Baby For The Cyborg General: Cybernetic Hearts #5 (Celestial Mates)
Page 1
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Part I
Blurb
About the Author
Baby For The Cyborg General
Cybernetic Hearts #5
Aurelia Skye
Amourisa Press
Contents
Part I
Blurb
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
About the Author
Baby For The Cyborg General (Celestial Mates and Cybernetic Hearts #5)
Aurelia Skye
Amourisa Press and Kit Tunstall, writing as Aurelia Skye, reserve all rights to BABY FOR THE CYBORG GENERAL. This work may not be shared or reproduced in any fashion without permission of the publisher and/or author. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
© Kit Tunstall, 2017
Edited by N.G. and CM Editing Services
Cover Images: Depositphotos.com
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Cover design by Amourisa Designs.
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Blurb
When Celestial Mate Freydon Rote whisked Carrie from her living room 430 years into a grim future, she never imagined she would end up mated to the cyborg general. She didn’t anticipate coming to love the other cyborgs like family, forging alliances, or winning a seemingly unwinnable war. Most of all, she never imagined having DVS84’s baby, but it’s almost time. She’s about to give birth, and everyone in the base is ready for the momentous occasion.
Are a human woman and a cyborg general ready to meet their precious baby? Will Freydon Rote make an appearance? (Hint: Yes.) Find out in this latest installment of the Celestial Mates (and final installment of the Cybernetic Hearts) series by USA Today bestselling author Kit Tunstalll, writing as Aurelia Skye.
Chapter 1
"Are you certain you feel up to this, Carrie?" asked Davis.
He was practically humming with excitement, but she could see the resignation creeping into his eyes as she delayed answering for a moment. The truth was, she was overdue and feeling slightly miserable, but she wouldn't disappoint him when he had gone to so much trouble to plan some type of surprise for her.
She managed to smile and to summon some excitement at the prospect. "I'm sure I do. If I get tired, you can always carry me." She felt roughly the size of a house, but he would be able to easily lift and carry her. It was one of the advantages of having a cyborg husband.
Not that they'd had an official ceremony, since it was four hundred and thirty years into her future, and marriage as she had known it didn't seem to exist. People still paired up, and thanks to Freydon Rote, often found their destined mates, but she had yet to see any formal ceremony binding a couple.
As a young girl, she had dreamed about her wedding, but now that she had found Davis, it was surprisingly unimportant to her. A ceremony was just frills and trappings, and she already had everything she needed with him.
Including the baby that was making her enormous stomach so distended. Perhaps she wasn't as large as she thought, but she felt like she was lumbering around Godzilla-style while crushing a village.
Carrie felt even worse as they moved through the cyborg base, and the first person they encountered was Gwen. Unlike Carrie, pregnancy suited her well. She was practically glowing, and she hadn't seemed to slow down at all. Carrie reminded herself that Gwen was only six months pregnant, and she hadn't yet reached the point of being overdue. Perhaps her friend would look and feel just as miserable when she approached her due date. Carrie found the thought cheering, though she felt guilty for doing so.
"Where are you off to?" asked Gwen, but there was a gleam in her eye that suggested she already knew.
Carrie shrugged. "I don't know. Davis has a surprise for me."
She nodded, still looking slightly secretive, which had Carrie speculating Gwen had played some role in setting up the surprise. "Where are you off to?"
"I need to go check in briefly with Owen for a scan, and then I'm joining Jason in the cloning bay. I'm anxious to see how the dogs are progressing."
Carrie smiled at that, anticipating Penny having another mate in the future. Her puppies were almost fully grown now, though they still acted like puppies. They roamed the base, not entirely belonging to anyone, aside from the two Britta and Pollux had claimed as their own.
"If you see Raven, ask her to show you her kitten."
Carrie grinned at that news. "It was a success?"
Gwen nodded. "Thank goodness. It was some of the DNA that was still perfectly preserved."
Carrie knew she alluded to the fact that some of the samples had been degraded beyond saving, and they had lost some species forever. Pigs were among them, and she mourned that she would never have bacon again, while accepting she probably wouldn’t have anyway. Their society was vegetarian, and it would probably be a long time before they had cloned enough animals to even consider eating them. That hadn’t done anything to assuage some of her two a.m. cravings for BLTs, but Davis had devised a sexy way to distract her that still worked, albeit more awkwardly over the past few weeks.
After parting from Gwen, they continued moving through the base. Heather and MX were the next two they encountered, and she was both happy and slightly annoyed to see pregnancy seemed to suit Heather just as well as it did Gwen.
She was only a few weeks behind Gwen, having gotten pregnant before Owen figured out that the super pulser Davis, MX, and Jason had been exposed to while taking out the synthetics had fried their biochips. By then, both of their mates were expecting.
