Interstellar Brides® Program Boxed Set - Books 17-20

Chapter 4

4

Niobe, Battleship Karter, Sector 437

I really hadn’t meant to spring it on him like that.

I’m your mate.

Not exactly me at my most brilliant. I hadn’t even told him my name.

But then again, I had transported into the middle of a Hive Integration base—an unknown Integration Base that was supposed to be one of ours—and been forced to fight for my life, and his, as soon as I’d had time to blink. Good thing I didn’t travel without my weapon. Good thing my instincts and reflexes hadn’t gotten rusty running the Academy. My I.C. commander would laugh at the very thought.

All in all, my years on a battleship ReCon team had paid off in a big way. The old training had kicked back in instantly, like I’d never been gone, let alone spent the last few years sitting behind a desk, or training new Coalition cadets.

I wasn’t surprised by the shocked expression of the transport officer on Commander Karter’s ship when seven fighters transported without prior approval or planning. I had input an override protocol that placed us deep inside the nearest battleship, as far from the Hive as I could get us in the shortest amount of time.

I could have transported us anywhere. The Academy. Everis. Prillon Prime. None of those made sense considering where we’d been. What we knew.

The Karter was the perfect choice. Not only was it in the same sector as the hidden Hive base, but it was the only battleship close enough to mount an assault on the Hive there. They were using our base to torture and kill our warriors, right under our noses, and the faster we took care of the problem, the more warriors we could save.

The fact that the Coalition hadn’t known the base had been overrun by the enemy enraged me. I knew Commander Karter, the tough as nails Prillon Commander. I’d worked with him on numerous I.C. missions with Commander Chloe Phan. I was confident Commander Karter would act quickly, would show no mercy.

I’d locked that secret base down and trapped any remaining Hive like rats in a barrel. The transport codes would prevent any movement in or out, unless I personally authorized the transport—or Prime Nial himself chose to override my codes. No. Nothing was getting into or out of that base until we had enough warriors to go in there and clean house, save our people, and take care of this mess.

Quinn hadn’t known how many others were still down there, alive and trapped with the Hive. How could he know an exact count when he’d been in a cell behind an energy barrier and the Hive were a bunch of ruthless assholes? We had to go back. I wouldn’t risk any fighter’s life to that hellhole. He wouldn’t either, considering what the Hive had probably put him through. Who knew what integrations he had, or what tortures he’d survived.

The warrior behind the transport control panel looked up at us, his jaw gaping for a moment before he regained control of himself. The vibrations ceased, my hair stopped crackling. “Who are you?” he asked. Stunned. Definitely confused. “You are not on my transport list.” He glanced at the Prillon captain behind me, a cadet I’d trained several years ago. A good warrior and an honorable male. “Captain Prax? Is that you? You were reported missing on Latiri 7. How did you end up here?”

Prax growled as the Atlan at our feet began to stir, his ion blaster pointed at the warrior who’d resumed his normal form, which was still about three hundred pounds and a solid seven feet. The beast was gone now. We didn’t know the extent of his integrations. Hell, we didn’t even know if he could be saved.

I stepped off the pad, down the platform’s steps. “I’m Vice Admiral Niobe. I need to see Commander Karter and Commander Phan immediately.”

The male’s hand moved swiftly to verify my identity, as was protocol. I waited impatiently, my booted foot tapping on the floor of the transport room as the screen behind him mirrored what he was seeing on the control panel. An image of my face appeared, along with my service record and a large emblem in the upper corner confirming I was a vice admiral—not that he could miss that rank by looking at my uniform—and my status as a member of the I.C. The male glanced at me, then down, then back up. “At once, Vice Admiral. I will inform the commanders of your arrival.”

“Good.” I nodded, trying to ignore the Hunter behind me, my mate, who was moving in close. Too close, like an alpha male. A very protective one. I shifted a few steps away because I needed to stay in control. Breathing in his scent, feeling the heat coming from his body, the look in his gaze… it was distracting. And n****e hardening.

“Alert medical.” I tipped my head toward the platform. “I have an integrated Atlan here, and four rescued prisoners from a Hive Integration facility. They were new arrivals there and have no new integrations that I am aware of, but they need a thorough medical exam just in case.”

The tech nodded. “Yes, Vice Admiral.”

He stood, staring at all of us for another few seconds, taking in the battle worn prisoners, the Everian Hunter, the unconscious Atlan full of Hive tech, and me.

I raised my eyebrows. I didn’t have time for this kind of nonsense. “Now.”

