Milo
The thing Rowan used to make the blankets clean was very noisy and completely unnatural. I very quickly decided I didn’t like it. So what if we mated on the blankets and made a mess? Now they smelled like us, just how they were supposed to.
Rowan had agreed to stay in my nest with me, though, so I supposed I could let them go for now if it meant he’d stay here and cuddle with me when they were clean.
I could always just get him to mate with me again anyway.
It was really easy to convince him now. All I had to do was lay myself out for him and run my fingers over my body, and he would snap and pounce on me.
I was never going to get tired of it.
He was so big and sexy and strong and perfect. I turned to smile at him as he brought me some more cookies.
“No,” he said before I’d had the chance to say anything.
“No what?” I pouted.
“You know exactly what, little hurricane. Give my poor dick a break.”
I pouted some more, and he rolled his eyes at me before getting a cookie out of the box and holding it out to me. I opened my mouth wide. He sighed but hand-fed me.
“I can make these, you know?”
My eyes widened in amazement. “Really? You can? Make them right now!”
He chuckled. “Well, I need to go back to the store and get some things. But I’ll make them for you later.”
I pouted as he held up another one. I turned my head away, not wanting it anymore. I wanted the ones Rowan made instead. They would definitely taste even better.
Rowan shrugged and ate my cookie.
“Hey.” I crossed my arms. He winked at me as he took a seat on the sofa behind my nest and ate another one.
I was going to pretend to be grumpy with him, but then he made another sound, almost like a sigh except happier. “I forgot how much I liked these.”
I shuffled between his legs, wrapping my arms around him as I rested my head on his stomach. It was soft and warm. He wasn’t wearing clothes here, just the pants he stubbornly insisted he put back on every time we were done. “Tell me what else you like.”
Strong fingers gently combed through my hair, and I hugged him a little tighter. “Well, I like… sweet things, like cookies. I like coffee.”
“What’s coffee?”
“It’s something humans drink for energy.”
“Can you make me some?”
He huffed in amusement. “I think the last thing you need is coffee, but sure. I’ll let you try it.”
“What else do you like?”
“I like to cook and bake… I like to read. I like… going out in my boat to catch fish. I like… spending time with my family.”
I frowned, pulling back to look at him. “Where is your family?”
He sighed, continuing to run his fingers through my hair so gently. “Well, they all moved away.”
“Why?”
“Because there were places they wanted to go, and things they wanted to do away from here.”
“But what about you?”
“Well, I like it here.”
“Do you miss them?”
For a moment, he just stared at me, and something crossed his features, deep and awfully sad. It made me want to hold him even tighter before he answered. “Yeah. I do.”
“I can be your family now.”
His eyebrows twitched, and his eyes glassed over, but he huffed a laugh that didn’t quite reach them. “Is that right?”
I nodded. “Yes. I’ll be your family, and I won’t leave.”
“Well, we’ll see about that.”
“I won’t leave,” I told him again, firmer this time.
His chest rose and fell a little faster, and he opened his mouth to respond, but then that stupid cleaning thing started making even more noise. I turned to scowl at it.
Rowan’s hands smoothed up my arms before he gently pulled them off him so he could go turn the noise off.
“Here.” He smiled as he returned, tossing a pile of the blankets on top of me.
They were so warm! And so soft!
I quickly bundled them up in my arms, letting the cozy warmth of them seep into me. “This is amazing!”
Yes, this was excellent. It would make for a very, very comfortable nest.
“That thing made them all cozy like this?”
“The dryer. Yes.”
The dryer. I took back my negative thoughts on the thing right away.
It was allowed to be noisy if this was what it was doing.
I inhaled the blankets, and the air coming off them was warm and inviting.
Rowan’s scent was still there, but it was very faint, and masked by something else that was pleasant, I supposed, but not nearly as pleasant as him.
“Can we make other things warm too?” I asked as I spread the blankets out again, remaking the nest the way I liked it.
“Clothes mostly. Blankets. Sheets. Towels.”
A brilliant idea sparked in my mind as I grabbed the selkie coat hanging over my shoulder.
“No,” Rowan said quickly.
“Why? I want it to be warm and fluffy!”
“Because. The dryer isn’t for living things. And that… seems to be a living thing. Isn’t it?”
I thought about it. I wasn’t really sure. It was connected to me and I was living, so kind of? “Well, can we just try?”
“No, Milo. That’s not a good idea.”
“Pleeeeease?”
“No. You don’t want to accidentally damage it, do you?”
I groaned. “Well, I need to dry something.”
“Well, every time you let me wash the blankets, you can use it then.”
I pouted. I didn’t want to keep washing our smells from the blankets, but I did want to use the dryer. It was an impossible situation. “Let me wash your clothes.”
Rowan huffed. “Fine. You’d have more clothes to wash if you wore some too, you know.”
My upper lip pulled up in disgust.
He chuckled. “Come on, then. I’ll show you how to use it.”
There were two “machines.” One of them wet things as it cleaned them, and the other dried them. So it turned out the dryer wasn’t even the thing responsible for getting Rowan’s smell out of my blankets, and I loved it even more.
Rowan showed me how to make them work, and I was amazed at the human magic in them. I made Rowan promise he would let me use them from now on when he wanted to clean things, and he agreed.
But then I had to deal with the far more important matter of getting Rowan’s scent back on the blankets. I pulled him over to them, forcing him to lie down so I could lie on top of him. I buried my nose in his neck, seeking one place I’d found his scent was particularly strong.
“You can’t leave here until the blankets smell like you again,” I told him.
He huffed. “Why do you want them to smell like me?”
“Because it’s my nest?” Obviously.
“Why does your nest need to smell like me?”
“Because you’re my mate?” Again, obviously. “And I’ll need lots of your scent when I go into heat.”
His eyes widened. “What do you mean, ‘go into heat?’”
Did humans not have heats? I tilted my head at him. “Well, when we’re bonded as mates, and the goddess gives us her blessing, then I’ll go into heat, and we can have pups.”
“Pups?” He sat up, causing me to flop to the side and off him.
I pouted. “Yes. Selkie pups.”
“You can get pregnant?”
“Well, not right now, but soon.” I beamed at him. “It’s only a matter of time!”