Half crawling, half staggering, I headed for the S-Gen in the corner of the room. If I could get there, maybe I could ask for a baseball bat, or a golf club. Something! I’d never fired a gun in my life, and I doubted the ship’s systems had been programmed for human weapons.
Reaching the platform, I stretched to place my hand on the activation panel—
“Don’t move, Hannah Johnson of Earth. Or I will splatter your brain all over the wall.”
Zane
I paced the medical station and waited for Doctor Mordin to complete the examinations. We’d been back on the ship for nearly an hour, and I could feel my Hannah’s impatience building. But I wouldn’t go to her without answers.
“Well, doctor? Can you save them?” Dare was covered in superficial Hive devices, thin metallic modifications they’d made to his skin and eyes. But Nial? The bastards had obviously started their work on the prince first.
“Dare will be fine, but I’m not sure I can remove the implant from his right eye. It will enhance his vision, but isn’t dangerous long term.”
I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. So, my second would have a metallic glint in his eye for the rest of his life. But he would be alive, and whole, and himself. Hannah would be happy, my family was whole, and that was all that mattered to me.
“What about Nial? What do I tell the Prime?” I turned to the monster on the other examination table and clenched my jaw. Nial was nearly covered with metallic grafts and devices, some protruding from his skull from brain probes and implants. I’d seen this before, and worse. I’d rescued warriors from Hive centers in worse condition, but those warriors were always shipped to a medical station for treatment and I rarely saw them again.
But just because I didn’t see them, didn’t mean I wasn’t aware of Nial’s prognosis. Most men couldn’t recover from the level of genetic manipulation Nial had suffered. He was more machine than man now. Hive.
Something of what I was thinking must have shown on my face because when I looked up, the doctor was watching me.
“He’s not as bad as some I’ve seen. I’ll get to work on him right away. Don’t tell the Prime anything yet.”
“W
hen will you know?” Man or machine? Could the prince survive without the added technology? Had they wiped out too many of his natural systems?
“When I pull the probes from his brain stem.”
A jolt of cold panic struck through my collar and Dare groaned from his exam table. “Hannah.” He tried to sit up, brought back to consciousness by our mate’s fear.
I didn’t bother with explanations, simply ran from the room, with Dare staggering behind me.
The doctor yelled at Dare to stop, but I knew my second. Our mate was in trouble. Unless he was dead, he would fight beside me to save her.
Hannah
I froze for a moment, then pulled my hand back to my lap and turned to look up at Harbart. I knew the moment Zane felt my fear, and his rage gave me courage. He was coming. I just had to stall the crazy for a couple of minutes. “You’re insane, Harbart. What do you want from me?”
“You need to die. Nial will die. I’ll make sure of that. And then the commander will take my daughter as his bride, as he should have when I offered her to him.”
I shook my head, confused. “But Prince Nial will be Prime. Why would you want a commander, when you can have the ruler of the whole planet?”
Harbart scoffed at me as if I were an ignorant child. “Commander Deston controls the entire interstellar fleet, little human. Warriors from hundreds of worlds bow to his command.” He stepped forward and grabbed me by my hair, pulling me half off the floor as tears stung my eyes and my scalp burned. “As they will obey yours, Lady Deston, once the claiming ceremony is complete.”
I reached for his hand, trying to hold on and take some of my body weight off my hair. “I don’t understand. Just let me go.”
“Of course you don’t, stupid human girl.” He dragged me toward the door and I tried to keep my feet under me but failed. “Our warriors rule in war, but their mates rule in peace.”
What the hell did that mean? My vision was blurred with tears as Harbart stepped to the door. He was forced to stop to wait for it to open and I knew this was my only chance. I scrambled until I had my feet under me, then used one hard kick to crumble Harbart’s knee from behind. He fell back, letting go of my hair to land partially on top of me. The weapon went flying from his hand and I shoved at his huge body trying to get him off me so I could reach it first.
“You bitch. I’ll strangle you with my bare hands.”
His huge hands wrapped around my leg and dragged me toward him. I kicked at his face, my fingernails trying to claw their way through the floor to gain traction.
The door opened and my mates burst into the room. Zane’s roar blasted through my body and I crumbled in relief as my mate lifted Harbart from the floor and threw him across the room. The old man hit the wall with a sickening crunch and I knew his skull hadn’t survived the impact, but Zane wasn’t finished with him.
I buried my face in my arm until a pair of strong, familiar hands wrapped around me. “Come, love. Let’s get you to medical while Zane takes care of this.”