She rolled her eyes, but she was grinning. “They are so not going to be happy about this.”
I didn’t care. I’d needed to break something, and she gave me the opportunity I needed to smash and destroy without getting in trouble with the governor.
Again.
“Look, I’ve been trying to mind my own business,” she said in a rush.
“You have?”
“Yes, I have. But, seriously, what’s the real reason for all this?” She waved her finger back and forth, pointing to the fifteen-foot-long pile of rubble. There was no judgment or expectation in her gaze, just pure curiosity. She was a woman. FBI. She was still a soldier, the armor she wore and weapon on her hip proof of that. If anyone would understand, it would be her. Not Rachel, the freakishly brilliant scientist, or Lindsey, the writer. There was one other woman from Earth I’d heard about and she didn’t live on the Colony. A former instructor at the Coalition Academy had mated to an Atlan from the Colony, but they were now out in space working on some top-secret spy crap together. Out. In. Space. Not stuck, trapped on the exile planet.
And here I was, former-military, four-year member of a Coalition ReCon team, a demolitions expert, ungodly strong, Hive-enhanced, cyborg freak. I’d survived hell and came out the other side stronger. Faster.
Alone.
And the governor refused to let me leave the planet. Go on missions. Do anything fun. I felt like the Incredible Hulk with nothing to smash.
And these males trying to claim me? They didn’t know me. I’d never even held a conversation with most of them. I hadn’t been matched to them through the Interstellar Brides matching protocols. I was female. Available. Breedable.
Maybe. After what the Hive did to me, I didn’t even know if I could still have children, let alone want to raise them here. And I hadn’t bothered to ask the doctors at the med unit because getting a gyno exam in space after everything else I’d been through did not sound appealing.
Kristin continued to stare at me, waiting for an answer I was too proud to give her.
“I’m fine. Can’t a friend do something nice for you?” I asked.
She gave me a look that screamed, Girl, please. “Nice would be making all the mess disappear before my men get back,” she countered. “What gives, Gwen?”
“You know the answer,” I grumbled, reaching for the sledgehammer’s handle and leaning on the sturdy length.
Her eyebrows went up and waited.
“The men… they’re weird around me. Annoying. Frustrating. And I can’t go on any missions. The governor has grounded me until I’m mated. Which is ridiculous and a total double standard. I’m a prisoner. I can’t fight. I can’t fly. I can’t go home. I’m losing my mind on this planet.”
She remained quiet, letting me vent, even though I was dissing her new home, the place she’d been matched to through the Interstellar Brides Program. She’d chosen to come here, to stay here permanently. It was her life and she seemed happy. But I didn’t belong here and the fact that the governor wouldn’t allow me to go on missions, to at least get ‘out there’ was making me lose my mind. All the male attention didn’t help, it just made me feel like more of a freak. I could have all the male company I wanted, and yet I was lonelier than I’d ever been in my life. The irony wasn’t lost on me.
Kristin bit her lip and winced at my words. “Shit. I need to tell you something. Please don’t get mad. I was hoping it was a joke that would just blow over, but—"
“What?” I asked. I’d known her for a short time, but could read her easily, and I did not like the downcast eyes and pale face she was keeping averted.
“You’re so not going to like this.”
“What? Just spit it out.” Dread coiled to settle in my gut like the dust around me.
“Captain Marz, the Prillon?”
“Yes.” I knew him well enough. I’d had to turn him away from my door multiple times the last few weeks. He was all right. He tried. Brought me flowers, for heaven’s sake—I suspected Rachel or Kristin had suggested that one. But there was no spark there. I looked at him and felt… nothing. “What about him?”
“He issued a tournament challenge. They’re in the fighting pit right now deciding who gets to claim you.”
Deciding who gets to claim you.
“Is this a joke? Because it’s not funny.”
She put her hand over her face as if afraid to look at me. Shook her head. “No. Eight warriors. Whoever wins gets to claim you. All of them have agreed to the terms. The rest of the warriors started a betting pool. The whole base had to either enter the challenge or agree to leave you alone. Tane, the Atlan, is getting two-to-one odds. He’s the favorite to win.”
