Argurma Monster (The Argurma Chronicles #2)

Chapter 4

Talech frowned at his irritable mate, his vibrissae puffing up around him in vexation. She was reluctant to take proper nutrition from him despite the wounded condition of her body. She had tolerated it well enough when she was under the influence of the drugs that kept her pain receptors dull—something that Argurmas only required once during their first series of neural implants, which came with pain response dampeners that could be activated to manage pain or even go as far as turn off pain receptors temporarily if necessary. Humans, it seemed, had not yet bothered to develop something so fundamental for their own species. He was not surprised and therefore surmised that he must know, buried somewhere in the recesses of his fragmented systems, such practices were not common among other species—as foolhardy as it seemed.

Even now, watching his mate struggle, he wished he had the ability to shut her pain receptors down so that she could at minimum sleep at night in complete relief instead of suffering as she was. Not only did he dislike seeing her suffer, but her pain made her temperament unpleasant and did nothing to temper her stubbornness.

His mandibles clicked unhappily, and the vibrissae embedded around them sent a disconcerting shock of information through him as they skimmed the air. He snapped them closed in frustration so that they were cushioned against the sides of his face, the vibrissae withdrawing into the pocket of flesh on the inner side of the mandible’s root, cutting off the sudden rush of input. He growled a curse beneath his breath, drawing Beverly’s attention to him, her head snapping to direct a glare at him as she hobbled to her chair, her hand resting against the tender flesh that had been devastated.

He was becoming accustomed to glares and scowls. He was not certain if he would even know how to react or if he would even recognize her within his processors if she did something as foreign as bare her teeth in her strange human smile at him. As strange as it was, he still wanted it and coveted it.

“I should help,” he grumbled, but her hand snapped up in warning. He narrowed his eyes as he considering violating her order to assist her. “You need help.”

“I will be just fine,” she replied in a thin, weak voice. “You just stay over there where I can keep an eye on you.”

He deflated. Why did she not want his help? “You do not trust me.”

“Bingo, Captain Obvious.”

“Why?” He did not understand her words, but he gathered the intended meaning from the scorn in her tone. It upset him.

“Why?” she echoed with an expression he calculated to be disbelief. “You chased us down and tried to kill us.”

“I was not interested in killing you. I was attempting to kill the predator your people unwisely set loose on this island.”

An uncomfortable look settled on her face. “Yeah... developing that experiment probably wasn’t one of our better moments,” she agreed. She shifted in place and squinted at him. “Are you really trying to tell me that you were helping us?”

“No,” he said flatly.

“Thought so.” She sighed and blew a fringe of hair out of her eyes. “I never was that lucky. Escaping an alien kill list wouldn’t be how my cards played out.”

His mouth downturned at her confusing speech. Cards? He shook his head, his vibrissae puffing out in exasperation. “I wished to help you ,” he reiterated. “I did not care about the Argurma or the other human female. I only desired to save you .”

“Because I am yours?” she commented dryly.

“Because you are mine,” he affirmed.

She gave him a doubtful look but shook her head wearily. “Look, Talech, I am tired and in a lot of pain because that asshole Richards who was responsible for restocking this place apparently didn’t believe in painkillers—or didn’t make it a high enough priority on their to do list to get in here before he kicked the bucket. So why don’t you just tell me what you want?”

Surprised, he stared at her blankly. “I do not understand.”

“What do you want from me?” she rephrased, jabbing her thumb toward her chest. “What is it exactly that you are expecting?”

The tips of his vibrissae curled with uncertainty. He did not know if she would like his answer, and he did not wish for her to become angrier with him.

“Well?”

“I do not think you will process the gravity of my answer,” he replied.

She flung her hand in the air and exhaled loudly. “Just lay it on me. I’m stuck on this island with no one and nothing else but you. So what is it that drove you to save me? You want to eat me? Fuck me?”

“Yes,” he purred, his eyes slitting.

She frowned, her eyes narrowing suspiciously on him. “Which one is it?” she bit out.

His tongue flicked over his bottom lip. He would not mind tasting her. “Both,” he purred and slowly rose to his feet as she shot up from her chair despite her obvious pain. “Do not do that again,” he cautioned.

“Fuck you,” she snapped. “I may have flirted and played it up to the other alien to get off this planet but I sure as hell am not letting you cannibalize me.”

Talech cocked his head, his nostrils flaring as he drew in her scent for his database to analyze. “You smell good. I just want to taste you. And I want your wet quin to squeeze around my civix as I breed you.”

Beverly made a choking sound, and her hand snapped up into the air to ward him off. “First of all, no one is getting bred around here, so get that thought out of your head. No breeding. None. Second of all—the closest you are going to get to tasting anything is if you raid my discarded underwear.”

“Acceptable... for now,” he amended.

He did not mind starting small. He was a determined male. Unfortunately, she balked at his ready agreement, her eyes widening at him. She scrubbed her hand over her face.

“There is not enough coffee on this island for this.”

“Coffee stores,” he rumbled quietly and immediately hooked into the building’s mainframe, or rather what little was active with the emergency energy supply running.

That he had got it on at all had been against considerable odds. He rooted around through the system and eventually brought up the supply stock. As Beverly said, there had been no recent orders of supplies for the medical unit. Provisions in general appeared dangerously low, far lower than he would expect for a vacant place. For some reason this male she mentioned—Richards—had not been making orders for some time before the system collapsed.

“No coffee,” he announced.

She immediately buried her face in her hand and whimpered. “Just kill me now. No drugs. No coffee. How the hell did Meg and Kaylar survive here for so long with fucking coffee? That’s it. This is officially hell.”

“Hell...a place of punishment?” he queried. “You are being punished?”

She gave him an annoyed look. “I would say so right now.” She groaned and dropped her head into her hand again. “Go away, Talech, and give me some time alone to kick the walls or something.”

He peered at her for a long moment but grunted as he stood. “Do not harm yourself. This facility held many terrible things, but you are the one good thing for me. In all the pain, it was you I saw. You will live,” he said firmly. He turned away but glanced back at her. “Sleep and heal, Beverly.”

With those parting words, he left her to her thoughts. He would not go far but he would give her the space she required.