The huge Atlan governor looked from Mak back to me. “This is your operation?”
“Yes.”
“Then I request permission to remain here with my Atlan brothers. I have faith that the Prillon warriors will see Krael dead.”
I had no doubt about that myself. “Okay. Let’s do this.” I turned to the six warriors, plus Mak. I’d never had this much backup before. Holy shit. They were all huge, and Rezzer was half in beast mode already, his face elongated, eager to kill Nexus 4. But a full frontal assault wouldn’t work. Not this time. “I’m going in. Give me exactly two minutes, and then come in with everything you’ve got.”
“No.” Mak spoke before the others had the chance.
I turned to face Mak. “I have to get close, hurt him before you get there or he’ll kill every single one of you. He’s strong, Mak. Stronger than me. We can’t overpower him.”
“How many Hive does he have with him?” The Everian Hunter, Kiel, asked, the calculating gleam behind his eyes betraying not a hint of nerves or fear. I’d heard he could run so fast, move so quickly, that he was impossible to track with the naked eye.
I’d like to see that.
“The last information I had said twelve. But that could be more or less, as they’ve had two hours to adapt.”
“He knows you’re coming?” Bryck asked.
“Yes. He does. And since I killed nine of his Soldiers up on the moon’s surface, he’s not too happy with me either.”
“What?” Braun looked at Mak, as if the death toll was his fault.
Mak arched a brow and looked down at me as if to say, See? I’m not the only one. You deserved that spanking, reckless female.
“Forget about that.” I waved my hand in the air as if killing nine Hive was inconsequential. “The Nexus unit is blue. Dark blue. Like this.” In front of all of them, I changed so my face, neck and hands which showed my only visible skin turned blue to match my armor, knowing it would tip off Nexus 4 that I was close. But I needed them to see and to understand. “Look at me,” I ordered Braun.
He did. He stared into my eyes and I used the telepathic power the Hive had given me to hold him in my mind, trap him there, just for a few seconds, to make him want to stay. When I let him go, he lurched backward with a curse.
“Shit,” he muttered, shaking his head, as if that would help erase what had just happened.
“Look into his eyes, and he’ll own you. You’ll kill your own mates for him without hesitation and believe it is right. Now at least you know more about your opponent. This is no simple Hive drone. So after the two minutes, follow me in and kill anything that moves, but leave the Nexus to me and Mak. And whatever happens, do not look into its eyes.”
The males were all staring at me, at my blue face, black hair, shark eyes. I knew exactly what I looked like. A nightmare. No, a monster from their worst nightmares.
Braun stepped forward and stared at me for long seconds before dropping to take a knee, bowing before me as the Hive had done. “You are the bravest warrior I have ever known, Gwendolyn of Earth. You are an honorable female. I pledge my life to your protection.”
“No, I don’t—“ I didn’t get to finish the sentence. All of them, even Mak, had taken a knee.
He looked up at me. “Command us, mate. We are yours.”
I was stunned. Confused. Honored.
Taking a deep breath, I accepted their salute and tried not to let it make my heart hurt. Which was impossible. Especially with Mak and his big, brown eyes staring up at me like I was the sun and the stars, his everything. “Okay. I’m going in. Give me two minutes. Two full minutes. Then come in fighting.”
Unable to stop myself, I leaned down and kissed Mak on the lips. “Stay alive.” It was an order. If he got killed, I’d chase him into the afterlife and kill him again.
Before he could argue, I was gone, using my Nexus speed to run through the cave faster than any human, or beast, or even Everian Hunter. Although I’d never been in a footrace with Kiel of Everis, I was confident I could take him.
No mere mortal could see me, not moving at full speed. I wasn’t a blur; I was a blast of wind. Gone before anyone realized I’d passed by.
But the Hive weren’t human. Not anymore. Their implants tracked me as I sped by, but none tried to stop me.
I was Nexus. Summoned by Nexus 4. Expected.
One of them.
I could hear the buzz of excitement building in the cave with my arrival. Even though they were Hive, underneath it all they were still emotional creatures. They still experienced the effects of fear, adrenaline, anxiety.
