“Don't come until I do,” she hissed, and he nodded frantically.
Tonna felt the pleasure build up and build up. There was no escape from it, not the way she was pounding down on him and the way he was stroking her. She tightened her body, tensing herself against the pleasure and putting it off so she could enjoy it to the fullest. When the pleasure started to bloom low in her belly, she closed her eyes tight and gritted her teeth.
She knew when she was going to climax, and when she did, she continued moving on top of Ulfrik, drawing it out. Her hand clamped down on his wrist, forcing him to keep going, and the second wave of pleasure was less intense than the first, but it left her nearly sobbing with how good it felt.
Ulfrik, obedient and intent, was still hard inside her, and Tonna finally pushed the rags of her dark hair out of her eyes, and nodded at him.
“Use me,” she whispered. “Use me to make yourself come.”
With a groan, he set his hands on her hips, and with a strength that made her eyes widen, he tumbled her to her back, never disconnecting their bodies. He rose over her like a storm, and then he was thrusting into her hard and fast. It was primal, and Tonna dug her nails into his arms, showing him how much she loved it. With a final hard thrust, he poured himself into her, and for a long moment, they simply rested against each other.
I never want anyone else. Tonna kissed Ulfrik's face softly.
***
When they emerged, fresh-faced and giggling, Aja greeted them with a quirked eyebrow.
“Having a good time?” she asked, but then when Tonna blushed, she shook her head with a laugh.
“I don't begrudge it to you,” she assured her cousin. “And now that you are awake, I can show you the plan I have crafted. Here, this is for you, and this one is for Ulfrik, I think.”
Puzzled, Ulfrik and Tonna took the books that were handed to them, and when they opened them, they both gasped.
“This is forgotten knowledge,” Ulfrik said, his voice thick with unease. “My grandfather told me stories of the shapechangers who could shape the elements and command them.”
“Aja, if we do this, it will change us,” Tonna said, her voice shaking despite her efforts to control it. “This... this has been lost for generations.”
“It is something that will make us different,” Aja said seriously, “but this power has been ours for time out of mind. The shapechangers who could control it were the leaders of their kind, and both you and Ulfrik are that. This is the power we need to protect our people. We have to take it.”
Reluctantly, Ulfrik nodded, but Tonna had another question.
“You gave me the book for the powers of ice, and you gave Ulfrik the book for the command of fire. Why did you do that?”
Aja's smile was brief, but real.
“Because, beloved cousin, you are fire and life, and you understand what it means to have that snuffed out. It is what happened when you lost Ulfrik and when your brother died. Ulfrik has fought with a cool mind and a calm head for his entire life, but he understands what it means to lose everything to passion.”
“What have you chosen for yourself?” Ulfrik asked.
Aja smiled, a sad thing. “I've chosen the power of wind,” she said softly. “I know what it is to want to be far, far away.”
***
The books described rituals that were simple to the point of making Ulfrik wonder why the arts had been forgotten at all.
“If it was so easy for our ancestors to control the elements,” he said. “Why would we ever stop? Why wouldn't our cubs be taught this information?”
“Perhaps because it is too easy,” Tonna suggested. “See what happened to Bors, and how power has corrupted him.”
Aja said nothing, but with a simple gesture and word, she slammed every door in the tower open and shut.
“We'll be the ones to judge,” she said softly. “We'll be the ones to protect our people. We must. This is our duty, if we have this power.”
Ulfrik and Tonna agreed immediately, and as part of their training with the elements, they decided that they would only use the power to protect. They could not use it for personal gain, and they could only use it to strike at the hearts of the enemies of their people.
As they made that promise, Tonna felt a deep place inside her come alive. She knew what she was, and she knew her role. She was a judge, and she would protect the people who were entrusted to her care.
***
Their plan was simple enough, and though Ulfrik, Tonna and Aja went over it again and again, there was no way to reduce the risk, no way to save themselves if it failed. The full moon was on the cusp of rising when Tonna pulled her lover and her cousin into a deep hug.
“We'll be fine,” she said, more to convince herself than either of them, and though Aja nodded seriously, Ulfrik grinned.
“We will be,” he said. “I want years and years with you, and I cannot imagine an alternative.”
They took their places, Tonna close to the window and in the shadows, Ufrik behind the door and Aja in the center of the room. Tonna's heart ached to see her cousin standing in the moonlight like a lost child, but a part of her was consoled by the sheer brutality of their plan.
