Chasing Mayhem (23 page)

“She’s so young,” Imee murmured. “And she has no family.”

“She has no home planet either.” Although Mayhem enjoyed being free, transversing the galaxy with his female, he knew had a planet, the cyborg Homeland, if he ever desired to return to it. This offspring didn’t have that option. “The Humanoid Alliance blew up Tau Ceti.”

The female whimpered.

“Those bastards.” Imee’s face darkened. “Loa, have you stolen a ship yet?”

“I tried but…” The offspring held up her right arm. Bloodstained fabric was wrapped around her tiny biceps.

Mayhem tracked the source of Loa’s transmission. “She’s utilizing a private viewscreen.”

“A private viewscreen.” His female plunked her ass in her seat and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Did the Humanoid Alliance at least give you a gun before they dropped you off?”

Loa shook her head. “They were supposed to do that but the biggest warrior laughed and said I wouldn’t last long enough to use it. I crafted this.” She showed them a piece of metal shaped in the form of a dagger.

It served no functionality. The edges were dull. The Tau Cetian offspring didn’t have the strength to kill any being with that weapon.

Anger coiled around Mayhem’s stomach. The Humanoid Alliance had tortured and tormented him and his fellow cyborgs but at least they had been given the tools to complete their missions.

The Retrievers, including his Imee, had been assigned tasks that seasoned warriors would have found daunting and they had been given no training, no weapons, no ships, no protective body armor.

His female had faced that challenge at twelve solar cycles. Loa had even less solar cycles.

“You
are
the best warrior, my female,” he conceded, his respect for his Imee growing even more.

She cast a questioning glance at him.

“She
is
the best.” Loa enthusiastically agreed with his declaration. “Every Retriever knows about RET56927. They told me how she has only missed quota once in the many,
many
solar cycles she’s been retrieving, that she hunts the most violent rebels, beings no other Retriever would dare to approach. The entire Galaxy fears her.”

“Great.” His female’s lips twisted. “Everyone, including my Retriever sisters, fears me.”

“The entire Galaxy respects her,” Mayhem amended. He didn’t fear her and he doubted her Retriever sisters found her terrifying. “I saw her kill two Humanoid Alliance warriors at the same time.” He fed Loa’s hero worship of his female.

“Be silent.” Imee was adorably embarrassed.

“I would have liked to have seen that.” Loa’s eyes shone. “That must have taken extreme skill.”

Pink pigment crept up his female’s neck. “I had a good mentor.”

“I wish I had a mentor.” The Tau Cetian offspring sighed.

“I’m not mentoring you,” Imee muttered.

Mayhem’s grin widened. He didn’t believe his female. “If we continue at our ship’s current velocity, it will take us less than a planet rotation to reach Loa’s transmission location.”

Imee glowered at him. “What part of ‘I’m not mentoring her’ didn’t you understand, warrior?”

“My processors are functioning.” He changed their ship’s course to the Tau Cetian offspring’s current coordinates. “I understood all of it. We’ll arrive shortly after sunrise.”

“She’s your responsibility.” His female said that like it was a bad thing.

And normally he would consider responsibility in that light but he’d share this one with his female. Imee would relent, train Loa as Kralj trained her.

“I’ll try to keep this Tau Cetian alive,” he joked.

Loa made a small hurting sound and guilt swept over Mayhem. He hadn’t meant to cause her more emotional damage.

Imee blew out her breath, expressing her aggravation with him. “My male was teasing, Loa.” She glared at him. “He won’t hurt you.” Her gaze returned to the small female. “Stay near your present location. We’re arriving shortly after sunrise. Don’t get yourself killed before then.”

Loa’s face lit up. She opened her mouth.

Imee ended the transmission. 

“She was going to thank you, my female.” Mayhem chuckled. “If she thought you were the best being in the galaxy previously, she really--”

“Be silent.” Imee slid onto his lap, her loving actions belying her harsh command. “I should dump her at the Refuge, make Kralj take care of her.”

“But you won’t.” Mayhem dragged his mouth over her neck, tasting salt and female.

“But I won’t.” She angled her head so he could reach more of her skin. “Eight solar cycles. Can you believe it?”

“There’s no reason to question that spec.”

