Savage Kingdom

They were laying beside each other at the opposite end of the bed with labored breaths on the bed. They had mated four more times afterward and didn’t lay down until they were sure they sated their heat for the time being. Each was staring at the ceiling with some parts of their bodies exposed, her leg was over his. Each was regaining their composure.

She couldn’t help but smile, even after her mind continued to replay over and over the fact that he wasn’t even human. He was not the usual normal she expected. she didn’t even wince when his tail was draped over her leg and was relaxed.

They turned to look at each other at the same time. Nothing was said until she turns her body and moves the blankets with her to cover her chest, her breathing just regaining regularity while he was fine as ever. It must be nice to be in good shape. “What was those words you said to me? It made me feel... Strange. I feel different.”

He positions himself with his head on his hand and his elbow in the sheets. He never felt himself truly happier at this moment when he looks at her after many times they had mated. It was perfect for him. Wonderful. What life should be. “I didn’t know at first until I said it. My father always said that when the time came I would speak the binding words when I become whole with my other half. It is supposed to be a pledge to be a good mate. We cannot complete the bond without it. I did not know what he meant until that moment.”

So that’s what it was that she felt? Binding? “I am starting to understand why other women chose to stay. I think I am ruined from any other guy.”

He growled playfully. Half playful, “I hope you are.”

She giggles teasingly and slid her body forward to plant a forgiving kiss on his lips to cause him to rumble deep in his throat. It was only a tease, but the thought of another male touching her the way he has set his territorial side on the edge. She was mostly getting him back for his stunt he pulled earlier. They kissed briefly just to enjoy each other's company.

The front door of his hut was being knocked on.

He wanted to simply ignore it and didn’t pull away at all. She on the other hand turns to look at the door, frightened.

“Ignore it,” he slid his hand behind her neck to draw her back to him. It worked for only a second before a loud voice came past the wood.

“Cheeto, Clara! ” Kane knocks on the door again.

Another voice mingled with him, his mother’s. “I think you might want to come to hear what he has to say.”

His ears lower and his tail jerks in annoyance, he found any interruption bothering. He even made a complaining sound when she sat up and covers her body with a blanket and a flushed look, “Jeez. It’s Kane. We can’t ignore that.”

“Yes, we can-”

Kane knocks on the door again with his small fist. “Cheeto? Clara?”

Clara moves to step out of the bed but he stops her, exiting the bed himself bare. He was growling in secret the whole time and didn’t even care to grab his somewhere missing trousers. He just grabbed a blanket, wrapped it around his waist, and headed for the door.

“You can’t open the door like that!” She whispers loudly. He was already grabbing the handle when her last word came out, understanding and pushing open. She made sure she was concealed up to her neck when she saw Kane and a tall Xutashi woman with a scar over her face. She recognizes her as his mother.

She hid half of her face under the sheets to hide her blush, it wasn’t hard to puzzle together Kito’s strange attire and her flushed in the sheets of his bed. When Kane saw the situation his young mind didn’t jump to any of those conclusions. Seeing the sheets he wore showed meant one thing to him, “You two was taking a nap?”

Kito looks at Kane and enjoyed his innocent face looking back. He enjoys the young one's innocence. “Yes, Kane. We were taking a great nap.”

He blinks and looks at Zeta standing behind him, “But I thought you two were fighting. Clara was yelling at you,” he saw her sitting in the bed with her hair in a mess and her face redder than a tomato. Why was she hiding? “You two were just napping? Why was she yelling at him?”

Zeta couldn’t control her chuckles and places her hand on her chest to try to calm herself. Kito watched her and turned his head to see Clara mortified in the bed with her hands over her face. “I was supposed to watch him and we just walked by. He was determined to wait here until someone answered. I could not stop him with treats.”

“Don’t worry, Kane,” he looks down at him and grinned. He didn’t know that he was near to hear the sounds they made. Were they loud? “I promise you we were far from fighting.”

He held the blanket by one fist on his right. Some portion of the V line of his body showed. Zeta’s ears were lowered with much annoyance, “You could have tried to put on something other than a cover.”

