Claimed by the Cyborgs, page 2
“Okay. I do not have children, and I am not legally married to anyone. Anything else?”
“Do you attest that you are over the age of eighteen?”
“I’m twenty-three. You know that. I had to give you my birth certificate.”
“Protocol, Miss Gray.”
Bureaucracy. Rules.
Lies. I’d been through the foster system. The court system. The prison system. And now this. I was well past the age of believing anything these women were promising me.
I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. One of my flaws. I had to challenge authority. “What if I was sixty?”
“Again, Prime Nial negotiated several changes to the usual bride protocols. The Interstellar Coalition of Planets has advanced medical equipment, and many warriors are more interested in a lover and companion than the age or child-bearing potential of a mate. As you stated you prefer to remain child-free, that preference has been entered into the system and you have been matched to a mate with similar preference.”
“This is soooo not a dating app.”
Warden Egara looked seriously offended, her scowl creating deep lines between her brows. “No, Miss Gray, it is not. We are responsible for matching our brides to the most honorable of all Coalition warriors and fighters. We do not make mistakes. They have suffered enough.” Turning on her heel, she nodded to Warden Bisset. “Begin her processing. I have received confirmation that her mate is on The Colony.” She looked at me. “Good luck, Miss Gray. As always, if you do not accept your mate and wish to be matched to another, your choice will be honored and you will be matched to another Prillon male.”
Yeah, right. Like I believed that. But it didn’t really matter. The money I’d received for being a bride was going to pay for my baby brother’s college degree and leave him enough left over to put a down payment on a house. It was the only thing I could give him now. A chance at a normal life that had been stolen from me.
“You will have thirty days with your mates to make your final decision.”
“And it’s totally up to me? They can’t just dump me and go after someone else?”
The warden looked truly shocked that I would even propose such an idea. “Oh no. You are his matched mate, the perfect female for him. Interstellar Brides are a great honor and a gift to the warriors and fighters who served in the war with the Hive. He would never willingly give you up.”
Another thing I didn’t believe, but there was no reason to argue. I was going out into space, to a new planet, regardless. “Okay, but I don’t understand. When do I go? Is there a ship coming to pick me up?”
Warden Bisset clapped her hands twice, clearly excited about something. “I have been dying to get a chance to do this.” She pressed her fingers to the tablet, and the wall next to my chair opened to reveal a large blue pool surrounded by soft lighting. It looked like the inside of an expensive spa.
“Just relax, Miss Gray.”
My chair moved, sliding to the side, and I noticed the tracks on the floor would take me directly into the blue water, chair and all.
A few seconds later I was neck-deep in the warm, blue liquid, and a sense of contentment and relief filled me at once.
“That’s it, Miss Gray. Relax. The NPU will be placed now. Hold still.”
A strange robotic arm moved toward me, the tip touched my head directly behind my ear. A sharp burst of pain made me startle. “What was that?”
“Your neural processing unit. By the time you arrive on The Colony, the NPU will have integrated with the language centers of your brain and will help coordinate real-time language translation on every Coalition planet.”
Wow. But, ow!
“That’s the worst of it. Go to sleep. When you wake up, you will be on The Colony with your new mate.”
“Now? Right now?”
“Of course.”
“I’m not ready.”
“You are. Your processing will begin in 3…2…1…”
The world went black.
2
Captain Varin Mordin, The Colony, Two Days Earlier
The stinging cold of transport faded, and I fell into a battle crouch.
“Clear the transport room! He’s not in control!” I shouted the warning even as my oldest friend, Thomar Arcas, bellowed with battle rage and leaped toward the transport officer.
Thank the gods two Atlan guards stood between the Viken officer and the contaminated warrior. In this state Thomar would kill without a second thought.
“The transport origin station said he was sedated!” the Viken yelled as I struggled to hold Thomar back with both arms wrapped around his waist.
