Page 64 of A Cyborg for the Alien Mercenary

“Any progress at all?” Ryke asked, his voice controlled. Too controlled. Covak didn’t blame him… he was one second off going berserk like an Izaean, and no one wanted that on their bridge.

The B’Kaar shook his head and then paused. “Wait. I’ve got something. It’s not much, but I’ve isolated the destination of the message. That’s all I can pull out of this draanthing mess of code.”

Ryke leaned in, studying the string of coordinates and identifiers on the screen.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said in a low voice. “That’s theSprite.”

“TheSprite?” Covak echoed, confusion momentarily overriding his worry. “As in the Warborne’s ship,Sprite?”

“Yeah.” Ryke nodded. “I think so.”

Covak’s head snapped up, hope exploding through him.

“She didn’t betray us,” he breathed. “Shit, she didn’t betray us.”

And he’d thought she had… he’d doubted her, but she’d sacrificed herself to save him anyway.

With a roar of anguish, he lunged across the bridge. Before anyone could stop him, he had Anson pinned against the wall, a massive clawed hand wrapped around the B’Kaar’s throat.

“You made me doubt her!” Covak snarled, his face inches from Anson’s. “Your paranoia, your suspicions…I let them poison my mind against my own mate!”

Anson didn’t struggle, his dark eyes locked with Covak’s.

“I was wrong,” he said simply. “I’m sorry.”

Covak’s vision blurred red as rage tried to consumed him, his muscles quivering with barely contained fury. The fabric of his uniform strained and creaked as he began to shift, his body responding to the anger coursing through his veins. His bones snapped and stretched, his muscles swelling as the change swept through him against his will.

The urge to tear Anson’s face off with his bare hands was nearly overwhelming. Then he blinked and forced his fingers to unclench from around Anson’s throat.

The B’Kaar dropped unceremoniously on his ass, gasping for air. Covak towered over him, his chest heaving as he clenched his fists at his sides, claws digging into his palms. He used the pain to anchor himself to reason, to bring himself back to sense before he killed his own crewmates.

He turned away, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. Jesh had been captured thinking he didn’t believe her. The thought was like a knife twisting in his gut.

“Covak,” Davis’s voice rang out from the back of the bridge. “I’ve got Zero on the comm. He says he has a way to track Jesh.”

Hope flared in Covak’s chest, and he was across the bridge in two long strides, looming over Davis’s shoulder.

“Put him on screen,” he growled.

Zero’s face appeared, his expression grim. “I heard what happened. I’m sorry, Covak. But I think I can help.”

He leaned in, his voice low and intense. “Tell me.”

“Jesh sent me a lot of information on… well, us,” Zero explained. “How we’re built and how we work, all that. I can’t pinpoint her exactly, but I can give you a general location.”

“That’s more than we had before,” Ryke added from where he was looking over Davis’s other shoulder. “Send us the coordinates.”

“You!” Without thinking, Covak grabbed Davis by the shoulders and hauled him out of his seat to plant a fierce kiss on the human’s forehead. “You bloody gorgeous human, you! Thank you!”

Davis’s eyes went wide with shock and then narrowed dangerously as he shoved Covak away.

“Appreciated. But if you ever kiss me again,” he said slowly, squaring up to Covak despite him still being in his battle form. “I willpersonallyensure that you spend the rest of your days as a eunuch. Are we clear?”

Covak’s lips quirked up at the corners. “Crystal.”

“Now that we’ve established boundaries,” Ryke cut in. “Let’s focus on the mission. We have a location. Anson, plot a course. Davis, start gathering intel on the facility. Covak… try not to maul anyone else before we get there.”

Covak nodded as he moved to his station, calling up schematics and tactical data on the location that Zero had provided.

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