No Matter What By: Callum Scott
Running with the wolves at my flank, their fur brushing mine and their hot breath steaming the air, was a freedom I hadn't yet known I needed. I loved the feeling of their warmth against my sides and the way my powerful muscles bunched and rolled as we leapt over fallen logs and splashed through creek beds. My wolf and I were one now and in this moment I couldn't remember what it felt like to be human.
Until I did.
My mind kept replaying that final scene where the being inside Elizabeth had awoken and stroked my fur, watching with black eyes as we ran into the night. That raw ravenous power was unlike anything I had ever felt before.
This thing inside of her was no longer smoldering.
No. Now it was a roaring fire; awake and alive and too much to wrap my head around. So I retreated into the woods, taking comfort in the damp soil beneath the leathery pads of my feet and the white wolf beside me, her thick fur fluffed up and bright. Overcome with sudden curiosity, I lowered the wall in my mind by a millimeter and stretched out, connecting with her mind. I tried not to shiver, but her essence was as cold and biting as the pack she was known for.
"Emilee?"
Green eyes flashed to mine, her muzzle stretched into a lupine grin, moonlight glinting across ivory fang.
"Yes, my queen?" Her voice was light and airy in my mind, so contradictory to her ruggedly powerful appearance.
"Elizabeth-," A slight tremor of hesitation escaped my mind at her name, nicking a strand of the pack bond. In an instant my father was beside me, his black face tinted with grey and his blue eyes lined in worry. I reinforced the walls around my mind and internally sighed. He flicked an ear back in question and I responded with a low whine. Worry for my mate ate at my soul and spread fear through my mind.
Elizabeth had power like no one has seen before only it seemed like this power had its very own consciousness. I knew this of course, since that same power had been in me before. I knew what it felt like first hand and how it connected us and how I would never be free of it now that we are completely intertwined. However, knowing this didn't make me understand it and if anything it only made me all the more wary of her.
Overwhelmed with my thoughts, I fell back through the wave of wolves, my paws finding purchase on the stone surface of a narrow cliff. Furred bodies sailed ahead of me, blowing my fur every which way. My father and two brothers stopped for a few seconds, Castile's little brown paws scrambling as he barked at me. I bared my teeth, a warning growl rumbling in my throat. I needed to be alone, needed a second to make sense of everything that had happened in the last five hours.
As they skirted away to give me space, Emilee paused beside me. Her emerald eyes were respectfully trained to the side of mine, so eerily human from where they peered out of her wolf's face. Her black nostrils flared and her ears flattened to her head as she looked around for what had caused me to stop. Unable to form the words I needed to explain what I was feeling, I turned my muzzle towards the moon, hoping it's brightness would make sense of the turbulent storm raging war within me. I could feel the wind in my fur and for a second it felt like my world stopped and everything was silent. There was no war, no fear. In this moment I simply was.
A whisper of alien consciousness brushed my mind and I immediately lowered my defenses, allowing her warmth to wash in. I focused on the cool soil beneath my pads and Emilee's hot breath beside me, letting these feelings ground me while I prepared for whatever she had to say. I hated this feeling of not knowing what was to come, hated that I feared what the power within her was capable of.
"You are afraid of me?" Her demon asked me, unwaveringly. Had I been human, the way her voice slid across my mind like warm butter would've melted me then and there.
"No, I am afraid for you."
The pack bond tugged at me, like a rope had extended outward from my chest and I didn't have to turn around to know she was suddenly behind me. Instead I lowered my defenses and turned, connecting to Emilee's mind.
"I need you with the pack. I will convene with everyone later, but for now my mate and I have some things to discuss." She didn't argue, but just before she vanished into the tree line her head swiveled and looked back. The darkness surrounding her caused her white fur to glow and appear ghost-like, barely making a sound when she bowed her head once at me, then disappeared.
My heart pounded in my sensitive ears as I turned, my nails clicking across the stone surface. Awash in moonlight her olive-toned skin gleamed, complimenting her black eyes as they tracked my movements. It was clear to me that there were things Camille and Elizabeth had kept from me, because where my wolf and I had merged into one being, Elizabeth was still at war with the entity inside her.
Only now, it was fully in control and from the looks of things had absolutely no desire to relinquish such control. A low hiss fled from her to me as she read my passing thoughts, but it lacked the anger that was usually associated with the sound. Shaking my head, I sighed. I would have to be human to speak with her about this and I knew once I shifted, the wolves would feel my pain and rush back.
I did so anyway, curling my lip to reveal blunt human teeth at the sea of lupine bodies hovering just outside the tree line, their heads dipped and ears pricked. My father's grizzly face and bright yellow eyes tracked my movements before he leveled the pack with a snarl and led them into the brush, back to the caves.
Unconcerned with my lack of modesty, I forced my aching form off the wet ground. I marveled at the magnitude of power coursing through my veins, the strength of a dead kingdom. In a blink a thick cloak surrounded me, and although I wasn't cold, my knuckles were white where I gripped the soft fabric. It was a beautiful enigma, the entity inside of my mate, how she cared for me.