“He was! I warned them this would happen. They didn’t fucking listen.” Thomar was not in control. The collars we wore connected us, mind to mind, but with the chaos of our recent escape and multiple transports on our way to The Colony, he was lost to his rage, memories of our torture. He saw enemies everywhere.
The agony of his implants consumed him.
“Dr. Surnen to transport. Now!” One of the Atlans yelled the command. I assumed some kind of comm system would activate and relay the message. We needed the doctor and enough sedative to take out ten Atlans.
Thomar fought me. Broke free.
“Thomar! Stop!” I tackled my friend before the two Atlans had a chance to react. Thomar was in no condition to be here, yet I’d refused to allow him to die, argued with the medical officers on the battleship, convinced them to give him a chance. Dr. Surnen was on The Colony. He was the foremost expert on Hive integrations and their removal. If anyone could save Thomar, it would be Surnen and his medical team.
Perhaps I had made a mistake.
I grappled with my friend, keeping my mind calm as I attempted to reach the part of him that was still Prillon, still male. Still sane.
“Thomar, it’s me, Varin. Stop fighting me!”
“Hive! I can hear them!” He shoved me off and to the side, but I pulled him with me, rolling both of us off the transport platform, down some steps, and onto the floor. The two Atlans approached, but I held up my hand to stop them.
“Don’t! I won’t be able to bring him out of it.”
“We can handle him,” one of the Atlans assured me.
“No, you can’t. Trust me.” I wasn’t sure what they had done to Thomar, not completely, but he could tear metal walls down, rip ships into pieces with his bare hands, and lift entire shuttle craft. He’d always been a powerful warrior. The Arcas family of Prillon Prime was infamous for a reason, their battle prowess the most well-known and the most feared.
The collar around my neck gave me an all too familiar glimpse into Thomar’s state of mind. The collars were sacred to Prillon males, meant only to be shared with a mate once we claimed her. The Hive had other ideas. They had trapped Thomar and me in a cruel experiment from which there had been no escape. They’d used our mating collars against us, locked us mind-to-mind to discover how much we could endure, how much of our agony transferred to the other, how much stronger we were together. They’d taken our mating collars and turned them into weapons, implanted them beneath flesh and bone so there was no way we could remove them without bleeding to death.
I refused to choose death for us. And Thomar? He was too fucking strong and far too stubborn to die.
We’d lost count of the days, the nights. After our escape, we’d been picked up by a ReCon team and transferred to a medical ship. But even they could not help us. Our only hope was The Colony and Dr. Surnen, a Prillon famous in the Coalition for saving many contaminated warriors and fighters. Even a few Atlans. He was our last chance. Our only chance.
Thomar threw me off, shoving me straight up into the air so high that my back hit the ceiling of the transport room. “Damn it, Thomar!”
He was on his feet before I crashed back to the floor. I managed to land in a crouch, but the Atlans hadn’t listened. They were in beast form, advancing on Thomar’s position.
“Don’t touch him! I’m warning you.”
“I am a warlord. I fear no Prillon warrior.” The Atlan who spoke was, indeed, massive. His uniform had the name Warlord Rezzer displayed on his chest.
“He is not a Prillon warrior. He is more.”
Rezzer ignored me, stepping toward Thomar.
The two circled one another, and I stepped between them. “Stop. He will kill you.”
“We shall see.”
Thomar grabbed me from behind, and I turned, grappling with him, trying with every fiber of my being to stop the impending fight. I’d seen Atlans on the battlefield. I knew this Rezzer could tear an ordinary Prillon warrior in half with little effort. But Thomar was more machine than male. The Hive Integration Units had worked on both of us for more than two years. Every fucking day. I doubted the Atlan could defeat me in my current state, and Thomar had always been half a head taller and fucking ruthless in battle.
“Thomar Arcas, Son of Satmar, on your honor, Prillon, stand down!”
“I have no honor.”
