bone as I dropped the limp body and raced to the third Soldier.
Fucking Hive. They always traveled in threes. Three Scouts. Three Soldiers. Three. Three. Three.
They couldn’t operate on their own. They didn’t even speak like real people. Everything they said started with the word “We”.
Reaching the third Soldier, I lifted this one from his feet and swung his body until his back was parallel to the ground. He scrambled for purchase, trying to grab me, force me to release him. Every single Hive underestimated the Atlan beast. Perhaps news didn’t return of our strength and power because every one we encountered was eliminated. This one seemed to think the same, that he was stronger than me.
Right.
Instead, I rammed his back down on the rocks before twisting his head hard enough to feel the crack-crack-crack of bone as his spine and metallic implants shattered and his body twitched and twisted in death throes.
I looked up from where I knelt on the ground to find Ang already running to catch up with our unit on the way to the transport platform.
Leaping to my feet, I tensed and shifted to follow when a scream reached me.
Human. I knew that sound. Someone was in trouble.
The noise came from a narrow ravine behind the boulder, from the same direction the now dead Hive Soldiers must have come from before falling into our hands.
A quick glance at my unit showed them well ahead of me. Commander Wulf stood atop the hill now, the transport platform behind him, throwing Hive Scouts and Soldiers over his head like a battering ram hitting a wall of children’s dolls. Bodies flew before him, and the rest of the Warlords, almost all in beast form, were nearly to the transport platform. Warriors fell into line behind them, Prillon and human, warriors from Trion and every other race and species in the Fleet as the Atlans cleared the path so all could transport back aboard the ship.
“Hurry.” I spoke to no one, but my beast was agitated. We watched hundreds of Hive flooding the narrow gaps not more than a mile from the transport platform. If they reached it before our soldiers got off world, anyone still on the ground would be lost.
We were losing this battle, the Hive swarming in numbers far greater than anticipated. Commander Karter wasn’t a stupid man. He would pull his warriors, regroup, and strike again in a few days.
I could either join my unit and transport off this blood-soaked rock, or I could go try to help the human in the ravine and lay low until tomorrow. The designated extraction point wasn’t far. I could hide through the night and signal for transport tomorrow, frightened little human soldier in tow. The Hive didn’t have sensors capable of penetrating the metallic rock barriers any more than we did. With the rocks and ravines to hide in, they would have no way to find us, to root us out and kill us. They would only attack if they saw us. If we weren’t in their path, we would be safe enough.
Another scream from the ravine, this one of rage, and I made my decision. Or rather, the beast made it for me and I wasn’t in the mood to argue. I couldn’t. I was too far gone.
Racing around the boulder, I dashed into the ravine, dark gray and black rock formations made a long, narrow corridor that looked to be about a mile in length. I could see the opening on the other end, as if the ground had decided to split open, just a bit, and only here.
Behind me, and everywhere else I’d been on this gods’ forsaken planet, the rocks were red or brown, a sea of monochromatic color as far as I could see in any direction, a desert of stone.
Here, the rocks were black, gray and silver, the planet’s inner depths exposed like muscle beneath skin in a deep cut. As if the planet had cleaved open and the insides burst forth.
Ahead of me, three Hive stood. They had someone trapped halfway up the side of the ravine. I recognized the smaller body and armor of a human climbing the rock face to get away from them, the uniform from one of the human ReCon Units. Scattered along the ground were the dead bodies of at least a dozen Hive Soldiers and four other humans.
None moved.
The human scrambled up the side of the rock cliffs, clinging like an insect to the uneven walls. The opening of a cave stood out on the side of that cliff, the entrance sparkling like a diamond necklace around a woman’s throat when the light from the planet’s star shined down upon it. The human was clearly heading for that cave. A smart tactic as it offered safety, at least temporarily. High ground. Perhaps the human planned to make a last stand there.
But why weren’t the Hive shooting the human off the cliff wall? Why were they climbing? Why not…
I squinted, the growl of my beast a low rumble in my chest. What was going on here? I stalked closer, not charging this time. Even my beast was cautious. I’d never seen anything like these Hive before, and I’d been fighting for nearly a decade. They weren’t Hive Scouts or Hive Soldiers. They were something else altogether. One of them was blue. The others were integrated, but not one of the Coalition races.
Not only were they all strange, but they weren’t firing on the human, they were…stalking—
“Come on!” The human yelled down, taunting them, the challenge issued by a woman’s voice. My beast stilled within me as the voice went through my body and straight to my cock.
Mine!
The beast didn’t bellow, but whispered the word, rolling it around on my tongue like we were sampling a fine Atlan wine. He wasn’t asking me, nor requesting permission or approval. He was simply informing me of the facts.
I ignored him, for now. For years I’d dreamed of finding a soft, willing female to claim. Clearly the Fever was clouding my judgment, but now was not the time to argue with my beast.
I was too far away to recognize her voice. I had no idea who she was, but my beast apparently did. He wanted her, the Mating Fever boiling through me with renewed vigor as my cock grew hard and uncomfortable beneath my armor.
And she was taunting them, drawing one of them up to her. Why? Had she hit her head? Was she delusional? Hallucinating? Just plain insane?
The strange Hive trio moved closer to the base of the rock wall—of course—and the beast followed silently, stalking the nearest of them like a true predator. I forced my mind to think, to work past the protective instinct raging in my beast’s form. I’d never dealt with this kind of lust or protective instinct in battle before. Yes, I wanted to keep my unit, and those we’d been sent in to protect, safe, but this was different. A rage so hot it moved through me like slow boiling tar. This was my beast staking a claim, eliminating any threat to his mate.
She was mine.
Something darker, deeper, and much stronger than I’d ever known settled around me like a blanket of solid ice. Rage and bluster were mindless emotions. This need to kill the Hive before me was not mindless, it was cold, calculating and very deliberate. They had to die. They wanted her and I would not let them touch her. She was mine. Covered head to toe in full body armor, clinging like an insect to the side of the cliffs. Strong. Brave. Aggressive. Mine. Still mine.
Above me, the human had nearly reached the cave entrance, and safety from the Hive weapons. Although, they simply stood staring up at her as if she were a curiosity. They weren’t firing, and I had no explanation as to why they would spare this human. Why they would not fire
