The Gift She Gives Ch. 21

Vesper stuck her hands in her coat pocket, wishing she had brought gloves, when the wolf beside her reached over and took her left arm and looped it through his to bring her up closer against his heated body.

"I don't think your fiancé would appreciate you getting pneumonia from the cold the night before your wedding." Grigory muttered hoarsely as he began walking them in the opposite direction that he knew the angel had taken with his mate.

"I can't get sick, Grigory." Vesper looked up at him and gave him a soft smile, though she didn't mind the additional warmth as they stepped out into the wind that was blowing.

"I wish that was true for wolves. We have a tendency to remain very healthy, and then if we get sick, it almost always kills us." He told her as he lead her into the trees that surrounded her home.

"Is that one of the reasons you have so many children?" Vesper asked.

He nodded, his blue eyes looking around him for a moment before he decided on a path to take, "That's part of it. The other part is that we're just a bunch of lusty animals that like getting women pregnant."

"I don't think you're an animal, Grigory. I think werewolves are quite...exceptional." She squeezed his arm, amazed at how solid the muscles beneath his coat were.

He smiled a little down at her and nodded, "I'm similarly taken with comet moths."

She gave him a little frown and sighed gently, "Grigory. I am in love with Mr. Hughes."

He didn't respond, he just continued walking with her deeper into the woods before finally stopping beside a large tree trunk. Leaning back on it, he watched as she moved slightly so that she could face him as they spoke.

"I hate that you're in love with him." Grigory frowned at her, his chest rumbling a bit in the way she was aware that werewolves communicated.

"But I love him all the same. I'm not being held captive. I haven't been stuck here for some time. I could have left, and he would have let me, but I didn't want to go." She saw the emotions playing across the man's face and felt sad that she had hurt the werewolf like this, but she hadn't exactly asked him to care about her. The time that he'd been inside of her, that had been desperation on her part, she'd needed to be penetrated. But werewolves were just as susceptible to the heart as anyone else, she supposed.

"If you allowed me to claim you-."

Vesper stepped forward and put a hand up on his chest, "I won't ever do that."

He rumbled out a growl, "If you allowed me to claim you, you could live in a house, with a family, and not have a sex spa right down the road. You could have a normal life."

Vesper smiled sadly up at him, his face was a little red, he was laying it all out for her and she felt her gut tighten at how difficult that must have been, he was bonded in a pack with Anya, claiming her would lessen his bond with the light siren, and his whole pack would be aware of what he was saying to her.

She felt his hand reach up to surround hers, "I don't want to live in Anya's house among her lovers and her children. I want to live in my own home, with my own husband, my solitary husband."

"I could-."

"Grigory, you are a werewolf, part of a pack. I would never want to be the reason you were away from other wolves. I would hate myself for that. But that's not even why I'm saying no." She moved her other hand up so that he could cup them both, it was really cold outside.

"You don't love me." He frowned.

"I don't love you." She nodded very slowly, not stopping him when he wrapped his hands around her body.

"He's good to you?"

"He is very good to me. I am very happy." She assured him as he tucked her up against his body.

"He can't give to you what I can give you, Vesper." He kissed the top of her head, she could feel his lips settle against her scalp.

Vesper bent her head back and frowned up at him.

"What can't he give me?"

"Children, proper sex."

Vesper bit her lip and stepped back a little bit. For some reason she hadn't considered that everyone would know about Mr. Hughes not having a penis for so long, but she figured nonhumans had been around for so long it was probably hard to have secrets from anyone. But she had also not realized that most nonhumans were still under the belief that the angel was sexless, and he most definitely was not.

"Grigory, there is something that I think you should know." She said in a very soothing voice, knowing that the werewolf probably wasn't going to like what she had to say.

"You let him take your virginity unnaturally after you touched, didn't you?" His voice was low, barely audible over the rumble in his chest.

"He did take my virginity, which I freely gave him, but not unnaturally. It happened quite naturally, in fact, with his penis." She bit her lip as he stared down at her with a frown on his face.

"One of his fake cocks, tell me, which creature did he choose? Certainly not someone of my kind." The way the werewolf smirked at her for a second made the anger rise in Vesper's throat and she grabbed hold of his right arm and squeezed it, knowing she couldn't possibly hurt him.

