Chapter 4

(Logan)

Two Years Later

"…In other news, a bill to add mutation to the Civil Rights Act was shot down in the House again today by an extremely narrow margin. This is the third time in two years that the bill has not made it out of Congress and mutant rights activists and the ACLU have called this latest defeat 'one more step to keeping America in the Dark Ages'. Oddly enough, in a non-scientific poll conducted by this network, public opinion regarding mutants is at an all-time high, attributed to the mutant group known only as 'The X-Men' and the assistance they have rendered to both mutants and normal humans over the past five years. With me now to discuss this phenomenon is Richard Barnes. Richard?"

"Thank you, Amanda…" Storm hit the mute button on the remote and tossed it onto the coffee table in front of her with a sigh. I looked over from where I was sitting near the windows, smoking a cigar as I listened to this latest report. Most of Alpha and a few from Beta team was in here with us, enjoying our usual after-dinner ritual that Sam had started all those years ago. There was the faintest scent of ozone in the air as Storm tried to keep her temper in check. "I can't believe it lost again!" She spat bitterly.

"Might as well get used to it, darlin'." I replied, exhaling a huge cloud of smoke. "I'd be shocked to hell if it passed in your lifetime."

"You'd think after all that we've done for the world that they'd finally give us a break." She ran her hands through her hair, a nervous gesture I'm sure she picked up from Angela. "It's just not fair!"

Faint sparks began to dance around her fingers and Sam took her gently by the shoulders and eased her back onto the couch. "Ororo, it's going to take more than a few years to change everyone's mind." He said calmly. "It doesn't mean our mission to help people is going to change."

"I know, Sam. But it just seems like as soon as we make one step forward, something else happens to set us back again." She didn't say it out loud, but we knew what she was talking about. Magneto's people were still out there somewhere and still made the occasional attack against human targets. We did our best to intercept them, but ever since the DC Metro incident they'd become much better at hiding their agenda until it was too late for us to prevent anything. Even Bennington hadn't been able to get any information to us any quicker than we received it, so I'd all but written him off as useless when it came to Lensherr's flunkies. Personally, I blamed Lensherr for the lack of progress on the mutant rights front and not for the first time, my claws were itching to bury themselves in his gut. If it wasn't for the adamantium, I'd have killed him a long time ago. Liberty Island comes to mind.

"Are we certain that it's only Magneto's people who are making things difficult for us?" Scott asked, looking right at Angela, Kyro and me.

I scowled at him. "Got somethin' to say, Cyke?"

"Yeah, I do." He stood up and crossed his arms. "You guys have hit how many bases in the past five years? Nine? Ten? The people you've killed had families and you know how quick everyone is to blame mutants when something like that happens with such stunning regularity."

"Now look here!" Angela said, springing to her feet. "Have you heard one thing about that on the news? Read it in the papers?"

"Well, no. But that doesn't mean the families haven't questioned the truth behind those deaths."

"Maybe they have, maybe they haven't." I observed as I crushed out my cigar. "Don't change the fact that those assholes are still active, doin' the same shit to other people that they did to us. Or did you forget what they tried to do to you?" He clenched his jaw as he looked down at the floor and I snorted. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Logan, no one is disputing the fact that Weapon X is still active." Xavier said. "It's the methods you employ that have some of us concerned."

It was my turn to stand up. "Why don't you come out an' say it, Chuck? You'd like it better if we left 'em alive."

"I won't deny that I am concerned about the wholesale slaughter the three of you have employed. Perhaps if you would allow one or two of us to accompany you when you go on your next mission…"

"Won't happen, Professor." Angela said. "This isn't your war, it's ours."

"Angela, please just listen…"

"No, Charles! We've been over this time and again! There's nothing else to say on the topic, so just drop it!"

"If I may add something." Kyro said politely. "Angela and Logan-san are correct. This is not a war that we wish to put on your shoulders."

"We're your friends, don't you get that?" Rogue piped in. "We want to help you."

I shook my head. "Sorry kid, but we ain't changin' our minds about it. We do this ourselves, period. It's better if you guys just keep bein' the heroes 'round here an' let us do this our way."

"But Logan…"

"I said no, Marie." I looked back to Xavier. "Sorry Chuck, but we ain't leavin' anyone alive who might know even one thing about that project. We've barely scratched the surface o' this thing an' we still got the other four active operatives out there to worry 'bout."

