Page 23 of Chased by the Alien Mercenary (Monster Mercenary Mates #6)

Solear

When I slipped from the cave just as dusk began to fall, it felt as if I were being torn in two.

It ached deep inside my chest, as if I were making a huge mistake by leaving my mate sleeping in our nest of blankets, moss, and sweet scents.

She had a pull on me now that was even stronger than the one before, but I could not explain what had changed.

I reached out with my mind and found the path between us easier to travel, but that was only because she was asleep and unguarded.

Her dream images filtered through my mind as I made my careful, stealthy way downhill to the mansion.

I’d scouted my incursion point when I’d fetched more food and dry clothing for Lyra; I knew what to do.

Yet I hesitated as I caught images of a muggy, verdant jungle and blue-furred faces not unlike Brace’s in her dreamscape.

These images were important to her—they held curiosity and animosity both—but they were not antagonistic the way my dreams were.

She stirred as if she felt my presence, and I could easily imagine her naked, slender body as she turned onto her back.

Her breasts were exposed to the warmth inside the cave, tipped with their pretty pink nipples.

Damn it, I couldn’t think about how beautiful she was, and how utterly mine.

Not when I had a mission to complete. This was important; this was what I’d been after for over fifteen years.

I could not let my mate distract me from my path.

“You’re making a mistake,” Aramon drawled inside my head.

Since he had Evie to speak with telepathically, his ability to project full sentences and words, rather than feelings, had greatly improved.

He was stronger because of the doubling, too; the path between us had burned wide open when, in his greatest hour of need, I’d abandoned my own body to give him strength.

It was an illegal practice on any Asrai world, with great risk for both parties, but I’d done it willingly.

Now, for the first time, I was not so pleased by the results.

“Mistake?” I growled at him. He was wrong, this was necessary, and it was possibly our only chance.

If they had not deleted this data yet, it was our first shot at getting to Jalima in years.

We couldn’t miss it. Not for anything. Though it was incredibly difficult not to agree with him at least in part.

Lyra was safe in that cave, and she was smart, she wouldn’t do anything as foolhardy as follow me to the mansion and put herself at risk.

“We’ve worked for this for years. I’m not gonna let this chance slip by.

I can do this. I’ve been in and out of that stupid mansion five times by now. ”

Though the computer I needed was deep inside the building, on the upper floor and guarded by a dozen security measures—I’d been uneasy about this task from the start.

Even with my brothers to guard my back, plugging into the computer would leave me exposed.

They should have asked Mitnick to do it, but the hacker was not as versed in navigational data as I was.

Now I had no one to guard me at all; I would be wholly vulnerable once plugged in.

“That’s not the same, and you know it, fool,” Aramon said with nothing of his usual good humor.

Normally, anything could amuse my twin, especially if it involved breaking and entering or wrecking stuff.

But he was uncharacteristically serious and upset with my decision.

“Your mate is more important than this. What happens to her if you die? Did you think about that?” And then he threw the hardest punch of all, a low blow I didn’t see coming but should have.

“Do you want her to be alone the rest of her life?”

In answer, all I could give him was furious rage, the pain I felt at those words.

That wasn’t fair; he knew how much I feared being alone, how hard that was on me.

To picture Lyra suffering that kind of fate?

It was the worst thing I could possibly imagine, and it almost halted me in my tracks.

But vengeance for what I’d suffered, against the bastard who had crippled my life, stolen my family, and given me this burning rage. ..it weighed so heavily, too.

With a muffled groan, I took another step, and then I was gliding through the shadows, my mind made up.

Aramon snarled this time, enraged and frustrated but helpless to act.

He was up there, between the stars aboard the Varakartoom, imprisoned by the Aderians’ endless bureaucracy.

There was nothing he could do to stop me, and, concluding that, he fell silent—but he did not leave my mind.

He watched silently through my eyes as I scaled the wall and slipped through the shadows behind one of the mansion’s outbuildings.

It was probably a guardhouse, followed by a winery for the autumn harvest.

Aderian wine was fabled, though I’d always thought it tasted too sweet.

Even a mansion like this, located on prime land, would want to take advantage of the sunny mountainsides to grow the fruit that went into this drink.

Jalima might only reside at this property on rare occasions, but he’d want it to be profitable.

Wine was a sure way to make that happen.

Now I was wondering if Lyra liked the stuff, and if I should bring back a bottle for her.

Would she be a fun drunk, or grumpy when she had too much?

Hissing at the sound of Aramon’s amusement in the back of my mind, I refocused on the mission.

My twin did not think I should call this a mission—he called it a fool’s errand—but I did not want to believe that.

I’d already killed a dozen guards over the past two days.

They had been forced to bring in more reinforcements from the ship the Xurtal male had arrived in.

That made it easier to steal a shuttle or a land vehicle from there for later tonight, but for now, that did mean the number of guards was undiminished.

Still, I knew the way—I’d scouted it before—and the Xurtal had not thought to put more guards at the door to the office I needed.

At least, if Mitnick’s information was still good, and I had to believe that it was.

I scaled a wall when the guards had just turned the corner, then climbed through a second-floor window that opened when I wedged a knife between the sill and the frame.

The windows on the third floor all had metal hatches, but they had not bothered with the second floor, and that was their mistake.

I ran into a Ulinial servant coming out of a bedroom, but she had her back to me and didn’t see me when I ducked behind a shiny black cabinet for cover.

Her long braid was wrapped around her waist, beads of wood clicking together as she walked.

I vaguely recalled her scent from back when Lyra and I had been imprisoned in a cell below the mansion.

She’d left the lights on for my mate, at least, I think she might have done that on purpose.

When she headed up the stairs I needed, with silent feet, I followed her, curious to see what she was doing.

She should not be up here—not at this late hour—but no doubt the upper floor did need cleaning, so she would have access.

Was this the break I needed to get through the security?

Ulinial were observant, often uncannily so, but they were also pacifists, simply not wired to fight or rebel.

Like humans, that made them universally at risk of enslavement; and unlike humans, they no longer had a homeworld.

They traveled in colonies through the Quadrant aboard outdated ships, hoping to stay under the radar and avoid capture by the unscrupulous.

This female had obviously failed to stay free, as evidenced by the collar around her neck.

So, when she walked right to the security panel and disabled the alarms for the office, that caught me by surprise.

Why would she do that? She still had not looked over her shoulder and noticed me.

Her pace was confident and precise, as if she had walked this way many times before.

She clearly knew the codes by heart, and when she ducked into the office and pulled out a duster, it was as if she was just out to do her job.

I did not believe that for a minute, and Aramon agreed with me.

“She’s up to no good, but it might be the right kind of no good. ”

Yes, maybe she was more aware of my presence than she let on, but she should not know why I was here.

She had no reason to guide me to my prize—unless, perhaps, to trap me…

Suspicious, I did not enter the office behind her, but waited in the shadows until she was done.

She left after at least twenty minutes of endless waiting, but I was patient this time, stalking, hunting, rather than charging.

I could do that when I put my mind to it, though Aramon’s impatience was wearing on me.

He would not have had the restraint to stand in the dark while she did whatever it was she was doing inside that room. He would have peeked.

“Fuck yeah,” he said. “And that would have been a mistake.” If I was already making one mistake, I wasn’t going to risk another.

On that, the two of us were united, and it made waiting easier.

The female left eventually, hurrying from the room and down the hall in the other direction without her duster, I noted.

She left the door ajar, but I was not sure if that was on purpose or if something had spooked her.

When no guards came charging up the stairs and no alarms started blaring, I knew I could not let this chance slip me by.