Page 39 of His Human to Charm

“Right!” He shouts, glad that his sister is paying attention to him again.

I shake my head and give Alice a small smile, hoping she is not too in her head right now. She has come a long way since needing my cock inside her to keep her from overthinking, but she is still prone to it in times when she is stressed. This is one of those times where I can see her growing distant and drifting into her own thoughts.

“Alice,” I say, reaching across the table and taking my mate’s hand in mine.

Itha narrows her eyes on where I’m touching her mother. They recently had a talk about what touches are okay and what are not since Itha is now being given more alone time without being watched in the tribe. We are one of the safest tribes in the whole world, but still, my mate wants our young to know there are touches that are okay and ones that are not.

“Good touch?” Itha asks her mother, who flushes bright red at the question.

“Yes,” Alice chuckles and brushes our daughter’s dark hair from her face. Her big black eyes stare up at her mother in admiration, just as I do most of the time. I am glad my young are just as proud of their mother as I am because she is the most wonderful female. “Hand holding is a good touch unless…”

“Unless I don’t want to.” Itha beams at being able to recall the conversation she had with her mother. Alice doesn’t miss how my body tenses when Itha even thinks of someone touching her when she does not want them to. She seems to notice it, too, and turns to me, placing a hand on my cheek like her mother and I do to her when we are trying to soothe her. “Momma already told me that you’ll make sure no one ever does it again if it happens. She says I just tell you, and I’ll be safe.”

My brows furrow, a burning starting in my throat as I look from my young to her mother and back again. I give her a stiff nod, refusing to open my mouth because I cannot trust myself not to be more emotional than I want to be. Alice squeezes my hand, making sure that I’m okay. I give her a nod as well and then am saved when the front door swings open much too enthusiastically.

“I know you all said that the goddess would not make a female suffer by being mated to me, but you were wrong!” Thro’s voice is more of a song than anything else as he comes sauntering into the house, dragging a human female behind him. Their fingers are interlocked, but it is clear this female was not expecting Thro to make their entrance, so, well, so Thro. He pushes the female in front of him, and yes, it is a female we have met before. Poor woman.

“Hi,” she says, looking at the table filled with people who will all love her since she is our blood now. “I’m Jen.”

“Come, sit.” Alice tries to stand, almost forgetting Kinth in her lap. She laughs and then motions for the two newly mated young to have a seat. We left two for them, but does Thro care about that? No, of course, he does not. He sits down in one and pulls his mate into his lap so quickly that she squeals as she falls. “Thro!” Alice begins to scold him like he is still young in our house, which he is, considering he has not moved his things out yet, but still, he is a mated male now.

“Sorry.” Thro rubs his unbroken horn. He does it to seem like he is actually apologetic, but we all know very well that he is a liar. He has learned from the best, and unfortunately, he has somehow surpassed Erkoz’s annoyingness. “I am just a male so in love with his female.”

Alice snorts a laugh, as does the female in Thro’s lap.

“What? You doubt my convictions?”

“We all think you’re full of it,” Alice answers his question. “Now, introduce your mate and prove she’s not evil so we can stop hearing about it.”

“She is very evil, though.” Thro wiggles his brows at Itha as though he knows she is the one worried about him being trapped with a terrible female when everyone knows it is the female who is trapped with such an awful male. I mean, I love Thro. He is like my own young. He is very good at annoying others and seems to find much joy in it. It makes me wonder if this female might actually be evil. Maybe that is what bonds them together.

“Are you going to leave?” Itha asks. The sassy attitude she had before he arrived is completely gone now that he is back in our home. “Momma said you’re going to live in a different house, but I want you to stay here.”

Thro’s smile fades, making me think he is taking what his sister is saying to him seriously. Even his mate is putting a hand on his chest, telling him to be kind in this moment. Thro looks to Alice for an answer, but this is a question only he can answer. We cannot make him stay, though we would not say no if he wanted to. We also cannot make him tell Itha that he will still be around. He is a grown male, mated to his own female now. He has other responsibilities, and I hope those include my young, but they do not have to.

Thro’s jaw ticks, his brows furrowing before he takes a deep breath. “One moment, sweet mate,” he murmurs to Jen. Her face flushes at the sweetness he is giving her. I am sure Thro can be sweet, but he doesn’t show that to me. He saves it for Alice and his sisters. Jen gets out of Thro’s lap and sits in the other chair we pulled out. She watches with interest as the rest of us do as Thro kneels on the ground next to Itha. “I will not be staying in our home any longer. I need to make a new home with my mate.”

“But I want you to stay here.” Itha’s small bottom lip quivers as she sniffles. I know my daughter, and crying for Thro is not something she will want to do. If it happens, and I think it might, none of us will be allowed to mention it ever because she will be very unhappy.

“No, you want me in my own home,” Thro says, nodding as Itha starts shaking her head. “Yes, it is better if I fill my own home with young. Could you imagine three of me running around to annoy you and your blood?”

“There’s four of us, though, and we’ll be bigger than them,” Itha says like it is an acceptable answer.

“They will be more annoying, I promise.”

“I don’t care.” Itha wipes at her face, making sure none of us see the tear for longer than a moment. “You can stay here and raise your young here. I can help. I’m good at watching over young.”

She most certainly is not. If it were only her and her siblings in the tribe, she would leave them in an instant to find some of the sweets the females make. Her siblings would be abandoned immediately, and for her to say otherwise has everyone at the table, excluding Jen, trying to stop themselves from laughing.

“How about we make a deal?” Jen leans forward in her chair, receiving a death glare from Itha for interrupting her conversation with Thro. Jen either does not notice or does not care because she continues offering my daughter something she will most definitely agree to. “You can come and stay with us as much as you want.”

“Well—“ Thro begins to add stipulations to what his mate has said, but Alice is quick to jump in.

“No, no, let Itha decide.” My mate makes a serious face even though I can see her shoulders shaking with a silent laugh. Thro knows at this point how many times he blocked me from being inside my mate, how many nights he stopped relations from happening because he was scared, and just how much alone time we gave up in having him stay in our home until he was mated. Alice and I won’t let our daughter be that awful to him, but it is wonderful to see his eyes widen in horror and for him to try to silently tell his mate that she has messed up in so many ways. From the twinkle in her eyes, it seems like she knows exactly what she has done.

“I can agree to those terms,” Itha says after thinking about the offer for only a moment. “Can I stay tonight?”

Thro’s eyes go even wider, one of them twitching slightly. The mating ceremony does not give a couple space to be with one another. It only gives them a place to find out who their mate might be. Depending on if Thro came here as soon as he finished the mating ceremony, he might not have even mated Jen yet, and my daughter is already getting in the way. I would drag out his worry more, but I can be a kind male sometimes.

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