“I love you,” he yelled as he ran toward the bridge.
Marisa looked around for anything that could be used to stop the bleeding on her arm. When she found a stray undershirt of Peter’s that had broken free during the violent rocking of the ship, she grabbed it and tied it around her arm. It would slow the bleeding for now.
The radio on her hip vibrated and Marisa knew right away that she was being paged to help the injured. She tapped her ear to activate her built-in chip and closed her eyes.
“Show me the damage.” The chip in her head immediately began to access the ship’s main computers. Her mind was flooded with images of large holes in the sides of the ship. Her gut twisted in a knot as she realized that the ship was beyond repair.
Lacing the desire to continue to look upon her demise, she barked new orders at the chip. “Not that damage! The damage to life forms.” She had to be vague because several of the beings on board the ship were anything but humanoid. She knew their secrets and she held them close to the vest.
The initial scans revealed that seventy-five percent of the crew had been killed. The picture that the ship showed her of the mess hall was enough to make her have to swallow down the bile in her throat. No one in the mess hall had survived.
Startled by the horrific images that were now displayed in her mind, Marisa stumbled backwards and screamed out when something seized hold of her waist. Peter was gone and she was alone in the room. Nothing should have been there with her.
“Calm down, woman, it’s me,” a deep, heavily accented voice said from behind her. “Your arm? What the hell happened to it?”
“Bradi?” she asked, shocked by his sudden British inflection. It sounded so natural, so right for him that she wondered if that too was part of what he hid from the Commission. “Peter isn’t here.”
He turned her to face him, his brows meeting. “I’m not here for him.”
“What?” she asked, feeling light headed.
Bradi lifted her injured arm and his eyes widened at the sight of her blood soaked uniform. “What happened?”
“It was an accident,” she said, swaying slightly.
He growled and it sounded so animal like that it caught her off guard. “The cut is deep. Very deep.”
She touched his chest with her other hand. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. But you’re not. Where the hell is Pete? Why did he leave you like this alone?”
“He had to go help everyone else,” she said, leaning against him. “Isn’t that where you should be too?”
“I’m exactly where I should be,” he snapped before jerking her against his powerful frame. “More than just your arm is hurt, Doc.”
“What?” she asked, unable to think clearly. She suspected it was from blood loss. The cut had been much deeper than she’d first thought.
“Your side,” said Bradi, an accent still present. “It’s injured.”
“It is?” she asked. “Nothing hurts.”
“Shit,” he returned, caressing her good arm. “You’re in shock. You’re hurt, Doc. Trust me. I can sense it on you.”
Confused, she met his gaze. “Sense it?”
His nostrils flared. “Pete shouldn’t have fucking left you. As his woman, you should be the single most important thing in the world to him. You should come before all others.”
“Others? Bradi, I have to help the others.”
He grunted. “We’re getting you to safety. Let’s go.”
She shook her head. “No. The ship has some survivors and they need me.”
“We need to get you to a release POD and treat that wound. Dr. Graves has ordered you off the ship. He wants you at the rendezvous point to care for the wounded there, not on board right now. The ship is too damaged to remain on it.” He paused. “And there are only a few survivors left.”
“I know.” Not wanting to think about the massive amount of fatalities that had flashed in her mind, she nodded and took Bradi’s hand in hers. She didn’t know how he’d found her or why, exactly, he had come to Peter’s quarters if he wasn’t looking for Peter, but she was happy he was there.
His brow furrowed as he looked down at their joined hands. “It will be okay, baby. I promise.”
Normally, Marisa would have snapped at Bradi, or any man for that matter, angry that he’d called her a pet name. Now, it was music to her ears. Something deep within her wanted that to be true, wanted everything to be fine and for her to be his significant other. It was absurd but there nonetheless. Squeezing his hand tighter, she offered him a slight smile. “I trust you even if it turns out you really are part toad.”
He winked. “Come on.” Bradi pulled her down the long hallway and past the medic chambers.
“Wait!” she cried out, digging her heels into the floor.
