Chapter Text
Vi staggered to the door, her hands shaking as she fumbled in her pockets for the keys.
“Shit, shit, shit.”
The shift prowled under her skin, impatient, unstoppable. Bones ached, muscles swelled and rippled, the heat of it running down her spine like fire. She swore again under her breath, voice already deepening into a growl.
The key slid into the lock on the third try, metal clinking against metal as her left hand twisted it hard. The bolt turned with a heavy clunk , and she shoved her way inside. Door slammed shut behind her, deadbolt thrown.
Her right hand was already gone—fingers stretched too long, nails splitting, curling into blackened points that gouged deep grooves into the wood she’d just locked. Her knuckles cracked loud, skin splitting, steam hissing off her arms as her veins burned red under the skin. She turned and staggered forward, boots scuffing, every breath dragging the change faster out of her.
And then she smelled her. Cait.
Sweet, rich, impossible to mistake. It hit her nose and drove the last of her restraint right out of her. Her mate. Her wife. Her everything. The rumble started deep in her chest, low and hungry, rolling out of her throat in a sound that wasn’t human anymore.
Her clothes strained, seams groaning. The shirt gave first, fabric tearing across her shoulders as they broadened, back swelling with new muscle. Every breath carried Cait’s scent thicker, stronger, and Vi’s mouth filled with saliva, jaw pushing long, sharp teeth through bloodied gums. She huffed hard, the air vibrating as it left her, rattling the lamps on the wall.
She lurched another step forward. Her eyes burned, vision growing keener until every crack in the wood grain, every mote of dust in the air shone in perfect detail. But none of it mattered. Only Cait did. Cait’s scent was everywhere, sweet and maddening, pulling Vi deeper into the house.
Vi ducked under the doorframe, wood splintering where her shoulders brushed too wide. The house groaned around her, every step shaking the floorboards. Her claws dragged lines into the wall without meaning to, gouges marking her passage like scars. She didn’t care. Couldn’t care.
That scent—coffee and lavender, the faint hint of gun oil woven through—pulled her like a leash around her throat. It thickened as she reached the bedroom, every breath drowning her in Cait’s nearness.
There she was.
Cait lay on her side, hair loose over the pillow, lips parted just enough to breathe slow and steady. Her lashes flickered as she dreamed.
A sound ripped from Vi’s throat, somewhere between a growl and a whimper. Her claws flexed, biting into the doorframe, wood snapping beneath her grip. She swelled again, ribs cracking as her chest broadened, the last of her shirt tearing into rags that clung useless to her.
She stepped forward, low, head ducked. The air around Caitlyn was sweet enough to make her dizzy. Saliva dripped off Vi’s teeth, hitting the floorboards with wet ticks. She was starving, ravenous, burning, but not for food. Not for blood.
For her.
Vi loomed over the bed, a shadow swallowing the moonlight leaking through the curtains. Cait shifted in her sleep, murmuring something soft, rolling closer to the empty space at her side. Vi’s side.
The beast in her snarled, eager to close the gap, to claim what was hers.
Her claws trembled inches above the blanket, the last shreds of Vi’s restraint clinging by a thread as she stared at her wife. Perfect. Fragile. Unreachable and yet so close.
Vi gasped, lips curling away from her new, monstrous fangs. The heat in her body found a new focus, coiling at the base of her gut, then erupting downward with a savage, obscene force. Her jeans split across the fly as flesh swelled, thickening with each wild pulse of her heart. A bestial cock forced itself free, jutting up and out, the head already wet and gleaming. She bucked forward with a half-sob, half-growl, the pressure of her want nearly as painful as the shift itself. Her clawed hand closed instinctively around the shaft, stroking with a desperate hunger.
Cait’s scent painted the air. Vi inhaled deeply, letting it sear her lungs, letting it guide her. With every intake her cock swelled further, veins dark against the pale, overheated skin, each throb matched to the beat of Caitlyn’s heart, which she could hear even now, fluttering in sleep. Her own breathing turned animal, every exhale sharp, every inhale a drag of raw need.
She wanted.
She ached.
Something in her wanted to wait. To let Cait wake gently, surprised and delighted at what her mate had become. Something else wanted to take, to bury herself, to rut and howl and spill until she was emptied of all the hunger that had coiled in her since the moon first called her tonight.
Vi bent lower, the mattress groaning beneath her weight. Her cock brushed the sheets, leaving behind a damp glisten, so hot the fabric steamed where it touched. She licked her fangs, tasting blood and spit.
