Chapter 13
Lyra, Two Days Later
My beast was in charge. I was locked away inside her like a little bird in a gilded cage. I could flutter my wings and chirp, but there was no getting out. No escape.
They are trying to kill me.
No, they are not. They are trying to save us.
My beast scoffed at my stupidity and punched the enclosure again.
You. They only want you. Kill me. She howled in pain inside me and I felt tears leak from the sides of my eyes, wander down my temples and disappear into my hair.
I was lying on my back inside a ReGen pod.
I hurt. Everywhere. My muscles ached. My bones felt brittle, like shattered glass that had been glued back together.
What they had programmed the pod to do, I wasn’t sure, but whatever it was, it wasn’t working. ReGen pods could heal almost anything. Wounds that should be fatal could be completely reversed and healed in a matter of hours. I should not be in pain. That wasn’t how these things worked.
What if they weren’t trying to heal me? What if my beast was right and they were trying to kill her? Were they trying to remove the DNA integrations that had activated my beast?
Did I want them to?
Mate! My beast pounded at the ReGen pod’s dark cover, determined to shatter it. Deactivate it. Break free and find our mate. Force him to accept us. Love us. Claim us. Find us worthy. She was not concerned about herself. Only him.
They try to kill me. They fail. I will not die. I am too strong for them.
I had no response. She did, indeed, feel stronger, not weaker.
Her voice was clear. Her thoughts fully formed.
The need for violence floating in her heart and soul grew with each passing moment we were not with our mate.
Worry for Ethan clawed at her. Devoured her control.
Became an obsession neither of us could ignore.
I had no hope of stopping her now, locked away as I was inside our mind.
She had one goal, one cause, one focus. Ethan is in danger. He needs us.
The feeling was strong and urgent. Our mate was in jeopardy. I knew it in my bones.
Where was he? Why wasn’t he here, with us?
Perhaps he was and I just couldn’t see him through the dark covering. Most ReGen pods had translucent covers. This was opaque. Dark. Not Coalition issue. Might be nice for sleeping, but the dim interior made me feel trapped.
We had to get the fuck out of here and find him. Now.
Had he realized I was an alien and forsaken me? Did he hate me for lying to him? For seducing him? He wasn’t an Atlan male. He had not placed mating cuffs on our wrists. He had not claimed us.
Of course not. He wouldn’t fall in love with me at first sight.
He would never assume I was his mate for life after a few hours of orgasmic sex.
Humans changed mates often. Had sex for fun, because they were lonely or bored.
Because someone paid them, or out of a sense of obligation.
Human relationships were complicated. Messy. They didn’t make sense.
Had Ethan fucked me because I’d saved his life? Had he felt obligated? Was every kiss a calculated payment for helping his investigation?
I was not human. Not his kind. I had no idea what motivated him or determined his course of action. I wasn’t even Atlan anymore. Atlan females did not have beasts. They did not suffer mating fever or lose their minds the moment they met their chosen mate.
The last few years, I’d spent far more time on other worlds than I had on Atlan. My home was gone. My family, dead. I hadn’t set foot on the home world since I’d lost my brothers, Kovo and Reji.
Even their deaths had been a lie staged by Helion and the I.C., and for what? Reji was still reporting to Doctor Mersan. Commander Helion had, indeed, told me I should come to Earth on more than one occasion. Did I dare believe he had been trying to reunite me with Kovo this entire time?
Why didn’t he just pull me aside and tell me the truth?
Perhaps because I never saw the Prillon in person.
The information he had was not something to be broadcast, not even over a secure comm link.
I grappled with the truth that Reji faked his death to go on a mission.
That Kovo helped him. That Kovo’s trial and execution were part of the plan.
That Kovo had found his mate and secretly lived with her on Earth.
That my grief meant nothing to them. My suffering was inconsequential to their greater cause. That my loss was part of their equation, an acceptable sacrifice to ensure their success.
Ethan would never betray us. Never hurt us.
My beast was talking nonsense. We don’t know him, I argued. He’s human.
Mine. Seduce him. Love him. He will love us.
Part of me believed her. Ethan was our true mate. He would never hurt us like the others had. Never lie to us. Deceive us. Betray us. Never.
So where was he? Why wasn’t he here, watching over us? Protecting us? My beast was convinced we were alone. She could not smell him. Hear him. Sense his presence.
