“Yes.” I made sure every ounce of threat I could muster was in my eyes. “I was in the cave when the Nexus 9 almost killed her. I tore two of those blue bastards apart with my bare hands. I helped her pull the living tendrils of that fucked-up thing out of the Nexus’s spine after it was dead. I won’t stand here arguing with you about protected information while she dies. Transport us now.”
Doctor Helion looked at the cuffs on my wrists, hers…sighed. “Damn Atlans.”
He grimaced, but nodded, stepping up onto the platform next to me. Below us, a single officer ran the control panel. He was human, like Megan, his skin a similar color, but several shades darker. His eyes were nearly black. He was big, for a human, with black hair cut nearly to his skull. The entire station could have fit inside my personal quarters on board the Karter. Four people, and it felt crowded. “Get us out of here, Tomar.”
The warrior nodded, his hands flying over the controls, but seconds passed, and nothing happened.
In my arms, Megan moaned, shifting with discomfort. I tried to soothe her as the doctor spoke to his man.
“What’s the problem?”
“We’re being jammed, sir.” Tomar’s hands flew over the controls. “Fuck me. It’s the Hive. They found us.”
Megan’s scream filled the small room, echoing like an explosion as a bright burst of light blinded me. Three Hive Soldiers transported into the room.
This time, when the doctor held out his arms, I gave Megan to him as gently as I could. I had no time to make sure she was all right. The small human at the transport controls had drawn his ion blaster, but he wouldn’t last a minute trapped back there with three deadly Hive Soldiers bearing down on him.
My beast roared, drawing the enemies’ attention.
I knew exactly what they were trying to do, destroy the control panel, trap Megan here. Capture her. Take her.
I rushed to the Soldiers, mowing into the firs
t one like a giant fist. I kept track of Tomar as his fingers flew over the controls. I knew the moment Megan was gone, transported with Helion to I.C. where I knew she’d be safe—at least from these Hive bastards. My cuffs sent a painful pulse of electric shock through my body at our separation. But my beast was too enraged to care, or allow that to stop him. These creatures were a threat to my mate. They’d come here for her. They wouldn’t get her, and they would die fighting me.
I tore the nearest Hive in half, the spray of blood blinding the second. Tomar attacked him with a shot from his ion blaster as I lifted the third, throwing it as far as I could, the thing’s metallic parts crashing against the far wall with the sound of screeching metal.
I hoped that was the sound of the Hive’s skull cracking in half.
Tomar had stunned the remaining Hive, but I knew the Soldier class. They were strong, tougher than they looked. If their bodies were intact, it was only a matter of seconds before they’d come for us again.
“Warlord!” Tomar rushed past me as an alarm sounded in the room, the blaring noise making my head pulse.
I followed the human up onto the transport platform, his frantic motions impossible to ignore.
“Hurry. We transport in ten seconds.”
My beast grunted, taking a protective stance next to the Earth man. “Good.”
He grinned, his bright white teeth a startling contrast against his dark brown skin. He reminded me of the Prillon warriors, the old families, with their darker coloring. Tomar fired his ion blaster into the body of the unconscious Hive closest to us just to make sure the fucker stayed down. “Yeah, good. Because the whole place is going to blow in fifteen.”
I hadn’t processed his words, too focused on the farthest Hive Soldier. He struggled to stand near the wall where I’d thrown him like garbage. Gaining his feet, he turned and lifted his weapon, but the twisting pain of cold space pulled us away before he could fire.
When we came out of transport, I expected to see the unfamiliar surroundings of Doctor Helion’s secret base. Instead, I was greeted by the sight of Medical Station Three, and the shocked gazes of Doctor Mersan and two of his medical officers.
My beast roared at the small human next to me. “Karter?” We were back on the Battleship Karter?
The man shrugged. “The coordinates were already in the system. And I don’t have clearance for arrival at I.C. Command.”
Going. To. Kill. Him. The cuffs fired, their sting more powerful now that the fight was over. But even that wasn’t enough to calm me. “Where? Mate?”
Doctor Mersan stepped closer as the human backed away from me. Perhaps he was an ally, someone who could be trusted. Perhaps not. My beast was rapidly losing interest in anything but forcing the man to take me to Megan.
“Transport. Now!” My bellow should have scared the bastard, but he stared straight at me and shook his head.
“No, can do. Sorry. You’ll have to get clearance from your commander.”
I stepped toward him, barely able to resist tearing him in half. I couldn’t kill him—he was the only one who knew where the Prillon doctor had taken my mate—but I could hurt him. I could force him to talk.