“ Lubha ? Are you okay? We have started toward you.”
“We’re fine. Cold. Thirsty. Sore. But we’ll do. Why are you sad?”
“Huw is denying his attraction to Nadia. Says he wants a Prime mate and will do without if he doesn’t find one.”
“Well, we’ll see. Once he sees her … well, we’ll see.”
“You were talking with Melina,” Huw stated. “Are they okay?”
“Yes. We’ll see them soon—around the next curve.”
Both of them sped up. Senses wide open, Wulf searched for any unseen enemy lurking in the rocks along the well-trod path. Huw’s head was up, his gaze scanning. His brother caught his glance, and Wulf shook his head. Nothing out there but the women.
Increasing their speed, they rounded the corner.
Melina stood and protected Nadia, who leaned against a rock. Their science officer was pale and bleeding sluggishly from a head wound. Both women sported multiple bruises and cuts.
All of this Wulf took in one glance. He moved toward Melina, who moved toward him. Huw, swearing under his breath, raced to Nadia.
“Melina,” rasped Wulf as he pulled her into his arms. His lips covered her face with gentle, loving kisses as he pressed her gently into his strength and warmth, his face against her hair.
“Diew, life with you is never boring.”
“Never. I’ll never leave you.” She stroked his back.
“Promise.”
“I promise.”
Reluctantly he released her. Sweeping a comprehensive glance over her nakedness, he categorized her injuries, then pulled his tunic over his head. He let out a ragged breath, throttling back his anger. “You are not just bruised, little one.”
“Nadia is the one who is hurt. A few bruises aren’t going to stop me,” she said in a huff as she took the shirt he offered and pulled it over her head. “There. Now if I fight I don’t have to worry about my ass hanging out in the wind.” She threw Wulf a jaunty grin. “You can order the attack now, my gemat. I can feel the men’s eagerness to kick ass all the way up here.” Wulf laughed. He let out a loud, guttural roar that echoed off the surrounding mountains. Several Prime battle cries answered his. The sound of laser fire soon followed.
Wulf gestured to the defensive position the women had found. “Shall we? I expect some rats shall leave the scene via the back door.”
“Slugs—and they slither,” Mel said as she allowed him to put his arm around her to lead her back to Nadia and Huw.
“What?” Wulf asked.
“Nadia and I decided they were slugs,” Mel explained. “Slimy, cold-blooded and with no spines.”
“I’d like to cut off the apayebo’s balls that would treat a woman such as he did you both,” Huw spat. His shirt now covered Nadia and the Russian woman’s head lay on Huw’s thigh, her eyes closed.
“Is Nadia okay, brother?” Wulf asked.
Melina nudged him in his side. His gaze captured hers and she winked.
“Huw is not all that indifferent, now is he?”
“I agree. But it will not be an easy battle. I am assuming Nadia is in denial also?”
“Some. Wulf, she’s empathic. She can differentiate between the growls.”
“Ahhh. It will be interesting to watch, eh?”
Mel grinned and nodded. Her smile left her face as her head jerked up. Her nostrils flared as if she smelled something bad.
Wulf sniffed the air, tuning into her senses. At first, he found nothing, then he smelled it too. The sharp acidic smell of sweat brought on by sphincter-weakening fear.
The slugs were close to the fortification exit.
“Huw! Arm Nadia and take your positions. The battle is coming to us,” Wulf ordered as he pulled Melina to another outcropping. He shoved a laser pistol into her hands, then took his place at her side. “Shoot to kill, my love. I want these apayebote dead.”
“What about questioning them?” Melina asked as she aimed the pistol at the door to the fortification. “The leader is not Beria nor Luka. It is someone else.”
“That’s right, lubha.” Wulf aimed his laser rifle. “My bitch of an aunt admitted she had lost control of the purists she used to further her own agenda. She didn’t even care that she’d started something that might destroy our world.”
“Bitch is right,” snarled Melina. “Did you strangle her?” Wulf laughed harshly. “No, but I promised to if you were hurt.”
“They’re coming,” Mel replied. “Huw. Nadia. Be alert.”
“Nadia is unconscious, Melina,” Huw muttered. “Point out the apayebo that did this.
