I frowned at the screen before me, populated with vitals and blood analysis done with the doctor’s handy little magic wand. “This doesn’t make sense. I need a biochemical analysis of his infected tissue only. Not this.” I waved my hands in the air. “This won’t work.”
Krael leaned over my shoulder. “That is the complete chemical analysis, Lady Rone. I don’t understand.”
“I don’t want to know what was in his entire body all at once, I only want to know what was in the tissue around his implants. Specifically, the black tissue. And the implants themselves.”
He shook his head. “Why? Quell affects the mind.”
I was going to strangle him. Where was a fucking punch biopsy, a simple slide kit and a basic microscope when I needed them? “Look. I don’t care what was in his head. I’ve seen your reports. The macrophage levels in the tissue surrounding the Hive implants are way too high. It’s like he just got the implants and his body is having a massive inflammatory reaction. I need to know what’s there. I need a microscope and slides. I need a complete blood count that I do myself.”
“I do not know what you are asking for, my lady.”
Doctor Surnen walked toward us, his nose buried in a tablet display screen. He hadn’t exactly been friendly, but he hadn’t gotten in my way either. “The human immune system is primitive, Krael. Primitive and highly aggressive. A human body will literally destroy itself trying to fight off a disease.” He raised his gaze to me and lifted his brows. “Or while attacking a foreign body.”
Krael titled his head. “Such as the Hive implants.”
“Yes.” I wanted to leap into the air. I’d been arguing with this guy for over an hour. “I need to look at the surface conformations of the absorbed proteins. I think his body was fighting the Hive implants. But there is too much activity. It’s like the implants were new. His inflammatory response would indicate an early phase cascade reaction instead of chronic. Please, can’t you guys conjure a basic microscope? Some glass slides? I’ll handle the blood counts and tissue samples myself.”
Doctor Surnen nodded at the S-Gen unit in the corner of the medical station. “Try asking for one. Perhaps the system has your microscope in its database.”
I nodded and walked to the S-Gen pad, placing my palm on the activation switch, as I’d been taught. We were in a large work area, away from the main treatment rooms. It felt like this room had been built to handle triage, or large-scale emergencies. Four surgical beds were spaced in the center of the room like statues, the bright lights, hovering wands and gadgets something I would work to understand later. Right now, I just wanted a fucking microscope. I needed to see the Hive implants. Krael told me the Hive technology was biosynthetic, engineered, living tissue that actually fused with the host’s cells. I needed to see what they looked like.
Maybe the two cells weren’t getting along very well. Based on the white cell counts I’d seen coming from Captain Brooks’ blood work, his body had been in a full-scale war with something. And that something was attacking my mate right this moment, eating away at his flesh, waiting to kill him, just like it killed Brooks.
Over my dead body.
“Tilting LED microscope, cytology configuration, 3500 times magnification.” I had little hope that my request was going to work, but hopped up and down once when the piece of equipment materialized on the S-Gen pad. Krael explained that it was an adaptation of their current transport technology. S-Gen stood for Spontaneous Matter Generator, and anything that had been programmed into the system could be acquired with a basic verbal request, from food to clothing to…lab equipment.
Now I had my microscope. Complete with the stupid power cord. I asked for glass slides and slide covers next. Picking up the end of the cord, I turned to the doctor. “Okay. Where can I plug this in?”
Chapter Twelve
Rachel
The green medical uniform I wore was comfortable and loose, but that was small relief as I walked back to the suite I shared with my mates. My mind actually ached, exhausted from hours of poring over chemical analysis, tissue slides and blood count results.
But most of all, my entire body felt like I’d been beaten with a stick. Doctor Surnen was an uptight asshole. That was a fact. But he was brilliant. He’d given me exactly what I asked for and left me to my work. He’d watched me like a hawk every time I got near Captain Brooks’ body, every sample I took, every note I wrote down in the college-ruled spiral notebook I’d used the S-Gen to acquire.
