Argurma Monster (The Argurma Chronicles #2)

Chapter 19

Zoreth’s mandibles clicked uneasily. There was something amiss with Beverly. Her bold and unshakeable spirit was one of the things that drew him to her, and yet she was now withdrawn for reasons he could not decipher. She was curled between them on the bedding that they had found in several of the housing units and had piled together into the large sleeping nest.

It was a good thing that Kaze tended to not only mate in groups of three or more adults but also tended be communal sleepers or else their larger Argurma frames would have failed to fit properly. There was still little room for movement but Talech did not appear to mind. The male was curled on his side, his spinal limbs spread wide against the wall behind his back. It was an aberrant position compared to his normal sleeping behavior on Garanga , but with the way his claws twitched occasionally, Zoreth processed that it was likely a defensive position that allowed him to feel the vibrations through the walls and the floors adjoining them. His body was otherwise stretched out peacefully beside Beverly, his glowing eyes slitted as he watched her with a concerned expression.

Concern that matched what Zoreth was currently experiencing within his systems.

Divesting himself of his weapons and piling them on a small table beside the nest, Zoreth carefully slipped into the bed on Beverly’s other side. As she was facing him, her eyes followed him, and she held his gaze when his face lay nearly parallel to hers. There was an emotion in her eyes that he did not understand, and his mandibles spread lightly to collect scent data in hope that it would help him decipher it. There was a faint taste of something akin to despair in her scent that filled his receptors, and his vibrissae twitched in distaste.

He did not like that emotion on his female. It made his chest tighten painfully, and his mandibles began to vibrate in a soft purr. Talech lifted his head, and the male’s gaze settled on him thoughtfully. Zoreth tensed, his sensors taking in the situation. It had been some time since they had an issue sharing a bed together with Beverly, but she had never been in such need of comfort either. She had always met every new situation or challenge with exceptional adaptability, even if at times infuriatingly single-minded.

His mouth quirked as he recalled her bold insistence that they would simply share a bed if he was going to insist that she part from Talech. It had concerned him at the time how attached she obviously was to the damaged male, but now it warmed something within him. She was loyal and accepting of everyone’s needs in ways he had failed to process or appreciate. He knew well enough from studying the human mated to Veral that humans often customarily mated in pair bonds in the manner that was likewise common among Argurmas. The arrangements that they were all forced to adapt to had been as new for her as it had been for them, and yet she had never complained or demonstrated a hint of discomfort sleeping between two large males who each equally desired her.

He processed now that she had actually enjoyed it. She always smiled when they joined her in bed and would fling a leg or an arm over each of them so that neither of them felt ignored in favor of the other. And every night he caught the delicate flavor of her arousal that flooded his systems with his own desire. Despite that, he had processed that her decision to share a bed with them had been in part because she was trying to humor both of them without committing to a mate bond with either of them. He did not complain. He respected the fact that she consciously did not show preferential treatment toward Talech, even though the other male had the prior claim despite his damaged state.

His processors, therefore, were struggling all the more with his female’s unhappiness.

“Relay your concerns, Beverly,” he rumbled.

Her brow furrowed slightly at him. “My concerns? You mean other than being trapped on a planet filled with zombie parasites?”

He dipped his head and made a conscious effort to keep his vibrissae from streaking across the supports toward her. She never objected to the way their vibrissae sought her out, but this moment was about her comfort—not theirs.

“You did not scent of mild despair once while we walked, even though you were tired and aching. Why do you scent of it now?”

“She is sad. Never breed, Zoreth, else you will be endlessly puzzled by your offspring,” Talech growled with just enough venom that Zoreth’s eyes snapped up to the other male until Beverly chuckled softly, drawing their attention to her.

“I’m all right, guys. Just tired, I think.”

Zoreth’s mandibles clicked in understanding. “You did travel for many hours through the day and night. You need rest.”

An apathetic snort escaped her, startling him. “You mean I walked most of the day and none of the night. You guys carried me, passing me between you like a toddler.”

Zoreth frowned. That was not his recollection of events. He glanced over Beverly’s head at Talech and found the other male wearing a puzzled expression. A toddler was a young offspring. He understood that much as he heard Veral’s mate use similar terms regarding their small female. But Beverly was not an offspring. She was a prized female—a mate—and she was cared for as such.

Talech’s hand settled on her side, his mandibles vibrating in a soft purr that drained some of the tension from her shoulders. “No dishonor or disrespect meant, anastha. Only care.”

To Zoreth’s surprise, the male met his eyes, his gaze dropping to his own hand resting on Beverly, and then Zoreth’s lax hand on the bedding, before rising again to meet his eyes meaningfully. His purr halted, delivering a few even clicks of encouragement before resuming. Zoreth blinked uncertainly but lifted his hand and settled it on Beverly’s side just under Talech’s. An approving expression crossed the male’s face as their female relaxed further, and his own mandibles instinctively picked up the purr.

“Talech is correct. Your weakness is not held against you. You are strong in many other ways. It is an honor to be your strength when you require it.”

She squinted at him. “That’s quite a line, but I’ll take it.” Sighing, she shifted so that she nestled deeper into the bedding between them.

Zoreth cocked his head. “I do not process your meaning. If you are inferring that I speak without truth, then you would be incorrect. Your physical strength is not equal to ours, nor are your senses, but you process much that you observe. Do not doubt your value.

Talech rumbled appreciatively in agreement as his head lowered to scrape his mandibles gently through her hair as his vibrissae instantly began to sift through the length. “Love my anastha.”

