Cyborg Fever. Grace Goodwin
either working in the mines or protecting those who did, but I couldn’t. The truth was that we were dangerous. Unstable. The Hive implants had strange effects on some warriors. And some, like me, never quite got them out of our heads. For me, the constant hum never left. Not even here, where the planet’s defense systems were designed to keep out Hive communication frequencies.
But then, from what I’d been told, the Hive were here, hiding in the caves below the surface. Someday, there would be a reckoning, and then I’d hunt them, kill them. Tearing drones in half with my bare hands would bring me nothing but pleasure. Other than a mate’s warm, wet pussy—which I had no hope of enjoying—killing the Hive was all I could think about.
Unfortunately, Governor Rone, the hard-ass Prillon warrior who ran Base 3, didn’t feel turning me loose in the caves was a good idea. Not even during simple training runs for a new batch of Coalition Academy cadets. The training program was experimental, the caves below the surface a perfect simulation of several planets that were battle zones, hotbeds of Hive activity.
The Governor was right. First sight of a Hive here on The Colony, or of their leader, the Prillon warrior, Krael—the fucking traitor—and the beast would own me. There would be no coming back, no control.
By the gods, I wouldn’t even try. I’d eviscerate them with my bare hands and howl with joy while doing it.
Fueled by my thoughts and the coming fight, the beast rose within me, eager and strong. I pushed back. Fought for control. Focused on the threat before me. His face. His fists. The lightness of his steps in the soft dirt. He was not a young, inexperienced fighter. He was a Prillon warrior in his prime. Strong. Fast. Deadly. And he’d just arrived after his own personal hell with the Hive.
Not that it would save him from a solid beating, but it would at least make the fight interesting.
We paced. Ready.
I heard her again. My cock, already hard, throbbed painfully.
The beast clawed at my insides, fighting to break free. Not to fight the Prillon. For her.
It wanted her.
Fuck.
Gods help me if she was the mate of a Colony warrior, or some innocent young cadet barely more than a child.
Keeping the Prillon on the edge of my vision, I scanned the crowd again. Found her.
Stilled. Stopped breathing.
By the gods, she was beautiful. Golden hair was pulled back from her face, and my first instinct was to break it free from whatever held it. Her eyes were like glaciers, too blue to be real. And she was human. I recognized her species from meeting Governor Rone’s mate, Rachel, and because the warrior who had saved my life before coming here, one of the bravest fighters I’d ever met, was a female from Earth. A female who had earned my loyalty and respect. Commander Chloe Phan.
But her eyes had been dark. Her hair black. And she’d been small and mated to a Prillon warrior and a human I respected, the human who’d saved my life, Captain Seth Mills. I’d known the fearless commander wasn’t mine. But the knowing had been easy. My beast hadn’t been interested in her as a potential mate.
This human was completely different.
Fascinating.
Every curve was outlined to perfection by a tight black uniform, and I recognized the design as belonging to one of the instructors from the Coalition Academy on Zioria. Her hair was golden, her eyes a liquid blue that made me feel like I was falling. Her lips were a pale pink, and she was tall. Curvy. Her breasts were large and would be paradise in my hands. My mouth. I wondered what she tasted like. Her skin. Her kiss. Her hot, wet pussy juices flowing over my tongue as I made her scream.
She was not a child but a woman who knew what she wanted.
Our gazes met. Held. Locked.
The Prillon warrior paced. I ignored him. He was irrelevant now. My beast had other priorities. If my opponent wanted to bleed, he’d have to find another to entertain him.
I wanted the female. And from the way her gaze lingered on me, held mine, I knew she wouldn’t resist.
She was mine.
The Prillon charged but I was no longer in the mood to fight. I wanted to fuck. Taste.
Claim.
I had planned to toy with the warrior, let him hit me a few times, draw some blood, let him bleed off some of his angst and wear himself out before I ended him. But I no longer felt accommodating.
Allowing the beast to surge for a moment, I swung hard, taking the glancing punch the Prillon landed on my chest. I connected with his jaw, felt the bone crack, knew they would rush a ReGen wand into the pit to stabilize him before shutting him down in a ReGen pod for a few hours to make sure I hadn’t damaged his brain.
He hit the ground, unconscious, and I glanced at the medical crew to make sure they were coming. They had been waiting, ready. They’d seen it all before, knowing how this would end, but expecting me to play with my prey before I took him down.
The crowd was divided, half of the warriors cheering, a fair number booing the lack of a show. They were irrelevant. I only cared about one of them. Lifting my gaze, I found her in the crowd once more.
She had another female with her, and from the looks of things, they were talking about me.
Good.
I didn’t want her thinking about anyone else. Seeing anyone else.
The Prillon rolled on the ground, groaning as they worked on his jaw. I walked past him toward the female. He was no longer a concern. He was out of my way. And what I wanted was right in front of me.
I got closer, my beast cooperating, for once in perfect accord with what I wanted. We both wanted her. Hot. Naked. Open. Taking what we wanted to give her. Fucking hard and fast. Slow. Making her lose control. Making her give us everything.
I reached the edge of the arena and looked up to where she sat in the stands. Her blue eyes remained glued to me and I crooked my finger at her. She knew. She knew what I wanted. Her. We both knew how this was going to go. I could see an equal lust in her blue eyes.
She glanced at her friend, her delicate skin turning an intriguing shade of pink. She bit her lip as she turned back to me. I held out my hand and waited. Patient. She would come to me. The pull between us was elemental. Too strong for her to resist. My cock was so hard it was a constant ache. For her. Only for her.
Thank the gods she didn’t make me wait long. The crowd was hushed, the other warriors and cadets watching with fascination as she walked down the steps and stopped before me, close enough to touch.
Gently, slowly, with a reverence I had no idea I could feel, I reached up and traced the softness of her cheek with my fingers.
The first contact jolted me, the rush better than any fight, any victory. The beast was frenzied, pushing at my skin, my mind, demanding to taste her. Touch her. Fill her with his seed. My thoughts went to the mating cuffs in my rooms and I knew what he wanted. What we both wanted. The miracle I had just found.
My mate.
“Mine.” The word burst from me, beast and man both making sure every warrior heard my vow. Mine. I had staked my claim. If anyone touched her, hurt her, tried to take her from me, I would destroy them. Harder and more ruthlessly than I had with the Prillon in the middle of the pit.
Reaching over the barrier, I lifted her. She cooperated, swinging her legs over the waist high wall. When she would have put her feet on the ground, I swooped her up and carried her cradled against my chest.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
The thought consumed me until I couldn’t talk. Couldn’t think. Gods help me, if she resisted, I wasn’t sure I could control the beast inside me. He was gone, so far gone. I knew if she denied me, walking away from her would be the last thing I remembered.