Seth looked as if he’d rather eat some titanium bolts, but offered his sister a stiff nod. “Dax, you have the experience and skill of a warlord. We could use your input.”
I eyed her brother for a moment. I had to admire his ability to suck it up when required. “I do not wish my mate to be in jeopardy a minute longer than necessary; however, remaining here is not a wise option. Flying out is valid, as long as Sarah can pilot the ship.”
Seth’s eyes widened at the term mate, even though we’d told him, and Sarah held up her arms so he could see the cuffs about her wrists. “Told ya so.” She offered him a small smile and he just rolled his eyes.
“Then let’s go,” Sarah said, taking a deep breath.
I pulled Sarah to me and whispered in her ear, “Are you sure?”
“Are you doubting me now?” Her eyebrows winged up.
“Hell, no. I’m questioning your brother’s plan. If you don’t think you can do it, we’ll come up with an alternative.”
She put enough stress on herself and obviously her brother heaped it on as well. I’d shown her she could share that burden—even if it was by spanking her—and I didn’t want to lose the progress I’d made, the trust I’d begun to earn by pushing her too hard now.
“I flew in the military, the Earth military. Planes and space ships are not remotely the same though. I wasn’t an astronaut, but I’ve got thirteen men to get off this ship. I went through some basic simulations during coalition training. I’ll figure it out, or die trying.”
“You will not die. We will find an alternative,” I repeated. Just as she said, there were thirteen other men in this ragtag team. We could come up with another way or we could keep the Hive away until transport was possible.
She shook her head and looked me in the eye. “No, Dax. I can do this. I can get us off this ship. Trust me.”
Before I could argue further, she started issuing orders. “Three of you take forward, three take our six. Ion pistols set to kill. Let’s focus and get the hell out of here.”
The men snapped into action, eager to get the hell off this ship, total confidence in Sarah.
We followed Meers and the advance guys to the flight deck. We encountered one Hive group, but we were able to quickly shoot them down.
There were two identical ships on the deck and Seth led us to the nearest one.
“Dax, Seth, keep the Hive off us while I figure out how to fly this tin can,” Sarah said.
Seth grinned at her Earth term—I had no idea what a tin can was—and began to bark orders. I wasn’t going to do Seth’s bidding, but followed Sarah instead. She was my responsibility. I’d protect her, or, as she said, die trying. Of course, Seth probably knew that I wasn’t going to do anything but flank my mate and didn’t give me any commands.
We were halfway up the boarding ramp when the first sonar detonation threw us all to the ground. Ears ringing, I rose instantly, roaring a challenge. Three Hive stood on the opposite side of the launch pad, another set of sonar charges at their feet. The weapons created a small, contained blast radius that would disable the ship, or weaken the hull until it was no longer safe to fly.
I charged them, firing my ion pistol to take out the first before I reached them. The second collapsed as I neared, and I glanced behind me to find Seth on his knees, covering me. The third Hive calmly loaded a sonar blast as I neared, as if nothing existed but his mission, his need to fire his weapon at our ship.
I wondered what went through his mind when I cranked his head to the side, when his neck snapped. I would have continued, ripping his head from his shoulders, but Sarah was yelling at everyone to get onboard and Seth and I were the only two remaining outside the ship.
“Come on, warlord. Let’s roll!” Seth yelled at me, shooting across the launch bay at another trio of Hive that entered on the far side of the area. I didn’t have time to charge them and make it back to the ship, so I joined Seth and we hurried on board, closing the launch doors behind us.
The men slumped in the hallway, their energy drained by the escape and short fight. I located Meers. “Where is Sarah?”
“Pilot seat.” He lifted his hand and pointed in the direction my mate had gone. Seth and I both took off at a run.
I found Sarah looking over the controls in the cockpit. She was buckled into the pilot’s seat, a look of fierce concentration on her face.
“Well?” I asked. It looked like any other control board to me, but then, I was a ground fighter.
“The controls are unusual, more video game than cockpit, but I’ll manage.”
