“Once I finish this, we’ll escape.” Greer’s words didn’t even convince herself.
She sat on the floor of the cleansing chamber. The tiles were warm under her bare ass.
The portable shade she was crafting for Nibbler rested in her lap. She’d been fine-tuning the design since their last unsuccessful escape. The current version was its fifth permutation. The miljoonasuut had eaten the first four.
She was convinced this fabrication would work, was quite pleased with its feasibility. The covering cloth square was large enough to cast a shadow over Nibbler yet small enough to fit in his cage with him. One touch would activate the spring-like mechanism. That attached to his back and would lift the shade high enough that he wouldn’t eat it, yet remain low enough to be stable.
Nibbler appeared unimpressed with it. He scurried around the stone square he was restricted to. A larger piece of fabric protected him from the overhead lights.
She tossed him a piece of fruit. He gobbled it.
“It is comfortable here.” She threaded another piece of wire through the cloth, giving the fabric more structure. “We have nourishment and beverage, shelter. No one harms us.” Dissent showed her exquisite pleasure every rest cycle. Her toes curled. “But that could change in a heartbeat.”
Dissent could die…as her father had. That prospect filled her with sorrow.
“I shouldn’t become attached to him.” She touched the gun she’d set beside her, the gun he’d given her…to keep, the gun he had engraved with her name so no one could ever doubt it was hers. “He owns us, both of us. Some slaves believe they care for their masters but they don’t. Thinking that merely makes their servitude palpable for them.”
Nibbler rattled his exoskeleton.
She lobbed a nourishment bar in his direction. He chased it, devouring it in less than a heartbeat.
“You, however, I can care for.” She smiled at the baby creature.
Nibbler was her company during the sunlight shifts, and they’d formed a bond. He no longer tried to eat her. She fed him.
They were both confined, were both owned by Dissent. Although her cyborg claimed he wasn’t their master. She drifted her fingers over her beautiful gun. And he’d given her a weapon.
She’d never heard of a slave who possessed a gun.
“I should practice.” She set the portable shade aside. “I’ll finish this fabrication next planet rotation.” That was what she had said last planet rotation and the planet rotation before that. Thankfully, Nibbler didn’t understand the universal language and didn’t point that irregularity out to her. “Our cyborg will expect my shooting to have improved.”
It had done that. Her fingers curved around the gun’s handle. She now hit everything she aimed at. Pride expanded her chest. She rose to her feet, padded into the main chamber.
The targets remained on the wall. She lifted the gun, aimed, fired. The burst of energy struck exactly where she wanted it to strike.
A heady sense of power filled her.
“I’m a great shot, Nibbler.” She yelled that to the miljoonasuut. “I can defend both of us.”
The doors opened. Dissent appeared and her heart squeezed. Her cyborg was so fuckin’ handsome and large and built.
“You are a great shot…for a human.” He carried a brightly colored container. “But you require more practice. That target isn’t moving.”
“I could stun you.” She’d promised to do that upon his return.
He winced. “I’ve already been stunned once this planet rotation. I prefer not to repeat that experience.”
He’d been stunned? She stared at her cyborg. He’d given her the impression he was hard to hit.
“Was it Zloy?” She paused, considering their possible enemies. “Or a crony of his?”
She would hunt them down…for daring to shoot her cyborg. Her grip tightened on her weapon.
“It was neither of those beings.” Dissent shook his head. “A rebel cyborg stunned me. Truth and I were ambushed when we entered a structure.”
The enemy had been his own kind, someone with equivalent skills and speed, someone who knew his weaknesses. “You could have been killed.”
And that would have devastated her…because she, foolish female that she was, cared for him.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
“I have to escape.” She aimed her gun at him. “I can’t do this.”
She couldn’t lose him, wouldn’t be passed to another master. After knowing his kindness, his caring, his respect, she wouldn’t survive it.
“Lower your gun, Greer.” Her cyborg approached her, acting not at all concerned about the weapon in her hands. “You don’t have to escape. I’ve already given you authorization to open the doors. You now have the ability to leave at any time.”
“You’re freeing me?” Part of her was relieved. Part of her was saddened by that news.
She didn’t want to leave. Not yet. And she wanted him to want her.
“You’ve been free since the moment we met.” Dissent set the brightly colored container on the floor. “I’ve been protecting you.” He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her tight against his chest. The bulge in his body armor eased one of her fears. Her cyborg still desired her. “The structure is being watched.”
She struggled for a moment, offering him some semblance of resistance, not truly wanting to be free. “Zloy’s males are watching it.”
Dissent didn’t release her, his grip on her reassuringly secure. “Males are watching it. I haven’t uncovered their allegiances.”
She stopped fighting him and fate. “You believe I can protect myself now.” The length of her gun pressed against his body armor. “That’s why you’re allowing me leave.”
