Mated to the Cyborgs(46)

But that was nothing. I knew beyond that entrance was an actual hell.

I looked to Kiel, the Hunter. I’d learned the Hunter was an actual title. Marz told me they were bounty hunters or police across the Coalition planets, depending on the occasion. Hunter was apt since he was so damned good at it. Everians were recruited by the Coalition, and assigned to elite assassination and recon units for just such a purpose. I hadn’t asked, but I wondered if that was how he’d been caught by the Hive. I doubted I’d ever know, but apparently they hadn’t done anything to weaken his abilities. Walking with him was strange, like walking with a psychic or something.

He knew where my mates were. He just seemed to know.

We were ahead of the others, scouts on this mission, as Rezzer and Marz watched our backs. Which was fine with me.

I saw no path, no sign of two huge Prillons, let alone a bunch of Hive.

“Since I wasn’t here, I don’t know how this place escaped their scans. There must be some kind of cloaking device.” He lifted his head, inspected the sheer rock faces around us. “Or magnetic interference from the rocks.”

If I wasn’t involved in this, I’d think he was talking sci-fi mumbo jumbo. But he had to be right. How else could this place avoid detection?

We remained still, watching as the guards were swapped out with replacements.

Hive.

I’d never seen them before. Ever.

But yeah, I’d watched a couple Star Trek movies. These things were like Captain Picard’s borg, but bigger. Scarier. They weren’t little humans turned into cyborgs, they were seven and eight-foot tall monsters coated in silver. They traveled in groups of three, always three. I’d heard about them, but Earth media had done a good job of downplaying their seriousness.

The Hive was a problem for other parts of the universe. Earth was safe. We were too strong, our defenses too great for them to invade.

Yeah, right. Earth had just been damn lucky the Coalition Fleet took us under their protection. So far. From what I knew of them now, no military force from any country on Earth would stand a chance against them.

Ever since we learned of the Hive, of other planets out there, I’d assumed they were just bad space aliens that had to be fought, like in the movies. Not…this. They didn’t just kill, they consumed, destroyed lives. Ruined men. The Colony was proof of this.

Kiel, quiet beside me, was proof of this. I looked him over again, but still couldn’t see where his scars were, if he had any, but it didn’t matter. Everyone on this planet had survived hell. I didn’t need to see silver on his skin to know he’d suffered. And yet here he was, leading me directly back to the enemy, to those who’d tortured him, who would have ultimately turned him into one of the Hive units standing guard.

These men were beyond brave.

“The other day, I came here from Earth, a bride,” I said in a soft voice, sitting down on my butt, my back to the rock. “You came from being tortured by those things. Why would you want to risk your neck again? Especially when what was done to you is so fresh. I mean, aren’t you scared?”

He studied me closely and I knew he was able to see more than most. As a Hunter, he could no doubt see things that weren’t there for others. “Aren’t you?” he asked me in return.

Kiel was the only one who hadn’t argued when I said I was going to find my mates. Even the governor had balked at my help. But Kiel? I wasn’t sure if he didn’t care if I got myself killed or whether his hunting senses picked up that I wasn’t just a female all in a tither about her lost mates. The way he looked at me now, I knew it was the latter. I’d been trained for this as he had, although I lacked his extra senses. Even without, I knew what I was doing. I’d lived, breathed, trained to track and save people. I had damn good instincts, and I was cool under pressure.

This mission was just as important as any other I’d ever been on. Bad guys liked to hurt people, kill them, spread destruction and ruin. Although, we’d never had the Hive where I came from. Didn’t matter. Garbage was garbage no matter what planet I was on.

“This place so reminds me of a James Bond movie,” I muttered, thinking Dr. No would be in his underground lair with all his minions trying to destroy the world. I was no James Bond. With Kiel’s good looks, he could fill the role, but he was just too big, too powerful. No one would look at the movie. Only him.

As for me, I had my mates somewhere behind that guarded door. While I admired Kiel, I adored my mates. And nothing was going to stop me from getting to them, not even a giant cyborg monster.

Kiel arched one brow at my movie comment, but said nothing.