Page 7 of Guardians

“ Took you long enough,” Diego grumbled an hour and a half later as Malik strolled into the dining area. He looked so fucking pleased with himself that Diego wanted to punch him in the face. They all knew they’d have to share Lexie when Kane suggested they claim her, but Diego hadn’t realized how provoking it would be to have a female in the house. And he hadn’t realized how much he would want her. Lexie was amazing. Brave and compassionate, spirited yet eager or at least willing to submit to him. In his wildest imaginings, he hadn’t dared to picture a female as perfect as their mate.

“I wanted to make sure she was asleep,” Malik said as he joined Diego and Kane at the table.

“It sounded like she enjoyed herself,” Kane commented with a smirk.

That was an understatement. Her moans, gasps, and cries had been torture for Diego. He was solitary by nature. It had taken him many months before sharing a cabin with other hybrids had felt natural. He wasn’t sure he would ever adjust to sharing a female.

Malik picked up the glass of iolla that Kane slid across the table to him. “I know sharing her is the only thing that makes sense, but it’s going to take some getting used to.”

Diego nodded, glad he wasn’t the only one struggling with the concept. He absently stroked the tabletop. He could still see Lexie bent over this table, legs spread, hips raised as Kane drove into her wet pussy. Watching another man fuck her had made Diego painfully hard. The only thing that kept him from shifting and ripping Kane’s throat out was the knowledge that she had agreed to give him access to her supple body as well. “If I don’t think about something other than sex for a while, our mate isn’t going to be able to walk in the morning.”

Kane chuckled. “Fair enough. Until more coalitions claim mates, Lexie must be guarded. How do we protect her without neglecting our responsibilities?”

“We guard her in shifts and Zion just deals with our absence. He has twelve guardians. She has three,” Diego said, feeling particularly combative. He desperately wanted to walk back into that bedroom, bury himself in her welcoming body, and stay there for the rest of the night.

“Speaking of absences, what’s going on with you and the Shadows?” Kane asked. “You’ve been spending more time with them than with the guardians lately.”

“I’m their leader,” Diego objected. “I have no choice.”

Malik’s brow arched and his head tilted as he said, “Zion told you to train them and organize their missions, not accompany them each time they leave the village.”

“I have skills the others don’t,” Diego insisted. “It’s that simple.”

Kane crossed his arms over his chest and studied Diego. “Can you tell us what all these secret missions have been about? Not knowing what the hell you’re up to is seriously annoying.”

“Feeling left out?” Diego teased.

“Frankly, yes. We’re a coalition,” Kane stressed unapologetically. “We should have no secrets from each other.”

Kane had a point. The purpose of a coalition was to support each other and provide companionship. The support part was impossible if the others had no idea what he was doing. “It’s likely the mission will fail. It’s a long shot at best so Zion doesn’t want to give anyone false hope.”

“False hope about what?” Malik lifted both hands, his frustration obvious. “Now you have to tell us.”

Diego considered his options. Kane and Malik were guardians, privy to Zion’s most confidential decisions. Was there really any harm in explaining? “Travis, the wolf I’ve been working with, found one of the shuttles left behind when they dropped off the humans.”

“The rest had been disabled. Was this one functional?” Malik’s eyes widened and his face lit up with anticipation.

Diego shook his head. “This is why I didn’t tell anyone. You’re already getting your hopes up.”

“Sorry.” His expression calmed and his voice grew expressionless as he added, “Go on.”

“The shuttle has been disabled, but whoever sabotaged it didn’t know what they were doing, or had been paid off, or who knows what. They did a shitty job of destroying the vital systems.”

“Are communications operational?” Kane asked, clearly trying to appear less excited than he felt.

Diego shook his head. “The entire component was removed. We can’t use it as a relay. However, much of the damage required only minor repairs so me and Travis took it on. We managed to drag it into a cave with a team of dorren so we could tackle the more complicated problems. But navigation needs to be completely reengineered and there’s only one person on Rydaria with the skills to even attempt it.”

“Gabriel,” Kane and Malik said in unison.

The dislike in their tones made Diego smile. Gabriel was one of the brothers who ran the raptor village and he could be a real pain in the ass. Unfortunately, he was also an aerospace engineer with a strong background in spaceship mechanics.

“Did he agree to help you?” Kane asked.

Diego tensed, staring off into the distance. “We’re still negotiating.”

“You shouldn’t need to negotiate. Getting off this fucking planet benefits the raptors just as much as it benefits us.”

