by Meg Ripley
Time passed without Keira knowing how long it was, lost in the miasma of her grief. She heard footsteps—fast, but unsteady—outside of the garage. It wasn’t a member of the clan, that much she knew; her senses were duller than normal, but she sniffed at the air, trying to figure out who or what was approaching.
The door to the garage opened and Keira turned her head, interested in an absent way. It’s one of the wolves, come to kill me. They’re doing Harold a favor. She caught the scent of an unfamiliar wolf—and then, like a white-hot jolt of electricity through her brain, she caught a scent she knew all too well: Raul.
“W-what?” Keira rubbed at her eyes, clearing the lingering tears out of them; at that, she couldn’t quite believe what she saw. Raul limped quickly into the garage, another wolf at his side.
“Good thing it’s iron,” the other wolf said. “Easy to take care of.”
“Oh, god—Keira…” Raul dropped down next to her and kissed her hungrily on the lips. “We have to get out of here fast. Can you move?” Keira shivered.
“For you, Fido? I can run,” she said, smiling weakly.
****
“I have to get back,” Cam said. Raul nodded, glancing at Keira nervously in the back seat of the car. “Reginald…” Cam shrugged.
“Reginald is courting his own disgrace,” Raul said. Cam half-shrugged.
“He’s still got powerful backing in the Pack,” Cam pointed out. “Powerful enough that no one is going to call him out.”
“I will,” Raul said, meeting the other werewolf’s gaze. He sighed. “As soon as I’m well enough, that is.” He could feel hunger gnawing at his stomach still, in spite of the food that Cam had managed to get into him while they made their escape from Reginald’s shed.
He’d been surprised to open his eyes—coming out of a hungry, weak doze—only to see his former second standing a few feet away from him. “You look like shit,” Cam had said lightly, the seriousness of his face betraying his playful tone.
“I feel worse,” Raul had replied. “I’ve lost a good ten pounds already.”
“Yeah, well—maybe next time when you go against Reginald, just call him out from the beginning. Save yourself some trouble.” Cam had begun unwinding the silver that bound him to the pillar carefully, making sure none of the metal touched his actual skin.
“Why are you helping me?” Cam had shrugged.
“Old time’s sake, or something.” He had met Raul’s gaze for a moment before looking away once more. “Things are getting worse between the panthers and us. Reginald is just…” he had shrugged again. “He’s risking revealing us to everyone.”
“The elementals haven’t shown up yet?” Cam had shaken his head.
“No. That worries me. I think Reginald is holding them out of this—and I think that panther Alpha is too. It’s not right.”
“So, your sense of justice is getting in the way of obeying commands?”
“Something like that,” Cam had replied. Raul’s former second had helped him into a car, and Raul had devoured the meat and sweet potatoes that Cam had brought for him. Days of near-starvation had made his connection to Keira’s mind more and more tenuous, and just as he’d dropped off, Raul had felt it go away—not in the permanent, dead sense, but with the kind of numbness that he associated with cold weather training.
Now that he was in Keira’s presence once more, Raul could feel the link between them starting to come back. “I’ve got a place to go to,” Raul said. “Friend of mine—we were in the same unit. He’s got a cabin he bought, next town over. I’ll hole up there with Keira for a few days until we can get in touch with the elementals.”
“Don’t tell me too much,” Cam said, shaking his head. “I need to be able to deny I know where you are.”
“That’s why I didn’t say the name of the town,” Raul said, smiling wryly. “Or where the cabin is. I’m not getting out of the car until we get there.” That would leave less trace of his scent; it would make him and Keira both more difficult to track. They both needed a few days—maybe a week—to recover from the punishments their own people had doled out to them. And there was another thing; Raul sniffed reflexively. We’re going to need to have a talk in private, once she’s strong enough to talk. The sight of the wheals on Keira’s back sent new rage through Raul’s mind; he wanted to go back to the panther Alpha’s home, barge in through the front door, and rip the man’s throat out. They had done everything they could—the assholes—to make it harder for Keira to heal from the beating they’d given her.
