31. Welcome Back
Theos
The moment her eyes settled on the deer in the clearing across from her, she seemed to forget everything. Forget where she was, who she was, and certainly everything about him. It was the most attractive thing he had ever witnessed. It set every last one of his engines firing – every nerve ending screaming, every inch of his skin heating, every inch of his shaft swelling.
Once her head turned, attention settling on the stag, her entire demeanour changed. He faded into the realm of the invisible, letting the phantaron shield his presence so he was no longer a distraction for her. Everything inside him ached with longing. Hunt. He needed to see her hunt.
From the phantaron, he circled her, watching her fingers dig into the Earth as she stared ahead. Emotions filtered through her expression one by one. Curiosity first, as the first snorts of the stag rang out. Confusion and surprise as her eyes trailed down over its large, muscled form. Determination as she looked this way and that for the best avenue to slink closer to them. Hesitation, as she turned back to look at him once more. Calculating, doubting, and then,
Hunger .
He saw it settle into her expression, and once it took over, her every move was fluid. Her every breath was measured. Her every heartbeat was tamped down. Her sole focus was the hunt. Then, the transition. Her fingers curled, digging into the soil as her bone structure shifted to make room for paws that were larger than his whole hand. The change shifted through her back and hind legs, until her dark skin was replaced by long, white fur even more brilliant than her hair .
She slinked into the trees off to her left, belly to the ground like a giant feline on the prowl. He had not seen a werewolf opt to stalk their prey instead of giving in to an outright chase right away in eons. The way her paws skirted carefully around each obstacle on the ground, the way her eyes never moved from her quarry, the way her entire being stilled until it seemed like she was no longer even there whenever their heads raised, it made his entire body churn with unbidden desire.
Paw by paw, minux by minux, she inched closer until she was within three bounds of the clearing and the stag. Theos circled her again, settling behind her and lowering himself into crouching position the way she had. She was winding up like a spring, ears pointed forward, eyes focused on her target. For as close as he was to her, Theos struggled to hear her breathing, or to detect her heartbeat. It was a wonder that she could alter her own vital signs the way she seemed so easily to do. He had created werewolves with that ability, and it had been lost throughout the eons as their bloodlines melded together and their hunts for prey became easier by their large numbers.
She embodied all the traits of the original werewolves – longer, sharper snouts, wild blood-red eyes – a blood craze that drove their every action in a hunt, stalking skills that could not be rivalled by any other creatures. A focus that once it was locked on a target, could not be dissuaded. Kheos. He had created her. Her wiring, her biology, her means of operating, it was all original to Theos’ original intention for werewolves. He raised his eyes away from her haunches to the clearing when the sound of bellowing interrupted his admiration of his mate.
The stag’s head lowered, his tongue stretching forward to slide against the doe in front of him. Checking for readiness to mate, tasting her pheromones. He watched the mount with the satisfaction of a proud parent, until gentle surges of pleasure floated through him from the bond. His eyes snapped down to Haera. She was still crouched, even lower now, waiting for the right moment to strike. And though pleasure was flooding through her body at the wanton demonstration of the primal mating drive that was happening before her, the hunting drive was much stronger. Low bellows of pleasure filled the forest as the stag revelled in his pleasure.
The sound weaved through the trees, amplifying as it arced through the wet air and meandered between trees dripping with the abundance of moisture in the atmosphere. The islands were still raw, aching with the newness of the world around them. The closest land to them was the kingdom of Raendra in Thorca; but the islands were far enough removed to be invisible – accessible only after wouxs of travel by ship, through the perilous waters of the Gabkquran Sea. They were far from everything she had ever known. The weight of the air was unnoticeable; crisp and impossibly cool. The water flowed differently, lapping against the shore gently on the beaches, ripping into craggy cliffs with a bite strong enough to send the century old stone crumbling. The Earth thrummed more wildly beneath their feet; alive with newborn eagerness to produce. Everything around them was humming with energy.
