“The doctor told him you wouldn’t wake up for a few more days.”
“What doctor? Mersan?”
“Yes. He had been monitoring you from… outer space, I guess.”
Kill that bastard when I see him again. Liar. Fucking liar.My beast imagined us ripping Doctor Mersan’s head from his body and throwing it at the wall so hard his brains would splatter all over the walls of his ship. Assuming he had any brains.
We’ll torture him first. Get him to tell us where Reji is.I insisted.
My beast agreed.Yes. Torture first. Prillons are small. Weak.
I appreciated her enthusiasm, but I wasn’t sure her assessment was correct. Prillon warriors were almost as big as Atlans. Almost. They didn’t have a beast, but they were tough fighters. Good tacticians. Hard to kill. Much bigger and stronger than any female.
She was not amused.Small. Weak.
All right, beast. You’re a big, bad beast now. We’ll make him suffer. Small, weak Prillon.
Yessss,she hissed and advanced on Adrian. “Where raid?” Wherever Ethan was, he was in danger. He needed me. Us. Now.
Adrian smiled at me. “You might want to put some clothes on first.”
I glanced down to see I was completely naked. Well, fuck. “Armor.”
Adrian waved her hand at me to follow. “Come on. I know where they put your stuff.”
I followed her through the compound, my feet making a clicking sound on the hard floor as I walked.
What the hell?
I took a closer look and realized I had fully formed, very sharp claws protruding from my hands and feet, just like Prince Rukzi, the Hyperion male Commander Helion had convinced to offer his DNA for this little experiment. Or paid.
I always wondered how Ruk got his hands on a squadron of Hive scouting ships. I wouldn’t put it past Commander Helion to give Ruk whatever he wanted if it meant getting his hands on Hyperion DNA. I had a feeling I wasn’t the only I.C. operative Doctor Mersan had included in this experiment. Ruk’s savage nature must have been enough to activate the beast inside me in some kind of crossover effect. One monster to another.
Adrian grinned at me over her shoulder, completely unconcerned for her life. “Nice claws. You didn’t have those last time Kovo checked on you. Did you? Have them before, I mean?”
“I did not.” I’d felt my fingertips tingling on more than one occasion the last few weeks. Usually when I was angry or upset. Now I knew why. Claws. I wondered if they could tear through a ship’s hull the way Ruk’s could.
“Those aren’t Atlan, are they?”
“No.” No, they were Hyperion. Royal Hyperion. From one of the oldest and purest bloodlines on their planet. Prince Ruk, as I understood things, didn’t even wear armor in battle. His skin was so tough he didn’t need it. Not even to fight the Hive.
“So, Helion lied to the guys? He said you had some dormant Atlan DNA turning on, and that was activating an internal beast like the Warlords have.”
“I do not know why this is happening to me.” Were all human females so talkative? I was not in the mood. When I was on a mission, I generally avoided interaction as much as possible. Until Ethan.
I could use a lot moreinteractingwith him.
“I’m not surprised. Helion’s a real asshole. He let me think Kovo was really dead, said my reactions needed to be authentic during the execution so everyone watching would believe he was gone. Then he sent us to Earth. Said no one would look for Kovo here.” She kept chatting, even when I did not respond. “Except you, I guess. But my mom and my sister are both on Atlan with their mates and we can’t visit. Which sucks. I miss them. Especially because my sister has two sets of twins. They’re so cute. Oh my god, you should see them.”
“I watched the broadcast. I saw you. You tried to save him.” My heart had bled when hers did, both of us believing a male we loved, a male of worth, had been taken from us. Except she found out the truth. I had carried my grief for years.
She shivered. “I don’t like to think about it.”
“How long did Helion make you suffer?” I shouldn’t ask, but I needed to decide whether to hunt the Prillon and eliminate him for what he had done to all of us.
“It felt like forever, but it was only a few minutes.”
My beast growled in disappointment.