At six foot six, Bradi towered above her. When he looked down at her and shook his head, she had to take a tiny step back to fully appreciate how intimidating he could be. “We don’t have time for this, Doc. The ship isn’t stable and life support is dropping as we speak. Give it another few minutes and we’ll all be frozen to death or sucked into space. That’s not really my idea of fun, so let’s go.”
“But my supplies. I need my bag! The injured will need my attention.”
Bradi growled and ran a hand through his long black hair. “Fine. But I’ll grab it. You’re hurt and I need to know you’re somewhere safe. The medic area is pretty damaged. I went their first looking for you before I caught your scent coming from the direction of Peter’s quarters.”
Caught my scent?
She didn’t ask for clarification and she didn’t try to argue more with him about accompanying him. He ran off in the direction of the medic chambers, leaving her standing there. Bradi was the ship’s lieutenant commander and wasn’t used to taking orders from anyone but Peter or the captain himself. She still wasn’t sure how he’d managed to get to his position. He stood in direct opposition of everything the Commission required an officer to look and act like. His hair hung just past his shoulders. He had a goatee, and he gave no regard to the number of times he was reprimanded for drunken brawls while on leave or layovers.
“Marisa!”
“Peter?” She spun around to find Peter racing down the corridor toward her.
He put his hand out and seized hold of hers, pulling her body in a way that made her very aware that Bradi had been right. Her side and her arm were injured. “We need to get you somewhere safe.”
Sparks flew over their heads as the ship’s life support systems began to systematically blow out. Peter slammed into her and took her to the ground. Rolling, he pinned her body beneath him, protecting her from debris. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, but didn’t feel okay. Another rumble started and Peter’s eyes widened. “We’ve got to get to the release PODs now.”
The door to the med unit opened just as another explosion went off. Bradi glanced at them as an overhead beam swung down behind him.
Time seemed to slow for Marisa as Peter rolled off her and tackled Bradi to the ground. The beam crashed down onto the men and Marisa pushed up hard and fast to get to them.
Fire shot up around them. “No!”
She kicked the beam with all her might. It moved slightly before wedging itself in the med unit doorway. She covered her mouth as she saw the two men lying lifeless. Holding her hand out above Peter’s back, she closed her eyes and accessed her internal chip.
“Diagnostics.” Instantly, Peter’s vitals appeared. He was still alive, but something was wrong. Moving her hand to the left, she found that his injuries were series. Scanning further, she realized that part of the beam must have struck his head, rendering him unconscious.
A deep moan caught her attention right before another explosion went off, this one shaking the entire corridor. “Pete?”
“Bradi?” Marisa called out as she tried to get the beam off them, but failed.
Dark lines covered Bradi’s face and at first, Marisa feared
that he’d suffered burns from the fire. He brought his hand up and wiped his face, removing the soot. As Bradi opened his eyes, Marisa let out a small breath when she found them uninjured.
She put her hand out and went to access her built-in chip again. Bradi shook his head. “I’m fine, baby. Worry about Pete.”
Marisa’s jaw tightened. “You will shut up and allow me to worry about you, too.” She accessed her chip. “Diagnostics.” Running a quick diagnostic test on Bradi, she discovered that aside from a nasty bump on his head and a few minor cuts and bruises, he was fine. The second she felt another headache coming on, Marisa stopped her scan of Bradi.
“I can’t get the beam to budge. I can’t get you out.”
Bradi winked at her again and then stunned her by thrusting the beam off he and Peter like it weighed nothing. She knew it was possible for adrenaline to cause incredible bursts of strength, but she’d never seen it in action before.
Tears of relief burst free from her and she found herself reaching for Bradi, rather than Peter. Bradi came up and off the floor in one fluid motion, lifting her gently as he did. He held her close to him as she shook.
“Pete will be fine,” he said. “We’ll get him to safety.”
“His injuries are severe. I don’t know what equipment will be available at the other site, but Bradi, even with all of it, it might not help.”
“Shh.”
She gave into tears. “I saw the beam about to hit you and I thought it would kill you.”
