Feral Bonds

Chapter 46

They found Gretchen and Keira feeding the chickens. With magic. Natania snorted at the floating bag of chicken feed floating around the coop. They were so intent upon it that they didn't notice Natania and Koda entering the coop.

Natania reached for Gretchen's hand, then winced at the sharp sting of magic. The bag of feed exploded and Gretchen leaped away from her. "Shit, Nat. I'm so sorry." Gretchen put her hands to her face in horror and Natania waved her away.

"My fault for sneaking up on you." Natania shook out her hand and held it out again. Gretchen smiled at her and laced their fingers. There was no zing of magic that time.

"Let's leave them to talk," Keira murmured to Koda, before leading him out of the coop.

"I'm sor-" they started at the same time and laughed.

"You go ahead," Gretchen murmured, squeezing her hand.

Natania searched her gaze, then pulled her into a tight hug. Gretchen wrapped her arms around her shoulders and buried her face in her neck. They clung to each other, neither of them speaking. Until one of the chickens squawked loudly, startling them.

Natania laughed and took Gretchen's hand, dragging her out of the chicken coop. Natania shut the door softly and leaned against it.

"I'm so, so sorry," Gretchen said. "I never should have kept this from you. Rolf was so certain that you would just..." Gretchen trailed off, then started again, "and then when things started to get better, I wanted to tell you and then I started thinking what if you did choose to leave because of it, and I chickened out. It was selfish, I'm sorry."

Natania inhaled slowly and closed her eyes. This was the time to decide, to either forgive her, or push her away. Natania blinked open her eyes and stared at Gretchen. "Anything else you want to tell me?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Gretchen said with a sad smile. "You?"

Natania held her gaze. "He wants me to kill you."

Gretchen furrowed her eyebrows. "He's... talking to you again?"

"Yes."

"Since when?"

Natania glanced away. "Ten months."

Gretchen stepped forward. "Ten months? And you didn't-"

Natania held up a hand. "We both kept secrets we shouldn't have. I'm not going to yell at you, you don't get to yell at me."

"Fine." Gretchen set her jaw. "What are we going to do about it?"

"There's nothing we can do," Natania said. "Not without more wolves. I need to learn to control it."

"Nat-"

"We knew this would happen," Natania interrupted. "I didn't expect it to be quite so soon, but we knew it would eventually." Natania scratched her head. "He's not so bad, not always. But when he's hungry..."

"Well," Gretchen scoffed, "no shortage of food around here."

"Exactly." Natania grinned at her.

Gretchen reached out and cupped her face. The beast rumbled inside her and Natania shoved him away. No, she thought sternly. Mine. His presence eased, he had been weakened by Keira's power drain, and Natania leaned into her hand.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Gretchen whispered.

"I will be," Natania replied softly. It was her new mantra.

Gretchen searched her gaze for another long moment before leaning down and kissing her. Natania rumbled with pleasure. "Not here," she whispered against Gretchen's lips. "Let's go home."