Is Love Safe?

Chapter Four- Orders of Lust


Jai Wu laid comfortably back against the bark of an old oak tree, nestled in the elbow of the largest branch near the top, her golden eyes fixated up on the sparkling sky with curiosity as she had always done as a cub. Her tail lightly swung from side to side beneath her, the little tuff of black fur swaying from side to side like a pendulum. With her arms cosily laced behind her head as a pillow the lioness let a triumphant smirk snake its way onto her luscious lips.

It was the thought of finally finding her long lost little brother, she was reunited with him. After so many years apart, of him not even knowing that she existed he was in her grasp- oh boy, did she have plans for Shen.

Jai sighed.

How long had she watched over Shen? How long had she lived since her brother was born into the world? How long had she followed him, everywhere he went, hidden in the shadows- his shadow?

Too long, Jai guessed.

The feline blinked as a dark form swam across the starry night sky. Jai pulled her arms from behind her head and stood up masterfully on the branch, her head still facing the sky. The dark form passed over again, it looked down with dark eyes. The enigma dive-bombed into the trees a small distance away. Jai spun on her heels and hopped off the branch, falling down onto the snowy floor of the mountain side with little sound in her gracious landing.

Standing up and drawing her hood over her eyes, Jai unhurriedly made her way further into the woods to greet her envoy. She soon came to the part of the woods where the shadow had landed, she stopped and looked up, perched on the lowest branch was a heron; his feathers white like the snow and his eyes a dark hollow colour. The avian leapt from the tree and softly fluttered down on the ground.

As soon as his claws touched the snow he dropped to one knee and bowed his head. "Commander." He respectively addressed.

Jai lifted a paw. "Rise. What news have you for me?"

The heron stood and- because he was slightly taller- looked down his beak to the cloaked feline. "The men stand at their positions, ready for your word to move. Though they are waiting, they're inpatient to hesitate. I do not blame them, attacking such a place is unlike any order you've given."

Jai titled her head to the side, her eyes burning in the darkness. "You doubt my orders." The words came out more like a statement than a question, the avian gulped heard- the fear was clear in his eyes but his composure calm and stoic. He tipped his head forward a little.

"Not I, My Lady, but the other men. I have heard their whispers that they question your rule and decisions." The heron hesitated; Jai's expression was unchanged from underneath her covering. The heron changed the subject quickly. "We managed to track the lynx and her cub to the valley of Peace. She's residing within the Jade Palace." Jai gave a toothy, yet seductive grin, her white fangs gleaming in the shadows of the trees. The heron was terrified. The feline stepped towards him with a sultry walk, the heron backed up but Jai still kept moving closer to him. He was soon backed up against a sturdy tree stump. Jai was very close now, so near to the avian that her toes touched his claws. Her whiskers tickled his beak; he could see the fire alight in her eyes. The oppressive smile was still on her lips. Slowly, as if teasing him, Jai roe up a paw and trailed her fingers up the heron's chest- his breathing was heavy and quick. "C-Commander?"

Jai shushed him with a claw on his beak. "Don't be so afraid of me, my little birdie, I don't bite...much. That is unless you make me unhappy." In a quick flash her paw was around the heron's throat. Her grip was as strong as a vice, the air was cut off from the avian's lungs; he could feel her razor-sharp claws digging into the skin on his neck. His eyes began to roll in the back of his head. "Like now!" Jai growled deeply, she knew that the bird could still hear. "I don't care what the men think of me, they are still alive only to follow my orders. You tell them that if they want to question my authority then it's the last mistake they ever make." She gave a push of her paw and released the heron's throat. He collapsed to the ground, convulsing. "Men..." She hissed. "...always thinking with what's between their legs, never their brains." She turned her back to the heron as he pushed to his feet. "Order the men to attack."

"What of the residents?" The avian chocked as he rubbed his long neck.

Jai was silent for a few seconds. And then, with a soft and authoritative tone, cold as the snow beneath her feet, she said. "Slaughter them all. Start with the cub."

Allowing herself a dark chuckle, Jai listened as the heron leapt into the sky and beat his wings, the sound growing more and more distant- heading for the Jade Palace. Her eyes turned to the sky once more, seeing the shrinking figure of the heron flapping his wings as he crossed over the horizon. A strong wind danced through the woodland area, catching Jai's cape and blowing it vigorously at her side.

It then settled.

The lioness lowered her head as her ear twitched to behind her, underneath the fabric of her hood. She had known that the figure standing in the wake of her had witnessed everything that just occurred between her and the heron. "I don't you remember ever doing that to me." A softly spoken voice said vaguely with a low tone.

The lioness spoke over her shoulder. "I've given you more than you're fair share of...dynamism, Leo, don't go and get all greedy now." Jai smirked playfully in the shade of her hood.

Leaning against the bark of a tree, his muscular arms crossed over his large bare furry chest, Leo unravelled them as he pushed from the bark and calmly walked up to Jai. The lioness turned as she could feel his heavy yet controlled breathing through the seams of her hood. She looked up to Leo with wide eyes. The lupine stared back down with his crimson orbs. "Whoever said I was getting greedy, when you offer yourself so easily and without any payment." He smirked.

Jai countered teasingly. "Maybe I should start asking then for something in return."

Leo sighed through his nose as he brought up his hulky paws and laid them on Jai's hood, pushing them down as the hood fell back and revealed her face fully in the light of the twinkling stars. Jai could feel his warm breath on her fur strands, her sensitive whiskers rippling with the touch of tepid air from his sigh. The lioness visibly shivered at his touch of his cupping of her cheeks- they were cold and somehow had an affectionate touch in them too- the shudder travelled all the way to the tip of her tail. Jai's voice shook in bliss.

Leo smirked in success. "Getting goose-bumps are we?"

Jai tilted her head into one of Leo's paws and nuzzled it with a long-lasting purr. She eyed the wolf with tapering eyes. "You only know my weak spots, Leo. Why do you tease me?" She stepped closer to the wolf and placed her paws flatly on his chest, gripping some of the fur, Leo growled in half-pain half-pleasure. Her body grinded against his own, she could feel the bulge in his mid-section. Jai purred louder and even longer. Leo brought the lioness' face close to his and planted a soft kiss on her succulent lips, answering her question the way she liked it.

"Still think men only think with what's between their legs?" He asked with a lowered eyebrow of his white mask.

Jai blushed underneath her golden fur and silenced her lover quickly with a more passionate, loving and carnival kiss on his lips. Leo grasped her tightly from her slender waist as she jumped up and wrapped her legs around his hips, their bodies connected- almost. Jai broke off the kiss with a growl of seduction.

"Not you, never you." She whispered. "Now show me what ya got, big boy!"

Leo wasted no time as he released his grip on Jai's waist, relying on her holding onto him as he brought his paws between them and began to unbutton the clips of her cloak and vest. "As My Lady commands." Leo growled lustfully as he finally managed to shred Jai's top clothing from her body, tossing it into the snow.