Choosing Chuckles Read online

  I’m evaluating the terrain, gathering information. He told Truth.

  And he was crafting a plan. His escape couldn’t free the other males. He would never put his female in danger that way.

  That terrain must be more interesting than what I’m viewing. Some of Truth’s mirth dissipated. We’re continuing to patrol the smaller territory. There’s open space, and open space, and more open space on the main viewscreen.

  Cyborgs preferred to be active. Chuckles rubbed his knee. His damage had decreased that yearning. The freighter hasn’t returned?

  There’s been no sign of it. Truth confirmed that. Captain relayed the incident to Power. The E Model expressed little interest and no concern over it.

  That didn’t surprise Chuckles. The council member was an arrogant ass.

  Tell me you require my help. His friend implored. Give me something exciting to do.

  I don’t require help. Chuckles denied the D Model’s request. He would handle his bad female on his own. Keep me informed about the freighter.

  If it ever reappears. Truth sighed. I will. The transmission ended.

  Chuckles leaned his head against the wall of his cage. His team didn’t need him. There was no urgent reason for him to return to The Reckless.

  He could focus on his wayward little human. His pride demanded he discipline her. His body ached for her touches, her fleeting strokes while she was transferring him to his enclosure having fed his desire.

  The Dracheon had called Bettina an idiot. Chuckles stifled a sigh. They were well-matched because he was also a fool. She’d stunned him, trapped him, and he continued to want her.

  Moments passed.

  He considered and discarded plots to escape, made a mental list of all the reprimands his little female had earned during their short duration together, fabricated an equally pleasing list of the ways he’d kill the other occupants of the large chamber, starting with the human male.

  The doors opened. A blast of female-scented air hit Chuckles. His cock bobbed. Energy coursed through his circuits.

  The other males became agitated.

  “Let me out of here, human.” The Silan punched one of the walls with his fists. That did nothing except split the skin on his knuckles.

  “I’m going to fuck you until you die, female.” The Palavian wrapped his fingers around his cock and pumped it.

  “Your ass is mine.” Spittle flew from the Ahkian’s mouth.

  The human male merely looked toward the door, his eyes as hard and as cold as the walls of their cages, his malice silently communicated yet no less insignificant.

  Chuckles stood, his left knee screaming in protest of that action. They would all die for threatening his female. He would make them hurt.

  His female paused on the threshold to the chamber, her lush body clad in bright blue fabric, her hair as vivid as it always was.

  “Are you mad at me also, sir?” She gazed at him, the quiver in her blue-tinged bottom lip barely perceptible.

  His female had been shaken by the males’ words. That angered Chuckles. He positioned himself so his body blocked her view of them.

  “I would never damage you…permanently.” He said that at an auditory level meant for her ears only, not wanting the others to listen to their conversation.

  She blinked, her eyelashes covered with sparkle. “Do you want to”—her voice lowered to a husky caress—“spank me?”

  She wanted that. He did also.

  Chuckles forced himself to frown. “You won’t like it when I spank you, female.” It would be a reprimand, not a pleasure. “I’ll redden your pale skin with my hands.”

  She wiggled, her breasts barely contained by her flight suit. “You’ll redden my skin, my bare skin, sir? Will you force me to strip for you first?”

  “There will be no garments between us.” He would see all of her. “You’ll be as naked as I am right now.”

  “Oh.” Her gaze drifted downward to his hard cock.

  A bead of pre-cum formed on his tip. Her tongue darted over her lips. He wanted that wet flesh on his shaft.

  Fraggin’ hole. She was torturing him.

  In multiple ways.

  Because he was vividly aware that she hadn’t touched his cock. Not once while she had access to his unclothed form.

  His female was aroused physically by his presence. He saw the yearning in her eyes, smelled her need, inhaled her musk with every breath.

  And she’d caressed the rest of him but not that part, had stopped before progressing that far. Had her mind rebelled at the thought of fully bonding with him?

  Did she consider him to be unworthy of her?

