Rogue Cyborg

1 Makarios Kronos of Rogue 5, The Colony, Fighting Pits Raging, l**t-soaked warriors faced one another in the fighting pits below. Sitting next to me in the stands, Warlord Braun pulled one hundred credits from his pocket and tossed the money to a large Prillon male seated three rows below us. “Hey, Stone. One hundred on the Atlan, Tane.” The others called him Stone due to his complete lack of facial expressions. No emotion whatsoever. I could relate. The man was more machine than male, but I was not one to judge. I was a monster, even when compared to him. Stone nodded and entered the data onto the tablet in his hand. The betting had begun hours ago, the moment the Prillon warrior bellowing in the pits issued his initial challenge. Seven warriors had answered his call. The tournament was set to begin. Eight cyborgs would fight until one remained. Eight would become four. Four, two. And the final two would fight to the end for the ultimate prize. A battle, to the death if necessary, where the winner was granted the right to claim the female Gwendolyn of Earth as his own. She was a beauty. A woman warrior. Her body was toned and strong yet curved. My fingers would twitch with the need to reach out and touch her every time she walked near me. Her gaze was unrelenting, full of challenge, a challenge many warriors here were eager to answer. Like me and Stone, she barely showed emotion. No, that wasn’t true. She showed emotion: anger, rage, fury, disdain. A female like her should smile, her eyes should show happiness. I’d give my right nut to hear her laugh. f**k, to hear her scream in pleasure. She’d most likely had none since her arrival here—s****l or otherwise—like so many of us. She’d been a soldier before she was taken by the Hive. Before she was integrated. Changed. Dark hair fell in waves down her back. It shimmered in the light and looked soft. I imagined wrapping my fist around it and holding her in place as I… Fuck. No. I stopped the thought before my c**k could respond. That way lay destruction. For both of us, even if I wanted to be the one to give her… feelings. Feelings besides the kind that roiled in your gut, churned and burned until there was nothing left. Braun clapped me on the shoulder, breaking me from my thoughts. “Why are you not in the pit, my friend?” “After you,” I quickly countered, raising my hand as if to direct him down to the central fighting area for his own turn. The Atlans here had adopted me as one of their own, but even they didn’t know my secret, the truth behind why I wasn’t going down there to beat the s**t out of those eight males. To claim what I wanted with an ache in the vicinity of my heart—and definitely my balls—that hadn’t gone away since I first laid eyes on her. Gwen. But the truth wasn’t something easily understood. It was the reason I could never dare take a mate for my own. And true, my ancestral world of Forsia, and Braun’s planet, Atlan, were considered pseudo-cousins, orbiting in neighboring sectors of space, but I wasn’t truly—or completely—Forsian. No, I was born on Rogue 5, making me the ruthless combination of part Hyperion animal and Forsian warrior. I might look similar in size to Braun and other Atlans, but that was where the similarities ended. My Hyperion/Forsian bloodline was so rare that officially, my kind didn’t exist. As far as I knew, there were only three of us alive. All male. All unmated. All destined to die alone. Never father children. Which was a blessing. I would not wish my existence on an enemy, much less a son. The last half-breed monster on Rogue 5 who’d tried to take a mate had accidentally killed her during their official claiming. The unique venom in our bite had entered her bloodstream and she’d died in his arms, unable to separate because his mating c**k had grown within her and locked them together. Her body and her blood, infected by the poison unique to our rare mixed heritage, hadn’t been able to adapt. She’d died and he’d wasted away, destroyed from within by guilt and self-hatred. Despair. He’d known the possibility of killing her existed, but the urge to bite, to claim… to mate, had been too strong. He’d taken a chance and lost everything. No. I would never claim a mate. Never fit in. Never belong. Not on Rogue 5 among my legion, the Kronos. Not on Forsia, where I wasn’t wanted. Not here, on The Colony, among my exiled Atlan cousins. I was happier alone, on my trading vessel, wandering the stars as I’d done for most of my life. Until the traitor caused my capture by the Coalition Fleet. My chest rumbled with the usual rage and heads turned my way. A quick, slicing glance had them turning away, eyes back on the pit. Fucking traitor. When I found him… If being handed over to the f*****g Coalition hadn’t been enough, they’d had s**t for deflection shields and the entire f*****g ship had been captured by the Hive while I rotted in the brig. But the Hive didn’t care who was on board, Coalition fighters or Rogue 5 smugglers like me. We were all biological assets to be tortured and turned, assimilated into their war. Made into mindless drones. With me and a few others, they’d almost succeeded. Hell, with many, they had. We’d been the lucky ones to escape. Lucky ones to spend the rest of our existence here on The Colony, changed. Partially integrated and living in exile. Trapped. Trapped living on the same Colony base with the only female I’d ever wanted, but couldn’t have. Braun chuckled, his rumbling laughter pulling me from the darkness of my thoughts. His massive frame shook with amusement. “They are fools. They are fighting over a human female, but they know nothing of how to win her heart.” “And you do?” I asked. Braun, Tane and I were the only survivors from that Coalition ship. Three out of over two hundred. Alive, but contaminated. Our t*****e and escape bonded us as brothers, despite the fact that we came