Page 81 of Cozy Prisons
“Kiran likes to be silly,” Kamie said, rushing around them to stand in front of Falkilm. “He wasn’t really scared.”
“I wasn’t,” Kiran agreed, letting go of Falkilm’s wrist.
Kamie jumped up, and Falkilm automatically caught her. Kiran moved in front of Falkilm and wrapped his arms around Kamie and Falkilm as best he could.
Kamie let out a happy sigh. “This is nice.”
Falkilm started purring as the three embraced. A lot must’ve happened while they’d been gone!
Daxus’s body was tense, and his hands were open with claws out. He was still ready to fight. These two reasonable males were about to get into a physical altercation simply because Kiran made a bad joke.
And Talins claimed humans were overly emotional!
She leaned over and put a hand on Daxus’s back. “Could you get me some water or sopa?”
He started purring even before he turned. “Of course.”
Although he said the words, he didn’t move. He kept purring, but his eyes shifted between her and the throuple. Kiran and Kamie were talking to Falkilm in low tones.
“Daxus, I need you to listen to me,” Nataly said. She waited until his entire focus was on her. “I’m not in danger. No one here is in danger any longer. The most that’s going to happen is we’re not going to be as comfortable as we were in the village. That’s it.”
“I can’t…” He abandoned his sentence and pulled in a deep breath. Turning his body fully to her, he sat the edge of his butt on the table and drew her into his arms. His claws were pulled back into his fingers, but he was still tense. “I can’t turn it off.”
She snuggled into his arms. “Yeah, I get that, but you can’t take it out on Kiran or Falkilm.”
He briefly sounded a questioning rumble before going back to purring. “How did you deal with this? It's horrible.”
She chuckled. “Mine was a little different.”
He was silent for a moment before responding. “Maybe, but it was still a heightened level of awareness that you couldn’t tune out.”
That was an accurate description. “Touching and holding you helped me feel better. You can do the same with me. I can be your anchor this time.”
A quick blast of amused rumbles came out of him. “Are you going to insist I talk to Falkilm about my feelings?”
“No, I’m going to wait until you’re asleep and drag you to him by your feet,” she countered.
After they finished laughing and rumbling, Daxus rubbed his scent glands on her head. “Do you really want the sopa?”
“No,” she said. “I want this.”
“Good,” he murmured. “Because that’s what I want too.”
“We’re all blessed that the ancestors were working through you,” Falkilm commented as he finished bandaging her feet. Now that they’d been cleaned and covered in a gel that had a pain-killing component, they felt good enough to walk on. Not that she was going to be stupid and try it.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
It was Daxus who answered. “Falkilm means that our ancestors guided you to warn us.”
Kiran snorted. “Maybe it was our ancestors who did the heavy lifting.” He and Kamie were standing on the other side of the table, watching Falkilm work and rushing off to get things as he needed them.
Nataly was thankful for their presence and constant banter. They kept her engaged in conversation so she didn’t look at her feet. Kiran hadn’t been wrong; they looked like butchered meat!
“Your ancestors must be weak,” Falkilm said. He didn’t look up from his task, and his words were mumbled, so he probably didn’t mean to say them out loud.
Nataly and her friends glared at him.
“Weak?” Kamie’s voice was dripping with anger. “We might be small compared to you, but we’re strong as hell!”
