Page 16

Fracture gets Sefina and Sythius to work, repairing the BoltBurner’s guns. It’s a bad idea to attempt to steal from an outpost without some form of armament.

I hike down the ramp with my rifle ready, scanning the forest around us. We won’t get far if we don’t have defensive capabilities.

I circle the edge of the meadow and check the local area for shimmering welvir shadows and pulsing humanoid forms. When I’ve looped the ship and confirmed the land is clear, I climb onto the tallest boulder and use it to launch me up to the nearest aileron of the ship, then crawl my way to the top so I can give the skies a proper scan.

Sefina and Fracture open a panel in the side of the ship and haul out a rotating assembly for large caliber rounds like missiles. She shakes her head, and it makes me wonder what they’re saying. I tune my hearing to them and isolate the other noises of the forest for a moment.

“No surprise, they removed the internal guide bracket. It’s made of a special metal that gets a lot of money on the black market. Replaced it with a bulky spine hinge.”

Sefina reaches inside and pries the piece out. “It’s worn out because the metal’s too soft. Damn junkers. I think I saw replacements in one of the crates in the hallway.”

“Going to need one over here, too!”

Sythius calls out from the other side of the ship.

“Well, if you two can fix those, I’ll get working on the pulseguns.”

Fracture climbs up onto the roof with me. “Anything?”

I do a quick scan to confirm. “No one has followed us that I can sense.”

Fracture nods. “This repair will take six minutes. We cannot fly when this hatch is open.”

“Understood.”

I patrol the roof and check the forest while Fracture opens up and repairs whatever wiring is busted inside.

Sefina returns with a part, climbs onto the lower aileron, and reaches inside the assembly, bolting in the replacement. “We’re going to have to keep changing these every two thousand rounds or so.”

“Copy,”

Fracture replies.

I find myself stuck, watching Sefina as she works. She is beautiful in the sunlight. The taste of her lingers on my tongue. She has a surprisingly delicate flavor that I’m already addicted to, and I want more.

She stills, then slowly leans around the open panel, peeking up at me with one eye. Sefina blushes, smiles, and goes back to work.

She seems happier. I did something good for once.

Fracture closes the hatch.

Fracture>>Menace: Almost done. The rest is under the ship. Ground patrol?

Menace>>Fracture: Copy.

He slides off the aft section toward the tail thrusters. I jump over the wings to the ground near the nose. Fracture speaks with Sythius as they work through a gun in the belly. Sefina walks up the ramp, so I slink into the edge of the trees and circle the ship somewhere I feel more comfortable.

Many days, I miss being out among nature on a planet. I know many of my Relic brothers prefer it, too. Rogues like Fracture are more comfortable in the sky and in space.

I run my fingers over a nearby fern as I pass. They built me to be an animal, to defend terran battlefields. Two years in Hyperion’s sorting plant was almost more difficult than six months in Quris’ lab.

Brush rustles behind me.

I whip around to see the bushes shift. But when I scan the area, leading with my rifle, I can’t see any shimmer of life.

What the heck?

I sniff the air, but my nose is still filled with the lush musk of Sefina’s delicate flesh. I ease silently toward the movement, stepping around the bush. But there’s nothing anywhere I can see in the vicinity.

When I turn around, I find Sefina grinning darkly at me. She’s a surprisingly sneaky thing.

Sefina walks up to me, rests a finger on my lips, and leans against me, pushing.

I stagger back a step and bump into a tree. “What is it, Sefi?”

“Hush.”

She waggles her dark brows. “We’ve only got a few minutes.”

Her hand glides down the front of my pants and over the erection that strains at her touch. My ultromotor lurches into a sprint as my need for release grows to maddening levels. I’m not going to be able to stop it this time.

“Sefi… This isn’t a good idea. I need to be on patrol, and I can’t think when you touch me.”

“So patrol.”

Sefina unbuckles my weapons harness, then my pants.

