Page 8 of Myra’s Monster (Romance Among the Stars #3)
8
MONSTER
I ’d never had a name. Not in the way Myra meant. All of my kin were extensions of Home, and we knew each other by our parts in the chorus of Home’s mindsong. If a gardener needed a warrior, it did not matter whether they got me or another.
Deep sadness filled me at the realization that would never happen again. It was just me and Home now, and Home’s song was fading. Soon, I would be alone.
No member of the Hive is alone. It’s a contradiction, an impossibility. Alone and dead were almost identical concepts to us, and one would follow the other closely.
The possibility of moving to another colony had never occurred to me. Before meeting Myra, I wouldn’t have wanted to—the death of the colony and my death were naturally linked. Me outliving Home was as meaningless an idea as my arm outliving me.
But now, things were different. Myra’s mindsong, singular and self-contained, called to me. She offered me a name, a place that was my own. A place in the universe that included her.
Unlike the other humans, Myra’s mind filled with wonder at Home’s beauty. And her complex feelings toward me woke an eager desire in my hearts.
It wasn’t just her mind that appealed to me. Her body, wrapped in skintight and vacuum-proof material, looked deliciously soft and invitingly curved. I wanted to see her without that covering, to bare her skin to mine. To hear her mind awaken to my touch and watch her body flourish.
Our minds resonated, her fear/desire/excitement echoing my need/hunger/lust, each of us inflaming the other as we stood, looking into each other’s eyes. She had only two, bright green and piercing, set in a round face framed by red hair. Her skin, pale aside from the flush spreading across her cheeks, gave a beautiful contrast to the full, red splendor of her lips.
I nodded, accepting the name ‘Tyr’ she gave me. Accepting that and more. Myra shivered, tongue darting out to wet her lips, mixed feelings clarifying into an invitation.
One I would not refuse.