I didn’t understand half of what she said, but it sounded promising. Shifting in the pilot’s seat, she fiddled with the U-shaped steering column and odd foot pedals.
“There’s no key to start the ignition sequence.” She pressed a bunch of buttons until the displays came to light.
“Can you fly this?” I asked.
She continued to fiddle with the displays, flipping a few switches, then took a deep breath when the very powerful feel of the engines coming alive vibrated beneath us.
“Buckle up!” she yelled so those down the corridor would hear.
I glanced toward the back, but saw no one. Surely the men would know to get strapped in by now as the vibrations of the ship’s systems were powerful and rumbled through the floor.
I did as she said, strapping the harness over my shoulders as Sarah mumbled to herself, a strange, repetitive chant I didn’t recognize. “What are you doing?” I asked.
“Praying,” she replied.
That didn’t make me feel any better, but I had no choice but to trust in her abilities. I had to trust that when she said she could fly this ship, she could. I had to let go and give my faith and trust to Sarah. She was in control now. Everything in my body screamed at me to take over, to throw her over my shoulder and drag her out of here. But that was the primitive Atlan beast raging within, not the thinking man who sat beside her. An Atlan male never relinquished control in a dangerous situation. Never. And I began to understand what she’d given me, the depth of the trust she’d bestowed upon me in going against her own nature, in surrendering her body to me. Sitting powerless and helpless beside her was one of the most difficult things I’d ever had to do.
Ion blasts struck the pilot’s window in bursts of white flares that scorched the glass.
“Hive at four o’clock,” Sarah called.
“What?” I asked.
She pointed over my shoulder and I realized perhaps it was an Earth concept. Not true time, but… whatever.
“Two Hive groups are here,” Seth yelled as he stuck his head in the cockpit.
Another blast hit the clear window. “No shit, Sherlock,” Sarah said, her voice tense, her eyes on the display. “They’re trying to overload the power grid, disable the ship.”
A panel short-circuited to Sarah’s left, so she reached over and shut it down.
“Get down so I can get us out of here!” she cried, her anxiety level clearly rising.
A blast shook the ship so hard I felt as if my teeth would literally shake out of my skull.
“Sonar detonators, too.” Seth cursed as another blast caused several warning lights to ping from the copilot’s seat. The blast of soundwaves would rattle our ship apart before we could even take off.
“This is why fighting on the ground is far superior.” I looked for the ion blaster controls that would arm the guns mounted on the sides and front of the ship. I had no idea what I was looking at. I felt helpless, and my beast did not like the feeling. My muscles begin to pop, breaking open and growing larger as I fought to maintain control.
Sarah must have sensed my struggle because she called to me, her voice rock steady. “Dax, we’re fine. You can’t go all berserker in here, there’s not enough room for that. So tell beasty boy he’s just going to have to wait.”
“Jesus. This is a fucking train wreck.” Seth stepped to my side and pushed several buttons, the weapons on the top of the ship firing i
n the general direction of the Hive.
Another ion blast and I could smell burning circuits. The load roar of another sonar blast struck, then a pop. A warning alarm went off and I tried to figure out where to shut it down.
“Sarah, get us the fuck out of here,” Seth yelled.
“Seth, get the fuck out of my face.” Sarah gritted her teeth. “It’s a good thing the Hive hadn’t killed you, because when we get back to base I am going to do it myself.”
She fiddled with a few more buttons and then hissed and grabbed her side.
“Get ready to go in…”
She pressed a yellow button. The bay doors opened, space beyond.
“Sweet baby Jesus, the doors opened,” she muttered. “Three.”
The steering control pulled back easily in her hands.
“Two.”
Her knees moved as the pedals on the floor and wiggled the ship from side to side. She found the right balance of her feet and the ship leveled, floating off the floor in the launch bay, ready to accelerate.
“One.”