At that point, since everything was flourishing well on the base and starting to come along on the surface, Davis had lifted the moratorium on cyborgs reproducing. It was amazing how rapidly some had fallen pregnant, including Nikki.
Carrie grinned as she recalled how embarrassed her friend had been when her secret relationship with Owen came to light. Before defeating the synths, cyborgs had supposedly only turned to each other for sexual relief, but Nikki and Owen had been together as a real couple for a few years. Revealing their relationship had seemed to embarrass them both, but everyone had taken the pairing with equanimity, which had helped.
They continued moving through the base, and she was convinced he was planning to take her outside. She was looking forward to that, since the facility sometimes felt a little cramped these days with the cyborgs, humans, and Grecopans all living together. A lot of the Grecopans still lived aboard their massive terraforming ship, which was parked on the surface, but several had moved below upon finding their mates.
She let out a happy sigh as he opened the main door before taking her hand to lead her outside. It was still no picnic out there, but the dust storms had been reduced to practically nothing, thanks to terraforming. The planet was still decades away from being healed, but the Grecopans had already made considerable progress.
Davis didn't wait for her to ask. He simply swooped her into his arms and started walking. She snuggled against him, enjoying his body pressed against hers, along with the comforting support of his arms around her. Her libido stirred to life, which was no surprise. Before the pregnancy, she hadn't been able to get enough of him, and that hadn't chang
ed throughout. Despite being overdue, and generally feeling wretched, desire surge through her.
They walked for about five minutes. That was probably three kilometers at his pace, which seemed only barely slowed by carrying her. He paused abruptly, looking down at her as she lifted her face from where she nestled against his neck. "Close your eyes now."
Carrie immediately complied, not wanting to ruin the surprise. At first, she wasn't certain why, but something was different. It took a moment before the realization filtered through that she felt warmth on her face—the kind of warmth that only came from the sun. She was tempted to open her eyes, but managed to stave off the urge since he hadn't asked her to do so yet.
The next thing of which she became aware was the chirping of birds nearby—a sound she hadn't heard since Freydon Rote had whisked her from her living room four hundred and thirty years ago. "Davis?" Her voice tremulous from her mingled anxiety and anticipation.
"Just one more moment."
She nodded, keeping her eyes closed as he took a few more steps. For a moment her world tilted, and she clung to him until realizing he was simply leaning down. A second later, her bottom rested gently on something firm, and she knew he had placed her on the ground. "Now?"
"Now," he said, his excitement obvious in his tone.
Carrie opened her eyes and looked around, gasping as tears came to her eyes. "It's amazing. How did you ever…?" She trailed off, too overwhelmed to speak.
Before her lay a small expanse of grass, along with a few trees that were still babies. There were birds fluttering nearby, and she looked around until she saw a large post someone had driven into the ground. There were a collection of birdhouses hanging from arms attached to it, and someone had even provided some fake foliage to compensate for the fact that the trees were too small for the birds to build their nests.
Most of all, she could feel warmth from the sun and tipped her head back to look up. It was still obscured by layers of clouds and debris, she could actually see it filtering through and feel it on her skin.
Davis sat beside her, and she looked down, realizing for the first time she was seated on a blanket, and there was a basket nearby. "How did you make all this possible?"
"Peila and Melia. I explained to them that I'd like somewhere for the children to play, and for you to relax, so they shifted some resources and focused on terraforming this area. It's definitely a work-in-progress, but within a year or two, this should be a nice flourishing meadow where all the children can play."
Tears streamed down her face, and she started to sob.
He looked alarmed even through the blurriness of her eyes from the tears. "What's wrong? Are you in labor?"
She snorted, laughing just as quickly as she had started to cry. Mood swings were a constant companion these days. "I wish. I'm beginning to think your child is never coming out."
"He or she will come when ready. Why are you crying then?"
She shrugged. "I guess I'm just overwhelmed by your thoughtfulness and the Grecopans’ generosity. This is amazing, and it was just what I needed. The base is astounding, and a technological wonder. The arboretum is a good substitute, but it isn’t exactly the same as really being outside."
Technically, it probably was, since it was calibrated to the nth degree to be a perfect replica of ideal growing conditions for all the crops maintained in the area, but she was aware of a psychological difference that troubled none of the others—probably because they hadn't seen the real thing. Even the Earth that had been in existence before the humans deployed the weapon that had destroyed everything had already been dismal, polluted, and overcrowded.
"In that case, are you hungry?"
She giggled. "When am I not hungry?" If it hadn't been for Owen's reassurance that she definitely had only one baby inside her stomach, Carrie would've been convinced she was carrying at least triplets. Her stomach rumbled with approval when he opened the lid of the basket to remove a selection of fruits and vegetables.
