Chapter 44

A/N: I'm just going to slap a bit of a Mature rating on this chapter for sexual content. It's not explicit, by any means, but it is more risqué than what I've written into the fic before. Sorry if you're not keen on it!

Also – "Halo" by Beyoncé

…

"So, how is the unification ritual completed anyway? Do we have to go through some weird crap like drinking a hallucinogenic and communing with the ancestors?" Hope arched one brow as she looked from Freya to Keelin, after Josie had stormed upstairs and effectively locked herself in the room she was staying in. Hope knew she wouldn't talk to anyone at that point.

"Well… not quite… and I guess it depends on your definition of 'weird'." Keelin smirked at Hope, though her worried eyes still lingered on the top of the stairs that she could still see from her position on the couch.

…

Josie let out an unexpected squeak as her back hit the door of Hope's room, Hope essentially using Josie's body to shut the door, a hand reaching around her waist a second later to lock it. Hope's eyes were glowing brighter than they had ever done before, even in her human form, which was currently fresh from the fight and wrapped up in nothing but someone else's coat. Josie had snagged it from a bystander as soon as Hope and River had shifted back after the fight and threw it around Hope in an attempt to protect whatever modesty she had left.

But whatever modesty was left was about to fly out the window as Hope attached her mouth to Josie's lips hungrily, the brunet responding with equal amounts of ferocious desire. There was something different in the way they longed to devour one another this time. It was deeply instinctual, primordial and an absolute necessity. Just like all the other times they had been uncontrollably drawn to one another before Josie's wolf had been blocked off, it was the same now. Their wolves were driving them forward, driving them inward, driving them crazy with wanton yearning for one another.

The only difference was that now there was absolutely nothing to stop them. That same instinctual need was dominating and it would most definitely win.

…

"Like we've explained before, the unification ceremony is more a consolidation of power between packs and is more like a traditional marriage than anything." Freya said, then cleared her throat a little awkwardly, waiting for Keelin to pick up where she had left off.

Keelin smirked at her wife, then explained. "The unification ritual is more ancient and is performed when an alpha is unifying with their chosen mate, as long as the mate is also a twin flame. The moment of unification takes place between your souls, minds, bodies, hearts, and your wolves. Everything is drawn together. So, whenever the opportunity for unification presents itself, it will happen without hesitation. The unification, so to say, kind of becomes a need and not a want or a decision that is consciously up to you anymore."

…

Even when Josie closed her eyes she could not escape the luminosity of the bright copper glow, and when she opened them and saw Hope's equally lit up gaze staring back at her, she felt like she would lose all control of herself. Her fingers tugged at the buttons of the coat Hope was wearing with such eager haste that she actually popped two of them off, the faint sound of plastic clattering against a wooden floor getting lost in the sound of blood rushing through her ears in a rhythmic pairing of the drumming of her heart.

Clumsily, she tried to push Hope back to the bed, but the alpha would not allow her to steer their course. Hope wanted to be in charge. She needed to be in charge. In fact, Hope was in charge, and grabbed onto Josie's hips firmly with her strong grasp. She spun her around, pushing her backwards to her desk.

Gripping her firmly, Hope lifted Josie onto the desk with ease when she finally collided with it, sending several books and papers and stationery of all sorts rattling to the ground. Neither cared. Neither cared when Hope tugged Josie's sweater over her head a second later, right before shirking herself out of the coat that was still hanging from her shoulders. The cool air hit her flushed skin, but she could not feel it. She was too warm to notice, and too hungry to care.

Pushing her naked body up between Josie's thighs as she let them fall apart left the siphon breathless and tingling in all the right ways. Hope made short work of the buttons on Josie's uniform blouse and the accompanying skirt, and when Josie was left with nothing but her underwear, she found her ankles automatically hooking around Hope's hips and her arms securing around her shoulders as the tribrid lifted her off the desk and carried her to the bed.

…

"You'll feel the pull towards your mate to be undeniably strong." Keelin continued after a moment's pause, trying to search for the most appropriate way to explain what is likely to happen. "As much as we are, or seem, human on the surface, our wolves are still animals. A new alpha wolf will first and foremost, in nature, find the most suitable female to mate with." Keelin paused again and grinned a little as Hope's eyes went wide and she blushed a scarlet colour.

