I had to get Dare back. If I failed, not only would I lose my friend and cousin, but I’d have to find another second that my sweet, stubborn Hannah would accept. And judging by the fire in her eyes as the scouts gave their report on the Hive, she would have no other second but Dare.
“We’ll leave within the hour and I’ll lead the extraction team myself.” My second in command opened his mouth to protest, as he should, but I didn’t allow him to speak. “I promised Lady Deston I would have Dare, her second, back to her in time for the claiming ceremony tomorrow, and that is what I will do.”
“Yes, commander.” I left them all behind as I escorted Hannah back to our quarters. Once we arrived, I pulled her into my arms for a kiss meant to drive all thought from her mind.
“You will remain in here until I come back with Dare. You will remain locked safely behind this door until I come for you. Do you understand?” I held her face in my hands and stared into her eyes to make sure she was listening to me.
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
She lifted her hands to my arms and wrapped her fingers around my forearms. Turning her head, she kissed the inside of my wrist. “Yes, master. I will stay here, safe and sound, so you can bring Dare back to us.”
I kissed her hard and left without another word. The recon team was waiting for me when I got to the launch bay. We were going in on three ships, a team of eight on each. The recon team had tracked Dare and Nial to a small mobile Hive station recently discovered on a nearby asteroid. The outpost was small, and not capable of holding more than a hundred Hive soldiers.
With the taste of Hannah on my tongue, I knew I could kill a hundred Hive alone.
I was an excellent pilot, but the pilots chosen were from the recon team and knew exactly where we needed to go, so I sat in the back with the other warriors and waited. Battle fever spiked my blood with energy and I smiled, eager to kill. I hadn’t tasted battle in months, and was eager to feel my enemies’ bodies rip and tear as I pulled them to pieces with my bare hands.
“Hive communications have been blocked,” the pilot yelled back to us where I sat with six other warriors in eager silence. “We’ll be on the ground in sixty seconds.”
I pulled the breathing mask from the wall behind me and suited up for battle as the others around me did the same. The ship landed and I followed the recon team out the door. In less than five minutes we were setting charges on their outer perimeter door.
The blast sounded and the explosives team motioned the rest of us forward. We moved like water over rock, in perfect harmony. These were my warriors, my team, and we had fought alongside each other for years.
Hive soldiers flowed through the opening like swarming insects and we picked them off easily from our vantage point in the rocky terrain surrounding their mobile outpost. The Hive soldiers were well programmed for direct conflict, but one-on-one, or in small groups, they couldn’t adapt fast enough. The Hive was stupid, but their robotic soldiers came off the production lines on their home world faster than we could destroy them.
In a matter of minutes, the flurry of activity was over and my warriors and I made our way to the entrance. If this was a normal Hive outpost, the expendable robotic units would have been sent to flood the perimeter while the more advanced biological hybrids would be inside waiting to ambush us.
I threw a gas canister through the blast hole in the door and we waited long enough for it to have knocked out their biological systems. The gas wouldn’t kill them, just knock them out. We had our own warriors trapped inside, so could not use lethal toxins.
We cleared the outpost one room at a time. There were no biological to be found until we got to the very center of the structure. There, lying on two tables in a medical station were Dare and Nial. The half-living, half-machine creatures standing over them were the only resistance left. A warrior on my right stunned the creature over Dare as another team took care of the creature over Nial.
I stepped forward and looked down at my second, at Hannah’s love, then a war cry left my throat as I leaned down and lifted the semi-conscious creature from the ground and ripped his head from his shoulders with my bare hands.
Chapter Thirteen
Hannah
Zane was back. I could feel him again, and Dare. But not with warmth or any kind of joy. They both felt cold, Dare just absent, and Zane?
Zane felt like pure, raw fury.
I rubbed at my neck and paced the confining space of our quarters. I couldn’t stand to look at the bed where I’d slept so many nights wrapped around Dare. Nor could I look at the lounge where my mates had first taken me, Zane’s strong hand at my back and Dare’s pre-cum on my lips making me dizzy with lust.