Snow: The White Crow (8 page)

One thing people don't realize is the sheer size and power a moose possess.  There isn't much in this world that can take a bull moose down.  Moose have been known to take on grizzly bears and win.  In accidents involving moose and cars, the moose more often than not will walk away from a totaled car.

Their antlers are fifty pounds of bone that can strike as hard as the equivalent in steel.  In effect, a bull moose is fifteen hundred pounds of killing machine.  I thank God every day that they are not predators.  Two of the moose charged the bounding werewolves.  The largest bull staying to guard me.

With a horrendous crack, one moose lowered his antlers and collided with a werewolf.  The crushing of skull and bones was a sickening sound as the moose flung his head and sent the body of the wolf flying into a tree.  I knew that even with a crushed skull the wolf would probably recover.  It took a lot to kill a lycan.  The other moose was swinging his antlers from side to side taking out the legs of two other wolves.  Snapping them like toothpicks.  They yelped in pain and tried to stand but couldn't they sort of scooted forward using their hind legs before collapsing.

The crone's eyes were wide in disbelief and she turned and ran into the forest, the last wolf growled and snarled then turned to follow her.  I stumbled to the bull moose protecting me, and I laid my head on his side as I stroked his fur.  “Thank you so much.  I'm sorry, I have nothing I can give you until my strength returns.  You were so very valiant.”

I stumbled away toward my camp and I heard their huffs of understanding.  My two warriors trotted off into the trees, but the big bull wandered beside me and then knelt.  I smiled at him and placed a hand on his muzzle.  I kissed his muzzle and said, “You've already done too much.”  He didn't move. I exhaled and then said, “Fine.  Thank you kind sir.”  Then grabbed a fist full of fur and pulled myself up onto his neck and he stood.

I patted him then pointed.  “My camp is that way.”  He trudged off in that direction.  I had rested enough by the time we reached a huge grouping of trees that were twisted around each other that I was able to get them to part to reveal the huge hollow area I slept.  It was almost ten feet in diameter.  I grabbed my pack and then sealed the opening and staggered back to my friend.

I patted him when he lifted me again.  “I can't just call you 'Hey You'.  How about something regal, Thomas?”  I know he didn't understand, but I just smiled and said, “Thomas it is then.”  I pointed toward Issaquah.  “Just get me close please, I can walk a short distance.  I'll need sleep.  I've used all that I have.”

A few minutes later I woke up to Thomas' stomping.  I could see the back of Rachel's place, but there were also werewolves near the street.  I inhaled.  The short nap had given me a bit of my power back.

I slid to the ground and patted Thomas' neck and kissed it.  I gave him a tiny bit of myself.  I wished it could have been more, but I still needed a little power.  “Thank you, I won't forget this.”  He snorted then trotted back into the woods.

I stayed downwind from the two weres I could see, and slipped in the back door of  Rachel's.  I could hear growling and thrashing from her bedroom and the smell of silver burned wolf.  I looked outside then used the last of my power again to have saplings grow up against her place like bars to a prison, I didn't want to get into that coffin of a panic cage.  I took my time so I didn't exert myself.  I was beyond exhausted.

Then I stumbled into her room.  I saw the most gorgeous red wolf I had ever laid eyes on behind the plexiglass in the door. She stopped slamming herself against the silver lined door and pulled her lips back to expose her fangs.  She snarled and snapped then threw herself at me, slamming the door.  I walked up to the cage and looked in at her as she tried to get at me.

Her musk was almost intoxicating with my newly enhanced senses.  I smiled at the beast, knowing Rachel was in there somewhere.  I sat in front of the wolf and just started into the golden wolf eyes that were so different than her pale human eyes.  I placed a hand against the window over the screens.  I murmured, “I just need to rest a moment Rach.  I'll get out of your sight soon so you can calm down.”

The wolf tried digging at the door to get to me, paws burning from the silver and her nostrils flaring.  Then the oddest thing happened.  The wolf stopped digging and just growled and snarled at me as her nose worked and she drew air over her tongue.  She stopped growling and tilted her head, but kept her fangs bared and she locked eyes with me.

