Page 34

NATALIE

L ooking around at our war room—aka the lovely large living room Rizan had painstakingly furnished with large, heavy-duty couches sturdy enough for even the heaviest dyni to lounge with me—I heaved out a sigh. “I suppose we have to move now.”

I was wrapped in my favorite robe—thankfully dry and undamaged despite hanging on the hook of the master bathroom’s door.

Tucked against Kroktl’s side, his big arm locked around my shoulders, I stroked my fingers through Akylla’s shoulder-length brown hair.

Curled up beside me with her head in my lap, she looked to be a child of approximately ten or eleven years old, despite only being born mere weeks ago.

How long had it even been? I had no idea.

Lohr opened his mouth to answer, and I jerked my hand up, palm out. “That was a rhetorical question. I don’t really want to know.”

He shut his mouth, though his tongue hadn’t fully retracted. Thin purple scars marked where I’d bitten his sensitive appendage. Seeing those marks made me wince. “Sorry again about the bite. I hope it’s not too sore.”

“No apologies are necessary, Natalie,” he replied. “Though if we are expressing regret, I too apologize for piercing your arm with my fangs. I’m grateful Snryx confirmed no bones were broken and you will have no lingering difficulties. Especially since humans can’t regenerate limbs.”

I had four purple circular marks on my left arm where his fangs had gone completely through my biceps and out the fatty backside of my arm. No traces of venom, though.

“Normal humans, maybe,” Snryx added. “Our mate can very likely heal or regenerate anything she wishes.”

“Besides, our mate doesn’t do anything you don’t fucking want to do,” Axxol said. “If you don’t want to move, we stay.”

“But they know exactly where we are now,” I replied. “You ate Dr. Snyder but that was just the human body he was using, right?”

“Correct,” Snryx said. “The host body is destroyed but his consciousness remains intact in his true form. Now that we know DSC employs such agents and constructs, we must be more vigilant than ever when humans approach you.”

“So fucking what?” Axxol retorted. “They evidently knew the whole fucking time that traitor was here. They sent two squads, and we destroyed them, even separated and incapacitated.”

“Humans know too,” I reminded them.

Axxol scowled but wisely didn’t say anything about my decision to allow General Waverley to leave in one piece.

Yes, Dr. Snyder had betrayed us. But he wasn’t even human to begin with.

From the terrified look on the general’s face when Rizan swept down out of the sky, snatched him up, and carried him out over the ocean to drop him by his submarine, the man wouldn’t even think of coming anywhere near us again.

Besides, he was United States military, and I had no intention of going home again.

My dyni loved to run and hunt in the jungle too much to even think about going to someplace like Texas. Too much civilization even for me, now.

“I admit the ocean freaks me the fuck out.” Kroktl nuzzled the side of my neck. “Especially now that I’ve seen a sharkodile crawl out of the cold, bottomless waters.”

“Crocoshark,” Rizan corrected. “I’ve already begun searching for a new location and have identified several possibilities far enough away from humans to feel secluded, but still close enough to provide for anything we could possibly need.”

I yawned so hard my eyes watered. I really needed to get some sleep, though the sun was just now rising. “I don’t need much more than a bed, as long as my squad is safe, happy, and well fed.”

Axxol snorted. “We’ll have to move deeper into the jungle whether we leave this house or not just to keep the Menace fed.”

“I’m a growing girl dragon,” Akylla mumbled, just as sleepy as me.

“One thing we haven’t considered is the ramification of Snyder betraying DSC too,” Snryx said. “I wouldn’t want to be him when the syndicate discovers his override. No one fucks around with the most powerful shipping syndicate in the civilized universe, even their own scientists.”

“Very true,” Lohr replied. “Especially when they realize this troublesome planet not only still exists but also has a wealth of mrions just waiting to be used. Not to mention a missing Sirian crystal worth trillions.”

He’d vomited up bits of briefcase, a partially digested hand—gross—and one oblong clear crystal.

To my inexperienced eyes, it looked like a piece of pink quartz with a faceted point.

Small enough to wear on a pendant necklace or a very ostentatious ring.

It was hard to imagine that something so small could destroy Earth entirely.

I could feel mrions contaminating the soil, air, and wildlife all around our house.

Turns out a “remnant of a remnant” meant trillions of mrions.

I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do now.

They were sort of alive and sentient but also dormant until I gave them an order.

