Alien Mercenary’s Destiny by Mina Carter
7
The thing about a ship as small as the Sprite was that as soon as anything happened aboard, everyone knew about it. Especially when people raised their voices.
At the sound of an argument on the deck above, Zad left the gym and headed to investigate. She cast a glance at the door to Eric’s small lab at the other end of the corridor. He’d been about to kiss her last night—she was sure of it—but then T’Raal had called him to the bridge to talk about something called Chimera. From what she could tell it was a project he’d been involved with before, but his superiors had tried to kill him. She’d wanted to ask him about it and offer her understanding and support. If anyone knew what it was like to have someone you were supposed to trust try and kill you, it was her.
Before she could take a step toward the door, though, the sound of deep male voices raised in conflict drew her to the ladder to the upper decks instead. Whatever was going on, it sounded serious. Serious enough to have the corridor outside the medical bay filled with most of the crew, T’Raal’s voice reaching her from within.
“Didn’t I say… don’t play at being a god. You never know what you’ll get. And look what happened!”
What had happened? She pushed her way through the small crowd, noting the stunned expressions.
No one was crying or seemed upset, so it couldn’t be that someone had been killed—either fighting or through an accident. If it had been an accident, she’d have felt it through the ship. Explosive decompression tended to make the decks rattle and roll.
The medic, just visible inside the door, raised his hands in surrender. “Hey… how was I to know he’d react like that? I’m no expert on humans.”
“I am. Genetically speaking.” A new voice broke in and a shiver broke free to roll down her spine. It was rich and deep, calling to everything feminine inside her. Strangely, whoever it was sounded a little like Eric, but a lot deeper. “Nothing in here would indicate to Tal that my body would react as it did.”
“He used Latharian DNA to make that happen?” Sparky lounged in the doorway, one hand on the frame above his head as he looked inside. “Can you do that for me?”
“You’re perfect just the way you are, handsome,” Fin blew kisses at the human as Zad elbowed him out of the way. She wasn’t gentle. She had to find out who was talking.
“Possibly,” the new voice said again. “But DNA is only part of the story with genetics. Tal used a base Latharian code to kickstart regeneration after I was injured, but the way my body reads genetic coding was altered a couple of years ago.”
Eris, next to Tal inside the room, gasped. “You experimented on yourself?”
“Yes.”
Zad pushed past Red, offering the part Krynassis a tight smile. The last thing she needed was to get into a dominance bout with the other female and get herself thrown off the ship before her first mission.
“Is it permanent?” T’Raal asked.
“I believe so, yes. Looking at this, the changes appear to be stable.”
Zad slid into the space next to Sparky and looked through the door. Eric stood on the other side, but Eric as she had never seen him before. He was taller, much taller, and so wide the “Cyborgs Always Come Second” t-shirt she’d previously seen on Zero strained across a heavily muscled chest. The rest of him was just as impressive. He was like a panty-droppingly hot, jacked up version of the scientist. She blinked and rubbed her eyes.
Yeah, the wet-dream version still stood there, data flex in hand.
“Fuck…” she breathed, hardly able to take it in.
“Happy to, doll,” Sparky quipped next to her. “We can bring him along for the ride as well if you like.”
A dangerous growl ripped through the air, and before she could flip Sparky off and tell him to go vaark himself, something big and heavy slammed into the human. She gasped, whirling around to find Eric, the new and improved version, had Sparky pinned up against the wall of the corridor behind.
“Mine!” he snarled, lips pulled back from his teeth, dangling Sparky at least a foot off the floor.
“Oh my god, he’s fucking killing him!”
“Eric! Get off of him!”
The Warborne launched into action, Zero trying to wrap a hard arm around the enraged scientist’s throat as he shook the other human like a dog with a toy. But he just shrugged Zero off and went right for his target again.
“Never talk to her like that again.” With each word, he slammed the human into the solid metal bulkhead. “Never speak to her again. Don’t even look at her. You get me?”
Sparky couldn’t answer, his mouth gaping as he started to go purple. The corridor filled with bellows and chaos, Red and Fin trying to get past Zero and Eris.
Sidestepping, she slid in past Zero and put her hand on Eric’s shoulder.
“Eric, put him down,” she ordered softly. “Now. Please?”
