The multitude of emotions surrounding the older female were powerful, swamping his sensors. She was highly distressed and ……. hopeful. He hadn’t expected that. Her grief tinged with relief, like she’d found something lost to her. In her despair, he’d given her hope. It was an illogical response; one Reve did not know what to do with. As her words registered, Reve found he’d naturally embraced her. He’d wanted to comfort her. Wanted the connection. She was so fragile in his arms. Smaller than Brenna.
His instincts to protect her kicked in. She was an unprotected female who needed him. He would not let her down. He looked over to Brenna unsure and her smile of wonder reassured him he’d done the right thing. Was it possible he could be a son to the female? He held her gently, feeling her tears on his jacket. “I have no wish to upset you, but I am not your biological son. I am Reve. I was created many years before you were born. I have the same mixes of DNA as your Robert and most likely as you and in many ways, I look like him. But I was created in a lab with cybernetics and computers as well as flesh and blood. Earth Corp did this to us. They took your colonists DNA samples and created us.”
The older female patted his chest and pulled away from him a little to look up into his face. He was sure her watery eyes took in every detail. “I am Sonja,” she told him. “And they will pay for what they have done to us. But today, I thank them. In every conceivable way that matters, apart from actually giving birth to you, I am your mother if you will let me. Your looks tell me you are a combination of my heritage and my husbands and that makes you family. I hope you let us love you as we did Robert. Bend down you are so tall.” Reve hesitantly leant down. The older female placed her hands on either side of his face. “Thank you for finding us. Welcome home child.” She kissed him on the cheek. Her tears flowing easily down her face.
Reve let her hold him. She was drawing comfort from touching him. It was not normally something he would allow but his logic told him this was a new beginning, the next step in their evolution and they had much to learn. The female moved away from his embrace and held onto his arm facing the rest of her family. “He is not Robert. Robert is gone. This is his long-lost brother. Reve. I have no doubt of that. We have been blessed with a new beginning.” The people came forward and introduced themselves. Men and women, all looked at him with joy and sadness and illogically……. welcomed him to their family. Reve felt the moment a dam burst within him and a pressure he didn’t know existed, lifted.
He had family.
Epilogue….
Bren patted her swollen belly. The past year had gone in a blur. The kick a reminder that her daughter was impatient to come into this world. “Is she kicking again?” Bren looked over at Reve as he put down the datapad on his desk. He still missing nothing. The Cyborg Empire had long since established a base on her world and Reve was the Empire’s liaison. His men and ship rotated the Empire but his base was here now. He looked way to smug for her liking. He always seemed to know.
“Yes. She’s a warrior like her father.”
Reve laughed. He did that a lot more these days coming over to touch her stomach. They both felt the next kick. Bren hissed. “I think she is more like her mother and I will enjoy the luxury of reigning the little one in as I cannot the mother.”
It was Bren’s turn to laugh. “In your dreams handsome. In your dreams.”
Their door opened, and Sonja came rushing in. “Son I need your help, that damn mechanical piece of shit that Earth Corp saddled us with, has broken down again. I swear I’m going to kill it.” She grabbed his shirt to pull him down to give him a kiss on the cheek and turned to Bren. “How’s my granddaughter doing?” Bren smiled at the surprised looked on Reve’s face. He still didn’t quite get it. Sonja made a bee line for her and Bren grabbed her hand and placed it on her belly as another kick came. “Ooo she’s feisty today. Daddy’s gonna have his hands full of this one. She’s going to be running this planet, getting into all sorts of trouble and then they’ll be the boys. They are going to love her.” Sonja laughed.
A growl filled the air. “No boys. Ever.”
Both women looked up at each other, laughing out loud. He wasn’t sure where those words came from, he hadn’t trigger it. An unrealistic fear assaulted him like they knew something he didn’t. Their laughter confused him more and he decided, to ignore his logic. His data told him, he’s intel was good. It seemed to work better these days doing that.
His mother, when had he started to think of her like that? Came over and patted his arm. “You’ll get through it son, now I need you and your men to help me kick some mechanical ass.” He watched his …. mother …. leave the room and moved to go after her, looking across at Bren.
“Go,” she waved him off. “Your mother needs you and when you’re done, we will be here waiting for you and I, would like some of that special attention you’re so good at.” She wiggled her eyebrows. Reve had the sudden need to touch her. Since their joining, he couldn’t get enough of her. He spent as much time buried inside her as he could get. Seeing her with his child was almost too much for his systems to cope with and was a wonder to him every single day.
His systems stuttered at the thought. She’d gone into the med bed with his nano’s to aid the healing and they both knew it would make her receptive to his seed. A child they both wanted. Eventually Brenna had told him about the child that had died in that first raid. Her pain a sharp reminder of what she’d lost and over time, as their bond strengthened, they’d talked about bringing new life into their lives and she’d gone into the med bed fully prepared and both of them wanting a child in their lives. This world had many challenges ahead, but safety wasn’t one of them any longer.
