Mated to the Cyborgs(30)
Until now. Now, I was hanging on by the thinnest of threads, one leer or pleasant smile by one of the warriors and I was going to turn into a berserker. She looked so beautiful in my colors. I was proud to see her in the dark blue, even if my family, those who the color honored, did not care about me any longer. Hunt, Kristin and I would make our own family, just as soon as her collar matched ours.
Kristin Webster of Earth brought out the best in me. And the worst. She was light, even her hair and skin were like the suns in the sky. She wore her hair shorter than Rachel, but I found I preferred it and the unobstructed access to the delicate skin of her neck. Even now, I could not stop staring at the long line of her throat, the soft curve of her jaw. I wanted to kiss her there, over and over, for hours. Her smile alone made my heart clench. Knowing what was beneath the tunic? Well, that was what kept me hard and made me a jealous, possessive lunatic. Which didn’t bode well for the lifespans of the others in the room should they hurt her.
Which they wouldn’t. It didn’t mean I had to like the men ogling her, wanting her.
She was mine.
As if she sensed my internal chaos—she probably did—she glanced my way, held my gaze and smiled with a feminine curve of her lips that spoke of a shared secrets. Desire. Promises made. Yes, she was mine.
And so I clenched my hands into fists and leaned against the wall, listening. I needed to keep several yards away from her, from the others. If I was going to murder some warriors, I didn’t want to do it with the governor and his mate in the room.
But if Hunt’s second-in-command didn’t stop eyeing Kristin—
“How many have gone missing?” Maxim asked.
That distracted me from the other warriors’ annoying fascination with my mate.
“One more today. That makes five in two months.”
“So, it’s only my men? All new warriors to the Colony?” Hunt asked. He was in his element. This was where he was in control, in command. While Maxim was the governor of Base 3, Hunt was in charge of all the new arrivals. He cared for their transition, for their futures. With some just disappearing as if they’d been transported away, this was his problem. His men.
He might be my second in the bedroom when we took Kristin, he was the primary here. When he gave commands, even I followed them. And so I listened to the latest updates on the odd happenings, and kept an eye on Kristin. Even with the governor’s personal guards about, she was still mine to protect.
“Yes, and we don’t know why or what’s happening to them,” the governor’s second, Ryston, answered.
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Hunt said, crossing his arms over his chest. While we were in the command room, no one sat. Everyone was too tense after discovering a now-obvious pattern. Something was fucking wrong here on the Colony and we had to start putting the puzzle pieces together. “Captain Perro hasn’t been here a week.”
Lady Rone remained quiet, listening until now. “Find Krael and you’ll find your missing men.”
The governor looked at his mate. “We don’t know that yet.”
“I do,” she muttered, and I felt a flair of humor from Kristin. She found Lady Rone’s comments amusing for some reason. I had no idea why that would be the case.
“Perro was assigned to Section 9 with the other new arrivals. We’ve had three disappearances from that section in as many weeks.” Hunt seemed unaffected, as always, but I knew the truth now that we were linked to each other and our mate through the collars. He was just as edgy as I, his mind clouded with lust. I had no idea how he continued to form coherent sentences, but he did. “We should start the search there.”
“I want to go with you,” Kristin said. Her voice held none of the wariness of being a new arrival on the planet. She was in command of herself and I felt her confidence as well through the collar.
“No,” Hunt and I said at the same time, but while his voice was level and controlled, mine was like a barked command. Several heads turned my way. It was the first thing I’d said since I entered the room.
“I was an FBI investigator on Earth. I worked in human trafficking.” She turned to argue her point to the governor, but her efforts were wasted. I was not going to let her go out chasing Hive, and neither was Hunt. “I searched for people who were kidnapped and sold into slavery. While I doubt that is what happened to your warriors, I do know how to search for them.”
Hunt shook his head where he stood beside her, his arms crossed over his chest. “Absolutely not. You don’t know the planet or the way these warriors think. Nor are you familiar with our enemy. If there are traitors working for the Hive on this planet, they’ll be extremely dangerous. And they won’t think or act like those from Earth.”