Chapter 28 Julie
I gawked at Dr. Noble’s head, which was suspended inside a clear dome, her expression filled with nothing but disdain as she glared back at me. I couldn’t believe it. The bitch who’d kidnapped Dana was still alive—at least, what was left of her.
Dr. Kim had somehow managed to smuggle a whole-ass shuttle past the Kadrixans’ protective shield system, using some new cloaking technology we’d never encountered before.
But despite knowing that the shuttle was right there, I still couldn’t see it.
The only reason why I knew it existed was because when Dr. Kim had gone inside to bring Dr. Noble out, a door had slid open at the edge of the field, and I’d caught a glimpse of the inside of the shuttle.
Dr. Noble, who was still beautiful despite not having a body, had demanded to be placed on a flat rock in the shade so she could enjoy the great outdoors without sun damage. Her dome had wheels, and she’d rolled herself to the perfect spot.
“She’s not ideal,” Dr. Noble’s voice emitted from the base of the dome, though her lips never moved. She looked me up and down like a piece of meat. “Too weak. Too short. Her face is passable, but it needs work.”
Dr. Kim and Dr. Noble discussed transferring her consciousness into my body as if I weren’t even there. If I hadn’t been handcuffed to a tree, I would’ve been tempted to punt her dome across the field like a football.
“We can make modifications before the transfer,” Dr. Kim suggested.
“Or we can find a better donor,” Dr. Noble countered.
“What about Hannah?”
Hannah let out a terrified sound. “You promised you wouldn’t.”
“Too old.” Dr. Noble dismissed the suggestion. “And she’s had children.”
“What about her daughter, then?”
Hannah dissolved into hysterics, begging and sobbing. I almost felt sorry for her—almost. She was a traitor, after all. Her pleas didn’t stop until Dr. Kim backhanded her hard enough to knock her unconscious.
“And that’s another reason I don’t want her body,” Dr. Noble said. “Too much damage.”
“You need to make a choice soon, my love,” Dr. Kim pressed. “We don’t have much time.”
“I’ll decide after we return,” Dr. Noble replied. “Let’s destroy the ore and collect our credits. That will buy us the time we need. I can’t believe these idiots failed. How did they even find out about the plan?”
I kept my mouth shut, letting them believe we had some special intelligence, or informant, or something, rather than happening on it purely by chance. Grtirr and I had simply been on our way down from our nest.
Grtirr.
My chest tightened at the thought of him.
He hadn’t been moving when they dragged me away.
What if he was already dead? I glanced back toward the trees, but all I saw was an endless wall of foliage.
Would Chris’s team even find us now? Would they find him?
I knew that if these psychopaths got me inside that shuttle, I’d vanish forever.
“It doesn’t matter how they found out. We’ve already proved that their fancy alien equipment couldn’t detect us.
We can fly right in, and no one will stop us.
” Dr. Kim ordered the Exotech soldier to load the shuttle up with the containers of chemicals, before sitting next to Dr. Noble on the rock to tend to a rip in his skin that hadn’t automatically healed over.
That was when I saw it: a flicker of gray-brown fur in the leaves.
Tatertot?
She was sneaking through the leaves toward our enemies like she was hunting. What the hell was she doing? Now that she was partially hidden, she was nearly invisible when she stayed still.
Then I realized she was going for Dr. Noble! But the bitch was protected inside an indestructible dome. What could Tatertot possibly do?
I forced myself to look away, not wanting to draw attention to her. My blood rushed in my ears as Tatertot disappeared behind the dome.
The Exotech soldier returned with the last container, and Dr. Kim stood. "Time to go." He strode over and uncuffed me from the tree, only to replace the metal restraints with his own iron grip. His fingers dug into my arm as he dragged me toward the shuttle.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I dug my heels in, but it was useless. I couldn’t fight him without getting myself killed or horribly injured. And no, it wasn’t cowardice. It was survival. The only thing I’d achieve by resisting was a broken bone or worse.
We were almost to the shuttle when Dr. Noble, furiously shouting, “What the fuck!” stopped us dead in our tracks.
