Chapter 21

The tension within the group is like a life force all of its own. It seems to permeate the air, every breath taken, every pound of booted feet against the forest floor. I’m waiting, I realize. Waiting for the next attack.

Seb carries me until, at my insistence, he puts me down. I don’t want to let go of him, but I worry I’m too much, and although we’re moving at a fast jog, fear carries me through for a time. When I start to falter, Seb calls a stop. He removes his backpack, hands it to Noah, and then picks me up again.

I’m so exhausted by this point that I don’t even care.

He’s not a regular human. He has been changed by a virus. He’s an alpha, and my weight doesn’t trouble him the way it ought. Nor does it matter to Noah, who is now carrying two backpacks.

I want to find a target for my irrational anger. To blame Noah for insisting Seb test me back on the shuttle. To blame Ash for pressing my finger to the plate. To blame Seb, who pushed a needle, full of the virus, into my arm… To blame Derek for not telling me what I was signing.

To blame myself for being naive.

Only, according to Seb, this was coming for all of us, so none of it makes any difference now, does it?

I’m roused from my ruminations when Seb slows his pace. Every muscle in my body is stiff and locked up tight, and just lifting my head requires effort.

It’s another building, but tiny compared to the previous bases, one-story, squat, gray, and utilitarian in appearance, with a single cold metal door on one side. No windows. These things never have windows. It’s a base, but small and vulnerable.

I’m at my limit. They must be tired, too, yet nowhere feels safe, certainly not here. I question whether it’s better to be inside or exposed in the forest where at least we could run.

Yeah, run away from men wearing exoskeletons.

I wriggle, and Seb lowers me to my feet, retaining his hold on my arm like he thinks I might collapse. I don’t. Sheer force of will keeps my legs locked.

The door to the tiny base slides open for Ash, who’s at the front of the group, and we enter straight into a single large room with two doors leading off and a trap door on the floor.

I stare at the trap door. That’s something new.

It’s dusty and smells stale and dank. A few battered metal chairs are stacked against one wall. It feels old; somewhere that you only use in an emergency.

Which this is, I guess.

A single strip light comes on as the metal door slides closed. A second inner door is drawn across, and a thick bolt is driven into the ground and ceiling.

I feel trapped and a little claustrophobic. Is this the rendezvous? Will someone come for us?

Seb takes his pack from Noah and drops it to the ground, where he opens it and begins rummaging.

He hands me a bottle of water and a ration pack. There are no supplies here, it would seem.

“It’s not safe,” I say.

Seb snaps open the lid on another water bottle and takes a long drink before lowering it. His eyes find mine. The ugly bruise spreading across the right side of his jaw wasn’t there this morning, although the two black eyes are all down to Ash.

I want to cry.

“I know,” he says, sounding as tired as I feel. “But at least we will get a warning.”

I’m fucked up. Like seriously, every inch of my body feels like it’s going through trauma. The fight with Ash wasn’t a great start, and it achieved fuck-all, if I’m brutally honest about it. But yeah, it doesn’t really match up to being smacked in the jaw by an exoskeleton-enhanced fucker who has your death in mind. At least I turned my head at the last moment and the blow only glanced my jaw.

I dislocated his arm, exoskeleton, and all. And then I stuck my gun against the neck of his suit and shot the fucker through.

My armor only goes so far in terms of protection, and I’ve taken a few shots. Although nothing is broken, I’m confident the blasts have cracked a couple of ribs.

It won’t kill me. It just feels like it might,

They’ve taken out the other base and anybody stupid enough to stay there. Ash told them to clear out. I hope that they did.

HQ knows we’re incoming. Ash called it in. And they are scraping together a team. Finally. Go figure. The assholes need to get their damn priorities right. They also know the three teams—well, two now—of Uncorrupted are going to do everything in their power to box us in.

Maybe we’d be better off turning around and heading in the other direction. Throw them off our scent until our people clear them out.

That’s the thing about Andromeda: it’s basically a forest stretching over the planet’s largest landmass and mostly uninhabited, except for the bunkers and the bases. It’s not easy to protect a planet in the process of assimilation, especially one so far from the Empire’s power base. Resources are stretched thin, and the Uncorrupted are always looking for ways to break the chain.

It’s a race we are winning. In the still of the night, I sometimes think about that—how it’s a race. If the Uncorrupted had gotten here first, I’d have been fighting for the other side and wouldn’t have a clue about any of this.

I didn’t lie to her. It’s true that I never wanted this, but now I’ve tasted it, I’d die to protect it.

And her.

My eyes are on her, Isla, the woman who has just escalated the power struggle playing out here on the fringe of the Empire.

None of us have a clue what she’s going to become.

We can’t risk losing such a valuable resource.

The Uncorrupted can’t risk letting us keep her.

I’ve fucked her, knotted her, and marked her. The knotting isn’t supposed to happen outside an omega heat… or a mating, and I’m just a dumb former hockey player turned super soldier, so what the fuck do I know about what that means? Or what any of this means.

The Uncorrupted have been down here before, mostly for reconnaissance, and to disrupt our assimilation process. They’re generally not quite as determined as this—usually there’s just a minor skirmish before they fade away. A couple of bigger hits on supplies.

This feels different. This time, everybody has got their eye on the prize.

Tight resources or not, HQ should have sent a fucking shuttle for her once they got the report on her score.

Now we’re trapped.

They’re sending a team in to get us, but they can’t land in the forest.

The Uncorrupted will know that, too.

So we need to get to the rendezvous point somehow.

Our choices are overland or underground.

I’m thinking Ash is going under.