“Yes. She is mine.”
Undo it? Undo what? Me?
That. Was. It. “You, Rukzi, are rude.” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared. Hard. “And disrespectful.”
Rukzi looked at me through the energy barrier for a count of three, then burst out laughing, the sound more like a huge lion’s roar than a chuckle. “Very well, female. You have courage. I approve. You may call me Ruk.” He looked back at Cormac. “Although I shall not inform my sister of your match. I will leave that to you. She will be very disappointed.”
“So you have said, as she’s welcoming the strongest warriors in your clan to her bed every night.”
“She chooses well, indeed.” Ruk sounded proud of her, as if sleeping with a different man—alien warrior—every night was not only normal, but admired. “Perhaps now that you are”—he looked at me again—“mated, she will choose to have a child and make our clan stronger. My sister will give us exceptional warriors.”
Wow. These guys were a lot different from any of the uptight assholes I’d known on Earth. I told my dad I’d lost my virginity at sixteen just to see if he’d blow a blood vessel. He’d lectured me for an hour, but his arteries and veins had remained intact.
THUMP.
I jumped at the sound and realized I had completely tuned out the other prisoners.
Cormac stepped forward and moved his hand over some kind of scanner on the wall right next to Ruk’s cell. The barrier disappeared, and Ruk stepped forward to offer his hand to Cormac. The two grasped each other’s forearms like fighters in a gladiator movie, and I took a step back behind Cormac. Now that Ruk was free, he stood to his full height.
Shit. He was alottaller than Cormac. His hands were too close to eye level, which meant I heard the mushy sound of flesh moving as he retracted those ridiculous claws like a cat. Other than being a giant and having eyes the color of that disgusting pie, he looked almost normal. He smiled—I think it was a smile—when he caught me staring.
Normal? Hah. How the hell had I forgotten those fangs? This guy would give a vampire nightmares.
“We appreciate the little family reunion, but can you get us the fuck out of here?” The first Atlan’s frustration was clear in his sharp tone.
Cormac turned to me and held my gaze. I knew when I saw the stress lines around his eyes and mouth that I was not going to like whatever it was he was about to say.
My mate walked to stand before the Atlan’s cell and shook his head. “You are all covered in Hive tech. You admit being placed here because you have been battling Hive mind control and they are trying to break you down mentally. I have no idea what you will do once you are released. I give you my word I will notify Commander Karter of your predicament as soon as our rescue team arrives and I have a working comm.”
The Atlan punched the barrier seconds before his friend in the other cell. The two thumping sounds created a rhythm like listening to a heartbeat.Thump-thump.“Are you fucking kidding me, rogue?”
“No. I must protect my mate, and I do not know you or your comrades. I would be outnumbered and unable to protect her from all of you. I will not take that risk.”
“Fuck.” The Atlan looked down at me, and his gaze softened just enough. “You are human, from the same world as Lady Deston, the queen of Prillon Prime?”
“Yes.” I’d read about her and Leah, the woman who was now queen of another planet called Viken. Every woman on Earth who volunteered for the Interstellar Brides Program knew they had a chance to be a real-life queen or princess. Me? I’d just wanted a mate who loved me and put me first. So far, Cormac had done exactly that.
“Is your mate an honorable male?”
Why the hell was this Atlan asking me? I was a social media goddess. I lied for a living. If he believed humans didn’t lie, he was in for one hell of a shock someday. Thankfully, I could tell him the absolute truth. “Yes. He is the best man I know. He saved my li—”
Cormac stepped forward and interrupted me before I could complete my sentence or make my own vow to these Atlans. “You have my word, Warlord. That is all I can do. The S-Gen machines that have kept you alive this long should continue functioning until help arrives.”
“And how long will that be?”
“A day, two at most.”
The Atlan looked from Cormac to me, this time holding my gaze. “I am Warlord Enzu, my lady. Please tell Commander Karter to hurry.” He glanced down the corridor as his fellow prisoner punched the energy field again. Same rhythm. Steady. Like the drip from a faucet. It was like that Altan was so far gone he didn’t even realize we were here.
“We will tell him. I promise.”
“Very well.”
If necessary, I would find this Commander Karter and tell him about this place myself. However, if Cormac did not believe it was safe to free the Atlans now, I would not argue. They did have strange things that looked like they had been melted into their bodies. Fused, or maybe implanted? Some were on their heads or faces. A lot of these Atlans had them on their arms or legs. Some of them on their spines. None of them were wearing shirts, so their massive forms were on display.
Sure, I was mated, but I wasn’t dead, and Atlans were hotties. But were those oddly colored gray and silver bits the Hive tech Cormac was referring to? If so, Ruk had some on his body, too. In fact, he wasn’t far off from the creepy cube lady with her wormy neck. Ruk’s spine was completely covered as far as I could see, from his waist to the back of his head. Not good.
But Cormac knew him personally. They had history. Cormac obviously respected and trusted him. We had found Cormac’s friend locked in an underground prison on an uninhabited trash heap of a planet with a bunch of Atlan prisoners.