Diego nodded, but Kane’s vehemence didn’t change the situation. “Nothing is ever that easy with Gabriel. But I’ll keep working on him.”

“We should send him one of the females,” Malik muttered as he finished his iolla. “A good hard fuck is bound to make anyone more reasonable.”

“The thought crossed my mind,” Diego admitted, glancing toward the bedroom where their mate slept. “But the raptor village is so remote and their leaders are not the only ones with bad attitudes. I’m not sure we can convince any of the females to relocate way up there.”

“None of them would go alone.” Malik shrugged as he added, “But what about a group of three or four?”

Kane pressed back into his chair with a heavy sigh. “Lexie’s the only one who has volunteered so far. Hopefully, that will change, but this isn’t going to happen overnight. I’m not sure sending a group of potential mates up the mountain makes sense at this point.”

Diego understood his reluctance, but he also knew that the shuttle was their best chance of significantly bettering the situation for the most people. Even if every female in the human camp volunteered to become a mate, the majority of hybrids would be left out. There were simply not enough of them. “When it comes to war—and we all know it will—we need the raptors at our backs.”

Kane refilled their wineglasses before he commented. “I agree with the idea, but I’m not convinced about the timing.”

Waving away Kane’s excuses, Diego picked up his glass and took a deep gulp. He was restless and irritable. He needed to get out of here and run, climb a mountain, or start a fight. Claiming Lexie had made him hungry for more, a whole lot more. But she wasn’t ready for the kinds of pleasures that truly satisfied him. “Has Zion assigned someone to retrieve the medical supplies from the lupine village? And before I even consider going, are we damn sure that scanning plants is all those devices do?”

“Do you trust Lexie?” Kane countered. “She’s the one who told us about the scanners.”

Diego didn’t trust anyone, but he knew someone who could examine the equipment and determine what it did and didn’t do. He just happened to be the same disagreeable bird they needed to repair the shuttle. “How soon do the humans need the instruments back? It might take me a day or two to accomplish.”

Kane lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. “It all depends if the infection starts spreading.”

Pushing back his chair, Diego stood up and stretched out his back. “I’m too damn wound up to sleep anyway.”

Kane laughed, then realized Diego was serious. “You’re going right now?”

“If the wolves watch us as closely as we watch them, the last thing they’ll expect tonight is a Shadow raid. After all, the leader of the Shadows just claimed a mate.”

Kane stood as well and walked around the table. “I appreciate your dedication, but it’s a valid point. Shouldn’t you be spending time with Lexie?”

Diego shook his head. All the things he wanted to do to Lexie would scare her shitless. His transformation had loosed something dark and aggressive within him and that beast was particularly close to the surface right now. “She’s only doing this because her camp is in trouble. We promised to get the medical supplies back from the wolves.”

“We promised to try ,” Malik corrected.

“Well, keeping that promise will mean more to her than having another dick shoved inside her.”

Apparently seeing the darkness in Diego’s gaze, Kane backed off. “You can’t go alone.”

Diego waved away his concern. “I’ll be back before you have time to miss me.” Diego preferred working alone. Even when he took other Shadows with him on missions, they always split up and performed separate tasks. He was doing this as much to combat the restlessness as to win points with their new mate. If he stayed, they’d all regret it. “Let Lexie sleep. Even if she’s not actually sleeping, she needs time to process her new situation.”

The others nodded, but Diego had no doubt that their need for Lexie would eclipse their good intentions long before he returned. That was all right. He had the rest of his life to tame his inner beast so he could enjoy having a mate.

He went to his bedroom and pulled on his spare pair of boots. His good ones were in Kane’s room with Lexie and he didn’t want to disturb her. Pausing by the front door, Diego pulled on his coat. “Retrieving the cases shouldn’t take long, but I’m going to see if Gabriel will meet with me. I’ll let him know that the alliance is official. If he knows that females are a real possibility, it might pave the way for future conversations.”

“Gabriel is one prickly bastard,” Malik reiterated. “No one will argue about that. But I think the females are a much bigger obstacle. Meeting with him is a waste of time until we have females willing to bond with birds.”

Diego shook his head, anxious to be out of the cabin. “The humans want off this rock even more than we do. That shuttle is our best, perhaps only chance of making that happen. Once the humans understand that, we’ll have volunteers.”

Malik and Kane exchanged doubtful looks and all Kane said was, “I hope you’re right.”

