Page 35 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid (Hybrids of Yulaira #1)

A handful of hybrids met them at the hangar with a stretcher, loading Thalen onto it quickly but carefully, save for a few gawking glances at the human females.

He wished they’d had an emergency medical transport, but the only one on Yulaira had been stolen away to the Gidalan when the overseers evacuated.

Not that they had ever permitted the hybrids to use it, anyway.

When a hybrid was so gravely injured that he could not reach the infirmary on his own, he was ‘retired’ from duty.

Thalen was battered and bloodied worse than anything Rentir had seen. Someone had beaten him half to death long before Sophia had nearly finished the job.

Ven was there at the medpod alongside him, still stewing with anger. “We’re going to talk, you and I,” he warned as they parted ways.

He’d take whatever verbal lashing Ven wanted to unleash on him, just as long as it wasn’t in front of Cordelia. The miners never missed an opportunity to bring up his failings. He would have that conversation with her… eventually, when the mere thought didn’t make him feel like tossing his rations.

Elten was still missing. No one had been able to comm the other male; it wasn’t even rolling over to voicemail. The calls just didn’t connect. With the state Thalen was in… it was entirely possible Elten was dead.

Cordelia slid her hand down his arm, jarring him from his cynical thoughts as she tucked her fingers into his. She gave him an encouraging but not quite convincing smile as he gazed down at her.

“He’ll pull through,” she said.

Was he so transparent?

“This place is crazy,” Sophia said from a few steps away, turning in a slow circle as she took in the massive hangar. “We’re literally inside a mountain right now.”

Cordelia squeezed his hand before pulling away, and he felt her absence immediately. His fingers twitched as he fought the urge to reach for her.

“Come on, we’ll get you something to eat,” Cordelia said, slinging an arm around Sophia’s shoulders.

He followed her as she made her way confidently toward the recreation area, striding through the halls as though they belonged to her. He wanted them to belong to her, desperately.

He hadn’t given up hope of reaching her.

Whatever made her retreat from his affections…

it wouldn’t keep them apart. Not when he could see in her eyes that she wanted what he was offering her, at least in the moments before fear crept in and soured her to him.

He just needed her to trust him enough to explain what frightened her, and then he would see to it that it could harm her no longer.

There was a chorus of female cries as the pair entered the space, and the humans they’d left behind crowded around, dragging Sophia from one pair of arms to another.

“You look like shit,” Nyx said, holding her out at arm’s length. Her nose wrinkled strangely. “You kinda smell like it, too.”

“It’s nice to see you, too,” Sophia replied dryly.

“We should see you to the medpod,” the demure one, Pandora, suggested. She had Sophia by the chin, turning her face one way and then the other. “You wouldn’t want to get an infection.”

“The Commander, too,” Sophia said, gently extricating herself. “She got hurt fighting a beefcake alien.”

Pandora turned to Cordelia with interest.

Nyx narrowed a glare at her Commander. “What the hell are you doing fighting? I’ve sparred with you, Commander. You can’t even punch without your wrist all wobbly.” Nyx demonstrated a pitiful, limp-wristed strike.

“Don’t think I won’t write you up for insubordination just because we’re on an alien planet.” Cordelia crossed her arms over her chest.

Nyx grew sheepish, casting her glance around the room as though she was searching for something.

“She is formidable,” Rentir said, puzzled by the flush that spread over Cordelia’s face. “You should be proud to be led by a soldier such as her.”

Nyx clasped her hands together under her chin and blinked so rapidly that he became alarmed for her well-being. “Gee, really? How formidable is she, Romeo? Tell me more!”

Cordelia punched Nyx’s arm with enough force to make the other woman wheeze and stagger away.

“Limp wristed where?” Cordelia crowed, shaking her hand out.

Nyx pouted and flashed her middle finger in an expression that he understood as an insult.

An unfamiliar face was revealed as the throng of females shifted. Cordelia stiffened, pulling away from Pandora’s inspection of her.

“Seren?” she breathed.

The female was a little taller than Cordelia, with a similar athletic frame and orange-red hair that fell in snarls to her mid-back. Her pale skin was covered in tiny points of darker coloring.

“Hi,” she said in a small, rasping voice.

Cordelia pounced on her, wrapping her arms around the female until she wheezed out a pained breath. She pulled back, holding onto Seren’s shoulders as she studied her. The new female was wearing the same scant outfit as Sophia, suggesting she had not been at the base long.

“How did you get here? Did Lidan…”

A hand landed heavily on Rentir’s shoulder. He turned to see Xeth standing behind him, his familiar gaunt expression glowering.

