Page 10 of Monsters in Love

A smile broke across his face as a deep chuckle rose from his chest. “Yes, I am here to rescue you.”

Heat radiates from my stomach and stretches all over my body. God, Bronn has no business being this handsome. I bite my lip to hold in my sigh. Swooning over my rescuer is the last thing I need to be doing.

He unsnaps something at his waist and wraps it around me. It’s a jacket, warm with his body heat. I stick my arms into the sleeves, which are only comical because they’re so long, they can probably fit over my legs. An insignia on the front of the jacket catches my eye. It looks like an intricate circular logo: part spiral loops, part computer circuit board. Seeing it tickles something in the back of my mind, as if I’ve seen it before.

“If you are well enough, we must leave. Quickly.” He gathers me in his arms. “The paralytic and other poisons they gave you should wear off soon now that I have given you the nanotech boosters. But we will be faster if I carry you.”

I want to protest—after all, I don’t want to feel like a burden—but he’s right. I may be able to move again, but my feet are still numb.

Besides, when I’m this close to him, he can’t see me make a fool of myself trying not to ogle him. His chest is massive, with muscles that ripple and flex with every move. It shouldn’t feel this comfortable to be nestled against him like this. I can’t help but rub my cheek against his warm fur. I stop before he thinks I’m weird.

Bronn walks out the door, confident in his directions. I’ve already lost count of how many times he’s turned. I would have been a liability trying to keep up with his fast, long-legged strides.

Soon, we were at a familiar T. On one side is a set of double doors. Beyond them should be the docking station that leads to freedom. On the opposite end of this hall is the gated paddock that leads toward the prisoners.

Bronn heads toward the double doors.

“Wait! We can’t leave.”

He freezes. “You wish to stay here?”

My face twists in disgust. “God, no! But we can’t leave. Not yet. Not without Adalyn and the others.”

Understanding dawns on his face. “Of course. Do not worry, we know about the others.”

We? I look down at the jacket I’m wearing. That and Bronn’s precision actions, of course he’s part of a ‘we’. He’s probably part of an elite unit. Heck, I hope he has an entire army with him.

I have to ask how Adalyn can get someone like Bronn and the ‘we’ he rides out with on my personal speed dial.

“Are there a lot on your team?” And did they come with tanks and guns?

“A handful.”

A handful? Why so few?

“Because it is easier to hide the tracks of few rather than many,” Bronn says.

Oops, I must have said my thoughts out loud. Well, might as well keep going. “This place has like an entire army guarding it,” I tell him.

“An army?” Bronn says. “I counted less than fifty on their payroll.”

“Well, fifty is still more than five,” I counter.

Bronn’s laugh erupts out of him in a roar that sounds like colliding boulders. “Taurines are an army of one. A lone Taurine can fight against a battalion of soldiers single-handedly. I think I can handle a bunch of untrained, drunken louts who are used to preying on weak, shackled prisoners. If I am feeling generous, I will allow my men to partake in some of the fight.”

A mewling cry reaches our ears.Adalyn?

All the humor leaves Bronn’s face as he turns toward the cry and charges through chained paddock gates.

Bronn

Ihave her. Karis. And she is one of us.

The injection I gave her produced a generic profile of her blood history, and even that general scan shows she is part Taurine and part…something else. Maybe she has a shifter gene, like Adalyn, or has some other human-presenting bloodline like many other races…?

How in the world did she end up on Terra Prime, of all places?

When we return to Nighthold, we will complete a full scan of her biological record to see her origins. There have been many colonies scattered all over the Intergalactic Republic. We have lost countless souls and generations of potential mates from our registrars before we created the Nexus, a central hub of portals that connects us all.

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