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Krista glares up at him fiercely, stiffening her whole face to keep her chin from wobbling. “Then what did you want? If you had no intention of locking into me, then you had no intention of breeding, am I right? And if you had no intention of breeding, it was just sex.Notpart of our bargain.”
Thon’s eyes flare wide, his whole body jerking back as though Krista just slapped him. “I amnothonorless,” He snarls, baring a set of impressive incisors that could rip the flesh from Krista’s bones. She would shrink back if she had the energy, but she doesn’t. She just huffs a tiny snort and looks away. “Ineverforgot our bargain,” Thon insists, all growly and intense. “My seed is in you. Not all of it, and it will be less effective without the lock, but it may still take. I thought—well, Humans are much smaller. Maybe less is needed.”
He isn’t lying about the last part. He was definitely coming inside her before he pulled out, and there had been more than enough for a Human insemination, but Thon also clearly doubts himself. 'It may still take,'he said,but it probably won’t, is how that sentence realistically ends. Krista shakes her head, unable to reply.
“I’m sorry,” Thon says solemnly. He’s utterly bewildered and honestly, she tries to comfort herself with it. He genuinely has no clue what went wrong.
“I made assumptions," Thon continues. "I did not consider that you might—” He cuts himself off, looking quickly away. “Iwantedto lock you, Krista. The intensity of it was—When I realized you were too tight, I almost finished the lock anyway because there was nothing else in my head and—and that scared me.”
All at once, his defeat takes the wind out of Krista’s sails. The rage leaves her. She thinks the terror leaves her as well, but there's a swirling vortex of muck inside her head and she doesn't even know what it is at the moment. She would really like to wrap herself back up, but she’s filthy. The coat is filthy. The inside was under her ass and that’s where most of Thon’s come ended up. She’s lying in a cooling puddle of him, thoroughly spent.
Thon must see the warring emotions on her face because he bows his head, hiding something openly devastated. “I don’t want you to fear me, Krista,” he says, tentative. He reaches over and touches her face so lightly that his fingertips barely register. “My word to you is good. My communication was bad. We can make better details later.”
Krista is too exhausted to try and decide what any of this means to her right now. Meaning is illusive and Krista knows she can’t be objective yet. “Later,” she agrees, her voice hollow.
Thon nods solemnly and rolls onto the balls of his feet with preternatural grace, making for the tent flap. For a weird moment, Krista thinks he’s going to leave for his brothers’ tent, but he’s still completely nude.
“I will clean this up,” he says stiffly and ducks out to fetch the water.
Naked.
8
Thon
PelandNosshavenot overheard. Although it feels as though a great deal of time has passed, it can’t have been long. The younger brothers are absent, undoubtedly still working on the day’s kills, and their camp lies vacant in the dark. Thon is grateful that he can gather the wash pot and heat it without enduring their questions or their knowing looks. They won’t even have to know how badly he failed.
Lucky Thon.
Hot water doesn’t matter much to Thon at this moment, so he puts the pot on for Krista and cleans himself in the meantime. She has been chilly since she arrived. Hot water will probably suit her best. Trying to anticipate a stranger’s needs is difficult, as evidenced by the magnitude of their earlier misunderstanding. He has damaged the fragile trust between them with his actions, but he was not lying to Krista when he said he meant well. It is troubling, to have done wrong while trying so hard to do right.
Thon scowls down at the cloth in his hands. He had not expected it to be so vital to her, separating reproduction from pleasure. He is no fool—he can tell a business arrangement from a personal one, but he had still assumed that they would move more slowly, define ‘necessary’ more loosely, and perhaps even enjoy this part of their bargain. In time, Thon might have even hoped for something more.
Maybe he is a fool after all.
This idle fantasy of his will likely never happen. Krista only endures his touch because it is part of their agreement and they did not agree to anything beyond breeding. They did not agree to intimacy or warmth. They did not agree to the postcoital closeness that Thon associates with courtship, so he will not be able to wrap himself around her the way he would like to. Krista will give him a pup, but she was never part of the arrangement, not even temporarily, or in part.
He understands this better now.
Gathering the pot, the cloths, and their little cake of hunter’s scent-removing soap, Thon returns to the tent, feeling a bit like he’s crawling into an earth dragon’s lair. Incredible, that this tiny Human female should make him so nervous.
Krista has not been lying idle. With a pang, Thon notes that she has removed his coat, but he was a fool to think that it ever meant anything to her beyond practicality. She still sits on it, letting it catch the remnants of their joining as the fluids run out of her. She has her legs drawn up to cover much of her nakedness, but from one angle Thon can see the thick trail of white that still coats her entrance, puddling beneath her where her body overflowed. Despite his black mood, Thon knows a brief swell of pride that he left that there.
Krista has wiped herself down with something dry, but she nods gratefully when he sets the water down beside her.
“It is important to you that we do not join our bodies unless it is for breeding,” Thon pronounces slowly. “It is important to me that I do not break you. Finding a … what do Humans call it? A … center-ground? … will be necessary.”
“Middle ground.” Krista will not look him directly in the face, seeming tense and expectant like she thinks he will try to hurt her. Thon hasn’t seen her this way since Noss first brought her into camp, when she was still trying to decide if she should run from them. She has been so brave and he spoiled it. “Do you have a suggestion?” She asks after a brief silence.
“Not yet.” He pauses when Krista taps the belly of the water pot and snatches her hand away quickly. “What is it?”
“Nothing. Just hot.”
Too hot? “It did not feel hot to me.” Thon reaches for the pot and cups his palm around the belly. It’s perfect … for a Harkurian. “You … cannot withstand the same temperatures I can.”
“Guess not,” Krista answers softly, watching his hand with the oddest expression on her face, like she’s only just now realizing that Thon is not Human.
Failed again.
