Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
“There.” Lynx nodded approvingly. “Now, was that so hard, Brother?”
Saxon made a growling noise that sounded suspiciously like, “Fuck you” but he held his non-Shifted form, which was good enough for Lynx. He lifted his hand to pound on the metal door again…but Lynx caught him by the wrist.
“Why don’t you let me try this time?” he said. “If she has some kind of viewing mechanism and is watching us, I’ll probably make a much better impression.”
Saxon only grunted and shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling with the motion. Without his fur, his skin had a silver tint just like Lynx’s had a distinct golden hue. His Bond Mark was easier to see too—glimmering blue and gold and green on the left side of his neck, whereas Lynx’s was on the right side. He would have been considered handsome by most females if he didn’t scowl so much.
Lynx sighed. Well, there was nothing he could do about his Bond-Brother’s temperament—he’d known that Saxon was a grouchy son of a bitch when he’d bonded to him, all those years ago. All he could do was try to present an agreeable, reassuring face to the frightened girl who was hiding behind the rusted, metal door.
Stepping up to the metal panel himself, he knocked firmly but politely.
“Hello?” he called. “This is Commander Lynx and I have Commander Saxon with me. We mean you no harm—we’ve been sent by the Kindred to keep you safe. Hello?”
“See—she’s not going to answer,” Saxon growled after a moment. “Fucking waste of time. Let’s just go back to the ship and treat these wounds.”
Now that his fur was gone, Lynx could see that the wound in his Bond-Brother’s upper arm was deeper than he’d thought which explained why the pain he felt from Saxon was so sharp. One of the Cast-offs had been armed with a lasker-knife—a nasty weapon with sharp, serrated teeth meant for sawing through both flesh and bone. It had bitten deeply into Saxon’s shoulder before he’d put the bastard down with a pulse-pistol blast. No wonder the Lykan was grumpy.
“Look, you go back to the ship if you want,” he said. “I can manage here. Go on—go.”
“And leave you here alone?” Saxon sounded outraged that he would even suggest such a thing. Despite being brooding and dark, he was loyal to a fault. Lynx knew his Bond-Brother would never leave him in any situation that might be dangerous.
“Well, then stop complaining if you don’t want to go,” he said, frowning. “We promised High Commander Rarev and Commander Sylvan that we’d come out here and keep this little female from harm. I’m not giving up just because she’s unsure of us—there’s a killer stalking her and we’ve been entrusted with her safety. I’ll stay out here all night if I have to!”
At that moment, as though his words had somehow magically unlocked it, the door swung open with a creak of rusty hinges. Lynx looked inside the dim interior of the building eagerly, expecting to see a female face. Instead, the strangest thing imaginable met his eyes.
Standing in the doorway wasn’t a person…but a robot.
TWO
SAXON
The thing in the doorway was a large, round, golden automaton—an antique robot of the kind that hadn’t been manufactured for cycles. It was gold-plated and had a tiny round head with glowing blue eyes atop an enormous round midsection that looked like a huge golden ball. Three smaller balls were set in the base of the larger one, allowing it to move in all directions by rolling.
It stood there silently, blocking the doorway with its round, golden bulk and seemed to Saxon, almost to be taunting them. He had the urge to growl at the fucking thing to move out of the way, but Lynx put a hand on his arm and sent a soothing calm through their Bond. Saxon took a deep breath and made an effort to swallow the angry bile that rose in his throat.
Angry—he was always so fucking angry. Lynx claimed it was because he hadn’t grieved their lost mate properly, but Saxon knew the truth. He was a Lykan—it was his nature to be pissed off.
In fact, the only Lykans allowed aboard the Monstrum Mother Ship were those like himself, who had a Brother-Bond with another, more stable kind of Monstrum. The rest were all renegades and outlaws—unwelcome everywhere but their home world, which was gone now, destroyed and despoiled by the Darklings.
Sometimes Saxon wondered why he bothered to go on. Their mate was long dead, their home world lost, their universe rendered uninhabitable by living manifestations of evil. What was the point?
Lynx—he’s the point, he thought, looking at his Bond-Brother. There was a kind of golden aura of goodness around the other male, a kindness that wasn’t often found in a hardened warrior. But then, Lynx had never allowed himself to become hardened by their circumstances.