Moving with Hunter’s speed, I was inside the building before the cadet had made it halfway down the path. Moving as nothing more than a blur, I sped to Niobe’s side, my pulse roaring, my entire body raging with the instinctive need to protect my mate.
“Niobe? Are you well?” My voice carried, echoing off the walls of the transport room as I came to a halt at her side. She stood speaking to a Prillon I had the displeasure of meeting on a prior mission, years past. The sight of him didn’t improve my mood. Where he went, pain followed. “Doctor Helion.”
The Prillon doctor looked me over for a cold, calculating moment before dipping his chin in a nearly imperceptible nod. “Elite Hunter Quinn. Congratulations on your mating to Vice Admiral Niobe.”
That was not what I was expecting, nor did I care to have his well-wishes about anything. Fuck that. I would prefer that he stay as far away from my mate as he could get. And stating her full title back to me? What was that? A reprimand for a child? “What are you doing here, Doctor?”
The doctor glanced from me to Niobe, a question in his eyes. When my mate nodded, giving the doctor permission to speak, he did so. His words blunt. To the point. “I transported in to speak with the vice admiral about the Nexus unit she managed to acquire on Latiri 4.”
Managed to acquire. Right.
“And?” What had they done to the blue bastard? I hoped they’d dissected him alive.
“I am not at liberty to discuss our findings with you. You do not have the required clearance from the I.C.”
And that was that. I looked at Niobe, the apology in her gaze not what I expected as I realized she had no intention of telling me more.
Duty. Rules. Command. Secret clearances and the Intelligence Core. But that look meant she didn’t like that he was intentionally being an asshole.
My mate was so wrapped up in regulations and protocol that she may as well have been a machine. But she loved those rules, the structure. She’d said as much to me. The Coalition Fleet gave her a place to belong, to feel confident in her skills and abilities. She needed that order in her daily life just as much as she needed me to provide orders and domination in the bedroom.
But I was an Elite Hunter. We operated on our own, outside of the rules, and this structure and protocol was stifling. Suffocating. Damned hard to deal with when assholes like Doctor Helion were pressing down on me like a mallet driving a spike into the ground, trying to make me conform.
How the fuck was I supposed to protect Niobe when I didn’t know where she was half the time? When I had no idea who she met with, what they discussed, or what was going on in her life?
In bed, naked, she was mine.
But every other moment of the day and night? She belonged to them. To him. To Doctor Helion and the cadets and thousands more lined up behind them.
Biting down my irritation, I focused on my mate, ignoring the doctor completely. “The cadet said you needed me?” I didn’t say ordered me. Not in front of Dr. Death and Destruction.
“Yes. I have to go to I.C. Core Command. We’re going to transport out as soon as Warlord Gram arrives. I didn’t want you to worry when I wasn’t at dinner.”
Going to Core Command? Where the fuck was that? I didn’t bother to ask. They wouldn’t tell me.
“When will you be back?” I couldn’t forbid her from going without me. Gods fuck me, I wanted to, but I knew I didn’t have the power.
She glanced at Doctor Helion for an answer, and he provided one I did not like. “I’m not sure. Less than a day.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. “Can you guarantee her safety?”
He stared at me, but I refused to back down.
“I said, can you guarantee her safety?”
“Quinn.” Niobe placed her hand on my chest and pushed, gently, trying to get me to back away from the much larger Prillon warrior. He was big, but he was slow. I could kill him in a fraction of a second.
“Quinn!” Niobe yelled my name and the red haze of protective rage subsided. This was not acceptable. My lack of control was not acceptable. The daily separation between myself and my mate was not acceptable. Not being able to protect Niobe was eating through me like fire burning kindling. One spark, and the Elite Hunter inside me would burn. Protect my mate. That was foremost in my mind.
Her submission was a beautiful thing. She handed it to me like a gift. My ability to dominate eased my challenge with her being the vice admiral, but nothing—nothing—would soothe my need to protect.
Doctor Helion turned away, breaking eye contact, putting distance between himself and my female. Thank the gods he seemed to have some idea what I was dealing with because as soon as he was far enough away that my instincts said he was no longer a threat, I could think again. I pulled Niobe into my arms and buried my face in her hair. Breathed her in. Calmed the raging creature inside me that wanted to hunt. To kill anything that threatened her. “Niobe. No. I can’t protect you if you leave.”
“I have to go. I’ll be safe. I promise.”
“I’ll go with you.”
She was shaking her head, her cheek pressed to my chest, but she let me hold her here in a public place. I needed her close. Needed to calm down. To know she was safe. Secure. In my arms. “You can’t. We’re going to a secure I.C. installation. Less than a dozen people even know this place exists. You have to let me go.”