Page 44 of Argurma Warrior (The Argurma Chronicles #1)
A lthough the alarm had been short and faded quickly from his systems with the loss of power, Kaylar ran from the ship, his heart pounding in his chest and took off across the sand. Although the dry, fine grains sucked at his feet, he was grateful that his species were built as they were that they didn’t slow him down. His kind evolved to move quickly across sandy expanses amid varying weather conditions and for that reason he made quick time in rushing for the tree line. Not quick enough for his liking, however.
The distance between his position and the laboratory seemed insurmountable in that moment as fear for his mate pulsed through him. He was drowning in it, the shadows haunting his systems dragging him under without anything for his rational mind to cling to. Time had ceased to have any meaning and yet be something he was aware of as his systems tracked his speed and distance, estimating his arrival from the moment that the alarm came through the connection. All he could process was that Meg was caught within the laboratory with two dangerous creatures and nothing to protect her except a knife and a small blaster he had given her, neither of which would do much good against the biotech monstrosity or the modified Argurma explorer except to perhaps provide a distraction and create some space for her to try to make an escape.
None of that eased his worries as he plunged into the forest. He tore through the trees ruthlessly, no longer attempting to remain undetected. He wanted E302 to hear him coming. Better that the creature abandoned its hunt to meet his attack head-on. Anything to make certain that Meg made it safely away.
His growl pierced the air as the walls of the laboratory came into sight. It took only a heartbeat for his system to recognize that there was no power within the building’s mainframe for him to connect to. It was exactly as Doctor Ryder calculated. Every defense was down and every part of the building accessible. His muscles strained as he forced himself to accelerate to a greater speed beyond his endurance to maintain. It did not matter. There was little distance left remaining and he covered it swiftly, bursting into the building with a roar as adrenaline pumped ferociously through him. His head whipped from side to side as he scanned the lobby, his vision rapidly adjusting to the dark interior. Traces of E302’s presence were evident as well as the faint pheromone trail of his mate and Doctor Ryder that was slightly older. Whatever the situation was currently, the females had evacuated the lobby to make their way to the safe room in the quarters he shared with Meg.
E302 had succeeded in crashing the systems—as they had feared, and estimated, would happen—and it was now after them. Kaylar processed that the creature had picked up their scent just as easily. It was on the hunt but there was a chance that they would manage to stay ahead of it until they found their way up to the rooms to barricade themselves inside until he arrived for them. E302 was smart but it was still a wild creature. By his observation, it could still be outmaneuvered and escaped. The sleeping explorer, however, was the unknown factor that made dread settle deep into the pit of his stomach. Although not an elite warrior such as he was, as possessing inferior implants in comparison to his own, the male would still be a formidable hunter but possessing the cunning and strategy of a well-trained adult Argurma in service. That alone would be sufficient enough of a threat, but half-maddened by the experiments carried out on him, the male potentially posed an even greater danger. He would be relentless, that much alone Kaylar processed.
He growled again, the sound rattling viciously through him as he took off after them. His mandibles flexed continuously as he ran to draw in the surrounding air so that it was constantly streaming over them, sending information flooding into his systems. He drew up the schematic, shifting it rapidly in his mind as he followed their trail, confusion setting in as their path veered in the opposite direction from the stairs. Kaylar slowed down and came to a stop when suddenly he took a turn that took him off the map entirely. His head tipped as he slowly peered at his surroundings. This was not within the system nor had it come up with his initial scan upon their arrival. Somehow this entire part of the building had been concealed completely from him and was only now open to him.
His heart picked up with the realization that Meg would not be familiar with this part of the building. He had only a small hope that Doctor Ryder might have possessed some knowledge of it but the likelihood was small. If it was so well concealed, it served a purpose so that those employed within the facility would be unaware of its presence or how to access the wing.
That meant his mate was lost somewhere among the network of corridors. His mandibles widened again and he caught the foul musk of the biotech creature. It too had passed this way but so had another. A displeased snarl rose in his throat as his system identified the scent composite of another Argurma. It was as he had estimated. The Argurma had already awakened and was loose, hunting along this same stretch of corridor.
It would only be by some twist of fortune that he would find his mate before the explorer did. Kaylar was skilled but had never considered himself to particularly be in possession of any significant degree of luck. The male would have the females soon, if he had not captured them already. His Meg would be under the domination of a maddened male—it was unacceptable.
With a rumble of anger, Kaylar sped forward and hunted along the hallways, searching for any fresh trails of either of the females or the Argurma. He was relieved that at least the E302 was not an immediate concern. The creature’s odor within the area was old with no recent trails coming to him in the air. Although it had passed this way, it was no longer nearby and appeared to have retreated which he could only surmise was due to a confrontation with the augmented male. With that many defenses and a few strong blows, Kaylar was certain that it would retreat with the intention of circling around like any clever predator, or attempt a renewed ambush. Had they caught up to the females at this point or was it a chance meeting? He hated that he possessed no answers and had no means of acquiring them with the building’s systems now terminated.
