by Cynthia Sax
“And the warriors who surrendered?” Imee placed her hands on his body armor-clad chest. “What would happen to them?”
“They’d be executed.” He scrubbed the emotion from his voice.
She winced. “They’d die to save their loved ones?”
He dipped his head. “Not trusting their enemies, the rebels didn’t agree to those terms at first. But the Commander of the Humanoid Alliance forces reassured them, giving them his word, telling them they needed their loved ones to work the land. It was useless if untended, he said.”
“Being agi lot workers, that explanation must have made sense to them.”
“It did.” The logic was sound, even to Mayhem’s processors. “The rebels agreed to the surrender. They laid down their weapons, opened the gates and strode out one by one, meeting their fate with honor and dignity.” They earned the respect of the watching cyborg warriors. “The rebels were executed.” The humanoids had performed that duty, joking and laughing as they slayed the unarmed beings. “They derived comfort in the knowledge that their loved ones were safe.”
“As they should.” Imee nodded. His courageous female would have made the same sacrifice, dying so her family could live.
“The Humanoid Alliance Commander marched us through the gates. He asked the remaining rebels, the offspring, the non-warrior females, the elderly, to stand before us.”
They had hurried to comply, offering no resistance. The humanoids had gazed at him and his cyborg brethren with wide, innocent eyes, their bodies small, unshielded by any armor, their hands empty of weapons. Females had held offspring to their breasts. An older female had offered the cyborgs beverages, treating them as beings, not weapons.
None of the humanoids had doubted they’d be safe, that they’d be spared. All of them had trusted their invaders to be honorable males.
They’d viewed Mayhem as one of those honorable males.
His female dug her fingertips into his body armor, waiting for the conclusion of his recounting.
“The Commander ordered us to attack.” The cyborgs hadn’t been excluded from that order.
She inhaled sharply. “He vowed to spare the warriors’ families.”
“He told the warriors what they needed to hear to surrender.” The male had no honor. “He had no intention of keeping his vow.”
“What did you do?” she whispered.
“To the Humanoid Alliance, cyborgs are unthinking, unfeeling machines.” Mayhem’s lips flattened. “What could we do? If we had resisted, refused, showed emotion or broken any of their rules…” Rules that he hated, rules that his soul fought against. “They would have viewed it as a malfunction and decommissioned all of the cyborgs on the battlefield. They might have decommissioned every cyborg located anywhere in the galaxy.”
“Decommissioned you?”
“The Humanoid Alliance would have killed us. They would have sliced us into pieces while we were alive, harvesting our parts. They wouldn’t have used pain inhibitors. We would have felt every wound.”
She winced. “You couldn’t refuse the Commander’s order.”
“I didn’t.” He had killed the humanoids quickly, seeking to minimize their pain, to prevent the humans from torturing them. Offspring, elderly, male, female, he hadn’t differentiated. They all died. The ground the rebels had fiercely fought for had been soaked in their blood.
His female stroked his face, attempting to comfort him.
He wanted to make a joke, to lighten the pressure on his shoulders, the heaviness in the air around them, but he had to ensure she received his message. “The Humanoid Alliance operates without honor, my female. They will tell you lies, deceive you, take any action possible to achieve their objectives.”
Imee stiffened under him. “Is that the goal of this story?” Her eyes flashed. “You’re warning me about the Humanoid Alliance, asking me to prepare for the worst?”
He said nothing. She was a clever female. She didn’t need any confirmation.
“Well, fuck you.” She cursed. He had noticed she always did that when she felt insecure, threatened in some way. “They killed my friends, extended family, neighbors, making me watch as they tortured them, as they ended their lives. I know what the Humanoid Alliance can do.”
She pushed against him. He didn’t move.
“But I also know what they haven’t done. Because they’re sadistic bastards and they’d tell me if they killed my mom, my sister, my brother. They’d send me the footage and make me view it again and again.”
They would do that except… “They want you to retrieve rebels for them.”
“Which is why they need my family. They’re leverage, a means to ensure I am a good little Retriever.” His female’s voice was edged with bitterness. “They didn’t kill your brethren, did they?”
“They killed some of them.”
“But not all, because they used your brethren to keep you in line. Just like they’re using my family to manipulate me. My mom, sister, brother are alive.” She stubbornly clung to that assumption.
Mayhem didn’t expect her to give up hope, not immediately.
Why would she relent? She was right. Her family could be alive. He didn’t have solid proof they weren’t. All he had was a faked transmission and a gut feeling. “You should be prepared if they’re not alive.”
“No, I shouldn’t.” She ducked under his arm and rolled off the sleeping support. Her boot heels clunked against the tiled floor. “They’re alive. They have to be.” Imee stomped toward the door. “They’re all I have.”
“You have me, my female.” Mayhem watched her retreat.
His female scowled over her shoulder at him and stormed away, her heavy tread fading with each step.
She hadn’t argued with his last statement, hadn’t told him she wasn’t his female, that she didn’t have him. Mayhem stripped off his restrictive body armor, preferring to be nude, as his design intended.
