Mastered by Her Mates (Interstellar Bride Book 0) Page 14

  Someone handed me a pair of surgical gloves and I slipped my hands into them as another placed the ion-blade on a waist-high tray to my left. Cutting was barbaric, beyond cruel, and the only way to remove the foreign objects the Hive implanted in our warriors, our women, our fucking children.

  “All right, let’s get the damn thing out of him.”

  “He’s stable.”

  I nodded and reached for the ion-blade. Lifting the device to Myntar’s back, I cut him open slowly, layer by layer until the bones that lined his spinal column came into view. But I knew that wouldn’t be enough. I kept cutting away the bone until I saw what I hunted, the silver orb attached to his spinal cord, countless microscopic tendrils working their way through his nerves, working their way up and down his spinal cord, weaving themselves into his system. Taking him over.

  We called the strange device their core processor, for any Hive, from the lowest scout to their fiercest soldier classes, ceased to function without it. Once removed, the minds of the individuals became their own, the constant buzzing chatter they suffered as part of the collective, silenced.

  There was no easy way to remove it. Over the centuries we’d tried everything. Cutting. Tearing, Ripping it free. Melting the metal. It didn’t matter how gentle or unforgiving our method, the result was the same.

  The man either lived or he died in a matter of minutes, a self-destruct sequence activated by the remaining implants that had been spread throughout the rest of the victim’s body. It wasn’t pretty, nor free of pain for the victim.

  “I see it, Doctor.”

  “Yes.” I set the blade down and dug my fingers deep into the warrior’s exposed flesh, wrapped my fingers around the metal orb that was a quarter the size of my fist. “Everyone ready?”

  A chorus of yeses sounded around me as I gritted my teeth and pulled. Hard.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Amanda

  Grigg’s arm was the only thing keeping me on my feet. Mara’s mate. Little Lan’s second father. Her family was about to shatter right before my eyes and I couldn’t help but imagine the wrenching pain of losing one of my mates, of seeing Grigg or Rav so helpless and broken on that table.

  I didn’t know exactly what they were doing to the Prillon warrior, but by the tension in the air and grim faces around the room, I knew it wasn’t anything good. I ignored the sounds of the second medical team working across the room on another warrior who probably had a family. Loved ones. I didn’t want to know. I had all I could deal with right here.

  That the man was a Prillon warrior was obvious by his golden hair, sharp features and dark gold forehead. But below that his skin had been altered to a strange, shimmering silver. Before they’d knocked him out his entire left arm had looked like something out of a robot horror movie, strange little devices emerging from his flesh to click, or grasp, or buzz into empty space like a lost fly repeatedly bashing its body against a clear window trying to get back outdoors.

  The whole thing was so strange and sad. “What did they do to him?” I whispered my question to Grigg as Rav was completely focused on his patient and I did not want to distract him.

  “They consume other races, implant us with technology that regulates our bodies. The core processor Rav is removing from his back integrates with the spinal cord. It’s a biosynthetic that continues to grow and expand with time until it infiltrates the brain. After that, there’s no hope at all.”

  “I don’t understand.” I refused to look away as Rav cut open the warrior’s back. I even leaned closer as the light silver shimmer of a foreign object became visible where it had somehow attached itself to the man’s spine. The core processor. It looked wholly alien, so much more sinister than anything I’d ever seen.

  Grigg’s hand came to rest on the back of my neck and I crossed my arms over my chest, bracing for the revulsion I knew was coming.

  “Rav is going to remove it. Once he does that, we’ll know in the next few minutes.”

  “Know what?”

  “He’ll either wake up from his stupor and remember who he is, in which case he’ll be rushed to a ReGen pod to repair the damage to his spine.”

  “Or?” I nudged Grigg with my shoulder, even as I leaned into the strong fingers massaging the base of my neck.

  “Or he’ll self-destruct.”

  I gasped. “What?”

  What the hell did that mean? I opened my mouth to ask another question but all thought fled as I watched Rav’s muscles bulge and flex as he braced himself against the edge of the table and yanked the silver orb from the warrior’s back with one violent twist of his forearm.

