She smiled at him, a real smile, and I took a step forward before I could rein in the bastard inside me who didn’t want that smile directed at anyone else. “Isn’t it? Your ReGen wands are great, don’t get me wrong. But sometimes, you have to be able to see something to understand it.”
The doctor slid a tiny slip of glass off the device and replaced it with another from a tray. He locked it in place with small metal clasps and lowered his eyes to the viewing lenses. “I know our scientists have studied this technology in great detail. I’ve read all the reports. I’ve even done some analysis and research myself, but I’ve never looked at them like this.”
Rachel left the doctor to his device and walked to a small tray set up near one of the surgical beds. She waved her hand to the bed and lifted her gaze to us. “Sit. I need a sample from each of you.”
Ryston sat first and I followed. It was uncanny, the way Rachel didn’t look at us, but through us, as if we were not hers. Not real. Not even here. Her mind was far, far from here.
I longed to pull her into my arms and kiss her senseless, to remind her who she belonged to and bring her back to the here and now, to us. But I knew that would be a huge mistake. Whatever she was working on in her mind was important for us all. As much as I wanted her softness to comfort me, I needed her like this, too. Strong. Strong enough to save all of us.
She lifted a tissue slicer from the tray and pulled Ryston’s head down, twisting it so she could place the device on the contaminated tissue of his temple. With a smooth, controlled cut, she shaved a layer of the tissue from Ryston’s flesh and placed it on one of the small glass pieces before handing it to the doctor.
“Doctor. Did you watch me earlier? Do you know how to do a wet mount?”
“Yes. I was watching you.”
“I knew it.” She placed the slide next to him on the counter and turned away. “Good. Wet mount. Write an R on the side with that black marker so we don’t get them mixed up.”
Fascinated, I watched the doctor do exactly what she ordered as she brought one of the glass slides and the tissue cutter toward me. “Your turn, Maxim. I want something close to the implant.”
I pulled my tunic off over my head and dropped it onto the table beside me. Ryston cursed and Rachel paused, her eyes flaring as she took in the advancement of my condition. “Holy shit.”
“Don’t lose focus now, mate. Finish this.” I held out my arm and remained perfectly still as she took her sample. She looked up at me when it was done. “I want a couple more, one on the outer edge and one from the Hive bit. Is that okay?”
I lifted her chin and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “You, mate, can have anything you need.”
Her cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink, but she nodded and returned to her task, handing the doctor slides, instructing him to mount them and label them with M-1, M-2 and M-3.
With an absent wave, she moved to the doctor’s side. “You can put your shirt back on, baby.”
Baby?
The one word held me paralyzed until Ryston bumped my shoulder with a chuckle. “Baby, huh? Bastard. Why didn’t I get a love name?”
I did not bother to respond as we both watched the doctor surrender the slides and the odd-looking machine to our mate. She switched them multiple times, taking notes in her little book as the pain ratcheted tighter and sharper inside me until it burst.
Lifting my hand to my head with a moan, I felt myself fall. Felt Ryston’s arms catch me before I hit the floor. Heard Rachel shout, and everything went black.
* * *
Rachel
The answer was here, in these slides.
The Hive cells in Maxim’s body had been reactivated somehow. They were moving, multiplying, and, without doubt, causing a massive inflammatory response. If the same process had been going on in Captain Brooks’ body, the Hive implants would have begun releasing Quell into his system as well.
Looking at the crawling infestation of living Hive implants, I had no doubt that if we took Maxim’s blood right now, he’d look like a junkie as well.
But Ryston’s implants looked as the doctor had told me they were supposed to, as all warriors on the Colony should, this far away from the Hive collective frequencies. The Colony was deep in Coalition-controlled space, the distance meant to be a protection from reactivation of their implants.
“Maxim?” Ryston’s alarm cut through my thoughts like a hot knife through butter and I turned in my seat to see my mate topple to the floor.
“Oh, god. No.” No. No. No. I was so close. I almost had this figured out.