His female would return. Mayhem flipped onto his back and folded his arms behind his head, his mood lightening. Imee was a fighter. She had retreated but she would never surrender.
He’d wait, plan for the rescue mission, prepare for their next tumultuous confrontation. His lips curled upward.
His female wasn’t done with him yet.
Chapter Ten
Imee could deal with Mayhem’s doubts. Not being a trusting fool, she had her own. The Humanoid Alliance killed and tortured without hesitation and they certainly didn’t care about her or her feelings.
Mayhem did care and that was what scared her. There had been concern in his dark eyes when he told her she should be prepared for her mom’s, her sister’s, her baby brother’s death. He worried about her.
And he should worry. Imee raked her fingers through her hair, yanking at the strands. If her family was dead, she didn’t know what she would do.
She focused on the pain shooting across her scalp and not on the terror churning in her stomach, the fear that everything she’d done in her lifespan, all of those horrible actions she could never forget or escape, had been for nothing.
Mayhem wanted to prepare her? He should coach her on that.
He had the experience. There must have been babies, the elderly, the vulnerable in that settlement and he’d killed them. How had he dealt with those deaths?
Imee retraced her steps, returning to her chamber and it was her chamber. The big male warrior shouldn’t be in it.
The door didn’t open fast enough for her. She kicked it. Her boot rang against metal, that sound giving her some satisfaction. He’d know how angry she was.
Imee strode into the space and jammed her fists on her hips. “So tell me. How did you deal with it?”
“How did I deal with the killing of the beings in the settlement?” He lay completely nude, stretched out on her sleeping support, all hunky muscle and tanned skin, his legs splayed, his cock hard, his arms folded, relaxed, as though he owned the spot.
“You killed them because you thought
you didn’t have a choice.” She narrowed her eyes at Mayhem, ignoring the way her body reacted to him, her growing arousal and aching awareness. “But clearly you did. You escaped. Your brethren escaped. If you had rebelled against the Humanoid Alliance earlier, you wouldn’t have had to kill those beings.”
“Ah…” His eyes softened, his understanding infuriating her even more. “Come here, my female.” He reached out to her.
“Answer my question.” She ignored his big strong capable hand.
Her response must have amused him. A smile curled his lips as he lowered his palm, placing it on his thigh, beside his long, thick shaft.. “My escape wouldn’t have changed their fate. I might not have been the warrior wielding the weapons but those beings in the settlement would still have ended up dead.”
“Your targets wouldn’t have survived, whether you had been there or not.” His insights didn’t help her at all. “Goodie for you.” Her gaze flicked over his distractingly fit physique, her irritation with him not dampening her desire.
“Your targets wouldn’t have survived either.” He sat upright, his ab muscles rippling, the power in his form thrillingly evident. “If you hadn’t retrieved them, your friend Kralj would have killed them.”
“The fates of those targets don’t concern me.” Much. It was the others, the children, the weak, the more innocent that haunted her.
She skimmed her tongue over her bottom lip.
His gaze tracked the movement, his eyes darkening. “Your early targets didn’t have the skills to live long lives.”
“You can’t be certain of that.” They might have survived if she hadn’t found them. Imee took a step closer to Mayhem.
“They were apprehended by a small human female with twelve or thirteen solar cycles.” He flashed her a pussy-wetting grin. “I’m certain of that.”
She had been incompetent.
She hadn’t intended to kill the more innocent rebels. Dead targets were worth nothing. Their deaths had been accidents.
She wasn’t blameless. She’d caused those accidents. But she wasn’t entirely responsible.
Fate, coincidence, bad luck had played a role.
She’d been so young, so inept. It was a wonder she remained alive.
Imee drifted her right hand over her gun’s handle, stroking the cool metal, fingering the scratches and dents from fights long past, reassuring herself that she was armed. She was no longer that frightened little girl.
Her gaze returned to the cyborg seated naked on her sleeping support.
She was now a grown female, competent, certain about her skills, about her desires. “I’m the best Retriever in the galaxy.” Her voice was husky.
“You weren’t the best Retriever in the galaxy when you hunted them.”
She was likely the worst yet she had somehow found those targets, caught them, mistakenly killed some of them. Another knot loosened between her shoulders, her guilt easing, her passions escalating.
The galaxy was a tough, vicious place. The planets, the settlements her early targets had chosen, had been occupied by violent beings, the lowest of the scum.
They wouldn’t have survived long.
Especially if a male similar to the one before her had found them. She skimmed her gaze over Mayhem’s bulging biceps. He was fast, strong.
He was her equal, perhaps her superior, not that she’d ever admit that to him. She wanted him, wanted to live in the present, not in the past, look forward, not back.
It was time to leave her mistakes behind her.
“I am the best now.” Imee lifted her chin.
“Are you?” Mayhem raised one eyebrow, his tone mocking.
He was challenging her and she could never back down from a challenge.
Imee coiled her muscles. “I am.” She leaped through the air and landed on him.
Their bodies smacked together, the impact pushing the air from her lungs, heating her chest, hips. They rolled on the sleeping support. Her hands slid over warm skin, searching for a hold.
