Page 24

KROKTL

I didn’t need the grid to translate Rizan’s warning. The first call was furious. The second and third were loud, shrill, and determined.

The humans had turned back to the house.

And two enemy squads must have deployed in the area.

One near me, judging from the way Rizan’s shriek had neared with intensity. I couldn’t see him above the thick canopy, but I knew his strategies all too well. We’d fought too long together to not know each other’s strengths. The way we thought. Our priorities.

Get the grid up.

Buy time.

Get to Natalie. Whoever was fastest. Strongest. Most lethal.

Me or the alpha for sure.

I scanned the undergrowth—or at least tried to use my heat sensors. Red flashed across my vision, sporadically bursting and crackling with energy but unable to get a clear reading. If I couldn’t see, then Axxol couldn’t jump, and Rizan couldn’t use his echolocation.

Another reason he shrieked. So I would know exactly where our enemy lay in wait. Unfortunately for our enemy, Axxol was closer to him than me.

But that meant Akylla was in immediate danger.

Slipping closer through the shadows without rustling a single branch or leaf, I eased around the target to flank them. Close enough to smell ozone from the jump. Blood. Rizan had done some damage already.

He shot through the trees, expertly twisting and winding his way up through the branches for open sky. He was almost clear, when a telescoping neck extended above the trees. Taser Mamenchisaurus with an electromagnetic pulse a thousand times more powerful than the humans’ puny drone.

I barked out a sharp staccato warning, and Rizan immediately wheeled to the left, dipping back beneath the canopy to shield himself. The TMS’ bullet-shaped head turned toward me, eyes crackling with silver electricity. Come at me, motherfucker. I fucking dare you.

A large fern frond wavered slightly, betraying his squadmate’s location. He wanted me to see. He wanted me to attack.

Instead, I sprinted away into the undergrowth. Catch me if you can.

Without my vision or the grid, I opened my senses wide open.

Nostrils flaring, looking for where the rest of the attacking squad was positioned.

They might have changed their strategies after failing so miserably last time, but ultimately they were Dynosauros.

We knew their tactics and would be able to counter each of them.

Before Axxol joined us, my squad had managed to eliminate their previous attack swiftly.

Even though they’d been picked for their specialized skills meant to challenge ours. An upgraded YRR. Dead. A CEOT built to smash and destroy BGRs. Easily eliminated. Another TMS this time was a little surprising given the last one’s failure. Though maybe they’d known about the humans’ plans.

I snarled at myself. Of course they’d known.

DSC would’ve been listening to every human communication in the generalized area, the same as us, hoping to pick up clues.

That’s why they hadn’t deployed the squads until the humans had detonated their EMP.

Then they brought an even bigger and more powerful EMP generator to finish the job.

Somehow the humans had made plans outside of Rizan’s abilities.

I could hear their runner behind me. Feel the echoing impact of his footsteps rebounding in the ground.

I slowed enough to let him get closer, luring him in for the kill.

Making sure he thought he had a chance. I shortened my stride and made my steps heavier, leaning into the rex of my DNA.

I even breathed deeply and loudly, pretending to be at my max speed.

I leaped over a fallen log and allowed my step to falter ever so slightly.

Letting him gain another stride on me. Smelled like another raptor.

Not a Tri-R or he wouldn’t be following me into the trap.

Probably another supposedly upgraded YRR.

Sure enough, I smelled the lasers in his eyes heating up. A second before he could incinerate me, I jerked aside, throwing myself into a roll.

Straight through Axxol’s ginormous splayed thighs. His big head dipped, and he snagged the other raptor in his jaws with a satisfying crunch.

One down. Nine to go.

In the alpha’s protective shadow, Akylla hopped up and down, her raptor mouth cracked open with glee.

I checked on Natalie, so grateful for our mating bond. I could feel her safe beneath Lohr’s shell, hiding in the bathroom. Snryx at the door. Humans approached her location, but I wasn’t concerned they’d harm her with two dyni at her side.

No, it was the second squad I was most worried about. I whuffed low to get Axxol’s attention and headed for the house.

I didn’t expect him to knock me aside with his mighty head.

