She stared at his naked back as he pulled his lycra tank top on, and smiled wide. She had someone to be with in her life. Someone who would never be taken away from her without a fight, and a trail of dead bodies to lead her to them. Never be kidnapped, never let themselves be used as a bargaining chip against her. Evan was hers to have and hold her, to return to, and be returned to. She was content; even here. Maybe he was just the start... She had a big house to fill, and an equally big heart - and as long as it was another woman, or women?... Evan was remarkably VERY understanding.
After as many years as she could recall feeling antsy, nervous in crowds, alone, frightened of her own ancestral home and the shadows that could never answer a young girl's please for comfort in the night; surrounded by the mountain of money that could never buy her any; She was finally - on this hell in the Pacific - at peace. There were trials yet to come, perhaps one she couldn't live through, but, for now, she was happy.
She was 'home'; and as she watched his smiling, handsome eyes looking at her with something more than just compassion and kindness, and the searing fires of passion, she felt she may well have an answer to the question that had fuel her every fear: 'where is my family?' after all.
He didn't want to 'own' her; hem her into some preconceived conception of what a woman was, or of what 'family' ment. He was grateful for her in his life, content with whatever she was willing to give him, and didn't care whoever else she brought into her life, her heart, her bed; he knew he alone was her only man: the future, only father of her child... or children; time would tell. She hoped for a girl - easier for her to instruct in life's lessons (Would she call her Doppy? no... Rhiannon Amelia Carter-Croft. Evan would just have to be happy with it.) But she wanted another mother for her child, for those times she was away, as well as her own emotional well being. This idea thrilled the father in question.
He was more giddy than her over her desire to find a woman to be with her - and maybe him, if he earned it - in this new 'family' she was hoping for. She needed the feminine to balance his and her masculine, 'kill it all, to make plant food', energy they had in such abundance; she longed to bond with the softness of a woman, to feel a woman's loving touch, and know it was true.
She wanted someone sweet: like Sam; as funny as Evan: like Sam; Creative, loving, a centering presence to calm her... like Sam. Where on God's earth to find such a woman?
He would just smirk at her when she discussed it. He was all for THAT particular combination - since Sam was gorgeous, and into his gender as well; and the thought of her and Sam together was as enticing to him as was the thought of being in the middle of it... such a guy.
Lara just slapped him when he smiled thinking about it - the glorious bastard. So much in him to love... when he wasn't trying to be 'romantic' - then he was still amusing, but painfully so. He was amazing at being a man; and amusingly no good at trying to be a Lothario.
She was happy he trusted her with meeting his folks; and the last hour and a half was more than just stress relief for both. Not once did their eyes look away from one another, not once. He loved her, and she loved that idea, that certainty; and it terrified her.
Now was the time for the world to turn topsy-turvy, and swallow her dreams whole before her eyes... or would it?
...
He smiled inside as he sank his pained teeth into the Alpha wolf's throat, and drank its life's blood as it twitched in his increasingly powerful arms. He felt as it continued whimpering, and struggling furtively as he drained it dry before the gaping mouths of its pack. Stupid mutts were already his willing servants; tame as broke heel hounds, and not one had tried to rip from him his only salvation: his ruby embedded talisman about his neck.
It had been almost amusing to him as they ripped and tore at him to no avail. He would have laughed if he hadn't been screaming in agony.
They had all attacked him at once, latching uselessly onto his arms, his legs, throat, loins; and he had laughed as his flesh healed as they sank their teeth into him time and again.
The pain was unbelievable, almost too great to bear, but he relished every ligament torn, muscle ripped from his flesh as their blood sank into his wounds, filling him with their essence, their blood lust, their fury. He was becoming more than a man, more than a beast. He was becoming myth; all because he was willing to suffer the agony of this transformation, and the ancient 'thing' in the ruby about his neck loved misery - and he was willing to feed it to bursting.
He had screamed in rage and pain as he felt his heart grow twice as thick and strong as his flesh regenerated even as the wolves tugged at it, till it was tough as leather hide. Then he had tore into them with his impossibly strong teeth and hands.
They fled, the ones he didn't cripple or kill.
The Alpha strode to him, and locked eyes with its fate... then threw itself at its deliverer.
He fed on the beast as if it were his last meal; and it made him more than he ever dreamt he could be... another legend coming true.
His green eyes turned blood-red as he opened his powerful jaws and screamed in pain as his fingers stabbed into the thickly muscled, powerful beasts dying body... and tore it in half as if it were tissue paper.
The Alpha's entrails splashed upon the ground, and were instantly devoured by the rest of the wolves as HE watched, impossibly thick, sharp canines, on full display as he grinned from ear to ear. He sniffed the air, pushing out his suddenly broad, thickly muscled chest till his ribcage expanded ten inches more in circumference.
The wolves stared at their pack leader and their collective heads drooped as he fixed them with his hellfire eyes and the strange red glow from the ruby on his ancient, gold, talisman upon his chest.
He sniffed the air and closed his eyes, his tongue licking his slowly evolving mouth. He had gained twelve new teeth as he stood there; his jaw protruding, his skull painfully distending out as these teeth pushed their way from behind his four wisdom teeth. Soon his mouth resembled a small snout, only in the semblance of a man's face.
The wolves fell in behind him as he strode forth through the forest abutting the gate to the ruined shanty town, and headed in the direction of a familiar smell. HE smiled wider as his body continued to change... she was going to be a fine kill, the start of a new legend.
...
Lara looked like an improvised samurai warrior dressed in leather shreds held together with yards of duct tape.
Evan pulled on the improvised, thick leather fingerless gloves after he wrapped the thick shreds of a destroyed leather bomber jacket around her arms and thighs.
"I am officially citing this as a red-letter day," she joked,"the day you actually covered my body"
He smiled and shook his head as she swatted his buttocks playfully.
"You silly monkey," he sighed as he kissed her quickly, then turned his head to the sound of snapping twigs.
"What?" she asked as she warmly wrapped her arms around his neck.
He gently took hold of her wrists and lowered them to his lips, kissed them, his eyes focused on the surrounding darkened tree line.
She shook her head playfully, "Hey, 'James', I'm over here," she giggled.
He didn't so much as smile.
She locked eyes with him for a moment, then turned slowly to face the woods.
"On point love." he whispered softly into her ear as he pulled a Seppuku sword from a sheath on his thigh, and placed it in her hands, "What ever happens, stay in the moment don't let ANYTHING distract you.. nothing. Don't think of me, don't think of tomorrow, pain, fear, ANYTHING. No matter what, follow impulse as if you existed for it alone. If you lose the presence of living in the moment... you will be dead. Please, stay in the moment."
The heavy, guttural panting of the pack surrounded the two lovers.
"NOW!" Evan shouted, and the two broke apart as the wolves sprinted from the darkness.
More coming soon