The food was delicious, but I worked on finishing it quickly so I could spend the time we had together focused on the wonderful woman who had chosen to love me despite my numerous flaws. As I ate, I just stared at her face, smiled at her pretty blue eyes, and wondered how anyone could ever have doubted that she truly cared about me. Even when I’d struggled repeatedly with temptations and even when I felt I’d been less than a perfect girlfriend, she still cared about me, and she still did her best to make me happy.
They were all wrong about her, I decided. She really did love me. And I told my wolf she would just have to accept that Raelya was our friend, nothing more.
When I’d finished one plate of food and two glasses of wine, Amorie leaned close and brushed her lips against my neck. I didn’t ask her to wait any longer. I tilted my head to the side and exposed my neck, wordlessly inviting my lover to her own delightful feast. Amorie kissed my neck again and then stood and pulled me away from the table, smiling seductively, and lead me to my tiny, disheveled bed. It was nothing like the huge, incredible softness that was Amorie’s bed, but it served its purpose all the same.
Amorie satisfied her hunger, then together, we satisfied the desire her feeding had awakened in both of us. Then we satisfied it again. Then once more for good measure.
19
History Lessons
I pulled my camo-print comforter over the two of us and snuggled into Amorie’s cool side, relaxing happily against her for a long moment and just enjoying the fact that we were together: that she didn’t see my struggles with Raelya as a betrayal, and that she still wanted me with her despite wolf-stuff being hard.
I reflected on the fact that wolf stuff really was harder than I’d expected. Laying here with Amorie, nothing was so complicated. My wolf was quiet, subdued, and generally agreeable with what I wanted. When I was around the pack, no such thing was a certainty, and that complicated everything. Still, as I glanced up at the little apartment surrounding me, there was no question that I needed my pack around me. It had only taken a few days at the pack house for my home to cease to feel like a home to me. Being with pack was just that powerful.
Amorie squeezed me gently and broke the languid silence. “Well, that was satisfying.”
I let out a dazy, happy sound. “Now I’m qualified to sing with Akon.”
Amorie tilted her head. I grinned and reached for my phone, but it was all the way over there on the nightstand and I didn’t want to pull away from Amorie’s side. Amorie flicked her wrist and my phone appeared in her hand. I blinked. “Remind me to ask you about that later.” Amorie grinned. I pulled up YouTube and showed her The Lonely Island’s “I Just Had Sex”.
Amorie snickered at the silly song with me as we snuggled happily. “Sometimes I wish I were more current with popular media so I would understand more of your references.”
I shrugged. “I’m used to people not getting half of what I say. I’m just glad you don’t mind.”
Amorie laughed and shook her head. “I like you just the way you are, little wolf.”
I blinked suddenly. “Speaking of which, I haven’t shown you my little wolf yet.”
Amorie grinned. “Yes, I have been eager to see how cute you are. Well, go on. Show me.”
I grinned. “I have heard I’m a cute wolf.” I didn’t need to undress since we’d already taken care of that part earlier, so I just started shifting. I did my best not to cry out with the pain; we were in an apartment building after all, and I didn’t want anyone calling the police over a “noisy dog” or anything. I also didn’t want to look wimpy in front of my girlfriend.
I managed to come out of the shift with little more than a high-pitched whine and a good shaking-off. I looked up at Amorie with my wolf-eyes and smiled. Then I remembered that wolf-smiles probably weren’t that cute, actually, and closed my jaw again.
Amorie smiled at me, eyes sparkling in the dim light as she reached out to run her cool fingers along my fluffy coat. “Oh, they were right, ma chérie. You are adorable!” She looked me over, dancing her fingers along my fur, petting the top of my head and the sides of my face, and then poking the little dots under my eyes softly. “You have such pretty markings.”
“Grrrngrrlgrr,” I responded ineffectually.
