by Cynthia Sax
“Vengeance.” Her grip on him increased. “Fuck.” She undulated in front of him. “Vengeance.”
His female needed more. He released her hair, leaned over her, sliding his chest along her back, caging her with his body.
“Vengeance.” She tilted her head to the side, offering her neck to him.
He nuzzled against her, mouthing over the delicate skin. She quivered. He bared his teeth, dragged them along a raised vein, a vulnerability a true enemy would attack.
Her breathing turned ragged.
His purpose was to give her satisfaction, not death. He was her male, not her enemy.
Vengeance reached the base, the gentle curve where her neck met her shoulder, and he bit down, declaring that spot as his.
Now. Forever. This human female was his.
She screamed, clenching his cock with her soft flesh. The little restraint he had remaining was obliterated.
He roared, surging forward, filling her with his cock and his cum, energy coursing through his circuits, bliss blasting his processors. She gyrated under him, shrieking louder, massaging his shaft. He constricted her movements with his big form, pouring everything he had into her.
He relayed too much to her. His vision system dimmed. His arms and legs gave way. He collapsed on top of his human female, flattening her against the ground.
She huffed yet didn’t protest, taking his weight, supple and relenting under him.
“Frag.” Vengeance pushed himself away from her, rolling onto his back, the cool air on his cock a shock after the heat of her body.
He stared upward. The sun was setting. The sky was a violent orange and red, the colors suiting their fervent encounter.
“Are all cyborgs great fucks?” Her voice was drowsy.
He frowned at her. “You’re not fucking any other cyborgs.”
“I’m not fucking them right now.” She winked at him. “But once I kill you and the next one arrives—”
“You’re not killing me.” He glowered at her, his post-fuck haze destroyed by her flippant words. “And you’re not fucking any of my brethren.” The thought of her touching another warrior turned his vision system red. “You’re my captive. I deal with you.”
“I’m not your captive.” She flipped onto her back. “But I do like how you deal with me.”
He eyed her, unhappy with the conversation. Her breasts were covered with dirt. She would have to swim again, clean that off.
Some of his scent would be removed with it. “I’m fucking you again. In your domicile.” He wanted all males to know she was his.
His captive.
“That’s fine with me.” She shrugged. “I’m not killing you until after the hunt, and a great fuck before a rest cycle always makes me sleep solid.”
“You’re not killing me ever.” Her casual attitude toward their fucking irritated him. “And sleep is a human weakness.”
“It is.” She surprised him by agreeing. “See this?” She touched a long thin scar on her neck. “I got that while I was sleeping.”
“Let me examine you.” He hauled her on top of him, the contact easing his foul mood. “You could have died.” It was dangerously close to her jugular.
“I was exhausted and alone, separated from the others during battle.” Her eyes glowed. “I must have looked dead, and a scavenger wanted to ensure I stayed that way.”
“You shouldn’t be alone.” He touched the scar. She required protection.
His protection. She was his captive. He was responsible for her.
“You shouldn’t be alone either.” She lifted her chin. “But that’s what happens when you have no clan.”
“I have brethren.” He wasn’t solitary.
“Yet here you are—on your own.” His female rolled her eyes. “Clan stick together, are by your side, whether you want them there or not.”
He had brethren like that…in the past, but they were all dead now. His gaze shifted to his female’s face. Like her clan was all dead.
She couldn’t be his permanently. He dismissed that wild thought. She was a human. He was a cyborg and planned to expel all of her kind from the Homeland.
Being together forever was an impossibility. But he would safeguard her from harm, watch over her as she slept. When they parted, he’d designate other beings to protect her.
Those beings wouldn’t be male. His hands curved possessively over her ass. She was his. No other being would touch her.
Once they parted, he wouldn’t touch her either.
He wouldn’t hear her laugh, wouldn’t smell her distinct scent, wouldn’t be pushed to the limits by her constant challenges.
His lips flattened. The future without his female was bleak.
Chapter Eight
Astrid fell asleep in Vengeance’s arms under a covering of stars, the light from the planet’s two moons caressing her face.
She opened her eyes to a view of her private chamber’s blank wall, her cyborg’s unrelenting physique pressing against her back, his arms around her waist, his hot breath on her neck.
He must have carried her to the domicile. And then…
He stayed.
Her cyborg didn’t require rest. He shared her sleeping support because he wanted to be there. He wanted to cuddle close to her.
It felt nice, too nice. She remained his enemy. He didn’t have her best interests at heart.
Killing him was no longer an option. Caring for him had to be off limits as well.
His hardness prodded between her ass cheeks and she batted back her rush of desire. “If you are sincere about hunting predators, put your cock away, cyborg. The best time to stalk the creatures is at sunrise.”
“I’ll fuck you after I kill the predator.” The sleeping support elevated as he stood. “Which weapons will you utilize to down your target?”
“We will use blades.” She slipped into the cleansing chamber. “You’re not hunting predators with your bare hands. We’ll both end up dead.”
“If they’re that fierce, why are we using blades?” His voice drifted to her. “Why aren’t we using guns?”
