Cyborg Seduction (Interstellar Brides: The Colony Book 3)

by Grace Goodwin

  “It’s too late, Mom. I’m here and he’s all the way across the universe. All that matters is that Wyatt is going to be okay now.” I smiled brilliantly knowing he was all better. She turned her head to watch Wyatt as he slept.

  “Yes, that is truly a miracle.”

  She sighed and I really looked at her for the first time since my return. Lines had deepened around her eyes. Her skin was pale. “You’re exhausted, Mom. Go to sleep.”

  It was a testament to her fatigue when she didn’t argue, just went to the second bed and pulled back the covers. She kicked off her shoes and climbed in, clothes and all. When her head was settled on the pillow, she looked at me. “When do you want to leave?”

  I glanced at the twenty-year-old alarm clock that rested on the bedside table between the two queen sized beds. “Four hours at most.”

  She nodded and closed her eyes.

  I checked the deadbolt and settled onto the bed behind Wyatt. Pulling him into my arms, I buried my nose in his sweet-smelling hair and breathed in little boy and sunshine. Nothing had ever smelled so good.

  I was just drifting to sleep when the door burst open, slamming against the stained yellow paper that covered the wall.

  All three of us jolted and came awake. My mother cried out and I tugged Wyatt into my arms and tucked him beneath me. I heard his whimpering, but he didn’t move.

  I looked up into the one face I didn’t want to see, Roger, the Senator’s henchman. The man who made the deals, offered the money and threatened my son all in one smooth breath. Three days ago I’d been ready to do anything. I’d done it, healed Wyatt in a way I never imagined.

  “Roger.”

  “Ms. Walters. I believe you owe us an explanation.”

  Behind him, the doctor from the processing center stalked into the room and made a beeline for the ReGen wand lying on the table where my mother and I had left it out. “And I’ll be taking this,” she said.

  “No. You can’t.”

  It was for Warden Egara. We’d made a deal. Wyatt would be healed and she’d get the wand back. I couldn’t go back on that, but Roger pulled a gun from some magical place that bad guys always seemed to have weapons hidden and I knew I would have to break my promise.

  “We can.” He waved the gun between me and my mother, who was sitting up and staring at him wide eyed. Scared. Her eyes kept darting to Wyatt.

  “Let my mother and Wyatt go. They have nothing to do with this.”

  Roger just arched one sinister brow and said, “Get your bags, ladies. You’re all coming with us.”

  I tensed to move, to rise from the bed and try to protect Wyatt, but as I gathered myself a miracle happened…my mark flared with welcome heat and I started to cry.

  Wyatt looked from Roger to me, his eyes round and scared. “Don’t cry, Mommy.”

  I smiled at him. “Don’t worry. Everything’s all right.” I turned my head to Roger and saw the confusion in his eyes as my entire demeanor changed and I stood tall and proud before him, absolutely fearless. “If I were you, I’d put the gun down.”

  “And why is that?” Roger asked.

  My grin was genuine, the heat in my palm flaring again. “So my mate doesn’t kill you.”

  Chapter Nine

  Kiel

  “These Earth vehicles are pathetic. I can run faster than this.”

  Warden Egara ignored me, her eyes on the road, her grip steady on the vehicle’s odd driving wheel. “Yes, but for how long?”

  She swerved violently around a large vehicle pulling giant boxes on wheels and I grasped the small handle above the window so I would not tumble into her lap. “Several miles.”

  “Umm, hmm.” She straightened out and dashed back into the lane in front of the much larger vehicle. “She could be ten miles away, or a hundred. You wouldn’t last that long.”

  Perhaps not, which was why I’d agreed to fold my body into this cramped seat in this small contraption she called a car. I smelled blood, old blood, but the scent was familiar. “There is blood in this vehicle, but it does not belong to my mate.”

  She shook her head. “Which way?”

  I closed my eyes for a moment and pointed to the bend in the road that took us to the left. She went where I pointed and I drew the scent of the blood deeper into my senses.

  “The blood is familiar.” My Hunter senses refused to let the matter pass.

