Page 13 of Bound to the Beast (Interstellar Brides Program: The Beasts #9)

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There were only two attackers still moving.

Iven moved faster than I thought possible for someone his size and picked up one of the men by his feet. Iven swung him around and tossed him like a frisbee. The man’s head slammed into the wall with a sickening thud.

Only one left. The one who’d bothered to voice a protest about killing a child.

He had both hands in the air above his head in surrender.

His rifle lay on the ground at his feet.

He kicked it away and backed away from the beast. “Please, no. I didn’t know she wanted us to kill a kid, man. I’m sorry.”

The rumble that came from Iven’s chest would have made most people run away, screaming in terror. The man had obviously looked death in the eye more than once, because that’s what Iven was right now. Death personified. Vengeance.

Alexander the Great moved behind the mercenary. Bumped his legs with a hiss.

The man jumped. “Look, she offered a lot of money. I swear, I didn’t know we were coming for a kid.”

“Warlord Iven, stop.” Brody stood up and stepped out from behind the table before I could stop him.

He moved faster than a normal child when he wanted to.

For the first time since I’d brought him to Earth, I realized hiding him here was going to be more difficult than I had hoped.

And that damn cat was going to keep growing.

What was I going to do when Brody was breaking every track, football or baseball record on the books, and he had a pet cat the size of a pony at the house?

The man dared a glance at Brody. If he thought it odd that he was pleading with a six-year-old for his life, he gave no sign. “I’m sorry, Broderick.”

“Brody.”

“Brody. I’ve hurt a lot of people. Mostly bad people. But I swear, I don’t do kids.”

Iven the beast crossed his arms over the biggest chest I’d ever seen and watched the small boy with incredible patience. My mate really was magnificent.

“All right. What’s your name?” Brody asked.

“Simon.” Iven snarled at him and he scrambled back. “Just Simon. I swear. I’d give you a last name, but it’s fake. I don’t exist. They wiped me from the books when they put me in the programs.”

Brody’s gaze was hard as diamonds. I’d never seen that look on his face, the look of a predator, of the future Elite Hunter he would become. “I don’t need your name to find you. I’m an Everian Hunter. Have you heard of us?”

The man nodded. “Of course.”

Brody tilted his head and studied the man for a few seconds.

“Can I put my hands down?”

“No.” Iven answered first, his beast’s barked command loud in the sudden quiet.

“Guess not.” Brody shrugged and signaled Alexander to come sit at his side. Iven, Brody and Alexander the Great. My new alien family. I could almost hear Kimberly laughing at the irony. I’d been the one who wanted nothing to do with aliens. Nothing.

Now I wanted everything.

“We need to get Daciana. She’ll just keep trying to kill you, Brody.” I got to my feet and came out from behind the desk. Iven’s gaze locked onto me instantly and what I saw there made my pussy clench and my blood heat. There he was. My beast. Standing in the center of a pile of his enemies.

Outside, the distinct sound of police sirens filled the room. Lots of police sirens. Like every cop in town was going to be in this room in the next five minutes.

Iven’s beast spoke a full sentence, the deep timbre of his voice making my pulse race. “Simon, go. Find female.”

Simon looked my mate in the eye. “You want me to track down the woman who hired us?”

“Yes.”

“And do what with her?” Simon looked around at the dead men I assumed were, if not his friends, at least men he respected. “I don’t normally like to do women either. In this case, I’ll make an exception.”

“No.” Brody shook his head and looked at me. “We need to take her back to Everis and tell everyone the truth about my parents.”

Go back to Everis? I sighed. “All right, Brody. All right.” I didn’t know if Iven would be allowed on Everis, or if he’d even want to go with us.

But I hoped.

I looked at Simon. “Find her and bring her to the police station.”

Brody opened his mouth to protest, but there were still somethings he didn’t know. “We’ll send an official request from Everis. The police won’t want to keep her here. She’s not human. She’s not supposed to be here.”

“Give me twenty-four hours,” Simon said.

“Midnight,” the beast informed him. “No female, I hunt you.”

“Done.” Simon grabbed his weapon from the floor and left the room, going out the exterior door to get away.

Brody walked over to the teacher’s desk and sat in the large chair, arms crossed as he looked around the room.

I loved watching his little mind work as he assessed the situation.

No panic. I kept trying to compare him to human children.

But he wasn’t only half-human. The other half?

The other half was a warrior. A soldier. A hunter. It was in his DNA.

Me, on the other hand? I didn’t know what to do. What would the police say if they found an Atlan Warlord here? Would they want to prosecute Iven for killing these guys, even though he’d been protecting Brody and me? Would they try to lock him in jail? Or worse, start shooting at him?

Couldn’t run away, either. They authorities would want answers.

And where was Iven, the man? Male. Whatever. The beast was staring at me like he’d never seen a woman before. “Are you going to change back?”

“No.” One word. I believed him. The beast was going nowhere.

Shit. I was working myself into a panic when very large arms wrapped around me and lifted me off my feet.

Iven crushed me to his chest and stared at Brody. “Mine.”

My six-going-on-sixteen-year-old nephew waved his little hand in a dismissive gesture as Alexander the Great curled up at his feet.

“I got this. Go ahead.” He put his little feet up on the desk and locked his hands behind his head, leaning back in the chair like a big city executive.

“I want you to keep us. Go. Do what you gotta do.”

Do what you gotta do?

He spent a few days with Iven and he was talking like a seasoned detective now? What happened to the frightened little boy who helped me hang up the baby dragon poster? Who sought reassurance that the bad guys weren’t going to find us? What was happening to my life?

Iven happened, that’s what.

He glared at the hunting cat. “Stay. Protect.”

The cat yawned like he was bored out of his mind. I wasn’t fooled. If Daciana managed to make her way back here and get through the small army of police that were about to show up, Alexander would rip her throat out before she got anywhere near my boy. Still, the yawn was a bit much.

Cats were assholes, didn’t matter what planet they came from.

I didn’t have time to worry about any of it now. Iven’s beast carried me into the hallway, through the cafeteria, then the gym, out the back of the building, across the soccer field and into the forest.