He jumped as if stung by a bee and a few seconds later a medical team in green raced into the transport room. The Atlan was injected with what I assumed was a strong sedative as the others were led out of the room to the medical station. Captain Prax nodded his head, either in thanks or goodbye or any other possibility. I was just glad he was safe. Whole.

I lifted a hand, signaled one doctor to remain. He nodded slightly and waited for my orders. There was one very stubborn Everian I knew who needed to be tended. I also knew he wasn’t going to allow it, not until he’d spoken to me. To tell him I was his mate then transport to a battleship? Yeah, probably not the way it was usually done.

I turned on my heel. I knew Quinn hadn’t gone with the others. I felt him watching me, devouring me with his gaze. Intense. Sensual. Needy.

“How long were you a prisoner?” I asked. I didn’t want to know, and I did. My heart, which hadn’t even known he existed just a short time ago, ached for him now. While I’d been on The Colony with Kira and Angh and the others there, he’d been tortured.

“I lost count of the days. A week. Maybe longer.”

I could only imagine. The base was underground. No windows. No light. No space to use to get one’s bearings. He stepped closer, lifted a hand to my face, traced my cheek with his fingertips. For a Hunter, and I knew he was an Elite, his touch was gentle, the motion slow.

“Is what you said true? Are you mine?” he asked, his voice soft.

“Yes.” There was no reason to deny our match. “And you are mine.” I wanted to get that out there from the beginning. I was not a soft, submissive female. I would demand as much as I gave. Perhaps more.

“By the gods.” He leaned in close, nuzzled the side of my neck as I motioned the doctor in closer. “What is your name?”

“Niobe.”

He repeated the name, breathed me in. His hands came to rest on my hips and I swayed, the adrenaline from battle and his nearness combining to overwhelm me for a few seconds. But no more. He’d been tortured. Integrated. He was hurt. Too thin. The circles under his eyes spoke of long days without sleep. The lines around his mouth reflections of pain. And I could only imagine the mental hardships he’d endured. “You need to go to medical, Quinn.”

“I’m fine. I’ll be fine. I need you, not a doctor.”

I laughed, I couldn’t help myself, the sound a surprise even to me. He was feisty, my mate. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

That got his attention and he lifted his head to stare into my eyes. “Niobe.”

“Quinn.”

“I want to kiss you.”

God yes. Kiss me. I nodded at the doctor behind him. “Alright. And then you go to medical.”

“Then I make you mine,” he growled.

Before I could reply to that, his lips crushed mine, stealing my breath, my sanity. His touch made my body burn, and I had to use every ounce of discipline I had to raise a hand from his back and signal the doctor to get in close, inject him, knock him out.

I knew the moment it was done, for Quinn sagged against me, our lips still touching. As his knees buckled, his eyes opened and he held my gaze. A hand covered the injection spot on his neck. “You’re going to get a spanking for this.”

I laughed again. God help me, he was charming. And that was f*****g hot. No one had spanked me—not as a child for punishment—or as an adult for play. Ever. But the idea of Quinn doing it? My panties were ruined.

First, he needed a thorough medical exam, some time in a ReGen pod. He needed to heal, and if he were like any other male alien in the universe when discovering he had a mate, he wasn’t going to be distracted. He was mine, and I was going to take care of him whether he wanted me to or not. Whether I got a spanking for it or not.

I smiled as the doctor caught him from behind and the transport officer came around to help carry my mate to the medical station. He grinned at me, awake but sedated, his body collapsing before his mind. He stared, and those amber eyes were filled with a dark vow.

I couldn’t help myself, couldn’t stop the naughty side of me from taunting him.

“Promises, promises, mate.”

He kept smiling as they carried him away. I was grinning like an i***t, replaying the entire scene in my mind, when Commander Karter entered the transport room.

“Vice Admiral.” His voice boomed. “What the f**k is going on? And how did you get on my battleship?”

Two hours later

Quinn – Medical Unit

Even before I opened my eyes, I knew where I was, the all too familiar scent of the interior of a ReGen pod filling my head with dozens of memories I had no desire to relive. Still, it was better than that underground prison I’d been trapped in. I was naked, but the stench of the Nexus and his torments were gone. I had no doubt the doctor had examined every molecule in my body, searching for Hive technology, trying to assess the danger I might present to the crew.

And I was different. The buzzing in my mind was gone, but my body felt hyper-aware, every pressure point on the healing bed acutely present in my senses. The scent of the cleansing solution used on Coalition ships. The feminine allure of my mate somewhere close.

