FSE

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What Was Broken -

Chapter 1

The silence was not - quite - absolute.

Crickets did, after all, chirp. Somewhere in the distance the whisper of highway traffic filtered through the trees. A dog barked at something, somewhere, as dogs are ever wont to do.

But, for Sean, the silence was a partner to his melancholy. In one hand he held a whiskey tumbler, almost empty where it had been full not so long ago. The deadening heat of it pulsed through his breast and fogged the demon in his head while he waited for it, too, to become silent.

Raising the glass to his lips once more he stared out into the darkness of the park behind his house, beyond his well tended yard and the fence that separated private land from public. The gate was closed and locked, of course, not that the park's gravel paved path came anywhere near it.

He had come through that gate mere hours before, sweaty and defeated, while the demon rumbled its dreadful chuckle in the confines of his skull.

"Now I am gonna fuck ya up!" The voice growled in his ear as clearly as if the speaker stood at his side, the monster that fucked Sean up as equally in mind as in body, leaving behind the demon to torture his thoughts and stand like a shadow at his shoulder. A shadow that threatened to wreck that which Sean held most dear.

His love, his heroine, the bitch that pulled him up before he could truly fall, and held him until he got back on his feet. In three short days she had gone from passing acquaintance at work to the center of his heart. It was a place she held firmly ever since.

And the demon threatened that. Sean could see no escape.

Raising the glass, he took yet another swallow of the smooth, golden whiskey. Its harshness had been softened by honey and maple distillation, but it still packed quite a solid kick. Sean sucked his teeth and hissed a breath at the burn that trickled down his throat to join the warmth already spreading into him. He glanced at the gate, through it to the dense forest beyond, toward the trail that lead deeper into the park, toward the lake.

Toward the grotto -

"Christ, Taws... we're supposed to be jogging, not mountain climbing." Sean groused as he looked down into the chasm before them. At his side Taws merely chuckled with a slow wag of her tail. The chasm did not look particularly difficult to traverse, stair-stepping down in a series of shale shelves and dense bracken.

"Come on, running doesn't help upper body strength." The collie rumbled in good humor as she nimbly hopped down the easiest shelves. Her broad canine paws made easy work of the challenge despite the ungainly look of her legs. Sean had quickly learned that they gave her a lot more balance than he would have expected, considering it looked like she was forever walking on her toes.

Well, in point of fact, she was. As did most of the nonhumans the world over. They were born that way and never thought otherwise.

Sean's feet, however, were all too human and only thinly clad with a combination shoe and glove. The odd combination fit around his toes, giving them a good range of motion, and the thin sole let him read the ground with every step while protecting him from the normal dangers of sharp stones or thorns.

The collie had led him off their usual jogging trail, a well groomed gravel path through the woodlands of Pontiac Reservoir State Park, through the dense clinginess of the undergrowth, to the lip of the narrow, deep cut into which Sean watched his girlfriend -- bitch friend, to be more accurate -- descend. With a shrug he made his way down the broad shelves defining the lip of the cut toward the shadows leading into the steeper depths.

The climb was not arduous, but it did provide an unexpected challenge for both of them. Gloom closed in about, amplifying the waning sunlight of the late afternoon. Within the shadows the almost stifling heat of the summer sun was absent, the coolness of the surrounding rock aiding that feeling. Taws reached the bottom well before Sean did, apparently having navigated the cut on her own at some point, leaving her human lover to make his way down by experimentation. At least he did not fall, which would have proven disastrous considering the harsh corners of shale slabs down which he climbed.

At the bottom Sean was most definitely surprised at what he found, and pleased at the view.

A natural grotto formed by a narrow stream tumbling down from the heights surrounded a small, crystal clear pool perhaps ten yards across. He could not tell how deep it was, but surprisingly large fish darted about in those depths, agitated by the new arrival to their demesne. The view proved to be splendid indeed; Taws reclined against a tumbled slab of rock, half in the water, her long fur a shifting halo about her lower body. Having beaten him down by a handful of minutes she had made herself comfortable, and quite gloriously nude.

Not quite a year past Sean would have been mortified to find himself in the presence of a naked non-human, but now it only made him smile and lick his lips.

"Rewards go to those who persevere." She drawled in a playful, low growl as Sean stepped down the last few ledges and waded into the water. It was shockingly cold but he suffered it with aplomb as he waded across. The middle came to just above his hips and rather effectively cooled the warmth rising in his loins. Standing in the middle of the shadowed pool Sean put his fists upon his hips and grinned.

