Operation: Shadows

Chapter 13

Maria

3rd May 2004

Maria was sulking. She was hiding out in her own apartment for the first time in months, the room felt cold and sterile. Most of her possessions were spread across Natasha's apartment, her quarters in work as well as the base for the pack. Maria only ever came back to her own apartment to make sure no one had tried to break in and that everything was still in working order.

A small part of Maria thought she was being over dramatic, that Natasha promised that it would change how things were between the two of them. A bigger part thought it was a pile of bullshit, Natasha might have been genuine at the time, but meeting your soulmate was a massive change. Maria was happy for the alpha, that she met May, really she was. Maria was just more upset that it was only the three of them in the pack, a pair of mates and Maria. She did not have anyone else to interact with, just the two of them, who will no doubt be caught up in each other once the transformation is complete.

They were currently caught up with each other, desperate to get the bonding done before May underwent the change. There would be less risk that way, less chance of undesirable side-effects. Again, Maria had no issue with Natasha and May bonding except for the fact that she could feel it. It really wasn't something that she wanted to experience via a mental link. If Natasha would take two seconds to respond to her thoughts, texts or calls, then Maria wouldn't be suffering. Natasha could just block her out, but no, she has to be too involved with May to answer Maria.

Maria grumbled as another wave of pleasure went through her. It was the weirdest thing and she desperately hoped that when they were a full pack, everyone would be aware to not share their thoughts and feeling during sex. It was unsettling to making yourself coffee, feeling like crap as well as feeling like you are on the brink of an orgasm at the same time.

She was currently lying on her couch, in the darkness pondering what to do going forward. She could be mature and just accept the fact that Natasha's focus will now be solely on Melinda and just wait until the next group of agents become wolves and then she will have someone to suffer with her. Alternatively, she can keep sulking in her apartment and wait to see if Natasha will still stick to her word and at least try to act as though nothing has changed, she knows it will be impossible but if she at least tried it would one hundred percent put Maria out her bad mood.

Of course the more rational part of her brain is telling her that Natasha doesn't owe her shit and it shouldn't be up to her to act as though nothing has changed when in fact Natasha's whole life has.

Stupid brain.

A sharp noise came from her phone, alerting her to a new text. Maria almost chucked it across the room, she did not need someone from the pack decided that she should suck it up and behave like an adult. She knew she had to do that, but for the time being she wanted to sulk.

Maria sighed heavily as she decided to read the text, her eyebrows rose as she saw it was from Natasha;

Nat: Hey, sorry, I'll block you out. We're still on for lunch tomorrow, yeah? Mel will still be joining as us planned. Sorry again.

Maria blinked at the message and this time she did chuck her phone across the room. Anger coursed through her, filling her veins as she glared at her phone. She was not quiet sure as to what she was angry at, the fact that Natasha so easily read her? The fact that it was clear that she did not debate about whether this meant things will change or not. How she so effortlessly just, got on with things. It infuriated her to no end. It wasn't fair.

Maria grabbed the closest thing to her and slammed it against the wall, before screaming out in rage. It did nothing to ease the boiling anger underneath her skin. So she decided to do the next logical thing, punch the wall. Over and over and over. Her knuckled ached after the first few punches but she couldn't be bothered to acknowledge the pain, just that it wasn't enough. Her body tense as she kept attacking the wall, the old brick wall did not stand a chance as before she knew it, there was a sizable hole in it.

Maria panted as she stared at it, staring through to the spare bedroom where Natasha occasionally stayed if they felt like a change in their routine.

"Fuck!" She screeched, her first slamming one last time against the wall. "Fuck." She whispered, collapsing to the floor.

Maria was not one for being emotional. She really wasn't. She dealt with he abusive father for the first eighteen years of her life, it only took her about seven or eight years to realise that crying and showing a response to the pain, the hurt, was the worst thing she could do. Then she was in the army, she was female, she could not show any emotion in case she was labelled as too emotional to handle missions, to lead a team, to stay in combat. It was easier to be labelled as an emotionless bitch in life because it still got you places. Then SHILED, Maria did not rise through the ranks as fast as she did because she took every second to sit and consider her feelings on the matter. She simply thought through every step that she took, looked ahead to check to see what the most favourable outcomes would be and then create plan upon plan to get that desirable outcome.

