Chapter 19 Dottie
The day had wrung me out, and it wasn’t even over yet.
Every muscle in my back and shoulders felt tight, like I’d fought off an entire swarm of bugs instead of just a single centicreep, and badly too, mind you.
My thoughts were scattered, and my body and brain were running on fumes.
I didn’t have the energy to pretend that I was fine.
And I definitely did not have the energy to pretend I didn’t need a back rub.
The dust of being left abandoned for many years came off the bed with the top comforter, which was now shoved into a corner of the room.
The sheets underneath were surprisingly clean.
I let Ror’k turn me onto my belly as he settled behind me on the bed, which dipped under his weight.
His massive legs straddled either side of my body in a warm embrace.
But the thing that calmed me most was the soft rumbling sound coming from his chest.
He reminded me of a giant cat, and I wondered what Mama Cat was thinking a few yards away. But I wasn’t able to wonder for too long because the moment his hands ended up on my shoulders, all thoughts flew from my head.
His palms were warm and confident as they slid over my skin under the thin fabric of my shirt.
A teasing heat followed every pass of his hands, like he knew exactly how easily he could turn my muscles to mush.
He moved to the base of my neck, kneading with slow, deliberate pressure, working through tension I hadn’t realized I was carrying this whole time.
His thumbs pressed in just right, coaxing the tightness to melt, and with it all my worries. My body softened under his touch, almost feeling like it was melting, and I gave in with a helpless moan that would’ve embarrassed me if it didn’t feel so ridiculously good.
“Relax,” he murmured, voice low and rough behind me. “I will protect you. You are safe.”
The way he said it sent a warm shiver down my spine, and I let out another soft, happy sound.
I could practically feel the satisfaction of my reaction rolling off him. His hands drifted lower, his fingers somehow both infinitely strong and gentle, attacking and coaxing every knot into submission.
I closed my eyes and let myself sink into the mattress. Soon, my breathing slowed, and my thoughts drifted. But his hands kept moving in a steady rhythm that pulled me deeper into a warm, happy haze. My eyelids grew heavy as my body went limp under the expertise of his touch.
His hands gentled, smoothing over my back in long, slow strokes as he leaned in, brushing a soft kiss against my shoulder.
“Sleep, my brave Dottie,” he whispered against my skin. Another soft kiss was the last thing I felt before everything slipped away.
***
I woke to thunder that sounded like it was right on top of us.
The first thing I noticed after realizing I was safe was that something soft was brushing across my hand.
I blinked awake, confused for a moment, then lifted my head.
A kitten lay curled up next to my hand, its ears pressed back in reaction to the loud noise.
Pushing myself up slowly, careful not to disturb it, I took in the room. What I saw made my heart melt into a puddle.
Ror’k sat next to me, upright against the headboard, shoulders squared and jaw set.
He sat statue-still, like he thought any movement would trigger an alarm.
Several kittens were sprawled across him.
One slept on his thigh. Another gnawed on the hem of his leather loincloth.
Two more were trying to climb him like a muscled mountain.
One was already on his shoulder, and the other was struggling to hang onto a piece of armor.
A soft, barely audible rumbling came from his chest, but another one, this one softer, had joined it. I realized it was Mama Cat.
Mama Cat lounged at the foot of the bed, tail wrapped neatly around her body.
Her gaze held a smug satisfaction, and she didn’t seem to be reacting to the storm anymore.
In front of her was the empty wax wrapper of a Xarc’n food bar.
She’d found a warm, oversized heater who not only provided food but also acted as a babysitter, and had claimed it.
“You’re awake.” His voice came out low and careful. “I cannot move.”
I chuckled softly. “They have you pinned. I think they like you.”
“They ambushed me.”
“I’m sure they did.” I glanced at Mama Cat. “Did she bring them up here?”
He shifted his eyes toward her without moving anything else. “Affirmative. I gave her more of the food bar. She picked one of the younglings, climbed onto the sleeping platform, and placed it on my leg. She brought them all over.”
“I guess she’s decided we are safe. You, particularly. Maybe she thinks that you’re just a very big, strange-looking cat. You know, because of your purring.”
“Warriors do not purr. Our chest rumbles.”
“Oh, I don’t know. You say that, but Mama Cat over there thinks otherwise, and I value her professional opinion. Also, we can’t keep calling her Mama Cat all the time. She needs a name. Especially if she’s going to be coming back to New Franklin with us.”
“We will find one. But for now, what do I do? I cannot move.”
I chuckled. “Accept your fate?”
He gave the kitten on his shoulder the side eye as it tried to chomp down on his ear again. “They are bitey.”
“They’re teething.” I frowned. “Hey, why do they get to bite you, and I don’t?”
“Humans do not bite.”
“Yeah, we do.” I cuddled up to him, clawing his shoulders with pretend claws, mimicking the kitten. “We get an urge to bite things that are cute, but not hard, soft. It’s called cute aggression. And right now, you are utterly adorable.”
“I am not.”
“You totally are. In fact, I’m going to take just one bite.”
I bit down playfully on his shoulder.
He hissed and then laughed, jerking away but not enough to get away from me. “I expected to do battle today,” he said, giving in with a reluctant smile. “I did not expect this.”