I could hear them in my head talking to me, about me, but I ignored them all. I did smile when I was reminded of Nexus 4’s anger with me over the loss of their Soldiers on the moon, but I ignored even that, heading for the center of the noise in my head, the silent black hole at the eye of the storm. Nexus 4 broadcast nothing. He was a dead zone, a darkness so deep and dark that falling into his mind was like tumbling through an ink black well with no bottom. It went on forever, with no way out. No walls. Nothing one could use for reference. Nothing but him.
And his mind was cold. So, so cold.
That cold embraced me now and my entire body responded out of reflex, the massive number of Hive implants and microcellular integrations resonating to his call. My body was a guitar string and he’d just played an entire chord. The Hive parts of me, and there were a lot of them, hummed, charged on Nexus energy. Alive.
It felt like a million tiny spiders crawling around on the underside of my skin. My skin didn’t crawl… the cells beneath my skin did. Slid around. Moved and reorganized themselves into a likeness of him, instead of Nexus 2.
They were vain, the Nexus. Nexus 4 would not want a female who looked like his rival, the one who had made me, Nexus 2.
I stopped on a dime, less than three steps from him. But not because I wanted to stop. No. He forced me, took control of all the little parts and pieces inside me that were his.
And I hated him for moving me like a puppet master moved a marionette. Hated him with a passion and vehemence I never could have managed before Mak. Before I knew what a violation this monster’s influence truly was. What it was to be loved by a mate, to be free and wanted for being myself. What goodness was.
Still, I had a role to play. I didn’t try to hide the hate. My ire had amused Nexus 2, made him feel more powerful. I counted on the fact that Nexus 4 was no different.
“Where is Nexus 2?” His voice was deep, hypnotic, and the words flowed to my ears and directly into my mind as one. I stared at his feet, not daring to raise my gaze, not even to his waist or his chest. It was just too dangerous.
Instantly, without thinking, I offered him the truth. “I don’t know. I left him behind.”
His laugh was more hiss than chuckle. If a cobra could laugh, I imagined it would sound like him. “No longer playing games, are we. Not we don’t know?”
“I left Nexus 2. He is weak. Vain. I came here, looking for you. I had hoped you would be more powerful than Nexus 2. Not so easy to defeat. But I have lost hope. Your Soldiers were easy to find. Even easier to kill.”
He stepped toward me and I fought his desire to have me kneel. My fight lasted for only a fraction of a second as he felt the resistance and pushed harder. I landed on my knees so hard I would have cracked my kneecap if I’d still been human.
“I am not amused by your challenge, female. Those were my Soldiers. My assets. You will repay me tenfold.”
“Only if I stay.”
He was close now, so close my nose was inches from his thigh, his large blue hand right there so I could see the vile black liquid pumping through its veins. I couldn’t think of him as a man. I just couldn’t. Not anymore.
When his hand moved toward my throat, I struck. Hard. Fast. With every ounce of strength I possessed. The blade hidden up my sleeve springing forward into my palm less than a second before I shoved the silver into his torso.
But he was
faster. He dodged the strike so that my dagger missed his heart by several inches.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Had it been two minutes yet?
Where was Mak? How long would it take him to get here?
Nexus 4 ignored the blade protruding from his abdomen like I’d stuck him with a toothpick. His hand wrapped around my neck and he lifted me by my jaw, walking toward the side of the cave until he held me pinned there. His control of my body was complete. I couldn’t fight. Couldn’t kick. Hit.
But I could close my eyes. And I did. Hard. He could kill me, but he wouldn’t own me. Not again.
“I feel your fear, female. There is no need for such a useless emotion. It cripples you.” His voice was soothing. Calm. So very, very safe.
I fought against the feeling. “Fuck you.”
“Do you think the Atlan warriors charging through the cave will save you?”
I said nothing. His hissing laughter made me want to scream, so I did. The sound echoed through the cave, bouncing off the rock walls, the wail of a wounded animal, of terror and rage and a fight to the death.
