by Cynthia Sax
They would be truly safe when they were alone. Ghost entered the commander’s chamber with her in his arms and locked the doors behind him.
The warriors were cyborgs. If they wanted to enter the chamber, they could force the doors open but that would take time, time he’d use to prepare.
Ghost walked through the space, examining every compartment, scanning the entire area multiple times. There were no threats, no dangers.
His processors told him his female was safe.
His primitive soul questioned that truth. Visions of past battles flooded his organic brain. His muscles remained flexed tight. Energy surged through his circuits. He needed to expel the pent-up tension, take action, fight, kill.
Or breed.
Ghost set his female on the sleeping support. “Mine.” He pushed the protective chest covering over her shoulders. “Need.” He grasped the collar of her garment and yanked, ripping the fabric off her lush body. “Now.” He had to be inside her.
“Now isn’t soon enough, cyborg.” She parted her legs, revealing her pink pussy lips. The fragile folds glistened with wetness. He breathed deeply. She smelled delicious.
Ghost cupped her ass, lifting her to his mouth. His gaze met hers. He extended his tongue and slowly licked her. Sparks lit her dark eyes and she trembled in his hands.
He rumbled with satisfaction. Her taste filled his mouth. Her scent teased his nostrils.
He burrowed his face into her pussy, eating her out with a vengeance, sucking on her folds, delving into her entrance with his tongue. She wiggled and whimpered, pressing against him and then retreating.
Ghost held her to him, laving her flesh, breathing her in. He wasn’t a J Model, wasn’t skilled with words, with compliments. He was a C Model. He showed her how he felt, cherishing her with his mouth, wearing her scent on his skin.
“Ghost.” She called his name, telling all of the cyborgs on board the battle station whom she belonged to. “Yes. Yes.” She beat the surface of the sleeping support with her tiny fists.
He plunged into her, breeding with his tongue, stroking her inner walls. She panted. Her juices wet his cheeks, dripped down his chin.
She was alive, safe, his. He nipped her pussy lips and she yelped, more wetness streaming from her core. Not a drop was wasted. He gorged himself on his female, mouthing over her, flicking her flesh with his tongue.
“Ghost.” She pleaded, her voice stretched with desire.
His female needed release and he needed to claim her. Now. Again. Always. He nibbled around her clit.
“Now, Ghost.” Her impatience made him smile.
He sucked on that little button and she screamed, smacking her pussy against his face. Her curves quivered. Her musk hung heavily in the air.
He couldn’t wait any longer. Ghost flipped her over, drew her hips back until she was positioned on her hands and knees in front of him.
“Yes.” She moaned. His female liked to be bred with this way.
He liked it too. It gave him more control and gifted him with a great view of her lush ass. He curled his fingers over her hips, probed with his cock, prompting more appreciative noises from his female before he found her tight little entrance.
He drove into her, submerging his cock up to his base.
Enhanced cyborg senses weren’t required to verify his female’s verbal ownership of him. Even a human could hear her cry his name.
“Mine.” He withdrew and thrust into her, withdrew and thrust into her, taking her wildly, fiercely. Her pussy vibrated around his shaft, their breeding extending her release.
“Love. Love.” She repeated that word, the sound of it on her lips crazing him with passion.
She loved him. Ghost pounded his cock into her pussy, spanking her ass with his hips. “Love.” He added his voice to the song. “Love.”
He loved her with everything he was, every shattered piece of him. She was the voice in the silence, the light in the dark, a soothing touch in a universe of pain, a reason for living when he’d had none.
At the beginning of them, of their relationship, he hadn’t the bandwidth to know anything else yet he’d recognized her, what she was to him, what she would always be. She pulled him back from the edge of insanity, calmed the savage beast he’d become.
He could have lost her this planet rotation. Ghost plunged into her warmth, into her snug embrace, needing that physical connection with his female, seeking that reassurance.