"Indeed savory the rewards are, too." Leaning, he let himself fall forward in the water, sending a wave washing across Taws' stomach as he pushed off of the bottom and drifted toward her. The collie's narrow, regal muzzle was parted in a loose tongued smile as she watched him float closer, his hands coming to rest on her thighs. Letting momentum carry him forward Sean nuzzled into the wet fur of her stomach with a growl of his own.

"A tad cold, though. Would you be so kind as to warm your rewards?" Lifting a hand she placed it atop his head and pushed. Sean let out a momentary huff and laughed, managing to gulp down a breath before her gentle strength pushed him under.

Sean found his vision occluded by a waving undersea fog of gold and white like a seaweed bed that hid the defined contours of her thighs completely. Gazing up through the shimmering, shadowed gloom of the clear water he looked into the valley of her thighs, catching momentary hints of the dark treasure, his reward, between the waving tendrils of long canine fur. That valley widened as Taws shifted her legs further apart, her hand moving to the back of his head and pulling with gentle urgency.

Not one to argue with such desire Sean slipped his hands behind her knees and pulled himself into that waving white forest, nuzzling his way through wet fur until his nose brushed against something that had no fur whatsoever. Warm, softly yielding, and eager to be explored the bitch's diamond shaped vulva - something Sean had never even contemplated before Taws, the fact that humans lacked the anatomical fascination so named - pressed against the brush of his nose for a moment before he reoriented himself to sweep the warmth of her feminine lips with the warmth of his own human, masculine ones.

Even with the sharp, chill crispness of the water he could taste her smooth, earthy bouquet, so alien and yet so delightfully familiar. This gift he could give her as none of her canine lovers had in the past; his kiss, the firmly muscular inquest of his tongue delving in with a flick to taste her needy desire. Sean's fingers clutched into the wet fur of her hips as he held himself there between her thighs, relaxing his body and the hammering of his heart to preserve his breath and taste as much of her as he could before nature demanded otherwise. Blunt, manicured claws raked at his scalp and the collie's hips rose up into the warm embrace of his lips, parting the muscular folds of her canine sex under the eager pressure of his tongue. He lapped firmly, then flicked lightly across the hooded nub of her clit, eliciting a gasp he felt through the trembling muscles of her thighs more than heard through the hiss and rush of disturbed water.

In time he raised his head and let out a gasp, gazing up across the planes of her stomach and modest breasts under the concealing thickness of her throat ruff. Her deep golden eyes returned his gaze with a look of pleased need and her long tongue slipped from her muzzle to stroke along one side, briefly flattening long whiskers. "Does your reward please you, love?" the collie crooned as he panted for another breath.

"No, it does not." Sean quipped with a roguish grin, "I mean to please it." Plunging his head back under the water he buried his face between her thighs once more, nuzzling through the floating fur until his lips found her warm flesh once again. Opening his mouth he took the whole of her sex in with a gentle but hungry embrace, burying his tongue in the muscular cleavage of her canine sex to draw a firm stroke across her clitoral hood. With a downward push he drew that thin membrane of flesh back and, when his tongue made direct contact, Taws let out a sharp, gasping canine trill and clutched at his head.

Oh, but her orgasms were so easy, Sean considered, but not to the front of his thoughts. That knowledge rested in the back, a mere tumbling factoid that flitted through his mind as he felt her hips rise and tense, the blunt tips of her claws dimple the flesh of his scalp. Bracing his knees against the bottom of the rock upon which she reclined he grasped her hips with his hands and nuzzled into her crotch, flicking and probing with his tongue. He lapped across her clit and upward to the pointed tip of her vulva before flicking his tongue down and about that firm nub in swift circles, then pressed downward further still to push his short, blunt human tongue into her tight, powerfully muscled entry.

Then, all he could do, was hold his breath and hang on as her hips jerked upward against his face in a powerful spasm. He felt her entry clamp against his tongue and the muscles of her vulva flutter and twitch. He pressed his tongue flat into that hot, soft cleavage, still held within his mouth, and greedily accepted the rush of oily warmth that spilled from her. Its taste was delicate and rounded in its subtle muskiness; not affronting in the least. He had discovered such things since coming to know her so intimately. He drank greedily and clutched at her while the collie's hips bucked and bumped against his face, one hand grabbing desperately at his short hair and powerful paws pressing against the front of his thighs, striving to lift her lips higher and closer to the source of her pleasure.

Sean merely relaxed his neck, letting the rapidfire thrusts of her orgasm move against him, plowing her canine diamond deep into her mouth as her gushing release built, peaked, and faded. As with the swift ease of her orgasm came its equally swift passing. Even before he felt the burn of his lungs demanding a fresh oxygen supply her gyrating motions slowed and her hips fell back. Taws' hand slipped from his head to his chin, drawing his head up.

