Snow: The White Crow (12 page)

I remember telling her that wolves primal instinct told them three things, to hunt, to kill, and to mate.  I lowered my eyes from hers slightly, showing submissive behavior.  I made sure to keep my head lower than hers.  She was huge, so it didn't take much to accomplish.  The growling wolf got right in my face, still not attacking.

Then I did possibly the stupidest thing I had ever done in my life and I slowly turned my head up, exposing my neck.  Rachel's lips peeled back even more if possible, showing her fangs in a deadly snarl.  I held my breath and she snapped her jaws at me.  Then she slowly moved her fangs over my neck and took it in her jaw and held it.  Not to the point of breaking skin thank God.  I don't know what the curse would do to me with my magics.

She released my neck then I suddenly had a wolf's chin sliding across my face as she scent marked me as hers.  I exhaled, the wolf knew I was her mate.  I reached out slowly and laid a hand on top of her head.  She watched me, still growling.  Then I started digging my fingers into her pelt, into her downy undercoat and scratched.

She slowly dropped her lips and seemed to enjoy what I was doing.  I smiled, being sure not to show any teeth at all.  “Hi, lady.  You had me pretty scared.” Then even though I knew she didn't understand a word I was saying I added, “Let me see if I can't get this trap deactivated and we can get you in your cage in the car.”

I stood but she didn't like that and the wind was knocked out of me as she hit me in the gut with a huge paw that knocked me to the ground. My body slid against a wall.  I noted I wasn't disemboweled, she hadn't extended her claws.  She padded over to me and growled in my face, showing some fang.  Then I got it, she was telling me who the boss was.  I lowered my gaze again, then chanced rubbing my jaw on hers, getting doggy drool all over me.

This placated her then she stood over me straddling me.  Okay, she wasn't showing me who was boss, then what?  Oh, dear lord, she was protecting me.  I just lay there a minute then she took a half-step away from where I lay then she curled around me.  Every time I tried to move, she'd growl menacingly.  “Oh come on Rachel, you've got to be shitting me.”

I gave up trying so I just sighed in resignation and dug my fingers into her pelt and scratched her absently as I worked on unraveling the trap.  When it fell a minute later, I started nodding off, I felt so warm and safe lying on the warmest pillow that had a scent that was driving me wild.  I almost chuckled as sleep started to claim me.  Could my life be any more strange?  Here I was, going to sleep with my girlfriend, the werewolf.

I woke to a sound.  I glanced around, it was twilight outside.  Just a few minutes before sunrise.  I could hear footfalls outside coming toward the lodge and Rachel was gone.  Her divine musk still permeated my clothing and skin.

Then I was fully awake.  Someone was coming and I heard Rachel stalking down the hall.  She was going to kill whoever was coming and I lowered the trap so she could just walk out.  I started running out the shredded door and down the hall as I saw her reddish tail disappear down the stairs.  “Rachel!  Wait!”

I heard a deep rumbling growl when I got to the top of the stairs and then two answering growls as Mariani and Daria stepped through the main doors.  Everything happened at once.  Maireni, almost faster than I could follow, had her crossbow up and fired as Rachel dove through the air at Daria.  My magics surged and a tree exploded through the floor and intercepted the arrow.  I was yelling, “No!  Don't hurt her!” Daria caught Rachel in mid air with one arm.  Rachel was snarling and snapping at her as she thrashed.  I smelled the sizzle of silver burned fur where Daria's hand touched Rachel.

Daria looked at her and me as Red was suddenly around the tree with two silver blades in her hands.  They paused.  Daria started to talk, but the commotion Rachel was making just dangling there made it hard so Daria locked eyes with her. “Calm down, please.”  The command sort of drifted through the air and I could see it settle over everything it touched like a gossamer net.  The power of an Alpha.  I felt calmer then realized it was her suggestion, I let it settle around me, we could all benefit from calmer minds.

Rachel seemed to relax then shook her head and growled.  Daria looked at me. “You know this wolf?”

I closed my eyes and half smiled at the irony.  “She's my mate.  My girlfriend.”

This amused Daria for some reason as she cocked an eyebrow at Red. “Hear that?  I guess we aren't unique anymore.”  Then she looked at Rachel, who was starting to struggle again and me, she squinted an eye.  “Okay, this is awkward then.  She's obviously not in control, she's a true werewolf?”

