by Cynthia Sax
“Sir,” she squeaked, pressing her hot cheek against his body armor. “I have to install some sort of sound suppression in our chambers. That’s our first priority.”
“I’ll add that to our task list.” Crash laughed, unabashedly eavesdropping on their private conversion.
Cursed cyborg hearing. She frowned.
“Cease your chatter, female.” Rage petted her hair, his touch gentle, soothing her. “Save your strength.” He might be the fiercest of all warriors yet he treated her with a heart-melting tenderness.
“What is the Homeland, sir?” Joan had heard the other cyborgs whisper about it when they passed, eagerness and excitement lifting their voices.
“It’s not for us.” He rested his chin on the top of her head.
Why wasn’t it for them and why did he sound so sad? “But—”
“It’s time.” Crash tapped the controls. An image of the battle station filled the viewscreen. She shifted so she could better see it.
“Are all cyborg ships a safe distance away?” Rage asked.
“They’re out of range.”
Joan slipped her palm into her cyborg’s. They waited and waited and waited. She opened her mouth to ask for a countdown.
A series of explosions rocked the battle station, moving from one end to the other, tearing through its frame. The flames were a dazzling array of reds, yellows, and oranges. Metal and other debris splintered from the structure, eating away at its integrity more and more.
Joan jumped as the viewscreen blazed with a white light. When it faded, there was nothing left. The image was the blackness of space.
The battle station was gone.
“It’s over.” Part of her couldn’t believe it.
“It’s over.” Rage cuddled her closer to him, to his tantalizing heat. “You’re safe. They can’t hurt you anymore.”
They couldn’t hurt him either. “You’re free.”
“We’re free.” He stroked her arm. “Now, sleep.”
They’d discuss the Homeland later, when she was rested. Joan closed her eyes. Her thoughts dissipated as she drifted into sunlit dreamland.
* * *
She bathed in the sunlight for seemingly endless moments, the rays warming her bare skin. Her mind was fuzzy. A smile curled her lips.
Then the light, the heat faded and the darkness gripped her. With the night came loneliness and fear. Bad things were about to happen. She knew this in her heart, in her soul.
A pop echoed through the space and shards of agony branched out from her shoulder. The crunch that followed was equally loud. Unbearable pain shot up her arm. She screamed and writhed and fought, trying to escape it.
“Shhh…I’m back.” Firm hands clasped her arms. “I’m here.” She was pressed against warm skin, hard muscle. “I have you.”
“Rage.” Joan breathed in his distinctive scent, her heart pounding. “Don’t leave me, sir.” She climbed into his lap, straddling his hips, clinging to him.
“I won’t. Never again.” He rubbed her back, up, down, up, down. “You dozed off in my arms. Logic told me that you’d be more comfortable on one of those sleeping supports the other humans use. I didn’t want to crowd you.”
“Crowd me. I don’t want to be alone. When you touch me, the darkness doesn’t get me.” She realized she was talking nonsense but she couldn’t remain silent.
“I’m touching you now.” Rage splayed his fingers, covering more of her bare skin. They were both naked, nothing separating them, the full body contact easing her fears.
She should be the one caring for him. “You must think I’m foolish.”
“With one brush of your palm, my anger fades.” He circled her wrists, raised her hands to his face, and kissed each fingertip. “I feel a peacefulness I’ve never known.” His blue eyes gleamed. “Is that foolish?”
“No, sir.” She gazed at him, caught by the emotion reflecting in his rugged face. Rage looked back at her, want and need building, building, building.
“Joan.” He surged forward and captured her lips, his sensual attack hard and fierce. She gasped. He pushed deep, forcing her to open wider to him.
They dueled for dominance. She knew she wouldn’t win yet she tried anyway, sucking on his tongue, sinking her fingers into his long hair. Her lips hummed. Her jaw ached. Her worlds narrowed to him, to this big, brutish cyborg before her.
Rage curved his hands under her ass and stood, lifting her easily. With two strides, he had her back pressed against a cool metal wall, her shoulders pinned by his weight. Stars. He was powerful. She moaned her appreciation into his mouth.
