And then there were more practical matters to worry about. Like worrying about her being able to fly.
Wings. She was growing fucking wings.
Katie wasn’t sure she truly believed the doctor. Sure, her shoulders had felt a little weird, but the constant nausea had been far more of an issue.
Even more intense than the whole wings situation was the fact that she wasn’t pregnant. Deep down, secretly, she had thought she was. It was the reason she hadn’t fled the planet. It was the reason she had stayed close and caused chaos and basically made it easy for Dominax to find her. Subconsciously, of course. She would never have done any of that consciously, because everything she had just thought to herself was obviously crazy.
But she was disappointed.
The thoughts of being pregnant had been terrifying, but she had felt so much less alone. A baby would mean she wasn’t the only human on the planet. She would have been the only human, plus .5 of a human.
She hadn’t actually lost anything, but she had lost the idea of a thing, and that made her sad, and made her cling to Dominax a little harder than was really wise.
Katie couldn’t even tell him what the problem was. She had been so vocal about not wanting a baby. It made no sense to now be mourning the loss of one that never was. But that was the human experience all over. Being caught in a state of constant contradiction, never really knowing what she wanted really. Or knowing one day, and then not knowing the next. It was all so confusing.
“There is some good news in all of this, my king.”
“Oh yes, what is that?” Dominax was already thinking about how tedious it was going to be to have to bar all the windows of the palace.
“My tests indicate that our species are reproductively compatible. Your initial attempts may not have been successful due to the changes taking place elsewhere in her body, but I believe in the future, conception is possible.”
That was good news. A smile spread over Dominax’s face, hope for the future, along with the promise of new life emerging from the woman he loved.
He looked at his pet, and saw a similar hope on her face.
No matter what she had said, or even yelled, she had been disappointed when the doctor said she wasn’t pregnant. He had learned to decipher her emotions quite well. She was full of them, constantly emitting one feeling after another. When the doctor confirmed her lack of pregnancy, her face had fallen and her eyes had gone dull. Now there was fresh fire in her gaze.
“Don’t get ideas,” she said. “Don’t…”
He swept her up into his arms, holding her tight though she squirmed and made faces of discontent at him, only to bury her face in his neck and growl…
“I might have missed you, but I’ll never admit it. And I’m out of here as soon as I grow these wings in.”
“One thing at a time,” Dominax rumbled back. “Plan your escape later. You are still weak for the moment. And you need to be taken care of while your wings emerge. Let me do that. Let me do something for you.”
“What?”
“Let me love you.”
“I can’t stop you loving me. But why would you love me? How could you love me? I’m nothing to you.”
“I missed you a great deal,” he growled in her ear. “There was not a day you were gone that I did not search for you, and did not fear for you. Please, do not run from me again, my pet.”
His words were sweet, but her strange captivity was not. “I can’t promise that. I can’t promise anything. I’m going to have wings. Who knows how else I will change here.”
“However you change, I will want you, Katie. More than want you. You are mine. You are absolutely, entirely, completely mine.”
17 Love Hurts
Growing wings hurts.
It must have been one of those weird psychological things, because before the doctor brought it up, Katie hadn’t noticed she was growing wings at all. But from the moment she was told, she started to feel an ache which made her fractious and uncomfortable almost all the time.
Being back in Dominax’s possession was… well… She didn’t know that she would ever truly be used to being a pet. He loved her, that much was obvious. But he didn’t know how to love her.
“I missed you,” he said when they had the first proper moment to themselves alone. The doctor had been dismissed, and Darma had been sent to lick his wounds in another part of the castle.
Katie found herself alone in Dominax’s presence for the first time in months. She felt oddly shy.
“I, uh… I guess I missed you too,” she admitted reluctantly. “But I was mad at you. You beat me for basically nothing. And if you’re going to do that, then I don’t want to have your babies. I want to…”