The Serpent Lord's Consort

XIII: The Power of a Bond II

She had literally decided to close the cafe for the foreseeable future, and she made sure Tom had food to eat. So Harry wouldn't be worried for his health when he was rescued and returned home to Tom.

Andre, her husband, had then agreed to her decision wholeheartedly and supported it. Family mattered; no matter how estranged to it you were. Stephanie and Naomi; bless those girls Maya had thought to herself, they came over at least twice a week to keep Tom socializing and from totally barricading himself to the bedroom.

Knowing that he wouldn't even look to them for anything more than that. No matter how upset he was with the situation; he would never betray Harry like that. Not with them or any other male that he came into contact with.

He truly loved Harry.

They helped to clean the house and help do laundry; since it was discovered there were no house elves there to help them, and Tom admitted that Harry was more of a busy-body...he liked to do the cooking, cleaning, and all of those chores.

Sophia, Maya, Stephanie and Naomi had all glared at Tom for that; thinking that he was inadvertently taking Harry's like of doing these chores for granted. Naomi's fingers had curled to it. Her sister laid a hand to her to help her calm. Maya then told Tom that he may wish to learn how to help with these chores. If Harry ever became pregnant; the exhaustiveness to it all while being so...it could harm him.

Tom then deadened in his eyes as Maya instantly realized her mistake; she had forgotten that Harry had once been pregnant and miscarried. She stood and went to sit uneasily beside him; apologized to him as tears fell and he turned away from her.

Maya then took the rest to the kitchen and warded it; explained to them that Harry had once been pregnant, but he had miscarried. It was not the chores or Tom's lack of help to them; Harry's body then was sickly. He was trying to heal and the pregnancy had been a surprise; one his body wasn't ready for.

Harry had refused to get rid of the child and Tom had agreed that he didn't want to either. Then at three months; Harry lost the child.

The rest of the women were quiet and subdued; trying to imagine how painful that experience was, seeing as none of them had ever been pregnant. Maya, Stephanie, and Naomi; none of them had ever been married or put themselves in a situation with a relationship that had risked pregnancy as an outcome. They had all; always been responsible and careful about their pleasures.

Sophia who was married; she had not had children because she was infertile and unable to carry. Andre's family had not wanted him to marry her, but he loved Sophia and refused to marry anyone else. His parents finally gave in; knowing that blood-adoptions were still available to them.

After that, the women all agreed to be more careful and to make sure they kept an eye on Tom; to make sure he was alright.

~~

Harry blearily woke and started to the cold he felt; he eyed his body and noted it was nude. Then saw the differences; he didn't look at all human now. He had half-transformed to his incubus to protect himself unconsciously. His body was more like a statue of a gargoyle made of pure black marble; except the marble was scaled and when light hit, red, green, and deep purple or blue shined with tints of smoky gray.

His hands and his feet had their claws out; much larger and very much more dangerously sharp claws that looked like blades than the ones he had allowed before with his mate. Though Harry idly suspected with a smirk; that Tom would be staring, internally begging from his eyes, and even beginning to leak just to have Harry like this with him.

Harry had been waiting for the right moment to reveal the form to Tom and let him play this way with him. He had considered it; when Tom had trapped him in that damnable machine...but he had thought he probably wouldn't have been able to go through with it, so he hadn't.