“Elite Hunter,” the commander said.
“Yes?” I asked, taking in the full swells of Niobe’s breasts, the way they raised and fell with her every breath. She was aroused. I could scent it. Her cheeks flushed and that was the only outward sign she offered that she was anything but the serious vice admiral she let everyone see. The pink in her cheeks let me know that she’d been caught. She was just as eager for me as I was for her.
“Elite Hunter,” Karter repeated.
“Yes?” I asked him again.
“I’m over here.” He sighed. “If I had not learned from the vice admiral that you were recently matched, I would throw you in the brig for insubordination.”
“Thank you.”
“I don’t want your appreciation; I want your attention.”
I met Niobe’s dark gaze. Held it. Mesmerized. “With all due respect, Commander, I can’t give you my attention right now.”
He sighed again. “Yes, I can see that. You have two hours off-duty and then I expect to see you both on the command deck.”
“How long will Zan be in his ReGen Pod?” I asked. He’d been all over the Hive-controlled base where I’d only made it as far as the cell by the transport room. He knew what was going on there better than me. Better than anyone alive.
“Zan?”
“The Atlan we brought in.”
“Six more hours,” the doctor told us.
“Then I have six hours with my mate. Zan was fully integrated. While I was locked in a cell, he was everywhere. He’ll know how many guards they have, where they are stationed, how many prisoners remain. We need him healed. We need his intel on that base. First, Zan heals. Then we debrief and get back down there. Save everyone who’s left.”
Niobe frowned. Yeah, she didn’t like leaving fellow fighters in a hell like that either.
“Fine. Six hours,” Karter repeated. “While you two are… getting to know each other, I’ll get a ReCon team to examine the plans we have for that base, get the assault teams ready.”
When neither of us looked his way, the commander grumbled to himself, something about mates and insanity.
“Six hours, Vice Admiral.” Now he was speaking to my mate, perhaps hoping he’d get more of her attention. Not happening. “I remember being in your place. Erica would kill me if
I didn’t give you two time.”
But he’d only give it to us now since we had to wait for Zan to recover. I understood. Claiming my mate would wait until the search and rescue was over under any other circumstances, but the gods were being kind today… and I would taste her.
We had six hours. Six. Hours.
He stalked off, left us. We were alone in the ReGen room—besides Zan, who was healing in one of the pods—but I didn’t care if there was an entire battalion of fighters behind us.
I had Niobe in front of me. I could do nothing while the commander readied his teams. Nothing but fuck and get to know the female of my heart. It was time to have her.
5
Niobe
“I have been waiting for you,” Quinn said. The admission was revealing, exposing the inner core of an Elite Hunter which I had no doubt was never shown. Only with…
A mate.
We barely knew each other. We’d met just a few hours ago. Hours. A lot had happened to me today. I’d been on The Colony and been tested, bickered with Kira and Rachel. Then transported to a secret Hive integration center and rescued not only my matched mate, but other fighters as well. Another transport had us on the Karter where I’d stared at my mate inside a ReGen pod while speaking to Commander Karter and planning an attack on the base I’d just left behind.
I should be weary from a battle, double transport, the adrenaline dump, meeting a mate… but I wasn’t. Far from it. I felt alive and invigorated in a way I’d never imagined. Was it this male’s amber colored eyes boring into me? Was it the way his muscles shifted and played beneath the lines of his fresh uniform? Was it the connection, the invisible threads that connected us, no matter how much I fought the instinct to snip them and bolt?
I wasn’t baring my soul to him. I didn’t do that with people I’d known for years, let alone a few hours. It didn’t matter that he was my testing match, that I should share everything with him. My body, my heart, my soul. I didn’t know him. Not yet. But I wanted to. Longed for a deeper connection, for someone who was mine.