help him. If I could take out the Hive communications center before he caught sight of them, the deed would be done. He’d be free, and he’d never have to face them again. He wouldn’t have to look one of them in the eye and remember what they’d done to him.
It wasn’t much, but it was all I could do to help. And I wanted to do something, to know I’d given him a gift, taken care of him in some small way. He might be the one wearing the bossy pants, but I could be in charge here, get shit done. For him.
The urge to protect him was stupid, and territorial, and didn’t make any sense, but my heart didn’t care. I needed to do this for him. One last thing.
“Gwen, stop. Wait for me. Don’t be foolish.” Mak’s order was easy to ignore.