She pushed forward on the steering column and the ship shot out of the prison ship like the rocket that it was. I was pressed back into my seat from the power of the thrusters, just fucking relieved to be out of there. Sarah, however, cursed like the worst Atlan brawler I’d ever heard, her movements jerky and stilted, as if she struggled to maintain control.
“Sarah, you can calm yourself, we are out of the ship’s range of fire.”
“I am calm,” she replied, her words bitten off. I scented her blood in the air and reached for her, but she waved me off. “Give me a minute. I’m not done yet.”
“You are injured.”
She shrugged. “It’s just a scratch, Dax. Leave me be. We’re not home free yet. Talk to me, Seth.”
Seth sat at a tracking station behind her, his eyes scanning for enemy ships that might be following us. “Looks clear. I don’t see any pursuit.”
“Thank God.” She sat in silence, sweat sliding down her temple and her hands shaking as she directed the ship back toward coalition space. The magnetic field shook and rattled the ship for several minutes, and the tracking station’s display became solid green.
Seth leaned back in his seat and pumped his fist in the air. “Yes. We’re hidden by the magnetic field. They have no way to track us, sis! Holy shit! You did it!”
“Good. Dax, can you take the controls. Just hold it still—until we are…” Her hand dropped from the steering controls and she grabbed her side, doubling over with a moan. “Clear. Until we’re clear.”
Instead of looking out into space, I looked fully at Sarah. “I can still smell your blood, mate. And you’re sweating like I’ve fucked you for hours.”
Seth muttered something about hiding a body at that comment, but I ignored him.
Sarah grimaced but didn’t argue. Something wasn’t right. Her skin was pale. Too pale and her breathing was shallow, her eyes glazed over as she looked at me without seeing.
I removed my restraint and turned toward her. She blinked a few times and looked in my direction, but I knew she was no longer processing what she was seeing.
“Just a scratch, Sarah? Did you lie to me?” Moving slowly, I knelt beside her and got my first good look at her far side. I wanted to spank her and hold her at the same time the moment I did. Blood coated her armor and dripped onto the floor from a large piece of metal that was sticking out of her armor. The metal must have pierced a rib, possibly her lung. “You stubborn female. You’re bleeding to death.”
She glanced down at her side, placing a hand beside the shard of metal. “It’s okay, Dax. It’s better now. It doesn’t hurt anymore.” She grinned like a little girl, silly and carefree and I knew she was even worse off than I’d imagined.
“Seth, take the controls. Now! Meers!” I shouted down the corridor, undoing her restraints. Holy fuck, she was badly injured and she’d lied to me about it. She was bleeding to death and still flying a fucking Hive ship. Sacrificing herself to buy us a few more minutes. Dying for these men. For me.
“Stop yelling at me,” she replied, resting her head against the pilot seat.
“You lied to me.” I was frantic and my beast was raging. Not in need, but in fear. It was anxious, worried about our mate. It paced within me, alternately whining and roaring to be free, to tear this ship, and everyone on it, into pieces.
“Had to get you out of there.”
“You are the most stubborn, difficult, annoying, frustrating female I’ve ever come across. You should have fucking told me how badly you were injured. When did this happen, Sarah? When?”
“Sonar detonator, when we were running onto the ship,” she breathed. “It’s all better though. It doesn’t hurt anymore,” she repeated, her hand on my forearm. She left a bloody handprint. If it didn’t hurt, that meant…
“Sarah, you will not leave me,” I whispered the command and pressed my lips to hers as Meers rushed into the small room.
“Yes, warlord?” Meers stuck his head into the cockpit as I pulled Sarah into my arms. Seth slipped into the pilot’s seat, making sure to hold the control exactly where Sarah had been holding it.
“Sarah is gravely injured. Get the Karter’s transport team on comms and get us off this fucking ship. Now. She dies, you all die with her.” The threat was not an idle one. If I lost her before we got back to the battleship, the beast would tear every living being onboard this ship into tiny little pieces, and there wouldn’t be a damn thing I could do to stop him.
* * *
“Damn suicide mission. The captain put your lives in danger with her reckless behavior,” the ship’s commander spouted.
