With the taste of Hannah on my tongue, I knew I could kill a hundred Hive alone.
I was an excellent pilot, but the pilots chosen were from the recon team and knew exactly where we needed to go, so I sat in the back with the other warriors and waited. Battle fever spiked my blood with energy and I smiled, eager to kill. I hadn’t tasted battle in months, and was eager to feel my enemies’ bodies rip and tear as I pulled them to pieces with my bare hands.
“Hive communications have been blocked,” the pilot yelled back to us where I sat with six other warriors in eager silence. “We’ll be on the ground in sixty seconds.”
I pulled the breathing mask from the wall behind me and suited up for battle as the others around me did the same. The ship landed and I followed the recon team out the door. In less than five minutes we were setting charges on their outer perimeter door.
The blast sounded and the explosives team motioned the rest of us forward. We moved like water over rock, in perfect harmony. These were my warriors, my team, and we had fought alongside each other for years.
Hive soldiers flowed through the opening like swarming insects and we picked them off easily from our vantage point in the rocky terrain surrounding their mobile outpost. The Hive soldiers were well programmed for direct conflict, but one-on-one, or in small groups, they couldn’t adapt fast enough. The Hive was stupid, but their robotic soldiers came off the production lines on their home world faster than we could destroy them.
In a matter of minutes, the flurry of activity was over and my warriors and I made our way to the entrance. If this was a normal Hive outpost, the expendable robotic units would have been sent to flood the perimeter while the more advanced biological hybrids would be inside waiting to ambush us.
I threw a gas canister through the blast hole in the door and we waited long enough for it to have knocked out their biological systems. The gas wouldn’t kill them, just knock them out. We had our own warriors trapped inside, so could not use lethal toxins.
We cleared the outpost one room at a time. There were no biological to be found until we got to the very center of the structure. There, lying on two tables in a medical station were Dare and Nial. The half-living, half-machine creatures standing over them were the only resistance left. A warrior on my right stunned the creature over Dare as another team took care of the creature over Nial.
I stepped forward and looked down at my second, at Hannah’s love, then a war cry left my throat as I leaned down and lifted the semi-conscious creature from the ground and ripped his head from his shoulders with my bare hands.
Chapter Thirteen
Hannah
Zane was back. I could feel him again, and Dare. But not with warmth or any kind of joy. They both felt cold, Dare just absent, and Zane?
Zane felt like pure, raw fury.
I rubbed at my neck and paced the confining space of our quarters. I couldn’t stand to look at the bed where I’d slept so many nights wrapped around Dare. Nor could I look at the lounge where my mates had first taken me, Zane’s strong hand at my back and Dare’s pre-cum on my lips making me dizzy with lust.
I paced, happy that I could feel them again, even if it wasn’t warm and fuzzy.
Five minutes passed. Ten. And still Zane didn’t come for me. My collar had gone cold and lifeless when Zane left the ship. At that moment I realized just how connected I’d become to my two warriors, how much I depended on that constant link to feel like I belonged to them, like this was home.
I’d very nearly told Zane I loved him today, but I was firm on this. I had given my warriors everything else—my trust, my body, my soul. I would not give them the words first. That was the one thing I demanded they give me, and I would not relent, no matter how Dare flattered and teased me, or Zane pushed me to the edge and brought me back safely in his arms. I would not yield. Not on this.
But if Zane didn’t come for me soon, I would disobey him. I could tell by the buzzing numbness in my connection to Dare that something wasn’t right. And I would bet they had taken him to the medical station. Doctor Mordin was probably looking at him right now, making sure he was okay.
The door to our quarters made a dinging sound and I ran for the door. Finally!
I unlocked the door, expecting to see Zane in the hallway.
Instead, a weapon was pressed to my chest and the old man who’d stared at me like a lecherous toad in the medical station when I first arrived smiled down at me. I’d since learned his name was Harbart, and he was Prince Nial’s future father-in-law, or whatever they called it here.
I felt sorry for Prince Nial. If Harbart’s daughter was anything like her father, the poor girl had to be a horrible creature.
“Lady Deston. I need you to come with me.” His eyes were cold and hard and he pressed the tip of his weapon exactly between my full breasts. I didn’t know exactly how good this armored clothing was, and I didn’t want to test it.
“I can’t. I’m sorry. Commander Zane ordered me to stay in here until he returned.” I was stalling, and we both knew it. The cruel tilt of his smirk made me shiver and I took a step back trying to get the pointed space weapon off my body. I had no idea what the strange weapon could do, but I had no desire to find out.
Harbart followed me into the room and sealed the door behind us before turning back around to face me. I stared up at him in horror. He was huge, like all Prillon warriors. I barely reached his shoulder, and he probably weighed twice as much as I. His blank expression had transformed, from cold and unfeeling to that of a monster. His lips peeled back to reveal his teeth, his dark yellow eyes were wide and wild, and one hand curved around the weapon, the other curled in the air as he raised it to strike me, the gnarled fingers like a withered old tree branch.
He hit me hard across the cheek and I staggered backward, landing on my ass on the floor. Pain sliced through my skull but I welcomed it, knowing Zane would feel it, knowing he would come. I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and tried to think of a way to survive long enough for Zane to get here.
“You cunt whore.” Harbart stepped forward and I scrambled backward like a crab on all four legs, but I wasn’t fast enough and his kick connected with my hip. I rolled into a ball on my side, in complete agony as he leaned over me with spittle on his chin. “Nial was supposed to die today. And you? You aren’t supposed to be here at all. Zane is mine.”
He kicked at me again but I was waiting for it. I grabbed his leg and pulled with all my might. I managed to get him off balance and he fell backward with his arms flailing like windmills.
Gasping for air, I tried to stand, but it felt like I had a knife in the side of my hip. The pain flooded me, but I knew how to deal with pain. Pain woke me up. Pain made me feel alive. And this asshole was after my mate. I had no idea what this monster wanted with Zane, but I wasn’t going to let him get it.