The Elder's Mate

Nine - Heartbeat

Rhage walked into the nesting chamber to find Artemis slumbering soundly still. He set the tray of food he had retrieved her, a receptical of sweet fruits and juice to drink, on a table and approached. She slept on her side with her arms stretched out in front of her beneath the coverings and a foot sticking out, her dark mane a tangled mess across her face.

Seeing her tiny feet was always a treat. She always wore cloth that covered her dainty toes — something she called socks.

His human looked so small in his nest, a nest built for someone his size. It dwarfed her but she hadn't seemed to mind. She enjoyed spreading out her limbs as if she was trying to claim it for herself in her slumber. Sometimes, in her slumber, she'd mumble words that would be sentences or bits and pieces of them. He liked to lie and listen.

While he had killed humans in the thousands, he had never thought to sit and observe them for anything other than to study their habits so he could kill them. He had seen plenty slumber but watching her slumber was different. She was prey that he would never kill; he couldn't, not when she meant so much to him so fast. This little female had crawled into his heart and claimed her territory.

Every dayrise he would watch her slumber. She was truly a gift from Paya.

He knelt by the bed to gingerly tuck her tiny foot back under the coverings. Just before he did, though, he played with her toes. They were so tiny that he couldn't help himself. Compared to his four clawed toes, she had five soft toes with trimmed nails. She had no claws at all and preferred to keep her nails clean and trimmed.

On more than one occasion he had seen her struggle to clip them, her rounded tummy getting in the way, much to her frustration. The sight was adorable. Her growls of annoyance sounded like the tiny growls of an infant hound.

The pads of her feet were even soft compared to his rough and calloused feet from years of his youth preferring barefoot over the traditional sandals. Her feet were utterly alien and he couldn't help but to touch them now, listening for if she woke or not as he did. He felt he was wrong by not asking but curiosity had finally caught up to him. It was the soft breathy sigh from Artemis that told him she was awake.

Thankfully it was not for long as she barely opened her eyes to readjust her coverings before she fell back into slumber. Her little fingers clutching at the edge of the covering, folding it over, and huddling further beneath it.

He took pride in knowing that she preferred to sleep either against him or spooned. She had commented many times how she found his heat comforting. It was one of many small victories in the hunt for her heart. Perhaps one day he would have it; she already gave her body willingly and eagerly.

She had fallen asleep after he had squeezed three intense orgasms out of her. He had chuckled at how little stamina she had compared to him. His little mate was spent.

There was much to do today to prepare for the voyage to Saqqar. Letting her sleep in was a bad idea but she needed it. She was with pup after all.

Her constant affections to the unborn was a constant reminder. Artemis would sing lullabies and songs she knew from Earth that were taught to human young. Females didn't do this with young on Yautja Prime, barely acknowledging their unborn, so seeing Artemis so affectionate and involved was fascinating. In his personal research about raising young on her planet he had learned that such was normal, encouraged by their medical professionals.

Artemis's soft kit-like noises pulled him from his thoughts.

She stretched her limbs out beneath the covers and made those noises. Slowly she opened her eyes and rubbed them as she sat up, the coverings pooling in her lap. A small hand rubbed at her rounded tummy. It took a few moments for her to notice Rhage kneeling beside the bed, a smile spreading across her face.