“Well, I would have a wash and clean my teeth for you, but as we’re only sleeping. I’m too tired and I won’t bother.” She said walking off towards the bedroom. “Night then Mr Carter.” She said turning a little and posing in the bedroom door, looking over her shoulder at him. Finally she removed her panties, threw them on the floor and placed herself provocatively upon the bed as he came to the doorway.
“Mrs. Carter… I suddenly don’t feel very tired anymore… it’s a miracle… it must be the sight of your cute ass just now or some other exciting things.”
“Well isn’t that strange…? I was just thinking something similar just a moment ago… get your cute ass on the bed right now, I want to get my hands on it. How d’you fancy a quick one and then we can decide if we’re tired or not. You have three seconds exactly to get ready for me….”
“I’m ready right now…” he said rushing in and almost leaping on top of her, giving her a rather long tongued up steamy kiss.
“Actually, I’ve changed my mind Seb… I don’t want a quickie to start off our wedding night. What other things can we do?” She said whilst pulling off his boxers in a rush and feasting her eyes on him …
“Well I could kiss you all over … then we could swap… have a bit of finger fun….perhaps have some nice real live animal parts in between…. A lot of fast, slow and hard and soft all mixed up. Or we could just lay very still and go to sleep?”
“….Oh…! D’you know what Seb, a wonderful idea just popped in my head, I don’t know where it came from at all… Something about you must inspire me! Here’s my wedding present coming up…..I’m gonna go down on you right now … and you can feel my rather cute ass while I’m doing it…”
“Well Laura! That’s a wedding present I simply can’t refuse…”
Chapter 32
Seb left for town with his father to sort out some things at the practice. She was alone in the house and deciding what she could do to make the place nicer. There were some lovely things in here. Some good furniture and paintings… but it all clashed a little. She needed to de-clutter and rearrange. She hadn’t felt sick this morning, which was rather a relief. It was a bit of a giveaway being sick every morning. She would tell him on their honeymoon she decided. It would be a few days further on by then. More established. Being less than one month pregnant was a precarious time.
She found an old wooden trunk in the corner under a pile of blankets and dragged it out to look at it, this would look good in the middle of the room… with her candles on it. She could put the chest of drawers in the corner instead with the lovely white lamp on it, which currently sat on the floor and she absolutely must throw away the disgusting rug. She didn’t care if great granny Carter had made it out of her wedding gown and a lifetime’s worth of spare socks…. It was going. The wood floor underneath was much nicer. She’d clean it and polish it up.
That would be a big enough change for today. Perhaps she’d change around the pictures a little too. They were all in the wrong places… then she would put some dinner on for them… a mouth-watering little pasta recipe that she knew… and set the dining table just so….she was quite excited… Seb would love this little bit of housewifeliness…. He could thank her in a big way later on tonight.
She rolled up the rug, which was much heavier than it looked and dragged it outside to the storehouse. She would get rid of it later. She was just stepping back up the porch when something knocked her flying. She was lying on the dirt path, a little dazed and confused when Tara’s red brown wolf form appeared above her.
“Tara… NO!” she screamed as the wolf’s jaws opened for the bite. She had to think quickly. She would have to change. Tara was much too strong for her as a wolf. She shifted into wolf as fast as she could and wriggled out from under Tara wolf knocking her over. The two of them faced each other, snarling and growling. Laura was petrified. She knew the girl wanted her dead. She was so much more wolf than Laura… much more practised, lifelong in fact.
Tara pounced and she did too. A massive paw hit her hard in the stomach winding her. There was the scent of blood in the air. It wasn’t hers… she turned to see Tara licking a wound on her leg. She had injured her! Laura took off… she must get to Ellen’s fast! She dodged through the trees… she would be there soon. Suddenly she was hit on the head by a massive paw. Tara had caught up with her. Her shifting started to fade as she became lightheaded… she fell and rolled, hitting a tree. She lay defenceless as Tara made a second attempt on her life, opening her jaws again. She pulled everything she had together keeping her shift just about intact… Tara must not kill her… she had everything to live for…. She was strong and resourceful.
With one huge effort she pulled her wolf self up and made for her own cabin. If she could just get in…. the door was open…. She could slam it shut, shift back and lock it, then she could call Seb or Ellen.
She bounded for her life…. Her body was weak but she was nearly there…. Just a few more strides….
That was the last thing she remembered as Tara brought her down. She sank her teeth in the white fur of her neck and ripped a little flesh… blood squirted out…. Tara stood on her and changed back to a human form as Laura changed too, unconscious and oblivious to the assault on her body. She kicked and punched her everywhere. Her head, her stomach, her face…. She pulled out handfuls of her hair and threw them on her bare body. That would do, she thought finally.
Let him find her dead like that.
She walked off bloodied and laughing hysterically as Laura began to miscarry the tiny child she had been carrying and the life started to ebb away from her.