“She must be scared.” Imee’s grip on his shoulders tightened. “Sad, lost, lonely.”

His female was expressing the emotions she’d once felt. “We’ll be with her soon.” He sucked on her chin. “She’ll learn from the best warrior in the galaxy.”

“She’s learning from
you
.”

“Exactly.” He laughed.

“You’re not the best warrior.” Imee smacked his body armor. “You admitted that I was. I heard you.”

“Did you?” Mayhem pulled on her dainty little earlobes. “Is your auditory system functioning properly?” He kissed first one, then the other. “Can you hear me, my female?”

“Can I not?” Her eyes sparkled with humor. “She’ll discover you’re a cyborg.”

That didn’t concern him. “She won’t get the opportunity to tell any beings. I don’t plan to allow her out of my sight.”

“You shouldn’t allow her out of your sight. Did you see that dagger she made?” Imee snorted. “She has even fewer survival skills than I had that first solar cycle.”

“You were inept.” He couldn’t resist taunting his female.

“I was.” To his surprise, she agreed with him. “I don’t know what I would have done if Kralj hadn’t mentored me.”

He owed the male warrior his gratitude. Kralj had kept Imee alive and that had allowed Mayhem to meet her, to love her. “Solar cycles from now, Loa will make the same statement about you.”

“Yeah.” Imee didn’t deny that. She must have accepted that she would be mentoring the female offspring.

Mayhem held his female, stroking her lush form while he gazed through the main viewscreen at the distant suns, specks of bright color breaking up the blackness of space.

Imee snuggled into his muscles, her faraway expression telling him that she was lost in her thoughts and in her memories. He couldn’t process what they were. His female was a being of mystery. It would take a long cyborg lifespan to learn all of her secrets.

“Hunting the Commander will have to wait.” Imee finally broke the silence. “It looks like our first target will be a Tau Cetian female.”

“We’ll apprehend her at sunrise.”

“Our first target isn’t Loa.” His female rolled her eyes. “That’s a straightforward pickup, not a hunt. We have to hunt the other one.”

“The other one?” He couldn’t follow his female’s logic.

“We overheard those two Humanoid Alliance warriors talking in the station,” she explained. “They said they added two Tau Cetians Retrievers to our ranks.”

And his female worried about this second Tau Cetian Retriever, a being she had never met, had never spoken to.

“She didn’t join the transmission.” Mayhem hoped, for Imee’s sake, she wasn’t dead.

“She likely didn’t know how to use a private viewscreen. That means she’s even more useless than Loa is. I suspect she has fewer solar cycles too,” his female grumbled. “I suppose you’ll want us to train this missing Retriever also.”

His female wanted to train both Tau Cetian offspring. Mayhem considered the logistics of acquiring additional passengers. There was one sleeping chamber and three females. He’d be sharing Imee’s chamber. “We require a larger ship.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Eventually, we’ll exchange this ship for a larger one. Switching ships might throw the cyborgs off our trail.” Imee had already planned for that future. “A Humanoid Alliance battle station would be a great place to do that. The ships would be more advanced and, if your brethren track us there, they might kill every being on board.” She liked that violent and bloody possibility.

“It
would
cause chaos.” Mayhem nodded. “That’s the future. We add an extra passenger at sunrise.”

They would add one scared little girl. Loa didn’t have any family, any skills, any home to return to. Those Humanoid Alliance bastards hadn’t even given her a gun. If she were left on her own, she’d die.

Imee wouldn’t allow that to happen.

“We’ll convert the holding chambers into sleeping chambers.” It wouldn’t be comfortable, not at first, but she doubted the females were enjoying luxurious chambers now.

At least, they would be safe and they wouldn’t be alone.

“Those chambers are small, if I recall correctly, and I
always
recall correctly.” Mayhem rose to his feet, cradling Imee in his arms. “We should test how suitable they are for the females’ accommodations.”

“The holding chambers require sleeping supports.” She kicked her feet, offering a token protest, as he carried her off the bridge, through the corridors.

“And not as many restraints.” His eyes gleamed.

She became more nervous and more excited, her pussy wetting in anticipation. “You’ll be the warrior wearing those restraints. Not I.”

“No restraints can hold me.” He flexed his muscles, his biceps bulging. “Nothing will ever keep me from you, my female.”

