I closed my eyes and let myself sink into the mattress. Soon, my breathing slowed, and my thoughts drifted. But his hands kept moving in a steady rhythm that pulled me deeper into a warm, happy haze. My eyelids grew heavy as my body went limp under the expertise of his touch.
His hands gentled, smoothing over my back in long, slow strokes as he leaned in, brushing a soft kiss against my shoulder.
“Sleep, my brave Dottie,” he whispered against my skin. Another soft kiss was the last thing I felt before everything slipped away.
***
I woke to thunder that sounded like it was right on top of us. The first thing I noticed after realizing I was safe was that something soft was brushing across my hand. I blinked awake, confused for a moment, then lifted my head. A kitten lay curled up next to my hand, its ears pressed back in reaction to the loud noise.
Pushing myself up slowly, careful not to disturb it, I took in the room. What I saw made my heart melt into a puddle.
Ror’k sat next to me, upright against the headboard, shoulders squared and jaw set. He sat statue-still, like he thought any movement would trigger an alarm. Several kittens were sprawled across him. One slept on his thigh. Another gnawed on the hem of his leather loincloth. Two more were trying to climb him like a muscled mountain. One was already on his shoulder, and the other was struggling to hang onto a piece of armor.
A soft, barely audible rumbling came from his chest, but another one, this one softer, had joined it. I realized it was Mama Cat.
Mama Cat lounged at the foot of the bed, tail wrapped neatly around her body. Her gaze held a smug satisfaction, and she didn’t seem to be reacting to the storm anymore. In front of her was the empty wax wrapper of a Xarc’n food bar. She’d found a warm, oversized heater who not only provided food but also acted as a babysitter, and had claimed it.
“You’re awake.” His voice came out low and careful. “I cannot move.”
I chuckled softly. “They have you pinned. I think they like you.”
“They ambushed me.”
“I’m sure they did.” I glanced at Mama Cat. “Did she bring them up here?”
He shifted his eyes toward her without moving anything else. “Affirmative. I gave her more of the food bar. She picked one of the younglings, climbed onto the sleeping platform, and placed it on my leg. She brought them all over.”
“I guess she’s decided we are safe. You, particularly. Maybe she thinks that you’re just a very big, strange-looking cat. You know, because of your purring.”
“Warriors do not purr. Our chest rumbles.”
“Oh, I don’t know. You say that, but Mama Cat over there thinks otherwise, and I value her professional opinion. Also, we can’t keep calling her Mama Cat all the time. She needs a name. Especially if she’s going to be coming back to New Franklin with us.”
“We will find one. But for now, what do I do? I cannot move.”
I chuckled. “Accept your fate?”
He gave the kitten on his shoulder the side eye as it tried to chomp down on his ear again. “They are bitey.”
“They’re teething.” I frowned. “Hey, why do they get to bite you, and I don’t?”
“Humans do not bite.”
“Yeah, we do.” I cuddled up to him, clawing his shoulders with pretend claws, mimicking the kitten. “We get an urge to bite things that are cute, but not hard, soft. It’s called cute aggression. And right now, you are utterly adorable.”
“I am not.”
“You totally are. In fact, I’m going to take just one bite.”
I bit down playfully on his shoulder.
He hissed and then laughed, jerking away but not enough to get away from me. “I expected to do battle today,” he said, giving in with a reluctant smile. “I did not expect this.”
“Welcome to parenthood. Mama Cat got a food bar; you got babysitting duty.” My stomach took that opportunity to remind me that I hadn’t eaten since early in the morning. “Come on, let’s find some food.”
I formed a nest with the pillows and carefully plucked each kitten off of Ror’k and placed them inside, counting as I went. There were only four, but I was sure I’d seen more in the drawer before. I searched the bed and found the last one under a pillow.
As I put it with its littermates, Mama Cat stepped into the pillow nest and sent me a look that clearly said, “Good work, servant. I’ll take over from here.” Then she hissed, like I wasn’t leaving Her Highness alone quickly enough.