"Grigory, don't do this. Don't make it hard like this, you're here as a guest to my wedding, not here to ruin it for me." She cautioned, trying to remind them both that this was the eve before her wedding, they should be celebrating.

"You're making a mistake with him." Grigory blurted and put his hands on the sides of her waist.

"He grew a penis after I touched him. He regrew his wings, and the tattoos burned off, and he grew a penis. Oh my God, I can't believe I have to tell you this. It should be enough that I say that I am in love with Mr. Hughes and I'm not in love with you." Vesper knew her voice had risen a few octaves by the end of her sentence but she didn't care, the werewolf was being intentionally thick.

"He grew a penis?" Grigory said in a low whisper, she could barely hear him as his chest rumbled and he frowned down at her.

"Yes. I healed him." She nodded slowly up at him, taking his hands in hers again.

"Having a penis wasn't what was wrong with that man." The werewolf rumbled out as he frowned down at her.

"But him having a penis was apparently what was right for me, Grigory." Vesper sighed as he stared at her for several moments without speaking. At first she just thought he wasn't sure what to say, and then, from the way his eyes darted back and forth a little bit, she realized that he was communicating with his pack.

"I don't want you to leave your pack, or Anya. They love you very much." She stressed the words as she continued watching his face, the turmoil in his eyes finally giving way to understanding and acceptance, for the most part. There was still a lot of doubt behind those blue depths.

"I am bonded with Anya and my pack, I do not want to leave her." He said quietly at last.

"Then this shouldn't be so difficult." Vesper shrugged her shoulders a little as he squeezed her hands.

"You are going to marry the angel?"

Anya nodded, a soft smile on her face as she thought of her lover in his suit waiting for her at the front of a chapel, "I most definitely am."

"And then you're going to raise a family here, at a sex spa?" His question made her heat rise again and she dropped her jaw open as she looked up at him for a moment.

"I don't live at the spa, I have my own home away from it. When I have this baby, they are not going to know anything about what goes on at the spa. They'll simply know that they are well protected and safe from anything or anyone that could hurt them." She growled a little herself, this time.

Grigory stiffened and she could tell he was at war with the voices in his head as he shook it repeatedly and his chest rumbled in deep, irritated ways. "You're pregnant?"

"I am." She certainly had no reason to hide it.

"Vesper." He growled, the rumbles in his chest intensifying again for a moment as he moved his hands up to hold her by the tops of her arms.

"Grigory, you need to stop." Vesper whimpered when his grip tightened just a smidgen.

"You're having a baby with the angel? Have you thought about what that means?" He asked.

"It means I get to be a mother." She frowned at him.

"What if it's an ayperi like you?" He asked, and she could tell that that thought worried him.

"What if it is? What if it's not? What if it's born with feathers and not chitin and scales like me?" Vesper shot back, she didn't care what the baby was, she would protect it no matter what.

Grigory did not appreciate her answer, however, and he suddenly sunk to his knees in the snow, his hands going to grip her waist as he pushed his nose into the crevice between her legs. Vesper gasped and tried to back away, but one arm held her close as the other pulled the zipper of her coat down so that he could move in closer, and then closer again as he pushed most of her clothes aside. When his nose was blocked from actually touching her pussy by only the sheer fabric of her panties, she felt him sniff long and hard, and she pushed at the top of his head with her small hands.

"Grigory stop, let me go." She cried out as he continued smelling her.

"It's a girl, Vesper." He looked up at her eventually, and Vesper frowned down at him, it felt like the entire forest was pounding in around them. She was sure others were headed their way, several others.

"Grigory, please. Let me be happy with him, I love him." Her eyes were filled with tears, and she groaned again when he pushed his nose in close against her pussy lips.

"Grigory." A deep voice sounded behind her and she peered over her shoulder to see Yakov standing about four feet away, his eyes filled with concern as he watched his brother wolf slowly back away from the girl and let her clothes and coat fall back into place. He didn't get up, however, and he was staring at the white haired ayperi with eyes filled with hurt and concern.

