“What did we come for?” Paul demanded.
Aurek sent him a look. “More of the technology that brought us.” He hesitated. “They will have it also and that means they are a threat to the people of Earth. They will think the same of us—that we represent a threat to their world.”
“What do you mean by that?” Paul demanded when he turned and left. When he didn’t answer Paul turned to Roslyn. “What did he mean by that?”
Roslyn was afraid to guess out loud, but she had a bad feeling they weren’t going home. The term, burning their bridges came to mind, though.
If Aurek thought the aliens were a potential threat to Earth, he was probably right and, moreover, his superiors would think so and have the expectation that he would make the ultimate sacrifice to protect the homeland.
Try though she might, she couldn’t see a silver lining.
She hadn’t actually heard the other team command the robots to approach threateningly, but that didn’t mean anything. The robots could have AI and be acting independently and might not pay the science team any attention if they tried to call them down. Either way, she didn’t see that they could trust the opportunity of peaceful talks would ever happen.
She wasn’t inclined to make friends and she didn’t think Paul was.
They were humanoid. They actually looked very much like humans and it had flickered through her mind, at least briefly, to consider it a strong possibility that they were descendents of the remains she’d discovered.
They might be, but if they were they were a lot less trusting than their forefathers.
And they might be so similar to humans because the same aliens had visited both places and maybe tampered with their DNA a little more than just to leave a message in a bottle—something that would last at least as long as the species and potentially longer, preserved in the fossil record.
Well, they had been busy bastards, she thought angrily!
Paul had been right. They were all going to die here … because she knew Aurek was going to order their gateway sealed if he hadn’t already.
And there might not be a damned sole on Earth that cared if she was never seen again, but she cared, damn it! She wanted to live!
Paul was gone the following morning when they got up—not just vanished this time, but gone. He’d cleaned out his stuff and taken some of the food, too.
Actually, most of it.
Aurek was in a rage.
She couldn’t tell that by a lot of yelling and blustering and breaking things like furious alpha men were prone to doing, but she could tell in the stony, cold expression that settled over his features and the dead calm.
Somehow that was way scarier.
They took the drone out and began a search.
“Where do you think he went?” Roslyn asked anxiously, wondering if Aurek would answer or just give her one of those blank stares she found so unnerving.
“I think he will try to reach the gateway and return before I can disable it.”
Roslyn felt the blood leave her face—not because of Paul, but because Aurek had verified what she’d thought. “We can’t … Can’t we go, too?” she asked weakly.
“We cannot risk the lives of billions to save our asses,” Aurek responded.
But would they really be throwing their lives away to save everyone? If the aliens already had the technology of the gateway there was nothing to stop them from figuring out how to get to Earth at some point.
The powers on Earth must know it was a possibility. They must know they had to prepare for it, but she supposed they would be giving them the time to prepare.
“No. You’re right.” She hesitated. “But my ass is valuable, too.”
Aurek flicked a look at her, his lips curling faintly. “Your ass is valuable to me, also. I gave my word I would keep you safe. I will do all in my power to keep that vow.”
“Me also,” Dylan agreed.
“And I,” Tor said.
It warmed a lot of the chill from her bones. She couldn’t think of a response that seemed adequate. “I love you guys. You’re the best … uh … friends anybody could have.”
They didn’t look like they knew how to take that, so she retreated to nurse her fears and her inadequacies and tried not to think what the guys would do to Paul when they caught up to him.
She couldn’t help but think a lot of the anger arose from the fact that he’d managed to get off with much of the food supply. Aurek always left someone on watch all night.
They rotated and she had no idea who was supposed to watch the night before, but she had a hard time figuring out how Paul could have pulled it off.
It finally occurred to her, though, that it must have been something he’d planned the day before—at least from the time they encountered the alien group. All he would’ve had to do, really, was to sneak the MRE’s out of the supply container and into his own equipment cases.
For that matter, he could have been sneaking food off and on from the start—squirreling it away to save his ass in case it came to that.
The guys had been watching it, but how closely had they monitored? Enough to miss even one?
They broke off the search after a little over an hour.
When they discovered that the alien group had chosen a base camp a lot closer to theirs than they were comfortable with.
Stowing the drone, they packed everything up and headed out.
Aurek led them out of the city—not the way they’d entered—but apparently he circled around because they reached their previous campsite near the small waterfall and pool just before dusk.
Roslyn instantly felt her spirits lift at the possibility of a bath.
She discovered Aurek had chosen it for its strategic advantage, though. It was on a rise that overlooked the city and also the valley they’d crossed to get to it.
He sent Dylan and Tor to set up perimeter alarms and to make certain they hadn’t been followed. He took the drone out for a high altitude assessment.
He brought it in, however, as soon as he saw her trying to sneak past him to the pool and followed her, stripping down as soon as he reached it and diving in.
Roslyn was a little outdone, but she was far less uncomfortable being around his nakedness and being naked around him than she had been in the beginning.