“I believe you should have the option to leave the structure if that was necessary.” He rested his chin on the top of her head. “And I trust you have the intelligence to remain inside if it isn’t safe to leave. Which it isn’t. At the moment.”
He didn’t want her to leave. She feigned a frown against his hard form, inwardly smiling. “You want me to lock myself in my cage.”
“I want you to be safe.” He kissed her forehead, that tender act dissolving more of her rebellion. “Because you’re the most important being in this universe to me.”
Her face heated. “Yet you’re willing to let me go.”
“If you leave, I’ll follow you.” He met her gaze. His eyes were dark with passion and need…and possession. “I’m never letting you go.”
“Then I’ll never be truly free.” She jutted her jaw. “I don’t have the choice of being with you or not. And without choice, there can never be genuine caring, can never be more than that.”
He tilted his head, looked at her for a moment. “You’ll never say the human love words to me?”
“I might say them but I won’t know if I truly mean them.” Her lips twisted.
She shouldn’t ever say those words. Her cyborg was destined to protect another female, had endured torture so he could do that, find his female.
His female.
He had called her that when they first met. She wrinkled her nose.
And there was a connection between them. That was undeniable.
No. Fuck. She shook her head, trying to clear her mind of her wild thoughts.
Fantasizing about being the females on the pathways outside the structure was a harmless way to pass the time. Believing she was her cyborg master’s destined female was a shortcut to heartbreak.
She had to maintain her grip on reality.
Which would be easier to do if Dissent would stop touching her. “We’ll solve our problems at a future duration.” He stroked her bare back, his caresses tantalizingly light. “My organic brain isn’t operating optimally due to the stunning.”
Being stunned hurt. She focused on him, on his injured state. “Do you require a pain inhibitor?” Her forehead furrowed. “Or an energy boost?” He often recharged the machine side of him.
“I need you.” Her cyborg took her gun from her waving hands, put it in a holster with one of his larger weapons and folded her farther into his big form.
For several moments, they stood entwined, her curves flattened against his muscle, their breaths synchronizing. The bond between them hummed. It felt good, felt right.
But she was not his destined female.
She had to quash that ridiculous notion.
“Did you train while I was gone?” He broke the silence.
Seeking a distraction from her thoughts, she eagerly grasped that harmless topic, chattering about her target practice, Nibbler’s nourishment consumption, the beings she’d viewed from the porthole. Her cyborg listened intently, asked questions, shared details about his own planet rotation.
It felt like how she’d always imagined a relationship to be. It was a normal relationship between two equals, not the forced relationship between a master and a slave.
He had authorized her to open the doors. Her fingers tapped the handle of her gun. He’d given her a weapon, though he held it for her at the moment.
“I might not be truly free, but I’m also not a slave anymore, am I?” She gazed up at him.
His eyes softened. His lips curled upward. “You’re not a slave anymore.” He scooped the brightly colored container off the floor and handed it to her.
It was heavy.
“Cyborgs prefer being bare when not in battle.” He removed his body armor, kicked off his boots. His muscles rippled. His cock was proudly erect.
Her mouth dried. Want and need surged through her.
“I’ve observed that many humans prefer to wear garments.” Her cyborg braced his feet apart. “You should have that option.”
That option…of wearing garments? Did he? No, he didn’t…did he?
She tore the container open, looked inside it. “Oh my stars.” She carefully removed the black leather boots, dropping the container. “Are these for me?” They must be for her. They were too small to fit his huge feet. “Are these my boots?”
He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Your name is on them.” His voice was gruff.
She surveyed them. “That is my name.” It was embedded in the leather. “These are my boots.” Emotion swelled within her. “I have boots.”
“You have boots.” Dissent nodded.
She pulled them onto her feet, wiggled her toes. “They’re so soft.” It was like stepping into a cloud. “They fit perfectly.” A veil of unshed tears blurred her vision. “And they’re mine…to keep forever.”
“They won’t last that long.” Her cyborg was extremely practical.
“I’ll make them last that long.” She marched around the chamber. Her boot heels made a satisfying ringing sound against the floor tile. Everyone would know she owned boots. “I’ll take good care of them. You won’t regret giving them to me, Dissent.”
“I would never regret doing something that made you happy.” He smiled at her.
“They do make me happy.” She beamed back at him. “I should show Nibbler.”
“Wait.” Dissent picked up the container. “There’s more.” He passed it to her.
“Nothing can top my new boots.” She gazed inside the container and immediately realized she was wrong. “This looks like…no…” She removed the folded black leather, shook it out.
A second piece of leather fell, as did the container.
Her cyborg caught both of those items, his reflexes impressively fast.
“It is.” She was holding an exquisitely designed chest covering. “I have a garment.” Her gaze slid to his hands. “Two garments.”
He gripped a pair of ass coverings.
