Death Comes To All (Book 1) (47 page)

The
kiss lingered for a moment before changing into something harder,
rougher. In moments, the powerful scent of her body chemistry took
over, controlling their actions. Drunk on the powerful lust that
descended on them, they each fell into the others embrace once more.

When
they woke again the sun was dipping low on the horizon. This time
Raine woke before Drom did. Drom woke only a moment later, with Raine
playfully running a hand down his body.

Her
heat was still on her. The scent she gave off was already strong in
the room, intoxicating him almost instantly. They had no choice
anymore, their wills sapped by the powerful force of her pheromones.

When
Drom finally woke again it was early in the morning, the sun only
just beginning to brighten the sky outside Raine's bedroom window.
Drom gingerly sniffed the air. The scent was still in the room, but
only slightly, already beginning to dissipate. Raine lay against him,
her head resting lightly on his shoulder, her light breathing
sounding like a purr to his ears.

He
lay there for nearly a half an hour, not wanting to wake her, before
she finally stirred. When she did he was glad for it. He desperately
needed to relieve himself, and get something to eat. He hadn't eaten
anything in over two days, as far as he could tell anyway, and had
not even left the bed the entire day before. As far as he knew, Raine
hadn't either.

“
How
do you feel?” he asked her as she opened her eyes, squinting in
the bright light coming in from the window. Bright to the two of them
anyway. The light was not coming into the window at all, Drom was
certain. His window faced north, and the sun would be further to the
south. Yet right at that moment he felt as if looking at the walls
was little different than staring directly at the sun.

Now
I know what people are talking about when they drink too much. This
must be what a bad hangover feels like.

“
Great
actually,” she answered. “Don't worry, I don't think I'm
still in heat. We should be alright now. I don't know about you, but
I'm absolutely starving! I feel like I could eat an entire boar by
myself right now.”

“
I
know how you feel,” he said with a chuckle. “How about
you stay right there, and I'll go cook us up something for breakfast.
When was the last time you were served breakfast in bed?”

Raine
laughed lightly. “You're sweet. I appreciate the thought, but
really I need to get up anyway. I have to relieve myself and stretch
out my legs. So how about I cook you breakfast in bed instead? After
all, you were doing a favor for me really, and I'm sure after
yesterday you must still be exhausted.”

Not
too bad,
he thought,
but it certainly wasn’t for lack of
enthusiasm.

Drom
laughed merrily at her joke. She certainly seemed back to her old
self. Still, it felt to Drom as if something was a little different.
It was as if the last barriers she had put up had crumbled in the
wake of what had transpired between them.

Her
mood was better than he had ever seen it, for which he was thankful.
He wasn't certain what he could expect from her once their time here
was done. He had feared she might distance herself from him, but it
seemed that wasn't going to be the case.

“
How
about we cook breakfast together,” he suggested. “I need
to do a few things myself.”

He
was rather surprised when he tried to stand. It was as if his legs
didn't want to stay underneath him at first. He swayed slightly, and
it took a few moments for him to get his legs to work properly. Raine
watched him with amusement.

“
I
guess you must have taken more out of me than I thought,” he
admitted jokingly. “I'm sure I'll be fine after I get some food
into me. I'll meet you in the kitchen in about five minutes?”

“
That
should be fine,” she laughed, then her manner changed abruptly,
growing serious. “Listen, I really want to thank you for what
you did. I mean, I know it's not really a chore or anything, but you
really helped me more than you know.”

“
Not
a chore? I don't know about that. I don't think I've been this
drained since I overused my magic that first time,” he teased.

“
No
I'm serious,” she chided. “When I'm in heat, the strong
cravings can be almost painful. It's horrible. Most times when I,
well, get rid of those cravings, it turns out even worse. Some of the
men I've found myself next to I would never have chosen to be with,
but I have no control over what I do when I get like that. Honestly
I'm glad that it was you.”

“
I'm
glad I was able to do something to help you. I'm sure that you
probably wish that it never happened, and I don't fault you for that,
but it's a nice thing to say all the same.”

Now
that she’s back in control of herself, I can’t blame her
if she sees me for the grotesque creature that I am. I’m just
glad that she didn’t run out of the room screaming.

She
punched him hard on the arm. “That's not true!” she said.
“You gave me a choice remember? I've never had that choice
before. I chose to be with you.”

She
remembered that?

“
I
wasn't sure if you had remembered that,” he confided. “You
had said that it wasn't a choice you would normally have made, so I
wasn't sure if you were really making that choice, or if your
hormones had taken over again.”

“
It
might have had a part in it,” she admitted, “but my
hormones didn't make that choice. I did. I gave it some thought last
night, and I think that, with the way things were going between us,
it's possible that it might have happened anyway. It would have been
better if we could have come to that decision on our own, but I don't
feel upset because it happened.”

It
might have happened anyway? Wow!

“
Good,”
he said, stopping her before she could go on. He tried his best to
hide the elation he felt by what she said. If she noticed it, she hid
it well. “I didn't think that you thought about me that way,
and I admit I hadn't thought of you like that either, but I've
enjoyed the past few weeks I've spent with you. What are lovers
really but friends who've decided to take it a little further, right?
There's nothing to be ashamed of.”

As
long as you feel the same way anyway.

“
Well,
thank you anyway,” she said finally, grabbing him and pulling
him toward her to kiss him soundly, surprising him. For a brief
instance he feared that she wasn't completely out of heat yet, but
this was not the hard, demanding kiss that he had felt from her then.
Her kiss now was soft and velvety, lingering only for a moment before
she broke away and rushed out through the door.

