Molaki didn't know if Asta wanted him to do anything else. He did, surely. He had never had a female over his house overnight without mating being the priority.
Male and female friendships were easy and normal in Lykos, or for the shifter society in general. It wasn't all about sex, and there were no hardwired gender roles within the city. He had female friends over for lunch, in groups with others. He was particularly fond of Saba, in a jesting sister sort of way, much like he was with Prim, but lighter, and never with the dominance conflict him and his blood sister had; they were both, actually, seconds. She was older, and though he would never admit it, far more confident. But his battle and hunting skills had measured much faster than hers.
But no, he had never shared a bed with a female before and not mated with her, and he never had been around a woman at all that he felt like he needed to handle like glass. He could feel Asta melt into him, her nose nuzzling into his chest, pressing one of her small hands into his ribs as she drew little circles lightly on the his side.
His heart leapt into his throat at the sensation of it, the tiny female willingly clinging to him, touching him, her soft breath hovering on his skin every few seconds. He breathed in her scent, sage, tea tree, just all the warm autumn sensations, laughing to himself about what she had said to him in the woods on their way here - that they were walking in the autumn winds. He was positive she would always scent like this to him, and nobody else, but he was anxious for the seasons to change into winter so he knew for sure, that that scent was his guiding light.
With a rough hand, he stroked her emerald hair, in awe of it. He had... seen other deer before. He was so ashamed to admit it, wondering if they were any of Asta's immediate relatives. He had never considered the color of their hair, when the pack was pouncing on them in their final moments. Molaki tried to envision them in his mind, thankful that Asta wasn't able to scent emotions, as he was feeling such guilt as he tried to remember these faceless people he was so sure were mortal enemies. He knew he had been told that deer and rabbits could have green hair, but also brown, and greys, anything that blended into the forest or matched their fur coloring, while wolves and most other predators just had human hair that was the color of their animal form. But Asta's was a brilliant green. He almost let himself wonder how she had made it alive this long, her hair surely not giving her any camouflage in the winter and fall. The soft curls were like a beacon; but maybe they were just a beacon to him? Knowing he perceived her differently than anyone else in the entire world of Talia was such an astonishing concept.
But as Asta drifted into calm, relaxed sleep, for the first time in what felt like a century, the thing that astonished Molaki the most, out of everything, was his sheer desire to claim her.
All he wanted to do was to take her and claim her as his own. He shuddered at the thought of it, surprised at himself. Claiming was something that the generation before him talked about every now and again, and the elders spoke of often. Claiming was something that was considered an old tradition, outdated. It died off with True Pairs, now that he thought about it, but mostly his generation just assumed it wasn't attractive to them anymore. So few mates ever stayed together for life, the desire to mark each other wasn't at the forefront of anyone's minds.
In Talia, there was no shame in sleeping with those you found attractive and lustful towards, and there was no shame or sideways looks at children conceived in such a way. A child was a blessing from the idols, and the whole community helped care for them. His mother having different mates at different times, and two children by two different wolves, was natural. She had never found her true pair, and tried to make it work with others. Many families stayed together as a unit, even without a true pairing, but if they didn't, if the mother and father went their separate ways, Lyko was the real family.
He had never, ever considered that he would find someone like Asta, that the Idols had made... for him.
It scared him.
In the dark of the room, the candle he had lit snuffed out by the gentle breeze starting to blow, he had to admit that it scared him. He had been a strong male, cocky and boisterous (he was Prim's half brother, after all.) Even if he second guessed himself, that's what made him such a formidable Second, why the Tri had assumed he would eventually dominate one of them in a few years.
He had strategized for war, in case the deer or the Okoltants came to finish them off all these years later. He had killed shifter plant eaters, and even a few shifter predators that came barging at Lykos' gates with ill intent. He should have been in the front of the pack that was chasing Asta, and would have normally been one of the first to...
…He didn't want to finish that sentence in his head. He refused to, because he knew the Idols wouldn't have allowed it. There was no use replaying a scenario that didn't exist. All he knew was that now, within a split second of seeing the doe crumpled on the ground, he had been changed irreversibly. He was sputtering and soft, worried about things like linen sheets, fruits, and his leather couch.
He didn't know how any girl could find such a weak, silly acting boy even remotely attractive, and yet she continued to follow him, and was now tucked into his arms in bed, breathing softly in sleep.