“WHAT?” I roared. I picked up the sledgehammer and hit the last dangling bit of stone wall with more force than necessary. It not only broke free but flew into the other room and landed on Kristin’s dining table, denting the metal surface. “The governor agreed to this?” I was going to kill that Prillon. I’d have to beg Rachel’s forgiveness after I ended him, but this was too much.
“I don’t think so—”
Good. I wouldn’t have to kill him.
“—and Rachel and I just heard about it. She’s on her way. She had to send someone to get Maxim. He’s down in one of the mines and the comms are out. I went to your quarters first. When you weren’t there, I came here.”
“I can’t believe this. It’s barbaric.” And hurtful. And wrong. How dare they presume to decide whom I would belong to? Whom I had to have sex with? And without even asking me? What was this? The 1500s?
The flowers didn’t work, so Captain Marz decided to just challenge the whole rest of the base to a tournament with me as the prize? And who were the other idiots who’d agreed?
The whole base, apparently.
What if I decided I wanted someone else? A man from Earth? A Hunter, like Kiel. But a Prillon? No. The whole mind-meld, collar thing freaked me out. And two mates? Or three, as I’d heard the Vikens had started doing? Um, no. One man was enough for me. Especially if he was big and fierce and looked like Makarios.
Oh, shit. This was not happening. No. Fucking. Way. “They’re fighting in the pits? Right now? This very second?”
“Come on. It’s pretty hot, right, the strongest, sexiest men fighting over you?” Her hand moved up toward her neck and her fingertips stroked the green collar there—the outward indication she was matched to a Prillon—with a lustful look in her eyes. Her mates were incredible. I could not disagree. But they’d been matched. Chosen.
They hadn’t forced themselves on her after beating up the other boys at the playground.
“No, it’s not. I’m not a prize to be won. I am not property. No fucking way,” I snarled. My poor mother would’ve been appalled at my language. But I was beyond caring. Somewhere between the little girl who used to play with dolls and bake cupcakes to make my daddy happy and now, I’d had the urge to please others disappear from my being. Maybe it was the cyborg parts. Maybe it was years of fighting a hard war, watching people die, caring too much. Somewhere in there, I’d lost the ability to put up with bullshit. And this was way above my tolerance level.
Kristin lifted her chin. “Then go do something about it.” She looked around her living room, which I had definitely destroyed. “Go beat up some alien hotties before the ceiling falls on top of us. I’m begging you.”
Wiping my hands together, I smiled. I was strong. Stronger than the men who were making me their prize. “Good idea.”
I stomped past her, my stride long as I worked my way down the corridor and then outside. Distantly, I heard her on her comms unit as we went. “Rachel, get to the pits. Gwen needs another wingman.” She followed me, which was fine. Since neither one of her mates was interested in me, they wouldn’t be in the pits to suffer my wrath.
Wingman? It was a nice gesture, but it wasn’t as if either Kristin or Rachel could back me up. No one could back me up. I was indestructible now that I’d spent some tim
e with the Hive. Stronger than any almost any male on the planet. Faster than even the Everian Hunter, Kiel. They might think they were going to win me, but they were wrong. So fucking wrong. And if I had to smash some heads to prove it, I would. Once and for all.
Ten minutes later, I wasn’t feeling any better. In fact, if I had the sledgehammer, I’d have smashed the stands surrounding the pit to rubble. “Why won’t any of you fight me?” I shouted.
I was breathing hard, not because I was tired from tossing the males around the pit, but because I was pissed. So filled with fury I could barely see straight. My blood pressure was up, my heated lifeforce pumping through my body like the bass beat at a rave. But the cyborg part of me didn’t feel a thing. My sight was perfect. My body buzzing with energy. It was my mind that was in turmoil, my heart that was breaking.
And I hadn’t thought there were any pieces left big enough to break. I’d been wrong.