"What are you?" The question burned as it left my mouth.
Ruby red lips spread into a leisurely grin, contrasting rather starkly with her ivory fangs and black eyes. Elizabeth's demon spoke to me like you'd speak to a small child or an animal at risk of bolting. Brushing aside my annoyance, I hung on her every word. "I am a soul. Passed from generation to generation until I bonded with my intended host. And you, my little wolf, are my curse." My brows furrowed as I turned away, befalling the moon once more. It was fading into sunrise now, and soon enough we would have to retreat underground to celebrate our upcoming union in the safety of the tunnels. But I couldn't leave without knowing what was following me into the dark.
I loved Elizabeth with everything in me and more, but I couldn't marry her without at least attempting to understand what lived in her. Wary and exhausted, I scrubbed a hand down my face, the breeze snatching my words away yet I knew she heard them all the same.
"And who's body do you originally belong to?"
"If I told you, your mind wouldn't be able to comprehend it."
Well now she had to tell me.
A cold chuckle reverberated around us and I struggled to bite back the moan crawling up my throat as her body lined up with mine, her fingers wrapping around my stomach from behind, her thumb just barely brushing the swell of my breast.
"I had a name once, long ago before a malevolent god dragged me down into the dark, eager to make me his own." Her hot mouth stole my breath as her lips trailed along the curve of my shoulder and neck, hovering beside my ear. "Multum lupum, the soul that lives within your mate is the mother of her creator."
It took me a long while to process those words, the world before me spiraling into distorted colors and blurred lines as my mind tried to make sense of this, of her. It never did, so there I stood, wrapped in her arms, my heart pounding at the story she weaved.
"You're saying," I couldn't bring myself to say the words and they faded away as I turned in her arms, the cloak still clenched in my fingers.
Her arms unwound from me, her taloned fingers finding the sharp cut of my jaw, cupping my face as her eyes searched mine. I had expected her to finish my words, yet was partially relieved when her full lips captured mine instead. I sunk into her immediately, feeling as though this soul within my mate wanted to learn me inside and out. Her body shifted us and soon I found my back against rough bark, one leg wrapped around the curve of her waist and my fear forgotten as she ravaged me with her mouth, the hard press of her fangs achingly prominent. The wall in my mind that damned out the thoughts of the pack held strong as her mind wrapped mine in a cloud of addictive fog.
"Amica mea." She whispered against my skin in a symphony of syllables and strange lilts I hadn't known she could form as her tongue trailed its way across the swell of my breast, her sharp teeth scraping the skin and sending heat pooling into my center. Her accent took on a lyrical quality as more of the wonderful language flowed from her mouth.
"Ego te enim exspectavimus." She murmured, one hand wrapped underneath my knee while the other stroked the smoldering fire nestled between my thighs. The friction sent my head back as a low, guttural moan escaping my parched mouth. I arched my back against the bark as her fingers sunk inside me, her mouth finding mine, as hard and demanding as her movements.
Deep within my mind, I knew this moment was pivotal, the moment Elizabeth's demon claimed me just like my wolf had claimed her a year and how many months ago. I couldn't find it in me to remember what we'd been talking about or why it was so important as she sucked my lower lip into her mouth, releasing the bruised skin with a satisfying pop before she slid down my body, hooked my leg over her shoulder and buried her face into the apex of my thighs.
"Pulchra, pulchra, pulchra." She sighed against me.
Strangled mewling noises left my mouth in pants as her tongue suddenly dove deep inside me, her fingers never slowing. The pleasure-pain of her thrusts called forth the storm building rapidly within my belly and sent me spiraling towards the edge. My legs threatened to collapse yet her lips stayed stubbornly wrapped around my clit. I spasmed wildly, overcome with sensitivity yet loving the way she sucked hard on the sensitive flesh. I saw stars as she slid her sharpened teeth over my core, burying them into the meat of my thigh. I came immediately, my body spasming with wave after wave of pleasure as she drank from me.
My canines descended as she finally pulled out of me, black eyes sparkling and lips smeared in my blood. She rose without question and bared her neck, but as much as her skin called to me, I hesitated, needing to know one thing before I lost myself in her a second time, knowing I wouldn't be able to come up for air until she was as sated as I now was.
"What is your name?"
The rising sun fell across her face just then, chasing away the shadows inside her eyes as the blue inside of mine reflected back at me.
"I have been known by many different a name over the years, but no one other than a select few know of me by this one." I tensed as she leaned down, her lips brushing the shell of my ear, whispering a single word that would inevitably bring my world to a screeching halt.
"Kore." She purred, licking the last of my blood from her lips as a satisfied smile curved across her face. I struggled to control my emotions even as the name rang loud in my mind, calling forth my limited knowledge of the mythological gods and goddesses. Finally, I forced my mind to accept that Elizabeth's demon now had a name, and it was none other than that of the goddess of the underworld.
But how?
Enjoy ;)