I don’t want him to see me like this. An alpha needs to stay strong. He cannot allow his subordinates to see him this weak.
“Rekker? Is that really you?” Akron asks.
“I tried to fight them off,” I mutter. “We all tried...”
He takes one step forward, attempting to see me with more clarity. I furrow my wrists into my clothing and step away.
“Please, stop,” I say. “Turn your gaze. I have been ruined.”
“You’re different,” he says.
Using both hands, I disengage the mask. My sight goes black before it comes back to normal.
Sighing, I nod my head. I show him my face.
“You’re right. I have changed.”
“Dear lord,” he whispers.
“Is it that bad?” I ask.
“You need a med-bay before this becomes permanent,” he growls.
Hurried footsteps come from not too far away. I glance up, expecting more bad news to follow.
Instead, a woman rounds the corner, and my heart stops.
“...Emma?”
No. It can’t be. I saw the city explode below the sentinel drone. How is this possible?
Her scent is everywhere, and suddenly, I feel that driving hunger again. It keeps me going.
“Rekker!”
I can’t believe it. It’s actually her. She isn’t dead. She made it off our planet and found Akron. The plan actually worked.
I hobble forward and collapse below at her ankles. “Don’t look at me,” I plead. “I am disgusting.”
Emma drops to the ground. Throwing her entire weight against my broken leg, she gives me the most passionate kiss in the universe.
“I love you, I love you, I love you,” she repeats.
How can she love someone so hideous?
“What in God’s name has happened to you?” Akron asks. “You look sixty years older.”
I turn my head and stare at the floor. “I’m not entirely sure. I am aging fast, transforming into something I never wanted to become” I say. “The sentinels… they forced the Resnyx onto me.”
“They what?” he asks.
There is so much they have yet to learn.
“The Resnyx isn’t being mined to source the planet,” I say. “Slain is using it for himself. He’s gaining power from it, and now he has come to find more.”
I hold Emma, but I feel ashamed of what I’ve become. I was once strong and powerful. I was an alpha. Now, I am anything but.
I collapse into Emma’s arms, breath shallow. “Take me to the med-bay pod,” I say.