This was far from the first time I’d awakened inside a ReGen pod, but this time was unique. This time she was here. I felt her, heard her heartbeat, her voice as she and Commander Karter spoke intensely on the other side of the pod.

The fact that she’d remained by my side made my heart race. My mate was no ordinary female. She was a vice admiral in the Coalition Fleet and far outranked me. Based on her movements and her speech, I assumed she was human, from Earth… and yet that did not feel quite right.

Her scent reminded me of home, of Everis, and I wondered if she was from my world instead. Perhaps she had spent time hunting on Earth and picked up their customs and language. Everian Hunters were masters at blending in, mimicking accents, mannerisms, the multitude of indescribable details that made one stand out as other.

If she were Everian, and not human, then I wondered which Elite Hunter had sired her. Was her father a legend on my home world, or an unknown?

Not that I cared about her history. I couldn’t care less where she had been in the past, as long as she was with me now. But I was a predator with an insatiable curiosity, a curiosity that she stirred more strongly than anything ever had before. I wanted to know everything about her. Every. Single. Detail. From birth to this moment.

She was mine.

The clear lid lifted automatically and both my mate and Commander Karter came over. I sat up, wiped a hand over my face.

“How do you feel?” the commander asked.

My mate’s gaze raked over my body. Every bare inch. And, of course, that made me hard.

“Get this man a sheet,” the commander shouted, waving his arm. He’d seen that my c**k hadn’t been injured and probably wasn’t thrilled to have a conversation with me with it right out there.

I couldn’t help it. My mate was before me. Unclaimed.

The doctor came over and handed me a white sheet, and I laid it over my lap.

“As you saw, I’m fine.” I looked to the doctor. “What about integrations?”

He looked to the tablet he held. “The data shows a multitude of microscopic integrations. There is only one other warrior on record with this type of integration, a Prillon male on The Colony. His name is Tyran. I have reviewed his file, and the type of implant you and he received does not appear to affect your mind until complete saturation level is achieved. Your cellular saturation is at eighty-five percent.”

Fuck. One or two more injections from that blue fucker and he would have had me.

The doctor was still talking. “The integrations will make your muscles much stronger and more resilient than before. Your bones as well. I believe the Prillon, Tyran, has been tested and is stronger than the integrated Atlans on Base 3. As long as you do not receive any additional integration treatments, you’ll be fine. Stronger. Faster. But fine. As to your general health. You were sleep deprived, malnourished and dehydrated, but the ReGen pod did its job.”

“Thank you.” He spoke true. My body hummed with vitality. Life.

Need.

I looked to my mate, unchanged from when I’d seen her earlier. But we were no longer in a fight for our lives with the Hive. We were safe on the battleship. I was healed. Nothing but a commander stood in the way of me making her mine.

That and a f*****g shower tube.

“I need to bathe. Commander, if I may…”

“Not yet. How many days have the Hive controlled our base?” The commander’s gaze was dark, unrelenting. I recognized fury when I saw it, and the Prillon commander was vibrating with rage, every muscle taut, shaking with a barely controlled need to attack.

“At least a week. I counted eight days in my cell, but I could have been off in either direction. There was no clock or changes in lighting. I had to guess based on their shift changes.”

He paced in front of me, every few steps blocking my view of Niobe, but she was no longer focused on me. Her frown was nearly as severe as the commander’s. “Commander Karter, how is it that you had a Coalition base captured by the Hive more than a week ago, and you had no idea the attack had happened?”

He growled and whirled to face her, but his voice was respectful, even if filled with anger. “Vice Admiral, we received reports, at the scheduled intervals, from the base. They had the correct passcodes and relayed expected information. We had no way of knowing. They mimicked our procedures perfectly.”

Her gaze drifted to me, the heat returning, if tempered by our circumstances. “Am I to infer that this could be occurring at other Coalition bases and we would have no indication that anything was wrong?”

He stepped back. Nodded. “Yes.”

My gorgeous mate cursed and stepped away, moving toward the door for some illusion of privacy. “I need to report this. It had to be the presence of the Nexus unit.”

Commander Karter froze. “What did you just say?” He turned to look at me. “Is there a Nexus trapped on that base?”

“Yes.” When I confirmed the news, Commander Karter’s tension slipped into something cold and measured. Calculating. “Take your shower, Quinn. Spend time with your mate. You have two hours, and not a moment longer. Do you understand me? If you two are one minute late to the the command deck for the debriefing, vice admiral or not, I will personally pound down your door.”