"Damn... you're good." She rasped a panting growl and drew at his arms, pulling him up. Water sloshed and splashed noisily from his furless, naked human skin as Sean stood from the pool and climbed slowly up over her. "You know just how to enjoy your rewards." Inhuman hands, claw tipped and rough padded, slid down his back and under the waist of the running shorts that he still wore. Wrapping her long legs around the back of his thighs the collie gabbed a double handful of his ass and drew him closer.

Climbing upward over her upon the rock, the water falling from him wetting what little dry fur existed above her midriff, Sean leaned down, gazing into her golden eyes with his blue, and met her eager kiss with his own. His hips pressed between the thighs his head had rested between only moments before and the bulge tenting the front of his shorts ground heavily against her awakened heat. Opening his mouth to invite her long canine tongue to explore he let himself melt into the rapture of her profoundly alien, but still strangely human, kiss. Rolling his hips he rubbed the front of his shorts against her, making her moan into their kiss. Long canine teeth pressed against Sean's lips but he enjoyed their touch without fear or revulsion and suckled upon the long tongue probing into his mouth.

After pulling him as close against her as flesh would allow the collie drew one hand around to awkwardly drag at his shorts, managing to shove the waistband down far enough to let his arousal spring free. His cock pressed heavily against the yielding heat of her labia as he shifted over her, dragging his length downward across her naked flesh, parting the arousal hot lips to slide along the slickness of her feminine cleft. Her other hand slid to his upper back, holding him close, taking his weight onto her as her hips shifted and rocked against the stroke of his erection.

"I'm gonna fuck you but good!" the demon snarled, that familiar feline voice blasting through Sean's mind with all the subtlety of a runaway freight train. "You know how it feels, don't ya, boy?" He tried to quell the image of those bronze eyes boring into his own, a memory of pain and terror that welled up as he pressed his needy cock against the warmth of his true desire. "That's what it always feels like... broken glass and fury!" Shifting his hips in a desperate bid, Sean caught the blunt, broad tip of his cock against the canid sex grinding against him with needy eagerness. Rising forward a bit to steepen the angle he felt the slick, smooth flesh of her heat pressing against him, yielding to the pressure of his own need.

"Broken glass, you betcha." The demon, the memory of Sean's conqueror, snarled with hellish laughter. "You know what it feels like!"

Despite himself, despite his love supine beneath him yearning for his affection, desperate for the unity of their love, Sean felt his erection flagging. All too soon there simply was not enough strength in his arousal to press into her. With a stifled groan he bowed his head, their kiss parting.

"Sean?" Taws rumbled in concern. Then she saw the pained look on his face. "It's okay, love, it's okay." Her hands grasped at his back, pulling him down, their desire forgotten, as he fought off the waves of fury and anguish that made him want to roar his frustration at fate, or cry piteously at his weakness. "I'm here, love." Taws said reassuringly as she held him close, water lapping about them. "The cat again?"

Sean blinked away the haze of recollection at the soft touch of a hand sliding over his shoulder. Taws came up to stand beside him, a pale silhouette of ghost white fur in the moonlight. Like him she was unclothed; there were no neighbors close enough to peer into his back yard to spy them skyclad on his deck.

"Yeah... he... love, he just gets in the way, every fucking time." He sighed and looked at the empty tumbler in his hand. When had he finished it?

"He's a memory, Sean. In time even that will fade." Her arms slipped around him and her long muzzle rested on his shoulder to gaze into the night dark forest with him. "And I will still be here."

"Will you?" Sean asked softly, reaching up to stroke one of her softly furred arms with one hand.

"Always." Her arms tightened in a hug and, for a time, they merely stood in companionable silence staring into the darkness. The heat of the liquor seeped through Sean with slow warmth, banishing the memory, banishing the nightmares that sent him retreating to the deck, naked, in the middle of the night. Turning the glass upside down he slowly set it down on the railing of the porch. Facing his collie again, he slipped one arm around Taws' waist and drew her close, bowing his head to bury his face in the thick depths of her neck ruff.

"Gods, Taws, I love you." He mumbled into the warmth of her fur. "This thing, this demon cat in my head... is a wall I can't find a way through!" Since Las Vegas, since his unfortunate encounter with the Puma at the casino from which they had rescued his ex-girlfriend Ashely, Sean had been all but impotent. He could still share intimacy with his canine love, but only through touch and tongue. Every time it came to the actual act of sex, the cat, the Puma, exploded to the forefront of his thoughts with the memory of what it felt like to be fucked; broken glass and fury.