Ever since she was given the serum to become a wolf, her emotions have been all over the place. She was extremely dependent on Natasha right now and she knew that the others had noticed. It wasn't hard to spot the looks that the idiots - Jayden and Toby - gave her, or the way Victoria would keep a close eye on her, moving her gaze from Maria to Natasha and finally to Peggy. Peggy herself had also given Maria a concerned, but confused, glance every once in a while.

The only one who did not, was Natasha. Whether or not she knew that things weren't supposed to be this way between and alpha and a beta was debatable as this is the first time she has encountered this situation but there was also the fact that none of the others were as close as the two of them were. It was just a frustrating situation to be in.

Peggy told her than when she was given the serum, they suspected that she had already been given a full dose of it but they were not sure so they had to give her another full dosage along with Natasha's blood to make sure that it worked. Perhaps the increase in the serum caused this over dependency on Natasha. She knew that Peggy had given her an extra dosage of Natasha's blood, to even it out in case that she had been given two full dosages. Could there be more complications in the extra dosage than what they thought? Peggy thought it would have been a simple fix of extra blood but what if that just made things worse, without anyone realising?

Maria groaned at the thought of it all. It was too much. She did not want to be the weird one, the one who was so different from everyone. She certainly did not want to act like a damsel in distress whenever separated from Natasha for too long – but Maria is used to not getting her way. She closed her eyes with a soft sigh, hoping for some sleep, some relieve from a shitty situation that she is in. Maybe she will wake up with a clearer brain and the ability to think like a rational human being. Maria didn't even care that she was sleeping against a broken wall, she was just so tired. She curled up against the wall, hoping sleep would find her soon.

4th May 2004

"Maria?"

Maria jolted awake, springing to her feet and grabbing the gun from the back of her jeans and leveling it with the intruder in her house. Her fingers tightening as she went to pull the trigger.

"Maria! Friendly!" Natasha shouted, one of her hands shooting up into the air.

Maria blinked once. Then twice. Oh. She lowered the gun, fighting through the haziness in her mind. What was Natasha doing here? How did she get in? Maria looked at her apartment. It was a mess, the wall was basically a pile of dust, furniture broken and paper was scatted everywhere. Maria blinked at that. Paper? She did not remember flinging paper everywhere.

She bent down and looked at what was on the paper. Maria frowned as she looked at a very familiar drawing, it was one of the drawings from Project T.A.H.I.T.I, the one that Phil was currently leading. Fury wanted a way to fix soldiers up, to see if there was a better way to bring them back from the brink of death, or even death itself. There was a lot of side-effects for that currently project but a lot of the chemical make up for that project overlapped with Operation: Shadows. Still, it made Maria wonder why she pulled out the drawings that the test subjects had done.

"Maria." Natasha said softly, approaching Maria cautiously. Nothing good came of surprising spies, especially ones with complicated pasts. She gently laid her hand on Maria's shoulder, the lightest of touches to bring her back to the present.

Maria jumped, grabbing the offending hand but stopping instantly as she touched it. Natasha, her name floated through her brain, stopping all movements to attack. Maria looked at the alpha and saw the look of concern on her face, as well as the fact that May was standing behind her, looking equally concerned.

"Natasha." Maria said, surprised, "how did you get in here? You don't have a key."

"Maria, the door was unlocked." Natasha slowly said, her eyes moving over Maria's face, "did someone attack you? Your apartment is a mess." She continued, although the tone of voice made Maria think that Natasha knew it was Maria who caused the mess.

"Oh. I thought I locked it. I must have been too distracted." Maria mumbled, looking around at her apartment. It really was a mess. This was going to take forever to clean and that hole in the whole? That was going to take a lot of effort and time to fix. Time that she did not have. She could always hire a fixer, but every time she had done that in the past, she had been attacked. Probably best to find a new apartment and then hire someone to fix it. Seemed like the easy way.

"And the wall?" Natasha prompted, looking at the giant hole.