“Hopeful?” he asked in a light tone, the British accent still there.
She knew he was trying to help the dark mood surrounding them. She cried harder. “Gods no!”
He gave her a gentle hug and she sank against him, feeling dizzy once more. He snarled. “Doc, I can sense how badly you’re hurt.”
“Peter is hurt worse. We need to get him out of here.”
He snarled. “I need to get you out of here.”
“Please, Bradi.”
He grunted and gathered Peter into his arms. He glanced back at Marisa. “I dropped your medical bag when the beam hit me.”
She spotted the bag partially wedged under the beam. “I’ll get it.”
“No! I will come back for it.”
They couldn’t wait and she knew it. “Get Peter to the POD. I’ll be right behind you. Give me just two seconds, Janelle. That’s all I need. Go!”
“Doc, I can’t just walk away knowing you’re hurt.”
For some strange reason, she found herself going to her tiptoes, her side screaming in pain, as she tugged on Bradi’s shoulder. He bent slightly and she pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you for coming for me. I promise I’ll be right behind you. I need the bag. You know I do. Go.”
As he rushed off, a wave of dizziness hit her again.
Chapter Three
“You are the hardest-headed woman I’ve ever met!” Bradi let out an angry growl and ran toward the emergency exits with Peter. He couldn’t believe the woman would have the nerve to risk her life for a bag. Yes, it had medical supplies in it, but each POD had a limited amount of supplies already stocked in it. He’d damn near died retrieving the bag and Pete was out cold from taking a beam to the back of the head. Had it not been for Pete, Bradi knew that the beam would have crushed him.
If he’d thought he could have managed to carry a kicking and screaming Marisa over his other shoulder, he’d have grabbed her too.
Bradi glanced back over his shoulder before entering the first emergency POD he found. A young man, shaking slightly, sat in the corner. Shockingly red hair hung in an otherwise too-pale face, and the boy looked as though he was about to pass out. His wide eyes stared up at Bradi. Silently, Bradi cursed the Commission’s decision to allow men as young as seventeen to join, and laid Pete down.
“If I am not back in five minutes,” he said to the boy, “push this green button here. It’ll get you and the commander to safety. Understand?”
The boy nodded.
Bradi glanced at the POD number and made a mental note that it was POD 281 before rushing back to get Dr. Marisa Langston—who had not held true to her promise to follow right behind him. She was quite possibly the most annoying woman he’d ever met, and he’d met a lot of women.
A whole lot of women, he thought to himself as he ran down the corridor.
If she wasn’t his best friend’s fiancée, he’d take her over his knee and teach her how to behave. She’d probably sear my sac off with a half-charged laser before she’d let me near her, but hey, a guy can dream.
The sound of a hatch locking shut caught his attention and he turned to see POD 281 disengaging from the ship.
Bradi ran back toward it and slammed the palms of his hands against the porthole as he watched the POD float off into space.
The little redheaded bastard panicked. I’ll kill him when I get my hands on him.
The ship shook again, slamming him into the adjacent wall. Something popped in his shoulder and he tried to ignore the pain as he ran for the med unit. The feeling in his arm went and he was sure it was for the best, considering.
Terror gripped his chest as he saw that flames had engulfed the doorway. Marissa was still in there.
“Doc!”
She didn’t answer.
The sane part of his brain told him to turn around and evacuate the ship while he still had a chance. Unfortunately, the sane part had little control over his everyday actions or his heart. Leaving Marisa wasn’t an option. When the ship had first felt like random explosions were going off, his only concern had been getting to her. The woman owned a piece of him that even he couldn’t explain how she’d come to possess. But the fact was, she did, and he’d be damned if he went anywhere without assuring her safety.
Jumping through the flames, Bradi rolled on the ground as he landed. Pain shot through his shoulder with each turn, but he knew it was necessary to douse any fire on him. He came to his feet quickly and drew in a sharp breath when he saw Marisa’s petite frame sprawled out on the floor before him. She was even paler than normal and blood was pooling near her arm. He tried to lift her, but his arm wouldn’t cooperate.