Tonna waited in the shadows, every part of her tense and ready. She was afraid, but more than that, she was calm. She knew what was waiting for her, and she understood that there was nothing more to be done. She felt the chill at her fingertips, and she knew that she was ready.
The full moon rose, slowly flooding the dark room with a cold light, and when it did, a figure appeared in the window. Tonna first saw the man she had known as Bors as a shadow cast on the floor, and when he stepped down into the room, it was all she could do to hold her silence.
He was no longer a man or a wolf, but instead he was a combination of the two. He walked on two legs, but his head was a wolf's, its expression frozen in a glare of malice and hate. There was no doubt in her mind anymore as to whether he was still a person; instead, he was a demon, and there was nothing to him but corruption.
He stepped into the room, and his eyes locked immediately on the lone figure of Aja standing in the center of the space. Tonna could hear his deep growl of satisfaction as he stalked toward her.
“There you are, little precious, little dear. Come to me now, and we will finish what we have begun.”
Aja met his eyes, but she began backing up, taking a step back for each one that he took forward. Instead of angering Bors, it only seemed to amuse him, and he followed her, his head down and his eyes glowing red in the darkness.
“Do you think you can run, darling? You've already learned that there is no place you can hide from me, no place where you are safe. Come here, and let us have an end to this game...”
Finally, though it could only have been a few handfuls of seconds, he was in place, and the plan could begin.
In a single movement, Tonna stepped out from the shadows, ice crystals forming around her fingertips. They cut through the air and sliced at Bors' back, making him roar and spin, his claws reaching for her.
At the same moment that the demon spun, Ulfrik stepped out from his hiding place, his hands bright with fire, and he sent twin blazes flying toward Bors. Tonna created a shield of ice that protected her from the blast, but Bors roared with pain, simultaneously hit with a blast of cold and heat that must have felt like the very fires of hell.
He was still roaring with pain when Aja lifted her hands, and the room filled with a roaring wind.
Tonna shrank back as Bors was pushed by the powerful winds out of the tower window, straight back out into thin air. The plan was that he would be dashed to pieces on the ground below, but Aja crossed the floor with a few long, wind-aided strides and followed him out.
“Aja, no!” Tonna screamed, and there was a chance she would have gone straight out the window herself if Ulfrik had not pulled her back.
The pair watched from the window as Bors was held helpless in the air, and light as a bird or a hope, Aja hovered in fron
t of him.
“You have taken what you should not have taken,” she said clearly. “You have ended lives and your cruelty has destroyed things that can never be mended.”
“You cannot judge me, little fool,” Bors screamed, twisting in the air. Despite his powers for corruption and manipulation, he was helpless, and Tonna felt a stab of victory despite her fear.
“You're wrong, I am the only one who can judge you,” Aja thundered, and with a single flick of her wrist, she sent him up into the air.
Tonna winced when she heard his scream drift off to nothingness, but it was Ulfrik who had the practical question.
“When is he going to come down?” he asked.
Aja turned a gaze to him that was almost unearthly in its rage. “He won't,” she said simply. “I have sent him to swim in the airless place between the stars.”
***
The trio slept the sleep of the just that night, and in the morning, Tonna was blearily surprised to see that there was a world that still needed her. She and Ulfrik made preparations to set off back to the clans, and to their surprise, Aja declined to join them.
“I have much to learn,” she said, touching her bandaged wrists gently. “I must see the world, and there is, after all, a monster that must be quelled.”
Tonna shuddered, thinking about the thing that had nearly gutted Ulfrik, and she nodded, hugging her cousin tight. All three of them were different now. They were the law keepers who were going to protect their people from the terrible things that would threaten them. They were both more than others and less, because their lives were no longer their own.
“Be safe,” she whispered, hugging Aja tight, and Aja returned the hug just as strongly.
“Perhaps we will meet again,” Aja said, floating up into the air. “I hope we will, cousin.”
Tonna waved at Aja until her cousin disappeared into the clear blue, and then she turned to Ulfrik.
“Are you ready?” she asked, and he nodded.
“For the rest of our lives, I will be,” he promised.
Holding hands, they walked toward their home, their destinies, and the life that they knew they would share.
TO BE CONTINUED IN BOOK THIRTEEN: Woman of the Storm – Volume 13
Tales of the Golden Judge: 3-Book Bundle - Books 10-12 Page 7