Danger. Get. Out. My beast slammed her hand into the side of the pod, testing for a weak spot. Maybe we could just lift it off?
The pod was locked. I was sealed inside like a corpse in a coffin.
I didn’t know what I was, but I knew I was his.
If he didn’t want me, I would do what our Warlords had done for hundreds of years…
return to Atlan to be executed. My beast could not survive without him, and I could no longer survive without her.
She was part of me now, a piece of my soul I’d never realized was missing.
Stronger than me. A fighter. Survivor. Primal and powerful. A beast.
I slammed both fists into the ReGen pod. Again. Again. Until blood covered my knuckles. The pod healed the slight lacerations as quickly as I created new ones.
I’d tear this gods damned pod to pieces if I had to. Ethan needed us.
My beast agreed.
Let.
Boom!
Me.
Boom!
Out.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
“Stop that!” A young human female walked into the barren room.
She pressed a button and the covering became translucent, as it should be.
I looked through it so see she was wearing thin, useless sandals, a pair of jeans that hugged her curves in a way I knew her mate would appreciate, and a loose-fitting peasant blouse with big, droopy sleeves that showed off the mating cuffs on her wrists.
I didn’t need to see our family sigil on the cuffs to recognize Adrian, Kovo’s mate.
She was part of his new life, the happily-ever-after he’d been living while I’d grieved him.
I glared at her—and her perfect, silken, feminine hair—through the ReGen pod’s cover and slammed both fists into the material harder than I had before. A crack appeared beneath my right fist. Excellent.
“No! Don’t break it!” Adrian’s hand moved over the controls as she deactivated the pod. “You have no idea how hard it was to get this thing. The only other ReGen pod is at the processing center. We aren’t supposed to have one. It’s against the treaty.”
I sat up the moment the cover retracted to set me free. Fuck their stupid treaty.
“Where mate?” My beast demanded as I swung my legs off the side.
“Oh, shit. I didn’t believe them.” Adrian took several steps back and watched me with a wariness I approved of, because I would rip her head off if she didn’t tell me where the fuck my mate was right fucking now.
The growl that left my throat was impressive. I had to give my beast credit. She wasn’t fucking around. “Where mate?”
“I assume you mean Ethan Blake? The detective?”
I leaped from the padded bed inside the pod and landed on my feet facing the very small human female.
She lifted her hands, palms out, and backed away from me.
“Lyra, stop. Ethan went with the guys. The raid is today. He hasn’t seen you yet.
None of them have except Kovo, and I wasn’t supposed to anyone.
He couldn’t help himself. His beast was driving him crazy. ”
I could understand that. Part of me was pleased that my brother was concerned for my well-being. The rest of me just wanted my mate. “Ethan?”
“The doctor told him you wouldn’t wake up for a few more days.”
“What doctor? Mersan?”
“Yes. He had been monitoring you from… outer space, I guess.”
Kill that bastard when I see him again. Liar. Fucking liar. My beast imagined us ripping Doctor Mersan’s head from his body and throwing it at the wall so hard his brains would splatter all over the walls of his ship. Assuming he had any brains.
We’ll torture him first. Get him to tell us where Reji is. I insisted.
My beast agreed. Yes. Torture first. Prillons are small. Weak.
I appreciated her enthusiasm, but I wasn’t sure her assessment was correct. Prillon warriors were almost as big as Atlans. Almost. They didn’t have a beast, but they were tough fighters. Good tacticians. Hard to kill. Much bigger and stronger than any female.
She was not amused. Small. Weak.
All right, beast. You’re a big, bad beast now. We’ll make him suffer. Small, weak Prillon.
Yessss, she hissed and advanced on Adrian. “Where raid?” Wherever Ethan was, he was in danger. He needed me. Us. Now.
Adrian smiled at me. “You might want to put some clothes on first.”
I glanced down to see I was completely naked. Well, fuck. “Armor.”
Adrian waved her hand at me to follow. “Come on. I know where they put your stuff.”
I followed her through the compound, my feet making a clicking sound on the hard floor as I walked.
What the hell?
I took a closer look and realized I had fully formed, very sharp claws protruding from my hands and feet, just like Prince Rukzi, the Hyperion male Commander Helion had convinced to offer his DNA for this little experiment. Or paid.