Sneak Peek – Bad Boy Beast
Chapter One
Atlan Warlord Kai, Miami, Florida
I finally tracked the elusive female, the human who risked her life to break into an illegal fight club and capture images of Warlord Maxus, and the rest of us, during the surprise Hive attack. Whoever she was, the moment she sent those images to potential buyers, she placed herself in more danger than she could comprehend.
The Hive wanted her dead.
The Coalition’s Intelligence Core wanted her alive for questioning.
Me? I just fucking wanted. The moment her lingering scent filled my head that day, my beast had one fucking thing to say… mine. Over, and over, and fucking over again.
Mine!
I know. Patience.
No patience. Mine. Go. Now.
Our mate is in danger. You want to fuck around and be killed by Hive Scouts?
Weak. I kill them all. My beast sounded insulted I would even mention the possibility of our death. I never lose to Hive scum.
“You lost once.” I wasn’t trying to be an asshole to—myself—but we had been defeated in battle. Once. Captured and taken to a Hive Integration facility and experimented on. Tortured. Integrated with Hive technology that, even after rescue, made it impossible to return to the Atlan home world. I was an outcast now, contaminated, just like every other fighter, warrior and warlord exiled to The Colony. Too dangerous to be allowed to return to Atlan, take a mate and live a civilian life.
Worse, mating fever raged in my blood. Soon the beast would break free and unleash his agony in an unforgivable killing fury. Unless I convince my female to accept me, take my mating cuffs and never leave my side.
The odds were not in my favor.
“I’m going in.” I squinted through the dark, grateful for the pitiful light provided by two lamp posts positioned in the building’s parking lot. Three more surrounded the area but were not functional. It was well past midnight. My female—and she was mine—should be asleep.
Crouched on the roof of her three-story apartment building, I jumped to the ground and landed outside her bedroom window. “Are you sure these diagrams are correct?”
“Yes. You still determined to knock on the door?” The voice in my comm belonged to Bahre, our chosen commander while we were here, on Earth. Most of the warlords had been successful in finding their mates. Some had returned to The Colony. I was not among them. The beast within became more difficult to control with each passing day. If I did not claim my mate soon, mating fever would destroy me, and I would be forced to embrace death.
“I do not wish to frighten her.”
“Fucking mistake. Get her out and explain later.”
“She’s my mate. I do not want her to fear me.”
“Fuck. Going soft already. Be quick about it.” Bahre’s sigh spoke for both of us. Protecting a mate, physically and mentally, was the only thing that mattered. “Do you have a visual?”
“Negative.” The human apartment building appeared to be quiet. “Activating scanners.”
“The Hive Scouts we’re tracking are closing in on your position.”
“How long do I have?”
Bahre cursed. “Ten minutes, if you’re lucky.”
Break in, convince a hysterical, human female to accompany me to another planet, put a transport beacon on her,and get her out of here before the Hive showed up? What could possibly go wrong?
I activated the scanners in my Coalition helmet and watched thermal outlines of the humans inside the building appear on my helmet’s screen. “Fifty-seven humans. Twenty-nine female. Fuck. I hope the Hive don’t get any ideas.”The Hive had been kidnapping and attempting to breed human females. “Only one Scout unit? Just three of them?”
“That’s all we’re tracking. Just get in and get her out of there. We need those images. The I.C. is breathing down my neck on this one.” Bahre’s rumbling didn’t help my agitated state. My beast growled, ready to unleash his rage on the world.
“You mean Helion’s being an ass. I heard he claimed a mate. Didn’t that calm him down?”
Bahre’s chuckle sounded like rumbling rocks in my head. “Made him worse, especially when it comes to protecting human females.”
Of course. Now that the notorious asshole commander of the Intelligence Core was mated to a human female, he was obsessed with protecting Earth. Didn’t seem to matter that he’d supposedly retired and relocated his mate to his home world of Prillon Prime. He was even more active—at least when it came to Earth—than ever.