“Very well. Now you have made the Hyperion angry. Hmm, not just Hyperion. Something more. Interesting and rare. I had hoped not to kill him. I have an accord with Cerberus, but some things can’t be helped.”
“You’re a sociopath.”
“I am efficient, human. And soon, you will be as well.”
I heard the other Hive Soldiers step in close, one on each side of me. I was not surprised when they pried open my eyelids. I tried to fight, but Nexus 4 held me as easily as holding a block of wood in place. I couldn’t move.
This plan was fucked, and if I lived through this, Mak and I would have to seriously rethink our strategy for taking down the rest of them.
“You think you can hunt us all? My, my, what an ambitious little female.” The Hive on either side of me held open my eyelids and Nexus 4 stepped closer. “What merciless children you will breed.”
He sounded pleased. And drowning in his gaze, in the loneliness and stark need I saw there, I started to feel pleased as well. Nexus 4 needed me. Would always protect me. He was alone, and only I could please him, make him whole.
I was confused and could barely breathe. No. Mak. He needed me, too. Makarios. I needed him. He needed me. This was wrong. Nexus 4 was in my mind.
Mak’s roar of rage echoed through the cavern as the Nexus hissed at me. “Nexus 2 made you too strong. A critical miscalculation. You will be eliminated.”
“Fuck you.”
He squeezed until I saw stars, but his focus had shifted. I had my legs back under my own control once again so I used them. I kicked him in the knees, the thighs, anywhere I could reach. Grabbing blindly for the knife in his abdomen, I found it. Twisted. Pushed deeper. Tried to move it up where I wanted it to go. To end him.
Mak
* * *
The Nexus unit had my mate up against the wall, his hand around her neck as two Hive Soldiers pried open her eyes.
I knew the moment she was lost. Her body, rigid before, went limp, as if she relaxed in his arms. Under his control.
Fuck no.
The roar escaped me in challenge. I was going to kill that creature. Rip his head from his shoulders. Tear him limb from limb. Pound his body into a pool of entrails and jelly.
All around me, the Atlans were in beast mode as they tore the Hive Soldiers into pieces. Ripped off their arms and legs. Broke necks and threw bodies against the walls. I’d fought my share, was covered in blood from head to toe. But I ignored the fighting around me, focused on one thing. My mate.
Gwen.
Mine.
And he was hurting her. Told her she was too strong, that he would eliminate her.
“Fuck you.” Her defiance was music to my ears. She was still in there, fighting.
I ran as she kicked. I heard her cry of rage as she reached for the knife I could now see protruding from his chest.
It hurt him, but it wasn’t enough to take him out. He would kill her.
“Mine!” The word was howled by the Hyperion beast, not me. I didn’t grow taller or wider, as the Atlans did. But my fangs were down, claws came out, longer and sharper than anything I knew I was capable of. They were thick, like blades, and razor sharp, dripping in the venom special to my kind. One swipe, and the bastard would bleed to death. They’d never appeared before, but then I’d never had a mate in mortal danger.
I’d use them on him if I didn’t tear out his throat with my teeth first.
The Nexus must have realized the true danger was behind him, for he dropped Gwen to the ground and turned to me with a snarl of his own.
Gwen warned me not to look in his eyes, but there was nothing living that could tear a Hyperion beast from his mate. Nothing.
I stared the blue creature in the eye, challenge in every line of my body, in my snarl. I stared into the black depths and felt… nothing but rage. And an urge to kill.
“Gwen is mine.” The beast spoke but the male in me agreed. Mine.
“I’d rather not kill you,” Nexus 4 said. “I do not wish to break the accord I have with Rogue 5.”
I raked my claws through the air. “Lies. I will slash your blue throat.”
Behind him, Gwen pushed to her feet and looked up at me. I saw the movement out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off the real threat, the Nexus in front of me. He was big, almost as big as me. Dark blue from head to toe. On him it looked natural. The only truly odd thing about him was a large arc of tissue that ran from the base of his skull down his back in large branches like a tree.
