Going back to the wall, she called the elevator, slapping her hand on it as if she were mad.
“We’ll go on the tour. I’ll drop you off in the mess hall so you can eat, then I’m going to have a little chat with your mate.”
I didn’t argue. Didn’t want to. If she could talk some sense into the stubborn Commander Makaed Karter, I was not going to be the one to stop her.
10
Ronan, Battleship Karter, Command Deck, Karter’s Office
* * *
Frustration bubbled inside me like magma boiling in my gut. The probe was worthless. Fucking worthless. Commander Varsten. His battleship. His warriors.
Gone.
For fucking nothing.
For one moment I understood why Kaed refused to give Erica a collar. This rage burning inside me should never touch something so beautiful as our mate. With Kaed’s emotional turmoil added to mine? She’d melt into a puddle on the floor and beg us to let her go.
Neither of us would be able to do that. Not after last night, her soft curves in my hands, her wet heat wrapped around my cock as her pussy milked me of my seed. She could, at this very moment, be carrying a child. Our child. Being locked to our minds would be a special kind of torture. I understood that now.
“There has so be something in that data. Look again.” I.C. Commander Chloe Phan’s narrowed eyes and cold voice spoke volumes. She felt it, too. Helpless.
We’d had the probe for several hours, checked every piece of data, and it gave us nothing. We all knew Sector 437—and Battlegroup Karter—had to be next. We would be next.
The data tech who’d programmed the encryption codes into the probe prior to launch shook her head. She was one of Varsten’s best, and even she looked helpless and defeated. “I’m sorry. Everything on the probe was functioning at optimal levels. Whatever new tech the Hive are using to hide from us is working.”
“We’re screwed.” Chloe crossed her arms, her foot tapping a constant, steady beat on the hard floor. “We need to start evacuating non-essential personnel. While we don’t have definitive data, we need to be smart. I need to report this to Core Command.”
The probe tech looked at Commander Karter for permission to leave. At his nod, she left the room, Bard and a handful of others following. They all had their orders. There was no way in hell we were going to do exactly what the Varsten had done—get everyone we could off this ship and try to lure the Hive close enough to figure out what they were hitting us with.
Dangerous game. One I’d played before. “All due respect, Commander, but trying to bait a trap didn’t work for Varsten. You know that.”
Kaed looked at me, nodded. “I know. Which is why I’ve already spoken to Prime Nial. He’s re-routing three battlegroups to this location. We can’t retreat; we have to hold this sector. But with the additional ships and warriors, we’ll be able to block grid this sector and search every single inch of it. When we’re done, we’ll go back to Varsten’s sector and start over. We aren’t going to sit here and wait for them to hit us.”
“How long before the additional ships arrive?” I asked.
“Two days. Based on the timeline of the previous Hive attacks, we should have time to find them before they can hit the Karter.”
“Jesus, I hope you’re right.” Chloe sighed, her arms crossed. It was the best we could do and we all knew it. With heavily populated planets so close to our sector, we could not abandon this area of space. Retreat was not an option.
“I’m sending out scout ships as we speak, everything we’ve got. And we need to use all non-combat vessels for civilian evacuations. We need to get our people clear of the battle zone and empty our landing bays to make room for additional fighter pilots and their ships.” Kaed was staring at schematics and data streaming across his desk, his voice matter-of-fact, but I knew him well enough to know he was relieved reinforcements were on the way.
Gods knew I was. All I could think about was Erica. Where was she? Was she safe? Hungry? Happy? Aroused? Did she miss me?
If she were wearing my collar, I’d know how she was feeling no matter where she was on this ship. I wanted that connection. Needed it. Now that I’d been in her arms, touched her warmth, I felt cold without her. Empty.
And mere seconds ago I’d been thinking about how the chaos of my mind would be torture for her.
Having a mate was making me lose my fucking mind.
“And your mate?” Chloe asked, as if she’d been reading my thoughts.
Commander Karter used his command voice, and it was neither friendly nor interested in arguments. “She needs to be escorted to a shuttle at once, for immediate evacuation. I won’t have her in danger.”
“You going to talk to her first?” Chloe challenged him anyway. By the gods, these Earth females truly were fearless.
“No need. She will understand.”