“We don’t want to hurt you,” one brave male said.
“We won’t fight a female.” That was Tane. The Atlan. Friend of Makarios. He seemed decent enough, but nothing was going to make up for the fact that I simply did not want him. I didn’t want any of these overeager alpha males. The fact that they thought I was a prize to be won automatically eliminated them in my eyes.
If they’d been paying attention to a damn word I’d said the last few weeks, they would have known that.
But then, this wasn’t about me. This was about them. Who’s the biggest? The strongest? Who had muscles on muscles and the audacity to tell me who I had to give my body to?
I looked to Tane, narrowed my eyes. “Oh, you’ll fight over me like a bunch of little boys with a new toy? You’ll fuck me, mate me, but you won’t fight me?” I’d die before I’d let one of them touch me now, and I was pretty sure that opinion was blazing from my eyes when I spoke to the Atlan. He shrunk away from me, as if I’d hurt him, then nodded, bowing at the waist.
Too late for that, big jerk.
“You are a very desirable female. We honor you with this battle for the right to court you.”
It was unbelievable how different the customs were on the other planets. This wasn’t Earth. I tried to use that knowledge to cool my rage. He thought they were being courteous, chivalrous. Respectful.
“I don’t get any say then? No say in whether or not I can fight? Or whom I get to fuck? Or whom I mate? No choice at all? Because the winner of this”—I motioned with my finger pointed around the circle of four that remained standing—“is how you all treat your females? No choice. No desire. Not even dinner and a conversation? Straight to ownership of her body, and she doesn’t have any say in the matter?” My voice was quiet, cold. I let the cyborg parts keep me calm and hoped I sounded more like a machine than the heart-broken romantic that was slowly bleeding to death inside. Now I wasn’t just a freak who could never go home to Earth. Now I was just a piece of meat to be fought over.
“My lady—”
I spun about, looked to the male who’d called me that. “Don’t call me—”
“Enough!” The governor’s voice cut me off. Governor Maxim Rone walked with the air of a man used to being obeyed. Rachel was walking with him, nearly jogging to keep up with her mate’s angry stride as he moved from the edge of the arena to the center. He was dressed in the loose clothing of someone who spent more time in meetings than in the field, the copper collar around his neck an exact match to the one Rachel wore. The connection between them all the more irritating to me at the moment. Maxim might sit at a desk, but he was still a Prillon warrior with years of battle experience. He was a force to be reckoned with, well-respected and elected to his post as the ruler of Base 3. The other males deferred to his judgment.
But I was not a male. And I did not belong on this planet.
I glared at Rachel.
“I only needed ten more minutes to finish them off.”
She smiled, offered me a sheepish shrug. “I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
I rolled my eyes at that remote possibility but stayed quiet.
“The males showed you great respect in refusing to fight you.” Unfortunately, Maxim’s voice carried well because the other males seated around the arena stomped and clapped in agreement at his words. The governor crossed his arms and stared down at me. He was big, almost seven feet tall, his copper colored skin, dark hair and dark brown eyes reminded me of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Of course, I would never tell him that. Or Rachel. And he wasn’t exactly being candy-sweet at the moment either.
God, I missed chocolate.
“I’m stronger than they are. I’m a soldier, a member of the Coalition Fleet,” I countered. “I’ve seen as much or more combat than every male here.”
He gave a decisive nod. “You are all of those things, but you are still female. We do not hurt females, not even in play. If you fight, you fight your enemies. We are not your enemies. You ask these males to dishonor themselves and their families when you ask them to fight you.”
I huffed and glanced at Tane. The Atlan was beginning to look smug again, which added fuel to my fire. “That is such a double standard.”
“It is no such thing. Coming from Earth, you are not as familiar with the ways of Atlan, Prillon and even Trion males. Other planets, too. Females are sacred. Respected. To hurt a female or a child is to betray everything we fought for, everything we continue to sacrifice to protect.”
“Why am I the one in trouble here?” I waved my arm around as I spoke. “They’re the ones who got it into their Neanderthal heads that the last one standing was going to claim me.”
