Mated To The Cyborg General (Celestial Mates) Read online

  Amourisa Press and Kit Tunstall, writing as Aurelia Skye, reserve all rights to MATED TO THE CYBORG GENERAL. This work may not be shared or reproduced in any fashion without permission of the publisher and/or author. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  © Kit Tunstall, 2017

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  Mated To The Cyborg General (Celestial Mates)

  Aurelia Skye

  Blurb

  Celestial Mates—Romancing the Galaxy…

  One moment, completely human and modern-day Carrie Morgan is crocheting in her living room. The next second, a peach alien claiming to be a Celestial Mates agent transports her and her dog four hundred years into the future. He leaves her there to be discovered by her supposed fated mate—a blue-skinned cyborg general.

  The sly agent failed to mention a few things, like the fact humans and cyborgs are at war with each other! She’s certain Freydon Rote is crazy, but as she gets to know the cyborg general, she realizes maybe there’s something to the claim that DVS84 is meant to be her mate. Passionate nights further convince her that perhaps she’s in the right place at the right time to find her happy ending—if she survives all the challenges of her new environment.

  Can a human woman find true love with a cyborg general fighting against her species? Find out in this latest installment in the Celestial Mates series, brought to you by USA Today bestselling author Kit Tunstall, writing as Aurelia Skye.

  Chapter One

  Present Day Earth

  One moment, Carrie was working on a baby blanket for her coworker’s impending arrival, and the next, a flash of light filled her living room. She let out a startled gasp that would’ve turned into a scream if her voice hadn’t been trapped in her throat. There was a strange peach-colored creature before her. She opened her mouth, struggling to make a sound that wouldn’t come. The rest of her body was equally frozen.

  The peach thing had eyes, but no other obvious facial features until it started speaking, and what looked like lips formed in the gelatinous blob. “Don’t be afraid, Carrie Morgan. My name is Freydon Rote, and I’m with the Celestial Mates Agency.”

  Her body might be frozen, but it wasn’t keeping fear at bay. In fact, that was contributing to it, and though she’d never had a panic attack, she was certain she was in the throes of one now. She tried to move or scream, but couldn’t manage to do either one. She couldn’t even wiggle her pinky.

  “Really, there’s no reason to be afraid. I’ve simply learned from experience that when I appear abruptly, it’s best to ensure the person I’m visiting is temporarily incapable of screaming or running away.” After he stopped speaking, he let out a low trilling sound. “There, that should be better.”

  It was better, and a sense of peace flowed through her, though she still couldn’t move. It didn’t keep her from questioning what he was, or why he was in her living room. She just had no outlet to voice the interrogative.

  “As I said, I’m Freydon Rote. I’m with an agency that exists outside of time and space. We find matches all over the galaxies and bring together those who are meant to be. You’ve been matched.”

  Her eyes widened, and she was torn between skepticism and the slightest hint of intrigue. She had recently filled out an online dating profile, but hadn’t summoned the nerve to look at the results since she had completed the process. Was this related to that? But how could it be, and why would an online dating company appear in her living room in a convincing alien suit?

  Freydon bent down, holding up her suitcase a moment later. “I took the liberty of packing for you to save time. Based on your personality profile and observation files, I think I did a good job of selecting what you would’ve been most likely to take. I could have allowed you to pack for yourself, but I was afraid you wouldn’t cooperate. If you did, you might be in a panic and end up needing something later that you won’t be able to get.”

  His words were ominous. They weren’t spoken in a fearful fashion, and he didn’t seem aggressive. He was matter-of-fact, which was almost as terrifying as the words themselves. Her panic started to surge again, only ebbing when he did that trilling sound. At first, it had been a welcome damper to her panic, but now she resented his ability to manipulate her and her emotions. She glared at him.

  “Please don’t be angry, dear. I promise this is all for the best. You’ll thank me, though perhaps not in the beginning. We really must go. While I exist outside of time and space, I have an enormous amount of work waiting for me, and you have your entire future before you.”

  To her surprise, she could suddenly move again. Still holding tightly to her crochet bag, she stood up and marched toward him, intent on kicking him out–or perhaps freeing the aborted scream that still seem trapped in her throat. It was an unpleasant surprise to discover she didn’t have her voice yet, and she pointed to her throat while glaring at him.

  He put up a hand in a soothing fashion. “Yes, I understand you want to speak, but I can actually read your thoughts. It’s unnecessary, and it keeps the neighbors from getting involved.” He looked around. “Now where is Penny?”

  How did he know about her dog?

  “I know just about everything, dear.” He spoke the words gently before he raised his voice, summoning her dog with a firm command.

  The creaking of the pet door through which Penny had recently departed to do her business announced the return of the big black lab as she came lumbering back into the house. While Penny wasn’t known for her bravery, Carrie still expected her to have an aggressive reaction to a stranger—and an alien at that, if his costume wasn’t fake—appearing in the dog’s living room. Instead, Penny ambled over to Freydon and started sniffing him as she wagged her tail.