He had his human mate. Time to claim mine.
“Larkspur Linton. Age twenty-three. Where are you?” The apartment number on her government issued identification was one-zero-seven.
“Stop stalling, Warlord. I’m going to think you’re afraid of a tiny human female.”
“Guess you should have come with me. Make sure I don’t fuck it up.”
Bahre burst into laughter. “Fuck no. The day a Warlord can’t handle three Scouts on his own is the day I walk away from Quinn. She’s waiting for me, so hurry the fuck up before my cock insists I leave you without backup on comms.”
My turn to chuckle. Quinn was one beautiful female. I couldn’t blame Bahre for his eagerness to be with his mate.
Speaking of mates….
Mine!
Yes. I know. Just a few more minutes.
No. Now.
My beast was tired of waiting. Frankly, so was I.
I checked the details on the scanner. Human female. Alone. She must have fallen asleep on her sofa. The apartment appeared to have two bedrooms, but the other rooms were unoccupied. My mate was alone.
What did she wear to bed? I inspected the thermal image of her sitting on her sofa. The flickering light of her television, or computer screen, flashed across her window. A strange shimmer appeared, then disappeared on my scans. I would need to get that glitch checked out once I was back on The Colony.
I stared at that curved, red outline and tried to imagine what it would be like to touch her. Other than the grainy image on her driver’s license—brown hair, brown eyes, slightly taller than average for a human, I had no idea what she looked like, sounded like, thought or needed. What if she refused to come with me?
Mine!
The beast didn’t give a fuck what she looked like. All females were beautiful and unique. The only thing that mattered was that she was mine. I knew the moment I caught her scent at the fight club that night, a sweet, feminine fragrance that haunted me every minute since. Taunting me. Daring me to find her.
“Eight minutes. Scouts inbound. Hurry the fuck up.”
Why was I not already inside? Was I nervous to meet her? Afraid she would take one look at the scars and integrations covering my body and find me unworthy? I’ve never feared anything in my life, not on the battlefield, not during my imprisonment with the Hive. Now I dreaded the reaction of a fragile human female?
Mine!
The beast had a one-track mind. The rock-hard cock rubbing against my armor was proof of that.
Moving quickly, I went to her door and raised my fist. My knock rattled the nearby window.
Inside me, the beast lunged, eager to break free.
Holding him back took every bit of self-control I possessed.
I braced my hands on either side of the door frame and waited. Knocked again. Nothing. No footsteps. No calling out. My mate’s apartment remained silent.
Fuck. I didn’t want to have to do it this way.
I kicked the door open and stepped inside. “Larkspur?” A tall, freestanding coat rack, and the variety of items hanging from the black, metallic hooks, blocked my view of the living area.
The narrow hall made it impossible for my shoulders to pass. I lifted the metal rack, coats, purses, umbrella and all, and walked forward. “Larkspur Linton? I’m Warlord Kai. I need to speak with you. You’re in danger.”
“It’s a trap! Get out!” A woman’s shout was cut short by the sound of something hitting flesh.
“We have an intruder. Eliminate him.” A cold, monotone voice gave the order without a hint of emotion. I knew that tone, the cadence of a group mind, the way the Hive always referred to themselves as ‘we’, never ‘I’. Never the individual.
“No! Get out! Run!” A woman’s scream made the beast roar a response.
The Hive were here. For touching my mate, they would die.
I rushed into the small living space. Three Hive Soldiers, bigger, stronger, better armed and with more advanced integrations than their lowly Scouts—surrounded a human female where she sat, facing them, on her light brown sofa. Her dark hair hung on either side of delicate cheekbones and full, kissable lips.
A dark bruise spread on her left cheek and around her brown eye. A short, blue nightgown bunched up on top of her thighs, exposing long, lean legs. A binding device held her wrists bound in front of her, resting on her lap. Tears streaked her cheeks and still, she did not beg for her own life, but glared, defiance in her raised chin and unblinking glare. She did not cower before the Hive Soldier. Instead, she called out a warning to me.
