Feral Snippets

Lily B22

Set between chapter 22 and chapter 39 of Bonds.

Lily growled with frustration as she flipped through the documents Vincent had gathered on the people who had taken their wolf. Every plan the two of them had managed to come up with ultimately ended in Natania's death, and she couldn't for the life of her figure out why. The only possibility she could come up with was some sort of witchcraft, but that didn't tell her how to counter it.

If their stupid little wolf had just listened to her, then she never would have been taken in the first place. Lily scowled. She knew it was her fault their wolf hadn't wanted to stay, but by all the gods, of everything that could have happened she hadn't expected the damn wolf to actually love her. Never in all of the dozens of visions she had had of the wolf, had they even hinted at the possibility. Nat was still hung up on her dead mate for fucks' sake.

Just a fuck buddy. She wouldn't have used that particular term, but ultimately that had been all she'd wanted. All anyone else had ever wanted as well. She couldn't put any more into it, had never expected to need to. Fuck, she didn't know how to love someone. Not like that.

Lily growled under her breath. She should have paid more attention to the wolf herself and less to what the visions had shown her, but it was hard to separate the two sometimes. Especially when she had had so many about her. Then she could have ended it before it had gotten to that point.

She put her head in her hands and sighed. That wasn't right. She should never have touched her in the first place. Should have known Nat was too fragile. All she had wanted to do was help their little wolf get over her fear of being touched. To give her a chance where she didn't have to worry about disappointing, or hurting, someone in her panic.

Nat was so soft and affectionate, Lily couldn't stand the thought of someone using her fear against her, or of Nat being too afraid to let herself love someone new.

Too bad that had backfired utterly. And then she had let her temper get the better of her and left without passing on her warning. She should have pinned the damn wolf down and made her listen. Stay here for one more fucking day so you don't get kidnapped. Would it really have been so hard for their wolf to do that? They wouldn't have stopped her from leaving once it was safe. Nat wasn't a prisoner. She was family. Or, she could have been. Vincent had told her Natania had rejected every offer of help he had tried to give, and then she had left. He didn't expect her to come back.

Lily desperately hoped that wasn't true. Nat had brought a light and peace into their world that they all missed, even Ray was disappointed she had really left. The constant pacing had been downright obnoxious, but she'd often sung while she wandered. And, true to the stereotypes, the wolf could sing. The house was too quiet without her. Too cold without her warmth.

Lily turned her attention back to the papers. There had to be something she could do to rescue their wolf before she broke. Or managed to kill herself. Lily picked up her pen holder and threw it into the wall, watching the shattered pieces of clay hit the ground. Nat had already tried once, it was only a matter of time before she was gone for good.

She grumbled under her breath, and reached down to pick up one of the pieces, hissing as it sliced into her palm. A vision started then and she bonked her head on the desk as she tried to stand back up. "Fuck," she snarled, rubbing her eyes and sitting back in her seat.

Some useless human, she growled under her breath, humans didn't hire vampires, usually, so visions of them never turned out to be useful. At least it wasn't a particularly painful one. Lily sat stiffly and waited for her vision to return to the present. Then lunged to her feet as she caught sight of Nat.