  He wasn’t fully functional. The Humanoid Alliance would have decommissioned him if he hadn’t escaped. His knee was damaged, would never be repaired.

  “I won’t force you to breed with me.” His chin lifted. He had his pride.

  “That’s good to know, sir.” She looked at him as though his processors were malfunctioning. “But why would you think you’d have to force me to fuck you? You’re handsome and hung like a bovine.”

  “I’m not hung like a bovine.” Chuckles dismissed his female’s blatant untruth. “A bovine’s cock is six times the length of an average human male’s cock. That size isn’t feasible for breeding with a human female.”

  “It might not be feasible but it could be fun.” She mumbled that response. “You’re huge, sir. You wouldn’t have to force me to fuck you. I’d ride you merely for the experience.”

  “That’s another lie.” And earned another reprimand. His fingers twitched. “You didn’t ride me after you removed my body armor.”

  “Of course, I didn’t ride you, sir.” Red pigment flooded his female’s cheeks. “You were stunned, unable to speak, unable to give me permission. What type of being do you think I am?”

  She was a deceitful dishonest one. Chuckles narrowed his eyes at her. “You weren’t repulsed by my damage?”

  “Your damage, sir?” Her gaze returned to his cock. She frowned. “I don’t see any damage. It seems to be working the way it should.”

  “My knee is damaged.” He clarified his words.

  “Oh.” She looked at that part of him. “Sir, that’s nothing.”

  It wasn’t nothing. He suppressed his retort. The damage would have caused his death if he had remained under Humanoid Alliance control.

  “The only reason I didn’t fuck you until we were both immobile was because that wouldn’t be right, sir.” Her eyes flashed. “I’m not a monster. I’m not like…” She waved her hands at the other males.

  They continued to rattle their cages and yell obscene comments at her. She flinched. Chuckles widened his stance, seeking to protect her.

  His female frequently fabricated the truth, but the indignation in her tone communicated she wasn’t lying about her reason for not touching his cock.

  She wanted him and considered him worthy of her. The tension in his shoulders eased. She didn’t care about his damage.

  “When I capture you, I will touch you. All over.” He warned his female, his tone stern. “You will be mine, mine to reprimand, mine to breed with, mine to keep. There will be no asking your permission for anything. I’ll use you as I wish.”

  Her breath hitched and her eyes widened. “Will you tie me up, sir? Force me to take your big cock? Thrust it into my pussy, my ass, my mouth?”

  “I would never damage your ass in that way.” The humans had abused him like that…multiple times. He would never inflict that pain upon his fragile female.

  “But you would fuck my pussy and my mouth.” She licked her lips, wetting that lush flesh. “You’d fill me with your cyborg cum, use me like your fuck tool.”

  She said that as though she yearned for that reprimand.

  “I will own you.” He stressed the severity of her fate. “You’ll have no freedom.” Like all cyborgs, he’d fought fiercely for his freedom. He processed how precious it was. “You’ll follow my orders, remain in our chamber
.”

  Her gaze grew soft. “I’ll be your baby. You’ll be my sir, protecting me, punishing me if I’m naughty.”

  He stared at her. She wanted that, and fraggin’ hole, he did also.

  When she looked up at him with her big blue eyes and called him sir in that husky voice of hers, he felt fully functional and stronger than a team of twenty C Models.

  The prospect of taking her over his knee and delivering a reprimand to her curvy ass made his balls ache and need surge through his circuits.

  “That’s merely a fantasy though, isn’t it, sir?” She released a wistful sigh. “I’m not free to be owned by you. I have to return this ship to Smarts or she’ll withhold my share of the credits.”

  She’d receive that share from selling his ship. That reminder dulled his arousal. He was merely a target for his greedy female, a means to grasp credits she hadn’t honorably earned.

  The Ahkian gagged loudly, the sound distracting Chuckles’ female. The Mox-X addicted male flopped onto his back on the floor of his cage, skin smacking against tile. He grabbed his neck dramatically.