I nodded and she looked around.  “Alright.”  She looked at the reddening sky.  “I can hold her till sunrise in a few seconds, but I'll drop her when the change hits me.  Can you pull her away?”  I nodded again and she asked, “What's her name?”  Red was stripping Daria from her clothes the best she could.

I smiled and said almost dreamily, “Rachel Paige, with the Issaquah Police.”  Dear lord, I sounded like a schoolgirl with a crush.  This got a silly grin from Daria.

But her smile was replaced by a look of agony as she screamed.  Rachel whimpered as Daria fell backward she lost her grip on my wolf.  I grabbed her ruff and pulled her away before she could snap at the women.  I lost my own grip and fell back. Then I stood and reached for her again, she just leaned into me, instinctively coming to my hand as she whimpered as the beautiful wolf slowly transformed into a beautiful woman, nuzzling me the whole time.

I know the transformation between human and wolf hurt, and wolves would whimper and yelp occasionally, but it was nothing compared to the screams of Daria's agony.  I could see the light and dark magics in her fighting each other in a deadly dance like nothing I had ever seen.  Her screams turned into yelps and whimpers of pain.

Then just like that.  A massive female grey wolf stood in her place, shaking the last of the residual magics out of her pelt.  Rachel was staring at me in horror.  “What are you doing holding me?  I was wolf, did I hurt you?”  Then her eyes caught Daria and she was rolling across the floor grabbing a heavy vase and she rolled to her feet brandishing it like a weapon.

The wolf chuffed in humor and Red and I chuckled.  I said, “Love.  This is Daria, or Fluffy, and  Maireni, the Red Hood.  And you're naked.”  Then I added, “Not that I mind.”  Daria gave a growl when I said Fluffy.  She really didn't like that name, so why did she wear it on her collar?

Rach looked at all of us one at a time then herself and she blushed and set down the vase.  “Umm, so this Daria person is a werewolf?  You never mentioned that.”  Then she squinted. “But it is daylight.”

I grabbed her hand and dragged her toward the stairs, “We'll be right back ladies.”  Then I looked back to appreciate her cute butt as we climbed the stairs in search of her clothes.  She froze when she saw the two shredded doors in the hallway.

I shook my head and pulled her to the first door and pulled the remains of it open.  “Yeah, you were a little excitable last night.  I think you wanted to eat me.”  She blanched and I continued,”  But umm... your wolf recognized her mate.”  I blushed.  “You cornered me then wouldn't let me move all night, I gave up and just curled in with you until this morning when you heard Red and Daria coming.”

She caught me off guard as she buried her face in my shoulder and she inhaled deeply.  Then her shaky voice asked in disbelief, “I... I didn't attack?  Didn't hurt... didn't bite you?”

I chuckled as we went through the debris of tall the furniture then I grabbed her clothes for her and handed them to her.  She started getting dressed while I enjoyed the show.  “You wanted to, and I was afraid I'd have to hurt you since my magics couldn't call nature to me through the trap spell.  So I gave you a smile and showed some skin and you went all possessive on me.  Mating instinct.”

Then I thought about it. “Then just now, at sunrise, I reached my hand out to you and you came to me.  It just felt instinctively right to hold you while you changed.”

She was quiet and I prodded her side as I checked her body armor and admired her form.  I locked my eyes with those spectacular pale blues of hers. She exhaled. “I don't remember any of it.”

I shrugged. “I remember for you.  You're kind of pushy and take charge when you're furry.”

She snapped out of her funk and grinned at that. “Watch it bird girl.”

I grinned at the familiar banter.  “Whatever you say wolfie.  See?  Pushy.”

I could still see her fear of hurting me in her eyes, so I kissed her nose and motioned my head toward the door and started walking.  I called behind me, “Heel.”  Then gleepd out a surprised squeak when she slapped my butt firmly and turned it into a cupping pinch.

The lady and her hellhound were both grinning from where Red laid back on Daria, on one of the couches in the great room like she was a big fuzzy and deadly pillow.  Oh, lord, their keen hearing picked up everything we had said.

