Cyborg Seduction(28)

Rachel lifted her hand to her neck as if something pained her and her skin paled, as if she were about to faint.

But Maxim was talking to me, so I nodded, relieved that I wasn’t going to be kept a prisoner on this strange planet. “Yes, sir. Thank you.”

“We will give you the access you traveled so far for. So you may see the truth. Hear it. You will return to the Miami transport station, where I am quite sure Warden Egara will want to have a word with you.”

“Okay.” Whatever. I wasn’t a prisoner here. I wouldn’t be a prisoner once I got home, either. The warden wouldn’t be able to stop me from getting to my son.

It was my turn to clear my throat, fighting back tears at the idea of leaving Kiel behind. “When can I go home?”

Maxim studied me another moment as I ignored everyone and everything else in the room. “How much time do you need to gather information for your report?”

I had no idea, but not long. “A day. Maybe two.”

“One day. You leave this time tomorrow. If you aren’t going to stay, I want you gone as quickly as possible.” His gaze darted to Kiel, who was pacing behind me.

“One day,” I repeated. That should be more than long enough. By tomorrow afternoon, I’d be back in the main command building, in the transport room, on my way home to Wyatt.

And I was going to make sure I had one of those blue healing things when I went.

My hand was a fist at my side as I buried my pain at leaving Kiel. He was so angry at the possibility. No, not possibility. Reality. Fuck the people who sent me here. Fuck Wyatt’s doctors and their high dollar surgeries. I’d seen that blue wand heal worse than the broken growth plates in Wyatt’s leg bones. Surely one of those wands would be able to heal him, make him run and play again. Give him back his laughter. Coming this far, knowing that technology exists and leave it behind? Not happening. I’d find one and sneak it out.

Wyatt would be healed, but I’d be broken. At least my heart. One day was all I had left with Kiel.

As if he read my mind, he moved into place behind me, his hands on my shoulders. I felt the possession of his weighted touch, the heat of it. “No. She is my marked mate, Maxim. We must petition Prime Nial for an exception.”

Maxim’s entire demeanor changed and his gaze snapped to Kiel’s, his attention over my head. “Are you certain? There is no room for a mistake. Not in this.”

“She’s mine.” Kiel’s voice had dropped to a soft, threatening tone that made my heart race and my pussy wet. “I’m very sure. We’ve been dream sharing since her arrival.”

Dream sharing. So, I wasn’t going crazy? That dream I’d had when I was sleeping in that freight container had been real? It was a thing?

“She’s mine,” he repeated and the governor nodded in acceptance.

God, yes, I was his, but it didn’t matter. I couldn’t stay. “I have to go home,” I repeated. Nothing had changed. Not one damn thing.

“I will contact Prime Nial at once.” The governor ignored me and spoke to Kiel as if my choice no longer mattered. Fine, I was his marked mate, but that didn’t mean I would choose him over Wyatt.

“Thank you, Maxim.”

“What? No! This is bullshit, Maxim—” Rachel’s protest faded as my head spun.

What the hell had just happened? One moment I was all set with a guided tour and a quick transport home. And now? “Who is Prime Nial?” I asked.

Kiel’s hand slid to the small of my back, pushing me out of the door even as I heard Rachel continue her protests. Seemed she was not as inclined to be nice to me as her mate. For some reason, she was like a mother bear and protective of her cubs—alien cubs at that—when someone came after them. She was trying to protect these big, burly men from the likes of me. If it wasn’t so necessary, it would be funny.

While she was in protective mode, the governor was pouring on the politics. He had to get Earth to play nice with the Colony, to make this place seem…positive. He was hoping I’d meet the warriors, interview them, and write something that would make the Colony look good, make the Coalition Fleet look good.

Public relations were a bitch when they were trying to sell a war, especially to an entire planet of people light years away.

At least, that’s how things had been going…until Kiel turned caveman. “Who is Prime Nial?” I asked again with a sharper tone.

Kiel stopped me in the corridor outside the meeting room and pushed my back to the wall. Before I could protest, his mouth was on mine. Hot. Hard. Demanding.

I had no hope of resisting and I opened for him, welcomed the sweep of his tongue in my mouth as he groaned, his hands dropping to my hips as he pressed his hard length to mine. My mind drifted to naked places when he tore his lips from mine and buried his nose in my hair, drawing my scent into his lungs. “Prime Nial is the ruler of Prillon Prime, the leader of the Prillon people, and commander of the entire Coalition Fleet.”