"Wait, mate? Is that what the unification ritual is about? Mating? Like… sex?" Hope spluttered, the thought of being intimate with Josie in such a way both terrifying and absolutely delightful. The mere thought of it caused liquid fire to settle into the bottom of her belly and her hearth to thrash wildly inside her ribcage.

"This female becomes the alpha subordinate, the female alpha, or the alpha's mate – however you'd like to term it." Keelin casually sidestepped the question, for the time being. "Since you and Josie are twin flames and your wolves have already established their bond with one another, you won't be going looking for the most eligible bachelorette in town. Your instincts will be more driven towards finally fully establishing that mate-bond with Josie and fully claiming her for yourself, before any other pack members may get any risky ideas."

Keelin cleared her throat awkwardly now as well. Freya was staring solidly at the wall far above Hope's head, unwilling to look her niece in the eye. "And yes…" Keelin finally continued. "It is about mating, or rather, sex. But it's not just that alone."

…

Hope roughly tugged Josie's underwear down her thighs and slipped the pair from her ankles, discarding it to the already forgotten pile of clothes on the floor. The tribrid then allowed rippling muscle to pull the slenderer girl into her lap, forcing Josie into a straddling position atop Hope.

Josie let her fingers dig deeply into the auburn tresses and tugged the other girl closer, signaling for Hope to let her lips readily latch onto Josie's collarbone. She nipped at the protrusion slightly before letting her tongue guide her warm mouth across Josie's skin onto the other side of her upper chest. Josie's hips moved to a rhythm that not only the two of them could hear, but rather one that they were creating all their own.

Hope's hands wandered Josie's body like a blind man reading a piece of paper, the bumps on Josie's skin akin to braille beneath Hope's fingertips. She wanted to unlock Josie's deepest secrets that lay hidden between the bronzed pages of her thighs, her fingers, her breasts… Hope worshipped Josie's body as if a student of the siphon's gospel, bowing down in spiritual awe, and completely enraptured by the goddess that was the young woman on top of her.

As their movements increased in speed and intensity, Hope could see in no color other than the golden glaze of her gaze, and when she cast her sight upon Josie's exposed neck again, she could feel her canines start to extend. She was deaf to all sound other than Josie's wanton moaning and breathless gasping and nothing else mattered more than this moment, the absolute peak of exertion.

…

"You have to bite her." Keelin stared Hope dead in the eye.

Hope frowned. "But I already did, and she bit me."

"In an ethereal realm, yes. And yes, you carry the marks, but it's not the same. Think of those as… engagement rings, for instance. They were the start of the bond, the promise to be." Keelin tried to explain the situation metaphorically. "Biting her after becoming alpha is a proper way of marking that she belongs to you. It's like the wedding ring, and it is a bite that takes place in the actual physical realm. In many olden cultures the only way to actually seal a marriage and make it legal was to copulate afterwards. Certain cultures would have the whole village observe the deed. Humans and animals alike, though we have evolved, certain instincts remain very deep and steadfast."

"So, the sex… errr… mating, and biting, have to go hand in hand because of ancient animalistic rites and rituals? This is overtly bestial!" Hope tried to keep her voice down, but couldn't hide the shock and uncertainty mingling in her tone.

"Regardless of what you think about it," Keelin shook her head, "it is also unavoidable. It will happen whether you like it or not – if you become the alpha of a pack, your wolf will want to claim her mate ASAP, and that is Josie."

Reaching out to take Hope's hand then, Keelin gave her a serious gaze. "Don't deny what you are, Hope. And never deny what your wolf wants."

…

The moment Hope could feel the warmth of euphoria spread through her body, she arched forward and clamped down on Josie's shoulder with her set of wolf incisors. Immediately she could taste the blood that she drew from her mate, and Josie called out at the same time, though Hope's lusty fogged up brain was unsure whether the sound was from pleasure or pain. At the moment the two seemed the same.

Josie dug her nails so deeply into Hope's shoulder blades that they scorched angry red marks along the milky skin of Hope's flesh as she dragged them downward. By the time Hope finally relented and released her jaws from Josie's shoulder, she looked at the bite and knew it would form a small scar that would never quite disappear. She studied it with pride.

