The Commanders' Mate by Grace Goodwin

Author:Grace Goodwin [Goodwin, Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KSA Publishing Consultants, Inc.

10

Ronan, Battleship Karter, Command Deck, Karter’s Office

* * *

Frustration bubbled inside me like magma boiling in my gut. The probe was worthless. Fucking worthless. Commander Varsten. His battleship. His warriors.

Gone.

For fucking nothing.

For one moment I understood why Kaed refused to give Erica a collar. This rage burning inside me should never touch something so beautiful as our mate. With Kaed’s emotional turmoil added to mine? She’d melt into a puddle on the floor and beg us to let her go.

Neither of us would be able to do that. Not after last night, her soft curves in my hands, her wet heat wrapped around my cock as her pussy milked me of my seed. She could, at this very moment, be carrying a child. Our child. Being locked to our minds would be a special kind of torture. I understood that now.

“There has so be something in that data. Look again.” I.C. Commander Chloe Phan’s narrowed eyes and cold voice spoke volumes. She felt it, too. Helpless.

We’d had the probe for several hours, checked every piece of data, and it gave us nothing. We all knew Sector 437—and Battlegroup Karter—had to be next. We would be next.

The data tech who’d programmed the encryption codes into the probe prior to launch shook her head. She was one of Varsten’s best, and even she looked helpless and defeated. “I’m sorry. Everything on the probe was functioning at optimal levels. Whatever new tech the Hive are using to hide from us is working.”

“We’re screwed.” Chloe crossed her arms, her foot tapping a constant, steady beat on the hard floor. “We need to start evacuating non-essential personnel. While we don’t have definitive data, we need to be smart. I need to report this to Core Command.”

The probe tech looked at Commander Karter for permission to leave. At his nod, she left the room, Bard and a handful of others following. They all had their orders. There was no way in hell we were going to do exactly what the Varsten had done—get everyone we could off this ship and try to lure the Hive close enough to figure out what they were hitting us with.

Dangerous game. One I’d played before. “All due respect, Commander, but trying to bait a trap didn’t work for Varsten. You know that.”

Kaed looked at me, nodded. “I know. Which is why I’ve already spoken to Prime Nial. He’s re-routing three battlegroups to this location. We can’t retreat; we have to hold this sector. But with the additional ships and warriors, we’ll be able to block grid this sector and search every single inch of it. When we’re done, we’ll go back to Varsten’s sector and start over. We aren’t going to sit here and wait for them to hit us.”

“How long before the additional ships arrive?” I asked.

“Two days. Based on the timeline of the previous Hive attacks, we should have time to find them before they can hit the Karter.”

“Jesus, I hope you’re right.” Chloe sighed, her arms crossed. It was the best we could do and we all knew it.

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