Tuesday Teaser 6/23/15: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
You know, we’re far enough along with this story that I should start thinking about an actual title. I like Daughter of the Wolf Clan, but I wonder if there is a better title. What do you think?
This next bit is mostly dialogue. When I do revisions, I might condense this a bit. I know a lot of you are waiting to read the scene where Tracker catches up with his daughter, then again, I want the readers to get to know Kit and his feelings, and also explain a little of how the Pride works. We’ll see. Here is the middle of Chapter 5:
Kit leaned to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Tell me, my mate, what love is.”
“Love,” she said slowly, thinking about her mom dad and how they acted toward each other, “is when a person cares more about another person than they do about themselves. They want the other person to be safe and happy.” She frowned. “I think.”
A smile curved his lips, making him startlingly handsome. “I love you,” he said.
She leaned away from him. “No, you don’t! You don’t even know me.”
A shade of hurt crossed Kit’s face, dissolving the smile into a tiny frown. “If love is caring about another person more than I care about myself, then I love you. I want you to be safe and happy. You said that’s what love is. I love you, Olivia.”
She swallowed hard. “We haven’t known each other for very long. It takes time to fall in love.”
Inwardly she flinched. It hadn’t taken her dad any time at all to fall in love with her mom. He said he’d fallen in love with his mate before he’d ever laid eyes on her. But that was different. She blinked back the urge to cry. Just thinking of her parents made her ache to be home with them. She missed Parker and Taylor, as bossy and overprotective as they were, because even though they teased her, they loved her.
“Why does it take time? You’re my mate. I knew it as soon as I saw you.” Kit hauled her tightly against his side. “I love you. Do you love me?”
Olivia took a deep breath and let it out in a shaky sigh. “How can I? I don’t even know you.” A low growl rattled in his throat and her lips trembled. “So we should talk to get to know one another. Um, do you have brothers?”
* * * *
Kit stared at his mate, trying to keep his frustration back. Why didn’t she love him? He loved her. Why didn’t she want him to give her sex? He would act whichever way she preferred. Fast, aggressive, slow, tender. All she had to do was instruct him and he would obey. But she was rejecting him. He examined her carefully for any hints of her feelings. Her face was composed except for the tiny shaking of her lips. Her breathing was too fast and too shallow for calmness, but she pretended well. Was she angry? Or frightened? She wanted to talk, so he would talk. What had she asked? Were brothers the same in the human world as they were in the Pride?
“There are nineteen mature males in the pride. They are my brothers.”
She flashed him a quick glance out of her eerie, pale blue eyes. “No, I mean your siblings. The sons of your mother and father.”
Kit had an idea of what she meant by mother and father, but those were human terms. “The queen who bore me died. I don’t know which male fathered me. The Queens accept any male they wish to have sex with. Their children are all brothers and sisters.”
“Oh my God!” Olivia slapped her hand over her mouth. Her eyes were huge. “Do you mean that you and Maria and Juanita and Patricia might be literally brother and sisters? And you have sex with them?”
She looked utterly horrified. Kit sighed. “Humans don’t do that?” He didn’t need to hear her emphatic denial to know his guess was right. “I won’t do it anymore. I have a mate now.”
“Are any of those … children yours?”
His mate seemed very concerned about which male fathered which children. “All of them are mine. They are part of the Pride, and I am a mature male of the Pride.” When her horror didn’t diminish he quickly went on. “But only I will be the father of your children.” He frowned, troubled by another thought. Unless Patricia forced Olivia to have sex with other males as she had threatened. He caught his mate’s chin in his fingers and turned her face so she had to look at him. “I will not give you sex without your permission, but if you make me wait too long the Queens could take your choice away from you. Then I would have to fight my brothers. I won’t be able to win against them. If I am killed, I can’t bear to think what will become of you. If I’m not killed I could be banished from the Pride. Please, please don’t make me wait too long.”
Fear joined the horror in her eyes before she shuttered her emotions behind her closed lids. “Oh, God.”
Her moan stabbed him like a knife. Her face was so beautiful. He couldn’t help himself. He lowered his head and put his lips on hers.
Tuesday Teaser 6/16/15: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
I’m back! Back from moving, back from surgery, back from working my butt off on Wolf’s Princess, back from RAGT, and back from that sino-bronchitis crap. 2015 has been quite a ride so far! But I devoutly hope I can get back to Kit and Olivia on a weekly basis now. In this snip I’m not sure of the best way to write Kit’s dialogue. In his half-cat form he is single-minded and he can’t speak clearly, but I don’t want him to sound stupid. He tends to speak in short sentences with few connecting words. In human form, he speaks in more complex sentences. What do you think? Should I re-write Kit’s dialogue to be normal in both forms?
It’s been a while, so before you read the first half of Chapter 5 let me refresh you: last time we were with Tracker and his family as they embarked on their mission to rescue Olivia. And before that, Olivia was dragged in front of Kit’s Pride and told to make nice with him.
As Kit ran full speed along the teeny ledge, Olivia gripped the thin fur covering his back. It was softer than she expected. He made a final leap into his cave and bent over to set her down. Kit’s smaller cave looked almost welcoming after the menace swirling in the one they’d just left. Olivia swayed as her feet landed on the ground. Nonetheless, she moved quickly away and held out both hands to ward off his embrace. “Just wait, Kit.”
“Why waidt?” That face, with its mix of human and cat, looked confused for a moment before it cleared and he ran a clawed hand down his furry chest. “I nah human. Cand gih you sex in this shape. We waidt undil I change.”
Olivia braced her feet. “We’ll wait a lot longer than that. I’m not having sex with you.”
His lips peeled back to show wicked fangs when he growled. “Mah madte!”
Olivia folded her arms, hoping to hide her hands’ tendency to shake. “Yeah? But I haven’t accepted your mate claim yet. In my pack a man doesn’t force his mate to have sex. He waits until she agrees.”
His furry face frowned. “How long until she agrees?”
She wondered if she should mention Aunt Naomi making her mate wait three years. Probably not. “As long as it takes for him to woo her into agreeing. Sometimes it’s a long time. Sometimes it’s only a few weeks.”
