by Sky Winters
“Right,” he said. “And family isn’t exactly easy to come by in our world.”
Mona nodded, thinking back to her own parents and how they were taken from her at such a young age.
“Do you have any family?” she asked.
“None that I can remember. The pack’s been my family since I was a child. Our people tend to go so quickly and violently that it’s hard to maintain true family ties.”
“Yes,” said Mona. “Which makes this situation with Giovanni so much harder.”
Boris put his arm around Mona and she let herself lean into his strong, solid body, taking in the scent of his heavy, masculine musk.
“I know you’ll be able to find the right thing to do. And I’ll be here to help you in any way I can.”
“Thanks,” she said.
They sat together for a time and Mona felt safe and secure in Boris’s arms. She found it hard to believe that the musician she had met only a short time ago would be the catalyst for what might cause the growing tensions between the two clans to explode. She knew that once Giovanni found out that she was with Boris, he’d attack with everything he had.
But for now, she was safe. And looking up at Boris’s handsome face as he looked impassively into the middle distance, stoic and calm, she realized that she was beginning to feel emotions for him that went beyond lust for his gorgeous face and perfect body. Then, as though compelled, like in the dream, she reached up, placing her hand on his face, feeling the hard bristling of stubble against her palm. Slowly, she moved her face towards his, looking deep into his eyes as her mouth parted slightly. Boris’s eyes narrowed as he realized what Mona had in mind, and his hand slid slowly down from her shoulder to her hip, squeezing the softness of her curves.
Then, she pressed her lips to his, as if drinking him in, her hands on his solid flanks, the muscles firm and taut under his blue V-neck t-shirt. They kissed each other with the same passionate hunger, their tongues eagerly searching for one another. Her lips still pressed onto Boris’s, Mona moved her body until she was sitting on his lap, his hands now moving up and under her shirt, feeling her breasts beneath it.
Removing her lips from his, Mona sat up straight and pulled her shirt off, the air of the bedroom cool against her now bare breasts. Boris followed by pulling his own shirt off, revealing the wide-shouldered, perfect body that Mona had found herself unable to stop thinking about. Boris scooped Mona’s breasts into his hands, licking and sucking her nipples, the stimulation driving Mona wild as she closed her eyes and let the tingling sensation of his tongue on her body course through her.
After minutes of this, Mona moved backwards and stood in front of Boris. She watched him look over her body with hungry eyes as he leaned back and supported his own body with his arms, the muscles flexing and hard. Mona stepped out of her pants, pulling her panties off with them. Then, she leaned forward, unfastening Boris’s belt and pulling his pants off, a sly smile on his face as he watched.
With a deft tug, she pulled off Boris’s jeans, his erection springing free. Mona looked at his cock with a ravenous gaze, wanting it inside her that very instant. She stepped towards Boris, her legs moving to the outside of his, the head of his cock grazing her pussy as she positioned herself to straddle him. Then, taking his cock into her hand, and slowly lowered herself onto him, his cock sliding deep, sheathing fully in her.
Mona rocked her hips back and forth slowly at first, enjoying the feeling of Boris’s cock inside of her. Her back was straight, her breasts sticking out proudly as she moved her hips. Boris rested his strong hands on her hips, squeezing her gently as he had done before. Then his hands moved around her slim hips and grabbed her ass, as though imploring her to ride him harder.
She complied, increasing the pace of her rocking, her hips now moving in a steady bounce atop Boris’s cock. A deep welling of orgasm began to form inside of her, and she began to moan in a sound that was at first soft, but quickly moved into a heavy pant. Boris grunted as he dug his grip into her ass, kneading the soft flesh of her rear with his fingers. Mona fucked him harder, leaning forward as she rode him, her hands on his rock-hard shoulders for support.
The feeling of pleasure was becoming almost too much, the sensation of his erect prick in her driving her mad with ecstasy. Then her orgasm broke loose, as though it were a raging animal thundering through the confines of its pen. Mona screamed with delight, a wail that sounded almost pained. Boris grunted hard, his own orgasm erupting as he came deep into her. She continued to ride him hard through her orgasm, until it finished, her body ebbing back to normalcy.
Eventually, she stopped, no sound in the air but the steady breathing of the pair. Mona fell forward, collapsing onto Boris’s sculpted chest, and fell asleep once again.
CHAPTER 13
The next few weeks passed quickly. Mona stayed with Boris, not leaving his home for fear of being spotted by Giovanni or one of the other members of the pack. And during that time, Mona and Boris slipped into a pattern that she almost considered to be domestic. They slept in the same bed, ate their meals together, and, of course, slept together with regularity. Ivan, Aran, and other members of the bear clan stopped by, eager to meet this member of the wolf elite who now seemed to have come over to their side as the two clans moved closer and closer to war.
And during these few days, Mona began to feel comfortable among the bears. She felt a safety and security that she never felt at Giovanni’s, with the constant drug-dealing and partying. And she never felt as though she had to watch her step in order to not enrage the master of the house. The experience made her feel conflicted- though she was a wolf by blood, she began to feel as though her loyalties were shifting more towards the Ukrainians.