"So what's to stop this 'Director' you're so worried about from sending them here, Logan?" Scott asked. "He has to know that you all live here now."

I shrugged. "If he wanted to do that, it woulda happened by now."

"Guys, it's obvious we can't get through to them, so just drop it ok?" Storm said, standing up to face me. "Logan, we need you around here, all of you. We've said this to each of you time and again. Just promise me that your worst-case scenario will never come true."

"I'd rather cut my own heart out." I said evenly. "Don't think even I could come back from that."

"Fine. That's good enough for me." She looked at everyone in turn, then left the study, followed closely by Sam. No one else said anything, so I took Angela by the hand and led her out.

I turned to go upstairs to our room, but she held me back. "Logan, I need to burn off some steam." She said.

I turned to her with a smirk. "That's my plan." I growled, pulling her into my arms.

She giggled and hugged me back. "Good plan. But not exactly what I had in mind." She pulled away and the look on her face was oddly unreadable. "I need to run." She looked over her shoulder to the patio doors. The moon was near full out there and I understood what she was saying. Even with everything we'd done to the Weapon X bases, it had been a long time since we'd given in to our feral natures and ran with the night. She pulled me along with her, opened the door quietly and we went out on the patio, just stood there for a while. She lifted her face to the sky, arms open, and closed her eyes. The wind blew her hair all around her face and she looked like some creature out of a legend, the kind of thing you only saw if it was summoned to come after you. When she opened her eyes again, they were gleaming in the dim light. She kicked off her shoes and slid out all of her claws, then shot a wink at me and took off across the lawn towards the woods.

I stood there a bit longer until she'd vanished from my sight before sitting down and taking off my boots. I stripped off my shirt and stood there in only my jeans. The cool night air felt good against my skin and the wind carried the faintest hint of Angela's scent to me. I felt the animal clawing inside my mind to be let loose, so I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and let it go.

My eyes snapped open and I took off across the grounds, following the path she'd taken moments earlier. As soon as I broke into the trees, I stopped and scented the air again, followed her scent to the base of a huge maple and smiled. She'd taken to the high road in an attempt to minimize what scent I could pick up, but this was a game we'd played many times before. We only knew one other person who would understand, so we never told anyone about our occasional late night runs through the grounds. But when you're born with the instincts of an animal, sometimes you have to let the animal have its way or else risk having it take you over completely when you least expect it. Trust me, I know.

I started on my hunt again, stopping here and there to reacquire her scent. I came to a fork in the path and paused in confusion. I could smell her in both directions, the scent equally strong. I closed my eyes and tried to track her by the sounds she might make, but she could move as quietly through the treetops as she could on the ground, so it wasn't any help. I made a snap decision and took the fork on the right. I stalked her through the woods, her scent getting stronger with every step that I took. The path wound through the trees following the general border of the mansion grounds back here. Just off the path to either side were the sensors we'd had installed so many years ago, but I avoided them with ease. After all, I'd helped to set them all up so I knew where they were. Angela did too and if she was on this path, she would have avoided them just as easily. After a few minutes, her scent overwhelmed my senses and I stopped. I looked around and my eyes came to rest on something lying underneath a tree. I approached cautiously, the animal primed for anything. I crouched down and picked up the cargo pants and jacket she'd had on when we'd come outside and smiled again. She must have leapt from tree to tree, possibly taking a more direct route and left her clothing here to throw me off her scent. Clever girl.

I retraced my steps quickly and took the left fork. Again, her scent grew stronger with every step that I took and this was the path that would eventually lead to the stream that bordered the back part of the property. Beyond that stream was more forest, still owned by Xavier as far as I knew, but not a part of the school grounds. We'd gone through the area a few times in the past, but since it wasn't part of what we thought of as our "territory", we hadn't explored it well in all our time here. I growled low in my chest and set off in that direction. No better time than the present.

I heard the stream before I saw it and halted just inside the tree line to scope the area. The bank of the stream here was mostly soft sand and gravel, not exactly the best for leaving footprints or other obvious signs of passage. Add to that her amazing agility and I could imagine that she'd simply leapt from the nearest tree directly into the water to again throw me off her scent. I moved carefully into the open and looked around for signs of her passage, but saw nothing. I crossed the stream to the wilder forest on the other side and was trying to reacquire her scent when the attack happened.