Even though Sean knew, consciously, that it was wholly different in almost every other circumstance, he could not get the sensation of the cat's barbed cock slamming his ass with that rasping agony like broken glass out of his head. That's what it felt like for Taws, his memory demanded, how could he visit such agony upon her? And, as such, his body would not, despite his heart's desire, give her the physical love that would complete their partnership.

"I don't need you in me to know that, Sean, love. We'll find a way to beat this, to banish that cat forever." The collie reassured him, softly stroking the side of his neck with her muzzle.

"Anything... tell me what I need to do, I'll do it." Sean said into her fur, his body positively vibrating with tension and chaotic emotions. He felt simultaneously enraged and anguished to the point of tears but could afford to give into neither. "Anything."

"Just stay with me." Taws rumbled soft, "That is all I would ever wish, Sean. Come, let's go back inside and lay down. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day."

"I'm sorry, Sean, son, but I've got to pull you off of the Dubois contract." Frank apologized gently to the aghast man seated across the desk from him. He leaned forward and steepled his fingers before his face. "Now, it's not because of anything you've done, or haven't done. Jael Dubois is just as displeased about my decision as you are. The man just raves about your work, your creative angle and unexpected approach to the whole product presentation."

"Then... why?" Sean gaped, slack jawed, and slumped back in his chair, "What contract am I going to, now?"

"None, for the moment." Frank nodded sagely. "Don't worry, it's no censure from me or any of the partners. It's merely something that has to be done. We cannot put the contract on hold."

"Why the hell would you? The permits are solid, the programming track is all on board. Not even the media crew is balking. Why pull me now?"

"Because I have to, son. I really can't say much beyond that. And, besides, the project is just about complete, and you're top billing, as it were. When quarterlies come back we'll see just how on top of your game you are. You've been, well, quite a bit more... intense, I guess I could say for lack of anything better. More creative, sharper, edgier. That little Vegas trip did you a world of good."

Fat lot it did, at that, Sean thought sourly. More creative at work than ever, unable to fuck my own girlfriend. Yeah, did me a world of good. "Now what?"

Frank shrugged his aged, once-broad shoulders slowly, "Relax, enjoy a few days without demands. Ponder something for your own enjoyment; there's a few thousand languishing product lines we hold the rights to, but have never figured out how to present in a salable fashion. I'll wait a few days before I make any more decisions."

"So I'm, what, cut loose?"

Frank nodded, "For now, for a short bit of time. Nothing on your shoulders for a few days. Go, relax, take Taws out on a date." His bushy white eyebrows rose and he smiled conspiratorially. Despite the fact that humans partnering with non-humans was a bit of a taboo, though much less of one than Sean had once imagined, it was still a whisper-behind-the-hand topic around the water cooler.

Taws was as effusive as Sean was withdrawn as they sat at 'their' table in the lunchroom. Ever since Christmas they had used the same exact table near the back wall. After realizing that the whole office knew that he and the collie were a couple they stopped trying to hide the fact. Their table was also almost always available, either because everyone else sat in the same place out of habit, or were considerate enough to not use that particular spot during lunch hours.

After three different video recordings of Sean's reckless heroism made it to the internet he had become something of an office celebrity and found people oddly considerate of his idiosyncrasies, such as sitting in a particular spot with a particular bitch.

"Good news, Sean!" she positively bubbled with glee as they sat down. He raised an eyebrow curiously as he looked at her, not particularly interested in his plate of roast beef and rice. "I got second lead on the Proposition 12 project for the entire northeast market!"

"Proposition 12?"

Taws snorted through her nose and grinned, "You really should care about it, love. It's the Equality in Marriage movement! Keeps popping up all over the news the past couple of years!"

"I've heard of the movement, yeah, but not the proposition." He poked at the meat with his fork, pushing it around on his plate.

"Various bills have come before the states demanding legalization of gay and mixed species marriage." She nibbled on a piece of chicken breast, talking between bites. "It should be of some concern for you."

"I... well, I just never had reason to think about it until recently." He paused and nibbled a little bit of rice, but it tasted bland. Since Frank's unexpected dismissal that morning nothing had held any cheer. "I know that gays are not legally free to wed, but since I haven't had any close friends of other species before, mixed species marriage hadn't really come up. I'm not too surprised, though." He had indeed looked into it a few times, discovering that it was one of those old laws that just sat on the books and no one had bothered to change since non-humans had been emancipated along with the black slaves following the Civil War.

Yet, while blacks had long ago been granted the freedom to marry whites - there had been no express laws forbidding it, only deep seated prejudice - other sentient species had gotten the harsher handling of 'Livestock' laws which were akin to the Jim Crow laws that blacks had suffered for almost a century. Yet, while the Jim Crow laws had been overturned the Livestock appellation was still there.