Yes, I could work on a computer for hours, but there was something about writing things down, putting pen to paper that often helped me see patterns I’d missed. My system worked, and I held the notebook to my chest like the prized possession it was. The answers were there. I knew it. My gut was twisting and churning, waiting for me to figure it out. There was something there, something I’d missed, a connection. A pattern. An answer.
The whole situation made every internal warning system I had scream that something wasn’t right. I was missing some element, a vital piece of the puzzle. And the doctor’s bad attitude didn’t exactly help me relax and think. I needed space and time to absorb the data. I needed to get out of that makeshift morgue and away from the testosterone overload. Between the doctor’s scowling and Krael’s hovering, they’d about driven me out of my mind.
I couldn’t decide if the doctor’s asshole factor was because I was a woman, an outsider, because he saw me as a threat, or because he had something to hide.
Based on previous experience in the scientific community, and, for that matter, corporate America, the odds of him being a misogynistic asshat were high.
Very high.
Two huge warriors kept pace behind me as I was escorted back to the suite I shared with my mates. Maxim had Base business to take care of, and an emergency meeting with Prime Nial, the leader of their whole damn planet. So, I couldn’t exactly whine like a baby and insist one of them stand around and watch me work.
I would have ignored them anyway, my mind occupied with biochemical reactions and tissue sample testing. Still, I’d been left to deal with the brunt of Doctor Surnen’s asshole attitude alone. It only made me realize just how dependent I’d become on my mates. A week ago, I could have worked circles around that stupid doctor, ignored his jabs, and not been bothered in the least. I was used to being strong.
But now, I’d had not one, but two, big, tough, strong warriors at my back, warriors I knew would fight, die, even kill for me.
Shocking how quickly I’d grown to depend on them. To lean on them and trust in their abilities to take care of me.
Weak. I was weak now. And so worn out by fighting for personal space in the lab that I didn’t even argue when one of my guards stepped around me to place his hand on the scanner that would alert my mates that I was home.
The door slid open immediately. Ryston took one look at me and pulled me into his arms. The door slid closed, leaving the guards in the hallway. I melted into Ryston’s heat. Behind him, I heard a woman’s voice, and Maxim’s.
“I’m sorry. No,” he said.
“Maxim, I’m your mother. Come home. Bring your new mate and Ryston with you. I want to meet my new daughter.”
“Then you’ll have to come to the Colony,” he countered. “I can’t leave. The men need us here.”
The argument continued, and as much as I tried to focus on the steady beat of Ryston’s heart, I couldn’t help but be curious as I tossed my notebook onto the floor. Later. I’d look at it later. Right now, Maxim was talking to his mother. Wouldn’t that make her my mother-in-law? Was she here? Oh god, I looked awful. I couldn’t meet her like this!
I lifted my head and peeked around Ryston’s shoulder to view the screen mounted on the wall above the sofa. Filling the space, like a huge, wall-mounted TV back home, was a Prillon female, obviously much older than my mates.
I sighed in relief. She wasn’t here. I wanted to meet her, but not right now. Not when I wasn’t at my best. I needed makeup, or
at least a shower, before I met my mother-in-law.
She was not as dark in coloring as Maxim, but not fair like Ryston either. Her hair was golden, like stained oak, and her eyes were like her son’s, a deep brown. Her hair, instead of being streaked with gray, like an older human’s, was streaked with strands so dark they were nearly black.
Her face, however, was much like her son’s. The resemblance was undeniable, and I found myself wondering what his father looked like.
“I’m not leaving the Colony, Mother. And there is no welcome on Prillon Prime waiting for Ryston. If you want to meet your new daughter, you will have to convince Father to pay for a transport.”
“There is nothing for you there. And Prime Nial lifted the ban on all citizens of the Colony. You are free now. Free to come home.”