“I was kind of busy,” his ears mirrored hers. He knew that inside she was bubbling with excitement. He wondered how she could get agitated with his half nakedness. He would crouch to Kane if he did have something else on, so he remained tall when speaking to the little boy again. “You do not have to worry about what you heard, we were only enjoying each other’s company.”

“So you two weren’t fighting?” He knew the reason why the boy was concerned, it was all about his sister’s safety. If he only knew just how safe she was. “I promise. Now go play, I think I see some cubs waiting for you.”

Kane turns and saw a cub and pup his age waiting for him at the edge of the stairs. New friends, he assumes. When he left he went to shut the door, stopped by his mother’s voice. “Don’t shut that door on me. I have something I need to tell you and I have a feeling you won’t talk to me for a while again.”

Behind him, he could hear Clara giggling behind her blankets now that he was stuck in his embarrassment. Zeta didn’t even let him get a word out. “I haven’t even met her yet and you two already mated. At least Kai introduced me to Mia. Where have you been? You two were gone for three suns and come back, I don’t even get a simple greeting to assure me you and her aren’t dead?”

His ears were flat and he let her ramble on in this now awkward situation for him. He shouldn’t have answered the door.

It was when she took a breath that he found the opportunity to speak, “Could we wait until another time? There will be a time that you will see her. I told Kai about where I have been and Alira.”

“I should hope so until you find yourself in other moments like this, or at least you should have come and told me personally about what happened to you, you grown cub. I was worried sick for a long time.”

“Kai knows about everything. I can apologize for all of this later. You will have your time with her.”

“I am going to take your word for it, do not be late to Dia’s burning, will you be out for that?”

“Of course.”

Satisfied enough, he watched her leave before shutting the door and once again locking it. He walks back to the bed to the human who was almost submerged under his covers, thoroughly embarrassed by the recent event.

He put the blanket he wore back on the bed and climbed in, grabbing the cover over her and sliding it off her head.

Just as he expected she had changed into a red mess, looking at him and holding the blanket against her chest to keep her nudity hidden. She exhaled deeply, “I... Can’t believe I was that loud. He must have been sitting outside.” Her face went into her palms. “He heard me, Kito. He was sitting outside listening.”

He found it quite humorous. “He is too young to understand, my Clara,” he pushed the sheets away from her and grabbed her wrists to move her hands from her face. “He’s playing with others now.” He raised her face so he could brush his lips against her cheek with a seductive purr. “I know a game we can play on our own.”

She wondered why her body managed to come to life as fast as it did before. Faster even now.

She jumps out of the bed with the blanket she used to modestly cover the front of her. He knew that when she smiled nervously and let out a soft laugh that she was about to say something to stall even though he could smell her reaction to him. He didn’t mind another round.

He got out of the bed and steps forward, “Why are you running?”

Now that she was standing up she could feel her soreness. Not only between her legs but further inside. How could she still be so eager for another round although her body was sore? Every time she breathed in even from this distance she smelled him. And he smelled good. Like male, rain, and the jungle. If that made sense.

She tried to play off that the heat wasn’t again rising but he could tell. He wants to hear what she had to say first, “We already done that many times and...”

“You’re hurt,” now he could sense her pain like it was a part of him. He felt the connection. Something that stirred deep within him. He should have known that she would feel sore.

The thought of her sore didn’t make a sad look cross his face and his ears and tail synced to that emotion. He scans the floor where all of his things were, even remedies. “I have something here that will help that but everything is on the ground. You can lay down, Clara, I will find it for you.”

She didn’t lay down. She wrapped the blanket around her like a gown and sat on the clean area of the table that was cluttered with bowls, she watches him search through the floor to find what he was looking for. She even took the time to observe him naked and have her question of what his tail looked like attached to him. His tail was connected to his spine as she figured it would be, perhaps where the human tail bone was. It was a neat design of his kind. Perfectly aligned. The tail for his body better than anyone in her world could probably pull off. Of course, he was born with it.

It wasn’t as strange as she assumed it was. Or was that this bond talking?

He grabs what he was searching for from the corner of the hut and returned to her sitting on the table. Even on the table to didn’t reach his height. He held out a small object that looked like a small tube from a lab but the black cork keeping it sealed. inside of it was a strange liquid that wasn’t appealing. She made a nasty look, “What’s that?”