She dropped from a huge oak onto my back with a snarl. I twisted my body and threw her off of me to the ground, where she rolled and sprang to her feet to face me in a crouch. The wind picked up again and she shook her hair out of her eyes in annoyance, licking her lips. With another low growl, I leapt forward and grappled with her, snarling when her claws made contact with my flesh. She writhed in my grasp, spinning on her heel to break my hold on her before flipping away from me to land again in her defensive pose. We circled each other warily, trying to find an opening, a way into the other's guard to end the fight. We moved at the same time, both going low but at the last second she flipped over my head, twisting in the air to land behind me and raked her claws down my back. I gave another snarl as I whipped myself around to face her. Her foot flashed out in an attempt to kick me in the chest, but I grabbed it and threw her to the ground. Before she had a chance to recover, I fell on top of her, pinning her there.

Her eyes were wild and she hissed at me, bucking beneath me in an attempt to throw me off of her, but I was too strong for her. I lowered my head to her neck and inhaled deeply, her scent driving me wild. She was breathing hard, still wriggling about trying to find a way to get away from me but I wasn't having it. I grabbed both of her wrists and pinned her arms to the ground above her head. She gritted her teeth and hissed again, then her head shot forward and she kissed me. I let go of her arms and her claws dug into my shoulders, sending mixed signals of pain and pleasure through my body. I didn't kiss her back so much as I devoured her mouth, my hands traveling over every inch of her exposed skin. She clung to me almost desperately, her arms locked around my shoulders and her legs around my hips. Her hands came forward to grab my hair and I pulled them away again, pinning them over her head. I popped a single claw and deftly cut her panties away. I retracted the claw and using the free hand, I unfastened my jeans and shoved them down to my knees. I thrust my hips forward, inside her at last and she gasped, eyes wide.

Yes, we were mating like animals, out in the wild in the middle of the night. We weren't gentle with each other, not even close. The primal forces that drive us were in complete control and we both surrendered to them entirely. A small part of my mind tried to protest that I wasn't an animal, that this wasn't right, but I'd let the animal take control of me and it wouldn't stop until it was sated. I let go of her wrists and she wrapped her arms around me again, her claws finally retracted back inside her fingers. We nipped and scratched at one another, our bodies locked together. She matched every move I made, every sound, every kiss. It wasn't long before she was crying out with her orgasm, which was enough to push me over the edge. I threw my head back and came with a roar.

And just like that, we were back. "Gods Logan." She said breathlessly.

I traced her lips with my fingertip. "Mm, love you." I said, then rolled over and pulled her on top of me. She leaned down and kissed me softly before she settled in with her head on my chest. "Fuckin' animals, that's all we are."

"Maybe." She whispered, then raised her head. "But you're still my kind of animal." She fell back to my chest and we lay there for a long time, her body warm and still unexpectedly heavy. Yeah, we were animals, still are to this day. But sometimes that's all right.

AN: Four down, at least 21 to go...and here i was trying to bring this in under 25 chapters, but the damn muse keeps whispering to me and giving me all kinds of fun twists to play with...:) Don't ask what they are, you'll see when you get there...:) Special thanks to Zac and Turiel Tincdaniel, the best beta readers on the planet...Extra special thanks to DBK(TM) for being not so much a beta reader as a cheerleader and professional beggar...:) Super special thanks to the readers, who prove to me daily that someone else is paying attention besides me...and Super Special Swanky thanks to those who reviewed, who were reeltreble1031, levanna and theNightEnchantress...reeltreble - i answered your question in a PM, did you get it? levanna - Hank's Hank, trying to see what makes something (or someone) tick is just the kind of thing i think he'd do, especially because he cares about her...theNightEnchantress - glad you made it!! If you want to make it easier next time, just hit the "add to story alert" and you'll get updates in your email...:) And a message for a reader who didn't review (this time)...Dee - I didn't wait til after 8am on purpose, it just happened that way...:)

Ok now, time for all of you non-reviewing readers to take the plunge! Remember, if i get even one new reviewer, i'll post a new chapter right away...otherwise, the next one won't be out til the 14th:)