Chapter 12
Aimee lay awake on her cot and listened to the camp noises die out beyond the walls of her tent. Under the blankets, she lay fully clothed in her Lycaon skins. They dug into her skin, but her body burned under them. How long would she have to lie here in agony before she got up?
What was she waiting for? Why did she insist on hiding what she was doing from her friends? Why did she have to sneak back to Piwaka under cover of darkness instead of walking straight up the mountain in broad daylight for everyone to see? What was she ashamed of?
The camp settled into silence. What were the others doing? Were they lying awake in their own beds, listening with bated breath for any sound of her guilty departure? What did she have to feel guilty about, anyway? Nothing. She wasn’t ashamed of meeting Piwaka. Why should she be? She told Donen exactly what she planned to do and when. But she hadn’t told him exactly what she planned to do, had she? She hadn’t told him she planned to rendezvous with Piwaka and give her body to him in a frenzy of unbridled passion. Hot blood rushed to her cheeks at the thought of it.
She held her breath and sat up in bed. What was she doing? She laid back down and closed her eyes. She would wait until morning and let them all watch her walk away. They would never suspect anything if she did. But she couldn’t wait. Her burning flesh forced her to sit up again. She had to find him, to be filled up by him again. She had to go to him no matter where he was, even if he’d journeyed all the way back south to the heart of Avitras territory.
And what would she tell him then? Would she throw herself at his feet and ask the Avitras to take her in? Anna and Frieda went to live with the Avitras, and look how that turned out. Frieda was gone, and Anna had fled the Avitras to rescue Menlo. Some similar fate might await her there.
She pushed herself up onto her feet. Whatever fate awaited her, she had to find out what it was. Whatever destiny awaited her, Piwaka remained at the center of it. She had to go to him and meet her destiny. She paused to listen at the tent door. Then she strode out into the camp.
She placed her feet in all the right places to stop her footsteps making any noise. She’d learned her lessons with the Lycaon warriors well. Only a few guards patrolled the outskirts of the camp. Everyone else slept in their tents. She set off up the hill.
She stopped next to the tree where she met Piwaka the first time. He wouldn’t come to meet her here—not now. He didn’t even know she was there. He might be a hundred miles away by now. She might be the last thing on his mind. She glanced toward the border. Was he waiting over there for her to make the first move? He might be sound asleep right now. He might be annoyed to see her at this time of night.
She waited—who knows how long. Of course he didn’t come. She turned back, but she didn’t leave. She went on to the big rock and waited again. Even if Aquilla ordered the Avitras back to their own territory, Piwaka was over there, in that direction. Her way lay toward him. She could never go back the way she came, toward her past.
Still, she hesitated to cross the border. She kept up the appearance of confidence in front of Donen, but how could she cross into Avitras territory? She was Lycaon. They might hunt her down. Why should they treat her differently because she was human? Did she dare risk it? In the end, overwhelming passion drove her forward. She had to see him. She couldn’t rest until he touched her, soothed her, and cooled her.
She set off across the rock. The closer she came to the trees, the faster she walked. The trees closed over her head, and she broke into a run. She couldn’t hesitate or she would lose her nerve. Her feet found their own places between rocks and fallen branches, but the wind in her face gave her no relief. Only moving closer to him calmed her anxious heart.
The Eastern Divide peaked and fell away into a downward slope, downward toward Avitras territory. She’d crossed to the western side of the mountains. She was over the border. Her senses tingled at every nuance of the forest. Where were the Avitras?
Her ears caught the first sound and drew her to her left. Voices rang through the canopy overhead. Aimee slowed down and listened. She crept closer, and at last, scaled a tree. A dozen Avitras perched in the branches. They ate something out of wooden bowls, and the conversation echoed back and forth from one branch to the other. Aimee settled in the crook of her tree nearby and watched them unseen. The Avitras didn’t practice forest camouflage the way the Lycaon did. She could sit there all night and they would never know she was there.
Piwaka sat on the edge of the circle. He engaged his fellow Guards in conversation and laughed at their jokes. Neither Aquilla nor Penelope Ann was anywhere in sight. Aimee was safe as long as they didn’t see her. She could sneak away and tell the Alphas the Avitras were still here, within sight of the border. Piwaka must have some plan up his sleeve to bring Aquilla back to the negotiation. But sitting here in the dark wasn’t bringing her any closer to Piwaka. He would look out for her if she showed herself.
