Chapter 11: Worth Everything
#11 of The Mating Season 4
Chapter 11: Worth Everything
Kira sat in a chair near the barren fire pit, one leg crossed over the other and her weight leaning on the armrest. She was a slender white wolf with a long white mane and bright, pretty eyes that kept their girlishness as the years passed. Around her breasts was a black shawl, and they heaved under it as she giggled behind her paw at the antics of her husband.
Loryn was putting on a would-be striptease for his wife. After another ten years, his body was still hard and toned (if not going a little soft) as he put his bulging arms behind his head and jerked his hips in short, abrupt spasms. His cock and balls flopped, his hard muscles flexed, and turning his back to his wife, he thrust his hips again so she could see his hard ass cheeks flexing too, all the while humming a provocative tune.
"Whoo!" Kira cried, giggling. She reached over and clapped a paw on Loryn's butt. "Shake it, baby!
"Yes, ma'am!" Loryn brought his arms down and flexed them. Still humming his striptease tune, his jerked his hips all the way across the room until he was practically on top of Kira, and with his wife still giggling, he placed his foot on the armrest and thrust his hips very close to her face, then turned and shook his buttocks and tail at her: he was giving Kira a lap dance.
Kira couldn't stop shaking with giggles, and when Loryn thrust his hips close to her face again, she gave his cock a hungry lick that made it stiffen at once.
"Ohhhhh, you're asking for it!" Loryn warned, grinning all over his handsome face. He swept his giggling wife out of the chair and into his arms. "But ladies are always first!" He gave a little mock snarl and nuzzled his nose in Kira's heaving cleavage, then in her neck.
"B-but, Loryn!" Kira panted, still giggling. "Enya and Yuri --"
"Are asleep," Loryn cut across her, his kisses traveling to her ear.
Kira tilted her head to accept the kisses with a shiver, but protested, "They could wake!"
"Then how about this," Loryn said between kisses, "I don't care."
"Loryn!"
"Oh, come on, Kira! They've probably heard their parents doing it any number of times!"
Still giggling a little, Kira pointed a stern finger at her husband. "Loryn, if you take me back to the bedroom --"
"Your screams will be filling it in no time," Loryn finished, and swinging Kira over his shoulder, he sprinted for the hall.
Once in the bedroom, Loryn laid his wife on the sheets, and still humming the provocative song under his breath, he crawled slowly and seductively toward her. Kira lay waiting for him, giggling, a crimson blush slowly creeping up her neck. When Loryn was hovering over her at last, he started the slow, wet kisses she'd had wet dreams about since they'd first met. He kissed her lips, her jaw, her neck, the flexing flesh around her collarbone, then pulling open her shawl, he sucked at each of her nipples and kissed and squeezed the soft curves. Kira was trembling now: his kisses were traveling down her belly, leaving a hot tingling sensation in their wake. Smiling at his wife, Loryn kissed her thighs, then pulled them apart.
"Oh, but, Loryn, I wanted to!" Kira protested.
Loryn laughed at the earnest in Kira's eyes. Her eyes had always been so emotional and he'd never been able to say no to them.
"How about this . . ." Loryn brought his face close to Kira's and whispered with a smile, "We'll do it together."
Kira's eyes lit up. "Yes!"
Loryn rolled over on his back, and Kira brought her pussy down on his face. He loved the hot scent of it -- had always loved licking and sucking this hot nest of pleasure -- and he started eating Kira out without hesitating. It wasn't long before he felt Kira's hot little mouth close over his cock and he groaned. God. Kira had always been so damned good at that. During their first mating season, she had been clumsy and uncertain, but after years of sucking Loryn without his even asking, she knew where and how to flick and lick until he spurted in her mouth. She sucked him so deep and so well that he felt his cock flinch, and when he groaned loudly against her pussy lips, it happened: his cum shot into her mouth. He heard her licking it from her lips, swallowing it, and then she was licking his cock again, slurping his balls. Oh, god, she was too good to him . . . He would make it up to her.
Still licking Kira's pussy, Loryn grabbed her buttocks and pulled them wide apart. He started licking her deeply now: her pussy and her anus. That little pink knot above her pussy lips was as hot and irresistible as the rest of her, and he couldn't stop himself putting a finger there even as he licked her. He knew Kira would like it, and she did: she wriggled and gave little gasps of delight, and when he plunged his tongue between her pussy lips, he felt her little clit jerk. Her juices washed over him and he gladly ate them away as Kira melted against him, the orgasm having passed.
Breathless and happy, they held each other under the sheets, kissing each other lazily and whispering of love until they fell asleep.
Standing outside the curtain of Loryn and Kira's bedroom some time later, Yuri and Enya smiled at each other. They had peered in to find the two older wolves curled together in the bed, Kira snuggled against Loryn's chest. They were smiling in their sleep.
