by Cynthia Sax
“The human female can stay with me.” Power was one wrong move away from a boot in the ass, the male too eager to make his offer.
“You could contaminate her with your nanocybotics.” And then he would kill the E Model, tear him apart limb by limb.
“Vengeance’s female will stay with us.” Death’s female decided. “I’ll ensure the experiment is valid.”
That solution was better, but Vengeance still wasn’t happy with it.
“I’m not Vengeance’s female, or the human female, or some unwanted dagger you can transfer from being to being.” His warrior female leveled a hard gaze on all of them. “I’m Astrid Ragnhild, the Buoir Berserker, and I don’t know any of you, but I do know Vengeance.” The power in her voice made his cock bob. “He’s a warrior of honor, and he is the being who wants to prove our bond is temporary. I’m staying with him.”
Death’s female frowned. “If he touches you—”
“If he touches me, the experiment is over.” Astrid pulled her hand away from his arm, and he had to fight the urge to restore that physical connection. “All of you will accept our bond as permanent.”
That wouldn’t happen. His sense of honor, that part of him she had openly admitted to admiring, dictated he give the experiment his best effort and he could resist her. “If you touch me—”
“I would never touch a male who didn’t want to be touched.” Her beautiful face hardened. “Unless he was an enemy. Then that touching would end in his death.” Her lips lifted slightly. “That option isn’t open to me at the moment. I promised not to kill you.”
“You’re too slow to kill me.” His heart lightened. She would share his private chambers, would remain close to him, under his protection. He’d ensure no other warriors bothered her.
They would survive this.
“I won’t touch you either, Astrid Ragnhild.” Power was one of the males he’d keep far from his female. “Even when facing you in the mock battles.”
“What are mock battles?” Her eyes lit up.
Vengeance glared at the E Model. His rival had suggested the one activity that would appeal to his warrior female.
“I will transfer information about the mock battles en route to our private chambers.” He turned his back to the cyborg council. “Are you ready?”
“Yes.” She fell into step beside him.
“We have decisions to make, Vengeance.” Power called after them.
“I will return.” He would have to do that. The council had delayed all voting. No projects had progressed in his absence.
“I won’t let you down, cyborg.” Astrid murmured as they walked through the corridors. “You want to sever the connection between us, and I won’t interfere with that process. I won’t touch you until you touch me.”
The information, overheard by the warriors lining the narrow space, raced through the transmission lines. Vengeance’s jaw jutted. “I don’t want to sever our connection. It is necessary to protect my brethren.”
The response on the transmission lines to that comment was loud and harsh, his warrior brethren not appreciating being protected, speculating that his processors were malfunctioning because he didn’t value his female.
He was beginning to believe they were correct.
But the council had decided upon this test. And to fail it would be a sign of weakness. Neither his brethren nor his female would look kindly on that.
Vengeance straightened his shoulders. There was no other choice. He would have to see the process through to the bitter end.
“Tell me about the mock battles.” His female hadn’t forgotten his promise to her.
“Mock battles mirror the real thing.” He enjoyed them vastly, suspected she would also. “There is no death, no real damage, but there is real pain.”
“How is that possible?” She looked at him, her face animated.
“We utilize specialized weapons.” The differences in them were minor.
“I’ll have to practice with those weapons.” His female refused to be disadvantaged in any way. “Are there training chambers?”
“There are many training chambers.” The doors to his private chambers opened as they approached, the locks recognizing him. “Warriors are accustomed to fighting every planet rotation.”
Cyborgs were manufactured for breeding and for battle. Breeding wasn’t possible for many, the warriors lacking females. It would damage them emotionally to forgo fighting.
“I like to fight every planet rotation also.” She looked at the pile of objects in the main chamber. “The entire contents of my domicile are here.” She opened a container. “Including the nourishment bars I fabricated from my kills. You don’t have nourishment bars on your planet?”
“We have nourishment bars. I requested everything be conveyed.” He hadn’t the time to sort through the objects. “I couldn’t process what was important to you.” And he wouldn’t damage her any more emotionally by leaving objects behind.
“I’ll sort the objects while you’re meeting with that dark-eyed warrior.” She walked around the chamber. “I’m impressed with your collection.” She gazed up at his display of bladed weapons on the wall. “These must have been acquired after you escaped from the Humanoid Alliance.”
“They were. I have more weapons in the compartments.” He opened one of them, showing her some of his guns. “I’ll calibrate them for your fingerprints.”
“I’d like that.” She smiled at him.
His gaze lowered to her lips, the urge to claim them powerful. She’d fight him before capitulating, before opening to him.
He leaned toward her. She leaned toward him.
“No.” She stepped backward. “You won’t tempt me, cyborg. I gave you my vow and I plan to keep it.”
Frag. He scowled. They had been together for mere moments, and he’d almost kissed her. How could he last for planet rotations without touching her?
He couldn’t spend time with her. That was the solution.
“I have to return to the council.” He walked toward the doors. “Stay in the chambers.”
“I’m your captive?” She lifted her eyebrows.