He looked up with a slight lift of his shoulders, "I know our situation is far from unique, but -" His shoulders dropped with a sigh and he set down his fork. "It's important to you -- to us -- I know."

"You know it is!" she admonished with a frown and backing of her fluffy ears. "What's the matter, Sean? You're... gloomy. Did someone else break up with you by text?" The joke fell flat.

"Frank dismissed me from the Dubois project today."

"What? Why? You were their top contributor! Office gossip has you holding the creative lead!"

"I did. But," he made a dismissing motion with his fingers, "poof, I'm off the project. No reason given, but he claims it's not because of my work or the client, who's apparently loved it."

"I've never seen anyone not like your work, love. Why would they just cut you out? Someone higher up trying to claim sole credit?"

"If the client likes me as much as is claimed I doubt that, but I wouldn't put it past some people. They didn't even assign me to another project." Both of them knew what tended to happen to people 'between' projects, and it did not sit well.

"Now what?"

"He says I should... find a project to work on for myself. There's a lot of marketable projects in the queue, he said pick one of those up and go with it."

"Carte blanch? Seriously? That's big news! Only Partners get to pick and choose their own projects!"

"Taws, dear, I'm not even a junior partner yet. Something fishy is in the air, and I don't like it." He stroked her hand across the table, "But, congratulations on your Lead. I think I'll help you there." He paused and chuckled ruefully, "I wouldn't mind working under you."

Leaning forward she gave the tip of his nose a quick lick with her long tongue, "Oh, I love having you work under me, dear. I look forward to it!" Leaning closer she brushed her long muzzle against his cheek she whispered into his ear, "Especially when you kiss me." And she did not mean on the muzzle. Sean snorted a chuckle despite his mood and kissed the side of her muzzle. From a nearby table he caught the speculative glance of a dark rust colored Irish setter but ignored it. He missed the narrowing of the dog's eyes and subtle moue of irritation.

They talked a little more about Taws' project on the way home, studiously avoiding any discussion of Sean's lack of immediate work.

Standing near the mailbox as they pulled up was a tall black man in a business suit whose massive blue sport utility partially blocked the driveway with the driver's door standing open as if the man had just arrived. Rolling down his window as they pulled up Sean could hear its engine purring. "Hey, fella, you lost?" he asked irritably, stuck in the middle of the cul-de-sac by the blockage.

The black man, a mountain of muscle impeccably enwrapped in that expensive suit, ambled over casually. "No, sir. Found just the place I was looking for. You're Sean Adam Garret?" His accent was deep south; smooth and rolling like an idling diesel.

"Yeah?" Sean leaned back a bit, distrusting the man's bulk despite his calm demeanor, "And you are?"

"Jackson." The man replied, extending a hand. In his grasp was a plain white envelope, "I believe this is yours." Cautiously reaching out the window Sean took the envelope. "Consider yourself served, Mister Garret." Without answering Sean's confused inquiry Jackson turned and ambled back to his vehicle. It shifted as he slid behind the wheel and pulled the door closed.

While the sport utility backed away from the drive Sean flicked the envelope open and pulled out the single folded page. "What the absolute fuck?" he exclaimed as he read the text. Taws rumbled a curious growl, watching the escaping vehicle with a glare. "I've been summoned to testify as a witness. In Vegas. On Monday!"

"Monday? Next Monday??" Taws growled, leaning over to peer at the summons. "Gods be damned, someone really wants you to miss that testimony!"

"I see. It concerns one count of aggravated sexual assault, and two counts of attempted capital murder." He slapped the envelope and paper on the dashboard. "That god damned cat, again!" Irritably he gunned his car up the drive, the tires barking as he jammed the breaks and slammed the transmission into park. "Fucking hell, Frank knew about this before I did!"

Lurched by the harsh go and jarring stop, Taws took her hands from the dash to unfasten her seatbelt, "That's why he cut you loose from that project. He doesn't know how long the trial will run." They climbed out of the car as Sean nodded.

"He could have at least told me, so I wasn't freaking out all day." He shook his head. The door from the garage led into the kitchen, and there Sean stopped so abruptly that Taws bumped into his back. Sean's gaze was fixed on the drying rack beside the sink, in which only one piece of glassware sat. Slowly he moved forward again, his eyes raking through the open kitchen, dining, and living room.

"Taws, did you get that glass I left outside last night?" He asked quietly. At his side Taws' heavy ruff puffed when she spied the whiskey tumbler drying in the rack. Moving to the sink she glanced down at the glisten of water in the bottom.

