Angh, Sector 54, Hive Integration Unit Outpost, Prisoner Cell Block

I heard the Hive drones. They were everywhere. What was normally a random buzzing sound in the back of my mind was now full-blown conversations between Hive trios moving around the base.

I understood everything. Every. Word.

“Do you hear that?” Crouched next to me in the side corridor was my beautiful, courageous mate in full battle gear, ion rifle out and ready. She looked fierce, professional, and so fucking sexy I had a hard time keeping my eyes off her. I’d never thought of anyone as being sexy while behind enemy lines, but there was a first for everything.

Behind us, a small strike force of human, Everian and Viken fighters waited for orders from their leader. Kira. Not me. ReCon teams were normally made up of warriors from the smaller races. They could get in, get out, and move quickly in tight spaces. I was a novelty here, and they looked at me like I was a clumsy giant, despite the fact that I could kill them with one strike of my bare fists. So I ignored them.

Kira was here. I went where she did. End of discussion.

Our target to extract, a Rogue 5 weapons specialist and secret I.C. operative from the Styx legion, was supposed to be located on the second level, on the far end of the cell block. How the Vice Admiral had come by her information, I had no idea and I knew she wouldn’t tell us if I asked.

There was only one way in and one way out of that corridor. The back of the prison section was made up of stone several hundred feet thick. We had transport beacons, but they wouldn’t work this deep underground.

This meant we had to break him out and get him to the surface. Alive or dead. Those were our orders. We couldn’t allow the Hive to break into his mind.

I cursed under my breath and shook my head to clear it of the racket the Hive drones were making. There were nine Hive on this outpost. Three trios. And I could hear every single one of them like they were standing next to me.

The Hive did love their dark, desolate caves.

“Warlord?” Kira’s whisper made me lean down to hear her, but I didn’t take my eyes off the corridor before us, or lower my weapon. There were seven of us, but if the Hive discovered our presence, they’d swarm our position, lock down the exits and transport drones in by the dozens until we were trapped.

That was not happening. I’d die before I allowed them to capture me again. Or Kira. No fucking way would they get her.

“Yes, Captain?” I addressed her with respect, because I expected the other warriors with us to do the same.

“Do you hear that?” She pivoted in her crouched position to address the others. “Do any of you hear that?”

“Hear what?” The Viken warrior closest to her shrugged. “I don’t hear anything.”

“That buzzing.” She knocked on her helmet, just over the ear, where the comm link would be. “I think my comm is going out.”

I returned my full attention to the seemingly deserted corridors ahead of us. The Hive were moving, a trio heading in our direction, coming for the prisoner we were here to recover. How I knew that, why I knew that, I refused to think about.

I clenched my fists as the beast raged, the cuffs the only thing holding him in check. We were with our mate. We had to protect her. Nothing else, not even the rage and pain of torture creatures like these had inflicted on me, mattered now.

Kira mattered. And the mission mattered to her. That was all. My only reason for existence. The Vice Admiral was smart, her strategy worthy of the best in the galaxy. She had gotten what she wanted. I had what I wanted. But Kira? I just didn’t know.

Had she really chosen me? Or had the Vice Admiral forced her hand? Or—

The beast howled at me to shut the fuck up and go rip up the Hive Soldiers coming down the hall. For once, I agreed with him. Anything to rid my mind of the thoughts circling like hungry carrion.

“Three Hive approaching, left corridor.”

Kira whipped back around and raised her rifle. “How long?”

“Now.”

The Hive Soldier who rounded the corner first was once a Prillon, big and mean, his entire face was silver. His eyes solid metal, like Denzel’s. There was nothing left of the warrior he’d once been and when he spoke, his voice was monotone. Mechanical and empty. “Intruders. Level—”

His head was bloody pulp in my hand where I’d smashed it into the wall. But the other two took up the call before I could finish the job.

“Level Two. Intruders on Level Two.”

Ion rifle fire came around me from behind and took down the remaining Soldiers, Kira’s cursing flying from her lips almost too quickly for my NPU to keep up.

“What the fuck, Angh? We wait for them to pass, strike from behind. Get in. Get out. Don’t get caught. Got it?”

The Viken behind her was laughing when I turned around, the Prillon’s lifeless body still dangling from my hand, forgotten. “That is not how Atlan’s normally approach battle.”

She sighed. “This isn’t battle, this is ReCon.”

“Then I will study ReCon strategies when we return.”

“This is why Atlans aren’t on ReCon teams.” Grinning at me now, I knew all was forgiven and her gaze dropped to the Hive hanging from my grip. “You done killing that one? I’d like to get our target and get out of here.”

I dropped the Hive like a stone at my feet and moved in the direction she indicated, down the corridor leading to the prisoner from Rogue 5, the man with information in his head so valuable to the I.C. they were willing to sacrifice all of our lives to keep it out of Hive hands.

