“Don’t you...” he growled and I laughed, pushing both hands into the ground and drawing up my knees. “Girl...”
I flipped us over onto his back and rolled clear of him before he could think to wrap his arms round my chest and pin me. That might have ended badly, if Tens hadn’t grabbed me with the teleporter and yanked me aboard the ship.
“Tens! You mud-sucking, star-fu...” I stopped.
The man was grinning like a Cheshire cat and holding up my armor, a duffle-bag of weapons open at his feet. “Yes?”
“I could kiss you,” I told him, coming off the teleport station and diving for the armor.
Tens helped me into it. “Please don’t. Mack would kill me.”
Oh, he would, huh?
“Cutter...”
“You sending me back?” I demanded.
Tens rolled his eyes. “Wouldn’t go to all the trouble of getting you kitted out if I wasn’t.”
I smiled. “Good boy.”
That brought a scowl, and he yanked needlessly hard on the harness he’d pulled over the armor. “Don’t make me regret this.”
I turned, running my hands over my gear and making sure it was all there. Halfway back to the teleport, I stopped and pulled each and every one of my weapons, checking the charges and load out. It didn’t take long, and Tens whistled.
“Whatever Doc gave you, it’s made you fast.”
I stepped onto the teleport, and grinned. “You noticed, huh?”
“It’s a bit hard not to,” he replied, his hands moving over the control console as he spoke. “Now, go look after Mack.”
As I hit the battlefield and looked for Mack, I realized this latest pack of stims still left me as suggestible as all hell.
“I got you, girl,” Mack told me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders as the light faded.
Good thing he spoke, because my body was reacting before I’d registered who was grabbing me. I managed to stop the blade before I pierced his armor.
He looked down, eyebrows raised. “You good, there?”
“Sure,” I snapped, “now I know the knucklehead grabbing me is you!”
That brought snickers, and I realized the battlefield was silent. Looking around, it didn’t take long to work out why.
“Your freedom is your fee,” the wolf captain snarled, addressing Barangail’s mercenaries. “If you do not fight for me, you will spend the rest of your lives serving the lupar.”
Tens gave the alert as he spoke. “We have incoming!”
“Where’d they come from?” Mack wanted to know, keeping a tight grip on me as I looked for something to kill.
It didn’t do me any good. Even I couldn’t stop a starship coming in that fast—especially when there was no signal to ride to g...
“Cutter...” Mack’s voice brought me back, as the newly arrive wolf ships hailed Tens.
“Yes, Mack?”
“Leave the wolves alone.”
Oh? But I could get down that comms signal really easily...
Mack shook me before my mind could do exactly that. “We have other things to do.”
Oh. Now he had my attention—and then Tens dragged it back.
“We have more company!”
This time, I went straight to the Shady’s scans. Oh...I could...
“No, Cutter,” Mack interrupted the thought, and then he said the only thing that could bring me back. “I need you to help me with the arach.”
Help him with the... Hell’s yes! I could do that!
“Stay with me, then, and don’t say anything.”
I would have mimed zipping my lips, but I was far too hyped. I settled for pressing my lips together, and bouncing excitedly on the spot.
“You’re gonna have to find that girl some action, soon,” Stepyan observed, and those around us snickered.
I didn’t see what was so fucking funny. The stims ran beneath my skin, setting my muscles on edge. I wanted to run, and...
Mack took a firm hold of one hand, and led me over to where the wolf captain was standing nose to nose with the merc leader.
“Your ships are here,” Mack told him, and gave the mercenary leader a deliberate glance before meeting the captain’s eye.
To my surprise, the wolf didn’t take offense.
“That’s because we’re equals,” Mack explained, eyeing the mercenary as he continued. “If he won’t comply, I can have them teleported aboard. Just have your captains send the right coordinates.”
The mercenary gaped at him in shock. “You can’t do that! You’re...we’re human!”
“Bought by whoever pays the highest,” Mack retorted. “I’d say your freedom was a pretty good price.” He shrugged. “Feel free to disagree, though.”
“Their time is up,” the wolf captain interrupted. “I will secure them, rather than have such a threat at my back.”
The mercenary opened his mouth to argue, but the silver light took him before he had a chance.
“Thank you, Tens.”
“Easy done,” Tens replied, and I noted his comms were opened to include the wolves, “but we have a problem. “Rennet’s world sent a fleet.”
28—Plans Awry
“Rennet’s? Well, of all the stars-cursed...” Mack gave an exaggerated sigh and looked to the wolf captain. “We have incoming. Your son is in danger.”
That earned him a sharp glance. “How much time do we have?”
“Thirty minutes. Less if they bounce it.”
“The wolves could do that? I had to...”
Mack shook me...hard.
“What?” I snapped.
“Stay with me. Let Tens deal with the wolves.”
“You are needed here,” the wolf captain told him.
As he spoke, the rubble at the base of one of the nearby buildings rippled, shuddered and collapsed, leaving a sinkhole several meters across. Before I could wonder what had happened, several ants emerged: the big kind, the ones with pincers as long as I was tall.
I tried to shrug Mack’s arms clear, but he tightened his grip. The movement did not go unnoticed, and the wolf captain looked over at me, ears pricked, jaw lowered in a lupar grin. “They are allies.”
Allies, huh? I glanced from the ant leader to the wolf and then up at Mack.
“Easy, Cutter...” he murmured, and I resisted the urge to drive my elbow into his stomach...my armored elbow, into his armored gut. A fat lot of good that would do me. Later...
I settled for scowling at the wolf leader, and he cocked his head, his lip curling in a snarl before he glanced at Mack. The growl
