by Cynthia Sax
Power struggled to block the strikes. “Female.” The E Model retreated, shuffling backward. “In danger.”
Astrid targeted the warrior in front of her, blitzing him with daggers as quickly as she could throw them. She hadn’t noticed the male approaching her from the opposite direction.
“Behind you.” Vengeance rushed toward her at cyborg speed, knocking the warriors in his path away from him. Their blades shredded the skin on his face, chest, arms. He didn’t feel the abrasions, his gaze on his female.
She turned too late to defend herself. Wrong, the K Model Vengeance had chosen based on his potential, jabbed his daggers into her chest three, four, five times in rapid succession.
No human could survive those wounds.
Astrid screamed, clutching her chest. Her blood gushed, scenting the air. She fell.
Vengeance roared, catching her before she hit the floor. Her body convulsed against his, her beautiful face turning pale, her eyes closing.
It was a mock death, wasn’t real. In his processors, he realized that truth. His heart, however, was convinced he’d lost her.
Forever.
“Astrid.” Gathering her limp form into his arms, he ripped open her body covering, removing the ineffective protection. Crimson bathed her breasts. The wounds were shallow, but they would feel bone deep.
Her pain must be excruciating.
“Stay strong, my warrior female.” He laved the lacerations in her skin with the flat of his tongue, desperately trying to repair her, to ease her agony.
Power moved to his side. “The battle isn’t over.”
“It’s over for me.” Vengeance licked his female’s damage, not caring about Power, winning or revenge. He had been fighting for her, to prove his worthiness. Without his female, everything else in his lifespan was meaningless.
“Then I win.” Power sounded pleased with that result. He sprinted toward another opponent, his sword raised, showing no concern for Astrid.
None of the other warriors approached Vengeance, which was wise. All of his processors were occupied by his female.
She lay still, so fraggin’ still in his arms. He didn’t know how to repair her damage, how to rouse his female. The sight of her unmoving form ripped his heart to pieces.
She was the most precious being in the universe to him and he had allowed her to be harmed. Her blood stained his hands.
Vengeance tilted his head back and howled, releasing his torment into the air. Warriors paused in their fighting, turning their gazes toward him. The audience grew quiet.
Astrid spluttered, shuddering, slapping his arms with her hands. “Fuck.” She wheezed. “That was awesome.”
The crowd cheered, her words winning his brethren over completely. She was one of them now, could take a deathblow like a warrior.
Vengeance never wanted to relive that experience.
“My female.” He claimed her lips, covering them with his, pouring his relief, his worry, his caring into her mouth.
She resisted for a moment, trying to block his tongue with hers, push him away from her. He sank his fingers into her hair, pulling on the base of her braids.
Her lips curled upward and she switched from defender to aggressor, grasping his bare shoulders, pulling him to her, sucking on his tongue, stroking it.
Frag. He’d missed this, had missed her, her taste, her touch. His circuits surged with energy. His processors lit up. He felt as though he’d been the one who had died and was only now coming back to life.
Needing to be closer to her, he stripped his remaining body armor. She struggled with the remnants of her garment. He shredded the protective fabric, rendering her bare.
She wrapped her long legs around his hips, trapping his hardness between them, her wet pussy pressing against his shaft. Vengeance rumbled his approval, the contact delectable, reassuring. She rubbed along him, caressing his chest with her breasts, his cock with her feminine folds.
They bred without entry and that’s what it was—breeding. They had progressed past their initial hate fucks. This was the claiming of a female by a male and a male by a female, a strengthening of their bond, a sharing of deeper emotions, feelings he couldn’t express any other way.
She was his world. He squeezed and released her ass, squeezed and released, dragging his mouth over her neck, glorying in her form, her passion. Her eyes had darkened, resembling the vastness of open space, that potential, that freedom.
Around them, warriors fought, the scent of their blood meshing with the aroma of her, the combination exciting him even more. He stroked her along his length.
“Fuck me, cyborg.” She bounced her boot heels against his ass. “I need that big cock of yours inside me.”
He needed that also. Lifting her higher, he positioned his tip at her entrance. “You’re mine, human.” He drove her down on him.
She shrieked, piercing his skin with her fingertips. He gritted his teeth, battling the urge to come. His female was hot and wet and soft around him and he’d wanted her fiercely for planet rotations, their solitary fucking not enough, not nearly enough for him.
Nothing rivalled being inside her. Nothing.
He lifted her and drove her down on him, lifted her and drove her down. She smacked his ass with her boot-clad feet, raked her nails down his chest, marking his body as hers, stimulating him until he shook.
It would be a fast and furious breeding. They wanted each other too much. He ravished her pussy, the impact jiggling her breasts. Their passion burned out of control, razing everything in its path.
“Harder.” She challenged him, beads of sweat forming on her skin.
Vengeance grunted. He’d give her everything she wanted and more. Their bodies smacked together, heat radiating from the points of impact. He’d show her they were meant to be together, that he would fight for her, would never give up on them.
His gaze locked on hers, his emotions bared, and her eyes widened. She caught his face between her hands. “Fuck. Finally.”
