by Cynthia Sax
Imee stared at their bodies, her chest heaving, her legs braced apart, his little warrior having taken a small bit of justice for her loved ones.
Mayhem stood by her side. There were thousands of Retrievers. If they felt a fraction of his female’s rage, had a shadow of her skill, they’d be a formidable force.
She placed her hand in his. Her palm was rough and scarred, a physical reminder of her ferocity.
He squeezed her fingers. She squeezed back.
They walked toward the docking bay, leaving the bodies in the corridor as a testament to their vengeance. His female didn’t look back.
* * *
Their departure from the station was uneventful. The systems remained offline. From the communications Mayhem intercepted, the foolish humans seemed more panicked over the quarter end reporting than any security breaches.
When their ship was safely out of range, he erased all records of their presence and restored their systems. The humans first thought it was a temporary glitch.
When they discovered the two bodies in the corridor and the one body near the docking bay, moments before Mayhem and Imee crossed the border into non-Humanoid Alliance space, the humans blamed one of the pilots waiting in a parked ship.
His crime? He was an Erinomean. That planet’s beings had violently resisted their invasion by the Humanoid Alliance and the humans hadn’t forgotten that.
Imee didn’t speak, docilely allowing him to fly their ship, to clean the blood off her skin. She stared out the main viewscreen at the expanse of black space. Her silence worried him.
The message he’d received from Menace worried him even more. They’d have to talk about it but not now. Now, he had a female to comfort.
“The plan was for you to have one target and I’d have the other.” He gently rubbed the cleaning cloth over her cheeks. “Instead you claimed both of them.”
She was so fraggin’ fierce. He gazed at her with pride.
“I’ll hunt them down and kill them all.” Her voice was flat.
“All of the beings on the station?”
“No.” His female picked up a nourishment bar, slowly unwrapped it. “All.” She took a big bite, chewed, swallowed. “Every member of the Humanoid Alliance will die.”
“That would be trillions of targets.” Mayhem laughed.
“You said cyborgs and their females have long, almost unlimited lifespans.” She didn’t smile. His female was deadly serious. “You’re a cyborg. I’m your female. I have time to dispose of every warrior.”
His female was even wilder than he was.
“Menace sent me a message.” It would affect her plans for vengeance. “We have to return to the cyborg Homeland.”
He would have given up his freedom, adhered to the cyborg council’s many rules, for Imee, to ensure she was safe, but Menace hadn’t known she was his female.
All freed cyborgs had to return to the Homeland, single or paired.
If he hadn’t met Imee, he would have faced that fate alone.
He would have refused the order, defied the council. They would have sent warriors after him and eventually, they would have killed him.
Rebelling wasn’t an option now. He couldn’t risk Imee’s lifespan.
“Who are we hunting in your Homeland?” His female tilted her head.
“We’re not hunting any beings. If we don’t return to the Homeland, we’ll be ones hunted. They’ll send warriors to retrieve us.”
“Those warriors can try to retrieve us.” She snorted. “We’re not returning to your precious Homeland, not unless they have a target for us.”
They didn’t have a choice. “Imee--”
“I’m the best Retriever in the galaxy, Mayhem.” Her eyes flashed. “That’s what I do—I retrieve. I hunt beings and bring them to justice.”
“You could train others to hunt.” Rage, one of the C model cyborgs, had turned to training after he found his female.
Imee lifted her eyebrows. “Did I say I was a trainer?” She brought her face close to his. “Read my lips, cyborg. I’m a Retriever.”
“You planned to settle on a planet, tend an agri lot.” He pointed out.
“The agri lot plan was for my family.” Pain, dark and intense, flashed across her beautiful face, and Mayhem felt guilty about putting it there. “And I never planned to tend it. I planned to guard it and guard them.” She paused. “Even that, I wasn’t enthused about, but the agri lot would have made them happy. And that’s what you do when you care for beings—you try to make them happy.”
