Hunted

by Grace Goodwin

  The first was to save any warriors currently inside the medical labs where the integrations were installed. That area was closest to the transport room, and next to where they’d held me. That transport station was on the third level, deep underground. Before Niobe’s arrival, it had not been well defended.

  We had no idea what we’d be dealing with this time around, which was why an entire attack force was going to hit the base at the surface in a full-frontal assault. Fighting ships, Atlan and Prillon units on the ground, charging the landing bays and exterior doors.

  ReCon teams, led by Commander Chloe Phan’s primary mate, Captain Seth Mills, would transport directly inside Level One and attack from the inside.

  Chloe sat between her mates, Seth, the human, who would lead the ReCon teams. Her other mate, a Prillon warrior named Dorian, would be on the outside leading a squadron of fighters providing aerial cover, in case the Hive attacked.

  “Dora and Christopher will remain here with me,” Lady Karter said. The commander’s mate sat at the far end of the table and held Chloe’s gaze as the two women shared a look I understood well. A vow, Erica to Chloe, to care for Chloe’s children should all three of them fall.

  “Thank you, Erica.” Chloe blinked hard. Based on what I knew of human females, I assumed she was fighting tears. Her mate, Seth, placed a hand on her arm, just for a moment. The touch didn’t linger and I understood. Like me, he could not afford to undermine his mate’s authority in front of the others, but he also could not ignore her pain. I knew how their collars worked, connecting them emotionally. Chloe was a commander, equal in rank to Commander Karter himself, though her rank came from the I.C., and not the Coalition Fleet’s traditional—and bloody—selection process.

  She was no less respected for not bleeding in an arena.

  In the seat on Erica’s right sat a Prillon warrior I’d never seen before, but the insignia on his collar made his rank that of commander as well.

  By the gods, I doubted there had been this much rank in one room outside of Prillon Prime’s war room in years. Three commanders, an Elite Hunter and a vice admiral?

  The Prillon was inspecting my female, his gaze intense. Interested.

  “Why do you not simply supply your transport codes to us, Vice Admiral?” The Prillon’s question was nearly a growl.

  “Who are you?” I asked. If I needed to, I could have his throat slit before he’d leaned back in his chair, one of the perks of being Hunter swift. Unlike an Atlan, I was subtle, fast and deadly.

  “I am Commander Zeus.”

  Chloe, Erica and Niobe all turned as one, the look on their faces one of confusion. “Zeus?” My mate’s voice held more interest than I liked. “How did you come by that name?”

  The commander dipped his chin toward my female. “My second father is human, from a place on Earth called Greece. He named me after a human god who threw thunderbolts at his enemies.”

  Niobe grinned, as did Chloe. “Fascinating. Is your father’s name Kronos?”

  Zeus frowned. So did I.

  “Is your father still alive?” she asked. “I’d love to meet him.”

  “He is not. My mother, alone, survives. She is on Prillon Prime, protected and cared for in my absence.”

  Enough. “Commander Zeus, why are you here?” I asked.

  Commander Karter cleared his throat. “Commander Zeus has taken command of Sector 438.”

  “Battleship Zeus has replaced the Varsten.” Chloe supplied the information to my mate as if Niobe would know what she was speaking about. I had no doubt that she did. The Varsten had been destroyed by a Hive stealth ship and its destruction was still under investigation. We hadn’t been able to track down the remaining Hive ships.

  That’s why my unit of Elite Hunters had been requested. I’d been on more Hive controlled planets, inside more caves and abandoned ships than I cared to remember. And nothing had been found. No plans. No rumors. No hint of where the new technology came from or where the Hive planned to deploy another stealth ship. No clues about when or where the next deadly attack might come. When the next battleship would be blown into space dust.

  My only job in coming to Battleship Karter, and then transporting down to Latiri 4, had been to track that threat. Find out more information. Hunt down the source so the Fleet could eliminate the new Hive weapon.

  I’d failed. My unit had failed.

