Rothguard frowned at his readings. “This can’t be right?”
“What’s wrong with her?” Dayen growled. The burr in his voice slid along her skin like a caress. He looked at her sharply, but then returned his attention to the physician.
The cyborg scanned her head again, then scanned Mel, himself and finally Dayen.
“Well, do you want the good news or the bad news?” He said at last.
Dayen took her hand and she didn’t shove him away. “No games, just tell us what we’re dealing with.”
The cyborg took one last look at his device then met her eyes. “The stuff Yates injected into your bloodstream has affected your brain’s functions.”
“Oh God.” Horror washed over her at the reminder of that wild eyed madman sticking a syringe into her neck. Like he’d done to his wife, to his own son. She looked to her hands but they were exactly as she remember them, not fuzzy or pawlike in any way. “But I still look like me. Right?”
Dayen nodded in confirmation. “Is there danger to her?”
“No more than there is to you.” Rothguard rubbed at his backside. “Or the rest of us for that matter. She’s like you, Dayen.”
Startled green eyes met hers. “What do you mean, like me?”
Rothguard pulled up a 3-D image of a brain. Small bits of blue were high lit throughout the rotating picture. “In an average human, less than ten percent of the brain is used. Add a few cybernetic advances and we might get as high as twelve. In the two of you,” here the image changed, much more blue than white, “We’re looking at least seventy percent utilization.”
“But what has that got to do with those beasts?” Sage asked, her gaze locked on the cyborg’s face. “Are you telling me those creatures were smarter than the average person?”
“I have no way to be certain without an autopsy, but I’d say that no, in them, the serum didn’t work the same way. I’d like to do some further tests,”
“Later,” Dayen snapped, cutting the cyborg off with a low growl. “I need to speak with her privately.”
“Yes, sire.” The woman spoke and then dragged her reluctant mate to the door.
“Sire?” Sage raised an eyebrow in Dayen’s direction.
He rose and squared his shoulders, his gaze fastened on her. “There have been some changes.”
She snorted. “Is that right, Berrick?”
He winced and she heard his unspoken apology in her own head. Was inundated with cloying guilt and sickening regret.
“Stop that,” she snapped and gripped her head in both hands.
“What?” he reached for her and the sensation cut off abruptly.
She sighed in relief and looked up into his eyes, those leafy green eyes that belong to her mate. The man who had saved her, lied to her, risked everything for her.
“You can hear my thoughts?” He asked in a tone of wonder.
Could she? “No, it was more like I experienced your emotions. I supposed this means I’ll have to forgive you for lying to me, if only so I can breathe when you let go of me.”
“I don’t want to let go of you,” he murmured. There was a seductive note in his voice and multiple dimensions of possibilities. “Not ever.”
She put her hand on his chest. “I know why you lied to me. Really, I understand that.”
“But?” he prompted.
She sighed. “But, you could have told me. Later.” As she looked in his eyes she allowed herself to relive their time in the cave together.
He was thinking about it too, she saw the memory smoldering in his eyes. “I didn’t want you to fear me when you were just beginning to open up to me.”
Sage looked away. How could she make him understand? Without thinking about it she rose from the padded bench where she’d apparently been camped out for the last few months. Strange she didn’t feel grubby like any other long illness she’d suffered through before. “I’m so clean.”
“I came every day to bathe you.”
She looked up, startled. “You didn’t have to do that.”
His chin lifted, that same look of absolute pride she’d come to. “Tending to you is my right as your mate. And there was no way I was going to let Rothguard put his perverted hands all over you.”
She laughed in spite of herself. “Perverted?”
He tapped his skull with his free hand. “Telepath, remember? Of course, he’s a one woman male, but the variations….I know what everyone goes in for, whether I want to or not.”
She grinned up at him. “I guess I will now, too.”
His humor fled. “I would not have seen you burdened with this, Sage. You have endured enough.”
She pulled away from him, staggered under a wave of loss coming from him, but managed to keep herself upright. “So far, you’re the only one I’ve picked up anything from. And otherwise, I feel pretty damn good.”
“Not as good as you look,” Before she knew what he was doing, he yanked her toward him and settled his mouth over hers. It was a breath steeling, soul renting, heartbreaking kind of kiss. Big hands cupped her head, as his lips pressed in on hers, and his tongue swept inside. It was an, I thought you were gone for good and I’d never have the chance to do this again kind of kiss. And wouldn’t that be a crying shame?
She yanked away from him, heart pounding. “I can’t do this.”
“Sage,” His tone, so full of anguish, nearly broke her resolve.
“No, Dayen, damn it. Too much has changed. I can’t just be your prize anymore.” She pushed herself away from him. “I was going to kill myself, did you know that?”
He flinched, features paling as though he was about to vomit. She let herself remember that morning in the cave, when she’d held not even a glimmer of hope, only tired resignation. The choice between the hell she knew and the hell she didn’t. His legs nearly gave out as her memories bombarded him. It hurt her too, to see him lost and hopeless beneath the weight of her onslaught, but she pressed her hands against the bench, determined to remain standing.
