CHAPTER 264: CHAPTER 264 - RIDING PASSENGER... WITH BENEFITS, PT2

A/N: Please don’t be teased like this and drive.

Make the distractor gtfo of your vehicle and walk home!

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"...Is this comfortable?"

Her voice is a touched strained when she opens her eyes and puts the vehicle in drive. My elbow props on the center console with my chin in my palm.

"Very. We’ll only be here for a little while anyway. So, you always drive something like this?"

"It’s practical for pack business. Fits multiple passengers, good in weather, and can carry equipment if needed..."

"Mmm. And the expensive feeling leather seats are just a bonus?"

"They’re... easier to have cleaned."

Laughing, I sat back properly in the seat so I wasn’t distracting her overmuch when she tried to pull onto the main road. Her grip on the wheel relaxed as I did so, I saw while studying her focused profile as she navigated the city.

"You know, I had a palace. In my world. So you don’t have to justify seeking luxury to me just because of where this body was born."

"I haven’t forgotten. I just remembered someone telling me that I had been ’taken’ by the salesperson for the upgrade. That they could have installed aftermarket ones at a fraction of the cost."

Much more talkative when I’m not leaning in her space! Or perhaps the temperature and music have started to calm her down.

Speaking of which, if I think about it, I may be growing less wary of this form of travel. The few times I’ve used rideshares I’ve been mildly uncomfortable, but right now...

I don’t feel any of that. In fact, I feel like I have the leeway to do something like this.

"You know, I’m glad you got your nap in. It mellowed you out, clearly. I’m feeling rather... relaxed myself."

Deliberately brushing my leg up against the center console, Kyrie’s eyes flicked to the noise and movement. For just a moment. Before returning to the road.

"Well, that was the point. Of a foot massage."

I let my hand drift to rest on the leather upholstered console between us. Petting the material and drumming my fingertips on the edges of it near her.

"And I’m very happy you studied so well. Because now I’m wondering if you have any other hidden talents with your hands I should know about."

"I... I should really focus on driving."

"Of course you should. Safety comes first. Watch the road, Kyrie."

Making lazy swirl patterns with my center fingers on the corner close enough to her thigh that my pinky brushed her skirt more than once... she couldn’t miss the movement out of her periphery. A huff, then a growl, her voice came out tight and slightly admonishing!

"Citra..."

"What? I’m just making conversation. It’s a long ride."

"...It is feeling that way, yes."

Knowing she understands that I am playing games with her, my forearm brushes against hers as I adjust one of her air vents to point at me instead. I don’t really want more cool air, but depriving her of it just a little...

She’s fine, she won’t combust. Probably?

"How else will we pass the time other than talking?"

Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel when my palm fell on her knee and slid back. She may have also pushed harder on the gas pedal, since I heard the engine make a louder nose momentarily.

"You’re doing this on purpose."

"Yes."

"You’re..."

Stopping us at a red light while taking a deep breath, her eyes were deep pools of orange that seemed as bright as the headlights of any car around us.

"You’re testing me. I know."

I loosened the belt and leaned close enough that my warm breath ghosted across her ear. I know it did, because I saw her hair there shift when I exhaled the words.

"Am I? And what happens when you fail?"

Some small flash of disappointment twitched on her face when I pulled away from her again. Perhaps because she hoped for a kiss - or perhaps because I said ’when’. Or perhaps because I took my hand off of her thigh.

"I don’t fail tests."

So she said, but for a moment, I thought she might actually fail to notice that the light turned green! Yet, she forced herself to look forward again with eyes that abruptly lost their orange glow.

Her breathing grew shallow and I could see the tension coiled in her shoulders. It didn’t take very long to guess what she did... sort of. At least, I cannot think of anything else it could be.

She actually just *sealed* her wolf. When did she learn to do that? Actually... no, that’s why she was weak for so long in the forest, isn’t it? I dive quickly into my soul to question someone else.

That’s definitely not in the covenant Helene held with you. Do different packs use different agreements? Despite what little she knew of how things went at your conclaves, I would expect the Duskpaw to have been proud of their difference?

Gripping the tiny black wolf in my ’giantess’ hand as I exert deep control of my mindscape, the wolf barks and whines. Claiming it doesn’t know anything more than I do, I suppose I am willing to believe it.

Rapidly reversing our roles and plopping down on the end of its snout as a tiny little fox, I wag my tail side to side in thought as Vrika howls and falls the distance. Well, it’s not that this is something I couldn’t do...

But I agreed in my contract with the Lunar Goddess not to do so. It was actually one of the few stipulations on my otherwise pretty even first offer.

Kyrie, though... she also knows how to do that thing with a partial shift that even I really cannot. If these things are possible, I cannot see how they would not have been a regular part of what that deity offered or denied them as contractors to these spirits.

"You’re very disciplined, aren’t you? Very... controlled."

Speaking in reality, after slowing and floating the black wolf gently down to its favorite spot, my hair seems to be twirled in my fingers. Carefully untangling it, I raise my left hand over toward her neck.

Fingers slide past on soft skin, feeling her white hair tickling my knuckles. My thumb, meanwhile, presses into the point above her artery with a bit of force. With eyes glowing more intensely blue in the reflection of her window than they ever had.

"If so, then control yourself better. Do not do this trick again to escape the pressure it exerts on you because of me, Kyrie. I will not have your death on my conscience."