Cover Reveal and New Book Excerpt

BANG!

The split second the starting gun sounded; Angie set off sprinting through the jungle. Run! Run! Run! Her feet pounded the dirt path, and her arms pumped in rhythm with every stride. A quarter span head start didn’t mean much when they were sending four burly males, each vying to claim her as their own.

Two of them only bore a passing resemblance to human. They were reptilian and blue with tails. Number three had a face like a bulldog with a lion type mane and a heavily muscled body covered in short smooth fur. He had been salivating as he raked her curvy body with his eyes.

Number four, Mr. Sexy Eyes looked human, and it did things to her insides when their gazes met. What were the chances he would find her first? One in four?

She kept running veering off onto side paths of the jungle maze. Angie was sweating profusely within minutes in the humid tropical heat.

She ran until each breath felt like a stab through her chest and she nearly doubled over from the stitch in her side. Stopping to listen, she could hear pounding footfalls from the way she had just come. She had to hide. Those big, fearsome males would catch up to her in seconds if she stayed on the path.

No way was this what she signed up for. The way they had looked at her was sinister. The looks passing between three non-humans, just before she left on her head start, made her think they had made a pact together… to share if one of them caught her.

She couldn’t catch her breath enough to run anymore; and she felt slightly nauseous. Something wasn’t right. Her head felt like she had a hangover, she was queasy and she felt… Horny? Her female parts clamored for attention.

They did this to her, those assholes who set her up for a one-way trip to this hell hole. Whoever caught her first would probably fuck her on the spot. The mere thought of release made her almost want to let it happen.

Angie mentally shook herself. She wasn’t a xenophobe. Lizards and dogs just didn’t appeal to her sexually.

If she could stay hidden until the clock ran out she would pick her mate. IF…

Axel Rex Chapter One

 

Chapter One

 

“Let me go you fucking robot! I live here… I didn’t do anything! Let me go!” the female screamed as Axel Rex escorted her from what was once a luxury apartment building in a city called Farringay.

“I am not a robot,” he corrected. “I am a cyborg in full battle armor.”

“I don’t care who you fucking are. You have no right,” she hissed. “I don’t wanna go anywhere. Let go of my arm.”

“I apologize if I have caused you pain. If you are in that building when we demolish it, you will die.” Axel didn’t stop until he had her outside the building.

“No, you can’t Sammy’s in there. You have to let me get him. Please don’t kill my cat. He’s my best friend,” she pleaded.

Axel receded the helmet of his armor and looked down at the disheveled and dirty female in his grasp. Her amber flecked green eyes shimmered with the hint of tears as she said the last, and something stirred in him as her scent reached his nostrils. Even under the smell of her unwashed body, a more subtle scent that put his body on alert.

The foul-mouthed female in his grasp was his female. He blinked and wondered if fate was playing a joke on him. My female? This is my female!

For a moment, the utter joy of the discovery stunned him. He sniffed to catch the scent again to be sure he wasn’t mistaken. He wasn’t.

“Please, you can’t kill my cat,” she cried, trying to wrench her arm from his grasp.

“Your cat?” he said, frowning as he stared down at her, thinking she might be attractive under that stringy dark hair and layers of dirt.

“Yes. I’ve had Sammy since he was a baby.”

Axel looked back at the tattered building he was about to destroy and scanned it with his internal sensors. There was a small feline hiding in some rubble at ground level. From previous observations, he knew that people living in the ruins valued their animal companions.

“I have orders to destroy all the buildings in this area. I will let you go back to get your cat if you agree to come back out,” Axel told her. “Do you also have belongings you wish to recover?”

She shook her head, staring up at him. “Nothing worth saving except Sammy. But where are we going to live if you destroy my building?”

“Go get your cat, and we will talk about it.” He released her, and she nodded. He watched her pick her way through the rubble as another shock of excitement raced through his mind and body. Mine, he thought.