The idea made me chuckle, until I looked up into the face of a seriously enraged Prillon warrior. He was ready to tear things to pieces, to rend and pound and kill. Tick-tock. If he didn’t need time to assemble the assault teams, we’d probably be heading for the transport rooms in attack formation now. “I understand. Those are my men down there, too. He already killed my entire Hunter unit. No one wants him dead more than I do.”

Commander Karter tilted his head, as if listening to Niobe’s conversation with someone. She said she had to make a call. Report. But to whom?

The doctor pointed. “A shower tube is there.”

I climbed from the unit, stood before my mate with just my hand holding the sheet over my hard c**k as she ended her communication. I had no idea who she was talking to, and I didn’t care. I tucked her hair back from her face as I took in every inch of her features. Dark eyes. Freckles on her pert nose. Full lips, but in a severe line. She looked tense. Worried. Oh, that would change as soon as I f****d her. “Soon, mate.”

“Elite Hunter, get your ass in that shower tube,” Karter commanded. “And cover it on your way there.”

After so many days of suffering, of pain, this unexpected turn of events was akin to being reborn. I had survived. I had a gorgeous mate, and vengeance would be mine in a matter of hours. The warmth I felt when I looked at Niobe was a spark of joy I desperately needed. I winked at my mate, then walked over to the shower tube, ignoring the commander. I could hear my mate’s intake of breath, could smell her arousal.

“Doctor, get a tech to S-Gen that fighter a uniform. Stat.”

Stepping under the hot water, I sighed. Laughed. f**k, it felt good to be free. To know my mate awaited me.

Five minutes later, I was dressed in a full Elite Hunter uniform, a newly generated one that no longer smelled like misery. Karter stood just where he’d been, arms crossed over his chest. I saw that out of the corner of my eye, for I wasn’t looking at him. I was looking at my mate. Niobe.

“Two hours,” he said.

I didn’t look his way. She wasn’t a small female. Long-limbed, her body was lush and full. Toned and well-muscled, even beneath the uniform’s armor. I wanted to peel off every bit of clothing and learn her, inch by inch.

“Elite Hunter,” the commander said.

“Yes?” I asked, taking in the full swells of Niobe’s breasts, the way they raised and fell with her every breath. She was aroused. I could scent it. Her cheeks flushed and that was the only outward sign she offered that she was anything but the serious vice admiral she let everyone see. The pink in her cheeks let me know that she’d been caught. She was just as eager for me as I was for her.

“Elite Hunter,” Karter repeated.

“Yes?” I asked him again.

“I’m over here.” He sighed. “If I had not learned from the vice admiral that you were recently matched, I would throw you in the brig for insubordination.”

“Thank you.”

“I don’t want your appreciation; I want your attention.”

I met Niobe’s dark gaze. Held it. Mesmerized. “With all due respect, Commander, I can’t give you my attention right now.”

He sighed again. “Yes, I can see that. You have two hours off-duty and then I expect to see you both on the command deck.”

“How long will Zan be in his ReGen Pod?” I asked. He’d been all over the Hive-controlled base where I’d only made it as far as the cell by the transport room. He knew what was going on there better than me. Better than anyone alive.

“Zan?”

“The Atlan we brought in.”

“Six more hours,” the doctor told us.

“Then I have six hours with my mate. Zan was fully integrated. While I was locked in a cell, he was everywhere. He’ll know how many guards they have, where they are stationed, how many prisoners remain. We need him healed. We need his intel on that base. First, Zan heals. Then we debrief and get back down there. Save everyone who’s left.”

Niobe frowned. Yeah, she didn’t like leaving fellow fighters in a hell like that either.

“Fine. Six hours,” Karter repeated. “While you two are… getting to know each other, I’ll get a ReCon team to examine the plans we have for that base, get the assault teams ready.”

When neither of us looked his way, the commander grumbled to himself, something about mates and insanity.

“Six hours, Vice Admiral.” Now he was speaking to my mate, perhaps hoping he’d get more of her attention. Not happening. “I remember being in your place. Erica would kill me if I didn’t give you two time.”

But he’d only give it to us now since we had to wait for Zan to recover. I understood. Claiming my mate would wait until the search and rescue was over under any other circumstances, but the gods were being kind today… and I would taste her.

We had six hours. Six. Hours.

He stalked off, left us. We were alone in the ReGen room—besides Zan, who was healing in one of the pods—but I didn’t care if there was an entire battalion of fighters behind us.

I had Niobe in front of me. I could do nothing while the commander readied his teams. Nothing but f**k and get to know the female of my heart. It was time to have her.