is getting two-to-one odds. He’s the favorite to win.”
“WHAT?” I roared. I picked up the sledgehammer and hit the last dangling bit of stone wall with more force than necessary. It not only broke free but flew into the other room and landed on Kristin’s dining table, denting the metal surface. “The governor agreed to this?” I was going to kill that Prillon. I’d have to beg Rachel’s forgiveness after I ended him, but this was too much.
“I don’t think so—”
Good. I wouldn’t have to kill him.
“—and Rachel and I just heard about it. She’s on her way. She had to send someone to get Maxim. He’s down in one of the mines and the comms are out. I went to your quarters first. When you weren’t there, I came here.”
“I can’t believe this. It’s barbaric.” And hurtful. And wrong. How dare they presume to decide whom I would belong to? Whom I had to have sex with? And without even asking me? What was this? The 1500s?
The flowers didn’t work, so Captain Marz decided to just challenge the whole rest of the base to a tournament with me as the prize? And who were the other idiots who’d agreed?
The whole base, apparently.
What if I decided I wanted someone else? A man from Earth? A Hunter, like Kiel. But a Prillon? No. The whole mind-meld, collar thing freaked me out. And two mates? Or three, as I’d heard the Vikens had started doing? Um, no. One man was enough for me. Especially if he was big and fierce and looked like Makarios.
Oh, shit. This was not happening. No. Fucking. Way. “They’re fighting in the pits? Right now? This very second?”
“Come on. It’s pretty hot, right, the strongest, sexiest men fighting over you?” Her hand moved up toward her neck and her fingertips stroked the green collar there—the outward indication she was matched to a Prillon—with a lustful look in her eyes. Her mates were incredible. I could not disagree. But they’d been matched. Chosen.
They hadn’t forced themselves on her after beating up the other boys at the playground.
“No, it’s not. I’m not a prize to be won. I am not property. No fucking way,” I snarled. My poor mother would’ve been appalled at my language. But I was beyond caring. Somewhere between the little girl who used to play with dolls and bake cupcakes to make my daddy happy and now, I’d had the urge to please others disappear from my being. Maybe it was the cyborg parts. Maybe it was years of fighting a hard war, watching people die, caring too much. Somewhere in there, I’d lost the ability to put up with bullshit. And this was way above my tolerance level.
Kristin lifted her chin. “Then go do something about it.” She looked around her living room, which I had definitely destroyed. “Go beat up some alien hotties before the ceiling falls on top of us. I’m begging you.”
Wiping my hands together, I smiled. I was strong. Stronger than the men who were making me their prize. “Good idea.”
I stomped past her, my stride long as I worked my way down the corridor and then outside. Distantly, I heard her on her comms unit as we went. “Rachel, get to the pits. Gwen needs another wingman.” She followed me, which was fine. Since neither one of her mates was interested in me, they wouldn’t be in the pits to suffer my wrath.
Wingman? It was a nice gesture, but it wasn’t as if either Kristin or Rachel could back me up. No one could back me up. I was indestructible now that I’d spent some time with the Hive. Stronger than almost any male on the planet. Faster than even the Everian Hunter, Kiel. They might think they were going to win me, but they were wrong. So fucking wrong. And if I had to smash some heads to prove it, I would. Once and for all.
Ten minutes later, I wasn’t feeling any better. In fact, if I had the sledgehammer, I’d have smashed the stands surrounding the pit to rubble. “Why won’t any of you fight me?” I shouted.
I was breathing hard, not because I was tired from tossing the males around the pit, but because I was pissed. So filled with fury I could barely see straight. My blood pressure was up, my heated lifeforce pumping through my body like the bass beat at a rave. But the cyborg part of me didn’t feel a thing. My sight was perfect. My body buzzing with energy. It was my mind that was in turmoil, my heart that was breaking.
And I hadn’t thought there were any pieces left big enough to break. I’d been wrong.
“We don’t want to hurt you,” one brave male said.
“We won’t fight a female.” That was Tane. The Atlan. Friend of Makarios. He seemed decent enough, but nothing was going to make up for the fact that I simply did not want him. I didn’t want any of these overeager alpha males. The fact that they thought I was a prize to be won automatically eliminated them in my eyes.
If they’d been paying attention to a damn word I’d said the last few weeks, they would have known that.
But then, this wasn’t about me. This was about them. Who’s the biggest? The strongest? Who had muscles on muscles and the audacity to tell me who I had to give my body to?
I looked to Tane, narrowed my eyes. “Oh, you’ll fight over me like a bunch of little boys with a new toy? You’ll fuck me, mate me, but you won’t fight me?” I’d die before I’d let one of them touch me now, and I was pretty sure that opinion was blazing from my eyes when I spoke to the Atlan. He shrunk away from me, as if I’d hurt him, then nodded, bowing at the waist.
Too late for that, big jerk.
“You are a very desirable female. We honor you with this battle for the right to court you.”
It was unbelievable how different the customs were on the other planets. This wasn’t Earth. I tried to use that knowledge to cool my rage. He thought they were being courteous, chivalrous. Respectful.
“I don’t get any say then? No say in whether or not I can fight? Or whom I get to fuck? Or whom I mate? No choice at all? Because the winner of this”—I motioned with my finger pointed around the circle of four that remained standing—“is how you all treat your females? No choice. No desire. Not even dinner and a conversation? Straight to ownership of her body, and she doesn’t have any say in the matter?” My voice was quiet, cold. I let the cyborg parts keep me calm and hoped I sounded more like a machine than the heart-broken romantic that was slowly bleeding to death inside. Now I wasn’t just a freak who could never go home to Earth. Now I was just a piece of meat to be fought over.
“My lady—”
I spun about, looked to the male who’d called me that. “Don’t call me—”
“Enough!” The governor’s voice cut me off. Governor Maxim Rone walked with the air of a man used to being obeyed. Rachel was walking with him, nearly jogging to keep up with her mate’s angry stride as he moved from the edge of the arena to the center. He was dressed in the loose clothing of someone who spent more time in meetings than in the field, the copper collar around his neck an exact match to the one Rachel wore. The connection between them all the more irritating to me at the moment. Maxim might sit at a desk, but he was still a Prillon warrior with years of battle experience. He was a force to be reckoned with, well-respected and elected to his post as the ruler of Base 3. The other males deferred to his judgment.
But