We sat there just staring at each other for a few minutes and she stopped snarling and sat.  I smiled at her through bleary vision, my head full of her scent.  I felt at peace.  I said, “There's a good girl.”  I wasn't thinking straight, I was so exhausted.  I turned and sat with my back to the cage door and laid my head back.  I turned slightly to look at her.  She was scenting the air and did a doggy scoot close to the door without touching it then laid her head on her paws, eyes on me.  I smiled and drifted off.

I woke from a pleasant dream to a repeated thumping and someone humorously saying my name over and over in a dull tone, “Gretta, Gretta, Gretta, Gretta... Oh, there you are.  Umm... could you move, please?  I'm sort of naked here and need some clothes.”

Still waking from the dream and foggy, I turned my head and looked through the plexiglass window.  Rachel was crouched there with her head tilted, studying me.  I inhaled deeply, her scent enveloping me.  I smiled at her naked form crouched there looking at me as she scented the air.  I murmured, “So beautiful.”  Then my eyes snapped wide as I realized I wasn't dreaming anymore.

I blurted out, “Oh god!  I'm so sorry!”  I skittered away from the door of the cage and stood.  The green lights on the lock were lit.  I had blocked her from opening the cage after sunrise.  She smiled as she pushed the door open and moved out of the cage and stood in front of me.

I tried not to stare, it was getting far too hot in that room with her scent enveloping me.  Her own nostrils were flaring and she grinned and sauntered past me.  She stopped as our shoulders brushed and she surprised me by burying her face in the crook of my neck and inhaling deeply.  I felt her growl into my neck.  It sent pleasant tremors down my spine.

Then she brought her head up and rubbed her jaw across my cheek and walked off and started getting dressed.  I just stood there frozen.  Not because of what she did, I knew what scent marking was among the very old wolves, but because of what it did to me.  I had to restrain myself.  I was attracted to her before, I can't deny that.  But now after whatever had happened to me last night, some sort of animalistic part of me had awakened and all I wanted to do was throw her to the ground and take her.

Oh dear lord, to my embarrassment, I needed to find a place to work my frustrations out.  I was knocked out of my fugue state by her husky sounding voice, “Sorry, I don't know what's come over me.  Normally I can control my impulses better.  But something has changed, your scent is stronger, more...”

She was suddenly behind me and her hand was sifting through my hair.  “Your hair, it was light before, but it is pure white now.”  I watched it fan out in my vision, it was!  How much had I changed last night?  Then she paused and parted my hair.  She was running her fingers around a knob on the side of my skull and her other hand matched the ministrations on my other side. “Antlers?”

I glanced back at her and then ran to the mirror on the wall behind her and stared at my reflection. My hair was white as the first snowfall in winter and the stubs of the starts of antlers were poking up just above my hair, barely visible but standing out like beacons now that I knew they were there.

I said distractedly, “Something happened to me last night.”

She was behind me again, inhaling.  “Your musk is so strong now...”  Then she suddenly smiled hugely. “You're attracted to me?”  I nodded, it was all I could do with her this close.  I realized all of my feelings were closer to the surface, my transformation last night brought my inner animal to the surface, but it felt right like I was closer to nature now.

She growled again and that was the last straw.  I spun on her and pushed her violently backward.  She fell back on the bed and I was on her.  Repeating her actions and burying my nose in her neck and inhaling.  She was smiling and she tilted her head baring her long sinuous neck to me and on instinct I bit it gently.

I was on the bottom suddenly and she was kissing me.  By all that's holy, I was burning up with want and need and I hungrily returned the kiss.  Her scent was like a drug to me that I just wanted more of.  We couldn't get our clothing off fast enough.  She giggled into our kiss as she straddled me again, “I'm going to be late for work.”

I thought that meant she wanted to stop, I didn't think I could if I wanted to.  I found out almost instantly it was just a simple observation she was stating, as she started kissing down my neck and chest toward her ultimate goal.  Dear Lord, I was hers, I surrendered control and let her do her worst.