“Our enemy will be using teeth, claws and a barbed tail.” She finished her sunrise routine. “Using guns against him wouldn’t be much of a challenge.”
Vengeance met her gaze as she re-entered the chamber. “You want to give the predator an opportunity to live.”
“That ensures their kind remains strong and healthy.” She donned her hunting chest and ass coverings, fastened her boots. “We target the weak and the sick.”
“Your garments have no sheaths.” He placed his hand below her right breast and she sucked in her breath, the warmth of his palm permeating the leather.
“My garments are an ode to my ancestors, made from the hide of predators.” She strapped strips around her biceps and upper thighs. “We will hunt as they did.” She slid daggers into the strips. “We’ll have four small blades, one longer one.”
“The longer ones are the primitive blades by the door?”
“Yes.” She clenched her jaw, his comment making her nervous. He must have studied her home, noting where all of her weapons were.
The cyborg was not her friend.
He never professed to being that, had made it clear he was her enemy. It was her foolish heart that had her looking at him in a different light.
She strapped bands of leather around his massive biceps, glided blades between his skin and the predator hide, kneeled before him, attached weapons to his upper thighs.
He was naked, as he’d been since she blew up his ship, and his cock was hard, a breath away from her mouth.
What would his cum taste like? She licked her lips.
His cock bobbed. “If I see that tongue again, I’m breeding with your mouth. Frag the hunt.” His voice rumbled over her.
She was tempted, extremely tempted. “You can fuck my mouth after the hunt.” She jumped to her feet.
“I’ll fuck your pussy after the hunt also.” His eyes shone with e
nergy.
“It sounds like it will be a full planet rotation.” Her body warmed with anticipation. She wanted him. She always wanted him.
It was more than him being a great fuck, though he was that. There was a bond between them. Her soul was bared around him, exposed, yet she didn’t fear he’d harm her.
She trusted him.
Fuck. That was bad news for her heart.
“Follow me.” She wanted to run from him and from the pain he would inflict on her, but that wasn’t possible.
He was a cyborg. She couldn’t outpace him. Instead, she did the next best thing. She stayed in front of the male, banishing him from her view.
As she passed through the front door, she grabbed two long blades, tossed one behind her, not looking to see if he caught it.
“It’s human length.” His voice was gruff.
He was a big male. The weapon would be short for him. “If you can’t manage it…”
“I can manage it.” His retort made her lips twitch. Her male was easy to rile up, competitive in all ways.
He was also possessive of her, didn’t like the thought of her fucking one of his brethren. She lifted her chin.
Being with another cyborg didn’t interest her. She had faced many of them in battle. Only Vengeance had appealed to her sexually.
She wouldn’t tell him that. The doors opened and closed around them. She had her pride.
Drawing in deep breaths of the cool, clean air, she ran along the pathway leading to the hunting grounds. Her cyborg trailed her silently. If she wasn’t as aware of him as she was, she wouldn’t have known he was there.
Quiet, strong, capable, he was the perfect hunting partner, the ideal warrior to protect her back. She felt safe with him behind her, something she never thought she’d say about a cyborg.
A predator snarled. She turned toward the sound, leaving the path and decreasing her speed. Guilt dampened her excitement as she scrambled over the jagged rocks. She wore boots. Her cyborg’s feet were bare.
He didn’t complain, keeping pace with her. Staying downwind from their target, they moved closer and closer to the origin of the snarl.
The predator chuffed. That sound was followed by three high-pitched yips.
Shit. She stopped short.
Vengeance did the same, pressing his body against hers, his bare feet bracketing her boots, his free arm wrapped around her waist, the cyborg not allowing her any private space.
She liked that, her stomach fluttering under his palm, and she shouldn’t.
Pushing her inappropriate arousal aside, she glanced over her shoulder, met his gaze, and shook her head. They couldn’t hunt the chuffing predator. They’d have to find another target.
Her cyborg raised his long blade and pointed it in the direction of the noises. He wanted to pursue the original target.
That wasn’t happening. She crisscrossed her hands in front of her chest.
He lifted his eyebrows, silently insisting.
Fuck. She blew out her breath. He wouldn’t let it go.
Intent on showing him why the predator couldn’t be their target, she hurried forward. The terrain was as familiar to her as her favorite dagger. Predator females had claimed the space for generations.
As they neared the site, Astrid lowered more and more, until she crawled on her stomach. She reached the ridge, peered over it.
Vengeance lay beside her, his shoulder pressing against hers. She had to fight to concentrate, force herself to monitor the space around them, using all her human senses.
Her cyborg would call them inferior but they were all she had. And they had kept her alive thus far.
She scanned the area quickly. Her gaze then returned to the bottom of the incline, and the sight she wanted her stubborn male to see.
Three predator cubs climbed over their much larger, much more dangerous mother. Their feet were oversized. Their fur was fluffy. Their roars were squeaky.
One of the baby predators gnawed on his reclining mother’s chin. She patted the unruly cub on the top of his head, her claws retracted.
Another cub attacked her giant paw. The third baby pounced on his sibling. They rolled, two bundles of cuteness.
Smiling, Astrid looked at her cyborg. She placed her palms a short distance apart, indicating the size of the cubs and shook her head.
