To Eternity

by Daisy Banks

  Silent, her eyes fixed on his, the depths shimmery as a mirror, she reached up for his fingers and grasped them tight in hers. “I feel so strange.”

  A jolt of panic hit him. Surely, she couldn’t have begun the change already. He searched her gaze. “We must hurry if we are to go to the pagoda.”

  Their decision to use the pagoda had solved the problem of where to go this full moon for her first change to wolf form. He led her quickly out of the secret door. They sped down the path, hurrying over the slippery grass slope down toward the causeway on the lake. He inhaled deep, sucking in great breaths of the chilled night air. Sian’s breaths rasped loud as she did the same. The flicker of change in his vision to the sharp focus of the wolf altered his conscious thoughts. He slowed his pace, but a snap of sensation bit.

  “We must run.”

  Sian’s breathing grew faster, and a tremble ran through the fingers he clutched with his. She reached the bottom of the slope in front of him and yanked him along. They stumbled together over the causeway, slippery with the frost coating from the bitter night.

  The moonlight hit him full-on as he paused to take a breath at the end of the causeway. Agonized by the white light, he writhed as the scraps of his skin opened to the moonbeams. With the last of his strength, he pushed Sian inside the pagoda and onto the day bed. He followed her and sagged to the floor, unable to stop the quicksilver race over his body.

  * * * *

  Inhaling deep, he uncurled to stand on his four feet and shook himself to free his fur of any detritus. The aroma he discovered in the air sent a shiver over him. The richness of female scent surrounded him. He nosed the cushions, sniffing at the shards of thin shell that crumbled at the touch of his breath. The heady mix of her scent set his blood pounding with need. He yowled with anticipation of finding her. She must be close by.

  He sniffed the floor.

  A howl echoed in the distance, but not hers. He lifted his head, searching the wealth of odors. No female would offer a challenge like that. He turned and paced out of the pagoda into the wealth of moonlight reflected from the lake. Trotting over the causeway, he inhaled again and found the sensual trail of her fragrance. His fur bristled when another call echoed in the woods. He must find his female, claim her, and his territory from some interloper.

  He opened his mouth wide to allow the layers of aroma to fill not only his nose, but also his mouth, so he could sample every scent on the wind.

  The night smells of the familiar surroundings held all manner of joys, but the fragrant track of his female led him onward and along the edge of the lake toward the woods. She had headed this way. She sought the protection of the mature trees in the woods across from the lake. Something had frightened her so she didn’t wait for him to emerge from his cocoon.

  A fresh howl, its raw savageness echoed into the night. The owner of that voice might be the reason she fled. This time he answered the challenge. He stretched his neck and opened his throat so his howl flooded out. The power of his wolf voice soared to the stars with the strength of his reply. Silence followed. He headed along the path and up to the tree line highlighted by the moon.

  The she-scent he followed grew stronger, graced with high notes from her scent marking. He salivated at the sweetness of each mark he discovered. The first trees she’d sprayed proved so delightful he circled each, breathing the gorgeous fragrance in several times until he’d no choice but to leave his scent, too, combined with hers. He pressed on but at a slower pace to make sure he wouldn’t miss any of the sensual joy as he journeyed to discover her. The small glade awash with moonlight made him pause. He could not only smell her, but also heard her shallow, quick breaths.

  There.

  Her body hunched. Her lustrous tail tucked under tight told of her fear. The exquisite and gleaming pale coat, accented with red tips on her flanks and tail, shone in the light.

  Not fear of him.

  The unknown howler in the starlight had caused her to feel threatened.

  He’d show her she had nothing to fear.

  They belonged in these woods together.

  He inhaled and drank in the sight as well as her fragrance. Her green eyes shone and her gaze remained on him. The narrow, pale, furred face, highlighted with darker red tones, tilted after a moment of recognition. She deliberately angled her head, eyes downcast, so he could approach unchallenged. He ached to touch the rich lushness of her pelt, to sidle up beside her, to persuade her she was his and his alone.

