by Cynthia Sax
His female was a product of her toxic planet and that immediately threw his nanocybotic production into hyperspeed, his body rushing to offset her venom. A combination of danger and breeding partner, she fed the primitive part of him.
Mine. He deepened their kiss, stroking his tongue along hers, needing to claim her, to ensure every male knew she was his.
She opened wider to him and a rumble of approval rose from his chest.
That sound didn’t frighten his fearless female. She clutched his body armor-clad shoulders with her slender fingers and arched her back, pressing against him. Her small breasts flattened against his chest. The bottom of her flimsy garment drifted around his legs.
She was soft and delicate and fine. He sniffed the air and growled with satisfaction. His nanocybotics spread inside her. His female had been marked. Everyone would know whom she belonged to
Breeding with her would make that ownership permanent. He ground his body armor-constrained cock against her fabric-covered mons and mashed his lips against hers. The metallic taste of blood flavored his tongue.
Her blood.
Protect. His savage side reared back, voluntarily retreating, the urge to safeguard his female stronger than the desire to claim her.
His machine advanced. Emotion was replaced with logic, instinct with processing.
His civilized half became aware of what his primitive side had done. The female might be genetically compatible with him but she had been a stranger.
And he’d attacked her, aggressively ravishing her mouth.
Shame engulfed him. Doc drew back from her, dreading what he’d see.
Her gaze met his. Her shimmering eyes were wide yet he saw no pain in them. Her lips had been plumped from his kiss, were tinted a shade of gold darker than the rest of her.
A tiny drop of red glistened on that decadent flesh.
That wound had been inflicted by him. “I cut your lip with my teeth.” He was a brute, unworthy of such a stunning creature. “Did I damage you anywhere else, my female?”
She sucked in her breath, her long, lean form stiffening under his. “Argh.” She placed her hands on his chest and shoved.
His pretty little humanoid was surprisingly strong, but he was a cyborg. Few beings had the power to move him. Not if he didn’t want that to happen.
He resisted for a moment, long enough to communicate that message, and then rose to his knees, allowing her the space she wanted.
His female rolled to the side and jumped to her feet, her retreat graceful and smooth. Her lips pressed into a thin line. Her chin lifted.
She was upset with him.
“Will you allow me to repair you?” He would try to offset the damage he’d caused her…if that was doable.
It might not be possible.
His female’s eyes flashed. His question seemed to have made her more irate. She turned and walked to the edge of the hole the lava pocket had made in the ground.
He repositioned beside her. Heat and sulfuric fumes drifted upward.
She pointed at the spot, made up and down motions with her hands. “Shit.” She then pointed to the horizon.
“Are there more lava pockets in that direction?” He struggled to interpret her communication.
The lines around her lips deepened.
She pointed to the spot on the ground again, made up and down motions with her hands. Then she shook her head vehemently. “Shit.” She reached up and touched his left ear. “Son of a Palavian whore.”
He winced. His ears had been singed by the lava pocket and her gentle probing caused him pain. “Yes, it does hurt like a son of a Palavian whore.”
“That’s the last lesson I teach you, you disrespectful male.” She switched languages, her top lip curling. “Try not to get yourself killed.”
His female flipped the ends of her long hair over her shoulders and walked away.
Doc stared after her. It took a heartbeat for him to match the sounds to a language in his database. She was speaking an old Earth dialect, one few beings currently utilized.
“How did I disrespect you?” He grabbed his medic pack, scooped his damaged handheld off the ground and hurriedly caught up to his female.
It must have been his brutal kiss. That would upset any being.
His female cast him a hard glance.
Yes, the kiss was the source of her unhappiness with him. He was 98.9635 percent certain about that. “You deserved better than that. I agree.”
He could and would control his emotional side while he was with her. His female warranted that respect.
She sniffed.
They walked. He noticed a different type of tree, reached out to take a sample of it with the sensors on his fingertips.
“Don’t touch that.” She smacked his hand. “It will son of a Palavian whore someone like you.” She seamlessly meshed the curse spoken in the universal language with the words in her own.
“Son of a Palavian whore is a profanity. It isn’t an action.” His processors whirled as he tried to decipher her logic. “And you have never met anyone like me.”
No cyborg had ever landed on the planet. That information would have been stored in their shared databases.
“I have observed many outsiders.” Her forehead furrowed with thought lines. “When they’re injured, they say ‘Son of a Palavian whore.’ I witnessed that twice. I assumed it meant ‘hurt.’”
“It doesn’t mean that.” He matched his female’s stride and reviewed her bizarre communications with him. “Shit is a profanity also.”
“The outsiders said ‘shit’ and they ran. I witnessed that four times.” She frowned. “And you ran when I said that word.” His female paused. “Though you ran toward the lava pocket, not away from it. That was very foolish of you.”
She believed him to be foolish. His emotional side had been in control at that time but his actions had been logical.
“I was trying to protect you.” His tone was dry.
“You, an outsider, were trying to protect me, a being who has lived here all her lifespan.” She laughed, the sound tinkling all around him. “You’re noble but silly.”
