Page 93 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Stars

Thresher

I didn’t know if Cy had asked me to escort Ana for the reasons he mentioned, or because he wanted to give me a chance to use my programming, but I was grateful either way. As I held her against me and let her move my limbs where she liked, her temperature rose while her pheromones concentrated in my air monitors.

My User had always said I was a fast learner , and I was pleased to find it wasn’t flattery. Ana let out a soft, pleased sigh when I shifted my grip to settle her body in the middle of my large palm like it was another stool, my jointed fingers just barely curling up against her front. She arched into my fingertips when I pressed them to a place I’d only seen in one of User Lawrence’s programs, offering a stuttering groan of encouragement. I followed the slight motions of her body, pressing harder or softer in a rhythm that had her nails scrabbling at my shoulder plating as she held on.

“Oh Thresher, yes , more of–yes, there –” Her hips began to move in tighter, faster circles as my other hand splayed across her back to hold her safely. Her movements stopped as the side door closed loudly, more firmly than it needed to. Harv-E observed us as he leaned against a soil barrel, arms folded across his chest, faceplate blank and tone unlike any I’d heard from him before–anger, rather than his usual mild annoyance.

“You’re a labor droid, Thresher. Leave the seeding to a harvester.”

Ana’s head jerked up, face flush and hair beautifully wild with sweat and static. Her vital signs read as tension or shame, and she curled in closer to me like she needed protection. I smoothed my hand down her back, flashing anger of my own through the network towards my unit droid. A User had requested something from me and he was interrupting that task. Unless there was a life-threatening emergency to Ana, this was completely against protocol.

“Excuse me? Who the hell do you think you are, talking to Thresher like that? I am a User .” Her voice was unsteady, her heart hammering against the thick metal of my chest even as her anger snapped. She was defending me, even though she was scared for some reason. I liked that, it made me feel as if I wasn’t just useful , I was wanted .

Harv-E strolled over, flipping up his face mask in one fluid movement to reveal modifications I’d never seen before. His face was like Cy’s now, human-like, one of his normally-green eyes a now a strange light blue, the same shade as the sky of our dome. The same shade that User Lawrence’s eyes had been .

“I said,” He closed the distance between us, sliding a gloved hand over my arm, up Ana’s spine, and burying a firm grip in her hair as he leaned in. “--that he ought to leave seeding to a harvester , Ana. Is that going to be a problem with you?”

Ana relaxed against me for a long moment, her voice thick and languid with strange, obvious approval when it finally emerged. “Well, not necessarily. But don’t be an ass to Thresher.”

Harv-E chuckled in a lower register, sending a reassuring packet of information to me across our unit network, a snippet cut from one of our illegal databases. I scrolled through the grainy video in nanoseconds, momentarily confused how two droids could replace two humans, but understanding when Harv-E pressed his body up against Ana’s back. I was a fast learner , after all.

Harv-E tugged her hair lightly until her head tipped back, kissing the outside of her neck while I shuffled her body in my arms to kiss the other side. Her pulse fluttered against my chest and beneath our mouths, the faintest hint of moisture registering on my fingertip pads when I pressed them harder against her. She squirmed, giving soft little moans and whines of approval.

“ More .” She pulled an arm free to tug impatiently at the collar of her flight suit, her mouth falling to kiss and lick at the sensors in my neck, an unusual sensation that I was growing to enjoy.

Harv-E slid an arm between her chest and mine, cupping and gripping one of her breasts through the suit. “Beautiful Ana, I’m going to give you what you need now. Relax and trust us.”

He waited for her tiny nod against my shoulder before shoving his hand beneath mine, eyes staring beyond my shoulder as he concentrated, the fabric of her suit gapping to either side of my grip. At Ana’s sharp intake of breath, I glanced down: Harv-E had cut right through the stitching between her legs, but hadn’t hurt her. Ana’s pheromones were unmistakable now, along with a sweet, earthy scent that reminded me of the trees in the orchard. There was a soft, wet sound as Harv-E slowly pushed his fingers against her again, one working its way inside her newly-bared entrance. Ana tensed, clinging to me, and at first I thought she was trying to get away from Harv-E’s intrusion. I realized, at an impatient huff from her, that she was trying to rub herself against my fingers again.

“There, you like that, don’t you Ana? I told you to trust us.” Harv-E’s cheek was pressed tight to hers, her forehead resting heavily on my chest as we rocked her between us. “Now, tell me you want to be plowed , my fertile little seed.”

Ana sounded dazed, but happy, her breath fast and her skin flushed where it touched me. “But you–you can’t–you don’t have–”

My unit-droid growled at her, tightly gripping her hair now and murmuring in her ear. “I am the keeper of the fruit , little seed. You think I can’t breed you like a particularly luscious piece of ground?” Ana whimpered, but didn’t pull away. If anything, she arched her back again to ensure contact with Harv-E’s form. He grunted his approval, reaching down to rip his own coveralls open impatiently.

When the movement displayed yet another body modification I’d never seen, I sent a recall pulse through the network to Cy, worried about Harv-E’s strange, possessive behavior.

He grinned at me fiercely, mismatched eyes brilliant and luminescent with excitement. “Turn her towards me, Thresher. It’s time to show our User how much she needs this.”

Despite my concern, at Harv-E’s order, I did what I was made to do. I obeyed.