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Epilogue

© Cederwyn Whitefurr

6th August, 2019

All Rights Reserved.

Henrietta shuddered with post orgasmic pleasure, her tail flagging slowly from side to side as she felt her lover hold her tight in his arms, her eyes looked into the bright gold of the Wolf's, as he smiled down at her and dismounted.

A weak moan come from Henriette as she rolled over, then felt her lover press his hands against her rump and push her down on the bed. Uttering a weak squeal, she looked over her shoulder and bleated at him.

"What do you need little prey?" Growled the voice of the wolf, barely legible as he stared at her.

Henrietta bleated again, then squirmed and he took his hands off her rump, allowing her to get up off the bed. She shuddered, then nuzzled him and fled outside. Curious and mildly annoyed he followed her then watched as she seemingly dashed about randomly, Henrietta sniffed the grass before at last finding the right place then dropped her hindquarters. Her rear knees bent, spindly legs splayed out as her tail snapped up and she squatted, before urinating in strong, powerful streams.

"You could have gone before!" Kristen laughed quietly, before suddenly, his head snapped up and he turned, holding up a large calloused hand for silence.

Henrietta flicked an ear, then she frowned, any thought of relieving herself vanishing as she swivelled her ears.

"Yes, I hear them, about as stealthy as a rampaging bull..."

Through the trees, come the glimmering and blaze of torches held aloft, then the creak of leather and the clink of metal.

"Henrietta - go, I might need you, go!" Kristen growled, his gold eyes brightening so they almost glowed.

Henrietta didn't refuse, she fled into the house.

A loud war chant began, as the men and some women began banging axes and swords on their shields as they marched from the forest and formed a skirmish line.

"What do you want?" Kristen snarled at them, his rage growing second by second. "I have no wish to spill blood this night!"

"You have disobeyed and dishonored your blood oath!" Come a loud, stern voice.

"I have broken no oath!" Kristen roared back. "I am loyal to the Jarl!"

"You rescinded your oath, abandoned your clan!"

Angry voices rose amongst the assembled warriors.

"I did no such thing! I merely left the village, to protect you all, do you not know that which I am?"

"Beast, a creature from the depths of Hell, sent by Loki and others to terrorise and demoralise!"

"You challenge me?" Kristen snarled, his fists clenching.

A giant of a man, nearly seven and a half feet tall, broke ranks and stepped forwards, flexing his body and cracking his neck. He was covered in tattoos, his braid hanging down his neck almost to his waist and his beard was just as impressive.

"I do..." Come the guttural voice. "I, Sigreid, do challenge you to combat to the death! May the Gods bless us and watch the battle!"

Sizing up the man, Kristen grunted and flexed his own muscles, seemingly uncaring he was as naked as the day he'd been born, as he stretched languidly.

"Go back Sigreid, I have no wish to bathe in your blood brother..." Kristen growled.

"When you left the Jarl's longhouse, abandoned us, you no longer were my shield brother...I will return with your head as my trophy and..."

In the blink of an eye, Kristen changed from human to his anthromorph self, the powerful physique of the Wolf standing there snarling and growling. Foam and saliva dripped off the fangs and lips, as it howled in rage and blood-lust - barely kept in check.

To his credit, Sigreid didn't twitch or cower, if anything, he become more enraged.

"Wolf-beast, your hide will make a fine trophy, time to send you back to Hel where you belong and..."

Kristen moved like lightning, one minute he was at least ten feet away, the next he was standing behind Sigreid, panting and shaking. Sigreid stood for a moment, before his weapons fell from his nerveless hands and he clutched at his throat...

A throat that had been torn out - and blood gushed from the wound as he collapsed to his knees, then face first on the ground. With a disgusted growl, Kristen dropped the grisly skin and flesh he clutched in his bloodied left paw then tilted back his head and let forth a howl of triumph and victory.

Angered, sickened and horrified, the others adopted the shield wall with a deafening crescendo of clattering shields. Kristen shook his head, glaring at them then he snarled long and loud.

"I have no wish to shed blood!" He roared at them, barely keeping the Wolf within him under control by the sheerest of wills.

"Suffer not a beast to live, especially one who - urk..." A woman clutched at her chest, from which a arrow shaft seemed to have grown as if by magic.

In a heartbeat Henrietta had forced her own change, retrieved her quiver and bow, and now, she stood at the side of their small cottage, the bowstring pulled tight and arrow ready to fly.

"Leave and threaten us no more, or may the Gods themselves take mercy on your souls, because we shall not!" Henrietta yelled, her ears slicked back and arrow dead still, despite the strain the bow string was putting on her muscles.

"Advance - " Come the call, and the shield wall moved forwards.

"So be it - " Kristen sighed. "You seek the death of my beloved mate and I? May you find peace in the afterlife, for you shall have none this night!"

With a roar of rage and defiance, Kristen gave himself fully to the Were within him and charged their shield wall, right as Henrietta began firing rapidly, every arrow finding fresh.

*

It was a one-sided battle - axes and swords flew, yet for every time they touched wolf flesh, four of them were down either critically injured or dead. Limbs were torn off, blood sprayed and spilled and Henrietta soon was out of arrows, so she dropped her bow and waded into the mindless melee, picking up an axe.

Swords and axes clashed, shields were sundered and splintered, as cries of agony and blood-lust rang out. Soon, the battle was a mindless, bloodied melee, some of the Vikings striking down their own as the blood lust swept over them like a tidal wave. Quick and sure, Henrietta twisted, weaved and dodged - not escaping all the axes and swords that cut deep into her Therian flesh - but her strikes were true and quick.

