With a flick of my eyes toward the on-screen command in my helmet, I began broadcasting the scene to Bahre and anyone else who was monitoring the situation.
“Fuck!” Bahre’s shout in my comms matched my mood perfectly.
“We are here for the female. Leave. This human is nothing to you.” The remaining Hive Soldier faced me but ceased firing his blaster.
“Mine.” The beast would not be reasoned with. There would be no bargaining, no mercy.
The final Soldier resumed fire as I advanced. He took one step back. Two. The backs of his legs hit the sofa and my mate gasped, scooting farther away.
The Hive Soldier turned his head to look at her, the thought clearly forming in his mind. He knew he was dead. Fucking dead.
He lifted his blaster, pointed the weapon at her head.
2
Kai
* * *
“No!” I lunged.
The blaster fired. Missed. The shot flew over her head to disintegrate a portion of her apartment’s wall. Around the edges, white paint curled in on itself as it burned, the toxic fumes acrid. My eyes and throat burned. I needed to get my mate away from here.
The Hive dropped to his knees on top of a small glass table. The fragile glass shattered under his substantial weight. His body dropped to the floor atop a pool of broken shards. He appeared to be fighting a mental battle with himself.
I wrapped the beast’s enormous hands around his neck. Our gazes met.
“Kill me.” The words were barely more than a croak. He had no air with which to speak. I made sure of it.
His eyes flickered, focused on me with intent. I saw the warrior inside the integrated, mind-controlled machine. The Prillon warrior had managed to fight the mind control and had saved my female. A male with honor. I should not kill him.
His eyes flashed silver. As quickly as the warrior’s will surfaced, he succumbed to the pressure of the Hive mind.
Fuck.
I wrapped my hands around his head. His blaster fired, point blank range, into my thigh. The pain ripped through me as I twisted, breaking the Hive Soldier’s neck. He dropped, dead, at my feet and I raised my head to inspect my mate.
“Who are you?” She crouched, bare feet on the brown couch cushion, bound hands in front of her as if that small act would help in her defense. The soft skin around her wrists was red and enflamed from the tight bindings.
Nothing should be on my mate’s wrists except my mating cuffs. Nothing.
She appeared to be unharmed. Thank the gods.
“Get the fuck out of there! The Scouts are in the parking lot.” Bahre’s command jolted me from my visual inspection.
I activated the retraction command for my helmet and watched soft, brown eyes widen as my face, the beast’s face, was revealed. “We go. Now. More Hive come.”
“What? No way. I can’t leave.” Her defiance made my beast smile. Sass. She would be passionate. Wild. I could already taste her sweet pussy on my tongue. I inhaled, deeply, her scent filled every space in the apartment. For the first time in years, my beast experienced a hint of peace. Belonging. Contentment. She was mine, my mate. She was alive and well and here with me. I would never be alone again.
“Where–images–fight?” The Intelligence Core wanted them. Apparently, the Hive did as well, enough to send an infiltration force.
“Damn it! I don’t have them!” Her denial was half shout, half sob. She began to shake, her body finally reacting to the carnage in front of her. I looked at the dead, realized this innocent female was probably traumatized by what I’d just done in front of her.
Now she would fear me, the one thing I did not want. Gods be damned.
Battle rage receding, the pain of my injuries jumped to the forefront of my mind. Blood and plasma oozed from multiple burns. Raw, exposed flesh burned everywhere the air touched. I was severely injured, but I would live. Nothing a few hours in a ReGen pod wouldn’t fix.
Three Hive Scouts would not be a problem despite my condition. I could still fight, but I did not wish to put my mate in further danger.