“I’m not sure when I’ll return so I’ll check in telepathically.” Diego created telepathic links with Kane and Malik when they became a coalition. It allowed them to communicate without risking the signal being intercepted. Before the others could think of a reason to stop him, Diego hurried out into the night.

The wind hit Diego full in the face, momentarily stealing his breath. Damn. If the last few weeks were any indication, this winter was going to be brutal. He pulled up his hood and tugged on gloves, then jogged across the village. It wasn’t late, but the blustery weather had driven everyone indoors.

He reached the outer wall without incident and waited for the guards to open the gates. No one noticed him, which wasn’t too surprising. They were trained to pay more attention to the outside of the wall than inside. No doubt, the guards were huddled around a heater inside the tower, so Diego let himself out through the pedestrian door.

Night creatures chattered in the forest beyond the village walls. They seemed unimpressed by the inclement weather. A light dusting of snow began to fall so he paused and shed his clothing. He could cover more ground and protect himself more easily in animal form. After stashing his garments in a nearby bush, he freed his inner lion and waited for the shift to claim him.

Pain always preceded the physical changes. Waves of heat and stinging discomfort flowed through his entire body. He’d long since learned not to fight the change. Resisting the pain only prolonged the process. His joints popped and his bones stretched as Diego surrendered to the agony. Reality blurred for a moment, fading to black, then refocusing with a new perspective.

Diego shook his head and arched his back, stretching out his muscles. He growled, fighting back the need to roar as he took off at a hurried trot. Leaves crunched beneath his massive paws and the wind howled through the branches. Competing trees filtered out most of the moonlight, but Diego’s feline vision easily penetrated the darkness. Running at moderate speed, he made his way toward the lupine village. Even in human form, Diego could run for hours without tiring, but he wasn’t nearly as fast as Malik.

Thoughts of their abilities always drew his mind back to the past. The Griffin Project had developed in stages and each generation of hybrids had been more successful than the last. Kane was part of the first generation. He was stronger than a human and more aggressive. His instincts were heightened, which was why he’d known instantly that Lexie was their mate. Kane had complete control over his shifts, but many first-generation hybrids did not. Some transformed spontaneously. Others were unable to shift at all.

Malik was part of the second generation. His transformation had made him faster and stronger, but the ambitious scientists had added other characteristics as well. His instincts were not just heightened, they had been augmented. He sensed the emotions of others and detected danger long before anyone else. Diego suspected that Malik had other psychic abilities, but none of the hybrids liked to discuss what they could or could not do. Changing from his human to animal shape was second nature to Malik. He could shift much faster than Diego, but Diego had more control.

Diego was part of the third generation, which meant a combination of predator DNA had been used to trigger his mutation. He could only guess at the exact makeup of that mixture, but it was obvious that he was more than just a cat. Like all the Shadows, he could bend light around his body, rendering him invisible. Unlike the others, he could manifest the light-refracting field in animal form as well as human. He could also create a strong enough field to encompass objects or even another person. His Shadow abilities dampened his scent, allowing him to sneak up on other hybrids. It was these abilities that he was counting on tonight.

The moon was high above him when he reached the lupine village. The wind had died down somewhat, but it was still bitterly cold. Not wanting to waste time while exposed to the elements, he sent out a telepathic pulse alerting Travis to his presence beyond the wall. The main gate was heavily guarded, but there was a smaller, less used opening on the back side of the village.

It took Travis nearly an hour to open the door. Diego released his shift and shivered. Hybrids could regulate their body temperature much better than humans, but the winter wind still stung naked skin.

“Sorry,” Travis whispered as Diego ducked through the low opening. “I had a house full of people. It took a while to politely get rid of them.” He handed Diego a knee-length coat, a pair of pants, and pull-on boots. “You usually arrive as a lion. Figured you could use that.”

Diego slipped into the coat with a distracted smile then pulled on the pants. “Much appreciated.” He bent and shoved his feet into the boots. They were slightly large, but he was grateful to have them. His bare feet were much more susceptible to snow than his paws.

“Ready?” Travis motioned toward the path behind him, clearly anxious to get moving.

The two met while in captivity, and mutual trauma created an almost familial bond. They’d been subjected to similar procedures, though the results were very different. And their holding cells were near enough to allow them to talk. Many times being able to talk to Travis was the only thing that kept Diego sane during those hellish years at Nuevo Biotech.

“Did you have any luck locating the scanners?” Diego pulled up the coat’s hood, casting his face into shadow.