Angling his trajectory for the intersection of halls just ahead of him, Kaylar’s growl kicked up more viciously as he met a fresh scent of the Argurma male’s pheromones mingling with those of Doctor Ryder… and Meg.
His Meg.
Her frantic curses rose up against the clattering aggression of the explorer, her voice breathless with her struggle against him. Doctor Ryder’s soft moan of terror gave voice to the scent of fear weighing heavily in the air. The male hissed, the sound sharper with mounting anger in response to the scientist’s distress, the rattling sound of his vibrissae and the rapid clatter of his mandibles clear as Kaylar closed in on them.
Kaylar’s chest tightened anxiously. That wasn’t merely hostility or annoyance from an uncooperative captive. If the explorer was demonstrating an instinctive mate-guarding reaction, in his current state of disorientation it could be easily assumed that Meg’s strangled shouts would be taken as aggression against Doctor Ryder and the cause of the scientist’s distress. The male would not process that he was the cause. He would see himself as the protector of a compatible female with whom he could potentially mate, especially after fighting off E302. For whatever reason he seized Meg, her presence was entirely conditional on whether or not it benefited Doctor Ryder’s wellbeing. This was such a common enough mentality with those mated among his species—and had admittedly been his own conditional acceptance of Doctor Ryder’s presence in their company—that it did not take much stretch of his imagination to process this likelihood.
Protection of one’s mate took priority over all things—a reason that the council sought ways to control the mating instincts—though unsuccessfully. For all that they managed to restrict through their technology, this was one thing that they could not touch. And it infuriated them. Intense loyalty to a mate quickly replaced loyalty to superiors—as Kaylar’s own mating demonstrated—and caused potentially dangerous situations between males.
Such as it was about to now. If the explorer was aggressively guarding Doctor Ryder in hopes of claiming her as his mate it was inconsequential to the rage of an enraged, fully mated Argurma defending their mate. All information he was absorbing through his senses and systems indicated they were located there, right around the bend of the corridor. Kaylar put on a new burst of speed at the soft sound of impact followed by Doctor Ryder’s shout of alarm. The explorer bellowed angrily in response—the sound muffled by his vibrissae whirling in a confused frenzy of sound. But it was Meg’s pained cry afterward that sent an explosion of murderous fury through Kaylar as he bristled with hostility that the male dared to do anything at all to damage his mate. It was her cries and the scent of her fear flooding the environment that roused his hostility to dangerous levels, and yet, beneath his anger, however, he still rationally recognized the high probability that the flood of sounds and scents from the two terrorized females distracted an already disoriented male so that he had not yet detected Kaylar’s approach.
That would not last long.
Taking a sharp left, Kaylar’s stride lengthened as he flooded his system with a release of hormones from a specialized implant, muscles coiling with concentration of power. Rounding the bend, he did not even make eye contact with his prey but sprung and pushed off the nearest wall with all his strength. He snarled midleap at the sight of Meg held against the wall by her neck, his metallic insectoid limbs angled threateningly toward her as Doctor Ryder pushed herself clumsily from the floor where she’d been dropped. The male’s eyes turned at that moment, meeting Kaylar’s gaze, their glowing depths awash with confusion, anger and pain—but mostly anger, a fury that rose exponentially at the sight Kaylar.
He hardened his heart as he dropped upon the male, refusing to allow even that to sway him as he sought to viciously separate his mate from the threat the male presented toward her. The explorer swung in a quick, defensive counter-strike, his extra limbs knocking Kaylar from the air as they slashed deep into his armor along his side. Though they did not make impact, the pressure sent a bruising pain through him as he fell away, though not before Kaylar was able to rip free several cables that formed the joint in the limb, causing the upper half to drop useless to the male’s side.
The explorer roared, his functioning limbs stabbing for Kaylar as Meg was dragged along, her hands scrambling against the male’s thick arm. Kaylar’s gaze tracked his mate, never letting her completely out of his sight as he evaded the male who actively not only was trying to damage him but at the same time was attempting to herd him away from Doctor Ryder. Kaylar considered just letting the male keep her as a concession but dismissed that idea as quick as it came. Meg wished to help her. He would not leave her behind even if it served his purposes better to do so. And perhaps, given their shared commonality, he would have felt a little… bad… for doing so. He did not analyze it very carefully as he dodged the attacks, his focus trained on Meg with his concern. With the male’s focus on attacking Kaylar, his attention was no longer on the female he hauled thoughtlessly with him.
Kaylar’s heart jumped and clenched in his chest as she suddenly twisted in the male’s grasp and solidified her grip on the arm now loosely holding her hostage. As she latched onto it, her eyes lifted and met his, her expression hardening with determination even as her lips quirked triumphantly. He dove to the side, slashing at the male in a frantic attempt to drive in closer and pull her free, not daring to use his blaster unless on a stray shot inadvertently struck either female. As he rounded again on the male, just barely avoiding a metal claw descending to eviscerate him, Kaylar gaze swung to his mate, his breath catching as his female ducked in low beneath the flailing metal limb and stretched to reach the shoulder horn. Gripping it, she yanked hard, pulling herself free of the male’s haphazard hold as her freed hand dropped to her thigh and the knife holstered there.