Dr. Kim whipped around, bringing me with him.
Tatertot stood a few feet from Dr. Noble’s rock, and Dr. Noble had rolled to the edge of it.
And there, in Tatertot’s mouth, was a bright yellow piece of wire.
“I need that!” Dr. Noble sounded panicked.
Dr. Kim released me and lunged for Tatertot. But despite the doctor’s inhuman reflexes, Tatertot was faster. She scrambled up the tree and was soon half hidden by the dense leaves.
Moments later, several large, half-formed seed pods came raining down on the pair. And it was unmistakable that whatever had thrown them had done so on purpose, especially when one hit Dr. Noble’s dome, and she rolled back quickly to avoid being pelted again.
“Get me back in the shuttle!” she shrieked.
Dr. Kim shot one last glare up the tree before scooping up the dome and storming toward the shuttle. It was now that I realized my hands were no longer cuffed to the tree. The moment they stepped inside, I made a run for it.
I had to warn Chris and Ellaston. I had to get back to Grtirr. I had to…
“Catch the girl!”
I looked over my shoulder to see the Exotech goon stomping after me. I knew I couldn’t outrun him, but catching me took time, and every second I bought was another second for help to arrive.
Then strong arms snatched me up, tossing me over a brawny shoulder.
Fuck.
My eyes locked onto the weapon strapped to the soldier’s hip. I stretched, twisted, clawed at it, but my arms just weren’t long enough. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t reach it. But my captor suddenly stopped, hesitating.
A blur of red ripped me from the super soldier’s arms.
Grtirr!
The soldier didn’t even move to retrieve me. It stood stock-still, like it had been turned off.
Dr. Kim stepped back out of the shuttle.
“You again! I thought I killed you. Don’t worry, I won’t make—”
Grtirr didn’t let him finish. With a roar, he charged him.
It happened so quickly, I didn’t quite see it. Good thing too, because I wasn’t sure if I’d end up having nightmares about it in the future. One moment Grtirr was empty-handed, and the next he had a beating heart in his fist. He’d ripped it right out of Dr. Kim’s chest.
I stood there in shock, and so did Dr. Kim.
He fell first. And then Grtirr crumpled over him.
The second it took for me to get my feet to move felt like an eternity.
“Grtirr!”
I tried to move him, but he was heavy, and I couldn’t flip him over or get him off Dr. Kim. He didn’t respond, and my hand came away covered in blood. So much blood.
“Grtirr!”
I knelt on the ground by my unconscious mate, fear and panic settling in.
Then gunshots erupted. This time, the sharp cracks of human weapons were mixed with the distinctive sound of Kadrixan blasters. Our guys were here!
A massive, red-clawed hand hauled me back to my feet.
Gnnar! Dana’s mate had been stationed at Ellaston, so of course he’d be on the rescue mission.
“Grtirr! He’s—”
“We’ll get him back. You need to come with me now. He’d never forgive me if you were injured.” He hauled me away from Grtirr’s prone form.
“The shuttle!” I blurted out. “They have a shuttle and special cloaking.”
“I will calibrate our shield system to catch them in the future,” he assured me. “For now, Igor, Fido, and Kong can detect it.”
Fido and Kong were the robohounds we converted to follow our commands. Annabel had given them so many puppy-like mannerisms that I’d almost forgotten that they’d started out as deadly killing machines. I was glad they were on our side now.
“Good job distracting them until we got here.”
“That wasn’t all me.” I looked up into the trees. “We have to find Tatertot.”
As if on cue, my furry little warrior came scrambling out of the foliage, launching herself at me. I caught her midair, and she immediately clawed her way into the pouch I’d forgotten I was still wearing.
“Let’s get you and Grtirr back to the stronghold.”
***
The last time I’d been in the stronghold’s medical bay, I’d been the one stretched out on the exam table.
Grtirr had loomed over me, lecturing me about missing my vitamins and not getting enough exercise.
Now I sat in a cot pushed up beside his bed, my fingers curled around his.
He was the one lying there, his massive frame filling the specialized bed.
