Niko: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 9)

by Anna Hackett

  Mac pulled in a breath. A lot of people had been something else before the alien invasion. So much had changed, and so many people had changed with it. None of them were who they were before.

  When she looked up, she saw that he was watching her. She walked over to him.

  “I…should’ve told you before,” he said.

  She stopped. “I knew you weren’t always an artist. I figured you had some military experience, so I can’t say I was too surprised.”

  “But you’re a woman who sees in black and white, Mackenna.” He gave her a sad smile. “I like that about you. No shades of gray. I’m very gray.”

  She moved around so she could see his painting. It was a splatter of bright, bold colors all melding together. “I’ve never thought you were gray, Niko.”

  It took her a second to realize that the bold lines and colors were her face. He’d made her look somehow exotic, beautiful, beyond the ordinary. “I don’t look like that.”

  He smiled. “You do to me.”

  “I don’t want you on this mission,” she said baldly. “I don’t care if you were a super assassin before.”

  “I don’t want you on the mission, either, so we’re even.”

  She let out a frustrated breath. “Niko.”

  “I don’t care about the mission right now. I care about knowing if you can deal with my past.”

  Mac shoved a hand through her hair. “I know a lot of people aren’t who they were before. I guess we’ll just have and see.”

  “Do you want me to touch you again?”

  God, the depth of pain in his voice flayed her. She couldn’t be anything less than honest with him. “Yes.”

  He sat on the small stool near the easel, then he reached out, and in one of those quick moves of his, pulled her into his lap. His lips brushed over hers in a featherlight caress. Almost like he was afraid to kiss her.

  “I wish we weren’t heading into danger in just a few hours.” He fiddled with the buttons on her shirt. “I wish we had all the time in the world. I could get you out of your clothes.” He flicked one button open, stroking the skin at the base of her neck.

  She swallowed, heat making her legs feel weak.

  His tone lowered and his accent thickened. “I wonder what your skin tastes like. At that pulse point on your neck, on your belly, behind your knee. I wonder how your clit would feel against my tongue.”

  Mac felt something inside her spasm. Oh, that dark, sexy voice whispering those dirty things to her…

  “I wonder how my cock will stretch you, Mackenna. What noises you’ll make as I fill you.”

  “You’d better fucking stay safe on this mission,” she said, “or you’ll never find out.”

  He went still. “When we get back, you’ll let me have you?”

  “You’ll have to come back to find out.”

  He slid his hand into her hair, tugging her head back. “We’re both coming back safely.”

  She heard the promise in his voice. But she’d been on enough missions to know things went wrong. She looked around the quiet, deserted garden. There was no one around. And maybe it was time she let loose some of the things she kept hidden inside her.

  “Well, we’ll see when we come back. But right now, you could find out how my clit feels in your mouth.”

  She felt his muscles bunch beneath her. He made a deep growling sound. Before she could think, he scooped her up and moved deeper into the trees. A second later, her back hit the grass.

  Mackenna couldn’t get enough air in her lungs. He was looming over her, and then he knelt, tugging at her trousers. He stripped her with a methodical intensity that made it hard to breathe.

  “I’m not tame or patient, Mackenna.” His palms slid along her legs. “Right now, I’m very hungry.”

  He reached out and grabbed a flower off a nearby bush. It was a wild, pink bloom—full and lush. He undid the buttons on her shirt and flicked it open. She wasn’t wearing a bra. He made a sound, running the bloom down her cheek, down her neck, across her breasts. The petals were as soft as silk on her skin and she arched up into the sensation. She could feel the grass beneath her, smell the beautiful, lush scent of the flowers, and she could smell him—sexy, hungry man.

  He dragged the bloom down her legs, teasing the sensitive skin on the inside of her thighs. With a growl, he tossed the flower away, gripped her legs, and pushed them apart. He wasted no time leaning down and then his mouth was on her.

  Mac reared up. The shock of wet heat was so good.