I want to slice him up into little pieces and then grind them under my heel.”
“Just shoot. If he isn’t in this bunch,” Melina replied with a snarl of her own, “I’ll take you to him personally. He tried to rape Nadia after she stopped him from beating on my gemate marking.”
“Huw, I will help you kill this offal,” Wulf said, his tones colder than the Alliance’s prison planet in winter.
Huw nodded. “I get first dibs, though.”
“Agreed.” Wulf growled, then said, “Sorry, lubha. I forgot your head hurts.” Melina kissed his bare arm. “Growl all you want. Our combined adrenaline rush has made me forget all about it.”
At that point the door opened and five Prime males ran out of the mountainside.
Wulf took out the first man. Melina got the second. Huw got the third. With three down, the other two were outnumbered. They dropped their weapons and raised their hands.
“I’ll jam the door mechanism from this side, trapping any others,” Mel offered.
Wulf sent her an angry glance. “Why didn’t you do that before?”
“I wanted to see how familiar they were with the facility,” she said. “Also, it reveals something about the enemy.”
“What’s that?” snarled Wulf, so angry that he almost spit the words.
“They aren’t well-trained,” Mel pulled up the key pad and entered a lock-down code.
“The ones we’ve gone against in the past had some military background. I wanted to see what the dirtside rebels were made of. No militarily trained soldiers would’ve poured out the back that way. They would’ve had defenses inside, lured our men in and, picked them off one-by-one.”
“Like you did on Obam IV?” Wulf smiled. “Okay, I see your point. And your conclusion?”
“The rebels we dealt with on the Galanti were recruited by Beria and Luka from family members for their own ends. I think you’ll find that the first two rebels, Prolow and Ullyn, were distant family members of Luka’s who had purist leanings.”
“Beria and Luka,” spat one of the two rebels still standing. “Opportunistic, selfish aristocrats the both of them. They were not truly of the cause.”
“That’s the beta-slug, talking. Alpha-slug is dead over there,” Mel said. “Beta was the one who assaulted both Nadia and me.”
Huw roared and dropped the other man that he’d tied up with the man’s own clothing. He lunged at beta-slug and knocked him to the ground. The man stayed down, cowering at Huw’s feet. “Get up, you coward. Let’s see how you fight against a man instead of helpless, naked women.”
Wulf grabbed Huw by the shoulder. “Wait, brother. This can be done later. We need to get Nadia to a doctor.”
Huw grimaced, then nodded. He did manage to aim one good kick at the beta’s ribs.
Wulf smiled at the groan of pain. Yeah, he’d make sure both Huw and he had a chance to talk with the rotten coward. Maybe the slug—as Melina called him—would die while trying to escape.
“Wulf,” Melina said, a warning note in her voice. “He must go in front of the judiciary—and then the Alliance Military tribunal. He kidnapped two Alliance officers.”
“Sister,” Huw protested. “Can’t we just rough him up a bit?”
“That doesn’t bother me, Huw,” Melina said, eyeing Wulf. “But my mate wants to kill him.”
“So do I,” Huw said. He turned to Wulf, “If I can’t kill him, you can’t.”
“Fine.” Wulf turned toward Melina. “Go over to Nadia. Keep an eye on the other one. I sense a team of our crew coming up to help. Huw and I will go further up the path and teach this man a lesson—leaving him to live to stand trial.” Barely.
His gemate pursed her lips, but nodded and walked over to Nadia and sat down, her pistol aimed at the rebel lying on the ground, trussed up like a game bird waiting for the spit.
Wulf grabbed one arm of the beta-slug and Huw, the other, then they dragged the rebel along the path.
Smiling grimly, Wulf said, “Huw, I’ll give you three standard minutes to teach this turd a lesson. Then I’ll take one minute. After that, he can look forward to rotting on one of the Alliance’s frozen prison planets for the rest of his life, serving as a fuck toy to the other prisoners.”
“Sounds good to me,” Huw muttered. “There is not one portion of Nadia’s body that wasn’t bruised. Her forehead was split open and she has a knot on the back of her head.
The man deserves eternal butt-fucking for that alone.”