In this moment, both of us lost to the pleasure we could only find in each other, I knew; Quinn and I belonged to each other.
We were one.
Epilogue
Quinn, One Month Later, Location Unknown
“Where are we?” I asked, looking around. The transport platform looked as generic and familiar as every other one in the universe.
Five minutes ago, I’d walked into Niobe’s office to escort her back to our house. I didn’t have to do it; she could make it across the Academy grounds without my escort. I just wanted to be close to her. Being with her made me happy, content in a way I’d never felt before. The restlessness I’d been plagued with my entire life had settled as soon as I’d made her my focus. My purpose.
And as soon as I’d insisted Prime Nial get his Coalition protocols and rules out of my fucking way so I could protect my mate.
Instead of gathering her things, as she normally did, she came around the desk, placed a transport beacon on my chest, took my hand and we were gone.
Transported. Sent… here.
The transport tech behind the panel straightened, saluted. “Vice Admiral,” he said. He stared wide-eyed at her as if our arrival was a surprise but said nothing more.
Niobe dropped my hand and went down the steps from the platform. She expected me to follow. Damned straight, I would. Anywhere.
She didn’t say a word to the tech, just exited the room and turned right down a long hallway. Everything was nondescript, not giving me any idea where we were. And she’d never answered my question.
Her pace was brisk and efficient and she seemed to know exactly where she was going. Several fighters passed us, saluting as they went.
After a few lefts and rights down corridors, she put her hand up to a panel beside a door. The light turned green and the door slid silently open. Passing through, we were in another hallway, but the temperature was several degrees cooler. Doors lined both sides and she stopped at the third one down on the right.
She faced me for the first time since our arrival and removed the transport beacon from my chest. “You have five minutes, Elite Hunter Quinn.”
I frowned, looked at the doo
r. I was no longer referred to by my former title. I was Lieutenant Quinn of the Coalition Fleet now. What game was she playing?
“Five minutes? For what?”
She tipped her chin up, her dark gaze lifting to mine. “Justice.”
Her hand slapped against the entry pad beside the door. It beeped, turned green and slid open.
I looked inside and I froze.
The Nexus unit.
I looked at her, making sure I understood.
“They’ve been at him for over a month. That’s long enough. He’s yours now.”
Holy. Fucking. Shit. This was an I.C. base. Somewhere. And this was a prison area deep within it where the Nexus was housed. I had no doubt there was some kind of lab nearby. I hated the feel of the space, the confinement, knowing there was no escape except through the one door. I’d been within a cell not that different from this one recently, the guest of this blue fucker, and was shocked to realize I was not happy to be here, despite what my mate was offering. I’d tried to find a way to escape my cell, and I’d failed. There was no way out. Not back on Latiri 4 for me, and not here, now, for the blue asshole.
Turning my head, I took him in. He was cut, everywhere, but a thousand tiny slices appeared on his head as if the I.C. scientist had taken a special interest in that region, no doubt trying to figure out how they controlled the minds of the fighters and civilians they integrated. He was thinner, if that was possible. I had assumed he was all machine, but perhaps the biological part of his body had gone hungry. He was naked and I couldn’t help but stare at his patchwork of blue and silver pieces. He had ribs, as I did. Arms. Legs. But his dark blue torso was covered in twisting silver, his cock a strange, writhing thing that seemed to have a life of its own. And his dark, black eyes focused on me clearly, despite his weakened state.
“Here to finish me, Hunter?” The Nexus did not smile, nor did he appear to fear my response. And what was my response?
I looked him over and felt… nothing. I had no interest in lingering. I thought of the forest on Zioria, of chasing my mate through the open spaces, the humid air, the rugged terrain. The freedom.
I whipped my gaze to Niobe but she had on her vice admiral’s expression. Devoid of any emotion. In complete control. This was her doing, her choice. With her rank, access was easy. Even high-level access to personal transport beacons was within her reach.
Fuck.