“Weeks?” His fur seemed to bristle.
“Yes,” she said firmly.
He prowled back and forth in front of her. “What is wooing? The queen wants us to mate soon.”
His diction was becoming clearer. “Well, wooing is…” She tried to think of what wooing actually consisted of and how she could use it to put him off until she could escape or her father found her. “Wooing is nice. A man and a woman talk to get to know one another. He brings her presents. He never insists on sex. He doesn’t try to rape her like you tried to rape me.”
“I nah rape you!”
“When I first woke up! What was that?”
“I gih you sex.”
She waved her hands around in helpless fury. “I didn’t want you to give me sex!”
Kit stared at her with alien green-gold eyes, still prowling. “Tell me more of wooing.”
“When a man finds his mate, he is gentle and kind. He is …” Her imagination ran out of ideas. “He tries to make her fall in love with him.”
He stopped prowling to stare again. “Fall in love? What is that?”
Now she stared. And realized he was still naked. “Oh, dear. Put some clothes on, Kit.”
He didn’t move. “What is fall in love?” he insisted.
“Really? You don’t know what love is?”
“No.” He closed the distance between them like a cat closing on prey. “You tell me what it is. We talk. That’s wooing. I woo you. Then I give you sex.”
“You will not give me sex,” she shouted, retreating. Immediately he closed the gap she’d put between them, so she made herself stop. “Kit, you can’t give me sex until I ask you to. And I’m not asking you to.”
He trailed the backs of his fingers over her cheek. “The queens not accept you until we have sex. If you not accepted, you die. I can’t let my mate die.” He curled his hand around her arm, obviously taking care to not let his claws touch her. “Sit down. Talk. I woo you.”
“We’re not having sex,” she warned.
“No sex,” he agreed. “Soon? Tomorrow?”
Olivia tried to control the panic threatening to drown her. Was one more day enough time for her dad to find her? “Maybe in four or five days,” she offered.
“Two days,” he countered.
“Kit,” she began.
“No wait long. Queens say. I give you sex or all the males do. Choose.”
She pressed her lips together hard to keep the tears back. She could either have one lover or two dozen. Surely dad was already on his way. “Three days?” she asked with desperate hope.
He trailed the backs of his fingers down her cheek again, a strange sort of tenderness in those feral cat eyes. “I no force you. We talk? Woo?”
What else could she do? “Okay.”
He exerted gentle pressure on her arm to move her over to the blankets. “Sit. You cold?”
“A little.”
“Sit.”
He let her go to put more wood on the fire, then joined her on the blankets. His flattened cat nose touched hers for a brief moment. With a horrible shudder, he shifted from half-cat to man. It was an agonizingly slow transformation, with crunching sounds as if bones were breaking. Olivia felt a reluctant wave of sympathy.
“Does that hurt?” she asked. “I don’t like pain, and that looks painful.”
He shrugged and grabbed a pair of jeans to put on. She shifted to make room for him on the blanket. He sat and faced her, their knees touching. “Olivia, I will never cause you pain. I’ll never force you to have sex. I didn’t understand before. I’m sorry. I will fight even the entire Pride to keep you safe.”
“I want to go home,” she whispered. “You could court me there.”
He shook his head, his golden brown hair flowing over his shoulders with the motion. “I can never leave the Pride. I can’t live in that world.”
She sighed as he moved to sit beside her and drape an arm over her shoulders.
Kit leaned to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Tell me, my mate, what love is.”
Tuesday Teaser 5/5/15: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
Hello! Lori Foster’s Annual Reader & Author Get Together (RAGT15) is only a month away!! I am so excited! This will be my fifth year attending. I look forward to this event every year. I would like to go to other reader/author events, but with moving, surgery, cat vet bills, etc, my budget is sadly empty. Eve Langlais’s Romancing the Capital looked like soooo much fun! Maybe in a year or two I’ll be able to go. Is anyone going to RAGT? I just ordered my swag for this year, and I’m involved in a couple of “Find the Author” games that I think will be a lot of fun.
I’ve been working a little bit more on Olivia and Kit’s story. This is the end of chapter 4. Enjoy!
Tami was on the porch, arms folded tight around herself. Their older son, Taylor, along with his cousins Colby, Matt, and Red Horn, ran in their wolf forms from around the back of the house. Tracker slid off his horse before it stopped.
His mate was controlled, but he could smell her worry. “Tracker. Olivia’s horse came in a few minutes ago. Olivia didn’t.”
For one second Tracker stopped breathing. During that single moment, Taylor, Colby, Matt, and Red Horn shifted to human.
“Don’t worry, Aunt Tami.” Colby’s face was almost identical to his father Taye’s at age twenty-three, down to the dimple which wasn’t in evidence right now. “She’s fine. I bet she got thrown and she’s walking back right now.”
Taye’s son was doing what the Clan always did to sooth a worried mother. Tracker didn’t bother to tell Colby that Tami didn’t need empty words to comfort her. His mate was strong enough to take anything life dished out. “Where’s the horse?”
Tami pointed toward the barn. “The rifle’s still on the saddle. So is her canteen.”
It took Tracker only a minute to thoroughly sniff the horse. The sweat of terror lingered on the anima’s neck, raising sweat on his own neck. He jerked his head at his kin.
“Colby and Taylor, let your wolves out. Matt and Red Horn, stay at the house in case Olivia comes back. Tami and Parker, saddle up.”
Seventeen year old Red Horn fidgeted. “Don’t you think Aunt Tami should stay here?”
Tracker fixed a stern eye on his cousin Stag’s youngest boy. “She’s coming with us.”
As Parker and Tami hurried to saddle horses, check their rifles, and fill canteens, Tracker suppressed a smile when Matt cuffed his little cousin’s head. “You oughta know better than to try to keep a momma from her one ewe lamb.”
But the urge to smile died. His one ewe lamb was missing, and that was no reason for smiling. His wolf, usually a timid critter content to sleep, was silently howling inside him. That wolf loved Olivia almost as much as he loved their mate. Tracker gave Tami a long steady look, wordlessly promising her they would find their girl, and mounted up.