He grunted a reply and rocked against her, rubbing his shaft over her pussy lips, wetting his flesh. His rim skimmed along her clit. The scar on his cock added decadent texture. All of her senses snapped and sizzled.
“You want me.” Rage drew his hips back, found her entrance.
“Yes, sir.” She’d never wanted any being as much as she wanted him.
He pushed into her and met her gaze, pausing with only his cock head engulfed in her heat. “Which male do you want?”
He was a possessive, primitive cyborg and he wanted every being on the ship to know he owned her. “Rage, sir.” She wouldn’t fight him on this. It was the truth. “I want Rage inside me.”
He huffed and slid deeper but not far enough. She wiggled, trying to tempt him.
“Be still, female.” He swatted her ass, she clenched around him, and they both groaned. “The others may talk with you. You may upgrade their mechanics. But you breed with me and with me alone.”
She blinked. He was giving her permission to upgrade the mechanics of other cyborgs? She never thought he’d agree so easily to that. “You’re the only male I’ll breed with, sir.”
Rage sank farther into her, again stopping frustratingly short. “Ever.”
Fuck. He was torturing her. “Rage is the only male I will ever breed with,” Joan shouted so the entire ship could hear her. “I will never love another being as much as I love C899321. He owns my body, my heart, my soul.” Her gaze locked with his. “Enough chatter. You vowed to use me hard. Keep your vow.”
Rage grinned. “You’re ferocious, female.” He drove into her, smacking her ass against the wall, the sting sharp and exciting. “A good match for a C model cyborg.”
“I’m…a…perfect…match.” She panted as he rode her vigorously, not giving her a chance to catch her breath. Skin slapped against skin, his muscles providing little cushion between her and the metal plates protecting his body.
A rush of energy lit his eyes, casting a shadow on his harsh countenance, accentuating his scars, his blunt features. Joan dug her heels into his clenched ass cheeks, encouraging him to ravish her with more of his strength.
She hadn’t been lying when she said he’d be the only being she’d ever breed with. Even if he discarded her, traded her for a female of his own kind, she’d remain faithful to him, knowing that no male would ever compete. He’d reshaped her body to fit his cock, bound her happiness to his.
Rage was her destiny. She arched into him, flattening her breasts against his chest. He was the reason C345925 had saved her. It didn’t guarantee them a future together. His sadness surrounding the Homeland bothered her. But right here, right now was enough, more than she’d ever had.
He thrust again and again. Her sweat covered both of them, making his gray skin shine like polished metal. Their scents entwined, complementing each other. She clasped his shoulders, reveling in the undulation of his fit physique. He could defend their private sanctuary, this tiny chamber on board the ship, against any being.
And she would stand by his side. Joan licked the vein pulsing on his right pec, tasting salt and metal, and a rumble rolled up his chest, his pace increasing.
They fucked like two wild creatures, unencumbered by any masters, any rules. They were free. Joan no longer reported to a sadistic Commander, didn’t have to look over her shoulder, watching for threats in the darkness. Rage didn’t
have to fight wars he didn’t believe in, didn’t have to breed with females he’d never met before.
He chose to breed with her. That could be out of necessity. She was the only female on the ship. But no one else dictated his actions and that warmed Joan’s chest. He didn’t need her help to escape, didn’t require her to complete maintenance on him.
He was with her because he wanted to be with her.
“Rage.” She reached upward. He rounded his back, lowering his scarred face and she sucked on his square chin. His lips curled upward and his cock swelled inside her.
The first shudder was slight, the gentlest of quivers progressing outward from her pussy, zipping up her chest, along her arms and legs. Rage thrust into her, his rhythm steady and sure and, with each drive forward, her tremors grew in intensity, rising, a crescendo of yearning within her.
Joan’s ears buzzed with sound. Her pussy pulsed with wanting. She leaned her head back and called his name to the same tempo, her voice stretched with desire.