Ryston laid him down on the floor and I leaned over him. “Maxim? Baby? Hang on, okay? I’ve got this.” I kissed his forehead and settled him back on the flooring. “I’ve got this. I’ve got this.”
Doctor Surnen rushed to Maxim’s side with his ReGen wand, but I ignored him. I had to figure this out. Now. Right fucking now.
It felt like a dream, a nightmare in slow motion that I couldn’t wake up from. I sat on the stool and opened the notebook, staring at my drawings, my data, thinking about the dormant, unmoving condition of Ryston’s implant cells versus the active, toxic, going-to-kill-my-mate-if-I-couldn’t-figure-this-out, Hive cells.
“Doctor?”
“Yes.” He was on his knees next to Maxim, but I didn’t need his body, just his brain.
“You said the Hive implants were controlled by a specific broadcast frequency used by the Hive for all their biosynthetic soldiers?”
“Yes.”
“So, why aren’t you guys still in the Hive mind, or whatever? How did you turn it off?”
The doctor twisted at the waist and looked up at me over his shoulder. “The Colony is deep in Coalition space. None of the Hive broadcast frequencies, so far, have been able to penetrate this deep into our territory. Also, this planet was chosen because it has an extraordinarily strong magnetic sphere. We use specialized satellite relay systems for communications and transport. Without them, the planet’s natural magnetic field would disrupt everything.”
I bit my lip and thought of the little cyborg cells swimming around like fucking tadpoles on the slide I’d taken from Maxim’s back. “So, if someone could get a Hive frequency to broadcast down here, what would happen?”
He shook his head, but it was Ryston who answered. “That’s impossible.”
“Why? Do you monitor for it? Would you even know?”
Ryston’s gaze narrowed. “No. I’m on the security team, Rachel. We don’t scan for that. In sixty years, there has never been a Hive broadcast down here. They can’t get through.”
I glanced at the slides, then back to my second mate. “Well, something is getting through. Your implants are still dead. Stuck on that slide like sludge. But Maxim? And the captain? Their implant cells are alive. They’re moving around, dividing, spreading. Something turned them back on.”
“Gods, no.” The doctor swayed, as if I spoke a terrible horror. But Ryston rose like an avenging angel, fearless and filled with rage. God, he was magnificent.
“Can you find it? Someone is broadcasting. If you don’t shut it down, it will kill all of you.”
“They might be trying to kill us or possibly enslave us,” the doctor added. “We just don't know.”
I hadn’t considered that. “They want you back?”
Ryston walked to a communication station near the door. “Of course. We have an entire planet of integrated soldiers for their war. Biological material already processed and controlled. It’s why we were never allowed to go home. This was everyone’s greatest fear, that they’d somehow figure out how to turn us back on, take control of our bodies and our minds. Make us kill for them.”
Ryston lifted his hand and called someone on his security team. “Do a sweep for all known Hive broadcast frequencies.”
Less than a minute later, a string of loud cursing filled the room via the speaker. “Captain. We found something. Sending a team to investigate.”
“Where?” Ryston
demanded.
“Medical.”
I turned to the doctor, to my mate. Puzzle solved. I couldn’t find their broadcast thing, and I couldn’t track Hive gadgets. I’d done my job. “Doctor. How do you turn that crap off? There’s got to be a way to turn if off before it kills him.”
“Of course. Of course.” As if in a daze, the doctor rushed to a drawer that slid out from the smooth, green-and-cream-striped wall. He lifted another wand-looking gadget from the hidden space and hurried back to Maxim. I knelt on the floor and lifted my mate’s head into my lap. “Stay with me, baby. Just hold on. I’m right here. Don’t leave me.”
The doctor turned on the device and a bright light flickered from red to blue as the doctor moved it over Maxim’s body. “What are you doing?”
“This creates a highly charged magnetic field. It will wipe the programming from the Hive implants at a cellular level, rendering them innate.”
Three giant men burst into the room, with Ryston waiting for them. He held out his hand and one of the security officers placed a scanner of some sort into his palm. Ryston turned it on and the four immediately disappeared into an adjoining room.
