Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.
Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of sexual content.
Background
Celeste and Gregor realize they are Fated Mates... But just because a mate is chosen by the Fates, does not mean the road will be an easy one...
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Gregor watched until she ducked into the large rhododendron, the tell-tale flash of light emanating from within it shortly after.
Celeste. His fated mate’s name was Celeste. And she was safe for the night.
He’d known of the hidden doorway for some time now – it was his duty as alpha-heir to know all there was to know about his clan’s domain, especially the immediate area surrounding his residence. He had his lieutenants for the rest. However, it was only as of late that the entrance to the local herd’s magically-cloaked encampment had become important to him. Something about which he had wondered right up until he’d seen her honest denial of her kind’s glowing, felt the warmth of her spread through his skin and deep into other places.
Raising his still-tingling hand to his sensitive nose, Gregor inhaled her scent again, closing his eyes even as he allowed his other hand to palm his still-rigid member. Lids falling past half-closed, a growl escaped from within as he allowed his hand to tighten painfully. Frustration borne of both physical desire and situational irony rose up from inside, and he threw his head back to release it.
The howl that split the night carried for miles, and Gregor could not find it in himself to care. Therapeutic. That’s what his sister – the uptown, fully-acclimated-to-human-living but to-werewolves-only psychologist – would say. And he did feel somewhat better, although another part of him still cried out for relief. Gripping that part one last time, he growled and, with a deep cleansing breath, set his feet toward the clubhouse.
Gregor froze after only a few steps. No, he couldn’t go there. His brothers in Les Loups Perdus would smell his Celeste on him before he even stepped foot in the door. Smelling like a human female was one thing – hell, some of the older, unmated wolves brought them in the clubhouse and used them in the low-lit areas near the back entrance. As long as the humans were willing, he let it go. But Gregor didn’t know how many of his ‘brothers’ – especially the few that he knew were spying for his father – could discern the difference between a human and a fairy by scent alone.
Andre would search him out – he was the only one in the group that would miss his non-reappearance in their small outside gathering this evening. The rest were simply there enjoying an evening together before going home to their families.
Family...Gregor felt the tension inside of him. This whole thing was going to cause strife in many families, he had no doubt.
His hand instinctively rubbed his chest where he’d felt something pass between he and Celeste during their lustful embrace. He grinned and licked his lips even as he wondered if it was something that could be detected. Had his Celeste marked him in some way? He found that thought arousing on a whole other level…
But it also brought him back to the sobering reality of everything he now faced. What they would face.
“Do not try to take the joy you’ve shown me tonight, Sweet Goddess.” Gregor looked up at Her in supplication – her gentle aura currently filling the night sky even above the city lights. “Let her be our secret until I can figure something out. I won’t forsake the will of the Fates, I promise.”
As if in reassurance from the Moon Goddess herself, a soft breeze wafted across his upturned face despite the eerie stillness of the evening.
Gregor had always felt at ease with the rules of the clan, with their cool if not somewhat subdued reverence to their goddess and her ways. But in recent years, as his father pushed to expand their clan’s foothold here in the human reality without much regard for that reverance, he’d felt a strain on the tentative bond he’d once felt to have with him.
How long had it been since there had been a Fated Celebration of Joining for anyone in their clan?
The question whispered across his mind, and he shook his head, searching his memories.
Stopping abruptly, he noticed he had arrived at his small place where he stayed while in town. As he began to search his keys out of his pocket, his mind continued to wander.
Was it really that long ago?
He stopped short of inserting the key and leaned his forehead against the door.
He had a vague recollection of a celebration when he had been too young to remember his age, but he did remember his father’s derogatory comments…and his mother’s reactions to them.
“As if any power chooses a mate for us – Stephen just likes her huge tits!”
His father had growled under his breath in the front seat, throwing their family sedan into park. Gregor had tried to sink into the back seat as he usually did when his father’s anger assaulted his young senses.
“Mating is a way to strengthen the clan, not weaken it!” He’d cut those amber eyes at his mother. “Just like ours did, right?”
His mother had almost imperceptibly nodded her head.
“My son” – he’d glanced in the rearview mirror at Gregor – “will benefit from it. Come on – let’s all go be ‘officially happy’ for a wolf and a fucking bear!”
His dad opened and slammed the door, leaving his mother to help him out of the back seat. She’d had to practically peel him off the seat, speaking in her gentle yet firm voice – her broken French-English still clear in his head.
“Stand, Gregor. You are Alpha-Heir. When you are Alpha, you remember time like this, oui?” He’d glanced up at his mother’s pained face – her eyes holding both a great anger and a great sadness. “Mating should be sharing, not contract.”
“But…?” His voice still sounded small in his memory.
His mother’s voice had gotten firm and almost harsh at that moment as she’d stood him on the ground and taken his hand. He was pretty sure he’d heard her try to muffle a sob.
“No ‘buts’, mon cheri. Fated mates, eez les cadeaux from Luna. To deny them is to sentence yourself to much unhappiness.” Right then, he’d known he heard her sob. “Pour toujours.”
She shut the car door and seemed to rub her face – had she been crying? – as they walked to follow his father through the open door at which he’d not even bothered to wait for them.
Together, they had joined a celebration that had never again been repeated in his lifetime.
Was that his father’s doing? Or had his clan been cursed because of him, their Alpha?
Gregor took a deep breath, stood up straight, and unlocked the door. He needed a drink.
