Hunting the Hunter

She was incredibly tight and incredibly hot, practically searing. He shook, and she grunted softly and pressed back harder. Her soft sound of effort broke him of his stillness and he extended his claws, pressing them into the ground, digging in as he leveraged himself against her hips, meeting her slow press with a hard thrust of his own. She cried out and jerked forward with the pressure of the thrust, held in place only by the weight of his body pressing down on her, still pinning her.

She shoved back, trying still to pull more of him inside her. 'Eager little sylph,' he growled to himself and met her movements roughly and enthusiastically with his own until he could feel himself wedged as far and as tightly as he would go.

They stayed that way, frozen, both shaking faintly as she gasped gently, her forehead bent down resting in the cool grass and her fingers wrapped tightly around his lowered forelegs. Slowly he pulled out, his eyes rolling a little at the way her body clung to his. He pulled almost all the way, then dug in his claws and slammed hard into her, spreading her, claiming her. She gasped almost silently and her fingers bit into his fur. He thrust again, then again, pulling all manner of arousing sounds from her lovely throat.

He continued to caress her shoulders and neck with his cheek, enjoying her scent, and the taking pleasure in in his own scent as it clung to her hair and skin. His scent. 'Mine' he thought through his haze, and shuddered again with satisfaction as he continued to thrust down into her. His eyes turned to her long slender neck, exposed as her hair fell forward, spilling like a waterfall of blood red wine into the grass. Her perfect, smooth, unmarked skin shone like dark silver.

He moved naturally, instinctively, letting her build, feeling her tighten around him, feeling himself swell to the point of bursting. He rose up without thinking, his lips curling back over his teeth and felt her skin break between his jaws, and her hot blood seep like liquid fire against his tongue.

Inanna screamed, but her chest was already so tight, so breathless, it came out as a rasping cry instead. The sudden sharp pain, and the vibrating pulses of something completely indescribably, as his teeth came down around the nape of her neck, holding her as he fucked her, made her body jerk and twitch against the heavy mass above her. She convulsed and shook, her senses torn between the delicious silk of his stomach sliding against her body, the blissfully electric, half-painful pulsing of her clenching sex around the thick cock inside her, and the red pain of his sharp teeth at her throat.

She whimpered helplessly in his grip as she felt him release inside of her in undulating waves of heat. Her own body responded instantly, pulsing and sending currents of electric pleasure shooting through her veins. She felt him release her, and after a moment felt the warmth of his tongue against her back and neck, cleaning the blood away, and soothing the ache of the wound.

Her body clung to his as he pulled out of her and she collapsed with an inaudible grunt into the cool of the grass, her only thoughts muddled exclamations of wonder and disbelief.

Nothing actually hurt just yet, just throbbed wonderfully, though she was certain it would start aching eventually. But now she just felt...exhausted, empty and full at the same time. She was lying on her side, staring off at nothing in particular, and felt a heavy warm bulk press up against her back. She turned her head weakly and saw him next to her, on his stomach, leaning to one side, scanning the line of trees and the path out towards the road. 'Well', she mused pulling a coherent thought together, 'at least one of us is paying attention.' After which she promptly passed out.

***

Inanna grumbled and turned onto her back, this spot was warmer she noted...then frowned. Had she heard something? Why was it so cold? And damp? She blinked open her eyes and stared with confusion at the starlight sky over head. She shifted, realizing instantly that she was laying naked in the grass, and that she hurt all over. Not real bad mind you, just a mild dull ache. It was especially bad in her neck and for some reason in her...oh...yeah. She blinked. Azura have mercy on her. Did she just do what she thought she did?

"I guess that wasn't an especially twisted dream after all, " she murmured, "and I thought the one about Dagoth-Ur was bad." She grimaced and sat up, ignoring the slight twinge of a cramp in her side. She ran a hand through her still damp hair and brought several tangles and bits of grass out with it. She propped an arm on her bent knee and looked around. Had he left already? That wouldn't have been very gentlemanly, what with her naked and unconscious in the middle of a bandit infested wood. Not gentlemanly by half.

She spotted her pants in a heap by her bag and grabbed them, yanking them on and stumbling to her feet at the same time.

From the direction of the road she heard a shout. That's what must of woke her up. She grabbed her shirt and dagger, and pulled it, the shirt that is, over her head as she broke into a light jog. Light because she was still waking up, and still ached all over. She came up over a little rise, between the brush that bordered the road and the edge of the little lake, and stopped short. It was the Redguard bandit with the big axe and a mean looking lion, only the bandit was in a heap and the lion was prowling toward her. She balled her fists on her hips.

