Page 24 of I'm Not Your Pet

I did not want to frighten him.

Even if I ached fiercely to embrace him.

I had never hated my teeth, my claws, my size. Until the moment I realized how easily they could be used to scare a person as defenseless as my mate. One day, a small part of me still hoped he would realize those same things were what would keep him safe. They would be a comfort to him.

The moment Huu-goh’s cheek settled against my body I sighed. Something inside me shuddered into place as that soft skin rubbed against my own. My surface clung to him, tiny tendrils reaching out as desperately as I wanted to. Huu-goh giggled, pulling away from my torso to stare at it in wonder.

“Woah,” he said, shocked—he did not look affronted, however. Instead, my endlessly curious companion tentatively pushed a finger against my bare skin. It parted, reaching for him, sucking him inside till part of him became part of me, the tip of his finger encased beneath my surface. “Woah,” he said again. Huu-goh pulled his finger free. My arms remained aloft, but I lowered them around him the moment his cheek met my ribcage for the second time.

I was only a man, despite my inexperience and strict lifestyle.

What else was I meant to do?

He was so small, so sweet in my arms. Tiny. My cocks ached, twisting together in a way that made me weak-kneed. His close proximity did things to me that did not feel fair in the slightest.Like I was a teen just learning how his dicks worked—not living in my fourth decade.

Huu-goh had responded like this before, at the club, when he’d been frightened and I’d soothed him. He’d trusted me then as he trusted me now, curling his arms around me just as tightly as I held him.

I rumbled against his orange fur, petting down his back in slow, gentle swipes to soothe. Back and forth, back and forth. Huu-goh’s panic faded.

I scented salt in the air.

He was crying again. I did not interrupt. Beings both large and small needed time to process their emotions. Some hit things, like me and Mala. Some, like Ushuu, worked through them silently. And some…were like Huu-goh.

Their emotions fled from them on trails of salt.

It was a beautiful thing, a huu-man’s tears.

I felt honored to behold them. I wished I’d appreciated them more the first time around. That I had asked him more questions. That I had been able to learn him through words as well as actions. That I had told him how brilliant I found him—how strong.

He was small.

Sosmall.

Delicate.

And yet he had survived somuch.

Huu-goh still found joy in things, despite the bad that had happened to him. Despite how defenseless he was. He never appeared frightened. Not like I was—frightened all the time, every day. Frightened of losing the people and things I loved most. Frightened of losing control, because without it I had nothing left.

I traced his spine from top to bottom, reveling in the way he trembled and quaked in response. His tears had stopped falling,the scent of salt growing stale. Tighter, his arms twisted around my middle. “That is it, sweet creature,” I murmured in my own tongue against his fluffy head, rubbing my cheeks against it to scent him.

It was the first time I’d allowed myself to do so.

I ached.

Huu-goh—thank god—seemed to appreciate the touch. He made a pleased little sound. It was a noise that I’d only ever heard him make when I fed him something particularly sugary—or when he’d seen the gemstones at the cave on our first field trip from the ship. I purred my amusement, stroking down his spine again in the hopes of causing another sound.

It was lovely.

Hewas lovely.

My cocks ached.

God, did they ache.

“Roark—” Huu-goh whined my name. The sound of it on his tongue like that cut through me, trembling through my body as the sweet man in my arms grew even more pliant. I should stop this. Except that it was so close to what I wanted—I just…I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“Roark,” Huu-goh repeated, breathless and confused but no less pleased. My hand slipped lower and he gasped, stilling completely as I smoothed my palm over his rump for the first time. “Yehs.”

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