Page 56 of Monstrous Baby
Lohr and Snryx both pressed against me in their humanoid forms. I hadn’t felt them shift. But they were still here. Still with me. My arm still hurt but it was more like muscular pain, telling me the medic must have already done something to help heal the wounds.
:We had no choice.:Snryx’s voice whispered through my head, different than before. Not the grid, but more organic though muted.:Dyni can’t hold their beasts in HQ.:
Relief tightened my throat.I’m not alone. We’ll figure this out.:We’re in HQ?:
:Not exactly,:Lohr’s familiar voice made tears burn my eyes, though he sounded light years away.:This is a construct made to appear as if we’re in HQ.:
:I misspoke,:Snryx said.:This place is made to look like HQ but I don’t believe we’re actually in the Draco-Sirius system at all.:
I could hear them both—but I didn’t think they could hear each other. Which made sense if we were only communicating through the mating marks. Still, it was better than being stuck alone in my head without being able to ask them what was going on.
:Does Lohr know our location?:Snryx asked.:The humans passed in the jump with us.:
:He says it’s a construct.:
:Agreed. No true HQ lab would be so empty of equipment.:
:The alpha isn’t physically here.:Lohr’s tongue touched the silvery floor.:Though this is tungsten made to contain dyni.:
:He says the floor is tungsten,:I told Snryx, shifting between them so I could see more of our location. I forgot exactly how big they both were—until I wanted to see around them.
Crying softly, Holly met my gaze and gave me a tremulous smile. She wore a light cotton sleep tank and shorts, and her usually perfect hair was messy from sleep. Snyder tried to put hisarm around her, and she jerked away, moving quickly to come closer to me. Despite two very large—and naked—dyni.
I held out my hand and she clamped her fingers around mine.
She whispered, “Where are we?”
“Not sure,” I whispered back.
“Don’t worry, girls,” the man in a military uniform said. “I’ve seen this place before.”
I rolled my eyes, trying not to smart off about how being called a girl when I was a full-grown woman—with a baby, no less—was demeaning and dismissive. A lesson in misogyny could wait until we were safe.
:How interesting,:Lohr said.:I had no idea DSC had direct interaction in human affairs. Officially, Earth isn’t acknowledged as being technologically advanced or intelligent enough to interact with the syndicate directly. No offense, Natalie.:
:None taken,:I assured him. Though it wouldn’t hurt to play along with pretending to be dumb. It sure had worked with Snyder in the past. I shot him a glare. “We had an agreement. Who’re these men?”
“I’m General Waverley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” the military man said. “It’s not often I get to travel so far from home, young lady. But I made a special exception just for you.”
Ugh. I crossed my arms over my breasts and made sure most of my body was hidden behind Snryx. The man gave me serious icky vibes despite his attempt at being grandfatherly. I hadn’t heard of the man and didn’t follow American politics enough to know if he was who he said he was or not.
I turned my attention to the other man, trusting him even less. He wore an expensive-looking suit with slicked back dark hair and an overly charming, oily smile. He carried a slim blackbriefcase and wore a chunky gold watch around his wrist that I could probably sell and use to buy a brand-new car. Maybe a house.
He looked back and forth between me and Holly as if trying to decide which slab of meat he wanted to cut into and sample first. “You can call me Mr. Smith.”
An innocuous, generic name—for a man with such skeevy vibes.
I glanced over at Snyder, and he flashed his Hollywood white smile. “I’m Dr. James Snyder.”
Even the other two men looked at him suspiciously. They’d been working with him, or at least pumping him for information on us. How much had he told them? I had to assume everything he knew, which made me frantically run through every conversation I could remember with the man.
He knew about Akylla. How fast she was growing. Did he know she’d managed to shift into her dynos for the first time tonight? Would that matter to him—or DSC?
She’s just a baby, my heart cried. Mybaby. I have to keep her away from them.
“I see introductions have been made,” a voice said, one I remembered all too well from my brief visit to free Axxol from the trap. Weirdly jovial and brightly happy—while knowingly causing pain to another living creature.
The man suddenly appeared on the opposite side of the table, complete with white scientist coat, distinguished silvery hair, pink cheeks, and a smile too wide for his very boomer face. “On behalf of Draco Sirius Command, allow me to welcome our distinguished visitors to Gamma Ladon.”
