Chapter 8

8

B reanna

Consequences, huh? Did he just threaten me? With what? Too many orgasms?

Don't. Say. It.

Do. Not. Shit. I never could keep my mouth shut.

"Oh, really? What consequences?" I turned my head so our breaths mingled in the cool corridor. Space was fucking cold. "Should I be scared?"

Our gazes locked. Held. We both stopped moving and the Atlans bringing up the rear guard crowded us, grumbling at Mikos to get his ass moving. Mikos ignored them all to lean in, his voice a whisper that sent shivers down my spine. "I will spank your round ass until you apologize and promise never to lie to me again."

"Won't happen." He thought my ass was round? He should see my cousin, Mary's. Now that girl had a nice, round ass. I'd always been jealous of her curves. Huge boobs, tiny waist, ass that made every man in the neighborhood pant after her like dogs in heat. My body was strong, not voluptuous. And all the boys always complained that I was too tall. I'd believed them, too, until I came out here and every alien I met seemed to be seven or eight feet tall. First time I felt small and feminine was when I walked into the dining hall on the Karter. Next to Mikos? He was Atlan big, towered over me, made me feel delicate and feminine. Two things I was not. Still, next to him I couldn't forget, not for one second, that I was female and had a very wet pussy just waiting for him to fill. Every. Second. The guy was lethal.

Mikos took a deep breath and shuddered.

Shit. Did he smell the way my pussy went wet when he talked about spanking me? I shouldn't like the idea of that, but I did. God help me, I wanted him to do it now, just so I would know what it felt like to be dominated so completely. By him. Only him. The idea of letting him take complete control seemed freeing in a weird way. Which didn't make sense to me, but I didn't really have time to analyze my bizarre response to him right now.

He didn't move away, so all I could do was ignore the urge to bite the shoulder right in front of me. I couldn't see his expression with his lips next to my ear. I really wanted to.

"Move it, Mikos. Shade is back, and he brought a lot more friends." Prince Ruk shoved Mikos's shoulder hard enough to get his attention.

Mikos looked like he wanted to murder the Hyperion, but he turned to glance behind us. "How far are we from the ship?"

"We can make it without a fight, if you two stop fucking in the corridor and move."

"I wasn't—" Fucking in the corridor? As if.

"Grab Shade. He's an Enforcer. Leave the rest. They won't be of any use to us." Mikos interrupted my protest by lifting me off my feet and tossing me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. The group of testosterone-driven cavemen took off at a run, my gut hitting Mikos's shoulder with every step.

"Put. Me. Down." Took me three steps, three huffs of breath, to get the words out.

"No."

Extending my arms as far as I could, I walked my upper half off Mikos's back and lifted my head to look behind us. Maximum neck strain, and the hand and arm wrapped around my upper thighs wasn't helping with the breathing situation when all I seemed capable of thinking about was him ripping a hole in my stupid pants and fucking me with his fingers. Maybe he could swing me around and hold me in the air while he used his wicked, wicked tongue to fuck me as he walked. Was that too naughty? Would he want to? He was strong enough to do it.

I shouldn't be this horny. I just had sex like two hours ago, if that. And we were being chased by people who wanted to turn Mikos in for a bounty. God only knew what they would do with me.

"Oh, shit." Shade and at least twenty guys with the creepy, dark blue arm bands were running to catch us. They had bigger guns than last time. No, not guns. "They have ion cannons! They're shooting!" I pounded on Mikos's back. "Put me down! I need my guns!"

"You do not." Mikos denied me, but he also shifted my body, pulling me around to his front and cradling me against his chest like I weighed nothing. He didn't even alter his stride. "Nothing will harm you."

With his massive back between me and the bad guys chasing us, I believed him, relief melting the knot of anxiety under my sternum like boiling water dissolving sugar. It just…disappeared.

Either the poison, the essence Mikos injected into my body, was affecting my mind, or I was going insane. Nothing about this situation was safe, so why did I want to melt into his arms and just believe him? Had to be the poison. I'd been in combat situations, both on Earth and many, many times onboard spaceships. I did not relax and assume anyone was going to protect me. That was suicidal. So why did I just let Mikos do what he wanted without protest? Why didn't I want him to put me down? Sure, he was big and scary and mean, but I had to be drugged. What had his essence done to me , exactly? Melt my brain? Weaken my survival instincts? Was I high? Stoned? Drunk? On alien fang juice? Because damn, this shit was good.

Four of the Atlans stopped moving with us, dropping out of sight as Mikos continued moving forward with me, Ruk, Sebastion and the other Atlans. I wiggled, trying to get a peak around Mikos's shoulder, but he tightened his grip so I couldn't move. "Hold still."

"Four against twenty? At least twenty? They'll get killed." Okay, so I could still think logically. I just wasn't worried about it. Then again, the four were integrated Atlan Warlords, not eighteen-year-old boys playing at being Marines.

Sebastion dropped back to cover when the Atlans fell away. He must have heard my comment, because he was laughing. "No, Bree. They won't. In fact, I bet they'll be less than five minutes behind us."