  The peach alien rewarded the dog with a pat on the head before fastening her leash to her collar. He handed the other end to Carrie, who took it automatically. He looked down at Penny, talking to the dog just as he had to her. “I packed your favorite things as well, sweet Penny.” After patting the dog on the head again, he looked around for a moment before nodding. “That’s everything then. Are you ready?”

  Hell no, she wasn’t ready. She had no idea what was going on, and she was completely confused. She tried to speak, but he still hadn’t given her back the ability.

  “Try not to be too afraid, dear. General DVS84 will take good care of you and vice versa. I might suggest you call him Davis though. Far more personal, don’t you think? DVS is such a mouthful.”

  Her head was starting to pound, but the pain eased as soon as he let out a trilling sound, though this was different from the one he’d used to soothe her nerves. She was still bewildered and incapable of speech when the light that had flashed in her living room sparked again, this time encompassing her, the alien, and her befuddled dog. The last sound she heard in her living room was Penny woofing, a sound of fear, which was followed by Freydon’s trill. Apparently, it soothed the dog as well as it soothed her.

  The next moment, her living room was gone, and the light that had encompassed them was fading. She stared around in confusion and horror at the landscape before her. It was barren and desert-like, th
ough dust appeared to blow instead of sand. She choked and blinked as it stung her face and got in her eyes. “Where are we?” At least her voice was back.

  “Welcome to the future, Carrie. The general will be along in a moment, so I must leave. As I said, things to do.”

  “What’s going on here? Where are we, and what am I supposed to do? You can’t just leave me here.”

  His tone was soothing. “No, not for long. As I said, the general will be along shortly. I doubt you’ll see me again. That’s what the timeline indicates anyway. I’ll only reappear if an obstacle becomes so insurmountable that you two can’t work it out on your own. I don’t see that happening for you, so I’ll bid you and sweet Penny goodbye.”

  “Wait just a minute—” Before she could finish the words, the light flashed again, this time surrounding only Freydon Rote, and then he was gone. She stared at the spot where he had been for a moment before more dust blew into her eyes, making her blink and look away. She looked down, seeing her largest piece of luggage, alongside a smaller bag for Penny, and that was it, other than her dog. What had he said? Welcome to the future?

  She wanted to deny what she was seeing, to pretend it had all been a hallucination, but it was increasingly difficult to do so as the seconds ticked past. She’d never seen a landscape like this before. It was as though all the life had been drained from it, and she couldn’t recall ever seeing a picture of such a desolate place on earth. Where was she? Had he brought her into the future to a different planet? It sounded insane, but after the last few minutes, she was finding it increasingly difficult to reject the idea.

  She looked around, recalling Freydon’s words that the mysterious general would soon appear. Since she had no idea what he looked like, what his purpose was, or why she was there, she wasn’t certain if she should be looking for his arrival with anticipation or fear. Just because Freydon had told her not to be afraid didn’t mean she was going to choose that option. He might have seemed harmless and benign, but he had still kidnapped her and brought her to wherever this place was without any clear answers.

  The wind was strong, howling in her ears. Combined with the dust, it restricted her range of view. One moment, it was just her and Penny, and the next, there were three large blue beings standing in front of her. Penny whimpered and pressed against her leg, and she put a hand on the dog’s head in an absentmindedly soothing fashion as she trembled with fear.

  The closer they got, the more they looked human, though the faint blue skin was strange. So were the luminescent blue lines running through their bodies. They looked almost like veins, but not entirely. As they approached, she squinted and tentatively identified the pattern of blue lines as more closely resembling circuitry than a vascular system.

  She was really shaking now, and though it was cold, it was mostly terror that made her tremble. When the largest one stepped forward, her head spun, and she could barely remain upright. He sounded surprised when he spoke, but his words were more surprising still. “This is where Rote said to meet him. Who are you, and where is the Celestial Mates agent?”

  For the first time in her life, Carrie swooned like an honest-to-goodness Victorian heroine. Without smelling salts to revive her, she simply collapsed forward, passing out as the ground grew ever closer.

  Chapter Two

  The general caught the human before she hit the ground, though he wasn’t certain what protective instinct made him do so. Not only did he have no use for humans, he had a deep-seated hatred for them and their bigotry. Keeping one from harm should have been the last thing he wanted to do. As she nestled in his arms, pressed against his chest, a stab of desire pierced him in the groin, and he groaned at the unexpected reaction.

  When that strange alien had appeared to him, indicating he must meet him here to receive the weapon that would end the war, he hadn’t indicated there would be a human involved. With a frown, DVS realized Freydon Rote hadn’t indicated much of anything beyond implying he would need what Freydon Rote brought him to end the conflict. Surely, the alien had meant a weapon of some sort, and not a fragile human female?

