by Jamie Klaire
She made her decision, standing there in the woods over Ziva. It wasn't even a tough decision, in her eyes.
Stay, and live to see her cub die, her pack divided, and her brother eaten by grief. Or go, and know her family would be safe, even if she herself wasn't a part of it.
In that instant, Reine chose her cub's life over her own.
She never told Thomas, or anyone else, why she left. Henry tried to get the information out of her, but she didn't have the heart to tell him that in one future he lost his child, and in this one he was destined to lose her. She just didn't have it in her.
She briefly thought of staying, and trying to change the future, but she knew she just couldn't gamble with her cub's life like that. She'd rather gamble with her own.
Chapter 5
Emma woke, her mother's visions still fresh in her mind.
She stretched her body tentatively, to help wake herself up, and was rewarded with dull aches and pains. She glanced around, groggy, to realize that she was in her own cabin, tucked into her own bed. Elam was beside her, propped up on his side, watching her wake.
"How do you feel?" He asked.
His face was full of love and concern, with no sign of being pissed at her for killing his adopted mother.
Emma realized that he probably had no way of knowing that she was also his real, biological mother, born from a rape by a shape shifting mist-man, and that outside of insanity-laced ravings, Ziva had never admitted that to anyone outside of her original pack, before spilling her guts to Emma and Kate just before trying to kill them. That was assuming that her ravings could even be trusted as truth, Emma thought.
"Honestly, I don't feel too bad. Wasn't I shot? Twice? Am I on some really good drugs or something, not to feel like hell? Or am I still dreaming all of this as well?"
"As well? What have you been dreaming about?"
Emma wasn't quite ready to talk about that, she wanted to mull everything her mother had shown her over in her mind before exposing everything to the light of day. She had no interest in everyone thinking she'd lost her mind in addition to being shot.
"How did I get here? Did Ziva really shoot me?"
She asked as much to change the subject as to find out the answers.
"Yes. According to the images you were rapid-firing at me, she did. According to Kate, as well. I carried you here, on my back. You gave me quite a scare, you know, passing out at my feet like that, covered in blood."
"I'm sorry. Ziva. Is she...?"
"Dead? Oh, yes. You took her down just like I taught you when we were hunting."
"Elam, stop. That sounds so... Don't you care that I...?"
"That you defended not only yourself, but Kate too? From an insane mad-woman who admitted everything from being raped and abandoning me to killing the people who took me in? The same crazed woman who was determined to kill you both as well? Emma, I can't be angry about any of it. You saved Kate. And more importantly, to me anyway, you saved yourself. Ziva was right, it would kill me to lose you. I love you, Emma. More than anything."
"Wait, how did you know? I didn't even start trying to throw visions at you until right before Ziva tried to kill Kate."
"That can't be right. I started getting images right before you were knocked out in the hot springs. Talk about an attention-getter, Galen and I were preparing for the pack meeting when I saw you and Kate in the spring, and then boom, I saw Kate's face in alarm right before your mind went blank. Damn Em, I was so grateful when you opened your eyes again. I was able to see where you were then, and Galen and I headed toward the cave instead of the hot springs."
"How is that even possible?"
"I don't know, the pack connection, I guess. I saw a lot after that. Things you couldn't have known about. I saw Reine and Thomas's Alpha Challenge. I saw Ziva growing up, getting raped. I saw her order Kate to kill you, and Kate refuse. I saw everything."
"So you know that Ziva..."
"Is my real mother? Yes. And that she doesn't know who my father is, except for seeing him materialize out of nowhere? Yes. I'd imagine that he was a shape shifter, like me. Our history's stories don't often have anything nice to say about their kind. About my kind."
"But I still don't understand how...Oh! I got all of those images from my mother. She had the same affinity for visions I do, I got the ability from her. She must have thrown them at you, to get you to come help us. Or from Ziva, when she touched me."
"However they came, I am grateful. We never would have known what happened, or where to find you, otherwise."
"I thought you were angry, finding us like you did. You two were growling so fiercely. I shifted to tell you, to explain, but that is all I remember."
"We were growling to threaten whoever held our mates in danger. I had flashes, and I passed what I could onto Galen, with our pack connection in our wolf forms. He just followed me, he had some idea what we'd be walking in on inside that cave, just not every detail about everything. You shouldn't have shifted into human form. That was why you passed out."
"Does Galen understand? That I was protecting Kate, not attacking his mother?"
"Yes, Galen knows everything. Between my connection and Kate, he had no real chance to misunderstand. He is grateful to you, for saving his mate. I'm sure he will be by once you have fully recovered to tell you so himself."
"Why don't I feel worse? I'm sore, but I don't feel anything like I'd imagine someone who's been shot should feel. You said I passed out because I shifted?"
"Shifting from wolf to human compresses everything you are. When you shifted all that wounded wolfness into your smaller, less capable human form, it was like squeezing out a sponge. When you squeezed yourself like a sponge, so to speak, you lost a lot of blood, very quickly. So you lost consciousness. Your wolf blood helps you to heal, though. That is why you don't feel as badly as you think you should. Plus Ziva was only carrying a .22 derringer. It only held two small bullets, although you took both of them."
