Grayell smiled in an completely relaxed manner now, he loved it when she played with his hair, groomed it and now... braiding it. He rode that warm wave that overcame him and kissed her chest, just an affection kiss.
Well it's not easy. I didn't do so well myself. Big barbarian brute like me. I wasn't well received.
Kiko glanced at him. She rolled completely over to face him, propping her hand up on her elbow and her chin in her palm. Her eyes went over his body, too. She started at the top of his head and lingered for a moment on his features before continuing down his chest and legs.
You are very big.
Her lips twitched.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell's eyebrow slid up of course but his grin was determinedly absent. He ran a finger from her forehead, gently down her nose and over her lips, eyes watching it every slow inch of the way.
So I'm told. And so very feral. Just a brute. Uncultured. How terrible...
Kiko leaned forward to kiss his eyebrows and then moved to place the same gentle caress over his eyes, nose, and mouth. She was well acquainted with the stigma of such herself.
Not to me.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Kiko's brushed her chin through his white hair. She ran her face over it when he dropped below her.
I do.
Kiko's voice was still soft, but it was stronger now and content.
You are uninhibited. You find joy in all life. You enforce balance in your territory. You abide by pack structure when caring for the young and new born. You, like the wolf, know your surroundings.
Her hands came up over his back to find his chin and turn his face so that she could look at him.
You are alpha. My Chosen.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Kiko said nothing more just coiled her arms and body around him. She lazed beside in the soft grass with the stars above her head and the fire crackling next to them. Her hand was tangled around his fingers, and she could hear his heartbeat.
For Kiko, what he said meant so much more than any other words.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell smiled and then turned his head to look at those stars. They alone watched them, he and his mate, his woman, his Chosen, his own Alpha. She was everything to him in every capacity and without her at his side, his strength was pointless. She understood it as well as he did. She was the pack mother, his Raksha.
She was stronger than he and for that, he loved her like none other.
Kiko realized only now how much the swim had taken out of her. She drifted off to sleep in Grayell's arms. And while she slept, she dreamed.
She was standing on a small hill overlooking the lake but it wasn't her lake; that is, one she recognized from her childhood. No, this lake was so large she could not see the opposite shoreline. In fact, there was nothing that she could see but the expansive water. That, and the beach at the base of the hill.
Then the foam of the waves poured back from the sand and a large wolf was loping away from the lake and toward a figure. Kiko had a sense that the figure was female, not that there was any indication of it from this distance. She watched the animal rush up to it, though, and them both turn to walk inland.
Kiko saw them walk for far longer than should have been possible, or perhaps she followed them unknowingly, for they did not walk out of her sight. She stayed with them as they came across a group of hunters and simply faded away.
The hunters never saw them, and they went from being substantial figures to empty space so fast she could only gape. Kiko stopped in her tracks blinked and when she opened her eyes all she saw was the fire. She did not know how long she had been asleep, or if it was even a dream. But, she knew the pair.
Okikurumi and Turesh. It was a legend among her people. How the creator had sent Okikurumi in the shape of a wolf down to the mountaintop. How he and Turesh, his wife; bore a son that became their primogenitor.
Kiko tilted her head to look at the Wolf. She brushed the braid of hair that had yet to come undone across his shoulder gently. If he was asleep she did not want to wake him.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell is still asleep and is dreaming as well. A slight, feint smile is on his lips and he looks at peace, something unusual in his slumber.
His dream is simple. He is crouched, the wind about him, the rock beneath him high over a gully. In that gully is the pack he watches, not the whole pack but those that draw his attention. An Alpha pair are lounging outside their den, tongues and ears expressing their ease, their feeling at home, their love for one another.
And from the dimness of the den mouth, comes a small squadron of scamps, only just old enough to venture into the light in order to torment their mother and father. They tuck and roll and bounce and growl, yip and bay and pull at tails, lick faces, shove their noses into their parent's sides. They tug at ears and fall on their rears, ears flopping about without a care, bright beady eyes amazed at the new world.
He smiles... and frowns. The sight within his eyes carry happiness. The empty in his heart, if only sleight and wanting something he no longer has.... well it hurts. But he studies them again and laughs in his dream, his expression happy once more.
In the real world, Grayell's face twitches and his head shifts to scratch his ear on the ground beneath him. Something has tugged at his ear elsewhere.... and it tickles.
Kiko had to smile. She glanced down at him the braid settled behind his ear. She should get up, stoke the fire, make some tea but none of it seems to really matter right at this moment.
She went quiescent in his arms and settled back against his chest. The sky was just now changing from indigo into a lighter hue. And, farther away, up in the tree line she'd raced through yesterday to catch him birds were waking up.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell remained entirely asleep but his body knew her by the slightest touch. He did not wake, but his arm fell over her side and pulled to her chest then, his face again nuzzling against her neck.
The tiny waves of the lake washed to the shore in gentle breaths as the birds sung their morning chorus and whilst he slumbered with her in his arms, she could watch the sun rise past the fire.
Kiko did watch the sunrise cradled in his arms. She had watched thousands of them and would watch thousands more. Each one was a brand new pleasure on the bright canvas of the sky. Kiko waited until the sun was heading upward past the horizon before turning her head to place gentle kisses on Grayell's brow.
In a minute she would wiggle out from his arms and get up. Right. In a few minutes.
Eternity
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Grayell's lips twitched with the kisses and she could feel him take a breath, his back stretch, his arm shift. His eyes cracked open, saw her there and then came over with an instantaneous recognition and admiration. He squeezed her then, licking his lips.