They rutted like it was their first time, their last time, the vigor of their breeding crashing the sleeping support against the wall again and again, the boom, boom, boom adding a tempo to their one word chorus.
Their skin heated at points of contact. Sweat beaded over his female’s back, wet her golden curls. He licked along her spine, tasting the exertion of their breeding.
She trembled under him, drove back on every thrust, meeting him halfway, strong, courageous, his equal, his only. Ghost’s balls tightened, hugging his shaft. Pressure formed over his simulated tailbone.
“Love.” His voice deepened. “Mine. Love.”
“Yes.” She arched her back. “Yours. Love. Always.”
Always. He’d take her to the cyborg Homeland, where she’d be safe, and spend the rest of forever by her side. Ghost lowered over his female, surrounding her with his body, with his love, intent on pleasing her, trying to delay his own release.
She had other ideas, clenching around his shaft. It was too good, too much. He roared, thrust into her until there was nothing left, and let go. Cum propelled from his tip, splattered against her inner walls. She screamed, bucking, writhing under him.
Operating on purely primal instinct, he contained her movements, not allowing her to damage herself, to sever their link. He wasn’t thinking. His processors had shut down. His brain could only hold the euphoria he was feeling. There wasn’t room for anything else.
She drained him of all his essence, massaging his shaft, loving him with her pussy. Bliss swept over him in heavy waves, rising and falling.
He shuddered. His arms folded and he fell, taking his female down with him. She squawked in protest. He rolled, taking her with him.
She lay on top of his body. The tremors jiggling her curves gradually subsided. She became still, her form limp.
“I love you,” she whispered.
His cock slipped from her heat as he turned her to face him. Ghost gazed at his female. Her eyes were soft. Her lips were parted. Her hair was mussed, her golden curls in disarray. There was a smudge of ash across her chin.
She was the most gorgeous creature in existence yet her beauty expanded past her mere appearance. It was reflected in her kindness, her strength, her bravery, her caring.
“Love you, Mine.” He allowed all of his feelings to show.
Her breath hitched. “You love me?”
“Love you,” he repeated. “Always.”
“Oh, Ghost.” Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. “You always know exactly what to say.”
Ghost smiled at her. Only his female would think that.
Epilogue
A solar cycle had passed. Ghost prepared for another battle, bracing himself as the medic ship lowered to the stone landing pad his female had asked him to craft.
The fragile green vegetation of Mercury Minor swayed with the air circulation. The planet, now under cyborg protection, was gradually reviving.
Ghost and his female, as its only inhabitants, assisted in the recovery, clearing the debris, purifying the water, planting new vegetation. It was peaceful, solitary, safe.
Until now.
He scowled at the ship. The invasion was necessary but he disliked it.
“We’re safe.” His female patted his right arm. “They’re cyborgs, friends. All the males have their own females. Those females are here to help with this.” She rubbed her rounded belly. “Not to damage us.”
He gazed down at his female. Her golden hair streamed over her shoulders. The sun had darkened the pigment on her face a
nd arms. Her eyes sparkled.
The last stages of offspring manufacturing had added more curves to her lush body.
She wore a shapeless garment similar to the one she’d worn on Deneb 9. The fabric was decorated with smiling planets and stars. That design was as impractical as the smiling vegetation.
But it made his female happy.
When she’d received the gift from Force’s female, she had laughed, then burst into tears, then laughed once more. He had hugged her, not knowing what else to do.
She had responded the same confusing way when he’d given her his boots to wear, her feet too swollen for her own footwear. Ghost dug his bare toes into the soil.
Manufacturing offspring had damaged his female’s emotional system.
He worried that the process would damage more critical systems. Those concerns about his female increased Ghost’s irritation over the impending cyborg invasion
Four warriors, along with their females, were arriving on the medic ship. They planned to assist his female.
They wouldn’t be needed.
“Help.” Ghost placed one of his palms on his female’s stomach.
