“You are a formidable female. And yes, we do.” Marz placed his gloved hand in hers and she squeezed his hand, shaking his arm up and down in the human ritual. Marz ignored me, which was fine. He released Gwen’s hand and spoke to Vance. “You get back to Mak and Gwen’s shuttle. Report that there was a battle and we lost track of both Mak and the lieutenant.” He turned to me now. “Since your mate’s helmet and tracking device is already on the ground, you’ll need to dump yours as well, before you leave the moon’s surface. The governor has to believe you’ve been taken by the Hive. That should buy us the time you both need to get into position.”
“Done.” Smart. I couldn’t think right now. Nearly losing Gwen and now watching her stand fearless and proud among us made my cock hard and my chest ache.
“Good. I’ll make sure I take plenty of footage of the dead Hive and the scene of the battle. Vance will help me load up the bodies. I’m sure those warriors have family that would like to know their final fates. We’ll take them back to the Colony for processing and you two disappear.” He looked at Gwen. “You have my private comm code?”
“Of course.”
“Use it when you’re ready to offer the governor your bargain. How long do I have to recruit Rezzer and the other Atlan Warlords?”
Gwen tilted her head, taking her turn to stare up into the stars. “I’ll give you two hours to have them at the cave entrance. Not one minute more. Take a shuttle and head north of Base 3 about eighty miles to the entrance of the ice caves.”
“That close?” Vance seemed to pale behind his helmet.
Gwen ignored him. “And tell Rezzer that if I didn’t like CJ so much, I’d just kill the motherfucker and deliver his head to Rezzer on a platter.”
“Warlord Rezzer will be most grateful that you do not,” Vance said, a small smile turning up the corners of his mouth.
“Yeah? Well, he can owe CJ about a thousand backrubs and two thousand orgasms as payment.”
Marz choked at her bold words. Vance laughed. I looked at my warrior mate and smiled. Two thousand orgasms? It might take years, but I was more than up to the task. After all, I could not live knowing an Atlan pleased his mate more than I pleasured mine. I just hadn’t had enough time with her. Forever would do.
As if she could read my mind, my female turned to me. “If you really want to do this, then let’s go, Mak.” She waved a hand absently at Marz and Vance as she walked away. “I’ll activate the beacon at the exact coordinates when I’m ready for Rezz and his beast friends to storm the joint.”
Marz protested, but Gwen ignored him and I couldn’t take my eyes off the sway of her ass, the seductive slide of her long, glossy black hair as it fell down her back as I followed her to the empty Hive ship.
This ship was ours now. And I now understood that Gwen had no intention of ever giving it up. Not until the war was over, or all of the Nexus units were dead. I’d been wrong to think she’d be content on the Colony, going on mission after mission. That having such a small part to play would be enough for her. I’d been so wrong. Looking at her now, she was right. She wanted to go after the Hive, to destroy them, but she wouldn’t be able to do it by the governor’s rules. She might not strip bare for him to see what she’d been turned into, but the intel she collected and the way she did it alone would make her a weapon to the Coalition.
A thing, not a person.
She, too, had to escape. As long as she let me fight next to her, I didn’t care what kind of ship we called home. Or what color she was when we went to sleep at night.
“Are you two planning on fighting the Hive naked?” Vance called after us.
“Of course not,” Gwen replied easily. “They have S-Gen units on every ship. We’ll make our own gear.” The spontaneous matter generators were common on every Coalition vessel in the Fleet. Every household had one on the developed worlds. It created everything from weapons and clothing to food and personal items with recycled quantum energy formed into new molecules. If the hive had S-Gen units, we’d want for nothing.
She disappeared up the ship’s ramp and I followed, sighing in relief when she closed the door and filled the small room with breathable air.
The moment I was able, I pulled off my helmet and hauled her to me for a kiss.
By the gods, she was magnificent, no matter what color she was.
“Get that damn uniform off and toss it, Mak. They need to think you’ve been captured. At least for a while.”
“Are you telling me to get naked, female?”
“Yes, Mak. I am.”
“Good. Then it will be easier to fuck you after I spank you.”