Finding his cell was easy. The locked door was hinged metal with bolts imbedded in the cave’s rock walls. Pathetic.

I tore it off its hinges just as easily as I’d done to Kira’s classroom door and stepped aside so someone from the team could go in. I was half beast, as he’d refused to remain dormant when there was so much fun to be had, and I knew if I walked into that prison cell, the poor male would likely have a heart attack.

I held the door to the side as Kira and the Viken walked by me. He grinned. “And that is why Atlans should be on every mission.”

“Shut up, Farren,” Kira snapped at him, tapping the side of her helmet again, but her words only made the other members of the team laugh.

“Rokk? I’m with ReCon. We’re getting you out of here.”

Moments later, the large warrior stumbled into the hallway leaning heavily on Kira and the Viken, his arms wrapped around their shoulders. Rokk was weak and battered. Nearly naked, the remnants of torn pants barely covered him. His skin was coated in dried blood. But I knew the Hive hadn’t started the true torture yet, as I saw no Hive implants on his body, no silver pieces burrowing into his flesh like living parasites.

The beast wanted to howl at the memories and I held him back by force of will. It should have been easy to control him, now that I had a mate. But he was like me, frustrated and unsure.

Did our mate truly want us? Did it matter?

Fuck yes. It did. And until we knew for sure, the beast wouldn’t calm completely, and neither would I.

I watched them stumble for a few steps under his heavy weight as the bastard looked to be part Atlan and part Hyperion, the strange fangs in his mouth all the evidence I needed that he belonged to that primitive species. His body was covered with a significant number of tattoos, each one of them in a language I didn’t recognize.

Kira saw my interest. “They’re names, Angh. Names of the people he is sworn to protect. The names of his people. The higher their rank in Styx legion, the more names they have inked into their flesh.”

My respect for the alien warrior grew as I noticed hundreds of names swirling down his torso, covering a large portion of his back and chest. He caught me looking as well, so I asked. “How many?”

“Two hundred and thirty-four. I’m only a lieutenant.”

I grunted at that. “Leave him to me.”

With a shrug, the Viken stepped aside and I took his place. When I had him, I nodded at Kira and she, too stepped aside. Rokk was big, but no larger than an average Prillon. If he were Atlan, it was only half, and I’d carried many brothers off the battlefield without assistance. “Go. I will do this.”

With one last glance, Kira nodded, trusting me, and took off back down the way we came. Farren, the Viken who seemed to be her closest ally, was with her, running formation. Checking corners. There was no need. I could hear them. All of them. That didn’t keep me from panicking having her farther than arm’s reach. She couldn’t go far from me, thank fuck, because of the cuffs and that soothed my beast.

“There are three Soldiers and three Scouts coming. Half on the left and other half blocking our exit.”

“Fuck. How do you know that?” The two ReCon members behind me cursed but didn’t argue, moving ahead with their weapons. But I stopped them.

“No. Take him. I will deal with the Hive.”

“Yes, sir.” They weren’t new recruits, and they weren’t stupid. They had seen what an Atlan in beast mode could do in battle. And since this was no longer a stealth op, thanks to me, I would clean up the mess.

I handed the prisoner off to them and ran forward, a bellow of challenge ringing ahead of me in the halls. I would draw them to me and allow the rest of the team to pick them off with ion rifles, one by one.

“Damn it, Angh!” Kira yelled, but I had been in more battles than she would ever know. I knew the Hive well, how they worked. How they thought. I’d been one of them and the rage I felt toward their kind still simmered.

They waited in the branching corridors where we’d been a few short minutes ago. Ion fire blasted into me, behind me. I was surrounded, but I charged through all of it toward the first group, ripping them to pieces with my bare hands and not worrying where the others were. I’d finish these three, and move to the next. And the next.

My beast was howling with fury, the killing frenzy, the need to ensure our mate was protected making him especially vicious.

The first three were dead, the fury of battle gone, and my beast turned to look for our next opponent.

“Angh! Grenade!” Kira’s warning rang through the space as a small, metallic device landed in the center of the room.

Kira was running. She dove, throwing her body over the grenade as the rest of her team dove for cover. She actually curled her body around it, twisted to place her back between me and the explosive.

Holy fucking— Protecting me. Saving me.

“No!” The beast roared. I roared. I panicked. I had seen this weapon before, hundreds of times. I knew exactly what it was and what it would do to my mate, how it would tear her body into pieces.

The Hive were gone, retreating far enough to escape the blast.

Silence.

Kira was on the ground, panting. Curled around the grenade.

Nothing.

“What the fuck?” Farren cautiously slid forward on hands and knees, closer to Kira, but I was there first, reaching for her.

“No! Don’t touch her!” The Hyperion’s voice was crisp, a clear command. “Don’t disrupt the frequency or it’ll explode.”

I turned to him, frustrated at how difficult it was to speak. She was curled around a fucking grenade. “Why?”