Hope was finally satisfied. Hope's wolf, rather, was finally satisfied.

Josie's wolf, on the other hand, had finally awaken fully. Josie could feel it, and so could Hope.

"We need to get outside. We need to get to the woods." Josie whimpered suddenly as she could feel the strange changes starting to run their course through her blood. "Now!"

(…)

The pair barely made it to the old mill before Josie couldn't handle the pain anymore of a shift that was clearly being forced upon her as a direct result of what had just occurred. It was the one thing Hope was not prepared for or aware would happen – was that Josie would shift immediately after the unification.

"Love, just let it consume you. There's nothing left and there's nothing out here that can get in the way. The pain is brutal, I know, but you have survived it before without shifting, now just imagine –" Hope tried to encourage Josie through the shift, tried to guide her on how to handle it. Hope knew words meant very little when your bones were breaking and reforming themselves, but she wanted to do for Josie what her father had done for her.

"Let the pain consume you, just let it all in because if you don't fight it, it can't break you. And when you can feel the dirt underneath you, you just run, and I'll be right behind you." Hope encouraged further in between removing both of the coats that they had hastily wrapped around themselves before skipping out of the school building.

Josie was still crying from agony minutes later when Hope crouched down before her and grabbed her face in both hands, bringing her to settle her copper gaze on the golden one of Hope. "I'm waiting for you. My wolf is waiting for yours. Get through this and the whole world will change. Come away with us and we'll show you a world beyond your imagination…" Hope leaned in and kissed the whimpering Josie softly, then stepped back and called out in pain as she shifted as quickly as she could – which was in under 5 seconds as she had taught herself.

The white wolf barked and whined before stepping up to a crouched over Josie and started licking her face. When their illuminated gazes finally met the moment Josie held her breath long enough to look up and through the pain, it was as if everything went quiet around them suddenly. Josie stopped writhing in pain, blinked once, blinked twice, let out one final scream of agony and let it all go. Within 3 seconds, there was a stunning black wolf facing Hope in her own snowy white coat. Josie had made it through.

Hope yipped in utter excitement and bumped her head against Josie's before stroking up against the whole length of her body. Josie seemed unsure of what to do at first, but soon she found her voice and whined playfully at Hope, then spun around in small circles with her mate until she tripped and fell over her own paws with a yelp. She guessed she still needed to get used to those. Hope then barked at her and started trotting off into the woods, Josie shortly on her heels.

As soon as Josie had started getting the hang of things, Hope sped up and ran faster and faster, and Josie would keep up, quick and agile and magnificently graceful. They weaved past each other as they thread through the trees, jumping over logs and skidding through mud down by the stream. They splashed through the water and rushed through the clearing full of flowers, sending petals wafting into the air everywhere. They flew through the forest without wings and inhaled every scent they could find, chased every movement they could see and pivoted at every sound they could hear.

The world was theirs.

Together.

There was just one more thing left that they needed to do together…

As Hope stepped up to Josie's side on a bit of higher ground, they both cast their gaze towards the school and paused for a minute. Hope seemed unsure, but buzzing with excitement at the same time. Josie ran her nose underneath Hope's chin in a show of comfort and support, before Hope turned her gaze to her mate next to her. She just needed one final bump of affection against her love's head.

The next minute, Hope threw her head back and opened her maw just slightly, a deep howl dragged out into the thin air above her, then spread all around as it echoed against trees and rocks, She did it again and the howl was heard clearly all throughout the area, strong and incessant. The howl would repeat itself a few more times before, finally, Josie started joining in, and before they knew it there were others as well.

The whole process took about 20 minutes or so, but one by one the pack members started emerging from the school and shifted, running through the trees, running towards the howl and then joining in when they reached their destination. Finally Hope stood atop some elevated ground, Josie flanking her to one side, and a pack of wolves, about 30 strong, at her feet.

They needed to bond.

And the best way to bond?

It was time to hunt.

A/N: On a side note, I've been putting some more thought and work into "West of Forever" and I reckon it could be made into a pretty good story with lots of intrigue and secrets and backstabbing betrayals and a lot of Hope just kicking ass and being a cocky little shite about it! So, if you haven't checked it out yet, please pay a visit to my user site and have a look at my AU Hosie fic!