The shots abruptly stop. Someone screams, high, horrified. It’s not me. Realizing I’ve screwed my eyes shut, I snap them open.
A beast fills the space before me. Huge, black shaggy fur, the visage of a nightmare. He looks like a wolf… if wolves couldstand on two feet, and his mouth when he opens it to emit a feral roar is full of razor-sharp teeth.
I gasp. His red eyes swing my way. He snorts once, then spins back toward the clustered prisoners. In one leap he clears the distance and tears into them. Blood arcs. The prisoners scream and try to scatter, but they’re still bound and fall over one another in the crazed rush.
I shrink deeper into the corner as body parts start to fly, gore painting the walls and floor.
This isn’t real. This ISN’T real. I’m losing my mind, having some kind of psychotic episode…
The screaming stops abruptly. A low growl and the clatter of claws against the floor, approaching.
I’m shaking hard enough for my teeth to chatter, and keep my eyes screwed shut. A puff of air hits the side of my throat. Claws lightly scrap under my chin.
Steeling myself, I open my eyes.
A jolt goes through me seeing him as the beast, this close, thisterrifyinglynear.
His breathing is a ragged pant. Blood stains his snout… his chest, his claw-tipped hands.
Only, there is nothing threatening about him, and his eyes, red eyes with flashes of gray, are all him.
“Rest,” he rumbles. “Safe.”
My mind and system are in overload. My eyes roll back, and the lights go out.
Zeb
She passes out. I catch her before she hits the floor. It’s probablyfor the best. I can’t see my face, but if the rest is any indication, I’m giving off nightmare vibes. Huge, gnarled hands ease her into a position on her side. Her breathing evens out, and she moves slightly, curling into herself—asleep.
The fucking alarm is giving me a headache, but my baby is exhausted… and in shock. I wish I had a blanket to put over her, something soft for under her head…
Yeah, I’ve got it bad.
She’s been through a lot… understatement of the fucking year. I just took a bullet and then tore a dozen people apart right in front of her.
I don’t know how this happened. But I need to change the fuck back.
I rise and pace, trying to will myself back into human. Fuck, what if I stay like this?!
I double check our course, and that lockdown is still in effect. My eyes never leave her for long.
Mine.
She awakened this nightmare, my feral side. Protecting her was an imperative that defies the laws of nature. I mean, I guess lots of things can go through a metamorphosis, and I’ve been changing forms for a while… But never this dramatic, orextreme.
I take a deep breath. Some of the tension eases, and I feel myself start to shrink. Another deep breath, and another tremor goes through me. My body is trying to reform, I can feel it: not to the Uncorrupted soldier, nor the alpha she first met, but the human me, the zeta. I’m exhausted. Probably just used a shit-ton of energy, and it feels like I’m undergoing some kind of forced reset.
But this is good. For the best. If the government gets wind of this, I’m fucked.
My eyes go back to my sleeping mate, even if she doesn’t realize what she is to me yet. It hasn’t escaped me that this all happened because she came to save me, as misguided as that was.
She came to fucking saveme.
It blows my mind that this tiny, vulnerable woman threw herself onto an enemy ship for me.
How fucking brave it that?
I want to spank her ass, fuck her, and profess my undying love all at the same time.
