Chapter 20

When we step outside, dawn has barely broken. A group of a dozen heavily armed men wearing substantial backpacks are standing outside the door.

There are no women.

There are also no horses.

“Why are there no horses?”

“Because we’re going the rest of the way on foot,” Seb says, taking a backpack handed to him and slipping it over his shoulders before clipping it at the front.

Noah and Ash similarly load up.

“We’re going to walk?”

“Yep.” He is all brusque, no-nonsense.

“How far?”

“Until the end of the day.”

I huff out a breath at his purposely obtuse answers.

“And then we’re going to be at another base?” I sound doubtful. He doesn’t answer.

Horses move fast and can cover a lot of distance. Unless the next base is close, I can’t see how we can reach it. Not that I know anything about Andromeda. The endless forests could be teeming with bases for all I know. “Why are we walking?”

“You’ve got a lot of questions today, Isla.” He steps in front of me, brushes my short hair back behind my ear, and cups my chin between his finger and thumb, tipping it until our eyes meet.

I stare up at him, trying to read something there. Anything. But all I see is the troubled expression in his eyes.

“We’re walking on foot because it makes a smaller heat signature.”

I swallow.

He releases me, but neither of us looks away.

“The war?”

He nods once.

Someone is chasing us. “Why don’t we stay here?”

“Because we can’t,” he says.

“What about the other people?”

“The other people are not you.”

“99.99%?” I ask.

He nods again. “Yep, that’ll do it.”

He has been inside me. He knotted me. I’m changing. He has already changed.

“Will we arrive at our destination tonight?” I ask quietly.

He shakes his head. “No, Isla, we won’t.”

“I don’t feel safe.”

He pulls me close, wrapping one arm around my waist. The move surprises me. I want to cry, only I’m too numb for that. A sweet purring sound emanates from his chest, but I still feel the malevolence closing in.

“Move out,” Ash calls.

We break apart, form up in the middle of the party, and head along a narrow forest path that leads north from the base.

North will take me further away from my former home in Sarendon and deeper into Andromeda, and it’s like my soul is in one place and my body in another, stretching the connection out until, eventually, it will either snap or spring together.

The pace is fast. The land undulates, and keeping up through the inclines and dips keeps me warm. I focus on putting one foot in front of the other, taking a drink when it’s passed to me, and eating when I’m told. But my mind skitters toward the unknown that’s ahead, and the unknown that’s chasing me down from behind.

They want me, whoever they are. Somehow, my score makes me important, but, in this case, important is bad, isn’t it? At least, it feels like it is.

Ash told Seb not to fuck me, and then he did. But Noah said Seb couldn’t keep me. And I don’t know what any of this means except that I still want him. I’m still aching with need. I’m still slick. My nipples are still hard and sensitive, and arousal eats at me.

But I’m also scared, and that keeps the needs in check.

I wonder what Andromeda is like. It can’t all be forest, can it? What is after the forest? A city under a dome, like Sarendon, or something else? There are no meteor strikes. Then why is the earth scorched around my old dome? The veil has been lifted from my eyes, yet I still can’t see any better.

The air holds moisture like it might rain and grows warmer as the day progresses.

I try not to let my mind stretch too far because it hurts and frightens me when I do.

A great rumble stirs birds to flight and shakes the ground beneath my feet.

As one, faces turn to look back.

I stop. “What was that?”

“Keep moving, Isla.” Seb catches hold of my arm and propels me along. I stumble but catch myself, my heart rate spiking.

Noah, who is walking in front of me, glances over my head at Seb—he doesn’t break his stride.

“The other base,” Seb says. “Probably.”

“What happened to it?”

“I don’t know,” Seb replies. “We’re off-grid and off comms. We have been from the moment we left.”

I don’t like the sound of that one bit. “Why?”

“If nobody knows where we are, nobody can tell them.”

I feel like I’m falling, even though my feet are still beating a path along the trail.

There are people in the base. I hate that blonde bitch, but I don’t want whoever these monsters are to have her and question her. I don’t want her to be dead. “What about the people there?”

“They cleared the base out after we left. More likely, they just popped the door to get in.”

“They?”

He sighs heavily. “They’re called the Uncorrupted. The people who want to wipe the virus out and everything associated with it.”

“Seb.” Noah’s voice carries reproach.

“What?” Seb demands. “Like secrets matter anymore?”

Noah doesn’t reply. The pace picks up. I’m breathing harder, and heat takes up residence in my thighs. I’m not unfit, but I’ve also not slept properly for a single night since I was taken and I exist in a state of permanent exhaustion. Maybe it’s also due to the virus: the headache, the fuzzy mind, the feeling like I’m coming down with the flu.

And all the while, there is the sensation of being chased.

The pace is punishing me.

Seb suddenly tackles me to the ground. A cry goes up as a spray of bark rains down over us.

My heart rate surges as whistles and pops penetrate the white noise.

“Fuck!”

The buzz of automatic weapon fire follows.

“Stay down,” Seb growls in my ear, pressing my face against the loamy forest path to emphasize his point.

I’m terrified.

I’ve been terrified many times since I entered this godforsaken place, but the fear that rips through me now is on another level again.

Everything is moving fast… and slow. I want to lift my head to see what’s happening, but I’m frozen and don’t think I could move if I tried.

Seb’s weight shifts off me as he moves to a crouch, draws his gun, and releases a barrage of rounds. “Stay with her,” he says.

Another hand rests on the back of my neck, holding me in place as Seb disappears through the trees. The buzz of automatic weapons ramps up, whistling past in a constant barrage. I smell smoke.