Not two minutes later they were back, something no larger than a golf ball in Ryston’s palm. “I’m going to rip his cock from his body and shove it down his throat.”
“Who, Captain?”
The doctor lifted his gaze from treating Maxim to sigh. “That belongs to Krael. My top medical officer.”
I blinked, slowly. Was he serious? The helpless, worthless idiot who’d shadowed me for hours? “Krael?”
“I’m afraid so.”
Ryston looked to his team. “Go get him. I want him alive.”
“Yes, sir.” They left at once and a cold, completely illogical shiver ran through me when I thought Ryston would leave as well. I recognized the feeling, had felt it often in the prison. Terror. Lonely, helpless terror.
I needed my mates. Both of them. They were fierce and protective and stronger than I could ever be. I’d grown accustomed to having them beside me. The thought of Ryston walking away with Maxim hurt, leaving me to deal with it alone?
I felt like a weak fool, but the idea of him not being with me nearly made my heart stop beating. I wanted him to stay. I needed him. But I wouldn’t ask. I couldn’t ask. Not if he had a job to do. I wouldn’t stop him. Wouldn’t stand in his way. “Ryston.”
Ryston walked to where I sat on the cold, hard floor with the doctor and crouched beside me. His big, warm hand settled on my shoulder and just like that, I settled. “I’m not leaving your side, Rachel. I’ll never walk away when you need me.”
The tears came automatically, a silent river down my cheeks. I ignored them. Let them fall. I wouldn’t stop touching Maxim to wipe them away.
Ryston addressed the doctor. “Is he going to make it?”
The doctor nodded and just like that I could breathe again. “Yes. He’ll need a full cycle in the ReGen pod, but now that we’ve stopped the reactivation process, he’ll survive.” The doctor’s gaze shifted to me. “Thanks to you, Lady Rone.”
I lifted my gaze to Ryston, my body burning with equal parts relief and love. Soul-searing, all-consuming love for my second mate, with his temper and his passion. Maxim was my hearth, my home, but Ryston was my fire. I needed them both. “I love you.”
His hand dropped to my collar, the look in his eyes one I’d never seen before. “I know, love. I know.”
Chapter Fifteen
Maxim, three days later
“I am ready to be claimed,” Rachel said.
Those words stopped me. My legs, my mind. But it stirred my cock. Every Prillon male waited to hear a female say those words. I am ready to be claimed.
By doing so, Rachel would be ours, forever. Her collar would change color from black to copper. Match Ryston’s and mine. It would be a signal to everyone that she was Lady Rone officially, that she’d accepted us, wanted us. No, fuck, needed us and never wanted to let us go.
Ryston must have had the same thoughts. While I felt his surprise and blatant eagerness through the collar, his words confirmed it. “What do you mean, Rachel? Claim? To become ours permanently? To be fucked by both of us, to take our seed deep inside you? To connect us as one? We must be sure.”
She bit her lip, then nodded. “Yes. Claim me.”
I sensed her nerves, however beneath that was an unwavering confidence. “You are unsure about something.”
Her fingers went to the black collar about her neck. I longed for the moment when it would turn the color of copper fire, the color of my family. Mine.
“I want to be yours. Both of yours. I even want you to both fuck me at the same time. But I’m nervous about it. I mean…you’re both so big.”
A deep breath escaped and so did all my worries. I’d spent a full day in a ReGen pod and another day resting. Ryston and Rachel had been careful with me, but today, Rachel seemed to be done with her coddling. I was well again, no traces of the activated tissue remained. She’d saved me. While Krael had gotten away, slipped off before the truth was discovered, he’d transported off planet. We knew of the plot now, knew the evil existed and we’d watch for it. For now though, peace had returned to the Colony. And my mate wanted to be claimed. Who was I to deny her?
“You do not need to flatter us, mate. We are already yours.”
She rolled her eyes and grinned, then bit her lip again. “What if I can’t do it? Take you both, I mean.”
