Marcus 582: Book Three of Cyborgs: Mankind Redefined (26 page)

Rachel heard Marcus swearing somewhere in the crowd. She and Eric both grinned.

“Anyway, I thought it might help your decision-making if you knew that this is more than just making you able to talk.”

Rachel nodded and leaned forward to hug him. When she let him loose, she found herself staring up into Marcus’s gaze while he lifted Eric to his feet and directed him away from her. She wanted to be mad at Marcus for acting so possessive. Instead, all she could do was laugh. She pointed her finger at him though.

“Bad Marcus,” she rasped in reprimand.

Marcus only grinned at her chastisement. She knew her bossy boyfriend probably took it as a compliment.

She looked around for Edward. He was nearby and still walking with a cane. Seetha had gotten his legs functional enough for him to be out of his portable transport chair, but it was looking like his prosthetics might have to be replaced. She held out her hand to him. Edward limped over and looked down.

“What do…you…think?”

“Me? I’d choose using sign language or outright yelling over leaving myself sounding like I needed an inhaler all the time. But I’m not you, sweetie. And you’re not me. I’m trying to decide about getting new mechanics myself. No one can really tell a person what they should or shouldn’t have to live with for the rest of their life. Whatever you decide isn’t going to change how people feel about you—not in the ways that matter. It’s only going to change how you get to live.”

“Not helpful,” Rachel teased.

“Most lectures are like that,” Edward said, giving her a wink.

Rachel groaned in frustration. She sounded like a dying animal. She sounded like that in bed now too. Marcus swore he didn’t care how she sounded, but sometimes her raspy groaning made him laugh at her.

“Fine…just do it,” she hissed.

“That’s my girl. Just channel the amazing woman who shocked the shit out of William with our electromagnet discharger. She can handle the pain.”

“
Pain?
” Rachel rasped in alarm, grabbing Seetha’s wrist.

Seetha nodded and stared into her eyes. “Yes. It’s either six hours of slow cooking in the chair or thirty seconds of fiery hell sizzling on a griddle in your brain and throat.”

Rachel dropped her wrist. “Hell,” she chose, giving in to being tortured briefly.

Marcus knelt beside her chair and took her hand.

“Oh no, boyfriend. Turn loose of her or risk being fried yourself,” Seetha ordered. “You wait until I’ve pulled the Forensic Calibrator away…then you can hold her hand for the rest of it.”

“Roger that order, ma’am,” Marcus declared.

“Don’t get sassy with me. I’m trying to watch out for both of you.”

“Yeah, I know.” Marcus ducked his head and nodded.

Rachel chuckled and patted his hand before gripping the arms of the chair. She felt Seetha opening her panel. None of the faces turned to her looked the least bit alarmed by the action. She would never have to pretend to be anything she wasn’t with these people, no matter how she sounded.

As promised, fiery hell had her silently screaming in the longest thirty seconds of her life. The last ten she must have been gripping Marcus’s hand because when it started to subside she was gripping him hard. Then she realized her silent screaming was starting to have sound and growing louder.

“Damn it Seetha. That was way worse than you described,” she exclaimed. Then she laughed. She heard that too. She was laughing and talking. And she didn’t sound like some call-for-sex person. She sounded like herself.

“I can talk,” she said, looking at Marcus. She turned to Seetha. “I can talk.”

“I see that. I hope I don’t regret it tomorrow when you start back talking me every three seconds. I never minded those dirty looks and hand signals you gave me. I hate sass though.”

Rachel laughed. “Too bad.”

“Sing at my wedding and I’ll learn to deal with it,” Seetha declared, walking back to put her tool away.

Rachel raised a hand to her throat as she looked at the man she was going to marry. Two registered cyborgs had never done so before. Peyton said he and Kyra were working on getting the rules amended for them.

“It doesn’t hurt to talk, Marcus. Do you really think I can sing again now?”

Marcus lifted a hand to her beautiful face, which was even more amazing with hope lighting it. “Kyra and Seetha both think you can retrain your vocal chords. If nature doesn’t help you, we’ll just keep working on the calibration settings until you can. Today I feel like anything is possible. No one is ever going to silence you again if I can help it.”

Rachel threw herself from the chair into his arms. He stood up and swung her around, hiding his emotional reaction to her public show of affection in her hair.

Everyone started clapping when they heard her musical laughter. He had a feeling she’d be singing by the time they got back home.

