Mated to the Beast(39)

She nodded, then took my hand. I didn’t have time to consider the gesture for in the blink of an eye we were no longer on the battleship, but in a barely lit room filled with hard-sided boxes. The deep hum of the machinery was constant, much louder and deeper than the usual cadence of a ship’s systems. Immediately, Sarah dropped into a crouch. For a brief moment I envisioned her opening my pants and taking my cock into her mouth. I had yet to discover how skilled she was at sucking cock, but I could only imagine she was just as voracious and eager as she was at the fucking we’d already done. The thought of her tongue flicking over my flared crown had me shifting my cock in my pants. I had to push the thought of her mouth’s sweet suction from my head. I knelt beside her and focused on our mission.

“We do not know if there are any Hive monitoring this level or any kind of motion sensors to indicate life forms,” she said, her voice calm and even.

She was focused, although if she had that plug still in her ass, I doubted that would be the case. God, seeing that tight hole stretch around the plug made me—

“Remain here, I will investigate,” she said, then shifted to move.

Focus!

I was used to the charge and conquer approach to fighting. A brigade of Atlan fighters was a force that even the Hive couldn’t stand against. But Sarah wasn’t Atlan and I had to continually remind myself that patience and strategy were required now, not brawn.

I grabbed her shoulder, stilling her. “We will do it together.” I held up my wrist. “Remember, we can’t separate.”

“What if we get caught?” she asked.

I clenched my jaw. “We won’t get caught.”

“The first Hive we see I will… immobilize and we can claim their weapons and comm units.”

“And then?” I studied her, smart enough to know that we were in her territory now. I’d never set foot on a vessel this small before coming to this sector. I hadn’t survived a decade in battle by ignoring the knowledge or experience of my best fighters.

“The lifts are centrally located on all Hive ships, but there are access tunnels as well. I say we go for the tunnels. We’ll have a better chance of taking them by surprise.”

“Agreed.”

She nodded and turned to work her way around the supplies.



Sarah



Seth was on this prison ship. So were other men, men who didn’t deserve the fate that was in store for them. Hopefully, we would rescue all of them in time. Would Seth already be altered? Would he have the metallic skin and silver eyes of a soulless cyborg? Would he have the external attachments on his arms and legs? Would they shave his head? Inject him with microscopic implants in his muscles, making him faster and stronger than any human should be? Would he still look like my brother?

It didn’t matter. As long as he was alive, I didn’t care what he looked like.

Dax led the way, moving me aside when I would go first. Yes, he was a caveman, but in this moment he had two things that kept me from smacking him: the ability to rip the heads off a Hive without even warming up first, and a really fine ass. If a Hive appeared, Dax could go all berserker on them instead of firing. In the meantime, I would try to focus on rescuing my brother instead of the feel of Dax’s butt in my hands. I knew how it flexed as he fucked me. Shit, I was in trouble. He was the only male in the entire galaxy who could distract me during a mission.

It hadn’t even been two days and I’d changed so much. It wasn’t the fact that I wasn’t a coalition fighter anymore. It wasn’t that I’d been mated to an Atlan warlord. It wasn’t even that my brother had been captured by the Hive. It had been the realization that I wasn’t going to go through the rest of my life on my own. I no longer lived my life for someone else.

I’d joined the military because I was good at it, and I was good at it because I’d grown up with three older brothers who had given me no other choice. My father hadn’t offered me princess dresses or a pony or even a prom dress. I had paintball wars, karate classes, and ice hockey. I’d never chosen any of those things, only following along and participating because I was the youngest, but also because if I hadn’t, I would have been left out. Alone.

Then my dad threw the biggest life sucker of them all. A deathbed promise. I’d gone into the coalition because I’d promised my dad I’d find Seth and keep an eye on him. I’d been so focused on that I hadn’t realized my dad had taken my entire life away. I had no choices. Nothing was my own. I just had to find Seth. I’d found him, fought beside him, but then he was captured. Once I pulled Seth from the Hive brig and transported him to safety, what then? Would I have to remain by his side forever? I’d done what my father had wanted and I would get Seth back to safe ground. I’d joined the coalition, left Earth. Hell, I’d even agreed to be a mate of an Atlan to keep my promise to my dad.