  “Are you okay?” Chuckles’ female glanced toward the male. She sounded genuinely worried, which irritated Chuckles.

  His female should only be concerned about him. He pressed his lips together. The other beings would soon be dead.

  “Ch-choking.” The Ahkian’s gagging noises turned into dry retching, the male’s absurd performance causing Chuckles to roll his eyes.

  “Stick a finger down your throat.” His female offered that unconventional healing advice.

  The Ahkian made a half-assed attempt to do that. “N-not working.”

  “Ohhh…” She wrung her hands, becoming increasingly upset, which, in turn, spiraled Chuckles’ irritation upward.

  The Ahkian would die for real for emotionally damaging her.

  “I can’t open your chamber.” Guilt edged her voice. “Those are the rules.”

  The noises grew annoyingly louder.

  “He’s turning blue.” The human male’s voice was flat.

  “I can’t allow him to die.” Chuckles’ female moved toward the control panel, her beautiful face set with determination.

  Chuckles gaped at her, appalled that she would believe such blatant lies and terribly executed trickery. “He’s an Ahkian. They’re always blue.”

  “Shut up, cyborg.” The Ahkian snapped at him. “I’m dying.” He resumed gagging.

  Chuckles’ female balanced on the toes of her boots, trying to peer at the Ahkian. “Is he coughing up black soot?”

  “Yes.”

  “No.” Chuckles said that at the same time as the Ahkian. “His breath is clear.” That was the key point. The male was breathing, was in no danger of choking to death.

  “I don’t know.” Worry lines were etched around her full lips. “If he dies—”

  “I do know. He won’t die.” Disappointment filled Chuckles. His softhearted female hadn’t protected him because he was special and she cared for him. She would have risked her lifespan for the Mox-X-addicted humanoid also. “If he can talk, he can breathe.”

  “That’s not true.” She pushed back on his logic. “My dad can talk at the beginning of one of his attacks. But then his coughing gets worse and worse and he can’t catch his breath.” Her fingers fluttered over her chest. “If he isn’t injected with serum, he dies.”

  Where was that dad of hers now? “The Ahkian won’t die.” Chuckles repeated that fact. “I’m 100.0000 percent certain of that.”

  She looked at him with big trusting eyes. “That’s certain.” Her shoulders lowered, his gullible female accepting the word of a male she’d met less than a planet rotation ago. “You’re not dying, Oskenzhig.”

  “Fuck you, cyborg.” The Ahkian gave up on his subterfuge, standing.

  She ignored the male and gave Chuckles a wobbly smile, her relief and gratitude too real to be feigned. “You must think I’m an idiot, but if it had been my dad, I’d want someone to save him.”

  “He’s not your dad.” And she needed a protector, someone to safeguard her from himself. Fortunately for her, he was that someone. “I’m locking you in your own cage when I get free.”

  “Hmmm…” Her eyes grew dreamy once more.

  His cock twitched. She would cause his death.

  “That’s a reprimand, not an indulgence.” He warned her yet again. “Go back to the bridge. I’ll capture you later.” He’d speak with the other males first.

  She started to walk toward the doors and then abruptly stopped. “Oh. I came here for a reason.” She returned to his cage. “I was doing research on cyborgs, sir, and the database said you needed energy inputs to stay alive.”

  She had been thinking about him. That decreased his exasperation with her and the rest of the universe.

  “None of the wires were labelled.” She winced. “I took a bundle of them and stuck them down your nourishment bar dispenser. Maybe one of them will work for you, sir.”

  She did…what?

  He rubbed his hands over his face. She would kill them all. “You won’t give any other male access to wires.”

  “Of course not.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re the only one who needs energy inputs.”

  His female turned with a flounce and strode away, a bounce in her step.

  Chuckles stared at her jiggling ass, tempted to break down the walls between them and paddle it until it was red. She was a menace, putting herself and everyone else in danger, not processing the consequences of her actions.

  He pushed the button for the nourishment dispenser. Five sets of wires fell. As he suspected, the combination gave him access to every system on the containment ship.