  Not only had we failed, we’d led the Hive Scouts right back to the base where we’d been stationed. I’d had long hours in that cell to think, and the only conclusion was that the Hive had followed us back to the underground base, that we were responsible for the deaths of the coalition warriors who’d died defending the base. That I was responsible for the suffering of those still underground.

  My team of Elite Hunters.

  Somehow, the Hive had tracked us. Predator became prey. And we were taken down.

  My only chance to atone for my failures was to save those who were left and then remove that blue Nexus bastard’s head from his body.

  “Let’s focus on the mission.” Vice Admiral Niobe’s suggestion was a command and everyone in the room felt the authority in her voice. They sat straighter, smiles fading.

  My cock hardened and I had to blink to focus on her words instead of her soft, feminine scent floating in the room.

  “The transport system on Latiri 4 is under my control,” she said. “I will transport in with the first wave of Atlan Warlords—led by Warlord Zan—and coordinate the attack from the transport room on Level Three.”

  “I don’t understand, Niobe. Why? You should coordinate from here, on the command deck with Commander Karter.” Chloe asked the question and I was grateful. I didn’t understand my mate’s insistence that she be in the first transport.

  Niobe shook her head. “The transport system is locked to my DNA. Either I am in the initial transport beam, or no one goes. Once we arrive, the transport room will remain locked down until I give the system my authorization codes.”

  “A DNA lock? I didn’t know that was possible.” Captain Seth Mills, Chloe’s mate, sighed the words as he leaned back in his chair, arms crossed.

  I’d heard of such a thing, but never seen it used. Until she’d rescued us.

  My mate had locked down the transport in such a way that only she could get anyone—literally anyone—in or out. According to what I was hearing, Prime Nial himself would have a hell of a time trying to override her lockout.

  “Damn, girl. That’s badass.”

  Erica, Lady Karter, smiled at Chloe’s words, but said nothing. I wished I could see Niobe’s face. Was she pleased? Bored? Irritated? Her shoulders were tense, as was the line of her jaw, but that was all I could sense from where I stood behind her chair like a sentinel.

  I did not understand Chloe’s reference at all. Niobe’s ass was perfect. Round. Soft. Very, very female. But as my mate did not protest, and Commander Karter’s mate looked pleased with the words, I said nothing. Earth slang was going to be a struggle.

  The time alone with Niobe had not been enough. The hours we’d shared were precious to me, but I wanted more. Needed it. She had a past, a history I had barely glimpsed and had yet to understand. Even though she was half Everian, her words, her world, were foreign to me. There was too much about her I did not know or understand, and I needed to know everything.

  My hand tightened on Niobe’s shoulder and she absently reached up to entwine her fingers with mine. That was all I needed to pull me back to the present, to the battle plans. To her.

  “Once the Warlords give me the signal, I’ll transport in the Prillon warriors,” she said, her hand returning to her lap. And the vice admiral was back. “The aerial assault should provide the distraction we need to draw their attention and the bulk of their fighters to the upper levels. The ReCon teams will be responsible for capturing the elevators and holding them in the event we need an alternate exit.”

  “We’ll take them, Vice Admiral. I promise you that,” Captain Mil
ls assured her, and I believed him. He was an experienced warrior, a tough fighter, and everyone on the Karter respected the hell out of him. I’d been around here long enough to know that.

  “Good.” Niobe nodded at him, her finger pointing to the schematic of Level Three. “Meanwhile, I’ll transport in directly to Level Three with the Atlans. Zan will lead a group of warriors to the prison cells. The doctor has equipped us with knock-out gas. Since we don’t know what condition the prisoners will be in, we’ll anesthetize them all, slap transport beacons on them while they’re still unconscious, and transport them directly to The Colony.”

  “Piece of cake.” Commander Chloe Phan spread her small hand wide on the translucent surface of the table, staring at the graphics on display beneath.

  I searched my memory for the word, sure my NPU, the Neural Processing Unit every member of the Coalition had implanted at birth, had malfunctioned. Cake was a baked food on Earth. What did baking human food have to do with this mission?

