Primal Promise

Thirty-One

The sun was coming.  He crawled back away from her, not wanting to wake her as it triggered the change and his form broke and atrophied and with that aching feeling akin to when you slept wrong on your arm, except it was his whole body, he took deep lungfuls of air in the clearing, looking toward the figure of his wife.  

He had hurt her.  He knew it.  There was no forgiveness for what he'd done, just acceptance.  The bond was made.   The Tikaaningan was secure.   He felt it himself.  Whole.  The nervous prickle at the base of his skull that had been as much a part of him as his own name was gone.   He shivered and knew that she must be chilled.  Smart girl that she was, she'd at least brought clothes, but the dew had made them soaked and colder than the air.   He folded his skin reverently and draped it over his arm as he moved over to rouse her.  

He lived in fear of the moment she opened her eyes and he had to see the look of disgust, of fear, of fright... but her hazels held only affection as she smiled slowly.  "Mmm.  Morning."  She winced as she stretched, reminded of what the night before had held.   

"Come with me."  he pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arm around her, guiding her along through the woods.  "Let's get you warmed up."  He chuckled. "I didn't expect you to have gotten so far.  I would have planned better." 

"Well, I didn't want to be a disappointment to you."   She admitted sheepishly. 

"Never."  he leaned down and kissed her on the top of her head. 

They walked for a while before she broke the silence.   "Is he you?  I mean, are you in there or is it like ... multiple personalities?"

"He is me.  The most primal part of me.  I'm there.  I watched."  He felt a pang of shame but he would always be honest. "I was... participating."   He helped her up and wrapped his arms around her.  "I let him drive now and then but I'm always in the car." 

"Mm." A sound of comprehension, nodding against his chest.  "So what happens now?"

"Now..." he smiled to himself.   "We go home. Take a long shower, maybe have some breakfast?"  

"I mean..." she walked as he lead, stopping after a bit to put her shoes on, as her feet were not made for going around unshod.   "Is that ... what sex is going to be like for me from now on?"

"It was required by my biology to 'seal the deal' as it were.   If you never want to see that part of me again, you don't ever have to."  He could not hide the disappointment in his voice, though it was washed away with a smile at his next words. "This part of me will assure you are more than taken care of as far as the bedroom goes.  In fact..." his hand slid down from her shoulders to run over her waist and over her backside.  "I fully plan to spend the day doing just that." 

She giggled and swatted at him, blushing. "Jameson I'm trying to be serious here."  She sobered.  "I know you were worried.  Are  worried, that I don't love that part of you.  I do.  I want to know him as well as I know you.  I ...I want to make you happy.  All you are, I love with all I am."  

He looked down at her and took her hands in his.  "I love you too.  All I am. " 

"It's no different than any other couple.   I mean, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Average... at church every Sunday, playing in the park with their kids,  at the Wal-Mart buying oatmeal and toilet bowl cleaner ... you'd never know that secretly they have a special closet full of paddles and nipple clamps for special occasions."  she wagged her brows at him. 

He grinned.  "So your secret kink is getting naked in the woods and being mounted by a ravenous beast?"

"Why?   You know where I can find one?"  Her cheeks warming as she bit her lip.  

"Ten.. nine... " he let her go.  "Eight, Seven..."  He grinned as she took off, laughing as she headed down the trail, hands cupping her bouncing breasts as she ran.   "six... fivefourthreetwoone!" and with a little, wholly human growl, he dropped her clothes and his skin to be retrieved later, chasing down his wife to show her that the beast would never compare to the hunger of the man.