20 Take You Home (2/2)

Hunter met Ash's eyes briefly and then he looked down.

”I'm not supposed to tell you, but yes. My family. My father and my grandfather are werewolves too. The men in our line are all descended from werewolves.”

”Does your mother know?”

”Yes. My mother and my grandmother know. Well, my grandmother knew. She passed a long time ago, but I know she knew. They were gypsies. They knew everything.”

Hunter felt Ash pulling her hands back from his. It was hurting something inside of him to feel that she was pulling away, but he couldn't understand why that was. Every other little thing she did when they were together seemed to be pulling strings inside of him, making him feel things he couldn't quite understand.

Ash folded her hands in her lap and stared at her fingers. Her shoulders visibly went up as she took a huge breath.

”I don't know if I'm descended from anything. I didn't really know my mother nor my father. Maybe they were werewolves too,” she said sadly.

”I'm sorry, Boots.”

Ash reached out her hand and patted his knee.

”No, it's all right. It happened a long time ago. It couldn't be helped,” she said, giving him a wan smile.

Hunter noticed that Ash was a very tactile person. She didn't seem to think twice about touching his hands when they talked or when she was trying to make a point. He liked it, he liked it every time he could feel her touching him.

Now he could feel her sadness in a way that affected him directly. He didn't for her like he would for a stranger with a sad story: he felt how she felt, exactly as she felt it. It was like her feelings had seeped under his skin, and he was feeling her pain for himself. He felt tears well up in his eyes even though he wasn't sad for himself.

[We have a really strong connection between us. Is this what it means to pair bond?] Hunter wondered as he felt the alien sadness filling up his senses.

”I've told you everything now,” he said to her.

He didn't know what else to say, and so he spoke just to fill the silence.

She looked up at him, unshed tears building up in her eyes. She ran a finger across her eyelid and flicked away an imaginary tear. Then she gave a small, soft laugh.

”I should kiss you then.”

Ash reached out with her right hand and grasped the back of Hunter's neck. Her fingers pressed gently into the skin on his nape, tangling with the hair on the back of his head and her thumb rested lightly just behind his ear. She closed her eyes and pressed her lips against Hunter's slightly parted mouth. He was surprised, then he closed his eyes and pressed back against her soft lips.

They stayed that way for a moment, lips simply pressed together, unmoving. And then they both took a breath at the same time, nearly gasping as if they'd both run out of breath at the same time.

Ash could feel Hunter's pulse beneath her palm. Her own heartbeat seemed to match his rhythm. When she felt him inhale at the same time she did, she felt a surge of blue lightning go through her body.

She grasped Hunter's nape with both hands and climbed into his lap, straddling him. He wrapped his arms around her, one hand cradling the back of her neck and the other hand holding her by the small of her back.

They moaned against each other's mouths, grinding their bodies against each other. Ash ran her hands over the front of Hunter's shirt, feeling his chest, then grasped his broad shoulders and dug her fingers into the muscles there. Hunter ran his hands down Ash's sides over her white shirt, tracing the curves of her breasts with his fingertips.

Hunter felt the warmth inside him spread all over his body. He wanted to trace his fingers all over Ash's warm skin. He wanted to push her on her back and take her on the dusty floor of the back building. He needed her to say yes to him. He wanted her to say yes to everything his body wanted from her.

Ash traced a line of kisses from Hunter's lips down his jaw and on to his neck. She was so warm, it felt like her fever had returned. She grazed her teeth on the skin of Hunter's neck, causing him to throw his head back and inhale sharply through his nose. As Ash closed her teeth around the skin at his collarbone, Hunter responded with a low growling moan from his throat.

He took Ash's face in his hands and planted a wet kiss on her mouth, running his tongue all around the inside of her mouth.

Then he pulled away just enough so that the tips of their noses were barely touching.

”I want to take you home,” he said to her, breathless.

Their faces were flushed and they stared into each other's eyes as they both struggled to catch their breath.

***

Deep in the woods, a dark shadow carrying a single drop of werewolf blood was making it's way deep into the earth.