  He lapped at her. Long licks up and down. Then he found her clit, circling it. Oh. She tried to hold on to some sanity, but he gave her no chance to assimilate the sharp, bright feelings battering at her. His tongue was a wicked weapon and it didn’t matter what else was happening, she just wanted to come.

  He sucked her clit between his lips and she shattered with a thin cry.

  As Mac came back down, Niko was pressing kisses against her thighs. She felt his hand slide up to cup one of her breasts, thumbing her nipple lazily. She looked down and saw he was smiling.

  “You look pleased with yourself,” she said.

  “Hell, yeah.” He dragged his fingers over her skin, down her belly. “Plus I had paint on my hands.” His smile widened. “Now you’re covered in streaks of it.”

  She looked down and gasped. The imprints of his fingers were caught in paint on her breasts, streaks on her thighs, on her belly.

  He pressed his palm against her quivering belly. “Don’t wash these off.” He reached up and cupped her breasts again. “I want to be on this mission and know my marks are on you. Our sexy little secret.”

  “Niko—” If any of the squad saw them, she’d never live it down.

  “My marks all over you.” He dragged a finger over her belly. “My claim.”

  She sucked in a breath. Sinful, sexy man. She wasn’t surprised he wanted to claim her…what surprised her was that she liked the idea. Did that make her weak? Stupid? She wasn’t sure, but she knew she wasn’t washing the marks off before they headed into danger.

  Chapter Eight

  It was different seeing it with your own eyes.

  Niko stood in the Hawk, holding on to an overhead handhold, and staring out the side window. Dawn was still a ways off, and the world was lit with only a murky, gray light. But it was enough for him to see the devastation below. He knew what the shattered ruins of Sydney looked like. He’d seen them on the screens numerous times before.

  But this was his first time flying over them and seeing it for himself.

  As the Hawk swept northward, Niko took in the broken towns, the abandoned cars, the overgrown fields. Damn aliens. It made him more determined to make this mission a success.

  The carbon fiber armor felt familiar. As did the well-used knives he still cleaned and cared for that were tucked inside his armor. It was as if the years he’d put between him and his previous job were gone in an instant. There wasn’t much he missed about his previous life, but that sense of anticipation before a mission…nothing quite matched it.

  He looked behind him and spotted Gabe leaning against the back wall of the Hawk. Devlin Gray sat relaxed in a seat, somehow looking suave and stylish in his armor. Mac sat behind Devlin, calmly checking her carbine and laser pistol.

  The sight of her made Niko’s heart clench. Okay, one thing might exceed the feeling of heading out on a mission. Stripping Mackenna Carides naked and putting his mouth on her. He let his gaze drift down her body, hidden by the black carbon fiber, but he knew his marks were there.

  Chyort, he was getting hard. At that moment, she lifted her head and their gazes caught. He saw the heat flare in her eyes. She knew exactly what he was thinking.

  Soon, they reached the outskirts of Sydney. The devastation was much worse here. His jaw went tight. The crumpled and burned-out houses, the partly-collapsed office buildings and shops. His hand clenched on the handle.

  At the Enclave, they’d stayed hidden away and safe. While they
’d done that, so many had suffered and died.

  Mackenna moved up beside him. “It’s hard to see, isn’t it?”

  So many dead. The words echoed in Niko’s head. “Yeah.”

  “There’s the airport,” she said with a nod of her head. “And the ship.”

  Niko hissed out a breath. Lights were on around it, illuminating the huge leviathan. The aliens’ giant ship looked like a hulking sea creature. Monstrous and terrifying.

  “I’ve seen it before,” she said, “but this will be the closest I’ve ever gotten to it. Hell Squad, Reed’s fiancé, Natalya, Roth, and Devlin had a mission to infiltrate it and retrieve some alien energy cubes.”

  The thought of her anywhere near, let alone inside the alien ship, made Niko break out in a sweat.

  “Okay, listen up,” Dev said from behind them. “This drone killer’s territory is just past the alien ship, near the water. Finn will drop us as close as he can get us, a few kilometers away, and we’ll go in from there. Full stealth mode. We get to the location, scope it out, and see what we can see.”