"No." Raising her gaze she looked out the window above the sink, "Someone's outside, on the deck!" she hissed, pointing. Sean moved to stand beside her, wishing he had not left the pistol they kept in the house so far away as the master bedroom. There was another one concealed under the driver's seat of the car. After exposing a slave ring operating in Las Vegas they had both taken firearms instruction and purchased two pistols for their own protection.

He could not see anyone on the back deck, but he did see the half empty bottle of beer on one of the small tables near the chairs. Unfortunately the chair backs were to the window and too high to see over. "Taws, get the gun from the car. Quietly, please." As if whomever was drinking that beer could have missed the sound of the garage door opening or the roar of his car before its screeching halt in the garage. Taws quickly padded back out to the garage with a click of claws on tile.

Sean slid silently into the kitchen, his shoes not making nearly as much noise as claws, and reached over to the knife block on the counter. He drew the chef's knife, which he kept in hand, and the fillet knife, which went into a back pocket. The latter was a much thinner blade but it was long, slender, and wickedly pointed. In a close fight it could both slash and stab far better than the larger chef's knife. Moving into the dining room Sean looked out through the French doors, but still could not see who may have been occupying the chair nearest that beer. He found the door closed, but unlatched, which meant pushing it open was thankfully quiet. He took a step out onto the deck.

"Welcome home." Rumbled a deep, masculine growl. "I hope you don't mind if I took some liberties with your fridge."

Scowling at the voice, which rang bells of familiarity in Sean's head but defied identification, Sean sidled sideways along the wall. The first thing he spied was a pair of broad white canine paws crossed on the ottoman in front of the chair. Above them were the cuffs of gray suit pants. "Oda?" he chuffed with a scowl.

"Aye, buck, one and the same." A hand raised above the chair in a jaunty wave before dropping to scoop up the beer. "Came into town, thought I'd drop by and see where you lived. Damn nice house, and an even better view."

"Shit, Oda, you could've gotten yourself shot!" Sean snapped, but with some relief, as he stalked around the chair. "Or stabbed." He pointed at the wolf with the chef's knife he held. Oda, a long-stemmed pipe clutched between his teeth in the corner of his muzzle, just grinned up at him. Sean saw Taws slipping quietly through the open French doors, a deadly black shape held low in one hand. Her posture was not tense, however, having heard the exchange. Slowly she eased the hammer down on the pistol. She had no pocket on her dress to stick it in so merely held onto it.

"Shot, huh? Glad to see you kids have some sense." Shifting forward in the chair and dropping his legs the white wolf leaned around to grin toothily at them around his pipe, saluting with his filched beer. "Come, let me see what you're packing." Smoke curled between his teeth and meandered through his long whiskers as he smiled and gave Taws a wink. With visible sighs of relief the two residents approached the chair. Sean sat on the ottoman while Taws sat on the edge of the nearby empty chair.

"Careful, it's loaded." She cautioned, handing the pistol over butt first. Oda did not even bother examining it before dropping the magazine and clearing the breech into his lap. Only once rendering it safe did he bother to give it a judgmental look.

"Nice piece, street issue. Caliber's a bit low for the hard work, but it's a fine piece. Plus-P load probably kicks like a mule, though." He laid the weapon down on the table beside his now empty beer bottle, putting the loose round and magazine beside it. "This the only one you have?" He asked, taking the pipe from his mouth and letting the smoke leak from his nose and around his glistening predatory teeth.

"Lazy helped us pick it out. Hollow points for stopping power." Taws explained, her fur still ruffled. Though the muscles lifting her hackles may have relaxed the flyaway fur was so dense it would take longer to lay back down. "No, there's another one in the house."

"No shotgun?" Oda asked around the pipe as he slipped the stem between his teeth again and took a slow drag.

"No, good lord. Why would we need a shotgun?"

"It won't go through too many walls, that's why. Don't want to plug a hole through the whole house and hit the neighbors, now do you?"

Sean hooked a thumb back toward the house, "It's brick, but I get you. Thanks for the hint." Leaning forward he rested his elbows on his knees and glared, gesturing with the knife he still held. "Now, why the heck are you here and how the hell did you get in?"

"Big black fellow meet you at the street?" Oda asked with a lift of his brows, posture still insouciant, not evidencing any affront at Sean's direct, irritated inquiry. "I heard him drive up, but when he just blocked the driveway and loitered I figured what he was going to do. Process server, right?"

"Right. I'm expected to be in Vegas by Monday, at ten AM." Sean shook his head in irritation, "That flight's going to cost bank on such short notice."

