Hunted. Grace Goodwin
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my verbal assault. “You will transport to him. What the two of you decide, where you will live, is completely up to you.”
“You can wear the pants in the family,” Kira told me with a wink. “Just go to him.”
I rolled my eyes. Growled even. The truth was I’d loved that testing dream. Every moment. I didn’t want to wear pants at all. I wanted to be hot, wet and naked with his tongue—or his cock buried—deep.
“You’re blushing, Vice Admiral.” Kira was grinning at me like a besotted fool, which she was. Not that I could blame her. Warlord Anghar was an impressive warrior. And the truth was, no one could have forced me into the testing chair. I allowed Kira and Rachel to cajole me, to push me. The truth was I was tired of being alone.
“Fine.” Tossing up my hands, I repeated, “Fine!”
All three of them exhaled and visibly relaxed, which only made me angrier with myself for showing weakness or doubt in the first place. “I’ll transport.”
The doctor stood and the next thing I knew, Kira and Rachel were pushing me out the door and toward the transport center, most likely before I changed my mind. I was on the transport pad and the doctor was working with the transport tech to arrange coordinates within minutes. I looked down at myself, ensuring my Coalition Fleet Vice-Admiral’s uniform was in order and that I had my weapon strapped to my thigh. If I was leaving The Colony, I was taking everything with me.
Doctor Surnen cleared his throat and I looked at him, met his gaze. “It’s tradition for females to arrive in more feminine clothing…”
I gave him an evil eye. “Don’t push your luck, Doctor. I want my potential mate to know exactly what he’s dealing with.”
The doctor actually grinned, which was a rare expression from a Prillon, especially on The Colony. “As you wish, my lady.”
“I’m not a lady.”
More grinning, but he kept his mouth shut. Definitely a smart Prillon.
“Give him hell, Niobe! Then make him beg for it.” Kira laughed, her hands on her hips. The doctor turned to scowl at what he must have considered poor advice, but I ignored him and smiled back at her.
“I intend to.” Beg. Push. Seduce. Chase me through a forest.
My pussy clenched again as the memories resurfaced. God, I couldn’t wait.
“Don’t do anything we wouldn’t!” Rachel said from her position at the bottom of the steps to the raised platform.
“I’ll give you three days, then I’m comm-ing you for details. All the details.” Kira waggled her eyebrows and I glared.
“Deal.” Hopefully, I would have some details to share. I turned my attention back to the doctor. “Where am I going, exactly? Everis?”
He glanced up quickly, then returned his gaze to the transport controls. “No, Vice Admiral. Elite Hunter Quinn is currently stationed with Battlegroup Karter in Sector 437. According to Coalition records, he is running Hive ReCon patrols from a subterranean base on Latiri 4.”
The Karter? Sector 437? The doctor was sending me into the middle of a war zone. I knew it. Apparently, Kira did as well.
“Oh my God. That’s the front line.” Her gaze jumped from Doctor Surnen to me. “Maybe you should wait. He’s not even on the battleship, Niobe. He’s on the ground.”
Elite Hunter Quinn.
Nice name. Quinn. My mind wandered momentarily. He was an Elite. He’d be strong. Fast. Maybe as fast as that warrior chasing me in my dreams…
“Niobe, no. You can’t be serious. You should wait.”
I was so preoccupied with imagining Quinn that it took me a moment to process what Kira said. “Wait. He’s on the ground? I thought you said he was with Battleship Karter.”
Doctor Surnen cleared his throat, looked at something on his tablet, then looked at me. “Normally, I would not be allowed to tell you this, nor would I be able to transport you to his location. But I see you have very high level I.C. clearance.”
“I do.” I knew just about everything going on in this war. Not all of it, but most. My work with the Intelligence Core was extensive and had been for years.
He sighed. “Elite Hunter Quinn is currently operating with a Hunter unit doing reconnaissance on the Hive. His unit is stationed in an underground facility behind enemy lines.”
“What?” My mate was currently in Hive territory?
“The battle for Latiri 4 and Latiri 7 are pivotal in this war. Those two planets and their moons are perfectly positioned to operate as forward attack bases for several sectors of space. The Hive are not willing to give it up, and neither are we.”
I knew that. I even knew we’d followed the Hive’s lead and started building bases under the ground for the sole purpose of allowing them to overrun the territory. Once they were ensconced above the ground, unaware of our below-ground reconnaissance teams, we gathered significant amounts of intel on their movements, plans, and technological developments. I’d read about the new subterranean programs in an I.C. briefing several months ago. But reading about it and transporting to an underground fortress beneath Hive controlled territory were two very different things.
Kira and the doctor both looked at me. Did I want to wait?
No. Not really. But I wasn’t stupid either.
“Is the base secure?”
The doctor checked his tablet again. “I’m sure you could check with better sources than me, but according to current data, yes.”
I digested that one for a moment. “And how long is Quinn assigned to the base?”
His sigh was long and deep, and I knew I wasn’t going to like the answer. “Indefinitely. Hunter units aren’t like other Coalition assets. They cooperate with the Coalition Fleet, as long as it suits their agenda. He could leave tomorrow. He could be there for years. There are no firm orders. It is up to the Elite Hunter in charge of his unit, and their allegiances on Everis.”
Yes, I could go back to the Academy and wait. Or, I could get on the transport pad and go on a wild adventure.
A tingle of excitement flooded my system. I hadn’t been in combat in years, but the thought didn’t frighten me. What made me want to shudder with dread was the idea of going back to my sparse office at the Academy and staring out that fucking window for one more day. Yes, what I did was important. I trained fighters. I made them smart. I saved lives. Occasionally, the I.C. would call me out for assignment. But these days, it was more diplomacy and spy games than open warfare. I was a desk-jockey, and it sucked the soul right out of me.
My primary job was to train new warriors, to make sure they could handle what they would find out there against the Hive. But I was bored. Lonely. A few days of excitement and hot sex sounded amazing.
“I spent over a decade in ReCon before I was promoted to serve at the Academy. I’m not afraid of getting dirty, Kira.”
Kira was I.C., Intelligence Core. She and her mate, the Atlan warlord, still served. She knew me well enough to know I meant what I said. “I know.” She didn’t mention the I.C. aloud, as that was against protocol, but the look she gave me said she knew exactly what I was talking about. “It’s not the dirt I’m worried about.”
Rachel was laughing out loud when the vibrations of the transport pad traveled up from the soles of my feet. A second later, the hair on my arms stood on end.
“Your transport will occur in three… two… one.”
Then my two friends were gone and I was once again on a transport pad.
Not on The Colony. On Latiri 4.
Instead of being welcomed by an Elite