All of the men nodded, not the least bit contrite. Bloodied, sweaty and wearing torn clothing, they didn’t deny their actions.
“The idea isn’t a bad one.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I shouted, completely aggravated. I tugged at my hair, paced in circles. I couldn’t fight. What could I do? I was trapped on this planet. Caged like a wild animal.
“You’re running wild here, Lieutenant.”
“I’m not wild, Governor, I’m caged. Trapped.” I walked until I stood nearly toe-to-toe with him and looked up, way up into his eyes. The resignation I saw there made my heart jolt with panic. He was going to do something here that I was not going to like. I could see it in that calm regret, hear it in the deep sigh that came rumbling out of his chest. “No. Not this. Just let me go on some missions. Let me go wild on a bunch of Hive instead of on these guys,” I said, pointing at the four who had fought each other for me, but refused to fight me.
The governor slowly shook his head. “I cannot allow someone so close to losing control go on a mission. While I admit, these men taking it upon themselves to decide your fate was not the ideal solution, they aren’t wrong. You need a mate.”
“I’ll fight to the death before I agree to this.”
“And I’ll put you in the brig until you calm down.” He held up his fingers and nearly touched them to my lips when I drew another deep breath to argue. The shock of that almost touch made me pause as he continued. “It’s not just you, but the males as well. They’re practically feral over their desire to claim you. This base is starting to unravel, years of work and discipline are coming apart at the seams, and all because of one unmated female. The first and only mission I allowed you to take ended in disaster. Do you forget so easily?”
“No.” I hadn’t forgotten a single moment of that fiasco. Two Prillon warriors decided they were going to claim me while we were gone. The Atlan and two other Prillon warriors on the mission refused to allow them to approach me. A massive fight had broken out, the Atlan going into beast mode and destroying two small cruisers in the hangar before enough males arrived to break up the fight. And that had nothing to do with the actual fighting we’d been sent off to do. “Just order them to leave me alone.”
“They are not human, Gwendolyn. You cannot expect them to behave as human men would on Earth. They are Coalition warriors, and they are losing control at the id
ea of you wandering the base unclaimed and unprotected. It goes against our very natures. I won’t have it any longer. I can’t.” He added the last with some finality.
“So you’re just going to let them fight over me? Winner take all?” I asked, stunned.
My stomach turned at the thought. While all four of the males before me were handsome, impressive male specimens, none were the one I would even consider. And he was in the stands. I’d locked eyes with Mak, the hot, brooding Atlan, when I caught a glimpse of him in the crowd. And one glimpse was enough to make my nipples go hard, my pussy clench with eager anticipation of being fucked. By him. Oh yes, he was all intense, alien. Hell, every one of them on the Colony was, but there was something about Mak that set him apart, that made me hot.
“Absolutely not,” the governor said. “I have learned much from my mate.” He turned to look at Rachel, who smiled and walked over to his side. He lifted his arm so she could slide in close to his side, then lowered it to rest across her shoulders, his fingers idly caressing her. “You will choose a mate. There is not a male here who would deny you.”
The crowd roared in approval of that one, and I felt like an insect under a magnifying glass. Every male eye in the crowd was now focused exclusively on me. Shouting at me. Enticing me with flexed muscles or intense gazes. Good god. The governor had just unleashed the Kraken.
“Fine. I’ll choose my own mate.” I nodded once, relieved. “Good. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going.”
As I took a step toward the door I’d flung open, he called out, “You will choose a mate now. Right now. Before you leave the pit.”
I froze then spun on my heel. “Now?”
“Now,” he repeated. “You need a mate, to be claimed and marked so that the rest of the males know whom you belong to—”
“Whom I belong to?” I said, but he continued as if not hearing.
“—and will no longer find the need to fight in the mess hall, the outer courtyard or here in the pits.”
“Are you serious?”
Rogue Cyborg (Interstellar Brides®: The Colony Book 6) Page 3