Then Cait murmured, “Vi,” in her sleep.
And it undid the wolf.
She lunged, the blankets torn away in a single sweep. Cait’s sleep shorts and panties parted beneath her claws, shredded in a blur of motion, the fragments flipping off the bed like useless paper. Vi’s nose buried itself in the V of Cait’s thighs, mouth pressed hard against the heat-soaked flesh. The scent was fucking perfect up close: primal, intoxicating, better than air. She dragged her tongue up the slit, slow at first, savoring every trembling shudder in Cait’s body, every whimper and flutter of breath.
Cait woke then, eyes unfocused, her first sight was Vi’s wolven face between her legs, mouth and fangs painted with her own wetness. A startled gasp was all she managed before Vi’s muzzle worked in, tongue thick and inhuman. She pressed it forward, parting Cait’s folds with a greedy insistence, the slick muscle snaking further inside with every flex of Vi’s jaw.
It was too large, too much, and still she pushed, the ridged length of it stroking deeper until Cait’s back bowed from the sheets in startled, helpless delight. Vi pinned her hips to the mattress with one monstrous hand, claws digging in just above the hipbones, and ground her muzzle against Cait’s pussy until the gasps turned to broken, pleading cries.
Vi lapped at her, tongue dragging up and in, then curling to fill her entire channel, the tip flexing against every flutter and clench of Cait’s body. The taste was unreal. It shot straight to the savage core of Vi’s brain, wiped out every trace of human thought. She wanted to eat, to devour, to own.
Cait’s hand tangled in Vi’s hair, gripping the shifting tangles with a desperation that was half-terror and all lust. Her hips bucked up to meet the tongue’s next thrust, but Vi drew back. She watched her mate’s face, eyes gone wide with shock and need, mouth parted in a moan that never quite came out. Vi rumbled in approval and raked her tongue once more, slow enough to make Cait tremble, then licked her lips and withdrew.
She knelt back, cock blazing angry, the knot already beginning to swell at the base. A bead of precum clung to the end, shining in the silver that coated the room. Vi reached for her, hands gentled only so they wouldn’t break bone, and flipped Cait onto her hands and knees. Cait’s ass was bare to her, thighs slick and trembling, the small of her back gleaming with sweat.
Vi lined herself up, claws wrapping around Cait’s entire middle, the swollen head of her cock rubbing up and down the mess she’d made of Cait’s pussy. It caught on the folds and slipped, catching again, smearing precum everywhere. She was frantic, rutting blindly, instinct overriding the careful patience she might have once summoned. The first few thrusts hit nothing but wet thighs and air, cock flailing needlessly until Cait, ever clever, ever in control, reached back. She opened herself for Vi and guided the head home.
The entrance was almost too small, stretched taut by the impossible girth. Cait gasped, knuckles whitening on the bed sheets. Vi growled, hips twitching, wanting to drive deeper but holding on by the most tattered thread of control. Inch by inch, Cait accepted her, the walls shuddered and fluttered around her, fighting the intrusion and then yielding, melting, pulling Vi deeper. The heat of it was insane. Vi was afraid her cock might tear her open, but Cait was greedy, greedy, and she angled her hips up, arching her back, bracing herself so Vi could take her properly.
Vi wasted no time. Her hips slammed forward, driving in to the hilt with a feral snarl, the knot at the base of her cock battering against Cait’s entrance. She hovered there, panting, arms locked on either side of Cait’s trembling body, the sheer scale of her shoulders and arms making a cage around her mate. Her claws gouged ragged trenches in the bedding and her head hung low, drool raining onto Cait’s hair, all reason lost to the ecstasy of the rut. Vi almost blacked out, blood pounding in her temples. She could feel Caitlyn’s pulse through the thick walls of her, could scent every nuance of her arousal in the air, as distinct as a secret language. The sensation was so sharp, so overwhelming, that Vi saw silver and black at the edges of her vision, a tunnel narrowing down to the singular, urgent point of her cock splitting Cait open.
Vi’s second thrust was a wild, hungry stutter that sent Cait arching up with a ragged, strangled cry. The swollen cock rammed deeper, stretching impossibly, the knot pounding at the slick resistance of Cait’s entrance. Vi’s breath hitched, a desperate whine trembling through her ribs, and she jerked forward again, rutting with a mindless, animal need. The bedframe hammered the wall, headboard thundering in time with Vi’s pace.