She stood up and balanced on the branch. Then she stepped out onto it. She pushed it down with her feet at every step until it bounced. The leaves rustled and interrupted the Guards’ conversation. They jumped up with a shout. They snatched their weapons and rounded on her. One young Guard menaced her with his spear jabbed in her face. “State you business!” She kept her eyes fixed on Piwaka, and his eyes met hers.
Piwaka waved to the Guard. “I’ll handle this.”
The Guard glanced over his shoulder, but no one argued with Piwaka. At a gesture from him, the Guard moved away. He took hold of her arm and turned her away. In a flash, he flew away with her into the trees.
He landed on the ground out of sight of the group. He peered into her face, but said nothing. She gazed up at him, but she couldn’t speak. The aurora flickered over the trees and lit their faces with a ghostly glow.
Piwaka took her hand and led her through the forest. She didn’t care where he led her. She was with him, and all her tension vanished at last. He welcomed her. That’s all that mattered. He led her into a remote part of the forest, through unfamiliar sounds and smells, deeper into Avitras territory. Her feet moving on the ground struck her as odd. They should be flying, or at least moving through the treetops.
He stopped in a patch of trees shading the ground from the aurora’s light. Pitch dark surrounded them. Then, out of the darkness, his mouth found hers. Even at close range, she could see nothing of him but blackness. She felt him with her lips, and her arms went around his body. Their bodies came together in calm and quiet, without the struggling passion of their first union.
Their hands and arms explored parts of each other they’d left neglected in their rush last time, and their lips anchored them together so they couldn’t be lost in the dark. Aimee could take all the time she needed to explore him, to discover him, to find out how he reacted to her touch the way she never had time to do last time. Her senses tuned to him in the dark. She strained to listen to his breath when she ran her fingers through his feathers. She smelled his rich aroma and tasted his skin and tongue until she recognized every inch of him.
Leaves and twigs cushioned them when they sank to the ground. His hands slipped inside her clothes, and his fingertips tantalized her skin. She arched her back, and he slid his warm palm up her ribcage to her breasts. She pushed her straining nipples into his hand and gasped with relief when he pricked her skin with his fingers.
She drank in his kiss. Her body craved his touch, but she could hold herself in reserve now. Desire no longer drove her to ravenous excess. She drifted at ease in this new reality without fear. She relaxed into his embrace, but he didn’t lift her off the ground. He stroked her hair back from her forehead, and his heartbeat vibrated through her. That rhythm pulsed down her body to her feet and out to her fingertips.
She slipped into a timeless dream where nothing existed but the two of them. They could spend forever like this. Hours passed in mingled bliss before he rolled over on top of her. Her legs didn’t strap themselves around him in desperation. Her hands didn’t claw at his clothes. No craven need drove her to consume his very essence. She already knew him. She was one with him, just being here. Their bodies already existed in a nexus of mutual being between one territory and another, between one faction and another, belonging to no one.
Somehow, he found his way inside her clothes and she inside his. She lost track of time and place until not even the night air touched her skin. Eternal harmony continued unbroken when he slipped inside her. She moved against him with the same smooth undulations as he moved against her.
One wave of misty ecstasy broke over them, but they continued in conjoined bliss with no rupture. Their flesh sealed in warm, wet pleasure, and he stayed firm inside her. Even their lips continued uninterrupted the dance of endless communication beyond words, beyond time, beyond being.
Aimee swam in the hypnotic pools of his eyes. How did she live before she restored herself in those deep wells? What did she look at? Who did she talk to? She no longer remembered a past where anything else occupied her mind.
His weight slipped down to her side, and her legs rotated sideways with him. He lay at her side for long moments, with their bodies still joined and their souls passing back and forth between their lips. He rested his head on his arm, and she propped her cheek on her hand.
When did she roll up on top of him? She couldn’t say, but it seemed the most natural place in the world to be. His shaft found the deepest, warmest place inside her and brought her senses back to life. She breathed into him, but their rhythm never changed. Free flowing communication neither ebbed nor flowed. They remained bound in seamless flesh.
On it went, all night. When did he rise above her, and when did he fall beneath her? She remembered nothing but the aurora shining in his eyes, the endless tide of breath, of perfect interchange of soul information back and forth from his cells to hers. No other memories interfered with that blessed fusion of him with her and her with him. She never wanted to be aware of anything else again.