  “That was months ago, and I cleaned it with bleach twice.”

  “I recommend you clean it again if you wish to erase all traces. The scent remains.”

  The warden grinned. “You really are a Hunter, aren’t you?”

  “Of course.” We passed a small side road and I pointed again. “Turn. Now.”

  She slammed on the brakes and I braced my arms on the small dash as two of the wheels left the ground and the other two squealed. When the car landed safely, she finally answered my question.

  “That blood belongs to Jessica. She was injured by a Hive Scout team right before Nial found her.”

  “The Prime’s mate?”

  “Yes.”

  “The Hive Scout team was here? On Earth?”

  “Yes.”

  “Drive faster. We are close.” I could feel Lindsey now, practically taste her skin, hear her heart beating. The link between us flared back to life and my palm ignited with welcome heat, a raging inferno of pulsing fire that made my entire body sing with need. My mate was close, and upset. Afraid. As I drew nearer, my instincts reached for her, for the mental connection that came in dream sharing.

  I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew she was afraid.

  Warden Egara came to a stop at a four direction intersection and looked at me. “Which way?”

  Lindsey was so close now that her presence drowned out everything but the need to get to her.

  I opened the car door and hit the ground running, my speed making me a blur. There was a building ahead with a row of closed doors. Cars were parked in front of each door and I knew my mate was here, somewhere.

  I stopped in the center of the parking area and closed my eyes, listening for her heartbeat, her voice.

  “Don’t cry, Mommy.” My heart skipped a beat as I heard the voice of my son for the first time.

  “Don’t worry. Everything’s all right.” Lindsey, my brave mate. She was scared, I could hear the wobble in her voice, but she was trying to reassure him.

  Her next words chilled me to the bone.

  “If I were you, I’d put the gun down.”

  “And why is that?” The man’s voice was deep and calm. Arrogant.

  He would die.

  “So my mate doesn’t kill you.”

  Lindsey tried to save him, but it was too late. He’d threatened my mate and my son. I had no idea what this place was, but it was not her home. That I knew for certain as others rustled and moved in the spaces behind the adjoining doors.

  Silent as a shadow I moved to the door and listened.

  Five heartbeats. Five different breathing patterns. The boy’s racing pulse was almost birdlike. I could distinguish the sound of four smaller bodies, smell the sweet scents of three females, one of them my mate.

  But the other? Metal and male aggression. Battle had a scent, and this man was drenched in the desire to hurt, intimidate, perhaps even kill.

  I waited, listening as he ordered them to gather their belongings and go to the door.

  A woman I did not recognize came out of the room first. She was young, similar in age to my Lindsey, her hair was a dark, vibrant red, her clothing similar to what Warden Egara wore, but green.

  The doctor who’d betrayed the program. This must be her. She’d been the one to implant Lindsey with the NPU and sneak her into the transport room.

  I remained silent and still, waiting in the dark space where light from the closest two lamps failed to reach.

  An older woman exited next, and from her looks and the way she moved I knew this was Lindsey’s mother.

  My mate appear
ed in the doorway, the coward behind her had moved in front of the glass window.

  The moment she passed through the threshold with Wyatt and I knew a stray shot from the man’s weapon wouldn’t strike her, I leapt.

  Glass shattered in an explosion as I lifted my armored elbows up to protect my face and propelled myself through the barrier to leap on the man who’d dared threaten my mate.

  His neck cracked in my hands half a second later, the sound one I wished to hear a thousand times over. He slumped to the ground, the weapon he’d used to threaten the woman I loved dropped to the floor with a soft thud. Broken shards of glass slipped from my armor like water from stone and fell to the floor with hundreds of small tinkling sounds I doubted anyone but I could hear.

  I tossed the dead man’s body aside like trash, forgotten as I turned to my mate.

  “Lindsey. Are you unhurt?”

  She stood still, shocked for a heartbeat of time that was an agony for me. I needed her, needed to touch her, kiss her, feel her alive and well in my arms.

  When I was about to go mad, the spell broke and she cried out, leaping at me, trusting me to catch her.

