“As of right now, you’re dismissed from this battleship. You can go back to Everis, accept a new assignment, or…”
“Or?”
He grinned. “You can hunt your mate down. Why do you think she hasn’t contacted you?”
I just stared at the commander until realization dawned. My mate was Everian. She had instincts, as well. And an Elite female from my world needed not to be courted… but to be caught.
11
Vice Admiral Niobe, Coalition Fleet Academy, Zioria, One Week Later
So much for matched mates.
I didn’t speak the thought aloud. Surrounded as I was by high-level Coalition ambassadors and military commanders, now was definitely not the time or the place to be mooning over one sexy Everian Hunter. Nor should I have spent the last few days micro-analyzing every moment we’d spent together, wondering if I truly would have to sacrifice my happiness for duty. I felt like a high school girl wondering if the quarterback really was interested. Why, now, did I have normal girl feelings? I didn’t have time for that stupid shit.
Yet, I still thought. Considered. As for right now, it looked like the answer to the sacrificing was a resounding yes. Which really was not helping me concentrate on this meeting.
My meeting.
Shit.
Cadets had returned to campus the day before and were settling back in. While they were prepping their uniforms, tablets and weapons for the months of classes and training ahead, the staff was an hour into the pre-term meeting. The thirty-four head instructors, twelve military commanders from various planets and two representatives from Prime Nial’s version of a presidential cabinet were in attendance and we were less than a quarter of the way through the jam-packed agenda.
Twice a year we gathered. The military commanders updated the academy instructors on what they were seeing in the field, recommending changes to the training protocols and getting information from Prime Nial’s closest military advisors on what might be coming down the pipeline. Every once in a while, an I.C. commander or scientist would show up and demonstrate a new weapon or advancement in technology.
This meeting spanned several days, none of them short. Every topic was important. While we were steeped in tradition, we also had to adapt to change, to what the Hive was using against us.
I was the facilitator and had to present high-level data on the previous term’s cadet training outcomes. Each of the instructors would share the findings of their specific work areas. I might be in charge, but I wasn’t a micro-manager. Everyone had their tasks, their goals, and were expected to achieve them. If they didn’t, this was the meeting to hash out why. The current topic was appropriate stun settings in battle simulations. It was important for cadets to be stunned, to know what it felt like and how to respond to a stunning, but there was a careful balance on success versus incapacitation. I was listening, but I let the conversation swirl around me.
To say I was distracted was an understatement. Ever since I’d returned, I’d been scattered. I couldn’t focus. Couldn’t get motivated for the new term. It wasn’t because of the break. It wasn’t because I went to The Colony to visit Kira and Angh. It wasn’t because I’d been part of a team who had shut down a secret Hive prison and delivered a Nexus unit—alive—to I.C. No.
That was all straightforward and simple. It was Quinn. Quinn had completely messed with me. Maybe it was that the sex and the orgasms had scrambled my brain, because I craved more. Constantly. It wasn’t like I’d mated three Vikens and come in contact with their seed power. God, if that made a female hornier than I was, I felt for her. I’d touched myself, made myself come in the shower tube at least once a day since I’d been back. And another time in bed before I rolled over and tried to sleep. I was a total orgasm slut now. And why? Because I could hear Quinn’s voice in my head. You might be vice admiral in that uniform, but out? You’re mine.
I squirmed in my chair. Subtly, so no one would notice as this wasn’t the first time. I was mated. But I was on Zioria and he was on the Battleship Karter. Or I assumed he was. It had been a week. A week! Where the hell was he?
Was taking the Nexus unit from him really so unforgivable? He was a Hunter. An Elite. He knew what was at stake in this war.
And if that wasn’t the case, then things were even more depressing. If it wasn’t the Nexus, it was simply me.
I’d told him. Told him I couldn’t be what he wanted. Fine, he didn’t want kids either. Great. One hurdle down. But I was I.C. He’d learned that damned quick when I had to take the Nexus unit to Core Command instead of letting him kill it. God, I wanted him to tear that blue monster into pieces. I wanted to kill the Nexus unit myself for the torture and pain the big blue enemy had inflicted on my mate. No one fucked with my mate.
Orders were orders, and this war was a lot bigger than one Hunter’s torture. Bigger than a few dozen Coalition fighters integrated on that base. For Quinn—and for me—this Nexus unit was a personal enemy, which made things difficult, but getting that Nexus unit to Doctor Helion to analyze might save a thousand more Hunters. Millions of people. Still, I understood Quinn’s desire for vengeance, his need to finish it.
The I.C.’s need to study and defeat the Hive trumped a single Elite Hunter’s need for justice and revenge.
Being a vice admiral trumped everything else in my life, including having a mate. Looking around, I outranked everyone in this room. I took orders from I.C. command and Prime Nial himself. There were a few admirals who ranked higher than me, but they were generally far from here, either out on the front lines or on Prillon Prime serving on the war council. And this war didn’t give a shit I was mated. Didn’t gave a shit that Quinn was stationed light years away from me. I couldn’t quit, not with so much at stake. I couldn’t just up and walk away. Transport to some vacation colony and have sexy times with Quinn until neither of us could walk right.
God, that sounded incredible. I squirmed some more.
The stun setting conversation resolved, and I moved everyone on to the next item on the agenda. One of the representatives from Prillon Prime spoke of a program for elite cadets happening mid-term. A mock battle to take place on the Battleship Zeus.
Again, I tuned the voices out, wondered if my testing match was really just a one-night stand. Because that’s all we’d had. Hell, it hadn’t even been one night. It had been a day. Less than a day. Six hours of fucking and eating and talking and fucking some more.
“What’s your take, Vice Admiral?”
I blinked, stared at the Prillon warrior who was obviously waiting on my answer. All eyes were on me. I glanced at my tablet, at the notes that had been audibly generated and recorded. My brain processed the information at lightning speed. “Five female, five male. Two sessions, not one. Lower the stun rating for the mock battle to three and ensure that vids are sent to I.C. They are always interested in new recruits.”
The Prillon warrior nodded, seemingly content with my additions.