Maxim ran a hand over the back of his neck, a clear indication that he was frustrated. That one small, outward indication of his upset was telling. From the short time I’d known him, he barely flinched during any confrontation. This was his mother and I knew family could be more troublesome and difficult to face than even the worst enemy.
“I am Governor of Base 3. It is my role, as leader, to be here for the warriors. It is not a frivolous task. Ryston is here and so is Rachel. My life is here.”
“I’m not suggesting you leave them behind,” she repeated. “I just want to see my grandchildren.”
“We have yet to claim our mate.”
She looked stunned. “What? Why?”
“Because she is an Interstellar Bride. She has thirty days.”
The woman humphed, clearly unsatisfied by that answer. “You allow her to control you? Have you become weak on that wild planet? Claim her whether she wants it or not. I want grandchildren. I want you home.”
“If you arrange transport for a visit, let me know. Goodbye, Mother.”
The screen went black. I felt both of my mates’ emotions through the collar. Frustration was black like sludge.
“Have I done this to you?” I asked. “Am I making you unhappy?”
Maxim turned at my words, saw us there. He closed his eyes briefly and I felt happiness and sadness mixed. It wasn’t like a scale where they balanced out. It was a sick mixture of emotions that warred within him.
“Have I made you weak?”
I didn’t want that. Not at all. Both men were strong and powerful, even without their roles on the planet. To be brought low by a female was emasculating on Earth. How they felt would be even worse.
“Rachel, you have done no such thing,” Maxim said, coming up to us and brushing my hair back from my face. “You have dark circles beneath your eyes.”
I didn’t need him to be worried about me now. Yes, I needed sleep, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t talk.
“Is that why you won’t fuck me, because we’re not mated?” I glanced over my shoulder at Ryston. I didn’t wait for him to answer, for I posed my next question at Maxim. “Are you considered less because I have yet to tell you to claim me? Does she think I am leading you around by the balls?”
Maxim laughed then, a rare occurrence. “Mate, you definitely have me by the balls.”
He must have felt the shift in my mood, for he took my hand, placed it on his chest.
“When you see me and Ryston, what are your first thoughts?”
I frowned, but replied, “Big. Powerful. Commanding.”
He nodded once. “Yes, we are all those things.”
Ryston’s hands went to my shoulders, his touch warm.
“But if you deny us? If your heart does not belong to us, then what will we be?” He put a finger over my lips. “The answer is nothing. Without you, we are nothing. I know you have your thirty days, but you must know that while we will be bossy brutes outside the bedroom and dominate you in bed, you are the one with all the power.”
I didn’t really understand.
“You can have your mate and make your mother happy,” Ryston said. “Take her home, Maxim.”
Maxim looked over my shoulder at his second. “What the fuck are you saying?”
The anger that had dissipated as he looked at me spiked once again.
“You have a family that loves you and wants you back. You don’t need to make a new life here. You have your mate now. Your life is complete. Go home.”
Maxim took a step back, then another. Slashed his hand through the air. This was the first time I’d seen him truly flustered.
Turning, I looked up at Ryston. “What are you saying? You don’t want to be my mate? His second?”
Ryston lifted his chin. His pale eyes somehow seemed darker, more intense. “If it will make Maxim happy. All we’ve ever wanted since we were banished to this planet was to be accepted, to return home. Now we can, thanks to the Prime. There’s nothing keeping Maxim here, especially now that he has you. He is a revered warrior, a veteran, who was blessed with a mate. He can return to Prillon Prime. Maxim, go home.”
“What about you?” I asked, studying him.
“I am not so lucky. Once my family saw how I’d been integrated by the Hive, they wished me well and informed me that they never wanted to hear from me again.” He put his hand up to his face where the metal glinted from the light in the room. “I might be a veteran, but I am not revered. No one on the home world will be happy if I return. There is nothing for me there. My life is on the Colony.”
