“Like the rabbit fromBambi?” I blurted out.
The Atlan who had spoken focused on me, and I stepped closer to Cormac. Holy crap, these guys were huge. Yes, Tane and the others I’d met were big, too. But I knew them. Knew they were good guys. Being stared at by an angry Atlan who had been left to rot in a prison cell? Not fun.
“What is this place?” Cormac asked him.
“Obvious, isn’t it?”
“Why are you here?” Cormac asked. “Why did they leave you here?”
The Atlan on my right answered. He was obviously in beast mode because he was huge. His jaw was too pronounced, and he had to bend his neck to prevent his head from hitting the ceiling when he stood up from his matt on the floor and walked toward the front of his cell. “Break us.”
“I don’t understand. What good does it do to lock you up when they aren’t even here?”
“Be back.”
“Fuck.” Cormac lifted his hands and removed his helmet. I did the same, thankful for new air to breathe. It wasn’t exactly fresh, but it was better than the hot air inside my helmet. I was really tired of smelling my own breath.
THUMP.
The repetitive sound had not broken its cadence. I looked at the broken, bloodied hand of the offender once more and shuddered. If the Hive left them here to make them lose their minds, it appeared to be working, at least on one of them.
Cormac walked to stand before the first Atlan who had spoken. I wandered a couple steps farther down the corridor and craned my neck to see what lay beyond. More cells. Were they all full of Atlans? Did they have other alien species in here?
I kept moving, and my jaw dropped.Thatwas definitelynotan Atlan, or anything I would consider human. Human-ish, maybe? Except its head was too long. Its fingertips ended in long claws that looked sharp enough to slice silk, and its eyes were an odd color. What was that color? Key lime green? Like the pie? “Cormac?”
He was at my side at once. “Gods be damned. How the fuck did they find you?”
The creature lifted its head to look at us and then rose from the floor to a standing position. He wore pants that had been ripped above his knees and nothing else. Cords of muscle that looked like twisted ropes covered every inch of his body. His chest was massive, his thighs bigger around than my hips. He was just as big as the Atlans, but he had fangs longer than Cormac’s. Sharper, too. And his voice, when he spoke, sounded like rolling gravel. “Cormac.”
“Ruk?” Cormac dipped his chin in some kind of odd bow. “How did the Hive get their hands on you?”
Cormac knew this one? The one with the fangs?
Of course he did.
“Siren scum. They are trading captives to the Hive for weapons.”
Cormac visibly paled, and he raised a hand to his chest as if his heart hurt.
Who was this guy?
The thought seemed to draw the creature’s attention to me. He took his time looking me over, head to toe like I was some kind of insect he’d never seen before. “Your mate?”
“Yes.”
“This female is too fragile. Too small. You should have mated my sister, as the elders ordered.”
“What?” I looked from the alien to Cormac. “What is he talking about?”
Cormac cleared his throat. “This is Rukzi. He is a Hyperion chieftain's son and a friend. Everyone on Rogue 5 has Hyperion ancestry.”
I looked from Cormac to Rukzi, who bowed slightly at the waist and was still at least two heads taller than me. He was even taller than Cormac.
“Many blessings, female.”
“Rukzi, this is Abby. She is human, from a planet they call Earth, and she is my mate.”
“Yessss.” Rukzi’s voice was almost a hiss. “I can smell that.” He glanced back down at me. “I suppose it is too late to undo what has been done.”