“We do not know if there are any Hive monitoring this level or any kind of motion sensors to indicate life forms,” she said, her voice calm and even.
She was focused, although if she had that plug still in her ass, I doubted that would be the case. God, seeing that tight hole stretch around the plug made me—
“Remain here, I will investigate,” she said, then shifted to move.
Focus!
I was used to the charge and conquer approach to fighting. A brigade of Atlan fighters was a force that even the Hive couldn’t stand against. But Sarah wasn’t Atlan and I had to continually remind myself that patience and strategy were required now, not brawn.
I grabbed her shoulder, stilling her. “We will do it together.” I held up my wrist. “Remember, we can’t separate.”
“What if we get caught?” she asked.
I clenched my jaw. “We won’t get caught.”
“The first Hive we see I will… immobilize and we can claim their weapons and comm units.”
“And then?” I studied her, smart enough to know that we were in her territory now. I’d never set foot on a vessel this small before coming to this sector. I hadn’t survived a decade in battle by ignoring the knowledge or experience of my best fighters.
“The lifts are centrally located on all Hive ships, but there are access tunnels as well. I say we go for the tunnels. We’ll have a better chance of taking them by surprise.”
“Agreed.”
She nodded and turned to work her way around the supplies.
Sarah
Seth was on this prison ship. So were other men, men who didn’t deserve the fate that was in store for them. Hopefully, we would rescue all of them in time. Would Seth already be altered? Would he have the metallic skin and silver eyes of a soulless cyborg? Would he have the external attachments on his arms and legs? Would they shave his head? Inject him with microscopic implants in his muscles, making him faster and stronger than any human should be? Would he still look like my brother?
It didn’t matter. As long as he was alive, I didn’t care what he looked like.
Dax led the way, moving me aside when I would go first. Yes, he was a caveman, but in this moment he had two things that kept me from smacking him: the ability to rip the heads off a Hive without even warming up first, and a really fine ass. If a Hive appeared, Dax could go all berserker on them instead of firing. In the meantime, I would try to focus on rescuing my brother instead of the feel of Dax’s butt in my hands. I knew how it flexed as he fucked me. Shit, I was in trouble. He was the only male in the entire galaxy who could distract me during a mission.
It hadn’t even been two days and I’d changed so much. It wasn’t the fact that I wasn’t a coalition fighter anymore. It wasn’t that I’d been mated to an Atlan warlord. It wasn’t even that my brother had been captured by the Hive. It had been the realization that I wasn’t going to go through the rest of my life on my own. I no longer lived my life for someone else.
I’d joined the military because I was good at it, and I was good at it because I’d grown up with three older brothers who had given me no other choice. My father hadn’t offered me princess dresses or a pony or even a prom dress. I had paintball wars, karate classes, and ice hockey. I’d never chosen any of those things, only following along and participating because I was the youngest, but also because if I hadn’t, I would have been left out. Alone.
Then my dad threw the biggest life sucker of them all. A deathbed promise. I’d gone into the coalition because I’d promised my dad I’d find Seth and keep an eye on him. I’d been so focused on that I hadn’t realized my dad had taken my entire life away. I had no choices. Nothing was my own. I just had to find Seth. I’d found him, fought beside him, but then he was captured. Once I pulled Seth from the Hive brig and transported him to safety, what then? Would I have to remain by his side forever? I’d done what my father had wanted and I would get Seth back to safe ground. I’d joined the coalition, left Earth. Hell, I’d even agreed to be a mate of an Atlan to keep my promise to my dad.
What was mine? What choices had I made in life that were all mine? Remarkably, it was Dax who made me see that there was someone who wanted me for me, who wanted what I wanted, was willing to do something for me. It was different, it was surprising. It was endearing.
This huge hulk of a space alien wanted what was best for me. Yeah, that included his acting like a Neanderthal—like now, when I had to remain safely behind him. He agreed to help me get Seth back because he knew it was important. He always checked to see if my head was in the right place before he fucked me, ensuring I was wet and eager for him. He even put that stupid plug up my bottom because he knew it would give me pleasure—even when I’d been completely skeptical. I was a little sore there now, but really, all my girl parts were sore. I hadn’t been fucked like that in… well, ever.
His goal was to give me nothing but pleasure, so when this was over, when Seth was safe, I’d think long and hard about how I could please Dax. Not because I was told to do so. Not because I had to in order to be accepted by my mate, but because I wanted to know I’d made him truly happy.
Loud footfalls broke me from my thoughts. It wasn’t a large group of Hive, probably the usual three. When Dax came out from behind a cube of supplies to fight them, I had a moment of panic that something would happen to him, but it was too short-lived to even get my heart rate up. Grunts and groans, an ion blast, hard metal striking the floor, a crash of a supply box as it tipped over, then quiet. Dax’s breathing was ragged. “Clear.”
I stood then and saw that there were indeed three Hive. Two were missing their heads and one had been shot. Dax reached down and grabbed a Hive weapon for me. It was slightly different than a standard coalition blaster, but after a few seconds of checking it out, I felt I could easily work it. I now had a weapon in each hand.
Dax’s breathing didn’t calm and I could see his heartbeat thrumming against the tight tendons in his neck. “Sarah,” he growled.
My eyes widened. “What? What is it? They’re dead, I’m safe.”
He nodded his head, albeit jerkily. “It’s… shit, it’s the fever. Fighting these three brought it on.”
“Then use it. Let’s go get my brother, the others. On the way, you can rip the heads off as many Hive as you want.”
“It’s really strong. God, it came on so fast.” He took a step back. I recognized that he was trying to protect me from himself.