Cait clawed at the cage of furred arms braced on either side of her, fingernails digging crimson crescents into Vi’s flesh. The pain was nothing, less than nothing—Vi needed Cait to feel her, needed to mark her, needed to make her mate hers in every way. Each thrust was more savage, hips slapping wetly against Cait’s ass, the knot growing with every brutal collision.
The need to claim, to own, to fuse their bodies until all distinction blurred overriding everything. She bent lower, muzzle pressed to Cait’s neck, and the old scar—her mark—glimmered on the sweat-damp skin. Instinct surged red-hot. She snapped, teeth sinking into the mark until blood welled up, copper sweet and thick. Vi sucked at the wound, tongue laving the ragged edges, her cock driving in mercilessly as Cait howled her pleasure into the night.
“Fuck—Vi—please—oh god, make me yours, fuck, breed me, Vi—” Cait’s voice was a wrecked thing, sobbing, begging, every syllable a surrender.
Her mate’s words were gasoline on a bonfire. Cait cried, thighs shaking, as Vi fucked her harder. Vi’s hands closed over Cait’s, claws splayed wide to pin her to the bed, and the wolf in her growled, “Mine.” The word shook the room.
Cait pushed up to her elbows, mouth open in a silent scream, hips bucking back to meet the immense thickness battering at her. Vi’s cock forced its way deeper, the swelling knot stretching her wider and wider, until the resistance shattered and the whole thing popped inside with a wet, obscene sound. A rush of fluid trickled down Cait’s thighs, soaking the sheets, and she collapsed, boneless and twitching.
Vi clamped her jaws back over the mark, fangs sinking in, and let the beast inside take her. The orgasm hit like a bomb—her vision went white, body locking up as wave after wave of heat screamed down her spine. Her cock pulsed, then erupted, a flood of cum forcing its way deep inside Cait, hot enough to scald, endless. Vi’s hips kept jerking, rutting desperately, as each surge filled her mate to bursting.
Cait convulsed beneath her, fingers clutching the sheets, voice smashed to pieces by the force of her own climax. It was a long, wracking thing, stretched out by the relentless fullness, the way her body stretched to accommodate the wildness Vi had become. Her pussy fluttered and gripped, milking every new pulse.
When it abated enough for her to move, Vi circled her arms around Cait, hauling both their bodies up and over in a solid, protective roll that landed them on their sides—Cait braced against her chest, the knot locked within her. Vi curled her massive body around the smaller woman, hand splayed over Cait’s belly, palm wide and hot and trembling with the aftershock of release.
She couldn’t stop licking. The taste of Cait’s skin was as good as the scent; Vi’s tongue ran over the nape of Cait’s neck in lazy, possessive passes, then down to her shoulder, then back up again. Each time it lingered, Vi made a rough, contented sound—a low, rumbling purr that vibrated through both their bodies. Cait shivered at every pass, still gasping for breath, but relaxed into Vi’s grip, pressing back into the embrace.
Cait flopped a limp hand up and back, found the curve of Vi’s heavy jaw, and petted through the damp fur. “Someone was needy,” she rasped.
Vi rumbled, a noise more felt than heard, and nuzzled deeper into the tangle of Cait’s hair. She inhaled the richness of her mate’s scent—salt, iron, and lavender now—and the heat in her gut, barely dulled by climax, stoked up again to a hungry, gnawing ember. Her hips rolled, the knot still locked inside Cait, and she thrusted shallowly as if to remind them both who was inside whom. The motion made Cait tighten, made her whimper and giggle all at once, made her arch back into Vi.
“Fuck, baby,” Cait gasped, the sounds torn out of her, “you’re gonna ruin me—”
Vi’s reply was a guttural snarl, unintelligible but full of pride. The wolf in her wanted nothing more. She doubled down, burying her snout in Cait’s shoulder. She worked her hips in short, relentless jolts, every movement pulling the knot tighter where they were joined, grinding Cait’s ass into her furred thighs.
Cait rolled with the force of it, not resisting but matching, her hips surging back on each minute stroke, milking the swollen cock wedged so deep inside her. Every thrust forced another ragged sound from her throat. She was a mess, hair wild, face streaked with tears and sweat and spit, and Vi thought she had never seen anything more beautiful.
