by Cynthia Sax
He increased his tempo, pounding into his female. Her warmth dripped between his beleaguered balls. Her fingernails raked his back, leaving trails of tantalizing pain, that burn accentuating his pleasure.
“More. Blast you,” she cried. “Give me more.”
Fraggin’ hole. His female was demanding.
And he loved it. He thrust hard and deep, seeking to give her what she wanted, what she needed. She panted her approval. A slick sheen of sweat covered her curves, making her golden skin glisten.
“Fuck.” She smacked her heels against his clenched ass cheeks. Their bodies slapped together, heat radiating from the points of impact. “More.”
Mayhem growled, ratcheting up their breeding one more level, conscious of how fragile, how human she was, yet wishing to please her. Pressure formed at the base of his spine. His focus narrowed to her.
The bruises on her cheek, her neck, had vanished. She was healthy, whole, his. He licked and sucked every bit of exposed skin he could reach, flooding her with his nanocybotics.
“My female.” His voice lowered with passion. “Mine.” He repeated his ownership over and over, pistoning into her with each declaration.
“Mine. Mine.” Her pitch was higher, blended with his. She drilled her fingernails into his back, digging deeper and deeper, the stinging pain arousing him to the point of malfunction.
Her pussy tightened around his shaft, increasing the friction. “Close,” she informed him, her eyes wild, her face flushed. “Need. Need.”
He bared his teeth and grazed her neck.
“Fuck.” She flung herself upward, smacking her form against his. Her pussy clenched his cock.
Mayhem lost all restraint, howling, driving forward, into her. Hot spurts of cum shot from his tip, hit her inner walls, and she screamed, writhing under him.
He wouldn’t allow her to escape him, pushing even deeper, trapping her against the sleeping support. She clawed at his chest and bucked. He pumped everything he had into her, draining his shaft, his balls, his soul.
Imee came again and again, tears streaming down her beautiful face, her cries echoing in his ears, her fingernails ripping at his skin, her ecstasy and her torment relayed to him.
Mayhem murmured nonsensical words of comfort into her hair, kissed the dampness off her cheeks, covered her with his muscle and warmth.
She quieted, her breathing leveling. He transferred a greater portion of his weight to his arms and looked down at his female. She lay limp and blurry-eyed, appearing as stunned and as blissful as he felt.
This striking, powerful creature was his. He had found the one being he’d spend his lengthy lifespan with.
She was worth any sacrifice. He could tolerate the sameness of the Homeland, knowing she was by his side.
“Did I damage you, my female?” he teased, his heart light.
“You’re not that big.” Imee shook her head, a smile softening her lips. “I’m bubbling all over.” She stretched, her movements sensual, acutely feminine. “And I feel…different, more.”
“You’re no longer completely human.” He kissed her forehead. “You’re more like me.”
She traced his biceps with her fingertips. “Will I have your speed now?”
His female wished to be the best, as he did. “You’ll be faster, stronger, and you won’t age. You’ll never be as skilled at fighting as I am.”
“I’m already as skilled as you are.” Imee rolled her eyes. “This doesn’t change anything.” She didn’t sound as certain of that as she previously was. “You remain my target and, when the sun rises, I’ll capture you.”
“You’ll try.” And he’d enjoy her attempts to subdue him. She would keep his battle skills sharp and his processors functioning.
Imee tilted her head. “A wise being wouldn’t stay in my chamber.”
A being who cared only about the credits, about the task assigned to her by the Humanoid Alliance, wouldn’t warn her target. “I’m not leaving you.”
“You should,” she grumbled.
He rolled with her until she was on top of him, his cock remaining in her hot pussy, their bodies connected.
Menace could find Death and his female, protect them if they truly needed protecting. Imee only had him to safeguard her.
She was his sole priority.
“You’re mine, my female.” Mayhem kissed her forehead. “Where you go, I go.”
And where she was going was back to the Homeland.
