Free Loving Deviant (Cyborg Seduction Book 9) by Laurann Dohner Page B

female cyborg.
    “Can I ask you something?”
    “Anything.” He led her to the bed and sat.
    She took the seat next to him. “What’s wrong with cyborg women?”
    He arched his eyebrows in question.
    “I still can’t understand why you’d have a problem dating them.”
    Deviant hesitated and then blew out a deep breath. “My mother had a difficult time conceiving me. I wasn’t her first child, but I was her last. She already had four sons but it was decided I’d be her fifth.”
    “That’s a lot of kids.”
    “She had one son from each of her other three husbands and two with my father. He was her fourth.”
    “She was married four times?”
    He reached out and took her hand. “She has four current husbands.”
    Venice was stunned. She’d heard of some weird family relationships on Earth. Sometimes the rich would keep a spouse and a known lover, but it was rare for it to become public knowledge.
    “The cyborg males vastly outnumbered the females when we fled Earth. It was logical to have them take as many males as possible into a family unit to avoid fighting.”
    She was confused, and it must have shown because he shrugged.
    “I know it’s not the way it is on Earth. We had to adapt. The males might have started to fight amongst themselves, killing off the competition to win a female’s attention, and we needed to make certain our race survived. Some females have more than four husbands, but four is the standard number.”
    “More?”
    “Some keep six or seven. I have even met one male who was the eighth. It depends on how fertile the female is and how many males she’s willing to accept. Each of us must produce a child to ensure the future of our race.”
    He was a virgin, or had been before they’d met. She refrained from asking him if he had any kids since that seemed highly improbable. “Okay. I guess I can see how that could happen if there are so few women and a lot of men. Don’t the husbands get jealous and still fight?”
    “They don’t live together. The females split their time between the males in their family units. The women move between the homes the males keep, taking their children with them. Jealousy isn’t a factor that arises much.”
    “That’s hard to believe.” Venice tried to relate by imagining having to share Deviant with another woman or a group of them. She didn’t like the thought one bit.
    “It’s difficult to explain.”
    That was an understatement. “So in other words, there are so many men that it’s tough to find a woman who doesn’t already have a ton of husbands?”
    “We located more cyborg females recently, so the numbers aren’t as uneven as they used to be. My mother had to take experimental drugs to produce me. I told you that she had two children with my father. Dalk was born first, and showed exceptional intelligence at a young age. My mother stripped my father of the right to raise him by giving him to another male as his son.”
    “That sounds really messed up! She was allowed to do that?”
    He inclined his head. “It was. She has a strong bond to her first husband. Their child was born with flaws. Perfection is desired with cyborg parents, a source of pride, so she allowed him to claim Dalk as his own so he’d have a healthy son. My father was stripped of the right to raise and be a part of Dalk’s life. He protested, but she ignored his wishes. So my father took my mother before the council, and they ordered her to have another child that he could retain established rights to. He had also promised to have a child for his friend Krell, who wasn’t able to meet his requirement to produce a child for our society.”
    Venice opened her mouth, found no words since she was so confused, and ended up just sealing her lips. His world sounded pretty complicated.
    “Krell is heavily scarred and no female wanted to join in a family unit with him. He and my father are close friends, and have been since they fled Earth together. I’m legally