Her body was lean and graceful, a bit too lean, but not surprising considering how people lived in the ruins of Farringay. Her hips swayed just a bit, clad in a ragged pair of shorts that barely covered her ass. Her muscular legs were shapely and her back straight. Her stringy brownish hair that hung to her shoulders.

Axel’s mind was racing as joy continued erupting inside him. He didn’t even know her name yet, and he was wondering how to break it to her that she was his. At least she wasn’t gravely injured and defiled as Jolt Somber’s mate had been. But he didn’t think this claiming would be so easy as Bodee Flint’s had been either. His mate had come looking for him.

He used his cybernetic internal scanner to follow her progress, waiting patiently for her to emerge with the cat she claimed. She picked up the cat from its hiding place, only instead of coming back to where Axel waited for her, she exited through a window at the back of the building.

Spark,” Axel called over the internal cyborg network. “The female is running. I’m going after her. The building is clear. Take it down.”

“Yes, sir,” his lieutenant responded. If his second in command wondered why he was going after the female, he didn’t ask. Axel would tell him if he wanted Spark to know. But it was unusual. People frequently ran when the cyborgs commanded them to leave the ruins of buildings, they called home. Axel had never gone after any of them. Then it dawned on Spark that the female must be his.

Axel ran in a parallel direction from the female, calculating where he could intersect with her route. He cut through an alley just ahead of her, stepping out in time to catch her before she ran smack into him.

She squealed as his hands gripped her upper arms. “Let me go,” she screamed. “Let me go.” Her eyes sparkled with anger as she stared up at him, clutching a big yellow tiger cat to her chest.

“I can’t. I won’t hurt you,” Axel asserted, staring down at her. “But someone else might. I can protect you.”

“I’ve done fine by myself until now,” she muttered. “I run fast and hide well. I don’t need your help.”

“Yes, you do. Where are you going to live? What are you going to eat? You are only one female. You have no weapons. If the gangers catch you, they just might kill you after they all rape you.”

“It hasn’t happened yet.”

“But it has happened to other females here. I can take you to a safe place where you can get food and shelter.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t want to go with you. Why do you even care, cyborg?”

“Clearly you don’t sense it the way I do, or you wouldn’t ask.” Axel hesitated. If he just blurted it out, she probably wouldn’t believe him. “Just come back to the barracks with me, and I will explain it to you while you have something to eat. Then, you can get cleaned up.”

“And if I don’t want to stay?”

“I hope I can convince you that you do.” He gave her a faint grin and loosened his hold on her arms. “Will you tell me your name?”

 

 

She caught her breath as she looked up into his steel-grey eyes. The faint smile he gave her softened his features and stirred things inside her that she didn’t know she could feel. …Things she didn’t want to feel for the big cyborg. A man like him could kill in the blink of an eye with no weapons. Would he do that to her if she didn’t do what he asked?

“L-Layne Rose,” she stammered. The way he was looking at her made her realize that killing her was not what he had in mind. He wanted her, and he wasn’t going to let her go. That excited her almost as much as it frightened her. “Can bring Sammy?”

“As you wish,” he said. “Come, our transport isn’t far from here.”

Just then, an explosion sounded from one of the buildings being demolished. Layne’s cat startled and dug his claws into her arm, trying to get away. “Sammy, no. Shh, it won’t hurt you.”

“We should go,” Axel said. “There will be more explosions. We have to clear four square kilometers from this area for the new starport and employee residences.”

“Where are all those people going to go?”

“There is an Enclave near New Chicago. We have been transporting people to join one of their communities out there,” Axel explained. “This way.” Axel pointed and rested a gloved hand low on her back to urge her to walk with him.

While they were walking, he summoned the pilot for the hover transport to take them back to the industrial complex that served as their base for the starport project. It was the closest building intact near Farringay that was large enough to hold the 500 cyborgs who were doing the demolition work and securing the perimeter of the project area. Axel was more than capable of flying the transport, but his crews would need it to return to base at sunset.