Taking the pipe from his muzzle again the wolf pointed it at Sean with a wolfish grin. "Won't cost you a dime."

"Eh? Vegas DA got a per diem to get a ticket, or is one already waiting but no one telling me fuck all about it?"

Oda laughed and leaned forward to pat Sean's knee reassuringly. "I booked it last week when I got a copy of the docket. I had to ride escort on a fugitive transfer out to Connecticut so I told the DA I would be glad to escort you back. Our flight is booked Sunday evening." His gaze slid to Taws, "Sorry, beautiful, but it's going to be a closed session, though if you want I can plus one the reservation? Be good to have you two back out in Vegas."

Sean snorted, "I bet the media hasn't forgotten me yet." He shook his head, as did Taws.

Oda placed the pipe in the corner of his muzzle again and chuckled with a shake of his head. "No, but there's a lot more news that's much more intriguing for them to cover than the cause of that news returning."

"I just got second lead on the Equality in Marriage campaign for the northeast. I can't cut out before I've even put in my first full day. I haven't even begun my research on the west coast campaign."

"Oh, congratulations! I'm quite curious to see how the voting goes in California next month." Oda leaned back and crossed his hands in his lap. His suit was pure Federal issue and Sean spied the leather strap of a shoulder holster under the lapels of his top. "As for how I got into your house, well, you two aren't the only ones with keys or the security code."

"Lazy." Taws huffed with a shake of her head, "Pretty risky driving all the way out here when he's on duty, and undercover to boot."

"Dropping off a perp? Nah, they do that all the time." Oda grinned mischievously around his pipe, "Even handcuffed me and all. He knows how to make a wolf feel wanted." After a moment of stupefied staring Sean let out a short cough of laughter and stood. Taws cackled merrily as well. Wandering into the house Sean returned a few minutes later with a couple of beers and the whiskey tumbler - that Oda had kindly washed while investigating the kitchen - in hand, but with only two fingers on the rocks.

The silence was not - quite - absolute.

Crickets did, after all, chirp. Somewhere in the distance the whisper of highway traffic filtered through the trees. A dog barked at something, somewhere, as dogs are ever wont to do. From the branches of a tree at the edge of the yard the glimmering eyes of a nocturnal animal gleamed.

"You're quite the night owl."

Sean turned to glance over his shoulder, finding Oda leaned against the side of the chimney near the open door onto the deck. He was wearing nothing, which seemed to be his wont, quite casual to be so in the company of those who were technically still strangers. Sean, for his part, had a robe draped over his shoulders and tied loosely about his waist. In one hand was another tumbler of whiskey, neat.

"Can't sleep these days. Sorry if I woke you." Oda had been given the guest room, past which Sean had conducted his nocturnal wandering.

"I'm a wolf, lad, we sleep light."

Sean took a sip of the calming draught and rested his hands on the railing. "Lad? I'm hardly much younger than you are, old dog."

"Four years, on the outside." Oda padded over with a muted click of claws on wood to stand at the rail as well. Sean's eyes roved up and down his handsome form briefly. Taws had made him see canines in an entirely new light, though Oda's geometry was slightly different. The readily apparent maleness was a mere hint tight drawn into the thick fur of his flat stomach. He did cut a handsome figure for a male, of any species; tall and statuesque, physically fit but not overly muscled. Sean, himself, had begun to approach that ideal since he and Taws had started working out, but had a long way to go. "Seeing that cat got you unsettled?"

"I see that god damned cat every day." Sean groused with another large pull from the tumbler. He hissed an indrawn breath through his teeth as it burned down his throat and ignited the familiar, slow spreading furnace of warmth in his middle. "Every time I close my eyes."

"Well, hopefully, when you see him go down you'll sleep easier."

Sean nodded and stared off into the darkness again, and then rather surprised himself by speaking again. "But he's going to cost me what I hold most dear."

Oda grunted soft inquiry with a turn of his head, tall triangular lupine ears pinned alertly.

"He's... this demon he's left in my god damned head, is going to drive Taws away." Sean bumped the side of his fist on the railing as he growled quietly in anger. His growl was quite unlike that of Taws or other canines, more like a petulant mumble by comparison.

"How's that? She seems as in love with you now as the moment I saw you step off that transport together."

Sean nodded after taking another sip from his glass. "She is. We are. But..." he trailed off, suddenly unsure if he should be saying such things to the wolf. Or why he was, in the first place.

"But?" Oda turned his back to lean against the railing and look at him more directly. The clouds scudding across the sky occluded the moon, making his white pelt alternately glow a ghostly sheen and then become muted gray in the deeper darkness. They never left the deck light on unless they were entertaining guests after dark, which they seldom did.