Her lips twisted faintly in the dark as she turned her head to glance back at the male, her face soft and her scent welcoming. Zoreth’s heart pounded with unexpected heaviness. Although the female had not accepted Talech’s claim, she did not refute his love. He processed that all indicators showed that she returned the affection. It seemed that she had chosen even if she refused to make the claim. So why could he not let go? His fascination remained completely fixed on her as a sigh escaped from between her lips as she settled trustingly into Talech’s arms, her eyes drifting closed as she surrendered to slumber. Zoreth swallowed as he watched, a thickness in his throat and Talech chuffed and bent down, his voice rasping in a whisper over her ear.

“Zoreth loves you too. He just does not process it yet.”

Zoreth regarded the male for a long moment, completely frozen and alert. Although he had, like all of his line, disabled the uplinks that the council were able to have accessed, those words inspired only dread. He would be disabled and sent in for reprograming for taking an alien for a mate, but emotions of devotion and love would see him terminated on sight. Talech’s eyes glinted, and his lip curled in a subtle challenge as he waited.

Was the male trying to bait him to give him an excuse to tear him apart? He studied the male. Talech had long called her anastha. That was a clear claim that was universal among their species and warned other males away.

Zoreth narrowed his eyes. “What you are attempting to provoke is unattainable. I will not be trapped into a mating challenge.”

Those were rare on Argurumal, but they were not unheard of when a female refused to choose between males and forced them into a challenge to win her affections by disposing of their rival. Zoreth had no intention of subjecting Beverly to that, especially not in such dangerous surroundings. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed Talech’s help to protect her.

He shook his head. Regardless of the male’s internal operations that were fractured, it was unreasonable to call him damaged when he clearly had a strong awareness of her emotional needs and had safeguarded Beverly with a quick, unfailing instinct that Zoreth had lacked. Perhaps his functioning systems dulled that instinct a little. That line of query was dangerous on Argurumal, but he was not on his mother world. Nor was Talech. The other male did not have the ability to operate tech the way that Zoreth could, but it mattered little in their current situation. As things stood now, Zoreth envied the other male because Talech was freer and less inhibited in ways that he was just now beginning to suspect.

What if the male wasn’t broken? What if he was simply liberated from the constraints of his cybernetics? It was a revolutionary idea and one he was uncertain he could ever voice, but he had to acknowledge the possibility. Although Talech clearly had a number of operational cybernetic implants, Zoreth calculated that those which controlled and regulated his hormonal and reactive states were no longer online. He suspected that Beverly would be interested in exploring their differences firsthand, which was all the more reason to deny the male an opportunity for challenge.

Talech suddenly chuffed, startling him anew.

“Idiot male,” he rumbled in a distinctly good-natured tone of voice that few Argurma possessed. “I do not desire a challenge. You protect and love her. You take care of her. You are a worthy male. Your claim is no less than mine.” The male’s lips twisted in a grimace. “And my Beverly enjoys talking with you—learning from you. You give her what I cannot.”

“And you give her what I cannot?” Zoreth could not help the offended bite of his words as if it suggested that there was anything he could not do equally as well as Talech.

The male grinned, his purr growing louder as he nestled in close to their female. “I make my anastha happy. And I will give her great pleasure.” He lifted a shoulder in a shrug that he had often seen from Beverly, his smile growing sharper. “You will please her too, but not the same.” He lightly scraped his teeth against Beverly’s shoulder, and Zoreth’s eyes dropped to her as she squirmed with a tiny sigh at the contact.

Zoreth stiffened. What the male proposed... it was unnatural and yet it sparked his curiosity.

“Argurumal law—” he began, but the male chuffed loudly, interrupting him.

“We are not on Argurumal nor are we theirs. I am a malfunctioning castoff, and you are of a rebelling house. What allegiance do we owe?”

The male’s words did not lack logic. Could it work for their unique situation? Although he would not admit it to anyone, he processed that he was damaged from the death of his twin; it had left a wound within him and a chasm of loneliness. Talech was the first male he had let close enough to feel any measure of comradery with, and he could not even calculate when exactly that happened. The male’s words did not spark his aggression but rather sent a heat of eagerness through him and a sense of amiable competition that he had experienced long ago.

His mandibles clicked humorously. Talech certainly processed how to manipulate him into action. The male knew that his challenge would be one that Zoreth would be happy to disprove—if they could agree to get Beverly to accept them both. He would be happy to show the male what his systems were capable of when it came to mating. Even now, his civix was struggling to escape its sheath, eager to slip into the female nestled between them as her arousal bloomed in reaction to the scrape of Talech’s teeth.

Talech’s eyes brightened, and the male chuffed again, the sound of his laughter rasping in Zoreth’s ears as he buried his face in the soft hair at the top of Beverly’s head and allowed her sweet scent to carry him into slumber. Zoreth’s lips twitched as he watched the male. Perhaps Talech was correct. There would likely be those within the mother house that would disapprove, but they were beginning a new life away from Argurumal and with that came endless possibilities free from the constraints of the council. He was eager to explore this with Talech and Beverly, and that meant taking care of all of their needs.

Tomorrow they would leave at sunset and carefully select their route to give Beverly some freedom. He processed that she might desire an opportunity to walk until it became too dark. She had a ravenous sort of curiosity about everything that he enjoyed. It would please him to see her enjoy something amid all the danger before she was forced to submit to their caring once more.

He would do that for her because Talech was right, and he knew it straight down to the depths of his systems—he loved her.