  “Don’t go in the water,” Gabe said.

  “Why?” Niko swiveled.

  Gabe shrugged. “Believe me, you don’t want to know. But it has a lot of teeth.”

  Brilliant. Niko looked back out the window and felt the Hawk begin its descent.

  “In position,” Finn called back from the cockpit. “I can’t risk getting any closer. You need an evac, you need to get back to this point. I’ll be hiding out and waiting for you.”

  Gabe shoved the door open. They were hovering a few feet off the ground. He watched Mackenna leap out with practiced ease. He followed her, pulling his carbine into his chest.

  Once Gabe and Dev were out, they watched the camouflaged Hawk pull away.

  They were in the heart of alien territory, with no comms to the outside world.

  They were on their own.

  The four of them fell into position. Crouched low and staying close together, they moved forward. Dev took the lead.

  “We need to head that way.” Dev pointed across the mass of runways that had once served Sydney.

  They raced forward, using patches of long grass for cover. In between the runways, the grass was tangled and overgrown, while the runways themselves were cracked and buckled.

  As they waded through another patch of grass, Niko thought about the creature the squads called the velox—a cunning ambush predator resembling velociraptors. It didn’t sound like anything they wanted to run into.

  Suddenly, Dev held up a hand. They all dropped down to the ground. Niko pushed aside some grass in front of him and caught a glimpse of a raptor patrol ahead.

  “Wait them out,” Dev murmured.

  Beside Niko, he saw Mac watching the scene with her cool, tough face. So damn sexy.

  They waited and finally the raptors moved on. Their team headed off again. Niko spotted a lot of activity in the distance, by the alien ship. But in the quiet corner where they were, there didn’t appear to be much going on. Niko looked up and scanned the slowly lightening sky, looking for that shadow they’d seen on the drone feed. Nothing.

  Soon, a cluster of large, squat tanks appeared out of the shadows ahead. He guessed they’d been used for fuel.

  “Look.” Mackenna pointed.

  As they got closer, he saw that some of the tanks were rusted, with a few holes visible in them here and there. But on top of the one on the far right, where Mackenna was pointing, he saw a strange collection of branches, leaves, and trash perched on top.

  What the hell?

  Dev nodded and they made their way over to the tank. They circled around it and Niko spotted the ladder attached to the side.

  Dev went first, then Mackenna, and then Niko. Gabe brought up the rear.

  They climbed onto the tank’s flat roof and Niko sucked in a breath.

  It was a nest.

  The drone killer had made it out of whatever the hell it had scavenged. In the center of the huge nest, he spotted bones—bleached white by the sun—fast-food wrappers, bits of plastics, foil, and cardboard, and pieces of electronics.

  “There’s the drone,” Mackenna said.

  Or what was left of it. The thing was in pieces.

  “I’ll get some shots.” Dev pulled out a tiny camera. He wasted no time getting images of the nest.

  Niko saw Gabe looking upward and he did the same. Yeah, Niko was pretty sure they didn’t want the drone killer to find them standing in the middle of its nest.

  “Mac, grab the drone,” Dev said.

  With a nod, Mackenna pulled open a bag and moved forward. She started scooping up the remnants of the drone.

  Suddenly, Gabe crouched by the edge of the tank and lifted his carbine. “Down. Raptors.”

  They all crouched and Niko swiveled. He looked over toward the alien ship and spotted a patrol of raptors, their lights arcing ahead of them as they patrolled.

  “Hopefully they’ll go the other way,” Makenna whispered.

  They all stayed frozen, tense. Mackenna’s shoulder brushed against Niko’s and he willed the raptors to head in the opposite direction.

  Suddenly, there was a groan of metal beneath them.

  Chyort voz’mi! Niko felt the metal beneath them bowing under them.

  “Shit,” Mackenna whispered harshly. “It’s giving way!”

  Niko reached out and wrapped his arm around Mackenna. A second later, the metal beneath them gave out.

  He heard her curse and then they were all falling down into the tank.