The big scientist stilled and she moved around, sliding under his arm to put her hand on his chest. Those laser-blue eyes, unchanged in his new, harder features, locked onto her. Slowly, his grip relaxed enough to let Sparky take a tortured breath.
“You can let him go.” She nodded, her fingers spreading out over his chest. The muscles under her hand were solid and unforgiving. She moved closer, brushing up against him. “For me?”
The corridor was silent apart from Sparky’s gasps, and the air was heavy with tension.
“It’s okay. Just listen to the sound of my voice,” she murmured as she pressed closer, rising on her tiptoes to whisper against the side of his neck. “Let him go. We don’t need him. Do we?”
He rumbled in the back of his throat, the sound low and primitive. She bit her lip as heat rolled through her, settling low in her belly. Her entire body ached, alive with the need to have him touch her.
Sparky hit the deck with a clatter, staggering to the side. Instantly, he was hauled out of danger by Fin, but she kept her attention on Eric, crooning softly as she ran her lips along the side of his neck.
The big human turned whatever the shard he was now held still, not looking at her, but she knew he was aware of every move she made. Every breath. Every beat of her heart.
“Zad?” Nat murmured and Zad opened her eyes to look at the human woman over Eric’s shoulder. Concern filled her friend’s eyes and Zad nodded.
“I’ll be fine. You can leave. You can all leave. He won’t hurt me.”
Beauty, his arm protectively around his little mate, nodded. “Everyone out.”
“But…” Eris started, looking toward her twin brother.
“We need to give them a little space,” Zero murmured to her. He nodded to Zad as the rest of the Warborne retreated, leaving just the two of them alone in the corridor.
Neither of them moved for long seconds, the hard rasp of their breathing the only sound in the corridor. She’d frozen in place, one hand in the center of Eric’s chest and the other on his upper arm, her lips just beneath his ear. Just one sway and she could press her lips against the strong column of his throat.
He turned his head slightly, and she knew his attention had refocused on her rather than on the now-absent Warborne.
“Eric?” she murmured as his arm slid around her waist. The next moment she found herself pushed backward and pinned up against the wall. He loomed over her, one hand against the metal by her head and the other still around her waist.
His light gaze was locked onto hers, the look in his eyes making her shiver. It was as if whatever the medic had done had stripped away the soft human veneer and released the predator inside.
Scales, if this was what humanity could become… she felt sorry for whatever other species they came across. She even felt sorry for the Lathar, for the monster they’d invited into their midst. They had absolutely no idea what they were dealing with.
His gaze dropped from her eyes down to her lips, heating and darkening until the color was almost swallowed up by the pupils.
She caught her breath as he leaned in, her entire body primed with anticipation.
His mouth crashed down over hers, his kiss raw and demanding, primal as he parted her lips with a hard sweep of his tongue and thrust inside. She gasped, her hands on his shoulders, but there was no stopping him. It wasn’t a kiss. It was a claim of ownership—a brand and a declaration all in one that she was his.
A shiver rolled through her, heat hitting her broadside as she surrendered to him, parting her lips and kissing him back when he let her. She arched her back to press her breasts against the solid width of his chest as a soft whimper escaped her.
He rumbled approval in the back of his throat, the sound almost a purr—a very dangerous one. Her hold on his arms and shoulders became a caress as his kiss gentled. He pulled away, looking down at her, his features tight.
“You’re mine, Zad. Understand?”
“Okay, this is an easy job. You know your tasks so we’re going to run this by the numbers. No fuckups. Understand?” T’Raal growled, looking around the Warborne team assembled on the boarding ramp of the Sprite.
“Yes, boss!”
Like the rest, Eric chorused and nodded his assent, checking over his assault rifle with easy movements. He stood near the back of the ramp with Eris, Fin and Red.
“Holy crap, what’d you do? Eat the handbook for alien ray guns or something?” Eris asked, clocking his movements as she leaned against her suit, the front of the Scorperio armored unit open and ready for its pilot.
“Just seems to come naturally now.” He shrugged, cocking the weapon and making it safe for them to move. Double safety catch and a motion stabilizer built in meant he was comfortable carrying it locked and loaded in a way he wouldn’t have been before. But back then he’d been scared of blowing off parts of himself if he got it wrong. Now? He knew he wasn’t going to get it wrong. He’d stopped second-guessing himself. It was like his change had unlocked an innate confidence about combat.
