Haunting Blackie Read online

Blackie approached. “I won’t allow any harm to come to you or your sister.” His hands gently clasped her hips. “Do you trust me?”

  “I do.” He was her mate and having ultimate faith in him was part of the package. It was how she was created to be. At that moment it was a frightening concept since they were very different. He might not understand how deeply ingrained that mate bond was. “What will happen when we reach your home world if Freedom did purposely lie and betray the canine units? If that knowledge comes out, will it pose a threat to him, and in turn, will he want us dead?”

  “I won’t deceive you. Cyborgs highly regard honor. There was none if he left your littermates to die after securing a pact in exchange for your help. It will cause conflict amongst our population. He will make a lot of enemies and it’s probable he’ll be removed from his position.”

  “Why would anyone even care about what happened to us?”

  “You saved a lot of lives, mine included. You helped us escape Earth. It will matter. You will be considered kindred to cyborgs and sympathy for your plight will be felt. There is also the matter of your entire line being female. The men will come to the same conclusion I have when I learned of your existence.”

  “What was that?”

  “Men vastly outnumber our women.” His fingers stroked her pants. “It would have changed the development of our society if we’d integrated your line with ours.”

  “Want to drop the cyborg speak and just tell it to me straight?”

  “Problems arose after humans tried to sexually assault our women when cyborgs were first introduced. They fought back, resulting in high casualty rates amongst those humans. The women were destroyed when altercations occurred.” He paused, anger deepening his voice. “The humans murdered them for defending themselves against sexual abuse. Earth Government stopped the production of females and only produced males thereafter. That’s why there were so few of them left alive. We made it a priority to protect them and make certain they escaped with us.” He paused. “That’s how it became law that female cyborgs enter into a contract with multiple males to form a family unit.”

  Eve was horrified, despite having been told that fact before. She hadn’t been able to stand men touching her, knowing she longed to be with Blackie, despite his absence in her life. To be ordered to marry more than one man would not only damage her heart but tear her soul apart now that they were bonded.

  “Integrating your women with our men would have changed the way things are now.”

  “Would they have made it law that canine units had to be with more than one cyborg? It wouldn’t work. Canine units are loyal to the extreme.”

  “They would have taken your needs into account. It also would have put more females into our society and lessened the need to pair cyborg women with multiple males.”

  “You think cyborgs would have accepted us the way we are?”

  He tugged her closer until her body pressed against his. “Yes. You have no idea how difficult it has been for our unbalanced society.”

  “Tell me.”

  It was hard to think when warmth seeped through his uniform into her clothes. She wished they were naked and back inside their quarters. She might have avoided sex all her life but now she knew what she’d been missing with Blackie. It would be nice to make up for lost time.

  “We turned off our implants. It allowed emotions to rise inside us, allowed us to experience them, good and bad.” His hands slid higher, to her waist. “Jealousy and possessiveness were present but we had to conceal them for the harmony of all. It wasn’t fair to expect such a high percentage of our male population not to have the ability to join family units. They would have resented the ones who did.”

  “Do you feel possessive of me?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t hesitate to answer. “You belong to me.”

  She liked that. “So you’re saying they feared a lot of men would kill the married ones just to put some widows back on the market?”

  His lips twitched at the corners but he resisted the smile. “That is a very Earth way to put it but it’s accurate. The council feared the men would fight over women. It is also a requirement that we produce children. Pairing only a single male with a woman would have restricted our genetic pools and caused health issues in the future generations.”

  “They want women to hook up and have babies with multiple partners so the DNA is more diversified when those kids grow up and have some babies of their own?”

  “Correct.”

  “There would have been a lot more women available if we hadn’t been left behind. You really needed us, because even with multiple male partners, many children still have the same genes—the mother’s.”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you think it’s going to piss some of your guys off that we were left behind?”

  “I’m certain they will be angry.” He paused. “The family unit structures would have had a more satisfying outcome.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Our women were given an unfair advantage over the men.”

  “They got to pick and choose who they married instead of men having much of a choice?”

  He stepped back, releasing her. “Yes. The women were empowered by their situation.”

  “They rub it in?”

  Anger flared in his gaze. “They lost their compassion.”

  That surprised her. “They are mean to their husbands?”

  “I have avoided joining a family unit for many reasons.” He paused. “Let’s go to our quarters. Did you eat enough?”

  “You’re changing the subject.”

  “It’s not a good one.”

  “I want to know.”

  He lifted a hand and brushed a tendril of her hair back. “Our women are cold, controlling, and any male who doesn’t comply with their demands is considered unworthy of joining a family unit—by all women.”

  “You piss off one, they all hold it against you?”

  “The male is deemed undesirable by all and has no chance of entering into a contract with another woman. They can be merciless with their demands.”

  She studied her mate’s dour expression. “You avoided getting married because you’re an alpha but you would have been forced to be a beta. That sucks. Do they make you clean house and treat their husbands like slaves or something?”

  “There’s much more to it than that, Eve.”

  “So fill me in.”

  “Why are you so curious?”

  “I’m going to live with these people on your world. I want to know the score.” She grinned, deciding to lighten his grim mood with teasing. “Are you afraid to tell me in case I become really demanding and high maintenance? I won’t.”

  “That’s not it.” He blew out a breath. “They are ice cold and rarely show emotions unless it is contempt, anger or disapproval. They choose their males according to their rank in our society or for physical traits they wish to pass on to the next generation. Personality traits are ignored. We’re expected to conceal those while with them. It irritates them otherwise.”

  Eve was stunned.

  “Sex is initiated by women only when they decide to conceive a child or if they deem that our physical needs have been ignored long enough. They activate their sex drives, order us to and it’s usually timed down to the second. Occasionally they allow us to touch them if we’ve done something to earn their respect. It is nothing like what you and I have.” He sighed. “I’ve witnessed men who joined family units turn bitter but they are locked into the contract without any recourse to negotiate for more satisfying terms.”

  “Wow.” She didn’t even know what to say. It sounded horrible to her.

  “I wish to end our discussion of this subject.”

  It was kind of depressing so she agreed. “Okay.”

  He held out his hand. “Let’s return to our room.”

  “How did your meeting go?”

  Blackie led her out of the cafeteria and down the hallway. “Fleet cont