Wolf's Bane

"I watched as they put a collar on him, a simple one, not like mine. They examined him, as best they could, photographing, measuring his strength, his stamina. They took samples of his hair, his blood, sputum, scrapings of skin - but all of the samples quickly vanished, yielding them nothing. I hated seeing the way they treated him. I was ignored by Alanya and her cronies, and trying not to think about wearing nothing on me but a ring of plastic explosive. When they were done, they ushered him into the cage next to mine, had cameras and microphones set up but chained him out of my reach. Most of the soldiers left, leaving Alanya, some technicians, a guard, and that creepy thin officer who'd come in with her..."

*

Alanya smiled as she approached Sam's cage. "That look suits you, my dear. Perhaps we can keep you like that permanently as you work with us."

Rage and fear vied for dominance within Sam, and her voice was as taut as her expression. "This was planned all along. You'd learned of my association with Fenris, confused and distracted me with your seduction, blocked him from my mind, conspired to get me here and summon him to your lab-"

"Yes, yes, please catch up." The scorn was almost palpable. "The Community was quite accurate about your monumental obtuseness. It is the greatest of your many flaws."

"And what have I done to deserve such disdain from you?"

The older woman leaned in closer, her voice dropping. "By reminding me of myself, years ago: love struck, naïve, self-centred, whining, wasting your considerable talents on petty liberal causes, and worst of all, falling forhis lies. Him, the offspring of Loki, God of Lies! Seeing, talking to you brought it all back, and it was all I could do not to throttle you." Her lip curled. "You disgust me."

Sam couldn't recall ever being on the receiving end of such bile. But she was determined not to show how affected by it she was, and drew closer until her face was against the bars of the cage. "You forgot to mention I make you envious, too. When you realised that Fenris was staying, that he did love me enough not to flee. Something he never demonstrated to you, did he-"

Sam's words descended into cries as Alanya shot another jolt of electricity into her, making her collapse into sobs.

Alanya! Fenris growled, his own huge hands making the bars seem thin and fragile as he clutched them, his thoughts low and steady like distant thunder.Count the last hours of your life on the fingers of one hand.

She remained visibly unimpressed. "Once you were my lover, my god, and I was utterly devoted to you. Your betrayal opened my eyes to what you were."

And the succeeding years have only blurred your vision. Years distort the truth in men and women's hearts. Family and lovers long since past become gods, or monsters. But I am immortal, and it was as if it were yesterday. You were devoted, yes, but you were more devoted to your own ambition, your own pride, neither of which could accept that I would not stay with you forever, or help you with your own advancement. And I never pledged my love to you, to anyone, untilthis women.

Alanya shook in place, her face a mask of barely-controlled fury, quickly forced down again as she returned to Sam. "I would advise you not to touch your collar, it's programmed to detonate with enough force to remove your head from your body if it's tampered with." She indicated the gaunt officer. "Lieutenant Giger would like a demonstration of the mating habits of our specimen. Your cooperation in the name of scientific research would be most helpful. Well?"

Sam forced herself to recover, refusing to lie prostrate before this woman. She wiped the tears from her face and rose onto quivering limbs. She hadn't felt such rage in years. "Would you... would you be hurt if I told you to go fuck yourself?"

Alanya turned back to Fenris. "If she doesn't cooperate, then you will rape her. And ifyou don't cooperate, I will kill her. Which is preferable, monster, hurting the woman you love, or letting her die?"

The cage bars in Fenris' grip groaned as he twisted them.If she dies, you will be the first to follow. But not the last. Because if she dies, there will be nothing to stop me from turning this land red with the blood of your wretched race. I will leave nothing alive.

"At my age, one prepares to die. As for my people, it will not be the first time our Moist Mother Earth was stained in such a way." She looked back to Sam. "Well?"

Sam swallowed, looked to Fenris and nodded.

They moved the cameras to the space where the EM field was generated. Alanya and Giger and some of the technicians stayed in the background, observing, muttering between themselves. It was simply an experiment for them. They couldn't grasp the intimacy, the majesty and passion involved.

