He saw the enemy strike down Lethal, tearing his body to bits. He heard Boom’s roar, witnessed him trying to get to the E Model. He couldn’t. There had been too many enemy warriors. They swarmed him, slicing off his arms, knocking out his knees.

  Then there was nothing, no transmissions, only blackness and silence on the lines.

  He lowered his head, tremors shaking his body again and again, sharp blades of pain ripping into him, carving him to shards. His female held him, petting his face. She murmured repetitively that she was sorry, her voice and softness enveloping him, putting the parts of him back together, keeping him whole.

  The deaths had been hard. He’d inwardly screamed as his friends died. Stealing a ship was easy. The Ahkians had been celebrating their victory. They hadn’t performed a lifeform scan, the humanoids predictably sloppy, and they erroneously believed all of the cyborgs were dead.

  His first impulse had been to go to his female. He’d needed her as he’d never needed anyone else. Only she could find logic in his emotional malfunction. Only she could repair him.

  He couldn’t leave Boom and Lethal on the planet. They deserved better than to erode in an enemy field, their frames exposed to the elements, their sacrifices unacknowledged. Under the cover of darkness, he gathered their pieces. Then he transported his friends’ remains to the Homeland.

  “Once I got to the Homeland, the cyborg council wouldn’t allow me to leave.” He had been surrounded by warriors yet was completely alone, unable to communicate his damage. “If I left, they would have hunted me down. They could have damaged you and—.”

  And that would have destroyed the few remaining fragments of him. His friends’ actions would have been for nothing. He would have failed his most important mission.

  “I was safe.” His female sprinkled kisses on his face, her light touch reassuring him. “Your son was safe. You made the right decision.”

  His processors relayed that truth. “My heart disagrees. I should have crafted a way to return to you, both of you, sooner.”

  “You’re with us now.” She rested her forehead against his. “We’ll focus on now, on this moment…like we did when we were in the compound. Remember those stolen embraces in the storage structure?”

  “I would never forget them, my female.” He’d replayed them when he was alone. They’d bolstered his will to live. “Our son was manufactured during one of those encounters.”

  “He was so small when he was born.” She smiled, her beautiful face glowing with love. “And he was quiet, much quieter than he is now.” She laughed softly, that sound combatting the darkness lingering around him. “He gazed up at me with those serious gray eyes and he looked so much like you…” Sadness flittered across her face.

  “He looks like you too.” Stealth rubbed her back, savoring the feel of her. Her body had no sharp angles. It was all curves and gentle slopes. “He has your hair.” He searched for more resemblances. Their son mostly looked like him. “He’s very stubborn.”

  “Hey.” She smacked his chest with her hands, her smile widening. “That’s one of your traits, not mine.”

  He chuckled, the happiness she’d given him a gift he cherished. “When we first met, I tried to dissuade you from walking to the storage structure alone.” He worried she’d be accosted by one of the human officers. None of those males were to be trusted. “You wouldn’t listen to me.”

  “I didn’t walk to the storage structure alone,” she retorted. “You followed me…every time.” She rolled her eyes. “Because you’re stubborn.”

  They were well matched in that and every other way. “Your safety was and is my first priority.” He pressed his lips against her forehead. “I lived for you, my female. Only for you.”

  “I’m glad you did, my male.” She splayed her fingers over his pecs, claiming that part of him.

  He smiled, his chest warming from her touch. “I’m glad too.”

  Chapter Ten

  Zebrina woke in Stealth’s arms, her head tucked under his chin, her bare skin against his. For one agonizing moment, she thought he wasn’t real. Every rest cycle for over two solar cycles, she had dreamed of her warrior, of him holding her as he currently was, and beings had told her he was dead.

  Yet he was with her. She gazed upward. His gray eyes glowed. He’d returned to her.

  His friends hadn’t survived the battles. The pain in his countenance when he’d shared that had stabbed at her soul. That could have been her hurt, her grief, her sorrow. He could have died beside them.