Ryston had been rejected because of the Hive parts? They thought less of him because his temple was a little silver and his eye had a bit of metallic glint in the right light? Were his family members out of their minds? “That’s ridiculous.”
“It is the way of the war. There are things we can’t come back from.”
“I don’t accept that.” Did their people have any idea what he’d done to protect their planet? All Coalition planets? He’d sacrificed and survived and he had been rejected? “Your mother?”
He shook his head, his gaze full of resignation and acceptance. The pain he felt was old, like a thick scar on his heart.
“If they don’t want you, then they’re a bunch of selfish idiots,” I said, wanting to pull up Ryston’s mother on the big TV and give her a piece of my mind.
“Maxim’s mother may be a little wary of the Colony, but she’s only worried for her son.” Ryston looked at Maxim. “She loves you. Wants you home. She’ll do anything to have you back, even say things that hurt you.”
“Your honor makes you stay,” Maxim said. Ryston nodded. “My honor keeps me from going.”
I saw the understanding cross Ryston’s face. “I will not give up what we have. You are my family now.” Maxim waved a hand between us. “I won’t give this up for my mother. She will have to understand. This is what I want. The three of us. Here, on the Colony.”
“But—”
“When we claim Rachel, then we can return to Prillon, but only for a short visit. And Ryston, you will come, too. I will not risk Rachel by traveling without my second to protect her. If my parents want to be a part of our lives, to watch their grandchildren grow, they will have to come to Base 3.”
I flushed hotly at the idea of making babies with them, but I remembered it was the way of the Prillon. It wasn’t as if I was a baby-making machine to Maxim. It was expected of all Prillon mates to conceive quickly after mating. The bond was too strong for anything less than around-the-clock sex. And if I wanted Ryston’s cock in my pussy, I had to get those eggs moving.
I imagined a little boy with Maxim’s dark scowl and warm eyes, a little girl with Ryston’s golden hair and fiery temper. It felt like a dream, something too perfect ever to be real. But I knew, if I stayed, I would have their children. And soon. We would become a family in truth. And I was shocked at how badly I wanted that future.
Maxim was adamantly opposed to going to Prillon Prime without Ryston. Ryston was adamant that Maxim reconnect with his family. They were both so full of honor. So full of sacrifice.
“You both give up so much for me,” I admitted, my voice soft.<
br />
Ryston went to stand beside Maxim. They looked at each other, then nodded. Their little argument, it was over with just a simple nod? Men.
“We may disagree on some things,” Ryston said. “But we will never disagree on you.”
“That’s right,” Maxim continued. “The first moment we saw you in that prison, we knew. You are ours. You are what brings us together. And when you allow us to claim you, it will not be in words or thoughts only. But you will connect our bodies as well.”
My body heated at the idea and I felt their arousal flood my system like melted caramel sliding through my bloodstream.
“You mean when you fuck my pussy and Ryston fucks my ass.”
“At the same time, yes,” Ryston added.
“The claiming will be complete when we come in you, fill you with our seed. Your collar will change color, will no longer be black. You will be ours. Forever.”
I heated at Maxim’s words. Not because they were arousing, they were, but because they filled a void in my heart, an emptiness I hadn’t known was there.
“What if I want that now?” I asked, then bit my lip.
Maxim’s shoulders went back. “Are you saying you accept my claim?”
Was I? Did I want to reject them and be paired with a different set of mates on the Colony? The idea of two other men, strangers, left me feeling empty. But making it permanent, like really, really permanent, was scary.
Chapter Thirteen
Rachel
“I… I want you. Both of you. I want it all. But today? Right now?” I shook my head. There was too much going on around us. I couldn’t think about happily ever after when a man I’d just met, a human, a new friend had literally just died in my arms. When the black sickness was spreading on Maxim’s body and I had no idea how to stop it. When the doctor was surly and watching me like I was the enemy. When the lab results didn’t add up.
Surrender To The Cyborgs (Interstellar Brides: The Colony Book 1) Page 12