He cupped her ass with one hand, the back of her head with the other. Imee wrapped her legs around his waist. His hard cock pressed against her stomach. She wiggled, teasing him.
“You’re fighting dirty.” He nipped her right earlobe.
“Is there any other way to fight?” Imee bit his neck, leaving an imprint of her teeth on his skin and he growled, loosening his grip on her.
She climbed his body and straddled his head, hooking her booted ankles at his nape. “Get out of this hold, warrior.” Her tone was triumphant.
“Why would I want to?” He mouthed her leather-clad pussy.
Stars. Imee moaned. That felt good. She grasped his permanently mussed hair, pulling him toward her, craving more of his firm lips, more of his knowing touch.
He gripped her hands, spread her arms, examined the spot on her wrist that he’d sliced into. There was no sign of injury. The cut was completely healed.
She was no longer human, not completely. He’d changed her, made her more, and she loved it. “Show me no mercy, cyborg.” She ground her pussy against his lips. “I can take everything you give me.”
His shoulders shook, his laughter trapped inside him. He applied himself to the task, working the leather, his heat conveyed through the thin barrier.
She dripped, her musk scenting the air. He covered her breasts with his huge hands, squeezing and releasing, squeezing and releasing. She arched her back as pleasure flowed from her pussy to her nipples and back to her pussy. Her hair swayed, a sheet of softness caressing her arms and ass.
Mayhem must have liked the brush of the tendrils against his bare skin also. He tilted his chest, the adjustment in angle bumping his lips against her clit. She yelped, her pussy clenching around nothing.
“You did that on purpose.” She squeezed his face with her thighs, punishing him.
“You’re fierce, my female, but I will subdue you.” He closed his fingers around her nipples.
“Never.” Her voice thinned, the pinch of pain pushing her closer to the edge.
“Always.” Mayhem flipped her onto her back, not breaking her hold on him, handling her as though she weighed nothing, that show of strength exciting her.
He pulsed his tongue against the leather barring him from her pussy. His hair was wild. The passion he invoked in her was even wilder, a storm of wanting, currents of energy surging over her form.
She rested her legs on his wide shoulders and pumped her hips, shamelessly humping his face, a female warrior taking what she needed.
She had him. That’s what he’d told her. She wasn’t alone.
Having always been solitary, responsible for herself, she hadn’t a solid grasp on what that meant. She hoped it involved coming. Hard.
“More.” She panted. “More.”
He curved his hands over her ass, holding her to him, and ratcheted up his attack on her garment-covered pussy. Tremors swept over her, shaking her legs, their intensity growing, growing, growing.
“Mayhem.” She flung back her head, her spine bowing, her body pulled tight with tension, with yearning. “More. I--”
Her cyborg warrior nipped at her clit, finding it through the leather barrier. The unexpected contact severed her grasp on reality. Pleasure coursed through her. A keening sound rose in her throat, an erotic battle cry. The chamber spun, lights swirling into an unending stream.
When she returned to reality, Mayhem was grinning at her, his expression smug. “Are you subdued, my female?”
“Not at all,” she lied. “What are you going to do about that, warrior?”
“Work harder.” He grasped her ass covering and yanked.
Leather tore, the rending noise a signal of intent, and her nipples tightened to the point of pain. He was such a beast. “I liked that ass covering.” She smacked his chest, relishing the solidness of his form.
“I like no ass covering.” He destroyed her breast covering as efficiently, baring her body to him.
She caught the
translucent repository holding her sister’s finger before it fell, placed that morbid reminder of her past failures on the sleeping support beside them.
“Cyborgs wear body armor during battle.” He flexed his biceps as though he recalled the rush of facing a worthy opponent, the feel of weapons in his hands. “We prefer to be naked when we’re not fighting.”
“I’m always fighting.” Imee raised her right knee, pushed it against his chest. The toe of her boot pressed into his stomach. She could hurt him, damage him.
“Then we’ll fight.” He didn’t appear to care. He leaned into her abuse, his shaft hard along her pussy lips. “We’ll battle for our release, for our bliss.”
Mayhem’s wildness turned her on.
Imee shifted her leg, opening herself more to him. “Are you male enough to make me come?”
“I’m your male.” He rocked, sliding his cock along her wetness. “And I’ve already given you release once.”
“You didn’t give me anything.” She undulated, wiggling on the sleeping support. “I took that release.”
“Those were my lips on your pussy.” He increased the delectable pressure, his tip teasing her clit, his weight folding her leg tight against her breast. “It was my name you called.”
“I didn’t call. I commanded.” Imee shifted until his cockhead nudged her entrance. “And now, I’ll fuck you.” She drove upward, taking his length inside her, his thickness filling her, his rim snug against her pussy walls.
“Breeding.” His low rumble rolled through her form, stimulating every part of her. “This is breeding, not fucking.”
Whatever it was, it was glorious. The first experience had exceeded any she’d ever had. The subsequent encounters had been better than the first. This one was destined to blow her mind.
He voyaged deeper, binding them. She hooked her legs over his shoulders, tilting her hips to receive as much of him as possible.
“Yeah, you’re not grinning now, are you?” she gibed, gazing up at him with satisfaction.
