Forget Me Knot

by Melissa Glisan

  “I cannot touch her, by my father’s decree I cannot harm a human unless I am under attack. The pack alpha usually deals with such things.”

  “Which one?” The cool words jogged him out of a tangled weave of ‘what ifs.’ He looked down at the calm figure standing at his side; a light breeze stirred the ends of her hair as her eyes stared resolutely at the house. “Madden told me he was co-captain of the clan, the strong-arm working with the brain. Why not let the brainy guy deal with a little unpleasantness for a change?”

  Stunned, Lupercus stared at the house and let Sandy Black’s crazed tirade of words wash across his mind a second time. The glimmer of an idea sparked; grinning wolfishly he opened his cell phone and dialed Quint Campanella.

  ****

  Watching the SUV with Lupercus and his bride pull into the drive at Daniel’s Bed and Breakfast was both a relief and a worry. Red stood on the front porch and watched them drive up feeling a lead weight settle in his stomach. Funny, he thought, it hadn’t bothered him nearly as much to trek home naked as it did to hail the return of his lord.

  Deep down he knew that Sandy Black had to be dealt with. It didn’t bother him but he knew it would crush Celena, no matter that her mother had sold her out. He still remembered the look in those panicked grey eyes as she tried to fit into a world she didn’t belong in, just to please her mom. It pissed him off that the bitch never took a spare minute to notice how her daughter worshipped her, just discarded her when she found out her kid was her own person, not just a mindless carbon copy on autopilot.

  The one time I’m going to have to say no to Lupercus and its over something I would have relished doing a month ago, Red grimaced at the irony. Fortunately he was given a small reprieve by being commandeered by Ashley to carefully carry the birds’ cage into the Inn and up to their new room. Unfortunately, Ashley was not amused to learn that her husband had been hijacked on what sounded suspiciously like wolf pack business.

  She is the pack Lupa, I cannot bite her, Red reminded himself for the fourth time as the angry woman tossed another heavy piece of luggage at his head. It seemed the best way to let her blow off steam. Flora had made the mistake of honestly answering Ashley’s question regarding her mate’s disappearance so Frank stepped up to head off the building snit-fit by suggesting she unload the car with Red.

  “You owe me, boy,” he whispered passing Red with a definite smug expression on his too pretty puss.

  “I’d rather take on a forest full of hunters, thanks, prick,” he’d answered, much to Frank’s amusement. But watching her direct a well aimed kick at a handheld case drove it home. He ducked and agreed that he really would prefer to be facing down armed enemies.

  “Miserable!” she kick the case, “Rat-fink!” and yank another out of the back of the SUV, “Dog!” she grabbed the handle and whipped the suitcase into the air. Ashley would have been more impressed with her sudden increase in strength if she weren’t so damned angry. Lupercus had promised, and all she had asked for was one more damned day. One! Red Silvestri standing there looking bored and nonchalant just added fuel to the fire. It didn’t occur to her that she had pushed the volatile male too far.

  The heavy case whipped through the air and Red stood, stunned at the way she had casually flung it up until the point where it hit him in the chest. It was her screeching dog in his direction that triggered his reaction.

  A low growl was Ashley’s only warning as two hundred pounds of half-man half-wolf grabbed her shoulders pinning her against the SUV. She had seen Lupercus affect a partial change without fear, but he was supposedly the only one with the ability. Staring at Red made her bowels turn to water. His nose and upper jaw was a wrinkled looking muzzle lined with teeth that faded into deep auburn fur framing his artic eyes. She felt rather than saw the nails of his padded finger-paws digging into her shoulder and her knees shook in terror.

  Looking into her eyes, Red didn’t see she-wolf, he saw scared woman and his rage fizzled, turning he howled his frustration as he fought to regain his normal shape. Bending over, he forced himself to breathe and concentrate on happy thoughts, very happy thoughts that didn’t include having things hurled at him.

