Taken by Her Mates(32)

“It’s a planet, near Earth. Coalition forces send all the contaminated and non-functional warriors here to live out the remainder of their lives.”

“What do you mean, contaminated?”

His body had tensed beneath me when he used that word, and I knew it pained him for some reason. I trusted my instincts, and they were screaming at me that his answer was important.

“The warriors who have been contaminated. Like me.”

Confused, I stared at him. “You seem fine to me. Do you have a disease or something? What were you contaminated with? Radiation?”

“Hive technology.” He lifted his hand and pointed to the left side of his face, the silver of his eye. “I have more, covering my back and leg.”

Ander tensed as Nial spoke, watching me intently, as if my reaction mattered a great deal. I glanced to him for a brief moment. I hadn’t seen Ander like this before without his face buried in my pussy. That was the only other time I’d seen him so serious, so intent. For a woman, that kind of focus, there, was a good thing. My pussy clenched at the thought of his skills.

I noticed the scar on the right side of his face. It was thick, running from the top of his forehead, down the outside of his eye socket, and farther down his cheek to his neck. I traced the path with my gaze, imagining a blade of some kind slicing through his flesh and decided I would have to kiss the entire length later, trace the scar with my tongue.

Nial’s voice drew my attention from Ander and I turned to face him as he explained. “The Hive is our enemy, as it is Earth’s. If a warrior, from any planet, is captured, they are modified into a Hive fighter. I was partially modified before being rescued. Nonetheless, to the Prillon Prime, my father, I am enough Hive to be contaminated.”

His fingers squeezed my flesh, then relaxed.

“I am considered ruined on my world, an outcast, not worthy of a bride.” He looked away from me, staring past me, and I frowned at his shame as he continued, “This is the reason my father refused your transport, Jessica. I carry Hive technology that can never be removed.”

“So?” I lifted my hand to his cheek, to touch the silvery hued skin with my fingers. The softness of the oddly colored flesh was a shock, as was its warmth. But it was part of him, simple as that. “What does that have to do with anything?”

His stillness was unnatural and his gaze returned to my face. Beside us, the stranger I did not know had stopped moving as well, as if I’d shocked them all into silence. Confused, I turned to Ander and found his gaze smoldering, raw lust burning through his eyes to devour me. I shivered, unable to stop the flood of heat that made my core ache with emptiness as I met his gaze. I vividly remembered that same look as he’d sucked on my clit and made me scream. I shook my head, trying to clear the mixture of need and confusion I was feeling.

“You’re all crazy. I don’t think I want to go to Prillon, not if this is how you treat your vets.” I thought of all my friends in the service who’d lost limbs, been burned by explosives, shot, hurt. They were good men and women, soldiers who had served with honor and deserved to be treated with care and respect when they returned home. I couldn’t imagine sending a wounded veteran to what amounted to a prison colony, an outcast denied a mate and a family simply because a wound had altered their appearance. “What is wrong with you people? You should be ashamed if that’s the way you treat your vets.”

“What is a vet?” The strange man asked the question and I tore my gaze from Ander’s to answer him.

“Who are you?” I wanted to know, since I was sitting half naked in the same room with him, and he seemed to think he had a right to be here.

“I am Doctor Halsen.”

I inspected him then, noticed the same golden coloring and sharp angles of his face as Nial and Ander. His eyes were the color of bourbon on ice and his uniform was a strange green armor that looked more like forest camouflage than medical scrubs. He was also huge, close to seven feet tall. But whatever. As Dorothy would say, I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

“Vets is short for veterans. Soldiers who served and were then discharged.”

He shook his head, confusion evident on his face. I sighed. I’d try again, in alien speak.

“Warriors who fought on the front lines. Some of them are wounded and sent home with honor. We call them veterans, and I’m one of them.” I tugged on the blanket covering me as the doctor looked at me with confusion in his eyes.

“How is this possible? Females do not fight in war,” he replied.

“Where I’m from, women fight. They work. They serve in the military and law enforcement. They don’t sit on the sidelines and wait for a man to save them.” I stared him down, pissed off by the way they treated their soldiers in general, and their misogynistic attitude in particular. All the macho testosterone in the room was making me see red. None of these aliens had earned my loyalty or my trust… well, none but Nial when he’d saved me from that Hive scout. Okay, perhaps Ander, too, when he got rid of the same scout.