“Fuck that. Listen to me. Stop. Fighting.” I calmed my voice and my mind, tried to connect to Thomar and bring his aggression down about a thousand levels.
“I hear them, Varin. They are inside that one. That beast.” He snarled at Rezzer over my shoulder, but I didn’t dare turn around to see what the idiot Atlan was doing.
“We are on The Colony. He has integrations like we do. Trust me.”
“Lies.” The chaos in his head threatened to overwhelm my control as the months of torment and pain flooded both of our minds like acid, burning away all reason, all connection to who we’d once been. There was no anchor in his mind, only the storm.
I felt him slipping from me, knew there was nothing I could do to stop him.
“Get out! He’s losing control.” I shoved his shoulders, held him back for precious seconds. “Get out now if you want to live!”
The Atlan, Rezzer, looked bored. “I am not concerned about your Prillon.”
He was either an idiot or had more integrations and was much more powerful than I had first assumed.
The door slid open with a slight whooshing sound and two small children ran inside. They were squealing with laughter. Shocked, Thomar froze, and I dared looked back, over my shoulder. The children were, indeed, small, the tops of their heads barely reaching Rezzer’s knees. That didn’t stop them. They ran for him and jumped, one grabbing each leg.
“Papa! CJ took ball. Give it back.” The small boy glared at his sister, who held the ball in the tiny hand wrapped around Rezzer’s opposite thigh.
“Make ball. Essen. Duh.”
“Mom say no!” the boy argued.
“Duh. Duh. Duh.” The little girl, hair in a braid that ran down the back of her head and past her shoulders, chanted the offensive word at her brother. My NPU could not process the word, and I had no idea why it was considered offensive.
Nor did I know what an essen was.
Thomar stood frozen, equally confused, the sights and sounds of children something neither of us had heard in quite some time, since before we’d been taken by the Hive. Even on our battleship, we’d avoided the mated families’ section of the ship. Their reaction to Thomar’s presence was one we had learned to avoid.
Rezzer looked down at the two, who appeared to be twins, and scolded both. “CJ, give your brother back his ball. You know he can’t use the S-Gen machine yet.”
The little boy tilted his head back and forth, taunting his sister.
“No! RJ make ball. This one mine. He lose his.”
Rezzer sighed. Deeply. “RJ, is that true? Is that your sister’s ball?”
The little boy shrugged, and even I, who had very little experience with children, knew his sister spoke the truth.
“I will make you a new one later. You need to go find your mother.”
Both children clung tighter and giggled. “No. Papa! Papa! Papa!” They chanted, both of their little heads bobbing enthusiastically as they finally agreed on something.
Frozen, shocked at the appearance of children, real living, breathing children, I had forgotten the danger behind me.
“Children?” Thomar’s voice sounded astonished, and I hoped he would calm. Instead I felt the moment his mind went black with rage. “The Hive are processing children!” His bellow threatened to split my head in two.
“Get them out of here! Now!” I yelled at the Atlan, who had already taken a step back, the other Atlan stepping between me and Rezzer, who was carrying his startled children toward the door, both Atlans still in beast mode.
Why were they ignoring me? Why were they not panicked? Running for their lives? Were they idiots? Their lack of reaction made no sense. Thomar was dangerous. Deadly. A killer.
“Enough!” A Prillon wearing med-center green walked into the transport room and pointed an odd device in our direction. “I am Dr. Surnen.”
I felt my shoulders drop in relief. Thank the gods. “Can you help us?”
“I will try.” With that, he fired the strange device at Thomar, who slumped, unconscious, to the floor.
The relief I felt made me dizzy, my mind unable to cope with the sudden loss of connection to Thomar. We had been sharing emotions, sharing a mind for so long.
Wobbling, I turned to thank the doctor. I didn’t have the opportunity as the doctor pointed the device at me and the world faded to quiet, blessed oblivion.