Rage joined her erotic symphony, grunting “Joan, Joan, Joan”, his choice of word propelling her to the brink of release. Lost in passion, he didn’t see her as a replaceable female. He wanted her and only her.
“Rage?” She shook, fighting the urge to come.
“Let go.” Her cyborg filled her pussy with his hard cock. “I have you.” He rotated his hips, the sensual grind severing her hold on reality.
She screamed his name, hitched her hips, taking him deeper, and squeezed his shaft with her inner walls. He roared, jerking forward, bathing her with hot spurts of cum. The relentless caress of his nanocybotics drew another round of mind-destroying ecstasy.
Joan fought to escape him. Rage didn’t allow this, restraining her body with his, holding her still.
“Yes. Oh. Please. Sir. I,” she babbled gibberish against his chest.
“Did I break you, little female?” He carried her to the sleeping support and climbed onto the surface, not releasing her.
“Did I break you, sir?” She snuggled on top of him. “You told me I could upgrade the other cyborgs’ mechanics.”
He scowled. “Crash and Gap wouldn’t give me peace until I agreed. You touch them. They will not touch you.”
She smiled. His tolerance only extended so far. “I don’t want them to touch me, sir.” She remained wary of other beings. “Will they be leaving us when we reach the Homeland?”
There was a long pause. Her cyborg might be an early model but he wasn’t stupid. He must know she was searching for information.
“They say they won’t,” he finally answered.
“But you don’t believe them.” She lifted her head to gaze at Rage. Lines were etched between his eyebrows. He didn’t want to part ways with his friends.
The solution was for all of them to stay in the Homeland but, for some reason, he said this mythical place wasn’t for him and for her. Which didn’t make sense because it sounded like all of the other cyborgs were welcome there.
All of the other cyborgs.
Shit.
“If you hadn’t met me, would you stay in your Homeland?”
“I met you.” Rage tightened his grip on her.
His avoidance of an answer told her everything she needed to know. Humans weren’t welcome in their precious Homeland. Joan’s heart twisted. She couldn’t ask Rage to give up everything—his friends, his sense of belonging, his home—to be with her.
When they reached his Homeland, she’d have to let him go.
Chapter Sixteen
Twenty-one planet rotations with no fighting and he was still sane. She was the cause. Rage watched Joan as she fiddled with Gap’s thigh mechanics, the two of them chattering away, smiles on their faces. She was so beautiful, so his.
Intrepid sent these for her. Crash plunked a handful of nourishment bars on his console. He was dressed in a flight suit, as were Joan and Gap.
Rage was naked. He stretched out his legs. The largest garment Crash found on the battle station didn’t fit him. Humans were tiny beings. His gaze returned to his little female. Intrepid is besotted with her.
Every cyborg in our fleet is besotted with her. Even Chuckles, that grim human-hating bag of bolts, inquired after her, asked if she could look at that knee he’s always complaining about. Crash flopped into the seat beside him. And the bars might be needed. Human female nourishment consumption is erratic. The first planet rotation, she ate one bar when she woke, barely finishing it. When she woke this planet rotation, she ate six.
Six? Rage stared at Joan. That equaled his consumption and she was half his size. Fear skittered through him. “Female, are you ill?”
“No, sir.” She cast a dark glance at Crash. “Is this about the nourishment bars? I didn’t mean to eat so many but I was ravenous, and once I ate one, I couldn’t stop.” She closed Gap’s thigh compartment and straightened.
Her flight suit was stretched tight around her breasts and stomach. Her extra curves appealed to Rage but he wouldn’t risk her health to gain them.
“Is that level of hunger normal?” He knew very little about human females.
“Is breeding three times a planet rotation normal?” Her cheeks turned an enchanting shade of pink.
She was breeding with a C Model cyborg. His fears eased. It was logical that she’d eat like one. “Come here.” He patted his bare thighs.
She hurried to his side and he pulled her onto his lap.
“Satisfy your hunger.” Rage handed her a protein bar. “Chuckles wishes for you to repair his knee. Other human handlers have tried.”