Deciding to just ignore it/him, she pulled her clothing off and left it near the edge to soak while she bathed.
Aurek emerged almost on top of her—beneath, surging up so close he nearly skimmed her body with his own.
She didn’t have time to consider his intention.
He clamped a hand around the back of her head and dragged her against his length, swooping down in the same instant to capture her mouth beneath his.
There was nothing subtle or tentative about it. He didn’t merely mold his lips to hers or pluck at them gently. He thrust his tongue past the barrier of her lips with the certainty of absolute acceptance and immediate surrender, making a sweeping raid of the sensitive crevice that left little unknown and touching off wild, almost electric jolts, in Roslyn in the process. Her brain instantly short-circuited, froze up and refused to compute—anything. Her nerve endings were doing all the talking—sizzling, jolting, heating her up towards critical mass and meltdown.
She had no idea when or how she ended up on the bank on her back with Aurek sprawled over her, but he had her legs over his shoulders and his cock plugged into the mouth of her coochie before she could draw a sustaining breath.
She became dimly aware that they’d drawn an audience at some point in the process of Aurek trying to pry her down over his cock—first by lifting her and bouncing her a few times and then by planting her on the ground and gripping her tightly to brace her for the shaft he was becoming noticeably desperate to share with her.
She had no idea why he was having difficulty. She’d flooded her gates with enough natural lubricant to float a battleship the minute he’d stuck his tongue in her mouth.
She reached
down between them to give him a helping hand and discovered, when she tried to wrap her hand around it—the problem.
She’d just concluded that it might be mission impossible due to the difference between the missile and the target, when the lubricant finally kicked in and he broke deadlock.
And when he started the slide, he didn’t stop until he hit china and nearly shoved her womb into her throat.
Thankfully, the pain gave way to absolute ecstasy as soon as he started pumping and plowing the field. She hadn’t realized how dead ready she was until that moment, but then he’d been teasing her with the possibility forever … days anyway.
In a few minutes she began to wonder if she actually had cum, because she felt like she was about to or going to again. She ran up that hill as sprightly as a teen, hit the peak and sang his praises.
He plugged her mouth with his tongue, cutting off her song, but it felt so damned good, she thought she hit another high.
Sadly, he hit his just then and the ride was over.
Briefly.
When he’d caught his breath and gathered enough energy to perform, he rolled off of her and Dylan leapt into the saddle.
She felt momentarily stunned and disconcerted, but he wasted no time locking lips with hers and mock mating with his tongue until she was sizzling again.
Which was just as well, because he didn’t waste a lot time before plugging in either.
It crossed her mind to wonder if this was ‘we’re all going to die so let’s eat, fuck, and be merry while we can’, but it was there an gone.
Like Dylan.
Good thing she was ready for him because she managed to cum before he finished.
She didn’t bother to close her legs when he rolled off—She didn’t think she could get them together, but it was just as well because Tor was ready, too.
Well my god! They couldn’t spread it out a little, she thought while she could think?
Not that it wasn’t glorious, but ….
Tor took the time to explore her—until Aurek told him to get done and get off.
It was ok, though, because he’d already built a nice warm fire and she thoroughly enjoyed the ride.
Or being ridden, depending, she supposed, on one’s viewpoint.
She drew the line, though, when she discovered the reason Aurek was impatient was because he was ready for round two.
“Nope! That’s enough …. For now.”
He looked downright outdone. Aside from that, though, he took it in good part.
Dylan and Tor looked very well satisfied if she did say so herself.
She studied Aurek as she bathed off again, worrying over that thought that had crossed her mind that she’d dismissed. “Does this … Did that … Was this because we’re all going to die?” she asked finally.
Aurek stared at her blankly, clearly unable to make the connection. “No.”
“Oh, well that’s a relief.” She thought it over. “Why did we, then?”
The look he gave her was indecipherable.
She did anyway. “Not that I’m complaining …. I just wondered.”
“To protect you from the others,” he said after long moment.
Rosyln gaped at him, trying to wrap her mind around what he’d said when she couldn’t get past ‘protect’. “I’m lost,” she said finally. “Others?”
He looked reluctant to respond. “The other cyborgs. They wanted to claim you. I told them we had already taken you into our mating pod. But they were not convinced because they knew we had not consummated. We have done so now and they cannot claim a mate that has been taken.”
Chapter Nine
Roslyn discovered she just couldn’t follow that conversation. It was as if Aurek was speaking a foreign language. In point of fact, she thought for several moments that he was. There were a few words that actually stood out, though, as being vaguely comprehendible.
“Cyborgs?”
“Yes.”
She blinked at him. “You mean the robots with the aliens? Or were the aliens cyborgs?”
“The cyborgs—not the aliens.”