Enya put the curtain back, and she and Yuri went into the front room of the hut, where they started a low fire to warm themselves against the chill of the early spring morning. It was still dark outside, just before dawn. Yuri and Enya had not slept well: after a few feeble attempts to arouse each other, they soon realized they were just too miserable to do it, and spent the better part of the night just holding each other and wondering what horrible thing was in store for them. Enya had, of course, told Yuri about the argument with her parents, and they both knew that something awful was going to happen: Keeno had already flat-out forbidden Enya to be with Yuri.
"Loryn and Kira are so cute together," Yuri said dreamily. She glanced sadly at Enya. "I wish . . ." She bowed her head and stared at her knees.
"We could be like that," Enya finished for her.
Yuri looked up. "Yeah," she whispered, the sable eyes yearning.
They held paws, and then, as if suddenly overcome by their misery, Enya pulled Yuri into her embrace and Yuri rested her head with gloomy eyes on Enya's breast.
"This is just like when we were pups," Yuri whispered with a little smile. "Every time I had to leave, we were both so miserable."
"I would hold you in some private place," Enya added, "wishing that I could keep you forever."
"I used to think about asking Zaldon to let me live here with you, but that would have broken Zaldon's heart. And besides . . . I like being with him and Julyan. Zaldon can speak my language, and when I used to sit on his lap in the evenings talking in the moon tongue with him, I felt as if . . . I was home."
Yuri smiled to herself, and listening to her lover reminisce, Enya smiled too. Yuri was such a tender thing, such a devoted soul. The fact that she cared so much about Zaldon made Enya admire her warm heart even more. But it wasn't hard to love Zaldon. Enya couldn't think of anyone who didn't love him.
"Enya," Yuri said, sitting up, "I know something that will cheer us both up. Here, give me your paw."
Enya smiled in amusement, but with curiously dancing blue eyes, she placed her paw palm-up on Yuri's offered paw.
"What are we doing?" Enya asked.
"Zaldon taught me a little magic," Yuri told her. "I'm going to teach you to do a Sending. It's a way of communicating over long distances."
"How does it work?"
"You take something from your surroundings, then you close your eyes and concentrate really hard. You have to want the other person to see what you see with all of your heart. It's a good way to let someone know where you are."
"Mmm, okay. But if this doesn't work, I'll declare you officially certifiable."
Yuri smiled. "Birds of a feather . . ."
Enya laughed, then glanced around the room for something to focus on. Her eyes landed on the low fire glowing nearby and the wooden chair standing beyond it. After drinking in the image of the fire and the chair for a moment, Enya closed her eyes and thought very hard of it, of the flickering flames, of the solid shadow of the chair reaching across the floor.
"That's it," Yuri whispered excitedly. "No, don't open your eyes -- keep going!"
Enya had been on the verge of opening her eyes, but she squeezed them shut again and thought of the chair and the fire. After a long moment, she heard Yuri gasp, and her eyes flew open: a small replica of the fire and the wooden chair was floating over their paws. It flickered weakly every now and then, but was otherwise very strong and clear. Yuri and Enya smiled at each other across the apparition, but the moment Enya stopped focusing, it vanished.
"We really do have a connection!" Yuri whispered happily.
Enya seemed pleased, but she shook her head in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"You have to be connected to a wolf by very powerful emotions in order to do this. The emotion could be hate, anger, fear --"
"Love?"
"Yes," whispered Yuri, smiling. "Love."
They gazed happily, helplessly into each other's eyes, then held each other again: Enya wrapped her arms around Yuri, stroking her silvery mane and kissing it, and Yuri rested her head on Enya's breasts and sighed to herself. If only the rest of the world could see how strongly they were connected.
"You know," began Enya quietly, "we could be like Loryn and Kira if we ran away."
Yuri broke from Enya's embrace and sat bolt-upright. "Enya, don't start this!" she warned.
"But don't you want to be with me?" Enya demanded, the blue eyes in earnest. She took Yuri's paw in both of her own. "Don't you see? This is the only way! The only way, Yuri! They will never accept us here, and my father's never going to let me move to the sun village. He doesn't even believe that I really love you," Enya finished with a scowl.
Yuri shook her head. "Just give your father a chance to change his mind. Enya! It's not like your first mating season is tomorrow! We have plenty of time."
Enya scoffed. "A female can be married off early if her father allows it, Yuri. My father has already threatened to marry me off if I continue with you."
Yuri sat very still, feeling as if someone had punched her in the gut. "What!"
"He already has a male in mind," Enya confirmed darkly. "Damn that Mom caught us together. If only she hadn't told Dad! I guess she thought she was helping us. I mean, if there was anyone Dad ever listened to, it was Mom." Enya gave a miserable laugh. "But I guess not this time."