Chapter 13
Breaking dawn brought them out of their reverie, so Aimee saw his whole face. She sighed. The transition was inevitable, but she didn’t mind. He was still there. His body still rested on top of hers. Sweat still merged his flesh with hers. Not even walking away from each other to different territories could change that now.
How would they come together again? She couldn’t say, but they would come together. Of that she was certain. The negotiations might fail. The Avitras might go back to their own territory and she might go back to the Lycaon without Piwaka, but she would be with him. She was part of him now, never to be separated.
Even when he peeled back from her, when his lips unlocked from hers and the chill air touched her juice-spattered thighs, she only sighed. This was destined to happen eons ago. She simply followed a script set out for her. Her fate would bring her back to him somehow. She got up and arranged her clothes. She ran her fingers through her hair. Piwaka didn’t speak, either. There was nothing to say. She would tell Donen the Avitras were still here.
He took her hand, and they wandered through the brightening woods the same way they wandered here in the first place. Would she walk back down that hill as though nothing had happened? No, she was forever changed. Her very flesh carried the imprint of his touch. His juice trickled down between her thighs and sent surges of ecstasy through her. His sizzling hot essence spread from her deepest core, coursed through her veins, and reorganized her body to its purpose. She no longer had to speak, to him or to anyone else. She knew her place in this world, and nothing and no one could take that away from her.
Her friends and relatives would see a different person from the woman who came from the Lycaon. How could anyone look at her and see the same person, even if she still wore the same clothes? Her hair hadn’t grown, but she no longer carried a hard warrior shell around her soft living center. Anyone could see that.
Piwaka only walked a short distance before he stopped and faced her. He drew her to him and kissed her long and slow and deep. The sun broke above the trees and lit up his feathers. Aimee didn’t notice. She stared in his eyes as long as she could. This pleasure, like the others, would be over soon enough. Who knew how long she would have to carry these treasured moments with her before she experienced them again?
At last he tore himself away and set off again, but he didn’t make it very far before he stopped again. His eyes searched her face, and his mouth sought some certainty in her lips. The third time he stopped and lost himself in her embrace, he sank into a resigned solidity with a sigh. He wouldn’t stop again. He would deliver her to the Divide, and he would go back to the Avitras.
A dozen questions flooded her mind, but she quieted them. He knew best how to handle Aquilla and his people. She had her own side of the bargain to keep, and a long walk back to camp in front of her. She would tell the simple truth to anyone who asked. She wouldn’t hide herself anymore.
He compressed his lips and nodded without a word. He started to turn away. Then he gave her one last long, tender kiss, but at that moment, a branch snapped and Aquilla flew down through the canopy. He landed right in front of Piwaka. Aimee drew back in alarm. She pulled her hand out of Piwaka’s grasp, but Aquilla paid no attention to her. He rushed at Piwaka. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
Piwaka opened his mouth to answer, but Aquilla cut him off. “How could you offer them those concessions? Do you know what this will do to us? You’ve left me wide open to attack from three hostile factions.”
Piwaka tried again to answer. “Did you see the other Alphas.....”
Aquilla waved his arms and spun away. “Did you see them? Did you see the look on Donen’s face? He gloated all the way down the hill. You sold me out. How can I trust you again?”
Piwaka listened with his usual calm. “The other Alphas think they gave you concessions, not the other way around.”
Aquilla cocked an eyebrow at him. “What concessions did they give me? I gave more ground than I should have. I should have walked away without giving anything instead of giving in.”
Piwaka’s shoulders relaxed. Maybe only Aimee noticed. “All the Alphas caved to your demand to re-examine the borders. That will take months—maybe even years. They won’t go any further with their peace process until they do it. They’ll give in to any obstacle you can throw in their path. You hold all the power here, and they know it.”
Aquilla’s eyes blazed. Then, to Aimee’s surprise, he wilted in front of her eyes. His chin fell down on his chest, and his shoulders slumped. “I don’t want all the power. I don’t want any of it.”
Piwaka raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean? What could you want if you don’t want power? You want the other Alphas eating out of your hand, and that’s what you got. They won’t move a muscle without your permission.”
Aquilla shook his head. “I’m no good at this political stuff. You’re the one with all the ideas. You should negotiate with them instead of me.”
Piwaka shrugged. “You’re Alpha. It’s your job to negotiate with them. I’m your Captain. It’s my job to give you ideas and support you.”
