Mated to the Beast of the Wasteland (Gillian and Merrick) novel Chapter 270

Chapter 270 We Bait Them Out

Chapter 270 We Bait Them Out

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Merrick led her out of the pool. She couldn’t stay in there forever, not carrying two babies.

Gillian didn’t argue. She had things to talk about anyway.

She glanced back at Ruby, still waiting. “Ruby, I’ll be back. Wait for me.”

Ruby had figured Merrick would steal Gillian for the day. The fact that she was coming back surprised her. She nodded.

Merrick’s gaze flickered.

She’s planning to live in that pool?

He guided Gillian onto an aircraft but didn’t take them far.

“Lily’s back too, isn’t she? Why didn’t she come find me?” Gillian scanned the camp and didn’t see her.

“On the way back, Lily spotted a scale parasite nest. She took twenty flower beasts to wipe it out,” Merrick said.

“Is it close?”

“Yeah. About a hundred miles out. I left them the warship and came back on the aircraft.”

“Merrick, do you think the Phoenixkin could get here faster than we thought? Elara said the fastest ship from Capital Planet takes fifteen days, but if those things are parasites, who knows what kind of ships they have.”

Gillian met his eyes. The scale parasites had to be gene-spliced from the Central World, same as the flower beasts. It wasn’t a stretch to think they had tech that could cross worlds faster.

She half-expected him to say she was reaching. He didn’t.

Merrick said, “I’ve been thinking the same thing. The Blue Phoenix that sent us that message might not be Freya’s. It could be the one the Phoenixkin already own.”

Gillian’s head snapped toward him. “You’re saying they’ve already been taken? The Phoenixkin have Freya’s wrist terminal?”

Merrick said, “It’s possible.”

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13:09 Tue, Jul 14

Chapter 270 We Bait Them Out

70

+20 Free Coins

She dropped her gaze, and her mind started spinning. “Then when did it happen? Did someone slip on board while they were still here at the pool, or did they get ambushed after they left?”

“What do you think?” He threw it back at her, walking her through it.

“If they got on board at the pool, that means the Phoenixkin were already inside during the assault.” A cold wave washed through Gillian.

The thing that wore Merrick’s face and pulled me away-was that really just to eat me? Or was it about punching a hole so the Phoenixkin could get in?

Merrick seemed to read her thoughts. His voice softened. “Gillian, this is all guesswork. Don’t put this on yourself. If I’d seen you hurt back then, I would’ve gone after you too. No question.”

She forced her mouth into something like a smile and moved on. “If it happened after they left the base, whoever did it was strong enough to alter the Griffin Warship’s course. That’s not a small thing. And once everything was in place, the Phoenixkin sent the fake transmission from the Naiad River to pull us into a rescue?”

Either way, the weight of it settled on her. When she finished, the silence sat thick between them.

A breeze drifted through the base, already warm in the early morning.

“Merrick, what do we do now?” she asked.

Merrick said, “Gillian, if the Phoenixkin are already here, then we fight them. The 9th Legion’s been fighting its whole life. One more round won’t break us.”

“But they’re in the shadows and we’re out in the open. How do we fight something we can’t see?”

For the first time, Merrick caught a flicker of real confusion on Gillian’s face.

“We bait them out.”

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