“It is to help soothe inner pain, ” he grins. “There is also another medicine to run over the area of your pain to help it go away and relax but I do not know where it is at this moment. I think my brother came in here and took it to give to another for this type of problem. This should help just as well.”

He convinces her enough that it was safe after he opens it and hands it to her. She downs the drink in one shot since there was not much inside, and when she had thought it would taste gross it had a sweet taste that lingers on her tongue. Tingly. She even felt it tingles on the way down her throat. She placed her hand over her neck as she felt it and smiled, “Do you make these medicines?”

“Yes, but I make them from my mother’s recipes. Medicine was the only thing I could do well at other than scouting,” he took the bottle and threw it to the side. It didn’t matter when everything was already a mess. He pulled her forward on the table and to him, settling between her legs that the blanket slid off. He wanted to be close to her. He kissed her jowls beside her nose and whispered, “You did not have to run from me. If you were sore then just tell me, I will try my best to fix it.”

The medicine was fast-acting. The soreness in her was fading a little more by the second. She slid her hands from his shoulders down his chest, an action that made him shut his eyes and purr. She liked it when he purrs because it was always managed to fill her and make her worries melt away. It always managed to comfort her. “It wasn’t just that, Kito... I, I have blood there too. I didn’t want you to see it.”

It was also why she had the covers around her. His ears lower and he peers down to see but she was already keeping the blankets around her to keep him from seeing it. “I saw it during mating, my little Clara. You don’t have to hide that from me. Not your body.”

Luckily there was a cloth on the table that was at his arm's length. She realized that he wanted to do it himself when he tried to remove the covered and had a slight panic. She grabs it with a small anxious smile, “I-I’ll clean myself. I wouldn’t ask you to do that for me.”

“You did not need to ask me,” he said kindly and backs away.

The blood wasn’t the only thing that she was shy about. His seed was dripping down her inner thigh and she could feel it with each passing second, and at first, as she laid in the bed she didn’t notice. Until she stood up and felt it. It was strange and dirty, and he saw her fiery red cheeks when she removes the covers from her completely. He saw his seed and unlike her, he purrs.

He enjoyed that sight. Especially since he could already smell it.

He laughs once she was finished. “You are still shy around me. I do not mind seeing that from you. As long as it is only from me.”

“Are you sure that I won’t get pregnant already?”

“Not during this heat. The next one there is more of a chance. Mates have better chances for cubs the more they have, I am not sure why it is that way. Rarely are their first heat cubs.”

“So when Alira... or someones... started talking about me about the breeding idea-”

He had to let Alira and what had happened to her still register. He was confused... Or was he reluctant to believe it was Dannica? The way she looked... The black veins. How else could he explain it? “It was to mess with your mind, and with me. Cubs are hard for us to bear, which is why we had uneven numbers and more males. Ruro struggled with the problem for a long time, before Mia and Tina. Pups too. It isn’t as simple as just breeding for us. That must be why we struggle with having cubs. We do not mate like the Maurea. There is plenty of them.”

She wanted to giggle. Of course there was always plenty of rabbits.

His ears half drops and his tail sunk low, uncertain. “Do you want cubs with me?”

“So... I’m guessing you would want the barefoot pregnant thing?”

He was humored by her question, although unsure of the real meaning. “I guess one would be barefoot while carrying, sometimes their feet can swell.”

She wasn’t sure if he was being a smart mouth by actually answering her question. She sighs, “Kane will not be enough for you for a while, huh?”

“I care for Kane, and I will take him in and raise him myself with you. I want a cub of my own, Clara. At least one. Only you can give one to me. Remember, heat is meant to give us time.”

“One should be okay?” she tried to make sense out of this. She mostly spoke to herself about this, the sudden change. She was listening to herself considering a child with him after days of knowing he existed. It was bizarre, but it felt right. In turn... She could only have one with him too. “I never thought I would think about that. Kane has always been enough for me. What are you doing to me, Kito? Seriously?”

“The same things that you are doing to me. You make the things I only dreamed of before possible. Please, continue to do so.”