"If she comes out like me, I will love her just the same, Grigory. That's all I can do." Vesper whispered at the big wolf.

"And then when she's of age, you'll have created just another whore for the angels." His words shocked her and she gasped and reached out a hand, slapping him hard across the face before she'd even realized that she'd done it.

The sound of it seemed to reverberate through the trees and looking around them, she could see that Yakov was no longer the only one who had arrived to intercede in this particular conversation. The rest of his pack was there, Sergei, Aidan, Yegor...and Anya, which meant Mr. Hughes was there. Looking around her, she finally saw him standing near Yakov. Even Natasha had come, out of breath and looking a little more worried than the others as she waited to see what would happen next.

"Do you think I'm a whore?" She asked under her breath, her anger and frustration and intense feelings of disappointment at the wolf evident as he began to slowly rise to his feet.

She knew whatever he would say would hurt her more, she knew he was angry now and mad that he was knowingly hurting his pack by trying to help her, at least what he thought was helping her, and he was now saying things that he probably didn't mean, but would never be able to take back later. His face darkened and he looked a little unsteady on his feet, and she could only imagine the way the pack must be begging for him to stop talking. Vesper's eyes never left his and when he finally opened his mouth to say something to her, she felt like her body was about to explode with the anger of it all and she shouted.

"Enough." The word came out tense and loud and she hadn't realized it, but she's opened her hands to the ground beneath her when she'd yelled and suddenly there was a loud booming sound and some sort of weird shockwave rippled through the air knocking everyone who had been standing around her off of their feet and onto the ground.

Her eyes were like purple fiery orbs as she glared down at the werewolf on his ass in front of her, and her mouth tightened into a grim line for a moment as she took a few steps in his direction.

"I need you to understand that I am happy, and that I am marrying Archimendes because I want to, not because I am being forced to. I love him. I want to be with him, and our daughter will be nothing shy of perfect to me. If you don't like that, then you can leave." She spoke slowly and didn't stop until she was standing just at his feet.

Vesper watched as his eyes filled with pain and he began shaking in front of her, finally starting to shift into his wolf form as voices rang out all around them as the others got to their feet and tried to calm the wolf down. His rust colored fur stood on end as he went onto all fours in front of her, his clothes now in shreds on the ground. His teeth were bared and he was growling as he faced her. Finally, he let out a loud, low-pitched howl before turning and running away from them further into the woods surrounding the spa.

Yegor and Aidan immediately shifted to run after him and the rest of the men and women who had come to deal with the situation stood watching Vesper for whatever she planned to do next.

"Anya, I did not mean to hurt him. I am sorry." Vesper knew she was crying, this whole conversation with Grigory had gone completely wrong. She shouldn't have told him that she was pregnant, but he was a werewolf, all he would have had to do was get a good whiff of her and he would have figured it out.

"No, no, Vesper. Werewolves are ruled by their passion, and Grigory has always been a protector. Please, it's not your fault." Anya stepped forward, tugging her long brunette hair behind her ears before placing her hands on Vesper's shoulders.

"Where is he going?" Vesper asked in a whisper, thankful that Mr. Hughes had yet to comment on the situation.

"He's-," Anya paused, her own lower lip shaking in sadness and fear as she looked over at her husband for a moment, "He's running away. He's trying to fight the pack bond and leave."

"What?!" Vesper gasped and shook her head, that is not what she had wanted to happen.

Anya smiled sadly, "I'm being told that I can't stop him, that we have to let him figure this out and come back to us, but I don't know..."

Vesper looked over at Sergei who was slowly walking towards them.

"I am sorry that my family has created so much stress for you. This is the night before your wedding. It's almost dusk and we are supposed to be celebrating." The older wolf spoke in his low timber and Vesper felt Anya lift her hands to her face and wipe at the tears that were still falling silently.

"I never wanted him to leave you." She muttered out in shaky words and Sergei smiled sadly and wrapped his hand around the back of Vesper's neck.

"He won't leave. Not forever. Yakov and Aidan stopped following him once he reached the eastern ridge a moment ago. He's not going to hurt himself, he just needs to get right with this." Sergei explained, "You've done nothing wrong. It was entirely our fault for trying to put ourselves into your relationship with Arc."

