by Cynthia Sax
He was fast but not fast enough. If he made a move, the male would shoot.
And she’d die. The gun was too close to her ear.
“If you’ve heard about me.” She slowed her words, keeping her tone calm. “Then you know I don’t hunt any being without getting permission from Kralj first. He hasn’t given me permission to hunt you.”
“You’re lying.” The male intensified his grip on her neck.
“Not. Lying.” Imee clawed at his arm, unable to breathe.
“Damage my female and you’ll die.” Mayhem moved his hands from his guns to his daggers. “Slowly.” He extracted the blades from the sheaths. “Painfully. You’ll wish she had returned you to the Humanoid Alliance.”
“I’m not going back.” The Tau Cetian hauled her away from Mayhem.
Blackness encircled her vision, edging out the light. Imee gazed at Mayhem, focusing on his handsome face, wild hair, dark eyes. She might die this planet rotation.
But not without a fight.
Mayhem’s lips whitened.
Did he suspect what she planned to do?
She silently counted to three and flung herself backward. The gun slid along her cheek. Warm liquid splashed over her skin.
It wasn’t her blood. The Tau Cetian hadn’t fired his gun. He howled, falling over, taking her with him.
“Imee.”
There was the sound of bones cracking and she could breathe again, air rushing into her aching lungs. Her neck throbbed with pain. Her throat burned. The blackness retreated.
The Tau Cetian screamed again and again and again. Imee lay on the pathway, her arms and legs limp. She didn’t have the energy to look in his direction, couldn’t see what Mayhem was doing to the male.
The screaming stopped.
“My female.” Mayhem pulled her onto his lap. His lips covered hers. His breath pushed into her. The bubbling sensation she’d forever associate with him coursed inside her, easing her agony.
Nanocybotics, he’d called them. He licked over her chin, her neck, laving her injured skin with the flat of his tongue, spreading those nanocybotics, spreading the pain relief.
She clung to his shoulders and tilted her head, giving him more access to her, needing more of his healing. “Mayhem,” she croaked, her voice raw, harsh. She’d thought she wouldn’t survive. He’d saved her, a Retriever, a being not worth saving.
“What were you thinking, my foolish female?” He coated her with healing wetness.
“Cheek. Disfigured. Not killed.” If the Tau Cetian had fired his gun, the projectile would have blasted her face off but she would have survived.
“Fraggin’ hole.” Mayhem’s laughter was shaky. “You’re almost as wild as I am.”
She tried to laugh. It came out as a groan.
“You have internal damage.” He cradled her in his arms and leapt to his booted feet, not even grunting with the effort. “You need more nanocybotics.”
“Take her to her chamber in my domicile.” Kralj appeared to their right, his long black leather coat swirling around his legs. “I’ll clean up the mess.” He kicked a mound of blood, guts, and body parts, all that was left of the Tau Cetian.
Mayhem nodded, the motion curt, and he carried her from the scene, moving so quickly, so silently she questioned her senses. He wasn’t human. She studied his square chin. She didn’t know what he was but she knew one thing. “You saved me.”
“I allowed you to be damaged.” His face darkened even more.
“And that bothers you—that I was damaged?” She pushed the words past her lips. No one else cared if she was hurt.
“You’re my female.”
That was his explanation for everything. She rested her bruised cheek against his body armor-clad chest. His gait was smooth and steady.
“I’ll do a better job of protecting you, Imee.” His words held the weight of a vow. “Delaying our breeding was a selfish decision. I won’t risk your lifespan so I might have a couple solar cycles of adventure. I’ll claim you fully, repair you, give you all of me.”
Imee could protect herself. She didn’t need to be claimed, to be owned by yet another being. And when the sun rose, she’d capture Mayhem and trade him to the Humanoid Alliance for credits, perhaps earn the reward of seeing her family.
But this planet rotation, she’d be his female and allow him to claim her. She’d pretend she was normal, worthy of caring, of being saved. Imee traced a vein in his neck with one of her blood-covered fingers.
