by Aurelia Skye
After a moment, Leith sighed. “I understand. We need to solve the problem quickly though.”
“I agree.” Gwen leaned against Jason for a moment, transmitting without words that she wasn’t angry about the cyborgs’ refusal to completely cease excavation. It was a matter of survival for them as well, and she understood their position, though it placed her people in the enclave in a more tenuous one. “It’s just one of many problems to solve, but the one we should focus on right now is figuring out who set the explosives.”
As one, Jason and Leith both said, “Patrick.”
She focused her attention on Leith. “You have proof?”
He shook his head. “We have no idea yet who did it, but he’s made himself scarce the last few days. Even Heather hasn’t seen him, and I’m certain he’s more than capable of overloading the circuits. He could easily figure out how they work, and he’s a sad, angry man who wants revenge.”
Gwen sighed. “We should start discreetly looking for him.”
Leith grinned. “I’m way ahead of you on that one, Gwen. I’ve had people trying to scare the rat out of the tunnels since I realized it was a deliberate act and not some accident.”
“There’s not much I can do right now, in the state I’m in. I’m going to leave you in charge for one more night, Leith. No need to thank me,” she said with a small wink as he grimaced. “I need to get the children to bed. They’re exhausted, and so am I.”
“Get some rest, and we’ll figure out things in the morning.” Leith sounded optimistic, though it was impossible to tell if his optimism was genuine or feigned.
She called Britta and Pollux over from where they had been playing by one of the tables. Jason remained beside her, his arm firmly around her waist, as she took Britta’s hand. She keenly felt the absence of his arm a moment later when he moved it in response to Pollux’s unspoken request to be carried. The little boy thrust his arms up and his lower lip outward, and Jason was as helpless to resist as she would have been.
As the four of them moved down the corridor, she was startled to realize they were a full family unit. She hadn’t experienced that since Stephen’s death, and though she had mentally run away screaming at the thought of feeling that way again, now that she had surrendered and allowed herself to, she was beyond grateful that Jason had come into her life, forcing his way into her heart despite her best efforts to keep him back. He’d clearly won over her children as well, and though there were so many issues ahead of them to resolve that she didn’t want to think about it in her current exhausted state, she had a surge of genuine optimism that things might be okay.
Jason remained discreetly in the corner while she got the children settled in bed. When Pollux requested a bedtime story, he stepped forward to volunteer.
Gwen listened with fascination as he started telling the children a story. They didn’t have books, so they usually came from imagination or tales she could remember hearing from her own childhood. Instead of something like that, Jason started telling them about the story of the night Penny had given birth, and the children listened with rapt attention as he talked about each puppy. Britta was asleep before he finished describing the third one’s birth, and Pollux was out by puppy number five.
She stood up from where she sat on Britta’s bed and walked over to him, putting her arms around his waist and laying her head on his chest for a moment before looking up. “That was an unconventional nighttime story, but they seemed to enjoy it. Thank you for keeping out some of the more graphic details.”
He shrugged. “I just accessed the databanks and described OWN’s memories of the event. I need to download fairytales and other more child-friendly stories as soon as possible.”
“Yes, you do, since you’ll be around for a while.” By a while, she wanted to say forever, but couldn’t quite bring herself to utter that word.
“Let’s get you to bed. You look dead on your feet.”
She nodded, allowing him to lead her from her quarters to his, but paused long enough to flip the comm system so it remained open, and she could hear anything in the kids’ room. She would have slept in her own bed, but it was in the same open space as the children’s, and it felt strange to lie down with Jason there, though she was too tired to do anything besides snuggle against him and sleep.
“What are we going to do about the mining?” she asked through a yawn several minutes later, after he had helped her strip off her outer clothes and put on a warm nightgown. Moments after that, Jason had slid into bed with her, his arms wrapped around her waist as he spooned her from behind.
“We’ll find a new site, or perhaps we could relocate the enclave. Whatever we do, we’ll figure it out tomorrow or later. Right now, you need to rest.”
“I’m not sure I can shut off my mind enough to sleep.” Her lashes drifted shut as she spoke the words, and she thought she heard him chuckle, but wasn’t certain as she slipped into sleep.
Chapter Ten
For a moment, Gwen wasn’t certain what had woken her, until she heard a furtive scrape through the comm system and deduced a similar sound had woken her. Her instincts screaming, she slid out of bed and rushed from Jason’s quarters to her own, needing to check on her children. She was moving frantically and didn’t spare time to wake up the cyborg who had been sleeping beside her.
When she entered her quarters, she smothered a gasp, but not quite soon enough to avoid alerting Patrick, who stood over Britta’s bed with a pillow in his hand.
She charged forward, intent on forcing him to move away from her daughter’s bedside. “What are you doing in here?”
“The girl’s an abomination. You should have just let her die.”
For a moment, she literally saw red, making it difficult to focus on Patrick, though she never stopped moving. In seconds, she’d inserted herself between him and the bed, providing a barrier between the unhinged man and her innocent daughter. “She wouldn’t have been injured if you hadn’t sabotaged the environmental controls.”
