by Aurelia Skye
She was still glaring at him as she looked at her comm, pressing buttons on the wrist device. A moment later, she thrust the screen into his field of vision, forcing him to look at the image there. His mouth dropped open when he saw a peach gelatinous blob with eyes. So far, it matched Raven’s description.
When the alien started speaking, still with no visible mouth, his words reinforced everything Raven had claimed. The only difference was, Freydon Rote’s recording didn’t specifically identify her and Leith as the next pairing. He seized on that, pushing aside his confusion and a dart of hope. “He doesn’t say anything about you and me.”
She shrugged. “No, but I felt it the moment I saw you. Do you feel it too?”
Leith didn’t want to lie to her, so he looked away. “Nothing can come of it.”
She let out a sound of frustration. “Why not? You aren’t with anyone else, are you?”
He shook his head as he stared at her, aghast at the question. “How can you even ask that? Look at me.” He waved a hand down his body, which encompassed his chair. “I can’t have a normal physical relationship with any woman.”
Her eyes widened, and her gaze darted to his lap. “Where does the paralysis start?”
“Just above my waist, and all the way to my toes. I’m not involved with anyone, and I won’t be, because I can’t give you or any woman what she needs.”
Raven shook her head. “That’s not true. Relationships are about more than just sex.”
He scoffed. “You say that now, but you’d soon change your mind when you realized how much of our relationship would be missing from what I can’t give you. I can’t give you an orgasm, and I sure can’t give you children.”
She shook her head, her expression gentle. “Cyborgs don’t have children. Our resources are carefully allocated, so we don’t want to increase our population. And there are other ways to have an orgasm besides penetrative sex. I’d be more interested in the emotional closeness than the physical closeness.”
He shook his head. “It’s easy to say now, but—”
She put her finger against his lips, forcing him to fall silent. “It’s no different from the life I live now. The other cyborgs treat me like a little sister, or a child they have to protect. They don’t think I know, but I do. Something went wrong during my conversion process, and I’m not functioning at full cyborg capacity. They treat me like a child, not a woman with needs. I know they’re protective, and it’s because they care about me, but none of the cyborgs come to me for their physical needs, and I’m certain if I approached any of them, they would just let me down gently. I’m used to taking care of myself.”
His eyes widened as he grasped her meaning. “There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re perfect just the way you are.”
She smiled, practically glowing under the praise. “I lack the killer instinct that most cyborgs have. Technically, it’s a flaw, but I’m kind of glad that I don’t see everything as a battle. I’m drawn to you, and if you feel the same way, there’s no reason to deny this thing between us. We can have emotional and physical intimacy even if we can’t have sex. Please don’t close yourself off from the idea just to protect me from what you think I need or want. All I want is you, Leith.”
He closed his eyes when her fingers ghosted down his cheek before her palm cupped his face. When her other hand curved around the other side of his cheek, he closed his eyes tighter as she drew closer. Her breath wafted against his skin just seconds before her lips touched his, and he ignored his first instinct, which was to jerk away.
Instead, he remained still as she kissed him. It was a gentle, tender kiss, and it demanded nothing from him. Yet he was moved to give her everything as he deepened the kiss, pinning his hands on her shoulders as he leaned forward slightly to reposition their mouths.
As the kiss deepened, his heart raced in his ears, and he ached for her. He might not be able to have a physical reaction below the waist, but the rest of his body was inflamed for her, and he acted instinctively as he leaned forward to urge her from the floor and onto his lap.
Leith kept a hand around her waist, her mouth still fused to his, as he navigated the chair to take them to the bed. When they reached it, he gently pushed her off his lap, and she rolled on to it. Using his upper body strength, Leith lifted himself out of the chair and onto the bed to join her, pressing his body on hers as he pinned her to the bed.
She didn’t seem to mind being pinned and made no effort to resist or pull away. Her sigh of pleasure urged him to keep going, and he deepened the kiss even more, his tongue sweeping inside her mouth to taste every inch of her. He could count on one hand the number of women he had kissed, and it had never been like this before.
Something about Raven seemed to guide him, and he instinctively knew what to do. She moaned and thrashed against him, clearly needing more, and he let one of his hands drift down her body to push aside the black shirt to reveal her breasts. As he continued to feast on her mouth, his fingers moved over her nipple, alternating between tugging and gently circling.
Her arm went around him, her fingers digging in to his lower back as her other hand stroked his chest. He winced slightly at the sound of rending fabric when she grew impatient with the buttons and forced her hand inside an opening to be able to stroke his skin. He decided he didn’t care about the loss of the shirt since it allowed her free access to his body.
As her hands roamed freely over him, invigorating nerve endings in a way he’d never experienced before, he moved his own hand lower. She tensed slightly for a moment as his fingers breached the waistband of her pants, but her mouth never stopped moving under his, and when she arched her hips and made a breathless moan against his lips, it was all the encouragement he needed to continue delving lower.
His fingers surged into her slit, tangling in the thatch of curls he found there as he sought out the slick heat nestled between her thighs. He might not have had a lover before, but he understood biology, and he grinned when she moaned as his fingers found her clit, circling with light pressure.