He didn’t want to leave Layne on her own until he settled some things with her. As they boarded the vehicle, Axel considered that it might all go better after she had a meal, a shower, and fresh clothes.

Ten minutes later, they were landing at the cyborg base. The old industrial complex consisted of four enormous connected buildings set in a rectangle with a once-grand court in the center. The courtyard was overgrown with weeds and tall grass.

The cyborgs made little effort to improve the place. It only needed to serve them for several months while demolished the ruins and built the starport, with housing for the employees, and support businesses for the community. It would be a gated community with security.

“It’s not much to look at,” Axel said as they went inside. “But it’s safe here. Do you want some food before you get cleaned up?”

“Yes, I would. I haven’t eaten since yesterday, and all Sammy had was a small mouse he caught,” she said to him.”

“Okay,” he said, “I will take you to the mess station.”

They walked through a wide corridor with large rooms on both sides that were filled with rows of bunks stacked two high. The mess area was located in the open area past the bunk rooms. Food processors were set near the wall to the right with six rows of long tables set back from the bank of food dispensers.

Axel led Layne to the food line. “Can you read, Layne?”

“Only a little. My mom started to teach me, but she was gone before I learned more than basic words.”

“Is she dead?” Axel asked.

“I don’t know. Mom disappeared one day and never came back,” Layne said with a sigh. “I’m sure something happened that she couldn’t come back or she would have. She could be dead.”

“I am sorry for your loss,” Axel said sincerely. “What would you like to eat?”

“I mostly eat meat, whatever I can catch or kill, mostly small animals: squirrels, rats, rabbits. I find greens and fruit sometimes in the growing season.”

“Here we have cultured meat and eggs, vegetables, and fruit, pasta and various mixtures of everything. We also have coffee, tea, and various fruit drinks.”

Layne looked up at him and shrugged. “Pick something that you think is good. And some meat for Sammy.” She set the cat on the floor now that they were away from the blast zones in the city. The cat generally followed her wherever she went.

 

Copyright©2019 by Clarissa Lake and Christine Myers

 

 

Talia’s Cyborg Excerpt Preview

 

Prologue: Previously in Cyborg Awakenings 2

Jolt Somber guided the hover-flyer in a circle over the mountain homestead below. It was isolated on a plateau with the next nearest dwelling miles away. The others appeared to be abandoned, but this one looked well kept with animals in the pasture and dog in the yard. The cyborg circled back and picked a spot a dozen yards from an entrance to the house.

Slowing to a stop midair he switched to hover mode and set the flyer down in the grass near what was once along driveway from the what was once a paved road about one hundred yards away. The house was a large, traditional log cabin.

“I read only one person in the house,” Jolt said to his mate, Iris. “This will be our last stop today.”

“Should I get out with you or do you want me to wait until we see if they are friendly or not.”

“It should be okay. I believe the person in the house is female. She might feel more receptive if you come with me,” he said. He used his cyber connection to the flyer’s computer to shut down the engines and open the doors on both sides. They both climbed out and met at the front of it, where Jolt took Iris’s hand as they walked slowly toward the entrance.

A gunshot rang out just as Jolt noticed movement at the window beside the door. He immediately shoved Iris behind him. Another sounded after the pump action of action of a shotgun clicked. No projectiles hit Jolt. The shot harmlessly disturbed the dirt in the driveway to his left. Either the shooter had lousy aim, or they were meant to be a warning.

“You in the house,” Jolt called out. “We are not here to harm you. I’m from the Federation. The war is over, and I stopped to see if you need any assistance with food, medicine, or a medic.” He waited with Iris pressed tightly to his back.

A young woman with flame red hair stepped out the front door, her shotgun under her arm pointed groundward. Beside her was a big, longhaired multicolored dog. The blacks and browns were mixed together. He was as big as a wolf, but his muzzle was too blunt, and his ears were semi-erect. He stood quietly at the woman’s side. It was the same dog he’d seen from the air.

“You’re a cyborg,” she said. “My father told me about cyborgs. I never thought I would ever see one. He said they made you to fight the war.”