I try to reach down and stop her, but she thrusts a hand inside my harness to the off switch in my side.

“Do not try me, Menace.”

Sefina’s soft fingertip massages little circles over the button that only human fingers fit inside. Solcrue have to use a tool to shut us down. Still, a breath of panic fills me.

“You keep doing your job,”

she whispers with a sultry voice as she cranes up and kisses my chin. “Let me do what I want to do for you. You took care of me. I want to return the favor, but I’m not strong enough to fight you. You have to let me. Please let me.”

I’m nearly hyperventilating from the clash of fear and surging desire for her. I lift my hands, even though I’m apprehensive of what she has planned. I just don’t want her to switch me off. It is a horrible feeling.

“Good.”

Sefina withdraws her hand, and I instantly relax.

She points up at me. “Patrol.”

I swallow to strengthen my voice. “Yes, ma’am.”

I keep my eyes on the edges of the forest around the ship as she unbuckles my tactical pants and eases the flaps open, draws my underwear down, and frees my cock.

Her hot breath falls over my synthflesh, making me stiffen to near-painful levels. I spread my feet and blink through the unfamiliar sensations as she strokes my titanhood with strong, capable hands.

Over the top of the bushes, I check on Sythius and Fracture to make sure we won’t be found. They’re still busy under the BoltBurner.

When Sefina’s plush, wet mouth slides over my tip and down my shaft, the rush of scintillating sensations makes me strain against a moan of pleasure. I look up at the blue sky, disbelieving that, after all this pain and misery, I could find anything I could ever want to feel again. But I never want moments with Sefina to end.

Her luscious tongue glides over my rigid length as she withdraws and then bobs back down again, a push and pull that rockets me into an erotic pressure I can’t slow or stop from building.

“Fuck, Sefi,”

I rasp. “I can’t control it.”

She cups my balls with a warm hand and takes me deeper into her mouth until my tip presses into the back of her throat. A light sensation spreads through my chest and makes my vision blur. My ultro doubles its pace as heat floods my crotch. “Sefi—”

She moans her encouragement. The vibrations of her throat down my shaft and the way she sucks on me launch me into a mess of quivering thrusts I can’t rein in. But stars, do I try. I don’t want to hurt her, but some instincts I just can’t fight.

I strain to catch my breath as she milks me, drinking me down as my balls tighten and release my seed into her with encouragement from her hands.

When I’m spent, Sefina swirls her tongue around my cock in admiration, licks me clean, then tucks me back into my pants.

Her affection has me breathless and at a loss for words.

She giggles as she straightens and looks up at me.

I finally find my tongue again. “It feels unfair now.”

Sefina turns around to check the BoltBurner and leans back against me, pressing her plump ass against my hips.

Sythius and Fracture are still working.

She takes my hand and slides it inside the front of her belt. When I dip a finger into the nectar of her pussy and she arches into me, desire takes control.

I crush her against my hardening shaft and push two fingers deeper into her, imagining it’s my cock. Sefina gasps and melts against my body. Her core clenches around me in shuddering waves. I can’t believe how strong she is or how close she was to her own climax after pleasuring me.

When she’s still again, she smiles up at me, then curls her lips inward and motions for silence again. Sefina slips from my grasp and slinks off into the trees.

My chest swells with pride. I’ve found a female as stealth-capable and sexually starved as I am.

I lick the taste of her from my fingers and savor her musk and the way it imprints in my core as I watch her leave, eager to find another moment for us to be together.

“Where did you go?”

Sythius asks. “We’re ready to leave.”

“Sorry, I had to pee,”

Sefina says, entering the meadow from another area of the trees, a distraction tactic I admire.

“You’re lying. Why?”

Fracture asks.

I roll my eyes as I hike out of the woods a decent distance from her. Rogues always did pick up on human emotions better than Relics. But sometimes, they can be a bit too forward.

“Some things a woman doesn’t want to talk about, so she’ll give you a cover story so you leave her alone,”

Sefina defends.