The horse’s trail was plain enough. Even someone with no trail experience could have followed the animal’s flight up the path. From behind, Tracker heard his son Parker mutter, “What were you doing so far from the house, Livvy?”
With every step his horse took along the rocky path, Tracker’s heart tightened. If Olivia had been thrown, they would have seen her walking home by now. Either she was hurt or … He swallowed, keeping his face impassive out of habit. He’d seen no sign of strangers. There was nothing to indicate Olivia had been stolen. He glanced at his mate and knew she was already thinking the same thing. Tami knew firsthand the evil men could visit upon a woman. His wolf forced a whine past his throat.
Taylor and Colby had run ahead, but loped back now. Colby turned human to talk. “We found where Olivia’s horse bucked her off. She started walking home.” He swallowed, not quite hiding cold fury. “You better come look.”
Tracker heard his mate suck in a quick breath, but she pressed her mouth into a flat line and rode beside him to the place Colby indicated. He handed his reins to Tami, meeting her eyes for a moment of silent communication. Her face was calm, but he scented her fear and it almost killed him.
He moved carefully around the tracks on the sandy path, reading the story they told like a man might read a book. He looked up at the top of the cliff lining one side of the path, measuring how far a man would fall if he jumped off. On the side of the cliff he smelled something that made his heart pound with sick dread and icy rage. His daughter’s terror and pain lingered here. He followed the tracks going northwest for about a quarter-mile before returning to stand at Tami’s stirrup. Even from her saddle she must have read some of the tracks for herself. She met his eyes, but he could see her composure was a front. He waved his sons and Colby over.
“The way I read it, Olivia was bucked off and started for home. Right here, she was ambushed by two men. One of them picked her up and ran off with her that way.” He pointed to the northwest with his chin. “The other one followed behind.”
“Are you sure it’s a man, Uncle? Both of them, I mean?” Colby asked respectfully. “He —or it— doesn’t have regular feet. They look more like mountain cat paws.”
“Doesn’t smell like a man either,” said Parker.
No, it didn’t. The boys were right. “It walks upright. We’ll call it a man until we know different. He’s moving almighty fast. We’re hours behind him so we need to cover ground quick. Parker, shuck your clothes and let your wolf out.”
Parker obeyed, stuffing his clothes in the saddlebag behind Tami’s saddle. Tracker did the same. Tami’s hands were clenched on the reins so hard her knuckles showed white even through her suntanned skin. “You’ll move faster without me.”
“Yeah.” Tracker looked up at the woman his wolf had chosen for their mate with something like gratitude. He’d fallen in love with her before he’d ever met her, and every minute he’d spent with her for the past twenty-five years had made his love stronger. Her light brown hair had begun to turn to silver, and sun, weather, and age had put lines on her beloved face. She was so beautiful to him, and so brave. It must be like a knife digging around in her guts to let her men go alone to rescue their daughter, but she smiled at him. No wonder he loved her. “We’ll bring her home to you, Tami.”
She gathered the reins of her horse, and the horses Tracker and Parker had ridden. “I’ll be waiting at the ranch.”
Before she could turn her horse, he gripped her knee. “Come here.”
He reached an arm up to draw her face down to his. The kiss was light but heartfelt, telling her he loved her, and he trusted her, and he would bring their little girl back to her. One tear slid down her cheek to touch his lips. She fisted her eyes and smiled at him while she straightened in the saddle. She nodded at all of them, and rode back down the path toward the ranch, her shoulders back and her head high.
There was no time to waste. The trail was hours old. He refused to think of what might be happening to Olivia. He would find her. He would bring her home to her mother. He would kill whoever had taken her.
Tracker let his wolf out and led his kin along the trail of his daughter’s kidnappers.
Tuesday Teaser 4/28/15: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
I’m slowly recovering from surgery. Too slowly! Seriously, I thought I’d be completely well by now, but I still experience enough pain to need to take a Percocet before bed. During the day I just take Tylenol, since I really can’t be taking strong pain pills while working the day job. I suppose I should try to take it easy and not expect to be 100% when it hasn’t even been two weeks yet. I guess I’m just impatient. 🙂
It’s been a while since we visited this story, isn’t it? Over the weekend I decided it was time to get back to it, and played with the idea for the next scene. I started to write it tonight. I didn’t get very far, though. I’m giving you the page I wrote, and at the bottom is a link to the story so far so you can read it straight through if you want. Please remember none of this has been proof read yet, so there are a ton of boo-boos. Please disregard them 🙂
Chapter Four
Dan Stensrud shifted his grip on the shovel he was using as a lever to pry the boulder out of the stream. Tami was right. If any more debris collected around the boulder the stream that watered this pasture would be completely dammed. The rock had to go. He nodded to his son. “On three. One.T…”
The clang of the ranch house bell, muffled by distance, kicked his heart into overdrive. Two clangs, a pause, and two clangs. That meant everyone was summoned back to the ranch immediately. Tami wouldn’t ring the bell without good reason. He released the shovel and ran for his horse. His son was two steps ahead of him. The boy hadn’t learned yet to hide his feelings; fear was plain on his face as he threw himself into the saddle. At twenty-one, Parker wasn’t a boy. Tracker had to remind himself that all his children were adults now, even his little girl. He drove his horse into a gallop.
Tami was on the porch, arms folded tight around herself. Their older son, Taylor, along with his cousins Colby, Matt, and Red Horn, ran in their wolf forms from around the back of the house. Tracker slid off his horse before it stopped.
Not being the clingy sort, his mate didn’t throw herself at him, but he could smell her worry. “Tracker. Olivia’s horse came in a few minutes ago. Olivia didn’t.”
For one second Tracker stopped breathing. During that single moment, Taylor, Colby and Red Horn shifted to human.
“Don’t worry, Aunt Tami.” Colby’s face was almost identical to his father Taye’s at age twenty-four, down to the dimple which wasn’t in evidence right now. “She’s fine. I bet she got thrown and she’s walking back right now.”
