“The coordinates for Captain Mills’ location are programmed in.” One of the transport attendants swiped a tablet, then looked at me. Looked up at me, for he wasn’t very tall.
It took a moment to realize he wasn’t referring to Sarah, but to her brother, Seth. Sarah was no longer a member of the coalition fleet, she was mine. I just needed to get her brother and get them both out alive.
Commander Karter had turned out to be halfway decent, allowing us to wear our armored uniforms. He’d even supplied us with ion pistols.
“You can’t change your mind and come back to fight if you’re dead,” he’d said to Sarah. That was probably as sentimental as he was going to get, but I was thankful she was well protected for whatever we were going to face. I had the beast within me to help. If a Hive fighter was anywhere near Sarah, I would surely go into berserker mode and kill him with my bare hands. I had a weapon too, just in case, but I doubted I’d use it.
Even back in the body armor, there was no hiding her curves, at least not from me. Perhaps I noticed them more because I knew exactly what her breasts looked like, how they felt in my hands, how her nipples tasted. Her hips appeared rounder, but that was because I knew how soft they were beneath my hands as she came all over my cock. It wasn’t even the mating fever that was making me eye Sarah with barely suppressed desire. I was simply a man admiring a lush, desirable woman.
“Warlord, Officer Mills’ last known location was aboard a Hive transport ship. There were beacons from several other coalition fighters pinging from there, which leads us to believe it is a prison vessel, or transport heading to an integration center.”
“I’ve heard of the IC,” I replied, not wanting to speak aloud of what the Hive did to prisoners there: made them part of their collective, implanted their biological bodies with synthetic technology that would take over both their bodies and their will. Made them slaves. Sarah’s jaw clenched and I saw her blink back worry for her brother. That small display of her fear caused all desire to disappear.
“What direction is the ship traveling?” Sarah asked.
The transport officer flicked his gaze at Sarah, lingered on her breasts, then to me. “They are heading out of the system, toward Sector 438, warlord.”
I saw Sarah’s gaze narrow at the blatant snub.
I pointed to my mate. “She asked you the question.”
“Yes, but she is no longer in the coalition fleet.”
Sarah only shifted onto the balls of her feet, otherwise she displayed no outward sign of irritation. I, however, felt anger quite similar to the mating
fever build inside me. This… attendant was patronizing and disrespectful to Sarah, to my mate.
“Neither am I,” I countered.
“If the ship is heading toward 438, then it’s heading for Hive-controlled space. Once it crosses over, they’re lost. We won’t have long to save them.” Sarah ignored the chauvinist behind the transport control and spoke only to me.
The attendant’s mouth fell open, then closed with an audible click at Sarah’s information.
“Transport Attendant… Rogan.” She glanced at his name tag on his uniform shirt. “When you make the transport, please change the coordinates from Captain Mills’ exact location to two decks below.”
The attendant frowned. “Two decks below?”
“Most likely they are holding my brother and any other prisoners in the brig, and we do not want to transport into a holding cell. We also do not wish to transport directly in front of the Hive. The brig is housed on level five of an IC transport. Two floors below is the supply floor, which you would know if you’d ever been on a recon mission aboard a Hive vessel. The fifth level is automated and usually not manned by Hive personnel.”
She arched a dark brow, daring the man to doubt her.
“Is she correct?” I asked, my tone the one I used when I commanded an Atlan brigade.
He stiffened and glanced at me. “Correct. The Hive use robots to maintain and service their supplies,” he replied.
“Then do as former Captain Mills ordered.”
Her plan was a sound one. I was prepared to fight the Hive directly after transport, just as I had when I’d been sent directly to Sarah’s coordinates. Neither the transport officer, Commander Deek, nor I considered exactly what I would be transporting into when they’d sent me to my mate. Neither of us assumed she would be in a battle at that very moment. It was a tactical error, for I’d put Sarah’s team in danger and had caused Seth Mills to be captured by the Hive.
Had I considered what Sarah did now, the exact location not of our quarry, but of a safe place to transport, we most likely wouldn’t be going on this dangerous rescue mission.
It was just her and me, but still, she was thinking like a true warrior and I felt something I had not expected to feel in regards to my mate’s fighting skills… pride.
“Yes, warlord.”
The transport attendant swiped his finger once, then twice and I looked at Sarah. “Ready?”
She nodded, then took my hand. I didn’t have time to consider the gesture for in the blink of an eye we were no longer on the battleship, but in a barely lit room filled with hard-sided boxes. The deep hum of the machinery was constant, much louder and deeper than the usual cadence of a ship’s systems. Immediately, Sarah dropped into a crouch. For a brief moment I envisioned her opening my pants and taking my cock into her mouth. I had yet to discover how skilled she was at sucking cock, but I could only imagine she was just as voracious and eager as she was at the fucking we’d already done. The thought of her tongue flicking over my flared crown had me shifting my cock in my pants. I had to push the thought of her mouth’s sweet suction from my head. I knelt beside her and focused on our mission.