Thomar, Medical Station, The Colony, Two Days Later
I woke, the constant roar of Hive frequencies in my head present but bearable, lessened somehow. I blinked at the lights over my head and turned my head to each side to determine where I was.
Green stripes on the walls. Coalition Fleet insignia on several pieces of equipment. A beautiful female—a human—sat in front of an odd contraption with her eyes pressed to two round openings. She appeared to be looking at something inside the machine. The mating collar around her neck was copper, and she seemed serene. Unconcerned. Not in pain. Unafraid.
This was not the Hive Integration center.
I was in a medical station. A Coalition Fleet medical station.
How was this possible?
“Where is Varin?” My voice rasped as if I’d been swallowing sand for days.
She looked up at once, a bright smile on her face. “You’re awake! Thank God. I was worried that last treatment might do permanent dam—” She cut off the word before finishing, but I knew. Damage. I was damaged beyond all hope of recovery. I already knew that, even if Varin refused to accept my fate.
“Varin?”
“He’s in treatment right now. He should be back any moment. He hasn’t left your side. He’s a worthy male, a worthy second.”
This human female did, indeed, understand our ways, her assessment of Varin’s honor correct. “Yes. He is.”
“Your mate is so lucky to have you, Prince Arcas.”
“Do not call me that.”
“I’m sorry. It says here—” She indicated the small tablet she was holding.
“Call me Thomar or Commander. And I am not mated.”
She tilted her head to the side and walked slowly toward me where I remained restrained, multiple heavy straps holding me to the bed.
I could break them, easily, but I made no move to do so. She was small. Female. No threat. And she did not sing with Hive communications. Her body was not contaminated by their technology or mind control.
“Oh, but you do. She’s on her way now. Dr. Surnen has been working nonstop the last two days to prepare you and Captain Mordin for her arrival.”
“Impossible.”
“She’s your mate. Matched to you. You are her number one. Ninety-nine percent perfect match, big guy.”
Big guy?
“Sorry. I’m Rachel. I’m mated to Governor Maxim Rone and Ryston. You’re on The Colony now. In the medical station.”
“How long?”
“Two days. Give or take a few hours.”
“No. How long with the Hive?”
“Oh. I don’t know. Just a moment.” She walked to a display station and pulled my military record onto a large screen. I could see everything.
“Seven hundred forty-three days. Fuck.” Red-hot rage filled me as I saw both the count and the bright warning beacon next to my name, the mark of dishonor, the mark used to punish and disgrace entire family bloodlines. Like mine. “I have no mate.”
“She’s arriving in transport within the hour. She’s human. Like me.”
“No.”
“No? What do you mean no? You can’t just send her back.”
“Match her to another.”
“Doesn’t work that way. She has thirty days to accept or reject you, Commander.”
“No. Send her back. Match her to another.” I would not further dishonor my family by losing control and hurting a female. Never. I would not repeat my ancestor’s mistakes. “I refuse the match.”
“You don’t have that right. You have to at least give her a chance.”
“No. Where is Varin? I will speak to him now. I cannot accept a mate. I will not.”
The tiny female walked toward me and dared place her small hand on my shoulder. She was either very brave or very stupid. The slight touch made me recoil. I was truly a monster, a creature the Hive had worked so hard to break. To create. To rule. No female of worth should lay a hand on me. If her mates were here, they would have every right to kill me for defiling her. “Do not touch me.”
“Thomar, right? May I call you Thomar? Commander seems so boring and official.”
“Yes.”
“Earth girls are tough. Trust me. And the doc is very good at getting as many Hive implants out of warriors like you as he possibly can. You can have a life here. A happy life.”
Such heartfelt and naive words. Truly females were the embodiment of hope for all warriors. But there was no reason for her to hold on to hope for me. “I can hear them, even now. The buzzing of the Hive collective fills my mind. They are everywhere and nowhere. I cannot control my thoughts. My actions. I am not capable of caring for a mate. I could lose control at any moment. Do you understand? I must not go near her.”
