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“Are you mad at me? Is this… are you going to…”
Azlan
She should be nervous. She not only disobeyed me, she could have easily gotten herself killed in the process. My relief at finding her safe is the only reason I am not whipping her like a wayward cub. I know she was the victim of Kain’s manipulation, as I myself and the others were. He weaved a web of intimidation and lies that hung together just long enough for him to reveal his true nature. He is possessed of a madness that knows how to hide itself in order to obtain its own twisted ends. He cannot be trusted. He will never see the light of day again.
“You are disobedient, you are willful, you follow your own conscience rather than my orders…. And I love you. Now, put the cat down and let me hold you.”
By this point, the cat is squirming to be let down anyway. He has no sense of the importance of this moment, being an entirely self-centered creature.
I take Ava in my arms and breathe her scent. I have missed the feeling of her in my arms, the heat and weight of her body, her soft curves and her signature squirming that she does every time she believes herself to be in trouble.
She has unwittingly brought me to the throne I resisted claiming for so long. I did not want to be alpha, and I certainly did not want to be king of Shattered Gulch. But it would appear to be my destiny, for the alpha guards greeted me with great relief and joy.
“You need a bath,” I tell her. “You’re filthy.”
“Well, you try living in a cage for three days. It’s surprisingly hard to keep clean. They say small spaces are easier to clean, but there’s a limit on that…”
She’s babbling nervously, both worried about any forthcoming punishment, and at the end of her own personal tether.
I took her here out of force of habit, but now I am remembering that the Den has many baths and chambers, and they are all more comfortable than the ship’s limited capacity for such luxuries.
So I swing her back up into my arms, and we return to the Den.
“What are we…”
“I’m going to give you a bath,” I tell her. “And we are going to choose a chamber. Together.”
“There’s not like an alpha chamber?”
“Of course there is, but those walls have seen such heinous acts I could never rest easy inside them. This place has been used to break the goodness of our kind for generations. It is a palace of enslavement and cruelty. I shudder to walk its halls. But it does have a bath, so…”
She curls up into me, seeming to understand. “The energies of a place can shift with the inhabitants,” she says. “My home was never a den of evil, but it was my family home, and it never felt the same once everybody passed. Maybe this home will feel different once we fill it with our cubs.”
I am so pleased to hear her speak with anticipation of motherhood. Her time on my planet has taught her much, and she has gained great confidence in herself and in the role she plays. She arrived here having only ever looked after herself, and immediately threw herself into the task of looking after everyone as if they were her very own. I am so proud of her and so deeply in love with her.
“I cannot wait,” I tell her, finding the room I had been looking for. It sits not in the main spire, but one of the smaller ones, right at the top. “This is the room I grew up in, until I was cast out. This is the only place in the entirety of Shattered Gulch I ever felt safe or loved.”
“Aw,” she makes a small whimpering sound. “Then it will be our room. It’s huge, and look at the view of the waterfall!”
It is true that the main waterfall can be seen thundering down a few hundred yards away from the main window of this chamber. It is a view I often enjoyed as a cub, and one our own cubs will enjoy in good time.
There is a bed, and more importantly, adjoining the main chamber, there is a bathroom. It is to this room I take my mate, run water into the large circular bath in which I once bathed, then join her inside it.
I wash her and myself, I cradle her, I tend to her.
“Azlan… I am sorry. I know I did the one thing you most punished me for. And I know…”
“We both know what you did, Ava,” I say, watching a little quivering thrill run through her at my stern use of her name. My mate has more than a little of the disciplinary perversion about her. She fears pain, but it produces a pleasure response in her.
“He made it feel like it was my only option, and you… you were going to let…”
“I did not want to sacrifice you for anyone,” I say. “And I never will. I would let a thousand cubs die to keep you alive.”
She does not look pleased about that, but it is true. Ava is my mate. She is the one I am bonded to.
“Also, I think I brought Growlers to your world. The one that jumped out of the bag when I got here, she looked pregnant. Once you’ve got them, they’re almost impossible to eliminate.”
“They’ve landed on a planet of predators. I don’t think it will be an issue.”
