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He snapped his head away, averting his gaze before he was truly mesmerised by it.No. Do not place the little human in your nest.Because, once things were placed there, he had a tendency to become violently possessive about them.

Things in his nest, especially pretty little things, werehis.

For now, she was still separated from it. Should she request her departure, he may more readily give it if he didn’t mentallyor physically place her in it. He’d already brought her to his home and was feeling rather... inclined to keep her here.

It was best that he didn’t deepen his attachment until she made up her mind. Hopefully, she gave up on him. If she did, then he could wipe his hands of this female, who was in just as much danger being here with him as out in the mountain ranges.

“A-are you bleeding?” her sweet, high-pitched voice asked. It was shaken and unsure.

Nathair brought his gaze to her. Dark brows were furrowed in his direction while her teeth nibbled at her bottom lip. He looked down at the eight tracks of blood currently dripping from his own tail. He covered one of his own claw punctures with a hand, wincing as he did.

This is nothing.He’d done much worse to himself on accident since coming back to life.

“I have some medicinal herbs, if you need them,” she offered.

When he lifted his skull to her, she darted her face away as if to nervously hide it. Then she dragged her bag closer and dug through it. A brown cloth pouch was pulled from it, as well as her drinking sack. She stood and tentatively came closer with her hands out.

“Do you want me to take a look at it? It wouldn’t be good if they became infected.” Linh licked at her lips and inched closer, bit by bit. “It’s the least I can do for you.”

Unable to answer, Nathair just tilted his head in puzzlement that she’d even suggested it, and that she was choosing to come closer. Although the front of her clothes had dried, her back still looked rather saturated. He thought she’d rather remain near the warmth.

She wishes to aid me?He didn’t understand this female.

Not only was she not afraid of him, although wisely wary, she was showing him kindness. He’d never experienced kindness from another who wasn’t one of his own creators. Even the fewMavka he’d met, Merikh and Aleron, had not shown him such care.

When she was less than a foot away from him, he clasped her hand holding the pouch. She gasped lightly and halted. A frown marred her features when he pushed her hand down and shook his head, making the tiniest sound of dry bones rattling together.

He didn’t need, nor want, her help.I will heal tomorrow. Has she not noticed my wounds from the bandit attack have faded already?If he’d needed help at any point, it would have been then – not that he would have allowed her this close to him.

Now that she was nearer, so was the freshness of her scent as it poured straight off her skin.

“You don’t want my help?” she asked, only to squeak when he lowered his head to sniff at her cheek.

The smell of her tears lingers.Nathair was rather put off by it.At least she is no longer spilling them.

Since she wouldn’t explain why she cried, he, at the time, thought she may have done so because he’d brought her here. What right did she have to cry about the safety he provided beneath the ground, when she annoyingly pleaded for it?

He didn’t like feeling guilty, and long ago realised he was rather sensitive and susceptible to such a horrid emotion. Whenever his orbs flared a darker orange, he had a tendency to berate himself – even if he didn’t understand why. The emotion was one that tended to squeeze behind his sternum, as if punishing him for even the tiniest fault.

To make himself feel better, he’d chosen to believe her tears weren’t due to him. Therefore, there was little he could do to make sure she didn’t spill more. It’s not like he could ask her, so she would have to choose whether to tell him or not.

He almost snorted a singular dark chuckle.Doubtful. It is unlikely she will seek comfort from something like me.

To her kind, he was a monster. Mavka were, in fact, just that. Born and bred for destruction, in order to ferry more souls.

Tocleansethem so their father did not have to and then ferry them once they’d finished eating their real prey: Demons. Although their insatiable hunger was a nasty byproduct of the need to find a bride, take their soul, and bond it to them eternally, Weldir had wished for their creation to destroy Demons.

Humans were just unfortunate casualties in a tiny war the untouchable god had created.

Still, the fact that this little female had offered to assist him was rather tender, and her scent under the lingering saltiness of her tears had him sniffing for more. His tongue tingled with the desire to see if she tasted how she smelt.

She lifted her shoulder and stumbled back to escape, and Nathair reared his head back. His sight shifted to reddish pink once more when he realised what he’d been doing, and he slunk back to rest upon himself. Linh covered the side of her face he’d been sniffing with the back of her hand, her palm towards him as her cheeks seemed to darken.

She is rather... meek.Even though she’d been stubborn and as unmoving as he could be, she was showing she had a softness to her.

To his dismay, he found that rather endearing.

He was rather fond of non-threatening things. And, from the memory of when he’d been in pain and shivering from the coldness of blood loss, he knew her to be remarkably soft. She was small, and wouldn’t fill much space, but he already knew her to be warm and feminine to lie with.