Page 37 of Their Marked Mate

“What happens if they refuse?” a mousy brunette asked. “I don’t want to go back to Earth.”

“They won’t refuse,” Fallon predicted as she pushed to her feet. “They don’t have a choice. We’re the only ones foolish enough to volunteer for this shit.”

The other women continued to watch Natalie while Fallon walked away.

Avery followed Fallon, curious about her negative reaction. “If this wasn’t what you wanted, why did you volunteer?”

Fallon glared impatiently as she walked out into the corridor. Natalie and Avery had the run of the ship, but the volunteers were restricted to the hold and a small workout room nearby. The workout room contained the only toilets and showers near the hold so refusing to let the females use the facility hadn’t really been an option.

Fallon entered the workout room, but made no move toward any of the devices. “Every woman in that room volunteered because she has no other option. None of us want to be bartered away to a group of savage hybrids. Would you?”

Heat cascaded through Avery’s body, but she shook her head and muttered, “Of course not. It was a foolish question.”

Fallon crossed her arms over her chest and studied Avery for a tense moment. “Natalie is some big shot with the DOJ. Why are you here?”

“A senator with a lot of seniority wanted a break from me,” she admitted. “He did it to spite me, but I’m honestly interested in what Natalie is trying to do.”

Again, Fallon assessed her silently for a long time before she said, “Natalie claims to be our advocate. Can we trust her?”

“Yes,” Avery said firmly. “There are limits to what she can do, but Natalie will fight for you.”

CHAPTER 6

“This is a really bad idea.” Urgency sharpened Paul’s warning. “If he shifts, we’re screwed.”

“He won’t shift.” Nate looked at the other beta impatiently, but walked on through the forest. His steps were quick and purposeful. They had a long way to go before nightfall. “The collar is effective. I know from experience.”

Paul’s expression was lost in late afternoon shadows, but bitterness hardened his words. “Your captors collared you?”

“Repeatedly,” Nate admitted, refusing to let the memories intrude. “I’ve never been good at following orders, especially when I disagree with them.”

“But you agree with this?” Hayes asked as he tromped along on Nate’s right.

“We need information. Unlike Elias, Alex assesses each situation before he acts. I agree with the approach.” Their mission required stealth and speed as opposed to brute strength, so Alex had ordered Nate to take the lead.

“How do you know some random guard is going to have accurate intel?” Hayes persisted.

Nate frequently teamed up with Paul on missions, but he didn’t know Hayes as well. Paul was Drake’s beta, so Nate knew he could trust him. Hayes was linked with Caden, which made Nate uneasy. Still, the beta’s concern about his alpha’s behavior helped lessen Nate’s misgivings. Besides, secrecy was only important until the task was complete. Once they had the cat, it didn’t matter who Hayes told. “We need to know where the females are kept and everything that’s being done to protect them. Any perimeter guard will be able to tell us that.”

Paul and Hayes exchanged uncertain looks, but all Paul said was, “I hope you’re right.”

In human form it took three hours to reach the feline village. The underground tunnels cut the time in half, and running through the passageways in wolf form would get them to their destination in around forty minutes. The cats kept finding the entrances to the tunnels, but the network of passageways was more extensive than the other hybrid clans realized. Soko controlled the entire network, which was the primary reason Alex had sought out an alliance with the exotics.

Nate spotted a uniquely shaped tree on the right side of the forest trail. The entrances were virtually impossible to find without the map Soko had given Alex as part of their original agreement. Nate pressed his hand against the trunk and scanner beams swept over the surface of his palm. His code deactivated the camouflage shielding and authorized his palm scan for the rest of the checkpoints.

The illusion wavered and then disintegrated, revealing a narrow hatchway. Nate motioned the others inside, then climbed down the ladder and reactivated the shields with another palm scan. “We need to move.”

The betas quickly undressed, knowing a stash of clothes was kept at the other end of the tunnels.

“What the hell happened last night?” Hayes asked as he tugged off his boots. “Why did Alex change his mind about attacking Eagle Village?”

Nate glanced at Paul to see if he shared Hayes’ disapproval, but shadows still hid his expression. “Alex didn’t change his mind,” Nate said firmly. “He never had any intention of attacking Eagle Village. The other alphas were wound up. They needed an outlet for their frustration. Alex figured that marching them up the hill would settle them down.”

Paul chuckled. “I had a CO in the PDF that pulled shit like that all the time.”

The PDF was the Planetary Defense Force and CO meant commanding officer. It had been so long since Nate used military acronyms that they sounded alien to him. “The cats are the real enemy,” he stressed. “They control the females. It just makes sense to remain focused on them.”

“I agree,” Paul said. “And so does Drake.”