Feral Bonds

Chapter 5

Lily left her alone as Natania pushed open the door and looked around. The room was simple, but elegant. Red and gold dominated the room just like it had the rest of the house. The carpets and bedding were red fabric, with gold accents and oak furniture. A double bed with far too many pillows lay in the center, and there was a vanity, wardrobe and desk along the other walls. One corner held a red recliner with a reading lamp on a table behind it. A clock on the bedside table told her it was two in the morning.

Natania was so tired she would have slept out in a bush outside, but the bed was nice, too. She shifted into her wolf form and climbed on, curling into a tight ball in the center, and drifted off almost immediately.

She was running, running, running, pain aching down her bonds with that bitter, biting pain that only meant death. The body of a soft blue-grey wolf dropped at her paws. "No, no, no, no," she moaned, collapsing to her knees.

Desperately she tried to give the wolf CPR, reaching over to give her a breath and only then seeing the broken bones of her neck. Dead.

"No," she whispered, reaching into her bonds and ripping strength out of them, pouring it into the wolf at her feet. Her mate. Fur brushed her leg as a wolf beside her collapsed, her power drain on the verge of killing them all.

"Stop, Natania." That voice she hated above all others.

"No," she snarled back, she could save her, she could.

"You're going to kill our entire pack, she's dead, stop." His voice was a roar that could have shattered glass.

"No-"

A hand slammed into her skull-

She awoke with a start. No longer surrounded by the forest of her home. Instead, her paws twisted in soft blankets. Everything was unfamiliar, she shot to her feet, or tried to, the feeling of arms around her neck made her freeze with terror.

Natania took shallow, quick breaths as reality slowly came back to her. She was in Vincent's home, one of his rooms, but why were there arms around her? Natania jerked hard, pulling out of their grip and tumbling off the bed.

Hands caught her before she could hit the ground and Lily dumped her back onto the bed. Natania panted with fear as she stared at the vampire. Why in the hells had she been in her bed?

"Sorry," Lily said, holding her hands up in a pacifying gesture. "I heard you cry out in your sleep and came to watch over you." She scratched her head. "I guess I must have died for the day before I could remember to leave."

Natania bristled and snapped her teeth in warning. How long had the vampire been there? And she'd been too exhausted to even notice? She shouldn't have let her guard down. Not here. Not with strangers.

"Yes well," Lily shrugged, "I'm sorry." She looked around the room. "But if I'm awake, then the master is too, which means it's feeding time. So, come along."

If the vampires were already waking up, that meant she had slept for more than thirteen hours. Natania slunk off the bed, baring her teeth at Lily when she reached for her. The vampire flinched and she felt a stab of guilt, which made her even angrier. What did she have to feel guilty about? The vampire had climbed into her bed, uninvited.

"I'm sorry," Lily whispered again. "Sometimes the dying comes on more suddenly than normal." She made a frustrated noise. "I was just worried about you, it was never my intention to scare you."

Natania pinned her ears, but cut off her growling.

Lily led the rest of the way in silence, eventually opening the door to a far larger bedroom and making a dramatic bow.