Taye’s son was doing what the Clan always did to sooth a worried mother. Tracker didn’t bother to tell Colby that Tami didn’t need empty words to comfort her. His mate could take anything life dished out. “Where’s the horse?”
Tami pointed toward the barn. “The rifle’s still on the saddle. So is her canteen.”
It took Tracker only a minute to thoroughly sniff the horse. The sweat of terror lingered on the animal’s back and neck, raising sweat on his own back and neck. He jerked his head at his kin.
“Colby and Taylor, let your wolves out. Matt and Red Horn, stay at the house in case Olivia comes back. Tami and Parker, saddle up.”
Red Horn fidgeted. “Don’t you think Aunt Tami should stay here?”
Tracker fixed a stern eye on his cousin Stag’s boy. “She’s coming with us.”
As Parker and Tami hurried to saddle horses and fill canteens, Tracker suppressed a smile when Matt cuffed his little cousin’s head. “You oughta know better than to try to keep a momma from her one ewe lamb.”
But the urge to smile died when Tracker stripped out of his clothes to let his wolf out. His one ewe lamb was missing, and that was no reason for smiling.
Daughter of the Wolf Clan
Tuesday Teaser 1/27/15: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
Before we get to today’s snip, I want to give you an update of Rose and Sky’s story. It’s moving along. I finally got the write The Scene I’ve Been Looking Forward To For The Past Two Years. Yes, Rose has finally accepted Sky’s mate claim and they have lost their virginity! It’s a looooong scene (about 10 pages) with hot passionate kisses, a few giggling fumbles, tender possessiveness, heartfelt confessions… OK. I really like it. I may do a little trimming, but in general, I think it’s one of the best love scenes I’ve ever written. I shared a few snips of it on my Facebook Page and I’ll post a few here next week. I know a lot of you are anxious to get to read Rose and Sky’s story, and I’m anxious to get it out to you! I have four major scenes left to write, and several smaller scenes, so four chapters plus an epilogue. Should be about 100,000 words. For comparison, Wolf’s Glory, Wolf Tracker and Ellie’s Wolf were all around 75,000 words.
And now, back to Olivia and Kit:
The first woman, the taller one, took a menacing step. “Dev, you’re coming pretty close to insubordination, aren’t you?”
Devlin held her eyes for a moment before looking down. “Not intentionally, Maria. But I was with Kit when he found his mate yesterday, and I believe the mate bond exists. For him to service another female would be wrong.”
“Fine.” Maria’s smile made Olivia touch the knife on her belt. “If they’re mates, let’s see it. Service your mate, Kit, and we’ll all be witnesses to your bond.”
“I’m nah human,” Kit growled.
“Human enough to give the little girl sex. Do it, Kit. Prove she’s your mate and she lives.”
Tricia jumped up from the blankets, wearing only her shirt and a leer. “Your choice, Kit. Either give your mate sex or watch her die.”
Kit’s roar was cut off by a third woman, walking from the back of the cave with two mountain lion kits in her arms. She was smaller than either of the other two women and her mouth was curved in a smile that didn’t have even a hint of a leer.
“Maria. Tricia.” The third woman shook her head. “Why taunt poor Kit like this? Leave him and his mate alone.”
“You always had a soft spot for him, Juanita,” spat Maria. “He’s brought a human to the pride.”
The curvy woman called Juanita shrugged and rubbed her cheek against the fur of one of the babies in her arms. “She’s his mate.”
“Human,” insisted Maria.
“She probably wasn’t even born when the pride was slaughtered. She’s not responsible.” Juanita turned to Olivia with a smile. “Here, hold my sons.” She plopped the kittens into Olivia’s arms and ignored both Olivia’s stuttering protests and the hisses from the other people in the cave to fasten a cold stare on first Maria and then Tricia.
“This stops now. Kit deserves to find some happiness. His mate is off limits. I mean it.” She lifted black eyes to glare at everyone else in the cave. “No one bothers Kit or his mate or they answer to me.”
All eyes dropped, even Maria’s and Tricia’s. Juanita gave a satisfied grunt and turned back to Olivia and Kit. She smoothed hand over Kit’s feline face with a loving smile. “I’ll miss you as a lover, sweetie, but I hope you’ll be happy with your mate.” She picked up his paw and kissed it before turning to Olivia. “What’s your name?”
“Olivia Stensrud.” Holding the kittens squirming to get loose was hard. They each weighed at least twenty pounds, and their claws were already sharp. Juanita took pity on her and removed them. She leaned close to say, “Be good to Kit, Olivia Stensrud. He’s special. Let him service you as soon as possible. Until you’re fully mated, the pride won’t accept you.”
“Uh.” Olivia blinked. She didn’t want the pride to accept her. She wanted to go home, where her family would surround her with love, and where no man could get within fifty yards of her without her brothers bristling like the wolves they were. “Thanks.”
Juanita leaned in to press a quick peck on Olivia’s cheek. “You two get out of here now. Take your mate back to your lair, Kit, and get to know her better.”
Kit didn’t say a word. He picked Olivia up, tossed her over his shoulder and ran out of the cave back to his own.
Tuesday Teaser, 1/20/15: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
I am moving right along on Wolf’s Princess now. I just finished writing the big love scene between Rose and Sky. It took me the entire weekend to write! It’s amazing what a little love making will do for the level of affection and trust between mates. They are both pretty happy now! Maybe next week I’ll share a little snip of Wolf’s Princess, but for today, you get another helping of Kit and Olivia. 🙂
With supreme indifference to the threat of Kit’s claws, the woman turned and walked out of the cave. Eyeing Kit uneasily, Olivia walked after the woman, expecting Kit to stop her. But he only fell into step beside her, growling a quiet rumble under his breath. She tried to edge away from him, but he grabbed her arm to keep her close.
“Let go of me,” she snarled, every bit as ferociously as her aunt Glory could.