Chapter 33
Seb was coming home to surprise her…. He had a massive pizza for their lunch and some of her favourite chocolate ice cream. He came up the lane and stopped short at the horrifying scene which greeted him. Laura was lying naked on the floor in front of their home… bloodied and battered…
He left the truck and rushed to her side…. Was she still breathing? Oh God Laura please be alive…! She was still breathing, but her pulse was faint…. He could save her…yes he could… he must!
He picked her up and with tears running down his face and shaking with shock, he took off for his mother’s cabin. He opened the door and screamed for her.
She came out from the kitchen.
“What on earth is it Seb? Oh my God NO! “ Ellen looked like she was going to faint when she caught sight of Laura. She pulled herself together and helped him into the home surgery where he put her down carefully on the op table. She called Patrick on the phone whilst Seb put pressure on the wounds at her neck. It was slowing, some clotting was starting… it didn’t appear that the injury had hit a major artery… she wouldn’t be alive otherwise… she’d have bled out in a few minutes.
His vet training was helping…. She was human but it didn’t matter, a lot of trauma treatment was the same….
“Hook up the therio blood Mother NOW!” he shouted, “ let’s get this into her… she’s lost a lot.” His mother opened the cooler and took out a bag and hung it on the hook. She attached a tube ready for the catheter and inserted the tube through the blood warmer and turned it on.
He inserted the catheter with a shaky hand, attached the tube and opened the valve very slightly. They needed a very slow drip… so that it warmed well before entering her bloodstream. The blood started to drip into her, fed by gravity. This was good. Thank God for this blood, he thought…. If she was human it would probably not have worked, but as a hybrid it was a real possibility. He looked at her now clotted neck wounds… one was quite deep; there was a flap of loose skin which needed attention. His father could treat that soon, he was much more skilled with surgery than he….
Her pulse was improving now…. She seemed a little more stable…. He was still panicking but less so…. He started to clean her up gently trying not to disturb the clotting….
This couldn’t be happening to his beautiful Laura…. Tara will pay for this… and de
arly, he thought in rage. No one messes with him; no one hurts his family and certainly not his wife! He felt anger like never before.
He brought himself under control as he stroked Laura’s pale bruised and battered face and wiped the blood from the patches of her scalped hair…. He finally held her unconscious body in his arms as he sat in the chair next to the table. His mother put a warm blanket over her. His leg felt wet and warm… he had a look at the cause of it… it was more blood… but where was the blood coming from… his pants were completely soaked with it…. He and his mother both looked at each as it dawned on them.
This was not a wound… this was an internal rupture… she had just had a miscarriage.
Her secret baby had just died…
“Seb, Ellen… I’m here now.” his father announced puffing loudly as he rushed into the room… “Holy Mother of God…. No!” he looked in shock at Laura’s battered head, missing hair and chewed up neck peeking out above the blanket…. “Get her on the table Seb… this is my task… leave it to me… you’ve done well so far, probably saved her life… you should be proud of that.”
“She’s miscarried too dad… there’s a lot of blood loss… what can we do about that… it’s all too much on top of the other bleed…”
“No, that should be all right… that’s a different type of loss. It’s not circulatory as such, lets hope that the placenta is not detached, it should just be localised bleeding… it’ll probably stop soon.” Seb laid her on the table removing the bloodied blanket. “Put a towel under her… raise the head end of the bed son…let’s watch the flow for a minute or two, and Ellen… get some more therio from the cooler this one is almost empty. And for God’s sake… cover up the the poor lamb please….!”
His father was very good in a crisis. Seb felt weak and emotional and almost utterly drained of life… he started to cry silently next to his father …he couldn’t really be blamed for that, could he… his wife had almost died in his arms… he had made the right decision coming here… not taking her to hospital… she wouldn’t have made it. His father patted his back and hugged his shoulders.
“Sit down son… you need to.”
He sat down in the chair and shakily watched him work… sewing, cleaning, repairing…checking the pulse, the blood loss, watching the therio drip… he had a very, very calm head. He was in vet mode… he had operated on and cared for many dogs and horses before that had suffered severe trauma and injury… Laura was now his patient, the most special hybrid wolf he had ever treated in his life and she was getting his most professional and absolute best attention.
Chapter 34
“Hey… Laura… there you are!” his voice was faraway but coming to her from somewhere. Was she dead, in heaven…?
“Seb I think I can hear you…” she murmured in a tiny croaky voice. She was so thirsty, her stomach was hollow and she felt a little in pain just about everywhere.
“Can you open your eyes Laura… try…” he was holding her hand tightly.
“Okay… I can try… Oh …I think I can see you a little bit… why are there all these colored lights and why is everything hazy and strange. Am I dead?”
“No you are very much alive Laura! I found you in time. You can thank a pizza and ice cream for that! You’ve taken a bit of a beating and your neck was badly bitten, but you really are mending very well. It’s been two days now. You’re doing great…. Just a little drugged up, you’re on morphine for the pain.”
His voice faded with an emotional sob building up… he felt the tears welling up… it really wasn’t manly to be getting choked up like this all the time. He had to be stronger… for her! He really needed to get some proper sleep too. He couldn’t function much longer. He’d only had about four hours in naps in this chair in the past two crazy days.
