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I almost considered stopping and pulling out the stealth fabric Raxnor had packed but decided on speed instead. It would be difficult to run and keep the material around me, especially with brush snagging it constantly. I doubted they’d have flyers circling over the area, scanning—it would attract too much attention.
Creatures skittered through the purple underbrush as I ran through a grove of valoree trees, their rounded canopy of silver leaves making their purple flowers stand out beautifully. Tiny stevroe birds flittered among the branches, their high sweet voices raised in song.
A pang of homesickness washed over me, catching the breath in my lungs. The old ache refused to be suppressed any longer.
I ran faster, my teeth grinding together. The sooner I got away from here, the sooner I could pretend this visit had never happened.
A flash of pale blue ahead, a straight line too perfect to be found in nature. The facility. I slowed, opening my mouth wide to make my fast breaths as quiet as possible. My rulaa did not yet tingle. The extra sense organs in my forehead would tell me as soon as anyone came near.
Staying behind the cover of the largest underbrush, I skirted the building until a door came into view. After slipping the pack from my back—no guard working inside would wear one—I pulled out my comp and called up Kirel’s hacking program. Then I strode for the door as if I belonged there. Pressing my comp to the door’s controls tookforever.
Finally, it slid open, and I started another program, one that would loop the building’s security feedsandsearch for any sign of the Hyoo-mon. Thank frek I had the best hacker in the seven sectors on my side.
The program went to work as I strode down the bright, institutional hallway lined with closed doors. The roof of the building held the landing pad, and only one flyer waited there. Did it mean the facility ran with a very small staff? Or was that simply wishful thinking?
Then a warning tingle of presence flared in my rulaa. I pulled my blaster and shot as the door beside me slid open.
The male let out a startled croak before slumping, senseless. I lurched forward to catch him before he could thump to the floor. He wore a black guard uniform, not that different from my clothing. It bore no emblem of who he worked for, confirming this was a secret facility. Shoving forward, I pushed us both into the small room filled with screens, each showing the view of a different surveillance camera. Kirel’s program worked—none of the screens showed me.
But on one of them, a slim Hyoo-mon female paced the edge of an examination room, tugging on cabinet handles. She was here!
I hurried back out into the hall and read the door labels. They were generic, with no sign of a company logo to clarify who ran this place. Finally, I found the right door. Kirel’s hacking program opened it, and I hurried inside.
My forehead tingled wildly in a wash of ecstasy such as I’d never felt. A small form launched toward me, and I deflected one blow while a second blade sunk into my thigh.
I barely felt it. The pain faded compared to the wonder before me.
She was short and slim, with golden-tan skin and straight black hair as inky as any Zaarn. Her delicate features wore a look of determination as she faced off against me, her very fierceness compelling. Her sweet scent surrounded me, and my tail rose behind my back, buzzing to life as I gaped at her.
Captain Lee was my fated mate.
I snapped out of it long enough to update her translator chip and tell her I was rescuing her.
“Rescue, ha!” Fire flashed in her dark eyes. She was wary, and rightfully so.
Before I could answer, my comp beeped. Someone was trying to access the security cameras from a remote computer. “We need to go. Put away that toy and pretend I’m your guard.”
“Toy?” She brandished the scalpel, her fierceness making me only want her more. The Goddess had gifted me with a mate full of spirit.
Slipping my control, my tail darted for her, eager to start the mating heat.
She sliced at it in a controlled arc—she’d clearly trained as a fighter—and I barely jerked it away in time.
I tried to tell her she had nothing to fear from me, that I was her mate.
An alarm rang out. A new feeling of possessive protectiveness ballooned in my chest, pushing away all else.
I disarmed her and threw her over my shoulder, hating that our first touch would be anything other than a mating.
She was in horrible danger. Nothing else mattered.
CHAPTER THREE
Vivian
I craned my neck. The door at the end of the hallway beckoned, and the alien’s long legs got us there in record time.
Right when we were about to push through, a little voice said,“Friend? I was quiet like you asked. Was I not good?”