  Drawing closer, he paused and inhaled several times. A low rumble of appreciation burbled in his throat.

  She turned away from him, the sweep of her flanks and her beautiful lustrous tail glistened in the moonlight.

  A throb surged in his flesh as the corner of her pink tongue swept from the edge of her mouth and swiftly licked her lips. She stood, emboldened by his presence, perhaps. Delicate, on slender limbs, she took one pace away from him. Her muzzle lowered, she glanced back over her shoulder, enticement in the play of her every muscle. She headed out of the glade moving fast weaving her way through the trees. Her swift steps took her into the deeper woods.

  The chase was on, and he’d no doubt it would have only one culmination. He raced after her and caught a quick flash of her long tail as she sprinted ahead. Her short yip, as she dashed away, beckoned him to follow, pleaded for him to catch her. The invitation to join her and romp among the leaves this winter night couldn’t be refused. He wanted to play with her until they both lay breathless. Then he’d curl next to her and listen to her heartbeat.

  A joy he’d never known before lured him onward. Her rich scent offered the promise of more. Nothing could be more enticing than the way she flicked her long tail and wafted her fragrance toward him.

  High pitched and closer, a series of howls soured the night. The calls carried an ominous threat, one of battle. He answered again, sending a deep-throated response to whoever dared invade his territory.

  A shimmery, lighter sound answered him. This seductive series of barks didn’t come from the owner of the original threat. This call came from his female, and her note of impatience drove him on. He would have her close enough to stand in his shadow if this other male dared to interrupt their courtship. The race to find her took on fresh urgency. He wound his way through the trees fast to reach her before the other male could find her. A fresh howl disturbed the night.

  His quarry stood nearby, her sides moving quickly as she regained her breath. He gave a low growl, and she spun to face him, her eyes fixed on him. The mischief from earlier had gone, replaced by wariness he’d hoped not to find. He took a step closer. She lifted her upper lip, revealing one of her long canines.

  He licked his lips, then yawned, offering her a display of his teeth. Stepping closer, he barked. She swept her gaze to the floor and angled her head away. The gesture, a subtle but submissive welcome to his attentions, lured him closer still. When he reached her, he stood a whisker’s length from her mouth. She leaned in closer, then flicked her tongue once against his muzzle. He opened his mouth and caught her nose between his teeth as gentle as if he held a cloud.

  Her little yips floated like music. Lost to the beauty of her fragrance and the wonder of being beside her, he licked her nose, her muzzle, the dark fur outlining her eyes and back to her lips.

  She angled her body in line with his until they stood shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, though she had nowhere near his bulk. He stroked his head along her neck and she returned the caress with a low rumbled sigh.

  “Sian.” The name whispered in his mind, softer than the rustle of the breeze in the wheat fields, velvety as the furry hide he rubbed against. “Sian-wolf.”

  “My Magnus-wolf.”

  The words invaded his mind and they spun in his consciousness, prompting him to find a way to reply with his thoughts alone, something he’d never done before. “My love.”

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sp; Warm, smooth, and tickling, she used her tongue to lap at this face, over his eyes, along his jaw, right to the edge of his lips. A sweep of desire raced through him, and he ached to mate with her. He inhaled again, desperate to find if she might be ready for him to mount her. She gave a small pup-style yip and nipped at his ear. Obviously not, but they had days to enjoy each other. Before the end of the moon’s influence, they’d mate.

  She rubbed her shoulder and hip against his, licked his face until he could stand the teasing no more. He nudged her hard enough so she rolled over onto her side. He stood legs astride her where she lay and proceeded to lick down her throat. By the time he reached her belly, she whimpered, and enjoying her pleasure, he continued. She rolled back and forth, her front paws crossed as he nibbled at her.

  Her little cries became a whine until finally he relented and allowed her up.

  “My goddess.”

  Her brilliant eyes looked deep into his.

