Chapter 8 #6
Rek gasped and slapped a hand to his chest, diva incarnate. It was then I noticed the heavily beaded bag he was wearing over his shoulder.
“Don’t drop your purse, Karen. You might lose the last marble rattling around in there for safekeeping.” I huffed the insult under my breath. I thought it, I said it. It’ll someday be my undoing, I know. Mom was fond of telling me this.
Gofur seemed to have overheard, bursting out laughing.
Kehlor let out a grunt that told me nothing.
Rek’s face screwed up. “Rek not know Rek like that. Rek not know Rek impressed or ‘sulted.”
“Be ‘sulted,” I answered for him, hoping it made him huff and stomp and storm off in a whirl around, purse flapping in the breeze display.
Rek bared his teeth and shot closer.
Kehlor’s hand left mine, shot out and grabbed Rek by the throat, blocking him from getting in my face.
Gofur let out a rumble that surprised me, as if he was protecting Rek, despite their antagonistic nature towards each other.
Kehlor growled louder, seeing it was two against one.
Glaring at the pair as Rek gurgled softly, Gofur growled for Kehlor to let him go, and Kehlor growled at Gofur to back off, I startled the stuffing out of myself when I too started growling. It was a knee jerk reaction. Stop growling at my- at Kehlor! He was only protecting me!
“What this?!” a loud, booming voice called out.
Kehlor released Rek with a shove, sending the male stumbling back, landing against Gofur. Instead of catching him, Gofur sidestepped, watching impassively, shoving his hands behind his back, making no move to catch Rek, staring at him as he stumbled, tumbled, and flopped to his furry butt.
A behemoth of a male came stomping up to us, two other larger males, one even bigger than him, following.
Well, shit.
Kehlor turned, putting his hand to my back in a protective gesture.
The booming voiced male stepped over Rek, making sure to kick mud at Rek as he went. “What this?” A grin spread over the behemoth’s face. “Kehlor has female now?”
“Kehlor already say the sorries for not sell to Celuk female,” Kehlor grumbled curtly. “You Joad-knee say Kehlor still dummy head but she ‘cept. No want fight.” He was tense, wound tight.
His reaction worried me.
The behemoth male with sky blue eyes cocked his head as his glance darted my way. My eyes started to narrow and I turned my head away. It wasn’t until I could feel my chest vibrating against Kehlor’s that I realized that funny look from the big male was because I was still growling.
With a grunt of surprise, I cut the sound off.
“What she, you female? Big growl for little thing.” The sky blue eyed biggun chuckled, like he thought the idea amusing. “Big spirit, like our Jojo.”
Kehlor rumbled something at them but I cut him off with a chirped, “I’m human!”
“No sound like hued-man,” Rek grumbled as one of the males standing behind the sky blue eyed male helped him to his feet. There was something about the grey-blue eyed beast that helped Rek to his feet that had alarm bells going off in my head, massive warning, warning, danger, alerts going on.
In unison, everyone in their group lifted their heads and gave loud sniffs.
If I had any hair on the back of my neck it would be standing on end. My grip on Kehlor tightened. Adjusting his hold on me, Kehlor urged me to wrap my legs around him. He made me feel like we might need to take off soon, so I did as he’d instructed.
“She has no hairs. Head furs all gone,” Rek supplied, like everyone needed to know.
“No furs on head?” the sky blue eyed one asked curiously. He made to step closer but Kehlor let loose a growl that had the male stopping in his tracks.
“No touches,” Kehlor snarled at him.
Thank god. Yes, no touchy-touchy!
“She no like that. Odix not want to touch.” The large male took several steps back. “Odix have my Jojo. Odix Jojo’s caked-baby.”
“Odix stupid fat head my Jo loves for no reasons,” Rek muttered. “Makes no sense to Rek.” Rek huffed and puffed. A drama queen, that one. The purse went with the Karen in him, it really did.
“Rek just has green in the jellies,” Odix tossed back, “‘cause Rek has no cake.”
“Why Rek be green with jellies Odix has huge, enormous-”
“Rek.” The male with the dangerous air about him spoke softly but firmly.
Rek sighed, glanced the male’s way, giving him a look I noted as I stole a peek at that, that reminded me of a child being chastised.
“Fine. Rek not say Odix has butt so big it widest load,” Rek huffed and puffed. Lips twitching, he seemed rather pleased with himself.
“Our Jo loves Odix’ butt.” Odix grinned.
Rek made a face and pretended to gag.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” A feminine voice cut in on all the crazy. “I pop in to Rosa’s for two shakes so she can get some squeezes in on the babies and you all start a party without me? What gives, my floofy poofies?”
