It took everything she had to cling to him, her body tightening as tiny tremors began to quake through her. Her muscles instinctively tightened around him, needing more, her fingers tangling among his vibrissae, gripping them as she dug her heels into his ass, her hips jerking frantically as she rode the rapid rise to her peak.
She was aware of the exact moment that Veral’s flexible hook scraped and caught hold, his cock swelling rapidly. A scream tore from her, muffled once more by his mouth as he ground into her, his own hips shuttling in a broken tempo until he snarled against her mouth. His release broke from him as hot seed splashed deep within her. His breath left him in ragged pants punctuated by growls and snarls with every twitch of his cock as it continued to release until he dropped onto his elbows, his body spent.
As she lay there beneath him, Terri’s stroked his back, relishing the feel of his hard muscles and slick scales beneath her palms. A soft trill vibrated in his throat as he nuzzled her. Everything was so perfect that she could almost forget there was a group of murderous pirates waiting for them.
Everything that mattered was within that moment.
A sigh left her as she snuggled her cheek against him. “I don’t want this moment to ever end.”
“That is a peculiar thing to say.”
“It means that in this moment I’m happy and hate for it to end and go back to the shit that’s been going on.”
“Anastha, we will survive it. I would rather go through the struggle with you at my side than be locked in an eternal moment where everything that we are ceases to exist. I do not wish for this moment to continue forever, but to have many years to find thousands of new moments.”
A soft laugh left her as she brushed her nose against his scales. “How is it that whenever it sounds like you’re going to be all cold and clinical, you can still say the strangest and yet most romantic things?”
“Perhaps because humans are a strange species. I was not speaking romantically. I do not understand how one endeavors to be romantic. I only relay simple truths to you, anastha.”
“You call my species strange but offer to leave body parts as love tokens,” she said.
“That is a logical gesture. There is no greater show of devotion that a willingness to fight for your mate and vanquish their foes. It reinforces the uniting of the family unit and demonstrates the male to be a fit caretaker for his family.”
“And what about your females? Do they promise to slay your enemies?” she teased.
He paused, his head tilting as he considered. “There have been a few known occasions when a female has bested the enemy of her male. This is especially the case in our most ancient legends which speak of powerful females of great skill and cunning who attempt to secure males for themselves. The only thing that saves the male is the strength of his mate standing up to the sorceress.”
Terri’s brows winged up at that. “You’re this great, advanced civilization—and you have sorceresses?”
Her mate frowned down at her. “They are legends from different times, not to be taken as factual but to glorify our ancestresses who were willing to match wits to help their mates vanquish their enemies. It was because of the first legend, the story of Emnawalath and her mate Etmangoluvarthi, that the males make their oaths, for it was the oath he made to her when she gave everything to him. Although we do not expect our females to vanquish our enemies, we still give the oath to acknowledge that they are sacrificing to open their household to accept their mate that he might join her family.” He dropped his head, his lips grazing her jaw. “You deserve no less honors—you who have given up more than most Argurma females to be mine.”
“Yeah, well, it was a pretty good trade, I think,” she replied softly. “I left a pretty miserable life to have one in the stars with my big mate. I wouldn’t make any other decision.”
He paused, an uncertainty flashing over his face. “You have been restless and less happy of late. It has been distressing.”
Terri glanced away to hide her guilt. “I haven’t been unhappy… just… unable to find where I fit in. You’re so determined to protect me that you keep me away from everything, and suddenly it feels like I’m no longer living. This is the most living I’ve really done since the incident on the space station. This wasn’t how I thought it was going to be… but I also understand. Azan made me realize that you’ve had to protect me. I’m not strong enough.”
His eyes closed, his expression pained before he opened them again. “Anastha, you are strong. Too strong. It makes me worry that others will attempt to hurt you and take you away from me.”
“And physically too weak to defend myself. You can say it, Veral. I know it’s the truth.”
“I dislike this truth more than any other,” he muttered, his tone laced with resentment. “I do not wish my mate to fear or experience pain. But I do not wish to snuff out your joy.”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “This human stuff kinda sucks when it comes to playing out in the universe.”
“I will protect you,” he growled.
“And I love that, but I need to protect me too. Especially when we have our baby. I have to be able to protect them and myself if, for whatever reason, you’re not there. I can’t be helpless when we have a baby to care for.”
A long, ragged sigh escaped him, and he nodded. “We will find an answer.”
16
Veral did not want to let her go, but as the hour grew later, he knew he had no choice. His civix retreated back into his sheath, and eventually he forced his arms to release his mate. Sitting on the bed, he watched sadly as she also sat up.
She had used a scrap of cloth she found to wipe between her legs and was now bending to pick up her armor. Soon they would return to the other room, where danger would constantly surround her once more. He would have to sneak her by the males on guard and leave her with nothing more for protection than the fierce female Blaithari.
He hated to give that up to her. Everything in him protested.
He should be the one protecting and caring for his mate, not watching from afar while another did it. It made him feel dishonored and the mate bond distressed, though he knew that much was largely within his mind. To his instincts, Azan was an unwelcome intruder.