  “Did you ever,” he gasped as he turned again to face a now sniffling Ashley, “think that maybe, just maybe,” he grimaced in pain as he struggled to stand upright, “his leaving was for something not related to the man-wolf pack?” Sweat trickled through his hair and rolled uncomfortably down his back. “He gave you his word. The man loves you, he wouldn’t lie to you. Sometimes shit happens, give the guy a break! He only waited a thousand years for you, sheesh! I can’t see why it is so hard for you to give him twenty damned minutes.”

  Ashley couldn’t help it, she started crying. “But--but, they’ve been gone over an hour.” She was tired from being up all night with the new hatchling, hungry because they skipped breakfast on the drive home and in the last five minutes she went from being righteously angry to scared out of her mind before feeling utterly abandoned. So it made perfect sense to her when she slumped to the graveled driveway and started crying.

  “Oh man, he’s gonna kill me.” Red rubbed his head before picking Ashley off of the gravel and perching her in his lap. Cuddling her close, he admitted, “Maybe I should’ve just bit you.” The admission made her strangle on her tears as footsteps raced up.

  “Ohmygod, he bit her!” Flora gasped out, “Bad Red!” Ashley looked up and as her watery gaze collided with his, they started laughing.

  ****

  “Flora, let’s leave the wolves alone.” Gently, Faunus captured her slender form in his arms and tugged backwards. Mulishly, she balked causing her body to slide against his in a fascinating way. He’d never get tired of the warm taut feel of her buttocks cupping his cock. “If you really want to stay, I suppose we could put off playing in the greenhouse sprinklers.” With a wriggle she freed her arms; slim fingers reached back and cupped his neck, giving him a generous view of pert cotton covered breasts.

  “Pardon us,” he demurred to the hysterically laughing pair on the ground. Ashley flipped a hand in the air, waving them off as Faunus twirled Flora in a graceful arc heading for the greenhouse.

  “You’ve been avoiding me since we returned yesterday.” He couldn’t help the pain in his voice any more than his body’s instant reaction to her lithe form. “Is it something I did or didn’t do?” She’d been so quiet on the trip home that he had attributed it to nerves. But nerves weren’t the reason she fled to her greenhouse locking him out.

  At least he didn’t think so until this morning when she arrived looking fresh and bouncy to cook breakfast. For a moment he held out hope that she would come and talk with him, her eyes softened as she looked at him, but Flora turned and ducked into the kitchen. Trying to get into the kitchen was a bust; Marc Silvestri looked up and glowered with enough threat and promise to deflate his best intentions. So he sat, the same way he had passed the whole long torturous night, sitting on a miserable chair in the dining room.

  Serving breakfast, Flora impishly nibbled his ear and suggested they test out the empty planting table in the greenhouse. “Sprinklers are optional,” she had teased, her warm lips brushing the edge of his ear.

  Faunus felt her stiffen in his arms. “Maybe I should go check on lunch,” she said trying to pull out of his arms.

  “Fuck lunch!” he turned her in his arms, “I don’t give a damn about lunch, they can all go get Ptomaine at the damned Diner for all I care. We need to talk.” Gone was the feisty woman with steel in her spine. The gamin creature that used to trade insults with him had devolved into the clouded, cheerless woman chewing the inside of her cheek with worry. Without speaking, she nodded slowly and turned for her sanctuary.

  A thousand worries chased one another through his mind, the fruit of the Tree had made her ill, she was repulsed by his lack of warrior ability in the field, but he wouldn’t allow his mind to even consider that she had been turned off by their lovemaking. No, it couldn’t be
that at all. Something had happened yesterday.

  Flora opened the door to her office and shuffled inside. Pushing open the glass door to the warm verdant glass paneled area she paused. Lights went on in her brain, staggering her thoughts with streaks of brilliance.

  “Faunus, why didn’t you just read my thoughts?” She felt like an idiot for not having the presence of mind to ask before now. What had once irritated her to no end was now accepted as passé. He looked so haggard and rumpled. She blinked hard; he was still wearing yesterday’s clothes. Could he really have sat all night where she left him?

  “I would like to say I didn’t read your thoughts because I respected your need for privacy, but I can’t.” He caught her gaze and hoped she would believe him. “But I didn’t read your thoughts because I was afraid of being rejected by you.”