Kira rolled slowly, the armed grenade flashing with a strange blue light as she held it up, close to her head. “I can hear them.”

I froze in place and forced myself to calm, to listen.

She was right. I could hear them, too. And I could hear it, the weapon, the explosive. Rokk explained as she looked up at him. “They’re new Hive tech, designed to recognize one of their own. They were losing a lot of Soldiers in battle, so they’ve made advanced modifications to their weaponry.”

“Their bombs know if the target is Hive or not?” Farren asked, eyes wide with surprise.

“Yes.” Rokk looked at Kira. “And for some reason, it thinks you’re one of them.”

She looked up at me and our gazes locked. We knew; we both knew exactly why it wasn’t going off. Somehow, the added connection had linked our minds, the communication even clearer than what I’d experienced with Chloe and the mine field around Battleship Karter. And that connection was protecting us.

Holy fuck. We’d had a connection, my mate and I, but that was on a personal level. Now, together, we were connected to hear the Hive as well.

If we could use this knowledge on the battlefield, broadcast Hive signal and destabilize their weapons, it would be a huge advantage in the war.

Kira held out her hand to me and I pulled her up slowly so she didn’t jostle the grenade. “They don’t know what to do. Let’s get out of here now, before they figure something out.”

I looked at Rokk. “Apologies, but I don’t have time to argue with you.” With that, I lifted the heavy male over my shoulder and started running, the rest of the team falling in step.

The Scouts who blocked the entrance were easy targets, not as large or fast as the Soldiers down below in the caves, and I grunted in approval as Farren and the others made quick work of them.

We ran, the Hyperion grunting each time his gut landed on my shoulder, but I couldn’t afford to be gentle. He’d survived the Hive, he’d just have to suffer the journey back to our transport location.

Kira spotted a smaller cave entrance, one positioned to block the main force of the blast, and she threw the grenade as she sprinted. Tossed and ran. Shit. A second later, the explosion rocked the ground, but we kept moving.

Get in. Get out. Don’t get caught.

Her words rang in my ears until we reached the extraction point and I dropped the Hyperion on the ground in a heap.

I was reaching for her when the transport energy surrounded us, tore us into pieces and put us back together on the other side.

A medical team swarmed the transport pad back on Zioria and I recognized Transport 2 at the Academy. Elsewhere on the grounds, business went on as usual, as if the Hive battle had never happened. Classes. Training. And all the while, the most important missions in the war were being completed right under the cadets’ noses.

Vice Admiral Niobe was waiting for us as well, her smile genuine when she saw Rokk. “Lieutenant. I’m glad to see you made it.”

His only response was a grunt of pain as the medics lifted him onto a medical stretcher to take him for whatever healing he needed in a ReGen pod.

I ignored all of them, my eyes only on my mate. “Kira.”

She turned from greeting the Vice Admiral and congratulating her team on a job well done. She did all the things she was supposed to do, the things a leader would do.

But she hadn’t thrown herself on that grenade for her team. She hadn’t positioned her body to shield them from the blast. She’d done that for me. And she was going to get a fucking spanking for that.

“Kira.” The beast spoke now, unhappy with the wait. We were furious with her for risking her life that way. And humbled. Her love wasn’t fabricated or manipulated. It was real. So fucking real she’d thrown herself on a grenade to save me.

She must have heard the tone of my voice, for she walked to me but didn’t say a word, just wrapped her arms around my waist and snuggled into my chest. Our weapons bumped and our armor was in the way, but she was warm and alive and in my arms. It calmed my beast as nothing else could as I digested the truth.

She loved me. Would kill for me. Fight beside me.

Die for me. This part didn’t sit well with either me or my beast, but I would talk with her about it later. She might fight beside me, but that didn’t mean she took ridiculous risks, like falling on a fucking grenade. Yes, a spanking would definitely be in order.

I would have held her for hours, content just to hold her, but the Vice Admiral walked to stand beside us.

“Still want to kill me, Warlord?”

I grunted, but the woman had earned my respect. “Not at the moment.”

“Good, because you’ll not be staying.”

“What?” Kira lifted her head and I placed my hands on her shoulders to hold her back. Seemed I wasn’t the only one still a bit angry with the Vice Admiral and her meddling.

“We need you on one of the Karter’s outer ships in Sector 216 as soon as possible.”

Kira’s shoulders slumped and I knew I was not going to get a chance to rest. And spank her ass. And fuck. And sleep. And feast on my mate’s pussy. Fill her with my cock. Sleep. Eat. Massage every inch of her in warm bath oils. Plans. I had plans and the Vice Admiral was getting in the way of every one of them.

“When do we leave?” I asked, my teeth gritting together.

The Vice Admiral checked her wrist comm. “You have an hour.”

“Great,” Kira mumbled, but she was speaking to an empty room. The Vice Admiral was already gone.