Axel Rex

By Clarissa Lake

After the alien war devastated Earth, cyborg soldiers returned and awakened the cyborgs left in stasis to help rebuild. Axel Rex was one of those cyborgs.

He is in charge of demolishing ruins in Farringay to make way for a new interstellar starport. During his virtual life in stasis, he was educated and trained for war and love. Love in the form of one genetically compatible female and freedom at the end of service was their motivation to serve.

Love was the last thing on his mind when one stubborn female refused to leave a building set for demolition.
Layne Rose and her cat Sammy claimed a ruined apartment building as their home. No cyborg goon will make her give up her home, so Axel pulls her out, kicking and screaming. Retracting his armor face plate, he explains why she has to leave. Stunned to realize she is his genetic mate, he can’t deny her plea to go back for her cat.

Layne takes the opportunity to grab her cat and run. Axel intercepts her easily and convinces her to return to the barracks with him. This buys him time to figure out how best to tell her she is his mate.

Layne can’t deny the primal sexual attraction she feels for Axel. She is not sure she likes him, but she knows she won’t get a better offer. Could she love a cyborg? Could she love this cyborg?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clarissa Lake
• Release date: Sep 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215365458

Clarissa Lake

Clarissa Lake grew up watching Star Trek and reading Marvel Comics. She attended science fiction and fantasy conventions where she met many well-known science fiction authors and attended their readings and discussion panels. They included SciFi greats Anne McCaffery, CJ Cherry, George RR Martin, Ben Bova, Timothy Zahn, Frederik Pohl, Orson Scot Card.After years of fruitless efforts to get her books published traditionally, she discovered Kindle Direct Publishing and became an Indie author-publisher.While she loves science fiction, she always thought there should be more romance, so she started writing it hot and steamy.

Book preview

Prologue:

Cyborgs were in the development stages before the interstellar war with the Mesaarkans to augment the Federation's defense force.

They were the Vikings of the future, part man and part machine designed, bred, and conditioned to find the darkness in their souls to kill the enemies of mankind.

They fought a hundred-year war that left Earth in ruin. Although they were bred to kill, Admiral Carson Gregor, a man of vision, believed they could be repurposed. So, cyborg Vyken Dark returned with a few of his brothers to help rebuild civilization on Earth.

When he returned, he discovered thousands of cyborgs created as he was still in stasis, waiting to be awakened. Educated and trained via virtual reality while in stasis, they would provide the manpower for the monumental task of rebuilding Earth.

Axel Rex was one of those cyborgs awakened for the job. He had been awed by Vyken Dark and his brothers, who had fought in the interstellar war. They were legendary to those cyborgs in virtual reality. His first year in the real world started with mundane farming tasks for the Enclave of New Chicago. He displayed leadership qualities valued by those in command and moved up in the ranks.

Axel Rex

Personal Log:

I am a cybernetically enhanced human being with a metal alloy skeleton created from a human embryo. My enhancements are a fully integrated biocomputer, scanners, enhanced sight, hearing, and olfactory senses with data fed directly into my brain.

I was made to fight the interstellar war with the Mesaarkans that destroyed almost every major city on Earth, but I remained in stasis for 80 years until the war ended. I lived in virtual reality while in stasis, educated and trained for battle. I was finally awakened after the war ended, and four cyborg brothers returned to Earth to help rebuild. On awakening, I was additionally programmed to rebuild and maintain law and order.

I spent a year working for the Civil Restoration Enclave in old Chicago. We rescued the people living in the ruins, demolished the tattered buildings, and moved away the wreckage to rebuild the city. Thousands of cyborgs were awakened that year to help.

When the United Galactic Federation of Worlds asked us to build an interstellar spaceport in a city called Farringay to the east, none of the cyborgs agreed with that location. We wanted it built in New Chicago. But Cyborg Command made it an order.

Cyborg Jolt Somber, in charge of the project, chose me to become second in command. A few months into the project, Commander Somber found his female Iris beaten, raped, and left for dead in the ruins. Unfortunately, that was their first meeting. Jolt found her in time, but there were other complications.

Two Months Ago

I need you to finish the Farringay Starport project for me, Axel, Jolt said through our Cyborg-net.

Sir? I responded in surprise. I didn’t see that coming. We’re not even half-finished, and you still call me Newbie.

You were trained for this in your new programming. There is no reason you can’t take over. The Federation is sending engineers to supervise the construction. Your job will be to supervise the cyborgs.

