He sat up. “Something is wrong with me,” he said. “I cannot think clearly.” He stumbled to his feet. He felt as if he had been drugged.
“You were attacked and injured by our enemies,” Alexandra said. She was naked now, her clothes lying in a pile on the floor. He looked away. He did not want to see her naked. He was sick. There was something wrong with him. She was his true mate, and yet he wanted to flee the room at the sight of her.
“Why are we in the memory chamber?” he asked as she hurried over to him and stroked his arm. He pulled away from her.
“The attack seemed to have damaged your memory, so we brought you here to restore it.”
She pressed up against him, her nipples stabbing into his chest. She rubbed her shaved sex against him. He jumped back as if he’d been burned.
Her brows drew together. “My sweetheart, my darling, what is wrong?” There was an edge of anger and frustration to her voice.
He shook his head. “Something does not feel right.”
A loud groan distracted him. He turned and looked, and saw a strange sight – a luscious, brown-haired woman strapped down to a bench. She was not only restrained, but gagged. She was struggling, moaning, looking at him pleadingly.
He did not recognize her.
He felt a strange stirring inside him, though, pulling him to her.
This made no sense. Alexandra filled him with revulsion. Everything inside him was calling him to be close to this woman lying on the bench. But he also remembered, as clear as day, the first time he saw Alexandra – it had hit him like a thunderbolt. He’d finally met his true mate. Thevar-hoolhad consumed him; they’d made love for days on end.
“That woman is a spy, and she nearly killed us.” Alexandra stroked his arm. He shuddered, but forced himself to let her touch him.
“She’s a spy,” he repeated.
The woman jerked on the bench, struggling wildly. He heard a strange clanging sound, and looked for the source. A metallic retro-bot was strapped to the wall, also gagged, and banging itself – herself? furiously against the wall, struggling to free herself.
Alexandra frowned. “She did something to your mind, love of my life,” she said. “She shot you with some kind of ray gun that scrambled your mind.”
She leaned against him and kissed his shoulder. Lukan had the overwhelming urge to wash the skin that she had touched with her lips.
“What’s wrong?” Alexandra whined. “You still love me, don’t you? Did you lie when you told me that I am your heart mate? She tried to turn you against me, but I knew you were too strong to let a spy for the cyborgs destroy our love.”
“The cyborgs?”
He looked at the woman lying on the bench.
“Yes, that fat, disgusting beast is a spy for the cyborgs,” she said.
“She is not fat, she is not disgusting – she is beautiful,” Lukan said, then stopped himself. There was a look of hurt and anger on Alexandra’s face. He had told Alexandra that she was his true mate. He should not be admiring any other woman like that, and he should never speak to his true mate that way.
“I am very sorry. I don’t know what is wrong with me right now.” Lukan scrubbed his face with his hands as if he could wash away his confusion.
“You must destroy her, as you promised me. Shift, and kill her while I watch.” Alexandra’s eyes glowed with bloodlust. “And then you will claim me. You must leave your mark on me, so that everyone knows I am yours. Only then will I be safe.”
“Yes,” Lukan groaned, sickened by the thought. “I must claim you. I must.” He repeated it, trying to convince himself. He had promised Alexandra over breakfast that today would be the day.
Mate with Alexandra. Every cell in his body seized up with revulsion at the thought, far too strongly. That could only happen if he had already met his true mate.
But the woman on the bench was the enemy. He remembered now – remembered her shooting down several of his people. She had messed with his mind, turned him against his true mate.
“What are you waiting for?” Alexandra demanded. “Do it. Now. Kill her!”
The woman on the bench was yanking against her restraints with a furious expression. Why was she gagged? Why was the female robot gagged?
A wave of pain and sickness such as he’d never felt before rolled over him. He could not hurt the woman on the bench, ever. And if anyone tried to hurt her, he would kill them.
Dully, he realized that he could hear the sounds of fighting right outside the door. Shouting. The sizzle of laser guns.