  A sound he’d never heard before in this form reached him. Her laughter. She turned from him and raced between the trees. Her spine sinuous, her shoulders and hips, rippling in enticement, she ran. He followed, eager to enjoy this chase through the moonlit woods.

  Her screeching yelp brought him up short in a scatter of dirt and plant debris.

  She lay, cowering under the heavy foot of a gray wolf with white banding. One who snarled, his back humped in aggression as he bared full canines in an open-mouthed snarl.

  Playtime was over.

  Chapter 29

  She stilled the desperate need to escape and made whining mewls of submission in a plea for her captor to ease the painful grip holding her to the woodland floor. When he did, she’d turn and rip his throat out.

  The big gray male above seemed to hear her thoughts because he added more weight to her burden. He pressed down heavily on her with his front paws, and growling, he showed her a deadly set of vicious teeth.

  A dribble of his saliva hit her eye and made her blink.

  The gray male howled.

  She shivered, unable to fight or escape his weight.

  A second of despair passed before an answering snarl came from across the way, and pinned as she was, she tilted her head so she could see the wolf of her longings. She wanted to be his, to mate with him, to lie in the deep darkness next to his heat and rest her head on his shoulder. Her vision bleared. She scarcely had enough breath for a whimper.

  “Be still. Don’t look at him. You’re mine!”

  She shuddered at the words from the gray wolf who shoved her spine into the dirt. Recognition hit. “Franklyn.” She’d never be his, not this side of paradise. All her hope of happiness lay a few steps away.

  “Magnus!” The name ripped from her mind, tore its way out, bloody and desperate. She twitched in the aftermath.

  “Let her go, Gorsewell, your grievance is with me.”

  His calm words stilled her terror. She closed her eyes from the revolting view of the gray wolf’s erection as he stood over her chest. Both his front paws pressed down harder and she struggled to breathe.

  “She’ll run if I let her up.”

  “So? If you try to take her, I will kill you. If you try to make a move to harm her more, I will kill you. Are you ready to die this night?”

  She sucked in a gasp as the pressure on her chest eased a little.

  “You don’t have the courage to fight me. You’re all talk.”

  The bunched shoulder muscles and raised lips over fierce teeth said the gray wolf lied. Magnus would fight. The heaviness of the gray’s weight forced a whimper from her lips. A snarl rang in her ears and made its way into her chest. She closed her eyes and lay limp as one dead.

  The gray wolf holding her eased more of his weight from her with a tentative paw. “Come take her corpse from me!”

  A howl to fill the cosmos shook her bones. Franklyn-wolf leaped. She rolled away. Magnus-wolf met the attack as the gray smashed into him. He spun, dislodging his foe, who sprawled heavily before jerking upright.

  Crouched less than a tail length beyond the space where the two of them fought, she screeched a howl. At least her wolf knew she still lived and would help him if she could.

  Dust, leaves, twigs, and dirt flew about them. Each slash of claws hissed with a weight-laden woosh through the air. Snarls and howls stung her ears.

  She scrunched her body tight and didn’t breathe as finally one of them made contact. A spray of blood spattered against a low-lying oak branch. The gray wolf lifted red-stained claws high in the moonlight. Each tip dripped a scatter of scarlet blood beads, and he screamed his triumph before diving deep into the shadows, slashing down another blow.

  The night shook with the power of the snarls, the grunts drawn from each by the pain from biting injuries. Back and forth, they moved fast as they fought. Every time Magnus seemed to have a grip on his foe, Franklyn, his head blooded by a wound, somehow slithered free.

  She struggled to control her need to enter the battle, to protect the male she wanted from further harm. Crouched on all fours, her belly pressed to the ground, she jiggled her body weight from one side to the other while she waited, seeking a space to join the fray.

  The gray wolf suddenly stilled, all its muscles rigid. The ruff of fur stood, and a sudden spray of urine gushed. She turned her face from the stench, but desperate to see what had happened, she swiveled back.