“Welcome to parenthood. Mama Cat got a food bar; you got babysitting duty.” My stomach took that opportunity to remind me that I hadn’t eaten since early in the morning. “Come on, let’s find some food.”
I formed a nest with the pillows and carefully plucked each kitten off of Ror’k and placed them inside, counting as I went. There were only four, but I was sure I’d seen more in the drawer before. I searched the bed and found the last one under a pillow.
As I put it with its littermates, Mama Cat stepped into the pillow nest and sent me a look that clearly said, “Good work, servant. I’ll take over from here.” Then she hissed, like I wasn’t leaving Her Highness alone quickly enough.
“Okay, okay, I’m going. Calm your titties, kitty.”
The apartment was completely looted. I wasn’t surprised.
Tilly had mentioned breaking into all the residential homes in the neighborhood and bringing everything edible into the main factory building, where her loft was.
She, however, missed several cans of dog food. Could cats eat dog food in a pinch?
Now that I was no longer on a comfy bed with my very own purple heater next to me, the chill of the storm outside was settling in and making my bones ache. I pulled a curtain aside to check on the storm. Yep, it was still raging.
“I have food and water in my shuttle. We can wait out the rest of the storm in there.”
“Sure. But let’s find a way to get Her Highness and her babies into the shuttle with as little fuss as possible. I doubt she’d let one of us pick her up yet.”
Despite the cans of dog food we’d found, and the numerous dog toys—cat toys now, I supposed—lying around the apartment, we didn’t find any pet carriers.
Probably because the owner had used it to carry Fido out during the big escape.
We did, however, find two identical laundry baskets and a bunch of zip ties.
Anyone surviving in the bugpocalypse was an A-plus MacGyver-er and knew that these items were as good as a pet carrier. We just had to get Mama Cat into it.
We were still coming up with a plan when Ror’k’s communicator buzzed from his belt.
“A warning from some of our amateur meteorologist types,” said Roger’s voice from the speaker.
“There are some twisters forming in the area. It’s a bit early in the season for them, but we had them early the year before the bugs came, remember?
So either get yourself underground somewhere safe, or in the air flying as far as you can before they touch down. ”
“Twister?” Ror’k asked.
“Tornadoes. We’re technically not in Tornado Alley, but it sure feels like they should be moving that map over every year that passes.”
“The second we get Her Highness and her little nuggets set up, we’ll get somewhere safe, I promise.”
“Her Highness?” Roger asked.
“We found a cat, and she came with kittens.”
“Did ya now. Great! We need a few more mousers.”
I knew we complained a lot about the rodents, but every pest problem we dealt with that wasn’t the scourge was proof that the scourge wasn’t winning, and that there was still life out there. And as long as there was life, Earth was worth fighting for. Her Highness and her litter were further proof.
“Just get back in one piece. It’s not looking good.”
With the warning in mind, we got to work luring Her Highness into the lined laundry basket with a can of dog food.
We had to be careful not to overfeed her today.
I wonder if refeeding syndrome was a thing in animals.
Then we went around the apartment, searching for more kittens.
I didn’t want to leave any behind in case some of them were hiding. There were only five.
We’d just gotten the second basket over the first and zip-tied it together when everything suddenly went still. The howling winds died down to nothing outside, and it was eerily silent.
“Um, Ror’k. We have to move now. This place has to have a basement.”
“Why can’t we fly out of here? The storm is ending.”
“No, it’s not. Roger said twisters are forming in the area, and those usually come after a calm at the tail end of a storm.
We need to get underground.” Something in my face must have given away the urgency because he moved immediately, picking up our makeshift cat carrier and ushering me down the stairs.
I moved through the dim hallway with my hand on the wall, searching for the basement door. Dust drifted in the air as the wind picked up again outside. My pulse was loud in my ears as I reached the end of the corridor and pushed against a warped doorframe.
Suddenly, a deep groan moved through the building. The floor trembled under my shoes, and everything seemed to slow for a moment as the wind outside shifted into a violent roar. The building shuddered.
A sudden blast of air slammed against me. Something heavy crashed onto the floor above, sending vibrations through the beams. My ears popped at the abrupt change in pressure, and my breath caught as the window at the front of the ice cream shop exploded inward, spraying glass across the floor.
A violent rush of air tore through the hallway, tearing at my clothes and hair. I grabbed the doorframe and held on with both arms as the wind tried to drag me backward. A strong hand gripped my shoulder as Ror’k hauled me protectively into his body, anchoring me to him.
“I have you.” It would be the only words I could hear through the roaring of the wind.
The next few minutes were chaos as he forced the basement door open and guided me down the stairs.
It was pitch black, and I couldn’t see a thing.
I reached out with my hands, trying to feel my way around, but only managed to smash my hand on something hard and knock it to the floor.
The sound of breaking glass was loud despite all the chaos around us.
“Stop. Let me help.”
Suddenly, I was lifted off my feet. When he released me again, it was against a wall. He guided me to sit down on the cold floor.
“Stay here. Don’t move. I will be back.”
Panicked, I reached out to search for him, but he was gone.