After a moment, he dropped her wrist, but stayed close. Olivia swallowed and kept her eyes on the woman. As they passed out of the cave, the warmth of the sun fell like a welcome blanket over her. She looked around to try to fix landmarks in her memory for her escape. The sense of warm comfort was shredded by the woman’s mocking laugh from a few yards away. “Hurry up, little human.”
Olivia followed, still casting thorough looks around to memorize the terrain. They were on a rocky mountainside so steep that if she tripped she’d slide thirty feet almost straight down. Nothing was familiar. She had no idea how to get home from here. There was a narrow ledge that went from Kit’s cave to another cave about a hundred yards away. The woman ran with light, sure feet along it, utterly confident she would not slip. Olivia took a deep breath and started after her, more slowly and carefully. She could feel the warmth of Kit’s body right behind her. Kit’s large, furry, naked body. it made her uncomfortable. He should have put some clothes on. The wolves of the Clan tended to wear as little as possible, but they wore at least breechcloths when they were in human form. Kit wore nothing at all. It reminded her that only a few minutes ago he had tried to rape her. So why did he seem like a friend? The woman might be her enemy, but she was Kit’s pack mate.
The other cave was larger than Kit’s, and dim after the bright morning light. A quick count told Olivia that there were about twenty adults there, mostly men, and about a dozen cougars. A group of ten children were herded to the back of the cave at the sight of her. Olivia was relieved everyone was clothed in pants and shirts, although they were barefoot. Clearly, this cave was a living area, as there were piles of blankets scattered along the wall and woven baskets with lids beside the blankets.
As she stood just inside the cave, every eye turned to her and silence fell. In the quiet, the mewling of kittens rose. The woman folded her arms over her ample bosom and stalked forward to stare into Olivia’s eyes. Olivia let her eyes drop so as to not challenge the Alpha female. She jumped when Kit’s arm curled around her waist and he leaned his hip against hers, but his warmth was comforting. It shouldn’t be comforting!
“Kit has brought a little human girl to our pride,” the woman announced loudly. Her lip curled. “What do you all think of that?”
Little? Olivia wanted to argue. She wasn’t as tall as her cousin Victoria, but she was above average for a woman. And she wasn’t a girl. She was nineteen now, old enough that even her father and brothers agreed she could have suitors. The two she’d had so far were boys she’d known all her life, and with her father sitting on the other side of the fireplace, working on his carving with a large knife instead of his usual small chisel, they hadn’t dared to even hold her hand.
“She’s human.” Scorn dripped from the voice. Another woman came from the rear of the cave, looking ready to spit at Olivia. She was shorter and slimmer than the other woman, but with similar coloring and features, and with a bitter expression that scared Olivia. “I say we kill her.”
Olivia was almost glad of Kit’s arm clamping around her and the snarl twisting his feline face. “Oleeya is mah madte. Mine!”
“So you’ve said. Repeatedly.” The first woman’s smile was cruel. “But from what I heard at your lair, she doesn’t agree. Do you, girl?”
Death colored the air shuddering in Olivia’s lungs. “I haven’t accepted him yet.” She laid one hand over the arm clenching her waist. “I need more time to get to know Kit before I accept him.”
“Liar.” It was the second woman, the bitter one. “All you humans are liars.”
Olivia forgot about not challenging anyone. She drew herself up and glared. “I am not a liar!” Well, maybe a little bit of a liar, but only to save her life. “In the Wolf Clan, a man courts a woman to give her a chance to accept him.”
“But you aren’t his mate yet, are you?” The woman pulled her pants off, and threw herself on a nearby pile of blankets, opening her legs so everyone could see her privates. Olivia felt her eyes stretch into wide circles before she jerked her gaze away. “Kit!” the woman bellowed. “Come service me. Now.”
Kit shook his head. His long hair brushed over Olivia’s shoulder. “I gih sex only Oleeya. Candt change back human now.”
“I don’t care,” snapped the woman. “I demand you service me now.”
There was a gasp and a murmur at this. Another voice rose, and it was familiar to Olivia. The dark-haired man from yesterday pushed to the front of the people. Devlin. “Tricia, the rule has always been that whichever form you queens are in, your partners will take the same form to give you sex. Kit can’t take full cougar form, so you both have to be human. He’s too upset to change right now, but even if he wasn’t, he can’t give you sex. He’s mated.”
The first woman, the taller one, took a menacing step. “Dev, you’re coming pretty close to insubordination, aren’t you?”
Devlin held her eyes for a moment before looking down. “Not intentionally, Maria. But I was with Kit when he found his mate yesterday, and I believe the mate bond exists. For him to service another female would be wrong.”
Tuesday Teaser 1/13/15: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
This week you’re getting a longer snip. Well, slightly longer. If you recall, we left Kit curled around Olivia, waiting for her to wake up so he could make love to her. In the cat culture, making love isn’t the same as it is for wolves. Luckily, they are interrupted before Kit can do what he intends. Or maybe Olivia has gone from the frying pan to the fire! I hope you enjoy it. 🙂
“Kit?” She craned her head to peer over her shoulder at him in the dim light. Yes, she could see traces of the lion man who had kidnapped her. The dark blond hair that fell past his shoulders and his strangely bright yellow-green eyes were familiar. The wide mouth with the gently curved lower lip and the soft shape of his face were not.
“Yes,” he said, sounding pleased. He bent his nose to the nape of her neck and inhaled deeply, just the way Uncle Taye did to Aunt Carla sometimes. “You slept such a long time.”
His tongue touching the side of her throat, licking up to her jaw, made her scramble to get away from him. “Let me go!”
The happy pleasure died from his face, replaced by something dark. His arm clamped painfully over her waist, yanking her back. “No,” he said flatly.
“You have to! I’m freezing.”
“I’ll give you sex. That will warm you up.”
“No!”
She kicked and clawed, trying to get free, but it was hopeless. He looked slender, but he was as strong as a wolf warrior. He wrestled her face first into the blankets and crushed her beneath him. Her flailing arms failed to hurt him no matter how hard she tried to strike the body on top of her back. When he spoke his voice sounded regretful.
“You prefer rough sex? But you’re so easily broken. Wouldn’t you rather cuddle?”