"We would've been caught sooner or later. You weren't going to settle for marrying a male, were you, Enya?" Yuri asked as if she already knew. "Look . . . maybe you should just meet this male your father has in mind --"
Enya's eyes snapped on Yuri, wide with disbelief.
"--and pretend that you're going to go along with it! Then we could still keep seeing each other --"
"Even after I'm married? Will we meet in the garden behind the hut and fuck each other behind the tomato trees?" Enya demanded derisively.
Yuri scowled and folded her arms. Why did Enya have to be so stubborn? Her hot head was going to get them both stoned!
"You can say whatever you want," went on Enya, "but I'm not giving you up! We have just as much right to be with each other as straight couples have. We have just as much right to be happy."
"At the cost of our lives?" Yuri demanded.
Enya looked at her somberly and said, "You are worth everything to me. This is real, Yuri. What I feel for you --" She took Yuri's paw and linked their fingers together. "It's something very real that's been growing inside of me since I first laid eyes on you. I have a right to feel this way, and no one is going to take it away from me. No one!"
And startling Yuri, Enya pulled her into her arms and kissed her. Yuri trembled under the passion of the kiss, but she was frightened now, so terribly frightened: Enya was not going down without a fight. Enya was going to her defy her father! Maybe she should ask Zaldon to take her home to the sun village before something awful happened.
As Yuri was pulling away to tell Enya as much, she paused. Enya had stopped kissing her and was gazing beyond her head, her blue eyes as hard and biting as Yuri had ever seen them. Yuri slowly turned and wanted to sink into the floor: Enya's father was standing in the doorway, grimly watching them. He beckoned to Enya, then turned and disappeared behind the curtain.
Enya felt she would rather die than talk to Keeno, but she kissed Yuri on the cheek and followed her father outside. Keeno was standing with his back to Enya, his spear on his shoulder, and when he heard his daughter emerge from the hut behind him, he suddenly squared his shoulders as if he was gaining his nerve. Enya smiled grudgingly: Keeno had acted in the same nervous way when he and Zalia gave her the talk about her changing body.
"Walk with me," Keeno said calmly, then started up the street.
Enya quickly caught up with her father, her tan tail and curly mane streaming out behind her. It took all her strength to do it, but she swallowed her anger and looked at her father's face -- and instantly forgave him: Keeno's expression was strained and miserable and instead of gazing off proudly into the distance (as he usually did when walking the stern gait of the warrior), his dark eyes were fixed in misery on the ground. Keeno looked so awful that Enya put a gentle paw on his arm and assured him kindly, "I don't hate you, Daddy! I was just angry. You know that, right?"
Keeno looked up with a relieved smile. "I know, Keeno Jr.," he said, gazing mistily at his daughter.
Enya grinned. Keeno Jr. had been her family's little nickname for her since the time she could walk, for Zalia and everyone else besides had always marveled that Enya was just like her father in every aspect, from her short temper to her stubborn nature and her gleeful love of laughing at Kilyan.
"I saw your grandfather last night, after I came home to your mother," Keeno told Enya. "Your mother and I had a long talk about you but . . . I still didn't feel as if I knew what to do." He laughed to himself. "My father barely knew what to do either. But he always laid down the law with me and said I should do the same with you. Said I spoiled you, that I wasn't firm enough. Huh. Firm to Yzlo is sixty whippings a day."
Keeno grabbed at his butt in mock pain, and Enya giggled.
"But that was the only way my father knew to raise me and he did his very best. So do I. Believe it or not, Enya, you pups don't exactly come with manuals that explain everything from A to Z -- I know because I looked for one when you were born." He smiled affectionately at his daughter, and feeling a surge of love for her father and his frantic need to protect her, Enya rested her head on his shoulder as they continued up the street.
"We fathers usually have to wing it with you girls," went on Keeno. "And I've always been at a loss with you . . . always. But I've never been so lost as I am now." Keeno sighed and shook his head glumly at the distant huts rolling away against the village walls and the northern forest beyond them.
"Dad, you've been a great father," Enya told him, gazing in earnest into his face. "And that's the truth! No girl ever loved her daddy more!"
They smiled at each other.
"But," said Enya, looking away, "I just . . . I just can't live Mom's life! I don't want a male, Dad! I want Yuri. I want to marry her and settle down with her --"
"And have pups with her?"
Enya scowled. "Don't make fun of me, Dad!"
"I'm not making fun of you!" Keeno said earnestly. "I'm trying to make you see reason! Enya --" They halted in the middle of the street, and Keeno took her paw, squeezing it affectionately when tears started to her eyes. "I want happiness for you! If you choose a life with Yuri, you will not be happy, my daughter!"
