Page 126 of Trove’s Purpose

Trove couldn’t help but smile at his pretty mate. Her scent was clinging to his skin, and he never wanted to wash it away. She was clinging to him, and he was fine if she never detached herself. Her touch wasn’t a burden; it was a necessity. As vital to him as breathing.

He didn’t get much sleep last night, but he’d never felt more energized. If it weren’t for Chee weighing him down, he probably had the strength and energy to rebuild the Vainglory by himself.

His gaze went from her to his fingers. He stared at the warped, scarred beds where his claws should be, thinking.

It had been so long since the night they were ripped out, he barely remembered the pain. He was a domini. Pain and death and violence didn’t imprint itself on his brain as it would other species. The sexual part of what he was put through did however, so the loss of his claws always existed in some kind of space between those two things. It wasn’t so much the pain of losing his claws that was burned into his brain, but the reason he had lost them.

Last night wasn’t the first time he had been forced to compromise something because of their loss. He had to change his entire fighting style from the natural, instinctive drives that utilized the claws so much, and he focused more on shooting things from afar.

And that worked out just fine. He was adapted to his life without claws and hadn’t once been inconvenienced enough to make him want to do something about it.

Until he realized he couldn’t rip his clothes like he had hers, and there were no claws to rip through the tough fabric that resisted tearing in a way her sweater did not.

There were definitely situations in his life where claws would have been useful, when not having them had made things more difficult. But he hadn’t actually felt the urge to get his claws back. He’d just adapted to the situation and overcome the problems through other means. Fighting his pants was probably the least important thing he could have tried to use his claws to remove.

But it was the first thing that ever made him look at his claws and actually be angry that they weren’t there anymore. Perhaps it was because Chee had just brought it up recently. Or maybe since sexual desire and release was so new to him, crossing that last barrier between himself and his mate suddenly seemed like the most important thing in existence.

Or maybe he had just overcome something in his mind. A block that had always prevented him from getting the healing. This, the first inconvenience he came across, since losing that block, just happened to be this thing between them that, yes, he found very important.

As he was staring at his fingers, contemplating, Chee suddenly began moving. He looked down, watching as her mouth closed and she made a humming, mumbling sound. Her leg and arms tightened around him as she turned her face into his chest, like she was trying to bury her face into a pillow. It was adorable.

He put the hand he had been studying so carefully behind his head and just enjoyed watching her coming around to full wakefulness. It was a slow, gradual process. One that wasn’t complete when her bleary eyes opened. She blinked a few times, seeming to have difficulty keeping them open, as she tried and failed to focus. She yawned, sniffed, then looked up at him.

A smile pulled at her lips, though she still wasn’t focusing fully. “Good morning.”

He chuckled. A strange greeting. A human one. But it felt apropos. “I certainly think it is.”

She hummed in joy and let her head rest back on him. She didn’t go back to sleep, but her fingers trailed along his abdomen in lazy motions. Sometimes tracing the lines of his muscles, other times making her own nonsense shapes.

Neither of them made any attempt to move until, with a grumble of discontent, she admitted she had to use the toilet and quickly moved. She had, apparently, held it as long as she could. Trove just laid back, enjoying the way her ass jiggled and bounced as she jogged to the privy.

Only once she was gone did he stretch and get up. She took her time in there, so he discarded his soiled clothes, and picked up their room. After a moment, he went to the control panel on the wall and used a slider to open the curtains across the window. He wasn’t worried about being seen from inside. He didn’t know of private windows that weren’t treated to be tinted from the outside. The room filled with bright light that burned slightly on his eyes, but he enjoyed the warmth.

As he was standing there, the intercom through the same control panel beeped and the old male San’s voice came through.

“I’m sorry to bother you both. Master Hyde wishes to speak with everyone. If you can meet me down in the entrance hall, I’ll take you to his office.”

Trove felt the same anger from last night, but it was banked now. More of a low simmering irritation at this person that would use his mate.

But it was hard to have that same righteous fury because Chee was right. If it weren’t for their meddling and their experiments, the two of them wouldn’t have met.

“We’ll be there soon,” he replied evenly as the privy door finally slid open, revealing Chee. Her hair was back under control and her eyes were bright and awake, but she was still so beautifully nude. And his cock twitched and began to harden.

A reaction he couldn’t hide, because she grinned at him as she walked past, aiming for the furniture where she kept her clothes. Very deliberately rocking her hips for his enjoyment.

“You play a dangerous game, little mate,” he growled, his cock fully hard now as he stared at her.

She sent him a playful look over her shoulder, fluttering her eyes at him.

“We have a meeting with Hyde, dearest. Focus.”

“I will make him wait,” he promised.

She just laughed, turning to grab some of her clothes. She didn’t think he would grab and fuck her right against that dresser.

The ferocity of his determination to do so was the only thing that stopped him.

He was getting very comfortable in his own body, in his reactions to her, but the strength of those reactions was stunning.