Page 17 of Hunted

The doctor came over and handed me a white sheet, and I laid it over my lap.

“As you saw, I’m fine.” I looked to the doctor. “What about integrations?”

He looked to the tablet he held. “The data shows a multitude of microscopic integrations. There is only one other warrior on record with this type of integration, a Prillon male on The Colony. His name is Tyran. I have reviewed his file, and the type of implant you and he received does not appear to affect your mind until complete saturation level is achieved. Your cellular saturation is at eighty-five percent.”

Fuck. One or two more injections from that blue fucker and he would have had me.

The doctor was still talking. “The integrations will make your muscles much stronger and more resilient than before. Your bones as well. I believe the Prillon, Tyran, has been tested and is stronger than the integrated Atlans on Base 3. As long as you do not receive any additional integration treatments, you’ll be fine. Stronger. Faster. But fine. As to your general health. You were sleep deprived, malnourished and dehydrated, but the ReGen pod did its job.”

“Thank you.” He spoke true. My body hummed with vitality. Life.

Need.

I looked to my mate, unchanged from when I’d seen her earlier. But we were no longer in a fight for our lives with the Hive. We were safe on the battleship. I was healed. Nothing but a commander stood in the way of me making her mine.

That and a fucking shower tube.

“I need to bathe. Commander, if I may…”

“Not yet. How many days have the Hive controlled our base?” The commander’s gaze was dark, unrelenting. I recognized fury when I saw it, and the Prillon commander was vibrating with rage, every muscle taut, shaking with a barely controlled need to attack.

“At least a week. I counted eight days in my cell, but I could have been off in either direction. There was no clock or changes in lighting. I had to guess based on their shift changes.”

He paced in front of me, every few steps blocking my view of Niobe, but she was no longer focused on me. Her frown was nearly as severe as the commander’s. “Commander Karter, how is it that you had a Coalition base captured by the Hive more than a week ago, and you had no idea the attack had happened?”

He growled and whirled to face her, but his voice was respectful, even if filled with anger. “Vice Admiral, we received reports, at the scheduled intervals, from the base. They had the correct passcodes and relayed expected information. We had no way of knowing. They mimicked our procedures perfectly.”

Her gaze drifted to me, the heat returning, if tempered by our circumstances. “Am I to infer that this could be occurring at other Coalition bases and we would have no indication that anything was wrong?”

He stepped back. Nodded. “Yes.”

My gorgeous mate cursed and stepped away, moving toward the door for some illusion of privacy. “I need to report this. It had to be the presence of the Nexus unit.”

Commander Karter froze. “What did you just say?” He turned to look at me. “Is there a Nexus trapped on that base?”

“Yes.” When I confirmed the news, Commander Karter’s tension slipped into something cold and measured. Calculating. “Take your shower, Quinn. Spend time with your mate. You have two hours, and not a moment longer. Do you understand me? If you two are one minute late to the the command deck for the debriefing, vice admiral or not, I will personally pound down your door.”

The idea made me chuckle, until I looked up into the face of a seriously enraged Prillon warrior. He was ready to tear things to pieces, to rend and pound and kill. Tick-tock. If he didn’t need time to assemble the assault teams, we’d probably be heading for the transport rooms in attack formation now. “I understand. Those are my men down there, too. He already killed my entire Hunter unit. No one wants him dead more than I do.”

Commander Karter tilted his head, as if listening to Niobe’s conversation with someone. She said she had to make a call. Report. But to whom?

The doctor pointed. “A shower tube is there.”

I climbed from the unit, stood before my mate with just my hand holding the sheet over my hard cock as she ended her communication. I had no idea who she was talking to, and I didn’t care. I tucked her hair back from her face as I took in every inch of her features. Dark eyes. Freckles on her pert nose. Full lips, but in a severe line. She looked tense. Worried. Oh, that would change as soon as I fucked her. “Soon, mate.”

“Elite Hunter, get your ass in that shower tube,” Karter commanded. “And cover it on your way there.”

After so many days of suffering, of pain, this unexpected turn of events was akin to being reborn. I had survived. I had a gorgeous mate, and vengeance would be mine in a matter of hours. The warmth I felt when I looked at Niobe was a spark of joy I desperately needed. I winked at my mate, then walked over to the shower tube, ignoring the commander. I could hear my mate’s intake of breath, could smell her arousal.

“Doctor, get a tech to S-Gen that fighter a uniform. Stat.”

Stepping under the hot water, I sighed. Laughed. Fuck, it felt good to be free. To know my mate awaited me.

Five minutes later, I was dressed in a full Elite Hunter uniform, a newly generated one that no longer smelled like misery. Karter stood just where he’d been, arms crossed over his chest. I saw that out of the corner of my eye, for I wasn’t looking at him. I was looking at my mate. Niobe.

“Two hours,” he said.

I didn’t look his way. She wasn’t a small female. Long-limbed, her body was lush and full. Toned and well-muscled, even beneath the uniform’s armor. I wanted to peel off every bit of clothing and learn her, inch by inch.

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