  If he had been any other cyborg and not hers, he could inflict permanent damage on his ethically challenged female. He jabbed the energy conduits into his wrists and the system circuits into his neck, his movements jerky.

  “Your cock is hard, cyborg.” The human male’s voice was quiet. “I’ve never seen a machine fuck.” His eyes appeared to be closed. “I might allow you to use her mouth as I slit her throat. Would you like that?”

  The male threatened his female. Chuckles’ vision turned red, rage gripping him. “She’s mine, human.” He wrapped a lifespan of hatred around that word. “Touch her and you’ll die. Painfully.”

  The male laughed.

  That didn’t ease Chuckles’ alarm.

  He couldn’t safeguard his female while he remained trapped inside the cage. Once his energy was restored and he’d downloaded all of the ship’s files, including the programs giving him remote access to its systems, he’d free himself.

  He’d capture his deceitful yet gullible female, reprimand and breed with her, make her his in all ways. She would belong to him.

  And he would protect her.

  Even if it destroyed him.

  Chapter Six

  Bettina sat on the bridge of the ship. The guidance system directed them toward Vega R. The monitoring systems would tell her if and when she needed to resume control of the vessel.

  She rested her booted feet on the console. The image on the main viewscreen consisted of stars sparkling on a covering cloth of black. It was soothing. She liked sparkle, had sprinkled some of the cosmetic kind on her chest, and black was the color of her cyborg’s hair.

  It was also the hue of the stone she was crafting into a pendant. When it was finished, she would tuck it into Sir’s pack before she unloaded him. It would look beautiful against his gray skin and he’d have something to remind him of her.

  She sighed, already missing him. He turned her on as no other male had and she trusted him. Another male might have pretended not to be upset with her. He had told her he planned to capture her, lock her up, punish her for being naughty.

  Stars. She pressed her thighs together. That was hot.

  Would he track her down after he was unloaded? Part of her wanted him to do that. Her more logical side argued it might place her dad and Duggar in danger.
Protecting them was her first priority.

  She set the pendant on the console, tidied her hands with a cleaning cloth, reapplied pigment to her lips, making them as bright as possible.

  Fixing a smile to her face, she opened transmissions between her and her dad. Her beloved parent appeared on the main viewscreen.

  He was scowling at something or, more likely, someone offscreen. “I got it. I got it. Calm down. It could have been for you.”

  “It says it’s for you, you old fossil.” Duggar sounded as grumpy as he always was. “And unlike you, I can read the words on the viewscreen. It also says it’s your daughter.”

  “I know it’s Bett Bits.” Her dad rolled his eyes. “I can see her.”

  “That’s because her hair is brighter than a mining blast.”

  Her dad glanced at her. “It doesn’t look that bright to me.”

  “You’re almost blind, you decrepit piece of rock.” Duggar’s face appeared in front of her dad’s. “Bett Bits.” He frowned at her. “It’s a good thing you’re coming home. You haven’t been eating enough.”

  “She looks fine.” Her dad protested from behind his friend.

  “She doesn’t look fine. She’s wasting away…just like her father.” Duggar turned his head, giving her a view of his thinning gray hair. “I told her I’d take care of you and you’re not going to starve to death on my watch.”

  That was unlikely to happen. Her dad was far from thin.

  But the old miner liked to fabricate nourishment and felt everyone around him needed to eat more. When she was home, he grumped and fussed over her constantly.

  Some males needed someone to care for, even if that someone was the big, gruff male’s best friend and that best friend’s daughter.

  “How is your cough, Dad?” That concerned her more than his weight.

  His cough was advanced Erinomean Miner’s Lung. It couldn’t be cured, could only be treated.

  “He hasn’t had an episode since we last spoke.” Duggar answered for her dad. “And he won’t have another one if he behaves himself.” He glowered at his friend. “No more overexerting yourself.”

  “Go away.” Her dad’s hands waved behind Duggar, his face not visible. “I’m a mature male. I can overexert myself if I want to.”