“Yes, that’s true. Why did you shoot at us?”

“If I were shooting at you, I would have hit you. I thought you were Nick Jester trying to worm his way back into my life again.”

“I don’t know who that is,” Jolt said.

“Just the jerk down the road that wants to screw me. Edson here doesn’t like him.” She nodded at the dog. “That’s good enough for me.”

As Jolt looked at her, he found it understandable that a man wanted her. He suspected one of his brethren would be thrilled to discover she was his female.

“I am Jolt Somber, and this is Iris Bloom,” he said. “We came on behalf of the Enclave near New Chicago to offer assistance if you need it.”

“I get by on my own, but I wouldn’t mind finding the right mate,” she said. “Jester comes around every so often to offer his services, but that lazy bastard just wants me to keep him for the winter. He knows I got food stored up in the root cellar and wood for the stove.”

Iris laughed.

“Next time he comes around I just might shoot the fucker,” she asserted. “Anyway, I’m pleased to meet you. Nice to meet someone who wants to help rather than trying to take what I got. I’m Talia Cannon. Does the Federation have any more like you?” She was looking at Jolt hopefully. He was one of the best-looking males she had ever seen.

“We have hundreds of cyborgs working to rebuild the Farringay Starport. One of them could be your male, but they would likely not know until they met you.” Jolt explained.

“Could you arrange such a meeting?” Talia asked.

“You could come with us to Farringay. But we cannot offer any private quarters at our base,” Jolt said. “We have women camping out in a separate wing waiting to be transported to the Enclave at New Chicago.”

“Can I bring Edson? He must approve any mate I would take.”

Jolt eyed the dog sitting calmly at her side. “I see no harm. We are on our way to Farringay, now. You will not need your weapon.”

“I believe you, but I’d rather not leave it behind to get stolen,” Talia said. “I can unload it before we get into your flyer. I just need to get a change of clothes.”

Jolt nodded his ascent.

“Edson put the goats and chickens in the barn.” The dog barked and ran to the barnyard, barking as he rounded up the animals and herded them to the barn opening.”

“My ancestors, are from Farringay, and my cabin was their vacation home before the war. They fled to the mountains when the aliens started bombing the city,” said Talia. “I am the last of my line unless I find a mate to make a child with.”

As she spoke, she unloaded the weapon and put the bullets in the shoulder bag she carried. “I just need to grab a change of clothes and lock up.”

While they were speaking, Jolt had confirmed the plan with Commander Dark in case one of the Farringay cyborgs was her male. He would release that male if he wished to return to Talia’s mountain home with her. Both he and Jolt believed the best way to help Talia was to help find her a mate.

There were only a few cyborgs that would be hard to replace. Building families was a key factor of rebuilding civilization on Earth. Finding Talia’s male would be a small step.

Talia returned just a few minutes later with a larger cross the body cloth bag. Jolt showed her where to put her things behind the rear passenger seats. She stowed them and went back to the barn to close the door.

Jolt and Iris waited by the flyer while Talia closed and latched the barn door, then walked to the flyer with Edson. He seemed to know without being told to get in the flyer after his mistress and sit in the rear passenger seat beside her. If she was nervous about flying, she didn’t show it. They arrived at the complex about twenty minutes later. Typically, it would have taken Talia four to five days to walk it.

The building wasn’t much to look at, but it was a stable structure with more than enough room for the 500 cyborgs it housed. Jolt had notified them that Talia was coming to meet with them to learn if any of them were her male. He and Iris stood with her at the doorway while cyborgs passed by to determine if Talia were their female.

Talia had never seen so many people in one place in her life, nor so many handsome men, living her isolated life on her mountain homestead. They all looked so young, not that she was so old. Even Jolt who was getting close to ninety only looked about twenty-five.

Many cyborgs passed with no sign of awareness, and Talia was starting to give up hope that any of them would be her mate. Then a few stragglers strode in, and Edson’s nostrils flared, and he gave a soft bark.