  ***

  Fuck. Mackenna pushed to her feet. Nothing was broken or hurting. “Everyone okay?”

  Gabe and Niko were already standing, but Dev was sitting up, cradling one arm. He probed the limb and looked up.

  “Broke my arm.”

  Mac felt her stomach clench. Double fuck. Outside the tank, she could hear the guttural shouts and grunts as the raptors came closer.

  “We’re sitting ducks in here.” The raptors had to have heard the collapse. All they had to do was climb the tank, aim their weapons down, and open fire. Mac knew they’d be dead in seconds.

  Gabe was circling the tank like a caged lion. He stopped at a hatch at the back. He slammed his shoulder against it and the entire tank shuddered.

  Mac hurried over, Niko at her side. “You think you can get it open?”

  Gabe gave a single nod. “I’m gonna try.”

  Gabe started slamming against the hatch. Mac arched her neck, looking all around. She spotted a few weak spots in the metal, showing the brightening sky behind…but they were all well above their heads. Why couldn’t the damn thing be rusted down here at the bottom?

  She watched as Gabe hammered his body against the metal, his muscles straining. It was clear he had enhanced strength, but right now, even that wasn’t enough against the inches of thick steel.

  “Raptors are getting closer.” Niko’s tone was grim.

  Like her, he was looking up, staring at the metal walls of the tank.

  Then he swung his carbine around. “I’ll climb up. Try to buy some time for Gabe to punch through the metal.”

  Climb up? Mac looked at the tank’s slick sides askance. “You can’t climb this. There’s nothing to hold on to. You’ll never make it.”

  “I’ve climbed things far harder than this.”

  Her heart started hammering against her ribs. “Even if you could climb out, you can’t take on an entire raptor patrol alone.”

  “I can if it buys you time.”

  Her chest spasmed. “Niko—”

  He grabbed the front of her armor and yanked her close. The kiss was hard. Short. Not enough.

  He turned around, pressed his hands against the metal, and started climbing.

  Hell, the man was like a spider. He kept a smooth, steady pace, somehow finding the smallest things to hold on to. If it had been her, she’d have slid back down a hundred times.

  Clearly, being a former assassin meant he had some
interesting skills.

  She wanted to call him back, but bit down on her tongue. She’d told him that he needed to respect her abilities and her work. She had to do the same for him.

  He reached the top of the tank and paused, but never looked back. Seconds later, he disappeared over the edge.

  Mac looked back at Gabe. “Get the hatch open.” She moved closer, trying to find a way to help.

  Gabe grunted and kept ramming his shoulder against the metal. She saw a growing dent in the metal, but the hatch still hadn’t given way.

  Devlin stood nearby, watching intently, keeping his arm still.

  With nothing left to do, she moved over to him. “Let’s get this arm strapped.”

  She pulled out her field first aid kit. She grabbed a bandage and fashioned a sling. She made sure she didn’t focus on the bit of bone she saw protruding through Dev’s armor. That the guy wasn’t screaming or hadn’t passed out from the pain was a miracle.

  She looked at his face. The guy was outrageously handsome, with an elegant, sexy edge that gave a woman fantasies. “How come some woman hasn’t snapped you up yet?”

  He gave her a faint smile. “Guess I haven’t met the one, yet.”

  She finished wrapping his arm. “I bet the Enclave beauties are tripping over themselves.”

  Another quirk of his lips. “I’m quite…choosy.”

  “That, I believe.”

  “So, you and Nikolai, huh?”

  She didn’t answer, but instead, raised her head, listening. Wondering again what he was doing outside, and if he was staying safe.

  Dev tilted his chin. “It’s kind of obvious when you two look at each other.”

  Outside the tank, she heard a sudden burst of carbine fire. It was met by the distinctive sound of raptor weapons.

  Mac’s fingers curled into fists, and she closed her eyes.

  “Don’t count him out,” Dev said. “He was a hell of an agent. People used to whisper about him in the halls of every covert agency around the world. He can take care of himself.”