Page 55 of A Monster’s Future

I had to warn Chris and Ellaston. I had to get back to Grtirr. I had to…

“Catch the girl!”

I looked over my shoulder to see the Exotech goon stomping after me. I knew I couldn’t outrun him, but catching me took time, and every second I bought was another second for help to arrive.

Then strong arms snatched me up, tossing me over a brawny shoulder.

Fuck.

My eyes locked onto the weapon strapped to the soldier’s hip. I stretched, twisted, clawed at it, but my arms just weren’t long enough. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t reach it. But my captor suddenly stopped, hesitating.

A blur of red ripped me from the super soldier’s arms.

Grtirr!

The soldier didn’t even move to retrieve me. It stood stock-still, like it had been turned off.

Dr. Kim stepped back out of the shuttle.

“You again! I thought I killed you. Don’t worry, I won’t make—”

Grtirr didn’t let him finish. With a roar, he charged him.

It happened so quickly, I didn’t quite see it. Good thing too, because I wasn’t sure if I’d end up having nightmares about it in the future. One moment Grtirr was empty-handed, and the next he had a beating heart in his fist. He’d ripped it right out of Dr. Kim’s chest.

I stood there in shock, and so did Dr. Kim.

He fell first. And then Grtirr crumpled over him.

The second it took for me to get my feet to move felt like an eternity.

“Grtirr!”

I tried to move him, but he was heavy, and I couldn’t flip him over or get him off Dr. Kim. He didn’t respond, and my hand came away covered in blood. So much blood.

“Grtirr!”

I knelt on the ground by my unconscious mate, fear and panic settling in.

Then gunshots erupted. This time, the sharp cracks of human weapons were mixed with the distinctive sound of Kadrixan blasters. Our guys were here!

A massive, red-clawed hand hauled me back to my feet.

Gnnar! Dana’s mate had been stationed at Ellaston, so of course he’d be on the rescue mission.

“Grtirr! He’s—”

“We’ll get him back. You need to come with me now. He’d never forgive me if you were injured.” He hauled me away from Grtirr’s prone form.

“The shuttle!” I blurted out. “They have a shuttle and special cloaking.”

“I will calibrate our shield system to catch them in the future,” he assured me. “For now, Igor, Fido, and Kong can detect it.”

Fido and Kong were the robohounds we converted to follow our commands. Annabel had given them so many puppy-like mannerisms that I’d almost forgotten that they’d started out as deadly killing machines. I was glad they were on our side now.

“Good job distracting them until we got here.”

“That wasn’t all me.” I looked up into the trees. “We have to find Tatertot.”