Monster came over to help her, carding his fingers through the hair on the back of her head, gentle and patient while Naya was frustrated.
Finally finished with the mess of it, she started to braid it, but he stopped her. Grabbing her hand, he kissed her knuckles.
"No. leave it."
Naya pouted. She didn't want to leave it. It would be a mess in minutes and then she'd be working at the snarls all over again.
Standing over her, his head above hers, he picked up handfuls of her hair and rubbed his face in it, purring.
She left it.
Shoeless, chest jiggling, she followed as he guided her down the hall with his hand between her shoulder blades. They entered another room, oblong-shaped and empty, which appeared to run through the center of the building. He was using it as a shortcut to get to the other side of the structure and their destination.
They stood at the entrance as he inspected the place and said thoughtfully, "Need to get you something comfortable to sit on in here, a bed maybe. Fuck my life, never thought there would be a woman in it."
He took her over to a chair by a wide desk. When he sat down, he pulled her into his lap.
She didn't mind too much.
On the desk was a data pad, a big book that looked like a ledger, and writing pens. Everything was lined up in a row.
Nudging the data pad a bit, he lined it up with the bottom edge of the ledger before picking it up and activating it.
Neat and orderly.
When he started typing on it, she didn't know what she was supposed to do with herself until he said, "So, Naya, daughter of Ratmhir Zell, you were to be married to a pup named Crispin?"
She startled at the familiar names. He must have looked up her registration number. She hadn't even realized he'd seen it.
"Five brothers, one sister. Your mother's line dates to the 12 Sectors’ founding. Nice. You really are a princess. Tell me about this Crispin."
She cleared her throat. His question sounded dangerous.
"I thought you challenged him,” she said evasively. "I imagined you had won the challenge. All that blood. But that wasn't him, or a challenge, was it?"
"Don't doubt I would have challenged him for you. The smell of you turned my monster the fuck on. But no, that wasn't him. That was Tenbel and two of his black crow boys. You were drugged. I didn't realize that until later. Until the shower."
He had her tucked against him, her head on his wide shoulder and her legs dangling over one side.
She felt a shaft of tension go through him, as if all his muscles hardened in resolve, then relaxed as a decision was made.
"You were drugged with a common combination given to women to make them unable to respond to a situation. It dulls your senses, makes you feel detached while you are being roughly handled. I saw your eyes, but I was in a drugged state as well and had even less control than you. Do I need to apologize to you for taking you that way? I can't regret it. But I don't want you to feel violated."
"You were taking drugs?"
"No. Not like that. It's difficult to explain. I was in a place in my head that leaves me disconnected from rational thinking. It happens to me sometimes. Anger issues."
He kept his eyes on her, watching her face intently. His own placid expression attempted to hide the concern she felt leaking through their bond.
"Anger issues? That was a lot of blood for anger issues. You were covered in it head to toe," Naya said in a small voice. At the time, drugged and triggered into her heat by his smell, she had thought the blood magnificent. Remembering it now, it had been gruesome.
"Are you afraid of me now?"
Disgusted with herself, yes. Afraid of him, no. The question was insulting.
"Do I smell afraid of you?" she shot back.
The cough in his throat sounded like a choked-back bark of laughter.