“Why?” he rasped, voice tight with pain.
“Because, I’d been told that Dayen intended to hand me out like some kind of reward. The way Berrick acted furthered that belief.”
He blanched and then grated. “I’d never do that to you. You’re mine.”
“Why? Because my uncle sold me to you? Because you can touch me without feeling crippling pain?”
“Because I love you!” he thundered. He reached for her, but she dodged back, shook her head.
“I don’t even know you.”
His hands fell away and they stood in silence. Really, what more could they say?
“I will fix this,” he growled and then turned on his heel and left.
All the resolve leeched out of her and she leaned against the bench.
“Sage?” A beautiful red haired woman moved into the room and extended her hand. “I’m Allora, Dayen’s mother.”
Sage flinched and tried to tug her hand back.
“Oh, none of that now.” Allora let her go but her lips curved up into a smile. “I too once suffered from an arranged marriage. I know how helpless it can make you feel.”
“How did you get out of it?” Sage whispered.
Allora shrugged. “I ran away with my lover.”
“My lover didn’t really exist.” She blushed as she realized what she’d admitted and to whom.
The grin on Allora’s face widened. “Oh, he exists. Let me tell you about my son….”
Chapter Ten
Reduced to a Peeping Tom.
Dayen watched Sage on the monitors he’d installed in his parent’s home, the closest he’d been to her since she’d awakened transformed. Unlike him, she didn’t seem to have a problem being touched by others, a fact that would have sent him into a rage if anyone other than his mother and father had tried. But she looked happy, almost joyful as she worked in the small greenhouse he’d set up for her. Lily dug in the dirt beside her. It was nowhere near the size of the one that w
aited for her in their domicile, but she hadn’t come to see him, never mind move in with him.
Though a mountain of work waited on the desk behind him, he couldn’t tear his eyes off the screen casting her image. She knew he was watching, he’d informed his mother he wanted Sage to be made aware of the monitors that had long ago been installed so he could see the parents that couldn’t hold him. Yet his mate ignored them as she crouched over a row of tomatoes.
In so many ways she was different from the woman she’d once been, the one he’d seen but feared to approach. Fire had forged her into a weapon of grace and strength. He’d seen her sparring with his mother and several other cyborgs. She was undefeated had taken pride in the fact that she was stronger, faster than any who came up against he Born, Bred or Cyborg. It gave him a measure of peace to know she could care for herself.
“Productive morning?” Aunt Cass asked from the doorway.
He growled and shut off the feed. “What is the point of having a prophetess at my side if she can’t tell me what I need to do to keep the world from ending?”
Cass didn’t sit on the chair she usually occupied, instead moving to the opening that provided a view of the world below. “I wish I could just tell you, but you know I can’t.”
Dayen rose, his beast restless, unable to remain still without the sight of his mate. “I’ve done everything you’ve asked, everything I can. A team of the faction’s best and brightest are working around the clock, searching for a solution. We don’t know where the problem is, Cass.”
She smiled up at him. “You’ve learned to speak as a leader.”
Though it was juvenile, he rolled his eyes. “Terrific. I sound like a leader to a doomed species. It doesn’t help me find answers or convince my mate to give me another chance, so what purpose does it serve?”
She answered his question with one of her own. “Do you know why the world stopped spinning?”
“No one does, for sure.”
“Hmmm,” she said and moved toward the door.
Dayen’s jaw dropped. “Hmmm? The fate of all life depends on me and the best I can get is hmmm?”
“Don’t be so dramatic, Dayen.” She waved cheerily and left.
He spent the remainder of the day in meetings, reviewing scientific evidence gathered by members of every faction. There were other things he needed to do as well, other disputes that needed a judgment, other problems to solve. Being called “sire” was cold comfort when it compared to the never ending battle to keep humanity from imploding on itself.
The hour grew late and sill he didn’t wish to venture home. The small, cold cave he’d shared with Sage was more of a home because she had been there. He closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair and remembered how she had touched him, the way her hands and lips felt against his skin, the hoy wet glide as she took him into her mouth….
“I think about it a lot, too.”
His eyes flew open and there she was, silhouetted in the doorway. All lush curves and sweet scent. So beautiful just looking at her broke his heart a little.
“Am I dreaming?” he asked.
“No,” She moved into the room and shut the door behind her. “I’m not sure what I’m doing here. I couldn’t sleep and decided to go for a walk. That’s when I saw your light.”
“You shouldn’t walk around by yourself.”
“I would have brought Lily, but she was sound asleep. Besides, no one can hurt me now,” she stepped closer until her scent enveloped him. “No one but you.”
“I will never hurt you.” He vowed, wanting to reach for her but knowing he couldn’t, that he had to let her come all the way to him. “I love you.”
Her lips twitched and he knew she read his thoughts just as he was reading hers. “How do you do that so effortlessly?”
“Do what? Read minds?”
He nodded. “I still struggle with it most days. It takes a great deal of effort to filter out the noise from everyone else just to hear my own thoughts.”
“I can’t hear anyone else’s thoughts, Dayen. Just yours.”
His heart beat a little faster. “So I’m different for you, too.”