Amorie giggled, then got up onto her knees to wrap her arms around me gently. She pulled me against her and squeezed me softly. “I am so happy for you, Dakota. I can not imagine what it must be like, being finally whole again after so long.”
“Rnnggrrrnngrraa,” I quipped.
Amorie’s chest shook with laughter as she held me. She shook her head as she leaned back to smile at my face again. “I do not suppose we can carry on much of a conversation this way.”
I tilted my head to make the “confused dog” expression, then darted my face forward and licked her squarely across the cheek. Amorie blinked in surprise then laughed and shoved me gently. “Dakota! Ugh.” She wiped at her face, smirking at me despite herself.
I shifted back, falling into her lap with a low cry and gasping for a moment before I managed. “Sorry, couldn’t resist.”
Amorie petted my hair gently as I recovered from the shift. “You silly wolf,” she said fondly.
I relaxed under her touch, absorbing the comfort of her fingers running through my hair for a moment. Amorie just petted me quietly for several minutes before she finally broke the happy silence. “Now what would you like us to do?”
I stretched and sighed happily. “Talk.”
“What would you like to talk about?”
“Mm. Lots of things. You. Us. Other people.”
“Where should we start?”
I considered for a moment. There were many things I wanted to know. “Tell me more about what you do. What is so important about your work that it has such a nasty habit of interrupting us at the most inopportune moments?”
Amorie groaned mildly. “I am still very sorry about that. The last time was rather bad, no? Even partially to blame with the… difficulty you had with Raelya afterward.”
“I take responsibility for my actions.” I insisted.
“I know. But I did not make that any easier on you, did I?”
I shrugged. I didn’t believe in giving myself an easy out on this one. I was just glad it was behind us and Amorie hadn’t been too hurt by the whole thing.
Amorie kissed the top of my head. “I do many things. Generally, I run several businesses, and keep the local vampires in line. I manage and expand my mistress’s interests in the local area, handle situations that arise and maintain her presence in the region she has entrusted to my care.”
“So this mysterious mistress of yours. She got a name?”
Amorie hesitated slightly. I might not have caught it if I hadn’t been lying with my head on her chest, but I heard the catch in her otherwise purposeful breath as she paused her breathing to consider her words. “Yes, of course.” She said at last. “Her name is Dreena Black. She is a member of the vampire counsel, and she is very powerful.”
I glanced up at her. “I get it. Not someone I want to mess with.”
Amorie laughed softly. “Ma chérie, if I believed you that crazy, I do not think it would work between us.”
“That bad, eh?”
Amorie stared up at my ceiling fan consideringly. “She is beautiful and terrible, as the old songs say.”
“What’s she look like?”
Amorie glanced down at me and quirked her mouth to the side as if considering, then pulled her cellphone out of nowhere and brought up a picture of her mistress. Dreena Black was a taller, lusciously curved yet slender woman with cherry-red hair and lips red as the rose, as Disney would have said. I might have made the Snow White reference out loud if her hair had been black as ebony. Her perfect porcelain skin could certainly have been called “white as snow” to carry the reference further. Unlike the dated Disney princess, however, she wore a sultry, seductive smile on the most beautiful face I’d ever laid eyes on, and her
figure was pure sex. She wore a fine, shimmery red dress that matched her hair and lips, and as I looked closer, I noticed, it matched her bloody-red eyes as well.
I whistled. “Wow.” Amorie gazed at the image for a beat after I glanced up at her face. “Hey, you okay?”
She put the phone aside and smiled at me. “I am. It has been a long while since I saw her last, and I miss her.”
“I thought you said she wasn’t competition?” I teased.
Amorie smiled at me playfully. “Certainly no more so than your Raelya is to me.” I winced at that and Amorie sighed. “I am sorry Dakota. I did not mean it like that. I am just saying that… We are very close. I love her, immensely. She is… perhaps in a way, like family to me. Vampires are not werewolves. We do not form the same kinds of bonds that you form. But we can become very… attached to those we care for.”
“Like with Mira?” I prompted.
