Chapter 45 #2
“Not that far away, actually. Peony and I were speaking of it just the other day. It’s within only a few tendays. She won’t need to be isolated in her nest yet, so we can go together without issue.”
“But you’ll bring it up then?”
“You have my word.” He saluted them again, more firmly, less apologetically, this time. “It will most likely be considered a matter of great importance, actually. It would be remiss of me if I didn’t bring this up.”
Alanna nodded, a thoughtful look over her face, but she said nothing, keeping to herself as Scarlet, Hattie, and Peony began talking about Earth.
It was weird hearing them talk. They described people and things that they missed and wanted to see/experience again, but none of them seemed all that eager to actually return to it. No one spoke of it like it was home.
Peony, especially, had returned to Atem’s arms. Holly couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she recognized the reassuring look on Peony’s face as she promised Atem that she would be staying with him no matter what.
Oh. Even mated, Atem had been worried about that?
Then, Romival…
She turned to find he had come up behind her. His face was inscrutable, but his third eye wasn’t even blinking, he was staring so hard at her.
He really was worried, she realized, a smile forming. She couldn’t help but be happy when she could see, written clearly across his face, just how much he loved her and didn’t want her to go, but he also couldn’t demand that she stay with him.
“You’re going to love my family,” she said brightly.
He stared at her for a long second before something in him eased a bit. “Will they love me?”
“Of course! I told you, my mother would be so psyched to have you for a son-in-law. And we have months, apparently, before we even have a chance of talking to them again. I’ll probably be pregnant by then, and you know how much my mom wants grandkids.”
He eased a bit more, a smile starting to form. “You want my pups?”
She laughed. “We aren’t going to stop having sex just because there’s a risk. I want a big family. The biggest you can give me! Give me so many kids, we start running out of names. I want a whole trikball team, and their rivals.”
His smile widened and he burst into laughter just before his arms caught around her, squeezing her close. He was shaking almost imperceptibly, proof of just how worried he had been that she might leave him.
“I love you,” Holly whispered directly into his ear, rubbing his back with one hand and playing with his hair with the other. “I would never leave you. I want to bring you home to meet my family. I want to meet your clan. I want to make our own family clan. I want it all, Romi.”
Her words made him growl, sending a thrill down her spine.
“That’s enough.” Atem said suddenly, right before Holly felt a hand on her shoulder, pulling her out of Romival’s embrace.
Her sexy wizard was snarling at Atem, angered that he dared to get in the way. Atem growled right back, angered that a male would put his hands on his sister without winning her first. On Earth, the sight would have exasperated Holly at best, angered her at worst.
But she knew that they weren’t treating her like property.
They were just ruled by their instincts.
To Atem, Romival was unworthy of her because he hadn’t proved himself, he wasn’t a danger that Atem had to protect her from.
And to Romival, Atem was interfering in his attempt to woo his mate in an effort to make him prove himself, he wasn’t a threat to their relationship or her current owner he had to steal her from.
Recognizing that, knowing that this was a primal part of them that they couldn’t ignore, made it easy, almost enjoyable, for Holly to stand back and let them growl at each other. It was nice to feel so much love, from both of them.
“You want my sister?” Atem growled, the sound threatening and dangerous.
“She’s already mine,” Romival smirked, facing his Dominani without fear.
“Prove it.”
“Gladly.”
“You challenge me?”
“I do.”
Atem smirked, both fangs gleaming. “Come and get her then.”
***
Laughing along with the others, nervously petting down her traditional claiming dress, Holly waited for Romival in her room.
She and the girls and Atem had a spread of delicious food – all fruits, she wasn’t allowed to eat meat yet – and, besides Atem, they were giggling and chatting as they waited.
Atem was pacing, agitated and clearly ready for a fight.
But Holly and the girls were ignoring him, spending their morning joking and laughing and making ribald comments like they were at a bachelorette party as they waited.
Romival would be coming to get her, but he had to finish his preparations this morning first. Including hunting fresh meat for her – which was why she couldn’t eat any now.
Part of his side involved feeding her as much as she could eat.
It was a whole thing that he had to do in order to convince his instincts that he was mated.
And after he did it, he was hers. Forever.