Such a hopeless romantic. Or in his case, an achieved romantic. He managed to pull on the right strings that he somehow knew was attached to her heart. He did make things that were impossible possible. Was this an actual wonderland?

“I remember you saying something in the cave. It kind of stuck with me,” She still had the blanket wrapped around her like a gown, holding it as such except for the one around her chest. He was quickly not liking that blanket.

“What is it that I said that bothered you, Clara?”

“Nothing you have said bothered me. Nothing really,” She would approach him if she sent aware of what would happen if dared fell prey to his arms. Would they make it to the bed? “You said something about doing something to a friend that you would have done differently if the situation was different too. What did you mean? And who?”

He lowered his chin and gazes at her softly. It was like he was making sure that she wanted to continue down that path, for him to reveal something deep.

“I told you about my past. My full one. You never told me yours. Outside this tribe.”

His look uncertain. He was softly pleading for her to let it go, but she was stern. He sighed deeply. Long. “I am not supposed to say. It is a secret, well... Who I tracked for outside. I did not work amongst them... Not really, but it was Pippie who has.”

“You were with a secret group then?”

“I was friends with them. If I worked for them it would have been much harder for me to leave as I did, but I do not think I want to tell you about them now. One day, but not today. But I can tell you what I have done. It made me run home when Kai sent me that message. This happened on that same day.”

Just by how his voice sounds alone she knew he was about to reveal something deep. She assumed that maybe he had accidentally killed someone. She can tolerate not knowing who his friends once were, but it must be deep for him to reveal what he was going to tell her.

“I had a friend. A Chayeene friend. Pippie and I knew him, he is feared. Dangerous. Even when not many knew him. They know his cause. I never told him where I came from because I knew that when I left he would find me and want me back, he liked how I was helping his... Cause. I did it for Pippie, who worked for him for trade. I have a feeling he still speaks to him when he leaves to go to the lands-”

“I could explain the story in detail. But... I want to just shorten it. If I can. He, Pippie, and I were stuck in a situation that led to a rock slide. My friend, he was trapped within those rocks. His foot was. With no one else around Pippie and me struggled to free him for days, every time we moved the large rock he was trapped under he would scream. Then he suggested something that we had to resort to, to save his life. Pippie was searching for help... But I kept his sword to cut off his foot.”

Clara sucks in a small breath of shock. She didn’t know what to say, but the memory was evident in his features. Sketched there vividly accompanied by his low ears. “That made me rethink my life. What I was doing. I was doing... Bad things. Although he had said it was for good... I didn’t feel that way. I ran home once I received that message. I wanted home. Doing that... Perhaps I too could have done things differently, maybe I could have saved that foot. Maybe I didn’t need to slowly cut it off. I understand how we can do dumb things when we are scared, Clara. I will forever question myself for what I did.”

She had a tear rolling down her cheek when he was done. He didn’t expect such a reaction from her, perhaps she could feel his emotions the same way he was sure he could hers. Now it was her turn to feel sorry for his pain, what he went through. The real reason he came home with his tail between his legs.

In some way, she knew that she was the only one who knew this too. “That’s deep, Na’Kito,” She made the effort to smile to faint humor. “Thank you for telling me that. Very much.”

She did not have all the answers but she could see why he hesitated with them.

He wanted to change the mood now. He eased himself towards her, slowly sliding the offending blanket she wore from her body and let it fall on the floor, revealing her to him just so he could move his hands over her skin and kissed her again. Deeply.

“I want to speak about this another time,” the tip of his tail was curved anticipation. “About cubs, the past, and the days to come, I do not care. I just want you now. No more talking. ”

She didn’t feel an inch of cold on her body. Him comforting her with his touches and warmth made all of her hurt melt away. She couldn’t explain it, or maybe it could never be explained. All she wanted right now was him too. “Okay. We’ll put it behind us.”

He grinned and claimed her mouth again, enjoying the squeak that left her when he grabbed her legs and lifted her with gentle ease, something she never had to happen before to her but she wraps her legs around his waist to hold on. She looks at him in surprise, “Oh, jeez. You’re taller than I thought.”

He walks for the bed and laid her down, each sharing their laughter before succumbing to their heat again. They did make it to the bed.