“No! Get off me!”
Her voice was muffled against the blanket. She struggled to buck him off, but she couldn’t budge him. Were his hands actually trying to pull her panties down? She clamped her knees together, hooking her ankles together with all the strength she had. How did he dare to treat her like this? She had never felt a man’s bare body pressed against hers. Even Rob hadn’t taken off her clothes in his father’s stable. It made her feel horrifyingly vulnerable, and that helpless feeling made fury surge through her.
“Stop!” she screamed. “Kit, stop it right now!”
His teeth fastened on her shoulder near her neck with a growl that vibrated through her like a drum in a parade. Or maybe that was her heart pounding? His teeth hurt, but the pain was drowned by rage.
“Stop, Kit!”
Olivia found fresh strength, enough to allow her to throw him off her back for almost three whole seconds. He pounced back on her, but this time she was ready, and chopped the edge of her hand into his windpipe just as her uncles had taught her. He tumbled back a couple of feet and sat on his bare haunches, glaring at her and breathing hard. Olivia saw, by the state of his arousal, the fight hadn’t dampened his enthusiasm. The skin and muscle of her shoulder throbbed where his teeth tore her skin. Where was her knife? She didn’t dare take her eyes off him to search for it.
A shadow blocked the sun from the front of the cave. Kit turned in a silent bound that put him between her and the cave mouth. Olivia jerked her panties back up and fumbled to pull one of the blankets free to wrap around herself to hide her nakedness. Kit didn’t seem bothered by his nudity, but it was clear he was bothered by the faceless, black silhouette at the front of the cave. He snarled something in that slurred language, his voice so distorted by his rage Olivia couldn’t decipher the words. The shadowy figure said something in calm reply. Olivia blinked with surprise at the feminine voice. When Kit snarled again, the woman’s voice rose to a whiplash of command.
“You braw a female tuwa pride?” the woman demanded.
“Mahmade.”
Kit’s voice was a low, dangerous growl, his body crouched as if ready to spring. Behind him, Olivia looked frantically around for her clothes. Her jeans and shirt had never seemed to be protection before, but right now she was agonizingly aware of being vulnerable without them. She saw them folded a few yards away, and her knife was a beautiful thing, peeking from under her shirt.
“You, human girl.” The woman’s voice was as confident and commanding as an Alpha’s. Was she the cats’ Lupa? “Come here.”
“No!” screamed Kit. “Mahmayde sday wid me!”
He was nuts. Only a crazy man would scream at his Alpha female like that. Olivia edged toward her clothes, flicking a cautious glance between Kit and the woman, desperately wanting to be dressed before the Lupa exploded.
“Girl! I said come here.”
“Yes, ma’am. Just let me get dressed.”
“Right now, bitch,” the woman snarled.
When Kit let out a bone rattling roar, the woman snapped in perfectly spoken English, “Shut up, Kit. You brought her to the Pride. She’s my business now.”
“She dresz furz.”
Olivia didn’t wait for the Lupa’s permission. As she rushed to fumble her way into her pants, she was transfixed by the sight of Kit growing several inches and hair sprouting over his back. His change was nothing like her brothers’. When the Wolf Clan let their wolves out, it happened in a blink. This took transformation took over ten seconds, and the thin noise that came from Kit’s throat was pained.
The shadowy figure of the Lupa moved forward, emerging from the glare of the sun to reveal a woman as tall and broad as Aunt Glory, but with waist-length black hair and dark eyes in a harsh-featured face with thin lips. Her jeans and shirt were very tight, showing a lush body. She glared a cold challenge at Kit.
“Are you defying me, boy?” she asked.
Instead of an angry growl, the tone was gentle. So gentle it made Olivia shiver. When Uncle Taye spoke in that tone enemies died. But he never used that tone within the Pack. Did this woman treat her own people like enemies?
“Mah madte.” Kit sounded less angry, but still stubborn. “Oleeya mah madte.”
“Girl, are you finished dressing yet?”
Olivia scrambled into her shirt, shoved her feel in her boots sans socks, and surreptitiously patted the hilt of her knife on her belt. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Follow me.”
Tuesday Teaser 123014: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
This next section in Kit and Olivia’s story doesn’t have a lot of action, just a bit of information from Kit’s point of view. The cat pride is very different from the Wolf Clan, as you’ll learn. Enjoy!
Kit climbed the steep slope to his lair, carrying his mate tightly against his chest. His cave was a hundred yards from the rest of the Pride. They all knew he preferred to be alone. He brought his kills to the Pride to share, and sometimes went to them to give sex to one of the queens, but rarely did any of them come closer to him than the bottom of the slope. He would still share his kills with them, after he had set aside a portion for his human female, but he wouldn’t be giving the queens sex any longer. He had a mate of his own now, like Justin. He wondered how Justin was doing living with his mate’s human pride. Kit could never live under such confining conditions. He was a cougar for all that he couldn’t make a full change. Living in a human pride would kill him. Even if his human mate begged him to join her pride he would refuse.
In his arms, Olivia was still deep in the sleep he’d laid on her. He walked into his lair and paused to inhale her scent. His. His mate. That scent made him want to roll around in it. He needed to have her scent on him, marking him as hers. He wanted her to smell of him. Gently he put her down on the tangle of woven wool blankets he habitually curled on to nap. When would she wake? When she did, would she want him to service her immediately? He put his nose close to her crotch to sniff. She was human so he couldn’t tell if she were in heat. Often Maria, Tricia and Juanita demanded sex even when they weren’t in heat. She smelled good there. It was a happy scent. That is, her scent made him happy. He growled in anticipation.
What should he do until she woke? She needed grooming. The small cuts from his claws still hadn’t healed. That was something he could do for her. Carefully, gently, he licked over her face. She tasted of tears and her throat shamed him with the old blood from where he had accidently cut her skin with his claws. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but she had tried to deny him. He would have to learn to control himself around her. As a human, she was frighteningly fragile. His clawed fingers fumbled a little with the buttons on her shirt, but he was able to remove it and the thick undershirt she wore beneath it. He stared in confusion at the strips of fabric she had wrapped around her chest. Was it a bandage? He sniffed cautiously for blood and decided it must be something she used to protect her teats. He wanted to lick her there. Maria loved to have her teats licked and nipped. He left her chest wrappings alone and carefully groomed her belly, shoulders and back with slow swipes of his tongue.