If I had to guess, I’d bet that was where his mind control organs were. Which meant I wanted to crush them.
“He made a deal with Cerberus,” Gwen told me. “He said so earlier.”
“Cerberus does not speak for Rogue 5.” My words were dark, lethal as I met the bastard’s gaze head on.
“Are you a member of Cerberus legion?”
“Never.”
“Then I can kill you without consequence.”
He moved like lightning, aiming for my head. Instinct saved me. I put my hands up, the claws finding his chest as I shoved him away and to the side. He regained his balance instantly and we circled one another. I stared him in the eye the entire time.
“Look out!” Gwen screamed, her indrawn breath warning me that the Nexus was about to move. Not that I didn’t know.
Catching him in my claws once more, I lowered my mouth to his shoulder and bit deep, ripping with every bit of strength I possessed. Yanking hard, I pulled a piece of his shoulder from his body as he screamed in pain. The sound was music to my ears. The taste of his blood driving my beast to a frenzy. Blood. It was just blood. Black as night but blood just like a billion others.
The Nexus twisted in an attempt to escape from my claws, but they were deep, and I was not letting him go.
Unable to free himself, he wrapped his legs around me and squeezed. Ribs cracked. Pain lanced sharp and hot. I couldn’t breathe.
I refused to let go.
“Mak!”
I heard Gwen’s cry, but didn’t see her moving until she was on the Nexus’s back, pulling at the odd curved appendage there.
The Nexus screamed as something inside it cracked and popped, the sound of breaking clear but it could have been metal or bone. I had no idea which.
With a warrior’s cry, Gwen ripped the organ completely free and threw it across the room. She leaped off the Nexus’s back and I dug my claws in deeper, until I could feel the beat of his heart against my fingertips. I pushed the creature down onto its knees, as he’d done to my mate, and looked up into her eyes, a question shimmering in my own gaze.
She looked at me, then slowly shook her head.
“He is for Rezzer.”
Yes. Rezzer. This thing had tried to kill the Atlan’s mate, destroy their unborn twins, murder his mate and family. The Atlan deserved justice.
“Rezzer.” I shouted
his name but I needn’t have. He stood less than three steps away, waiting.
His beast was out in full force. Covered in blood from head to toe, he looked like he’d just stepped off the battlefield. But then again, he had. We all had.
Gwen looked at Rezzer, then Braun, who was back in his true Atlan form, capable of speaking in complete sentences. “Are they all dead?”
“Dead.” The deep rumble was Rezzer as he paced next to Nexus 4, savoring the moment.
Braun cleared his throat. “I heard from Maxim. Their mission is complete. They were successful. Every single one of them is dead. Here and there. It’s over.”
“Good.” Gwen walked to my side and placed her hand on my shoulder. Her grin was almost evil. She patted me then and her smile was just for me. “Let Rezzer have him and let’s go. You and I are done. I need a shower.”
And a fucking spanking. Then she’d sit on my face and I’d make her come until she passed out.
The thought of my mate naked made the decision a quick one. In seconds, the newly discovered claws retracted and I shoved the bleeding Nexus unit in Rezzer’s general direction.
I didn’t look back. Didn’t want to see what the Atlans did to him. Didn’t care. Whatever torture they could come up with was more than deserved.
Somehow, I didn’t think it would last long. Rezzer was in no mood to play with the thing. He wanted to kill. Just as I had when I saw the enemy with a hand around my mate’s throat.
She slid her blood covered hand into mine, and I held it like the precious gift it was. The blood would wash away, but she was mine. The affection I saw shining from her eyes was mine. And if I had time to give her two thousand orgasms, perhaps that affection would grow to love.
I wanted her to love me. Not just need my body or physical release. She’d seen the darkness in me now, knew about my bite. And she wasn’t running, but leading me back to our ship.
When she wrapped her hand around my arm and asked me to carry her, my heart soared. I lifted her in my arms and held her close to my heart. “Always, mate. It is my pleasure to hold you.”
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