"You know, I scared him so bad he didn't even want to fight me." She smirked at him as he passed her, and he gave her what she could only describe as a wry look. Could lions look wry?

This one did. What on earth was he? "What are you anyway?" she asked, tailing after him, knowing full well he couldn't answer.

"Let's play twenty questions then." She chirped. She thought his shoulders slumped a little. This was good, talking is good, it would keep her mind off...other things. "Are you a Khajiit of some kind?" He shook his head once. She sighed. She grabbed her things and he waited for her, it being assumed, apparently, that he was accompanying her the rest of the way. Well, that is gentlemanly then. Better than she usually got. They kept near enough to the road to keep an eye on it, but out sight of any passersby. "Are you just an unusually...."she smirked, "friendly, lion who thinks he's people?" He snorted. 'Guess not then'.

"Am I crazy?"

He gave her a side long glance.

"Well I guess we're not ruling that one out just yet. Hmmm, well, what else," she tapped her lip with mock pensiveness, "what could you be? Are you a sorcerer?" No. Oh, brilliant! "Did you go to Leyawin and get bopped with Wabajak?" He gave her a very confused look. "You know...Sheogorath's staff? The one that turns things into...well, things? I saw a guy in the fighters guild turn someone's horse into a little white rabbit. No really, I swear on my ancestors, "she said crossing her heart, "it was the funniest damn thing I ever saw. I literally cried I laughed so hard. Apparently he'd only done it to amuse his little sister. That's brotherly love for you." She frowned. "I guess that means you're not Sheogorath either. He would have known what I was talking about." So that ruled out the mad-god then.

She appraised him and he ignored her, his eyes were busy scanning the dark. It was sort of nice travelling with someone who was as paranoid as she was, it meant less work on her end. She watched the road and kept thinking out loud.

"Well, you don't smell deadric...so you're not from the Oblivion planes..." she winced, "oh god you're not undead or anything are you?"

He gave her another sidelong look that said rather clearly, 'I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer.'

"Are you mortal?" Nod. Well that didn't help much. "How mortal? I mean, like Men or like Mer?" He cocked his head at her. Maybe he didn't know the difference. "I'm Mer," she gestured to her ears, "Dunmer specifically, pointy ears, dark skin, red eyes. Altmer are the tall slightly golden obnoxious ones, and Bosmer are the short pale obnoxious ones. Dunmer are somewhere in between. And obviously perfect." She purred.

He snorted. "Don't pretend you don't think so." She murmured mischievously. She quieted and gestured to the road. Two sketchy looking fellows in dark cloaks were chatting behind a rock. That's not suspicious, not at all. They took the long way around to avoid them.

"Anyway, we live longer. Take me for instance...I'm pretty young, I'm only Eighty six. Of course if I were of the race of men, that would be pretty old, seeing as how they have the life span of a fruit fly. So are you also long lived?" He glanced at her again and made an affirmative gesture. "Well, that's interesting then, perhaps you are Mer...of a sort." She scrunched her nose, "Orcs are so I don't see why you couldn't be. Now I wonder how long you do live. My people can stretch their lives up to and over a thousand years, but those are usually the exceptional cases, often involving magica of some kind, like house Telvanni for instance, that is if they can keep friends and loved ones from stabbing them in the back first." She looked back at him from the road, he was looking a little bit incredulously at her. "Not familiar with the Dunmer people I take it?"

He shook his head, and she chuckled.

"Well generally we don't often live too much past five or six hundred, depending on one's lifestyle of course. The life span for my people is decidedly shorter on average. Ashlanders that is," she explained, "we live in the grazelands and the ash wastes on the north steppes of Red Mountain, not exactly the easiest life. I was a clan hunter. It's a big volcano, by the way...Red Mountain. " She grinned. "Explains a lot doesn't it."

He made an emphatic nod which made her chuckle darkly again.

"We all have the eyes and the skin, but it varies. I'm a paler shade of grey than most, and my hair, though not unusual, is less standard than shades of black." She still grinned at him and held up a hand, wiggling her fingers and making them glow with subdued fire. "I've got the volcano in my veins."

She dropped her hand and turned her attention back to the road, her smile fading quickly. They were almost there, she could see the walls peaking through the brush. He must have seen it too and stopped. She sighed and turned back.

"Well I guess this is where I get off the ship. Shall we part here?" He bowed his head. She gave him a small, but very sincere smile. Happy to be safely inside city walls, but not quite ready to leave her strange friend, she lingered, looking at the ground in a not quite comfortable silence.

He didn't go bounding off, and she didn't want to be the first one to go. Ah well, thus is life. You meet a nice lion and then you're forced to go your separate ways. She shook her head at the absurdity of the situation and met his steady gaze.

