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.