She hesitated for a moment, torn between not wanting to take off her boots, even temporarily, and wanting to don the garments.
The urge to don the garments won. She slipped off the boots, hastily dressed. The garments were as soft as her footwear and they fit her as wonderfully. She put on her boots, straightened. “How do I look?”
Dissent’s eyes glowed with lust. His cock bobbed. “You look beautiful.”
She looked better than beautiful. Joy bubbled inside Greer. She appeared respectable, resembled a free female.
“I haven’t worn clothing since my father died.” She ran her hands over the leather. The details on it were superb.
And it covered her completely. Her fingers traced her name. It was imprinted on the leather over the exact spot Zloy’s brand on her was situated.
Dissent covered her hands with his. “You own you.”
While she wore the garments, no one would know she’d ever been a slave. She took a shuddering breath and then another and another.
Oh, fuck.
The emotions inside her continued to build. She fought them for as long as she could. Then she pressed her face against her cyborg’s chest and sobbed.
The chest and ass coverings made her the equal of any being. Others would recognize that. And better than that, she realized that. She had worth, status, garments, a gun, boots.
Dissent set down the container and silently held her as she cried. She soaked his skin with her tears of joy, of relief, of healing. He rubbed her back, radiated understanding.
Because he’d once been enslaved like her. She’d been a fool to think he’d seek to be her master. He valued freedom, wanted that for her.
She straightened, sniffling. “I own me.”
“You own you.” Her cyborg brushed his hands over her cheeks. “Did I emotionally damage you?” He held up his wet fingertips.
“It is good damage.” She kissed each finger, giving him a watery smile.
He looked at her, looked at the container set on the floor, looked back at her.
“There can’t be more.” She laughed. “I don’t think I could handle more.”
“You can handle more.” He cupped her chin, raising it. “You’re strong.”
Her lips twitched. Fuck. He made her smile. She would have never thought a male could do that. “You’ve given me so much already.” She grasped his hands.
“You deserve much more than I’ve given you.” He squeezed her fingers. “But if giving you more will emotionally damage you—”
“I’m strong.” Her curiosity had been piqued.
She bent over, peered in the container, glimpsed sparkle. “It’s so pretty.” She extracted a delicately crafted neck decoration. “My name is on the clasp.” Everyone would know it belonged to her. “And these look like sunstones.” There were five of them interwoven into the fine metal chain.
“They should look like sunstones.” Dissent frowned. “That’s what Chuckles’ female used in the fabrication.”
Greer’s chest grew tight. “These are…these are…”
“They are sunstones.” The grooves around his lips deepened. “If you prefer another stone—”
“No.” She clasped the neck decoration to her chest. “I prefer these. It is merely that sunstones are…they are extremely valuable.” He could buy ten of her with one of the stones.
The neck decoration hosted five of them. The chamber spun around her.
“You are extremely valuable.” Her cyborg shrugged. “I’ll help you put it on.” He took the neck decoration, undid the clasp easily as though he’d practiced doing exactly that, looped the chain around her neck. “The clasp is designed to break if pressure is put on it.”
“Why would it do that?” The possibility of losing the neck decoration horrified her. She touched the center stone. It was the largest.
“All the neck decorations Chuckles’ female fabricates now have that feature.” He followed the chain with his fingertips. “The enemy won’t be able to damage you with it.”
He didn’t care about the neck decoration or the credits he’d spent to have it fabricated. She blinked. He only worried about her, about her safety, her well-being.
Her cyborg would never allow her to be truly free, but being bound to him appealed to her more and more. He was kind. He cared. He turned her on like no other male had.
“Do I sparkle?” She gazed up at him, making no attempt to hide her emotions.
“You always sparkle.” He brushed his lips over hers. “Now, you sparkle more.”
She leaned against his naked form. “You are a flatterer.”
His forehead furrowed. “Cyborgs don’t flatter. We speak the truth.”
He spoke his truth and that meant the universe to her. “I should have said this earlier, but…thank you for saving me.”
“Twice.” His eyes glowed. “And you did say it earlier. You already thanked me for saving you.”
“I didn’t mean from the males.” She murmured that confession.
He frowned. His lips parted.
“I should show Nibbler my neck decoration, garments, boots.” Greer danced away from him before he could ask her for clarification. She had said everything she was prepared to say, couldn’t say more…not without her emotions overflowing again.
Dissent paused and, for one stomach-twisting moment, she thought he would insist on an explanation. But then he surged forward, grasped one of her hands, linked their fingers. “Nibbler will threaten to devour all of it, especially your boots.”
“They would look delicious to him.” She lifted one of her booted feet, admiring the polished-to-a-shine black leather toes. “And Nibbler always wants to devour everything.” Greer laughed, moving toward the cleansing chamber. “I interpret it as a compliment.”