Stormfeather Ch. 14

It took her a minute, but then she'd made that laughing sound of hers and she'd wrapped herself around his bicep and began the show that she knew that he enjoyed to watch so much. She loved to do this for him, rubbing herself hard on the back of his great paw as much as she could until her wailing release came. He'd never given a thought to something like this before, but he found himself caring for her quite a bit now.

Eventually, he found that she could call him to her if she had the need. It had enabled him to save her life more than once.

They never went to sleep hungry, and they never went to sleep wanting as he learned what her noises meant and why she made them. They'd even found a few ways to copulate, thanks to her inventive mind and after everything, he was happy to let her lie against him, between his chest and his foreleg as he held her close protectively. She seemed to need that from him and he was happy to provide it.

She was insanely happy in her response to his frequent need to mate. All that he had to do was reach for her slender hips and she was wet for him almost instantly. Doing it in the normal fashion for what he was would have crushed her, but they'd found ways. If he pulled her hip with his wide paw in the night, she eagerly wriggled backward against him in anticipation.

He'd never done anything like that before either. He'd never tolerated having a female sleep this close unless the night was bitter cold. But it worked for them and that was all that mattered.

If they found the right kind of female for him, she hung back, never getting in the way, never even getting close, so that he could have the time that he needed. She stayed on the periphery, out of sight mostly, waiting for him to return to her. And he did, every time. Because of her, he now didn't feel the need to hang around to develop any sort of family structure.

He already had one.

She was his family. She did things that no ordinary female could do, and she proved that she was his every day.

It had happened twice that her presence was detected by other females of his kind, and they'd tried to kill her or run her off. But she was too fast to be mobbed or cornered and then they'd found that the male that they'd been hopeful to have had suddenly turned murderous. He'd defended her fiercely and they'd gone off together, leaving the confused females licking their wounds behind them.

After a while, he stopped looking for females. When he came across the scent of one who might be receptive – or soon would be, he took it as a sign of competition for food rather than opportunity. He was happy with her, this strange dog-creature who quite obviously loved him. When her own heat came, she didn't even seek her kind. She only made it clear that she wanted him more often – continuously if at all possible.

When they ranged far in their search of food, it became apparent that she couldn't keep up with him – not over very long distances, and so he allowed her to ride on his back. It gave her a better view to look for game anyway, and she used the time to refine the way that they could communicate in their minds.

She told him that she was happy with him and would always want him, but that she had to leave for a short time. She promised to return soon and that she would call to him in their way. He understood, but he was saddened. The day that she left, he watched as she went off into the hole in the mountain, telling him that it would be better that he not follow her – yet. She would tell him the time and they'd be together again after that. She'd mentioned the number of days, wanting to see if he could now keep the count.

She'd taught him many things as she rode on him. He was unaware of what she'd been doing for most of it, but finally, he'd had to admit to himself that she was a sort of mage herself. She was happy with what he was, but she'd been busy trying to shape his mind so that he could think beyond hunger, or whatever the motivation of the moment was. She'd told him that there was more power locked away in his mind, and for what she had planned for them, it would be needed.

They sat side by side one day looking out over the plain and he was listening to her voice in his head as her thoughts intruded on his.

"Do you see those smaller cats out there?" she asked.

"Smaller cats? To me, yes, but they are larger than you are," he'd replied.

"I know," she answered, "How many are there? How many can you see?"

"A few."

She looked at him, "How many is a few? I see four. Look at me," she thought to him as she sat back on her haunches a little more, "How many is this?"

He looked at her finger, "One."

She held up another finger, and he answered "Two."

But after that, until she held up five, he only said "a few," and after that, his answers became "several" until at ten fingers, he answered, "Many."

She sighed and he asked what was wrong.

That was when she began to teach him how to count.

Coming back to the present, he groaned quietly. While he waited, he remembered the events of the day before she'd gone.

They were still as she lay on his huge chest. The way that his ribcage was made meant that a large part of her was lying uphill and she quite liked that about him for the way that she could look at him from there – that, and the way that he'd let her lie on him like this in the first place. He'd learned how she loved to ride him as she'd done, fucking herself on him frantically. It always amazed him just how desperate she could be about it now and then, riding him for all she was worth, as though their lives depended on her efforts. From her side of it, she was in heaven. Somehow their differences worked in their favor like that.

Well, she'd smirked to herself, in her favor, really. She'd never been able to really let herself go in this position with anyone before. She'd always had to hold back at least a little, or they'd complain that she was hurting them, the way that she always liked to grind herself hard against them. It caused an almost painful shearing sensation in every male that she'd done this with. Only a minute or two of that, and they'd complained.

Not this one, she smiled to herself, not her big boy. She could let herself go as wildly as she wanted, loving every stroke, and he'd only roll his hips down and hold himself that way to present himself better for her.

His paws had been holding her for a while as they rested, but he'd raised them over his head to stretch languidly and it had upset things. She'd felt too good to do anything about it and she'd slid off slowly to land on her side against him and roll onto her back. He'd looked at her a little curiously.

"Are you alright?" he asked in her mind, wondering if something might be wrong.