  “One move and I will take your brain and eat it.”

  The words echoed like a chorus about the woods. The gray wolf had frozen, its head caught between Magnus-wolf’s powerful jaws. It didn’t move.

  Gladness filled her heart.

  “If I press here, you will be dead. Are you ready to die?”

  Shrill whining came as the answer. Magnus-wolf flipped its victim around in response, his toothy grip still obvious as loose soil swirled from the scrabbling claws of the other wolf. Another rash of yaps and whimpers, each higher pitched than the last.

  She couldn’t bear the pitiful squeals. “Stop!”

  Teeth barred as he gripped his prey tight, Magnus-wolf met her gaze with one golden and rich. “He would have raped you, killed you perhaps. Are you certain I should simply allow him to go?”

  She bowed her head. Whatever he thought to do, she’d agree. A quickening of fear returned at the memory of Franklyn-wolf holding her pinned to the ground. She swept her glance away from the blood-laced grasses, from the dark patches on Magnus’s beautiful apricot-tipped fur, the slowly spreading stain and drip of blood from the gray’s ears.

  “Walk back to the lake. I’ll find you there.”

  She nodded, and turning into the nearest path among the trees, she left the two males alone.

  Not many steps on, a screech sent the birds up from their night nests. She hung her head. This night, the prelude to their bonding, should have been filled with love and the sweetness of brilliant moonlight, not this ugliness making her shiver. She sucked in another breath as the next wild cry echoed up to the stars. She couldn’t bear it.

  “Stop. Please, Magnus. Stop.”

  She doubted he’d hear her, and even if he did, he wouldn’t stop. Dragging her steps, she found herself at the edge of the woods, moonlight still glossing a thin sliver of the lake. She walked until she could lie down on frosty turf in the last scrap of the silvery beams.

  The wind raked over her, battered against her, and she closed her eyes, burying her nose between her furry paws. Her stomach churned as she waited, breathing out smoky white puffs into the night air.

  “Beloved?”

  She lifted her head from the warmth and looked at his bloodied mouth. “You killed him?”

  “No. I allowed him to live.” He sank down beside her.

  The stench of blood and urine overwhelmed his powerful fragrance. She nosed him, pressing lightly against his thick fur. “Franklyn-wolf is gone?�
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  He gave a low grunt when he rested his head against her shoulder. His pain thudded through her, but the gashes and slashes would heal. She tilted her head to touch her muzzle to his despite the smears of blood. “I love you.”

  “I know. We must move.”

  “Why?”

  “We can’t rest here.” He lifted his head and pointed his nose toward the pagoda on the lake. “In there, until the day is done.”

  She looked up to the sky. The moon had tracked across and sunk beyond the trees. Her first night in wolf form neared its end. “Will we dream together?”

  He hauled himself up, a little unsteady. She stood beside him, ready to help if he needed her to, and shook her head at the savage slashes down his flank. Their slow paces matched, they walked in union as they headed toward the causeway.

  Pausing at the lake edge, Magnus-wolf lapped water, then led her across the wooden boards and into the shadows inside the pagoda. He slumped down in the corner. She joined him, nestling close despite the smell of the fight still clinging to his fur. The short November day must pass before they could run through the woods together again.

  She yawned, curled up, and wrapped her long tail over her face. Magnus-wolf shifted until she lay in the curve of one of his front paws. The rest of his body warmed her as he pressed himself against her.

  Tomorrow night must be sweeter than this one had been for they would be alone together in the moonlight.

  Chapter 30

  She woke to the warmth of his tongue against her lips.

  Soft gold with brighter flecks, his gaze searched hers.

  She yawned.

  “Run with me.” He swiped his tongue up the side of her face again. Warm and fragrant, his caress sent a shock of sensation through her body.

  The luxury of peace, of his touch, of the shimmer of moonlight through the open door—all of it stole any concerns from yesterday. “Catch me.” Her thought danced away between the shine and shadows.