Henrietta fought to protect her mate - and to kill quickly, not prolonging their agony or satiate some blood-lust that drove her like Kristen. Her head was covered in blood, that made seeing difficult, before she wiped her blood splattered paws over her eyes and then swung - burying the axe in a former shield maiden sisters head that cracked open like an overripe melon.

Kristen lost control of the wolf, who revelled in tearing heads off screaming victims, opening their throats with claws and fangs - or worse - disembowelling them and leaving them to writhe in unspeakable agony. A sword thrust deep into his back and he whirled around, gripping the young warriors head between his paws, before twisting it and snapping the humans neck like he would a chickens.

It was a bloodbath - out of the forty-five that faced them - only one was left at the culmination of the battle. Both Henrietta and Kristen were soaked in blood - some their own, most those of their former shield brothers and sisters. Kristen picked up one man in his paws, then flexed him backwards until his spine snapped like an old branch, then carelessly threw the screaming human aside like he was nothing.

Henrietta dispatched many with a quick slash of her dagger, either through the heart or cutting their throat - a far cleaner death than they deserved - and far less agonising than what Kristen's wolf would do...

At last, only a single woman was left standing, holding a bloodied sword I both hands and shaking, before she turned the sword and drove it point first into the ground and dropped to one knee.

"Mercy brother and sister, I claim mercy!"

Snarling, the Wolf advanced on her, until Henrietta growled and stepped in front of him, gazing up into his bloodied muzzle and standing her ground.

"No, this is not what we are!" Henrietta panted. "Stand away mate!"

Flexing his bloodied claws, the wolf growled then roared at her, but still, Henrietta stood her ground, then reached up and sharply slapped his across the muzzle.

"Stand away!" Henrietta snarled, then stamped a bloodied cloven hoof.

With a final growl, the Wolf backed off, then went to ravage the corpses and the nearly dead. Turning back to the woman, Henrietta took the sword, holding it it both paws, before she snapped it over one knee and threw the pieces on the ground.

"Tell the Jarl of what transpired here this night!" Henrietta snarled at the woman, who cowered piteously before the enraged Therian. "Speak truth Shield Sister, for the God's themselves watched this battle, and the Valkyries will come for the honoured dead! We offered you all the chance to live and lave in peace - for this is all that we wished! My mate, Kristen, never broke his oath to the Jarl - he moved out here to protect you fools from him! Now you have seen the beast without its human skin! Speak truth sister, tell him about the honoured dead, how they fought a futile, pointless battle - but died with honour. My mate never broke his oath, do you understand me? He...did...not...now leave - leave whilst you still can, whilst I control the wolf!"

Taking the two pieces of the broken sword, the Shield Maiden nodded and fled into the forest. Henrietta turned back to watch as Kristen ravaged and tore at the dying and the dead, consuming chunks of flesh and blood as if they were the finest of meals.

"Brother!" Henrietta snarled.

Twisting about, the slavering, blood and gore covered muzzle curling back as the Wolf turned, flexing his fingers and staring at her.

"It is over brother, we won a tremendous victory! Now, stand down Brother, control the wolf within you, let the mate I know and love come forth!"

Snarling, the Wolf stepped closer, growling and his dewlaps curling back, as he glared at her from behind eyes that no longer glinted with the cunning and intelligence of humanity - now - it was just the cruel, predatory look of the wolf.

"Stand down!" Henrietta snapped, as her paw went behind her back.

Roaring, the Wolf began to lope towards her - his mind only seeing living prey he would ravage and torture before he killed her. Henrietta wept, as she stood her ground and as the wolf leapt at her, she slid the dagger from its sheath at her back, sidestepped and drove it deep into his chest. He yelped and screamed, collapsing to the ground and convulsing.

"Forgive me brother...you left me no choice..." Henrietta wept in fear and suffering.

As the wolf wailed and choked, blood bubbling from its muzzle, she straddled its back reaching beneath it and pulling the dagger free. Silver gleamed in the moonlight, before she flexed her wrist and sliced open the wolfs throat from one side to the other. It began convulsing, as Henrietta stepped away and watched with heartbreak and remorse.

"Henr..." Come a weak, choking gurgle, as it looked up at her. "Why..."

With that, its head slumped onto the torn and blooded ground, as its life blood spurted, then it convulsed and lay still.

Crying heart-brokenly, Henrietta walked over, then knelt and placed her paw on its forehead.

"Rest now brother..." She sniffled, wiping the backs of her paws across her eyes.

*

Henrietta burned his corpse on a funeral pyre she built herself, then torched the cottage as well. Shedding her anthromorph form, Henrietta took on her feral form, before she fled into the forest - praying to whatever Gods were watching and listening. She prayed that her beloved mate would be welcome into Valhöllwhere he would fight and kill on the battlefields during the day, then boast, brag and feast with the glorious dead and the God's themselves of a night.

Henrietta promised she was done with humans - for now until her end days - a promise she swore to keep. They would never accept her for who she was - what she was- so it would be better to keep to the deep woods. With her knowledge, training and experience, it would be easy to avoid hunters. She knew the forest would provide her with everything she needed for survival... who knows, maybe one day, she'd find a human - who would not hate and fear her - who would love her for who and what she was...and would protect her, as she in turn, protected him...

END