"Hmmm," was her audible reply. He took it to be an affirmative response, so he got up to drink.

She opened her eyes to watch the way that his wonderful body moved. He was upside down from her perspective, but she didn't care. They weren't even made for each other. She didn't care about that either. She just knew that they needed each other. He was the most magnificent example of his kind that she'd seen and they loved each other – a good thing, considering how much she craved that wonderful thing of his.

She groaned to herself quietly. My God, she thought, now she wanted him again...

He came back to her, still upside down to stand a little beside her, looking down and savoring what he saw.

"How did you know that this might work between us?" he asked, "We are nothing alike. Our kinds are often enemies if food grows scarce."

"I didn't know that it would work at all, I only knew that I wanted you when I saw you. I have always liked to live wilder. I come from a place where things should be as clean as possible. I've never liked that as much as I love being here with you and taking life in my teeth. I have never been so happy as I am when you hold me after you have mated me in the dirt and grass.

It doesn't matter," her soft voice came to him from inside his skull, "I will tell you of another place where I come from," she said in his thoughts. "You will not understand some of the words for things, but I will try. I did not begin like this – like what I am. When I was small, I had a cat. She was my little friend. We didn't care that we were different. My father kept rabbits in a house in the yard. I didn't understand what was happening, but one day, my cat went into her heat. She climbed right over the fence and I spent the whole afternoon watching what she did with our male rabbit. It went on for days, and if she couldn't get to him because she was locked inside the house, she would try to scream the door off its hinges. I remembered my cat from so long ago when I saw you for the first time."

He watched her lips pull into an upside down smile after a moment, "Except that now, I am the cat, I think. I always need you."

"What happened to the rabbit?" he asked.

"He lived happily ever after," she chuckled, "fucking all of the girl rabbits, but he would leave them all alone if his special girlfriend came for him. My father told me to keep my cat inside when she was in heat, but Mama and I often opened the door for her then. She said that she just wanted a little peace and quiet, but when I spoke of it to her when I was older, she told me that she didn't know why my little cat wanted the rabbit so much, because she wasn't a rabbit and it shouldn't have worked, what they did together, but sometimes we want and we love who we love."

He nodded after a moment and then he lowered his head to lick one of her nipples. She groaned and stretched before she reached to hold his head there. He'd learned to lick her softly if he wanted to mate, but he also knew that she liked his rough tongue on her breasts for a little while and it always guaranteed that she'd want him.

He really didn't need to do that, but she'd never tell him. He liked her breasts and they definitely liked his attentions. If he licked her lower down, she'd lose her mind in joy and hold onto whatever she could get of him until he'd finished driving her mad. He'd learned to do that for her whenever he wanted a long slow coupling, and by then, she couldn't think of anything nicer.

Over the time that they'd been together, he'd gained in his ability to think and to reason through problems. Now, he didn't think quite so much as a beast anymore, and more like a being who was aware of things outside of his view. He'd queried it, asking her why one day as she rode on his back, not long before she'd left. Her answer had humbled him, while at the same time causing his huge heart to soar.

"Because you are a regal one, with great strength and ability," her quiet voice came to his mind, "You are kind to me and kingly and I love you so. Your mind does not work like mine or others like me, and if you would allow it, I would make you a king among my kind if I could. A mighty one like you should make cubs, many cubs, and I am sad that I cannot give them to you, so I have never minded whenever you have wanted to mate with a female like yourself. But I will never allow another one of my kind to mate with you. I would want to die first."

"I have already made many cubs," he thought back to her, "I am not young."

"No," she agreed, "but you are still at your prime, and you are shrewd, knowing how to fight, and more importantly, when to strike and where. I am not young either."

"Perhaps not," she heard in her mind as he purred a little momentarily, "yet you have your own wonders to me. I could never look at what you are before and feel arousal. Now it happens all the time to me."

"That is because you are the best mate for me," he heard her thoughts to him, "and the greatest challenge to mate with. That makes it better."

She'd reached down so that she was stretched out along him as he walked, hugging him with her arms and her legs.

"I am not clever or bright enough for what you want," he replied, "but I would do anything for you."

"Not yet," she smiled patting his shoulder, "but you will be. You are not stupid. I knew this about you long ago. I could never find a way to speak into your mind if you were like most. You are only limited, and I can help that. I am not finished the task yet. I need to learn more myself and for that, I need to be alone. That will be very hard for us both. I am only a female of my kind, not like you, but I feel how you love me. I would give my life for you at any time, my love. No one has ever stirred my heart or my body in the ways that you do without effort. Give me this time alone, and I will give you all that I can."

One day not long after she'd gone, he noticed no hole in the mountain anymore when he'd gone back to the place where he'd last seen her. He thought that he must have made a mistake. He laid his head down and groaned. But then he remembered things about her and what she'd told him. She would return because she'd told him that she would, he thought, as he lay in the grass. He ached for her in his need, but more than that he missed his mate. For all of his strength and power, he missed holding her small body against his more than anything.

That had been days ago. He had only another day to wait, he told himself, and by then he hoped to hear her call to him inside himself. If that didn't happen, ...