"I really didn't mean to hurt him. Or knock you all down, I have no idea how that happened." Vesper looked around her, noticing that Natasha was staring off into space, a frustrated look on her face.

"That was pretty crazy, I didn't know you could do that. I just knew that you could control Mr. Hughes. Which, I have to say, would have come in handy when I was here last time." Anya chuckled a little as she looped a hand through her husband's arm and snuggled close to his side. Vesper knew they were hurting for Grigory but were trying to keep their spirits up because if the impending wedding.

"Mr. Hughes, can you feel that?" Natasha's voice was whisper soft and Vesper was actually surprised that the elf had spoken out loud.

Mr. Hughes stiffened a little, looking over at the wood elf hybrid a moment before focusing his attention in the direction that Natasha had been looking at before she'd spoken.

"Arc?" Vesper asked as the wolves that were with them immediately became sensitive to whatever was happening.

"Is it-?"

"It's him. He's returned."

"Who, Arc? Who has returned?"

"Oh, no." That was Natasha who suddenly cringed and put her hand over her mouth.

The change suddenly in the wolves and Anya was extreme. Anya screamed and started running and the wolves changed into their beast form and immediately starting sprinting in the direction everyone had been looking. Vesper didn't wait for an explanation, she knew something was desperately wrong. Something that she was pretty sure had nothing to do with Grigory. Flapping her wings, she was in the air, knowing Mr. Hughes had taken flight ahead of her. She felt bad that they would be leaving Anya and Natasha farther behind, but something was wrong and she needed to know what was happening.

She could hear the wolves howling as they ran, and eventually, she could see Samir in giant form pounding through the trees, shouting at the smaller wolves and the children who were running back towards the house that she lived in. She couldn't count them, there were so many, and Anya's new litter was among them. How many had she had? Vesper felt sick to her stomach, unsure of what was happening.

And then she saw him. Lucifer, dressed in black, his face pale, his eyes black with a hollow look about them, and he was smiling, standing on the path that led from her home to the spa. He wasn't alone, either. There, in his right hand, was one yowling little pup, dark brown in color, one of Anya's new ones? And Boris, who's fur covered neck was being held painfully tight beneath the foot of the devil. Oh my God, Vesper cringed as she landed on her feet beside Natasha, gripping the woman carefully to her side as they watched in wide eyed fear.

"Let the children go, Luce. They've done nothing to you." Mr. Hughes' voice was filled with his fury.

Vesper watched as Sergei and the other wolves, except Grigory who was gone, stayed in wolf form and slowly inched closer to the devil, their loud growls echoing off of the trees around them as they moved in threateningly.

"I'd call off your dogs or this one's neck is going to get snapped." Luce's voice was cold, angry as he held the squirming pup.

"Please, please, please, let Hannah go." Anya's voice was filled with her misery as she came to stand near her mates, seeing her child in the hands of this man was terrifying to her.

"Is this yours?" Luce held up the squirming pup and Vesper winced, the child would be just a baby in human form.

"Yes, please, let her go." Anya begged, trying to go towards him but being stopped by Aidan who blocked her path.

Sergei morphed into his human form, and standing naked in the snow, he squared his shoulders against the devil.
"Let them go." His voice was menacing, but all the demon did was smirk.

"What do you want, Luce? The wolves have nothing to do with your issues with me." Vesper heard her fiancé speak slowly, he was also moving slowly closer, stopping finally to stand beside the naked alpha in the snow.

The devil pressed his foot down a little more and as they all heard Boris whimper painfully, the wolves again emitted their growls of anger and Mr. Hughes had to put a hand up to keep them from attacking. Boris would never survive it, and the little one would likely get killed, as well.

"You know what I want." Vesper felt a chill settle over her shoulders, and she shivered in a way that had nothing to do with the cold. He wanted her, and she knew it. He wanted her and he wanted Mr. Hughes to suffer for not having been cast down to hell by God. It was the most base form of jealousy that had brought this fallen angel here today, and he was going to kill children if he didn't get his way.

"She cannot belong to you." Mr. Hughes sighed in aggravation as Vesper spoke, as well.