CHAPTER 218: CHAPTER 218 - [K] (R18) FOLLOWING THE SCENT OF A WILD THING, PT2

A/N: Most of the entire Chapter is not what I would call fully [R18], but it has a few moments near the end that made me tag it in my title~

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***[POV: Willingly Frustrated CEO]***

Feeling every bone crack and reform, all my muscles stretch and expand. My senses exploded into further hypersensitive awareness of her trail as four legs struck the earth. She was fast - much faster than I’d expected.

Though maybe I shouldn’t have underestimated her. She did get away from her former packmates. That dark-furred form flitted between the trees like a shadow, always just at the edge of my vision.

Her chase led us through glades, over fallen logs, jumping over gulleys and splashing through a shallow creek at one point. A spot where she paused just long enough to lap her tongue and drink before surging away from me again.

Every time I thought I might catch up on a straight path, she’d veer away into some new maze of trees that lead us deeper into the wilderness. But this wasn’t an attempt to escape... this was an invitation to prove myself.

She’d let me get close enough to almost reach her, then dart away with what I could swear was a playful laughing yip. When I’d change direction to cut her off in familiar territory, she’d wheel around and nip at *my* flank before dancing away again.

It was maddening and exhilarating. Unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Our pack runs were about territory patrol and bonding as a larger group. Not entirely serious business at all times, but this was... much purer, much more personal play.

Joyful and wild - the most captivating creature I’d ever encountered set all my primal instincts on overdrive. Every time teeth grazed my fur and every time she’d circle back to brush her scent against my side before darting away...

Just sent that jolting electricity through my entire system. The same magical spark of the fated mate bond potential calling us together from the early days of our meeting. And already there was more than that.

Already, I felt that I would reject any other... even if the Lunar Goddess decided she’d made a mistake. I was panting hard when she finally led me to a small clearing and stopped to face me. But not from exhaustion - from this primal, staggering want that my wolf has to complete everything once and for all.

I approached slowly, uncertain what the rules were now. Only knowing what they used to be. When I was close enough for our noses to touch if I just took one more step, she transformed once more.

Seamless as in the tree, fur receding and elongated bones flowing back like water until Citra knelt there naked in the dim moonlight before me. Her dark hair fell around her shoulders without being up to either side as usual.

But light gray eyes sat half lidded and that familiar smirk played at her lips. One that had me ready to obey even before she spoke so softly, yet so severely.

"Shift, Kyrie."

The change happened faster than it ever had before, though much slower than she could manage. When I was human again, standing in the soft grass and facing her... she reached out and cupped my face with both hands.

Again, she’s being so intimate and gentle that I don’t understand what we currently are to each other. Again she whispers a phrase with a strange, complicated and twisted look in her expression.

"You’re still being so good. But you’ve held on long enough."

Warped with what I can only call her own fear and uncertainty, but spoken with such assurance? Like... she’s done this before, but also as though she’s not sure she should be doing it this time.

And it reminds me that she has been bonded before. That she is most certainly pregnant from that, even if she wants to keep it secret from me. That I’m not trustworthy enough to her yet.

So no matter how that phrase sounded an what my wolf wants... my teeth clench until they threaten to crack. But I can’t help the throaty growl that comes from holding it back.

"Shhh."

Her cheek brushes mine as she makes this sound right in my ear, our chests pressing together and rapidly sharing warmth. The hand that was once there dropped straight down. Touched the inside of my thigh...

And slid up so slowly that it was like she wanted me to snap. Wanted me to lose control and show her that this game she is playing is too dangerous. But her words, at least, suggested otherwise.

"Don’t move. Touch me back, and I stop. This will never happen again if you try to mark me. That’s not what is happening here tonight."

Her voice, so haughty. Yet she shakes. I can feel it against the side of my face against hers. From her fingertips that fall over every goosebump on my shoulder as she slides a hand down to clasp my wrist.

What is happening tonight anyway? I feel like I haven’t really known or been in control of what is happening since I met her. I’ve tried, so hard... but in the end, does it even matter to her... I can’t tell.

If she expects me to listen or expects me to make a stand like the werewolf society she once complained about. I-

My breath hitched suddenly, the sound catching clearly in my throat as the meat of her palm bumped into an area she’d never yet touched. Even knowing that was her ’promise’, I find myself clearheaded for a brief moment.

Out here in the middle of nowhere, there is always a risk of our trail being followed. I have a vague sense that we did lots of loops that she likes to do and that may give us some extra time... but...

"Citra, what are we doing out here?"

I manage to ask before her teeth found my neck on that spot again and I groan in mild pleasure. The same area she tried to leave such a human style mark on.

It’s also the same relative spot she’d gently nipped at in our game of chase at least fives times more than any other area.

I took a few pictures of before I showered, thinking she’d want them at some point. It’s clearly her favorite so far... and I’m starting to consider it mine now, too.

"It’s this or we both walk back to the city separately. So start walking if you want me to stop."

There was absolutely no way I was going anywhere. Even if the world as I knew it ended.