“Marisa! Get up!” He shook her but she didn’t budge.
“Doc? Baby?”
Still nothing.
“Damn it, Doc, I told Pete not to bring you on this trip. I told him that no high-class lady could survive the journey. I told him that you were only cut out for dinner parties and ballrooms, not life in the outer regions with the Commission.” The need to provoke her, to rile her to the point she got up to argue with him was a necessary evil. If it worked, she’d hate him but be alive. If it didn’t, Bradi was more than prepared to die with her.
Her eyes snapped open. Every bit of Bradi wanted to shout with joy. He held back. Marisa’s green eyes lit with a fury he hoped would fuel her enough to get off the ship before it exploded. She tried to stand, but was too shaky to get to her feet without his help. The minute he slid his good arm around her slender waist, she snarled at him. Wagging his eyebrow, impressed with her tenacity, he ignored her dislike of him and pulled her up anyway, mindful that her side was hurt.
The door, now completely engulfed by flames, was out of the question. Turning them around, Bradi moved quickly toward the back exit. Marisa looked up at him, her eyes wide. She pulled free from his hold and shook her head. “We’ll never make it back to Peter in time. His injuries are—”
“We’ll get to a POD, baby. Don’t you worry. We’ll meet up with him as soon as we’re clear of the ship.”
He punched the emergency release button and pulled Marisa back just to be sure it was safe. Seeing that the coast was clear, he stepped out into the hallway. Marisa didn’t follow.
“Doc?”
“Peter… I have to get to Peter.”
Bradi rolled his eyes and grabbed hold of her hand. “I promise not to touch you beyond this, once we’re on the damn POD. You’ll see Pete soon enough. The guy’s probably just waking up now.”
Shaking her head, Marisa stared back at him with wide, haunted eyes. “His injures are critical, Bradi. Without my help, he will die.”
He yanked her down the corridor, seeking the nearest escape POD. He couldn’t comment on what she’d told him. The thought of Pete dying was too much for him. Pete was his only friend. He didn’t let too many people close, for good reason, and while he didn’t tell Pete all his deep dark secrets, they got along well enough. Though, Bradi never liked the way Pete ran around on Marisa with other women. That bothered him. In fact, since Marisa had come into the picture, everything about Pete seemed to bother him.
“I’m going to kill the little redheaded bastard that took off with him,” he mumbled under his breath.
“Stop, please. We have to get to Peter!”
“He’s already headed to the rendezvous site.”
“What?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“Long story. His POD already launched. We need to go.” Bradi came to a grinding halt outside of escape POD 303. The ship rocked violently once more and Bradi accidentally knocked into Marisa, sending her tumbling into the POD. She fell to the floor with a thud, leaving his heart heavy knowing that he’d caused her pain.
He rushed in behind her and dropped to the floor. “Doc?”
“Ouch,” she managed. “Are you okay?”
“Me? I just hit you!”
She blinked up at him. “Not your fault. But you are huge.”
He pushed the green POD release button with the toe of his boot. The detachment of the POD was more aggressive than it should have been. He rocked back and knocked his bad shoulder against the wall of the POD. Pain lanced through him and he figured that had to be a good thing. It meant feeling was coming back somewhat. What worried him was Marisa. He was pretty sure she’d passed out in the med chambers from blood loss. Why this tiny spitfire of a woman seemed to rule his every emotion was beyond him, but she did.
Marisa grew quiet and that worried Bradi. She glanced up at him, her green eyes glistening with unshed tears. “Do you think Peter’s dead?”
Spitting, throwing a fit, hell, even biting were all things he could deal with, but crying wasn’t something he was prepared for. The fact that he was as concerned about Pete as she was didn’t help matters any. Carefully, Bradi placed his arm around her as he sank down to the floor all the way, holding her close. “I don’t know, baby. I honestly don’t know.”
Bradi: Paranormal Shifter Fated Mate Galactic SciFi Military Romance (Interstellar Alphas Book 2) Page 3