———
Vi wrapped her arms around Caitlyn even tighter, squeezing until their bones pressed together, until Caitlyn could barely breathe. The pressure was comforting. Safe. The way a mountain might shelter a tree from the wind. Vi’s body was monument and monumentality—hot, slick, animal, enveloping her wife in the cradle of need, the shell of desire. She whined softly and rubbed her cheek against Caitlyn’s, scraping the soft skin with the bristle of her fur.
Marking. Claiming. Owning.
A little blood beaded from the bite, running in a slow arc down Caitlyn’s throat, and Vi lapped at it, tongue gentle now, almost worshipful. She pressed her nose into the wound, growling softly, then licked again and again.
Caitlyn twisted slightly in Vi’s arms. “That’s it, baby,” she murmured, her voice hoarse but soothing. “You’re perfect. Such a perfect girl for me.” The tension in Vi’s whole body shimmered at the praise, and her monstrous cock kicked inside Caitlyn.
She squeezed down around it and was rewarded with another desperate whine, almost a sob. The beast’s hunger was a living thing, but it could be soothed, could be stroked and tamed—as long as Caitlyn held the leash. “Good girl,” Caitlyn praised again. “You’re doing so good for me.”
Vi shuddered around the words, her cock flexing and throbbing, the knot pulling at Caitlyn, and she squeezed down again, smiling to herself at the sound that ripped from deep in Vi’s chest. “That’s a good puppy,” Caitlyn purred, rolling her hips to meet Vi’s slow, rutting thrusts. “You want to breed me again, don’t you, baby? Fill me up until there’s nothing left?”
Vi only whined in response, hips jerking. The pressure inside Caitlyn was exquisite, the fullness unlike anything she had ever known. With each shallow grind, the knot at Vi’s base tugged and stretched her, making Caitlyn’s vision flicker with stars. And the feral heat of Vi’s cock made her want to melt.
“Do it,” Caitlyn ordered. “Breed me again. I want to feel you—fuck—feel you leaking out of me for days.”
Vi’s panting filled the dark, close air, each breath thundering in Caitlyn’s ears. The wolf-woman’s entire body trembled, hips twitching in a desperate, frantic bid to thrust deeper, harder, to bury every last inch of herself inside her mate. The knot held them welded together, but Vi was relentless, rutting in jerky, hungry stutters, a prisoner to the feral rhythm that only Caitlyn could provoke. The sensation was overwhelming—each pulse of Vi’s cock inside her, each screaming throb of the knot grinding at Caitlyn’s slick, swollen entrance, every wild, shuddering buck as Vi’s need devoured her human self inch by inch.
“Cum for me,” Caitlyn whispered into the muzzle pressed against her cheek, her voice broken with awe. “Please, baby. I want it all. Give it to me.”
Vi’s whole body convulsed, the massive arm around Caitlyn’s waist dragging her back against the granite wall of Vi’s chest. Her breath became a rapid staccato on Caitlyn’s skin. The wet click of their bodies meeting, the slap and grind of flesh and fur and sweat, became the only music in the world—just that, and Caitlyn’s heartbeat, and the endless, savage whine of Vi’s want.
She spasmed, teeth snapping tight on Caitlyn’s shoulder, and the next orgasm detonated inside her. Vi’s cock bulged, the knot swelling even thicker, pinning Caitlyn so tight she could hardly breathe for the bright, sharp pain turned instantly to pleasure. A second, hot flood of cum raged into her, the pressure enough to make Caitlyn’s stomach flutter with the illusion that it might just force its way up through her sternum. She bit her own lip to keep from screaming.
A deep, unearthly growl radiated from the base of Vi’s throat, the noise resonant and relentless as it trembled through Caitlyn’s chest, down her spine, into the molten ache of her core. There was a certainty coded in that growl: a promise, a victory, a biological supremacy. Vi ground her hips again, as if to force the point home, rutting the last dregs of hot, sticky release into Caitlyn’s trembling cunt.
The certainty became a possession.
The certainty became a guarantee.
———
She’d done it. She’d bred her mate. There could be no doubt—every instinct, every cell, every quivering animal tremor in Vi’s body told her she had succeeded. Under the press of her palm Cait’s belly felt softer, fuller, ever so slightly distended with the sheer volume that now filled her. Vi pressed her snout to Cait’s neck, scenting her, tongue flicking out to taste the sweat and blood.
She whined, a high-pitched, broken sound, and nuzzled harder, lips and tongue tracing frantic apologies for the violence she had done.
Cait snorted, a short, triumphant burst of laughter, and twisted her neck to catch Vi’s jaw in her own teeth. She bit down, hard, just below the hinge, not enough to break skin but enough to shock Vi out of her daze.