Amorie nodded. “Just as Dreena was the one to turn me, I was the one who turned Miralina. She is mine as I am Dreena’s. And we have always been very close.”
“You speak of Dreena as if she were a long-lost lover.” I chewed at my lip a little. “Were you together like that?”
“We were…” Amorie admitted cautiously. “Once. But that was a long time ago. And we will not likely ever be so again.”
“How do you know?”
Amorie smiled at me amusedly. “You have no need to worry about that, Dakota. You are simply going to have to trust me on this.”
“All right.” I rolled to the side and curled my leg across her, turning to face her more. “So you and Mira then? You said before you were never like us, but…”
“We were closer when she was younger.” Amorie seemed to consider her words for a moment. “We were never a couple as you and I are a couple. But it is certainly not uncommon for vampires to be very close with those they turn.”
“So you were lovers, but not in a relationship?” I asked with a tone of confusion.
“We slept together. We were often together as we went about our nights, and we were very close. I love her very dearly. But we did not have a relationship as lovers, not as you and I do.”
“If you sleep together, love each other, and spend your time together… how are you not lovers?” I tried my best not to sound too incredulous. Amorie’s mild shift in expression told me I’d failed.
“Vampires are not like werewolves, little wolf. Nor are we like humans, any more than werewolves are. Our society, and our socially accepted norms are not the same as human society anymore than werewolf customs are. Please try to understand that it is different.”
“I’m really new to the werewolf customs too, you know? I’m not sure I know what’s so different about it.”
Amorie arched an eyebrow at me. “Oh really? Werewolves fight one another to decide who is in charge and maintain power dynamics not seen outside of intimate relationships in human society. You really think there is no difference?”
I smiled sheepishly. “Okay, point.” I rubbed at my hip idly. “Especially after yesterday.” I muttered.
Amorie tilted her head. “What happened yesterday?”
Oh. Crap. I had forgotten to tell her about the fight. “Heh, about that…” I considered the situation and tried to think of a way to explain it that wouldn’t sound like I had done something incredibly dangerous and stupid, but I doubted I could manage that. “I got into a fight at the pack house, that’s all.”
Amorie arched a brow at me. “That is all? You say ‘that is all’ like it is a matter of small concern to get into a fight with a werewolf.”
I grinned sheepishly and mocked out a nervous little laugh. “What can I say… I was defending a lady’s honor.”
Amorie smiled despite herself. “Oh, it sounds like you have a story for me.” She circled her arms around my waist and made a show of snuggling into the bed beside me.
“Sure. Well, it started with the run. Lots of wolves came in for the weekend to run with the pack and there were a lot of them I hadn’t met before. Unfortunately, there was one in particular who rubbed me the wrong way and we got off to a bad start.”
Amorie listened quietly, a soft, happy smile in her eyes. I explained the situation with Jack, how he was treating Raelya, and how I managed to piss him off. Amorie frowned as I described the way he’d threatened me, then gave me a flat expression when I repeated the snarky responses I’d given him against all better judgment. “Dakota, you had to know that was not wise.”
I nodded. “In retrospect? Of course I did. At the time? I guess I didn’t have a sanity meter handy or maybe I’d have reigned it in.”
Amorie shook her head. “I suppose it would be too much to ask for you to be more careful in the future?”
“It wasn’t that I wasn’t being careful. It was that I was angry, and that bastard deserved a lot more than I was capable of giving him.”
Amorie smiled brightly, her eyes lighting up with pride. “Then I suppose I can not fault you for it. Go on.”
I explained the fight, the handful of minutes that had seemed to last an eternity, mixed with the ones that had flashed by in an instant. Amorie’s face twisted in worry and concern as I told of Jack’s claws raking my hide, and the desperate scramble to escape an angry werewolf bent on destroying a whole truck to get to me.