The one in the middle looked up and zeroed in on Talia immediately, and his usually stoic expression converted into an elated grin. He was a classic tall dark and handsome, broad-shouldered and solid muscle as all the cyborgs. His ordinarily intense green eyes were lit in delight. He looked at least as young as Jolt, maybe even a couple years younger.

The tall cyborg strode across the room to stand in front of Talia and offered his hands to her. She looked up into his eyes and knew he was the one by the attraction she felt for him. She put her hands in his.

“This is Talia Cannon,” Jolt told him. The other cyborg never took his eyes from hers.

“Talia Cannon, I am your male, Bodee Flint. I would be honored for you to be my female,” he said and inclined his head as a sign of respect as he gently gripped her hands.

She was tall, about 5’10” to his 6’8”, and they made a striking couple. But this was only a beginning.

“I’m pleased to meet you, Bodee,” Talia told him.
“Shall we go for a walk outside and talk. I’ve been expecting you.” With that, he took her hand, and they left the building for some privacy.

Talia was both nervous and excited at the same time. All of the cyborgs she’d seen that day were gorgeous, but she hadn’t felt the attraction for any of them that she felt for this young man.

“You look so young,” Talia said as they walked. “How old are you?”

“Eighty years, six months, three weeks, two days, twelve hours and fifty-seven minutes…” Bodee replied. “Is that relevant?”

“You just look so damn young, like I might be at least ten years older than you.”

“How old are you?” he asked.

“Well, I guess that’s fair. I’m thirty-one.”

“Your age and my age are not relevant. We are adults and you are my female,” he said. “Will you decline to be my mate because you think I look younger than you?”

“I didn’t say that. I was just thinking out loud.” She glanced up at him giving him a tentative smile. “I doubt I would get a better offer in these parts. All the men that are any good already got a woman. I prefer not to share.”

They walked a long the crumbled old access road that surrounded the old industrial building until they were alone. They stopped under the shade of an old tree with its leaves ablaze with shades of yellow, orange and red.

“Cyborgs don’t share either.” He smiled down at her like he couldn’t get enough of looking at her. “I always dreamed of finding my female. You are as beautiful as I could have imagined. I will be a good mate to you. I know how to pleasure a woman. I learned in my virtual life.”

“Virtual life? What’s that?”

“It’s a complex AI simulation that runs through our internal computer that simulates life experiences and training to stimulate our minds while we are in stasis.”

“Okay, but how do you know that I am the woman for you, that we will get along together. I’m not always that easy to be with. I can’t sense it the way you can, but I feel an attraction between us. You seem nice and are real easy on the eyes.” She smiled up at him.

“You are even more beautiful than I imagined, all those years I was in stasis living my virtual life. But I know that attraction is only the beginning of bonding with our genetic mate.” Bodee took her hand, his eyes full of wonder. “Will you accept me as your male?”

Talia looked up into his green eyes, taking in the features of his handsome face. Her gaze lingered on his full lips. She wanted to know it they would feel as good as they looked.

“Please kiss me.” She pointed to her lips with her free hand.

“Okay.” He lowered his mouth to hers in what started as a light touch of their lips. She opened for him and slid the tip of her tongue between his lips. That was all the invitation he needed to swirl his tongue around hers and stake his claim inside her mouth. Passion flared and Bodee pressed her against him so her breasts squeezed against his firm chest and his erection pressed against her belly.

When the kiss finally ended, they were both breathless with arousal. “Oh, yeah, Bodee you can be my male,” she assured him. “I just had to be sure we had some sparks. Jolt said that if one of you were my male that you could come back to the mountains to my homestead. Is that agreeable to you?”

“Then we will breed and make offspring?” Bodee asked hopefully, still holding her.

“After we get better acquainted,” she told him. “To make sure you don’t want to change your mind about being my male”

“That will never happen. I know you are my one female.”

 

Copyright©2019 by Clarissa Lake