Boris helped her develop her power. Each night, the rode his motorcycle to the park where she first shifted in his presence, and he used his skill to teach her how to control the immense powers that she now realized she possessed. But he was careful to let her know that her new-found strength and power were only the tip of the iceberg; with time and training she could become one of the most powerful shifters that the city had ever seen.
Her dream stayed with her. She couldn’t stop thinking about the gaze of Boris upon her belly. She wasn’t a dream analyst, but she had a fairly strong inclination that this might’ve been her body’s way of telling her that a new life was to come from her relationship with Boris. One night, she left the house for the first time in nearly a week and purchased a pregnancy test from the nearest Duane Reade.
One trip to the bathroom later and she realized that the suggestion in her dream was true: she was pregnant with Boris’s baby.
She didn’t know what to do. She knew that she had to tell him at some point, but now seemed to be hardly the right time. Mona had heard from one of the Omega members of the clan that another gamma had been attacked and killed by wolves. Since then, the clan had been preparing for war, planning a preemptive strike in order to turn the inevitable conflict to their favor. With war so close, Mona didn’t think this was the right time to distract Boris with such news. She didn’t even know if he’d be happy to hear it.
Mona asked Boris if there was anything she could do but he insisted that she stay as far from the conflict as possible. So, she waited. But one night, as she arose from a restless sleep, everything would change.
When Mona awoke, she saw with a quick check of the clock on the bedside table that it was the middle of the night. Not even bothering to close the door to her room before she passed out, she could hear the low murmur of conversation from downstairs. Mona pushed herself off the bed and walked slowly towards the crack of light that bled into the darkness of her room. As she drew closer to the hallway, she couldn’t hear exactly what was being said, but could tell that there were quite a few different voices, more than just Boris, Ivan, and Aran- it sounded like a meeting of all of the high-ups of the pack.
She walked even more slowly, not wanting to disturb the conversation. She approached the corner tha
t turned to the stairs and positioned her body near the end of the wall, attempting to listen in.
“…confirmed her power,” said a voice, deep and low, a voice that Mona didn’t recognize.
“Yes, it’s even more than we had thought,” said another voice, which she recognized as Boris.
“Really? More than you thought? And she’s here now?” said the deep-voiced man.
“Yes, upstairs,” said a voice that sounded like Aran’s.
Mona’s blood ran cold as she realized they were talking about her. She wondered how they knew about her and her new powers. She continued to listen.
“Then bring her down here, I want to see her for myself,” said the low-voiced man.
“I can’t,” said Boris. “She doesn’t know of our plan. As far as she can tell, she’s only here because I’m letting her hide out from her brother.”
Mona listened more intently. What was he saying?
“Then you’ve done well,” said the deep-voiced man. “The girl will be essential in our plan to bring the wolves to their knees. If events proceed as smoothly as they have been, we’ll have broken the backs of the wolves within the week, solidified our hold on Lower Manhattan, and finally be able to begin preparing for our plan to move into Harlem and displace those damn tigers.”
There a murmuring of approval from the crowd of dozens.
“And you, my dear boy, will finally be able to have your revenge on that psychotic wolf,” continued the deep-voiced man. “Everything is moving in a manner that will be mutually equitable.”
“Yes,” said Boris.
“Why so despondent? You’re on the cusp of getting what you’ve wanted for a year; I would think you’d be in more of a celebratory mood.”
“You are right, Dima. All is going according to plan,” said Boris.
“Very good,” said the low-voiced man. “Now, let us drink to our impending victory. Nasdrovie!”
The crowd of men and women repeated the toast, a clinking of glasses rang, and lively conversation broke out.
Mona felt her hands involuntarily clench into fists. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, that Boris and the rest of the wolves were merely using her as a pawn in their game. She thought she had found somewhere she was safe, but she now realized that she had just gone from one awful situation to another. She felt angered, betrayed, as though she wanted to turn into her wolf form and rush down into the living room, killing as many of the bears as she could before they brought her down.
But instead, she turned back towards the bedroom, looking out at the window at the city beyond. Placing her hands on the window frame, she pulled it open, the evening air filling the room. Mona then walked backwards, taking off her clothes until she stood nude before the window. Then, she rolled her hips, stretched her legs, and calmed her mind, just as Boris had taught her.
She shifted, her body changing from her human form to her wolf shape. Now on all fours, she snorted through her wet nostrils, hot air shooting out in white jets. With a tensing of her limbs, she leaped through the window, onto the roof of the building adjacent, and looked out over the nearby apartments of the East Village. She had no idea where she was going to run, but she ran regardless, the wind rushing through her fur as she sped, running faster than she’d ever run in her wolf form, the hot burn of tears welling in her eyes, only to be immediately blown away by the passing air.
CHAPTER 14
Mona awoke in a strange room. It was a place that she didn’t recognize, a small, dark room adorned with dangling, exotic trinkets, the air laced with foreign, pungent scents. She was lying in a bed, her body covered in warm, earth-toned knit blankets. Her first instinct was to panic, and jumping out of the small bed, she ran to the door, tried the knob, and found that it was locked tight.