  Her arms were around me, her lips on mine, crushing me with a desperation I felt keenly.

  “Kiel!” She tore her lips from mine and I settled her on her feet, my arms around her waist, unwilling to let her go.

  “Did he hurt you?”

  She shook her head and the tight coil within me began to unwind.

  A small hand tugged on my arm and I looked down into a pair of wide blue eyes the same shape as his mother’s. “Hey. Who are you?”

  Holding onto Lindsey with one hand, I bent down and lifted Wyatt up with the other, holding them both to me as I looked into the eyes of my son and told him the truth. “I am your father now, Wyatt. I love your mommy and I’m going to take care of both of you from now on.”

  The boy looked at me, then his mother who was crying and clinging to me like I was her world, her everything, as I would be.

  “Mommy?”

  “What baby?”

  “Is he my new daddy?”

  Lindsey’s smile was so full of love when she looked at her son I felt tears gather in my eyes. By the gods, what I wouldn’t give to see her look at me like that, with complete and total unconditional love. “Yes. Is that okay?”

  The small man looked at me, raised his hands to my face and turned my head from side to side, exploring, watching, testing me. I noticed the mark of an Everian on his palm, knew he would one day grow strong, perhaps become a Hunter. He looked deeply into my eyes and I saw a soul much older than his young body, knew he had suffered just as his mother had.

  I vowed he would suffer no more.

  I waited. This moment, how he would react to me, feel about me, was Wyatt’s choice. But he would come with me no matter what. He was part of Lindsey and I loved him already, his courage, his obvious love for his mother. But I would not force this. I would give him all the time he needed to trust me.

  Wyatt looked into my eyes. “Will you teach me how to protect mommy so no more bad guys will come?”

  His question made my blood boil, and Lindsey gasp, but I gave him my most solemn vow. “Yes, Wyatt. I will teach you how to be a warrior and protect the people you love.”

  Wyatt nodded slowly, deliberately before laying his sweet head on my shoulder to look at his mother. “Okay. I want to call you Daddy.”

  Lindsey’s shoulders shook and I looked up to see Lindsey’s mother watching from the doorway. Tears streaked down her face and I nodded to her in respect and gratitude for giving my mate to me. “Mother.”

  “Welcome to the family, Kiel.” She wiped at her cheeks and lifted her eyes to me. “I hope you know, wherever you take my daughter, I’ll be going, too.”

  I recognized that determined glint in her eye, it was a look I’d seen more than once on Lindsey’s face. “Of course.”

  “All right then.” She turned to the parking lot as we both heard a woman’s yell. Carrying my mate and son to the doorway so I could see, I found Warden Egara in the parking lot with a weapon pointed at the other female who’d exited the room. She had the gun pressed to the woman’s side and was taking the ReGen wand from her outstretched hand.

  “I’ll take that, Doctor Graves.”

  “I’m sorry, Katherine.” The red haired woman’s shoulders slumped in defeat as the warden waved her toward the car, fury evident in her gaze.

  “Save it for your lawyer.”

  * * *

  Kiel, Personal Quarters, The Colony

  It was only when I had Lindsey in my quarters, the almost silent whoosh of the door closing behind us that I breathed again. Every tense line of my body eased. My mark was warm and alive once more. My heart didn’t ache.

  “Kiel,” she said. Just my name, nothing more, but I heard the worry in her tone.

  Fuck. I didn’t want her to worry ever again.

  I’d held her hand ever since we left that hovel of doors where I’d found her. I didn’t plan to stop touching her anytime soon. I’d held Wyatt securely in one arm, my other slung around Lindsey’s shoulders as we transported. Lindsey’s mom, Carla, held her daughter’s hand, surprisingly calm since she had never transported before and was leaving her planet behind for good. Both of them had been fitted with new NPU’s, courtesy of Warden Egara, who’d given us both a tight hug and told us to get the hell off the planet before anything else went wrong.

  But now we were home, I tugged Lindsey into me, wrapping my arms about her and just reveling in her being her. With me.

  “Are you sure they’re okay?” she asked, her words muffled by my shirt.