"How long was I out?"
"A couple of days."
"Mom showed me why she left. She left for me. Did she send you those visions, too? While I was unconscious?"
"Some of them. I checked in to make sure you were all right."
"Ziva attacked her. Did you see that part? Way back when they were both pregnant. Reine with me, and Ziva with Galen. Reine almost killed Ziva back then, but she saw those future possibilities, and she left instead. Ziva accused my mother of carrying the shapeshifter's child, too. Or of being one of his 'spawn' herself. Ziva was already crazy, even back then. She saw Ziva killing me, and dividing the pack. She also saw that by taking me away, by raising me human, that everything would work out, but that she wasn't in that future. My future. She saw a future where she survived and I didn't, and she chose the future where she didn't exist, but I did. She saved me, before I was even born. And then she saved me by sending you to me."
"You saved yourself that time, Emma. You saved yourself, and Kate. You saved me, too. If anything had happened to you, if Ziva had killed you instead of the other way around...
Ziva was right about that. Losing you would have killed me. I know we've just started, and I know our bond is still young, but I love you more than anything, Emma. I've loved you since the moment you crested that cliff with your dad and Kate, and tried to protect them from Galen's wolf by putting yourself between them and ordering them not to run.
I loved you even then, before the first time we touched at that bonfire and I watched images of us, together, flit across your face. I couldn't see what you 'saw' back then, but I knew it had to be good. Your eyes glowed with heat, and you blushed red hot. I wanted to claim you as my mate right there. When Galen and Kate mated so quickly, I was jealous. I wanted that to be us."
"I wasn't ready then. I was still getting used to finding out werewolves were real. But I will admit that those flashes at the bon fire were hot."
"Oh yeah?" Elam teased her, leaning in and kissing her lips. "How hot?"
Emma smiled against his lips, enjoying the pressure of his kiss. She deepened the kiss, running her tongue softly over his bottom lip and pressing inside.
He kissed her back, softly, opening his mouth to hers.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, and tugged him closer to her, opening her mouth wider. All of the danger and emotion from her adventure needed to be released, her body barely hurt at all and she found herself wanting Elam, needing him to make her forget everything she'd been through, everything she'd learned, just for a little while.
She needed to reconnect, to him, to life. The more they kissed, the more she needed. She fisted her hands in his hair, and threw her head back, exposing her neck to his mouth.
"Emma, we shouldn't. Not yet. Take some time to recover first."
He said the words in a strained whisper against the soft skin of her neck. It was almost like he was trying to convince himself to leave her alone, so she could heal.
But she could feel the hardness of him as she pulled him closer, and she knew that he was what she needed to heal, not time.
He tried to pull away, but she didn't want him too, so she answered his forgotten question.
"How hot were my visions by the bon fire? You mean my visions of wrapping my legs around your waist as you pressed me up against the cave wall? Oh, they were hot as hell. So were the ones where we were naked, rolling around on the skins there in the cave.
Take me there soon, Elam. Please. I want to erase the bad memories of Ziva in that cave, when I was tied up on those furs. I want to make new memories there, with you, and to remember that cave instead by rolling around naked with you on those furs. I want you between my thighs on those furs. Will you? Take me there? Will you help me remember that cave in a good way again? As the place where you bury yourself between my thighs, again and again?"
"Hell Emma, I'll take you there now. You are making it very hard for me to let you rest. Just say the word and we can go this very minute."
"Oh, no. Not yet. Rolling around with you in that cave will have to wait."
"Are you hurting?" Elam pulled back to look at her, afraid to hurt her more than she was already hurt.
"I just meant that I want you now, silly. Taking me in that cave will have to wait. Because right now I want you to take me here. Now. In this bed. I can't wait long enough to go to the cave with you, my love. I need you inside me now."
Chapter 6
"Say it again."
"What? That I want you inside me? That I need you to take me here?"
"Damn, Em. That does amazing things to my cock. But no, I meant say 'my love.'"
Emma used her grip on his hair to pull his face back from hers. She looked at him hard, the wheels turning swiftly in her brain.
"Elam, have I not told you how much I love you? I haven't, have I? Well let me fix that right now. I know we've had a lot going on, but there is no excuse for...Elam, I love you. I love you more and more every day. You are not what I expected when my dad dropped me off here to keep me out of trouble, by any means. But I love you.
You have captured my heart. My body needs your body like the fields need rain. I ache for you when you aren't near me. I think of you when you are away from me. You taught me to shift, to hunt, to make love, to fuck, and most of all- to love. I love you, Elam. I chose you. I chose to be your mate. I chose to be your lover. I chose to be your friend. I chose to give you my life, to remain here forever, yours, and I'm so very glad I did.
I love you, Elam, so very much already. And right now, I choose to have every inch of you buried deep inside me. I choose to love you, again and again, until I literally, physically burst with the pleasure of loving you. Please, show me how much you love me, and let me show you the same. Love me, Elam. Long, and loud. Gentle and rough. Please Elam, love me. Now."