“That’s good… I like this morphine… Seb, come up here and kiss me… just a tiny one. Can you do it right now please?”
He smiled and planted a little kiss on her swollen lips. She was still the same demanding and amusing Laura… despite her horrendous experience.
“Rest now… sleep all you like. In a day or two you’ll be feeling a lot better and we can have a proper talk about things. That will be nice, won’t it?” He really needed to stop these tears.
“Very hungry Seb…. Pizza sounds very nice… or ice cream?”
“No pizza… that has been rather spoiled I’m afraid… but we do have some ice cream here. I’ll get you some and a drink too… hold on just one tick.”
Chapter 35
Seb sat at the side of her bed feeding her tiny spoonfuls of ice cream. After a few she was feeling rather nauseous and decided she didn’t want to eat after all.
“No more Seb… feeling icky actually…..”
Her hands moved down to her lower stomach for a moment, there was a strange look in her eyes. He watched her closely.
“Seb? I need to tell you something… it’s important.”
“No you don’t Laura… I already know.”
“You do?… How?”
“Because you lost it Laura… after the attack.” He said quietly with his hand over hers.
“No more baby?” She said in a wobbly voice. Her face crumpled and she started to cry… she sobbed her heart out while he held her in his arms. She was just getting used to the idea. It had started to appeal to her, being a mother. Now it had been taken away.
He couldn’t bear to see her so distressed on top of everything else. He couldn’t tell her that the baby would have been yet another problem for them in the community. He kept that part painfully to himself.
Chapter 36
His mother explained that the Wilkins had left the Wolfkind community with Tara. They had left for Canada two days after the attack to make a new start with another pack that their son in law knew well. She held a letter in her hand. She seemed to be quite upset about something.
“Ma, what’s the matter?” he finally asked.
She held the letter up in explanation.
“The Wilkins… it’s just terrible! Tara is quite mad you know? They have to keep her restrained. I can’t believe it all frankly. I need another brandy. I’ll be an alcoholic soon the amount of upsets going on around here!”
“Yes, it has been rather difficult since I got back. I’m sorry Ma.. for upsetting you.” He gave her a hug.
“No Seb, I’ve never been so happy, for you and Laura… and for the family. But Tara.. who’d have known? She seemed so quiet and sensible. Still waters run deep, so they say… never a truer word in this case!”
“Yes it does seem so, doesn’t it?” He agreed. Her name still rankled in his brain but knowing she was actually not responsible for her horrendous deed did tend to help a little.
“Ma… I was thinking of taking Laura on the honeymoon anyway. Kind of a convalescence break. She’s recovering really fast now, she’ll be alright, don’t you think?”
“You do that son. You both need to get away. Let’s just hope you don’t bump into the damn Wilkins up in Banff, eh?”
He laughed at that, but the thought had crossed his mind…
Chapter 37
Laura stood at the window looking out of their honeymoon cabin in the early morning light. She was feeling a lot better now. See could eat, walk reasonably well without wincing and the scars and injuries on her body were mending and fading. She felt quite good in the physical sense today. She might even be able to have a little fun with her new husband tonight… it had been so long since they had been together, their wedding night in fact. A little bit of that would cheer her up no end. She hadn’t felt any urge to have any kind of sex at all until today… perhaps it was the baby loss… a mental block about it and it had been so tender down there… bruised inside her.
But certain sensations were starting to resurface now, and quite strongly too.
She’d been feeling so down the last few days. The attack. The baby. All her other not so great life experiences were suddenly rearing their heads in her m
emory. When would she ever feel normal again?
It sometimes seemed life was out to get her.
She stepped over to the bed and gazed down at Seb in a blaze of love.
Thank God she had him. He was awesome… No, that was actually the understatement of the year. He had been there for her all the time. Never left her side for a moment. Not like Simon. Nothing like Simon in any way, shape or form.
Her scalp itched and her fingers moved to her head rubbing it gently. The hair was growing around her stitched wounds. It would all soon be invisible. She thought just how much hate Tara must have felt for her. She understood her. She might feel that way too, if anyone took Seb away from her. She never realised what love was until she met him.
A little sob escaped her mouth.
His eyes opened.
“Hey… what are you doing standing there with no clothes on… come back to bed, you’ll catch cold.”
She got back in and snuggled down next to him. Suddenly feeling rather warm… no, make that hot!
“Seb… make love to me right now. No fast and hard… Just real soft and slow. I really, really need it.”
“Okay… I can do very soft and slow and extremely gentle if you like. But first of all, we need to have a little talk about contraception. I have some in the drawer here, look.” He said opening the drawer next to the bed. “Laura, you mustn’t get pregnant just now. You need to get well and strong before we think about that. Carrying a Wolfkind child is a little more taxing on the body than a normal baby. Do you understand what I am saying? You need to be completely well, back on the therio blood routine and much stronger before that happens. Your transformation should be complete. That’s our first priority. I thought maybe next summer. If that suits you… does it Mrs Carter…?” He explained that rather well, he thought. Not much missing from that summary at all. Not much more that she needed to know about anyhow.
The Pairing Page 9