Crissa's Mate

Chapter Eighty

Following a tearful series of goodbyes that evening, the former wolf research team pledged to stay in touch with one another from their sharing of such extraordinary circumstances. As David and Crissa walked out into the cool night air toward the hotel parking lot, Brad suddenly appeared near the car out of breath.

"I just wanted Crissa to have something," he said, struggling to recover his breathing.

Both of them looked at him surprised. Concerned that he seemed so serious about the announcement.

"I couldn't do this inside . . . with everyone there," he said.

"What is it, Brad?"  David asked quietly.

The young man reached into his pocket and took out a large computer USB, black and the size of a wallet. "I want you to have this Crissa," he said soberly, handing it over to her. "For a thousand reasons . . . you're the one that should have this."

Both David and Crissa looked at each other, puzzled, as the device passed from Brad's hand easily into Crissa's.

"It's from Professor Dekker's Lab," he said. "I lifted it while I was there. Answering questions by the police. They were then still questioning how the professor was killed. Later, they determined it was indeed a wolf, and as we all know now . . . Julie. But they have no idea I took this off his desk. And it's exactly what I thought it might be."

"But What?   What is it, Brad?" David asked again.

"All his research . . . into the curse. Into the genetics  and folklore."

"Folklore?"  Crissa asked.

"Yeah. You remember the professor always seemed to know more than we thought he did about . . . them?  The colony of wolves which were . . . which are . . . well, like you now, David?"

The two just stared back at him.

"Seems he had done years of work on this. Studying the legends and literature about the species. A topic going back thousands of years. The whole werewolf  thing. Lycanthropy.  And all this on top of his scientific work in biology, Crissa. It all makes for some very significant reading. Very important future work, you might say."

Both of them remained silent.

"Crissa . . . no one else in the world has this information. I know you're going heavily into Biology now. Maybe even medicine someday. And well . . . now it seems you'll have a very worthy subject to study in light of all this."

He put his hand affectionately on David's shoulder.

"Maybe even yourself, at some point."

Again, the two were without words.

"Look, I've got to run," he said, placing his hand lastly on Crissa's arm in parting. "Be good to each other! " he shouted, running back toward the hotel.

Without discussing anything of what Brad had told them, the two got into Crissa's parents' car and drove off toward the university, both deep in thought. It was there, on campus, where David's bike was left in the parking lot. Before leaving him to return to his place for the night, and herself toreturn to the dorm, Crissa knew the time had come to finally express to David what she had, after much thought and soul-searching, decided. It was the pronouncement she certainly knew would affect both of them for the rest of their lives.

Sitting in the car, with the engine running, David could feel the gravity of the night and sensed Crissa, too, was moved by what had transpired among the group.

"David, I know you had promised us a dinner after all this craziness. And I told you then, I would let you know over that special night . . . something I've decided. But I feel I can no longer wait with it. OK?"

David just sat back in the dark car, waiting for her to continue, his pulse quickening and not totally sure what she would say.

"There are two things I've wanted very much . . . which have not come easy, but I see now they're the most important things in my life. And whatever the outcome, I love you enough to endure it all, David."

Absorbing the incredible gravity of the moment, David took Crissa's hand in his as she prepared to continue. She turned off the car engine and both of them could sense the night's cool air outside contrasting with their warmth inside.

"Since I met you . . . and became attracted to your ways, your character and . . . well how you, and only you can make me feel . . . I have wanted to make love with you. Fully. But that was something we . . . up to now, were careful to stop. And for very real reasons."

David attempted to speak, but she wouldn't let him.

"But what I feared before . . . from doing that with you, I no longer fear anymore."

"Crissa, I told you then . . . and I'll tell you again . . . I never wanted you to . . ."

"But that outcome, now, David . . . If it results in us being lovers in both of these worlds, I totally encourage it."

"Crissa . . . are you sure you're making . . .'

"Yes. I truly want nothing more than to share all  my life with yours. And I'm ready to join you, my love, where ever you go. Whatever  you are. Please, let us make love tonight . . . completely, and at last."

David leaned over and gave her a kiss on the lips. It was an answer that she wanted and the results of which she made clear she would accept.

Leaving the parking lot and driving to David's place, it was well after midnight when the two braved the cold air and dashed inside, hardly conscious of the humble furnishings and limited space. It was the bed they instantly occupied, kissing and undressing with little else around them of any significance but their own warmth. David held her in his strong arms and Crissa yielded to his masculine ways, pleasing her in all the novel techniques he had showed her before. Presenting her with those first-time feelings she had often revisited in her thoughts and dreams.

When the moment came from their passion that David would enter her, there was no hesitation, Crissa encouraging him with her body—inviting and breathless. It was David's great sense of sensitivity, his gentleness combined with strength, that made the experience not only bearable to her, but with patience—scintillating and lovingly memorable. David's own explosion of pleasure was reflective of just how she made him feel. Just how wonderful she, and she alone, could satisfy him. The two could not, as they lay together in the glow of their all night lovemaking, feel anything different than being a wonderful gift to each other.

There was an essence to the experience, no matter what its future outcome, to be forever remembered, and a desire to be forever repeated. For from that night forward, Crissa and David—whatever else life might bring them, had truly become eternal mates.

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