“Returning to the Homeland--”
“Wouldn’t make you happy.” She shook her head. “You’re a warrior, a fighter. Who are you fighting on the Homeland?” Mayhem opened his mouth. “No one. That’s who.” She didn’t allow him to speak. “There’s nothing at the Homeland for you either.”
There would only be her and she was enough for him. “They’ll send warriors after us.”
“I’m the best Retriever in the galaxy. You’re the best warrior. If we can’t elude a few warriors, we don’t deserve those titles.”
The beings hunting them wouldn’t be humanoid warriors. “These will be cyborgs, more than one.”
He didn’t know if he could protect her against multiple warriors. He could fail her. She could die. That possibility chilled him to his frame.
“One warrior, fifty warriors, cyborgs, rebels, the Humanoid Alliance, what does it matter?” She shrugged. “I’ll always be hunted, always be surrounded by enemies. If you want to be with me, you have to get used to that.”
“You wouldn’t be hunted on the Homeland. You’d be safe there.”
“And that would make you happy?” She slipped off his lap and he let her go because he knew that expression on her countenance. There was no stopping her. “It must. Because there’s no blasted way being safe…” she said it like it was a curse, “would ever make me happy.”
Part of him had always realized that. “My female--”
“Don’t call me that.” She waggled her right index finger at him. “The only reason I allowed you to call me that previously was because I thought you knew me. I thought you loved me.” Her voice broke.
He’d damaged his female. “I love--”
“This is who I am, Mayhem.” She brushed her fingers against the scar on her cheek, the bloodstains on her breast covering, the guns holstered on her hips. “I’ve fought hard to become the being I am. I earned every scar.”
He loved the being she was. Frag. She was strong and fierce, everything a warrior could want in a female.
“I want—no—I deserve a male who will care for me as I am, who will fight beside me, not lock me up on some cursed planet.” She stomped toward the doors, her boot heels ringing on the floor tile. “Fuck your Homeland and fuck being safe.” The doors closed behind her.
Mayhem wanted to fuck his fierce little human, as she called their breeding. He was hard as a dagger, his cock pressing against his body armor.
First, he would wait for some of her anger to dissipate. And he would force himself to accept her truths.
She was right. His female would find the close confines and rules on the cyborg-controlled planet torturous. She was accustomed to being solitary and active, engaged single-mindedly in the pursuit of beings, her adrenaline pumping as she straddled the dagger’s edge between life and death.
His fearless female deserved her freedom.
He would work his fullest to deserve her. He’d ensure she remained free. They’d elude the cyborgs, avoid the rebels, wreak vengeance on the Humanoid Alliance, causing chaos everywhere they went.
Mayhem rerouted their course, changing the end destination to Carinae E.
Would they return to Kralj’s settlement? He didn’t know. But a destination was needed and it wouldn’t be the Homeland.
A small smile curled Mayhem’s lips. The future was once again unknown, an adventure with no rules. There was a huge galaxy to explore…with his female. She’d be by his side,
guns in her hands, her brown eyes shining with excitement.
With caring.
Eventually, with love.
He transferred the navigation to the ship’s system. They’d be notified if any vessels approached them. And he stalked after his female, following her scent throughout the ship.
He found her in their chamber. She sat on the sleeping support, gazing at the small translucent repository holding her sister’s finger.
“I thought I had failed her.” Her voice was soft. “That I caused her pain…because I wasn’t a good enough Retriever. I did horrible things, would have done more if Kralj hadn’t trained me. I became who I am now so I wouldn’t fail my family again.” She set the translucent repository on a horizontal support. “It was all for nothing.” Her shoulders slumped. “They were already dead. But I can’t, I won’t change back, Mayhem.” She gazed at him, her eyes glassy with unshed tears, and his heart clenched. “I won’t be that helpless little girl again.”
“I don’t want you to change.” He sat beside her. The sleeping support dipped under his weight and their bodies slid together, their thighs, hips, shoulders touching. “You’re perfect.” He wrapped his arms around her, holding her to him. “I’m…not.” He forced the words.
