Vyken lay on the bed beside Danya watching her sleep. They mated for hours, repeatedly and he still wanted her again. He had never known such joy or bliss in his long life as he had found mating with his woman. His woman. She was probably the last thing he ever expected to find when he came back to Earth.

From the time he was first activated, his life had been about his duty to those who made him to fight their war against the aliens. The Federation literally owned him, and his brethren until the Humanoid Rights Coalition challenged the high council’s interpretation of the laws against slavery. They knew their treatment of the cyborgs was not technically legal, but that didn’t stop them from treating them as property.

By the time they had been declared free beings, the war was almost over. Vyken had spent his whole life following orders, towing the line, longing for the same rights of natural born humans to exist in the Federation and to explore beyond its borders. Once the truce had been settled the cyborgs had officially been freed. Free to do what?

They had spent their whole lives as warriors following orders. That was what they were made for.  Vyken went to Admiral Gregor as he lay in hospice for the last days of his life, a naturally born human he had come to respect in his days of service. Gregor had known the cyborgs would be freed and told him that the Federation still needed their services more than ever with so many worlds devastated by the war.

Earth had gotten the worst of it. The Mesaarkans had systematically destroyed all the major cities of the world and the smaller ones as well. They had turned the entire planet into a holocaust. Admiral Gregor asked, rather than ordered, Vyken to return to Earth and help Jacob Black build the Enclave from the cyborg facility south of what used to be Chicago.  For this and for their decades of service, the Starfire Nemesis was given to Vyken and his brothers to fight a different battle. Star the AI would guide them and provide them the knowledge to carry out the mission.

Throughout his military career, Vyken had been groomed to lead cyborgs in raining death to the Mesaarkans. He had done his job well with thousands of kills to his credit along with his brothers. Killing had been his way of life. Now his life was pointed in a different direction---rebuilding and restoring order at the place where he was born.

They had the technology to prolong the Admiral’s life, but after one hundred forty- seven years he was ready to have it end. Vyken was there at the end. He didn’t want to see him die. He had already seen too many humanoids die, and the Admiral was his friend and maybe a father figure as well. Vyken had accepted the request as though it were an order. It gave him purpose and direction, and he felt glad he could grant Gregor’s last wish.

And it brought him to Danya. He had the admiral to thank for that in part.  Vyken wondered if Gregor knew this could happen. Perhaps, he only suspected, but he knew Vyken well enough to know he would need direction as the war was finally ending. He didn’t think he would stay here forever, but he would stay long enough to set everything in motion for the Enclave.

Danya stirred and opened her eyes to find Vyken watching her. He smiled at her, and she smiled back as he drew his fingertips across her cheek. She put her hand over his and kissed his palm. The seed of love had been planted. Vyken had taken her to heights of passion she had never known as their bodies were melded together by something more fundamental than lust. She felt as if together they made up two halves of a whole, and now their destinies were inextricably entwined.

“Did you rest well, my mate?” Vyken asked.

“Better than I have in a long time,” she said softly. “I’m sure it was because you held me in your arms until I fell asleep.”

“And long afterward.” He leaned down and kissed her temple.

“I knew I was completely safe and could relax,” she said.

Vyken shifted so he could pull her into his arms and press her delightful naked body against him. There was no hiding his full arousal as he deliberately pressed it against her mons.

“Again?” she said with a little catch in her breath, and she raised one leg over his hip to press her pussy against his cock. She was already wet for him

That was all the encouragement he needed to roll her on her back and sheath his shaft inside her. “Ah, Vyken,” she moaned and rubbed the taut muscles of his back as he lay on top of her. She could tell by his expression that it felt just as good to him.

Vyken held her gaze. Even though he didn’t know what she was thinking, her eyes were openly admiring in a way that seemed to reach into his soul. That she was his, made her the most attractive woman in the world, certainly his world. After he’d looked his fill, he started kissing her face and neck, seeming intent on planting kisses on every inch. He loved her taste and her scent. Finally, his lips found her hers, and he tasted her inner recesses.

Danya arched her back and rubbed her breasts against his chest, liking the weight of him pressing down on her. He possessed her completely, and she embraced that possession knowing he was also possessed by her.

Vyken finally began thrusting in and out of her as he felt her contracting around him. She loved the feel of him pounding into her as he made sure to tilt his hips so that his flesh rubbed her clit keeping her as stimulated as he was. It didn’t take long to drive them both to climax with his name on her lips as she cried out her release. Vyken’s cry was a roar and then a growl.