“Oww! What the fuck?” Terri shrieked as she jerked her right hand up to her chest, her left clamped tightly over it.
He rose to his feet and leaped over the bed, his sensors scanning as he searched for the threat. “What is it?”
Something scurried among the debris, circling around. Veral yanked Terri into his arms, a snarl vibrating in his chest as he tracked the movement. The energy signature coming from it was not organic. It was similar to that of the Elshavan uplinks.
He froze in surprise. What could possibly still be operational after all that time?
“Something under the bed clawed me,” she hissed out in pain. “What the hell was it?”
She pulled away her left hand to look at the blood beading on the cut and dripping down her wrist. Veral growled and pulled her toward him, his senses extended as his systems collected the surrounding information and his vibrissae twisted anxiously around him.
It was slipping through the rubble, drawing closer. Veral’s vibrissae rattled, a low hiss rising in his throat as the thing zigzagged. It moved almost as if it had a sort of program designed to mimic intelligence as it stalked closer. He watched it warily, tracking its every movement. It seemed to move farther away, but at the last minute it turned and rushed toward Terri. As it leaped in the air, its long metallic fibers extending wide from a brilliantly green body, Veral whipped his hand through the air, the small horn on his wrist catching it and dashing it to the ground.
Terri hopped back with a squeak of alarm as the spindly fibers whipped through the air. The ends were needle sharp, more than effective for piercing through vulnerable tissue. Especially on a species such as a human whose skin had no natural defenses against it. It would have a harder time against his scales.
<
br /> “Fuck!” she cursed as she crawled back away from it. “What the hell is it?”
Veral’s eyes narrowed on the tech before he brought his boot down sharply upon it, the loud crunch of components snapping filling the silence of the room. Lifting his foot away, he cocked his head and looked down at the crushed red body of tech. Tiny sparks lit across it as its “legs” twitched uselessly.
Terri scooted forward as he lifted his eyes and scanned for any signs of more of the things. He couldn’t detect anything, but he was disturbed to acknowledge the fact that not sensing meant nothing if he had a difficult time connecting with the unfamiliar energy signature.
It had felt oddly like bio-tech. There had been a few attempts to make something like that among his species with the idea to upgrade and eventually replace their current tech with something more fully integrated, but nothing successful.
“It’s like some sort of mechanical bug… but not,” Terri marveled as she stared at it. “I wonder what it was trying to do.”
Veral shook his head, his fingers curling around her arm as he pulled her away. The thing had intentionally drawn her blood, but he could not understand for what purpose. There wasn’t a trace of it within the mechanisms when he crushed it, so it did not appear to be attempting to store it. His eyes inspected the room, his vibrissae rattling as they vibrated while he attempted to get another read on the environment.
The room that had seemed as a welcome sanctuary only moments before, he could only now see as hostile.
The upended table with components strewn around it made him tug his mate further back. There were parts that looked similar to the bio-tech he just terminated. The medic was working on something—an experiment perhaps. He would not remain in this room with his mate for a moment longer. Dropping down, he retrieved her armor and searched it thoroughly for any other signs of bio-tech. Only when he was satisfied that it was clean did he hand it back to her.
Terri was silent as she slipped the armor back on and said nothing further when he lifted her up into his arms and carried her from the room. He would go back and investigate later, to see if there was anything worth discovering about the tech, and in case there was something she had been exposed to. But now, he would get his mate to safety.
As safe as she could be surrounded by murdering pirates. It was ironic just how quickly the situation changed with this new development.
On their way through the medical bay, he set her down to activate a storage area that had bandages. Tearing a segment off, he wrapped it around her hand before pressing the torn end down against the surface beneath his thumb to hold it in place while he searched for a binding.
Terri shifted her hand beneath his. “Uh, Veral, I think the end is sticking down.”
Glancing at her hand, he removed his thumb and noted that the torn end had completely sealed against the wrapped bandaging. He gave it a light tug to make sure that it would not loosen and nodded in satisfaction. That was practical. Without comment, he handed her what was left of the bandaging and swung her back up into his arms.
Focusing on keeping his footsteps light, he moved silently among the crew. Due to the safety of the enclosed wreckage, those who were awake and on guard were fewer, and were focused solely on the forest.
No one noticed that he carried his mate back to Azan’s side.
As he set her down. Terri’s hand tangled in his vibrissae, drawing his head down to press her lips against his. It was a silent communication of feeling, and Veral embraced it as he deepened the kiss, drawing his tongues along hers until they were both nearly breathless. He ignored the pang of regret and longing as he pulled away.
Not surprisingly, at that moment, Azan stirred, her yellow eyes opening. Her hand went immediately to her blaster her as her body tensed with hostility. Veral stilled, prepared to defend his mate, but the tension fled her as her eyes met his. Her gaze slid to Terri for a moment before returning to him, a smirk curving her lips as her nostrils flared. He knew exactly what she was scenting for, and he bared his teeth at her intrusion.