He’d spent most of his adult life in a lab, but with the way he moved and his reactions, anyone could have been forgiven for thinking he’d been born and bred on a battlefield. Like somehow he’d accessed the Latharian propensity for violence with his physical change. Perhaps it was genetic memory... if it was, it would explain a lot. He filed that thought away for further study.
“He done good.” Fin grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. Where before he’d barely come up to Fin’s shoulder and had been probably half his weight, now he was a fraction taller and broader across the chest and shoulders. His lips curved into a little smile as he slung the readied weapon across his back, his male ego swelling. Especially when he noticed Zad watching him from the corner of her eye.
She was on the other team, with Skinny and Sparky. He grumbled in the back of his throat, not liking the fact the other human was anywhere near her. Skinny he was okay with, the heavy-worlder was mated and head over heels for Marika, his mate, but Sparky… the ex-con was a lanky streak of piss who was way too charming for Eric’s liking. He glared at Sparky, but the other guy chose to ignore him, checking over his own weaponry with practiced, efficient movements.
“I think you got your message over there, loud and clear,” Fin murmured as the ship started to shake, the airbrakes kicking in and announcing their imminent arrival.
Conversation was impossible with the sound around them as the ship dropped through the atmosphere. He wasn’t an engineer, but even he didn’t want to think about the forces involved in an orbit-to-dirt drop like this.
He caught Zad’s eye and she flushed. They hadn’t talked much earlier, and she hadn’t given him an answer to his question. That was mostly because he’d kept her mouth busy by kissing the breath out of her while he had her pinned up against the wall. She hadn’t complained, melting against him in a way that had set his blood on fire.
Later, though, they were going to have a longer conversation—one that involved actual words, rather than him letting his base instincts take over. His gaze skated down her and his cock ached. He’d been half-hard since their little clinch in the corridor had been cut short by the pre-mission brief, and even now all it took was a glimpse of her and a hint of her scent and the damn thing was ready to bust out of his fly, hard enough to hammer nails.
He’d always thought himself too cerebral, too intelligent to be made stupid by sex like so many other men he knew. Sex had been just another bodily function, an itch to be scratched if and when the opportunity arose… but now. Fuck. All he could think about was getting her naked and under him. Sliding balls deep into her welcoming heat and claiming her. Making her his.
Fin clapped him on the shoulder, his words lost to the roar of the wind as the boarding ramp started to open. Eric reached up, settling his goggles into place as Fin counted down on his fingers so they could all see.
Nine… eight…
The other team took a running jump, landing on what looked like a plowed field below. For a moment his heart was in his throat until he saw Zad land safely. With a tuck and a roll, she absorbed the impact of the jump and came up running, rifle already in her hands.
…seven…
He didn’t get chance to admire her sleek form or graceful movements as the ship changed course, whipping them away to their drop location.
…five… four…
The view from the ramp changed to that of a fortified compound. When T’Raal said this was going to be an easy job, he’d expected maybe escorting an intergalactic supermodel to get her nails done or something. Not breaking into a heavily fortified and defended compound filled with slavers. Alien slavers and gunrunners. They were probably cannibals too.
“Three,” Eris took over the countdown, her voice smooth over the comm in his ear. A second later she stomped past him in her suit, the metallic behemoth making the ramp shudder beneath his feet. “Stay behind me on the initial attack. I’ll take the brunt of the fire… Two…”
Eric’s lips curled back from his teeth, the new aggressive side of him not liking that order at all. She was his little sister. He should be defending her… not the other way around.
“One… Gogogogo!”
The three of them took the ramp at a run, the Sprite only slowing for a fraction of a second to disgorge its deadly cargo and then it was gone again, whipping up higher in the sky to turn its guns on the heavy defenses mounted to the compound walls.
Eric’s breath rasped harshly in his ears as they sprinted toward the compound. He might not have been an expert in combat tactics, but so far the Warborne’s MO seemed to be hit it hard and fast with big guns.
The sound of gunfire between the Sprite and the compound’s defense arrays was almost deafening, but he picked up an increase in the sound that said the other team had engaged the enemy. A second later, Eris confirmed that.