“It’s for your safety.” The command was also issued for the benefit of his brethren because, if they touched her, he’d kill them. “You shouldn’t leave the chambers without an escort.”
“You can’t lock me in here forever, cyborg.” She moved her hands to the handles of her guns, her threat not so subtle.
“You’re not locked in here, human.” He placed his palms on one of the viewscreens hanging on the wall, giving her access to everything. “If you need an escort, communicate with me.”
He’d position two of his most loyal C Models outside the doors. If she left the chambers without informing him, they’d accompany her.
Everyone would then know she was his. They would value her, treat her with the respect she deserved. No one would attempt to damage her in any way.
“Then go.” She waved her hands. “I can entertain myself here.”
His fingers twitched. He wanted to pull her to him, kiss her hard, feel her curves against his form.
But that was no longer allowed.
He strode through the doors, not looking back, moving at cyborg speed. Avoiding her was the best tactic to win this battle against himself, against his urges.
If he didn’t see her beautiful face, didn’t smell her delectable aroma, didn’t hear her husky voice, he might not think of her.
Footage of his female dominated the transmission lines. Some warriors had spotted her in battle, her skin covered with blood, her weapons raised, the sounds coming from her lips more beastlike than human.
His cock hardened to the point of explosion. He wanted her badly, ached to touch her.
Their brief separation was necessary. He shook his big body, trying to firm his resolve. Sacrifices had to be made to keep his brethren free. They would survive this.
He entered the council chambers. Power smirked at him.
> He folded his fingers into fists. “What do I need to know for the first vote?” Discussions within the council chambers were highly sensitive and weren’t transmitted.
“Before we start, I want to commend you on volunteering to test the warrior-female bond.” The E Model’s black eyes glowed. “You’re a more noble male than I am. If I had a female like yours, I wouldn’t risk my connection with her. I would do everything possible, even put my lifespan in peril, to protect it.”
Power wanted his female. That communication was clear. Vengeance clenched his fists so hard his knuckles cracked. “You don’t have a female like mine.”
“I don’t now. But I might soon.” The E Model’s expression was smug.
Fraggin’ hole. He could kill the male.
Chapter Twelve
Astrid sorted her belongings. Not knowing how long she’d be staying on the cyborg planet, she only unpacked the items she immediately needed, including her garments, her private items, and of course, her weapons.
She displayed some of her weapons on the wall, putting her smaller battle-ax in front of Vengeance’s larger one, placing her thinner-bladed sword next to his huge skull-splitter. Her other things were distributed around the chambers, ensuring that everywhere he looked, her cyborg would be reminded of her.
This arrangement took her the entire planet rotation to perfect.
Her stubborn male didn’t return.
He was avoiding her, and she knew the reason why. Her body already burned for his, aching for the brush of his skin over hers.
If he had shared the same chamber, she doubted she could have resisted touching him, rubbing against him, tempting him with her form, her caresses, her words. Driven by her own uncontrollable lust, she would have shamefully violated their agreement.
Her cyborg would eventually break, would eventually submit to the desire raging between them. That was as inevitable as her next breath. But his capitulation wouldn’t be caused by her discarding the vows she made. She would prove to him that her honor, her word, was equal to any cyborg’s.
Even if the wait destroyed her.
Unable to bear the feel of her garments, of anything against her skin, she stripped. The cool air was a temporary relief.
The arousal would return. She preferred to be asleep when that happened.
There was no sleeping support, cyborgs not needing to rest. She folded covering cloths, put them on the floor, curled up on them.
It wasn’t the worst sleeping support she’d had. She’d spent plenty of rest cycles on the battlefields, huddling in trenches and holes in the hard ground.
But it was lonely. She missed her warrior. Closing her eyes, she pictured his handsome face, wondered where he was, what he was doing, if he was thinking of her.
There had been moments during their journey when she had believed he’d change his mind and not subject them to this frustrating test. He hadn’t backed down, however. She had to stand in front of his clan’s leaders and hear him renounce her.
That had been humiliating. She’d yearned to shoot them all, starting with her cyborg. Instead, she’d feigned disinterest as best as she could while her heart howled a protest.
She loved her big brute. Only he could lead her into a former enemy’s territory. Only he could convince her to set aside her pride. Only he could inspire her current level of lust.
Fuck. Her ass wiggled. She was horny. Her pussy throbbed. Her nipples were so taut they could cut rock.
She had to think of other things, non-sexy topics like digging trenches and cleaning body armor, activities that didn’t involve a certain cyborg.
In her mind, she took apart and reassembled her favorite long gun. She calculated the distance of a projectile if she increased a weapon’s barrel size by the width of her thumb. She counted her confirmed kills, starting from her first battle.
She’d reached three hundred and forty-nine confirmed kills when sleep came and darkness overtook her.
***
She woke alone, her fingers in her pussy, her skin soaked with wetness. Her male had visited the chamber while she slept. Her garments were clean and neatly folded. Her boots were polished. Nourishment bars and fresh containers of beverage were set on a horizontal support.
