Geometry

Chapter 19

* * *

It was close to midnight when Marina woke from her drowse; Methos' warm familiar comfort and the soothing lilt of his whispered tale had lulled her into an exhausted sleep. Dief was still sprawled out by her side, his head resting in the hollow of her hip. She reached out and stroked his forehead, loving the feel of the fine slick fur there. All his thick downy underfur had shed out over the previous two months -a great deal of it on her bedspread and couches- and the slick rain-shedding overcoat left lacked the velvet softness of his pale underfur.

A satisfied sleepy growl rose up from Dief's throat as his mouth opened in a huge yawn, baring inch and a half fangs, but his jaws closed around Mina's wrist with an exquisitely gentle grip and tugged it around so she could scratch his chest.

The wolf rumbled in pleasure at her caress, luxuriating in the scratching as her fingers found the dry itchy spot under the fur. Had sleep quieted his lovemate's restlessness, Dief asked, the familiar rumbling vibrating against her side.

"Not really," she sighed, but eased out from under Methos' arm and curled up against Dief's shaggy back, rubbing her cheek against his broad shoulder. "But at least I can think halfway straight." God, she loved this wolf; just the sound of Dief's deep tones thrumming against her ribs was infinitely comforting.

Dief twisted around and nuzzled her chin. What troubled her, lovemate?

"I just hurt, beloved," she admitted. "Ben and Ray... ever since they saw me awaken..." she struggled to describe her unease. "Ray won't touch me, Ben keeps calling me Doctor MacLeod, it's like we're strangers again. We were making love last night, and now they don't even want to look at me."

Dief growled faintly in disapproval, the fur along his hackles rising. They were being foolish. Moving as one, not pulling away from each other, forged the strength of the pack. They feared that she wished to return to her old pack -to the Oldest One, to her clan kin- and would not hold her against her will. So they were pushing her away before she could turn and savage them. Stupid humans, their hearts knew better but their minds were not listening. She was his, and she was pack, and nothing else mattered.

That made Marina want to cry but she'd done more than enough of that today, the thought of more tears just made her tired. Perhaps she finally cried herself out. "I love you, Diefenbaker," she murmured, and the wolf rose to his feet and nudged her head back, disconcertingly intelligent understanding mirrored in his pale eyes. Dying and awakening erased the bruises from her neck, but this time when Dief gripped her throat in his teeth he just held her pinned against the mattress, a silent affirmation of their bond.

"Possessive," she teased, burying her hands in his ruff and marveling at how safe, how loved she felt sprawled on her back with the jaws of a dangerous predator clamped around her throat. Welcome to her life, Weirdity-R-Us.

"You're talking to him, aren't you?" Methos' question was obviously rhetorical, but he was watching them, head propped up on one arm. Bare-chested and with dark hair rumpled from sleep and falling over his forehead, he was hardly the picture of a five thousand year old Immortal. He looked more like the graduate student he perpetually masqueraded as instead.

Dief released her throat, licked her face affectionately and settled down between them. Mina rolled onto her side and draped herself over the wolf's bulk gladly, resting her chin on Dief's back.

"Yes."

Methos cocked his head and pushed the rumpled black locks out of his eyes with a careless hand. "How do you hear him? Do you hear words or just concepts?"

"Mostly words, although he's placed images in my mind several times," she replied, threading her fingers through his ruff again. "Dief speaks several languages, so he's used to articulating in human fashion."