Pinpricks dance across my skin, my breathing becomes faster, shallower as the tumult surrounding me ramps up.

“Move!”

I’m dragged from the ground, but my legs are not ready, and I stumble. It’s Noah who has his fist clamped around my arm, pulling me over the uneven ground.

“Fuck,” he mutters.

A high-pitched scream rends the air.

To my right, two sides meet, slamming together in a giant melee. Ash is right at the front, against Them.

The Uncorrupted. Gray shell-like armor, helmets that look like ant heads. They are not entirely human, with a weird robotic framework integral to the armor that makes a faint whirring noise as they move.

We don’t stand a chance.

I’m shoved against the cover of a giant tree trunk just as a hail of gunfire tears up the forest floor where we were.

“Are they cyborgs?”

The pinpricks have ramped up, and my field of vision has turned to sparkling dots—I feel like I’m about to black out from sheer terror.

“No, human,” Noah replies, distracted by what’s happening on the other side of the tree. He holds me pinned against its trunk, like I might be capable of movement. “Exoskeleton armor gives them super strength. It’s not easy to take the fuckers out. But it’s not easy to take an alpha out, either.”

I want to believe him. He must be six and a half feet. Seb is taller still, and Ash is about the same, as are all the men in his team. Alphas. And surprisingly graceful for such big men. The enemy appears smaller, like regular men, certainly nothing exceptional in size. But I also understand how exoskeletons work at the most basic level, how they were completely entombed in armor.

“Fuck,” Noah mutters, and, distracted again, he releases me and fires off a volley of shots.

I know I shouldn’t, but I turn to look just in time to see Ash charge one of the enemy, unloading shot after shot until he reaches him, where he takes the smaller man by the throat and slams him onto the forest floor using his momentum.

I’m going to die. We’re all going to die.

But Ash is going to die first.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Noah barks, shoving me back against the tree.

I can’t be here. Run. Fight. Anything. The image of Ash grappling with one of them—and I don’t even know where Seb went.

The pops and whistles taper off. I hear a bloodcurdling scream.

One of ours? Or the enemy?

When did I align myself with these men who ripped me from my life? When did their enemy become mine? Maybe the Uncorrupted are better. Maybe they’re trying to save me.

No, it’s too late now. I’ve been infected. They want to eradicate the virus and me.

At least, that’s what Seb told me.

My instincts tell me to trust Seb, but can I?

I clamp my hands over my ears when the sounds of pain and dying ramp up.

He’s been inside me. If anything happens to him… No. I don’t care how or why these feelings are here… If he’s hurt… my mind spirals ever higher. I wanted out, at least I thought I did, but not at the cost of Seb; even if I could somehow erase all that had happened and return me to my home. Not the one with Derek. I never want to see Derek again. But my mom, dad, and grandma. The box in the attic that holds the obsidian stone.

All I can hear is my breathing and the pound of blood through my veins.

It’s quiet. When did it become quiet?

Noah releases me, and I slowly lower my hands from my ears.

“Clear,” I hear Ash call.

The relief that washes through me cuts the last vestige of sense from me. I slide a little way down the tree before I lock my knees and pitch forward, darting under Noah’s arm and charging for the sound.

“Jesus! Get a fucking hold of her!” Ash roars.

I’m charging straight for him when Seb emerges from the periphery of my vision and snags me around the waist.

“Woah,” he says. “You don’t need to look at this.” He tries to shield me, but I’ve already seen the bodies on the floor, crumpled, twisted, and grotesque in the manner of death.

I bury my face in his chest and cling, trying to climb up him. He seems to get what I need, and he lifts my ass up. I fling my arms and legs around him and bury my nose against his throat. My whole body trembles violently, and a strange rattle emanates from my chest.

“Fuck,” Seb says gruffly. “It’s over. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

I can’t stop shaking. I can’t stop this strange purring noise. I hiccup. The purr resumes.

“Ah, princess. It’s going to be all right.”

“I d-don’t b-believe you.”

His chuckle is wry. “Yeah, I wouldn’t believe me either.”

“Y-you’re not s-supposed to say that. Y-you’re s-supposed to l-lie.” Isn’t there an unwritten rule that says you lie to the terrified civilian?

“I know,” he says, his fingers gentle against my hair.

He smells of him, that scent that drives me wild, but also the metallic tang of blood. He feels whole. He doesn’t feel like a man who is injured.

Only he’s shaking, too, his arms trembling where they wrap me up.

I’m broken. There is no other explanation for the rampant arousal that slams into me. My hips rock against him. Like he can read my mind, he drops to one knee.

“Don’t have fucking time,” Ash growls from right beside us.

Seb freezes and slowly rises again. “Have you called it?”

“No point in pretenses now,” Ash replies. “I’ve called it in. We need to get to the rendezvous.”

Rendezvous? That sounds hopeful, like there might be something other than an endless forest. My thoughts blank out when my teeth find the side of Seb’s throat, and I bite until I taste blood.

His hand cups the back of my neck, holding me closer. He growls. At me or Ash? I don’t care. His blood is the sweetest thing I’ve ever had on my lips.

“Go ahead and mark me,” he says gruffly.

Is that what I’m doing? Marking him? Claiming him? Everything is mixed up in my head. I’m confused. I’ve spent a lot of time confused.

“We need to move out.” Ash’s voice carries a warning. “It’s going to be tight.”

Seb growls again.

“You need to put her down.”

“Fuck off, Ash. I’ll carry her.”

A sigh follows. I think it’s Ash.

“Let him carry her,” Noah says.

“Fine. Have at it.”

“They know where we are?” I ask Seb, my nose still against his throat as he begins to walk.

“Yeah, princess. They do.”