When they finished, he wished to linger in her arms, but it would soon be time for another excursion into the city.

“It’s all most time to go, isn’t it?” she asked, rubbing his back, still joined with him cradled between her thighs.

“Yes, but we still have time to shower off the smell of sex on us,” he grinned and kissed her lightly. “Even though they will know we have mated, there is no need to taunt them with the scent of it when they have no females.”

A few moments later he pulled out of her with a groan and rolled out of bed turning back to help her out and carried her into the shower with him. They washed each other and Vyken took special care to wash her breasts and her pussy until he made her come again. When they were blown dry, Vyken dressed then went to Danya’s cabin and brought back the rest of her clean clothing so she could dress and stow the last set in the cupboard by the bathroom door.

“Will you stay with me now that we have claimed each other?” he asked her.

“Yes, I will,” she assured him with a smile.

While he had gone down one level to retrieve her clothing, he had been in contact with his cyborgs on the status of the newbies. Vyken decided they would take three transporters out with four of the newbies each. The other eighteen would return to the cyborg facility and stand watch over the rest of the cyborgs in stasis.

In all his years serving with natural humans, Vyken had gotten a feel for body language and facial expressions of naturals. There was something however subtle about Jacob Black that made Vyken think he was not pleased that he had found the three hundred cyborgs in stasis on level three. If he didn’t know about level four, Vyken had no plans to tell him.

Surely their AI systems had a complete schematic of the facility. Perhaps he wasn’t given access to that information because he didn’t need to know. That could explain why nothing had been done convert the third level. The fourth level could only be accessed from the stairwell in that third level cyborg lab were the three hundred were left in stasis. There was an elevator that served just the fourth level at the far end of the compound as well as a stairwell. Vyken was guessing Jacob didn’t know about that one.

 

 

When Vyken and Danya reached the landing bay, Matix, Jolt, and Brekar were there with the twelve newly activated cyborgs. All were armed with ion rifles, side arms, and combat knives. Danya’s father James arrived at the landing bay with one of the men they had just rescued.

James introduced him as Todd Marsh. He was a young man in his late twenties, tall and somewhat underweight for his wiry build. Todd was hoping to find his sister who had disappeared a few weeks before.  He would accompany Brekar’s team who would be covering the area where she was last seen. Todd also wanted to help bring more people like himself to the safety of the Enclave where they could hope for a normal life.

The new cyborgs were fully briefed on their duties and the mission with instructions to protect their human liaisons with their lives.  About the only way to kill a cyborg with a bullet was a shot through the eye.  Their skulls were virtually bulletproof, and their skeletons were made of the same metal alloy as their skulls. Their nanites would repair any soft tissue injury before it could kill them. 

James had briefed Todd and showed him how to use the sidearm he’d been given, so Brekar had issued Todd one of his own.  Vyken gave the order, and they all went to their respective transports to head into old Chicago to search for people who needed rescue.  They had previously divided the city into sectors to cover on foot, and each transporter went to a different area.

Vyken could have sent Danya out with Matix and his team and remained at the enclave to help Kydel activate more cyborgs.  But, Vyken wouldn’t put his female in a potentially dangerous situation unless he was there to protect her.

He knew logically that Matix and his team were fully capable of protecting her. However, he was feeling emotions he never felt before now that they had claimed each other. The attachment he felt for her was intensely possessive. He just couldn’t make himself let her go without him. Was this love?

If so, Vyken thought it was the most frightening thing he had ever faced. The thought of her being damaged or killed terrified him like nothing before in his long life. It was not an option to refrain from claiming her. Their genetics made resistance impossible. Vyken’s attachment to her began the moment they met.

Vyken found some comfort in that he was injecting his nanocybots into her every time they mated. They would also help protect her if she were damaged, possibly even prevent death. Only, he didn’t want to test that theory. He had seen many humans including females killed and injured through his years in combat. Vyken couldn’t bear the thought of his female wounded with her blood flowing from her body.

Finally, he had to halt those thought processes, or he wouldn’t be able to function. His fears would paralyze him so he couldn’t do his job. Then he felt Danya’s hand on his arm from the seat beside him.

“Don’t worry, Vyken. I’ve lived in this city all my life, and I am better protected now than I have ever been,” she said softly.

Vyken drew in a long breath and let it out slowly as he mentally filed away his fears in his processors at the back of the queue. Looping them over and over was counterproductive.