He could see the complex array of each plant’s structure; the flow of air and water each stalk absorbed. The rush of the water’s travel through the trunks of the trees was deafening. The roar of the sea as it clamoured for Haera’s attention, and his, was almost as loud as the roar of the riyzze that dwelled within. Gods . The whole Earth, as far as the human world, was alive. It sensed her. Sensed his love for her.
Her paws shifted incrementally on the Earth, and he felt it as clearly as he would feel her soft skin against his. His heart tremored. She leaned back on all fours, tensing, waiting. The stag ahead of them grunted and growled deep in his throat one last time, forcing his hips to the doe’s and sending his seed shooting deep into her. Theos watched the precise moment his sperm connected with her receptive womb and life was formed. Spears of light collected like daggers, rushing towards her womb to sustain the spark of life that now lived there. The Earth sensed the new lifeform, and a tiny shiver raced through the ground. Plants shot up all around them, eager to provide nutrients for the pregnant doe. Everything was shifting .
As the stag’s hooves pounded the Earth once more, Haera’s coiled spring snapped. She leaped forward, muscles stretching to give her leverage. The tendons in her legs loosened, then tightened when her paws hit the Earth again. Another long bound, her jumps silent against the backdrop of the stag’s panting. Another pound. Theos’ heart trilled with pleasure. Gods . She was beautiful .
She leaped into the air, three hundred pounds of muscle hulking into the stag’s much larger frame. Her jaws opened, snapping shut around the buck’s throat as she twisted into a takedown that pulled the stag completely off the ground, flipping him in the air so that they were both suspended. Time slowed. The crunch of her jaws tightening in the deer’s throat was loud in the dripping forest.
The takedown had been so fast, so soundless, so smooth, that the noise of her canines cracking bones and slicing through veins was the first sound of the attack. The two much smaller does sprang into action, bolting out of the clearing and into the forest. Still falling, Haera ripped teeth free, relieving the buck of his throat. Gods . She was deadly .
The dull thud of falling bodies echoed into his heart. The thrashing hooves of the still live stag as Haera lapped up the blood pooling in the open wound in his throat sent shivers of delight straight through to his cock. The white fur around her snout was drenched in the stag’s life source, and her groans of satisfaction as she drank from his live body reverberated under his skin. His cock quivered again, blood rushing to the knot at its base.
Haera walked down to the stag’s soft belly, eyeing it carefully. Her eyes darted to the stag’s still throbbing cock, and keeping an eye on it, she swiped her tongue across his belly. His body convulsed, pleasure shooting through him at the touch of her tongue. A look of confusion passed through her eyes, before understanding dawned on her as the stag’s cock surged and swelled, his seed spilling out onto his belly. The light inside his heart faded. Death claimed him. Haera’s tongue came out again to lap up the arousal on his belly.
Pleasure rocketed through Theos’ body, heat pooling in his hips from the carnality on display before him. When her canines sank into the stag’s cock without hesitation, Theos’ hand gripped at his own tightly, willing it not to explode with his arousal. But watching Haera chew through the pink flesh, then lean down to lap up the blood that now spilled from the gaping wound on the stags’ belly, his body went rigid, cock surging and knot pulsing as he freed himself from his pants just in time to spill his burning hot seed onto the Earth.
Panting heavily, he watched flowers surge up from the seed drenched Earth, their petals glittering like diamonds in the weak rays of the sun. The bond opened up. From the way Haera’s skin trembled, Theos knew she was feeling his pleasure. Hand still around his cock, he stroked himself to orgasm again, crying out as pleasure slammed into him again. Haera ripped into the stag’s belly and chewed through a massive chunk of its flesh.
The crystal flowers surged stronger. Ice blue – the colour of her eyes.
Breath rasping out of him, he closed his eyes, willing himself to stop thinking about walking over to her and burying himself to the hilt in one thrust. Gods . Resisting his own desire was harder than anything he had ever done.
He turned his eyes up to the sky, chest still heaving, breath still coming in gasps as the sound of his mate crunching through bone filled his ears and the forest around them.
His voice was dark, words barely audible through the growls that were spilling out of him. “Welcome back, my Agrotera.”
He spilled himself onto the Earth again when his little mate whimpered at the endearment.