Chapter 32
Havali
“Peony, you really don’t have to do this.”
“Shut it, Scarlet. I’m doing it.”
“Vi Seerin, please-”
“No. No. I’m doing it.”
“Peony, maybe they’re right.”
“Alanna, not you, too. I’m not listening. I said, I’m doing it. So, I’m doing it. I’m not missing this.”
Havali said nothing as he stood back with Tuvo, the two of them watching silently as the others tried to convince Peony to remain in her nest instead of coming with them to the polar lights. He rather thought they were right, but Adassani was not hearing their logic.
He had been woken rudely this morning by Atem calling for Scarlet, asking her to please come to the medical suite to look at Peony.
He hadn’t been able to enjoy cuddling with her in bed as they woke or even try to take her again because she had bounded out of bed and, only walking a little bit strangely thanks to her soreness, rushed to her clinic.
When they arrived – him wearing a sleeping robe and her wearing one of his shirts as though it were a dress – it was to find the others already gathered, trying and failing to convince Peony to stay.
She was clearly agitated this morning. According to Atem, she hadn’t slept well. The pup had been active in her belly last night and kept her awake. She had been restless, waddling up and down her room, unable to be comforted by either her mate or her nest.
Since Peony’s pregnancy was so unknown, any change, no matter how small, was cause to bring her to the clinic.
Scarlet’s scan hadn’t revealed anything unusual.
Peony wasn’t in labor yet, both her and the pup were healthy still, there was no physical cause for her new anxiety.
But they were trying to be cautious anyway.
Atem wanted her to stay in her nest since she was so uneasy.
He had even volunteered to forgo the sightseeing experience as well.
He wouldn’t go enjoy something like that without his mate.
He promised they could spend the whole day cuddled up together in their nest. An offer that a domini adassi would have eagerly accepted.
But not Peony.
“It’s a once in a lifetime thing,” she said, crossing her arms over her belly. “I’m going.”
“Vi Seerin,” Atem started, reaching for her.
She cut him off with a glare. “I’m going. I’ll bring half my nest if it makes you feel better, but I am not missing this. Scarlet, tell him I’m fine.”
“Physiologically, you’re fine,” she agreed, though her tone wasn’t encouraging.
A fact that Peony didn’t miss, which earned Scarlet a glare as well. “You agree with him?”
“I think that maybe it’s a risk?” Scarlet grimaced. “If you’re this stressed about leaving your nest, then maybe the domini instincts are starting to overpower your human ones. Maybe you’re reaching the point where you won’t be able to leave anymore.”
Peony made a face before whimpering in distress. A sound that made Atem frustrated as he hovered uneasily over her.
“Vi Seerin, please, don’t weep,” he begged, putting his arms around her. “I cannot stand to see you saddened like this.”
“I don’t want to miss the lights,” she pouted, leaning into his chest. “Please? Please, let me go. I promise, I’ll stay in my nest afterwards. I’ll be good. I won’t leave again. Let me see this one last thing.”
Atem’s expression was conflicted as his own instincts to force her back to her nest clashed with his need to keep her happy. It hardened into a decision before turning to Havali.
“You can move her nest to the shuttle, right? I know it will fit on the viewing ship, but will it fit on the shuttle?”
Havali considered it for a moment. Thinking about the size of the shuttle, the size of her nest. “We would have to break it down, and we might need to carry some of it in our laps, but we could probably fit it inside.”
“Oh, no,” Peony hastened to say, smiling back and forth between them. “I don’t want to break my nest apart. Maybe just like a pillow and a blanket or two? I can find a place to curl up with them while we watch the lights. With you.” She finished, stroking Atem’s chest.
Her anxiety had already calmed, and that, in turn, calmed Atem. He grunted in affirmation as he held her tight. “Whatever you like, vi Seerin.”
Scarlet and Alanna chuckled before the latter said, “Maybe you should get some sedatives ready, Scarlet. If he’s panicking this hard just because she’s anxious, he’s going to go apoplectic when she actually goes into labor.”
Scarlet and Peony laughed. Even Havali and Atem grinned.
“Her discomfort will not sit well with me,” he agreed, rubbing Peony’s back. “But Scarlet will be in control of the entire birth. You won’t feel a thing.”
“Thank goodness,” Peony grinned. “I really wasn’t looking forward to the birth part.”
“Lucky,” Alanna laughed. “There’s a few million human women in labor on Earth that are cursing your name in envy.”
They were being funny. Joking and comfortable. That was good. The tension was easing.
“My mother would be so jealous of her,” Scarlet said, chuckling. “She always said that giving birth to me was so horrible, it scared her out of ever having kids again.”
Havali frowned, confused.
“My aunt straight refused to have kids,” Alanna added, grinning. “She heard too many horror stories and the idea of going through all that for nine months, and then the pain of labor to cap it off? She said, no thanks. Let’s spoil our niece instead.”
“I think I had a cousin who had to have a hysterectomy afterward because she wouldn’t stop bleeding,” Peony said thoughtfully, earning a terrified look from Atem.
“Which didn’t bother her at all. She said, it hurt so much, she would rather just cut out her ability to ever have kids again then risk it happening a second time. ”
The other females laughed. They laughed!
Havali so badly wanted to ask what they were talking about. Because labor wasn’t nearly that bad. It was uncomfortable, to be sure, even a little painful, but nothing so traumatizing. But as much as he wanted to say that, he didn’t think it would go over well.
