Chapter 8
RAVIK
His mate was making mouth noises again—some of them made sense but not all. Her voice was high pitched and she was speaking so rapidly, Ravik’s brain couldn’t take in everything she was saying.
She was gesturing to the water in the deep tub and so he assumed she was asking to be put into it.
“Very…well,” he said to her, slowly, since words were still coming back to him. “I will…bathe you…my bride.”
She made even more high-pitched mouth noises as he lifted her and put her into the tub, but Ravik didn’t pay her any mind. Sev had said she must be bathed and so he would bathe her. That was the way of a loving mate—which he was determined to be.
“All right now—we have to put the decontaminant in the water,” Sev said. His partner was hovering over Ravik’s shoulder anxiously, looking at his mate as she splashed around in the tub. “Then her injury had to be scrubbed. I’ll do that,” he added.
Ravik felt his whole body tense. He loved his best friend like a brother, but the human woman was his mate. It didn’t bother him, for some reason, that Sev was seeing her naked. But he didn’t want the other male touching her while she was unclothed.
“No,” he growled. “I will scrub!”
Sev looked ready to argue, but then he shook his head in exasperation.
“All right, but you have to be gentle,” he emphasized. “Humans—especially human females—are delicate. You have to be careful with her, Ravik!”
Ravik was surprised to find that all the words made sense—he even got the context of what his friend was saying and it offended him deeply.
“I will not hurt my own mate!” he growled, frowning at his friend. “Ravik can be gentle.”
“All right, all right, I know you can.” Sev shook his head and handed him a large puffy sponge onto which he poured a generous dollop of the purple decontamination liquid he’d already added to the bath water.
Ravik’s mate said something questioning and he almost understood her.
“Just let him scrub you—I promise I won’t let him do anything inappropriate,” Sev said to her. “He thinks you’re his mate. If I try to take you away from him, he could get dangerous.”
Ravik felt a surge of indignation.
“She is my mate!” he growled. “And I will wash her now.” He gestured at the woman in the tub. “Mate—stand up so I can wash you.”
She threw a despairing look at Sev, who only shrugged his shoulders. At last, she clambered to her feet and stood in the tub with the water coming up to her thighs.
“Hurry—I’m dripping wet and getting cold all over again!” she said to Ravik and this time he understood a few things. One, she wanted him to be quick and two, she was getting cold once more.
“I will try,” he said to her. Human women were, as Sev had reminded him, very delicate creatures. He didn’t want to hurt her by scrubbing too hard or making her get cold. “Be still…and let me scrub you.”
At first, finding the words to say had been like digging through a dark attic, trying to find forgotten treasure that he knew was there but wasn’t quite certain how to use.
But now they were coming easier. He thought his mate had something to do with that—she smelled so good.
Even under the sharp scent of the decontaminating agent he could catch her delicious, feminine fragrance.
What was that special note in it that made his head seem to clear a little more, every time he smelled it?
Ravik didn’t know—he only knew he wanted to keep smelling it…wanted to keep close to his new mate and protect her from danger forever.
But first, he had to give her a bath.