  He looked down doubtfully at the dog, who was cowering before him. His databank identified the species, but he had never seen one. Dogs had been extinct on Earth for at least two hundred years. In nano-seconds, he knew everything about not just dogs, but this breed in particular. He didn’t know the name the human had given it, so he substituted what seemed to be the common phrase when they had been humans’ companions. “Good boy.”

  The dog stop trembling, and when he repeated the words, he moved closer, wagging his tail. He repeated, “Good boy,” a third time, and the creature rolled over onto its back. He quickly realized he had chosen the wrong pronoun. “Good girl.”

  “What should we do with them?” asked JSN42, his trusted second-in-command.

  “We must bring them back to base. Freydon Rote assured me they were the key to ending the conflict.”

  “I thought we were coming here for a weapon, not a useless human and its animal,” said MX409 in a voice filled with disdain.

  “As did I, MX, but perhaps the human will tell us what the weapon is when she awakens. Grab her things, MX. JSN, take the dog’s leash.” The word came to him after only a brief hesitation, because his databanks could access all the collected knowledge of the history of the planet—that hadn’t been destroyed almost sixty years ago.

  “I told you your mysterious alien benefactor couldn’t be trusted,” said MX.

  DVS glowered at the younger cyborg under his command. “We can’t afford not to explore all options, MX. Keep further commentary to yourself.”

  “Yes, sir,” he said with a hint of insolence.

  DVS let it slide as he shifted his hold on the human, at first planning to sling her over his shoulder. At the last moment, she shifted slightly, curving against his chest and making a sound of contentment as she settled against him. She was still clearly unconscious, but it was obvious her body had chosen to trust him. For some reason, that made the dual pumps in his heart increase their cadence.

  He was unaccustomed to such a reaction and couldn’t identify what might cause it, other than the human in his arms. He’d had his reservations about trusting Freydon Rote, and now he wondered if he was voluntarily taking a weapon back into their base, one that would end the war, but not in the way he wanted. Was he playing into the hands of the humans and their synth warriors by taking this female back to their stronghold?

  He decided the sensible thing to do would be to drop her and leave her behind, to ignore the peach alien’s insistence that he was bringing him something of incomparable value. At the last moment, before he could release his hold on her, she snuggled closer and pressed her mouth to his neck. She was still unconscious, but the way her breath wafted over his skin made the area feel like he’d been touched with a live wire.

  It wasn’t an entirely unpleasant sensation, and his arms tightened around her instead of releasing as he had planned. He wasn’t convinced of the wisdom of doing so, but he realized he was committed to taking her back to their base, at least to interrogate her to discover what she knew, and what value she might offer for defeating the humans.

  ***

  She woke on a hard surface with a damp doggy nose in her face as Penny sniffed her before licking her cheek. For a brief, blissful moment, she allowed herself to believe she’d simply fallen asleep at the couch and had tumbled to the floor. It had all been a dream. When she reluctantly pried open her eyes, she was disappointed, but not surprised, to find it hadn’t been a dream. She was in a sparsely decorated room, lying on what resembled a low bunk, but without a mattress. She sat up, groaning as her back twinged, and looked around.

  Immediately, her gaze collided with the largest of the blue aliens she had seen earlier. If they were aliens. “What are you?” Her voice was scratchy, and she wondered how long she had been out.

  With a frown, he stepped closer, looming over her with his arms crossed over his substantia
l chest. “I am DVS84, General of the Cyborg Army, sworn enemy to humanity and their synthetic worriers. Who are you?”

  “Uh…” She licked her dry lips, uncertain how to answer. “Carrie?” She offered it like a question instead of an established fact.

  His scowl only deepened. “Where’s the weapon Freydon Rote promised me, Carrie?”

  Her eyes widened, and she shrugged. “I have no idea about a weapon. I don’t even know why I’m here. That peach alien guy just appeared in my living room and brought me here in a flash of light. He kidnapped me and my dog.”

  He frowned even more. “Withholding information would not be good for you.”

  She trembled at the ominous words. “I’m telling you what I know. He appeared and identified himself as some kind of mating agent who exists outside of time and space. He told me I’d been matched with General DVS84 and suggested I call you Davis. Then he brought me here, and he just left.” She was starting to sound slightly hysterical, so she burrowed her fingers into Penny’s fur, drawing comfort and strength from her dog as she tried to fight off the urge to cry or break down.

  “I’m General DVS84, but what is this match you speak of?”

  She flushed under the weight of his stare, wondering how she could explain her understanding of the situation in a delicate fashion. “I think he meant we’re mates. He told me he brought together people across the galaxies who were meant to be together.”

  “Together for what?”

  Her eyes widened. “For mating.” She meant it in a relationship context, but the words immediately called to mind the image of a far more visceral joining with the cyborg general. The reminder that he was a cyborg should have been enough to quell any desire, but the steamy images flashing through her mind refused to take into consideration exactly what he was. It also made her relieved that he didn’t appear to be able to read her thoughts as Rote had, or she would probably die from embarrassment right then.