Seducing Stag
Cyborg Seduction - Book Ten
By Laurann Dohner
Seducing Stag
by Laurann Dohner
Stag and the crew of the Varnish are on a mission, responding to a distress signal of a freighter that has been attacked by the Markus Models. Instead of finding the enemy, they discover one sole survivor. Nala’s a human, and having suffered at their hands during his time on Earth, there’s no species Stag despises more. But when the petite woman confuses him for an android and tries to order him around, Stag decides she’ll live—and pay for her slights.
Nala Vestria has lost her freighter, her crew and her father, only to become personal maid to a cyborg. Stag is surly, short-tempered, and completely untrusting of humans…not to mention intense, commanding, and maybe the hottest being Nala has ever seen. When she finds him temporarily at her mercy, Nala isn’t sure if she wants to kill him or kiss him. Then again, life is short. She opts for the latter.
Nala swiftly becomes a distraction Stag can’t afford, especially after he’s had a carnal taste of what the woman has to offer. He’ll take her back to Garden, his home planet, and be rid of her—as well as the emotions she evokes. But as their journey home becomes harrowing, Nala may prove to be more of an asset than a liability. To both the ship…and the lonely cyborg who commands her.
Cyborg Seduction Series
Burning Up Flint
Kissing Steel
Melting Iron
Touching Ice
Steeling Coal
Redeeming Zorus
Taunting Krell
Haunting Blackie
Loving Deviant
Seducing Stag
Seducing Stag
Copyright © September 2016
Editor: Kelli Collins
Cover Art: Dar Albert
eBook ISBN: 978-1-944526-33-7
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal, except for the case of brief quotations in reviews and articles.
Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is coincidental.
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter One
“Spread out,” Stag ordered the group of six men who followed him inside the damaged ship. “Someone silence that alarm.” The blaring irritated him.
Kelis ripped open one of the access panels. The silence was welcome when he disconnected the right wires. Smoke lingered in the corridors but the fire-suppression system had worked. White foam stained the floors and walls. Stag took the lead position and gripped his weapon. Only one life sign registered and it came from the living quarters.
He glanced around a curve and stared at the severely damaged android sprawled on the floor a few feet away. It had been torn to pieces. The head was even smashed and ripped open. One of the arms on the disconnected body twitched. He saw no weapon marks.
“The Markus Models don’t seem to like androids that aren’t of their own models.” He glanced at Veller.
The male shook his head. “Long-range sensors read the shuttle hasn’t turned around. They are still headed away. I’ll notify you if they return so we have time to evacuate.”
“They could have left some of their units aboard and they might not register as life signs. Don’t let your guard down,” Stag warned. He rounded the corner and stepped over the mutilated body of the android. It clearly wasn’t a threat. He kept his weapon trained forward and stopped at the first door. He waited while Kelis overrode the lock. The door opened to a small crew quarter.
Stag clenched his teeth, disgusted at the sight of that much blood and what was left of the Earther. He’d been torn apart as well, portions of his corpse strewn about the space. The biggest pieces of him intact were the head and chest. Blood stains marked almost every inch of wall, floor, and ceiling. He guessed it had happened within hours.
Kelis peered in. “Overkill.”
“Understatement,” Stag muttered. “I’m tempted to leave now. We’ve seen enough.”
“There is still one life sign aboard,” Veller reminded him. “We might be able to get valuable information from the Earther, like how many Markus Models were here. The computer banks have been fried. Maze is in the command center and he said there’s nothing to retrieve. Every system except life support has been purposely damaged.”
Stag moved to the next door to find it wasn’t locked. Two bodies lay inside. They were intact but bloodied. One lay on the floor with an obvious broken neck and battered features. The other one, dumped into a chair, had suffered torture. His contorted limbs showed severe trauma. Neither had survived their attacks.
“What were the Markus Models doing? Practicing how to kill by various methods?”
Stag held Kelis’s gaze. “Perhaps.”
“Sick bastards.”
Stag silently agreed. They checked two more rooms, finding one more body. It had been stripped bare and dissected. Bile rose but Stag managed to stifle the urge to lose his last meal on the floor. The Markus Models had pinned the male Earther to the floor by jamming metal into his limbs and sliced him open as if they’d wanted to see his insides. Various organs lay on the floor next to him, and the blood patterns suggested he’d still been alive when they’d started.
“Fuck,” Kelis snarled, turning away. “I’m glad you ordered Maze to go to Control instead of with us, as he wanted to.”
Stag backed out of the room and the door closed. “As a medic, he’d want to rescue the crew, and I doubted he’d be able to do anything for them. He agonizes over death. We know the Markus Models have no regard for life. I think your assessment was correct. They were running experiments on these Earthers.”
“Let’s go. I don’t want to see what’s left of the one with a heartbeat. He probably won’t be able to talk.” Kelis shook his head. “This was more than enough.”
