Chapter Thirteen #2
It’s Lux that recovers from this revelation first. “You did nothing wrong, wedari. You were correct in your decisions, whether or not your planet’s ridiculous laws agree.
No act, however, would have made us turn our backs on you.
But to know how kind, and noble-hearted you are only increases our. .. affection for you.”
I agree, and I also heard Lux’s hesitation. She wanted to say ‘love.’ She loves Octavia already. As do we all.
Octavia’s eyes fill with tears, and Lux holds her arms open for her.
Our omega hesitates, and I swear I can hear Ati and I holding our breaths.
But sure enough, Octavia swoons into Lux’s arms, sobs muffled against her firm body.
I bring my tail around the table to hold Ati’s, as I know we are both struggling with the lack of contact with our omega.
We exchange a soft glance before turning back to our ladies.
Lux holds Octavia gently, a low purr emerging as she strokes her hair, waiting patiently for our omega to calm down.
brEAKFAST, AFTER THE emotional dam broke, was easy and light-hearted.
Octavia started to come out of her shell.
She explained pizza and spaghetti to me.
I am more confident in my ability to recreate pizza than I am the slender, round, grain-based ‘noodles’ needed to make spaghetti, but I am going to give both a shot.
Ati suggested nap time, and Octavia was agreeable, but she still refrained from inviting us to the nest. I could feel Lux and Ati’s sadness at that, but I quickly drew them into Ati’s room as Octavia went to the nest.
When I awoke, Atiox was already out of the room. Lux snored gently next to me. I laid a kiss on her shoulder and slipped away.
As I shut the door, a sound behind me causes me to turn. There stands our omega. Octavia looks as if I have caught her doing something naughty.
I grin at her and wait for her to say something. Finally, she shrugs. “I was going to the kitchen.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Why do you look so guilty about it?”
She seems to fall in on herself. “I don’t know, I guess it’s because I’ve had to eat on the prison schedule for the last few years?”
Again, rage burns through me. When I can see straight again, I vow to do some research on human ‘prisons’ and how they affect the psyche. “You can eat whenever you want, Tavi.”
“Tay-vee,” she responds with a smile. “I like that.”
I step forward and place my tail on the back of her thigh, a common gesture for Celnoe when we want to lead someone somewhere. But I realize I have touched her, and my step falters. But she easily walks next to me as we take the wide staircase down.
She’s warming to us. And it makes my soul lighter.
I usher her into the kitchen. “So,” I ask lightly, “what do you have a taste for?”
She wrinkles her nose as she twists her fingers together. “Anything sweet, really.”
“Hmm,” I respond, thinking. “I don’t have anything sweet made right now, but we could bake something?”
“We?” Her dark yellow eyebrows rise.
“Unless you’d prefer me to do it alone? I’m happy to—it is my job in the pack, and I enjoy it. I just thought company might be nice.”
She lets out a perfect little giggle. “I’m afraid I won’t be much help. I’m a terrible cook. I’ve lived off freezer meals since college.”
I give her a big grin, “Well, the company at least will be perfect.” I turn and grab my apron, and the spare I had gotten for her.
She smiles at me, her teeth flat, and for a moment I worry about mating marks. She knows nothing of them. She tugs the apron over her head, but the crossed straps get tangled and she spins, giggling, as she tries to correct them.
“May I?” I ask quietly.
She stops, meeting my gaze, and her smile turns to something more serious. She nods and turns her back to me.
I carefully take the straps in my hands and right them, laying them flat and letting my hands brush over her back, which is covered by another of Ati’s shirts. I reach around her small, round body and take the waist straps and tie them snugly behind her.
“Thank you,” she says softly, face turning to look up at me over her shoulder.
“You are most welcome, wedari,” I breathe, our faces close.
I hesitate for a moment as she continues to stand still, looking at me, and I wonder if I should kiss her. Surely this is an invitation?
But if I’m reading her wrong, and she does not want that... no. The risk is too great. A final inhale of her floral yet mouthwateringly sweet scent and I pull myself away.
I step back and open a cabinet.
“Alright now, I do believe I have the ingredients for beudi muffins. They are a sweet fruit?”
Octavia’s face is shuttered, but she quickly nods. “Sounds perfect.”
WHILE THE MUFFINS BAKE, I show Octavia the larder, pointing out various fruits and vegetables, as the sound of rain on the paneled ceiling drifts in soothingly.
“You really don’t eat meat? But, like... you could?” she asks. “I mean, your body wouldn’t reject it?”
I consider the question. “Celnoe stopped eating sentient creatures perhaps a flow ago. I do not know how our bodies would respond to flesh.”
She tilts her head in the dim, close room. “What’s a ‘flow’?”
“One thousand revolutions.”
“Oh, so a long time.”
I chuckle, and she smiles up at me.
Quietly she says, “You smell almost like pumpkin pie, Zee.”
My stomach swoops happily. Both at the nickname she picked up from Atiox and Lux, and at the fact that she’s learned my scent.
I whisper back, “I do not know what pumpkin is, but you sound as though this is a good thing.”
She nods.
We stand in the calm silence for a moment, but she reaches out and takes my hand. She twists her fingers between mine. My eyebrows furrow.
“Are you nervous, wedari?”
She looks confused. “No. Why do you ask?”
“You do this to your own fingers when you are nervous or upset.”
“You noticed that?” She blows out a breath as I nod. “No, this is hand-holding. You lace your fingers together. You only do it with... partners, I suppose, or children–to keep them safe.”
I smile, happiness filling me. “Then I like it very much, Tavi.”