Hunting the Hunter Ch. 03

"No..." he gasped again, pulling away.

She cried out and the sound cut deep into the core of him. It sounded terrified. He could feel her need. It emanated from her, matching his, singing out to his...oh god, what had he done?

He knew then, unequivocally, that she could feel it too, the effects of the mating. She felt that same unrelenting pull, and it was making her just as crazy as it was making him. He was ripped in two, torn between fear and desire, between his fury and guilt for having done this to her and the joyous high of knowing she really was his, irrevocably.

He had released her at some point and now stood over her, his hands propping him up against the wall behind her head. He felt her arms wrap about his neck, and her body melt into his.

"You still owe me Serjo." she whispered hotly against his ear, sending a shiver down his spine. He did, and she had no idea just how much. He was determined to suffer for what he'd done, but it would be cruel to withhold satisfaction from her when it was he who had caused the need. He bent his head, trailing kisses as he went, along the curve of her ear. She shivered against him. He purred back.

He brought one hand back down around her waist, fitting her lithe frame into the crook of his arm, while the second slid to the loosened waist of her pants. He didn't stop there, and she let out a soft cry as the tips of his fingers found the top of her slit and pressed against the hard nub hidden beneath.

One of her own hands slid down to return the favor, but he caught it and wrapped it back around his neck. He returned her questioning look with a deep unhurried kiss, not letting up until he felt her fall into him once more.

He slipped his hand over her mound, tugging the edge of her pants lower at the same time, giving him freer access. Her arms tightened around his neck as his fingers once again found and parted her slick center and delved deeply inside. He shuddered at how hot and wet she felt wrapped around his fingers and struggled to ignored his own insistent and demanding arousal.

She writhed in his arms, making low, warm, almost purring sounds which only drove him further into distraction. His hand moved on its own between her thighs, rapidly increasing in pace, his thumb seeking and finding her swollen clit and grinding it furiously, eager to wrench her pleasure from her.

He wanted to hear her cry out again as she had in that field. He wanted to hear her whimper and moan in release, in ecstasy. He wanted to be the one to give that to her, wanted it more than he wanted his next breath. She let out a small cry and buried her head against his shoulder. He groaned.

"That's it baby," he encouraged in a heated and broken whisper against her ear. She shivered again and her hips bucked, pressing her perfect little body tightly against his. He could feel her whole body tighten, trembling with sudden tension. He could feel his own body throb in excited response and his grip on her waist tightened involuntarily.

"Cum for me." He gasped, and, as if on command, her hips jumped frantically against his hands and she muffled a long high cry against his shoulder. She shook and twitched like a leaf in a wind storm, and he was forced to squeeze shut his eyes and grit his teeth against the need her release stirred in him.

There was nothing in that moment more wonderful or more torturous than the feel of his alluring little mate climaxing in his arms. He held her tightly, as much to keep her safe in the throes of her passion as to occupy his hands so that he did not simply rip the rest of her clothes from her and answer the calls of instinct right where they stood.

When her trembling subsided he pulled away slowly, and with great difficulty to look down into her face. She looked back at him with half glazed eyes. He cupped her face gently and deepened his gaze, as if with that one look he could say all that he wanted and feared to tell her.

Her eyes darkened and turned questioning. He leaned forward, drawing her into a long intense kiss, full of both desire and the bitter knowledge that it was likely the last chance he'd have to do so.

Inanna pulled away with a gasp for air as he finally broke his kiss. She was well acquainted with lust, she'd seen it often enough, and in many different eyes, but the look in Feric's eyes as he gazed once more down at her was almost frightening in its intensity. It was like a physical blow that left her breathless and weak. Yet when he touched her, his movements were heart-achingly tender. He brushed the pad of his thumb over her cheekbone.

"I'm sorry." He leaned in before she could respond and pressed his warm lips to the shell of her ear. "I will make it right, I promise, whatever it takes. And I hope you will...that you can, forgive me."

He pulled away, closing his robe and turning at the same time, and swept out of the room leaving her staring blankly after him. When she finally blinked herself back into reality she slumped against the wall and slid slowly to the floor. She stared for a long while at the darkened doorway, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"What...was that!?"