## The End ##

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
:
If you enjoyed this ebook, please consider leaving a positive review or rating on the site where you purchased it. Reader reviews help my books continue to be valued by distributors/resellers and help new readers make decisions about reading them. I value each and every reader who takes the time to do this and invite you all to join me on my Website, Blog, Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads.com for more discussions and fun.

You are the reason I write these stories and I sincerely appreciate you!

Many thanks for your support,

~ Donna McDonald

Next Book In The
Cyborg: Mankind Redefined
Series

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KEEP READING in this ebook to read a short excerpt from
ARIEL: NANO WOLVES 1
,
the first book in a new paranormal wolf shifter series.

Other Great Science Fiction Romance – S. E. Smith

I don’t just love writing science fiction romance. I read a lot of it. If you haven’t read S. E. Smith, you’re going to love her exciting alien heroes and mysterious worlds. It’s going to be hard to read these without wanting an alien hero of your own. These books are wonderful, happy romances laced with great adventures that make your heart race for all the characters. The opening scene in her latest book,
Dagger’s Hope
, is riveting. It’s my sincere pleasure to recommend her work to you. She also has a book called “Gracie’s Touch” that is a great starter book for those who have never read science fiction romances before. Susan will convert you.

~ Donna McDonald

THE ALLIANCE

Discover what happens when Earth receives its first contact!

Click here to visit S. E. Smith’s webpage for this series.

The Hunter’s Claim

Razor’s Traitorous Heart

Dagger’s Hope

Other Great Science Fiction Romance – Eve Langlais

Want more cyborgs? I know I can’t get enough. Eve Langlais is an author friend I met through reading her “cyborg books”. If you haven’t seen this series yet, you’re going to love her hot, sexy, and funny men who are certainly more than machines. These stories are feel great and leave you laughing romances packaged with intriguing SciFi plots. Eve’s books take up a lot of space on my ereader and stay on my re-read list. Joe breaking free in
C791
made him a total alpha hero in my book.
Aramus
was so outrageous I kept being shocked by how hard he was fighting his feelings. They are all great for their own reasons. You’re going to love these.

~Donna McDonald

CYBORGS: MORE THAN MACHINES

Half man, half machine, which side will win the battle when it comes to feeling emotions?

Click here to visit Eve’s web page for this series!

C791

F814

B785

Aramus

Seth

Adam

Avion

Short Excerpt from
ARIEL: NANO WOLVES 1

The black wolf on the table was still and unmoving. Ariel swallowed hard. She couldn’t let Reed die. She just couldn’t. His blood had created her. Perhaps her blood could save him. It seemed a viable risk to take given all they’d suffered together at Crane’s hands. She didn’t want to deal with this nightmare alone. She needed the creature on the table to help her survive what had happened to her.

She looked at the medic, a native woman with a kind face. “Can you hook up a direct transfusion? I’m one of Reed’s…family members…and his alpha in training. My blood stands the best chance of helping him.”

“He has lost more than we can take from you, Alpha,” the healer said softly.

Ariel shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. I have to try. Take what you safely can. My blood is special. I should build it back quickly and it should build quickly in him. After you’re done though, you will not be allowed to take my blood or Reed’s again. You’re better off not knowing why.”

Ariel turned her sincerest gaze to Matt. “If you trust me at all, see that the transfusion equipment is destroyed after we do this. Incinerate them completely if you can. I’m telling you this in case anything happens to me.”

“What could possibly happen to you?” Matt demanded.

Ariel shrugged. “I don’t have any idea about the long term effects of what was done to Reed, me, or the other women. My wolf turning was not natural. There’s no time to go into the whole story, but what I’ve become is the result of a science experiment. Now do as I say and protect your pack, Matt. I don’t want to die knowing I’ve harmed you or anyone connected to you.”

Ariel watched the native woman walk around Reed’s bed and stop in front of her. “I see the Great Alpha’s life in your determined eyes, which look so much like his. I will do as you ask. There is no need to charge Matt with watching me. My brother knows my word is good.”

“Brother?” Ariel said in surprise.

“We have different mothers, but similar hearts,” the healer said.

Ariel sighed. “Okay. Let’s do this then.” She turned to Matt. “It’s too cold to sit without clothes. Can you split this sleeve for me? I’d do it myself, but it’s too awkward a reach, and I don’t want to get naked.”

Matt waited until Ariel had climbed up onto the gurney Eva had wheeled close to Reed’s bed. “Eva, shouldn’t Ariel shift to her wolf to make her stronger?”