Queen of Death

Ace

The objective is simple. Teleport to the facility, gain control, choke out Lobo and force the Elders into a corner. From there we can leverage. And if they don’t agree to our terms then we have enough evidence against them to rally other colonies against them and enforce a total overhaul of the council.

For us to get to the facility we need someone who’s already been there to steer the other teleporters, so to speak. Solana’s dads are going with Eli and Xander, Griffin is with Hunter and Magnolia, Dean and Solana are with Rhys, and I’ve got Tate and Runidar.

Four groups, four sides of the building.

The moments before porting over are like a scene from a war movie where loved ones kiss and cry before sending their men off to battle. Except no one here is crying, and it’s not just men marching off but our Queens.

The Alphas are neither discrete nor subtle with their affection for their Queen. They wrap her up in their arms and kiss her long and hard. Xander smiles at them affectionately, almost as if he’s debating doing the same thing and wondering if here and now is the place and time.

While they all but fornicate in the corner Eli whispers his demands that she stay safe in Sol’s ear then kisses her sweetly before handing her over to Hunter who takes a page from the Alphas’ book and kisses her like it’ll be his last.

Tate drags her into the shadows, preferring to show his affection to her and her alone. Then it’s my turn.

Sol walks up to me with large, burning eyes that I melt over every time. I nuzzle against her neck kissing up its column, sucking her earlobe between my teeth and relishing the hiss of breath she draws between her lips.

“Ace,” she presses a hand against my chest.

“Be safe, princess. That is not a request.” I purr the warning.

“Ace, once we’re over there you can’t treat me like this, okay? I told the others, too. Walls up, serious business. We can’t afford mistakes today and I refuse to be a distraction.”

I can’t do anything but smile at my girl. Does she really not understand that she lives in my thoughts rent free 24/7? I’ve had practice suppressing my desire for her in favor of work and business. Hopefully this will be the last time I’ll ever have to.

“Whatever you say, my Queen.” A visible shiver runs through her and her eyes darken, betraying everything she just demanded about not getting distracted.

“I mean it!” She laughs as she shoves me away. “You don’t think I can but watch. This — stone cold.” She gestures around her face with her pointer finger before shooting me one last warning glare and walking over to Dean.

Tate and Runidar come over to me the moment she’s gone. “Ready?” They both nod and with that we teleport to the facility.

A minute or two later Dean and Eli link me that they landed. My phone buzzes in my pocket with a text from Hunter letting me know that they’ve also landed.

Off to my left I catch a glimpse of Rhys, Dean, and Sol heading for the side door. I try linking Sol but I hit nothing but a block.

She was serious when she said she was going to block us out. I link to Dean who immediately laughs back at me.

She’s a machine when she’s in the zone. I’ve got her Alpha, I’ll keep you updated.

Tate is eyeing me when the link ends. He’s upset he’s not the one in her group, but I need him with me. He needs to get into their security room. The others are here to subdue the guards by any means necessary.

Sol and her group head down the stairs and out of my sight. I inhale a deep, steadying breath and check with Runidar that the other two groups are ready.

A single head nod from Runidar moments later confirms that we’re all in position, and with that we set about our mission.

— — —

Solana

Putting up a bond block between myself and the guys takes way more energy than I expected. Our bonds push back against me, fighting the unnatural nature of what I’m attempting to do. My wolf is useless in the matter, as well. She doesn’t agree with my thought process and is actively trying to at least maintain connection with the guys through their wolves.

I’m not doing this to hurt them. I’m doing this to protect us. We all need to focus on what we’re doing. I won’t allow a myriad of unchecked emotions run amok through the bond, pulling the guys’ focus away from staying alive and getting the job done.

I’m sure they’ll get over it as soon as I lift the block considering I’m just as eager.

Now if only I had as much self control over blocking out my own thoughts. Standing here imagining being reunited with my guys after a victorious battle…the ways we’d celebrate…

I’m doing it again — getting distracted.

Time to get to work.

We walk slowly through the basement hallway. The lights are dimmer and the shadows they cast play tricks on our eyes.

The guys are calm, though alert. They let me lead us through the halls. The doors we pass are all locked and equipped with state of the art biometric scanners. Likely gifts of Lobo Tech.

Ace and Tate are heading to the facility’s command room, while my parents’ groups overtake the guards. My group was supposed to help them but I’d rather try to find the head honcho — the person responsible for all this — and rip them out by the root.

If I’ve learned anything in the last four years it’s that these organizations have fast turn over. They’re loyal to the top, to the people with money and power. Those very same people can and will replace foot soldiers like you might replace trash bags. Disposable. Dispensable. Replaceable.

The closer we get to the center of the building the more guards we encounter stationed outside of certain rooms. All of whom are dead by our hands before they have time to lift a finger to call for backup.

We leave a trail of dead bodies behind us like little breadcrumbs. We’re not subtle, we make no attempt to silence or conceal ourselves. We shoot out the security cams in the halls not because we don’t want them to know we are here, just so that they can’t track our every move in real time.

At the end of a rather long and dark hallway we reach what seems like a dead end. The two guards that were here, now dead, are bleeding out on the floor by our feet.

“At ease, baby. They’re dead. You can stop staring at them like they’re going to pop back up like daisies.”

Baby, I scoff to myself. What a Dean thing to say.

“Idiot,” I scold him with no heat. “Look closer, notice anything unusual?”

They kneel down to examine the bodies, poking and prodding at them like they weren’t once a person, but come up just as confused as before as to what I’m getting at.

“Either they did a shit job building this place or there’s an opening on the other side of this wall.” I point at the flow of blood that isn’t pooling on the ground. It’s flowing through a crack between the wall in question and the floor.

They both look at what I’m pointing to more closely. “Well look at that, a secret door.”

“What could they be hiding down there?” I wonder aloud to myself.

I do a quick sweep of the walls looking for any hidden lock to open the door. There’s a door a few feet back down the hall with a bio scanner. It strikes me as odd that they’d go through the trouble of securing all the other doors and leave this one open to intruders smart enough to notice that it is in fact a door.

Curiosity gets the better of me and I try the handle of the door without attempting to use or otherwise break the bio scanner. The handle doesn’t resist me at all, turning easily and allowing me entrance into the small room filled with storage racks and dusty boxes.

Then why the bio scanner?

I’m doing the math in my head, moving as I convince myself more and more that I’m on to something. I make quick work of cutting the dead guard’s hand off and carving out his eye to be used at the bio-scanner.

I grin triumphantly when the door opens with a thunderous grinding of stone against stone, an incredibly primitive feature in a place as advanced as this.

These of course are the last thoughts that go through my mind before a flash of brilliant, white, scorching light envelopes my senses and the world shatters to pieces around me.