“Let me out!” she yelled, banging her fists on the thick wood of the door. “Help!”
She stopped when she heard rapid footsteps through the door.
“Calm down, little one,” said an accented voice that hit Mona’s ears as strangely familiar.
The footsteps stopped at the door. Mona heard a series of locks open, followed by the turning of the door knob. When it opened, she was greeted with the tall, dark figure of a woman.
“You are up, finally,” she said, a wide, white smile was a contrast to her dark skin.
Mona looked at the woman for a moment before realizing who she was- it was Sana, the Senegalese woman from Giovanni’s party.
“You’re…”
“Yes, we have met before, though briefly.”
“What am I doing here?”
Sana’s comely, dark face turned serious.
“You remember not a thing”
“No,” said Mona, the warmth exuded by Sana calming her initial distress.
“That is what I was afraid of. Please, sit back down,” Sana said, gesturing to the bed.
“I’m not sitting anywhere until you tell me what’s going on,” said Mona.
“That is my intention.”
Still hesitant, Mona stepped back near the bed and sat back down upon it.
“You arrived here several days ago in your wolf form,” said Sana, stepping into the room, her long-fingered hands folded in front of her.
“I…what?” asked Mona.
“What is the last thing you remember?”
Mona tried to think. Everything seemed like a blur. But after a few moments, the memory of the meeting, then her escape afterwards drifted back into her thoughts. But everything after that was a blur.
“I remember running in my wolf form, but that’s it.”
Sana nodded, as though what Mona had just said confirmed a suspicion.
“You arrived in Le Petite Senegal, making quite the scene leaping from rooftop to rooftop. We had never seen a wolf move quite like you before; there was such power to you, such speed. When we finally approached you, you shifted back into your human form and we brought you here.”
Sana was interrupted by a man knocking on the open door to the room, a small, black tray carrying three steaming ceramic cups of tea in his right hand.
“I am sorry to interrupt, but I figured something to drink was in order,” he said.
“You’re…” started Mona, recognizing the man as Sana’s companion from the other night.
“Awa, Sana’s brother,” he said, offering the tea. “Here, this will restore your vitality.”
Mona took the small, intricately decorated cup and brought the steaming liquid to her mouth, taking a sip. The tea had a spicy, earthy taste that was complex and delightful.
“Then what happened?”
“We brought you here before you could draw too much attention to yourself. And once you were here, you begged for use of our potions to rid you of the baby that grows inside of you.”
Again, this swirled back into Mona’s mind. She remembered wanting nothing more than to abort Boris’s baby. She remembered being filled with disgust at the man who betrayed her, the thought of carrying his child unbearable.
“And…did you do it?” asked Mona, now less certain of what she wanted.
Awa and Sana looked at one another with the same apprehensive expression, as though trying to determine exactly how much they should tell her.
“We…tried,’ said Awa.
“Tried?” asked Mona, her voice demanding. “What do you mean?”
“Aborting a shifter baby is no small task, but we had a potion that purported to do just that,” said Sana.
“But it had never been used before,” added Awa.
“And once we gave it to you, instead of terminating the child, it unlocked the power that remained untapped within you,” said Sana. “We were forced to give you another potion that put you into a brief coma, in order for your body to acclimate to the new power that courses through it.”
Mona sat back, her hands wrapped around the small tea cup.
“Then I still have the baby?”
“Fortunately, yes. Or unfortunately, depending
on your perspective.”
A wave of relief washed over Mona. As much as the thought of carrying Boris’s child repulsed her, she couldn’t help but feel glad that the potion didn’t do its work. She didn’t know why, but she felt that there was something important about this baby.
“So, I’m still pregnant, I have more power than I’ve ever had before, and I’ve been unconscious for several days. Great. Anything else?”
Awa and Sana exchanged that same look of apprehension.
“Yes,” said Sana, her eyes closed, as if preparing to deliver more bad news. “The war between the wolves and the bears has finally broken out.”
Nausea rushed through Mona. Everything that she had heard recently led her to believe that the war was inevitable, but hearing that it was now a reality was almost too much for her to take in.
“What…what happened?”
“It appears that the wolves, your people, made a preemptive strike upon the bears. Several were killed on the bear’s home turf in the East Village.”
“Boris?” Mona blurted out.
“We do not know,” said Awa. “It is the way of our people to avoid conflict with the other clans, and to stay out of their squabbles.”
“But the situation with the Alpha of your clan, your brother…It worries us,” said Sana.
“When you saw us at your home, we were there by a ruse,” said Awa. “We told your brother that we were ourselves considering getting into the drug business. But in reality, we were there to see what kind of man he was.”
“And to see you,” added Sana.
“What?” asked Mona. “Why me?”
“Because, young one, you and your brother are the last in a line of powerful shifters. You don’t know about your parents, but they were killed soon after giving birth to you for fear of their power. And the same would’ve happened to you and him, had he not managed to rise to such a powerful position through his dalliances in the drug trade.”
“So, Giovanni’s deal-dealing is the only reason that he and I are still alive?”