Sam and Fenris sat within the enclosure, whispering to each other, remembering their first encounters, their subsequent development, their travels and adventures, how they'd grown to fulfil each other in ways they could never have realised beforehand. They sat closer, held hands, Fenris stroking her hair, Sam gasping at his touch.

She pulled Fenris into a kneeling embrace, kissing his neck, the skin beneath his ears, nipping him. His fingers moved into her hair, his furred face brushing against hers, and their kisses and nips intensified, and multiplied.

Sam drew back, trying to hide her looking about, looking about at the observers forcing them to reveal the details of their most private moments and feelings.

Fenris squeezed her gently.Look at me, Samantha. Not them. They're not there. We're alone.

Sam nodded, tracing her fingers over the broad outline of Fenris' long, pointed jaw, then back into the deeper fur at the base of his throat, so thick and soft in her hands. Breathing harder, moaning softly, she ground her pelvis against his, feeling the hardness of his swelling cock pressing into her as the touch of his hands aroused her further.

She shivered. His fingertips traced their way up their thighs with long, deliciously slow strokes as her nipped her again, and she kissed him back. His fingers moved to her pussy, carefully parting her and letting one finger slip inside.

Sam moaned into his skin, and reached down to take his shaft in her hand, feeling it pulse, feeling it long to be inside her, and giving him long, languid strokes in response. Sam imagined she could almost hear the collective, excited beatings of the hearts of those assembled, instinctively drawn to the forbidden, thankfully keeping back and keeping silent, but still watching.

She pulled back from him as he murmuredLie back.

She happily obliged, dropping onto her back and parting her legs as he dropped to all fours, making Sam squirm in delight as his long, rough tongue touched and teased her swollen pussy and full, throbbing clit. He lapped at her, slowly and lovingly, as her mouth opened and her eyes closed, and she felt a climax building, building - a short, sharp one came unexpectedly, making her start.

Then Fenris rose, padded over her, slipping his arms under her thighs and lifting them up as he speared her from above, his breath escaping from him in a low grunt as he filled her up once more. Sam called out, her limbs flooded with the rapture of the reunion of their bodies that she had craved for so long. Fenris too lay still, as if he'd squandered all his energy in that first thrust. She lifted her head, tasting his muzzle, his jaw, the salty tang of his sweat, as her pussy muscles rippled along the length of him.

"Beloved," she murmured, a prayer on her lips.

And, as if a command, he began to move again now, gently lifting upwards, almost fully withdrawing from her body before slipping back into her inch by delicious inch, their fit ideal, their movements as natural as the rise and fall of the moon. His tail twitched behind him as he bent forward again, licking at her aching, sweat-beaded breasts with his tongue. Her hands steadied her on his shoulders, her fingernails piercing him, wanting him marked, as he marked her, for all to see.

His thrusting became more insistent, unable to bear things at such an agonisingly slow pace. Parting from his throat, she puffed, "Wait- wait- take me- behind-"

He nodded, withdrawing long enough for her to twist about until she was on all fours and Fenris was on his knees behind her. He gripped her hips, and in that position, he went wild, losing control, the rude slapping of their bodies inducing a climax within her. She lowered her head to the floor and pushed her body back against his, until his cock was stroking against her G-spot, sending thrumming through her like a plucked guitar string. Now her limbs quaked and she could barely control her movements except to push and gyrate. Around her, the world vanished.

Suddenly Fenris' body went rigid, and he threw his head back and howled. Sam responded to his surrender with her own, locked together, pumping into one another. She felt giddy with the sensation as she squeezed him, harder, harder, milking him thoroughly, savouring every bullet of come he shot deep into her.

They remained in place, feeling the ebbs drift away, until Sam sensed that they should separate, and did so, Fenris taking her into his arms and cradling her. She rode on blissful waves, idly taking tufts of his fur between her teeth and tugging them.

Never expecting the fur to fall out, as it did.

She pulled back, spitting it out and looking up at him, her confusion giving way to alarm at the pained look in his eyes. Beloved?"

Even his pseudo-breathing was laboured.It's nearing dawn...

The awful realisation struck her to the core.

*

She paused, prompting Roshenko to ask, "And the significance of this?"