He’d ensure she didn’t suffer additional damage.
“You believe you’ll help.” His female’s smile was gentle. “But you’ll try to protect me and—”
“Protect.” He frowned. He wouldn’t try to protect her. He would protect her.
Her lips twitched. “We’ve been over this. You know I can’t deliver naturally. Cyborg skulls have no yield to them. The females will have to open me up.”
The thought of anyone opening his female up made his processors overload.
“But I will have pain inhibitors and—”
“Protect,” he bellowed. She wouldn’t need any pain inhibitors because he wouldn’t allow anyone to damage her.
“Yes, yes, you’ll protect me. But you’ll do that from afar.” She said that as though he had agreed to it. He hadn’t. He wasn’t leaving her side. “This is a task for females. I—”
She winced. The muscles under Ghost’s palm violently contracted.
“Offspring.” Their offspring was damaging his female by moving.
Ghost crouched, pressed his ear against his female’s stomach.
Stay still, he transmitted to their offspring.
Their offspring grunted.
“Still.” He straightened. There shouldn’t be any more movement.
“Ghost.” His female placed her hands on his chest. “That wasn’t our offspring’s fault. I—”
“Stay.” He pushed his female behind him, widened his stance, held out his arms, blocking all access to her.
Rage was the first cyborg to approach them, the scarred C Model’s expression as grim and foreboding as Ghost’s. According to Ghost’s scans, Rage’s female followed him. She wasn’t visible but he smelled her. The warrior was as protective of his female as Ghost was of his.
The C Model stopped, positioned two arm’s lengths away from him. He gazed at Ghost, his face hard.
Ghost gazed back, not at all intimidated.
Silence stretched.
Ghost’s female pushed against his back.
He blew out his breath. “This.” He spread his arms, indicating their surroundings. “Thank you.”
When Ghost had requested that Mercury Minor be claimed as a cyborg planet, Rage had been one of the key supporters, rallying the other cyborgs to the cause.
Rage grunted, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “You gave me my world. I gave you this one.”
“World?” Ghost hadn’t met Rage before this planet rotation.
“My female is my world.” The C Model’s face flushed with pigment. “When you saved her, you saved me.”
“Sir?”
Ghost recognized that voice. It had been many solar cycles since he’d heard it but he was a cyborg. He would never forget it. “Ours.”
She’d been one of the females he’d been able to save.
“My female,” Rage corrected. “She’s a part of me. If you hadn’t—” His voice broke. The cyborg turned his head to the right.
Ghost grunted. The words weren’t necessary. He felt the same way about his own female.
“Sir?”
Rage stepped to the side. A brown-haired, stocky human female gazed up at Ghost. Tears filled her eyes. “C345925,” she whispered. “I still can’t believe it’s you.”
Ghost didn’t know what to say, her wonderment, her open admiration making him uncomfortable. She looked at him liked he was a hero and he wasn’t one. He had failed. Many times.
“It’s him.” His female volunteered from her position behind him. “Call him Ghost.” There was a pause. “He’s mine,” she added as though anyone would ever question that.
“Your male saved my lifespan, Lethe.” Rage’s female’s voice was watery.
“He does that.” His female sounded like she was suffering from emotional damage also.
“He could have been decommissioned for saving me yet he did it anyway.” A tear dripped down the cheek of Rage’s female. “If it wasn’t for him, I would have died. I would have never met Rage, wouldn’t have fallen in love, wouldn’t have two offspring. You saw their images.”
“They’re beautiful,” his female wailed.
The males were two standard C model cyborgs, unusual merely because they had no model numbers inked on their cheeks. Only his female saw beauty in them.
As she saw it in him.
“Mine.” He turned. The tears dripping off her jaw twisted his stomach. “Safe.” He pressed her face into his chest, holding her to him gingerly, conscious of her rounded belly.