How long would she sleep? Any of his pridemates would have thrown off his compulsion by now. Humans were weaker that cats. Maybe it would take her longer to wake up. He would wait for her to wake to service her, but he wanted her right now. At least he could rub against her and absorb her scent while he waited for her. She wore boots and socks and heavy pants with a belt and a knife on the belt. He approved of the knife. As a human female she had neither claws nor strong sharp teeth with which to defend herself. A knife was a good thing for her to have. He removed her pants, socks and boots, but decided to leave the cloth she wore around her hips in place too. He would love to groom the pink flesh between her legs, but she might be angry if he did that without her invitation.
He pondered that. Did he have to wait for an invitation? She belonged to him. When he’d first found her she had tried to deny him. Now that she was here, in his lair, wearing his scent, she would realize that she must submit to him. But he should at least wait until she woke. Females could be moody and unreasonable when it came to sex. So he satisfied himself with sniffing the rich scent from her female place and cleaning thoroughly between her toes and along the arch of her slender feet.
After he had finished grooming her he realized that with the sun down his lair was cooling rapidly and her body was chilled. She was human and would feel the cold more than he did. He had never had a fire in any of his lairs before, but he’d never had a weak human female either. A small fire would be good for her. He could put her clothes back on her too, but he didn’t want anything between their bodies when she woke and demanded sex. His pants joined hers on the floor beside them. Was she like Maria who liked her lover to be rough and screamed at him to go faster, thrust into her harder? Would she buck against him, trying to throw him off to force him to dominate her? Or was she like Juanita, who liked to play during sex and cuddle after? Or maybe was she like Tricia who indulged in the act only when her need was riding her hard, and clawed the males away as soon as she was satisfied. He hoped she liked to play. She was so delicate he might break her if she demanded he be rough with her. It was in his nature to take control during sex. Maria loved that. For her, sex was a battle. Playful would be good. He liked to play and he liked cuddling, too. Cuddling Olivia was something he would love to do.
“Wake up, Olivia,” he breathed into her hair. “Wake up, mahmadte.”
Tuesday Teaser 12/23/14: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
Christmas is *this* close! I still have some cleaning to do before the family starts arriving tomorrow, and the laundry pile is about to fall over and drown the kitties, but other than that I think I’m ready for the holiday. I hope your plans are going well too!
Here is your Tuesday Teaser from Kit and Olivia’s story. Kit is distantly related to Eddie Madison. but unlike Eddie he clues in pretty quickly that if he treats his mate roughly it hurts her. Everyone in his Pride plays rough, and since they’re all cats, they heal quickly. Olivia, he sees, doesn’t recover quickly. I think Kit is going to be a great hero! I hope you’ll enjoy this next snip.
Chapter Two
Kit ran carefully with his precious burden. His feelings about this female confused him. He didn’t like people outside the pride. He didn’t get along even with his own pridemates, and they at least left him alone most of the time. Humans were cruel. Why this one smelled so fascinating he didn’t know. He knew only that when he’d first seen her he had wanted to break her neck. Until he scented her. Then all he wanted was to get as close to her as possible. A year ago one of his pridemates had claimed a human female as his mate and gone to live with her pride. Family, the humans called it. Kit had thought him crazy. Give up the freedom of living in the wild with the Pride in exchange for a confined life with humans? But now he understood. This female was his. Utterly his and he would keep her with him, never let her go, ever. He would go to almost any lengths to make her happy. Part of him, the sliver of human reason that dimmed when he was in his shift, whispered he was acting crazy. Kit ignored the whisper. It didn’t matter what his human side thought.
“Kit!” the female said insistently again. She had tried to talk to him from time to time, but now wasn’t the time to talk. He glanced down at her, inhaling her scent, but didn’t respond. He needed to keep his attention on the rocks and trees. He was moving with all the speed he could muster, so he could have her safe in his lair before dark. It hurt him when he saw the bruises his fingers had left on her throat. Devlin had tried to warn him to be more gentle. Human females were so fragile. The bruises should already be fading, but since she was a human, he would have to take far more care with her. He resolved to never hurt her again.
Maria might not like that he was bringing a human female into the Pride. She and Juanita and Tricia were the queens and they shared all the males of the Pride between them. They might not like another female to share their males with. He didn’t care. This human, Olivia, was his. He wouldn’t allow any other male to give her sex. Olivia would be his queen. If she objected to him giving sex to the other queens he would forsake them. When Justin, his pridemate, had found his human mate last year, the human female had demanded that he service only her. That must be exhausting for Justin. Maria sometimes required three or four of the males to satisfy her when she was in heat. But Kit would be happy to spend all his time pleasing only Olivia. He snarled at the thought that she might want to invite other males to please her. He would kill any male who so much as sniffed at her. He was the youngest of them, but they all feared him. Not only was he the fastest and strongest of them in spite of only being able to take a half-form, but he was sometimes able to control their minds if he bothered to make the effort. His eyes could force them to surrender if he thought it hard enough. It was seldom worth it. His teeth and claws were easier to use. But sometimes it was good to have everyone walk away unbloodied.
He leapt from one spine of rock to another ten feet away and felt the female tense in his arms. A glance down at her showed her pale blue eyes staring up at him. In spite of a light tan, he could see her skin was naturally pale. Her fine white blond hair was long enough to flutter in the wind created by his speed. he wanted to pet it. He didn’t know if she was beautiful the way humans counted beauty, but her long bony face with its narrow long nose and high cheekbones was beautiful to him.
She tried to hide it, but he could scent her fear. Her neck with the bruises from his fingers, speckled with tiny gouges from his claws still troubled him. Once he had her safe he would tell her he regretted hurting her, but he had no time to sooth her fear now. Yes, after he had brought her to his lair, he would speak to her. There he would be secure enough to resume his man form and assure her she was safe with him. He would protect her and any kits they had. First he had to get her to his lair. He had to hide her so her pride couldn’t find her and take her away from him.