  “Where are we going to get that many transport beacons?” Prax asked. The Prillon had been one of the lucky ones, on Latiri 4 for less than a minute, and that time only in the transport room. He hadn’t been integrated or tortured, but he had known what was coming. He wanted to save as many fellow fighters as he could. “The Fleet hordes them like precious gems.”

  My mate stirred in her chair. “Leave that to me. I’ve contacted Helion at I.C.H.Q. and he assures me the necessary beacons will arrive on the Karter within the hour.” The new Prillon commander, Zeus, had crossed his arms and was scowling at everyone, including my mate. His face was lined with cuts, one large one that had yet to heal.

  I’d heard of the Prillon custom of fighting in the arena, and that they chose not to use ReGen pods to heal, instead wearing the marks of battle like badges of honor, proof that they’d earned their place in the Prillon chain of command. I thought the idea interesting, but stupid. The fight? Fuck, yes. I loved to fight. But I had no problem using a ReGen wand to heal. I didn’t want anything to distract me from focusing on my mate’s body instead of my own.

  I didn’t like him. He seemed like an ass. A hard-nosed, uptight, Prillon asshole.

  My mate cleared her throat. “In regards to the Nexus, he is to be taken alive and brought to me. Under no circumstances is he to be injured. Find him and bring him to me. That’s an order. Are we clear?”

  Everyone at the table nodded, but I saw the anger in Zan’s gaze, knew it was mirrored in my own. I understood orders. I respected the chain of command, even though, technically, I was not part of the Coalition Fleet—more like a hired contractor. But what she was asking? Impossible. The Nexus had to die.

  “He has to die, Vice Admiral.”

  She tensed beneath my hand and sat forward, pulling out from beneath my touch on her shoulder. “And he will, but not on Latiri 4. Have I made myself clear?”

  A chorus of yeses sounded.

  Commanders Karter and Phan nodded.

  I disagreed but wasn’t about to try to argue with her now. Not here, in front of all these people. Alone, with my cock buried deep, I could get what I wanted. Vengeance. In the meantime, I had some questions. “What is knock-out gas? And do you mean Doctor Helion? And what is H.Q.?” Another human word I didn’t understand?

  Commander Chloe Phan, human, grinned at me, her gaze locking with my mate’s for a brief moment before she answered my questions. “Sorry about that. Earth slang. Knock-out gas means it will make the prisoners unconscious, so we can transport them without a fight. And H.Q. is slang for headquarters. You know, Core Command.”

  I knew what Niobe’s pussy felt like gripping my cock. I knew what she sounded like when she came. I knew the color of her nipples, but I was beginning to realize that I had no idea who she really was.

  8

  Niobe, Transport Room, Latiri 4

  * * *

  Surrounded by twenty Atlan warriors, half of them partially transformed into their beasts, I couldn’t see over the closest set of shoulders as the first round of fighting took place. I lifted my hand instinctively and tried to shove the giant warrior aside.

  That accomplished nothing. He turned and growled down at me. He wasn’t in beast mode, but his eyes were too bright. He was holding on by a thread… to protect me. So all of his angst and beast rage wasn’t directed at me.

  “Do not move, Vice Admiral. Warlord Zan will signal when it is safe for you.” The Atlan speaking was one I did not know, not that it mattered. They were here to rescue their Atlan brethren along with the rest of the prisoners still alive on this base. Most of the prisoners here, according to Zan, were fighters from Battlegroup Karter. Friends. Family. This wasn’t a random ReCon mission for these fighters, this was personal. I was vital to their mission. I got them all here. Until I reversed the lockdown on this base, no one was getting off this planet unless I allowed it.

  Hive or Coalition.

  Prisoner or warrior.

  “My apologies,” I replied with a deferential tip of my head. “I served almost ten years in ReCon. It was instinct.”

  The Atlan nodded in understanding and turned back around to face the corridor, where sounds of fighting still filled the air. I stepped back and tried to be patient as the screams and ion blaster fire filtered back to me through the warriors blocking my view. Not big talkers, the Atlans. Which was just fine with me. They got shit done.

