“You were able to get the information though, right?” There was no missing the hard edge that had crept into her tone. “Malin told us about how the creature took the missing females and how it refused to tell you where they were.”
“She’s not a creature, she’s humanoid. Just like you and me with a few superficial differences.”
“Oh, I…I hadn’t realized.” Some of the bloodthirstiness leached from her tone. Cam looked equally contrite.
“And Malin is incorrect,” he continued, “she has given us the location. Part of the reason she took the females in the first place was because she believed she was saving them from additional rapes and beatings by 223 and his men.”
“Right,” his teammate scoffed. “She tell you that before or after she tried to sell you a luxury dwelling with great sand views on Dragath25.”
“Shut up, Malin.” Ryker got there before he did. “Lana and Cam, I need you to do me a favor. Gather everyone outside so we can give them the latest news.”
His request went unacknowledged.
“Why do you have those? If she’s a human and all?” Lana stared at the manacles hammered into the wall. Her hand reached for Cam’s and held tight, both of their faces leaching to white. “D-did you use them on her?”
Grif wondered how they thought he’d gotten the information they were so excited about only a heartbeat ago.
“Part of my work.” At their deepening looks of horror, he decided he’d had enough. “Malin, take them outside.”
“What?” objected the other male. “I’m not some errand boy.”
“Do it.” Ryker’s tone brooked no argument. “Then return immediately. I need you to brief Grif, stat.” His scowl deepened. “We have complications of our own, and they may be related.”
The alarm in Grif’s gut blared louder.
Malin hustled Lana and Cam out.
The instant they cleared the exit, he told Ryker, “No one is touching Nayla.”
“Nayla?” Ryker studied him, his expression giving nothing away. “Is that the target’s name?”
“Yes.”
“So, it got messy?”
A muscle ticked in Grif’s jaw. “She’s my responsibility. I want your assurance she’ll be protected.”
“There’s more you haven’t yet shared about what you learned.” Ryker’s tone was equally hard. “I want the full report now.”
They studied each other, a battle without words.
Grif’s aggression spiked. He reeled it in.
Ryker was second-in-command and, one rotation soon, might lead them all as commander. The lives of more than just a single female rested on his shoulders.
Grif cleared his throat. “Extraction should be fairly easy. The females are loosely guarded and in a low-traffic area. The real trouble is more long term. The pack leader, Talg, is nursing a legitimate grudge and hates our kind. He sounds like not just an asshole but a fanatic. Even after we retrieve the females, he’ll continue to be a problem. Nayla indicated there was war on the horizon. I believe he’s using the females to help produce weapons he intends to use against us. Soon.”
“That’s not good.” Ryker paced. “Especially now.”
Malin stormed back in. “I better not have missed anything big.”
Ryker sighed. “Malin, share your news. It just got more relevant.”
Grif braced himself.
The other male’s expression hardened. “Someone’s been hanging around the settlement. I only started seeing the signs since we were last here: barely discernable prints, tiny scuff marks on a rock. Little things I almost didn’t catch, and I’m good.” Beneath his usual arrogance, Malin sounded impressed, and a little worried. “Whoever it is, they’re like a fucking ghost.”
“Any clues as to who?” Grif might not like the guy, but he trusted him to do his job. “Could it be one of 223’s gang? There’s still plenty of them lurking around the area.”
Malin shook his head. “I considered, but those assholes are never subtle. Whoever this is, they’re good at staying hidden. Definitely a professional. Watching for what, I don’t know.
“Though, around here,” added Ryker, “it’s hard to believe it’s just a friendly neighborhood voyeur.”
“Council?” It was always Grif’s first thought. It wouldn’t be the first time Council had sent professionals to wipe them from the planet.
“Maybe.” Ryker hesitated, and Grif knew they were thinking along the same lines. “Or someone connected to the target. I mean, Nayla.”
A definite possibility. One Grif really hoped was not the case.
“Exactly why we need to ensure the hostile tells us all she knows before we take her out.” Malin either didn’t notice, or care, that Ryker had called her by an actual name. “The commander won’t stand for any threat. Especially now that his female is pregnant.”
Another direct hit to the solar plexus.
“Ava is pregnant?” Grif tried to absorb his teammate’s latest intel. A baby? On Dragath25? No wonder the commander wanted more time with his female. It was an open secret that Ava had been trying to find a way to use elements from Dragath25 to neutralize the technology inside her that kept her sterile. Looks like she’d finally succeeded.
“Yes.” Ryker’s expression was heavy with warning. “The news is good. The timing bad.”
Grif understood the unspoken message, and why his friend had hesitated to honor his request that Nayla be protected. Their commander had always been ruthless. He’d be a thousand times more so with a pregnant mate, and Grif’s prisoner was currently part of a pack of hostiles threatening his family and the settlement.
Their leader’s impulse to simply wipe out any potential hazard would be stronger than ever.
Talk about messy. Inserting himself between his on-edge commander and a captive who continued to insist they were enemies was a surefire end to his ambitions.
He’d always been loyal to his crew. They’d been the family he should have had from the start. The missions he undertook for them offering him the purpose he needed.
But going back to the man he’d once been was impossible. Returning to the life he’d once had untenable.
He’d promised Nayla he’d protect her and he damn well would. No matter where the threat originated.
He stepped in front of the tunnel leading to where she was hidden, blocking the way. “It just got more complicated, no question. But what I’m about to say is real simple. The commander will have to be made to understand. Nayla is under my protection. I don’t care what orders you were given, she is not to be harmed.”
21
Nayla pressed close to the rocky wall, doing her best to take in what she could. The twisted corridor kept Grif and the other two speakers blocked from view, but their deep, guttural voices bounced off the walls loud and clear.
“Are you kidding me? Your disobeying a direct order? For a hostile and a flesh trader? Are you insane?” The shouting male’s words erupted in little punches, the mix of aggression and bravado in his tone reminding her of some of the less mature pack hunters who swaggered around as if they had something to prove. “You can’t be thinking right.”