Her Cyborg Warriors

by Grace Goodwin

  My primary male released me and stepped toward the screen that he had apparently either not noticed when he entered the garden area or had chosen to ignore. I wasn’t sure which. “Dr. Tanaka.”

  His voice was pure steel, but Surnen bowed slightly at the waist, then turned to face my mother. “Mrs. Tanaka.” He bowed again. “I am Dr. Surnen Syrzon of Prillon Prime, and your daughter, Mikki, is my matched mate. I am honored to meet you both and wish you to know that I love your daughter and will serve and protect her until the day I die. My life and my heart are hers, as she is mine.”

  My mother blinked, slowly, taking in the scene. She looked to the hand Trax held to the small of my back, and I saw the calculations begin. My father ignored me and Trax completely to scowl at Surnen. My mate was sized up, dismissed in silence, and my father returned his gaze to me through the huge screen that Rachel had somehow managed to bring to the garden.

  “Umiko—”

  “She has asked you repeatedly to call her Mikki.” Surnen dared to correct my father.

  “You will explain yourself,” my father said, his voice and image so clear it was as if I could reach out and touch him. Yet he was so far away. “We hired a new attorney to appeal your case. You would have been free in a matter of weeks. Why are you not on Earth? And why did you not tell your mother your plans to volunteer to be a bride? You did not even say good-bye.”

  His voice broke on the last, and I felt tears burning behind my eyelids. In all my life, I had never seen my father cry. He would not blink, his dark eyes full of emotions I was shocked to see shimmering behind unshed tears.

  “You hired an attorney? You didn’t tell me.” I stepped away from Trax and walked toward the screen, shock making me feel numb. “I was sentenced to ten years, and you didn’t even come to court. Not once.”

  “Your mother sent an attorney to witness the proceedings and keep us informed,” he shared.

  I stared at him, my mouth open.

  “What?” My mother sent an attorney to sit in the courtroom for them? Hardly. No. No way. “Mother doesn’t know any lawyers. It was you.”

  “Your mother was concerned for your welfare,” he continued.

  Damn it. Even now he couldn’t admit that he had been worried. That he loved me, too. That he was the one who’d been scared for me.

  “You are a male of honor. I thank you for taking such care with your daughter.” Surnen assured my father and stepped to my side, placing his hand at the small of my back in a move that had my mother’s eyes going wide as Trax had moved forward and still touched me as well. I was between them, right where I wanted to be. Two huge warriors flanking me, protecting me. They’d always be by my side. I knew it after we’d transported off Valuri, and it had been validated every day since.

  I looked up at Trax, then to Surnen. He meant every word he said, which only made me very confused. And hurt. “What are you talking about, Surnen? They weren’t even there!”

  During the trial, I had felt every emotion I could name and a few I couldn’t. Abandonment. Betrayal. Hurt. Fear. Confusion. I’d been terrified of going to jail. I’d felt regret over the choices I’d made in my life. Ashamed that I’d dishonored my family. My heart had broken over and over in that courtroom, and Surnen was thanking my parents for not being there for me? Was he insane?

  I felt him through the collar. His emotions were calm, approving. “Your father knows you, Mikki,” Surnen replied. “He understood that if he or your mother were present in the courtroom, you would have broken down. It would have been much more difficult for you to survive the process without losing control—which would have made you even more miserable. His care for you assured that you survived and became stronger, rather than broken and weak. He knows you well and gave you the space you needed to become resilient.”

  “Oh my God,” I whispered.

  I couldn’t move. All I could do was relive every moment in that courtroom and imagine what it would have been like staring at my worried mother’s or my stern father’s faces in the crowd. Surnen was right. I would have lost it. I would have been sobbing. It would have been… horrible.

  “He is correct, mate,” Trax murmured. His thumb slid up and down along my spine in a small gesture of reassurance.

  My mother cleared her throat, and both of my mates straightened, which made them ten times more adorable in my eyes. Mother was even smaller than me, and yet they snapped to attention as if they were responding to Prime Nial himself.