Well then, he might just have to tear down the mountain.

-----------------------

She lay in her bed waiting in the dark. Her pawed hand reached for her furrow in the darkness and her body answered quickly, releasing the wetness that always came when she thought of him. It had been too long, but whenever she'd tried to think through what was needed and how to manage it, she'd been interrupted and if it wasn't one thing, it had been another. But the time hadn't been totally wasted.

She'd managed the long overdue killing of the silver-haired traitor, and she'd gotten herself and her daughter out and away from the threat of the mages and the watchers. They'd met the two whose coming had been foretold, and she was pleased that they'd decided to wait before going further. She even knew one of the male's reasons.

Stormfeather wanted his mate to grow stronger, both in the magic and in herself. It was a wise choice, she thought, and she concurred. She had her own reasons for wanting the delay. Her daughter had met Elijah Samuels. There had been sparks there, she smirked.

She knew that it would turn out well, though. Soon enough, Elijah would fall for her Marie and be turned. Then Marie would have a male for herself again.

As far as the father was concerned, well, she'd only made a show of appearing to be interested when Amy had mentioned him. She was sorry for his luck. She might have been interested if she hadn't always been the sort of girl who'd always preferred to be bedded by a male outside and the wilder the loving the better. Under those circumstances, what would she do with an old man? How could he protect her from the things that had hunted her and her family.

No, she'd take a pass on that. The last thing that she wanted was to be stuck in a house and at best, trying to hold still in a nice clean stale-smelling bed while someone like that wheezed over her. She already had what she wanted and needed for her heart, she just needed to get back to him, all nine hundred pounds of furry masculine joy that he was.

There was nothing that stirred her heart more than the smell of the grass and the earth that she loved lying on while that wonderful beast ploughed her properly. It always made her laugh to look back and see the way that he grinned when she'd have to crawl to drink from the river or stream because her hips and legs wouldn't hold her happy ass up long enough to walk there, and if she wasn't careful and wiggled it for him just once, she wouldn't even get to drink anything at all because he'd just start again and they'd laugh at each other over it.

She stopped, her hand freezing into place as the quiet, cautious sounds made by her daughter came to her ears. The young one prepared for her night-time journey as though her intent was something to be hidden. Was she ashamed to admit her want to her own mother now?

She wanted to laugh out loud at the girl. As though the thought could never come to her that Marie might go to lengths like this to get a man inside her, she smirked. She was well aware that her daughter had her little pack tied up with a loop so that she could slip it around her neck before she stole out of the house to hurry over the mile of forest and pasture that separated her from Elijah. She could almost see her hiding among the trees to get her dress on with frenzied hands so that the handsome young man could meet her in the dark woods.

The poor dress, she thought. All of that only to be undone by hands just as frenzied so that they could begin their loving. She wished them both happiness as she listened to Marie's slow and carefully quiet exit.

She resumed her masturbation a moment later, thinking of her male now and then. She meant Amy and her husband no harm, but for this one night, she was glad that they'd gone days before. She'd needed to explore and work out her own magic. Stormfeather wasn't the only adept among their kind. She'd kept her ability secret, that was all. With him gone, she'd been able at last to think of something, a way that she could open the wall.

That had been something that she'd never have been able to foresee, the way that the cave openings had been sealed by Stormfeather. She didn't care about the other one yet, but she had to get the way open to be able to return to her male, the one that no one knew about, the one that she loved and needed so.

The one who loved her as nobody else ever had been able to do before.

She went a little faster with her fingers as she remembered how it was to love with him. She could do what she wanted with that one, he'd learned to trust her to make them both feel so good. And she never, ever refused him. She'd made a silent promise of it to him the moment that she saw him and decided to try for him.

She never said no, though there was a bit of a hazard if he thought to begin it again late at night. She never knew when it might happen, but he could reach for her, wanting to take her from behind as they lay on their sides, so she'd learned to throw herself back toward him right away. It was the best chance to get him into the right hole. She often liked it in the other one, but a surprise like that straight out of a dead sleep?

No thank you, sir.

The others would never have understood, but he was the reason that she'd wanted to go to the wild lands, to be back inside of those mighty arms, where no mage or watcher could reach her without laying down his life in the attempt. It had been a selfish plan, she admitted it to herself full well – at first.

But once they'd found that they could mate the way they could, it had turned into a very strong love between them. And Mother of God, what a wondrous prick that male had. She didn't know if he was large for his own kind, but given the differences in their physiology, he was plenty big enough for her, and lord, that thing was fat...

Her fingers danced, since she was so close now, and she could just see it in her mind, feel the weight of it a she held it in her pawed hand and how it felt to her tongue was another story altogether.

She hissed between her teeth as she came hard, lifting one leg, rolling onto her side and arching her back as her other hand flew to tease her lips from behind. She was a little surprised at how she'd heard herself moan so loudly. She was glad that she was alone now.

It had been so nice, but it hadn't been him. She sighed, knowing that she wouldn't really be able to scratch up the drive to get up for another minute or ten, but she'd get there eventually.