They’d break yet another one of her rules and fuck. She’d allow her target inside her, cradle him between her thighs, arch against him, brushing her breasts over his bare chest. They’d steal a moment of pleasure, of companionship, from a lifespan of loneliness.
“Take me, warrior,” she whispered.
Mayhem’s lips curled upward.
Chapter Five
He’d almost lost his female this planet rotation. Mayhem walked through the settlement, Imee’s curvy body cradled in his arms, his constantly battling female alarmingly docile.
She hadn’t been still when the Tau Cetian pressed his gun to her cheek. If Mayhem hadn’t thrown his dagger, cutting off her attacker’s trigger finger, she would have been hit in her beautiful face with a projectile.
She could have died.
Mayhem passed a heavily armed Dracheon warrior. The silver-scaled male stared at him. He glared back, silently daring the other male to attack, seeking to vent his rage, to fight and maim and kill.
Much to Mayhem’s disappointment, the Dracheon flicked his forked tongue and retreated, disappearing into the darkness.
Courageless male. He huffed.
There would be other beings, watching, waiting for them to make a mistake, for him to leave her alone. There always would be.
His female was a Retriever. Even if he left her on a peaceful planet, if there was such a place in this messed up galaxy, beings could hunt her down and try to kill her. Knowing that, he couldn’t store Imee at an unsecured location and trek around the galaxy, seeking fun and adventure.
He had to claim her, keep her safe.
The machine half of him recognized that for what it was—an excuse to do what he truly wanted, touch her, breed with her, make her his. The organic half of him didn’t care, as long as she was his.
Mayhem strode toward the doors of Kralj’s stronghold.
“No.” Imee slapped his chest. “Too public,” she croaked, her voice serving as a reminder of his failure. “Around back.”
He hesitated, wanting every being on Carinae E to know she was under his protection. Entering the busy structure with her in his arms would accomplish that.
“If they think I’m weak.” She inhaled raggedly. “They’ll wait until I leave the Refuge and attack me.”
Mayhem brushed her hair away from her face, the tendrils long and straight, as black as the sky above them. “I wouldn’t allow them to damage you, my female.”
Her gaze slid from his. “And if you’re not there?”
“I will never leave you.” He’d decided that.
“You won’t have a choice.”
“Ah.” His processors finally computed what she was saying. She planned to capture him, to return him to the Humanoid Alliance.
Mayhem wanted to ask why. Why did she hunt rebels, beings who were merely trying to survive, who sought to make their own rules, live their lifespans as they wish, where they wish? Why did she carry a severed finger in her breast covering? Why was she denying their connection, the bond of a female to her male?
But his Imee had been damaged and demanding those answers might cause her more pain. “There is always a choice,” was all he said as he changed his route, circling the structure to enter the back doors.
They were guarded by a large winged male. His numbering sequence was similar to the green gatekeeper’s, his origins and species unknown. The stranger nodded to him and stepped aside, not uttering a word.
The interior was dimly light. Mayhem’s visio
n system adjusted immediately. His female squinted. “My chamber is--”
“To the left.” He turned in that direction, tilting her upward to not bang her head against the wall of the narrow corridor. “I smell you.” Her distinct scent was imprinted on both his humanlike brain and his machinelike processors. He followed its trail through the structure.
“And you can see in the dark.” She rubbed her thighs together. Leather brushed against leather. The musk of her arousal filled his nostrils. She wanted him as he wanted her. “Are all of your senses enhanced?”
“Compared to a human’s?” The door to the chamber was manual also. It creaked as he pushed it open. “Yes. I could track you with my eyes closed, my female.”
She breathed deeply, her generous chest rising. “I can’t smell you.”
“I have no scent.” Scent was a weakness. It allowed beings to locate him.
Mayhem gently set Imee on the sleeping support. The surface was wide enough for both of them, covered with fabric almost as decadently luxurious as her skin. In the privacy of her chamber, his tough little female indulged in her preference for softness.
