Doctor Mersan stepped between us. Not too smart, after all.
“What happened?” The doctor spoke, but not to me. Tomar answered.
“The captain’s implant triggered a roving Hive Soldier squadron. They transported in right on top of us. Beast boy here had to fight them while I transported Doc Helion and Captain Simmons to command. Then I set the self-destruct and transported us here.”
My beast’s growl became a low, steady rumble that filled the room and Doctor Mersan cursed me, Helion, the Hive, and everyone in the room. “Get out! All of you.”
The lower-ranking officers hurried from the room until it was just me, the doctor, and the traitor who’d taken my mate from me. My hands were in fists and I couldn’t tear my gaze from him, thoughts of ripping his head from his puny little body filling my beast’s primitive mind.
But that wouldn’t get me to Megan.
The cuffs fired continually now, the pain a constant edge that helped me hang onto my control. I hoped that idiot Helion knew enough to take Megan’s cuffs off. If not, she’d be hurting, too. Like my mate needed any more pain inside her beautiful, perfect body.
That thought made the beast rage.
And just that fast, I was back to thinking that tearing this idiot’s head from his shoulders sounded pretty damn good.
Mersan looked from me to Tomar. “Get the hell out of here.”
Tomar saluted, a strange placement of his hand to his forehead, and walked out of the room. I would have followed, but Doctor Mersan seemed to have a death wish because he stepped in my path. “Get your fucking beast under control and meet me in the Commander’s office in twelve hours.”
“No.”
He raised his brow and crossed his arms. “Look, assuming Doctor Helion has Megan, she’s probably in surgery already. The surgery will take several hours, and then she’ll have to spend additional time in a ReGen Pod. You can’t get to her right now, no matter what planet you’re on. So calm the fuck down. She’s being taken care of. We’ll go talk to the commander and arrange for you to get off this ship. You need to let Warlord Wulf know you’re going home, and I’m sure Megan has some personal items she’d like to have with her on Atlan. You are taking your new mate to Atlan, are you not?”
I grunted my assent, more because I didn’t want to talk than because I couldn’t. He was making a lot of sense. But my beast didn’t want sense. It wanted our mate.
The beast receded and I felt my body becoming smaller. My head cleared, the constant sting of my mating cuffs grounded me in a strange way. Pain kept me in the moment, focused. “I need access to her private quarters.”
The doctor took a deep breath, most likely in relief that I was a man again, and capable of speaking in complete sentences. “I’ll have Captain Mills take you to her quarters. You can get her stuff, and yours, and take it to Transport Five. It’s the only transport on the ship strong enough to reach Atlan.”
“I know.” Every Atlan knew that. But I was realizing there were some things I wasn’t aware of. I had no idea where Megan lived. I didn’t know if she slept in Coalition gear, or naked, like me. I had no idea what her family was like, her past. Did she have things in her room that she treasured? Things that she held in her perfect hands and caressed with fondness? I knew next to nothing about Earth. I knew it was considered very beautiful, a bright, brilliant blue, and primitive—the humans there too savage for full membership in the Coalition.
But they weren’t the only ones. A world had to prove its people wanted peace before the Coalition allowed the weapons and technology used in the Fleet to be shared. Otherwise, the barbarian races would kill each other.
It did no good to save them from the Hive if they were simply going to kill each other regardless.
And then there was Megan’s pack, and the Nexus helmet and squiggly thing still locked away in my quarters. She’d refused to let Doctor Mersan keep it, and he hadn’t argued as she was the one scheduled to rendezvous with the Intelligence Core. He, apparently, was stuck out here, on the Karter. His role in the I.C. was still unclear to me.
I didn’t want to know. I no longer cared what was going on out here in space. I didn’t care about the Hive, or the coming battles. I was done. I’d fought for years. I’d killed until I wasn’t sure the smell of Hive blood would ever wash off my skin. And there were more, younger, eager warriors more than willing to take my place.
Fools, like I’d been, eager to prove their worth to our people, and eager for the riches awarded Atlans who lived long enough to return home. Many did not, and I knew I was lucky. Luckier still to have a mate like Megan. I would take her to Atlan and shower her with gifts, gowns, jewels—weapons—anything she wanted. I just had to get her there first.
I needed to talk to Commander Wulf. He’d mated an Earth female through the brides program. He would show me the lands and homes available on Atlan for returning warriors. All I had to do was choose one and it would be given to me by my people. I’d be wealthy upon my arrival, granted land and title, and more riches than I could spend in three lifetimes.
And it all meant nothing without her. I was nothing without her.
The doctor summoned Captain Mills, who, thank the gods, arrived in just few minutes. He took one look at me and his smile vanished. “What the fuck happened, man? Where’s Megan?”
Doctor Mersan returned to ignoring me. “Take him to Captain Simmons’ private quarters to collect her things.”
Seth froze, his face strangely leeching of color. “Is she dead?”
My beast rumbled, but the doctor answered. “No, she’s in surgery. Get this fucking beast out of here before I lose my patience.”
Chapter Fourteen
Nyko, Planet Atlan, Fifteen hours later