She rolled her eyes up to the ceiling and let out a mournful groan.

"I need a better plan."

A delicious left over shiver ran it's course through her body, making her wriggle against the wall in pleasure and frustration. She smiled faintly.

"A much better plan."

**

"So..."

Feric looked up to see his sister looking down on him, a toddler on one hip, her balled up fist on the other.

"So?"

She smiled softly, but deviously.

"Don't play coy little brother. Tell me about her."

"Who?"

"oh please." She rolled her eyes and shook her head, making the impish Sonja giggle. She smirked and shifted the girl to the other hip. Sonja thrust her head against her mother's shoulder and stared up at Feric through her golden curls as he stood. He returned the look and winked at her.

"You sure that's appropriate?" He asked and nodded at the little one. She rolled her eyes again.

"I'm not asking for details...I just want to know why you're mopping around like a kicked dog."

"I have a lot on my mind."

"I bet."

He frowned at her. "The hunters..."

"Are nothing new." She interrupted. "This..." she waved a general hand at him, "is. Listen you are clearly miserable, and none of us are deaf or blind, nor are we stupid. If you want her, tell her. It's pretty clear she isn't going to turn you down."

He snorted. "It's not that simple."

"Nonsense. I can't think of anything simpler." He returned her smarmy look with a glare and opened his mouth to respond, only to close it again a moment later. He wanted to tell her, if he could tell anyone it was her, but he just couldn't bring himself to. He sighed instead and glanced away. When all this was over, he'd figure it out. Find some way to fix his mess...whatever that meant.

He glanced back when he felt a hand on his arm. Bella was giving him a pitying look. He must really look like hell, he almost never got that look from her.

"Fine...don't tell me, but please, promise me you'll at least consider it. You're not doing anyone any favors getting yourself tied in knots over this." He nodded. What else was he supposed to do?

She left, and he decided to take a walk. He intended to make a perimeter check, but as soon as he neared the edge of the woods a number of voices caught his attention.

In a clearing, not twenty feet in, was Inanna with bow in hand and Lucas standing close by watching her intently. He could hear as he neared that she was explaining something, occasionally smiling and touching his shoulder as she spoke. He felt a momentary pang of completely unreasonable jealously which he quickly shook off as he edged in closer. Behind the two of them sat Aina with talon sharing her rock and Ambrose nearby whose mop of orange-red hair identified him immediately. To another side lay Mori stretched out on her flank in a patch of sun, her eyes slitted barely open, and next to her, in the same warm looking spot lay Owyn, though he was wide awake and upright, watching the proceedings with interest.

He could see and hear now that Inanna was demonstrating her grip on the bow and talking constantly as Lucas watched carefully, occasionally interjecting with questions.

His back was to Aina so he couldn't see her and Talon's growing smiles. Feric turned his gaze towards the spot where theirs was directed and grinned despite himself. They were looking at the arrows she was shooting into a distant tree. It wasn't until Ambrose finally let out a snicker. Lucas rolled his eyes and turned to him imperiously.

"I don't mind an audience, but please hold off on the sniggering until after I've made a fool of myself."

Inanna for her part was keeping an impressively straight face. When Owyn let out a growling purr as well Lucas frowned and turned to see what they were all looking at, a rare grin breaking across his face as he was greeted by an arrow drawn happy face smiling back at him.

It was a gratifying sight for Feric. Owyn, Ambrose, and Mori had joined them at a young age, and Talon was still quite young, having been found as a small kitten, his unusual name owing from the fact that Cyrus, drawn by his mewling, had near literally pulled him from the talons of a greater mountain eagle. Lucas, however, was already thirteen when they came across him and had been surviving alone for years before that.

It wasn't that Lucas was ever troublesome or difficult, he was in fact the opposite, always quick to make himself useful and ready to help without complaint, but he was a little morose in nature. He generally kept to himself and carried himself in silent seriousness, rarely laughing or smiling, and only seemed to speak to Owyn and Aina with any regularity.

