I rushed the creature in front of me, expecting it to leap for my throat as the other had. As expected, it leaped. Timing my thrust just right, I plunged both blades into its neck as I caught it. Claws raked down my arms from shoulder to elbow. Searing pain exploded where it sliced through my armor, like acid burning through muscle to bone.

“Abby!”

I threw the carcass aside and ran for the entrance of the base. I reached the door in time to see my mate stab one of the creatures climbing toward her.

Another was nearly upon her, snapping at her feet despite the kicks she managed to land on the monster’s head. A third climbed up the side of the panel. She hit it in the hide with ion blasts, but the weapon didn’t have much effect.

“Cormac.” Abby whimpered my name as if she had lost all hope. She hadn’t seen me yet. That sound nearly broke me.

Something inside me snapped. I had battled. I had raged. I had killed. This fury was raw. Brutal. Primitive. And it was all for her.

I grabbed the creature snarling at her feet and slammed its spine down over my knee. The animal’s bones snapped and popped. I did not stop, literally ripping the thing in half like an Atlan.

Moving with every ounce of speed in my Hyperion and Hunter blood, I wrapped my hand around the hind leg of the climber and swung a wide arc, slamming the monster’s head into the hard floor, over and over until the body went limp. Probably would have kept going out of pure rage that they dared attack my mate, but a soft cry pulled me back to myself.

“Abby, are you hurt?”

“No. I don’t think so.” Her voice trembled, and I had to strain to hear it.

Turning to put her at my back, my attention on the door in case more of the fuckers slipped inside, I fought to slow my pulse. My breathing. I was holding on to my control by a thread. I’d nearly lost her. Half a second longer and…

Her small hand appeared in my peripheral vision as she reached down to touch my shoulders. “Oh god. You’re hurt!”

“I am fine, mate.”

“No, you’re not. Where is one of those green wand things?”

“The battle is not over, Abby. I will tend the wound when I know you are safe.”

I expected her to argue. This was Abby, after all. Instead, she rested her hand just above the wound, as if touching me brought her comfort.

“Okay.”

Minutes seemed like hours as I listened to the sounds of the fighting coming to an end. Ruk’s raging occurred less and less often. I heard voices speaking to one another rather than the chaos and noise of battle.