Page 28 of Argurma Warrior (The Argurma Chronicles #1)

F or once Meg was cozy and warm. It was so nice to be actually warm. Not burning in the sun overheated, but toastily snuggled up to another body. She frowned, her brow wrinkling in her sleep. It was strange though. Dale wasn’t a snuggler. He didn’t even like to share his bed at all. The moment she’d satisfied him, she was sent to a small pallet in the corner of his tent where she would huddle beneath the pile of thin blankets, trying to keep warm against the cool desert night.

She wasn’t on her pallet. She wouldn’t be so warm if she were. Who had her? Where was she? Her body tensed, her fingers curling inward against a warm body as a wave of fear bubbled up from within her. She reared back, jerking against her captor’s hold, her fists flying wildly. The arm wrapped behind her tightened and she thrashed harder, a desperate whine breaking from her as she surfaced from sleep in a blind panic.

The solid weight of the arm pinned her helplessly to the massive body that swam hazily into view as her eyes blinked open. Gray. Gray flesh. No, not flesh. Scales. Wait, scales? The distant sense of familiarity was lost under the weight of sleep still clinging to her. She blinked again, fighting it back, as her roving gaze landed on a massive hand laid across a taut belly. The muscles of his abdomen flexed with slow, steady breaths. She lay there, caught immobilized against the large body, watching the muscles move steadily, a note of familiarity working its way into her mind and easing her distress. A soft purr started up, rumbling through her, and warmth flooded her muscles, and a peaceful feeling settled within her as she slowly relaxed.

She let out a shaky breath that ended in a sob of relief as reality caught up with her. Of course, Dale wasn’t there. She wasn’t freezing in the Red Reaper camp, nor was she curled up on a small, cold cot in The City. She was with Kaylar. A soft puff of air burst from between her lips and she sighed as she brushed the tip of her nose against the thick muscles of his chest and breathed him in. Ever so gently, his vibrissae slipped down around her cheek and neck, caressing her.

“I’m okay,” she mumbled in answer to his unspoken question.

“You are,” he agreed. “We are vulnerable in sleep and easily disoriented and confused with the shadows within our minds.”

“Is that a nice way of saying that you think I’m crazy?”

He chuffed softly, his fingers stroking down her back. “No. It means that it is expected. I have woken caught in my own shadows and I process that it will happen again.”

She squinted up at him. “And you’re not angry? I think I hit you a few times.”

“I am not.” He looked down at her in amusement. “You did not strike in a way that would damage me and were quickly soothed. I process that this will be advantageous to know and will be enacted immediately next time.”

The corner of her mouth kicked up. “You’re probably going to get tired of it pretty quickly."

He grunted. “Highly improbable. The occasional application of a few light blows due to confusion upon waking is inconsequential.”

Chucking softly, Meg rubbed her cheek against the flexible scales covering his chest. “I should probably feel insulted that you consider me that puny but I’m not. I like the fact that I can’t just accidentally do something to hurt you… that little can. It worried me a little before and I know, because you trusted me enough to teach me, that I could get the drop on you if I really tried but this is good. Very good. It makes me feel safe. Like nothing can get to me through you.”

He chuffed softly. “Process that I am not invincible, anastha. I can be injured and killed.” He paused, his head cocking. “But it will be very difficult and not many possess that capability.”

An uncomfortable thought came to her. “No one from Arugurmal, right? There isn’t anyone from your home world who can hurt you, right.”

He hesitated and her stomach dropped. “Few would be capable. I am a high ranked elite warrior but there are others of my caliber.” He shifted and tipped her head up to meet his eyes. “But it will not be easy for them, and I will make certain to stay alive for you.”

She grimaced. “Okay but let’s not make this about me. It’s not like I just want you to remain alive for selfish reasons. I mean yeah, I don’t know what I’d do if something suddenly happened to you but it’s more than that. I really just can’t stand the thought of something happening to you, especially not because you’re with me. I don’t think I could live with that. I just want you to stay alive, period.”

She ducked her head, pressing it once more firmly to his chest, unable to meet his eyes with the weight of her confession. He lay beneath her silently, his vibrissae brushing soothingly against her neck and cheek. After a moment she felt the light pressure and gentle rasp of his mandibles sliding against the top of her head as he breathed her in.

“Be selfish, anastha. My desire to remain with you is selfish as well. As much as I wish to protect you and observe your reaction to seeing worlds beyond this one for the first time, I process that I covet your smiles and do not wish for any other male to become your protector and receive them in my place. I wish to be the only male who protects you, it gives me pleasure. Protecting one’s female is the greatest pleasure and highest purpose for an Argurma male.”

She pursed her lips thoughtfully. That seemed a little too easy. “Always? What if a male mated with a male, or a female with a female?”