Of course Aina he had latched onto immediately, both because she was the closest to his age and the one who had found him and brought him to the pride to begin with. Aina didn't seem to mind his almost constant presence so no one else had either.

Though, he thought with a frown as Lucas took up the bow, they were both technically adults now...

He wasn't sure he liked where his thoughts were taking him. Unfortunately they were going there more often these days.

He started as Aina let out a cry.

"Lucas!"

The others, save Talon who was struggling to pull Aina's hands off his eyes, were laughing heartily.

Ina grabbed the bow from him, though her own grin was a mile wide, and gave him a playful shove before releasing several carefully placed shots and obscuring his rather suggestive masterpiece.

"You better watch it mister." Aina warned Lucas as she let Talon finally pull her hands from his eyes with a bitter complaint about not having any fun.

"What?" He asked innocently, with a not so innocent look on his face.

She stood up with a rare smirk on her face.

"I said you better watch it or I'll be forced to give you a lesson in manners."

He arched a brow.

"And how do you propose to do that?" Her smile broadened into a grin as she untied her robe, tossing it to the side. He couldn't see Lucas's face now, but his daughter looked gleefully ferocious. He watched her with a mixture of pride and sadness. She looked so much like her mother, and at that moment so free and youthful, like she should be, not living in fear in sunless dungeons.

Inanna snatched up the arrows on the ground and moved to the edge near Ambrose and Talon, whose hair she ruffled absently as she turned and sat.

He saw her smile and a glow of delight in her eyes that once again seemed to reflect his at the sight of the two young lions circling one another in the bright clearing.

Lucas had a little size on her, but she was strongly built and compact. It was not an unbalanced fight.

It had been a long time since he'd seen these two go at it, and he was curious to see the results. They were both cautious, so it was a long time before Lucas made the first tentative move. They hesitantly lunged and dodged earning heckles from Talon who was anxious to see a more action than they were willing to offer. Finally Aina managed to get in on Lucas's flank and charged at him, knocking him over and sending them both tumbling in a blur of activity until he managed to get on top and she responded by throwing him off with her hind legs. Lucas slammed hard into a nearby tree and landed slumped on his side, his back to the rest. He seemed very still.

Aina watched him carefully for a moment, then let out a plaintive yowl and padded close, nudging him with her nose.

Feric had risen from his place, as had Owyn and Ambrose. However, before any could approach, Lucas rolled abruptly, knocking Aina's legs out from underneath her and was on her in the blink of an eye. With a snarl he clamped his teeth over her suddenly exposed throat. She went limp in submission, and he backed off slowly.

Ina clapped and grinned from her seat. Aina rose, no longer a lion, and gave Lucas a dirty look, slapping him lightly on the shoulder as she passed.

"Cheater."

Even as she pulled her robe closed Owyn was already entering the ring prowling around Lucas with a playful growl. Talon was delighted, and ran over to prod the sleepy Mori awake, wanting to make a tournament out of it.

Feric's eyes were drawn back to Inanna who was speaking softly to Aina and Ambrose, both of whom were listening with interest not unlike what Lucas had shown in his archery lesson.

She held out her palm in front of her and a small red mage light appeared in her hand. She said something else which he couldn't make out over the growls of the two male lions still wrestling between him and them. Ambrose clearly looked excited but Aina laughed and shook her head. Ina smiled slyly and said something else, at which Aina's amusement faded.

Feric was seriously considering circling to the other side of the glade to eavesdrop when Ina took his daughters hands in her own, turning them palm up. However a rustle in the woods behind him turned his attention before he could make up his mind to do it. He looked over to see Cyrus emerge from the heavy brush and stalking up behind him. They greeted one another and Cyrus silently communicated that his scouting had been uneventful. Feric was unsurprised.

It would be at least a week before another group of hunters were sent out after them so he wasn't expecting to find anything. They would have a brief reprieve for a few days at least. Still, as good as Mirisa was, he was loathe to leave his family for more than a couple of days at a time. They would have to move quickly if he wanted to see this fort Inanna had discovered. She was hopeful that they might be able to recover information on who was doling out the orders, if not an explicit location.

