Like so many of the Monstrum who lived on the Dark Side, he and his other two colony-mates were here voluntarily. Knowing they had little chance of finding their Queen—the one female who could mate and bond with all three of them successfully—they had elected to stay in the shadows, to avoid frightening the humans.
The small blue-green planet its inhabitants called Earth had the first humanoid people the Monstrum had found in years that were capable of mating and bonding with them. But some Monstrum were more frightening than others. In a strange twist of multiversal fate, many of them looked like Earth animals in some way. The Felinus Monstrum, who looked rather like lions and tigers, had become especially popular with Earth women.
However, Tem didn’t believe there were any Earth animals that looked like he and V’rone and Rive did. They had no fur to cover their bodies like the Felinus Monstrum and their skin colors and markings coupled with their great size and other oddities would certainly make a human woman frightened of them.
Humans only came in shades of tan and brown—what would they think if they saw huge, muscular warriors who were head and shoulders taller than them in shades of red and blue and green? Not to mention the compound lenses that all Colony Warriors had, which covered their true eyes in times of stress or battle…
“Did you hear Rive? Five in five million,” V’rone growled, interrupting Tem’s train of thought. “You might as well give up on your Heart-finder arch—it’s never gonna do us any damn good.”
“There are billions of females on Earth,” Tem pointed out mildly. He liked V’rone, he really did—despite being the Brawn and protector, the male actually had a pretty good sense of humor. But he could also be sullen and morose when he felt hopeless and since moving to this universe, that seemed to be his state of mind more often than not.
V’rone snorted and glared at Tem again.
“Right—billions of females. And what are you gonna do—ask them to all come up here and walk through your arch one by one to see which one sends the bells tinkling and the blooms flashing?” he demanded. “I’m sure they’d all be lining up to be our Queen—especially once they see us.”
“If only we had a Heart-finder we could go down to Earth ourselves and find our Queen,” Tem said longingly. “And our true Queen won’t mind that we look different from her people—she’ll see past our differences and let her heart connect with ours.”
“Yeah, if only we’d brought a Heart-finder with us before the Mother Ship slipped through the gash into this universe,” V’rone muttered. “But who knew that the Darklings would take over before we could go back to Colony Five and find a Queen to mate us all there?”
“There is a Heart-finder in this universe, but we have approximately zero percent chance of acquiring it,” Rive said helpfully. “A female by the name of Mistress Bodikin owns it. It’s said that she is able to get artifacts from other universes through a special portal that she owns. But she lives—”
V’rone rounded on him, a snarl of frustration on his face.
“Yes, we know—we know! She lives on that damn planet where females rule and they won’t deal with males alone. What’s the point in bringin’ it up when we can’t do a damn thing about it?”
“All right, all right…” Tem quickly put himself between the Brain and the Brawn.
As the Soul of their colony, he was often the peace maker. V’rone could be easily frustrated and Rive didn’t always realize when he was being irritating. The Brain of their group lived almost exclusively in his own head, making it difficult for him to connect with others sometimes—even the members of his own colony.
“Forgive me,” Rive said stiffly, frowning at V’rone through his oculars. “I was simply stating the obvious.”
“Well, don’t,” V’rone growled. “It’s bad enough we’ll never find a Queen to serve without you laying out the details of why we won’t find her over and over again.”
“Why don’t we go back in the domicile?” Tem suggested. “I’m pretty sure that vorsynth stew I made earlier is done by now. We’re all hungry—that’s why tempers are getting short.”
Of course, he knew the real reason tempers were short—a colony wasn’t meant to live without a Queen. The three of them needed a female to complete them—but it had to be the right female. The one the Goddess had destined to be theirs.
But how would they ever meet her?
He had no idea but he sent up a silent prayer as he herded his two colony-mates into their shared domicile.
“Goddess, if you can hear me, we’ve been lonely a long time now! Please send us the female you have for us—or help us to find her in some way.”