Now, he was silly and foolish. Doc’s lips twisted. “I’m a cyborg. Cyborgs aren’t silly.”
“Cyborg.” She rolled that word over her tongue. “Cyborg. Asshole. Idiot. Outsiders have unusual names.”
“Cyborg is the name of my kind.” There was also a 100.0000 percent probability Asshole and Idiot weren’t the other beings’ names. “My brethren call me Doc.”
“Doc.” That sounded good on her lips. “My parents named me Kapinallinen but everyone calls me Allinen.”
His female’s name was Allinen. It was fanciful…as she was.
They approached a flat rock. It emitted a pale gold light, much like she did.
Earlier, when she had been hiding from them, his female must have believed he and his brethren would mistake her for one of those stones. She didn’t know they weren’t familiar with the formations on her planet.
Her logic had been solid. Approval warmed his chest.
His female didn’t lack intelligence.
She did lack curiosity, however.
He was a stranger, was a type of being she’d never encountered, and she hadn’t asked him a single question. She’d made assumptions. He’d corrected her. But she hadn’t inquired about him or his purpose on her planet.
Asking questions was how he expanded his database, how he uncovered pertinent details about the beings he had to repair.
And he had many things he wanted to learn about her. What were her goals? Where did she live? What interested her? Why was she alone?
“Do your parents travel with you?” He started with that query.
The smile on her beautiful face faded. “You should find your friends…if they’re still alive.” Her expression was now as dark and forbidding as the sky above them. “This is a very dangerous place for beings like you. None of the other outsiders survived.”
&nbs
p; Had her parents died also? Was that the reason for her abrupt change of subject? Had he reminded her of them, of their death, by asking his casual question?
He addressed her comments first. “We’re not like the other outsiders.” Cyborgs were designed to survive. “And I’m in constant communication with my brethren.” He tapped his forehead.
“Your kind shares thoughts.” Her eyebrows lifted. “Some mated couples have that ability.”
Transmissions were similar to sharing thoughts. Doc didn’t correct his technologically sheltered female.
She frowned. “If you’re in constant communication with your brethren, they must know how you’ve disrespected me.”
She’d never forgive him for that fraggin’ kiss. He cursed his malfunction.
“They will disrespect me in the same way.” Her eyes flashed.
“They will not disrespect you in that same way.” His brethren wouldn’t touch her. The mere prospect that they might do that provoked his organics.
“They will not disrespect me in that way.” His female, unaware of the battle raging inside of him, remained on that dangerous topic. “I won’t allow it.” Her chin lifted. “You can go.” His female waved her hands dismissively. “Join your brethren wherever they are. I’ll approach the next group of outsiders.”
“You won’t approach any other outsiders.” Doc shook from the effort of restraining his emotional side. “You’re mine.”
Chapter Four
Doc, that arrogant outsider, believed he could disrespect her. Multiple times. And then claim her.
He dared too much.
“I am not yours.” Wanting to look him in the eyes to communicate that message, Allinen stopped walking. “I have no mate.” She turned to face him. “And, if I did have a mate, he wouldn’t be a beast like you.”
She folded her fingers into tight fists, the resentment and anger she’d gathered over a lifespan of being unwanted swelling inside her.
“I can be a beast.” The male surprised her by admitting to that. “That’s an appropriate description for that part of me. But you do have a mate.” He dropped the unusual pack he was carrying and stepped closer to her, forcing her to tilt her head back to look at him. “Me.”
The cyborg was taller than any other male in her settlement.
And he was warm, his heat engulfing her.
Her traitorous body responded, her nipples tightening and her pussy growing wet. He had treated her disgracefully yet she wanted him.
That infuriated her. “It doesn’t work that way.” She scowled at him. “My kind has mates since birth. I had no one.” She couldn’t suppress her pain. It colored her words. “I’ve always been alone.”
“Because you’ve been waiting for me.” He strapped one arm around her waist, that band of unyielding muscle binding her to him, and he sank the fingers of his other hand into her hair, forcing her head back even more. “You have me now.”
The creature was going to kiss her and she shouldn’t crave that. Her lips hummed from her first embrace…with him, with anyone. Bubbles danced across her tongue, the sensation felt throughout her form, in her chest, her pussy, even her toes.
It was wrong. All wrong. He might believe she belonged to him, but he wasn’t her mate. She was certain about that.
An encounter with a mate was calming, soothing, gave a female balance. It didn’t tilt the terrain under her feet and heat her all over, fill her with yearnings and urges that threatened to rip her apart if they weren’t satisfied.
Her male hadn’t pressed his lips against hers tenderly, reverently, as a mate should. He had ravished her like the beast he was, plunging into her with a savagery she’d often seen the pahas display during rutting.
What they were experiencing was the same primitive lust.
She shouldn’t want more of it…yet she did. Her hands slid up his chest, navigating his unusual garment. Her lips parted, a silent plea for kisses.
For him.