“Yates said I would be a deserving mate for you. Perhaps something that he did was especially designed for you.”
“I chose you as my mate long before Yates. Before we even met.”
Her hand rose, shook slightly and slid into his hair. “I know, your Aunt Cass told me.”
Cass always had a reason for everything she did. “And will you chose me, too, mein Schatzi?”
Her eyes were troubled and hungry all at once. “I want to, but I don’t know….” She closed her eyes, shook her head.
He raised his hand to her lips. “Let me take you home.”
Dayen turned out the lights and led Sage down the back stairs to the web work of tunnels that led to his domicile. To their domicile. The short walk was endless. His heart raced and he was tempted to pick her up and run the remaining distance but refrained.
They entered his private space and he released her only long enough to light a lamp. She was still skittish, still unsure of him and of herself. Even though their hands remained clasped he understood her thoughts. As much as he wanted her, had longed for her, he wouldn’t push her for sex tonight. Let her ease into being with him, get used to him again. Eventually she would…”
His thoughts ground to a halt when she tugged on his hand and whispered, “Kiss me.”
Dayen didn’t need to be asked twice. He turned her fully toward him and stared into her bright blue eyes for an endless moment, trying to communicate without words how he craved her, all of her.
Slowly, tenderly, he took her lips, melding their mouths, sharing a breath a moment in time. He went slowly, recognizing the gift he’d been given, a second chance with his mate and he was determined not to rush.
Sage moaned and plastered her decadent form against him, needing him back fiercely, demanding, just as she’d been before.
She was hot though, as hot as he was and together they blazed higher. She clasped him closer, he couldn’t decide where to put his hands so they roved over her back restless and eager for bare skin. He rocked against her, his shaft hard and aching for release.
Hands fumbled against his clothing as she tried to bare him, all of him, to her eager hands. He gripped her hands once, holding them together and reluctantly leaving her delectable mouth.
“Are you sure? I’m not looking for a quick fuck here so if that’s all this is—”
She interrupted him with a hard kiss. “I want you, Dayen.”
He would have closed his eyes to savor those words but he was to ready for her, too eager to do all the things he’d imagined doing.
With only that thought in mind, he stripped her clothing from her body and knelt before her.
“Wait,” she said but it was too late. He’d already caught her scent, the pooling of woman between her thighs. The dark patch of hair there was soft and springy, he rubbed his cheek there. She gasped, her hands plowing through his on hair. He hooked one leg over his shoulder and cupped her round ass in both hands.
“I need this, need to taste you. Don’t stop me.”
“Dayen,” her voice was low, her eyes unsure.
“Just let me try. I promise I’ll stop if you don’t like it.”
Even if it killed him.
****
Sage watched him as he nuzzled her sex. With one leg over his shoulder she felt horribly exposed, open and vulnerable. But he was being so gentle, almost reverent. He’d promised to stop if she said so. And she was curious.
“Let me,” he asked again as he dropped a kiss on her mound.
“Okay,” she whispered. Really, she’d agreed to be his mate. What was one more boon.
He didn’t hesitate, simply lowered his face that last inch and licked her seam. Her hands tightened in his hair at the slow, wet slide of his tongue over her burning flesh. He groaned and delved deeper on the next swipe, parting her sex lips to
explore. The hands on her ass flexed, trying to pull her even closer as he really set in.
Her head tipped back as he savored her with the hottest, most shockingly intimate kiss she could have imagined. Green eyes glowed up at her, she could see them in the dimly lit room, her new home with her new mate pleasuring her. It was wicked, sinful and she never wanted it to end.
He found her clit and tongued it ruthlessly, studying her every response with those unblinking eyes. She arched as the tempo increased and then bucked against him, coming hard and fast. He clasped the tiny bud between his lips and wetness spilled from her, hot liquid lust. He drilled her with his tongue and swallowed the evidence of her pleasure.
Her knees wobbled, but he held her in place, determined to get every last drop her body yielded. She pushed against him and he slid his hands up, allowing her to melt down his body until she sagged onto his lap.
Slight tremors still shook her and she had to focus to get her fingers to unclench from his hair. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath or find the will to do anything except nestle against him. His thick cock, still encased in fabric, pushed against her, but he made no demands. He never would, not of her, only of himself.
She smiled against him, glad to take the next step, to give in to what they both wanted. It was inevitable and even better because she’d made the choice. Fighting fate was more effort than she wanted to expend. There were so many more pleasant ways to expend her energy. “Dayen, make love to me.”
The sound of rending fabric and then that hot, steely length was bare to her stomach. She met his gaze, kissed the mouth that still glistened with her juices and lifted her hips.
She held his gaze as she took him inside of herself for the first time. His eyes went wide as she sank down, slowly enveloping him into the tight clutch of her eager body. It was a long, sweet slide, so different from what she’d known before, it wasn’t even the same act. This was more a melding of flesh a uniting of two to become one.
She rocked her hips experimentally, loving having him within. “How does that feel?”
His eyes slid shut and he licked his lips. “I haven’t the words.”
B Cubed #3 Borg Page 9