“It wasn’t hard.” They wended their way through the village. Unlike the orderly clusters in the feline village, the wolves had built in a messy scattering of wooden houses. There didn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason for the location of many of the abodes. It was as if they simply walked along until they found a flat spot and then started building. “We only have one person with medical training and his cabin is also our clinic.”

Diego contacted Travis right after Kane told him about the theft. There were limits to what Travis would do for Diego. They were on opposite sides of nearly every conflict, but Travis was good at pointing his old friend in the right direction and then walking away.

They seemed to be the only ones stupid enough to brave the elements, but Diego still kept his hood up and spoke in hushed tones. They reached the center of the village where the lupine meeting house was located. Much like the feline lodge, the oversized cabin had multiple purposes. The wolves gathered there for meals and parties as well as planning sessions. The upper level housed Elias Morgan, the village alpha.

“It’s that one.” Travis pointed to a largish cabin across the grassy clearing from the meeting house. “The left side is set up like a clinic. The right side is living quarters. If we have the scanners, that’s where they’d be.”

“If?” Diego challenged. “Is there really any doubt? We didn’t take them and the birds never leave their mountain. Who else would have been so bold?” Or so ruthless? He kept the last part to himself.

Travis shrugged. He’d flipped his collar up and pulled his knit cap way down so all Diego could see was the inner circle of his face. “A raid like that usually causes an uproar and I’ve heard nothing. That doesn’t mean we weren’t responsible. I just find it odd.”

“Get back inside,” Diego advised. “And thanks, as usual.” Travis slipped away as Diego focused on the cabin/clinic. Pausing in the shadows of a nearby building, Diego gathered energy. It took stamina and concentration to maintain a refracting shield for more than a few seconds. He pushed energy outward, creating a constant stream that flowed around his body. Light, what little there was of it, was diverted by the barrier, bending the beams around his body. Once he was confident that the effect was working, he strode toward the clinic and looked for his best entry point. He might be undetectable to the naked eye, but doors and windows opening on their own could draw unwanted attention.

There was a nondescript door at the back of the building, so Diego tried to ease it inward. The portal wouldn’t budge. Apparently it had been barred on the inside. Most feline hybrids didn’t bother with such precautions. They trusted each other and knew that the walls would protect them. It had been over two years since the fortification was completed and there had never been a raid inside the village.

Moving on, Diego found a nearby window large enough for him to crawl through and looked inside. It led to a bathroom, but he had no way of knowing if the bathroom was in the clinic or the living quarters. It appeared to be in the exact center of the house.

He didn’t see a better option, so Diego used his pocketknife to rotate the simple lock and then slid the window open. He carefully climbed inside and lowered his feet to the floor. The bathroom was small and unadorned. Hopefully that meant it was part of the clinic. He eased the door open and peered out.

Damnit, that was definitely a living room. He was on the wrong side of the building. Well, there was no help for it. Creeping as quietly as a man of his size could, he made his way across the living room. There were three doors on the other side of the room. One likely led to a bedroom, but one should connect the living space with the clinic. It was too damn cold outside to endure each time the medic needed something from the other side.

The first door he tried led to a storage closet, but the second opened onto a waiting room. Thank God! He stepped through and carefully closed the door. Now how in the world would he tell the humans’ scientific instruments from the wolf doctor’s? Searching was so much harder when he didn’t know what the fuck he was looking for.

The exam room only contained basic medical supplies, so Diego went into the messy office. Directly ahead was a cluttered desk. To his left, he spotted a set of shelves displaying specimens in transparent jars and antiquated instruments. This doctor was seriously twisted. Thank Divinity he was not a wolf. Two metallic cases were tucked into a corner on the other side of the room. He picked up the first and smiled. Nuevo Biotech’s logo was emblazoned on the front of the case. Relatively sure he’d located his targets, he picked up both cases and stepped out of the office.

He decided not to risk another trip through the doctor’s house, so he headed for the front door instead. Pausing long enough to reinforce his refracting shield, he pulled open the door—and a shrill alarm rent the stillness.

“Shit!” he muttered and took off running, one case in each hand.

Wolves stepped out of their houses, looking sleepy and confused.

“Thief!” the doctor shouted. “Stop that thief!”

Grabbing the cases and pressing them against his chest, Diego poured energy into his shield. His heart thundered in his chest as he ran as fast as he could in his awkward position. He darted down between two cabins as a group of wolves barreled toward him. Hopefully, Travis would realize what happened and have the back door unlocked and open.

“Where the fuck did he go?”

That was Elias. Of course the alpha wolf would immediately respond to the alarm. Diego had heard his gravelly voice often enough to recognize the sound.

