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“I’ve most definitely pairbonded to you,” I tell Becky, who is looking from me to the Yonderin and his human woman. IknewI’d bonded to Becky, and yet…
Becky’s head whips up to me. “You—what?”
“The urge to remove a threat in order to keep you safe, to expand our territory and resources—that’s ingrained so deeply I’m ready to battle this rival male,” I note.
Becky’s eyes leave mine briefly as she sends a glance at said rival. Just as quickly, her attention returns to me. “You’re ‘pairbonded?’”
“I most certainly am.” I don’t take my eyes off of the danger, but I do reach out and catch Becky’s neck, giving her a gently reassuring clasp—because her brain is a mess of activity in every direction. I further elucidate for my mate’s peace of mind, “I don’t want to have sex with that other female. I don’t even want to go near her.”
Becky’s head rears back at my first statement, and care of my excellent peripheral vision, I watch her roll her lips between her teeth as she squints up at me. “Say that again?”
“I only desire to protect you and our tadpole,” I tell her. “And the land we are standing on so that you and I aren’t forced to flee from it in your heavily gravid state.”
It occurs to me in a cold rush that if I lose this fight, this male is unlikely to provide for Becky.
He’ll claim our territory and, at best, leave her to starve. Her and our tadpole.
Because it appears he has a mate, he won’t have any compulsion to bond to Becky—which means he has no incentive to see that sheand our young thrive. In fact, if I lose, he will see his vanquished rival’s offspring as a threat that needs neutralizing. Permanently.
Starkly, I know that if I lose, he’ll kill Becky in order to kill our tadpole she’s carrying.
I've never been more inclined to win.
“Ourtadpole?”Becky queries.
Shielding scales sprout over the rival Yonderin’s gill slits. His gills look to have been sewn shut, just as mine were, but his defensive mechanism is still operational—and, I see with a spike of challenge, his defense is very good. His scales are thick and form a tight barrier of protection at the sides of his throat.
It will be harder to kill him now.
His female, staring up at him, makes a noise that conveys surprise. “Wow, that’s new!” One hand on her belly, she looks around, seeming flustered. “Umm, C’vest, I think we could use a bathroom break.”
This C’vest peels his lips back from his teeth and snarls in my direction.
Narrowing my eyes, I bare my own teeth. To my relief, I believe mine are bigger.
When the other male moves to step forward, his female steps in front of him, halting him. She looks from me to Becky—and focuses on Becky’s stomach as she shouts over her mate’s vibrating growl, “It's because we're ‘breeding!’”
Becky, her hand clutching mine, is nonplussed. “What?!”
“Yeah!” the other female replies, her smile looking strained as she meet’s Becky’s stunned gaze. “Because we're pregnant, they turn aggressive with each other. Apparently way back when Yonderin still took mates in the ocean,” she digs her elbow into her male’s stomach, making him grunt and stop leaning forward with such killing purpose, “the males became super aggressive and battled for territory and to protect their pregnant mates.” She moves more firmly against her male’s side and pats him on his stiff back, making his frame stiffen more. “Ancient instincts are getting triggered with us. I guess this kind of aggression is why their species began to remove themselves from the act of claiming mates. Now they’re loners who reproduce by test tubes.”
“That's crazy,” Becky calls, side-eyeing me. “This guy is the planet’s biggest cuddler, not a loner.”
Something in my chest seizes, unsure if my mate finds this trait appealing or… not.
The other female grins. “So’s mine,” she shares.
Becky squeezes my hand and shoots me a smile—making every one of my muscles loosen. To the other female, she says, “I’m Becky.”
“Stella,” the rival’s mate replies.
“Ahhh,” I murmur. “The baker’s interaction with us now makes sense. Two Yonderin males in the same town, frequenting the same establishment is a remarkable happenstance.”
“Excuse us for just one second,” this Stella is saying with a tight smile as she pats her Yonderin on his chest, and when that doesn’t get her the level of his attention that she desires, she loops her arm around his lower middle in order to reach behind him. The muscles of her limb tighten.
By the way his body tenses, I believe she may have squeezed him on the muscles of his posterior.
With a snarl, he turns and pounces on his mate.