She stared at him, thinking. “The robots were cyborgs? Like in the movies, you mean? Because we don’t have those—I know they’re on the wish list, but we don’t have them and anyway, they’re supposed to be … like enhanced humans. Not robots.”
He flicked a glance at Dylan and Tor, but he didn’t say anything.
“What’s a mating pod?”
“We.”
She started blinking, trying to jumpstart her brain. “We?”
“You and us.”
That jolted her. “Oh! You mean like friends with benefits?”
The guys exchanged another speaking look that made her feel like they actually were talking to each other and she just couldn’t hear it.
Which, of course, was weird and paranoid.
“What did you mean ‘other’ cyborgs?”
That time, Dylan and Tor glanced at one another, picked up their clothes and left.
Roslyn had a bad feeling about that.
Aurek got up and started dressing.
Rosyln would have, but she’d already soaked her clothes so she could wash them. “Aurek?”
He frowned, but he finally met her gaze.
She knew then—without him saying a word. She knew.
It explained everything really.
All the way down to and including the kissing and the sex. He hadn’t before because he had no idea how.
Because he hadn’t done it before.
The tentative kisses had been learning.
The sex?
She had to suppose he’d somehow acquired the knowledge … or maybe instincts had taken over?
At that he was better off, more advanced, than poor Dylan and Tor. They could barely carry on a conversation.
They didn’t seem to have a problem fucking, but there again—instincts.
Or maybe they really did share information with one another?
Of course, ‘we’ didn’t have that technology, but the aliens had given them blueprints to build a gateway to the stars. Building cyborgs would be nothing to them.
She felt like crying.
No wonder she’d never felt any sort of attachment from them. She’d had to convince herself that they at least liked her or they wouldn’t work so hard to protect her.
But they didn’t.
Couldn’t.
She didn’t know who she most felt like weeping for—herself or them.
It was a while before feeling bad gave way to feeling scared—and unfortunately that coincided with bedtime.
She was stuck on an alien world with cyborgs—and aliens with more cyborgs.
Where the hell was Paul? The bastard had abandoned her and run off!
Not that he could’ve so much as slowed them down, but still ….
She had a few moments when Aurek followed her into the tent and settled beside her, but she reminded herself that he was her safe haven, over and over, until he dragged her close. She stiffened, at first, but it was hard to maintain that when he still felt and smelled like Aurek—the man she’d fallen in love with—who was part machine and part human—or alien or maybe all three?
They managed to find Paul the next day with the drone, but it was way too late to be helpful to anyone—especially poor Paul.
He was still in the city—at least the parts they spotted and managed to identify.
Roslyn didn’t even have hysterics that time and it wasn’t because she cared less about Paul. She’d discovered that worrying about her own ass made it easier to put everyone else’s deaths into perspective.
She still felt bad, but she couldn’t afford to focus on grieving when she wanted to stay alive. She had to focus on her needs.
There was no sign of the containers Paul had had with him and thus none of the food they’d hoped to recover.
They’d skipped supper the night before and ate breakfast and had to decide whether to skip the noon meal or
the evening meal.
“I don’t suppose you guys could hunt?” Roslyn suggested tentatively, wondering if they had that skill programmed in.
Because if they didn’t they were all up shit creek without a paddle because she sure as hell couldn’t hunt and they all needed food—the cyborgs used it for energy just like she did.
“We cannot use the ammunition for hunting when we have no idea when we will need to fight our way out of a situation.”
That made Roslyn’s belly cramp. “Maybe we should just get as far away as we can, then, since we can’t go home?”
Aurek studied her thoughtfully.
Finally, apparently having come to a decision, he rounded everyone up and headed out—straight back into the city.
She didn’t know what the plan was, but she thought running was a better option than a gunfight.
She began to think they would do both.
They hadn’t returned to the ruins long when one of the alien cyborgs was spotted by Dylan. They immediately headed in the opposite direction and then turned, twice, until they were headed, once more in the same direction.
They spotted the troop of cyborgs twice more—minus their science team—and Aurek had them perform the same maneuver until Roslyn was so turned around she had no idea where they were in relation to anything. Toward dusk, they marched in a straight line directly through the ruins and stopped to camp for the night.
Aurek produced four large fruits for breakfast the following morning.
She wondered how and where he’d gotten them and if it was safe to eat. “It won’t do horrible things to me, will it?” she asked, only half joking.
A gleam entered his eyes that she realized was amusement or appreciation. “No.”
Wondering if he’d run back to the garden or sent the drone for a pickup, she sniffed the fruit and found it smelled appealing. She took a tiny, cautious bite and discovered it was a lot more tart that sweet. Shuddering, she screwed her face up and quickly swallowed.
Aurek laughed.
It was the first time she’d heard that sound from—well from anyone in a long, long time—and it sent a special thrill through her in spite of the fact that she immediately suspected the fruit was a joke.
She saw he was eating it, though, and also Dylan and Tor. “I don’t know about your taste buds, but mine are telling me yuck.”
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