*
How long could he run like this? Olivia looked up at the sky and saw the sun was almost down. It had been at least four hours since Kit had picked her up and carried her away. His pace was faster than any racehorse and his heart rate and breathing weren’t labored. Olivia estimated he had carried her at least sixty miles. She had tried to pull a few of her hairs out and let them drop on the ground along the way from time to time. Even her father would have trouble tracking her all this way with no scent markers from her. But by now her father, brothers and the ranch hands would be searching for her. They would easily track her horse to where Kit had attacked her. After that she wasn’t sure how plain the trail would be, especially with Kit carrying her so her scent wouldn’t linger on the ground. But he was leaving some prints. Even though he crossed running water several times and moved over hard rock, surely her dad and brothers would be able to track him. She just had to leave some clues behind to help them.
Her dad would be disappointed in her. She wasn’t supposed to be more than a mile from the ranch house unless she had one of her brothers with her. According to Uncle Shadow even that was too far for a woman alone. His daughter Victoria had to scheme to get any freedom at all. Luckily Aunt Glory could stand up to Shadow better than anyone, so Vicki did get some freedom. Poor dad must be frantic to find her now. Olivia was sorry she’d pushed the limits of her freedom so far. When her dad and brothers caught up to her they’d put her in lock down for sure.
“Kit!” She’d been trying to get him to pay attention to her for the past three hours, but he’d always ignored her. Since he was running on relatively level ground now, she dared to squirm gently in his grip. “Kit, please! Let me down just for a couple minutes. I have to… I need to go to the bathroom.” When he paid no heed she pinched him and screamed, “Kit, are you listening to me?”
He glanced down at her with that alien face showing something fiercely feral and clamped his arms even tighter. “No.”
“Yes!” she snapped back. “Unless you want me to pee all over you.” She wasn’t making it up. She really did need to go, but the real reason was that her urine would be like a red flag to anyone tracking her. “Kit! Please!”
Maybe it was the “please”. He leapt up to a rock crevice and set her down. He waved a hand—paw—at the crevice. “Hurry.”
Olivia’s legs almost folded. She staggered and might have fallen if Kit hadn’t steadied her with a hand under her arm. After only a second he let her go and took one half-step back. He wanted her to pee into the deep crack in the rock. The scent would be harder for her father and brothers to catch there. She unbuckled her belt and found those rabid golden green eyes watching her carefully. Honestly shocked, she stopped.
“Can’t you go away for a minute?” she asked stiffly.
“No.”
“Then you have to turn around,” she demanded.
“Why?” he asked in apparent confusion.
“Because it’s not polite to watch someone go to the bathroom!”
That strange feline face showed bafflement. Was he totally untamed? Didn’t he know anything about common courtesy? Privacy? She felt suddenly cold. He really was feral. “Kit,” she began. Saying please seemed to help before. She tried it again. “Please step away and turn your back. It’s not like I’m stupid enough to try to run off. I know you’d catch me to two seconds. Okay? Please?”
After staring at her for a long minute he did as she asked. It was embarrassing for her, but she quickly did her business and did her best to leave evidence for her father to find. Before she had even finished buckling her belt Kit was back, swinging her up in his arms and sprinting off again. Even her father couldn’t cover ground this quickly. Her urine scent would be gone before he came this way. Helpless tears stung her eyes and in spite of her efforts, she couldn’t force them back. Kit looked down at her as he ran. His eyes really were pretty, in a fierce, non-human sort of way. Intense and staring steadily in hers, his eyes filled her sight. She felt like he was trying to hypnotize her. Her effort to look away failed.
“Sleep,” he commanded in a fierce purr-growl. “Sleep, mahmade.”
And somehow, without her meaning for them to, her eyelids dropped and she slept.
Tuesday Teaser 12/16/14: Daughter of the Wolf Clan
Oh, dear. Today’s teaser is very short. Sorry! Does it help if I tell you I’m writing the first love scene between Sky and Rose? Well, it’s not a full love scene. I have to ease them into this. After all, they’re both virgins. Rose is giving off confusing signals and Sky is reluctant to push her for fear of frightening her. But they’ve just woken up in the same bed, and they must have drawn close together in sleep, because when Sky wakes up Rose had her face pressed into his chest and they have their arms around each other. Sky wakes first and just lays there with a huge smile on his face, because his mate is sleeping so trustingly in his arms. Then Rose rolls away from him onto her back and his hand ends up in an interesting place. They both freeze, shocked yet delighted. I wonder how far I should have them go before Sky forces himself to stop and let Rose flee to the shower, leaving him alone in his pristine white sheets?
Well, here is the teaser from Olivia and Kit’s story:
He hauled her up into his arms and began running. She had never travelled so fast. How could he run so fast? He was running uphill, carrying her in his arms like a baby. Even her wolf-born brothers and cousins couldn’t run like this. Over his shoulder she could see Devlin shaking his head, getting smaller and smaller.
“I told you not to challenge him,” he yelled, but Kit had carried her so far so fast that the words were very faint.
He was moving too fast for her to try to throw herself out of his arms. A spill on the steep mountainside could be fatal. Kit would get tired soon; he had to. Maybe then she could get away from him. His heart pounded calmly and steadily against her cheek, not seeming to labor at all. The wind created by his speed forced tears from her eyes. Yeah, it was the wind that made her cry. Olivia blinked the hot tears away, determined to fix landmarks in her memory to follow back home when she’d gotten away from him.
And she would get away. She might have been willing to allow him to court her, but the way he’d treated her showed her he’d be a terrible mate. Escape might be difficult, but she was her mother and father’s daughter. She could track and survive in the mountains as well as either of her brothers. Even if she wasn’t able to get away on her own, her father and brothers would come for her very soon. Grimly she settled into the steely arms that held her against a warm chest, waiting for her opportunity to escape.
See? I said it was short. Sorry! More next week!