Although Blaithari night vision was not as good as many species, and nowhere near the cybernetic-enhanced vision of the Argurma, it was far better than that of humans. There was still enough glow from the embers that she had no trouble seeing his expression. She sketched him a small salute and turned away to give him his last moment of privacy with Terri as he prepared to leave.
He snorted in exasperation at the pirate before turning his attention back to his mate, his hand stroking her cheek. She leaned into his touch. It was only a moment, gone when he stepped away, but that moment was everything. This night would have to sustain them over the lonely nights ahead.
Be strong, be safe, he wanted to tell her. Instead, he turned away and left her.
He did not turn and look back to watch her settle once more at Azan’s side. He was not strong enough. It was too tempting to pick his mate up and run back for their ship, even knowing that the pirate ship orbiting the planet would shoot them down.
His efforts were better spent returning to that room to look for more clues about the thing that attacked Terri. How many more bio-techs had the Elshavan devised, and was there possibly worse awaiting for them on the Evandra?
The thought chilled his blood and sent alarms through his systems.
Returning to the room, Veral righted the table and searched among the debris until he found what appeared to be a private data recorder. He touched his hand to the back but was less disconcerted this time at the uplink that burrowed into his systems as he held the recorder.
There was always a probability that the device would be code locked. Fortunately, that was not the case. The screen flared on and he tilted his head curiously as an image of a strange male stared back at him on the screen.
Like Terri, he had soft skin, though there was a subtle scaling on it, nothing that would significantly protect him from outside damage. Long, fine, oily hair coiled in braids as it hung around his face, heavy with ornaments clamped in several places. There was possibly a meaning to the ornaments that would have intrigued Terri, but Veral was more curious about the firm, anxious look to the male’s expression.
His finger slid over the image. It flickered out to reveal an empty workstation lit up with numerous wired parts of bio-tech like the one he had crushed, and others that appeared to be different types in varying stages of completion.
The male dropped down in front of the screen and swept his hands over his face, rubbing at his eyes in a show of exhaustion. Leaning forward, he began to speak in a low, sibilant voice. Thanks to the existing records that he had been poring over, Veral’s translator picked up the language quickly.
“For once, I am thankful that this room is soundproof and no one else on my staff is able to hear what I am about to say. I have been suspicious for a while as to what exactly our purpose is on the Evandra. The prince tells us little and keeps the vast number of scientists separated and out of communication with one another. But something is not right. There are things loose in this ship. Tech of the like that is not cataloged, seemingly entirely experimental in design. A whole wing of scientists died, and then another. I have been delaying my own assignments on the melgadinal to focus on something that will be useful to protect us from our creations. The melgadinal is a mistake, an aberration. We have successfully grown a fetus of a monster that is born with tech that advances and restructures itself as it grows larger at an accelerated rate, as I have been instructed by command. They are one of what I suspect may be many ongoing experiments that we are told will wipe the Diralthax out of existence so they never threaten our people again. But they have turned on us.”
The male swiped a hand over his face again as the screen showed schematics demonstrating how the symbiont would join with its host.
“I do not know if my creations will be successful, but I am uploading all my data in case we fail. The gymotakin symbiotic armor… I do not have time to accurately test it. These things cannot be brough
t down by blasters. The creatures metabolize energy blasts. I think I have calculated correctly. At least I hope so… I—What is that?”
He turned, his eyes scanning the room behind him. Solemnly, he turned back to the recorder.
“If we do not resolve this situation, I fear it will be the end of the Evandra, and anyone who finds her. I pray to the gods that, if we fail, no one ever discovers our location.”
The scientist gasped as the room shook around him, and the recording cut out. Though there was nothing to suggest what had happened, Veral systems pricked with alarm. Whatever had been loose on the Evandra had brought the ship down and killed the crew.
Staring at the black screen, a sense of apprehension filled him as he downloaded the content from the recorder. The files were badly fragmented in places, but the bits that he was able to recover provided a glimpse into the research that had been underway, as well as information on the gymotakin symbionts.
The symbiotic armor was fascinating, but the plans for the bio-tech experiment that the scientist had been working on made him still in horror at the unnatural utilization of the tech. It wasn’t augmentations, like the Argurma focused on. No, it was an entirely bio-engineered creature made of bio-metal, with a heightened predatory AI designed to search and destroy its targets like an unnatural creation of night terrors.
It was a monstrosity that never should have existed.
That the AI likely malfunctioned and sent the creatures on a killing spree through the ship made any salvage of the Evandra untenable. Suddenly, finding the resting place of the ship was the last thing Veral wanted to do, but there was only so long he could delay the captain. Egbor was vain, but he was not a fool. He would notice if they were not drawing any closer to the wreckage on the schematic.
He hissed angrily. If he could not convince the captain, he had no choice but to take his mate to the Evandra and hope that Kaylar arrived before anything else noticed their arrival.
Pirate's Gold (Argurma Salvager Book 2) Page 12