The rest of the space was plain, the walls bare, the furnishings comfortably sparse. Cyborgs had very few material possessions, only their body armor and their walking arsenal of guns, daggers, swords. He wasn’t accustomed to being surrounded by objects. “You have no weapons.”
“I have none on display.” Imee reached under the sleeping support and extracted a gun. “Weapons are no use to me if my enemies can find them.”
“You’re a clever female.” Mayhem smiled, pleased at her resourcefulness.
“You won’t think I’m clever when I shoot you.” She pointed the gun at him. The setting was on stun, telling him that his little Retriever preferred not to kill beings, even her enemies. Her heart, he suspected, was as soft as her sleeping support.
Which made her role as a Retriever even more illogical.
“We’ll play with your weapons later.” He leaned over her, bracing himself upward with his arms. “First, I must repair you.”
Bruises shadowed her cheek, the damage greater around her neck.
“How do you plan to repair me?” She pressed the gun’s muzzle against his chest. “With your nanocybotics?”
“They’re concentrated in my saliva.” He traced the darkness on her cheek with the tip of his tongue and she trembled under him. “And in my cum.”
Her eyes deepened in color until they were almost black. “You must be popular with the females.” She brushed the muzzle on her gun over his chin back and forth, back and forth.
“There are no females.” He laved her cheek, covering her with his healing nanocybotics, with his scent, marking her as his. “Only you.”
Her lips parted and her eyelids partially lowered. She was so fraggin’ beautiful, with her black hair and golden skin, her scar a testament to her strength.
He shifted over her, resting his hips against hers, his cock hard, constrained by his body armor. She caressed his jaw with the barrel of her gun.
“I feel your nanocybotics bubbling inside me.” She worried her bottom lip with her blunt white teeth. “When will they fade?”
“With you?” Mayhem sucked on that abused flesh, pulling, pulling, pulling, and letting go. “Never.” Constant breeding with her would ensure they never dissipated. “You’re made for me.”
“Am I?” She lifted her hips, pressing her mons against his cock, their bodies frustratingly separated by her ass coverings and his body armor.
“Yes.” He licked down her chin, over her damaged neck, devoting his energies to that expanse of delicate skin.
She tasted of salt and female. Mayhem nuzzled her neck and rubbed his chest against her breasts, teasing her taut nipples through her leather top.
“Yes.” She arched into him, resting her gun on the nape of his neck.
He mimicked the breeding motion, grinding his body armor-clad cock against her ass covering-clad pussy. Her wetness soaked the material, slicking it. Her scent filled his nostrils and his lungs, making him light-headed with lust, with need.
“You are healing me.” Her voice was husky. “I feel good, invigorated, powerful.” Her fingernails dug into his skin. “I need more.” She pulled on his neck and huffed, her strength no match for his.
He rolled onto his back, obeying her silent command, and she straddled him, her eyes glowing with triumph, her pussy positioned on his encased shaft. “I take what I want, Mayhem.” She was a warrior female and he was her prize. “You can’t stop me.”
“Why would I stop you?” He cupped her breasts, weighing them in his hands, and she inhaled sharply, thrusting their bounty against his palms. “Everything I have is yours.”
“You belong to me.” Imee rocked, riding him. “You’re my target. I claim you.”
“We will claim each other.” Mayhem removed the tiny translucent repository she’d hidden in the valley between her breasts. “We’ll breed so hard; you’ll process thoughts only of me, forgetting your past.” He placed the tiny severed finger on the sleeping support beside them.
“I can never forget the past.” Her gaze followed the translucent repository. That finger meant something to her. When the sun rose, he’d uncover its significance, but not in this moment. In this moment, he would bind his female to him.
“Live in the now.” Mayhem pushed her leather top aside and kneaded her bare curves. “Embrace the chaos.”
There was no Homeland, no rules, no future of stifling safeness. There was only his female. He savored the contrast of her tight nipples against her full breasts.