He turned away from the glade, leaving Cyrus to watch the wrestling. Feric felt he needed to go with her, to see for himself what they were up against, but after the previous evening he was hesitant to let himself alone with her for so long.

It would be two days to reach Kavatch, and that didn't include any stops, and just as long to return. Could he handle being alone with her for nearly a full week, with no excuses. He shuddered at the thought of having a repeat performance of last night. He knew if it happened again there would be no way he could resist her. Not that he'd done a great job of it so far.

He'd been avoiding her all day, but sooner or later he was going to have to bite the proverbial blade an either tell her why they couldn't continue with this, or at the very least make it explicitly clear that it couldn't happen again. It was a conversation he was not looking forward to having.

**

Ambrose had been a natural with magic and seemed to have an impressive reserve of power, as she suspected, though to her surprise Inanna had discovered that Aina possessed an even deeper well of energy to draw from than he did...greater even than Inanna had.

They were both shocked and delighted when she managed to get them to heal a small self induced cut on her hand. It wasn't even very hard, really only a matter of teaching them how to draw on that power and externalize it. It wasn't hard for her either since she'd used her little magic trick to get a read on both of them.

Mysticism...the lame duck of the magic world, but great at parties.

Inanna made a sour face and shook out one of her silk undershirts before refolding it carefully for packing. That was her other great skill. Illusion would have been crazy fun, alteration and restoration unbelievably useful, and conjuration...well maybe not, but still a lot more impressive than limp wristed mysticism.

Her great grandmother had been a wise woman, so she blamed her. What would she care anyway...she was dead, and the old bat was too good to answer her summons as it was. The battleaxe. She shook out another shirt violently before pausing and taking a breath.

She didn't really care about the mysticism, and she couldn't be bothered with Muthsera grandma and her pestering her about not training with the current Wise woman. She may not answer summons, but she did occasionally show up for fun to torture her progeny.

No she was ticked off at someone else entirely.

She had kept herself busy and distracted playing with the kiddies, keeping her mind off other things. Other annoying, frustrating, and distracting things. That is until said 'thing' had shown up five minutes ago to inform her that they were leaving together tomorrow morning for Kavatch in a businesslike manner, barely making eye contact, and not sounding to thrilled about the trip himself. He sounded even less thrilled when she told him they had to make a side trip to Chorrol on the way.

It had briefly crossed her mind to throw something at him, but she'd kept her mouth shut and just nodded, and returned his business-likeness with her own.

She couldn't figure out this hot and cold routine of his, but, she had decided, she would make use of the coming week to get him over it. It wasn't like he didn't have every reason to want her, what sane person wouldn't? Honestly!

He DID start it after all. So what the hell was his problem? God-damn-bloody-sneaky-drop dead gorgeous-fetching- s'wit of a lion!

She adjusted her pack violently on her lap and started making her inventory. She gentled her movements, not wanting to break anything, but she still wore the same sour expression.

She usually worked alone, so she'd have to be extra careful with what she took. She liked to travel light, but she figured a couple mild healing elixirs might be in order, not to mention a few fatiguing potions for her arrows. They can't catch you if they're too tired to run after all. On top of that went her rope and her tack.

The three R's of adventuring: ropes, rations, and restoration. Don't leave home without them.

She'd been hoping to pull a 'sneaky thief' like she had with the vamps, but with Feric she figured there were going to be some casualties...which was ok to. It might get a little messy, but so long as they took their time it wouldn't be a problem. They'd just have to take them one by one, nice and systematic.

She huffed. Either this was going to be fun as hell, or the longest week of her life. She didn't have a great feeling about it.

Her only consolation was that she'd be meeting Max for a drink at the Roxy on the way back. She'd probably need it by then.

She smirked into her pack, maybe she should invite Mirisa to join them there...it was only natural that she'd want to meet him, as beta and what not. She grinned.

Well as long as someone was getting laid, that would make her feel a little better. Her grin faded. Who was she kidding? No it woulnd't. This was going to be rough.