Chapter Six
Imee woke with a jolt out of a deep, dreamless sleep. Her survival instincts screamed a warning. Something was wrong, terribly wrong.
A male hand curved around her left breast. Hot lips pressed against her neck. A muscular thigh was flung over her legs.
Stranger! Threat! Kill!
She rammed both of her elbows backward, slamming into his stomach with all of her strength. He gasped. She rolled to the floor, grabbed her gun and turned. Her finger brushed the trigger.
He knocked the weapon from her hands and tackled her, flattening her body against the floor, extending her arms above her head.
Imee fought, twisting, bucking. He absorbed her strikes without a sound, maintaining his hold on her.
She glanced upward and realized who was subduing her.
Mayhem.
A very naked and aroused Mayhem. His cock was hard against her stomach.
“Fuck.” Imee sagged, her face heating. He wasn’t a threat, a male seeking to kill her. She’d allowed him to stay.
Not consciously. After their third round of sleeping-support-rocking sex, she’d fallen asleep, her head resting on his chest, his arms around her.
She hadn’t pushed him out the door as she had all of her previous one-time fucks. In her lonely heart, she realized he was different. She also realized it wouldn’t change anything.
She was a Retriever. He was her target. The future and their fate were set.
“You’re feisty after a rest cycle.” The fool grinned at her. “I like that.”
His hair stuck straight up, defying gravity, and she yearned to run her fingers through the short strands, smooth them down.
She couldn’t. The sun had risen. He was no longer her lover.
“Get off me.” She pushed at his chest.
It was as tanned, as toned, as perfect as the rest of him. She’d never been with a male so hard all over. It was as though he had armor under his skin.
Mayhem kissed her nose. “You’re adorable, my female.”
She summoned a scowl. No being had ever called her adorable. She liked it. Too much. “Did you hear me?”
“My auditory system is functioning.” Mayhem dragged his lips over hers, nibbled on her flesh, sucked on her chin, adding more nanocybotics to her collection.
That collection was growing within her. The bubbling from the previous planet rotation hadn’t faded. It had grown in intensity.
He’d changed her.
That change was more than merely physical. She’d called him by his name, thought of him as a breathing, feeling being, cared for him.
“Please, Mayhem.” The pleading in her voice made her cringe but she couldn’t do this, couldn’t get more attached to him.
He stood, pulled her to her feet. “Imee--”
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Saying the words, admitting to her feelings, would make them even more real. She gathered her garments and dressed in silence.
Mayhem did the same, covering his gorgeous body, sculpted muscles, that huge cock protruding from his hairless base. He’d reshaped her form, the memory of him remaining inside her. They were connected.
She was so fucked.
Imee scooped the tiny translucent repository with her sister’s finger off the floor, a morbid reminder of why she had to be merciless, why she had to complete the task before her.
“Which digit of mine would you add to your collection, my female?” Mayhem ran his right index finger over her left arm. “This one?” He waggled it.
“I don�
��t plan to add anything of yours.” She held the translucent repository upward. “This is a reminder of my mistakes and I no longer make mistakes.” That felt like a lie.
“What mistake did you make?” He peered closer at the finger.
“I didn’t meet quota.” Sharing her past was another error but she needed to tell him, to ensure he understood that she wouldn’t relent, that she’d follow through on her threats and retrieve him. “That first solar cycle, I didn’t know what I was doing, how to find my targets, how to capture them without killing them.” Dead targets were worthless.
“How old were you?” Her never serious male’s tone was surprisingly solemn.
“Old enough.” She should have been able to meet quota.
“How old?”
“I had twelve solar cycles.”
“Fraggin’ hole,” he cursed. “How, at that age, did you choose that profession?”
“Choose that profession?” Imee stared at him in disbelief. “Why would any being choose to be a Retriever?” What type of monster did he think she was? “The Humanoid Alliance has my family, my mom, my little sister, my baby brother. If I don’t collect sufficient credits, my family members are sent to me.” She thrust the translucent repository toward his handsome face. “In pieces.”