Emma watched, word by word, meaning by meaning, as her words hit Elam. She squealed with delight as the light in his eyes grew and changed from adoring and careful and loving, to aroused and needy and heated.
His mouth found hers again, only this time his tenderness was overshadowed by need. He kissed her with primal desire. His tongue was thorough as he tasted every inch of her mouth, his hands wandering, pulling, tugging, until he found her wrists and suddenly pulled them up above her head, pinning her in place underneath him.
He kissed a path from just under her ear, down her neck and over the swells of her breasts. She was beautifully naked underneath him, and no barriers stood between them as his mouth teased a hot trail toward one pointed, pink nipple.
He teased the peak of her nipple with the very tip of his tongue before drawing it into his mouth and sucking on the sensitive nub.
She moaned her encouragement as she arched her back to press her breast more firmly against his mouth. He sucked harder, nipping the bud with his teeth before soothing it again with the flat of his tongue.
His hands released their grip on her wrists, one hand roaming over her body before cupping her other breast and aiming it toward his mouth so he could give that one equal attention, and his other arm helping to prop himself up to kiss Emma in all the ways he wanted to.
Emma decided that she wanted to take charge. She realized that Elam had tasted all of her, but she had yet to taste all of him. When she was in heat they had fucked like rabbits, but she'd never tasted him. She was determined to change that now.
Emma played with Elam, running her hand over his hard, muscular chest before pinching his nipples between her fingers and lightly running her fingernails down his chest, over his abs and back up. She placed her palm flat against his chest, and suddenly pushed.
She rolled toward him as she pushed, using his surprise as leverage to get him on his back. She straddled his hips and then his legs before he knew what happened, and was kissing her way down his chest and stomach before he even though to protest.
"You should be resting. I was going to help you relax."
She laughed, her breath against his stomach as her tongue licked a trail farther south.
"I am relaxing. Kissing you is very relaxing."
Her tongue dipped lower, following his trail of dark hair as it led to his lower abdomen, just above his thick, dark nest of hair.
She knelt between his spread thighs, kissing his stomach before working up the nerve to head lower. She'd never tasted him before, but she had touched him there, so she started with what she knew.
She wrapped her hand around his erect cock, feeling his warm, velvet skin against her palm. She started stroking him in her hand as she lightly bit and nipped the skin on his stomach and hips.
His moan above her as she stroked his cock in her hand was enough to urge her on. She angled his cock with her hand, aiming his cock head toward her lips. She looked him over as she wet her lips in anticipation. He was hard, and thick in her hand, the tip of him looking back at her in the seconds before she stuck out her tongue.
She licked him at first, starting slow. She ran her tongue over and around the tip of him, and then closed her lips over him, sliding him slowly into her mouth.
He was smooth against her tongue, slightly salty at the tip. It reminded her of a popsicle, so she decided to treat him accordingly. She sucked a little, gently, and was rewarded with a groan from somewhere deep inside Elam's chest.
Her grip tightened on his shaft as she started to bob her head, taking more of him into her mouth. She twirled her tongue over him as she stroked, exploring and enjoying the sounds he was making as she took her time.
She found an easy rhythm, one that he seemed to enjoy as well. She felt his hands slide into her hair, not forcing, but gently guiding her, showing her what he liked. She liked the rush of power that came with pleasing him this way. She loved knowing she was responsible for the sounds coming out of the back of his throat.
She started going faster, twisting her palm just so during every stroke of her lips over his shaft, but he soon stopped her by tugging slightly on her hair, urging her to stop.
"Emma, if you keep going..."
Before he could finish his thought, her eyes were already roaming over every inch of him. She loved how he looked laid out underneath her. She could see all of him that way, from his biceps and chest, tensed from making her stop, to his washboard flat abs just below her lips.
She looked lower, watched as her hand kept a slow motion up and down his cock, and she knew what she wanted to do next.
She let go of him, crawling on all fours over him until she was straddling the shaft of his cock with her bare breasts hovering over his mouth. She lowered herself some, kissing his lips as his hands explored her body just inches above his. She broke the kiss, sitting up on her knees and watching as he took himself in hand and aimed the head of his cock between her thighs.
She sat deliciously still as he rubbed the tip of his hard cock back and forth along her wet slit, teasing her with his hardness and circling her clit.
He aimed himself for her tight hole, letting her lower herself at her own speed.
Chapter 7
She sat down on him, inch by slow inch, reveling in the feel of him slowly stretching and filling her. She knew he would probably take over at some point, when she finally yelled out something that broke his steely will, but for now he was letting her set the pace.
She wasn't at all experienced in such matters, so she decided to just do what felt good, what felt right. She sat all the way down, until her weight rested on his hips with his cock fully inside her.
She started rocking her hips, rubbing her clit on the base of him as she rocked slowly at first. It felt so good she picked up the pace, rocking herself against him faster and faster.
His hands gripped her hips, squeezing her as he matched the rhythm she had set. His hands rose up, gliding over her waist and up higher to tease and squeeze her breasts as she rocked and bounced above him.
"You are so very beautiful, Em. I love seeing the pleasure on your face as you ride me. I love feeling my cock inside you, being hugged and squeezed as you move against me."