He hadn’t woken her, hadn’t wished to talk with her, touch her, but he had been thinking of her. That was a small win, and small wins often won wars. Astrid would take it.
She tidied her body with a cleaning cloth, dressed, filled the empty sheaths and holsters with weapons, drank, performed her other morning rituals, forgoing the nourishment bars.
Desire twisted her core, unsettling her stomach. Eating didn’t appeal to her.
She clasped one of her cyborg’s daggers, curling her fingers around the hilt, gripping it as he would. Did he miss her as she missed him? Did—
The viewscreen buzzed, flashing light and dark. That must be him.
She ran to it, placed her palm on the surface. “Cyborg?”
“Astrid, this is Medic Tifara.” The human female’s face appeared on the viewscreen, and Astrid tried to conceal her disappointment. “I’m here with Death, my male, to take your readings for the planet rotation.”
Fuck. Her cyborg was still avoiding her. “Come in.” She authorized the entry.
The doors slid open. The female entered, her lush body covered with a white coat, a handheld in one of her hands. A tall grim-looking J Model followed her, his gaze observant, his expression wary. The male was a true warrior, always expecting danger.
“All I want to do is take a reading.” The medic looked pointedly at the dagger in Astrid’s hands. “I’m no threat to you.”
“The weapon wasn’t due to your arrival.” She set it down. “I was thinking of a certain cyborg.”
Medic Tifara grinned. “Vengeance invokes that type of reaction in beings.” She waved the handheld at her, looked at the small screen. “There’s no change in your nanocybotics level.”
“You and I both know there will be no change.” She rolled her eyes. “The bond between that stubborn brute and me is permanent.”
The female’s eyes widened. “If you know the bond is permanent, why are you testing it?”
“He won’t admit that truth.” Her logical cyborg required cold hard facts, not gut feelings. “And at the moment, I’m also testing my willpower and control.” She gazed at the weapons on the wall. “It isn’t a futile exercise. Both are necessary characteristics for warriors to have.”
Death’s dark head dipped, the J Model silently agreeing with her.
“You’re a stronger female than I am.” Medic Tifara brushed against her male. “If I go a couple moments without touching Death, I’m extremely uncomfortable.”
“I’m extremely uncomfortable.” She was frustrated as fuck. “But I’ll survive. All I have to be is stronger than that arrogant C Model.”
Death’s lips twitched.
“You don’t…like Vengeance?” Medic Tifara gazed at her with concern.
“I love him more than my own life.” She admitted that truth. The cyborg was her kinfolk now. They were a clan of two, whether he wanted them to be or not. “But I’ll take a dagger to the gut before losing this battle to him. He will break first. I will see that male crawl.”
“I’d like to see that also.” The medic grinned. “He wouldn’t speak to me before he left to retrieve you. He hated humans that much.”
“I hated cyborgs more.” Astrid’s gaze flicked to Death, a warrior she would have considered the enemy a solar cycle ago. “Beings change.” She shrugged. “What do I need to know to win this battle? Who is the E Model?”
“That’s Power.” Medic Tifara wrinkled her nose. “There’s a rivalry between him and Vengeance. Each believes himself to be in control of the council.”
“I can use that.” She nodded. “The warrior doesn’t have a female?” She assumed that was the case. He had been blatantly flirting with her.
The medic shook her head. “We haven’t found a gene
tic match for him in any of our databases.”
“Good.” She wouldn’t be interfering with another female’s relationship.
“He’s even more arrogant than Vengeance.”
“That’s even better.” His pride would survive not being chosen.
Because Vengeance was the male for her. He was the warrior she was battling to keep. Power would merely be a weapon she’d use to win that war.
“Where is he?” She’d start her advance immediately.
“Both of them are in the council chambers.” Medic Tifara’s eyes glowed with open curiosity. “They’ll be meeting all planet rotation. Our attendance wasn’t required.”
Shit. That demolished those plans.
She glanced around the chambers. Nothing would be accomplished in here. “Where are the training chambers?”
Medic Tifara looked at Death. The warrior nodded. Her gaze returned to Astrid. “We can show you where they are.”
She’d have an escort. A smile curled her lips. She wouldn’t have to contact her cyborg.
He would be informed she left the chambers. There were warriors everywhere and they would transmit her movements. That would irk him.
He might communicate with her.
She clasped his dagger. “Let’s go.”
There were two C Models waiting outside the chambers. The males looked at each other when she exited yet didn’t say anything.
She followed Medic Tifara and Death. The C Models trailed soundlessly behind her.
She had two sets of escorts. Her gait lightened. Her male would know everything she did.
Other warriors gawked at her as she passed them.
“There are so many cyborgs to battle.” She mused, tossing Vengeance’s dagger in the air and catching it. “Where should I start?”
“You can’t touch any of them.” Medic Tifara frowned, her fingers linked with Death’s. “That might transfer nanocybotics.”
“I can’t touch them with my hands.” She spun the blade on the tip of her right index finger. It was a perfectly balanced weapon. “I can touch them with my daggers.”
“That’s permissible.” The medic conceded. “Nanocybotics don’t live very long on inanimate objects.”
