Feral Bonds

Chapter 19

Natania woke up sometime during daylight, Lily curled around her. She must have fallen asleep again sometime after they had made it back to the bed. She flexed each of her joints and gave herself a once over, looking for bruises or marks out of habit, and smiled a little when she found nothing. Lily absolutely had the strength to hurt her, but she hadn't. Natania shuddered a little with relief.

The first several minutes had been difficult, but Lily was patient, and they'd gotten over enough hurdles to have a good time. As long as Lily didn't try to pin her, or touch her throat with her hands, she could manage. They hadn't tried to ease those scars, since Natania reacted to those with violence, not fear. Lily didn't trust herself to not respond in kind, and they didn't need a repeat of their training sessions in her bedroom.

Natania glanced at the clock. It was only one in the afternoon. Three hours before the vampires woke up for the day, nights were long in this area, which was why they lived there. She could go back to her room and kill time, but she didn't really want to leave.

It was the first time having someone around her hadn't resulted in panic. Natania tugged up the blanket, Lily had returned to her normal temperature so she was a little cold, then nestled back into her and fell back to sleep.

Natania blinked open her eyes when Lily stirred, still half asleep.

"Oh." Lily dropped her arms and frowned at her. "You stayed."

Natania yawned. "Is that a problem?"

"Hmm." Lily trailed cold fingers along her stomach. "Not really." Lily narrowed her eyes as they flashed with hunger. "But you should go. I'm hungry, and you have to feed him."

Natania grumbled. "He can wait."

Lily shook her head and extracted herself from the blankets. "That's not how this works, Wolfie." She dug in her wardrobe for fresh clothing, tossing a shirt so it landed over Natania's head before dressing herself in a tightly fitted black dress.

Natania shook it off and frowned at her. When she didn't immediately get up to leave Lily turned a disappointed look her way. "I told you, I don't do fuss. We play, we have fun, that's it." Natania winced at the irritation in her tone. "You're cute and all, but I'm over it. Go do your job."

Natania set her jaw, her chest tightening at the rejection. She knew that, but she hadn't expected to just be discarded immediately afterwards. She hesitated, unwilling to be exposed anymore. She felt vulnerable, fragile.

"I mean it, Nat. Get out."

"Fine." Anger was safer than this tight, constricting feeling in her chest. So she let it coat her. Ignoring the offered shirt, she didn't want to smell like the vampire anymore than she already did, she shifted and slunk off the bed.

She could open doors as a wolf, but Lily opened it for her anyway. Natania flicked her tail in acknowledgement, trying not to let her fur bristle, and headed back to her own room. Grabbing a fresh set of clothes in her teeth, she didn't care if they got wrinkled, she turned to the bathroom. She wasn't going to be able to think if she spent the day covered in the vampire's scent.

The shower washed away her anger, until all she felt was hollow. She didn't understand how Lily could go from so kind and caring to dismissive, like flipping a light switch. Had she done something wrong? Or was Lily just finally sick of her, now that she'd gotten what she wanted? The thought made her ill.

Her hair was still wet when she finally made it to Vincent. "You're late," he growled.

"Yeah, sorry," she muttered, kicking at the ground with her toes.