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Since I was on standby, I could see the positions of all the other warriors on standby, overlaid onto a map ofWrath. I studied the movements and patterns. Two larger groups of warriors started forming up, and then I was called to one of them.
My chest tightened, but I focused on my breathing for just a few seconds, and logic calmed me down. The Hive Mind was treating me like any other warrior. A lot of warriors who had just gotten suited up like me were being called to one of these two points strategic points—which is where I expected Weapons and Emissary were—and me being called there didn’t mean I’d been discovered when I was shooting my second body from ship-to-ship, or when I was sending coded messages back to a rival packship.
Even if I hadn’t been caught, I was still fucking nervous. I wasn’t just worried I’d get caught and killed now. I was worried that would all happen before I even got to touch her. I was worried I wouldn’t get to see how her eyes would change when I ever so gently ran my calloused fingers across the soft skin of her neck. I was anInseminator, and we were lovers. I wouldn’t die until I’d loved.
I couldn’t get so close to my goal as anInseminatoronly to fuck it up and get caught. I had to be alert and ready. There might come a crucial point where the risk of getting caught if I sat around and waited would be high enough that I’d need to just go for a near-suicidal attempt to brute force my way in, take her, and escapeWrathentirely.
I reached the gathering of warriors. All were suited up like me, but some of them had different weapons. I tried to conceal my smile, because most of the weapons were non-lethal crowd control shit. I’d lucked into getting one of the only deadly weapons.
All Khetar wanted to breed, not justInseminators. It was a strong and primal urge within us, and Thuliak knew some of his pack wouldn’t be patient enough to resist going after the two unclaimed women, so he was posting warriors to guard their quarters. He might be vaguely aware of spies, but this whole show of force was mostly just a deterrent to keep other teal-cocked horny Khetar from considering doing something very stupid with either of the two unclaimed women.
I hated to admit that it was all a smart move from Thuliak, because he’d posted the guards before I could claim Weapons for myself.
Me being one of those guards made things more difficult, because I had to stand in front of all these other teal fucks, in plain sight of dozens of other eyeballs. If I hadn’t been posted here, I at least could have snuck in and around. Now I had to sneak away before I could even think of sneaking back in.
“Greetings, Kaav,” a deep voice boomed. “A shame what happened to Rhulgar.”
I looked up and saw Valras. He was suited up like me, so he’d been called here too. We were friends, or as close to friends as I could have on a ship where I was a traitor.
Tschenkar had captured Rhulgar, another scion whose packship had just arrived in system. Things were getting heated in this budding breeding swarm, but that’s how breeding swarms always got started. It was said that the bloodier a breeding swarm started out, the better the progeny. Tschenkar must have been a big believer in that philosophy to stir up so much shit, rather than just gratefully taking his place as Fifth, or whatever fair deal Thuliak had thrown at him.
None of it mattered much to me. I’d signaled my pack, and I’d chosen my mate. Whatever happened in the bigger breeding swarm politics was beyond the scope of what I currently cared about.
“We’ll have other allies,” I said. “Tschenkar is just stirring the pot.”
“He’s got a big spoon,” Valras said.
I laughed it off. But I took care not to laugh too hard. I’d noticed how big Tschenkar’s cock was.Inseminatorswere much more likely to notice that kind of thing than someone fromWrath, and I didn’t want him thinking I was odd for having measured up the opposing scion.
“Which one you think we’ve got?” I asked, hoping he knew which women we were guarding.
“We got the guns lady.”
“Weapons?”
He nodded. How could he know for certain? Valras must have read it on my face, so he pointed to a warrior standing a few dozen paces from us. “Kiantru told me he saw her get taken in there. No one’s going to come try to take them. We’re just deterrent, you know? It’s an easy job, but boring too.”
I nodded. He was right. Which meant I couldn’t do fuck all unless Thuliak moved us off of this location, or unless he moved Weapons and gave me some kind of window to get to her.
So I just had to stand here, knowing my true purpose in life was just on the other side of the wall, but if I made any move to get to her, all these fucks with armor and guns would blow my head off. Most of them had crowd control weapons, but I counted at least four other live weapons in the crowd.
I couldn’t leave either, we’d been ordered to stay here until told otherwise.
I’d have to fucking wait. Just a little bit longer. Then she’d be mine.