Invisible to the naked eye, but capable of creating devastatingly powerful, even miraculous changes.

So much power lay latent in these cells. The power to jump. Combine species like humans and dyni.

Or create my marvelously feral, wicked smart and cleverly fast baby girl.

Lightly, I stroked the soft curve of her cheek so I didn’t wake her. Being responsible for such power terrified the shit out of me, but if it meant I could keep her safe, I’d use every single mrion available to me.

“Well, I for one am in some desperate need for my beauty sleep.” Holly stood up, knuckling a big yawn that made me yawn again too. “Please say I can go with you if you decide to leave.”

“Are you sure?”

“Are you kidding? This has been one wild adventure already. Besides, Lohr promised to provide the available research on the KORE so we can start tracing when they may have come to Earth and how long we might have.”

Startled, that woke me up a bit. “Um, what? Are you thinking it’ll start attacking major cities like General Waverley feared?”

“Not exactly,” Lohr replied. “Earth is classified as a watery planet since oceans cover more than seventy percent of its surface. We know KORE once lived in the nearly global ocean of K2-18b but then left after a massive population spike. What happens if such a population increase occurs here? Your planet is considerably smaller and has more landmass, at least as long as the polar caps are still frozen. Meanwhile these creatures employ weather events like hurricanes to conceal their presence.”

“Global warming leads to higher sea levels, which could mean more KORE.” Holly’s eyes sparkled with excitement despite her weariness.

“There’s so much to discover. Not just about them but dyni and all the species across the universe.

You’ve opened my eyes up to incredible new ideas and possibilities.

I can’t go back to my old life, Nat. I just can’t. ”

Mrions drifted up from the floor in invisible eddies and streams. Some floated about her head. They dusted her bare skin. But that was all. They hadn’t entered her system.

I hated the word, but she wasn’t contaminated. Yet.

I’m the Mother. I command them. They await their orders.

Her eyes narrowed, locking to mine. “What are you thinking?”

“Remember how you asked me before if I sensed any mrion fragments in you?”

“Yeah,” she said slowly, schooling her reaction. But not before I saw the surge of hope in her eyes and the tremble of her lips. “You said I didn’t have any.”

“You still don’t,” I said quickly, before she assumed I’d infected her without her consent.

Her shoulders fell and she swallowed hard. Her eyes watered and she gave me a sheepish shrug. “Dang. There goes my hope for a hot super-soldier dinosaur squad of my own.”

“But you could. I mean, I could?—”

“Yes,” she blurted. She even rushed over to crouch down in front of me, taking my free hand in hers. “Please, Nat. I can’t go back now. I want to be a part of your world, whatever that means.”

“Are you sure? Really sure? Because once they’re inside you, I don’t know what will happen. I don’t know how you’ll change. Actually…” I drew a shaky breath. “That’s not true. I know exactly how you’d change, because they want me to tell them what to do.”

“I want it. Whatever you can do. I want to be able to communicate with my mind and make super-fast mental connections like Lohr. I want to research and learn all the things about KORE and other alien wildlife, and yeah, I’d love to find a compatible mate like Kroktl, who worships the ground you walk on.

A whole squad of my own. A family. I’ve never had that kind of love. ”

Her voice cracked, her beautiful blue eyes glittering with unshed tears. We’d never talked much about our childhood or families back home, but I heard the pain in her voice. Old shadowed hurts still ached.

I’d been jealous of her beauty in the beginning, and honestly, even afraid the guys might be more attracted to her than me. Despite her perfect long brunette hair and gorgeous curves, she felt unlovable.

That feeling sucked. I knew it all too well.

It’d taken finding a hot naked guy in the jungle who loved me exactly the way I am to help me realize exactly how lovable—and priceless—I am.

One in a billion billion.

I wanted that same love for her.

Lightly squeezing her hand, I gave the command. :Help my friend achieve everything she’s always desired.:

Mrions immediately sank through her skin and flowed through her nostrils into her respiratory system. Fresh pathways began to spark in her mind.

“Get some sleep,” I told her.

Confused, her head tipped to the side. “Maybe tomorrow, then?”

I smiled. “It’s already started.”

“Oh.” Her mouth sagged open a moment. Then she gave me a brilliant smile and threw her arms around me in a fierce hug. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You haven’t had to jump out of a helicopter or been swallowed by a T-rex yet.”

Laughing, she jumped up and practically skipped toward the door like Akylla. “I can’t fucking wait.”