"I - ah, shit now." Sean shook his head in frustration, then turned his gaze on the wolf. "It's gotten between us, cost us - cost me - our intimacy." He crossed his arms and contemplated the half full whiskey glass dangling from the fingers of one hand. The honey hued liquid glistened when the moon shone past the clouds, then went dim in the cloud shadows. "That doesn't define our relationship, but it is a way we share, or shared, closeness. Much of that has been stolen away by this memory, this demon, and I fear I will never recover it."

"You think that just because you can't bed her that she'll leave you?"

"How long would you drive a car firing on half of its cylinders? Yeah, it'll still get you where you're going, but -"

"I'd fix it."

"Gee, why didn't I think of that?" Sean scowled and snorted, "Dammit, wolf, I'm trying! I've been trying, for months! I'm sore panicked because nothing's working!" He shook his head furiously and tossed back most of what remained in the glass with a quick gulp, hissing past his teeth at the fierce burn searing down his throat. "Your local office helped set me up with a therapist, to help get over things, but that proved fucking worthless. I don't know if she was new, didn't believe a man could be raped, or just hated men in general, but whenever I spoke to her, I got the clear impression she wasn't taking any of it seriously. Dismissive and condescending. Complaining didn't help either; I was just told that she was what they had at that time. I said fuck it after a few sessions of dealing with her shit."

Sean heaved a sigh and wet his suddenly dry mouth with another sip of the whiskey. It soothed the sting of the memories and he slumped down as the tension left him, "I'm becoming ever more desperate with every failed attempt. Yeah, we can still share..." He looked down, feeling acutely vulnerable and exposed as he poured out his frustrations. "We can still enjoy foreplay, but when it comes down to the coup-de-grace this motherfucker pops up in my head." He tapped his temple with one finger, the little remaining whiskey sloshing in the bottom of the glass. He accounted it to his dwindling sobriety that he was letting go in front of the wolf; a friend but a stranger still. How long had he known the wolf? A week, all told, while they were in Vegas, and that was it. "All broken glass tearing at my guts and furious eyes boring into me."

"First guy?"

Sean cast him a querulous glance with one upraised brow, "First what?"

"First guy you'd ever been with."

"Hell yeah. The idea has not once ever crossed my mind, even when I was a hormone confused teenager."

"It's the memory's singular nature that makes it so hard on you." Oda explained gently, leaning back against the railing. "Because you have no frame of reference; nothing to compare it against to counter the memory, that one memory. It's only made worse because of the trauma it caused you, and has continued to cause ever since." He tilted his head slightly, moonshadow leaving his eyes dark in the white of his lupine head, "One experience does not a lifetime make, Sean."

"Yeah? Tell that to this thing in my head that keeps insisting that's what Taws feels - felt - every time we were together." He shook his head with his hand upraised in a quieting motion when the wolf's muzzle parted, "Yes, I know that's not what she felt at all, I know, but my brain keeps telling me otherwise. Like it's made this demon into a defense mechanism to protect HER. Meanwhile it's killing me. It's left me in fear of losing her." He finished off the whiskey and just stared into the glass. "I'm desperate, wolf. At this point I'd just about do anything to have that back, to have our closeness back, to be whole again."

"Has she said anything about that lack displeasing her?"

Sean shook his head slowly, trying to gather his increasingly chaotic, scattered thoughts. "No. But I can sense it, I can read her as I could never read Ashley or my other girlfriends; like an extension of myself. I know it bothers her."

"Likely out of knowing how much it torments you, lad, than what you cannot share. I know she supports you. Even I can read that in her."

"Yeah, maybe, but it still hurts. It still leaves me in a panic." Slowly he turned the whiskey glass upside down and set it on the railing. "I don't want to lose her, Oda. I don't."

Reaching out with one hand the wolf gave the distraught human's shoulder a gentle squeeze, "That I can understand, Sean. I'm here if you ever want to talk about it. I'll help if I can."

"Thanks. Just... being able to talk to someone about it who truly listens, that helps." Sean nodded as he tapped the bottom of the upturned glass. "But, for now, I just drown the motherfucker for some peace." Turning he returned to the quiet darkness of his house, leaving the wolf alone on the deck to contemplate the night shadowed forest.

Oda watched him go with a moonlit glimmer in his night-green eyes but said nothing, watching as the man walked, steady despite the whiskey fresh in his veins, back into the house. The wolf stood in the darkness for a time enjoying the cool breeze, looking at that glass. The last slow drops of honey hued liquor stained a ring on the railing.

Oda noted many such rings.

White Knights < > Chapter 2