Unfortunately, Tuvo did not have that same foresight.
“What are you talking about?” He asked in confusion, giving them odd looks. “It’s just childbirth. It’s not that bad.”
Three pairs of eyes all turned to stare at him, each with varying expressions on their face. None of them good.
Peony looked insulted and disgusted. Alanna winced and appeared incredulous. Scarlet just sighed and shook her head like she was disappointed.
“Men,” Peony grumbled, looking away from him with a dismissive shake of her head.
Tuvo stiffened while Havali fought the urge to comfort him.
He might not know what First Warrior had just done, but he knew it was not good.
He had never seen the females turn so cold, so quickly before.
But he did know that the exasperated tone Peony used and the way she referred to males of her species was very negative.
And knowing what he did of human males, Havali wasn’t sure he wanted to be shoved in the same category as them.
Tuvo stilled, his tail curling up in shame, as he faced their censure. All three of them turned their backs, ignoring him, as they made plans for that afternoon. What they might pack and wear, how excited they were to see the lights.
“What did I say?” Tuvo asked quietly, looking to Havali for answers.
Havali could only shrug. The human gesture being the only thing he could come up with that conveyed the same sense of confusion, helplessness, and uncertainty he felt. Tuvo blinked at him for a minute before letting out a breath, rubbing the back of his neck.
“I always seem to mess up around the females,” he said, dejected. “This is why Hattie refuses to talk to me anymore.”
Havali could only pat his shoulder in companionable silence. “If it’s any consolation, the females tend to be as forgiving as they are beautiful. We have all made missteps with them. Perhaps, you can just talk to Hattie about it and earn her forgiveness.”
Tuvo said nothing, but his face pinched in pain as he clutched at his heart. Havali looked him over thoughtfully.
“Tuvo, is Hattie your-”
“Do not say it!” He hissed urgently, looking around as if to make sure no one heard. “She cannot be.”
“I do not think that’s a decision you get to make.”
Tuvo growled, but the sound was sad, not threatening. “My eyes are fools. They pick the only female that could not possibly take me.”
“Well, I agree on the fool part, at least,” Havali chuckled, earning a glare from him.
Before First Warrior could do anything though, Scarlet was in front of Havali, smiling at him.
“Come on,” she said, pulling on his hand. “Let’s go get changed.”
“Gladly, Healer,” he said, giving Tuvo one last passing pat on the shoulder before letting Scarlet lead him out of the clinic and into her room. They both ignored Atem who was growling at them – him, more specifically – while Peony chuckled and calmed him down.
Havali watched Scarlet as she shut the door and then proceeded to her closet.
Out loud, she was wondering what she should wear, but Havali wasn’t really paying attention.
He wanted to ask about what Tuvo said, but he didn’t want to make her just as upset with him as the females were with First Warrior.
“I really don’t know what to choose,” her voice said from the closet.
Havali grinned and followed after. “Will you allow me to pick?”
She turned to him, surprised. “You want to?”
“I should be eager to dress my female,” he said honestly, looking her up and down.
The idea was an enticing one for reasons he didn’t quite understand.
Just the idea of choosing her clothing, of being the one to decide how she appeared to the world, was exciting in a strange way.
He wanted that control. He wanted to be able to show everyone just how beautiful his female was.
And he would be certain that she was always dressed appropriately, because he would know if a place would be cold or warm or how elegant or casual she should appear.
Leave it in his hands, he wanted to say. But he didn’t know why.
Scarlet merely grinned and stepped back, gesturing to her clothing selection. “Go ahead.”
Havali, surprised by her immediate acquiescence, gave her a look. “You don’t mind?”
“You’re definitely a controlling dom,” she laughed. “I don’t like picking my clothes anyway. Let me be in charge and I’ll wear the same pants every day. So, if it makes you happy, go ahead. I want to see how you like me dressed.”
“A controlling dom?”
“You can’t even tell me you’re not,” she laughed, turning to sit on one of the chairs in the corner. “I won’t be surprised if the next time we have sex, you break out the whips and chains.”
“I would never whip you,” Havali said, horrified. Although, the chain idea had some merit.
“Not a real whip. A sex whip. It’s a different… You know what, never mind. We can talk about kink culture later. Make your pick. I’ll wear whatever you like.”
Havali wasn’t sure he was ready to end this conversation, but he was eager to dress his female, so he turned to her clothing selection.
The humans had a love for patterns and colors that his people did not.
Forcing their skin to camouflage to multiple colors at once or to a complex pattern resulted in premature graying and, if too severe, could fatigue the cells to the point that they stopped changing color entirely.
Usually, for no more than a mark or so, but if it was really bad, the cells could turn gray altogether and refuse to change color at all for an indeterminate period of time.
Of course, you’d have to push your body to quite the extreme to get to that point, but it was a concern that controlled clothing options among the domini.
Humans did not have any such concern. As a result, Scarlet’s entire wardrobe was an eye-catching storm of colors and patterns that he enjoyed staring at.
She rarely dressed in most of these things.
He didn’t even recognize a lot of them as something she had worn before.
But he also knew she had packed her best outfits for the trip in case they had to attend an important function.
Her plain, functional clothing still filled an entire rack, but beside them were fabulous gowns and enchanting skirts and tops.
Havali had complete freedom to make her look however he wanted.
He eagerly got to work.