His eyes grew scarily hard.
Imee was too angry, too hurt to notice. “So fuck you and fuck your judgment.”
She stuffed the translucent repository in her breast covering and stomped out of the chamber. Why did she think he’d understand? Why did she want him to understand?
She was a solitary for a reason. It was easier—
She was scooped into a pair of achingly familiar arms, opened her mouth to shriek, found it filled with Mayhem’s tongue. He kissed her punishingly hard, driving her head back. She pummeled him with her booted feet, slapped his body armor-clad chest with her hands.
He carried her back into the chamber, kicking the door closed behind them, and he dumped her unceremoniously on the sleeping support.
“Leave me alone,” she snarled, fed up with his high-handedness. “Go. Torment some other more worthy female.”
“You are worthy.” Mayhem folded his big arms, his expression stern, dominant, and her pussy grew wet. “No fighting. No running. Talk to me.”
“You’re an ass. There’s nothing more to say.” She glared at him.
He glared back.
Moments passed. His lips quirked upward. “You have honor.”
“No, I don’t.” That was the problem with sharing—beings used her circumstances to justify her actions. “I made my quota the next solar cycle by capturing females, children, the elderly, the most vulnerable rebels, returning them to the Humanoid Alliance. Do you know what they did with those beings?”
“They used those beings to train warriors.” Mayhem’s gaze slid to the right and his jaw jutted. “The warriors were forced to kill them in the fighting rings.”
Had he been one of those warriors? Had she forced that ugly task on him?
“You were offspring, my female, not fully developed.”
She couldn’t do what she had to do while he was being sympathetic. “I killed a baby.”
He’d hate her now, like she hated herself.
The sleeping support dipped as he sat beside her. “Was it your baby?” He put one of his arms around her, the heat from his fit physique soothing.
“No, it wasn’t my baby.” She’d never have children, never have a life of her own. Imee resisted the temptation to rest her head on his shoulder, to lean into him. “She was my target’s child.”
Mayhem drew her back to him, held her, rubbing comforting circles into her tense muscles, nuzzling his chin against her hair. “Offspring die in battle.”
“This wasn’t battle.”
“The Humanoid Alliance is waging war against the rebels. It was battle.” He sounded so certain; she wanted to believe him, believe she’d done the things she had because it was necessary.
Was it necessary to retrieve him, to doom him to the same death? “I could talk to Kralj, ask for another target.”
None of the other rebels were as valuable as he was. They wouldn’t earn her as many credits or, possibly, the opportunity to see her family.
But she’d already made quota for the solar cycle and he’d be alive.
“I’m your only target, my female.”
She turned her head and looked at him. “But--”
“I’ll kill any male you try to apprehend.” That declaration held the weight of a vow. He was the most skilled warrior she’d ever met, with the possible exception of Kralj. She didn’t doubt that he’d end her new target’s lifespan.
The obstinate male would force her to deliver him to his death. Anger coiled within Imee. “I’m trying to save your life.”
“Because you care for me.” He grinned.
She shot to her feet. “I don’t care for you.” Imee dashed toward the door for the second time that planet rotation, seeking to escape him, escape her lie.
“You smell like me.” Mayhem followed her, not allowing the distance, either emotional or physical. “Every male will know you’re mine.”
“I don’t have time to utilize the cleansing chamber.” That was another untruth. She wanted to smell of him, to keep their connection for a little bit longer. “I have to speak with Kralj before he leaves his working chamber.” She ran in that direction.
Mayhem matched her quick pace, showing no signs of exertion. “We’ll speak with the male.” He clasped her hand, his palm firm against hers. “He won’t touch you.”
His possessive tone sent a tremor down her spine.
“Kralj isn’t interested in me that way.” They passed Orol. The winged male stood with his hands clenched behind his back, gazing out the window, yet Imee knew he heard and saw everything. His senses were almost as finely honed as his boss’s were. “And we aren’t speaking with him. I am.”