She was a complex being, strength and softness, fire and sadness. Her long black hair flowed over her shoulders. A gun was gripped in her right hand. Grisly mementoes were hidden on her succulent person.
“This changes nothing.” She undulated, the muscles in her stomach rippling.
It would change everything. He wouldn’t share that truth with his target-focused female. Needing to feel her skin against his, Mayhem elevated her sweet ass with one hand and removed his body armor with the other, freeing his arms, chest, cock, legs.
He set her on his thighs, pulled her against his liberated shaft and they both moaned with pleasure, his tip bumping against her concealed clit. Although she remained nearly fully clothed, her leather garments were so thin he felt everything—the lips of her pussy, the temptation of her entrance, the roundness of her ass.
Imee rolled her hips, a slow sensuous movement that stripped his control, and she gazed down at him. Her eyes flared with appreciation. “You’re perfect.” Lines etched between her eyebrows. “Too perfect. You don’t have a single scar.” She covered her cheek with her fingers.
“I can’t scar.” His nanocybotics healed him too quickly for scarring. “Strangers will always view you as being the fiercer warrior. It will be an incorrect assumption but--”
“Incorrect?” She reacted as he predicted, pointing her gun between his flat pectoral muscles. “I am fiercer.”
“Prove it.” He challenged her. “Show me your scars.”
“I have quite a few.” She set her weapon on his chest and stripped, revealing a silver scar under her left breast, another one on her left hip. Removing her boots uncovered wide scars on both calves.
Mayhem’s fingers folded into fists. Some bastard had tried to cripple her. “You’ve been tested and you survived, my female.”
“I made mistakes,” she admitted.
“All warriors make mistakes.” Even cyborgs made errors in battle. “Your scars are beautiful.” He lifted his head and kissed the mark on her hip. “They are unique, badges of courage.”
“I almost earned a new one today.” Her smile was wry.
“Almost.” The memory of the attack threatened to shut down his processors. He flipped her onto her back, needing to be inside her, to reassure himself that she was undamaged, alive.
She shrieked, grabbing his shoulders. Her gun slid with a thud to the fl
oor.
“Mayhem--”
“Open to me.” He nudged his cock between her legs.
She complied, spreading her thighs. Mayhem pushed his tip inside her tight entrance and gritted his teeth. She was so wet, so hot, so right for him.
And she wasn’t passive. His fiery female hitched her hips higher and higher, impaling herself on his thick shaft. Her pussy lips pulled snugly around him. Lines of strain formed around her eyes and mouth.
“Be still, female.” He slowed his progress, not wishing to damage her. “Have mercy on me.”
“I’m a Retriever.” Her eyes glinted. “I have no mercy.”
“You’re a warrior,” he corrected. She was no longer a Retriever. They were voyaging to the Homeland after this. He would never allow her to return to the Humanoid Alliance, to undertake their tasks, to put herself at risk.
Her softness slid up his cock, surrounding him, until her folds kissed his base. He lowered a fraction of his weight, pinning her ass to the sleeping support, raising himself upward with his arms, and he gazed into her brown eyes. “Are you damaged, my female?”
“As if you could damage me.” She scoffed. “I can take anything you give me, warrior.”
“I don’t have more to give you.” He chuckled, amused at her ferocity. “You took all of me.”
She opened her mouth.
He claimed her lips, surging inside her, swallowing her retort. She jabbed his tongue with hers and his shoulders shook with laughter. His female was a joy. They dueled, attacking, retreating, chasing, hunting, their tongues twirling and tumbling.
Her pussy eased around his cock. He pulled out, pushed back in, pulled out, pushed back in, as they kissed. Imee matched his rhythm, giving as much as she got.
Her fingers curled over his shoulders and her legs wrapped around his waist. “Hard.” She gasped against his neck. “Your body is hard, like rock.”
“Like metal.” His frame protected his more vulnerable systems.
“Yes, metal.” Imee brushed her nipples against his chest. “That’s what you taste like.” She licked his neck and he shuddered. Her tongue was rough and wet.