Pride welled in him and as the explorer began to turn his head back toward her, Kaylar went on the offensive. With an aggressive clatter of his mandibles, he snarled in challenge and drove forward, striking repeatedly in random spots, drawing the maddened male’s attention back to him. The Argurma’s eyes snapped back toward him and brightened furiously as he renewed his attack and a triumphant smile tugged at Meg’s lips, from where she was just visible above the male’s shoulder. Twisting one hand in his vibrissae just as they had trained, she swung her blade through the air, driving the blade into his neck.
“No!” Doctor Ryder screamed, and from the corner of his eye, Kaylar observed as she pushed up to her feet, her eyes wide with horror.
They appeared to fix on the blood spurting from the slash of the knife that the male all but ignored in his frenzied attempt to eliminate Kaylar. It was unfortunate that Doctor Ryder’s shout seemed to be just enough to remind the male of her presence and his chief concern. With a bellowing roar, his metallic limb jerked upward and away from Kaylar and descending at angles intended to tear her free from him. Ducking below one that came precariously close to making contact with her head, Meg released her blade and allowed herself to drop to the ground to roll out of his reach.
That was all Kaylar needed. With a snarl, he pulled out his blaster and fired. He did not wish to kill the explorer but he intended fully for the blasts to hit in places that would at least drop him for a short amount of time. He aimed for non-lethal targets and was gratified when the male’s body jerked and stumbled back at impact. Kaylar did not even wait long enough to watch him drop to his knees. The moment the male was disabled, Kaylar holstered his blaster and dove for his mate, gathering her quickly into his arms. As much as he wanted to hold her to him and brush his mandibles and vibrissae over her to reassure himself that she was whole and well, Kaylar did not allow himself that luxury. Instead, he grabbed her hand in his and together they hurried from the hall, dragging the weeping and protesting scientist along with them.
“Wait, please! He wasn’t trying to hurt us. He saved us,” Doctor Ryder pleaded as they rounded another corner and struck out along another long hallway, following Kaylar’s mapped scan of the area. She jerked against his hold stubbornly when he did not yield. “I’m telling you that we are making a mistake. I made a mistake about him. He isn’t a monster. He’s confused—disoriented, as you said,” she said, turning to him beseechingly, “but he’s not trying to hurt us.”
“You mean that he’s not trying to hurt you,” Meg countered breathlessly as they ran, her free hand going to a faint bruise that was already forming on her neck. “I’m pretty sure he had every intention of strangling me to death.”
Doctor Ryder shook her head. “It was a mistake. I’m sure if he were in his right mind he wouldn’t have done that. He clearly thought you were trying to frighten me and reacted impulsively."
"Not reassuring.” Meg, however, gave the other female a sympathetic look and shook her head. “We can’t go back for him. We have no way to restrain or safely transport him and we need to get out of here before E302 finds us.”
Kaylar clicked his mandibles and grunted in agreement, though her tearful pleas not to abandon the male—her potential mate, though she was unaware of this—tore at him. And there was no way to avoid doing exactly that with their current circumstances. “The containment units require repairs due to the damage caused by E302’s escape and the subsequent crash. Even if we managed to get him there, he would be a danger to all of us unrestrained on the ship until his systems fully restored.” He glanced over at her. “My apologies, Doctor Ryder.”
“I’m just going on record to say that I hate this,” she replied stiffly.
At least she was no longer fighting his hold on her and trying to drag them back toward the male. Instead she had begun to run cooperatively with them so that he was able to release her to his mate. They clung to each and Meg to him in their sightless state, entirely dependent on him to get them through there. He would not fail them.
Naturally, if she chose to run back for the explorer, then that would be her decision. At that point he would have done what he could to help her. He was removing his mate from the building. Not only because E302 was still hunting them, but because an Argurma’s bellow of rage now followed after them from some distance away.
“Phew, he sounds pissed,” Meg exclaimed, her eyes shifting nervously as if trying to glimpse anything at all behind her.
Kaylar grunted in agreement as he worked to keep at a reasonable pace. Although he needed an arm free to be able to defend them, he could easily sweep Meg up over his shoulder but he suspected that she would object if he did so, especially if it meant inadvertently leaving the other female behind. He could not reasonably carry both females and be able to fire his blaster. Not that he could, in good conscience, leave her either, not unless Doctor Ryder chose to remain behind. For as long as she was with them, he considered it his duty to protect her. Any failure to do so would be yet another shadow that he would carry and that would torment him. Perhaps even more grievously than any other since he would have failed her and the trust his mate put in him to protect the scientist.
With his schematic—something he did not believe the explorer to have access to in his current state, if he possessed that particular upgraded technology at all—Kaylar led them rapidly from the network of halls back toward the main lobby at a far quicker pace than he initially processed at when he had entered. They would not remain in the facility for even a zec longer than necessary. With the repairs largely completed, they would make a break directly for the ship and take their chances.