  Stunned, Flora felt her jaw drop. Never would she have considered that the gorgeous, self-confident man standing before her would feel anything but total assurance in everything. “Really?” Her heart turned over, maybe she should have trusted in him, but their love was so new and fragile she had feared he would be disgusted by what she discovered.

  “Really.” He cupped her face in his hands and gently drew her forward kissing her lips so delicately as if afraid she would fall apart and disappear from between his palms. His hands shook and she felt three different kinds of a stupid fool. Hadn’t he come to her in a shape that the mortal world had never truly seen? Hadn’t he trusted her with the truth of his identity? Hadn’t he made himself vulnerable to her as no other mortal woman, ever? But worry stepped in she wasn’t mortal anymore, was she?

  “Can I trust your love?” Flora hated asking, but she had trusted another once and had her heart handed back with a sneer. Youth and stupidity had convinced her that she wasn’t loveable because she wasn’t beautiful, but Faunus had taught her that there was more to love in a person than looks, there was soul.

  “Can I trust yours?” The words weren’t what she hoped for but the misery in his soft brown eyes spoke what his lips couldn’t.

  “Yes.” He crushed her under his chin and for a moment she was speechless in shock that he had been so worried. “I’m sorry,” she blurted against his chest, “I didn’t think you would be as upset as I am.”

  “Upset about what?” When she remained silent and slightly stiff in his arms, he lifted his head and stared at the dark mop of hair under his chin. “Flora?”

  “I’m not human anymore, am I?” her voice sounded small and weepy.

  “What makes you think that?” He stepped back but reassuringly rubbed her arms. She seemed so cold of a sudden.

  “I ate that fruit in the time-pocket and things started changing. Watch.” Her face was pensive as she walked the center path between flats of small plants. She considered a table and guilelessly pulled her shirt off. Dropping the garment on the ground, she picked a peat pot with one hand and a plastic planter in the other and began walking back.

  Flora had always been pale, a beautiful luminescent shade that would take the kiss of the sun readily. Now her skin was the brilliant white of moonflowers. Even more, Faunus eye’s widened in surprise as thin veins of color swirled into life beginning at her wrist and ending just shy of her elbow. Moving closer, he saw delicate trills of ivy with small bluebells on one arm, the other decorated in soft traces of green with yellow snapdragons. Most astounding, the scent of each flower graced her skin.

  “I guess Flora’s Flowers isn’t just a cute marketing gimmick anymore,” her voice shook with a mélange of emotions.

  “Does it hurt?” Gently, lovingly, he traced the spindly greens and blues. Her skin still felt petal soft and smooth. It was as if her body picked up on the living essence and tattooed itself around her arm.

  “No, it tickles a little bit, almost feels like having a bug walk across your arm, but not so icky.” The scared sound started fading from her voice as she considered each arm. “It feels like having something drawn across the skin, like a feather.”

  “Then why do you sound scared?” Tucking her hair behind an ear, he caught the blush decorating her cheek before she turned to put the plants back.

  “I only just thought that maybe I was pretty and then that happened.” Self-consciously she retrieved her shirt and began wrestling it on. Faunus was astounded. No, he shook his head, he was furious.

  “You would have me believe that I sat alone, shunned all night in that damned Inn because you thought I would find you ugly?” He grabbed her elbows and shook her lightly, watching the fear in her pansy eyes fade into surprise. “Woman, I love you. It doesn’t matter to me if you dye your hair blue or shave it off. I can’t say that bald would flatter you, but to me you will never, ever, be anything but lovely.” Her jaw slid open a scant second before she jumped into his arms with a death grip around his neck, sobbing in incoherent relief.

  He cleared his throat and fought a smile as his hands caressed the skin of her back, “However, I would like to ask that you don’t go poking holes, ruining all this glorious skin.”

  “Beast! I have no need to get piercings. If you’ve got to know I’m sort of a coward.” Laughing she eased her grip on his neck and relaxed against his chest.

  “It’s going to take time, isn’t it, to erase the words of other men from your mind?”