He
hadn't expected that at all. There was more to that kiss than just a
thank you, unless he was reading more into it than what there really
was. Slightly dazed, this time from confusion, he left the room.
Stopping in his own room to quickly wash and dress, he stepped out to
relieve himself before heading to the kitchen.

Raine
was already there. Not only did she already have a fire going, but
she had a fairly large slab of pork cooking on it already, as well as
a stew pot with several vegetables already cut and boiling inside.

I
wasn't away from her for that long,
he
thought with amazement.
How did finished such an amazing
amount of cooking in a short amount of time?

“
Would
you like celery in your stew?” she asked. “Oh what am I
asking for? Of course you would.”

Before
he had a chance to say a word one way of the other she had four
stalks of the vegetable on the counter, and was deftly chopping it
into small pieces. Her hands were a complete blur. In less than three
seconds she had all four pieces cut and in the pot.

Drom
was glad he like celery. He wouldn't have had a chance to tell her
anything differently. He had seen her with a knife before, but this
was different somehow. He wasn't sure if he could have been so fast
while using his magic, and Raine didn't have any magic whatsoever.

“
How
did you do that?” he asked her. “That was amazing!”

“
What
do you mean?” she asked innocently. He thought for a moment
that she was joking with him, but after a few seconds realized that
she really didn't know.

“
What
you just did with the knife,” he said. “I've never seen
anyone move that fast or precise before.”

“
Oh,
I didn't realize. When a feral goes into heat it can go two ways. If
we don't, well, get our needs met, it can last for five or six days,
and we're miserable and lethargic for days more. If those needs are
met, however, it's the exact opposite. It took me a minute to get up,
sure, but now I feel completely revitalized. Well, mostly anyway. I
still need something to eat. I'm famished!”

“
It
has been more than two days since either of us ate anything. It only
makes sense that we're hungry.”

“
Has
it really been that long? I hadn’t realized. Well, now at least
you understand why I told you before that what you did helped me so
much. If we hadn't spent those days together than I wouldn't feel
like eating anything for another three or four days, and I would be
absolutely terrible to be around. Just ask Raiste about it some time.
He's not affected, so he can be around me even when I'm in heat, and
it doesn't bother him in the slightest. I'm not the best of company
during that time, so he usually finds some reason to be elsewhere,
but he doesn't have to worry about losing control. He could have
taken advantage of me while I was in heat if he wanted to, there have
been plenty of other men who have, but he knows I wouldn't want to do
that with him.”

“
I
hope you don't think I took advantage of you,” he said. The
first time he hadn't had a choice, they both knew that, but he could
have left after that if he had chosen to.

“
Not
at all,” she assured him. “I was a little worried that
you might think I took advantage of you. You were basically drugged
after all.”

“
It
wasn't anything you did on purpose, and like you said before, it
wasn't like what we did was a chore or anything. I thought it was
rather pleasant, even if it's still hard to remember it all. It's
sort of like everything was happening in a dream. A very good dream.”

“
Good,
I'm glad you enjoyed it.” She stepped forward to hug him
warmly.

It
wasn't until that moment that Drom realized that his friend was still
nude. Thankfully, she was no longer in heat, so he could look at her
naked body with a clear mind. She had taken the black coloring out of
her fur shortly after they had arrived at the Hut, once again
returning to the tan, white, and black spot pattern he had seen when
he first met her.

Now,
seeing her fully in her true form, his first thought was that she was
strikingly beautiful.

She
had a deep tan colored fur covering most of her thin, muscular frame,
with small black spots spaced throughout. The exception to this was
the fur on her chest and belly, which was a soft, snowy white. The
white fur started at her upper chest, moving down over her breasts
and coming to a point at her loins, forming a triangle across her
body. The only hairless part of her body was the pert nipples at the
tips of her small breasts, which were pink and perky.

She’s
gorgeous! How was it that I never really noticed it before?

As splendid as her nude body was, he quickly began to
realize that the activity of the past few days hadn’t worn him
out nearly enough to keep his body from reacting to the thoughts that
were floating through his mind. The harder he tried to stifle it, the
worse it seemed to become.

“
Um,
you do realize that you're still naked right?” he stammered
finally.

He
thought it best to say something before his involuntarily reaction
became apparent. She wasn't in heat anymore after all. Surely she
wouldn't want to do anything with him now, nor did he really want to.
It wasn't that he didn't have desires; he just didn't think he had
the energy for anything else.

“
Oh,
I hadn't realized. It's not as if you haven't seen me naked already,”
she teased. “If it makes you feel better, I'll go put something
on. Keep an eye on the cooking while I'm gone. I'll only be a
minute.”

That
said she turned and walked out of the room, her feline tail swaying
behind her as she walked away. Just before the door closed behind
her, she turned back to see Drom staring at her. With a giggle she
headed up the stairs, the closing door blocking Drom's view.

She
knows exactly what she’s doing,
he thought with some
amusement. He found he wasn’t as bothered by that knowledge as
he would have expected.

She
returned a few minutes later, dressed in a thin, light blue dress.
Drom was mildly surprised; he had never seen her wearing a dress
before. Usually she wore a tunic and breaches like a man might, or a
longer tunic with no breaches at all. Certainly he had never seen her
in such a clearly feminine garment. When they traveled she had wore a
cloak over her clothing as well, though Drom suspected that the cloak
was more to hide her features than for warmth. She had not worn it at
all since they had arrived at the Hut.