Page 6 of Myra’s Monster (Romance Among the Stars #3)

6

MONSTER

T he intruders spoke crudely, forming sounds to carry meaning rather than thinking to each other. The noises were meaningless to me, of course, but I was not so limited. Spreading my frills, I listened to the patterns of their minds rather than the words they spoke.

The two males radiated anger, suspicion, hunger. Not hunger for food, water, or oxygen. Those I would have understood and sympathized with. Their hungers were never-ending pits they would shovel resources into, no matter the cost to anyone else.

They didn’t even trust each other. Whatever alliance bound them was nothing like the connection I had shared with Home and the rest of my kin. Suspicion went both ways, and eventually they’d end up hunting each other. Even in this den of plenty, I caught each of them wondering whether they’d profit more if the other died here.

The female was different. Her strongest feelings were wonder and fear and guilt. As I watched, she plucked a fruit with great care. Doing her best not to damage anything else, she tucked it into a pouch for safekeeping. Awe filled her mindsong, drowning out all other emotions and leaving her defenseless while the other two watched for danger with paranoid intensity.

There was something beautiful about the shape of her mind. Something quite unlike her companions, a warmth and openness which they lacked. These were not members of the same Hive, as difficult as that was for me to grasp, and the female didn’t fit with the males even slightly.

I couldn’t afford to wait until I understood. Home was suffering, and the damage got worse with every passing moment. The males carved pieces out of everything they passed, uncaring about the harm they did.

An attack without knowing more would be foolish, but I dared not wait. Learning about my foes would require me to take a risk.

I spread my frills fully, a dangerous move in the presence of strangers. It left me vulnerable to both psychic and physical attacks, the delicate frills thin and vulnerable.

But it let me peer deeper into the strange, closed-off minds of my prey. Feelings resolved into thoughts and I lost myself in the alien minds.

… rich, I’m going to be so fucking rich… do I need to share?

… this is so beautiful… what were the people who built it like?

… kill the bitch, take her ship, Volkov can fly it… keep all this for ourselves…

The female didn’t think about the males at all, lost in wonder at the garden’s beauty. But the males thought about her, and it wasn’t pleasant. Unexpected anger blossomed in me as they considered killing her. It made no sense. They were all intruders. Why would I care if they murdered each other?

Home’s quiet, fading mindsong gave me no answers, but neither did she condemn my feelings. I had to make my decision here, and the smaller male prompted me. He drew something from his belt, a tool I didn’t recognize. I didn’t need to. His thoughts betrayed him—it was a weapon, and he raised it toward the female with a smug rush of superiority, as though murdering one of his companions was a moment of pride for him.