“It’s possible he hid.” Yammer stepped forward. “Otherwise he’d be dead too.”
“Unlikely,” Veller disagreed. “Markus Models can read life signs as well as we can. They would have tracked it the way we are. There’s still an active sign in the captain’s quarters.”
“It might be a Markus Model.” Kelis removed his secondary weapon. “I say we kill the murdering freak, right after we get information from it.”
“Agreed.” Stag took the lead again. “They don’t go down easy. Try to damage the body but avoid head shots. We can remove its memory core and hack into it.”
“No frying the bastard then,” Kelis muttered. “Great.”
They reached the last door and found it locked. Stag nodded at Veller, and he came forward to tear off the panel and override the mechanism. Stag tensed, using a hand signal to give his men orders before the door opened.
The metal parted and they rushed inside. The living quarter consisted of one large room and an open cleansing unit. The sight that greeted them left Stag stunned.
An older Earther male lay face down in a pool of blood, but it was the bed that captured his attention. It was a massive four-poster—and a pale, nude body had been strung upright against the headboard.
It was a female. Her arms and legs were spread wide apart, bo
und upright to the tall bed posts at the head of the bed. Her head was dipped, long blonde hair falling down her body to her waist. The mass of curls mostly covered her bared breasts. Some blood stained her creamy white skin, stark in comparison. There were smears of it near her wrists, ankles, and waist. One perfectly displayed bloody handprint showed on her inner thigh, as if someone had gripped her there.
Stag kept his weapon trained on her as he approached. He took note of her chest rising and falling, although it was slight. He glanced lower. The small patch of pubic hair matched the rest of her. She wasn’t a big female, but fully grown if her breast size and body were any indication. One of his men muttered something but he didn’t catch the words. The female didn’t respond or make any movement.
“It could be a trap. Check the room for explosive devices. She looks like bait.” Stag froze while he waited.
“She’s alive.” Kelis came forward. “I’ll get her down.”
Stag knocked him back. “Did you hear me? Check the bed for devices. There’s no way to reach her without walking on it.”
His men went to work and Stag studied the woman. She was breathing. Her breasts moved just slightly. He took in the ties that held her. She’d been bound tightly, stretched as if she were a living canvas.
“Shit,” Parqel rasped. “Good call.” He got to his feet by the head of the bed. “It’s pressure rigged on all four feet of the bed. Any weight change and I assume it will blow up. I see wires leading into the mattress, hidden by the covers on first glance.”
Kelis moved to stand next to him. “How did you know?”
Stag hesitated. “Most men would have rushed toward a sexually appealing woman. It makes sense to me why they’d leave her alive, but none of the men onboard this ship.”
Veller spoke. “We could kill gravity and float to cut her down.”
Stag shook his head. “Remove gravity and the bed would shift as well, releasing the triggers.”
“How are we going to get her down?” Kelis sounded frustrated.
“We aren’t.” Stag turned to his men. “Let’s go.”
“We can’t just leave her,” Kelis argued. “She’s alive. We can try to disarm the device.”
“Tell him what would happen, Parqel,” Stag demanded.
The other cyborg sighed. “I cut the wires and it will go off. I can’t reach the device without putting weight on the bed. We can’t even cut her from the sides and lift her down because her weight is part of the bed.”
“She was dead the moment they made her a trap.” Stag stared at the woman. He felt pity. “We’ll cut life support so there are no life signs to draw others to the freighter. It will be a painless way for her to go.”
“It’s a woman.” Kelis faced him. “We can’t just leave her to die.”
“I find this distasteful as well. But there’s no way to save her without that explosion killing us too.”
“I’ll stay behind and wait for you to leave this ship, then attempt it. That way only my life will be at risk.”
“I won’t allow you to die for a human, Kelis.”
“Damn it!” the cyborg shouted. “I must try, Stag.”
A soft sound came from the bed and Stag turned his head. The woman lifted her chin, her hair moving to reveal her generous breasts, just enough to show one perky nipple. He studied her. She had delicate, attractive features and pale blue eyes.
She seemed a bit disorientated as she blinked, focusing on him. Confusion was an easy emotion to read, but then a hint of fear showed. She glanced away from him, noticing his men. He stepped to the end of the bed, watching her.
She looked down, closed her eyes, and then opened them. “Who is in charge?” She had a soft, pleasant voice.
“I am.”
She peered directly at Stag, then to the weapon in his hand, then back to hold his gaze. “You’re cyborgs, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I figured. I’ve only heard of one thing that has gray skin.” She licked her lips. “There’s an explosive device in the bed. You can’t reach me without it going off. I calculate there’s enough there to take out this entire section and probably blow a hole in the outer hull. Did any of my crew survive?”
“Your crew?”