“You are perfect.” His female gallantly defended him. “I’ve never seen anyone fight like you do.”
That was his female’s definition of perfection. His lips twitched. “I didn’t consider defying the council’s command to return to the Homeland because I…” He couldn’t say it.
“Because you don’t think I can defend myself.”
“No,” he barked and she jerked in his arms. “I know you can defend yourself.”
“That’s bovine shit. Because if you did--”
“I was scared.” The shameful words burst out of him. “If I failed to protect you--”
“You’re the best warrior in the galaxy.” Her faith in him was humbling.
“What if that isn’t enough?” Mayhem pulled her onto his lap, pressed his face in the curve where her neck met her shoulder. “They’re cyborgs. Their skill levels will be almost as high as mine. And the council will send more than one of them. What if I make an error and lose you?”
Compatible females were rare and special. He didn’t think the cyborg warriors would seek to damage his female but he wasn’t certain of that.
“I couldn’t.” He shuddered, envisioning a lifespan without his Imee. “I couldn’t survive your death.”
“Oh, Mayhem.” She threaded her fingers through his hair, her body growing soft against his. “I endured for many solar cycles before we met. None of the tough, rough warriors I faced were able to end my lifespan. Now that I have you protecting me, I’m very close to being projectile proof.”
“You’re not projectile proof. You’re human.” He was agonizingly aware of that fact. “And they’re cyborgs.” She couldn’t defeat them in battle.
“I’m a faster, stronger human with enhanced healing abilities, thanks to my cyborg male.” She smacked her lips against his forehead. “And I have mastered fighting techniques you haven’t seen yet, warrior. My skills are out of this galaxy.”
He lifted his head.
Her eyes sparkled. She was teasing him.
“You’re slow and noisy, my female.” He pushed his fears under a layer of mirth.
She made a face. “You’ll see how slow and noisy I am when we train to hunt our next target. And there will be a next target.” She stopped the protest he had no intention of making, having accepted that danger was part of his female. “I meant it when I said I was going to kill them all.”
His female was a force.
He almost felt sorry for the Humanoid Alliance.
Chapter Sixteen
“I’ll hunt the Commander who captured my family first.” Imee suppressed her grief, focusing on revenge, on the rage simmering inside her. “He was a cruel bastard.” The Commander had forced her to watch as he tortured and killed her neighbors, friends, baby cousin.
She didn’t want to consider what he’d done to her mom, her sister, her brother. The thought of her loved ones being subjected to the male’s viciousness, tormented endlessly, and executed slowly, made her stomach heave.
She would hunt him to the ends of the galaxy and when she located him, she’d slice his smirking face to pieces.
“We’ll hunt the Commander first.” Mayhem turned her, forcing Imee to straddle him. His gaze met hers, his intense expression tightening her nipples. “We’re a team.”
“We’re the best warriors in the galaxy.” She reached up, removed the pins from her hair, one by one. The long straight tendrils fell over her shoulders, a wave of softness, and her cyborg’s eyes gleamed. He liked her hair. “He won’t escape us.”
“He will try.” He pulled her forward until her leather-clad pussy was snug against him, his cock hard and thick under his body armor.
“He won’t be successful.” Imee trailed the sharp hairpins over his cheeks, the tips leaving intriguing pink trails along his golden skin. “We’ll find him.”
“And then we’ll kill him.” Mayhem, her wild cyborg, leaned into the pins until blood beaded on the metal. “Slowly, painfully.”
“He’ll never hurt another being.” She flung the pins at the wall. They stuck into the surface, vibrating, a menacing hum in the quiet chambers, and some of her anger dissipated, transferred to the weapons.
“You’re beautiful and deadly.” Mayhem’s eyes shone with pride. The wounds on his cheeks had already healed, the new skin a shade lighter than the old. His hair stuck upward, as wild as it always was. “I’ll allow you to make the first cut.”
“You’ll allow me?” She pulled her breast covering over her head and tossed it on the floor. Her nipples grew even more taut in the cool air. Her breasts jiggled. “You couldn’t stop me.”
