Sorry? She believed she caused me pain? Worried for me? Cared that she hurt me? She should not feel anything for me but fear. If she knew how close I came to losing the battle with the savage within, she would already be running.
I would chase her. Catch her. Punish her for running.
Fuck. Perhaps the Hive had broken my mind after all. I could not stop the madness of my thoughts, the visions in my head of holding her down as I fucked her from behind. Sank my fangs deep. Filled her with my seed and my essence. Made her mine.
The constant torment from the multitude of cuts, burns and bruises the Hive had inflicted upon me were the only reasons I had not yet lost control. I forced my attention to the sting of air on open wounds, the burning of raw flesh, the deep pain in my abdomen like a knife-blade in my gut every time I took a breath. I sank into the pain, stared at the male who’d come in with her, catalogued the weapons he carried.
I wouldnotbite her. Could not. If I attacked a Coalition fighter, if she died from the injection of my essence, my Legion would be held accountable. If Astra Legion started a conflict with the Coalition Fleet, Commander Karter’s fighters would hunt us down, disrupt our business dealings, and attack our ships. Astra Legion would be weakened. The two Legions wecounted as adversaries would destroy us, kill our leader, and claim our people.
Our enemies would take our females and sell half of them as slaves. They would execute any male old enough to hold a weapon. Destroy everyone and everything I knew and loved. Despite the fact that I could never return, my people remained under my protection. I wouldnotbite this female, no matter how fucking amazing she smelled.
My blood could fucking burn. My cock could wither. I would never betray my people for such selfish desires.Never.I had lived my entire life believing I would never have a mate. Could not. Nothing had changed.
I shuddered as the female—I would not use her name, using her name made her real, touchable —freed me from the last restraint on my left arm and stepped away. She frowned, looking down at her hands.
They were covered in blood. Her blood. The metallic tang hit my senses like a bomb as more essence flooded my mouth. Now I had a hint, a teasing, tempting hint of what I would taste if I sank my fangs deep.
Fuck.
“Go to medical at once, female.” If she left, maybe I could regain control. Stopwanting.“You are bleeding.”
She used the fingertips of the opposite hands to smudge and smear the blood in her palms. “No big deal. Just a few scratches. Those things have sharp edges.” She glanced down at the male, Henry, who struggled with the bindings on my feet. “You good, Henry? Need help?”
“No.”
“No.”
Henry and I spoke in unison. His denial flooded me with relief. The female needed to get away from me. Far, far away.
She should run.
“Okay.” She leaned over and picked up her helmet. I sighed with relief as she slipped a pair of gloves over her bleeding palms, muted the allure. “Are there any other prisoners on this level?”
Her gaze locked with mine, her big, brown eyes so full of feminine warmth I leaned forward, drowning. Forgot she had spoken. Gods, she was fucking beautiful.
“Mikos?” She raised her brows. I ignored her to bend over and unbuckled the electric boots they’d used to induce paralysis between bouts of cutting, injecting, burning…
A soft, feminine cry of pain filled the small room.
I stood to see the female, her hands wrapped around the pointed end of a blade where it protruded from her armor, just below her heart.
Behind her, a Hive Soldier was on his feet, the blade an extension of his arm, an integration I’d seen many, many times. I’d forgotten the two unconscious Hive Soldiers the moment the female entered my containment cell. A terrible mistake. I had knocked them out, but restrained as I was, had not finished them.
“No!” Henry reached for a pair of ion blasters he had holstered at his sides.
Breanna’s eyes met mine. A tear slid down her cheek as the blade disappeared, pulled backward, out of her body, by the enemy. “Double tap. Didn’t double tap.”
What. The. Fuck.
Instinct drowned all reason, all thought. Rage like nothing I’d ever known consumed me as Breanna crumpled to her knees.
I leaped out of the unbuckled boots. I took the Hive Soldier’s head in my hands as he drove his blade into my side. The pain was nothing, another scratch to add to hundreds of wounds that covered my body. All numbed by the need to protecther.
Mine.She was mine.
I crushed his skull between my hands. When the bones gave way, when the crunch and crackle of a crumbling cranium registered, a roar escaped my throat, the sound one I’d never heard before.
Behind me, Henry cursed, the sound of his pitiful weapon firing made me snarl.