“Team one in position and taking fire, but they have more opposition on that side and a couple of automated machine guns we hadn’t accounted for. Lads, we’re gonna need to break this bitch quick to take the pressure off them.”
He nodded, not asking how she knew what was going off on the other side of the compound. He’d gotten to chat with Zero about exactly what the big cyborg could do and it was scary. Linking up with Eris’s suit and feeding her combat intel was child’s play. What was scary was that apparently there were others like him, cyborgs who could control and coordinate entire fleets… Eric couldn’t even comprehend a being who could do that. But, one thing he was glad about was that Zero was with Zad. Between her own armoring and the cyborg’s, she would be safe. Should be safe. She’d better be safe. If she wasn’t—
He cut that thought off. She was an experienced pit fighter and she could more than take care of herself. If she wasn’t, or couldn’t, T’Raal wouldn’t have offered her a space on the crew.
He focused on the section of wall in front of them. It had three-point defense cannons, currently firing at the Sprite as it dodged and weaved in the sky above, using its forward rail guns to keep the defenses occupied. He didn’t want to think of the sheer level of craziness it took to fly the ship that close to the walls, but he was glad of the distraction. It didn’t last long. The defenders soon spotted the little group thundering toward them and turned one of the big cannons their way.
“It’s about to get a little hairy,” Eris warned, her voice calm as the air around them exploded with bullets. Rather than shriek and panic as he would have before, a deep sense of calm washed over Eric and all he did was tuck in behind the big form of his sister’s armored suit, next to Fin, and kept running.
The heavy guns on the suit’s shoulders activated, picking off defenders on the walls. Fin peeled off and took a knee, hefting what looked like a small canon onto his shoulder. Eric kept pace with Eris, the rifle in his hand feeling like an extension of his body as he smoothly mounted it into his shoulder, picking his target on the walls. A body dropped and Eric whooped over the comm.
“Hey, big bro, you’re getting it!”
Eric’s jaw tightened, his lips compressed into a thin line. He’d just killed someone. Again. But the sense of disgust and shame he’d felt before didn’t wash up and overwhelm him. The compound was filled with slavers. More than that, they were the lowest of the low, slavers who dealt in kids for the sex trade. He had no mercy in his soul for beings like that.
Behind them Fin fired and the wall exploded in front of them, Eris batting debris away as it rained down over them. He crashed through the gap in the wall a second after her, leaping over rubble to land in the middle of a small courtyard.
Bellows of rage sounded and they were rushed by more of the slavers, big, pasty-looking aliens with bald heads and more eyes than any being needed. With their long spindly limbs, they reminded him of spiders, and he bellowed as he launched himself toward them.
Thought fled and he reacted on instinct—bloody and brutal instinct as he fought his way through a swathe of the spidery aliens. They chittered as he fired, taking out skulls and throats with surgical precision.
Eris turned, scaling the inside of the wall to take out the defense cannons leaving him and Fin to penetrate deeper into the compound. Their job was to find the main control center and level it, bringing down the defenses so the Sprite could land.
He moved in concert with Fin, taking his cues from the more experienced mercenary. He wasn’t stupid. Yeah, he’d somehow lucked out and gotten a physical upgrade, but when it came to combat, he was still a newbie. This was Fin’s world and the Navarr seemed to have an almost preternatural ability to predict when the enemy were going to show their bug-eyed faces.
A bead of sweat rolled down his spine as they closed in on the control center. Fin signaled to him to take the left and he moved into position, his eyes narrowing as he focused on his surroundings. The door to the control center was locked with a keypad, one they didn’t know the combination to. Keeping watch as Fin moved forward to pack explosives around it, he brought his breathing back into a comfortable pattern. The last time he’d been in combat he’d been exhausted within minutes, but this time… yeah, stamina for the win.
He grinned as Fin ran back toward him, leaping over the small wall he’d sheltered behind. They both ducked their heads as the door blew.
Fin grinned and jerked his head toward the door hanging on its hinges, the wall around it blackened. “You take this one, bud. Your first proper mission.”
With a roar, he was up, leaping over the wall. His long legs ate up the distance, a heavily booted foot kicking the door free before he stormed inside.
He’d always hated spiders…