She breathed out, blinking back tears. "Spirit forms, even ones as powerful and independent as Fenris, have limitations in this world, and are bound by many of our laws. In his case, he is a creature of the night, not the day, and even then, only for brief periods. Alanya was keeping him there for longer than he'd ever done. He had to struggle against the instinctive urge to vanish; for him, it was like trying to keep your hand immersed in boiling water. He was... disintegrating, right before my eyes."

"So? You could just recreate him the following night-"

She shook her head. "No. He is -was - a unique individual. And for all their power and immortality, in our world, on our plane, such entities can die, or be killed. I've seen it happen."

"But with him gone, his knowledge would be gone too."

"So I pointed out to Alanya, pleading with her to let him go. She simply said she was taking care of matters." Her head rang. "Major, if there are any pain killers on that tray, I'd appreciate some."

"Perhaps after. Continue."

She swallowed, ignoring the chill running down her back. "They returned us to our separate cages. Alanya gave me back my clothes, but otherwise ignored me, concerned as she was with unpacking some equipment. I was more focused on reaching out to Fenris through our rapport..."

*

Beloved...

Fenris half-lay in his cage, looking pale like some washed-out photograph, and he was gradually losing his biped form, reverting to a more wolf-like appearance, albeit that had just been delivered in long still a huge one.Samantha... I must tell you something... about what I said, during our argument...

She knelt inside her cage, tears streaming unchallenged down her face; they had given her back her clothes, but she still felt naked before the raw emotions spilling from her. You don't have to tell me anything, Beloved.

But I do, while there's time. Your questions awakened truths within me I could not easily face. I have had many consorts over the centuries, chosen for their abilities, for how they could serve my purposes. I have not treated them all like Alanya. Some I have stayed devoted to until death.Their deaths. You have such brief spans here, but I am the cursed one, for seeing all of you grow old, then die, and leave for places I could never follow. The thought of losing you too...He looked away, and every movement seemed a painful effort.Having you, the only one I have ever truly loved... as my last consort... makes my departure more bearable...

"No!" she called aloud, turning to Alanya, whose attention she'd caught with her outburst. "Alanya, please! He's dying! I'll do anything you want, work any spell, summon any creature! Just free him from his obligation!"

The Russian woman paused to give instructions to some of the technicians, who were assembling long metal poles with chains and attachments, before returning to Sam. "Stop your crying, my dear. He won't die, not if what I have in mind succeeds." She directed the technicians to approach with the poles as she opened his cage; Sam recognised them then as tools for handling dangerous animals from a distance. They latched one end to his collar, tugging as he struggled to move. He paused, seemed to lose more energy as he weakly morphed into a fully lupine state, before letting himself be directed out of the lab.

Sam tried to reach him with her mind, called out to him when she couldn't. "Fenris! Beloved!" She turned back to Alanya. "You fucking bitch! What are you doing to him?"

The Russian stepped closer, but not close enough for Sam to reach her if she had a mind to do so. "Insuring that we keep your monstrous paramour among us indefinitely. Based upon my own research - and some additional information you have unwittingly provided – I am going to attempt to infuse his spirit, graft it if you will, into the body of one of the island's adult male wolves. He should retain his knowledge, his identity, his ability to communicate telepathically. But he will be trapped within a fleshy frame. Of course, I'm not certain if he'll be able to transform that flesh, so any lovemaking between yourselves may become completely socially unacceptable."

Sam's mind reeled, ignoring the last taunt. Was it possible? She knew some spirits could inhabit living bodies, had seen it herself with Mikhail in Belarus. And if it worked, he would be with her twenty-four/seven. Maybe not the same as before, but...

But nothing. It would make him a shadow of his former self. It was a foolish, needless risk. "Alanya, you don't have to do this to him. Send him away, he'll come back for me tomorrow night."

"I doubt it. I've proven that I could injure, possibly kill him. And whatever he feels for you, he can't risk his agenda."

"His... agenda?"

Alanya smirked. "What, did you think he made consorts of women through the centuries just because he enjoyed sex with us?" More serious now, she asked, "Have you ever given thought to the notion that the Norse stories were based in fact? That Fenris was really out to initiate Ragnarok, the end of the world? And that you have been his unwitting accomplices towards this?" She smirked. "Perhaps I'm not as villainous as you imagine."