There was no sign of their supplemental quinoa and algae staple dish that provided most of their protein, and she was happy about that. It had never been particularly appealing, but it was harder than ever to choke down while pregnant. She was compliant and did so, wanting her baby to grow strong, but it was a relief to have something else at this impromptu picnic.
Though it wasn't all that impromptu, was it? Now she knew why Gwen had been grinning. She was obviously in on the secret and must have been the one, along with Jason, to clone the birds. Overwhelmed by their kindness, she was once again on the verge of tears. Seeing the alarm in her mate’s expression helped her blink them back, and she reached out a hand—her fully human one—to rest on his thigh. "Thank you for all of this."
His fingers entwined with hers, and his light blue skin, with its luminescent veins, was a soft contrast to her paler skin. If she reached out with her other hand, it would match his. She'd become accustomed to looking in the mirror and seeing half-cyborg and half-human, so it didn't bother her any longer.
Occasionally, she was tempted to ask Owen to replace her human skin with cybernetic skin so she would match, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. She kind of liked the contrast, and it was nice to have a reminder of how she had been, which underscored her appreciation for how things were now.
She opened her mouth when Davis leaned forward to extend the strawberry. As he traced it slowly over her lips in a sensual fashion, her desire surged to life again, and she traced her tongue around the contours of the strawberry before flicking out to tease his fingertips.
He groaned as the strawberry disappeared into her mouth, and his lips covered it a moment later. The juice dribbled down her chin, and must have his as well, but he didn’t seem to notice. She certainly didn't care about the slightly sticky residue as Davis kissed her passionately.
Every kiss was like that with him, a combination of tender and strong, possessive, but gentle, and always exciting. That part never changed, and each kiss was almost like kissing him again for the first time.
He carefully leaned her back, turning her on her left side, and Carrie clung to him. She burrowed her fingers through his hair to hold his mouth against hers, pouring every ounce of her passion and love for him into her lips and the brush of her tongue against his seam. A moment later, it slipped into his mouth, and she shared the taste of strawberries and herself with him as their mouths made love.
His hands moved carefully over her body, smoothing down her curves with obvious reverence. Her stomach tightened, and tears filled her eyes as his hands cupped her belly, settling in the lower part of her abdomen, where she could feel their child. As though responding to Davis’s presence, the baby started kicking his hand. Davis chuckled in delight, which made Carrie grin. She loved seeing his happiness and obvious pleasure at the idea of being a father. He'd been anxious to start with, but he was clearly over that and completely committed to the prospect.
Davis’s fingers were sure and confident as they clicked open the buttons on the maternity dress she wore. She had sewn it herself, utilizing materials from the replicator, so the buttons were a little off-center, but he had no trouble with them. Soon enough, her dress pooled around her, and he made short work of her bra before bending his head to gently kiss one of her nipples. She was so sensitive that the light touch was the perfect amount of stimulation, and she shook under the pleasure.
She turned her head to see the sun, basking in the faint rays and gentle warmth as Davis’s mouth moved lower, first tracing the contours of her swollen stomach before pausing to press a kiss below her belly button, where their baby tapped lightly in response. She closed her eyes for a moment as he slipped off her panties, before opening them again when his mouth moved to the slick spot between her thighs. As he began to gently feast from her, the moment was almost surreal in its perfection.
After Freydon Rote had brought her into a grim future, she'd never imagined that something like this simple pleasure would be hers ever again. S
he had thought sunlight, picnics, and lazy afternoons of lovemaking were fantasies left behind in her old life.
That Davis had gone to such trouble to make it a reality brought tears to her eyes again, and she swallowed and blinked, determined not to give in to them. If she started sobbing while he was in the middle of pleasuring her, he would probably stop, and she didn't want that to happen. She already hovered on the edge of an orgasm, and a few more flicks of his tongue were all it took to send her over the edge and banish the tears.
Though she was still in the throes of release, she still felt bereft when Davis pulled away from her. She knew it wouldn't be for long, but it was difficult to be parted from him as her stomach spasmed, and warmth suffused her.
A few seconds later, he was behind her, clearly having shed his clothes before lying down to spoon her. Carrie let out a sigh of satisfaction as he lifted her leg and positioned himself to slide inside her slick heat. It felt as amazing as ever, even in her current state.
Carrie surrendered to the pleasure as he drove in and out of her with careful, shallow thrusts. She wished he would go deeper, but knew he was trying to protect their child, which sent a different kind of warmth through her. She was a tangled mess of emotions and sensation when Davis came, which triggered her own orgasm.
As her body tightened from release, shaking under the force of it, tears gushed from her eyes. It took her a moment to be able to wipe them away, and she did so just as Davis moved to her front, cuddling against her with his hand on her bare hip. She didn't want him to see the tears, but the tracks must've remained on her face, because he lifted a hand and tenderly wiped one down her cheek.