“No?” He cupped her curves, squeezing and releasing, squeezing and releasing, the pressure divine.
Imee rolled her head back. Her neck cracked, relieving more of the tension within her, leaving space for her mounting desire.
She’d lose herself in his touch, forgetting her darker emotions. For a moment or two or more, all she would be was his.
“You don’t believe I could subdue you, my female?” He grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled.
Pain pricked over her scalp. She sucked in her breath, his dominance bowing her spine.
Mayhem dipped his head, dragged his lips over her neck, collarbone, breast, fastened them around her right nipple, nipping, tugging, elongating her sensitive flesh. His nanocybotics fizzed and popped, a thousand mouths plucking at her.
A cry wound up her throat. She snapped her lips together, muffling the sound.
He licked, sucked, played with her. She couldn’t straighten, his clasp on her hair unrelenting. Instead, she dug her fingers into his shoulders and rocked, grinding against the ridge in his body armor.
It had little impact on him. He was covered from foot to neck.
She wore only the boots on her feet and her thin leather ass coverings. The contact ratcheted her arousal upward, melting her thoughts.
“Mayhem.” Her voice was husky.
“Are you subdued, Imee?” He switched to her left breast, lavishing those curves with attention, with nanocybotics, with his hot, wet mouth.
“No. Never.” She protested out of habit, mindlessly fighting him.
“My stubborn female.” Mayhem chuckled, his lips quivering against her nipple, setting off waves of pleasure. “You can’t resist me.”
“Can.” Imee rode his hips, smacking her body against his, every slap increasing her bliss. “Better. Warrior.” Her ability to speak in complete sentences had vanished, conquered by passion.
“You’re not better in this.” He mouthed over her, drawing her inside his mouth. “In breeding.” Mayhem gazed up at her with dark eyes. “In this, we’re perfectly matched.”
“Perfect.” She panted. His clasp on her was subli
me.
He wrapped her hair around his fist, nuzzled his face against her breasts, tilted his hips into her rocking, ensuring more of his cock connected with her pussy.
“You’re perfect.” She dripped, her juices wetting the leather of her ass coverings as she strained against him.
“Surrender, Imee.” Mayhem worked her breast. Her skin hummed. Her nipples ached. “You can’t win.”
“Can.” She burned with wanting, flames of need licking at her curves. “Best.”
Her warrior sucked and pulled, with his mouth and his fingers, ruthlessly coaxing her yearnings higher, showing her body and her control no mercy. Imee battled him, herself, sweat slicking her skin, heat sweeping upward.
It was too good. She shook against him. Too much.
“Need.” Her voice was thin.
“Yield to me.” His words rolled over her, flattening her resistance. “Tell me who you need, who has you.”
To do so would be to admit that he won but Imee didn’t care any more. He had won. He’d won the first moment she sensed him. She was his, in all the ways a female could belong to the male she loved.
She resisted for one, two, three heartbeats.
He licked her nipple with the flat of his tongue.
“You,” she cried, writhing. “You have me, Mayhem. Please.”
“I do have you.” His eyes gleamed with triumph. “I love you, my female.”
He covered his teeth with his lips, parted them around her nipple. Their gazes met. Everything inside Imee constricted. He bit down.
The pinch ignited her release, setting her off. She screamed her capitulation, bucking, smacking her leather-covered clit against the bulge in his body armor. Mayhem’s hold on her hair, on her nipple, didn’t relent. Pain rushed over her skull, across her breast, heightening her pleasure, accentuating the blazing fire within her.
The flames temporarily incinerated her sorrow and her rage, purifying her soul, leaving the calming, cooling gray of emptiness and ash.
She sagged against her cyborg. He released her hair and her nipple and laved the tear tracks on her cheeks with his tongue, murmuring words of comfort.
Imee gradually returned to reality and to the realization of what had happened. “You might have won that battle.” She eyed him. “But you didn’t win the war.”