The new terraforming was working but so much of the old Earth Corp tech still didn’t. It had taken imaginative minds to keep them going in the past and for now, most people on this world wanted to stay. To make new lives on the surface and once they’d made that decision, the Empire came calling in force. Bringing new horizons with them. It helped the community turn the corner and start to thrive once more. The people were happy. He’d honoured to be the colony’s liaison with the Empire and a base was set up and new accommodations were created on the surface. The first new buildings in a very long time.
His relationship with Sonja and her family had been a curiosity to his people and he’d happily shared his experience over his neuro net with them. Well, some of them. The memories he had with Brenna were his and his alone. Many felt like he did. A longing for something never offered to them before. Family. A history. Reve felt centred. Like he’d found his place.
Other Cyborgs were now looking for their own family connections and information the Admiral held on file was gradually being filtered out to those that wanted it. For many, this carried their heritage, their creation and their biological families. It was a new future. And finding out Brenna was pregnant had made everything he’d endured in his long life, right with him.
He had no doubt that he loved her in the human way and heard her words many times telling him the same. His logic told him it was irrelevant, his heart, that it was everything.
Reve changed direction going to her. Grasping her head in both his hands, he kissed her hard. Then touched her forehead with his own, joining their hands over their child. “The Admiral was right,” he whispered. “Our future is not written. We make our own.”
The End…..
A word from the Author. Thank you for buying this book. As a bonus thank you here is a free chapter from another series. The Covenant. Book 1. Enjoy. Jessie x
The Covenant - Lori Palmer Chronicles. Book 1.
Chapter One
Lori looked at the smoke and damage around her. The scent of blood, strong in the air. Covenant blood, her species blood, from the dead bodies littering the floor. One in particular, with its head disintegrated, its hand, still snarled in the throes of his last battle. Lori glanced back at the younger man across the room, holding back his emotions. They had no role here. Thi
s was Covenant business and dead men can’t lie.
She’d hoped for a better outcome than this …… but in the end, her father was always going to extract vengeance. Only it wasn’t him who’d pulled the trigger. An eye for an eye…….
***
Two months earlier ….
Lori packed her things. Growing up, she thought it was ‘normal’ to have family that hid what they did for a living. Hid, who they were.
Who didn't have a doting Dad that insisted martial arts, weaponry, tracking, evasion training, advanced driving skills and knowing your enemy, were far more important to a growing child, than dolls, dresses, toys and boys? Who didn't have 'uncle's or aunt's' who disappeared at short notice, carried weapons and more often than not, came back knocked about or had retired? No one ever asked, no one ever told. That's just how family was.
To Lori anyway. Her father's happy little accident or so he told her. Who at 12 could throw a knife, could shoot just as good, take apart any weapon blindfolded. Who at 15, came second in her County Triathlon and at 18, found out, there was a whole lot more going on with her, as her powers began to manifest and a whole other world she’d known nothing about. The Covenant. In that world, all families had enforcers and that retired, had a whole new meaning.
Not all families kept secrets. Not all families lived in a second world, hidden to most and shared, by others of their kind. Not all daughters had an army of killers for hire. But once you got passed the killing thing, to Lori, they were still her family. As Daddy always told her, dead men told no lies and the Covenant, kept their promises.
But a girl had to grow up sometime and there was no getting passed her ‘uncles and aunts’ aversion to her having boyfriends or her father’s insistence on a guard on any dates, since things went south that one time. Her hunger had emerged soon after she’d turned 18. It was an accident, she hadn’t meant to do it! Really? Lori shook her head, she never missed a day’s training. Like she couldn’t kill them herself if she got in trouble! Seriously, if she stayed home any longer, she’d be a nun to her father’s deep joy or a spinster for life. And it was a very, very long life.
She was 24, she’d done the human college thing, gained her Doctorate in International Affairs, and she had a bona fide job offer on the table. She did up the last of her cases and sat on the bed looking around her bedroom. It was time to go. It was a big world out there and it was waiting on her….
***
The sweat pouring down Aiden Cole’s face started to annoy him. The session was taking far longer than necessary, and his patience was wearing thin. He didn’t mind the teaching. Show them enough to give them the tools they needed, hold back enough not to kill them. Not that he didn’t appreciate the need to get trainees where they needed to be, everyone had to start somewhere.
Just not with him. He was a field agent, top of his game, that should give you perks, not handholding duty! Aiden watched another poorly executed move and wanted to pound on something. It was becoming harder not to just kill them all himself and go get coffee…..
***
Lori looked at the files piled on her desk. This was not what she’d bargained for. The job offer stated, she’d need her international skills in dealing with clients around the world, securing contracts and ensuring every dot was marked, every T was crossed. No one said that was a filing position.
The first few days, she’d passed if off as the ‘new girl’ but it had been weeks and this, was all there was. When she’d brought it up with the others working around her on her break, querying if she was in the right job or not, they’d smiled indulgently and told her, yep. Right place, right job.
How did filing contracts require a degree in International Affairs? She asked herself for the 100th time, holding back the impulse to punch the courier, who’d just deposited more files on her desk. Her father had been right, she realised, humans lied.
