Chapter 32
Romival
She definitely glowed.
Romival stared down at his sleeping female, scanner in hand, ready to run it over her prone form.
He desperately wanted the reading of her exactly as she was right now.
Comfortable, lost in sleep, hair splayed across a pillow, one bare leg peeking out from under the fur.
She had tried to tempt him last night by going to sleep naked, but he remained firm.
His female’s safety came before his desire.
To her great consternation.
She had eventually given up her seduction attempts and settled for sleeping against him, her naked body stretched along his.
Her desire for comfort, bafflingly, driving her to snuggle into him instead of into her nest. They hadn’t even had sex.
She just reached for him instead of the fluffy, comfortable trappings around her.
Then, she snuggled both of them into the blankets and pillows.
Like his own body was part of her nest. The most vital part. The one she had to hold the closest.
When he woke this morning and extracted himself from her arms and sat up, she kept on reaching out for him, as if she couldn’t resist holding him even in sleep. He had merely intended to go make first meal, but then he had looked back at her and become entranced.
Her body was bathed in three different lights. Purples and blues, mostly, but there was also a pale yellow across her face that highlighted her glow.
Slowly, carefully, to make sure that he didn’t wake her, he had grabbed his scanner from its base within its drawer.
He couldn’t help but grin as he ran the small ring over her. Entranced by the image she made bathed in light, deep in sleep, glowing from the inside.
His female, her nest in his den. Could there be a more perfect sight?
The scan finished and, grinning, he leaned back against the headboard and let his eyes roam across the reading he had obtained.
Her brain activity was different from waking.
Deep and dreamless. Calm. As a result, her entire body was languid and relaxed.
Her heartbeat slowed. Her breathing slowed.
The vessels near the surface of her skin had opened, letting blood flow unimpeded, which served to warm her sleepy body and, as a result, gave her that glow he had noticed.
“Did you just scan me?”
The sleepy question came with movement from his female. She mumbled it as she wiggled in closer, her hand resting on his thigh, her head on his hip. Her eyes were dewy and heavy from sleep, her body warm from all that blood at the surface of her skin.
So pretty.
“I wanted your sleeping body’s details,” he said, showing her the screen.
She hummed without really reading it, letting out a sigh as she practically melted against him.
So soft and sweet. The sensual part her completely unfettered by her own natural shyness.
It made her seem like a fantasy made real as she lowered her head to kiss the tip of his tail while he wrapped it around her waist and up through the valley of her breasts.
“See anything good?” She asked, her voice breaking on a yawn.
“Always.” He stroked her hair back from her face, making her smile.
His heart clenched with desire at the memory of her acceptance of his claim. She hadn’t declared she would accept it outright, but she had asked her guardian to go easy on him. Which would have been insulting had her guardian been anyone but the dominani.
But it was the dominani. Romival had already increased his training in anticipation of their eventual fight.
He had no illusions that he had a chance.
The dominani was the greatest warrior on the planet, and this one was still in the prime of his life.
Romival wasn’t going to defeat him. His only hope was to be able to hold his own for a short time.
To at least put up a good fight worthy of the female that he wanted to claim.
It was more important that Holly had obviously become comfortable enough with the idea that she could so casually refer to it. That meant that she was ready for him to claim her. He just had to finish training so he could make Holly proud and satisfy Atem in their fight.
Holly was already back to sleep. She had only awoken long enough to snuggle back into him.
It was precious and amazing how attached she was to him.
Domini females weren’t unwilling to cuddle, but they would always prefer their nest to their males.
Holly was treating him like the most important aspect of her nest. And he loved it.
He loved her.
His fingers continued to slowly stroke through her hair as her heated breaths stroked across his thigh with each deep exhale. He alternated between reading her scan and watching her. Entranced by both the reality of her and the hard science of her physiology.
With her using him as nest material, his plan to go make food for them was delayed. Instead, he scanned her again, this time focusing on her reproductive tract.
While she had been in the healing center, Donivi had hastened her menstrual shedding.
The human females would shed their uterine lining periodically to maintain their fertility.
Their increased fertility came with the cost of pain and blood.
Instead of letting them suffer needlessly for multiple days, they just had the females hasten the process at the healing center.
The females found their concern sweet but silly and only indulged their decision to stop the bleeding because they worried.
Holly’s poisoning had hastened her natural cycle. So, now, she was reset at the beginning. He could read how her tissue was growing, preparing a fertile bed for an egg. There was no evidence of his seed in her womb. It had been removed with the shedding.