Finally I came to the end of the tale and the punchline I’d come up with to end it on. “So I put it in reverse and slammed on the gas. The truck threw up gravel in his face as I tore down the driveway and tried to turn it around. Just as I was starting to get worried about Jack catching up, Andrei came out of nowhere and slammed into his side, knocking him into the trees. And that’s how I learned to drive.”
Amorie blinked a few times looking baffled. I grinned at her broadly and spread my fingers in a wide gesture and mouthed “ta-da”. Amorie burst out laughing, and squeezed me tightly against her. “Silly little wolf, you could have been killed.”
I hugged her gently. “I know but I learned my lesson.”
“Good. I am fond of you, little wolf. I do not wish to lose you, so please be more careful.”
I smiled at her warmly. “I will.” I kissed her gently and she pulled me close. A few minutes later, I lay back from her wonderful kisses to continue my earlier train of thought. “So vampires are not like werewolves. I get that. But what is your relationship with Mira?”
“I love her. She loves me. We used to be closer, but… I am with you now, so we are not sleeping together anymore.”
I blinked. “Oh. Well now it all makes sense.” Amorie tilted her head. I rolled my eyes. “Of course she hates me.”
Amorie shook her head gently. “I do not believe she hates you. She is just… jealous of you. And it is very much in her nature to be so. But do not misunderstand, what we had was ended for many years before you came along. It is not as if you stole me away from her.”
“She certainly seems to take it as if I did.” I considered the situation for a moment quietly. Amorie played her fingers through my hair, petting at my head tenderly. It felt good, and I could have drifted off like that if I hadn’t desperately wanted to spend every possible waking moment with her.
At length, I finally decided to voice the thoughts I’d been mulling around. “So you said you are not with her like that anymore because you are with me. Does that mean if we were not together, you would be?”
“Do not be jealous, Dakota.”
“I’m not.” I said honestly. “Just answer the question.”
Amorie seemed to consider then nodded slowly. “I might have. In the past year or so, we had been growing closer again. Miralina had begun to calm, and was making a greater effort at being personable again. I had begun to enjoy her company once more. So it is possible.”
“And my being with you… it’s putting a strain on your relationship?”
Amorie glanced down and met my eyes. “What are you getting at, little wolf?”
I sighed. “Just that I don’t want to be
the source of strain on a relationship that matters to you.”
Amorie smiled softly and kissed my temple. The soft press of her lips sent a tingle down my spine. “You are very sweet, my dear wolf.” She nuzzled at my head and I nuzzled back at her. The wolf in me stirred just a little, but seemed almost disinterested despite the fact that she typically tended to perk up at wolf-like affection.
“Perhaps…” Amorie began hesitantly. “Perhaps we should consider that there is something more that both of us desire in our lives… and that this is not a problem if we are both willing to accept this fact.”
I glanced up at her and watched her expression. Amorie’s face was carefully neutral, which meant I couldn’t read her at all. “You mean… you don’t want us to be exclusive?”
Amorie raised her eyebrows emphatically. “Oh, no, not that.” She seemed to consider her words. “I am a silly romantic if anything. I prefer being in a committed relationship.”
“Then what are you saying?” I did my best to keep my expression neutral in return, though I had no doubt Amorie would do better at reading me than I did with her.
“Just that… perhaps it would be easier on both of us if we did not consider ourselves… physically exclusive.” Amorie watched my face cautiously.
I laid my head back and stared at the ceiling. I wanted to be adult about this. An open relationship. Lots of people did it these days. And it’s not like I was religious or anything. There was no particular reason for me to be stuck on old school monogamy, and there was certainly no reason why my stomach should be knotting so tightly at the mere mention of the concept, especially when I had inadvertently directed the conversation this way in the first place.
Amorie petted my hair softly. “Dakota?” She asked cautiously. She sounded small and vulnerable. My heart panged and I glanced up at her just in time to catch a fleeting specter of worry in her eyes.
Hunted (Auralight Codex: Dakota Shepherd Book 2) Page 14