  “We miss you, Mikki,” Mother admitted. “We love you. We want you to come home.” She took a deep breath and looked from Surnen to Trax and back to me. “Even if I didn’t know the rules for the Brides Program, I suspect that is no longer possible.”

  “No, it is not.” Trax’s hand slid up my back to settle on my shoulder in a gesture my parents couldn’t miss. Surnen may have introduced himself as my mate, but Trax was staking his claim just the same. “Your daughter honors us by choosing us as her mates. We will spend our lives honoring and protecting her.”

  With Surnen on my left, I was surrounded by love, acceptance and pride. They were proud to stand with me, to meet my parents.

  “Both of you?” My mother blinked hard. Twice.

  I’d known, ever since Valuri, that I wouldn’t reject the match, that I wanted Surnen and Trax. We’d agreed to wait, to just… be for a time. They hadn’t let me out of our quarters for three days once we’d returned from Valuri. While I hadn’t been tied to the bed the whole time, they’d used restraints for some seriously sexy times. I hadn’t minded one bit. Since then, they’d shown me all of Base 3—and I’d learned to appreciate the desert a bit, although the rocks would never replace the ocean in my heart. But I’d spent time with the other Earth women and even gotten to know their bossy mates. Any mention of Valuri was met by growls from my mates and even the governor.

  The last I’d heard, I.C. had taken over the investigation of the Hive vacuum things, and that was all. Trax had said they were very secretive about their investigations, so it was possible we’d never know what those machines were, even if he and I had had the closest encounter with them. On the plus side, Rachel, Surnen and I had been invited by Prime Nial to join a new task force looking for anomalies on uninhabited planets like Valuri. Surnen was usually busy helping with more urgent matters, and Rachel was more about the chemistry, so that left me to send out probes, collect data and analyze the ecosystems. It was fascinating work—and there were literally thousands of planets out there the Coalition Fleet hadn’t set foot on. Thousands. Maybe millions. Enough work for a lifetime.

  During the past few weeks, I’d also connected with my parents, as my mates had suggested, going so far as to ask my mother for the Banyon branches for today. She’d known I was getting married to an alien… but I hadn’t exactly told her everything. “Mikki?”

  “Mother, Father, this is Surnen, my primary mate.” Even though Surnen had introduced himself, they needed me to confirm his words. I glanced up at Surnen, who dipped his chin in acknowledgment.

  “And this is Trax, my second mate.” I looked up at Trax, who nodded as well and grinned at my mother with that heart-stopping, boyish, irresistible grin that always made me give him whatever the hell he wanted, which was usually me taking my clothes off. “They are both my mates, and I love them very much. I am marrying them today as in Earth custom, then will be participating in a Prillon claiming ceremony.”

  I felt Surnen’s pride and satisfaction. Yes, he was eager to claim me in the Prillon way, although we’d agreed to do it in private, leaving out the public display. I’d changed my mind about that, but neither of them knew it yet. It was to be my surprise. The way I could feel their eagerness to finally make me theirs, to have the collars change from black to gray, only validated my decision.

  “I wanted you both to be here, at my wedding,” I told my parents.

  I opened my arms to encompass the garden area on Base 3. The green space had been started by the other brides and was locate
d in the middle of The Colony base, kind of like Central Park in New York, except under a supersized dome. The garden was beautiful, an odd mix of plants from Earth and other worlds, and the warriors who lived here had adopted it as their own. They tended the plants and trees with great care.

  I now had two of my own trees to add to the garden and would ask the warriors to plant them later. The trees had been transported from Earth, again with Rachel’s help. One special tree for each of my mates stood behind me in large pots. One Chinese banyan from Hawaii and one sakaki tree from Japan, in honor of my grandparents. I had draped the trees in white and steel-gray ribbon.

  My father wiped a tear from each cheek with the back of his thumb and nodded gruffly. “Mikki, you are my daughter. You will always be my daughter.” He looked to Surnen. “I will give my blessing for this marriage on the condition that Mikki’s mother and I are allowed to visit her at least twice each year.”