***
Aiden walked out the changing rooms as his boss Neville, came towards him. “Aiden, wait up.” Aiden stopped and closed his eyes, if he was chasing him down outside the locker room and it couldn’t wait, till he’d got across the room to his desk, it wasn’t good.
Aiden turned towards him. Neville held out the file. “We have a new player in town. Amazing pedigree. One of a kind you could say. Playing by the rules. Appears to have her own personal hit list too. Word is, all three families want her.”
Aiden took it from him. He only knew of one female in the Covenant. He leafed through the file. She was beautiful. The picture seemed a good one. That was unusual, they didn’t generally take good pictures. No one knew why. “So why aren’t they buying or bartering her in the usual way?”
“Intel say her father refuses to put her up.” Aiden frowned. That was unusual as well.
“So, she came here why?” He asked.
Neville leaned in, “get this, for a job.” Aiden wasn’t sure he’d heard right. He looked up at his boss.
“She came here for a job? She has a contract?”
Neville nodded. “O yeah, with Cormac & Cormac. International Affairs floor. She’s a grafter.”
Aiden stared at him. “This a joke? Covenant don’t take jobs outside the Houses.” Neville shook his head, pointing at the file.
“This one did. It’s all in there, read it, then give me options.” Neville walked away. Aiden wasn’t sure whether to laugh or not. The families did not allow their children to work for humans and not in human jobs. There was no way, the only daughter of a House, was hoofing it around. He hustled over to his desk, dumped his bag and opened the file again. There had to be something he was missing….
***
Lori walked into her favourite restaurant. She’d found it by accident. Taking a different route home one day, had led her to here and it had quickly become a firm favourite. She didn’t cook and made no excuse for it. Her senses gave her all the information she needed about a place. She could taste the flavours and essences on her tongue. She knew instantly if a place was clean or not. If they used fresh ingredients and went that extra mile and made their own bread. She’d walked in a lot of doors since she’d come to town and only a few, got her order or a return visit.
It was early for the dinner crowd but that suited her just fine. “Anywhere you want Lori.” She looked up at Kingston who’d called to her as she’d walked in. Lori waved and smiled taking a seat in the window. She picked up the menu browsing the options. She didn’t know why she bothered looking any more. The staples of the restaurant were the same and excellent, the daily specials were being written up as she’d come through the door.
Kingston came over and filled her glass with chilled water. “Third time this week, I am honoured.” He gave her a mock bow. Lori smiled. She liked Kingston.
“Well don’t let it go to your head. I’m in demand you know.” She told him lifting her chin in an imperious way.
He patted her shoulder. “Good on ya girl. Keep it up. Now, what can I get you.” Lori listed off the items she wanted. Kingston didn’t need to write it down, he knew it all by heart. He left her to her water and walked back to the kitchens to prepare her meal. Lori thought this was the best part of her day… How sad was that?
***
By the time she was finished, night had closed in around them and the restaurant started to fill up with the evening crowd. The meal had been delicious, and she’d told Kingston exactly that, as she paid leaving a good tip, then walking outside into the crisp night air, turning in the direction of her newish home. Her father had insisted she have somewhere ‘decent’ to live, so he’d paid for an upmarket ‘apartment’, that catered for their kind in the human world. It meant dear old Dad, could visit any time he wanted and so could the family. An apartment on two floors with 12 bedrooms. Lori shook her head. Seriously, she hardly used one! Saying yes, had been easier than saying no. So she’d thanked him and took it.
Lori had been brought up too well not to notice the tarnished notes on the air or the waiting party up ahead. Th
is was unexpected, Lori knew there were two ways to play this, run or confront. To run would make her look weak. Lori kept walking, she wasn’t the run type, unless a trophy was involved. She tasted the night air, Covenant, the people ahead of her, were her people. Well not hers exactly, a ….. splinter group, one could say. There were several splinter groups, families, that had evolved over time. She’d learnt her lessons well. Twelve in fact. She knew the histories of all the families as well as she knew her own. They came from a time when war, was raged with good and evil.
This would be a confrontation and a show of power. House politics, it so bored her. She walked slowly towards her reception party, looking causally at the group in front of her. Then stopped some 20 metres out and didn’t move. Didn’t show any sign of weakness, or emotion. They would taste her emotions if she let them. Lori filled her mind with gracious hospitality. With indulgence, that their presence was a ‘whim’, one she would allow.
A lead male stepped forward, she noticed his pleasure at contact with her essence. Lori recognised him. Anton. He’d come to call. How nice of him. Only this was more than just a social hello. She’d played by the rules. Informed the families that she would be in the area. Stated her reason and provided the evidence. That, was all she was required to do and she’d done it. He had no reason to come at her like this and they both knew it. She never did like the use of scare and bully tactics. This was a bully move and she hated bullies. Lori stared at him, adding a little impatience to her senses. She saw the moment he sensed it and lost his edge. “My father wishes for you to accept his protection. He would like to offer you, the refuge of our family.”
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