Grace Goodwin - The Colony Boxed Set 1

All eyes turned to him.

“No longer,” Prime Nial raised his voice to make sure it would carry to the far corners of the room. Yet there was no need. The captain’s words created a vacuum of sound, as if none dared speak the words themselves, but waited to hear the Prime’s response. “My mate has been quite insistent, telling everyone who will listen of your bravery, veteran. Prillon laws are not Earth’s laws. You are free to leave, to return to your home planet where you will be lauded for your service.”

The captain glanced at Lady Jessica. “You’re from Earth. From the United States. Do you think I’d be lauded for my bravery looking like this?”

The captain rose from his seat and lifted his armor off over his head. None moved to stop him and I stared, shocked at the sight of his bare chest. More than half of his torso was covered in the strange silver circuitry that was identical to what covered Ryston’s temple. The lower half of his left arm was completely silver, so much so that I wondered how I had not noticed the dark glove he wore earlier, when he’d shaken my hand. I’d been so happy to have someone from home to talk to, that I hadn’t paid it any attention. His right arm, from the elbow down, looked like a robotic attachment, with not an ounce of human skin in sight. Odd black markings, like veins, streaked in bizarre patterns within his remaining human flesh, starting at the edge of the implants where man met machine. He was like Inspector Gadget meets the Terminator.

“There is more. On my back, down my left leg.” He bowed at the waist, first to Jessica, then to me. “Lauded, ladies? Or feared? I thank you for the pretty dreams, Prime Nial, but Earth is not so advanced as you might believe.” He held Jessica’s gaze, demanding an answer. “Well? This is our reality now, my lady. There is no going home. Not for any of us.”

Jessica stood and every eye in the room followed the movement. “I was a soldier on Earth. I spent eight years in active duty military, in the Army. My mate, the Prime of your world, carries the marks of his time with the Hive. I love him. The silver in his eye, the marks on his flesh, mean nothing to me. He is mine. Lady Rone is the first bride matched to The Colony, and from the way she looks at her mates, I do not doubt she feels the same way about her warriors. Go through the testing, gentlemen. Have a little faith. If you don’t believe you can return home, to a normal life, then make a new life here with your matched mate. A new normal. Live. Don’t allow fear to stop you. The Brides Program will not send you a mate who can’t love you for who and what you are. Rachel? Am I wrong?”

The silence lingered and Jessica turned to me. Both of my mates watched me with rapt attention and I knew they, too, awaited my answer.

Rachel

These warriors on The Colony planet were hurting and lost. I didn’t understand when Warden Egara had tried to tell me how important the Interstellar Brides Program was. I didn’t get it. But seeing Captain Brooks bare himself to all, vulnerable and ashamed, was like a knife to my heart. He was human, a former special ops soldier. Tough as nails, reduced to shaming himself in public and defying me to reject him.

I stood slowly, feeling the weight of every word before I spoke it. “Meeting a matched mate for the first time goes far deeper than anything you can imagine. I knew as soon as I saw them. I felt the connection. I can’t describe what happened to me when I first glimpsed Maxim, when I heard his voice, or the first time Ryston kissed me, but had one of them been like you, Captain Brooks, nothing I see now would stop me from wanting them.”

Maxim’s hand settled on the back of my thigh, Ryston’s reached for mine and entwined our fingers as a cheer went up in the room.

Hope was like a drug, and now it appeared every warrior in the room was drunk with it.

The rest of the meal passed in a blur. Captain Brooks put his shirt back on and we ate a feast of fresh fruit that burst on my tongue like half-melted orange sherbet and blueberries with lime. The main course served to the men was some strange type of meat nearly two inches thick. Ready to groan in protest, I was delighted when a plate of fresh lasagna loaded with marinara and cheese was placed before me.

Happy, I looked to Jessica, who grinned at me like a coconspirator. I noticed that Captain Brooks, too, had been served the Earth dish. It seemed that conformity on The Colony was to not conform. No one had the same Cyborg integrations. Everyone was different. Different planets, different experiences, even different tastes in food.

As the meal progressed, so did Maxim’s hand, moving from my shoulder to my back, then to my knee. That lasted a few minutes before his hand tugged on my right knee and Ryston’s on my left, pulling my legs apart beneath the skirted table.

I really should have protested, but the lust and pride, the raw desire and tenderness bombarding me from my mates made me helpless to resist them as they teased me, their fingers so very close to my center, but never quite touching.

Not that I was a horny teenager, and I knew this wasn’t the place, but their hot, heavy hands so close to my pussy kept me on edge, a constant reminder that they were mine.

Several times I glanced at Captain Brooks to find him watching me with a strange look in his eye.

Once dinner was done, I swatted my mates’ hands away and rose. “I want to go talk to Captain Brooks.”

“I will go with you,” Ryston offered at once, and I was glad of the company. I liked the captain, but being in a room full of strange men, all of them capable of literally ripping my body in half with their enhanced cyborg strength, did make me a little nervous.

Maxim nodded as we passed. He had been pulled into a conversation with Governor Bryck seated on his right, a giant brute of a man, an Atlan Beast, Ryston told me, who ruled Base 2. I thought my Prillon warriors were big, but an Atlan…

I approached the captain slowly. His plate of food barely half eaten. He looked a little off, as if ill.

My hand was on his shoulder before Ryston could stop me. “Are you all right, Captain? You look a little green. And not because you’re a frog man.”

He’d told me earlier that he was a Navy SEAL and had volunteered to fight in the Coalition Fleet with his older brother two days after the first Prillon ships made contact with Earth. His brother was still out there somewhere. Still fighting, as I knew Brooks wished he could be.

He raised his head to look at me and I gasped. The black streaks I’d noticed earlier on his chest and shoulder had spread up his neck onto his cheek, like infection spreading out from a wound. “No. Something isn’t right. I can’t—my head—it hurts.”

Shit. Shit. Shit. He toppled over and I tried to hold him up, but he was a lot bigger than I was, and dead weight.

Ryston’s arms grabbed him from behind and kept him from pushing me down with him. My mate shouted over his shoulder. “Get the doctor. Now!”

Everyone scrambled and the doctor, the asshole I still hadn’t quite forgiven for that almost “ exam” he’d wanted to give me, rushed forward with his little wand as Ryston lowered Captain Brooks to the floor.

“What are those black streaks?” Prime Nial’s voice broke through the silence.

The doctor answered, but did not look up from his patient. “We don’t know. They started showing up a few weeks ago. Nothing shows on the ReGen scans. After a few days, they fade. I assumed it was a new virus or other antigen native to The Colony. We are still discovering new things about this world every day.”