Finally. He brushed his lips over hers, tasting her erotic little pants. Her hands slid down his neck. Could she feel his pulse racing? Did she see what she did to him, how undone he was around her, how he lived for her touches, for her words, for the defiance in her heart and the strength in her soul?
Pressure flowed down his spine. His female’s inner walls closed around his shaft. Her wetness coated his aching balls.
Determined to make their encounter last, he jutted his jaw and bred with her with all of the savagery in his form. When they were breeding, they were in sync, aligned, on the same side.
She was with him. He couldn’t go back to being apart from her, to that loneliness, that emotional isolation.
But he couldn’t stave off their release forever.
“Vengeance.” The strain etched lines around her lush lips.
“Stay with me.” He shamelessly pleaded, not caring who heard him.
“Can’t.” She pressed her face against his chest. “Can’t.”
She bit him, hard, the pain unexpected and so fraggin’ arousing. He bellowed, driving her down on him, his base slapping against her clit. She screamed, his muscles muffling the sound, her pussy clenching his shaft.
That severed the last strands of his restraint. He came with a processor-melting ferocity, blasting her with his nanocybotics-infused essence, filling her body with that part of him, fortifying the link between them.
Her cries drowned out the sounds of battle. She writhed and wiggled, clawing and biting at his chest, a wild thing in his arms. His arms and legs shook, bliss tearing him apart, darkening his vision system, yet he didn’t release her, didn’t collapse.
He stood tall and proud, holding his female to him, protecting her from the fury of her release, her pleasure meshing with his, amplifying it. His stubbornness had denied them that ecstasy for too many planet rotations.
He had been a fool.
Her tremors eased. He lowered her until her booted feet touched the floor. Sh
e leaned against him, her curves flattened against his muscles. He tilted his body toward hers, running his palms up and down her back.
The battle raged around them. Power and his males were winning. Vengeance’s males had lost their leader, were directionless.
He had no regrets.
This was where he was meant to be. She was the only being in the universe for him. He breathed in the scent of her, petted her long brown braids, savoring their softness.
Moments passed. His female’s form stiffened more and more.
They had to communicate. He had to explain. “Astrid, I—”
“No.” She stepped back from him, tilted her head upward to gaze at him.
He gazed back at her and her eyes hardened. She wasn’t ready to forgive him completely, not yet.
He didn’t expect his warrior female to do that.
She would never surrender that easily. To anyone.
“You’re a brute but you’re a great fuck.” She reached down, slid a dagger out of her boot.
Vengeance knew what was coming and didn’t try to stop it. He hadn’t treated her the way a female like her should be treated. He deserved the reprimand.
She jabbed the blade into his stomach. The wound was superficial. The pain was devastating.
He sucked in his breath and fell to his knees.
“A great fuck isn’t enough to win me back, cyborg.” She pulled the dagger out of his gut and wiped the blood on her face, the crimson vivid against her light-brown skin. “I want more than your cock.”
She turned and walked away, her head held high. a swagger in her stride.
Fraggin’ hole. Vengeance toppled over. He loved his female.
Chapter Sixteen
She shouldn’t have fucked her stubborn cyborg. That was a tactical error.
When she had revived from the mock death and had heard that horrible howl of his, she couldn’t resist him. The pain in his voice had pulled at her heart.
He cared for her. The predator tooth dangling between his pecs, her gift to him, had confirmed that truth.
Caring wasn’t enough. She would settle for nothing less than his love, his complete and utter devotion.
But it was a start. Their relationship had finally progressed past the hate.
She stomped along the corridors, naked except for the boots on her feet. Warriors gave her a wide berth, moving to the side as she passed them.
Their wariness could be due to her recent stunning-everyone-she-saw rampage or it could be because she had decorated her face with the blood of one of their council members. She wasn’t certain which one was the cause.
They weren’t looking at her with pity. Her lips curled upward. At least she’d fixed that irritating problem.
“I thought humans had issues with public nudity.”
“I’m a warrior.” She turned to face Truth. “Half the universe has seen my bare ass.”
“Then you don’t need this?” The laughing warrior held out a folded flight suit.
“Has there been a complaint about my nudity?” She grabbed the garment, shaking the fabric out. The flight suit was C Model-sized. She brought the cloth to her nose and breathed deeply. Her pussy dripped. The garment belonged to Vengeance.
“It’s a gift.” Truth grinned. “He couldn’t deliver it himself as someone had mock killed him.”
She pulled the flight suit over her boots. It was that large. “If you had participated in the battle, I would have mock killed you too.”
“I doubt that. You can’t distract me like you distract him.” The warrior’s eyes sparkled. “We’ll battle when I return.”
“You’re leaving?” She swallowed her disappointment, having viewed Truth as one of her allies on the cyborg planet.
“My mission was to be a straightforward rescue.” He nodded. “I was to fly the two of you from your planet to ours and return to the Reckless, captain’s orders. Vengeance, being a council member, was able to delay my departure for only so long.”
“Why would he delay your departure?” She frowned. Were they that close of friends?