Her head tipped back, and her mouth broke from his. She wriggled and arched beneath him as he fingered her wet heat. Leith buried his face against her neck, nibbling lightly at the column of her throat before he started sucking her flesh. Each time she thrust against his hand, it increased his own excitement. He could feel the pleasure building in him, and it mimicked her own, he was certain. As her folds tightened around him, and her sheath rhythmically squeezed the fingers buried inside her, a rush of euphoria broke over him.
It wasn’t an orgasm, but it was definitely a release, heightened with pure male satisfaction at giving Raven such intense pleasure. As she screamed his name, her thighs tight, and her channel convulsing around his fingers, he let out his own sound of satisfaction, feeling possessive and content all at once.
He held her as her body shuddered, kissing her through the aftermath until she was practically boneless beneath him. At that point, he moved away from her mound and put his hand on her waist instead, holding her against him. His heart was still thundering, and he was certain hers was too.
“You were wrong,” she said in a drowsy voice.
He arched a brow as he shifted slightly to look down at her. Her eyes were half-mast, and she appeared on the edge of sleep. “About what?”
Her lips twitched at the corners. “You said you couldn’t give me an orgasm. You are so wrong about that.”
He chuckled, still feeling slightly smug at leaving her in such a state. “Let’s just say I’m happy to be wrong in this instance.”
“Me too. Absolutely thrilled that you are…” She trailed off with a yawn as she snuggled closer. Within a few minutes, he could hear her even breathing that indicated she had fallen asleep, and pure contentment flooded him at holding her in his arms while she was in such a vulnerable state.
She trusted him to keep her safe, and he had seen to her needs, both physical and emotional. He still had reservations about the relations
hip, and the fear lurked in the back of his mind that she’d get tired of not having a full physical relationship with him, but with her in his arms, he was certain he wouldn’t be able to let her go.
If the relationship ended, it would be because she walked away. It would absolutely shatter him in the process, but the possibility of happiness far outweighed the fear of losing her. She might be able to completely break him into pieces at some point, but at the moment, he’d never felt so complete or whole in his life, even before the accident had rendered him paralyzed and confined to the chair. He was sure her conclusion was correct—Freydon Rote intended for them to be mates.
6
Raven woke slowly, contentment washing over her. She was unaccustomed to sharing her bed, but pleased by Leith’s presence beside her. He was still sleeping, which afforded her the opportunity to study his face. It seemed so much less stressed while he was sleeping, with the worry lines smoothed away. She couldn’t resist running a finger down his cheek, which made his eyelids flutter.
He woke abruptly, sitting straight up, his expression intense. “There’s an old security system in the enclave that includes surveillance. It’s pretty much fallen into disrepair, since we had to pick which systems to keep running, and it seemed like a low priority. It’s a possibility at least one of the cameras in the brig still works, so we might be able to identify who killed Elle.”
She smiled, teasing gently, “Good morning to you too.”
His face turned a dusky pink, and he was clearly embarrassed. “Sorry. That thought just popped into my head.”
She snuggled closer, pinning her head on his thigh and her arm around his waist as she let her other hand trail up and down his chest in a random fashion. “It’s fine. I’m glad you thought of it, and we should definitely check it out.” A wave of sadness swept over her, and she did her best to hide it by keeping her face downward.
Perhaps Leith hadn’t even considered the matter yet and realized that once they solved the mystery of who might be working with Patrick, Raven would have no further reason to stay at the enclave unless Davis told her to. If she requested to stay, he would probably allow it—especially if it was so she could be with her mate. However, she wasn’t certain if Leith had accepted that idea at all yet, or if he would be fine with her leaving.
They got out of bed and were soon ready to go to the brig. Raven walked beside him, her hand on his shoulder because she needed the contact. At least he didn’t shrug her away, but he also didn’t lift his hand to hold hers or show any other overt signs that things had changed between them. It was disheartening, but she tried not to take it personally. His thoughts were clearly focused on the camera, and perhaps he wasn’t naturally demonstrative anyway.
Once they arrived at the brig, Leith showed her where the ancient cameras were positioned. She was able to immediately determine that three of the four were completely dead, rendering it impossible for them to record any footage. The fourth one maintained a weak charge, but she couldn’t be sure if it had any recorded data.
She clambered up onto a desk that she dragged over and carefully removed the camera from the system, not wanting to fry it and erase all traces of a lead. Once she had it disassembled, she sat down on the desk and immediately went to work on forging a connection. It took longer than she expected, and sweat was beading her brow by the time she finally managed to access the memory chip on the motherboard. Almost immediately, the flow of data began, and she captured all that remained from the device.
After she set it aside, she scrambled off the desk and moved over to stand by Leith. She lifted her wrist comm to show him the footage. She waited until he could see it for himself, holding her breath as the scene played out before them. There was no volume, but the camera was positioned to give them a good face shot when the murderer turned around to exit the cell.
“Michael,” said Leith, sounding shocked.