“We need to talk,” Xeth growled.

Rentir’s gaze lingered on Cordelia as she patted down the new female for injury. He was reluctant to leave her. She needed treatment for her injuries, a clean set of clothes, a sho—

“Rentir!” Xeth barked.

The new female, Seren, jumped at the sound of his voice. Cordelia turned to frown at them.

“Excuse us,” Rentir said, smiling tightly as he took Xeth’s arm in a biting grip. He dragged the male out of the room, shoving him away once they were in the hall.

Xeth caught himself, straightening his jacket and glaring. His tail switched violently behind him, his scyra on the verge of sharpening.

“What’s wrong with you?” Rentir hissed.

Xeth’s red eyes drifted toward the sound of female laughter, scowl deepening. “The same thing that’s wrong with you.”

Haerune was pacing the length of the infirmary when they arrived. Thalen was in the medpod, nude beneath the glass. Ven sat beside him in a plastic chair.

“How is he?” Rentir asked.

Haerune glanced up at him, his tendrils writhing with anxiety. “He will live.”

“And you should thank the damned stars for that,” Ven growled, rising to his feet. “Why didn’t I know that my brother was missing?”

“Ven…” Haerune began, but the words seemed to catch in his throat when the full force of Ven’s anger turned on him.

“We did not want you to worry,” Rentir said.

Ven bowed up to him, thick tail thrashing hard enough to send his chair skidding across the floor. “You had no right. None!”

Rentir said nothing, feeling a familiar stillness come over him—the same that had allowed him to endure the worst of his former master’s tempers without revealing any hint of his true feelings.

Anger bubbled inside him, but he understood the male’s ire, so he restrained the urge to put him in his place.

Haerune bowed his head in deference, capitulating to Ven’s anger.

Xeth stepped around Rentir, moving to lean against the wall with all his hands crossed over his chest. His tail was still flicking, moving without cease as it had since Noa, Xeth’s partner, had passed.

He was a ball of rage and anger at the best of times, yet even so, he was more agitated than normal.

“You can have this argument later,” he drawled. “We have more pressing matters, don’t we, Haerune?”

The men’s attention all turned to Haerune. He hesitated.

“Tell him,” Xeth said.

Sighing, Haerune scrubbed a hand over his face. “Perhaps you should sit down.” He gestured to one of the clear plastic chairs beside him.

Rentir widened his stance and crossed his arms over his chest, mirroring Xeth. “Whatever it is, spit it out.”

Haerune paced a few more steps before he took a deep breath to begin.

“It is as I feared. The females… it seems they have some kind of physiological effect on us. I haven’t determined the method of transmutation, nor the full scope of the consequences, but Xeth has allowed me to confirm that there are changes taking place on a biological level as well as psychological.

I fear that you are already compromised. ”

“Compromised?” Rentir and Ven echoed the word at the same time.

“You want to crawl inside that female?” Xeth drawled. “Lick her boots? Throw yourself at her mercy every moment of the day?”

Rentir said nothing, guarding his fragile connection with Cordelia.

Xeth laughed darkly. “Oh yeah, you feel it. She’s already wormed her way inside.” He dug a finger into his temple in demonstration. “Can’t even think straight, can you? If she asked you to throw yourself out of a moving hovercraft, you’d do it with a smile.”

“You are describing affection,” Rentir said stiffly.

Xeth peeled away from the wall, baring his fangs. “No, I am describing obsession.” He spat the word with disgust. “Mindless, desperate obsession! Perhaps you are na?ve enough to mistake it for love, but I know better.”

“Do not presume to tell me what I am feeling! We are not all embittered as you are.”

Xeth laughed, a dark sound that promised violence. He stepped forward, crowding Rentir. “Say that again.”

Rentir’s nostrils flared. His shoulders tensed for battle—and then he blew out a long sigh, shaking his head. “I will not. It was in poor taste. Forgive me for belittling your loss.”

Xeth’s anger sputtered in his eyes, revealing the pain he kept hidden beneath. He huffed, shrinking back from his aggressive posture.

“Is he right?” Ven asked, setting his hands on his hips. “Are you compelled to do whatever the human bids you?”

Rentir swallowed hard. Was he? He thought of the way the corners of her eyes crinkled when she smiled, the husky sound of her laugh, the way her lips tasted. His cock twitched in his pants, remembering the musk of her arousal perfuming the air. Would he jump out of a hovercraft if she asked him to?

Headfirst, and with pleasure.

Xeth cursed, throwing his hands up in the air.