He would be back to get her once he was finished hunting. Until then, there was nothing to do but for Atem to get aggressive as he prepared to defend her while she and the girls nibbled on fruit, drank juice or blood as they desired, and joked about what was essentially her wedding night.
“I have to take control?” Holly asked, surprised by the lowdown Peony was giving her since she didn’t want her friend to be confused about what would happen.
After impressing on Holly multiple times how important this was to them – because it wasn’t something she had understood herself when it happened – Peony had explained the steps of what was coming.
Including the fact that, after she was gorged on the meat Romival hunted, she would have to take him to the nest, make the nest to her preference – like she hadn’t already done that – then take him into the nest and take control of the sex.
It was the moment that, if the adassi didn’t want to be claimed, she was able to reject the domin that, to that moment, had taken her by combat.
Holly was actually nervous about it. Romival was only the second person she ever had sex with and, whenever they were together, she never took control. He didn’t even offer her the chance. He seemed to want only to give her pleasure and got his own from doing so.
Taking control meant being much more aggressive in bed than she ever even wanted to be. But it was important to Romival as a domin, and she was willing to do it. Even if just the thought of topping him – definitely not her position – made her face flush.
Something her friends were quick to tease her about.
Alanna called her a perma-bottom, prompting more laughter. Holly couldn’t begrudge her the bit of teasing, not only because it was true, but also because it was the first time she had seen Alanna smile in the last two days.
Romival had issued the challenge to Atem for her, but that didn’t mean it was immediate. Atem had to set aside time from his busy schedule to act as her guardian and Romival had to clear his own schedule so they could spend their days together afterwards.
Since the hospital, Alanna hadn’t been nearly as much of a hippie-happy-poetry child as she had been before.
She was still studying, but it wasn’t from the Omoni Otorsi any longer and she was doing it with a surprising amount of seriousness.
Holly wasn’t sure what she had gotten so interested in, but Alanna promised them it was nothing to worry about when they asked.
When they pushed, she said she’d tell them later, but she didn’t want to take attention from Holly.
It was, after all, her wedding day.
She wasn’t in white like she had always imagined.
Instead, her dress was a waterproof material close to leather in texture, but a bit too smooth to really qualify.
Over that was a fur cape pinned on her chest with actual pins and not modern seals.
The two pieces were to join her nest. She didn’t imagine she’d keep them there since they were brown and the bed was white, but instead she thought it would be something that would be stored for the memories like an Earth wedding dress.
“So, that makes two of us to get hitched,” Peony said, nudging Holly with a grin. “Who is going to be next? Hattie?”
“Uh-uh. No way,” the girl in question waved away the idea immediately. “I’m sworn off men for the moment. Even alien ones. Alanna can take the next one for the team.”
“Sorry,” Alanna grinned. “I’m out too. Got a big project in the works.”
“Scarlet?” Peony looked to her next.
“Huh?”
Clearly unprepared to be addressed, Scarlet, in the middle of stuffing one of the creamy, circular fruits in her mouth, looked at them with wide eyes.
“Mmf…” She tried to speak around the fruit but failed completely, a couple flecks of it flying past her lips, making them all laugh harder. An embarrassed look came over her face as she hastily chewed and swallowed hard. “No way!”
“No way?” Holly repeated curiously. “You more interested in alien women?”
“I’m not interested in an alien anything.” A horrified expression crossed her face and she quickly turned to the still pacing Atem. “I didn’t mean it like that! I meant it in a strictly romantic sense!”
He sent her a quick smile. “I didn’t take your words badly, Scarlet.”
She blew out a grateful breath before focusing back on them as Alanna and Hattie snickered together at her discomfort.
“Why not?” Holly continued, ignoring them. “You just not into dating or…?”
“It’s not that.” Scarlet frowned. “I mean, I suppose if I met the guy of my dreams tomorrow, I guess I’d be stupid to turn that down. I just… I don’t know. How would I even recognize that guy anyway? He’d be just any other regular guy on the street.”
“Not if he’s a domini,” Peony gestured with her bloodshake.
Holly nodded along. “They choose their mates love-at-first-sight style.”
“Yeah, I don’t believe in that.”