We surfaced, sweating and panting a couple hours later.  She was growling possessively and rubbing her jaw across mine.  She stretched too cutely for a hardened cop and she balled her toes up as she said, “You have the stamina of a wolf.”  I blushed at the compliment and realized that she was still on top of me and I liked it, a lot.  Then she looked disturbed.  “I think my wolf has claimed you.”

I propped myself on my elbows and shuddered delightfully, her leg was pressing into my crotch, she gave it more pressure and I realized she was subconsciously doing it to control me.  I just let her, it was nice to not be the one who was always in control for once.  I was putty in her hands.  She shook her head.  “It normally doesn't happen so fast.  I don't understand, but your scent...”  She trailed off, then she said, “I'm sorry.”

I went to sit up to look her in the eyes but she gave a little more pressure and I almost orgasmed for the fifth time that morning and fell back on the bed.  She seemed pleased with the results, then moved her leg back and allowed me to sit.

I smirked at her and said, “Oh, it's going to be like that is it?  Don't think for one second I'm going to cede control to you every time.”

We had a stare-down and she eventually lowered her eyes and tilted her head, exposing her neck, submitting.  I chuckled and said, “See?  But I do admit I love it when you own me.”  Then I slowly pushed her onto her back, she didn't resist.  I just sat on her toned belly and mused, “I don't know what's come over me either. My animal urges are all at the surface, I think it was because of my transformation in the battle last night.  I was attracted to you before, but now my inner beast wants to claim you before anyone else does.  I've only just met you, but I want you.”

She sat up, almost knocking me off of her if she hadn't put one of her hot coiled steel arms around my back, and she blurted out a string of questions, “Battle?  What battle?  You were just going to your camp.  Was it werewolves?  Are you ok?”  Her eyes were full of rage and the need to protect me.

I shut her up with a kiss.  “I'm fine.”  Then I added, “ish.”

I went on to describe my chance meeting with the Red Hood and her hellhound. Then the battle with the gypsies and werewolves that followed.  How I became the me that was the same as Perchta but different, I was just Gretta and more.  How I felt the need to come back to her place to inform her of the dark magic users in the area instead of staying at my camp.  The crone was a danger to anyone who came across her.

To me coming in and warding the place with trees and then speaking with her beautiful red wolf.  To the wolf quieting as we fell asleep.  She tilted her head and almost whispered, “You calmed my wolf?”  I nodded shyly and she kissed me gently and then said, “You know, most Clean Bloods won't sleep with one of the cursed.  They think they'll get infected.  But you didn't hesitate.”

I shrugged. “Those people are ignorant, it isn't a disease or infection like people think, it is dark magic, a black magic curse.  It can only be passed on at a full moon if a wolf draws blood and the magic is able to enter their victim through that blood and take over before death.  Outside of the full moon, there is no possible way to transmit the curse.”

She smiled then said, “When I woke up I caught your scent and almost purred.  But then I snapped fully awake when I realized you were outside my cage un-moving.  I irrationally thought I had killed you.  You were covered in white feathers of light again.  I calmed realizing that was how you recharged, then I freaked again realizing you weren't in the panic cage.  I didn't see or smell any signs of wolves in the house so I relaxed and tried to open the door of the cage, but you were blocking it.”

She grinned like a Cheshire cat. “I didn't know if moving you while you slept would harm you so I tried for a couple hours to wake you.”

Then she got a playful look on her face, her pale eyes sparkling  as she teased, “Then you proceeded to take me like a wolf.”

My mouth hung open with a shocked smile as I slapped her shoulder. “I took you?  If I remember right, someone wouldn't let me on top all morning.”

Some glint in her eyes sent wonderful shivers through me as she said in a husky voice, “That's because...”  I could hear the wolf in her voice, “...mine.”  I just nodded as a yearning inside me was rekindled. 
Oh, dear lord, I'm some wolf's bitch.

I flicked her nose with a finger then kissed it.  “Bad dog.”

She giggled and I stood and walked toward the shower and paused in the doorway and looked back over my shoulder suggestively.  It was the only invitation she needed and she followed quickly behind me.  As we stood under the running water, she comically spat out, “Fuck!”  I squinted one eye and cocked my other brow at her.  She smiled at me. “I just let you make me your bitch didn't I.”