Vi tried, through her thick tongue and the jagged clutter of new teeth, to form words. “Cai—Cait, sorry, I—” But the syllables caught, mangled by a snarl and the apology strangled itself and died. She whined, desperate, and nuzzled again, her mouth so clumsy and hot she inadvertently licked a broad, wet stripe up Cait’s cheek.
“Shh. Good girl,” she soothed, reaching back to dig her nails into the fur at the base of Vi’s neck. “You did so fucking good, you perfect girl. You’re all mine, baby—you hear me? All mine.” Every word was a leash, a collar, a lock that tightened lovingly around Vi’s soul. She whimpered again, half-mortified by her own need and wholly intoxicated by Cait’s effortless authority.
They lay tangled for an eternity, caught in that floating, echoing world that follows annihilation. Vi’s cock remained buried, knot swollen, a plug locking all of her seed inside Cait.
The wolf was sated.
And then slowly, she felt her body lessen.
The claws shrank first, leaving only the faintest grooves in Cait’s marked-up skin. Then the teeth, dulling one by one, the canines last to disappear, dragging gently across her mark. The fur retracted beneath Cait’s palms as she stroked the trembling body behind her, replaced by fevered, sweat-slick skin.
The shift always hurt—Vi knew that—but it never hurt quite as bad if she was curling herself around Cait afterwards, the ache of her body a small price for the joy of having her mate pressed against her. Vi kissed every bruise, every red mark, every inch of Cait’s back and shoulders.
She was still swollen inside Cait, but the knot had shrunk, and cum spilled out, slicking both their legs and the ruined sheets. Vi pulled Cait closer, grinding against her, unwilling to let a single drop escape. She rocked her hips, slow and stubborn, savoring the aftershocks that crackled through her mate’s body. Every thrust churned up more of the thick, milky fluid, and it seeped out around the softening base, sticky and hot and so abundant it ran in rivulets down Cait’s inner thighs.
Cait groaned, wriggling to get comfortable, her pussy still stretched wide and aching, and Vi rumbled a lazy, delighted sound, nuzzling the hair at the back of her neck.
“Almost done. Need you one more time.”
Cait moaned at the promise, hips canted wantonly. “Whatever you want. Take it.”
Vi levered herself up, the bedsprings shrilling under her weight. She rolled Cait gently onto her back, her cock dragging wetly from the mess between Cait’s thighs, leaving a pearled rope of cum stretched between them. Cait’s legs fell open, the insides glossy with sweat and their combined slick. Vi’s eyes flickered down, pupils blown wide, the last filaments of animal gold around the black.
She knelt above Cait, hands braced on either side, broad shadow swallowing Cait’s torso, then dropped lower, head buried between Cait’s knees. She licked up the trail of slick, tasting their mingled flavors. Cait grabbed for Vi’s shoulders, then locked her arms around Vi’s neck and dragged her close.
“Fuck me, Violet,” Cait panted, and Vi answered by lining herself up, cock head pushing at Cait’s spent, fluttering entrance. The fit was easy now, the walls yielding with a wet, needy slide, and Vi pressed in until her hips were flush against Cait’s and the length of her was swallowed whole.
Cait’s legs locked around Vi’s waist. Vi braced above, the muscle in her arms and chest corded tight, and she stared down at Cait’s face—flushed and gleaming, blue eyes glazed, mouth parted in a gasp. She bent down, her lips meeting Cait’s in a savage, possessive kiss. She rutted her hips as she did, jostling Cait further up the bed. Cait whimpered into Vi’s mouth, meeting every thrust, greedy for it, arms tight around Vi’s neck, nails in the meat of her back.
Vi drove in deeper, tongue plunging into Cait’s mouth as her cock filled her again and again. The headboard slammed the wall, over and over, but neither one noticed. Each time their mouths parted, Cait gasped, only to have the sound swallowed by Vi’s next ravenous kiss.
She could feel everything now—the heat of Cait’s pussy, the tremble in her thighs, the frantic pulse under Cait’s jaw.
Vi slammed her body down, crushing Cait into the soaked mattress. Their sweat-slicked torsos ground together; muscle against muscle, their ribs grinding and bellies smacking. Cait’s nails raked down Vi’s back, carving ten perfect lines through the ruined shirt, to the skin beneath. Blood welled instantly, hot and stinging, and Vi groaned.