“Keep your head low, man,” Cam said, opening the driver’s side door and starting to climb out. “Wait until you’re sure you can get through a fight before you stir off the property you go to ground at.”
“You’re not going to be my second?” Cam chuckled wryly.
“If Reginald is in your sights? Sorry, man. I’m not interested in the Alpha.”
“Fair enough,” Raul said. He watched Cam climb out of the car and gathered up the meager remains of his strength, climbing over the center console slowly and twisting around until he was able to sit properly in the driver’s seat. Cam had already slunk off into the darkness, out of the range of Raul’s vision and hearing. He glanced at Keira, sprawled in the back seat, oblivious—or so he hoped—to what was happening. She needed rest, she needed a thorough bath, and she needed food; all of those things would be at the cabin. She’ll need even more food now, Raul thought, shifting the car out of park and turning it off of the shoulder of the rural highway. God. She’s pregnant. Pregnant with my baby. Raul didn’t doubt it at all; he could barely scent the shift in her pheromones, but he knew that if she was pregnant, it was his child inside of her. Raul sighed, calling on the self-discipline he’d learned the hard way—in Basic Training—and pointing the car towards the next town. Just being with Keira once more, even broken and battered as they both were, was enough to make him feel better. Raul glanced at Keira in the rearview mirror once more; he could barely believe that she was real, and really there. He told himself that he would wait until both of them had a chance to recover before he broached the topic of her pregnancy; it changed everything between them—and in their situations with their respective groups. Harold and Reginald both have to be eliminated, Raul thought grimly. It’s either get rid of them, or they get rid of us.
****
Keira was more than halfway to wakefulness when she realized that she didn’t hurt. Her back tingled slightly, and she could feel the heat of supernatural healing, but the pain that had wracked her for what had seemed like months was gone. Images flickered through her mind—moments of brief and fleeting coherence in a long span of blackness: seeing Raul and another wolf she didn’t know walking into Harold’s garage, lying on her back and hearing Raul’s voice, the low conversation between him and someone else. Keira smiled slightly to herself, remembering, vaguely, the feeling of comforting, warm water sluicing down her flogged back, washing away the bitter pain of the oils her wounds had been treated with.
“If you want to start acting like you’re awake, I have food,” Raul said. Keira opened her eyes and carefully turned over onto her back, yawning. For a moment, even remembering the way she did, Keira couldn’t quite believe that the man in front of her, smiling ever so slightly, was actually Raul.
“How long have I been out? And how the hell did you get me?” Raul sat down carefully on the bed—at which moment Keira realized that was what she was lying on—and brushed a lock of hair off of her forehead.
“Breaking out was the hard part,” he said, smiling wryly. “But Cam—he used to be my second in command in the Pack—came over to my side.” Raul sighed. “He snuck into the shed Reginald was holding me in and…” Raul shrugged. “The rest of it isn’t all that important.”
“They were starving you,” Keira said, frowning as she remembered the gnawing hunger she had felt through their connection. Raul nodded.
“And your people flogged you. What did they use?” Keira grimaced, r
emembering the punishment.
“Willow,” she said curtly. “And they dressed the wounds with violet oil.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t have a miscarriage,” Raul said quietly. Keira’s eyes widened.
“You know?” Raul nodded.
“Your pheromones are different,” he said. Keira blushed, though she wasn’t sure what she had to be embarrassed about.
“It’s really early days,” she pointed out. “I don’t think anyone in the clan smelled the difference on me.”
“No one in the Clan is mated to you,” Raul pointed out. “I am.” His fingers brushed the spot where he’d blooded her.
“I felt the connection—the bond—sort of…” Keira frowned, trying to think of how to describe the sensation she’d felt in her mind.
“It sort of broke, didn’t it?” Raul grimaced. “At least for a few moments there.”
“I didn’t even feel you coming though,” Keira said. She closed her eyes, remembering the despair that had flowed through her. She pushed it away—it didn’t matter now. “So, you brought me to wherever it is we’ve ended up, and bathed my back I guess?”
