Relief flooded Danika when Reuel dismissed them. She glanced at the guys, trying to decide whether she wanted to reprimand them for their part in starting the brawl and finally decided she didn't. "Well, that's a relief," she muttered. "I guess we need to report for work."
"Corporal Hart!" Reuel said, striding toward her.
Danika's heart sank. So much for thinking they'd avoided disciplinary measures!
"Yes, Sir!"
His lips thinned as he surveyed her and her squad. "You will take your squad and repair the damages to the brig. I have a feeling we will have need of it again," he said dryly.
* * * *
Seth was neither surprised nor particularly resentful that they were set the task of repairing the damage to the brig even though, on several levels, he did not consider them to be completely responsible. In the first place, he felt like he had been provoked to take action when that yellow haired bastard had approached Danika as if he was entitled to! In the second, they had not singlehandedly demolished the brig. They had had a great deal of help from others who should have minded their own damned business!
Work was work, however, and they would have been expected to work on something regardless and he had no problem with the work that had been assigned. In fact, the more he thought about it, the better he liked it since it separated Danika from the other cyborgs.
In any case, most of his mind was occupied with what Reuel had said--or at least a specific part of it.
He realized that he had not thought much beyond trying to control his wildly erratic emotions and impulses and trying to figure out why he felt them. If he had considered his situation at all regarding Danika--and he had not actually devoted much thought to it--he would have put his feelings down to nothing more than the fact that they were squad mates. They had been trained--actually programmed--to work with their human handler as a team. He had changed. They all had, but he did not see that that had changed the fact that they were a team and should work together as a single unit.
It occurred to him to wonder, though, considering what Reuel had said, if he was motivated entirely by the team mentality as he should have been.
He had certainly noticed the maddeningly uncomfortable, and seemingly independent, behavior of his cock. When it had first begun leaping to attention and then just as inexplicably deflating he'd been too focused on that circumstance to wonder if there was some reason it behaved as if it had a life, and mind, of its own. It was more like an evil parasite attached to his belly than a part of him, because it did not seem to be under his control as the rest of his body was.
He had not considered, once, connecting it to the way he felt about Danika even though hehadbegun to notice that most of the erratic activity seemed to originate with Danika--a chance touch, a look--either from her or at her--a thought.
He certainly had not connected it to a desire to procreate, although he had found himself feverishly accessing and reviewing his pleasure droid programming--starting with the time that he had stayed to guard her back while she showered and had watched her instead of turning his back politely as he should have.
Mayhap that was why his first thought when he had seen that yellow haired bastard approach Danika was 'mine'?
It made him uncomfortable that he had not thought 'ours' when he was certain he should have since he, Dane, and Niles were all a part of Danika's squad. He thought Reuel would not be pleased with that if he knew either because that was certain to create a great deal more discipline problems if they all began to think of themselves as independent of all others when they were supposed to be a part of a team that was part of a larger team that made up an army that worked together for the good of all.
Especially since Danika was the only female in the camp!
That thought made him uneasy in an indescribable way, almost ... fearful.
They could not protect her if the others decided to launch a mass attack to claim her for their own!
"I begin to think that it was not a good idea to come here," he muttered under his breath when he discovered that Dane was close enough to hear but Danika was far enough away not to hear.
Dane sent him a questioning look.
Irritation flickered through Seth. He knew that he had undergone the change before either Dane or Niles, but they had not been that far behind him! They had had time to begin to have a better understanding of what they had become!
"My ... our woman," he said pointedly. "That yellow haired bastard has more interest in her than I like and there are bound to be others."
Dane blinked at him and turned to study Danika, feeling a surge and recession of thoughts and emotions that made him dizzy trying to catch them. "She is our woman?" he said doubtfully. "You mean this in the sense of mating?"
Seth frowned. He had not progressed that far in his thinking and it irritated him that Dane had leapt ahead of him. "In what other sense would I mean it?" he growled.
Dane frowned. "You think we can mate?" he asked hopefully.
Seth didn't have a fucking clue and that was beside the damned point as far as he could see! "We will not find out if we do nothavea mate!"
Niles, drawn by the fact that Seth and Dane were conversing and the desire to discover what they found so interesting that they had stopped working, moved closer so that he could hear the discussion. "We have a mate?" he asked in pleased surprise. "Who?"
Seth glared at him. "Danika, you imbecile! We have a woman, gods damn it! I do not see why she could not be our mate."
Niles glared at him. "You are no more intelligent that I am! We have the same design and programming! Notasintelligent if you have not considered that she is not a cyborg," he said pointedly.