“He just disappeared,” his companion insisted.

“Goddamn it. He’s a Shadow. Look for moonlight gleaming off the cases.”

It was great advice and for anyone else it would have worked. Luckily, Diego wasn’t an ordinary Shadow. He was the original, the pattern from which all the other Shadows had been created.

Lowering the cases to his sides, he risked allowing them to swing so he could run faster. The village was so disorderly that he feared that he’d lost his way with all the direction changes. Then he heard Travis call out.

“D, over here.”

Diego pivoted on the ball of his foot and followed Travis down an alleyway. They emerged near the back wall and a few seconds later, Diego was sprinting through the forest beyond the lupine village.

Elias paced the common room, hands fisted tightly at his sides. “What a fucking disaster! I can’t believe Caleb would be so careless.”

“He has seemed scattered lately,” Armando agreed. He stood nearby, leaning against one of the long trestle tables. “I’m not sure why.”

“I don’t give a shit why,” Elias snapped. “If we don’t get those scanners back, we have no hope of locating the nanobots. The fuckers are microscopic. It’s not like we can find them with a flashlight.”

The main door opened and three of the hunters strode into the room. They all avoided looking at Elias, so he knew the news wasn’t good.

“We lost him in the forest, alpha,” the largest hunter admitted, head lowered submissively.

Fury rolled through Elias like a toxic tsunami. He clenched his teeth and sucked in a steadying breath. Instinct urged him to rip out the hunter’s throat. His canines lengthened and his pulse throbbed. He needed to shift, to shed his humanity and chase down the enemy. It was getting harder and harder to resist these impulses. But the hunters weren’t the cause of this disaster. “Gather the pack alphas and escort Caleb here personally.”

“Now?” Armando asked, clearly confused by the order. “It’s after midnight.”

“Gather the fucking alphas!” he shouted. His eyes burned as his animal nature surged. His features started to transform, but Elias stubbornly pulled back the shift. He could not speak in wolf form, and he had questions to ask and orders to issue. His fingers became claws and his voice deepened to a menacing growl. “When I give an order, goddamn it, I expect it to be obeyed. Have you forgotten how I became village alpha?”

Four pack alphas had challenged him that day and all four had fallen to his teeth and claws.

Armando lowered his face. “I’m sorry, alpha.” Then he hurried from the room.

Elias went into the adjacent storeroom and found two coils of rope, one only a few feet long, the other much longer. Then he went to his office and retrieved his favorite whip. With a synth-leather grip and a long, braided lash, the whip was capable of delivering excruciating pain without causing lasting damage. His go-to implement was a flogger. Most infractions didn’t warrant a whip. But tonight he intended to make a point. The packs no longer feared him. Well, that was about to change.

Twenty minutes later, ten blurry-eyed alphas stood in a semicircle in front of Elias. Caleb knelt in the middle of the circle, looking rumpled and annoyed. What he didn’t look was afraid, which angered Elias even more.

“It has been months since I administered a humbling .” He paused, waiting for the word to register. The humbling was the harsh form of punishment used by alphas to establish control and dominance. His gaze landed on Caleb and Elias fought back a smile. Finally. Fear widened the doctor’s eyes and the color drained from his face. “My leniency has made everyone careless and disrespectful. That ends tonight.” He motioned to the ashen-faced doctor. “Caleb failed to secure several important pieces of equipment. As a result, the equipment was stolen. My ongoing plan is completely dependent on access to that equipment, so Caleb will be humbled.” Elias faced the doctor and ordered, “Take off your clothes.”

“Alpha, please. I screwed up. I admit it, but this is excessive.”

Elias backhanded his friend across the face, leaving long, bloody grooves in his cheek. “I do not repeat orders.”

Hands shaking, eyes wild, Caleb stripped off his clothes. When he was completely naked, Armando stepped forward and bound his wrists together with the rope Elias had just handed to him. He looped the second rope through the center of the first then tossed it over a support beam high above their heads. Using the beam for leverage, Armando dragged Caleb’s arms upward until he was stretched to the balls of his feet.

Elias uncoiled the whip and snapped it in the air dramatically. “I will no longer accept excuses for failure.” He swung his arm and the lash cut across Caleb’s back, leaving a livid welt in its wake.

Caleb yelped, then groaned, spinning as far as the rope allowed.

“When I give an order, it will be obeyed.” Elias swung again, raising a welt across Caleb’s butt cheeks.

