***AUTHORS NOTE***

THIS CHAPTER WILL CONTAIN GOREY CONTENT! MATURE VIEWERS ONLY. MAY DISTURB SOME READERS! SKIP AHEAD IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE!

***END AUTHORS NOTE***

Xai'an managed to get inside the back entrance easy enough. One of the ooman guards had been smoking a nasty smelling herb when he approached. Killing him had been easy. He hadn't even heard Xai'an approach before he snapped the oomans neck. The key card to get inside was clipped to his chest.

Though he was cloaked, there were no oomans around the narrow passage. He felt a bit cheated as he made it to the stairwell without running into another ooman, but he reminded himself that every second he wasted spilling ooman blood, the more he was making Z wait.

Baaul would be taking care of the first few floors, drawing attention so he could hunt for his prize. Which is why he went directly to the last floor. Just before he opened up into the hallway, a red light flashed above him. He clicked his mandibles together knowing the oomans were now aware of Baaul.

He waited as a herd of oomans ran past him, seemingly toward the elevators, before stepping out into the hallway. The fact they relied on those metal boxes confused him. He felt it was easier to use stairs because stairs would never need repairs like the elevator would. At least on this backwards planet anyway. Yautja Prime did not have faults like this.

He shook his head as an alarm blared right next to his head. He snarled and smashed the thing with his fist, silencing it, but there were more. There would be no way to silence them all, so he did his best to ignore them and went to the large room he had looked at with Baaul.

It was full of medical equipment, one massive machine that had a rather large needle attached to the only mechanical arm. A torture probe of some sort. There was a small desk that had several screens up, but one caught his attention, because it had a picture of his mate strapped to a metal table. Her eyes were closed, seemingly asleep, but what enraged him was that she was naked. Her small body had a bloom of bruises so big on her thighs and arms that they almost looked like tattoos.

They had tortured her! They would all die for this!

He roared as he tossed the table. A small scream drew his attention over to the left side of the room. An ooman female, several years older than his mate, sat huddled in a corner. He had missed her entirely. She was leaking out of her eyes and muttering a chant of some sort. His first thought was to kill her. No doubt she had a hand in harming his mate, but he had thought his mate would be in this room. Instead of checking every room mindlessly he'd just make this ooman take him to her.

When he dropped his cloaking, standing before her, she whimpered and tried to back herself even further into the wall she was already at. "P-please d-don't kill me! Please! I have a daughter and-"

But Xai'an didn't care about her offspring! What did he care for hers when they possibly denied him his? He roared again, pulling another scream from her and she huddled in on herself. "Where is she?" He used his mask to ask the question because he didn't want to confuse her with his attempts at English. He was also sure he wouldn't be able to tame his rage which would frighten her beyond use.

The question had the shaking ooman looking up at him. "Y-you're here for Zena?"

He gave a sharp nod. "Take me to her and I will let you live." The mixed recordings seemed to puzzle the ooman, but she nodded slowly.

"I-I t-tried to get her f-freed! I d-did-dn't want to-to hurt her!" She seemed to be barely holding herself together as she got to her feet. To prevent her from falling apart, he remained very still as she inched her way to the door he had come through and only when she opened it, did he move to follow her.

The ooman female guided him right down the hallway. She seemed a little steadier. "You're him, aren't you?"

He clicked his mandibles together in confusion. "'Him'?" He repeated in her voice.

It took her a second to respond. Her cheeks were the same color as his mates when she was embarrassed. "Y-yes. The one that was...'with' her. Her lover."

Xai'an understood what she meant, but it never ceased to amaze him how easily embarrassed oomans came to be on the subject of mating. He simply said, "Yes."

"You're much larger than the others. Is there a reason for that?" She asked as she turned the corner and froze. Her tension made her whole body rigid and Xai'an knew she was looking at the male oomans. He could hear them.

"Shit." She said with feeling.

Without missing a beat, Xai'an grabbed the female to toss her back out of the way of harm and faced the three ooman males. They were surprised to see him as their eyes nearly popped out of their heads. Xai'an thrust his claws into the closet ooman's chest. The rib cage snapped like twigs and Xai'an's hand was palming something hot, sticky, and squishy as the ooman's blood poured out in a waterfall through his mouth and wound. Xai'an tossed the twitching ooman back, shoving him down the hall several feet.

The other two remaining ooman's tried to raise their weapons, now out of the trance of fear they had been in. Xai'an caught the first weapon and yanked it out of his hands. He whipped the other ooman in the face with it so hard, his skull caved in with a wet pop and he dropped before even firing a single shot.

Xai'an roared as the disarmed ooman turned to run away. Coward! He didn't even allow himself to chase the pathetic male. He simply reached for and tossed a dagger, planting it firmly in his spine, killing him instantly. Ooman vertebrae was very delicate.

He was about to tell the female ooman to come out, but three more ooman males ran out of the elevator. They dropped to one knee, getting ready to fire their weapons. Xai'an reached for his whip and sliced the air in front of him, the movement cut straight through their arms, severing both them and the weapons they used. Their screams as they clutched their bloody nubs was music to him and he hoped one of them were responsible for harming his mate so he could ensure her revenge was served.

There was so much blood now from their gushing limbs that the hall was nearly painted red with it. He approached them and only one seemed to notice outside of their pain induced panic. The ooman tried to reach for another weapon at his hip and even managed to fire off a shot that grazed off Xai'an's mask before he kicked him with his bladed boot. The ooman's steaming hot insides plopped to the floor and he was dead before he fell. He then reached for the heads of the other two simultaneously and ripped them clean off their shoulders, roaring over the loud wet tearing sound the flesh made from being pulled apart. Then he dropped the masses on the floor with a wet thunk.