“He didn’t share his logic.” Truth shrugged. “We had a discussion about females, and shortly after that, he informed my captain I was needed here.”
“What type of discussion about females did you have?” Had Vengeance reassured yet another male he hadn’t touched her? She would kill him.
“I expressed my belief that my female exists, is waiting for me somewhere in the universe, how I hope she isn’t alone.” Truth’s lips twisted. “Solitude can damage an emotional system. Vengeance suggested I hone my fighting skills so I could protect my female when I found her. He gave me access to the training chambers all of the council members utilized. It’s the best on the Homeland.”
Her cyborg had deliberately given Truth access to the same space she’d utilized. “I visited those training chambers.” As Vengeance knew she would.
“I was happy to see you.” Truth’s grin widened. “Not every being laughs at my jokes or threatens to kill me.”
She’d been happy to see him also. He’d been a familiar face in a crowd of strangers. Vengeance must have realized the warrior would amuse her, make her feel less lonely.
She touched the lapels of the flight suit her male had sent for her. He hadn’t deserted her, not entirely.
“I’ll kill you when you get back.” She teased Truth. “Don’t allow anyone else to complete that mission for me.”
They reached the spot where two corridors intersected.
“I’ll try to stay alive.” The warrior laughed as he strode forward, heading toward the docking bay.
“You do that.” She turned left, moving toward the private chambers she shared with Vengeance. The doors in front of them were once again guarded by two large C Models, the same warriors she’d stunned.
Their gazes lowered, their big bodies bracing. She turned her palms upward, showing the warriors her hands were empty.
The males relaxed. They turned their heads, stared straight ahead of them.
She followed their lines of sight.
Her heart pounded. Her pace slowed.
The stretch of wall facing the entrance to the chambers was no longer flat.
She touched the simulated stone, tracing the names carved into it, each of them holding a special place in her soul. It was a perfect replica of the rock facing on Second Buoir, including the gouge in the last letter of Siv’s name.
Astrid stared at the wall for countless moments. Vengeance had done this for her. No other being in the universe had that knowledge about her.
It would have taken time to complete, even for a team of cyborgs. He’d put thought into this gift.
It was a memorial to her kinsfolk, humans who had died fighting cyborgs and it had been placed in a cyborg structure, in front of a council member’s private chambers, where Vengeance’s brethren could view it.
Some of those brethren hated humans, all humans, as she had once hated all cyborgs. The display of clearly human names could cause conflict for her warrior, could result in his expulsion from the council.
He’d done it anyway.
For her.
It was a selfless act of adoration, a declaration of her cyborg’s feelings to everyone who passed it. He might never express those emotions verbally. He was a C Model. But there was no doubting how he viewed her.
He loved her.
A tear dripped down her right cheek. She swiped it away, glanced furtively at the warriors guarding their door. They showed no sign they’d seen her moment of weakness, their expressions blank.
“These are the names of my kinfolk.” She explained to the males, her voice watery. “They were some of the fiercest warriors in the universe. I carved their names into a rock facing on my home planet so they would never be forgotten.”
“And now they fight in the Great Battle.” One of the C Models drawled those words. “We have been told of their battle prowess, Astrid Ragnhild, the Buoir Berserker. It is an honor
to escort the last remaining member of their clan.”
“You mean guard the last remaining member of my clan.” They were guarding her, not escorting her. She was Vengeance’s captive.
“We’re cyborgs. We say exactly what we mean.” The other C Model responded, his tone flat. “Great warriors don’t require guards. They do warrant escorts.”
The warriors had been assigned to her as a symbol of Vengeance’s respect, a declaration of the esteem in which he held her, in which he expected his brethren to hold her. Astrid’s heart squeezed. He had told them of her clan, speaking of her loved ones and her with admiration.
Fuck. She loved him.
He had to communicate more, use some of the words stored in those big databases of his. But she had been as guilty of that as he had been, assuming when she should have asked.
She’d also stunned him. Multiple times. Stabbed him in the gut. Cursed at him in front of his subordinates. She winced.
“Your information is incomplete.” Seeking to offset some of the damage she’d caused, she addressed the two C Model warriors. “My full name isn’t Astrid Ragnhild, the Buoir Berserker.” She lifted her chin. “It’s Astrid Ragnhild, the Buoir Berserker, Vengeance’s Warrior Female. Transmit that to all of your brethren.”
The warriors glanced at each other and smiled. “That message has been transmitted,” they said in unison.
“Good.” She grinned at them, took one more look at the simulated rock display, and entered the private chambers.
The sleeping support dominated the space. That was another act of love by her male. Being a cyborg, he didn’t sleep. He’d obtained the sleeping support for her.
She roamed around the chambers, picking up weapons, examining them, putting them down again. Her warrior didn’t walk through the doors.
He must have recovered from his mock death by now. What was the delay?
She wanted to see him, talk to him, touch him.
He might not realize that. Astrid’s lips flattened. She had stabbed him the last time they spoke.
Better communications between them could start with her. She moved in front of one of the viewscreens hanging on the wall, tapped the image of him.