His chest rose and fell in slow, steady breaths.
He was alive and stable, but he hadn’t woken up yet.
If someone had told me a month ago that I’d be sitting and staring at Grtirr’s unconscious body and actually wishing he was lecturing about my terrible eating habits, I would’ve laughed in their face.
I realized now why he’d always butted heads with me in here.
He’d known I was his mate, and it had been the only way he could express how much he cared without giving himself away.
I’d give anything to have him glaring at me right now, that grumpy frown etched into his features as he scolded me for skipping meals, staying up all night, or pushing myself too hard. I’d take his overbearing, infuriating concern every day for the rest of my life if it meant he’d just wake up.
When I’d first arrived, they hadn’t let me into the Infirmary at all. Grtirr had been in critical condition, and they hadn’t wanted me to see him until Lxare could get him stabilized in the medical bed.
I was still of the mind that if Grtirr hadn’t already been shot multiple times by the time Dr. Kim arrived, he could’ve taken him without grievous injuries.
Maybe it was just the confidence of a mate, but I really believed it.
Instead, the doctor had fought him, knowing Grtirr already had a handicap. The coward!
Grtirr had still won in the end, ripping out the bastard’s heart with his only remaining working hand like a goddamn trophy.
Lxare had commented on how lucky Grtirr had been to have snuck in at an angle right next to the metal plate the doctor had installed to protect the organ.
It meant Grtirr had torn up his hand though, and it now lay bandaged and resting on his belly.
My gaze traced over his injuries. The tree trunk had ripped off a bunch of skin, which had already started regrowing.
Then there were the pits where they dug the lead out of his body.
One of his shoulders was held immobile in a metal frame.
They’d had to set it back into the shoulder socket since Dr. Kim had tried to rip it off.
And his wings! They were riddled with holes, and there was a decent tear through the right one.
It wouldn’t grow back and would need to be mended with an artificial membrane.
Grtirr was so thin. I knew that these warriors pulled from their muscles to rebuild critical things like bones. I’d seen it happen before. But he was almost skeletal.
His chest rose and fell, but a part of me wondered if it had been too much after all. What if he was technically whole, but still wouldn’t wake? According to Lxare, he should’ve woken hours ago.
His communicator, which was sitting on the side table, beeped with an alarm.
I tried to ignore it, but it kept beeping, so I picked it up.
The message on the screen was mostly in Kadrixan.
I couldn’t read it, except for one single word: my name was there in Galactic English.
This wasn’t a message. This was an alarm.
Somehow, I knew it was midday even before I checked the time.
Intuition told me that even if my phone had been salvageable after being crushed into pieces, that “automatic” alarm I’d gotten every day reminding me to take my vitamins would not be ringing.
Because it hadn’t been an automatic alarm at all; Grtirr had been reminding me himself every single day.
Tears welled up in my eyes, threatening to spill over.
“Wake up, Grtirr,” I murmured for his ears only. “Wake up and berate me for not taking my vitamins. I missed them twice. Completely ignored the alarm.”
There was no response. And my brain decided that now was the perfect time to remind me how he’d looked crumpled on the ground. What if they were lying to me so I’d stay calm? What if… what if I never got the chance to tell him I love him?
I’d spent the entire time up in our aerie wanting to and trying not to say it. I thought I was waiting for the moment I knew it for a fact, undeniably, that the love was real. But right now, I didn’t care about any of that. Now I wished I’d told him a million times.
I couldn’t stop the hot tears that rolled down my cheeks.
“Come on, wake up. Wake up, you idiot. Wake up so I can tell you I love you.”
Nothing happened. He didn’t miraculously wake up and tell me he loved me back, or that I was being silly. He just lay there. But I could feel calmness radiating through me where we touched. Even injured, his body was trying to calm me.
I knew he probably couldn’t hear me, but I needed to say it anyway. “I love you, my mate. Don’t you dare die on me.”
The moment I said it, I knew, irrevocably, that it was true. Even without the pheromones or the chemicals or the mate bond, I loved Grtirr. And now, I might lose him.