“My apologies.” Helion shook off the Forsian’s hold and moved back several steps. Wise move. Idiot. One did not physically paw at anyone’s mate. Not if one wanted to keep one’s hand—or head—attached to his body. “I am trying to protect my people, Gwen. I have been fighting this war for years. You are unique. You have exposed a weakness in the Hive structure we never knew existed. I am merely asking for information.”
Gwen paused, her head tilted to the side as if considering his sincerity. “Look, I am not being difficult. You can’t help me unless you get captured, integrated, then escape with your mind intact. Even if they happened to give you the same integrations I have, you would have to find a mate to anchor you mentally so you could immerse yourself in their minds to draw them to you. And…” Her pause was long, as if she considered her words carefully. “The Hive made me what I am. They wanted me to become a mate to one of them to see if the upgrades would be inherited in any children I produced.”
I had not been aware of this, of what she’d endured. To be a mate to the Hive? To have children with them as an experiment? She was not my mate and I wanted to hold her, to soothe the ache that I knew kept her motivated at her task. It explained so much about her motivation. And Makarios’s.
“You are a male. You would not be given the same… integrations they gave me,” she continued. “You would not be what I am.”
“What are you?” His eagerness was apparent. This was the question he had most wanted to ask.
“I am what they are.”
Helion’s body tightened with every vague answer she provided. “And what is that, exactly?” he asked, a snap in his voice.
She shrugged again, and I hid a grin as Helion scowled at her. “I don’t know.”
“That is not helpful,” he countered. For the first time ever, I saw him flustered, running a hand over the back of his neck.
“It’s the truth.”
“So they chose you because you were female?”
She shrugged. “Chose? Doubtful, but when I was captured, they saw… opportunity. They’ve integrated millions of females from other worlds, including humans. Maybe billions since this war began. I don’t know why they did this to me specifically.”
I knew why, but I would not speak it with Helion in the room.
She was human. Adaptable. Passionate. Able to tolerate the technology and still think independently. A soldier first. Everything Helion had just said about human females replayed in my mind, followed immediately by a fierce and desperate need to return to Lucy and make sure she was safe. We were too far away for me to sense her through the collars, and that absence made me… anxious.
While Gwen seemed well, she was different because of what the Hive had done to her. Her life course had been redirected. Decided by another. I would not have that happen to Lucy.
The obsessive worry was new, and not at all welcome.
Obviously annoyed, Niklas glanced at me over his shoulder with a clear message to knock off the emotions. It was impossible.
I looked around. I wasn’t the only male in this room. All of us—perhaps besides Helion—felt something toward the human female bickering with the IC commander. Fuck. Sympathy, admiration, pride. I had to get control of myself. I was jeopardizing the mission and Niklas’ effectiveness by being distracted. But I could not stop thinking about our mate. Her soft skin. Her hot, wet core wrapped around my cock. Her lips. Her scent. The sounds she made when we touched her and made her come over and over and over.
Another annoyed look and a flash of irritation through the collars.
Ion cannons. Forsian hybrids. Fangs. Hive Scouts. Battle screams. War. All of it filled my head, and I used it to gain control over my emotions.
Niklas turned back to face Gwen as I focused on something other than our beautiful, eager female. Her red curls. Her green eyes. The way her emotions rolled through my mind and went straight to my cock. Her anger? Happiness? Contentment?
Her mind had touched mine, and my body responded with need.
Ander spoke. “My lady, the Nexus unit has been transported here and is on this ship specifically for this meeting. We have tried to interrogate him for months with no success. We were hoping you might be able to speak to him, get him to talk. If you can, break open his mind. The doctor is hoping to gain a tactical advantage in the war.”
I blinked at Ander, processed what that meant. He’d planned to have Gwen come here, to neutral territory. Once that was done, he must have forced Helion to relocate his Hive prisoner to this ship just for her.
Niklas hadn’t known either, and based on the swirling feelings coming through the collar, he’d picked up on the plan.
Helion gave up all pretense of being in control of this meeting and asked, politely, for Gwen’s help. “It was our hope you could… connect with him as no one else has.”
Makarios growled as if Helion had asked his mate to slit her own throat.
Niklas apparently picked up on the threat from her mate as well. “Gwen, it was not our intention to place you in harm’s way. We have tried everything we know to force the Nexus unit to answer our questions, yet he is impervious to our attempts.”
And by attempts Niklas meant everything we could throw at the Hive leader. Starvation. Torture of all kinds. Kindness. Logic. Puzzles. The Nexus unit was… unique. And Gwen was already shaking her head.
“Sorry, Nik.” She had now used both of our pet names, the names only Lucy had bestowed upon us, and I knew Helion was right about one thing—these human females did communicate with one another somehow. “I’m not trying to be difficult. I’m not. There is nothing I can do except kill him, and to do that I’d have to rip off his head.”