May I ask where you will be?

I’m taking Iris to live in the mountains. She is a dawning psion, and the growing population at the Enclave is too much for her psyche to handle before she learns to shut out other people’s random thoughts. Jolt explained. I won’t risk Iris’s sanity for the damn starport project that should never have been started in Farringay.

It has always seemed strange to me, as well. New Chicago is better situated to support and run it. They are not making any improvements to the city outside the compound… Not even to clear away the ruins and reclaim the land.

If I had to guess, I’d say that Alexander Berke has something to do with this. Vyken and I think he has someone high up in the Federation Council in his pocket. That’s the only way to make sense of putting an interstellar spaceport in the middle of a ruined city without rebuilding it.

Except for Berke’s compound was barely half a klick away. He was going to provide the spaceport with a myriad of vices to satisfy the eclectic desires of space travelers of whatever species come this way, I said. Before we razed it.

I seriously doubt we’ve seen the last of him. He was long gone before his place was demolished. I’d wager he is hiding out somewhere, regrouping his enforcers and looking for backers to rebuild, Jolt said. And we won’t be sanctioned to stop him.

But we’ll get everyone out we can so they don’t get forced into serving in the brothels or the fight clubs.

That would be my plan. The Enclave says they can take all who want to come. They just have to agree to do their share of the work.

So, what are you going to do? Hide out in the mountains?

Iris is my number one priority. Once she gets control of her ability, I will run protective services for the Eastern rural communities of the Enclave. Bodee Flint will be trained to become my second in command, Jolt related.

That lucky bugger! Not only does he get a gorgeous female when he’s not even looking, but a new job dropped into his lap. I’ve been out a whole year longer than he was, and I get this nightmare project.

He had at least one chance in 500, just like the rest of you. The female needed a mate, and Bodee was expendable, so to speak. A cyborg laborer is not that hard to replace, but the kid has potential. You could still find your female in the ruins somewhere. If not, when you finish the Starport complex, you can come to work for me.

I think I would like that whether I find my female or not, I said.

I’ll keep that in mind. If all goes well, you should finish in about four months.

I don’t see that happening, but I will do my best.

Chapter One

Sir, the female in that old apartment building refuses to vacate, and we are ready to throw in the demolition grenades. Sparks Jammer reported over the cyborg net that connected them.

Then she must be removed, Axel replied. Can’t any of you remove one female from a building? She can’t hurt you while you are wearing full battle armor.

But we could hurt her without even meaning to. None of us have ever touched a live female before.

Axel frowned inside his own armor. He had never touched a live one, either. Most females would just run out of the buildings once they announced imminent destruction. I will go, he said.

He found the young woman hiding behind what was left of a support wall on the ground floor. Axel moved in stealth mode, so she never heard him coming. She screamed when he gripped her upper arm without warning. He was very careful he didn’t grip too tightly. Otherwise, he could break her arm with the cybernetic gloves attached to his armor.

She screamed and tried to wrench her arm from his grip as he pulled her from her hiding place.

Let me go, you fucking robot! I live here… I didn’t do anything! Let me go! the female screamed as Axel Rex escorted her from the building.

I am not a robot, he corrected. I am a cyborg in full battle armor.

I don’t care who you fucking are. You have no right, she hissed. I don’t wanna go anywhere. Let go of my arm.

I apologize if I have caused you pain. You will die if you are in that building when we demolish it. Axel didn’t stop until he had her outside the building.

No, you can’t! Sammy’s in there. You have to let me get him. Please don’t kill my cat. He’s my best friend, she pleaded.

Axel retracted the helmet of his armor and looked down at the disheveled and dirty female in his grasp. Her amber-flecked green eyes shimmered with the hint of tears as she said the last, and something stirred in him as her scent reached his nostrils. Even under the smell of her unwashed body, he noted a more subtle scent that alerted his body.

The foul-mouthed female in his grasp was his female. He blinked and wondered if fate was playing a joke on him. My female? This is my female!

For a moment, the utter joy of the discovery stunned him. He sniffed to catch the scent again to be sure he wasn’t mistaken. He wasn’t.

Please, you can’t kill my cat, she cried, trying to wrench her arm from his grasp.

Your cat? he said, frowning as he stared down at her, thinking she might be attractive under that stringy dark hair and layers of dirt.

Yes. I’ve had Sammy since he was a baby.

Axel looked back at the