Page 27 of Monstrous Hunt
“Exactly. So I picked up a few address labels and moved them to another location, and changed the coding so it looked like baseline biometrics from a month ago. Can you find the files now?”
Lowering his foot slowly, Rizan glared down at him. “You fucking bastard.”
Unbothered, Axxol tipped his face back and grinned. “There’s a reason they want me dead.”
Rizan stared off into space without answering, the printer and cables forgotten in his hands. I assumed he was scanning all the files to see what else Axxol had messed up.
“What was on those files that you deleted?” Lohr asked.
“It wasn’t the files themselves, but more of a pattern that became apparent,” Axxol replied. “We were constantly monitored while on mission. Literally, some asshat sat on the other side of the galaxy and tapped our grid to see everything we did. It wasn’t always the same person, either, and I was never sure what they were looking at. They had access to everything as soon as we got back to base, so why did they need to monitor us before we even reported back in? I never questioned it until we were teamed up with MM103 three cycles ago. Their grid didn’t have an observer.”
“They were looking for something,” Snryx muttered. “Were they monitoring a specific squad stat? Or you specifically?”
“See, that’s the thing that fired my curiosity the most,” Axxol said. “Of course, I thought they’d be monitoring me, since I’m the most experimental, and therefore deemed unstable. They quit making BGR+ after me and for damned good reasons. But they weren’t any more interested in my files than usual.”
Kroktl made a deep rumble that vibrated through my entire body. “They were watching me.”
“So I started asking myself, why would HQ be so fucking interested in Red’s stats?” Axxol continued. “You’re a damned good Tri-R, but there’s nothing cutting edge or risky in your engineering.”
“That we know about,” Snryx said. “I can run some analysis against the data I managed to obtain from the other squad, though it won’t be as detailed as I’d like.”
“Can you, though?” Axxol challenged. “Try and pull up his post-mission charts from previous cycles.”
Snryx grunted. “They’re gone. Pre-mission baselines are available, but not post. Let me check my personal notes as medic.”
“Don’t bother.” Rizan shook his head, clicking his beak with disgust. “It’s gone. Did you fucking do that?”
“No,” Axxol replied. “Though if I’d noticed anything amiss before HQ did, I would have fucking blasted every log and trace.”
I rubbed my cheek against Kroktl’s skin. “Could they tell that you were going to come into heat?”
“I never felt any indication of hormonal shifts on our last few missions. Even here off grid, I didn’t immediately come into heat. It took several days alone as I scouted toward Patagonia before I noticed that something wasn’t right.”
Snryx was deep enough in thought that his implements softened and floated around his face like deep purple ribbons. “My personal files are gone but I remember noting that you were an elite Tri-R. Aggressive, fast, and brutal.”
“Yeah,” Rizan nodded. “Remember on Hyperion II? You killed the host before we even got there. Axxol was pissed.”
“Just doing my job.” Kroktl shrugged but gave a knowing smirk at Axxol. “Can’t help it if I’m just too good for you all to keep up.”
“A pattern,” Axxol repeated, though I noted that he didn’t even look at Kroktl. He certainly didn’t argue with him or deny it. “I suspect your numbers were rising despite the cocktails they gave us. In fact, I think it was taking everything they had to fucking rein you in after each mission. Add in an experimental BGR+ and the squad was deemed too risky to deploy again.”
“Okay,” Snryx said slowly. “Let’s say you’re right. HQ noted changes in our Tri-R’s stats that gave them enough concern to decommission the entire squad.” He paused, staring down at Axxol with narrowed eyes, implements shifting back into rigid swords with glinting sharp tips. “Why did you decide to strand us here and refuse to comply with orders?”
Axxol flipped over so fast I could barely follow his movements, somehow moving from lying on his back to crouched in front of us in the blink of an eye. “You want to die so fucking bad?”
I couldn’t help but flinch against Kroktl, gripping him tighter. Not only because the sudden movement startled me—but at the thought he could have died before I’d ever run into the ravenous monster in the jungle.
“You want to fuckingliveso bad?” Snryx retorted back just as vehemently. “We follow orders. We always have. That’s what we are. It’s encoded into our DNA along with every bloodthirsty predator instinct we possess. So what else did you see or know? Because I don’t believe you just decided to cancel our squad’s long, successful record because you thought Kroktlmightbe able to come into heat. Who would have fucking cared? This planet’s dominant species has always been deemed inferior and incompatible. No offense, Natalie.”
“No offense,” I huffed, giving him a scowl. “One in a billion, right?”
Lohr’s tongue dipped down and lightly touched my knee. “Astronomically improbable.”
“And nowhere in this story have I heard anything about why they’d want to exterminate the entire planet.” Kroktl kept his voice even and light, but I could feel tension straining in his body. “And don’t say it’s because I was able to find a compatible mate, because again, those odds were laughable. No one could have suspected that I’d not only come into heat but also find my mate. Let alone breed her.”
Breed her.The words thrummed through me. A little cringy—but also so fucking hot. Remembering how he’d filled me up until I thought I’d die. Locking himself deep so he could give me his baby that grew inside me. I touched the gentle swell of my lower stomach.
“The crash site.” Axxol’s upper lip curled, revealing bared teeth. “Didn’t any of you notice something strange?”