  She spread her fingers, touching as much of him as she could. Why was she waiting to fuck her warrior?

  She wanted him. Her nipples were taut against the unrelenting wall of his chest. He wanted her. His hard cock pushed against her stomach.

  Their separation might have altered him. It had changed both of them. But he remained her male. This wasn’t their first time. They had a son, for fuck’s sake.

  There was no reason to delay.

  “We have to be quiet,” she whispered.

  His eyes widened and his cock bobbed. “Our son is testing spikes near the north wall.”

  She didn’t want to know how he was testing them. “Then we have to be quick.” She reached upward, bracketing her warrior’s handsome face between her palms. Her lips parted.

  He covered them with his, his response as fierce, as intense as her need. Their tongues tangled, twined. The nanocybotics had cleansed his breath, as it had hers. He tasted of metal.

  She inhaled him, thirsty for his kisses. They felt right. He was her male. There was no guilt, only pleasure and wanting and reassurance. His breath warmed her cheeks. His heart beat under her right palm.

  He groaned, the sound originating from deep in his chest, and rolled her onto her back. They aligned, his cock pressing between her wet folds. Her eyelashes fluttered, the contact delectable.

  He moved over her, fucking her without entry, teasing her clit with his rim, the sensation curling her fingers and toes. She held onto his shoulders, wrapped her legs around his hips, hooking her feet over his ass cheeks.

  “You’re so hard.” And hot. He branded her delicate flesh with his shaft.

  “You’re soft.” He braced himself upward with one arm, cupped her left breast with his other hand, his skin stimulatingly rough. “Your breasts are larger now.” He squeezed and released her, squeezed and released her, sending waves of arousal down her torso.

  “Had. A. Child.” She panted, humping him with increased vigor.

  “You fed our offspring.” Her cyborg lowered his head and sealed his lips around her right nipple, his heat engulfing her. He sucked as a baby would, tugging on her breast, drawing her into his mouth.

  Fuck. That was sexy. She curved her fingers over his scalp, holding her to him. “Didn’t. Feed. Him. Long.” Cyborgs grew quickly, were fully mature within a solar cycle.

  Stealth released that breast with a pop. His nanocybotics bubbled over her curves, plucking at her, escalating her arousal. “You can feed me forever.” He applied himself as enthusiastically to her left breast, mouthing over her nipple, laving it with his tongue.

  She undulated under him, wetting his cock with her pussy juices, slicking the slide between them. His form was as rigid as his shaft, his muscles flexed over his frame, every part of him honed, defined.

  He was a warrior. His hands, one of them now fondling her right breast, had been covered with blood. That would always be a part of him.

  But there were other sides to him too. She’d seen that in their storage structure encounters. She witnessed that now. He used his fit physique to give her pleasure as well as inflict pain on others.

  That drove her wild. She bumped against him, sweat beading on her skin. “Stealth?”

  “Be patient, my female.” He lowered his hand to her stomach. “I’m learning your new body.” He drifted his fingertips over her. “Were you round with our offspring?”

  Damn cyborgs and their ability to multitask. She was ready to explode and he wanted to talk. “Huge.” The Ahkian Healer had been concerned. She had been that large. “Waddled.”

  “Cyborg offspring are large.” He grazed his knuckles over her nipples, keeping her in a constant state of stimulation. “I would have carried you.”

  At the moment, she didn’t care about the past or what he would have done then. “Fuck me.” He could do that now. “Please.” She shamelessly begged.

  He swiveled his hips, ratcheting the pressure upward slowly, slowly. A little more and—

  Her warrior became still. She bit back a scream.

  He ran his hand over the width of her hips. “Did our offspring damage you?”

  He was damaging her. Fuck. She needed release. “Not natural.” The Healer wouldn’t risk a natural birth. “Your. Nanocybotics. Healed me.”

  He had been there in that small way, looking after her. She hadn’t been completely alone.