“She saved twelve coalition fighters from the Hive and got you the Hive comms from the ship she stole.” I straightened to my full height, towering over the Prillon warrior who dared insult my injured mate. “More than one man on this ship owes her his life.”
The commander crossed his arms and shook his head. “I know. I’ll take the men and the comms.” The commander muttered his last words under his breath, but I had Atlan hearing, and the beast missed nothing. “Doesn’t mean it wasn’t reckless.”
If I wasn’t guarding my unconscious mate’s body, I would have taken issue, beaten his face bloody. I was getting really tired of annoying commanders. First my own, who’d shoved me into the matching program so I didn’t die, then Sarah’s who’d refused to help her find Seth. Now, this one. I stood beside Sarah’s emergency pod, watching as the doctors waved their wands over her wounds. I knew that the technology on this ship would heal her quickly, but my beast didn’t care for logic or reason. I struggled with every breath to keep that darker side under control, for my mate had been injured gravely and there was nothing I could do. The doctors, yes, but me? I couldn’t protect her in this moment. Now I had to stand by idly as the she was healed by the med control systems.
Seth and his men had worked comms and gotten us transported to a different ship, not the Karter, one that wasn’t in direct line of the magnetic field. It had happened in all of five minutes, the men proficient in gaining assistance, but it had been that way my entire life. In the coalition fleet, everything had a reason and a purpose. Things made sense. Orders were given and followed. Every warrior was strong and knew exactly what was expected. We expected to fight, to bleed, to die. Every warrior knew his or her role, as did my Sarah.
I looked down at my mate and she appeared to be so fragile lying there, so weak and definitely not immortal. She was not a fierce female from one of the warrior races. No, she was just a delicate Earth woman who was my mate, my heart, my life. It didn’t matter to me that she was a warrior now, so skilled she could organize a ground attack or fly an enemy ship through a magnetic field. She was braver than anyone I knew, smarter than any military strategist, and yet her body was so fragile. I actually ached to take her in my arms and carry her away from this place, from the men, the noise, the constant danger of an enemy attack. For years none of that ha
d bothered me, I’d taken it as my due. We were at war with the Hive, had been since before my birth, and would likely be long after I was gone. Yet I did not want any of this to touch Sarah. No more. She was too beautiful, too perfect for the ugliness that surrounded her now.
I learned in those five minutes that I wasn’t nearly as strong as I’d once believed. Muscles didn’t protect me from the heartbreak of nearly losing Sarah. Where I was weak, she was strong. Her two brothers and father had died, her last remaining family transported by the enemy right before her eyes. Her response had been determination to save Seth. Her love, once given, was relentless in its strength, courageous and full of stubborn hope. Her love was the one thing I desperately wanted, and yet she guarded her heart so well.
It took those five minutes to make me see that we were a pair who had to compromise. She gave and gave and I took. It was time I gave as well, that I let her be herself, not force her to be the weak woman the commander painted her, and, admittedly, I’d first thought her.
I wanted to reach down and touch her, to feel her skin to ensure it was still warm, to feel her pulse, to watch her breathe, but the doctor had pushed me out of the way often enough already. When I threatened to rip his arms off if he had me removed from the medical center, he allowed me to stay as long as I didn’t get in his way. It was a reasonable compromise, but I didn’t take my eyes off her.
I wanted to spank her ass a fiery shade of pink for getting herself hurt, but she’d done nothing reckless to warrant it. I didn’t want her in any kind of danger whatsoever, but I’d been right beside her when it had happened. There was no way I could have protected her, shielded her from the display console breaking or from the piece of that console now embedded in her side. Other than tying her to my bed, there was no way to completely protect her from harm. While I would ensure she enjoyed her time tied up, she would soon grow to hate the confinement and me. She could not be kept from her passion, her fighting, any more than I could. She was a warrior, and nothing I could do would change the heart of her. It was a harsh lesson I was learning, and unfortunately it had taken her being gravely injured to realize it.
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