"Are you sure you don't mean that you won't be happy?" Enya accused. "You just d-don't want me to ever leave the summer village --"
Enya turned as if she would flee up the street, but Keeno barked her name sharply. She froze, then her shoulders shook, her paws balled into fists at her sides, and she broke down sobbing. Keeno felt a wave of misery. He came close to his daughter, and after stroking her mane for a moment, he pulled her under his arm and walked slowly with her up the street. Enya leaned her head against him again and couldn't stop sniffling quietly as they walked.
"You wouldn't be happy away from your family and your friends to the far south of the world in the sun village," Keeno told her, "where you wouldn't know anyone, where you would feel alone."
"I wouldn't feel alone!" Enya protested. "I would have Yuri!"
"Yuri is Zaldon's pup, Enya! She's going to follow in his footsteps. Pretty soon, she won't have time for you! It is tradition that a sorcerer's child follows as village sorcerer in his stead, and Zaldon has become one of the best sorcerers in the sun village; the wolves there are going to want him to pass along his talents. When Yuri starts her training, she won't have time for you. You'll be alone in a place where you won't know anyone --"
"Dad," said Enya, smiling through her tears, "this is a pretty lame excuse."
Keeno laughed in spite of everything, but his voice became grim when he said, "Then how about this: there are many wolves in this world who hate tail chasers and the females who are like them. Those wolves will stone you if they catch you. I couldn't live with myself if I let that happen to you, Enya! And I won't let it."
Keeno squeezed Enya in an arm that trembled, and he sounded so frightened, so adamant and firm, that she felt something crack in her chest. She felt a dull misery washing over her and realized that it was her heart slowly crumbling.
"You can't do this to me, Dad!" Enya protested, her voice a sob. She broke free of her father's arm and glared at him. "I won't let you! I love Yuri!"
"Oh, Enya," Keeno said sadly. He placed a paw on Enya's shoulder, and she bowed her head and sniffed at the ground, her lip trembling. "I know what you're feeling," he told her gently. "Don't think that I don't. When I was your age, I thought I was in love with a lot of females before I realized that I wasn't. I was just experimenting. Those were adolescent flings. And this thing you have with Yuri, it's much the same."
Enya looked up at her father with burning blue eyes. "Weren't you my age when you defied the rules and slept with Mom!" she accused.
Keeno stiffened: he hadn't the slightest clue that Zalia had told their daughter such a thing. He was on the verge of stammering something out when Enya went on, her breasts heaving in her building excitement and outrage.
"She said you told her you loved her! You told her you knew when the two of you slept together that she was the one you wanted to spend your life with, and you were no older than me! Why is it that you can know such things at sixteen, but I can not!"
Keeno's muscles went tense in his sudden anger and he snapped back, "I wasn't in danger of being stoned, that's why! Of being cast out as a lone wolf --!"
"I could just go to the sun village! They don't stone wolves there for that, and you now damn-well they don't --"
"SILENCE!" Keeno boomed, his fangs flashing, and Enya fell silent at once, gulping angrily for breath, her breasts heaving, her eyes glaring. "I am your father, Enya. I know what's best for you and I have spoken. And if you open a defiant mouth to me again, I'll marry you off so fast --"
"Go ahead!" Enya dared, tossing her mane and folding her arms. "Do your worst! You can't stop me loving Yuri! I'll run away if I have to --"
"The hell you will!" Keeno snarled, and in his building temper, he grabbed his daughter by the wrist and started off down the street, tugging her after him.
Enya twisted and fought, sobbing and cursing her father, prying at his strong fist with her nails and digging her heels in the dirt. She screamed obscenities, she screamed that she hated Keeno, that she would run away or jump in the river before she married a male, that she would never forgive her father if he did this to her.
Keeno ground his teeth and endured his daughter's screaming and fighting for exactly one minute before he suddenly halted and roughly threw her over his shoulder. Enya knew that there was no escaping this humiliating position -- the position of the unruly pup thrown over its father's shoulder when it had been naughty. Keeno's arm was strong around her, firmly clamping her by the legs to his shoulder, and he marched away up the street with such shuddering breaths that Enya knew she had pushed him very close to smacking her for her defiance and blatant disrespect. When a father laid out his daughter's destiny, she was supposed to meekly accept it and say not a word against it. That was the custom in the summer village. But Enya would bite off her tongue before she ever did that, and Keeno was not only hurt that his daughter did not accept what he thought was his wisdom, but he was terribly frightened now: unlike her mother, when Enya made an angry threat, she usually carried it out. And so he reasoned that the only way to keep Enya from fleeing the summer village was to marry her off as quickly as possible.
When Keeno told his daughter as much, she broke down sobbing, and she sounded so miserable that Keeno felt a pang in his heart.
"You'll thank me for this when you're older," Keeno gently told his daughter, swallowing so thickly he could have been swallowing his guilt. "When you're older and not dead and you have all the pups you could ever want. You'll . . . you'll thank me."
But hearing the miserable note in Keeno's voice, Enya didn't believe him. She didn't think he really believed himself.