"Let's go, woman." He said with his mask.

At first she didn't move and it annoyed him. He knew she hadn't run because he could hear her thundering heart beat. Then she stepped out, her eyes wide and hands over her mouth. "Oh...my....God!"

"Hurry." He growled it, not having the patience to wait for the mask. It made her jump and nearly run ahead which was fine by him.

She stopped outside of a door and tried to open it but it seemed to be locked. Xai'an believed she was going to apologize for the door, but he simply kicked it in. The room inside was like the rest of the facility. Empty, except for a small desk.

"Help me please!" Xai'an's head whipped around to the sound of his mate's voice. There was another door in the room. An emotion he had never felt before hit his gut and if asked by his brothers, he'd never admit it. Fear. Fear from the massive amount of blood that trailed from the room his mate seemed to be in. Without waiting, he went to it and yanked the door back off its hinges. His mate screamed from the sound and huddled in the corner right next to the door.

She looked...so...broken. Xai'an felt the air leave him at her bruised body, which was worse than the images had showed and she seemed to be favoring an arm. A quick bio scan showed that her right thigh had been fractured and her right arm was broken, recent injuries; but she seemed to glow when she looked up at him and that made him happy.

"Xai'an? You came for me...?" Her beautiful face pinched in emotion that he didn't entirely understand. She was sad, yet happy at the same time? Did she honestly think he wouldn't?

"I said I would." He knelt down, wanting to be closer to her but not sure where to start. Picking her up was going to be painful for her no matter what he did.

"Here!" The female behind him shrugged off her white coat and handed it out to him. "She's shivering."

While he was looking back at the female, Z scrambled over to him, ignoring her own pain and threw her one good arm around his neck. He felt her hot, wet, tears leak onto his shoulder which made him wrap his big arms around her little body as gently as he could. "I thought I was going to die down here..."

The other female came around them, reaching for his mate. He snarled at her, pulling Z closer to him.

"No, it's okay, Xai'an! She is a friend." His mate mumbled into his neck. It was the only reason he let the other female touch her. Though he watched carefully as she draped his mate with the cloth carefully. He snarled again when she reached for her broken arm. "Xai'an, I need her help. It's going to suck, but I'd rather not be naked. Please let her help. She is a friend."

He growled, "Friends betray Z."

She winced as the other female reached between them to tie the fabric closed. Xai'an knew it made the older female uncomfortable to brush against his abdominals but he didn't care. He wouldn't budge for any reason.

"No. No they didn't betray me. We were captured, Xai'an. They killed Danny. They...killed him!" She motioned to the bloody scene at his feet and he heard the rage in her voice now. That he understood. Being on hunts with his brothers, he always felt rage when they fell. Though they died with honor, he always felt that it was his honor to slay their victor.

"I didn't know they did that...God..." The older female's breath hitched, her own tears making a reappearance.

"Marion. I think they have more of my friends. Please! We need to rescue them!" Z hissed in pain when she turned to face the older female.

Xai'an picked her up despite her screams of pain. No. No way. He didn't care about her ooman friends. He was getting her out of here now. She couldn't fight him even if she tried right and he didn't care if he risked her anger. Once he got her on his ship, he was never letting her go anyway.

"They didn't keep anyone here other than you. Your friend, Danny, was brought in this morning...but he was fine when I spoke to him...God I didn't know they'd hurt him..." The older female said. He was relieved at that because that meant he wouldn't have to upset his mate by refusing to aid them.

He easily cradled Z in one arm as he prepared the charge in his wrist device.

"What's that?" Z asked through her gritted teeth. Even that little motion seemed to cause her great discomfort.

"Bomb." According to the map, the support pillar had been in the room where he had found the older female ooman. They'd need to head back there before he could set it off.

"A BOMB?" The woman shrieked. He was really wishing he hadn't told her he'd let her live. The female was annoying.

"Isn't that...excessive, Xai'an?"

He looked at his mate. There was a massive bruise forming on her forehead. Her body was a broken mass and he felt like she had lost what little weight that she had. Did she still have sympathy for the oomans who hurt her? The very thought made him furious. "They. Die."

"Well yeah. But blowing the place up? Personally, I'd rather watch them suffer for the shit they did to me." She ran her good hand over his mask and he wished he had it off so he could feel it on his skin. Her rage made her beautiful.

"Z safety comes first. They will suffer when earth crush them." He turned to the older female. "Go. Bomb three minutes."

Marion nodded and shot to the door, then paused. "Her arm will need to be set soon so it heals properly and Zena... I'm so sorry. I really am." Then she was gone.

"I didn't tell them anything by the way." Z mumbled.

He cocked his head curiously.

Sensing his confusion she continued. "They wanted to know about you. Said they wanted to know how you altered my DNA. I wouldn't tell them. It's why they hurt me."

A whirl of feelings hit him. Some that he'd never felt before. Pride swelled deep that his female was loyal to him even to the point of torture. Happiness that she felt that loyalty to endure the pain without breaking. Grief that she felt that she had to go through it at all. Guilt that he was robbing her of seeing him slaughter every single one of them.

"I will kill them all." He reassured her again with his mask. "Then Xai'an fix Z."

She smiled and nodded. "Sounds fan-fucking-tastic to me. Thank you for coming for me, Xai'an."

***AUTHORS NOTE***

I felt generous today.

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***END AUTHORS NOTE***