Kelta arches and inhales with a horrid rattling noise. Her eyes widen and fill with shock. Reactor steps back as she coughs. “Thr-ruster?”
I thank Reactor and draw Kelta into my lap. Relief makes me brace the back of her head and kiss her.
“Hi.” I adjust her in my arms so she can look up at me.
Kelta smiles, laughs, then cries and hugs me. “You did it.”
“Technically,” I glance at Reactor beside us. “He is the one who saved you this time.”
“More Titans?”
Blaster slings the rifle over his shoulder. “There’s a wall around us of some sort of metal that’s kept us isolated from the others.”
“The Solcrue dropped it from ships,” Reactor says.
Banshee, who’s decked in gear bags of all kinds, adds, “We can’t navigate or communicate with others. It messes up our sensors like a cloud of chaff on radar missiles.”
"Tunnels are full of mutants." Knurl, a Brother covered in diamond shapes, glints with the first light of day. "They have claws strong enough to scratch even me."
“Welvirs,” I say as Kelta tries to sit up. “They were made in a lab on the other side of the mountain range. I can fly you out, but we’ll want to do it quickly and shortest distance possible.”
“Is this the human you serve?” Banshee asks.
“I do notserveKelta.”
She grins and wheezes, “Not unless dick counts.”
“She…” Banshee raises his brows.
Kelta hooks a finger in my armor and pulls me to her lips. The kiss is brief as she’s still getting her breath back. And now, she’s just stealing mine.
"I missed this side of you," I whisper to her. I'm not ready to be free of her lips just yet and steal one more tender kiss. "You had me worried. I'm glad you're back."
She wipes her fingers over my cheek and quietly asks, “Were you crying…over me?”
I look down and take her hands in mine. "I don't ever want to return to life without you."
“Wait…” Banshee scratches his head. “You’re her sex toy?”
A strangled laugh leaves Kelta. “He is that for sure. But not just a toy.”
The Titans stare at me. “She’s my mate.”
“A mate? But she’s not Titan?” Reactor remarks.
“No. Leah Krader freed us. We can be with humans.”
Banshee shifts between his feet. “Krader, as in General?”
“Yeah, she’s his daughter,” I say. “She will free you, too. And there are many human females at our rebel camps. Many of us have found mates. But we are also planning…”
Kelta firmly pats my chest. “Stop!”
“What?”
She scrambles up and paces a circle, panting as she looks around us at the shimmering border. “I know this…this very thing happened to another rebel fleet.”
Kelta points to the boundary.
I get up and walk to her. “Explain.”
She shakes her head. “Do not say anything. Do not talk in your heads. Absolute silence. We move, now! As fast as you can! All sensors off.” Kelta motions to the mountains.
“How are we supposed to navigate?” Blaster asks.
She gives him a glance of disbelief. “Like a human. Take a route you know by memory.”
Blaster leads the pack with Reactor. Banshee, Knurl, and Shear, who doesn't speak. His jaw looks broken, and I fear how long it has been that way. Rebel can fix him, I have no doubt. We just have to stick together and get back to the camps in one piece.