I board the ship after Fracture, who seems satisfied by her response. Sythius stays close to Sefina as they enter. Fracture closes the ramp behind them. A milky blue film coats the windows of the ship.

Menace>>Fracture: Fixed the shields?

Fracture>>Menace: A-firm.

Sythius lowers his voice as he holds Sefina back. I glance at them in my periphery, begging him to touch her in a way I don’t like. It’s the only excuse I need to end him. I don’t trust him. Maybe that’s my fault for judging him like the full-bloods of his kind. But I haven’t met any other than Cara who I believe wholeheartedly.

He asks Sefina if she wants me.

“Are you asking because you can’t tell or because of your own insecurities?”

He sways. “So that’s a yes.”

“Yes. Sythius. I’m sorry, but Solcrue have only ever used me. I just can’t find them attractive.”

“I hate being judged like them. They’ve never done me any favors. I’m not like them.”

He slinks a step away from her. “I just thought because we survived so much shit together…”

“You’re not like them anymore,”

she says. “But you were to me. Let’s just focus on this mission and not regress, yeah?”

“So there’s really no chance?”

“Fighting to survive only to be betrayed kind of makes me unable to trust you.”

Sefina crosses her arms. “But I learned that trick thanks to you. Just don’t forget that you still need to find those people you’ll defend and be loyal to no matter what.

“You have to have something to orient yourself to that stays in your heart despite all the shit. When you find that, tell me. I’d love to know what it is.”

“Because you don’t think I’m capable?”

Fracture gets us in the air and heads for the outpost.

Sefina steadies herself against a storage compartment. “I believe everyone is capable of everything, but they have to make the change in their minds. It comes down to priorities, Sythius.

“Wanting something is one thing. Needing something is another. If you can’t stick with it, you didn’t really want it or need it. When you betrayed me, you prioritized your hide over our team, over me. Prove to me you’re not going to be flighty, and we can be friends again. I do want that.”

Sythius grabs a frame rail as the ship tilts. They look comfortable with the ship’s movements, and I realize how much time they have both likely spent in space.

I’m jealous of Sythius for spending so much time with her, and I hate him for not making better use of it.

“How can anyone really risk their life for another?”

Sythius asks.

“Because of love,”

she says. “Because we care enough to accept that our end may be what it takes to give the soul that matters most to us a chance to continue, to maybe find love and be happy again. When we pick the right ones to love, they’ll do the same for us. That’s how we build a team that succeeds together so we never have to fear death or being alone. It’s loyalty.”

“And faith,”

Sythius remarks.

“Yes.”

“I don’t have any of that. No one has ever fought to protect me.”

Sefina rests a hand on his shoulder, and it irks me enough I take a step toward them. Both Sefina and Sythius look down the flight deck at me.

“Sometimes,”

she says, turning back to him. “We have to make the first move. It’s a gesture of goodwill that shows others like us they’re not alone. That’s how we find each other in the chaos and build a resilient force.”

“Spoken like a true sentinel,”

Fracture says beside me.

Menace>>Fracture: You speak like you know them personally.

Fracture>>Menace: I was on assignment to replace Shield, the Rogue Brother assigned to the rebel camp Sefina’s family protected. He sent me an update before he left with the ship.

Menace>>Fracture: Did they make it?

Fracture>>Menace: To Diemos. That is where the rebellion hid for many years, where Cara is from, yes?

I click back twice.

Sefina comes up to me and leans against me where I sit in the co-pilot’s seat, an open display of affection that Fracture notices before returning his attention to the navigation and the forested hills ahead of us.

Sythius takes a seat on the bench behind us.

I don’t want him getting any ideas and wrap an arm around Sefina’s waist, drawing her close in an act of possession that I hope he sees.

She is mine. No other male will ever touch her or hurt her again. It’s not just a promise to Sefina. It’s a promise to her mother. I will give my life over and over if that’s what it takes to keep Sefina safe. I won’t fail again.