  “Stealth.” She wiggled her ass. “Been empty. So long.” Her fingers had been a poor substitution for his cock. They could never fully satisfy her, had merely taken the edge off her wanting, leaving her frustrated and lonely. “Need you. Inside me.”

  “You’re the most beautiful being I’ve ever seen.” He gazed at her with a heat that threatened to incinerate her. “I don’t deserve this or you. I—”

  “Fuck that.” She was done with waiting. Reaching between them, she grabbed his cock, positioned it at her pussy hole. “You’re mine.” She drove her hips upward, filling herself with hot male.

  A rumble rolled up his form. “I said to be patient.” He thrust downward. Her ass smacked against the sleeping support. Her feminine folds connected with his base.

  She was stretched and stuffed and pinned underneath her dominant warrior. A blissful moan escaped her lips. This was what she wanted, what she craved.

  She had made all of the decisions for herself, for her son, for solar cycles. It was tiring and not-at-all sexy. She wanted him to take control in their private chambers.

  “We were being reacquainted.” He pulled back and thrust downward, pulled back and thrust downward, his pace breathtaking fast and bone rattlingly hard.

  She clung to his shoulders and battled with her control. When she came, he would too, and she didn’t want him to withdraw. Ever.

  “I haven’t done half of the things I had planned.” Her warrior pounded into her, his eyes darkening to black, his passion wild and furious, a force of nature against which she had no defense.

  He’d planned what he’d do to her. She dug her fingernails into his skin and he hissed. He must have envisioned touching her, fucking her, taking her in all ways imaginable, crazing her with lust.

  She had fantasized about him, about sucking her cyborg off, cradling his cock between her breasts, riding him until his circuits smoked. The reality was much better. Her pussy and ass hummed from his erotic abuse. Sweat dripped down her neck, wet her hair.

  “We were manufactured for each other.” The possession in his tone turned her on. “No other male can breed with you like this.” The sleeping support slammed against the wall again and again, the sound echoing in the chamber. “You fit no other male like you fit me.”

  This was more than a fuck. He was staking his claim, reconfirming his ownership of her. And she didn’t protest. Her body was his. His nanocybotics fizzed inside her. His cock head pressed against her inner walls. His balls slapped against her skin.

  “Yes.” Bands of desire circled her chest, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing. “Yours. Am yours.”

  His cock swelled. His eyes glinted. “I am your male, your only male.”

  She struggled for breath, everything inside her pulling tight, ready to snap. “Stealth?” She needed satisfaction. Now. He had to give it to her.

  “Say it, my female.” He fucked her hard, balancing them on the emotional cliff, not giving her enough to push her over. “Say I’m your only male.”

  “You’re. My male.” She thrashed, raking his back with her fingernails, the tension too much, her need too great. “My only male.”

  She understood the confirmation he wanted, that he was her sole lover, the one being she allowed inside her, gave herself completely to.

  “My female.” He plunged into her, up to his base, tilted his head back and roared, the power in his face, in his form, stunning her. Hard jets of cum blasted her inner walls.

  She screamed, shattering, the tiny pieces of her falling into the black abyss. Pleasure ravaged her, spun her world around. Colors exploded in her mind. Sound rushed in her ears.

  She clenched around him, setting off another bombardment of essence. Bliss ripped through her again and again as the cycle repeated. She screamed until she was hoarse, gyrating against him. He held her in place, caging her with his body, his arms flexed at her side, his hips restraining hers.

  The ecstasy eased. Her trembling stopped. She lay under him limp and dazed. Their last fuck had been out of this universe. This fuck was even better. The next fuck might kill her.

  Stars. Zebrina gazed up at her warrior. She was already thinking about the next fuck.

  He rolled, taking her with him. She propped her chin on his chest and studied him.

  The hard edge in his eyes had softened. The grief was temporarily gone.

  Their encounter had fixed that. It hadn’t repaired the other issues wedged between them. Her cyborg had chosen fighting with his brethren over leaving with her. He would meet new brethren, form friendships with them. That was the social being he was.