Maria shrugged, "I was angry."

Natasha looked at her suspiciously, using her free hand and pulled Maria's bruised hand to her face. "Angry enough that your hand still hasn't completely healed?"

Maria yanked her hand back with a scowl "what is this, an interrogation?"

Natasha raised an eyebrow at Maria, "of course not, I'm just making sure you are okay. Also I brought food. It's one in the afternoon and you weren't answering any calls or texts, but I wasn't getting any distress from you, so I assumed you slept in. So I – we- brought food, and coffee of course."

Maria looked over at May, who was holding a tray of coffee's, her expression carefully blank as she regarded Maria. Maria just looked between the two of them for a moment before sighing and gesturing to her kitchen table. May moved swiftly to put the coffee's down, but stood waiting for the other two. Natasha walked carefully over the table and placed the food down before turning to look at Maria.

Maria watched Natasha warily, she wouldn't put it past Natasha to put her in a chock hold and make Maria tell her everything. It wouldn't be the first time that that has happened. Natasha moved towards her slowly, easily choreographing her movements, stopping short of their chests pressing together. Maria did not like this, the closeness that Natasha felt entitled to. She had May. She couldn't have Maria as well. You only get one in your life. No matter how much she wished otherwise, her ribs stung in a painful reminder that there was someone out there for her. At this point though,she doubted anyone would want to be with her. A genetically enhanced wolf who was overly attached to the alpha? Not exactly an ideal mate.

Natasha kept still for a couple of seconds before wrapping her arms tightly around Maria, one arm across the back and one hugging her waits, tightly clinging to her. Maria tensed up, quickly glancing at May to see how the woman reacted to Natasha being so affectionate with someone else.

"It's okay." Natasha murmured, pressing a soft kiss to Maria's lips, completely throwing Maria.

'Nat, what the hell are you doing? Are you trying to get me killed?' Maria yelped, trying to move away from the alpha.

Natasha just pressed her face into the side of Maria's neck, taking a deep breath, breathing out with an air of content. "Relax. I explained to Mel about our relationship. You're not the only one who gets angsty when we are separated for too long."

"We weren't separated that long." Maria protested quietly, adverting her eyes from Natasha, shame flooding her veins.

"Mhhh." Natasha hummed in disagreement. "Three days Maria, the longest we've been apart is twenty eight hours and after seventeen hours I was counting down the time until I was back with you."

Maria paused. Natasha never said she experience discomforted when separated from Maria too long, that she longed for constant contact. It made Maria think, did Natasha really go through the same emotions as Maria? She thought it was her own fault, that she was too clingy, that she was fucked up from the incident.

"I didn't realise you felt the same way." Maria responded quietly, finally relaxing in Natasha's arms. Slowly, she reached her arms around Natasha, clinging to the back of her shirt, holding the alpha close.

"Nat was basically switching between whining in despair and moaning in utter pleasure by the second day, by the third, she was just a mess." May said, walking towards the two. She regarded both of them, a certain look in her eye made Maria wonder if she was already feeling emotions from Natasha.

Maria pulled back and looked at her alpha. Her first instinct was to make sure Natasha was okay, the second was to figure out how she could make it up to Natasha for causing her such hassle. Maria bit her lip, she knew normally how she would deal with this situation, but with May, things were now much more complicated.

Fuck it.

Maria pulled Natasha's head close to her and kissed her, pressing her body close against Natasha as she moved her lips furiously against the alpha's, sliding her tongue into Natasha's mouth. Natasha seemed surprised by Maria's boldness, but Maria felt her smirk before kissing Maria back with as much vigour, pushing her against the counter, pinning her there.

Maria groaned happily as Natasha moved her mouth away, pressing open mouth kisses across her jaw and slowly making her way down to Maria's neck, causing a small whimper of need. Natasha forced her thigh between her legs as she continued to work on marking Maria's neck.

Maria glanced at May, to see how she was coping with the situation of her newly found soulmate making out heavily with another person. She didn't seem too bothered, in fact, May almost looked amused at the situation as she picked up one of the coffee cups. She raised an eyebrow in amusement at Maria as their eyes met.

