CHAPTER 71
MURR
“It’s a condom,” Dakota explains to me, pulling out a long strip of something shiny from the box in her hands. It rustles and crinkles as she does. “Condoms prevent babies.”
I…think I am not following. Perhaps I am misunderstanding her words. Sometimes the humans make sounds that are the same but can mean different things, like the color “red,” or when they stare at a book, which is also “read.” “Explain?”
She rips off one end of the strip into a perfect square and holds it out to me. “It’s a sheath that goes over your cock, and it will prevent a baby. It catches all of your sperm and prevents it from entering me and impregnating me…just in case.”
“Just in case,” I echo, then shake my head. How does this square fit on my cock? “No understand.”
“Here, let me demonstrate.” Dakota takes the packet from me and rips open the top of it, then produces a small blue ring of…something. “This goes over your cock.”
That? That tiny thing? I snort.
“It stretches,” she says with a chuckle. Dakota pokes a finger into it and a little dome forms. “You pull it over your cock like a sleeve.”
I glance down at my now-hard-again cock, then at the impossibly small ring again.
My doubt must show on my face, because her smile grows broader. “You want me to put it on you?”
Her hands on me? I like that idea, even if it means she’s putting some strange blue “sleeve” on my cock.
I nod, watching her as she leans in. She presses the circle against the head of my cock, and the blue band expands, swallowing the tip of my cock…
only to immediately break apart into thin strands, my skin peeking out again.
“Shit.” Dakota pulls it off my cock, rolling it back down and tossing the now-broken band aside. “We’ll try another.”
I grunt, willing to do whatever she likes.
She pulls another circle out of a crinkly square and holds it to my cock.
Her fingers move over me, and I twitch, enjoying her touch.
At least this part of the ritual is pleasurable.
She makes another frustrated sound when this one breaks just like the last one.
The next one does, too. And the next.
When we have gone through an entire strip, Dakota crosses her arms under her breasts, drumming her fingers on her skin as she does. “I don’t know what to do.”
I pick up a shred of the blue thing. “This…important?”
Her gaze is full of frustration as she eyes me. “It is. We can’t have a baby.”
“Explain.” I would be fine with a half-human child. I like the thought of a family, establishing a nest here. But perhaps there is something I am not aware of.
Dakota sighs in frustration. She pulls her knees up and rests her elbows on them, her chin in her hands.
“Because this world sucks. It’s not safe.
We never know if the next meal is coming or when.
I know you’ve been feeding us, but if something happens to you, we’re screwed.
Even if it doesn’t… We can’t live on meat alone, because it doesn’t have the proper nutrition.
We need vegetables and fresh water, and babies need a healthy mother.
A mother giving birth needs a doctor. All of it is just…
dangerous. Crazy dangerous. When Rabbit was little, I was terrified she was going to get hurt all the time.
A scratch can be lethal. Stepping on a nail, or falling over on the debris that’s everywhere, or even a baby putting the wrong thing in their mouth.
I lived in fear of what would happen to Rabbit constantly, and she was a little girl.
I can’t imagine how terrifying having a baby would be. I’d never sleep again.”
Her fears are reasonable ones, but…I would be at her side. I would feed her and make sure she is safe and warm. But Dakota does not yet trust this. She has been alone for so long that she still imagines she is alone, that no one can help her out. She will need time to realize this.
Time is something we have plenty of. “Then we no have baby,” I say, taking her hand from her chin and pressing my lips to it. Her skin is soft and fragrant, and I drag my teeth lightly over the heel of her palm, loving her shivers. “No seed inside.”
“No?” Her expression turns hopeful. “You’re sure you don’t mind?”
“Murr seed…here.” I brush a finger over one bare breast. “Here.” I touch her belly. Then I reach up and kiss her mouth that still smells faintly of my release. “Here.”
“You’re amazing,” she whispers, sliding her arms around my neck.
“Dakota safe, happy…Murr happy,” I tell her. It’s as simple as that. Whatever my mate wants, this is what I want, too. We have plenty of time to figure out what the future looks like.
For now, I want to touch my mate. My wife.
With my mouth on hers, I slide my hand between her thighs. She’s slick and heated, and her legs part to welcome my touch. Dakota makes a needy sound and kisses me harder.
We need no blue circles to enjoy each other.