Free Lucas: #3 (Luna Lodge: Hunters of Atlas) by Madison Stevens

people civilians when they weren’t doing pull-ups or crawling under barbed wire fences in mud.
    She bit her lip. There was so much she didn’t understand. Lucas said they were different than the other hybrids. Maybe they weren’t super-soldiers like the ones from Luna Lodge. Perhaps that is why he was so nice.
    Just looking at him, it was clear they were different with those shocking blue eyes. They were so very different than the amber eyes she’d seen for the hybrids on TV.
    Lucas cleared his throat. “You haven’t said anything.”
    Taylor picked up one of the containers with chocolate cake and popped the lid.
    “I love chocolate cake,” she said with a smile. “I can’t believe you managed to get some of this.”
    Taylor took a large bite as he stared at her.
    “That’s not what I mean,” he said quietly. He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I want to know what you think about the other things I said.”
    She closed the lid to the cake and set it aside. With all the food out of the way, it was a perfect time to lay down on the mattress and focus on the stars. With confusion still swirling in her head and heart, it was better to keep her eyes on the stars above rather than the hunky man beside her.
    Lucas lay down next to her, their arms just barely touching.
    “It’s just a lot to take in,” she said and sighed. “I’m a simple sort of person from a small town. The idea of you being in the Witness Protection Protection seemed crazy enough. Now we’re talking about hybrids, men I’ve only ever seen on TV or on the internet. It’s…” She shrugged.
    The silence stretched between the two of them as she kept her gaze on the heavens above.
    “Does that mean you want out?” he asked.
    Taylor could hear the hurt in his voice and turned on her side to look at him as he continued to gaze up at the stars. His strong jaw line amazed her. It begged for her to trace it with her mouth.
    “It doesn’t mean I want out,” she said softly. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
    Lucas turned his head to look at her now. Hope reflected there.
    “I just need time to adjust and wrap my mind around all of this,” Taylor said. “As of thirty minutes ago, I knew next to nothing about you. Only that you were cute, nice and hard-working. Now I know a little more. Maybe even a lot more, I guess. I call that progress.”
    Lucas gave a lopsided smile, and her heart fluttered.
    She returned to looking at the sky.
    “How did you become like you are?” she asked. She wasn’t totally sure what she was asking, but she wanted to know more about him. “The news said something about genetic engineering. At least that’s what they said about the men at Luna Lodge. Is it the same with you?”
    Lucas let out a sigh. “We aren’t totally sure. In our group, our pasts were wiped from our minds, and the last thing any of my people remember is waking up from cryosleep.”
    “Cryosleep?”
    “The Horatius Group has special technology. They can use it to cool your body down, put you into a kind of long-term hibernation.”
    “And they wiped your memory? With a machine?”
    “We’re not sure. We don’t even know even how long we were in cryo.”
    She turned her head to look at him. His gaze remained fixed on the stars above them.
    “I didn’t know those kinds of things were even possible,” she said quietly. “Then again, I didn’t know men like you were even possible.”
    Lucas shrugged. Not in annoyance, as she would expect, but more like he had come to terms with his past and moved on from it.
    “What about family?” she prodded. Taylor couldn’t imagine what life would be like for her father if she just disappeared.
    “The Luna hybrids found some information about their own births. They were given to the Horatius Group by their mothers for a price, and we can only assume it was the same for our kind.” He turned to look at her now. His blue eyes blazed in the darkness around them. “It doesn’t matter. My