“I’m the captain.” She seemed to notice the body on the floor and tears filled her eyes. “That’s my father. He’s dead, isn’t he?”
Stag saw no reason to lie. “Yes.”
“What were those things that boarded us? Do you know?”
“Markus Models. They are flesh-exterior androids. Do you know how many there were?”
“I saw three. I could hear someone screaming though. I think it was Melvin. He’s a few rooms down. I’ll assume he had a reason to scream. That means at least four. They looked like identical clones but they were really strong. I shot one of them twice in the chest but he just kept coming. He hit me and it was lights out until I woke while they were tearing off my clothes. I thought they were going to rape me but they strung me up instead and cut open the mattress to plant a bomb. Then they made the bed.” She glanced at the corpse on the floor. “He wasn’t in here then. One of them struck me again and I passed out…until now.”
“Your entire crew is dead. You were the only life sign.”
The pain of grief twisted up her features but she masked it fast, seeming to pull her emotions together. “Thank you for answering our distress signal and trying to come to our aid.” She opened her hands and gripped the bonds. “Can you do me a favor? Please set the auto-destruct sequence on my ship before you leave. They’re planning on coming back. We’re hauling sex bots in cargo two. The crates state it’s mining equipment but that’s what the real cargo is. They figured that out somehow. They were talking aloud when they were putting me up here. They think they can reprogram those bots to be useful to them. Blow me all to hell. I don’t want them to get a damn thing. I also don’t want to be alive when they return.”
She paused. “You can take the bots if you want but don’t let those bastards have them. Hurry, whatever you decide to do. They were out of range of communicating with someone and needed to leave the ship. I don’t think they were willing to use satellite relay. That means ship-to-ship coms only, and you know the range on those isn’t that great. My ship was too slow to make some rendezvous point they’d set up. I don’t know how long they’ve been gone.”
“Why aren’t you asking us to save you?” Stag was intrigued by her, curious.
“It’s suicide. I’m sure you have better things to do today than die. So did I, but I’m the one who got boarded. They didn’t register on our long-range sensors. Hell, we didn’t even know we’d been boarded until they were already inside and attacking us.”
“They probably hacked your computer system and overrode your sensors.” Veller frowned. “We figure they left about an hour ago.”
“Do you know who they went to meet?” Stag drew her attention by stepping closer.
“Brothers. That’s all I know. No clue who they are or what that means.”
“More Markus Models.” Kelis sighed. “They will probably return with at least one more shuttle. They destroyed your freighter. It’s not traveling anywhere. They wanted it dead in space. This ship has a large cargo capacity but it’s too slow for them. They’ll probably have to divide the cargo.”
“Check the cargo bay and make certain they didn’t leave any models behind to guard the bots.” Stag glanced at Kelis. “Transfer what you can onto our ship, destroy the rest.” He regarded Veller. “You heard her. See if you can set the auto destruct. If not, we’ll blow it when we leave. Go. Stick together in teams.”
His men left and Stag stared at the woman. “You’re very brave.”
“That’s not the word I’d go with.” She glanced down her body. “I look like I belong in one of those bondage clubs located on Mars. I would have shaved my legs this morning if I’d known.”
Stag examined her body.
“Eyes up here, gorgeous,
” she murmured. “You don’t need to verify that. It was a bad joke.”
He held her gaze.
“I guess I should be thankful you’re not human. Most men would have come at me looking like this and set off the bombs.” She smiled. “Those Markus models would have been able to steal my cargo, since it’s on the other side of the ship sealed in the hold, and still gotten me killed. That would have pissed me off.”
“Why did you call me that?”
“Gorgeous? Because you are. You’ve got beautiful black hair and those blue eyes. It gets lonely in space. My father always hired the crew, and not one of them was much to look at or sexually appealing. He did that on purpose.” She tried to wiggle her body a little but the bonds held her too tight. “God, this is unpleasant. It feels like I’ve been turned into a wishbone.”
“Stop fighting and loosen your muscles. It will hurt less.”
“Been strung up much?”
“A few times in the past,” he admitted.
“Why would someone do that to you? All they’d have to do is shut you down if they wanted you in one place.”
She believed he was an android. He wasn’t surprised by her assumption. “I have no shutoff function. It was punishment. They whipped us.”
“Why would anyone pay that kind of money and then damage something like you?” She shook her head. “A guy must have owned you, and his wife probably wished you were upgraded with the right equipment to be in her bedroom. Did he take it out on you? You’re really handsome.” She ran her gaze over his body. “Nice measurement designs too. My father said some of you were used for sex bots way back when. I can see why. Hell, I’d buy you if I’d ever seen you in one of the sex-bot ads.”
His temper flared. “You’d buy me to have sex with you?”
“I’m trying to distract myself from the pain.” She rolled her head, looking away from him, and fought the restraints. “Please blow the ship. This is agony.”