Werewolves In The Kitchen (7 page)

“Metaphysical?”

“Like vampires will move in on our turf, hunting us, and we’ll need to take them out.”

“Vampires.”

“Lots of magic in the world.” Kyle shrugged.

“The benefit of that magic is you won’t get sick. Werewolves can’t contract or pass diseases. You’re unlikely to get ill. What else?”

Ellie’s blush deepened. “What about babies?” she blurted. “Are they human or what?”

David’s eyebrows raised, and Kyle and Jake looked at Ellie, curious. David glanced at Kara, who sneered.

“Pregnancy is the same, basically. Your children would probably be shifters though sometimes the gene is dormant. The first change doesn’t happen until puberty.” Kara glared at Kyle. “You didn’t tell her any of this? That’s—oh shit.”

All the wolves scented the air, and Kyle swore a foul string. Suddenly, a dozen wolves circled them. Kyle snarled, and Jake hauled him back, but all the shifters had gone feral and golden-eyed. One of the wolves shifted into human form.

“Well, now we know where you are hiding.”

“This is neutral ground,” Moira cautioned. “Your shaman agreed to this. Do not challenge it.”

“Hagalaz requires a blood debt from these two, you will stay out of it.”

Ellie let Kyle and Jake shove her behind them. She felt a hot shiver of fear run down her back. The man was clad in leather pants with a bare chest, tribal tattoos all over his arms and chest, his face half feral. He sniffed the air. “Or maybe we’ll just take your little mate from you.”

Kyle snarled and split his skin right there, shimmering into the wolf with such speed that Ellie felt how it pained him. He lunged at the man who shifted to wolf and they fought, grappling, making the most terrible sound Ellie had ever heard.

Moira gestured, crying out words Ellie didn’t understand. Ellie blinked as lightning struck not far away. “Cease, immediately.”

Kyle shifted back to human, naked, crouched and ready to spring.  “Jake, protect her,” Kyle ground out, his voice guttural.

“Kyle, no—”

Three of the wolves went for Kyle, and he shifted. Ellie noticed that several of the other wolves had transformed to hold back Kara and her mate. Jake cried out at the wounds Kyle was getting, every urge in his body wanting him to shift. “Ellie, run,” Jake cried out.

Ellie backed toward the trees away from the enemy wolves, shaking. Moira stepped forward, and Ellie saw light accompany her strange gestures. The sky darkened, and torrential rains began to pour.

“Ellie! Go!” Ellie saw the wolves go after Kyle again and some of them turn toward her and Jake. He shifted, and she ran through the woods as fast as she could until she couldn’t hear that terrible screeching, growling sound.

She ran past the time she was winded, slipping on wet leaves in the darkness. Moments later Jake was there, catching her up in his arms. The winds had eased, though it was still raining. “Nobody followed us. I think the fight’s over.”

“That was terrible,” she sobbed. Jake pulled her close. “You’re hurt.”

“I’m fine. Just a few scratches.”

“Jake, what happens to me if one of you dies? I could feel your fear, your pain, all of it. I feel Kyle’s wounds.”

Ellie saw tears well up in Jakes eyes.  “Pain. Sometimes madness. Some mates die of grief. Some pass through it.”

She reached out to brush the tears away. “What’s wrong?”

“That’s the worst of it. Surely you won’t want to mate with us if you know that there is a risk like that. Though it’s a risk Kyle and I readily would accept to be with you.”

Ellie felt a prickling along her skin, and the wolf that she knew was Kyle loped toward them and shifted before her. There were claw marks across his chest and back. She and Jake reached out to hold him.

“What happened?”

“Moira. She compelled them from the land with her magic,” he panted.

The rain poured down on all of them, and she stared at them both. “I love you. I do. I can’t imagine being without you, and it makes no sense, and I know that I might go mad if one of you dies but I—”

They pulled her to them, kissing and licking and tearing off each other’s clothing.

“I’m going to make soft, exquisite love to you. In a bed,” Kyle murmured along her throat.

“But later,” Jake panted. “Right now we need to fuck you and claim you. I love you, Ellie.”

“I love you,” Kyle ground out. “I need you.” The warm rain fell on them as Kyle filled her, crying out at the sensation of being within her. “Come, baby,” he urged her. When she screamed her climax he bit her, and she bit him back. Jake, groaning along her back, pulled her off of Kyle and speared his cock inside her.

“Yes,” she growled, until they had worked each other into a fever of lust. “Please, harder.”

“Gods, yes, sweetheart,” Jake trembled. Kyle played with Ellie’s breasts, and she cried out as she crested. Jake snarled, sinking his teeth into her neck even as she did in his.

~* * *~

Ellie awoke in a strange bed. Jake’s dark hair was spilled on the pillow next to her, but Kyle was nowhere to be found. She heard the bedroom door close. “Where were you?”

“I brought up some breakfast.”

“That’s really sweet,” she murmured, curling closer to Jake and making room on the bed for Kyle

“Bed hogs, the both of you.” He stripped his clothes off and curled around her. His wounds were almost healed. “We have the day off, by the way. Have some eggs and bacon.”

“You’re brilliant,” Ellie smiled. “I’m starving.”

Jake finally stirred. “Finally, an appetite.”

Kyle laughed. “Are you happy?”

“I’m happy.” She smiled, eating voraciously.

“Be happy over here,” Jake growled, hauling her back against him.

“Moira will be paying a visit to the Hagalaz shaman. I think that our exile will be resolved,” Kyle murmured. “They broke the peace.”

“Thank the gods,” Jake growled, nipping Ellie’s neck.

“Wait…I need bacon.”

“Eat. Hurry.” Jake released her, and she laughed.

“Are you ok? Any more questions?”

“Just one.” She grinned, blushing. “When do I get to watch you two go at it?”

Both of their eyes shifted amber. “Finish your breakfast and find out.”

Acknowledgements

This story, and others that take place at the SpiralStone retreat center, owe a special debt. While this is work of fiction, the retreat center was inspired by my time living in a cabin in the woods at Diana’s Grove. Unfortunately, however, there certainly were no werewolves there, nor flashy magic.

The magic I learned there was far more subtle, the magic of personal transformation and community connection. I want to thank all the friends and community members from that community, because you shaped who I am today. I could not have become a published author without the education, experience, and friendship that you offered to me. You took a lonely, socially awkward girl, and helped her to find her way.

You helped many lonely people find their way.

I want to especially thank the people who have taken up the vocation of bringing that transformative work out into the world. Though the Diana’s Grove retreat center no longer exists, there are many people bringing those philosophies and that magic out to the world.

A special acknowledgement out to The Grove in St. Louis; all of you who come together to do that work have found a way to bring that special magic that I thought was lost. Thank you.

About the Authors

Shauna Aura Knight

An artist, writer, leader, teacher, event organizer, environmental activist, and ecstatic spiritual seeker, Shauna travels nationally offering intensive education in the transformative arts of ritual, community leadership, and spiritual growth.

She is the author of the ritual facilitation book
Spiritual Scents
 as well as a columnist on ritual techniques for Circle Magazine. Shauna’s writing also appears in the anthologies
Calling to our Ancestors
(Asphodel Press),
Stepping in to Ourselves: An Anthology of Writings on Priestessing (Goddess Ink),
and
Mantle of Stars
(Biblioteca Alexandrina). Her artwork is used for Pagan magazines and book covers, and decorates many Pagan shrines and altars.

Shauna is passionate about creating rituals, experiences, spaces, and artwork to awaken mythic imagination and inspire creativity.

Website:
http://shaunaaura.wordpress.com