Page 53 of I Married Amreth

My over analytical brain kept trying to rationalize why I had done it, not that I had any regrets. Obviously, having such a fine male, ready and willing to do the nasty with me had been a hard temptation to resist. However, as horny as he made me, my libido didn’t control me. It was more than animal attraction between us. I also quickly realized that as much asAmreth qualified as an alpha, he was extremely respectful and protective.

More than once, I perceived his desire to push things a little farther or to be more flirtatious. He systematically reined himself in, making it clear he would let me set a pace that was comfortable for me. I loved how he sought my validation and consent every step of the way. Even when he got more dominant and controlling last night, not once did I feel threatened or coerced. I knew beyond any doubt that a single word would have sufficed to make him back off from pursuing whatever made me feel uneasy.

The way he touched, kissed, and spoke to me made me feel both safe and worshipped. I was falling hard for my incubus.

With much reluctance, we finally rolled out of bed and showered together. As we settled at the table to eat the generous breakfast the Kreelars brought us, Amreth scrunched his face at the food. Considering the substantial amount of meat provided, his reaction made no sense.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, confused.

Seeing his pointy elf ears darken and his face take on an air of embarrassment piqued my curiosity even more.

“I’m not hungry,” he mumbled.

“What do you mean, you’re not hungry? The last few days you’ve been a bottomless pit!” I exclaimed. “Considering your exertion last night—and this morning I might add—you should be fam…”

My voice trailed off, and my eyes widened with sudden understanding, while his face darkened further. Despite my best effort, I failed to keep myself from bursting out laughing at his mortified expression.

“Did someone give himself indigestion from feeding off his mate a bit too much?” I asked in a taunting tone.

The grumpy face he made was all the answer I needed. I laughed some more, sympathy, amusement, and a hefty dose of smugness swelling within me in equal measure.

“That’s your fault for tasting so damn good,” he grumbled.

“Sorry… Well, not really. But I doubt there’s anything I can give you to soothe your stomach,” I said in a mischievous tone.

“It’s not my stomach,” he said in the same disgruntled fashion. “The energy is stored inside me, and it makes my skin feel on the verge of bursting. Technically, it’s comparable to an overfull stomach, but spread throughout your entire body.”

“Ouch,” I said with sincere sympathy this time. “Is there any way to relieve this?”

He nodded. “I just need to expend some of the energy I stored to make room. Normally, I get rid of excess energy while charging the power crystals of my inmates’ various Quadrants. I will just need to go outside and blast some energy.”

“Why didn’t you do so when we went out to shower?” I asked with genuine curiosity.

“Because I doubt our hosts would have appreciated seeing a swarm of lightning shooting out into the sky over their village,” Amreth replied mockingly.

I snorted, picturing the scene. Yeah, the Kreelars would not have been amused at all by this, especially if he was truly blasting a large amount of it. I had seen how impressive the Obosians’ electrical discharges could be at lethal levels. It was terrifying.

“I will ask Vala to let me traipse a little distance away from the village to do so.”

“Good idea,” I replied with a smile.

Moments later, as if in response to his comment, Vala dropped by to inform us that the Kalds of the other villages agreed to allow us to freely travel throughout their territory,including between their villages with his ship. My mate didn’t have to be told twice.

I escorted him outside. He gave me a kiss before flying back to his vessel to get a shuttle that we would use as our own field lab. Before that though, he would go pick up some berries in the forest and make a detour by Bryst to drop them off to Mehreen and Ernst. They could then thoroughly test and analyze them in the deployable lab, which possessed the proper equipment for it.

I burst out laughing again when lightning started to fire off in the distance in the general direction he had taken off towards. It was silly, super cute, and incredibly flattering. Amreth didn’t strike me as the type to overindulge in things or to have an addictive personality. That my emotions had been so delicious to him that he couldn’t help himself to the point of discomfort was the greatest compliment he could have paid me.

Sighing wistfully, I headed to the office in the village’s gathering hall to establish a call with Mehreen and Ernst using the Kreelars’ radio communication system. It felt so weird, like I teleported to a dystopian future where society had reverted to the old days where most technology had been wiped off the planet. It felt even stranger without video. Situations like these reminded me how overly comfortable technological advances made us, and how we often took so many conveniences for granted, no longer truly appreciating their benefits until we lost them.

“We made some great progress here,” Ernst said proudly. “All of our tests confirmed that it is indeed estrogen killing the females faster. As you know, it interacts with their hippocampus and prefrontal cortex to increase synaptogenesis.”

Before he even finished, understanding dawned on me as to what was happening.

“Of course!” I exclaimed. “The disease causes the cerebral mutations which grant them their powers. With estrogenboosting the formation of new synapses, the females’ brains are mutating too fast!”

“Exactly, and with those new synapses comes enhanced neurotransmitter activity. Except the prions disrupt the normal function of the neurons, which leads to improper synthesis and damaged synapses. Their bodies get overwhelmed before they have a chance to fight back, and they die,” Mehreen said. “We’ve been running some tests and simulations that show that Gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonists work on them like with humans and stop their ovaries from releasing estrogen.”

I frowned. “That’s great, but is it enough?”

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