He made no effort to deny it, which caused the skin at the nape of her neck to prickle. He was too far gone to care if they realized.
“You welcomed the cyborgs here into our home, and if you or your offspring die with them, that’s on your head.”
“I can’t believe you would kill an innocent child though. Britta has never done anything to you.” Her palms were slick, and she wished she had taken a moment to wake Jason. She would have screamed for him right then, but didn’t want to risk causing Patrick to lash out irrationally. If Jason woke up, he would hear the conversation taking place with the open comm system feeding into his room and join her in seconds.
“She’s been tainted by the cyborgs.”
“They aren’t our enemy, you know.” She struggled for a soft tone, hoping to appeal to whatever logic might remain. She wasn’t too optimistic about it working, since he had a crazed look in his eyes, and his hands kept clenching and unclenching around the pillow in his hand.
He let out a harsh laugh. “You’re fooling yourself. They’ll always be the enemy. You might think you need an alliance with them to defeat the synthetics, and maybe it will even work, but they’ll just turn on humans in the end. They hate us, and they want to ensure there are no humans remaining.”
“You’re confusing cyborgs with the synthetics. I don’t think they bear any malice toward us, or they wouldn’t have helped as much as they have.”
“The only reason they’re helping is because you spread your legs for one of them.”
“We’re helping because we see the wisdom in an alliance with the humans, and we aren’t blinded by hatred,” said Jason in a deceptively calm voice as he walked slowly into the room.
It was the distraction Gwen had waited for, and when Patrick turned his head, she kneed him in the groin. With the sound of air whistling through his teeth, he dropped to his knees, losing the pillow in the process, and cradled his genitals.
Jason rushed forward, dragging him away from her
and the children. When Patrick tried to struggle, Jason hit him once in the temple, and the other man fell silent as his head moved forward to rest on his chest.
“Is he dead?” She didn’t really care if he was, but it was the kind of question a leader should ask, she supposed.
“No, but he’s going to have a terrific headache when he wakes up.”
Gwen threw herself into his arms, and they tightened around her for a long moment before they moved apart, their motions in sync as they turned to check first on Britta, and then Pollux. She let out a harsh sigh of relief to discover both of her children were fine and unaware, having slept through the entire incident.
After that, she moved to the comm system and contacted Leith. He sounded tired when he answered. “Patrick is in my quarters, and he tried to hurt Britta.” She couldn’t bring herself to say a starker word than hurt. “We need security here as soon as possible.”
“I’ll take care of it,” he said in a steely tone.
It was only after his side of the conversation closed with an audible beep through the comm system she realized she could have rang for security herself. She shook her head as she turned to Jason, finding comfort in his arms again.
She was still there when security arrived in less than five minutes, the chime at her door announcing they stood outside. She moved forward to let them in, and they closed in on Patrick in a grim fashion. She had thought he was completely unconscious, so it was a shock when he suddenly jerked upright and grabbed one of the slighter security guards, lumbering to his feet as he clung to the smaller woman.
It seemed to happen quickly that he had relieved Lauren of her weapon, briefly pointing it at the security detail before shoving Lauren their way with a big heave. The others around her absorbed her impact, keeping her from falling, and it gave Patrick the seconds he needed.
Gwen surge forward, certain she wouldn’t make it in time, but having to try. As he lifted the pistol, she anticipated he would aim at Jason or Britta. Before she could get between the two of them, Patrick had turned it to face himself instead. She held up a hand. “Just stop and think. You don’t want to do this, Patrick.”
He sneered. “What do I have to live for? My granddaughter practically hates me, my mother was murdered by the same cyborgs with whom you want a truce, and if you succeed, we’ll soon have a blended society of mongrels. That’s if the synthetics don’t find and destroy us all first.”
“Don’t do this.” She was aware of Jason moving from the corner of her eye, and hoped to buy him enough seconds to intercede before Patrick could kill himself. “You’re throwing away your life for this, and there’s no reason to. You don’t have to be so afraid of the future now. We have more hope than ever.”
“I’m not the only one who thinks this way.” With a sinister grin, he pressed the button before anyone could reach him, drilling a hole the size of her middle finger through his forehead and collapsing to the floor in under a minute.
There was a flurry of activity as the security people moved forward to Patrick’s fallen body even as Jason moved around them to her. She took a tentative step toward Patrick, but quickly yielded when Jason put his arm around her and encouraged her to move away from instead of toward the body. “What did he mean?”
“About others?” Jason shrugged. “Either he was referring to the fact that some others in your enclave feel the same way, or he was describing an active movement to undermine peace between the cyborgs and the humans. I couldn’t tell you which he meant. His heart rate and body temperature were elevated, but that could be due to a number of factors besides pleasure or fear. He clearly enjoyed telling you there were more, but I’m not sure exactly what he was revealing, if anything of importance.”
She shook her head, feeling like she was in a stupor as she stumbled over to her bed. She dropped down on it weakly as the reality of the last few minutes intruded. “There could be traitors among us. What if they feel the same way about Britta as he did?”
