I do not complain, though. How could I?
I, Protector Aloryk, had spent the whole of this last night with my female in my arms and my face buried in her mishi-colored hair. It was the second-best night of my entire existence, and I hope all my nights to come are exactly this way.
I know my mate is waking when her breaths are not so deep, when I feel the flutter of her eyelashes against the skin of my chest. There is a momentary tensing of her body, as she realizes she is pressed up to me in our nest. I am happy to learn that thetensing does not last long, and seems to melt away with the huff of a breath Polly sends skittering down my stomach, making the muscles there jump at the sensation.
Peering up at me, Polly’s amber brown eyes blink from amidst a nest of her own violet-colored hair. She is adorable, and I cannot help the wide grin I greet her with this day. “Good morning, my mate,” I tell her, my tail giving her leg a little squeeze. “Did you sleep well?”
I watch with fascination as she rolls away from me and stretches that gloriously curvy body of hers as she welcomes this day with a yawn. “Please tell me you’re not a morning person,” she mumbles, scrubbing at her eyes with balled up fists.
“I am a person at all times of day and night.”
She chuckles at this, and stands from the nest with yet more stretching, her arms reaching up to reveal a slither of bare skin on her lower back, gifting me with a glimpse of those two little dimples that flank the base of her spine. My mouth waters, and not for breaking my fast.
I sit up and glance down at my chest, trying not to feel crestfallen that my heart-stars still remain elusive. I had thought perhaps a whole night of my mate in my arms, her sleepy little breaths painting my chest with reactive skin-stars with every puff might have coaxed them out of hiding.
“Let me fetch you what you need,” I say, getting to my feet with a stifled groan. “Food, water for washing-”
“Aloryk,” she says, putting a hand to my chest, halting me. “You’re injured. I’ll just-”
“I can care for my mate.” The words come out perhaps more harshly than I’d intended and cause Polly to start pulling away her hand - her hand that I catch, and press back into the skin of my chest, right over where my heart-stars will appear. “Let me, please, Polly. I want to prove to you that I can care for my mate,” I say, ending on a soft smile.
Polly glances down at where I press her palm to my heated skin and then back up again. “Yes, ok. But let me look after you, too. Take me with you when you return to the Healer guy today.”
I… almost decline her request. Instead, opting to give a swift nod and murmurings of ‘later’ before heading out to gather all that my mate will need to start her day - a task that proves more complicated than I had first thought. The food stores are plentiful this day, but with all the choice, I am cursing that I do not yet know my Polly well enough to be able to pick her preferences.
No matter - I am a swift learner. After all, it did not take long for me to learn that she very much likes a gentle sucking motion on on that little pink bud between-
“Fuck!” I hiss, the large tyk-tyk fruit that I’d dropped on my foot rolling away, it’s juice-filled inside sloshing as it goes.
Thinking of my mate’s cunt is far too distracting. How do mated males get anything done without looking a fool when they know what is awaiting them in their nests? Quickly, I gather many food options for my Polly and return to our hut, my arms laden with fruits, waterskins and cured meats.
When I enter the hut to find my Polly is gone, fear lodges between my ribs like a spearpoint. The food gets dumped and I curse myself for not telling her to stay put. Logically, I know she will not come to harm now that we are with my tribe, but logic seems to have no place when it comes to my feelings about my mate.
It is when I am almost at the center of the village that I hear it; my mate’s laughter. She sounds a little nervous. She also sounds like she’s surrounded by my brothers if the low collective murmurings of male voices is anything to go by.
I move on the swiftest of feet, following that sound only to find a large gathering of males near the now dead fires from last night’s welcome feast. They crowd around something likemountain hounds on a frizikki, and despite the protest of pain in my wings, I forge ahead, shoving my way to the center of their attention.
“Aloryk,” my Polly says on a relieved sounding exhale as her eyes meet with mine. “Your friends were just-”
I take one look at her arms - arms now laden with gifts. One of my brothers even has the gall to offer afilled seed pot.
A possessive rage consumes me as I stalk forward, prying the offending seed pot from her arms with one hand, the other unsheathing the dagger at my thigh as I turn to address my so-called-brothers. “Who did this?” I snarl.
“Whoa, Aloryk,” Polly says, moving forward and attempting to placate me with a hand to my arm. She cannot complete the gesture, however, due to all the trinkets, feathers, and food she has been gifted this day by these traitorous males. “It’s just a cute vase, it was a welcome gift-”
“Who?!” I demand. “Who gave this to you? I will cut the male’s cock from his body.”
“Hey now,” a female voice pierces the tense silence as I hear her moving through the crowd of males surrounding us. The human females are so small, I do not realize it is Chaz-Titi that is the owner of the voice until she comes into view. “What’s all this about? Who’s cutting cocks?”
I watch as her keen eyes scan Polly and I, one brow rising as if she were a High Spear demanding an explanation without delay. My jaw tightens before I grit out, “some male has given my female a seed offering.”
Chaz-Titi lets loose a long, slow breath past her lips. “Oh, no wonder you’ve got your loincloth in a bunch.”
Polly shakes her head. “I don’t get it?”
“Honey,” Chaz-Titi starts, moving over to my mate. “These guys just love to give the weirdest darn gifts you ever did see-” she says, as she peels the offerings one-by-one from my female’sarms and shoves them into the chests of the nearest bystanders. “And that there seed pot is one of the weirdest.”
“Seed pot?” Polly asks, looking from Chaz-Titi to me and then back again. “You mean, a pot of… seeds to grow flowers and stuff, right?” When no one answers her, my Polly’s eyes widen and she takes a step toward Chaz-Titi. “Right?!” Chaz-Titi makes a face and gives the smallest of headshakes. “Oh, my God!Ew!”