“They obviously didn’t try hard enough.” She munched on the bar and chattered about the upgrades she’d like to perform on the war-battered cyborg.
Rage listened to her flow of words, breathing in her womanly scent. It had changed over the past couple of planet rotations, become even more tantalizing. He inhaled deeply and warmth spread across his chest. She smelled like home, like happiness.
He stroked her messy brown curls, watched the emotions flit across her face. Every third or fourth sentence, she touched his chest, his cheek, his shoulder, as though to reinforce their connection, to assure herself that he was there. He doubted she was aware of what she was doing.
He was, very much so, the flit of her fingertips heating him down to his circuits, making his huge cyborg heart stop and start.
“Are we close to the Homeland, sir?” Shadows darkened her big brown eyes. Joan asked that question every planet rotation.
She worried. He did also. He had proposed privately to the other cyborgs that they land on a nearby trading planet, that Gap and Crash lead the fleet to the Homeland, and he stay with his little human. His friends refused to leave them, Gap babbling about finding females of their own, ignorant of the risks to Joan.
Rage was certain they would change their minds once they saw the Homeland, once the cyborgs living there embraced them. He couldn’t deny them that future.
“We can see the Homeland.” He pointed to the left of the main viewscreen. A blanket of stars was laid across a backdrop of black. “That’s its sun.”
“It has only one, sir?” She wiggled, driving her ass deeper into his already tormented groin. “Depending on the distance from that sun, the planet could be cooler, ideal for a variety of crops.”
Rage’s lips twitched. Once an agri lot female, always an agri lot female. “I’m not interested in crops.”
“I can’t picture you tending the fields.” She grinned and a fierce joy seized him, her happiness feeding his. “There could be large predators to hunt.”
“Unarmed animals hold little challenge.” He needed the thrill of battling an intelligent foe.
“Hmmm…” Her lips twisted. “There will be other cyborgs with the same desires, sir. I’m certain they—”
“An A Class warship is approaching us.” Crash brought the image on the viewscreen. The vessel was unmarked, well-armed, and twenty times the size of theirs.
“Are they cyborgs?
” If they weren’t, the only option was retreat.
“Don’t yet know.” His friend shrugged. “I’m performing a life-form scan.”
“They’re hailing us.” Gap plugged into the console.
“Open hailing frequencies.” Rage wrapped his arms around Joan.
A face filled the main viewscreen.
He’s a cyborg, Crash informed him unnecessarily.
I see that. Rage was surrounded by fools.
“Greetings.” The cyborg was another C model, his face as primitive as his but lacking his scars. “Welcome to cyborg-controlled space. I’m Vector, the captain of the Freedom.”
“I’m Rage. This is Crash.” He waved his hand at his friend. “Gap.” The young cyborg grinned. “And my female, Joan.” He made their relationship clear. “We’re leading a fleet of six hundred and twelve cyborgs.”
Vector nodded. “We will guide you into the Homeland but first, we must clear the contents of your ships. We detect no tracking devices. There is one unauthorized vegetation.”
“Windy,” Joan whispered.
“Hail Green,” Rage instructed, dreading this conversation. The cyborg had formed an emotional bond with the scraggly plant he’d found on the Mantidae’s migratory planet, caring for it with a tenderness Rage mocked…before he met Joan.
“I will jettison Windy.” Green’s mouth drooped. He had, thankfully, been listening. There was no reason to wrangle with words.
“No.” his little female gasped, gripping Rage’s hands.
“As I was telling you two planet rotations ago, Joan, she isn’t faring well on this voyage,” Green shared. “It doesn’t matter what I do. She loses leaves, is turning brown.”
“It’s the light source. I’m certain about it.” His fighter of a female wasn’t making this tough decision easier for the cyborg.
“It could be,” Green admitted. “But it might be too late to save her. Barrel claims she’s already gone.” He looked away from viewscreen, his throat moving. “Give me a moment with her.”
“We’ll wait for as long as you need,” Joan spoke for all of them.