  “Containment!” Rav barked the order and one of his helpers in gray rushed forward with a small black box. Rav dropped the silver orb inside, the hairlike tendrils waving in the air as if searching for another host, another body to invade.

  That thing was creepier than the worst of the monster-sized cockroaches I’d found under the sink of my crap apartment in college.

  The officer closed the lid and rushed to an S-Gen station in the center of the medical station. He hurriedly placed his hand on the scanner and I sighed with relief when the bright green light flared and the box, and the creepy silver orb, disappeared, I had to hope, forever.

  I turned back to find Rav finishing up, running a small ReGen wand over the cut he’d made in the warrior’s back. “Time?”

  “Two minutes.”

  Rav looked so sad, so resigned, and I knew from the anger and helplessness I felt flowing through my collar that Rav didn’t think the warrior was going to survive. “Roll him onto his back. Let’s see if he wakes up.”

  They scrambled to do as Rav bid and I bit my lip, waiting to see what would happen next. The gadgets on the warrior’s arm remained dormant and I wondered what would happen to them if he survived.

  Rav looked at me then, his gaze, unlike Grigg’s, hid nothing from me. He let me see everything, the pain, the helpless rage, the regret that he couldn’t do more. I could feel it.

  “If he survives, I’ll remove as much as I can. But most of the damage is microscopic, biological implants too small to track or remove will have been embedded in his muscles, his bones, his eyes and skin, all designed to make him stronger, faster, his sight keener, his flesh resistant to extremes of temperature.”

  “Is he—may I—” Hell, I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to say, but I wanted to get a closer look.

  Grigg deferred to Rav, who nodded. He sighed, probably realizing he could no longer protect me from the worst. “Go ahead, Amanda. Get a good look at what the Hive can do.”

  I stepped forward, my legs stiff and unsteady at first, but I waved away Grigg’s offer to assist. I wanted to see this for myself. I needed to see this.

  Four steps, five, and I was beside the hulking mass of the unconscious warrior. He looked almost peaceful, his strange silver face in repose. I wandered the edges of the exam table, taking it all in, the strange metallic pieces attached to his arm, the silver hue of his skin, the complete lack of recognition or control he’d possessed before they’d put him under. He’d been insane, incoherent. Unrecognizable as—as what? I’d been thinking as a human being, but he wasn’t human, was he?

  He was alien. A Prillon warrior who just a few days ago I would have called enemy. Invader. Shake-down artist.

  But he was a mate to Mara. A father. A family man. A warrior who wanted peace just as much as any soldier on Earth.

  Shame swirled in my heart as I realized just how fucking small Earth truly was, and how much smaller still our superstitious, frightened intellects.

  I lifted my gaze to each of my mates and let my regret, my understanding flow to each of them through our shared bond. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

  They both shifted, as if trying to decide exactly what to say to me now that I was no longer fighting them, no longer resisting the truth of my new life. Seeing Mara’s mate solidified this. Whatever Earth’s doubts were, they were no longer mine. I knew the
truth. I saw it firsthand. I believed the Coalition. I believed my mates.

  I would need to contact the agency as soon as possible, let them know what was going on out here. The truth.

  The comm unit in medical beeped, followed by a voice I recognized as that of Captain Trist. “Commander, we need you on deck. We’ve got Hive scout ships coming at us from three systems.”

  Grigg looked at me and I nodded, waving him away. I was fine. They needed him to keep us all safe. While Rav saved lives in the medical unit, Grigg saved lives by commanding, leading. Running the ship, the squadron. All of us.

  “Go. They need you.”

  He nodded once, then turned on his heel and left me with Rav.

  The saved warrior moved, a soft groan leaving his throat as I leaned over him. His eyes flickered open and I felt my own gaze widen at the bright glimmer of silver that ringed his irises, the effect similar to photos I’d seen of a solar eclipse.

  “Mara.” The warrior called for his mate, but his gaze was squarely on me, and I looked nothing like the tall, orange-and-golden female who belonged to him.

  “She’s coming.”