  Surnen bowed again, lower this time. “Of course. I will personally schedule your transport to The Colony. Your government does not allow citizens of Prillon Prime to visit Earth, but you are welcome here.”

  “My daughter is from Earth,” Father stated.

  “Not anymore,” Surnen clarified. “As my mate, she is an official citizen of Prillon Prime.”

  “I see.” My father cleared his throat. “Mikki, does this marriage make you happy?”

  I nodded. “Yes, Father. I love them both, very much. I am very happy here.” I smiled, the first real, huge, happy smile I’d felt since walking out here. It hadn’t been love at first sight. Far from it. All three of us had walls erected around our hearts. Protecting them, keeping them safe from further harm. We’d all been wounded, not just physically but emotionally too. I was thankful for the mess that had happened on Valuri, for I doubted that any of us would have let down our guards, let our true selves appear if not for what we’d endured. It had bared us to each other. That exposure, that truth was what gave us the power to heal. To love.

  Trax leaned down and kissed me. Gently. Sweetly. I felt his love, his happiness through the collars as he did so.

  My father cleared his throat. Trax lifted his head and smiled at me. I laughed, then looked back at my parents.

  They were coming to visit. They weren’t freaking out about me marrying two aliens, and I’d made peace with my feelings for my father. No, that wasn’t right. I saw him differently now. Understood him, which made all my anger and upset I’d had for him in the past slip away.

  He truly was very much like Surnen.

  “Good.” Father looked from Surnen to Trax several times. “You will see to her care and happiness. I love my daughter and will not accept ill treatment of her.”

  Trax nodded. “You have our word. Mikki is our world now.”

  “Very well. I give my blessing.”

  My mother smiled and leaned into his side. They sat in the living room of the home I’d grown up in. She lifted a cell phone from her lap and typed in a message to someone. Who, I had no idea, until a loud whooping noise sounded on the other end and a barrage of people swarmed onto the screen to surround my parents. My cousins, aunts, uncles, friends from school, even a couple of my closest coworkers at SynGen. They all shouted and whistled, and I burst into tears as I realized the truth.

  Fate had not given me perfect parents, but the exact parents I needed to become who I was now. Standing on another world, prepared to begin a new life. If they had been different, I would not be who I was today. I would not be as strong. As wild. As happy with my new life.

  Surnen’s arm went around my back, and he kissed the top of my head.

  It took me a little bit to pull myself together. “Hi, everyone.”

  A chorus of greetings, shouts, whistles and encouragement came through the screen as Governor Maxim moved to stand slightly off to the side so as not to impede anyone’s view. Rachel grinned and handed him a small piece of paper. “I hope this is okay,” she said to me. “I wasn’t sure what to go with, so I just went with the tried and true.”

  Maxim cleared his throat. “We are gathered here today to witness the joining of three people, Umiko—”

  “Mikki. Call her Mikki,” my father interrupted, and I laughed through my tears as he smiled at me, really smiled, like he’d pulled off the best surprise party of the century. He probably had.

  “We are gathered here today to witness the joining of three people, Mikki Tanaka of Earth with Dr. Surnen Syrzon and Warrior Trax Lorvarz of Prillon Prime, whose hearts and spirits are entwined as one. If anyone knows of any reason why these three should not be joined, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

  Surnen literally stood so straight he appeared to be several inches taller. “Do not dare speak.”

  The command was for everyone, but Trax burst into laughter. “That’s not the point.”

  “I do not care what the point is. Mikki is mine.”

  My father chuckled, a sound I could not remember hearing since I was a child. “Oh, Daughter, I am coming to visit you soon. I cannot wait to meet your husbands.”

  The ceremony was over quickly, ending with the traditional kissing of the bride… times two. I said goodbye to my parents with Rachel promising to hand them off to a transport officer to schedule their first visit.

  After that, Rachel and Maxim left as well. This was what Surnen and Trax expected, to be left alone to do the traditional claiming in private. It was finally time to reveal my secret, to give them what they wanted, what they needed to know I truly belonged to them. I would not deny them this. I couldn’t deny them anything.

