Racing around the boulder, I dashed into the ravine, dark gray and black rock formations made a long, narrow corridor that looked to be about a mile in length. I could see the opening on the other end, as if the ground had decided to split open, just a bit, and only here.
Behind me, and everywhere else I’d been on this gods’ forsaken planet, the rocks were red or brown, a sea of monochromatic color as far as I could see in any direction, a desert of stone.
Here, the rocks were black, gray and silver, the planet’s inner depths exposed like muscle beneath skin in a deep cut. As if the planet had cleaved open and the insides burst forth.
Ahead of me, three Hive stood. They had someone trapped halfway up the side of the ravine. I recognized the smaller body and armor of a human climbing the rock face to get away from them, the uniform from one of the human ReCon Units. Scattered along the ground were the dead bodies of at least a dozen Hive Soldiers and four other humans.
None moved.
The human scrambled up the side of the rock cliffs, clinging like an insect to the uneven walls. The opening of a cave stood out on the side of that cliff, the entrance sparkling like a diamond necklace around a woman’s throat when the light from the planet’s star shined down upon it. The human was clearly heading for that cave. A smart tactic as it offered safety, at least temporarily. High ground. Perhaps the human planned to make a last stand there.
But why weren’t the Hive shooting the human off the cliff wall? Why were they climbing? Why not…
I squinted, the growl of my beast a low rumble in my chest. What was going on here? I sta
lked closer, not charging this time. Even my beast was cautious. I’d never seen anything like these Hive before, and I’d been fighting for nearly a decade. They weren’t Hive Scouts or Hive Soldiers. They were something else altogether.
Not only were they strange, but they weren’t firing on the human, they were…stalking—
“Come on!” The human yelled down, taunting them, the challenge issued by a woman’s voice. My beast stilled within me as the voice went through my body and straight to my cock.
Mine!
The beast didn’t bellow, but whispered the word, rolling it around on my tongue like we were sampling a fine Atlan wine. He wasn’t asking me, nor requesting permission or approval. He was simply informing me of the facts.
I ignored him, for now. For years I’d dreamed of finding a soft, willing female to claim. Clearly the Fever was clouding my judgment, but now was not the time to argue with my beast.
I was too far away to recognize her voice. I had no idea who she was, but my beast apparently did. He wanted her, the Mating Fever boiling through me with renewed vigor as my cock grew hard and uncomfortable beneath my armor.
And she was taunting them, drawing one of them up to her. Why? Had she hit her head? Was she delusional? Hallucinating? Just plain insane?
These strange Hive moved closer to the base of the rock wall—of course—and the beast followed silently, stalking the nearest of the three like a true predator. I forced my mind to think, to work past the protective instinct raging in my beast’s form. I’d never dealt with this kind of lust or protective instinct in battle before. Yes, I wanted to keep my unit, and those we’d been sent in to protect, safe, but this was different. A rage so hot it moved through me like slow boiling tar. This was my beast staking a claim, eliminating any threat to his mate.
She was mine.
Something darker, deeper, and much stronger than I’d ever known settled around me like a blanket of solid ice. Rage and bluster were mindless emotions. This need to kill the Hive before me was not mindless, it was cold, calculating and very deliberate. They had to die. They wanted her and I would not let them touch her. She was mine. Covered head to toe in full body armor, clinging like an insect to the side of the cliffs. Strong. Brave. Aggressive. Mine. Still mine.
Above me, the human had nearly reached the cave entrance, and safety from the Hive weapons. Although, they simply stood staring up at her as if she were a curiosity. They weren’t firing, and I had no explanation as to why they would spare this human. Why they would not fire and force their enemy to fall? They could heal and regenerate almost any wound from their captives. No doubt they could heal injuries from a fall, even from such a height to hard rock. They’d simply transport her to a ReGen Pod and heal her fragile human body before integration would begin. So, why allow this human to run? Why stalk her and hunt her as if they wanted her alive and well?
The Hive only ever cared about alive.
I studied the Hive as I drew nearer, my curiosity growing with each silent step. There were three, as always, but I’d never seen three such as these.
The leader stood in the center, nearly two feet taller than his companions, nearly as large as me. All three were covered completely in a strange silver-and-graphite armor unlike anything I’d ever seen before. The trio faced away from me, so I could not see if their eyes were silver, but their skin was smooth as still water and a deep, dark blue. On all three of their heads were strange helmets, the geometry and design like I’d never seen before. But the oddest of all, the devices had a peculiar extension protruding from the back, near the base of their skulls, a curved device that looked like—no.
That wasn’t possible.
The leader leapt, his body covering half the distance to the cave with one jump as his hands and feet found purchase in the side of the rocks. He began to climb.
The woman disappeared inside the cave and the Hive leader scrambled toward her with renewed vigor, as if afraid she might get away.
When the second blue-skinned Hive leapt as well, I could not afford to wait.
Rushing forward, my beast roared as I ripped the head from the shoulders of the Hive still standing on the ground. His blood coated my hands, a thick, sticky, black sludge I’d never encountered before.
The Hive were, for the most part, integrated biological units from the known worlds. Prillon Prime. Everis. Trion and hundreds of other worlds.
None bled black.