Raven nodded, having had more time to absorb the murderer’s identity, and not having any personal connection to him aside from their brief interrogation. “I’m not entirely surprised. He was hostile when we talked to him.”
Leith let out a long sigh. “Yes, that’s true. It’s not so much the identity that shocks me, but the fact that the people I’ve lived with my entire life are capable of doing things like this. It’s not like I looked up to Patrick or Michael, and neither one of them were substitute father figures after my own father was killed, but I knew them. Or thought I did. I never would’ve guessed they’d be capable of murder.”
“Do you want to talk to him?” Raven knew they had to confront Michael, but she was willing to do it alone if Leith didn’t want the responsibility.
“Of course. I’ll have security on standby, but I’d like to hear his reasoning.” He scowled. “Not that he can provide a good enough reason for killing someone or working with Patrick, who tried to kill several people.”
“You still want to know his motivation, which is perfectly natural.” Raven put a bracing hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly, waiting until his expression changed from broken to all business again. She could tell he was ready by the way he squared his shoulders, and his gaze sharpened. At that point, she moved her hand and fell into step beside him as they left the brig and headed to the oxygen scrubber room. With any luck, they would find Michael there, unless he had fled after killing Elle.
They entered the room a few minutes later, and Michael emerged from one of the rows at the sound of their entry. He held a large wrench in his hand, and he was casually wiping it with a cloth, but it made Raven nervous. He eyed them both impassively. “I told you everything I knew, so why’d you bring the cyborg back?”
Leith frowned. “Raven managed to retrieve some footage from the old cameras in the brig. We know it was you who killed Elle, Michael.” He delivered the words almost gently.
Raven waited for his reaction, expecting him to make a run for it, or perhaps start swinging the wrench. Instead, the older man just let out a long sigh and nodded before moving closer to them. He didn’t put down the wrench, but he wasn’t holding it in a threatening manner. Yet.
“I forgot all about those. They’ve barely been functioning in my lifetime.”
Leith nodded. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on here, Michael? I’d prefer to keep it informal for now, if we can.”
He shrugged before nodding and taking the seat at his desk near where Raven stood and Leith sat in his chair. “What do you want to know?”
“Why did you kill Elle?” asked Raven.
He barely glanced at her, but answered the question. “I never liked her. She used to play off all the men, and she broke more than one heart, including mine, back in the day.”
Leith made a scoffing sound. “You’re claiming you killed her because she once broke your heart?”
Michael shrugged. “Partly, but mostly it was to try to hide what we’ve been planning.”
“What have you been planning?” asked Raven.
At the same time, Leith asked, “Who is we?”
Michael answered his question first. “Elle, Patrick, and myself. We had others picked out that we planned to approach when the time was right, but we kept it mainly between the three of us.”
“Kept what?” asked Leith. His voice was hard, and he was clearly angry.
“Our plan to find a new enclave and establish a better system than we have here. Patrick wanted to be in charge, and Elle and I deferred, since it was his idea to start with, and he’s the one who found the technology that made it possible to move around on the surface.”
“The tracking system,” said Raven, making it a statement rather than a question. “How did he find that?”
“We stumbled across the remains of a synth and cyborg battle. There were just a few destroyed synthetics, and no sign of the cyborgs, but they were the only ones who could’ve eliminated the synths. We usually scavenge through their equipment, which is standard if it’s safe. That day, Patrick hit the jackpot. Of cour
se, he didn’t know what it was yet, but he took it back to the enclave and hid it until he figured it out. It took him almost two years to reverse engineer it and figure out how to modify it to track synthetics too.”
Leith shook his head, looking confused. “If you had something like that, why not share it with all of us to make the enclave safer?”
Michael made a scoffing sound. “He didn’t give a damn about the enclave. Patrick wanted to start over with a select few. He definitely didn’t want Gwen Harrison involved, since she wouldn’t listen to any of his counsel, and there were other undesirables that definitely wouldn’t make the cut.”
Raven stiffened at the way Michael pointedly looked at Leith’s chair before glancing away. She put a hand on his shoulder while the other one balled into a fist. “Like who?” she asked in a low tone that revealed her anger to anyone who was wise enough to pick up on it.
“We were gonna leave behind all the weak burdens. And those who didn’t share our views as well. We hoped to recruit the last few acceptable breeding-aged females, so they’d come along peaceably.”
“And if they said no?” asked Leith in a thin voice that seemed to indicate he was barely holding his rage in check.
Michael shrugged, not committing to an answer—which was all the answer they needed. It was obvious Patrick and his cohorts would’ve taken the women with or without their consent. Except Gwen, but was that because she was too strong and stubborn for Michael, or because she wasn’t alone, and they didn’t want to deal with children too? Raven supposed the reason didn’t matter, but she was angry on Gwen’s behalf. That was an irrational response to have, considering Michael passing her over meant Gwen would’ve been safe from their intentions. She let her anger expand to encompass all their misdeeds.
“If Patrick wanted to lead so badly, why didn’t he step up after Stephen was killed, and Gwen was forced to take over the position? No one stepped forward besides her.”