  “Mara!” His back arched and instinctively I reached for his hand to offer comfort. His grip nearly crushed my fingers, but I held firm and placed my free hand on his forehead.

  “Shhh. You’re okay. Mara is coming.”

  “Mara.” He went limp as I held him, his gaze locked on my face but seeing another’s as I stroked the hair from his forehead in what I hoped was a soothing caress.

  A shudder raced from his spine, extending to his limbs and suddenly Rav was there, pulling me backward, away from the warrior who twisted and contorted with pain on the table.

  “What’s happening to him?”

  “He’s dying.” Rav settled me against his chest but didn’t force me to turn away. I couldn’t look away as the gadgets lining his arm oozed like someone had pumped acid into the metal, cooking it off his body from the inside out. His flesh bubbled and churned as well, as if he were boiling on the inside.

  Nausea rose and I choked back bile as his rib cage collapsed, his chest imploded in some horrific scene I’d never imagined existed outside a horror movie. Tears streaked down my face and Rav lifted me off my feet, finally turning me away, placing his big, warm, safe body between me and the dreadful story playing out on the table behind him. “All right, Amanda, that’s enough.”

  I breathed him in, shaking like a leaf. I’d wanted to know, and now I did. God help me.

  The smell of the warrior’s churning flesh clogged my head and I gagged, grasping desperately at Rav’s uniform. “I can’t breathe.”

  “Get him out of here before his mates arrive.” Rav gave the order over his shoulder as he shuffled me out of the room. Before we reached the door I stumbled and he swooped me up, cradling me in his arms as he carried me back toward the small exam room where I’d first met him and Grigg.

  By the time the door closed behind us, I was shaking.

  “Hush, mate. It’s all right.”

  “He…he bubbled.”

  Rav cursed. “I’m sorry, Amanda. I tried to warn you.”

  And he had, my compassionate Rav. He had argued with Grigg, tried to keep the sight from me. He’d known how bad it would be, they both had.

  Rav sat in a chair, settling me across his lap as I tried to focus on his scent, his heat, the strength of the arms that held me tightly to him. I gripped his shirt, held on, as if he would anchor me. I breathed him in until my stomach settled and I could think again.

  “No. I needed to know. I had to see for myself.” I reached up and placed a tender kiss on his neck, wrapping my arms around his waist, pressing my cheek to his chest as I held him close. Squeezed him, afraid he would set me aside and return to his duty, as Grigg had been forced to do. So many people depended on my mates. And what was I? Nothing. A distraction. A weak female who, right now, would sell her soul if that’s what it took to be held by one of her mates, just like this.

  Perhaps I had, sold my soul, that is. I hadn’t been matched because I’d wanted mates. I’d been matched because I was a spy. I’d been one for years. But as I held Rav, I realized I truly had lost my soul somewhere along the way. I had nothing and no one in my life. I’d been married to my job, unable to trust, unwilling to risk being hurt. But now, now I had Grigg and Rav, and Rav felt so very good and solid and real. So much better than the cold comfort of the United States government.

  “How many times have you had to go through that? Does it happen a lot?”

  “Watching a good man die?”

  “Yes.”

  “Myntar was number two-hundred and seventy-three. But most who are taken by the Hive are never recovered. We end up fighting them on the field of battle, not here, in a medical station,” Rav grumbled, as my mind reeled—he kept track? Each life so precious that he never wanted to forget? “And I’m not happy you had to see it even once.”

  I sighed, then breathed him in. “I know. I’m sorry I’m so stubborn. I’m sorry. I’m nobody, Rav. So many people need you, you and Grigg. I shouldn’t even be here. I’m just a distraction for you. A pain in the ass you don’t need. God, I’m sorry. For everything.”

  Rav lifted his hand to my neck, his giant palm sliding under my jaw and gently raising my face to his. “Never apologize again. You are perfect. I love your fire, your strong mind. I need you, mate. Grigg needs you. Before you, we were both lost.”

  They were lost? That was almost laughable. They had purpose.

