Exile Empire, Exile The Second

Chapter 7 - Sorin

Everything was a blur from traveling through the marshmallow spaces between my parents and Kairos. That's what it had felt like at least, like swimming through marshmallow. My limbs had been trapped in thick matter and my lungs had filled with what felt like water.

I'd fought the throat choke sensation of not being able to breathe and finally pushed one last time before slipping out of a crack in the wall near the tea shop.

Wolf had been the one to scent her first, he'd led me to her as I'd recovered from the trip.

It hadn't been easy, expelling the last of the thick matter from my lungs, and when it had hit the sidewalk, it had sizzled and dissipated like steam into the night air.

Strange. My biology degree didn't cover spells, magic, or traveling through dimensions, and I was unable to identify what I'd just inhaled.

She was mad of course, and had run, of course.

I'd prepared myself for that. What I hadn't prepared myself for was how extremely fucking turned on I was around her. I was an idiot, I could barely string two sentences together, let alone manage an entire conversation looking into her unnerving golden eyes or trying to not look at the swell of her breasts.

Nice breasts, wolf thought. So nice.

"Yeah, buddy, very nice," I said.

I lay in the dark on the sofa in her friend's place and I felt her upstairs. Like a simmering pot of stew in the kitchen, no matter where you are in the house you know it's there by the constant awareness of it, the danger of it potentially catching fire, and the steam it emitted as it bubbled slowly.

Stew, wolf thought, and I had an image of an entire unprocessed deer carcass hanging out of a gigantic pot over an open fire in the middle of the woods. He drifted off to sleep with that image on his mind.

"Not like that," I said, but he was already gone and I was alone with my thoughts. As much as I ever was. But as I made the deep dive into my possible futures with Kairos, I followed wolf into sleep.

* * *

What was that? wolf woke me up, blasting into my head. What were you doing?

I was groggy, but woke up part way.

"A dream," I said, rubbing my forehead. "You were with me in a dream? Since when?"

Since forever, wolf replied. Never told you.

"You sly bastard," I chuckled and went to sleep before him this time.

After that, she came back to me and invited me up. Wolf was loud this time, loud enough to leave my ears ringing from the sound of his howling bellow.

She wants us! he barked and carried on, racing around the confines of my chest until it hurt.

"Yes, but calm down," I replied as we went upstairs.

I curled up on the floor next to her bed, much like wolf with me. As much as my body ached to climb under the covers with her and claim her at last, she was Kairos Empire and flighty as a deer in the springtime. I'd respect her barriers until the time came.

And then I'd make my move and make her mine.

Sleep came and went in soft waves, crashing against me like I was the sand and it, the ocean. I was restless, never quite slipping deep under, but mostly pacing along the edge in the shallows.

I was aware of her movements on the bed above me, and I was aware of her own fretful thrashing to and fro.

And I was fully aware as she climbed down and edged her body against mine. I didn't move; I hesitated even rolling against her to wrap my arm around her to let her know she was safe.

Even wolf, when he woke briefly, wasn't driven by his normal need to eat or fuck. Even he sensed she needed us like that, quiet in the dark, her protector.

And it was there in the dark, listening to the steady rhythm of her breath and feeling the heat of her body against mine, I fell in love with Kairos Empire on a deeper level above and beyond the magic of our connection.

It was there that wolf and I both agreed we'd give our lives for her. She was our pack, she was our mate, and she was our love.

We would die to keep her safe.