My mate was brave. Courageous. Honorable. Her sweet, feminine scent filled the small apartment. She was fucking perfect.
The beast agreed.
“Mine!” He roared as I felt my body shift and expand, my bones and muscles tearing and reforming as I swung the coat rack at the nearest Soldier. The trio—the fucking Hive always traveled in threes—included three integrated Prillonwarriors. Big. Strong. Trained in battle.
They were no match for a beast defending his mate.
The metal hooks in the coat rack hit with such force, the hooks punctured the Soldier’s armor, one hook in his chest, the other in the side of his neck. He collapsed to his knees, blood spraying on the pale gray carpet.
The female scrambled away from the fight, hurling her small body toward the far end of the sofa.
The two remaining Hive Soldiers turned to face my beast, weapons raised.
Rage unlike anything I’d ever known pumped through every cell at the glimpse of my small, delicate female trapped behind them. I’d fought countless battles against creatures like these, been consumed by the fury of war. This was deeper. Primal.
“Mine!” The word filled the room like booming thunder. My mate screamed.
The two Hive opened fire, their blasters hitting my armor, charring the flesh beneath.
Her scream was an explosion inside my skull, my mate in danger, threatened by my mortal enemy. Dozens of battles flashed through my mind, the images so vivid and real the room before me faded until I stood on the battlefield, muscles straining as I tore a Hive Scout’s body in half.
My beast’s cry of rage echoed through the small apartment. The thunderous roar in my ears broke the spell and I came back to myself. That nightmare happened on another day, in another battle. These two were here, now.
They continued to fire, their blasters turning my armor into molten metal on flesh. Searing. Burning.
The pain enraged my beast.
I stepped into the blasts and reached out to wrap my hands around the head and shoulder of the nearest Hive Soldier. He fought as his companion blasted me from the side. A head shot blurred my vision as my helmet took the brunt of the discharge.
The Hive before me was stronger than a Prillon warrior should have been. His Hive integrations gave him unnatural strength.
With a growl of intense satisfaction, I pulled the Hive’s head from his shoulders and tossed it on the floor next to his fallen, dying companion. I stomped on the polished black coat rack for good measure, driving the metal tips deeper into the enemy’s neck.
One more.
Never before had I been grateful for my weeks of capture at the hands of the Hive, until now. Without the integrations in my own body, I might have been in trouble. But I was captured. Tortured. Integrated. Hardened. As one of the few Atlans to survive the Integration process, I was stronger than any Atlan warlord should be. So was my beast. These Hive Soldiers were Prillon warriors once, before the Hive changed them into something else.
They were following orders, doing a job. I was a warlord, a beast, a killer protecting the only thing in the universe that mattered… my mate.
“Kai, what the fuck is going on?” Bahre’s voice finally broke through. He’d been talking, but my beast was too focused on battle to process his annoying questions.
“Hive.” My beast gave a typical one-word response.
“The group of Scouts in four minutes out. They’re picking up the pace.”
“No. Here. Now.” My beast’s tone left no room for argument.
“I don’t understand. That’s not possible.” Bahre’s confusion was one I shared. How did these fuckers not show up on my scans? I should have known they were here.
With a flick of my eyes toward the on-screen command in my helmet, I began broadcasting the scene to Bahre and anyone else who was monitoring the situation.
“Fuck!” Bahre’s shout in my comms matched my mood perfectly.
“We are here for the female. Leave. This human is nothing to you.” The remaining Hive Soldier faced me but ceased firing his blaster.
“Mine.” The beast would not be reasoned with. There would be no bargaining, no mercy.
The final Soldier resumed fire as I advanced. He took one step back. Two. The backs of his legs hit the sofa and my mate gasped, scooting farther away.
The Hive Soldier turned his head to look at her, the thought clearly forming in his mind. He knew he was dead. Fucking dead.
He lifted his blaster, pointed the weapon at her head.
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