Celeste’s lovely blushing smile appeared again across his vision, her taste rising to tantalize his tongue.
Growling and shaking her away for now, he flipped on the light in the small studio apartment to a sink full of dishes and pots that had sat for how many days? He really wasn’t sure. He just stood there with the door open for a few seconds – his elongated nails digging into the surface as he ran through his mother’s words again.
He heard footsteps approaching from the street. Catching a hint of Andre, he grinned to himself and swung the door to shut behind him as he walked forward toward the kitchen area. Feeling the four walls closing in on him, he realized it was not a drink that he needed – his fur itched beneath his skin as his frustration began to rise. No, what he really needed was to…
“So, what was so damn special about that skinny-assed chick in a hoodie that had you running off without explanation?” Andre caught the door Gregor had pushed before it latched, let himself in, and closed it behind him.
Gregor and Andre had been friends since their primary years and were similar in build, although Gregor carried a bit more upper body bulk in musculature. Their bond ran deep, held together by secrets neither spoke of out loud. They were the kind that didn’t have to be spoken – that either of them would die before uttering. So, when Gregor rounded on Andre – a purely instinctive move given Andre’s unwitting insult of his mate – Andre didn’t even flinch.
“I need to get outta here, Dray.” A growl rolled up from inside of Gregor as he stood nose to nose with his friend – an obviously exercised Gregor’s incisors trying to drop.
Without breaking their eye contact, Andre noticeably sniffed the air as he took in Gregor's threatening stance.
“No sex, eh?" Andre gave Gregor a quick once over, eyes alight with mischief as he took one long last breath through his nose. "And with her against you like that, it’s no wonder you’re all snarly.” Andre smirked as he walked past him, bumping his friend’s tense shoulder on purpose. He opened the refrigerator and grabbed a couple of plastic bottles of water. Turning, he tossed Gregor one.
“Catch.”
Not expecting the toss, Gregor almost dropped it. Gregor looked at the bottle incredulously and back up at his friend.
“What the hell part of–”
“I’m not riding with you anywhere until you cool down a bit. Eating asphalt is not high on my list of activities this evening.” Sophisticated and rough – it was Andre’s signature style. He opened his bottle, offering it in silent ‘cheers’ to Gregor, and took a quick drink – his actions an encouragement for Gregor to follow suit. "For either of us.”
Gregor just growled again, ripping the cap and the entire top off his water bottle. But just as he was about to raise the shredded opening to his lips, two things happened: common sense caught up with him and he noticed Andre’s amused, raised-eyebrow-look ping-ponging between the mangled bottle and his face.
Gregor huffed a bit of laughter in spite of his frustration. Or maybe because of it. Either way, he threw his head back, opened his mouth wide and poured some water into it from the hole that had once been a bottle neck. Then he closed his mouth and continued to dribble some more water there, scrubbed his face, and shook his head. Okay, so yeah, that actually felt pretty good.
“Your dad pissed again about something else to do with next week’s ceremony?”
Gregor froze in his quasi-shower reverie for a moment, taking careful appraisal of his friend’s questioning look that accompanied his seemingly benign query. Then he well and truly laughed – albeit somewhat darkly this time.
Celeste’s whine of desire before they had physically parted echoed through his mind. Growling low, Gregor tried to shake it off, as if it were actually attached to him and could be dislodged. If only…
Taking a final swallow as well as spilling some water down his front, Gregor stepped up into his best friend’s space, his mood sobering completely. He let his eyes wonder all around the space as if to spy something that was not there.
“A run, Dray.” He tossed the bottle into the sink behind Andre. “Where we can talk, oui?”
Andre nodded his understanding – he knew Gregor didn’t trust that he wasn’t being spied on. Taking a final swig out of his own bottle, he tossed it to join Gregor’s.
“I was gonna se–”
“We’ll be done long before morning,” Gregor interrupted him, locking the door as they exited, “I have somewhere to be at sunrise.”
Knowing that he wouldn’t get an answer now, Andre walked in silent solidarity beside Gregor to their bikes. The ride out to the clan’s sprawling estate outside of town would give them each time to think.
to be continued...
**‘Obsessive Tendencies’ is an adult fantasy novel about a reality in which the fantasy realm has somehow been merged with our human one. Celeste is a woodland fairy and Gregor is a werewolf alpha-heir. This is the third chapter in their story.
petit cadeau --> (French) tiny gift
oui --> (French) yes
mon cheri --> (French term of endearment) my sweet or my cherished
les cadeaux --> (French) gifts
Pour toujours --> (French) forever
CAST OF CHARACTERS:
Celeste (woodland fairy) – her herd lives in a magical encampment in Gregor’s were-clan’s domain. They are not associated with werewolves at all.
Gregor (werewolf) – Alpha-heir to the Charbonneau werewolf clan, the largest clan in the Southeast United States.
Andre (werewolf) – best friend and trusted lieutenant to Gregor.
Author Notes
Barring any more unforeseen 'happenings' (knock on wood, throw salt over a shoulder...heck, I'll even click my heels together three times!), I hope to be back on schedule for a mid-month release of one chapter per month. Because these are longer than my Gardens' chapters, that's the best I'm gonna shoot for right now... ;)
As always, thank you for reading me! ;) ;)
Image of 'Fairy, wolf and moon' from Pinterest [www.pinterest.com]
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