Bonus Excerpt

Fated For The Cyborg Officer (Celestial Mates series/Cybernetic Hearts #3)

PROLOGUE

The cyborg general DVS84, better known as Davis to his mate, Carrie, sat at his desk. His attention should be focused on the myriad tasks before him, but he was finding it difficult to concentrate on anything after his talk with Carrie that morning. She had blindsided him with her news, though he was surprised he hadn’t noticed in retrospect. His ability to detect her heart rate and temperature changes should have told him, though when he had scanned her after knowing her information, he hadn’t yet been able to pick up a second heartbeat. That meant she had to be less than six weeks pregnant.

Pregnant. Just the word left him feeling disoriented, and he couldn’t quite bring himself to imagine how her pregnancy would progress and ultimately culminate in a child. It wasn’t that he didn’t want a child with Carrie, but the world they lived in was no place to bring babies into, which was why the cyborgs had an embargo on reproduction. Carrie hadn’t been implanted with a chip to halt her ovulation, but Davis had one that should’ve prevented him from sperm production. He would have to ask OWN about a possible malfunction later, once he had absorbed the news and could talk about it with the others.

As it was, he’d barely stumbled through the conversation with Carrie. He’d seen the fear in her eyes, and it had been his top priority to soothe that away. He thought he had left her feeling optimistic, but he himself hadn’t yet decided how he felt. The logistics were something he could focus on though. Trying to sort out the practical points to address and save the emotional consideration for later. Yes, that sounded like a good plan.

His wrist beeped, and Davis opened the communiqué. He didn’t know whether to curse or thank the little peach alien’s face that appeared on his screen. “I thought I’d never hear from you again, Freydon Rote.”

It was quickly obvious that Rote had recorded a message to send him. “General Davis, I need your assistance facilitating the next match. Please assign RVN99 as the next liaison to the humans. Have her work with the leader of the enclave to find out who’s opposed to your treaty. Instead of giving that duty to MX409, please assign him to focus on the mining and structural problems. Leith will assign him the proper partner. Thank you for your cooperation, General.” The alien’s visage hadn’t changed to form a mouth part, but now the eyes sparkled, and lips appeared in the gelatinous peach blob. “And congratulations on your impending fatherhood.”

That was the end of the message, and Davis replayed it twice before clearing the screen. He leaned back in his chair, considering the Celestial Mates agent’s request. Perhaps he should be reluctant to assist Freydon Rote, but the agent had given him no reason not to trust him. The little peach alien had delivered everything he had promised Davis—a mate, and possibly a viable way to end the war through reconciliation with the humans.

His sole reservation wasn’t because Freydon Rote had asked him to send another cyborg. It was because of the cyborg Rote had chosen. RVN99, or Raven as she preferred to be called thanks to Carrie, wasn’t his first choice for this type of assignment. He preferred to keep her on safer tasks. She was young by cyborg standards, and she had been a young human when she had been changed to a cyborg.

It wasn’t her age that held him back though. Something had gone wrong in her conversion process, and while the flaw made her tenderhearted and empathetic, it had left her ill-equipped to be a cyborg soldier. Either she had not retained much training from her human military experience, or she had never gained it to start with, but either way, she wasn’t a soldier he liked to send into battle.

While he didn’t anticipate Raven having to fight the synthetics if she went to the human enclave, he was concerned about humans turning against her. After all, one of the humans had overloaded the environmental controls to cause an explosion last time they had been at the enclave. Even more concerning was Raven’s delicate feelings. He didn’t want her to be hurt by the snubs she was sure to receive from the humans.

Davis let out a sigh of frustration, wishing Rote had simply communicated directly rather than sending a recording, because he would have liked clarification. For one thing, was he sending Raven to meet her potential match, or was it simply to help other pieces fall into place so someone else could meet their match? If he was certain he was sending her to find her mate, he’d have fewer reservations.

In the end, what choice was there? Of course he could refuse to cooperate with the Celestial Mates agent, but he might be denying Raven or MX409 a chance at meeting their mates. He didn’t want to risk that, not after finding such happiness with Carrie. With another sigh, he summoned MX and Raven via their wrist comms and studiously kept his thoughts from Carrie and her unexpected news as he waited for them to arrive.

They arrived almost simultaneously, with MX stepping through his door only two seconds before Raven entered as well. He gestured to the seats in front of his desk so that they would sit down before leaning forward to look at both of them intently for a moment. “I have new assignments for you. MX, I’d like you to go to the enclave and ask Leith to assign you a partner for probing the mining problem and seeing what other options are available to us—either a new source of the minerals for terbium, or relocation for the enclave.”

MX hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Yes, sir.”

It was difficult to tell from his expression, since it was so closed, but he was probably not delighted with being sent back to the humans. After accidentally killing one of them when he had misread the situation, he likely felt awkward around them, and he’d never been the biggest fan of humans before they started attempts at making peace.

That was too bad, because he was the best cyborg Davis had for the position now that Freydon Rote had requested he send Raven to do the task he’d planned to assign MX.

“Why am I here, sir?”

He turned his attention to Raven, smiling slightly in response. “I have an assignment for you too. I’d like you to work with the humans at the enclave to discover who else might be opposed to the treaty and might try to sabotage peace.”

Her brown eyes widened, and her shock was evident. “You want me to do that? But…” She trailed off.

He tilted his head slightly. “Do you feel you’re not able to complete that task?” He wasn’t certain whether he wanted her to give him an answer in the affirmative or negative.

She hesitated for a moment before slowly shaking her head. “No, I think I could do it. It’s just you never send me out to do anything but look for terbium or mine.”

He shrugged, wanting to avoid the topic of why that was, since he was certain Raven remained unaware of her conversion flaw and wanted to keep it that way. “That’s where your talents lie, but I need you for this. There isn’t anyone else I trust more than you two, and MX has his own assignment.”

Technically, he trusted JSN42 the most, but the commander was back at the base and working on the cloning project with Gwen Harrison, the former leader of the human enclave. Since she was also his mate, JSN was unlikely to want to leave her and her two children, and Davis could sympathize. If someone tried to send him away from Carrie for an unknown amount of time, he’d fight the order, no matter who issued it.

Raven squared her shoulders, though she still looked uncertain. “Thank you for the opportunity, General. I won’t let you down.”

He gave her a small smile, one he hoped was laced with encouragement. “I know you won’t. Had I any doubts, I wouldn’t have selected you to start with. You can handle this.”

“Thank you, sir.” She was practically glowing now, almost vibrating with excitement at the prospects before her.

It was all Davis could do to bite back a chuckle, not wanting her to think he was mocking her enthusiasm. Her smile was just contagious. He was certain he wouldn’t be the only cyborg to miss her while she was on her new assignment. She contributed a great deal to the morale of the entire base.

“You’re dismissed then. You’ll leave tomorrow. I’ll contact Gwen and have her liaise with Leith, so he’ll be expecting you.”

They left quickly after, and he was almost sorry to see them go. Mainly because he didn’t want to dwell on thoughts of Carrie and the baby. It was impossible to avoid doing so though, and he soon realized he was excited by the prospect, though fearful for her safety and for the future world in which their child would grow up.