She needed space to think, to regain control.
“Where you go, I go.”
He must have been serious about that. “Mayhem.” Imee glanced at him, unable to hide the panic swelling within her. She’d been alone for so long and now he was by her side, caring, overwhelming her with emotion.
She couldn’t handle it, didn’t know how. Kralj had never trained her how to handle a target who cared for her. She required quiet to figure out this problem.
Mayhem gazed at her and his eyes softened. “I’ll wait outside his chamber,” he relented. “If he touches you or damages you in any way, I’ll know and he’ll die.”
How would he know? The door would be closed. Could he see through solid surfaces? Did every being around her have powers?
“He won’t touch me.” She slipped through the door, putting that barrier between them, hoping it would be enough.
“Sit.” Kralj waved at a chair. “It is enough.” He had known she was coming, that she’d given seeing him as an excuse, was using his chamber as a sanctuary.
She slumped in a chair, ashamed of her weakness.
The scarred male continued to peruse the personal viewscreen set on the horizontal support before him. He was too grim to be considered handsome, even if his face hadn’t been horribly burned, but some females found him sexy, getting off on the undeniable aura of power clinging to his leather-clad shoulders.
Imee wasn’t attracted to him. She’d seen too much pain to find his intensity appealing. She preferred Mayhem’s laughing eyes, his always-smiling lips, the way he joked about inappropriate things.
“You don’t know who he is.” Kralj read her thoughts.
“He’s my target.” That sounded unconvincing even to her ears.
“He’s your chance at happiness.” The Refuge’s leader gazed at her with his dark all-seeing, all-knowing eyes. “You’d be a fool not to take it.”
How could he say that? “You know what I risk.”
“I know what you believe you risk.”
What did that mean? “Wh
at is he? What should I know about him?”
“That’s not my information to share.” Kralj returned his focus to his personal viewscreen. The responsibility for the welfare, for the lives of every being within the settlement rested with him. He decided who lived and who died.
“Why did you save me?” She suddenly needed to know. “When I arrived at the Refuge, I was young, inexperienced, weak. I hunted within the walls without your permission, disrespecting the rules, disrespecting you. You’ve killed beings for less.”
“I know everything.”
That was no answer. “Instead, you trained me, slowed my early targets so I could capture them.” He’d inflicted wounds upon them until their strength was drained and their heads spun. She’d seen him wield all of the weapons hanging on his walls. “That allowed me to meet quota, to survive. Why would you do that?”
“You’re one of us.”
She tilted her head. “Meaning?”
“They made you as much as they made me, giving you no choice about the actions you took.” The ‘they’ he referred to must be the Humanoid Alliance. Imee had heard the rumors about Kralj, about how he was the result of Humanoid Alliance genetic experiments, how he’d killed for them. But this was the first time he’d talked about his past. “You deserved an opportunity to regain your honor.”
“I didn’t regain my honor.” Shame swept over her. “I continue to retrieve for them.”
“You could have continued to retrieve the young, the old, the vulnerable. I wouldn’t have allowed you to hunt them here but you could have moved to a less protected settlement. Those beings were easy targets. With your skills, you could have met your quota quickly.”
They were worth less credits per being but she could have retrieved multiple targets, filled every chamber on her ship with beings to offset that factor. That strategy would have been quicker, less dangerous.
More detestable. They were innocents compared to the seasoned warriors she now hunted. The targets Kralj assigned her were all killers. They had delivered death to other beings.
Even Mayhem had ended lives. He was a warrior. That had been his role.
She didn’t want to deliver him to the Humanoid Alliance.
“I’m not giving you another target.” Kralj denied her request before she could present it. “Your Mayhem didn’t lie. He would kill any being you hunted. And he’s the target you need, Imee.” A hint of a smile eased the hard line of his lips for one fleeting moment. “You have to do this.”
