Page 31 of Argurma Monster

The hard corners of his mouth curved, his glowing eyes taking on a brightness that she’d come to understand to be happiness. “I thank you, anastha.”

Anastha. Fierce one. It was a strange love word, but it fit the Argurma. She blinked, realization flooding her that it was not the first time Zoreth had called her that—she just hadn’t paid close enough attention to notice it until now. Delight coiled within her and yet she wanted to cry now that she was presented with verbal evidence of Zoreth’s love.

His happiness dimmed as she battled back another wave of tears. “Anastha?”

“Oh, I can’t do this,” she bit out brokenly. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to choose when I love both of you.”

Surprise registered on the faces of both males for only a second before delight took its place. Even Zoreth grinned broadly, his sharp teeth bared in an uncustomary real smile from the male as his mandibles purred. Talech took up the purr as well, but not until he yanked Beverly up in his arms with an ear-piercingly happy shout as Zoreth closed in quickly on the other side.

She laughed again and brushed the tears from her cheeks as she looked back and forth between the two males hugging her between them. “Wait, did I miss something important here?”

Talech brushed his mandibles against one side of her cheek, and Zoreth repeated the gesture, brushing mandibles and cheek against her hair.

“Only if you missed that we love you,” Talech rumbled.

“And we both offer you our love and devotion,” Zoreth filled in with a deep sigh. “We desire that you accept us as your mates.”

Her eyes widened, and she turned awkwardly in their arms in an attempt to look at both of them. “Wait... I can have you both as my mates?”

Zoreth hesitated, a shadow of pain and disappointment passing over his face. “Do you not desire to have us both?”

A joyous laugh burst from her as she flung her arms the best she could around both of their necks and hugged them to her. “Yes! Fuck yes! A thousand times, yes!”

Zoreth pulled back just enough to squint down at her. “Two yeses is enough. We do not wish to share you with even more males.”

Giggling with abandon, she pulled his head down and pressed her lips against his, catching him by surprise. His two tongues swept into her mouth, startling her, but her gasp soon turned into a moan as she quickly discovered just how exquisite they felt. When they finally broke apart for air, she was practically lightheaded but grinning from ear to ear.

“Two sounds perfect to me,” she agreed, and sighed lustfully again when Talech tipped her head toward him and claimed her mouth in turn.

Two would quite possibly ruin her for life—and she couldn’t wait.

Chapter 27

Talech growled against Beverly’s mouth. His civix pressed harder and more insistently against the inside of his sheath. This time he welcomed the pressure instead of fighting it back. Finally he would have his mate and a bond brother as well. He would have a family to share his new life. He did not recall what his life was like before, but he decided that it mattered little to him. This was his happiness, and it was all that he cared about. His rumble of pleasure and the soft purr of his mandibles didn’t stop even when Beverly finally pulled her mouth free from his to meet his eyes. Guilt flashed within their depths.

“Are you sure?” she whispered. “What happened in the past—”

“Does not matter,” he assured her. “I process that you took over the lab that held me. You explained this. But when I woke, there was only you. You are all that is important. Nothing from before means anything.”

She bit her lip. “You could have a family you don’t remember.”

He chuffed. Of all his terrible memories obscured by the darkness, that one remained with him. It was muddled, but he remembered the pain without pleasure to ease the way and the shame and sorrow that had engulfed him. “I had not yet breached when I arrived to your world. I have no mate.”

“He would have no living mother-house who would truly remember and grieve his loss,” Zoreth added, his mandibles sliding through her hair lovingly as he spoke. “That he recalls his name means that we may contact his mother-house and inform them of his life among us to satisfy those who remain. Talech was clearly an explorer class Argurma, which means his housewould have not expected to see him return. This is the way of explorers,” he explained.

“That’s so sad,” she murmured, her eyes misting in sympathy.

“I do not miss what I do not remember,” Talech pointed out firmly, disliking that she implied that he was lacking or suffering. “I dislike struggling because I do not remember, but this new life is all that is important. You are my family,” Talech’s eyes turned to Zoreth, including the other male as their vibrissae sifted through her hair and wound around each other. “Both of you.”

Zoreth’s mandibles clicked in agreement and his eyes dropped back to their mate held between them. “It is time to unify our family.”

Talech’s purr rose up a notch with excitement as he watched Zoreth carefully draw apart the robe covering their mate, revealing the swells of her breasts and the darker dusk of the pebbled nipples tipping them. He was eager to bare the rest of her but kept his system focused on Zoreth’s movements, taking his cues from the other male as he bared every inch of her glorious body.

It was not the first time he had seen her nude since he had cared for her and tended to her injuries when she had been damaged on the island, but it was different now. She was not terribly wounded but whole and receptive to them. His lust freely raged through him as he watched the robe part the rest of the way as Zoreth dragged it down her arms and tossed it away. There was a softness to her belly that drew him and a delightful curve to her hips that was more pronounced without the concealment of the flight suit. But it was the enticing thatch of hair between her legs that drew his attention, and he was unable to tear his gaze away when Zoreth suddenly lifted her up in his arms and carried her over to the bed.

Talech followed eagerly, his eyes following along avidly as Zoreth laid her on top of it, his hands brushing worshipfully down her sides and slid down her thighs before gently pushing her thighs apart to expose the flower of sex to them. It was wet and slick and so inviting that Talech was unable to stop his civix as it extruded fully, thick lubrication pumping out from the porous channels that ran down its sides. It writhed in its demands, jerking and thrusting against his flight suit to the point of pain.

With a hiss he stripped it from his body, pleasure filling him at the way their mate’s eyes roamed over him appreciatively. Her gaze lingered on his sex, first in awe and then in desire as her cheeks reddened and her scent thickened sweetly with her arousal. As much as he appreciated her desire for him, at that moment he was more interested in the way she was presented before him. Especially that tight center of her that beckoned him.

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