  “I wish -”

  “No sweet Flower, no wishing, just be honest. There is love between us and trust, yes. But both need time to grow. I only wish you could see your beauty with your eyes and not rely on mine.”

  Flora’s heart thundered painfully in her chest and she felt a twinge of shame for the panic she had felt watching the different colors wend their way onto her skin.

  “Now, you seduced me to your glass web little Spider Plant with promises of empty horizontal surfaces and steamy wet sex.” He leered, tickling her naked ribs, and Flora laughed feeling freer than she ever remembered. Dashing over to the door she hit the button locking down the complex and keyed in the command for the plant misters. She refused to feel embarrassed about her body as she turned, toeing off shoes and socks.

  “Uh, uh, allow me.” Warm, tanned fingers nudged hers out of the way before she could loosen her jeans. His skin felt hot and sleek when it brushed her belly and hips, tugging the tight material down to her knees. Bemused, she looked up and saw that the glass walls had fogged though the fine mist had just started falling.

  “Then I get to unwrap you.” Her hands were already at the buttons of his shirt slowly freeing each with an appreciative peek at the bare skin below. Playfully, she rubbed her face against the bare wall of his chest, nuzzling his flat nipples as her fingers freed his shirt form his pants. An impatient tug later it fell to the floor. She made fast work of his belt but played at removing his pants by dipping her fingers along the waistband until the material tented against her skin.

  Watching Faunus flushed face she knelt and rubbed her cheek against his straining erection. “I want to see you.” Her hands slid up and down the fronts of his thighs simulating what her palms itched to copy on his satiny length.

  Watching him change wasn’t disturbing like the wolves violent emergence. He didn’t explode out of his human shell but slowly unfolded. His eyes darkened until they expanded to cover the orb as his horns parted hair to unfurl in thickening branches. Deftly he stepped back free of the shoes. The pants, however, had tightened almost painfully with the emergence of his tail.

  “Free me, cervi,” he whispered, his voice was deeper, resonant in the humid room.

  “What does that mean, cervi?” It sounded so pretty but somehow she doubted it was really meant for her. Reaching for the zipper pull she gently pulled his pants down to his knees where it slicked past the lightly furred expanse of his lower legs.

  “It means deer, and you are right, it doesn’t suit you, cuore più caro is the right dear.”

  “Cuore più caro, hmm…” she purred rubbing her cheek along his sleek cock. Damp tendrils of hair wrapped around his shaft as
she licked the underside from tip to sac. He closed his eyes against the image seared into his brain of her wet tongue and wet silky hair milking his shaft. Closing his eyes didn’t stop the incredible sensations the minx pulled through his body with her clever mouth. Reflexively his hips flexed as her tongue lightly caressed his sac. He opened his eyes to a haze of languid heat as she lifted his throbbing rod to her plush waiting lips. Shudders danced down his spine as her mouth suckled him, pulling him deeper, her tongue swirling back and forth pulling a hot salted slick of fluid from his balls.

  Knees shaking, he tangled his fingers in her hair and urged her to rise, if she kept to the task much longer their fun would be interrupted and he had an idea. Scooping her into his arms he held her high against his chest, she smelled of wild rain and dahlias an intoxicating combination that made his blood sing. Gently he laid her on the table cleared for her potting. Stars above she was beautiful even before the fruit of the Tree worked its eldritch magic pulling her nature to the fore. With a finger he motioned for her to lay still as he searched out what he needed. Soft falls of beaded moisture teases his heightened senses as he collected up potted ferns, lilies and vines, arraying them around his lover letting the plants paint their joy across her milky skin. Standing at the foot of the table he stared in awe at the feast of shaded flesh waiting for him.

  Flora felt exposed, pleasantly so, as she lay on the table watching as he settled different pots along the edges. She was glad that she remembered to clear the heaviest of her tables, the one made of thick mill timbers lovingly sanded and sealed against water. Finally he finished and moved to the bottom of the table. Again his features smoothed as his face took on human character and human hunger. No matter his shape, her core wept for his touch.