No way I would take that bet. "Gambling now?" I smiled at the Prillon. I'd always liked him. Bit rough around the edges. Moody. But all these guys were like that out here. "Been hanging out with humans too long. You're picking up our bad habits."

Before he could respond, the corridor came to an end and the ceiling disappeared as Mikos carried me into a massive open area the likes of which I'd never seen before.

Ships flew over and around one another in tight grid formations. The ceiling, if there was one, was so far away, I couldn't make it out. The dock, or landing bay, or whatever they called it, had to be half a mile high, at least. Hell, it could be two miles. I had no idea because I couldn't see where it ended. Row after row of parked spaceships were stacked on top of one another up and down the lengths of giant, vertical beams. "There has to be a hundred ships in here."

Our group stepped onto an open top elevator of some kind and Ruk set us in motion, the platform gliding smoothly along the lowest level until we reached the front side of one of the beams. The elevator pad locked into place, and we changed direction, moving up. And up. And up.

Holy shit. Definitely at least a mile, and I still couldn't see the top. "I had no idea this place was so big." Maybe there were a thousand ships in here. Too many to count.

As before, none of the males responded to my rambling. I felt a bit embarrassed, the new girl gawking at what they had all probably seen dozens of times.

But damn. I had no idea the Coalition built stations this big. This was so much bigger than any landing bay on Battleship Karter. Like, ten times bigger. At least.

Our ride glided to a smooth stop and Ruk led the way off the elevator, along a short platform to a ship I'd seen before, on multiple ReCon missions. A Hive ship. It was one of their smaller battle cruisers, would hold anywhere from twenty to thirty of the fuckers and twice that many prisoners, if they doubled them up in the tiny detention cells. I knew, because I'd fought Hive on these babies more than once. "You guys stole this?" I thought about asking Mikos to put me down but knew it would be wasted air. "How? They're coded to Hive pilots. They don't respond to anyone else."

Again, Henry and I, and a few of the others, had tried to take control of one of these ships, more than once.

Sebastion responded. "We never went to The Colony, Bree. We are all still actively connected to the Hive."

"What?!" How had I been around these guys, multiple times, and not known this? "Isn't that dangerous?" I shuddered as we approached the Hive ship, now that I knew our escorts were still jacked into their system. "What about the mind control? Aren't you afraid they'll try to take control of you again?"

Shut. Up.

The look in Sebastion's eyes was raw and dark and filled with pain. "We formed a private communication network. Me and the beasts. They can't break it, and they can't control us." His gaze, filled with memories I don't think I could have survived, shifted from amber, to silver, then pure black. "How do you think we escaped? Survived this long?"

I knew these guys were tough, but my respect—and awe, okay? Full blown shock—went up a notch. "Then why a Hive ship? Doesn't it just bring bad memories? I'm sure Commander Zeus or Karter would give you all a Coalition ship." Right?

I glanced up, wondered why Mikos was not saying anything. Apparently, he was curious, too, and content to let me ask all the questions.

Sebastion shook his head as first Ruk, then the Atlans, then Mikos—still carrying me—stepped through the loading doors and onto the Hive ship. "Coalition ship means Coalition control."

Now I was really, really confused. "But I thought they sent you to help us?"

Ruk waved the Atlans deeper into the ship and I watched them turn a corner, heading in the direction I knew would take them to the ship's piloting controls. Mikos pivoted and we both watched as Ruk took up position at the ship's entrance, opposite Sebastion, to wait for the rest of their team. Ruk's grin looked feral, and I was glad his claws were no longer out. "I am not Coalition. We go where we will, Bree. We hunt. We fight."

Sebastion nodded, a grin covering his face as another elevator arrived with our four missing Atlan friends, and one hog-tied, cursing Rogue 5 asshole, Shade. They dragged the huge male on the ground behind them like a bag of dirty laundry. The Prillon chuckled at the string of curses leaving Shade's mouth, then turned to me. "We fought. We served. Now we are free, and we will never follow orders again."

"Then why are you here? Helping us?"

Ruk grinned. "We like you."

Sebastion shrugged. "Always good fighting to be had on Rogue 5."

Mikos growled as I thanked them and the rest of the Atlans boarded. They made sure Shade's head hit the side of the door on the way in. He cursed again and I didn't try to hide my smile. Shade tried to hurt Mikos. He deserved everything he was going to get and then some.

Maybe they'd tell me where they put him, and I could go kick him in the balls for going after my man.

No. Stop that. Dangerous fucking thinking. First of all, Mikos was not mine. Didn't matter that he stood here, holding me against his chest like precious cargo, his heat soothing in a way I'd hadn't felt since I was little, and my Daddy carried me to bed. And second? Shade was huge and I was human. Forget that fact and I wouldn't survive long out here. Without my armor, my weapons, and my team, I might as well be a week-old kitten compared to these guys.

Ruk closed the door and both males turned to face us. "What the fuck are you doing still standing here?"

Mikos shook his head, and his words made my heart stutter, then race like a frightened rabbit's, all curiosity, comfort and contentment gone the moment his question registered.

"Where can I take her? We require privacy for her punishment."