“Harder,” Cait gasped, every inch of her vibrating with the force of Vi’s rutting. Her voice was more plea than command now, a surrender. “Fucking—Vi, don’t stop, please—“
Vi braced her hands against the mattress and used the leverage to drive deeper. The swollen knot caught at Cait’s entrance, and on the third, fevered stroke, popped through.
Cait’s whole body convulsed around it, her pussy milking. Every squeeze sent another rush of heat up Vi’s cock, the walls spasming with a need that matched the wild hunger in Vi.
She held Cait down, bodies fused as tightly as flesh could be. For a second the world went weightless—Vi’s ears buzzed and her vision guttered, all sensation a shattering white. Every muscle in her body clenching, every animal instinct crashing down in a tidal wave.
Vi came harder than she thought possible, jets of cum pulsing through her cock and into Cait.
The rush left her boneless—limbs shaking, mouth open, panting her wife’s name. Vi writhed against her mate, hands clutching everywhere. Her lips trailed across Cait’s jaw, down her throat, then back up to her mouth, kissing with pure devotion. Every inch of Cait’s skin was sacred; every taste, every scent. Vi’s body shuddered with the aftershocks, her breath stuttering, and she repeated “I love you, I love you, I love you” into Cait’s mouth until the words bled together, meaningless except as an endless promise.
Cait clung to her, arms wound tight, as if she alone could keep Vi’s soul from flying apart. She met every kiss with her own, lips smashed together, sharing breath. The two of them murmured love and fuck and more, jumbled declarations until both ran out of words and breath.
The world, when it returned, was a wreck. The bed, the room, the very air. The window rattled with an oncoming storm, glass fogged in the humid aftermath of their moonlit battle. Sheets lay twisted and torn, streaked with blood and sweat and…other fluids. The two of them, locked together in the center.
Vi breathed in deep. Cait’s scent filled her, made her cock throb stubbornly even as it softened inside her mate. Cait’s hair was plastered to her temple, the skin flushed and raw where Vi had scraped it with her jaw. She lay on her back, arms flopped wide, chest heaving in slow, fighting breaths. Her lips were smeared with spit and a spot of dried blood glimmered at the curve of her throat.
Vi grinned, all teeth, braced on her elbows above Cait. She could feel herself leaking out, pooling beneath them, running down the inside of Cait’s thigh. There was a savage delight in the ruin she’d made of her wife. Cait was marked everywhere—crimson grooves from claws, bruises on her hips, a crescent bite already purpling on her shoulder.
She pressed a kiss to Cait’s jaw, then another to her mouth, softer now, lips gentle, adoring. “You still with me?”
Cait blinked the sweat from her eyes, reached up and smeared it over her brow with the back of her hand. “Barely,” she croaked. Then, with a flex of her trembling legs, she squeezed Vi’s sides, rocking the knot inside her. “But I’m absolutely full.”
Vi laughed—not a bark, but the low, rolling sound of a satisfied beast. She let her head sink to Cait’s shoulder, nuzzling, and the two of them drifted in the shared silence.
After a while, the storm hit. Sheets of rain pattered on the roof, the drum and rattling of thunder vibrating the glass. Vi lay still, listening to the old house.
Her breath slowed against Cait’s skin as she kissed her collarbone, lips barely brushing. “Do you think it worked this time? My wolf thought it did.”
Cait’s fingers threaded into her hair, nails dragging in little lines against her scalp. Vi let her eyes fall shut, shuddering at the comfort of it. “Maybe,” Cait murmured, calm as ever, though Vi caught the tremor beneath it. “I hope so. But if not… we keep trying.”
Vi huffed, the breath catching in her chest. “Maybe it’s me. My parents had—”
“—Stop,” Cait cut in, her hand going under Vi’s chin. She tilted Vi’s face up until their eyes met, even through the dim. “Darling… no. We’re doing everything we’re supposed to. Everything. This isn’t your fault.”
Vi swallowed, throat working hard around words she couldn’t quite get out. Her wolf shifted under her skin, restless, ashamed, convinced it should be easier than this—mates meant pups, simple as that. But nothing about Vi had ever been simple.
She pressed her forehead to Cait’s. “I just… I want this with you. More than anything.”
“I know,” Cait whispered back, her thumb stroking Vi’s cheek, smudging a streak of blood and sweat there. “And we’ll have it. One way or another.”
Outside, lightning flared, white through the curtains.
Inside, Vi clung tighter, praying her wolf was right.