The doctor cried out. His entire body tensed for a moment then released in a violent shudder.

“There will be consequences for failure.” Elias motioned toward Caleb’s striped skin to make sure the others understood the threat. “Let this be a lesson to everyone. The village alpha will no longer tolerate disrespect in any form.” Hardening his heart against his close friend’s screams, Elias continued the humbling. When he was finally confident that everyone understood the warning, he looked at Armando and said, “Cut him down and dump him by the fire. He will lay there naked until he recovers enough to walk home. No one will assist him.”

“Yes, alpha.”

Elias motioned the other alphas to the table on his left. He sat down at the head as was his right. “Caleb’s blunder has created a galactic-sized mess.” He heaved a sigh of frustration then explained. “As some of you have likely heard, the cats are frantically working to solidify an alliance with the humans.”

“What the fuck for?” Paul burst out, disbelief twisting his rugged features. “There is no way I’d stick my cock in a human unless I knew damn well I’d plant a pup in her belly.”

“And making that happen has just gotten a whole hell of a lot harder thanks to Caleb,” Elias sneered, glaring at the doctor. “Two things need to happen, and they need to happen fast and simultaneously.”

“That Shadow needs to pay for stealing what belongs to us,” Paul snarled. He was a hothead who loved the sound of his own voice.

Elias didn’t reprimand him tonight. If the other alphas were as passionate as Paul, this might not have happened. “Yes. The cats must pay for raiding our camp and the easiest way to hurt them is to hurt the humans.” The alphas looked confused now. Even Paul just stared back at him blankly. “A few minutes before all hell broke loose, I’d just learned that Diego Ortiz and his coalition were the first to claim a human. Apparently, a lot of the human females look up to her and consider her a leader. If we attack the humans, maybe carry off a few of them, the others will insist that we did so to punish Diego and his Shadows for invading our village and stealing what was ours.”

Paul grinned, cruelty flashing in his dark eyes. “Conflict is hard on a new marriage. Especially if the blushing bride agrees with her friends.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Elias agreed. “We will terrify the females, but they must not be harmed. The human males on the other hand, will be slaughtered .” Elias let the word ring in the room meaningfully. He needed the alphas to understand his expectations. “Those humans held us captive for years. They changed us on a molecular level. They deserved a savage reckoning. And soon they will have it.”

“Why now?” Ethan, the quietest of all the alphas asked. “If you meant to punish them for what they did back on Earth, why wait so long to exact justice?”

“Their lives ended the day they set foot on Rydaria, but enacting that sentence didn’t suit my purposes until now. I need Dr. Babcock, but I need the cats to believe he’s dead. The best way to accomplish that is to make it very hard to identify the bodies.”

“Can’t we make it look like he fell in a ravine or?—”

“No,” Elias cut in. “The cats will see through any simple ploy. The Shadow gave us a reason to lash out. We will do so with such violence that the cats will not think twice about Babcock’s disappearance.”

“It seems like a lot of killing to cover up the disappearance of one man,” Paul persisted.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Elias snarled. “They are worthless humans . That is reason enough. Now, I’m village alpha and this is my plan. Get in line or get the fuck out!”

Paul lowered his head as he said, “Yes, alpha.”

“Anyone else want to bitch about the killing?” Elias demanded. When no one dared to speak, he took a deep breath and continued, “Then let’s work out the details of the attack.”

Many hours later, Lexie woke up alone. For one panicked moment, she couldn’t remember where she was and then it all came back in a rush. She was in Kane’s bed in the cabin she would share with her mates. Her three mates. She had agreed to a permanent relationship with three aggressive men in exchange for food, shelter, antibiotics, and protection from the myriad dangers on this strange planet. Her pussy felt bruised, and her muscles ached from being stretched into unfamiliar positions. The insides of her thighs were sticky and her nipples were tender from being tugged on and pinched. She desperately wanted another shower, but no one had given her permission to clean up, so she decided not to risk it.

She sat up and looked around as other sensations registered. She was warm and her belly was full. She was comfortable and safe. Would that alone have been a fair exchange for what she just went through? It didn’t matter. She had accomplished more than her own comfort by bartering with her body. Zion sent two of his guards to go get Bianca. Her infection would be treated, minimizing the chances that the illness would spread through the entire camp. Lexie only hoped that it wasn’t too late.

Dragging the sheet with her, she crossed to the door and eased it open. Kane sat at the desk across the room working on some sort of report. Diego and Malik were nowhere in sight. It was the middle of the night. Where would they have gone?