  “No, Rav. You’re both so strong, so much responsibility on your shoulders. You don’t need me here, distracting you. I’ve been such an idiot. All I’ve done is make things worse, more complicated, for both of you.”

  His lips lowered to mine, lingered in a soft caress more reverent than sexual. His mouth was soft and warm, gentle. Tears filled my eyes as his complete devotion, adoration and a desperate longing to be loved filled me through our connection. He was hurting from Myntar’s death, too, but didn’t show it. I had the luxury of the collar to make me aware of his pain, of his need for me, I was the one to ease him, to love him.

  “Conrav.” I whispered his name, lifting my arms to bury my fingers in his hair as I pulled him to me, pulled his face to my neck, cuddling him as I sensed he needed, my huge warrior mate. He did need me, he’d not simply said the words to soothe me or convince me to stay.

  I held him close, running my fingers through his hair over and over in a soothing gesture, loving him the best I could. His pale gold hair was like tiny strands of silk between my fingers. “Your hair is so soft.”

  That earned me a chuckle as his gentle hands slid up and down my spine in a comforting glide. “I need you, Amanda. We both need you. Neither of us are good at expressing our feelings with words. So thank the gods for the collars.” He kissed me. “Yes, I love fucking you, I love your body, your wet pussy, the sounds you make when we’re loving you, but it’s so much more than that. I need you like this, soft and gentle. I need to feel your love around me soothing the fires that rage in my soul. To heal me, even when I’m not truly hurt. I need to hold you and be still, just like this. Grigg needs it too, even more than I do. His rage is like a volcano inside him. We need you. Gods, please, Amanda. You can’t leave us.”

  I’d never considered staying forever, even when I knew I couldn’t go home, my mind hadn’t wrapped around the idea of committing to my mates, of choosing them. But they’d just given me everything I’d asked for, everything I needed to be free, to make my own choice. For years now my life had been my job and nothing but the job. I’d had no options. But now, the choice was clear. And in that moment I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, exactly what that choice was going to be.

  “I’m not going anywhere. You’re mine, Rav. You and Grigg are mine.” My voice was stronger now that I was resolved. Sure. “I need to contact Earth, tell them what I’ve seen here. They need to know the truth.”

  “They won’t listen.” Rav lifted his he
ad from my shoulder and met my gaze. “We tried to tell them. We showed them cadavers of warriors like Myntar, showed them images of battles, of Hive scouts, their Integration Units. All of it.”

  I stiffened, rage rising to choke me. “You what?” They’d told me none of this. Cadavers? Video of Hive installations and ships, of Hive soldiers in active combat.

  “We gave them all the proof they could need. They aren’t interested in listening.”

  While I didn’t want to believe it, I knew Rav spoke the truth. I didn’t need the surety of his words coming through the collar to make me believe. “If they had the proof, then why did they send me out here? What do they want?”

  Rav placed a gentle kiss on my lips, his gaze cloudy. “I don’t know, mate. You tell me.”

  Oh, I knew all right. Weapons. They wanted weapons. Technology. Anything that would get them ahead in their battle for domination of our little blue planet. My presence here wasn’t about the Coalition at all, or the arrival of the spacemen. It was all about Earth’s petty wars, the never-ceasing struggle for power.

  After what I’d just witnessed, their obsessive struggle for supremacy was laughable. There was so much more out here, so much more that humans, with their petty fighting, had yet to comprehend. “When do Earth’s first soldiers arrive?”

  “Soon. Tomorrow.”

  Holy shit. I didn’t have much time. “I want to meet them first, talk to them. And…” My voice faded as I considered what I could do to convince the soldiers arriving from Earth that the threat was real.

  “And?”

  “I want them to see Myntar’s body. I want them to watch what happened. Do you have the video on file? Are there cameras in the medical station?”

  Rav groaned and I felt his utter and complete disgust at the idea. “Everything that happens on this ship is recorded.”

  Everything? Shit. They hadn’t exactly told me that either. But that was a concern for another day. “Let me show them, Rav. I know these guys, their type. They live by a code of honor that’s solid. Their loyalty is absolute. They’ll listen to me.”