“And let you sleep—and slept myself,” Raul said, nodding. He leaned in and brushed his lips against hers, and Keira felt a deep-down jolt of heat that was as comforting as it was startling. She reached up and wrapped her arms around Raul’s shoulders, pulling his body down against hers. After days of separation—how many she couldn’t say—Keira craved the feeling of Raul’s skin against hers, the sensation of him inside of her, more than she had ever craved anything in her entire life.
Raul broke away from the kiss after several moments, looking down into Keira’s eyes with more than a little concern. “God, woman, I’ve missed you,” he murmured, dragging his lips along the line of her jaw. “Do you think you’ll be able for…”
“If you don’t have sex with me right now I’m going to kill you,” Keira told him, clutching his body more tightly against hers. Raul chuckled and his hands began to wander all over her, caressing and teasing. He cupped her breasts, giving them a careful squeeze and rolling her nipples between his thumb and forefinger until Keira gasped and shuddered underneath him. She writhed and twisted, uncaring for the moment about the lingering tenderness in her back, the weakness of her body in the aftermath of her punishment from the panther clan; all she wanted, all she could think about, was Raul—and how much she craved him.
Raul slipped one hand up between her thighs, tickling the sensitive skin there, and Keira growled as he teased her, barely brushing his fingertips against the already slick folds of her labia. “Why did I ever let you mate me? You’re—fuck—such a damned tease,” she told him, twisting her hips for better contact. Raul’s fingertips slid along her labia, gradually pressing deeper, barely missing her clit as Keira shivered and squirmed underneath him.
“You agreed to submit to me,” Raul murmured, nipping playfully at the pulse point just below her ear with sharp teeth.
“Should—should have done it…in reverse,” Keira said, growling lowly as Raul continued to tease her. Raul chuckled, his voice taking on a low, gravelly tone as he lapped at the sweat that had started to form along her throat.
“When you’re better you can challenge me,” he told her. “And if you best me in challenge, I’ll submit to you.” Keira purred deep in her throat as Raul’s touch finally grazed her pleasure center.
“Fine,” she murmured, pushing her hips down to meet Raul’s fingers as he began to stroke and rub her clit. She fell into his rhythm, feeling the bond between their minds beginning to deepen as they both became more and more aroused, more connected to each other; it was difficult for her to tell where her arousal ended and Raul’s began. She could feel the feverish heat of his skin against hers, the hardness of his erection digging into her hip. “You aren’t mounting me this time, though,” she told him breathlessly.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Raul said, kissing her quickly on the lips before beginning to move down over her body slowly. He lingered at her breasts, worshipping them with lips and tongue and even—carefully—his teeth before moving down along her ribcage, tickling her with his hot breath, his fingers working all the while. By the time he reached the curve of her hip, Keira was moaning and purring helplessly, twisting and arching without any thought to her injuries, her animal consciousness taking over.
Raul buried his face against her soaking wet folds, and Keira clawed at his back, throwing her head back against the pillows and moaning out as he sucked and licked. The roughness of his tongue against her labia, against her clitoris, sent crackling jolts of pleasure through Keira’s body, and the vibration of his moans against her sensitive flesh made it harder and harder for her to hold back as every moment passed. Keira lost herself in the sensations coursing through her body, tension mounting with every beat of her heart, like a knot somewhere deep down between her hips that pulled tighter as Raul’s tongue and lips worshipped her.
When Keira was so close to climax she could almost taste it, Raul broke away, licking his lips to catch every last bit of her fluids. Keira let out a warning growl and Raul shifted on top of her, covering her body with his own, pinning her against the sheets and blankets. “Patience,” Raul murmured against her lips. He rocked his hips against hers, and Keira bit back a moan at the feeling of his hot, hard cock rubbing against her labia.