“You should come back to the base with me. I’ll keep you and the children safe.”
Gwen looked up at him, hesitating for only a fraction of a second. She was the leader of the enclave, but first and foremost, she was a mother motivated to protect her children. “Britta would be safer there.” It was somewhere between a question in a statement.
He sat down on the bed beside her, putting an arm around her shoulders and encouraging her to lay her head on his shoulder. “She certainly will be, and so will Pollux. You had already planned to come for a few weeks to grow the samples we selected, so let’s just go back to the base. You can stay as long as you want.”
“Can I stay forever? I mean we?” It felt like shirking her duty to the other humans, but she knew Leith was equally competent, though just as reluctant to assume the mantle of leadership as she had been when it was thrust upon her a few years ago.
His expression softened. “It would please me to no end if you, Britta, and Pollux stayed forever with me at the base. I love all of you.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat as emotion temporarily overwhelmed her. When she could manage it, she cleared her throat and snuggled closer yet. “I was certain I never wanted to feel this way again. I don’t want to lose you, so I tried to avoid loving you.”
“Did it work?” The amusement in his tone indicated he already knew the answer.
“No, not at all.” She lifted her head from his shoulder to crane her neck and look up at him. “I love you too, Jason. We’d be pleased to go back to your base, or anywhere else you might want to go. I just want to be with you.”
“I feel the same way.” He arched his neck awkwardly to press a small kiss to her lips.
“Perhaps the best answer is for our groups to merge, once everyone has time to acclimate to the idea.”
She licked her lips as she looked up at Jason, considering his suggestion. “It makes sense, but not until we know who’s working against the peace between us, if anyone else actively is. Prejudice and anger is one thing, but we can’t risk joining our people if some of mine are trying to destroy yours.”
He nodded. “Unification is a future goal, along with destroying the synthetics and revitalizing the planet. For now, I’ll speak to the general about leaving one or two cyborgs here to act as liaison and help with the investigation.”
“They’ll be in danger.”
He shrugged. “Not too much. The only weapon that can do any serious and permanent harm to a cyborg is in the hands of the synthetics. Our people will be smart and watch their backs, but they might also hasten the investigation while providing some extra stability. Unless you have an objection to the idea?”
She licked her lips again, finding it harder to utter the words than she expected. “I guess we should ask Leith, because he’ll be in charge from now on. I’m going to focus on the cloning research and live at your base with the children, so he’ll have to step up and take over leadership. As long as he has no objections to a couple of cyborgs, neither do I.”
“I hope you don’t object to cyborgs, since your mate happens to be one.” He said the words with a mock growl as he lifted her into his arms, her legs splaying across the bed as her buttocks nestled against his hip.
His arms were around her waist, and she slid one around his neck before placing the other one so that her hand rested over his on her hip. “That doesn’t bother me at all. Did I ever tell you how much I like this shade of blue?”
He grinned. “After everything is settled, maybe you can show me.”
“I look forward to showing you exactly how I feel many times over.” She meant to say it with a flirtatious lilt, but it came out far more serious than anticipated. “I’m not sure how we were lucky enough to find each other, but I’m glad we have.”
Jason chuckled. “I guess we could thank that little Celestial Mates alien. If he hadn’t brought Carrie and DVS together, we never would’ve met—or at least it would’ve been delayed for years. Goodness knows none of the cyborgs were
going to trust your transmission and check it out.”
“You certainly are a stubborn lot.” She tilted her head and pursed her lips. “So a Celestial Mates agent brought us together?”
He shrugged. “Indirectly, and to think I advised DVS against meeting with Freydon Rote. We came this close to missing out on our future.” He placed his thumb and forefinger together with a small gap between them.
“Let’s focus on that future and not think about how things might have been if we hadn’t met.” The future was far from secure, but she felt safe in his arms and was positive he would do everything in his power to help her keep her children safe as well.
For the first time in a long time, she had true hope that humans might flourish again through their alliance with cyborgs, and that maybe they could finally undo some of the damage their ancestors had done, both to the world and to the humans and cyborgs. She didn’t know how they’d make it happen, but she was confident that they’d find a way, and Jason would be beside her every step of the journey.
******
The next story in this series is coming in the near future.
Bonus Excerpt
Did you miss “Mated To The Cyborg General?” If so, here is the first chapter, and the story is available to buy or borrow for free with Kindle Unlimited.
One moment, Carrie was working on a baby blanket for her coworker’s impending arrival, and the next, a flash of light filled her living room. She let out a startled gasp that would’ve turned into a scream if her voice hadn’t been trapped in her throat. There was a strange peach-colored creature before her. She opened her mouth, struggling to make a sound that wouldn’t come. The rest of her body was equally frozen.
The peach thing had eyes, but no other obvious facial features until it started speaking, and what looked like lips formed in the gelatinous blob. “Don’t be afraid, Carrie Morgan. My name is Freydon Rote, and I’m with the Celestial Mates Agency.”
