“No!” Helion’s shout filled empty space. “Gods be damned. He had a transport beacon. Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Helion kicked the table nearest him in a rage. “We needed him alive.”
“Why?” I asked.
He ignored me—of course he did—and turned to the Atlan. “Let’s get these babies out of here. Fuck. Gods be damned. This is a disaster.”
The Altan lifted two babies, one in each hand. He held out one of the infants to Helion, who looked terrified and walked away. I lifted one of the baby girls into my arms and tried to remain calm as Varin took two more.
Thomar stood at the door, watching us. “I must retrieve Bastion. I cannot leave him here.”
“Hurry.” He disappeared with my blessing.
We carried the infants back to the original shuttle. I watched through the open doorway as the rest of our Colony crew raced toward us. Just beyond them, Helion’s team escorted the women they’d found to the second, larger craft. One looked up and met my gaze. I was cradling the small girl I’d carried back to the shuttle. The vision of me holding the child seemed to calm her and she met my gaze, a clear question in her eyes.
I nodded and held up five fingers. Her shoulders sagged in relief and she boarded the craft.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here.” Ryston, Rachel’s second, seemed particularly disturbed. Perhaps it was Rachel’s reaction to the infants. She held both babies Varin had been carrying, tears streaming down her face.
“Not yet. Thomar is coming.” I could feel him, his frustration. Urgency. I looked at Varin. “Is he being chased?”
Varin closed his eyes for a moment. Cursed. “Yes. Fuck.” He kissed me on the top of my head and leaped from the shuttle. “I’ll bring him back.”
“Always. I know.” I flooded him with love as he ran back into the prison ship and disappeared.
Moments later the cargo bay flooded with Hive fighters, their weapons firing at both shuttles.
“Guess they got out.” Maxim’s dry tone stated the obvious.
Helion dropped to the ground, his weapon firing. His Atlan bodyguard followed as he bellowed orders to his team on the other ship. “Get those females out of here. Now! Fucking move!”
His team literally lifted the remaining women off their feet, each warrior carrying a woman under each arm as they boarded the last few prisoners. One of the women smacked her warrior in the face, demanding to be put down.
He smiled at her and I nearly laughed. I knew that look. She’d just sealed her fate. That warrior was going to keep her.
The ship’s doors were still closing when they took off. I breathed a sigh of relief when they were gone. The women were free now. No more torture. No more experiments.
“Come on, Thomar. Varin. Hurry.” I rocked the baby in my arms and willed my mates to hurry.
Helion and the Warlord were being pushed back, closer to the shuttle. He shouted up at his pilot. “One more minute, then we go.”
The pilot nodded and moved to take his seat in the cockpit. I blocked his path. “You leave my mates here and I will kill you myself.”
He grinned at me and I knew he had no intention of following that particular order from Helion. Thank God. I looked back at the others and Maxim nodded his head at me. “He’s mine. Colony pilot.”
Rachel beamed up at him. “I knew there was a reason I loved you.”
Maxim grinned at her, clearly smitten.
Ryston leaned down and whispered just loudly enough for all of us to hear. “We’ll give you a few more reasons when we get home.”
Rachel blushed. I did, too, thinking of all the various reasons—and positions—my mates gave me to love them.
The shuttle engines rumbled and I peeked out to see Thomar and Varin running, Bastion unconscious between them.
“Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.”
A blaster of some kind hit Thomar in the back. A sting of pain bit me between my shoulder blades but Thomar didn’t miss a step.
Helion and the Warlord moved out to meet them, firing into the Hive following them. As a group, the raced up the shuttle ramp. Maxim yelled for his pilot to take off and slammed his hand over the door. Ryston reached for Bastion, lifting the large Prillon from my mates’ grasp and pulling him deeper into the shuttle.