Aquilla looked away. “I don’t want to be Alpha. The pressure is killing me. I want to spend my time with my mate and my family. You’ll make a better Alpha than me. You take over.”
Piwaka shot a glance at Aimee. It was the first time she’d ever seen anything catch him off guard. “I can’t take over. You know that. You’re Alpha by inheritance through your father and your older brother. My family has always been Captains. We can’t change that now.”
Aquilla waved his arm. “Who says we can’t change it? If one man makes a better Alpha, why shouldn’t he hold the reins? I never wanted to be Alpha. I never wanted any of this.”
Piwaka stared at him. Then he sighed and laid his hand on Aquilla’s shoulder. “You’re tired. We’ve traveled two hundred miles, and the pressure of the negotiation is wearing on you. We’ll go back to the village where you can rest. Then you’ll be ready to face another round with a clear head.”
“I’ve felt this way for a long time,” Aquilla told him. “It started long before we came here, even before we took that Ursidrean hostage. It even started when my father was still alive. I never wanted the Alpha position. It was only bad luck that my brother died and I had to become Alpha.”
Piwaka’s eyes flew open. “As long ago as that? You never said anything.”
“If I said anything,” Aquilla replied, “you would have been as startled then as you are now. You would have told me I had no choice but to become Alpha whether I wanted to or not.” He glared down at the ground. “You’re doing the same thing now.”
Piwaka opened his mouth and shut it again. Then he sighed again. “I had no idea. I’m sorry I didn’t give you a safe harbor to confide in me. I know now.”
Aquilla’s head shot up. “But you still think there’s nothing we can do. I’ll continue to be Alpha, I’ll keep making mistakes like I always have, and I’ll still be miserable. I’ll never be free and happy as long as I’m Alpha. My family will suffer. I’ll live a life of isolation and hardship on the frontier, away from the village and my mate and children, the same way my father did. I’m doomed.”
Piwaka smiled at him. “Don’t worry. We’ll find a solution to this one way or the other.”
“There is no solution,” Aquilla shot back. “I’ll never be happy as long as I’m Alpha.”
“You said that,” Piwaka murmured.
“I’m terrible as Alpha,” Aquilla went on. “I can’t make good decisions like you can. Kidnapping that Ursidrean seemed like a good idea at the time. Why didn’t you tell me you objected when we brought him back from the frontier?”
Piwaka hesitated. “I did tell you. I told you you shouldn’t beat him the way you did. I told you to feed him and treat him well, or Donen would never have anything to do with us.”
Aquilla threw up his hands. “All the decisions I make turn out to be disasters. I can’t do anything right.”
Piwaka squeezed his shoulder again. “That’s not true.”
“You know it is,” Aquilla returned. “You should be Alpha. I resign. You take over.”
Piwaka snorted. “And what about the negotiation? What will the others say when I show up to negotiate with them and you aren’t there?”
Aquilla brooded for a moment. Then he straightened up, and a weight lifted off his shoulders. “We won’t tell them. We’ll keep it a secret.”
Piwaka started back. “What?”
“You’re already doing all the negotiating,” Aquilla pointed out. “You already do most of the talking, if not all of it. I’ll come with you to the negotiations, but you talk to them. You make the decisions. I don’t want to have anything to do with it anymore.”
Piwaka frowned. “Are you sure?”
Aquilla nodded. “You do it. I don’t want to be Alpha anymore.”
Piwaka studied him. Then he nodded, too. He clapped Aquilla on both shoulders. “Go back to camp. Your mate is still here, isn’t she? Good. Go back to your mate and try to rest. I’ll call you when we have another negotiation to attend.”
Aimee waited until Aquilla disappeared into the trees. “Are you sure about this?”
Piwaka turned to her with a smile. “He is. That’s what important.”
“So what are we going to do?” she asked.
He guided her by the elbow away from the Avitras camp toward the Divide. “This is the best thing that could happen. I can steer the Avitras toward peace.”
Aimee couldn’t suppress a smile. “Wait until the other Alphas find out.”
He stopped short. “You heard what he said. You can’t tell anybody about this. He could take back the Alpha position at the snap of his fingers if anybody finds out. Let him save face, and keep his secret. I’ll negotiate with the other Alphas, and we’ll come to a peace agreement—at least, as solid a peace agreement as we can come to at short notice.”
“And then what?” she asked.
He started walking. “Then all bets are off.”