Chapter 2 #4
We collapsed together onto the furs, his weight pressing me into the mats, his heart hammering against my back in time with my own thundering pulse.
His wings curved around us, enclosing us in a warm, feathered cocoon, and his arms wrapped around my waist, holding me tight against his chest as we both gasped for air in the aftermath.
I lay there pinned beneath him, filled with him, surrounded by him, and knew with a certainty that reached bone deep that I would never sleep on the ground again.
Plumak shifted his weight before he could crush the air out of my lungs, rolling onto his side across the thick furs and taking me right along with him.
His heavy, furred forearms stayed locked around my waist, keeping my back flush against the furnace warmth of his broad chest. The massive copper and dark gold wings shifted with our movement, keeping the tight feathered dome intact and filtering the bright glow of the birch fire into a cozy, amber twilight.
My legs felt like cooked spaghetti. Every muscle in my body hummed with a deep, drowsy ache that melted the last trace of tension out of my spine.
For the first time since the portal dumped me into this forest, my toes were warm, my skin was dry, and the restless knot of anger behind my ribs had vanished.
I let my head fall back against the dense, soft feathers where his neck met his shoulder, listening to the steady, heavy thud of his heart beating.
A low, rhythmic vibration started deep inside his ribcage.
The sound was part feline purr, part gentle avian click, rumbling through his tawny pelt and soaking straight into my bones until my eyelids drooped.
Outside the thick woven walls of the gourd, the wind picked up, rattling the giant yellow leaves and driving the steady, familiar autumn rain against the bark.
Up here, suspended in the canopy, the relentless weather sounded miles away.
Plumak shifted one giant hand, keeping his curved black talons angled carefully away from my skin as he tugged my stolen gray sweatshirt from the edge of the sleeping pit and draped it over my bare hip.
The smooth side of his dark beak brushed gently against my temple, nudging a damp strand of hair away from my cheek.
"You are not shivering anymore," he murmured, his deep, gravelly voice vibrating against the shell of my ear.
"Hard to shiver when I'm wrapped up in an eight - hundred - pound space heater," I mumbled, my voice raspy and thick with exhaustion.
I let my fingers curl into the coarse golden fur covering his forearm.
"Your fireplace works pretty well, too. Though I still don't get how you haven't burned the whole tree down. "
A soft click of amusement echoed in his throat, and the tufted tip of his lion tail curled lazily around my ankles, tucking my feet deeper into the bearskins.
"River clay and green ironwood do not catch fire, Kelsy.
I built it to last for decades. Just like this nest." His palm flattened over my stomach, warm and solid, holding me securely in the hollow of his body.
"You will never sleep in the cold mud again," Plumak said, his tone shifting into a quiet, fierce promise that filled the feathered cocoon.
"From this night forward, you share this nest with me.
I will gather the thickest pelts for our bed and hunt the richest prey the forest offers just to keep you fed.
Your place is here, in the high branches, where the air is clean and the dry heat stays locked inside our walls. "
I tilted my head slightly, peeking back at the sharp angle of his cheekbone and the round, glowing gold of his eye. "And what am I supposed to do up in a tree all day? Stare at my stolen spoon?"
"Whatever you wish," he rumbled, nuzzling the side of my neck with the warm feathers of his cheek.
"Tomorrow, I will weave a wide terrace around the entrance and lash a sturdy wooden walkway directly to the lower boughs, so you can walk among the trees whenever you want without waiting for anyone.
I will line the rest of these walls with the softest marsh pelts in the territory.
I will hunt the upper ridges for fresh meat, gather sweet autumn berries and dry firewood, and bring everything straight to our hearth.
" His grip tightened a fraction around my waist, pulling me an inch closer until there was zero space left between us.
"You have a true home now," he whispered, the raw devotion in his voice making my throat tighten.
"I will shield you from every storm, and any predator in the Yellow World who dares look twice at you will answer to my claws.
You are my mate, Kelsy. For every season that comes after this one, my wings are your roof, and my life belongs to you. "
A strange, unfamiliar warmth bloomed in the center of my chest, sharper and deeper than the heat radiating from the hearth.
Back on Earth, nobody had ever built me a shelter, let alone promised to guard me against the whole world.
I let out a long, quiet breath, turning slightly in his hold so I could press my cheek directly against the soft fur over his collarbone.
Wrapping my arm around his waist, I closed my eyes and let the steady rumble of his purr pull me under.