If he mated with her again, he couldn’t allow himself to release in her even without his knot. He had to be careful. No matter how much he wanted it. He had to think of her first.
It was a short time later that his combot chirped. Though the sound was quiet, Holly’s eyes still opened in response, making him think that she hadn’t been fully asleep. She tilted her head back, watching curiously as he gestured for the comm to display the message.
“Work?” Holly asked on a yawn as his eyes moved over the words.
“No. My mother.”
Her yawn cut off suddenly. She lifted her head, surprised. “Your mother?”
He grunted in confirmation. “My clan lives in the far north. I don’t see them often since I became one of the top scholars. But I return once a year for our clan celebration.”
“Like a family reunion?”
He chuckled. “That’s a funny way to put it. Accurate, I suppose.”
“Is that what she messaged you about?” She was being careful not to read the text, though he could see how much she wanted to. So polite, if unnecessary.
“Mates share everything,” he said, grinning. “You’re free to read my messages yourself.”
She looked surprised. “Really? You don’t mind?”
“Why would I?” He returned his eyes to the message. “And yes. That’s what she’s telling me about. I’m the busiest of my clan, so they have to make sure they pick a day that I am available. She’s also telling me everything that’s happening with the others.”
Holly grinned, pushing herself up so she was leaning into his side. “Family gossip? Love it. What’s happening?”
“My sister had her first pup three tendays ago. She’s keeping me updated on them both. Asking about you-”
“You told your mom about me?”
“Of course.” He grinned at her. “My family deserves to know when I’ve met my adassi.”
She shifted her weight, biting her lip. “Is she, erm, okay? With me?”
“She’s eager to meet you,” Romival chuckled, somehow pleased that humans shared the same worry about being liked by their mate’s clan.
“When I claim you, my clan shall be yours. Your name as Vora Vakara brings much honor to us. She’s also excited at the idea of having a daughter who is so beautiful and potentially capable of giving me pups so easily.
Everyone has heard of the Adassani’s success in her pregnancy. She wants the same for us.”
Holly laughed, her cheeks a bit pink. “One of those moms who just wants to be a grandma, huh? My mom was like that too. Always asking us when we were going to start giving her grandbabies to spoil already.”
Romival stared at her curiously. “Would your mother have liked me?”
“Are you kidding?” Holly laughed brightly. “She would have adored you. Being able to say that her daughter married the smartest man on the planet? She’d be telling everyone. Our family, her friends, every cashier who ever crossed her path ever again. She’d be unbearable.”
“And your father? Your brothers?”
“They’d love you,” she promised, snuggling deeper into him. An uncertain looked crossed her face before she asked slowly, “So, er, when do I get to meet your clan?”
“After we are mated.”
“Huh? Really? That long?”
“Is that unusual for your people?”
“I mean, yeah. A bit.” She looked thoughtful. “Introducing someone to your family is one of the big signs that you’re serious about each other. And it’s usually before you get married so you can make sure that everyone gets along.”
“You say married. What is that?”
“It’s like being mated, but with more paperwork.”
“Ah,” he nodded his head in understanding. “I’ve known species who prefer to make their mating official through legal means. A bit odd, I think, but I am not one to judge.”
“It’s way weirder for me that you guys don’t do any paperwork at all,” she laughed, poking his side playfully. “So, do I get to go to the family clan celebration?”
“That depends on if I’ve mated you by then or not.”
“Okay. Give me a timeline. When do you plan on mating me then?”
Romival couldn’t help the smirk that stretched over his face as he pushed her down onto the bed, covering her body with his own.
“So eager for me?”
“I merely asked for an estimated time of delivery,” she said in her best haughty voice, though her nonchalance was completely ruined by the pink on her face that betrayed her true feelings. It was adorable.
“I would claim you this day if I could,” he promised on a growl, sucking the soft skin of her breast so he could leave a mark. He loved leaving the dark purple and red marks on her. Proof of his love spread right there across her delicate skin.
“I mean…” Her breathless voice trailed off as she began to wiggle under him.
“I cannot,” he reassured her, chuckling before grazing her nipple with a single fang. “There is much I have to prepare first.”
His training wasn’t complete. He wanted to be in peak physical condition before he challenged Atem for her.
He also needed to plan a hunt to bring her back fresh meat, then learn how to properly burn her food from Hattie as he knew the humans couldn’t eat it raw.
He had to prepare the den, do enough work that he could take some time off, and, most importantly, he needed to be sure that she was fully healed from her poisoning.
They had time. There was no rushing anything. He wanted to savor and enjoy her anyway.
In fact, it was early enough that he could savor her now.