  One moment we’d been standing on the transport pad on Battleship Karter and the next we were inside the Coalition’s former reconnaissance base, under half a mile of solid rock. Back where all this started. Had it all happened in one day?

  God, Rachel and Kira were going to freak when they found out all that had transpired. They’d expected to contact me to hear about sexy times. Oh, there had been some of that, but the rest? This Hive clusterfuck? Totally unexpected. And all of it had happened because I’d been tested and matched to Quinn.

  We were back and trapped now. Intentionally, because there was nowhere for the Hive to run, not with the transport system and operations on lockdown. I’d trapped them inside, sealing the doors, communications and transport controls with the Intelligence Core codes I had never really believed I would need to use.

  Not that it would matter if the Nexus here could communicate with the other Nexus units via some kind of psychic, internal broadcasting system. We had no way of knowing, and that was why Doctor Helion had comm’d me with new secret orders just moments before the assault began. I was to take that Nexus alive—that was nothing new. But he’d upped the ante. I was to take the Nexus alive… at all costs. I was informed, in no uncertain terms, that it didn’t matter how many warriors I had to sacrifice to make that happen. I was to lie, cheat, steal, kill or lay down my own life to make sure the Nexus was transported to the I.C. scientists. Obtaining that blue fucker was imperative to ending this war.

  Besides those orders, Helion transported two beacons directly into my temporary quarters. Even Commander Karter didn’t know I had them. He knew, of course, that we had orders to take the Nexus alive. But he had no idea exactly how far Helion was willing to go to capture him.

  I knew the I.C. wanted the blue bastard, but that comm had shocked me. They didn’t just want the Nexus, they were willing to sacrifice hundreds of warriors’ lives to get their hands on him. Alive. That was the caveat. He had to be alive, fully functional. No damage. No injuries. As Helion had informed me, “Not a scratch on him.”

  Our last lead on a Nexus had been on The Colony months ago. A Forsian renegade from Rogue 5 named Makarios and a human female who had—unknown to us—been altered to become the mate to one of the Nexus units, had vanished in a stolen ship. Much to Helion’s aggravation, the Fleet had been unable to track them. They appeared and disappeared like ghosts.

  Damn Rogue 5 pirates and smugglers. No doubt that Forsian pilot knew every hiding spot and dead zone in the system. He and his new mate, Gwendolyn Fernandez, from Earth of all places, were using that ship to take out small Hive outp
osts. One after another. It reminded me of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. A ship battling the Dark Side.

  I’d read the reports. Not that I didn’t appreciate their efforts, but they’d gone rogue, beyond the I.C.’s control, and Doctor Helion did not approve of hotshots or soldiers who didn’t follow orders. Part of me wanted to pump my fist into the air every time I read another report about Gwen stirring up trouble out here. But the vice admiral side of me agreed with Doctor Helion. We could accomplish so much more with them if they’d just come in and coordinate their efforts with ours.

  Attempts to reach out to them had been answered in one, succinct sentence.

  We will not be caged.

  I had no doubt Helion assured them that no such thing would happen if they just turned themselves in.

  That was a lie, of course. They’d be caged and trained, set free only under strict control of I.C. Core Command, and most likely one at a time, to assure compliance.

  Doctor Helion was ruthless, but I understood his rationale. It wasn’t one planet, one species, one solar system at risk in this war. It was all of us. When that fact tipped one side of the scale, there was nothing capable of balancing out the equation. Nothing he wouldn’t risk or sacrifice to defeat the Hive threat. And that meant getting this Nexus. Alive.

  A few hundred warriors from Battleship Karter were nothing to him, to the overall success of this never-ending war, not when we had a Nexus within our grasp.

  “Clear.” A deep voice filled the room with a roar and the five Atlans who had formed a solid wall of protection around me stepped away so I could take in the damage.

  The Hive had definitely been expecting an attack. Instead of three integrated Viken manning the transport room, six integrated Prillon warriors lay on the floor around the transport controls.

  I didn’t know if they were dead or unconscious, and I wasn’t going to ask. I had bigger fish to fry. I needed to unlock transport on Level One so Quinn and the rest of our assault team could get inside.