"I'm not some weird super wolf hybrid yet, Maria. I do get tired after a while. Natasha on the other hand, seems like she can go on for another week." May said, smirking at the gobsmacked expression on Maria's face.

Maria had no idea how to respond to that, she really was not expecting anything like this at all. Thankfully, she was spared from her thoughts of despair as Natasha began pulling her clothes off. Maria awkwardly moved, attempting to make Natasha's removal of her clothes easier, really Maria was just making it awkward. Natasha let out a low growl before tearing off Maria's top.

"I liked that top." She quietly protested. Natasha quickly silenced her by going back to attacking her face with her lips. Maria quickly realised that she should really just shut up and enjoy the ride.

"Finally." Natasha mumbled, switching to giving Maria gentle pecks on the lips. "That brain of yours is shutting up and enjoying the situation."

Maria felt a blush creep up her neck, she really did have a hard time turning her thoughts off. "Bed?"

Natasha hummed in agreement and lifted Maria up, causing her to quickly wrap her legs around Natasha. Maria would never admit it out loud, but she loved it when Natasha would carry her like this. Maria picked up from where Natasha stopped, quickly moving to Natasha's neck and happily marking it. Switching between gentle kisses and harsh bites and then soothing it with her tongue, she felt Natasha shudder under her before she was dumped onto her bed.

Maria grinned at Natasha as she watched as Natasha swiftly pulled off her close. She stood looking at Maria with a cocked eyebrow and Maria made quick work of ridding herself of the remainder of her clothes. She glanced up at Natasha's and felt her own shudder run through her body as she looked at Natasha's face, nothing but utter hunger laid upon her, a feral smirk on her face as she stared down at Maria.

A second passed.

Natasha moved swiftly to lie on top of Maria, shoving her thigh back between Maria's leg and ground down against Maria. Maria groaned in delight as Natasha continue to grind her thigh against Maria's center. Days of pent up emotions and lack of contact had Maria gasping rapidly, hands gripping at Natasha's back as she moved her hips with Natasha, gripping her tightly as the alpha easily brought her to her first orgasm with a low moan.

Natasha quickly moved down Maria's body, wasting no time in kissing every inch of her as she made her way down. She smirked against Maria's skin as she felt the younger woman squirm under her touch. As much as she wanted to keep teasing the beta, they had been apart too long and she was desperate to find some relieve from the loneliness her wolf was feeling.

Finally she got to her destination, grinning as she slowly ran her tongue up Maria's slit, almost chuckling as Maria's hips bucked off of the bed.

"Naaatt..." the beta whined, trying her hardest to shove her cunt into Natasha's face.

Natasha took pity on the woman as dove in with vigour, she ran her tongue through Maria's folds, focusing her attention mainly on Maria's clit, circling it before taking it in her mouth, softly running her tongue over it before sucking hard. Maria moaned loudly, her hands griping the pillows behind her tightly as she kept to the order of not moving them. She twisted and turned under Natasha's tongue, thrusting her hips into her face as she desperately sought release.

"Nat, please." She begged.

Natasha, for once, happily complied with the beta's begging and shoved two fingers into Maria and started a relentless pace. Natasha could feel Maria's pleasure building within her, causing her own moans to slip past her lips as she tried to grind against the mattress to get some relieve.

Natasha kept thrusting her fingers into Maria as she sat up, eager to watch Maria's face as she fucked her into oblivion, and hopefully, get into a better position so she could shamefully grind against Maria's leg. Natasha watched Maria's face carefully, using it as a gauge of how close Maria was to cumming. Every time Maria got close, Natasha would slow down and watch happily as Maria would almost yelled out in annoyance and tried to keep moving against Natasha's fingers. Natasha would wait for her to stop before thrusting her fingers in again, she continued to repeat this process as few times until Maria was a mumbling mess below her.

Natasha pressed her body against Maria's, using the extra weight to thrust harder into Maria, picking up the pace as she slammed her fingers in over and over. It wasn't long before Maria toppled over the edge, moaning loudly as she twisted under Natasha. Natasha felt close to the edge as well and began grinned her center against Maria's leg in earnest now, shuddering as her own orgasm washed over her. Normally she would get Maria to eat her out, but the purpose of this was to make Maria feel better. Her instincts had been going crazy after the first day apart.