His eyes darkened to the color of a rest-cycle sky. “Mine.” He answered her unspoken request, capturing her mouth with a force that made her breath hitch and her heart beat wildly. She gasped, thrilled by the sensual assault.
Her bottom lip, split from their previous kiss, stung, that slight pain escalating her wanting. His tongue glided along hers, tangling, twining, engaging in a courtship she never thought she’d enjoy.
She clutched his shoulders, rose onto the tips of her toes, leaning her body against his, relishing in his strength. He was broad, solid, muscular, so very different than any being she’d ever encountered, and he wanted her.
Although she had never been with a male, she had learned the steps of the mating ritual, alongside the other females. She recognized the bulge in her cyborg’s garment for what it was—a sign of his readiness to join with her.
That was forbidden. Joining with a being other than one’s mate was against her kind’s rules. And he was definitely not her mate, the pricks of agony sweeping across her scalp attesting to that.
No mate would pull his female’s hair, would handle her as though she was merely a container to fill…with his tongue, his hands, his cock.
She swiveled her hips against the outsider’s garment-covered shaft and a rumble rolled up his chest, the sound low and deep and stimulating.
He was a stranger, wasn’t hers, would likely die within a planet rotation or two…as all of the others had. But in this moment, he wanted her and no one else she had ever met had done that.
The urgency of his kisses intensified. It fed the fire within her, building her desire upward. She ground against him, seeking satisfaction.
The black fabric covering his entire body was hard, like a miljoonasuut’s exoskeleton, the barrier frustrating her. She plucked at it, couldn’t remove it.
“No.” He caught her hands and drew them behind her back.
She gazed up at him, watched with open fascination as he visibly calmed. His breathing leveled. A paler gray swirled with the black in his eyes, lightening them more and more.
“We can’t breed here.” The coolness in his voice had returned.
They couldn’t breed here because… “Others might see us.” Her face heated. Joining with a being other than one’s mate was forbidden for her kind. As was contacting an outsider.
“We might be attacked.” He scanned their surroundings.
Her cyborg hadn’t stopped their encounter because he respected her. Allinen’s passion fog fully dissipated with that realization. He was concerned about the many dangers on the planet.
She wiggled. “You can release me now.”
His gaze returned to her face. “You are angry with me again.”
Anger was merely one of the many emotions she was feeling. “Let. Me. Go.”
He finally complied, stepped backward.
She missed his warmth immediately and that annoyed her. “You should return to your brethren.” She resumed her trek toward the settlement.
“I’m not leaving your side.” He kept pace with her.
That pleased and frustrated her. “You have to leave my side.” She rolled her eyes, an action that would have gained her niece’s approval. “I’m returning to the settlement and my kind doesn’t like outsiders. If they knew I contacted you, they would reprimand me.”
The male’s jaw jutted. “I’ll wait for you outside your settlement.”
He was determined to claim her…temporarily. Perhaps his beastlike lust for her would last for a few planet rotations, long enough to learn his ways, to understand the skills his kind valued, to relay to her the necessary words, the correct words in his language so she could communicate with other outsiders.
Allinen would gain the knowledge she’d need to survive in the outsider worlds. She would be like them, would belong there.
That information transfer wouldn’t happen if Doc waited for her outside the settlement. He would die once she left him on his own.
The male was hopeless. She shook her head. He was five strides
away from blistering his feet and wasn’t even aware he was in peril.
“Move to the side.” She grasped his arm and pulled him away from peril. “That’s an antaa potkut rock. It will burn through your feet garments in less than a heartbeat.”
As soon as Khambalian children could walk, they learned of that danger.
“We call feet garments boots.” The cyborg added a word to her ever-expanding outsider vocabulary. “We’ve passed many antaa potkut rocks. They glow like you do.”
“Every female wants to be compared to a stone.” She muttered that under her breath.
“It’s a very pretty stone.” His lips curled into a small smile.
He might not be handsome like the males in her settlement but his strong, shadowy countenance affected her, making her stomach flutter and her breath catch.
She couldn’t allow him to die. “I’ll take you to my secret domicile.” She changed direction, heading to the east. “You’ll be safe there.”
“I’d be safe anywhere.” He had a skewed view of his ability to survive on her terrain. “I would like to see your secret domicile.”
No one else knew of its existence. Nervousness over sharing the space with him pushed her to talk more. “My secret domicile isn’t shiny like your flying domicile.”
“Flying domicile?” He insulted her with a question. “You must mean the ship.”
Ship. She stored that new word in her brain while sucking back her irritation over his lack of respect. He had made his opinion of her clear.
And esteem once lost was almost impossible to regain. That had been taught during mate training.
Any time spent with this male would include questions and savage kisses. She had to accept that.
Her toes curled in the dirt, her body perversely aroused by that prospect.
“That ship, a shuttle, has returned to the Reckless, the warship I serve on.” He relayed information she only partially understood. “Once we’ve completed our mission, the shuttle will come back, pick us up.”
That type of knowledge was why she was tolerating his disrespect. She needed her cyborg to give her insights into his kind, their habits, their language, their customs. That was the only reason she was enduring his company.