Ryston moved to stand before her, to stroke a finger down her cheek. “I have prepared you well, have I not? The plugs, my fingers? You can take Maxim’s cock and the biggest plug in the set at the same time.”
She glanced down at Ryston, as if she could see his cock through his armor. “But you are much bigger.”
Ryston grinned. “I am. You will have to trust us in this.”
Her earnest dark gaze met my second’s.
“Do you trust your mates to take care of you? In all things—including your pleasure?”
She looked to me and I saw the wariness clear away. All that was left was eagerness and arousal. “I do.”
I nodded once and my cock throbbed. She wanted us. Needed us. Trusted us.
“Then I will see to the ceremony,” Ryston said, stepping away and leaving the suite. The door slid silently closed behind him.
“Ceremony?” she asked, then pointed to the bedroom. “Can’t we just go in there and, well, get it on?”
I laughed then. While there hadn’t been much that held humor since her arrival on the Colony, she lightened my mood, eased my emotions. Settled me. Saved me.
“When a Prillon warrior claims his mate with his second, the ceremony is a public event.”
“A public event?” she repeated, her voice rising with each word.
“It is witnessed by those honored to be chosen by the warriors, trusted friends who will bless and protect their union. But for us, there will be no privacy, for I am Governor of this base. As leader, my bonding ceremony must be open to all. I must take the acceptance and blessing of all who would offer it.”
“The collar will change color.” She brushed her fingers over it. “Isn’t that enough for everyone to know I’ve been claimed?”
I shook my head. “It is the right of all Prillon citizens to witness our mating, to see the strength of our bond and trust that both my mate and my second are worthy. Worthy to lead this base, to help rule the Colony.”
“Yes, but they don’t need to see me taking you…Ryston, I mean, it’s private!”
Yes, having my cock sink deep into her dripping pussy while Ryston claimed her virgin ass for the first time was private. But it was also the ultimate act of our bond, her surrender an important part of the ritual, public proclamation that she belonged to us. That out of all the females in the universe, she was ours. Spilling our seed in her only told everyone on the Colony that she was taken, that no one could ever come between us. No one would doubt our union. Ever.
�
��Perhaps your Earth customs have made you think this way. As Prillon, I am not exposing you to them to shame you. I am showing everyone my mate, that I am proud to claim you with Ryston, that you belong to me, to us. I am proud of you, Rachel of Earth. You are mine and I want everyone to know it. To be envious of me. To covet you as much as I do.”
She stepped away, walked in a circle, then again. I sensed her thoughts, her wariness of the claiming ceremony. I wanted her to be proud to share the bond between us with everyone on Base 3. I wanted her to step up to the ceremonial bed eager to prove the closeness of our bond, that she wanted us and no others. Fucking us while being watched left no doubt that she was ours. Never would there be a doubt.
As soon as those thoughts settled in my mind she stopped, turning to me.
“Yes. All right.”
Tipping up her chin, she met my gaze. “I understand. I admit, I am thankful for the collars. They should be on Earth because without them, I doubt I would ever understand the depths of your male mind. So complex and yet, simple. You aren’t giving me to everyone like a cheap gift. You are treasuring me and showing the people what I mean to you.”
I sighed. “Yes, mate. Exactly. It is not law and you can refuse.” I angled my chin toward the bedroom. “Ryston can return and we will claim you privately. Trust me, we will enjoy it immensely.”
Shaking her head, she said, “No. This is important to you, to all of us. I trust you to keep me safe.”
“Then let’s get you prepared.”
She frowned. “What does that involve?”
My cock grew impossibly thicker and my balls ached, full of my seed that was just for her. “Strip, mate.”
***
Rachel
Ryston had been quick in arranging the claiming ceremony. To say I was nervous was a complete understatement. The idea of finally taking both my men, and at the same time, was so damn hot that it almost made me forget I was going to be doing it with a whole bunch of people watching. Almost.
Surrender To The Cyborgs (Interstellar Brides: The Colony Book 1) Page 14