We sat across from them on another couch, a low table made of rough-hewn timbers between us.  I looked at them.  “Oh shut up.  Like you two are any better.”  Daria chuffed a doggie laugh.

I caught the silent expectation from Rachel.  It radiated off of her.  I sighed and just sort of leaned into her just as she raised an arm to drape around me when I laid against her.  Soaking in the wolf hot heat of her body.  We were so in sync.  I murmured an apology, “Their secrets were not mine to tell, sorry love.”

I looked up and her eyes were trained on Daria as she asked, “You've tamed it?”

Daria growled and Red chuckled. “Her.  And no.  But I try.”  She gave the wolf a seductive grin and got rolled eyes and a bump to her ribs by Daria's muzzle.  “What?  I said try, not that I've been successful.”  The wolf huffed and nudged her head to us expectantly.   Maireni looked back at Rachel and said, “No, she retains her mind in wolf form.”  Daria grunted and Red looked back at the wolf. “Well... why am I telling her?  You tell her yourself if you don't like the way I explain.  You're a big girl.”

While Rachel was trying to absorb what she was being told, I was trying to place  Maireni's accent.  It sounded vaguely Eastern European.  Red grabbed the talking canvas from the pack next to Daria's travel bag and unrolled it onto the table.

Daria comically slipped off the couch as Maireni went to flop back down on her, causing her to land hard on the couch ungracefully.  I swear the wolf laughed.  I loved how playful the two were together.  Daria put her two front paws on the table and she was now taller than I was when I was standing.  The Red Hood chuckled and looked at Rachel. “Ask her anything.”

I was sad when the heat of Rachel's body left me as she retrieved her arm and leaned forward studying the mat.  “The animal can communicate?”

Again Daria growled and tapped 'yes', then 'fuck you', then pawed some letters spelling out, “I am not an animal.”

Rachel looked intently at the canvas then up at the wolf then froze.  Every single muscle in her body tensed as she paled and glanced at me.  Her voice was husky as she rasped out, “She has human eyes.”

I nodded.  “I know, it took me by surprise too.  But once you meet the woman you will get used to her being trapped inside the fur.”  Then I hesitated. “Only... you can never meet her.”  That was a sad and sobering thought, their curses were polar opposites, the two woman would never meet in human form.

She seemed to be over her shock and I could see her catching up to speed then she nodded thoughtfully and turned to the huge wolf.  “Sorry, Daria.  Just wrapping myself around the concept.”

The furry woman tapped out, “It's okay.  I'm still wrapping my head around it too.”  It was painfully slow for her to tap out the words.

Then Red asked a question to move the conversation along, “So, ladies, why did you walk into the obvious gypsy witch's trap?  Was that why you called?  It seems you disassembled the black magic weaving just fine.”  Then she added, “And more importantly...”  She looked at Rachel, “Why the hell weren't you in a containment cage? You could have hurt someone or worse.”

Before my mate could finish the rumbling subsonic growl she started I said, “Trap remember?  We didn't detect it until we walked through the door.  They had broken all the locks on the cages and panic rooms.  They already used the trap to kill one of the search teams for a lost government group.  I fear them all dead.”

She arched an eyebrow. “And she didn't kill you or force you to kill her?”

Rachel paled again, but I smiled at her when I replied,  “I admit, that was my top fear until her wolf surprised me and batted me around like her mate.  She recognized our mating bond.  It is one of a wolfs primal rations.”

Red nodded. “Hunt, kill, mate.”  Then she cocked an eyebrow with wide eyes. “You two didn't...”  I cocked an eyebrow right back.  Did she just seriously ask that?  She grinned sheepishly.  “Sorry, I hate it when people ask that about Daria and I.”

“So the answer is...”

She kind of bobbled her head far too cutely for the deadly killing machine she was and answered like a schoolgirl repeating a lesson.  “Of course not.”

I nodded then added, “No, but she did seem to have the need to protect me all night so I couldn't stand nor get any reconnoitering of the surrounding woods done.”  I looked at my girl and grinned. “Your fat red furry ass held me down all night so I just cuddled in and enjoyed it.”

She squished up her face into duck lips and said, “My ass isn't fat.”  Then paused. “My wolf is red?”  She hid a smile.