Page 28 of Hunted

My mate was seated on the commander’s right, a place of honor. On his left, another female from Earth, Commander Chloe Phan, leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed. The two females knew one another well, apparently. They had embraced before the meeting began, and spoke freely to one another, using first names.

Niobe.

She was mine, and I stood behind her chair like a jealous idiot as the Prillon captain, Prax, grinned at me like he knew exactly what I was thinking.

I doubted that, for my mind was focused on the way Niobe had submitted to me. Given herself over to me sexually. I doubted this was something she did, dressed or naked, and it had been a first for her. No doubt. I’d seen the flare of frustration in her eyes when I bent her to my will. Oh, I didn’t force her. Hell, no. But I knew. My matched mate would need to submit, to have someone take control, to let her mind go free, to give over to the safety of someone else with her worries. Questions. Issues she dealt with every single day, instead getting lost in pleasure.

And Niobe had done it beautifully. She’d resisted, at first. I wouldn’t have imagined her doing anything less. And her submission had been so much sweeter for it.

Now, seeing her in complete control of herself, her emotions… everything, only made my cock hard. Again. I wanted her again. Still. Why?

Well, why the fuck not? I could scent her. I could scent me on her. Knew my cum was deep inside her. Marked her, filled her.

Now, in this room, she would know she belonged to me. She could give orders to the warriors here, yet her pussy would ache from the way I’d pounded it with my cock.

She could walk away from the meeting knowing I’d be there to keep her safe, to let her bare her soul to me—clothed or not—and I wouldn’t let her down.

Yeah, all that shit went through my head while I should have been following the conversation. About the plan to go back to Latiri 4, to that same fucking hellhole, and save the other warriors trapped inside.

Instead, I was consumed with the knowledge that Niobe—no, the vice admiral—was going to be on the mission with us. Carrying a weapon. Putting herself at risk.

In fact, when Commander Karter had respectfully, and carefully, suggested that she remain on the ship until the fighting was done, she had glared at him until he shrugged and returned his gaze to the battle plans laid out in graphic detail on the table before us.

She and I had been on his ship less than a day and he’d already learned she wasn’t going to give in to his commands. I didn’t care if she pushed him, but she wouldn’t push me. No fucking way.

Zan, the huge Atlan who’d tried to kill me, was our primary source of intelligence on the Hive operation going on down there. While I’d been in a cell right next to the transport room, he’d been deep inside the base, spent several days fully integrated into their Hive mind. He’d been put in a ReGen pod to heal. After that, the doctors had spent several more hours removing Hive tech from his body piece by piece. He was in control now, the influence of the Hive gone from his mind, but they’d never really be gone completely. Already the Commander had mentioned transporting him to The Colony once this mission was over.

I expected Zan to argue, but the pain in his eyes was one I’d seen before.

He was dangerous on a good day. Now, with Hive tech scattered throughout his body? There was no way any of us could know what would happen when we went back down there, when the Nexus was close. And we would get close to that Nexus because he—it—was our mission objective.

Then again, there was no way for me to know how I would react either. The injections that blue bastard gave me had burned like acid in every nerve and muscle… inside my mind. The buzzing noise in my head had been consistent and powerful, and I had no way of knowing what would happen once I returned to that base.

The doctor said my body was at eighty-five percent saturation. Did that mean my head would start buzzing again the moment the Nexus was close? Or had my weakness been lack of sleep, food, water? Would my mind be clear now that my body was healed? Or would I have to grit my teeth and fight through it?

I would, there was no question, but I preferred not to have the Hive buzzing around in my head like insects.

Zan and I were in the same uncharted territory. He’d have lasting emotional effects from his time in captivity, as I would, but he was here, ready to fight, ready to save others. To kill every fucking Hive on that planet.

I only wanted to kill one.

Nexus 4. He’d told me his name. He spoke as an individual, controlled everything on that base. He’d killed the rest of my Elite Hunter unit. He’d tortured my friends and forced us to listen to one another’s screams. He’d killed them one by one until I was the only one left.

Karter might be talking about the group mission, but mine was specific. Personal. Nexus 4.

I’d have his head before I came off that rock. I needed to know he was dead. Gone. The buzzing in my head had been him. And with the doctors unable to remove the microscopic tech he’d injected into my body, there was a very real possibility that once I returned to the base, I would hear him again.

In fact, I was counting on it. It was as if he’d put a beacon inside me that would lead me right to him. And while his plan had been to keep me by his side, to fight with him, I would use it now to end the fucker.

I paid attention to the battle plan as much as I needed to. I didn’t like knowing Niobe would be among us, but according to the plans, she would be implanted with a group of Atlan warriors, fresh fighters from the battleship eager and willing to avenge their brothers still strapped in prison cells.

According to Zan, there were at least a dozen more Atlan Warlords still imprisoned inside the base. So Commander Karter—no, Vice Admiral Niobe—insisted we transport in two Atlans from the ship for every one potentially integrated Atlan Warlord.

Thank the gods, the doctors on board this ship had managed to save him. Our Atlan, Zan, knew where the guards would be, where the Hive’s most heavily armed soldiers would resist, and where the rest of the prisoners were being held. He was most likely destined for The Colony, but not before we finished this mission.

We needed him. He needed to finish this.

The Everian Hunters, like me, had been kept separate on Latiri 4, per Nexus 4’s instructions. That’s

---