Natasha had tried her hardest to be focused on her mate, Melinda, and she was, rather successful for the first day. After that, thoughts of Maria began infiltrating her head. The need to check up on the beta, to make sure she was okay was over whelming. She started wondering if she was eating properly, if she got the right amount of sleep the previous night. Thoughts of how she was handling the change began swarming her head and the wolf inside her was howling that she needed to go comfort the beta and to reassure her that Maria belong to Natasha and that Natasha was going to look after her.

Natasha was not stupid. She knew there was something wrong with her relationship to Maria. She knew that Maria felt these things much more intensely and much more quickly than what Natasha did but it did not mean that she did not feel the strong connection to her like the other packs thought. Peggy knew, of course, but she had no idea what could be causing the intensity of their bond. Only that she was to keep an eye on it and report back anything that seems out of ordinary to her. That had made Natasha scoff, everything about this was out of ordinary, but she guessed the need to check on Maria overwhelming her, overwhelming the need to be with her mate was definitely out of ordinary.

Natasha put those thoughts out of her head. Right now she had to focus on Maria, then her mate and then making sure all three of them were fed.

"That get rid of the itch?" Natasha muttered against Maria's ear, slowly placing all of her weight on top of Maria, knowing that the woman liked it after sex. She gently ran her fingers through Maria's sweaty hair, looking contently at the beta's blissed out face.

"Mhm." Maria mumbled, hands wrapping around Natasha, nails digging into her skin.

Natasha smiled at the woman below her, happy that she seemed to be coming out the funk that she was in. She carefully rolled off Maria and pulled the beta against her body, tucking the woman's head on her chin as she slowly ran her fingers up and down her back.

"I told you, we're in this together now Maria, nothing will change our relationship." Natasha whispered, slowly pressing her lips to Maria's forehead.

"Next time, I get to join, right?" May said, suddenly appearing as she lowered herself onto the bed. She grinned at Natasha as she lay at the other side of Maria, slinging her arms over the beta, her hand resting lightly on Natasha's side as she pressed against Maria's back. Natasha watched carefully for Maria's reaction to Mel's sudden show of affection, but Maria seemed to be handling it well, relaxing more, if that was possible. The beta was almost like jelly she was that relaxed, but she watched as a smile crept upon Maria's face and Natasha knew that her job was done.

"Yes, next time you can join." Natasha cooed at her mate, happy that that she was taking this all calmly. It make Natasha grateful that she was just up front with Melinda. It made maintain a relationship between the two much easier, especially if Melinda was up for joining in.

"Sleep now. Talk later." Maria mumbled, burrowing her head against Natasha.

Melinda raised an eyebrow at Natasha, "I thought you were in charge."

"I am, she will get a reminder of that later, but now, I'll let her think she's in charge. It's cute when she puffs out chest when she thinks she's in control." Natasha replied, smirking at the thought of what exactly she will do to Maria later on that day.

Melinda rolled her eyes at her mate, laying her head on the pillow, making sure that Maria was bracketed comfortably between the two. "You heard the beta, sleep now talk later." She teased her mate, she knew that she wasn't going to sleep but Maria and Natasha both looked like the could use the nap. "Sleep, I have watch." She continued her teasing, watching as Natasha rolled her eyes at her but closed them and pulled Maria tighter against her. The two of them seemed to drift off easily, content in holding each other tightly.

When Melinda agreed to this programme, she did not expect to meet her soulmate, nor did she expect her soulmate to already be in a relationship with Maria Hill of all people. The two of them already acted like soulmate and a part of her wanted to be pissed of at Maria for taking her soulmate. In fact, Melinda had held a small amount of hatred for Maria this morning. Between Natasha thinking about her during sex and the other members of the pack commented that Maria seemed to have a claim on Natasha had thoroughly pissed her off. Since seeing the two of them interact properly, without anyone around. Melinda could see it was equal between the both of them but there was also a very worrying fact.

There was something very, very wrong with Maria.