  It felt amazing being married to these huge warriors, but it wasn’t what mattered to them. This ceremony had been for me. I wanted to respect their custom, their traditions so they had no doubt this was a done deal. I belonged to them in all ways. As they watched, I shimmied out of my dress, letting the soft material pool at my feet. I was left in a sexy negligee I’d had Rachel help me create on the S-Gen machine. It had thin straps to hold it up, but the silk dipped into a plunging V that barely covered my breasts. Lace hid my nipples from their view… barely. It stopped high on my thighs, my ass barely covered. I wore nothing beneath but gray garters and matching, thigh-high stockings. All the important bits were…available for their pleasure. And mine.

  “Mate,” Trax growled.

  “You said you would not wear gray,” Surnen said, his gaze raking over every inch of me.

  I nodded. “I said a lot of things before I knew you. I’m proud to wear your family’s colors.” I ran my hand over the silk. “Here.” Lifting my hand to the collar, I added, “And soon here.”

  Rachel had said lingerie and sexy underthings weren’t the Prillon way. They liked their women naked, no need for any kind of covering to get them all hot and bothered. Still, lust spiked through the collars, and I knew Surnen and Trax were very pleased with what I wore. Perhaps just as much because of the color as for the barely there styling. I held up a hand to keep my two mates at arm’s length.

  “Not yet, mates. You have not properly claimed me in a Prillon mating ceremony.”

  Both frowned down at me.

  “We have agreed to forgo this tradition at your request, mate.” Surnen looked confused, but his cock knew exactly what it wanted. Me. Like now. I couldn’t miss the way either of their cocks were thickly outlined in their uniform pants.

  I was having trouble standing before them with their caveman need to claim me hitting me through the collar.

  I reached down to the planting border where I’d hidden a dark gray cape and draped it over my shoulders. Tipping my chin back, I looked up at my big, brawny mates. “You came to me in a cape just like this one. You said it was custom. Tradition. I wear one now to honor you, to honor what we will become. Would you not feel better about protecting me if we followed the strict Prillon custom of a formal claiming before warriors sworn to us?”

  Surnen actually sputtered. “Of course, but—”

  “I agree,” I replied quic
kly. “Protocol and tradition matter to you, mate. And so they matter to me.”

  “We can claim you privately. The collars will change to gray and our mating will be official. You were so adamant about not wanting witnesses. We honor that. There is no need for an audience, for the traditional custom.” Surnen wasn’t getting the message, not yet. Maybe his mind was too clouded with lust. The thought made me grin, and I knew if I could see myself in the mirror, the look would be naughty times ten.

  Trax tipped his head to the side, studied me. “What are you saying, Mikki?” He seemed to be catching on faster than Surnen, but then this leap in logic was a big one, especially for me, when I’d been adamant before that I would not allow Surnen and Trax to fuck me in front of a roomful of chanting warriors. I’d said a lot of things I’d changed my mind about.

  “I want you both,” I continued. “I want this to be perfect, not just for me, but for you as well. I want you to feel like you’ve done everything you could to protect me. I’m willing to compromise too, especially when it comes to your customs and traditions. I know you will do anything to keep me safe and happy, and I accept that this is what you need to feel like you are doing that.”

  When they both just stared at me, I turned and walked away. They would follow, I had no doubt.

  They did and I smiled. I heard their heavy footsteps, even on the soft ground. We approached the central room Maxim had set aside for our claiming ceremony. The low rumble of male voices chanting grew louder and louder.

  “Mikki?” Surnen stopped me with a gentle hand on my shoulder, turning me to face him. “As Trax said, this is not necessary.”

  I looked up at the mate I loved, felt everything he had inside him. “Yes, it is. I am taking care of you, too, you know. I want this. I want you to claim me the proper way, so everyone knows you are mine.” I reached for Trax’s hand and pulled him close as well. “I want them to know that I choose you. Both of you. You’re mine and I’m never giving you up.”