The question stunned Samantha. "No. No, it can't be..."

And Alanya sighed, almost sounding bored now. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have an operation to perform at the crack of dawn."

She turned to depart, and Sam relented, desperation welling up. "Alanya, please! Don't!"

The woman ignored her, switched off the lights in the lab and left Sam alone. She wanted to slump down and weep again, but she was out of tears – and Fenris was nearly out of time. Instead she knelt down and opened her mind, seeking him out there. He could not be far. Fenris. Beloved...

Samantha... so good to hear your thoughts... one last time...

No! Don't give up! Leave! You have to survive!

Not at your expanse. Not while you live.

And with that, Sam made a decision, with no regrets or hesitation. She may not know his true purpose in this world, but she trusted it to be a good one, and one not to be jeopardised by her life being held hostage.

Her hand shot up to her collar, grabbed hold of it and twisted, using her other hand for leverage. Her eyes were shut tight, awaiting the inevitable as she broke her collar.

The inevitable, however, proved elusive. She held the collar, ran her fingers along it, feeling thumb-sized metal compartments, then flung it out of her cage in case her suspicions were incorrect. But nothing happened. A growing fury built within her like a storm. The lying fucking bitch... Fenris! It was a bluff! I'm safe! Fenris!

He didn't answer.

Was it too late?

No... She rose to her feet, grasped the bars of her cage, pulled and squeezed and twisted. She had to get out, get out and get to Fenris, give him a chance to escape. Her mind called out again, but still she heard nothing. If it was too late...

Filled with nothing more than a blinding determination to be free, Sam struggled with the door to her cage.

Her back muscles strained, her biceps bulged, the cords in her neck felt taut like piano strings, ready to snap.

She was going to be free – she wasn't just a woman.

She was the consort of agod.

And she... was going to be...

Then with a screeching groan, the lock in the cage door snapped. Snarling at her own unexpected, unprecedented strength, Sam slammed the door open and bolted from the lab, moving through deserted corridors with a speed and stealth she had never felt before, escaping from a side door of the building.

The sky was beginning to turn a salmon-pink, revealing concentric layers of high, thin clouds. But a greater light came from the west, from the direction of the stone circle, the site where ancient practitioners of magic shaped and sculpted their vision of a wolf strong enough to consume the world. She moved through the forest, being careful without ever stopping.

The clearing was surrounded by dozens of soldiers and technicians, carrying weapons, recording equipment, scanners, but all keeping clear of the centre of the circle. There, a column of bone-white arcane energy rose like flames: a Balefire, an edification of the power on hand here. It cast the faces who stared into it with an eldritch glow, making them appear like walking skeletons. Alanya stood just outside of balefire, in all her naked glory, arms outstretched, mouthing incantations. At the other side of the balefire, further away from Sam, she saw two figures on the ground, both of similar shape but one larger than the other, huddled together as fingers of light danced out from the columns to caress them, weave them together. It had to be Fenris, and the male wolf whose body he would very soon inhabit. Indeed, the figures appeared to be merging, like waxwork effigies melting together beside a fire.

There was no time. Sam burst through the shrubbery, shoving aside two soldiers in her way, uncaring if they shot at her. "FENRIS!"

The larger four-legged figure turned in her direction. Samantha! Don't! It's too late!

Closer still, Alanya turned, fear and fury in her eyes. "Stay back! I've unleashed-"

Sam didn't care. Her instincts told her to attack.

And she did, slamming into Alanya, sending them both into the heart of the balefire.

They grappled, even as both women found themselves battered from all sides. There was a swirling, circular motion to the energy, as it formed itself into a maelstrom, a vortex. Sam felt the power blazing through her, burning through her veins, searing through her spirit. Her whole being was alive, and yet burned to the core. She felt light, lifted from her feet though the eye of the vortex, the pain and the pleasure mingling, and her brain was full of light and sound. She could hear herself screaming, the wind and the rain of energy still lashing her body. She felt god-like, and yet undergoing the punishment of a god.