  I was eager to be with Wyatt, too. To learn about him, see his smiles, watch as his eyes widened at discovering the world—no, the universe—around him. But we had the rest of our lives for that. Tomorrow would be soon enough. Tonight, tonight I had to claim my marked mate, make her mine. I couldn’t wait any longer, and while she didn’t understand it as I did, neither could she.

  She hadn’t grown up with the knowledge of what this claiming meant. Being so far apart had been agony, but having her so close, yet unclaimed, was another kind of torture. My body ached for hers, as I was sure hers did for mine. Only when we were truly claimed would our bodies, our minds, our hearts, finally be soothed.

  I wanted to claim Lindsey, my mate, but I had to soothe Lindsey, the mother, first.

  “You saw Rachel, she is beside herself with having a little boy here. Your mother is with Wyatt so he has a familiar face, but he is eager to see where you traveled. Rachel and her mates will give them a tour. I have no doubt that he will run around as any little boy should and be ready to sleep soon. I am not familiar with the impact of transport on one so small, but Rachel will monitor him closely.”

  I saw her glance toward the door. I recognized her worried look.

  I tapped the comm unit on my wrist. “Governor Rone.”

  “Kiel. I expected to have no communication from you this evening now that your mate is with you again.”

  Yes, talking to Maxim was not my top priority. But I could not fuck Lindsey as I wished, to claim her as we both needed, if her mind was elsewhere. I wanted her focused solely on me sinking into her so deep we didn’t know where one ended and the other began.

  “How is Wyatt?” I asked, not responding to his comment.

  Neither of us could miss the sound of a little boy squealing in delight. “Again!” the small voice said.

  “Tyran is carrying him through the air as if he were a Prillon battle cruiser.”

  Yes, the boy was just fine and I felt Lindsey relax within my hold.

  “Do not concern yourself with our newest members of Base 3. Both are content. Rachel has arranged their guest quarters for tonight.”

  “Is that a phone? Is Lindsey there?” Lindsey’s mom’s voice interrupted the governor and I couldn’t help but smile at that breach in protocol. When I heard the stoic man laugh, I was relieved to know he was e
njoying himself as well.

  “I’m here, Mom,” Lindsey said. She’d learned in her few days here how the comm units worked. Her mother and Wyatt adapting even more quickly as Doctor Sornen made sure to keep them comfortable during the inevitable headache. Now Wyatt loved to run around and chat with every warrior on base. Even more astonishing, the more Hive technology they displayed, the more he wanted to investigate and talk to them.

  Never in a thousand years would I expect Hive contaminated warriors to show-off their implants. But the man with the most silver always won Wyatt’s undivided attention, as I was more than ready to give mine to the beautiful woman in my arms.

  “Honey, you enjoy your time with Kiel. Wyatt and I are just fine. We’ll see you tomorrow. Or the day after.”

  “Again!” Wyatt shouted in the background.

  “Satisfied?” I whispered.

  Lindsey looked up at me and nodded. “Tomorrow,” I said, then broke the connection.

  “I know you will want to see Wyatt in the morning. We will move to a different space so there is a bedroom for Wyatt beside ours. As for your mother, I am sure she will be content with her own space nearby.”

  I liked Lindsey’s mother, based on the brief time I’d known her, and she was brave and kind. It was obvious where my mate got her fair hair and beautiful eyes. While she was older than most warriors on The Colony, there were some here of comparable age and I imagined one would capture her heart soon enough.

  “You see, they are well occupied.” I kissed the top of Lindsey’s head, her silky hair soft against my lips. “As for you, I have plans to keep you well occupied as well.”

  She tilted her head back to look up at me, her blue eyes filled with love—and heat. “You do?”

  “Mmm, my brave mate. It seems we have both traveled across the universe for each other.”

  “I’d do it again, too.”

  My heart softened at those words. Yes, I was a hardened warrior, a Hunter, yet I would bend and yield to only her. “As would I.” I gave her a fierce squeeze, then pushed her away. “Yet we will have no reason to do so. It was as if my arm had been ripped off.”