Our ride glided to a smooth stop and Ruk led the way off the elevator, along a short platform to a ship I’d seen before, on multiple ReCon missions. A Hive ship. It was one of their smaller battle cruisers, would hold anywhere from twenty to thirty of the fuckers and twice that many prisoners, if they doubled them up in the tiny detention cells. I knew, because I’d fought Hive on these babies more than once. “You guys stole this?” I thought about asking Mikos to put me down but knew it would be wasted air. “How? They’re coded to Hive pilots. They don’t respond to anyone else.”
Again, Henry and I, and a few of the others, had tried to take control of one of these ships, more than once.
Sebastion responded. “We never went to The Colony, Bree. We are all still actively connected to the Hive.”
“What?!” How had I been around these guys, multiple times, and not known this? “Isn’t that dangerous?” I shuddered as we approached the Hive ship, now that I knew our escorts were still jacked into their system. “What about the mind control? Aren’t you afraid they’ll try to take control of you again?”
Shut. Up.
The look in Sebastion’s eyes was raw and dark and filled with pain. “We formed a private communication network. Me and the beasts. They can’t break it, and they can’t control us.” His gaze, filled with memories I don’t think I could have survived, shifted from amber, to silver, then pure black. “How do you think we escaped? Survived this long?”
I knew these guys were tough, but my respect—and awe, okay? Full blown shock—went up a notch. “Then why a Hive ship? Doesn’t it just bring bad memories? I’m sure Commander Zeus or Karter would give you all a Coalition ship.” Right?
I glanced up, wondered why Mikos was not saying anything. Apparently, he was curious, too, and content to let me ask all the questions.
Sebastion shook his head as first Ruk, then the Atlans, then Mikos—still carrying me—stepped through the loading doors and onto the Hive ship. “Coalition ship means Coalition control.”
Now I was really, really confused. “But I thought they sent you to help us?”
Ruk waved the Atlans deeper into the ship and I watched them turn a corner, heading in the direction I knew would take them to the ship’s piloting controls. Mikos pivoted and we both watched as Ruk took up position at the ship’s entrance, opposite Sebastion, to wait for the rest of their team. Ruk’s grin looked feral, and I was glad his claws were no longer out. “I am not Coalition. We go where we will, Bree. We hunt. We fight.”
Sebastion nodded, a grin covering his face as another elevator arrived with our four missing Atlan friends, and one hog-tied, cursing Rogue 5 asshole, Shade. They dragged the huge male on the ground behind them like a bag of dirty laundry. The Prillon chuckled at the string of curses leaving Shade’s mouth, then turned to me. “We fought. We served. Now we are free, and we will never follow orders again.”
“Then why are you here? Helping us?”
Ruk grinned. “We like you.”
Sebastion shrugged. “Always good fighting to be had on Rogue 5.”
Mikos growled as I thanked them and the rest of the Atlans boarded. They made sure Shade’s head hit the side of the door on the way in. He cursed again and I didn’t try to hide my smile. Shade tried to hurt Mikos. He deserved everything he was going to get and then some.
Maybe they’d tell me where they put him, and I could go kick him in the balls for going after my man.
No. Stop that. Dangerous fucking thinking. First of all, Mikos wasnot mine.Didn’t matter that he stood here, holding me against his chest like precious cargo, his heat soothing in a way I’d hadn’t felt since I was little, and my Daddy carried me to bed. And second? Shade was huge and I was human. Forget that fact and I wouldn’t survive long out here. Without my armor, my weapons, and my team, I might as well be a week-old kitten compared to these guys.
Ruk closed the door and both males turned to face us. “What the fuck are you doing still standing here?”
Mikos shook his head, and his words made my heart stutter, then race like a frightened rabbit’s, all curiosity, comfort and contentment gone the moment his question registered.
“Where can I take her? We require privacy for her punishment.”
9
Mikos
The Hive did not carefor comfort. As far as I knew, they didn’t really sleep, simply settled into zero-gravity suspension slings and plugged directly into the ship to revive and recharge their systems. Kind of like skipping life, never eating, never fucking, never sleeping, and always going straight to a ReGen pod.
They did fight. Torture. Kill. They did those things very well.
Being onboard this ship rattled my nerves more than I cared to admit. The colors. The smells. Everything reminded me of the days of torture, rage, burns, the electric shock they’d shoved through my body, trying to break me. The chains. The smell of my own blood so thick and heavy in the room I feared I would never be able to smell anything else. I shuddered and lowered my nose to breathe in the scent of Breanna’s hair. Her skin.
Thank the gods I had my mate in my arms, the tempting fragrance of her wet pussy floating in the air, flooding my system with the need to fuck her. Claim her.
Having so many males near her, saying her name, watching her?
I wanted to kill them all. Irrational? Fuck yes. My rock-hard cock didn’t care.
All I needed was somewhere private. A bed might be nice this time, but I could live without. Fuck, I could stand in an empty room and hold my mate in my arms as she rode my cock. I’d lift and lower her on my hard length at my leisure. Fast or slow. Exactly the way I wanted her, when I wanted her, as deep as I wanted to go.
