I’m sharing scenes from the first chapter of Baring Grudge as we wait for its release on August 10th.
You can read the first scene from the first chapter of Baring Grudge here:
This week I’m sharing the second scene of that first chapter.
***
Rancor expelled his breath, lowering his shoulders. “She didn’t stop the jettisoning of the robots.” He grinned. “We have the best of leaders.”
“We do.” Grudge nodded and pounded the robot, sending the artificial being to its doom.
He had been a fraction of a warrior when Cadet found him in the used-goods market, displayed amidst the scrap metal and the cracked viewscreens. The merchant had sold him to her, his seventh owner, for an embarrassingly low price.
She had freed him, had sourced his missing parts, had given him a role, a place on her team.
He gave her his loyalty in return, would kill for her, die for her.
Every warrior in the space station would do that.
“We have until the end of the shift to eject as many robots as we can.” Grudge sensed their opportunity for fun would be greatly limited once they gathered in the docking bay. “I’ll convey them here.” Being a C Model, he was larger and stronger than Rancor—a more recently manufactured D Model. He could carry more robots. “You dispose of them. The faster we work, the more targets we’ll have to shoot.”
Grudge strode toward the remaining robots. Purpose filled him.
If his projections were correct—and they were always correct—working at cyborg speed, they could jettison three thousand and twenty-two robots.
That should provide them with sufficient entertainment.
***
Grudge and Rancor labored until the last possible moment.
“You won’t make it in time, D Model.” Grudge ran as fast as he could through the hallways. “You’re too slow.”
“Frag you.” His friend was a breath behind him. “I’m only slower than you on the ground. In the air, I can’t be matched.”
“We aren’t in the air right now, are we?” Grudge laughed as he ran into the docking bay.
Heads turned.
Cadet scowled at him.
He swallowed his mirth and skidded to a stop near Strain and his female. His boot heels left grooves in the floor tiles.
Rancor slid into place beside him. The D Model huffed and puffed.
Strain glowered at them and lifted his fragile human female higher against his chest, rumbling with unhappiness. The warrior was damaged, had viewed beings as threats before finding his female. He was more wary now that he had located her.
Any warrior would be cautious. Compatible females were rare. A cyborg only had one genetic match, and many of them would never meet that revered being.
Grudge projected he wouldn’t be worthy of that honor. He wiggled his toes inside his left boot. But if a miracle occurred and he did meet her, he wouldn’t let any other being venture near her.
He would safeguard her with everything he had.
“Now that we’re all here.” Cadet frowned at them. “We can begin.”
Everyone else in the docking bay, including Grudge, became silent and still, giving their leader their full attention.
“Look around us.” She extended her arms. “We’re surrounded by ships. Many of them are Class A Warships, the best that have ever been manufactured. As of this planet rotation, these vessels belong to us. We’re claiming them on behalf of cyborgs everywhere, both our freed and yet-to-be freed brethren.”
Grudge and the other warriors cheered. Pride expanded his chest. They were no longer at the mercy of the Humanoid Alliance—their brutal manufacturers. They were a military force.
“We’re claiming the ships whether a certain arrogant ass wants them or not.” Their leader muttered that aside.
“She’s talking about Power again.” Strain’s female made that not-so-quiet observation.
Grudge quashed his inappropriate laugh.
There was a 98.1259 percent probability the chatty human female, as Cadet referred to the D Model’s genetic match, was correct. Their leader was talking about Power, the head of the cyborg council and her most hated nemesis.
But Cadet didn’t appreciate any comments made about the male.
She glared at Strain’s female before shifting her gaze to the other warriors.
“We have more ships than warriors.” Her lips lifted slightly. “That’s a good problem to have, but it is still a problem.”
“Not if we fly them at full speed.” Rancor said that under his breath and nudged Grudge.
Grudge grinned at him.
“One of us will stay here and guard the space station.” Cadet shared the plan with them. “The rest of us will fly the first set of ships, loaded with as many weapons as they can bear, to Mercury Minor. We will retrieve more warriors and return here to claim the rest of the vessels.”
***
Read the next scene (available July 26th) here:
***
Subscribe To My Newsletter: http://cynthiasax.com/newsletter/
Baring Grudge
No one in the universe is more determined than a cyborg warrior tracking his female.
***
Grudge, a C Model cyborg, has been assigned a mission – safeguard a Humanoid Alliance space station for his kind. Honor was once all he had, and he is determined to fulfill his duty.
That resolve is tested when a tiny human female enters the space station and sets the prettiest little explosives the warrior has ever seen. She is Grudge’s genetic match, the one being manufactured for him. He wants to touch her, kiss her, claim her in all ways, but first he has to stop her from blasting him into the next galaxy.
Taelyn has a self-appointed mission—to destroy every battle robot the Humanoid Alliance has ever manufactured. A huge gray-skinned, blue-eyed cyborg warrior with mismatched arms won’t prevent her from achieving her goal. She’ll escape him, leaving destruction in her wake.
Before she departs, she’ll experience one toe-curling moment of hatred-edged passion with her handsome foe. She’ll show him how skilled with detonations she truly is. He will have his universe rocked.
Then she’ll disappear.
Her cyborg, however, has no intention of ever letting her go.
***
Baring Grudge is a STANDALONE Cyborg SciFi Romance set in a dark, gritty, sometimes-violent universe.
It features a determined, damaged warrior, an equally resolute human female, and an explosive game of predator and prey played across galaxies.
Baring Grudge is the third of five core stories in the Rebel Cyborgs Series.
Book 1: Containing Malice
Book 2: Under Strain
Book 3: Baring Grudge
Book 4: B Free
Book 5: Seizing Power
Pre-order Now:
Amazon US:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08ZL2D986
Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08ZL2D986
Amazon AUS:
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B08ZL2D986
Apple Books:
https://books.apple.com/us/book/baring-grudge/id1559566673
B&N:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/baring-grudge-cynthia-sax/1139086727