Crouching to spring at him, teeth bared, I coughed out a louder message. I’m getting my fucking mate.

His giant rex melted into his humanlike form.

Still big by human standards but shorter and smaller than me in my jazzed-up raptor, he didn’t hesitate to reach up and lock his fingers around my neck.

He jerked my head down toward him so he could whisper fiercely.

“They want her alive and us dead. They want your youngling even more and will use her as bait to get Natalie to surrender. So let’s feast before we fuck off to save our mate. ”

Cold, brutal logic. Exactly what alphas were bred to do.

I fucking hated it. But he was right.

Akylla had to stay out of DSC’s hands—or they’d have the perfect bait. Not just for Natalie but us.

“Besides, don’t forget who and what she is,” Axxol reminded me, his words garbled as he shifted back to his rex.

True. Natalie had saved his ass once before with an impossible jump none of us could do. While going into labor, no less.

I sent her a surge of love, confidence, and strength. Trying to communicate our plans to her without the grid.

Stay alive, baby. I’ll find you whatever happens.

LOHR

My extensive databanks responded slowly but some were still online.

Evidently several species of animals on Earth exhibited thanatosis when threatened.

Most notably Didelphis Virginiana commonly known as the opossum as well as several varieties of snakes including the Heterodon genus, which went so far as to emit foul smelling musk from the cloaca.

My Titanoboa DNA disliked playing dead, but our mate would always receive our very best efforts.

If she wished us to pretend we were dead, then I would play the part to the best of my ability.

Even if it went against every protective instinct as strangers approached.

Two humans would make a tasty snack. One big gulp for me and one for Snryx too. Then we’d take our time slowly devouring the traitorous Snyder one body part at a time.

“What the fuck is going on?” Rushing into the room, the human male panted for breath with every word. “You said the T-rex was away.”

“He is,” Snyder replied. “Along with the raptor. They’re the most dangerous ones. But with the EMP?—”

“Then why the fuck is there a giant T-rex trying to pull off the roof?” The other human asked.

Despite my best thespian attempt at playing dead, my tongue twitched. No wonder Rizan had let out such a warning.

“It must be another squad,” Snyder said in a surprisingly calm tone. “They agreed to send reinforcements, right?”

The human wearing some kind of military uniform stepped gingerly over Snryx’s splayed implements with a look of revulsion on his face. “The details of our agreement are classified.”

“At least the EMP worked.” The other human gave me a look that I could only classify as mercenary. As if he were counting every cent he would make selling off each body part. “That’ll be useful to know the next time we negotiate with their primaries.”

I barely resisted snorting with derision. Did they honestly think a crude EMP drone would be enough to knock out DSC? Already, the grid sparked and flickered as the Sirian cells regenerated the damaged synapses. Everything would be back online in five minutes. Tops.

“I don’t like it,” the military man retorted. “Let’s grab the woman and get out of here before more of the monsters arrive or these… things… wake up. We don’t know how long the pulse will knock them out.”

Snyder crossed his arms and nodded his chin at the tub—where I lay sprawled. “She’s under the turtle.”

Military man looked at my distended tongue and shuddered. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

Behind them, Snryx readied his battle implements.

He could skewer them in seconds, so I wasn’t too concerned about the humans.

The crashing thuds rattling the entire house were my primary concern.

How’d the humans think they’d escape a BGR?

Though the even more pertinent question hadn’t even occurred to them.

Where’s the rest of the squad?

Natalie’s small palm flattened against my underplating.

I soaked in her warmth, wishing I could understand what she wished me to do now.

Frustrated by the downed grid, but still grateful she was willing to touch me, even in this form.

Much better than her shriek of terror the first time I touched her.

Her palm pressed harder, encouraging me to rise.

Exposing her to these humans and the external squad’s threat.

It didn’t make sense. Logically, the safest place in the world right now was underneath me, protected by my Nodo shell that stopped even Axxol’s jaws before.

He knew all my tricks and techniques because we functioned as a whole unit, so it’d been easy for him to flip me aside.

This other BGR wouldn’t know exactly where to unbalance me.

He wouldn’t know about the previous weak spots in my shell barely fused back together.

Yet my mate pressed upward again, asking me to move. So I did.