  She didn’t trust him not to make that same choice again. If Vow formed an attachment to his father and Stealth left, that would destroy their son.

  He was her child. She had to think of him, about what he needed.

  “I’m your only male.” Her warrior skimmed his fingers along her face.

  “You’re my only male.” The past two solar cycles had shown her that.

  It had also shown her she could survive without a male.

  She wouldn’t be happy. But she’d live and if that was the best choice for their son, she would do it.

  * * *

  When they emerged from her chambers, the sun was shining and their son sat by a horizontal support, a nourishment bar in his mouth and another bar in his right hand.

  “Those are for emergencies and special occasions.” She reminded him. Supplies didn’t arrive very often on Waaban Two. They lived off the land as much as they could.

  “The possibility I might soon have a brother is a special occasion.” Vow stuffed another nourishment bar into his mouth and chewed.

  Her face heated. He must have heard them.

  She looked at Stealth. His eyes glinted. The bastard looked proud, not embarrassed.

  She returned her gaze to their son. “I thought you were testing spikes near the north wall.”

  “I’m a…” He paused, his face darkening. “I have enhanced hearing. I heard you from out there.” He glared at Stealth. “You said you’d hold her and that was it. That’s the only reason I allowed you to go in there.”

  “You allowed?” Her warrior drew himself up to his full height. “Your mom is my female. Warriors breed with their females. That’s how we manufactured you.”

  The two of them glowered at each other. She didn’t know how to defuse the situation. Promising their son they wouldn’t do it again would be lying because she couldn’t keep her hands off his father.

  “I heard you cry.” Vow threw that observation at Stealth like it was a weapon.

  It hit its mark. The pain returned to her cyborg’s eyes. He released her hand. “Warriors do cry.”

  He walked out the door, not looking at her, not saying another word.

  Was he leaving? She gazed through a portal. He stood with his back to her, facing the wall their son had built. Her shoulders lowered. Vow hadn’t driven him away.

  Yet.

  She looked at their son. “That was a conversation between your father and me. We’ve talked about this.” She had long given up her privacy. That was part of being a mother to a cyborg. Her guests weren’t as accepting as she was.

  Her son didn’t meet her gaze. “He knew I could hear him.”

  Stealth was a cyborg. He must have known. “He trusted you not to judge him, not to ridicule his sorrow, his pain.”

  Vow’s stricken expression and silence told her he hadn’t thought about that.

  She stood behind her much-taller seated son and hugged him to her chest. “It might feel like everything is changing but it isn’t. You’re still my son. I will always love you. It’ll be you and me forever…whether you like it or not.” She ruffled his hair and he feigned irritation, grimacing while his big body leaned into hers. “Whether there’s one additional being in our family or two or more or less, the bond between the two of us will remain strong.”

  “He might leave us.” Fear edged her son’s voice.

  “He might.” She kissed the top of his head, not denying that could happen. “You could leave me too.” Eventually, he would want to find his own way in the universe. That planet rotation would tear her heart out. “Taking that risk is part of loving someone.” She thought about that for a moment. “Anyone other than me.” She kissed him again. “You’re stuck with me until the end of time.”

  “Stop kissing me.” He shrugged her away from him. “I’m a warrior.”

  She opened her mouth.

  “And don’t say you kiss him.” Her son made a gagging noise. “I don’t want to hear about it.” He grumbled. “I’ve heard enough.”

  He’d hear more in the future. They were living in the same domicile. She couldn’t completely hide the physical part of her relationship with Stealth from their son.

  “Have you decided to be a warrior now?” She moved to the side and studied him. He had refused to be labeled a warrior a mere planet rotation ago. “There are other roles available to you.”

  “I could be an agri-lot tender or a device fabricator or a captain of a ship.” Her son listed alternatives. “Ugh.”

  “Being a captain of a ship sounds like it might be an adventure.” She would have thought he’d be interested in that role. “You could travel to different planets, see different places.”