by Carys Weldon
That’s when I felt the stump, throbbing, begging to be let in. Correction, whole friggin’ tree. And caught up with the “Do that again, cat.” Cry in pleasure? Hit an orgasm?
And...is he gonna have to again?
Oh, hell yeah.
I flashed my pretty greens at him, twisted my lips and said, “Shut up and kiss me.”
He wagged. Literally wagged. No tail, full human, but still. And he climbed right up into me, and pressed down his burliness on my whole form--gave me all of him--collapsed into the embrace.
Gasps. Both of us. Pained gasps. So tight. No lubrication. Extra, anyway. And he had wounds.
But it felt so good. Felt like something to hang on to. You know, hold the moment forever until it all eased.
That didn’t last long, though. Not long enough, anyway. I told you that patience isn’t a strong suit for him.
He rolled me. Went right over to his back, and pushed me up into a sitting position in one smooth action. Begging, “Cat...Letha...can you...?”
His head fell back, and he closed his eyes, moaned. I wasn’t sure if he’d passed out or what. I mean, now we were both covered in blood. But he wasn’t oozing--that--any more.
Don’t be grossed out by that. Remember, we like blood and body fluids. We enjoy doing it ‘in heat.’ We’re animals. It all washes off.
While I sat there, wondering if he was out--or dying--I watched the wounds heal. Saw his face go in and out of crinos, blinking, I guess, as his body tried to take care of itself. Talk about the war within.
I tried to keep up with him, shifting too. You know. I don’t like weird sex.
Finally, he peeked out at me, grinning with that wolfish, happy dog pleasure of his. Rolled his eyes. And said, “Would you stop teasing me?”
So, that made me laugh. I thumped him. He jumped, with a growl of pain.
I eeked, “Sorry!”
He rolled me again, nuzzling into my neck, growled with pleasure, stuck his nose in my ear, and said, “You really are a pain, Le.”
It may seem crazy to you, but it felt so good. I felt home. Loved.
I flipped a crinos, rolled him, fluttered my eyelashes right up close, gave him another flash of who I really was, and hissed, “How high can you count?”
Bark is not a slow-head. He growled, rolled me.
Yeah. You can see that we were all over the place. Obviously, he wasn’t feeling so bad there. And yeah, we were locked up, he was still inside of me. So this was some fancy, ouchy rolling. Mostly, it had to go fast so he wouldn’t squish my legs, which were riding up around him.
Guess he totally understood what Leo and Tommy had meant about him being number nine. Maybe he read their minds? Or mine?
He told me, unequivocally, harshly, “One.”
Dead serious, his forehead against mine, he looked me directly in the eye and said, “One.”
I got the message. No more screwing around.
But the imp in me smiled and asked, “One...three times?”
* * * * * * *
Okay. No.
One...nine times.
* * * * * * *
You may want to know that he and Daddy never got into it. So, yeah. We had one conversation about this.
A pride of natural cats caught him--when he was chasing my tail. Almost killed him.
He said that Daddy went past while it was happening. Distracted him during the fight, actually. Not that he said or did anything--but run by.
“You know what almost killed me, puss?”
Worn out, lying flat out on our backs, staring up at the sky, there by the lake. I thought he’d fallen asleep. Gaia knows I almost had.
But we were only up to eight. And you know how that is. He had a quota to fill at that point. We were working on...multiples of three.
That’s a thing about garou--something I never knew before. They set goals. Make plans. You gotta fall in with ‘em, or die trying.
You can run, but you can’t hide.
They always chase.
They never give up.
It’s a lot of fun.
I had no idea what had almost killed him. Except what we’d been doing. Ya know? Gaia knew it was doing me in.
“What?”
Silence stretched.
His hand reached out, across the mud and grass, and found me, tangled with my fingers. I heard him breathe heavy. Like he was having a hard time telling me. Picking his words.
I propped myself up, let go with a little fling--he didn’t want to release me--scooted over on my side, and set a hand on his big chest. Twirled my fingers, without thinking, in the wiry hair there. “What?”
His chest heaved. Guess he was reliving the minute. Minutes. Hours?
He had trouble getting his tongue around the words, but finally he said, “I couldn’t--get through--those cats fast enough.”
I wrinkled my nose. I mean, jeez. I’ve never been into killing, and they gotta be my relatives. Right?
Distant cousins. I don’t think about it.
And they did attack him.
“I knew...he...was going to get to you before I did.”
I felt a shudder go through that big, strong garou. It’s one of the things I love about him. He doesn’t hold back. He’s secure enough in who he is that it doesn’t occur to him that someone else might see a shudder as a weakness. But then, if it is a weakness, I like it. I like knowing that thinking about me, or losing me, makes him tremble.
He complained, “Did you have to go as far into cat country as you could get?”
I thumped his chest. “Yes. I thought, if you were coming, you’d catch up. I mean, Gaia, Bark. You’re twice my size. I was wondering what was taking you so long. Leo--”
Leo and Tommy never took days to find me.
I could tell he didn’t like what I was going to say about that, so I just switched over to, “I didn’t know how far to run.”
He sighed. “I had to take care of your path. Make sure no one else could follow. I don’t know how he stayed on the trail.”
“Daddy is...”
Before I could think of a descriptive word, Bark hushed me with a kiss. And then he said, “Out of our lives.” And he kissed me again. I could tell he was relieved at that.
Eyes closed, he swallowed me up in his arms, pressed his lips to mine, and said, “It’s me and you, cat.”
I kissed him back. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pouted a little. “You okay with that?”
His lips turned up, and his warm, brown eyes virtually smiled, as he nodded, saying huskily, “Yeah.”
But more important, he showed me how all right he was with it. He blocked out the whole world, the sun, the moon and the stars. Encompassed me, filled me, groaned into me with everything he had. Took me out of the world we’d been living in, shot it all, and wrapped his arms around me, cuddled me to his chest, and reiterated, “Yeah, Le. You and me...is just fine.” He dropped a kiss on my head, and I put one on his chest.
Sighing, I whispered, “Some people will never understand...this.”
Bark tipped my chin up so he could examine my expression. “You’re letting what other people think get to you?”
“You’re the one that said it, Bark. What we have--is taboo.”
Surely, succinctly, he said, “Loving someone is never wrong.”
Every day he proves it to me.
But I’m a wicked cat. I ask...“Is this wrong?” And I try something new on him. With us, nothing is taboo.
Except screwing around.
The End
Carys Weldon
Carys Weldon is a great fan of the White Wolf Gaming system, especially shape-shifters. She writes her horrific romance from a haunted hollow in the Missouri Ozarks, not far from Branson.
Carys has won over one hundred awards in the last three to four years. Of most recent note in Romance and Erotica: Third place in the RWA Inner Vixen contest with Confessions of a BBW Cover Model, Mays Reviews Over the Moon Award of Excellence for Chaos,
and a second place recently in the Writer's Zone Erotica competition at OCW for The Wet Spot.