Well, it’s not really my cave but my family’s cave, and it would be awkward to lay her down in my furs and mate with her with my younger brothers and my parents looking on. But I’d find someplace quiet to take her and comfort her. To hold her and make her mine.
None of that matters, though. Kira’s unconscious and not well. I scent Haeden somewhere nearby and follow my nose until I locate him, still at the front entrance, staring at the strange stone doors with a grim expression. He gets to his feet at the sight of me with Kira in my arms, his scowl deepening.
“What is wrong with her?”
“They removed her shell,” I say. “But she won’t wake.”
He grunts. “She might be tired. Perhaps the walls chatted her ear off.”
I cradle her closer to my chest. “Are they talking to you?”
He nods. “It keeps asking me if I wish for anything. I wish for silence and for stone walls not to speak to me.”
“Ask the stone walls where a bed is. If Kira is going to sleep, I will stay with her until she awakens.” I look around. “Where is the other human?”
Haeden shrugs. “Does it matter? She has to come out through here to leave.” He gestures at the closed cave-mouth.
My friend has no love for the humans. He might be the only one in our tribe who was not beside himself with joy at the discovery of so many women. I turn and look at the strange stone walls with their flashing lights and moving wiggles. I decide to address it. “Where is a cave? I wish to set my mate down to sleep.”
Haeden arches a brow at me but I ignore his silent question. Kira is my mate, even if neither my body nor hers realize it yet. They just need time.
The computer speaks in the human language. “Living quarters are in the south wing.”
“Lead me there,” I demand.
The floor lights up as it did for Kira, and I hold her close, pushing my way into the bowels of the cave. I don’t like this strange place, but it seems to be safe from predators. The strange lights lead me down another winding path, and stop at a cave with a half-open door that shivers as if trying to shut itself. There is a broken piece of the wall hanging down from the ceiling that prevents it from closing, and I slide under and into the cave itself.
It’s a small, too-square compartment with more of the flashing panels, but I’m pleased to see that there’s a square pallet covered with a soft, squishy, strange-feeling animal skin. I toss my cloak down over the pallet and gently lay Kira down onto the bed so I can examine her again. Worry makes my heart pound and I smooth a hand down her arms and legs and chest, looking for hidden wounds I might not have seen before. She seems healthy in body. I peel back the bandages over her ear. There are reddened holes along her lobe, and dried blood crusted inside her ear canal, but otherwise I see no issues.
There’s nothing to do but wait for her to awaken.
I slide onto the bed next to her and wrap my arms around her. She fits against me so perfectly. I sweep my hand over her hair and press my mouth to her strange, smooth forehead. “You are safe with me, Kira,” I murmur in a low, soothing voice. “No one will harm you while you are with me. I will fight to the death to keep you at my side. Enemies will look upon my spear and recoil in fear.” I run my hand down her small back. “Then, you and I will get a cave of our own. I am not sure how, but we will manage. And we will set up a nest of warm, thick furs to keep your fragile human body warm, and I will press my mouth to every inch of your soft skin and show you how much you mean to me.” My fingers graze over her face, tracing her small nose, her tiny brows. She is strange looking compared to the women of my tribe, but I have a great appreciation for her flat brow, pale face and sad eyes, and her small mouth that so rarely curves into a smile. I decide right then and there that I will act a fool around her if it will only bring a happy look to her face.
I will do anything for her.
I settle in to the bed, describing in great detail how we shall set up our cave. How my mother will fuss over the thought of having a daughter, as she has only sons and none of them mated. Of how my father will shake his head at my ways, but it won’t matter because it is all for Kira.
“The biggest, warmest bed in all the caves,” I decide. “Dvisti fur is the warmest and I will line our nest with that, and then ask Kashrem – that’s Maylak’s mate – to create soft coverlets that are softer than a kit’s bottom, but warm enough to please you. It will cost me much, but Kashrem’s always been jealous of my carving, so I shall create him some new tools, I think. Perhaps a few baubles for his kits.” I consider thoughtfully. I’ve always given away my carvings with ease, not concerned with getting anything in return. Now that I have a mate, I shall have to consider things more carefully, so I may provide all the things she wants. “And we shall need furs for the entrance of our cave,” I tell her. “To muffle your shouts of pleasure when I take you every night.”
Perhaps that is my own male pride talking there. I do not think Kira is a shouter. Not like Asha was. She will be the quiet type, the kind that comes with a widening of her eyes and a parting of the lips, and no more than that.
I picture it, and my cock grows uncomfortably hard. Time to think of other things. I stroke my hand down Kira’s arm. “I imagine that the first brutal season with my people will be hard on the humans. You struggle right now, but I will do my best to ensure that you are always warm and well fed. And when the snows are too high for even the hunters to go out, we shall stay in our furs all day long.”
Strange, how badly I want the life I am envisioning. My heart thuds hard, thinking of Kira, warm and smiling up at me from a long night of vigorous mating. Kira, with her belly rounded with my child. Kira, nursing a tiny human-sa-khui halfling, with a pink tail and stunted horns. What would our child look like?
Lost in pleasant thoughts, I continue to talk to my unconscious mate.
KIRA
My head feels like a cracked-open melon. Pain pounds in my brain, and I remain completely still, hoping that the lack of movement makes the agony dissipate. As I do, I hear a soft, low voice.
“I might have to stack the back of our cave with extra dung so I can keep a fire going for you at all times. I’ll just have to figure out something to disguise the smell. Maybe some of Maylak’s herbs. And I know you like your meat cooked, so there’s that to consider. And when it gets too cold at night, we can heat some snow in a quill-beast bladder. You can preserve them a certain way and place them at your feet to keep your furs warm at night. Either way, I’ll make sure you’re happy and comfortable.” Aehako’s big fingers trace my jaw. “But I’ll take care of you.”
My headache fades a little at his soothing touch. I’m cradled against him with my face pressed to his chest and my hand nearby. His arms are wrapped around me, hugging me against him, and it feels…like home. I keep my eyes closed, relaxing in the low thrum of his voice as he tells me all about his plans for ‘our’ cave and how we’ll weather the brutal season – the winter – together and all the plans he has for us. I have to admit that hearing him talk about his plans for the two of us together fills me with an incredible amount of yearning and muted joy. Joy because setting up a cozy cave with him sounds incredibly wonderful and I still can’t believe someone as fun and sexy as him is interested in someone as quiet as me.
Yearning because he starts talking of kits and when I have his children.
Which will never happen, because I’m still barren. A small sigh escapes me. He wants me and a family, but he can only have one of those things.
“Kira?” I feel his big body move under my cheek and my hand. “Are you awake?”
I nod and lick my dry lips. “Head hurts.”
“The shell is gone,” he says, keeping his voice low.
I reach up and touch my ear. It sends a new round of blistering pain through my head, but I also feel…lighter? I trace along my earlobe and feel the new holes there. It’s really gone. “Did you destroy it?”
He tenses against me. “Should I?”