Odix gave Rek a look that said take that, she loves poof and floof.
I had to bite my lip to keep myself from laughing out loud at this ridiculousness.
Feeling eyes on me, I glanced up, staring into Kehlor’s surprised face.
With a half shrug, I let go of my lip, the corners of my mouth tugging up.
But for that small twitch of his lips hinting at shared amusement at Rek’s expense, his expression gave nothing away.
“Whoa, Kehlly-Ro, what’s up with the bundle you’re smugglin’?
Is that a lady friend, I see? Pshaw, and he insisted he didn’t want a mate!
Doth some fuzzy protesteth too much? Methinks so,” the woman that made her way through the crowd of males tittered, her words trailing off into an I told you so sing-song.
It wasn’t the woman that really caught my notice, not at first— I mean I did notice her, she was kinda hard to miss— there was just a whole lot going on and I was in fight mode— as I turned my head to look, or the other women that quickly joined her like some kind of close knit posse, it was the babies they carried.
Sweet little bundles of furred fluff, they looked like miniatures of the beasts around us.
Offering the woman her due, there was her quirky fashion choices, a clash of color from head to toe, like a rainbow barfed on her, decked out in jewels fit for royalty, the strange, glowing markings on her skin and the massive scar on her face, it was the words that popped out of her mouth, sassy, brassy, my kind of smart-assy, that demanded attention above all else.
My gaze darted from Kehlor to the females curiously.
“They’re really cute, aren’t they?” a small woman wearing a beanie a bit too big for her with short blonde hair peeking squeaked out. Her voice reminded me of a cartoon mouse.
My brow puckered into a frown.
“This lot is all mine,” the main speaking woman with darker hair and the scar piped up with a proud grin. I had trouble figuring out as she gestured with her bright pink painted nails if she meant the men, the babies, or all of the above.
Not Kehlor from the way he stiffened. This knowledge eased my mind.
Were I of sound mind maybe that would bother me a bit but not in this moment— if anything I found it comforting, calming.
No one was trying to lay claim to him. It satisfied that growly part of me that wasn’t fond of the idea of sharing something I felt was mine.
He was my lifeline in all of this crazy.
I wasn’t the kinda person that you ate their food without checking with them first unless you wanted a fight. My folks being the same way, I’d just assumed it a family quirk. Maybe it was a species thing?
“I hers. She mine, my Jojoknee,” Rek cut in quickly, then pulled her close to nuzzle her, then the baby in her arms. “Babies,” he pointed out three little ones, “these mine too.” Taking the baby from the blonde woman that had started to fuss and growl adorably, he grinned as he held up a robust looking little fuzzball. “Him loud, big,” he stated proudly.
Oh, they were totally cute.
My gaze darted from the babies to their parents.
If a fuzzball and a human made another fuzzball, then how did my dad come to be so…
hair-less, and what about me? I’ve seen plenty of baby pictures of myself and I certainly didn’t look like that.
I’d looked like a plain old human baby with dark hair.
“Want see?” the grey-blue eyed, serious male offered.
Without waiting for an answer, he took the baby the dark haired woman standing behind Jo was carrying, cuddling it close to him to walk over to us.
My gaze darted to Kehlor’s for confirmation. When he grunted in what I took as the affirmative, I leaned a little away from him to have a peek at the little one.
“Baby girl,” the grey-blue eyed male told me.
“Kehlor female, her name Poo-dense,” Rek offered.
With a long look over the grey-blue eyed male’s shoulder at Rek, I brought my gaze back to the baby. She was adorable, fuzzy little cherub cheeks, a button nose. The rest of her was hard to see wrapped up as it was, but she was precious.
“It Pah-ru,” Gofur corrected.
“You not say it right neither,” Rek grumbled.
“Not call her Poo,” Gofur argued.
“Prudence,” I mumbled under my breath, softly so as not to disturb the little one.
“Purr-roo,” Kehlor muttered under his breath, giving my name a go. I rather liked the way he mangled it. It was close to the way Birch used to.
With a shrug, I muttered, “Purr-roo is better than the alternative. I’ll roll with Purr-roo.”
“Purr-roo… different? Not human?” the grey-blue eye male asked. It was then I realized as he’d moved in closer, he’d been sniffing at me, discreetly enough I hadn’t picked up on it. Sneaky, this one.
“No,” I blurted, the automatic denial quick to roll off my tongue. With a scowl, I leaned away.
The grey-blue eyed male cocked his head as he eyed me.
Not liking that one bit, I pulled away as much as I could, leaning heavily against Kehlor. Kehlor’s hand came up and he placed it on my upper back. The gesture felt protective as much as it was comforting. His arm blocked the other male from trying to lean in towards me.