He slid his body over hers, covering her with his muscle. “No children or babies.” His words were quiet as a breath, murmured into her right ear.
She nodded. Warriors didn’t hunt children or babies…of any species. Not if that could be prevented.
There were other predators in the wood to target.
She set down the long blade and watched the family play. The cubs were healthy and rambunctious. The mother was painfully thin. With the prey depleted on the planet, the predator’s only source of nourishment was her own kind.
And the mother was nursing, had three defenseless cubs to tend to, to protect.
“What are their vulnerabilities?” Vengeance’s lips brushed against Astrid’s earlobe.
She trembled, struggling to focus on his words. His hardness pressed against her ass. His warmth layered on top of her.
She pointed to her eyes. That was a vulnerability almost all beings had.
“And?” He nipped at her neck.
Fuck. He made concentrating difficult.
She opened her mouth wide, stuck her finger deep inside, curling back her lips to display her teeth. The back of the throat was too risky to stab. The predator would bite him.
“Is the neck a vulnerability?”
She took one of her braids, placed the strands under her chin, and shook her head. The predators’ thick, matted fur served as natural body armor. It would take too long to cut through it.
Her cyborg’s gaze returned to the mother. He was studying his foe as he had studied her, searching for weaknesses.
She couldn’t reveal how she felt about him. He’d use that vulnerability against her. She—
A predator’s scream rent the air behind them. Vengeance grabbed both long blades and flipped onto his back, his weight flattening her.
Spitting out a mouthful of dirt, she turned her head to glare at him.
A predator pounced from the shadows, its teeth bared, its claws extended. The creature’s body collided with that of the cyborg on top of her. The shafts of the long blades cracked into two pieces, the weapons unable to pierce the predator’s fur.
The two of them rolled. The predator, one of the largest and the thinnest males she’d ever seen, clawed and bit. Her cyborg extracted a dagger from one of his arm sheaths, stabbed with one hand while attempting to block the creature with his other arm.
Blood scented the air, cyborg blood. Crimson coated Vengeance’s chest.
She had to help him. Astrid sprang to her booted feet. He’d die otherwise. The beast would rip him apart.
She tracked the fight, waited for the roll to slow, for the predator to face her. Then she jumped onto its back. The beast bucked, trying to displace her. She held on.
The predator’s tail thumped against her, the barbs sinking deep into her right shoulder blade, and she screamed, the pain excruciating. Vengeance howled under her, a sound unlike any she’d ever heard a cyborg make.
That expression of anger, of outrage, of raw unfiltered emotion, lifted the small hairs on the back of her neck and twisted her stomach.
But it also gave her comfort.
Her cyborg lived. Thank the stars.
The predator raised its tail, preparing for another strike. Temporarily freed, Astrid scurried up its form, extracting a dagger from one of her makeshift sheaths. She was almost within reach of its eyes. Only a little bit more and—
A weight landed on her lower back. Barbs pierced her skin. She screamed again, the agony turning her vision fuzzy, making her head spin.
Vengeance released another spine-tingling howl and attacked the creature with renewed vigor, the force of his jabs shaking them.
> His efforts were futile. Its fur was too dense.
“I’ll…kill it, cyborg.” She blinked away her tears. “You focus on…surviving.”
“I’ll kill it, human.” He huffed. “Leave me. I’ll fight this foe alone.”
“No, you won’t.” Her back burned, the hurt intense. Wetness streamed down her spine. She might not live through this battle, but she wouldn’t leave him.
The thought of her warrior dying made her a bit crazy.
The tail lifted once more. She climbed up the predator’s body, tugging on its fur.
The beast turned its head to bite her. Vengeance grabbed it by the skull and yanked it toward him.
Fuck. Her warrior was strong.
She plunged the dagger into the predator’s right eyeball. Guck splattered over her hands. The beast’s barbed tail raked her legs, shredding her skin.
After moments of fervent thrashing, the creature quieted.
Astrid rested against its dead body for a moment, gasping for breath, light-headed from the pain. “Vengeance?”
“Astrid?” His voice was muffled.
He was alive. She staggered to her feet. Vengeance pushed the predator off him.
Her cyborg laid his head against a rock. Claw marks decorated his cheeks. Flesh had been gouged out of his chest. Silver showed on his arms and legs.
Too weak to stand, she fell to her knees. “You’re a mess.” She crawled to him. “Did anything vital get damaged?” She touched his face, needing to feel the warmth of his skin. “Will you heal?”
“I’ll repair.” He spread his legs and patted the ground between them. “Come here. Show me your back.”
She summoned a smile, his arrogance reassuring her. He couldn’t be too badly damaged, not if he had the energy to order her around.
“It’s nothing.” She moved on her hands and knees to the spot he’d indicated, the world whirling around her. “This isn’t my first hunt, warrior.” But it had been the most brutal. “There’s no need to concern yourself about me.” She sat before him.
“If you were a cyborg, it would be nothing.” He pushed her hair over her shoulders, his voice gruff. “But you’re human—”
“And weak.” She rolled her eyes. “I know.”