He was a brute, wild, powerful, dominant, and he was hers. They entered the largest holding chamber, the space she’d assigned to him many planet rotations ago.

The doors shut behind them. The locks automatically slid into place.

Mayhem could unlock them. He was a cyborg, skilled with the system.

Imee couldn’t open the doors. She was trapped, at the mercy of her male.

Her nipples tightened, pressing against her leather breast covering.

“You like this game.” Mayhem grinned, setting her on her feet.

“No.” She lied out of habit. She liked all the games he played.

Her foolish warrior laughed as he stripped, flinging his body armor to the floor, revealing tanned skin and defined muscle, broad shoulders, and his hard cock.

Imee shamelessly gawked at her male, savoring the ripple of his abs, the definition in his thighs. “What are the rules?” She touched the hilts of her daggers. Were they battling with weapons or with their bare hands?

“Restrain me and you can make the rules.” He removed his boots and stood before her, proudly naked and fully erect.

She glanced at the restraints attached to the far wall. All she had to do was slip his hands into them. That task didn’t seem very difficult but she’d learned that appearances were often deceiving, especially when her cyborg was involved.

His physical form was proof of that. He resembled a human male yet he was much, much more.

Mayhem leaned against that wall, positioning his arms near the restraints. He was taunting her, making the challenge look easy to accomplish, like something a child could do.

She wasn’t a child and she also wasn’t lacking in intelligence.

Imee sensed a trap.

“Are you scared?” He lifted his eyebrows.

He was deliberately provoking her, pushing her to rush at him, to make a mistake.

She knew that yet she couldn’t ignore him.

“I’m not scared.” Not of him. She didn’t want to lose and that’s what she’d do if she rushed in.

“Ah.” He nodded. “You don’t believe you can restrain me. I must have been wrong when I said you were the best warrior in the galaxy.”

“I
am
the best warrior in the galaxy.”

“Yet here I am.” Mayhem waved his arms. “Unrestrained.”

A female could only take so much taunting. “You won’t be free for long.”

Imee flung herself forward, reaching for the restraint by his left arm.

Mayhem was a cyborg, faster, stronger. He flipped her against the wall.

Her shoulders hit the hard surface and she gasped. Cool metal encircled her wrists, stretching her arms wide.

“Let me go.” She pulled on the restraints. They held, designed to hold much larger beings, the most violent of rebels.

“Never.” Mayhem captured one of her kicking feet, fastened her ankle to the wall, and then did the same with her other foot. Her legs were spread wide. “I’ll never let you go.”

His vow coiled around her heart. He’d never leave her. That was an assurance she needed to hear again and again, an assurance she was starting to believe.

Mayhem removed one of the daggers from her boots. Light gleamed off the sharp blade.

“
Don’t
ruin my garments.” She wiggled.

“If you wanted them to stay in one piece, you should have removed them.” He sliced through the white leather, shredding her breast and her ass coverings, the blade skimming excitingly close to her fragile skin.

The weight of her weapons pulled the strips of leather downward. Cool air wafted over her thighs, stomach, breasts.

He stepped backward and studied her. She lifted her chin, aware that all of her was exposed to his gaze. He could see her taut nipples, the scars on her stomach, the wetness of her pussy lips.

“Are you happy now?” Imee challenged him.

“Happiness isn’t what I’m feeling.” He ran his hands over his rigid cock. The cyborg was as naked as she was and as aroused, pre-cum forming on his tip.

He’d taste good. She glided her tongue along her bottom lip. His nanocybotics would fizz and pop, stimulating her even more.

“None of that.” His voice lowered to a growl, his eyes black with desire. “I’m not your target, Retriever. You’re mine.”

She might be restrained but she had power. “You’ve managed to capture me. You’ll never subdue me.” Imee undulated against the wall, making the curves he found so entrancing move. “I’m in control now and always.”

“You’re so fraggin’ fierce.” Mayhem leaned toward her, licking, nibbling, kissing between her breasts, squeezing her curves against his face. She arched her back, giving them both more delicious contact.

He murmured his appreciation and dragged his mouth over her stomach, tonguing every scar, every blemish, worshipping her. And that was how she felt—cherished, adored.