Control. It was all about control. When dealing with animal DNA, control was precious, priceless, sanity.
But this wasn’t about control… This was about something else. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
Annoyance? Envy?
Jealousy?
He couldn’t have his one female subordinate become pregnant on her first requisition cycle. At least not by Raul… Andfuck, not with a cock as small as the one he saw in Raul’s hand.
Hysterian inhaled deeply, scenting the air.
He smelled Raul’s musk and the chemical aroma of the lab, but he needed to scent the room. His jaw ticked. He was going to throw Raul in the brig if Hysterian found out the man had fucked Alexa. The idea alone made him want to turn back and make his presence known.
He couldn’t smell sex.
That didn’t mean it hadn’t happened.
Without Raul noticing, Hysterian opened the door to the quarters and walked in. The door slid silently shut behind him.
His eyes went straight to Alexa’s bunk and the privacy screen securely in place. Was she asleep? The cadence of her breathing and her heartbeat indicated she was.
Sex was the last thing he smelled in the small chamber. Alexa’s hair dye—and only her dye—filled his nose. The stuff was shit incarnate but so fucking welcome when the alternative could’ve been dried cum, sweat, and moldering arousal.
Raul gets to live another day.
Hysterian knew he should leave but stared hard at the privacy screen blocking Alexa from him.
In his mind, Alexa was two different entities. On one hand, he saw her as the frigid, quiet, subordinate that she presented to the world. With her hair tightly pulled back into a bun, no makeup, and wearing a uniform devoid of the merest wrinkle. If he didn’t know she was flesh and blood human, she would’ve passed as one of his kind.
A Cyborg. A damn good one.
On the other hand, her other entity, the one he’d glimpsed on occasion, was entirely different.I didn’t fucking hire this other one.
So why had he heard her voice in his head last night?
Hysterian glared at the privacy screen between them, willing it to dissolve into dust.
I like it when she calls me captain...
He reached down and squeezed his aching shaft, already feeling the pressure building again. Torturous pressure. Pressure he shouldn’t have to be dealing with because he’d spent half the night cycle draining his body.
I’m a Cyborg, and this is my fate?
Disgusted, he dropped his hand and turned away. He’d gone too far. It should be Raul throwinghimacross the room and bashing his head in. Hysterian was just about to slip out when he heard a moan.
He paused.
Bedding ruffled behind him, followed by the dreaded swish of a privacy panel being opened.
In a blink, he pivoted and pressed his hands on the other side of the privacy screen to stop it from opening farther.
Alexa sighed and pushed harder. He kept it in place.
“Oh, come on,” she grumbled.
Hysterian closed his eyes and cursed.
If she pops her head out, she’s going to see me.He had no explanation whatsoever to give her—or Raul—if Hysterian was discovered in their room. Alexa jerked at the screen again.
