“No.” He bellowed at her.
“Yes.” She lifted her gun, pointed it under her chin. “If you don’t go with them, I’ll shoot myself. Then I’ll be dead, and you’ll have done the honorable thing for no reason.”
“I’m not doing the honorable thing.” His frustration meshed with his anger and his fear. She was intent on killing herself and that would kill him. “You’re mine. I don’t give a frag about honor.”
“But I do miss Dad.” The female cyborg sighed. “I look forward to returning home, seeing him and Mom.”
Should I tell the medic her gun’s setting is on stun? Valor’s transmission lilted with amusement.
If you tell her that, I’ll pound you into the ground. Malice watched his tiny human. Being stunned wouldn’t end her lifespan but it would hurt her.
“Give me the gun, female.” He raised his hands slowly, careful not to spook her, seeking to be within easy reach of her, of her blasted weapon. “You made a vow. The only being who will kill you is me.”
And he would never do that.
She belonged to him.
He would damage her. Temporarily. Their next breeding would be extremely rough. But he would die before he allowed anyone, including himself, to permanently damage one hair on her head.
She was his and he would safeguard her. Closely.
Chapter Fifteen
Illona pressed the muzzle of the gun against her skin. The metal was cool. Her resolve was firm.
This was the right action to take.
The cyborgs hated her. The D Model, Strain, had wanted to kill her. The leader, Cadet, had sent the warrior back to their ship, but the female cyborg likely hated her also.
That was understandable. Humans had caused them so much pain and torment.
The cyborgs wouldn’t allow her on their vessel, and they wouldn’t rescue Malice and Valor if her warrior insisted on taking her with him. He must have known that. That was why he hadn’t mentioned her existence to them before they arrived.
Malice couldn’t stay on the planet with her. If the Humanoid Alliance apprehended him, he would die. And then she would die due to the tremendous guilt that would cause her…and due to her broken heart. She loved the big male, likely had loved him since the first moment they met.
Illona would do anything to save him.
That included discarding her honor and abandoning the ethical guidelines that had guided her throughout her lifespan.
“I’ll break my vow to you and end my lifespan if you don’t leave me here.” One of her last acts would be to shred her integrity into tiny strips of nothing. That pained her. “Don’t make me do that, Malice.”
“I won’t allow you to do that.” He held out one of his huge hands. “Give me the gun, female.”
Stars. The dominance in his voice pushed her to obey him.
She couldn’t relent. Not now. Not ever.
“Mere planet rotations ago, you wanted to kill me.” She reminded him of that earlier stance. “Go. Save yourself.” She would die happier knowing he was somewhere in the universe, free and happy.
But watching him leave, knowing she’d never see his handsome face again, never touch him, taste him, talk with him, would be the most difficult thing she’d ever done. It would break her. She’d be a fractured shell of a being.
Yet she would do that.
For him.
“Mere planet rotations ago, I did want to kill you.” He verified that hurtful truth. “Now, I want breed with you. Hard. That might repair your purely organic brain, render it fully functional again, restore your intelligence.” His eyes blazed with desire and anger and frustration, the combination thrilling her. “Because you’re not behaving logically, Medic. You belong to me and I won’t part with you. Ever. Whether you’re alive or dead or in between those two states like those decaying beings we confronted in the lab, you will be with me. Always. Accept that and give me your fraggin’ gun.”
Fuck. He would remain by her side even if she was a corpse. She stared at her male. “You’re not behaving logically either.”
“And whose fault is that?” He stepped so close his body armor-clad chest flattened her jacket-and flight suit-covered chest. “You stress my blasted processors with your scent, your touch, your constant lack of concern for your lifespan.”
She tilted her head back and gazed up, up, up at him. “Then leave me here. Go with your brethren. Find peace and happiness and—”
“I am not leaving you.” He roared at her, the ferocity of his response blowing hot over her. “You are mine.”
“We process that.” The female cyborg, Cadet, sounded as aggravated. “She’s yours. You love her. You’ve communicated that to us and to her multiple times.” She waved her hands in the air. “Can we please leave now before the Humanoid Alliance arrives and blows us all to pieces?”
“I’m not leaving without her.” Malice glared at the female.
He didn’t say he didn’t love her. Illona blinked. Did that mean he did care for her in that way?
“Your medic can come with us.” Cadet rolled her eyes. “But she stays away from the bridge. Strain is newly freed. He can’t yet tolerate the presence of humans.”
Illona shifted her gaze to the female, unable to trust her hearing. “I can come with you?”
Malice, her hardheaded cyborg, took advantage of her distraction and snatched the gun from her hands, stuffed the weapon into one of his empty holsters. “She gave her permission.” He grabbed Illona’s waist and hefted her like a container of refuse over his right shoulder. “We’re going with them.” He strapped one of his arms across her legs. “Valor?”
“I’ll cover your backs.” The E Model watched the others. His hands rested on the handles of two of his guns. “Go ahead.”
“There’s no need to cover anyone’s back.” Cadet glowered at him. “No one is in danger.”
Illona’s brain spun as Malice conveyed her toward the ship. No one was in danger. All three of them were leaving. She was going with them. “But-but I’m human.”
The cyborgs hated her kind. Didn’t they?
“My mom is human also.” Cadet fell into place behind them.
Valor followed her. He was barely visible behind the big C Model female.
“My issue wasn’t with you being human. It was because your warrior—” Cadet flung a dark look at Malice. “—didn’t inform me of your presence and he assumed I’d transport anyone he decided to bring with him. This is our second pickup. Newly freed cyborgs don’t like sharing chambers with humans. And the ship has limited space.”
Malice grunted at her.
It had all been a big misunderstanding on their part, and they should apologize. Her warrior, as Cadet referred to him, was unlikely to do that.
“Malice didn’t know he was taking me with him.” Illona offered an explanation for his high-handed actions. “He was planning to kill me.”
“Then he’s a fool.” Cadet shook her head.
Malice growled.
Illona patted his body armor-clad back, trying to calm him. “He’s not a fool.” She defended her male.