“Of course you want a bone, Fido,” Keira muttered. Raul laughed out loud, reaching one hand between their bodies to guide the tip of his cock against her. He stroked her clit with a lingering touch, and before Keira could complain any further, he thrust into her all at once, filling her up with his heat and hardness.
Keira wrapped her legs around Raul’s waist, pushing her hips down as he began to move inside of her. She kissed him everywhere her lips could reach, nipping and licking the salt-sweet taste of his sweat-drenched skin as they fell into a rhythm together. Keira forgot the disappointment of her delayed orgasm as Raul pushed deeper and deeper inside of her, the tip of his erection rubbing against her g-spot with every second or third thrust.
Keira cried out, almost howling in feline pleasure as the tension deep down between her hips broke all at once. Wave after wave of pleasure washed through her, and she clung to Raul as if for life itself as he continued to move inside of her, riding through her orgasm until he couldn’t hold back any longer. Keira felt his cock twitching inside of her, and then heard the deep, throaty howl that erupted from his lips as he threw his head back, thrusting a few final hard, fast times into her as he reached his own climax. She pulled his face down and kissed him hungrily, taking everything Raul offered, slipping quickly from the bone-deep satisfaction of sex with her mate into a contented doze as they both slowed to a stop.
****
“You’re sure you want to do this?” Raul looked at Keira; he knew he was stalling, that he simply didn’t want to actually move forward with the next phase of their plan.
“How else are we going to bring this to an end?” Keira shrugged, and Raul noticed that her right hand moved to the slight curve of her abdomen; she wasn’t showing yet—and certainly their future child was not by any stretch developed enough for her to feel—but she was aware of its presence nonetheless.
“We could leave the town,” Raul pointed out. “Get the hell out of Dodge and let them kill each other off.”
“I don’t want to do that if we don’t have to,” Keira said, sighing. “I know it’s stupid, and the town isn’t even something…” she bit her bottom lip, thinking. “It’s not something to be proud of, living in a small town like ours. But it’s my home. If we can keep from having to abandon it, I’d really rather stay.”
Raul took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. At some point while he and Keira had both been in hiding—or maybe while they’d been captives of their own groups—both of their homes had been destroyed. Keira’s house, inherited from her parents, had been torched in the night, the blame laid by the police—guided by members of the
Pack and were-foxes acting on orders—on a group of delinquents from another town, visiting because of a game at the local high school. Raul’s own home had been vandalized, all of his possessions looted; at least, according to Cam. Cam hadn’t been able to tell him who it was that had done the deed—there were too many scent-marks, both panther and wolf, to be sure.
“The elementals are the only people we can go to,” Keira said. “They’re supposed to be the arbiters of all things supernatural, right? So, if we want this to stop…” Raul nodded reluctantly.
He’d gotten word out to Fintan and Tara two days before, asking for a meeting; the two elementals—fire-aligned and earth-aligned respectively—were quick to respond, saying that they knew about the skirmish going on between the panther and wolf shifters, but hadn’t been aware of details. Raul looked out through the windshield of the car, thinking to himself that if their survival depended on the flaky, ivory-tower elementals, they were in dire straits indeed.
“Let’s go then,” he said finally, taking Keira’s hand in his and giving it a squeeze. They’d agreed to meet with Fintan and Tara on neutral territory: a clearing in the woods surrounding the town, where none of the groups of shifters had any claim. It wasn’t specifically set aside for the elementals, but they had sufficient authority—and sufficient power—to enforce the area’s neutrality. Unless someone wants to be treated to a torrential downpour, or spontaneous combustion, or an earthquake…or whatever it is the air elementals do…they know better than to screw around with an ambush while the elementals are meeting with someone.
Keira had all but recovered from her punishment; Raul knew that it would take him longer, but after days of doing little more than eat, rest, make love, and catch bits and pieces of news from the town, he was willing to risk short-term recovery for the long-term benefit of safety and stability. He held Keira’s hand as they slipped through the woods together, nearly silent, looking around; even if he knew that none of the wolves or the panthers were stupid enough to try and ambush them, the fear persisted, slick at the back of his throat.