Mated to the Cyborgs(11)

All I remembered of the event was an amazing yet vague sex dream and that I’d left with a cock so hard I worried it was going to puncture through my armor. Fortunately, I’d been able to return to my quarters and take myself in hand, ease the discomfort I knew would only truly be lessened by sinking into my mate.

And now, I was going to have one. I wouldn’t be a second, but the matched mate, the Primary Male. I tried to suppress my grin, but it was almost impossible. I felt…gods, I felt good. Elated. Thrilled. Something pretty damn close to happy. There was a female out there in the universe that was perfect for me.

I’d assumed with my dark ways, my darker sexual needs, that there would be no one similarly inclined. What female would want to be bound and fucked? Blindfolded and helped to her knees? To cry out with pleasure because of a little bite of pain? To be dominated and not simply want, but need her mate to take control?

If Hunt had been the matched mate, I knew he would take his time and seduce our mate. I had been prepared to accept that, to give a mate what she needed and not worry about anything else. Mild, not wild. Tame, not tawdry. Sensual, not sultry.

But this female was mine. Mine. Which meant she wanted exactly what I wanted. She must need what I could give her. We would not have been matched otherwise.

My heart stuttered, thinking she’d reject me as soon as she saw my eye, saw what the Hive had done to me. But then, with Lady Rone on my arm at this very moment, her hand wrapped around my elbow and a happy smile on her face, I remembered that love was blind. She never seemed to notice or even care that her two warriors had been contaminated by the Hive. My mate must be the same because the match had been made after I was ruined by the Hive. The testing matched me, cyborg parts and all, to a female. That meant she would want me just as I was.

Right?

Right?

Next to me, Lady Rone had a noticeable skip in her step, reminding me of a happy child. I allowed her happiness to wash over me. I wouldn’t worry now. I’d enjoy the moment. They were rare. Elusive. Unfamiliar.

“You must be so excited,” Lady Rone told me as we walked toward the transport room. “I can’t wait to meet her. I wonder where she’s from.”

No one would use the term excited with me. I was the quiet one, the watcher. The brooding asshole in the corner. And yet I’d been the one matched.

I knew Maxim and Hunt followed a few steps behind. What was Hunt thinking? He was now my second. We were friends. The same rank. Equals. Yet he was a leader, outspoken and bold, while I was content to remain in the shadows. That didn’t mean I was any less fierce. In fact, I was perhaps more ruthless and cunning than Hunt. I blended in, quiet, an attack was unexpected.

And with a female? It had been a long time since I’d had my way, but I knew my nature. I would take over, watch her, analyze the smallest response. A woman was a puzzle I was all too eager to solve. There was nothing I enjoyed more than discerning her secrets so I could give her everything she wanted, everything she needed, even when she didn’t know it, or would not admit her needs to herself.

I’d just assumed it would be Hunt matched, that he would be the Primary Male and I would be his second. I’d hoped for a mate of my own, assumed that my darker needs would be tamed or hidden entirely, but I hadn’t considered it a possibility that there could be a woman in the universe perfect for me. Not when Maxim said a match had been made.

Only when he’d said she was mine.

“Excited? No. I hope to be worthy of the honor,” I admitted to Lady Rone. I stopped and she looked up at me in surprise. I didn’t speak of my doubts, my worries that Hunt might not be able to accept his new role. For years, he’d been the one in the lead, always shouting orders. I’d obeyed, followed, not because I could not lead on my own, but because he was my brother-in-arms, and I trusted no one else to ensure his safety.

And if any other arrogant bastard had tried to order me around, I’d have killed him as easily as bowed my head.

“I must get my collars. I do not wish for her to be without one.”

Understanding filled her eyes and Maxim and Hunt joined us just outside the transport room. “I assumed you would wish to place your collar about her neck right away,” the governor said, his voice deep. “I was the same. We don’t need to start a war over an unclaimed female, as nearly happened with Rachel.”

Lady Rone smacked her mate on the arm, rolled her eyes. “That’s not fair. It’s not my fault I am the only mate on the entire planet.” She looked to me. “I can’t wait to have another woman here to help me hold my own with you Neanderthals. And one from Earth is even better.” Her words were laced with something akin to glee. Her eagerness was infectious because it hit me like an ion blast that while Lady Rone was excited to meet a new friend, the female about to arrive was mine.