from different worlds. Everyone on The Colony assumed I was just an over-sized Atlan who maintained ruthless control, never going into beast mode. I wasn’t an Atlan. I did not lose control or transform into a beast. No, my loss of control was more intimate, but every bit as life threatening to any female unlucky enough to ride my c**k. Braun and Tane had not felt the need to enlighten the rest of the warriors here about my true origins. Only the governor and the doctors knew that I wasn’t Atlan at all, which suited me just fine. The less they knew, hells, the more they believed I could turn into a huge, raving killer at any moment, the better. Braun was smiling now, his look almost wistful. “I have watched the governor and Ryston with their mate, Rachel. I have watched Hunt and Tyran with Kristin. The Everian Hunter with the human female, Lindsey. Caroline with Rezz. I watch all of them with their human mates, and I learn.” Braun waved his hand at the eight warriors facing off in the arena, speaking among themselves, deciding on an order for battle. Rules. Ridiculous since they were all ready to kill each other for a female who had shown no interest in any male on the planet. “Gwendolyn will refuse them all. Even our brother, Tane. His victory will be empty.” “Tane will not win,” I added, referring to the fight, not gaining Gwen’s hand. “They will attempt to cripple him with their rules, refuse him the right to fight as a beast.” If a female was the prize, however, the rules would be forgotten the moment the challenge began. Apparently, Braun thought similarly and said, “A beast does not follow the rule of others. He will win.” I leaned back, assessing the warriors before us in the dirt arena. None of them were f*****g good enough for Gwen. Not one, not even Tane. I hoped Braun was right, that she would refuse them all, regardless of the victor, and hopefully before one of them died. She didn’t need to be haunted by a death match as well as the implants left in her body by the Hive. “So, my friend, if you truly watch the human females, what have you learned?” Curiosity made me ask. That was all. He gave a small grunt and I wasn’t sure if it was frustration or crankiness. “Human females like to believe they are independent. A mate must protect his Earth female without her realizing he does so.” “Why?” I asked, confused. “It is a mate’s duty and right to protect his mate.” He held up his hand. “To claim a human female, a warrior must be very careful, plan well ahead. They are fierce and fearless mates. They will charge into battle against the Hive if they feel the need to protect their mate or children. They are too brave for their small, soft bodies. Too fierce for their own good,” he practically growled. “They are fragile in body, but strong in will. They will risk too much, yet love completely. They are truly a mystery. Wild. Passionate. They need very strong, patient males to tame them.” Yes, that was the word. Tame. Gwen needed someone to tame her. Soothe her. f**k her into oblivion so all her worries were gone. “And you want to tame Gwendolyn?” I was afraid of his answer but knew the truth. All males on The Colony wanted her. Lusted after her. Craved her. Braun nodded, his gaze on the first fight beginning below. “Who would not?” Braun’s smile was all hungry male. “She is magnificent. I will f**k her until she screams my name so many times, all other words have been forgotten.” It seemed our thoughts were aligned on many things. I doubted he was the only other male to imagine f*****g her. Claiming her. Filling her tight p***y with his seed so she was marked. His and his alone. If I did it, she would most likely die. For anyone else on The Colony, she would have nothing but pleasure. Fuck. I could not deny my friend his desires. “She’s a cyborg,” I said. “A warrior. She will not be like the other human mates, the perfectly matched Interstellar Brides who came directly from Earth through the testing center instead of a Hive prison. She will be different.” I pointed out the obvious, not because I thought her anything less than perfect, but because I didn’t dare admit my interest aloud. Braun lifted a brow in disgust and looked at me. “Do you insult the female?” The growl of his beast was in his voice, the bones of his face shifting under the skin as he fought off beast mode. I shook my head. “No.” “Good. Do not.” He instantly calmed. Braun didn’t say, she’s mine, but he warned me off all the same. The monster within me rose in answer, but I held onto control with an iron fist, giving nothing away. I had no rights over the female. Never would. Nothing could change that. Better a good male, like Braun, win her than another, lesser male. I would do my best not to hate him for touching her. Braun had been through hell and back. Tortured. Survived. He deserved happiness. If not on Atlan, then here, on The Colony. The planet for outcasts and the contaminated. The forgotten and fallen warriors from the Hive war. Since Prime Nial, the ruler of Prillon Prime and commander of the Coalition Fleet, had lifted the ban on the contaminated returning to their home worlds, a few had chosen to leave The Colony and return to their old lives as best they could. The Prillons and Viken, the Trion and Everian, all could return home. But the humans here were not welcomed back on Earth with their Hive enhancements. That planet barely believed the Hive even existed. The governments wanted no proof of the merciless alien terror walking among their people. Never had I heard of leaders so afraid to speak the truth. The Atlans could not return home either, their terrifying mating fever and beast mode too unpredictable. Normally, an Atlan was damn hard to kill. Filled with Cyborg tech, they were killing machines. The risk to their people on the home world would be too great should one go into mating fever and lose control of his beast.