"Well, goodnight then Muthsera," she whispered softly, " thank you for seeing me home." She smile one last time and turned towards the big grey stone walls, slipping past the stable and nodding politely to the two on-duty guards. They nodded back sullenly and continued to ignore her.

She stretched and yawned as she picked her way towards her house, stepping around an unconscious Dunmer snoring in the mud. Classy. Then again hadn't she woken up with grass in her hair an hour ago? She snorted. I'm sure his excuse is less interesting than mine, she thought with a smirk.

She still could quite believe...if she didn't ache like she did...Bloody hell! What's gotten into her? She still felt a little flushed, and her palms were damp. How strange. Very strange.

Feric watched as she walked away, and wondered what exactly' Muthsera' meant. Whatever it was, the way she'd said it made it feel like a caress. He sighed and felt free to watch the sway of her hips as she moved. No harm now. It was too late for that, the damage had been done. And what damage it was.

He let out the low dangerous growl that he'd been suppressing until she left and stalked off back towards the deeper woods, just in case anyone had spotted him. He doubted it, but she was distracting him by talking the whole time. It had helped. He didn't have to think too much, but now here he was, alone with his thoughts, and the one particular nasty thought about the incredible, insane mistake he had just made.

Dammit! Fool! Why in blazes would he ever...like that? In this form...and he bit her! Marked her, and bit her! No thought, no reason, just waltzed right over and claimed her on the spot. Fuck, he bit her! He growled again. If he'd wanted her so badly he could have just shifted, explained himself, and propositioned her the normal way, the way any idiot with half a brain would. But no. He did it the old fashioned way. The way one does it when they claim their mate...because that just makes so much more sense...damn it all to the sixteen hells!

And she let him! Now that was hard to get one's head around. She seemed completely un-phased. Damn but those dark elves...what had she said, Dunmer? Remarkable creatures. He shook his head.

He would just have to forget it happened. No one need suffer the consequences but him. He did it, it was his problem. She wasn't one of them, it shouldn't affect her, and if no one else knew, then it was just his burden, his torture. And if Mirisa finds out...

Fuck.

He was now mated to a practical stranger, not even a race he knew anything about, and he couldn't do a damned thing about it. What's worse...she was beautiful, stunningly even, she was strong, and a hunter like his people, which was so very appealing, and the very worst of it...she just smelled so damn good. He was going to have to stay away from her, far away. He could already feel the pull in his mind telling him to turn around and go back to her. This was going to be incredibly painful. Fuck.

When he neared the new den Mirisa was waiting for him. She padded up and brushed against him in greeting. He could feel relief, confusion, sarcasm and irritation roil from her body, and more or less in that order. She shifted and walked over to the door pulling a robe from behind one of the blocks and pulled it on, then tossed one at his feet. He grudgingly shifted as well. At least in the other form they didn't have to talk about it.

"Told you so you ass."

He grunted. Again, only she could get away with that.

"You reek of her."

"What's your point Mirisa."

She glared. "I'm concerned you let her in just so you cou..." The look he gave her made her stop.

"That, is out of line." She pursed her lips.

"Yeah sorry. I know, you can do what you want, you're not a kid...but you're sure? You know me better than to think I'm just saying this to be difficult." He sighed and nodded.

"I know, you were right. I did lose my head a little, but not about the tribe or their safety. I still trust her. I wasn't even planning anything, I just sort of...ran into her." He sighed again, this time a little more plaintively. She broke her frown and chuckled.

'Yeah, well ,you must have ran into her pretty hard. I guess you've earned a romp though. God knows months of playing hide and seek with these sons of scamps is making me edgy. And I have to say, she is quite the looker. Just...try not to go mixing business with pleasure"

He gave her a sardonic look and turned to go inside. Well at least Mirisa couldn't know the rest of the details. If she only knew just how much control he lost she might think he was slipping. Hell he thought he was slipping. He didn't want her challenging him for leadership, this was no time for that, and she was responsible enough to do it if she thought it was best for the group.

"So," she asked conversationally, "Owyn wants to play bait, are we game?" He nodded.

"I think he's capable."

"Me too." He smirked at her.

""Really?"

"Shut up Feric...he's a kid."

"A kid with good taste."

"Well we can't hold that against him can we." She smiled at nothing in particular. Well, he thought, maybe this won't be so bad after all. He felt alright. Mirisa seemed ok, and there were no obvious side effects, aside from the faint pull at the back of his mind...then again, he'd never had to avoid a mate before, he wasn't completely sure what it would do. He'd heard things...and none of them were pretty. but, she was a race he knew so little about, who knew what might happen.

Dammit to hell.