Rage drew his female to his chest also. He met Ghost’s gaze over the females’ heads. The C Model appeared as bemused as Ghost felt.
He relaxed. The other cyborg safeguarded his female as closely as Ghost safeguarded his and he wasn’t concerned. Their females’ emotional settings must be within acceptable ranges for humans.
His female gripped his arm, pulling on his flight suit and then releasing the fabric.
“Ghost.” Her voice was high-pitched. “Can you show Rage what we’ve done with our domicile. I have to speak with Joan.”
“Mine.” He stepped back and studied his female. Her face was pale. Lines of strain etched her lips. “Damage?”
“No damage.” She summoned a smile.
“We can speak later.” Rage’s female’s tone was light. “We’re staying as long as you need us. Or until there’s another mock battle.” She laughed. “Rage rarely stays away from a fight.”
His female didn’t join in the mirth. “I need to speak with you now.” She turned to face the other female.
“Now.” Rage’s female’s eyes widened. “Oh. The offspring is—”
“In private,” his female yelled.
Was their offspring damaging her again? Ghost frowned. “I speak.” He’d tell her to stop.
“There’s no need to speak with our offspring.” His female stroked his arm. “If you want to speak with someone, contact the other cyborgs through your transmission lines. Joan and I are going to the medic ship. Safyre and the commander will be there. The males might wish to be elsewhere.”
“Go too.” He’d stay by her side.
“Please, Ghost.” She clasped his hands, looking up at him. Her eyes shone. “You know how I’ve been looking forward to speaking with the females.”
He did know and he couldn’t say ‘no’ to her, not when she was gazing at him that way, like he was her champion and she was depending on him to make her world right.
Ghost grunted, reluctantly agreeing with her plan.
“Thank you.” She smacked her lips against his, her kiss much too brief for his liking.
“Come on, mother-to-be.” Rage’s female wrapped her arm around his female’s shoulders and led her away from him. They chattered about his female’s oversized boots and the trip the cyborgs and their females had experienced, the two of them laughin
g and hugging each other.
He had to give them space, Ghost told himself. They would wish to speak about female things.
He watched them for one, two, three heartbeats.
No, he couldn’t do that. His female was too far from him. She might be in danger.
He surged forward.
And smacked against a body armor-covered chest.
“Move.” He glared at Rage.
“No.” The C Model grasped his shoulders. “You won’t help. I know. I’ve been through the offspring manufacturing process twice.” Pride tinged the male’s voice.
Those two previous processes hadn’t involved Ghost’s female. He pushed against the cyborg, dragging him across the terrain.
Then all his progress stopped. Ghost grunted. He couldn’t move Rage.
Because the other cyborgs had arrived.
“It took three warriors to pin Rage down the first time.” Crash, an E model, laughed. He leaned against Rage, adding his strength to the C model’s.
“Your turn is next.” Rage’s eyes blazed. “It will only take one warrior to pin you down—me.”
“It’ll take more than three warriors to pin Ghost down.” Ace, the K model who had freed him, declared. He also assisted Rage in blocking Ghost’s progress.
“Which is why we’re here.” Thrasher grinned, standing to the side.
“We’ve got this.” Rage, with Crash and Ace’s help, shoved Ghost backward.
Ghost lost his balance and fell on his ass. Before he could leap to his feet, the C model had jumped on his chest, pinning him across his body.
Ace and Thrasher sat on Rage’s back, using the cyborg like a chair.
Ghost struggled to free himself. He had to protect his female.
“There’s space for you to sit also.” Thrasher slid closer to Ace. Any other cyborg would feel uncomfortable with the touching. Ace smiled.
“Three is sufficient.” Crash stood to the side.
“Three isn’t sufficient.” Thrasher shook his head. “You saw what he did on that warship.” That footage had been shared with every cyborg. “It’ll take the four of us to hold him down.”
“He did disconnect his machine from his organic side,” Ace admitted. “That required strength.”