His mandible lightly caressed her head again. “Usually in such pairings there is still one who may possess the greater protective instinct. Some pairings, if there is none among them that possesses that drive, will be protected by any male of the clan who is nearby.” He fell silent briefly and then chuffed. “Or female. We do have females who prefer to be warriors and feel such drives. Often, they tend to find compatible mates in males who lack it, but occasionally they mate with warriors and entertain the entire mother-line as they mate-guard each other. Typically, among most Argurmas, the female leads, and the male protects, and this is the way.”

“That’s so different. Among humans, males hold all the power since the world fell apart. Grandma once told me that when she was young there were many possibilities for her life. That the fall ended her dreams, but she didn’t regret it because she was given grandpa in exchange. So, I think that things used to be different. Now, they may protect you if they want to, but many are just as quick to hurt you or try to control you. There are good men too,” she hastened to add so that he didn’t think that she simply hated men of her own species even if it was difficult for her to even truly see herself enjoying being touched by another one. “I’ve met several, unfortunately they often tend to be picked off quickly. But there were good men in The City.”

“This is satisfactory. I would be tempted to send all of my kin to Earth to save the females from their males if there were not,” he muttered as his arms tightened around her. “I am pleased that there was no male whom you wished to mate with and that I was the one to find you.”

Chuckling, she smiled and lifted a hand to trace her fingers lightly over his mandible. It was as firm as she’d expected from having it touch her so often but it was slightly textured and felt different from the thick, horn-like spines on his body. Gliding her fingertips slowly up the entire length of the mandible, she felt his giant body shudder against her.

“Sensitive?” she murmured.

“Yes,” he rasped.

“In a good or bad way?”

A soft purr started rattling through her as she ran her finger back and forth along the mandible.

“Good.” The word came out more as a sigh and his head pulled away, a little reluctantly it seemed. Meg smiled in response to the pure pleasure in the sound. “Like my vibrissae, the inner mandible is porous and filled with nerves and receptors. It makes my awareness of my environment and those near me highly acute, and my mandibles even more so to the point of being able to detect toxins in anything I might eat—and evolutionary necessity on Argurumal where so many things create natural venoms and toxins,” he chuffed again, “but they are very sensitive to touch.”

She tipped her head back and peered at them curiously. Long and thicker than her first two fingers but together, they extended from his cheekbone, just above his jaw into long, lethal looking points.

“Hmmm. They look a bit more dangerous than your vibrissae. It is a bit hard to believe that is all they do with those points on them.”

He rumbled softly in amusement. “They are also defensive,” he admitted. “I did say that most things on Argurumal have venom or poison. Argurmas are no exception to this.”

Her eyes widened and for a moment she genuinely wondered if she should be afraid. He touched her with those things all of the time, at times against the top of her head but also whenever they kissed and he lightly dragged them against her cheeks. She got now that it probably enhanced the kiss for him but the fact that he was constantly touching her with them and they were loaded with venom was a little worrying.

He peered down at her, his eyes slightly narrowing as his mouth dipped unhappily. “Does this distress you.” He paused, a distressed look passing over his face. “Do you wish for me to not touch you with them anymore? I did not ask permission which is a grievous misdemeanor among Argurmas punishable by strict penalties due to its intimacy and risk. I would never sting you, anastha but I process that another species might find it fearful when even my own is wary of receiving the touch from any except those closest to them.”

The question caught her off-guard, but it was the vulnerability in his expression as if he wholly expected her to reject the gesture that gave her a pause rather than instinctively reject it outright. Was it a little worrying that he was touching her with something loaded with venom that he could probably outright kill her with? Yes, absolutely. But he was always so very gentle with them that it simply came to a matter of trust. Did she trust him not to hurt her? That one was easy—of course she did, so what did it matter? In fact, that he was touching her affectionately with something so sensitive, even if it did contain venom, was incredibly sweet.

The tension drained from her body at her conclusion and the corners of her mouth quirked as she peered up at him. “Actually, I would like you to continue. It surprised me a little but I like it, and I trust you.”

His eyes widened, and a look of astonishment flitted over his face before being replaced with a look of pleasure. The smile he bestowed upon her was filled with such warmth and pleasure that it made her heart leap and her toes curl. With a tug, she pulled her on top of him and dragged her up the length of his body until her mouth was even with his. His claws trailed over her cheek and jaw before trailing back to cup the back of her head. The pressure from his hand was light, asking more than demanding and she lowered her head happily to offer her lips to him. The sigh that escaped her when his lips closed over hers just might have been one of pure happiness when his tongues slipped into her mouth and his mandibles gently dropped to the sides of her face to brush tenderly as his vibrissae reached for her.

Happy? Who, her? It was nearly unbelievable that she finally found that one elusive thing that she’d envied in everyone else who managed to find even the smallest bit of happiness to hold onto. And she’d found it in the most unlikely place. Never would she have imagined that it would have been him.