I kissed her nose and said, “Good doggie.”  She swatted my butt and I squeaked.

I closed my eyes under the spray, the hot water felt divine pelting my antler nubs.  Holy shit, I had antlers.  How was I going to pass for human now?  The sudden thought of hats and more volume to my hair came to mind and I groaned.

I took a second to take inventory while we stood there.  I reached inside, my emotions were everywhere and right at the surface.  I felt like a wild animal, but I really liked the feeling.  Maybe because it was so refreshing after keeping such tight control of myself for centuries.  I dug deeper and found my reservoir of magic was only half full.  I needed more sleep?  But then it hit me, even though I had just a short sleep, that wasn't it, my reservoir was much larger now.  Something inside me had awakened when the white crow brand took over and I transformed.

I looked at her as I shut off the shower.  “I think I need more sleep so I can recover fully.  Maybe a couple more hours.”

She nodded.  “I better call the station and let them know I have information about dangerous mystical activity in the area.”  She grinned. “That's a good excuse for being late, right?”

We dried off and combed out each others hair.  It was so nice.  Nobody had ever done that for me, I felt pampered.  We dressed and I growled hungrily when I saw her in her everyday uniform.  Some khaki jeans with lots of pockets, her sidearm on one hip and her badge hanging on the other.  And a white dress blouse.  I wondered where it came from since it was sharply pressed and I didn't see anything pressed in her junkyard of a room.

She heard my growl and pulled me in for a gentle kiss.  Then she led me to the couch and I laid down and she tucked a blanket around me.  I think I like being pampered.  She sat and stroked my hair, playing with my antlers and I drifted off.

***

I woke again to someone repeating, “Gretta, Gretta, Gretta...” and poking me in the ribs with each iteration.  I opened my eyes and stretched, I felt great, better than great, and I could tell I was fully recharged now, I had more magic in me than ever.

I grinned at a smiling Rachel.  I reached up and cupped her cheek as I smiled.  “Hi.”

She chuckled.  “Took me two hours to wake you.”

I blinked and cocked my head.  “You haven't left yet?”

She motioned a hand vaguely at the window and door. “Kind of hard to do since the house is apparently in a tree prison.”   She scrunched her nose.  “I almost broke my nose walking into the door when it didn't open when I tried to leave.  You were already out in glow-y feathery bird girl mode.  I've been poking you for two hours.”

I couldn't help it, I was laughing, It was just so funny for reasons I couldn't quite understand.  I pictured her sitting on the couch poking me repeating “Gretta.” for two hours and it was beyond funny.  I wiped a happy tear from my eye and calmed down.  “Sorry, that was just such a funny image.”

She scrunched her nose again but then smiled.  She said, “Ummm...”  And motioned toward the door.  I turned to it and reached out to touch the world, I almost got whiplash how quickly it responded.  But it was different this time.  It wasn't me trying to touch it, it was me becoming part of it.  The feeling was disconcerting, but it felt so... right.

I absently reached my hand forward like I could feel the trees protecting the house like I could run my fingers along their bark and feel the life inside of them.  I dropped my hand and just as quickly the trees receded into he ground, reforming into the roots they had previously been.  It took virtually no effort and I'm not sure if I used energy from my reservoir or not.

I grinned at her as she tilted her head down in thanks.  She started to step toward the door but stopped and looked back. “The chief wants to discuss the new threat with me.  You're okay now?”  I nodded and she prompted, “Then come with?”

That would be a good idea, then she wouldn't have to relay my words to them and I'd be available for any questions.  I just had to figure out just how much about me I wanted them to know.  I nodded and she smirked and said, “You'll want to fix your bed head first lo...”  I squinted an eye at the aborted word.  Had she almost called me love?

After the marathon animalistic lovemaking session, it would be natural, right?  And I felt myself connecting more and more with her on an emotional level, frighteningly quickly.  I knew my primal side had already claimed her and my emotional side was quickly coming into agreement.  She did things to me on so many different levels.  My new state had amplified everything that was already there between us, and tore it all to the surface.