Free Untamed Hawaiian Heat (Rift Hunters) by Shay MacLean Page A

communicated with him telepathically. He topped the ridge and stopped dead in his tracks beside Tiaki. He stared in disbelief.
    Tiaki took off and charged into the fight. He started to follow but nearly doubled over in agony when he heard a screeching howl inside his head. He put his hands over his ears. What the fuck?
    “Mateo, it’s Earth’s magic. Those soldiers are ripping it from the core and using it to plant mines.”
    He heard Tiaki’s voice in his head again, only this time, it was insistent.
    “That’s what is causing Earth’s magic to react so violently.”
    Even though he heard Tiaki’s voice, he still couldn’t move. His head felt like it was about to explode. Then he felt a soothing presence slip into his mind, and the restlessness inside him reached for it. He took a deep breath as the two energies combined and quickly wove a shield around the part of his brain being affected by the intense sound waves. When he was finally able to breathe, he glanced up to find Tiaki watching him from halfway down the incline. His eyes glowed with an eerie golden light in the darkness that had descended.
    “That shield should help to block most of it. Now let’s go and help your friends. I was right when I said it was the same rogue group, the Obsidian Syndicate.” Mateo started to reply when an image of an opening much like the one the Hunter had fallen out of suddenly flashed in his mind. Only this one had tattered edges, and Tiaki was there with streams of energy flowing from his fingers as he attempted to close it.
    Mateo shoved away the thoughts Tiaki was pushing into his mind about someone named Aizik and how the massive machines their enemy was using had been brought here. He’d question the Hunter about them later. Right now, he needed to help his team.
    He raised his rifle and fired it at a soldier several yards away, trying not to notice how he could feel Tiaki focusing his magic. How he formed an energy bolt in the palm of his hand and then flung it at the nearest OS soldier.
    The soldier stumbled, regained his balance, and spun on Tiaki. The man—if there really was a man underneath all those cybernetic enhancements—charged him, an enraged roar issuing from his throat.
    Mateo didn’t blink twice when he realized the asshole was fixing to hurt his mate before he aimed his rifle and fired several rounds. My mate?
    A vague awareness hummed to life within Mateo’s blood as he felt Tiaki send a wave of gratitude along whatever linked them together, before he went crashing down the hill at breakneck speed to join in the fray.
    Mateo spared Tiaki one last glance as he ran to Monte’s aid, where he was fighting off three cyborgs who were pinning Niki down. He turned and threw a grenade into the midst of one group of enemies at the far side of the forest, setting a couple of trees on fire.
    A shock wave rolled overhead as the trees exploded.
    Mateo stumbled backward, barely able to regain his balance on the uneven terrain. When he found purchase, he reached down to pick up his rifle from where it had fallen out of his hands and gasped in surprise when the core magic Tiaki had mentioned flooded his consciousness. Images of the weapons the Syndicate had just planted all over the entrance to the valley flashed inside his mind. He closed his eyes, trying not to sink down to his knees the way his body wanted to.
    “Shit. Breathe, Mateo, and reach for the energy in the place we shielded earlier. Reinforce the barrier I helped you create.”
    Mateo chose not to question how Tiaki was communicating with him and did as he said. When he finally got the shielding back into place, he opened his eyes and started to send the intel about the mines to the rest of his team. Before he could, though, he froze when a cyborg caught Tiaki in the face with his armored fist. Mateo roared and fought his way through the melee separating them.
    * * * *
    Tiaki fell back. His whole body shook with the force of the blow he’d taken to