Neverwinter Forest [M] You just don't know it yet

Marked as mature because of her heat, but this does not have to be used for baby-production purposes

Hokulani could remember living in this forest very briefly, but now it was empty. She hadn't spent enough time here to like the wolves very much, but it still felt strange.

Travel had been slow. After her day with Aureli, she was dismayed to find that the itch did not leave with his company. It returned, scent and all. Hokulani couldn't help growing irritable as days passed, particularly when it sabatoged her recruitment efforts; apparently other women weren't too fond of her scent. It was for this that she hadn't given up entirely, assuming that if she returned to Storm before her season ended it would drive the woman away.

Surely it had to be over soon, though. She missed the sea, and Hokulani knew that the mountain she had once been chased from was close by. In her state, she didn't quite want to bump into those who might recognise her.. particularly given they didn't like her much. Part of her did wonder if her father still resided there, if she should tell him about the possbility of grandchildren. She knew he wouldn't be happy for her.

Falling to her side with a heavy huff, Hokulani savoured the dew-soaked grass. There was still time to plan, it was only the morning.

hope this is okay!

kanuux had taken the south road, leaving behind the hiss of seafoam and the black reek of kelp to rot in tide. here the land was strange to him, all heat and stone, the air dry where once it had salted his lungs. but still his nose worked, still his shoulders rolled like breakers, and it was there that her scent found him.

it coiled sharp, heady, like brine turned sweet. it burned in his chest as if he were still young and cruel. the woman’s musk dragged him from his march and gnawed at the edges of his restraint. kanuux was not a good man— had never claimed to be. scars spoke where his mouth did not.

he saw her then: pale hide pressed into grass wet with morning. his shadow stretched over her, hulking, wide as driftwood carried in storm tides. blue eyes glinted cold, hungry, not of love but of claim.

he made no greeting. only the snap of a twig beneath his heavy foot, the low grind of his breath as he let the wind carry his salt-thick musk toward her. she would know he was there. she would know what had found her.

A twig snapped behind her, Hokulani lifting her head nearly immediately. It was then that the scent hit her. Heavy, salt-ridden, and with clear intent.

Taking the long way with legs briefly hanging in the air, she rolled to her stomach and stood. He didn't quite have Aureli's charm, that was for certain, but he was large and seemed to be healthy. Her tail swayed lightly, curious, as she met his eyes.

It was obvious why he was here, but the air was far different than her time in the pasture. It had her weighing options. She enjoyed the tension Aureli had brought, the pleasure and the words they shared, but this was different.

Hokulani was yet to decide if she would enjoy this tension, too.

After paying a brief visit to Moonglow, Treepie did not immediately turn toward home—for that’s what Moonspear had become once more. Since there was truthfully no village there, she didn’t think anyone would mind much if she spent the rest of the day meandering a bit. Wyvern needed to stretch her wings anyway, or so Tiuttuk told herself as her gilded eyes flung upward to watch the nighthawk cruising overhead.

She soon found herself in an evergreen forest, Wyvern lost to view somewhere over the piney treetops. Tiuttuk’s lithe paws carried her over a carpet of needles, dappled by glimpses of sun through the boughs overhead. She enjoyed the crisp and refreshing fragrance of this place until an even stronger odor threaded into her nose. It brought her to an abrupt halt, her nostrils quivering as she tipped her snout upward and tried to pinpoint its origin.

Tiuttuk didn’t make the conscious decision to pursue it; she simply found herself being dragged forward as something hooked just behind her navel. She loped through the woods for several minutes, mindless of her surroundings until she saw a glimpse of white fur ahead. She ground to a stop, hesitated for several seconds, then pressed forward a bit more cautiously.

Screened by the dark underbrush, she crept up on the white wolf and saw another sprawled in the grass beyond him. Tiuttuk’s mouth fell open when she recognized her. Two seconds after that, she realized that smell was coming from Hokulani. It tantalized her in ways she didn’t fully comprehend, though a moan eked up her throat that she only just managed to stifle before it became audible.

She ought to leave before she was spotted. She wanted nothing to do with Hokulani. But at the same time, she did. That scent was so hard to resist. Then she felt a familiar and deeply unwelcome stirring in the pit of her stomach. It broke right through the spell and Pie jerked backward, inevitably rustling the undergrowth but moving so hastily that Hokulani and the stranger likely wouldn’t catch more than a glimpse of her retreating back.

the brush snapped. a hiss of instinct tore up kanuux’s spine, the great bull-wolf twisting with jaws peeled and ready to break bone. but nothing— only the ghost of movement. a shadow gone before his teeth could close.

his breath steamed, heavy, through his nose. ears flat, eyes narrowed, the scars about his temple and shoulder burned hot as if they knew some other stalker had been near. but it did not matter. not now.

the woman before him, her scent was too loud, too demanding. heat clung to her like brine-soaked kelp, thick and unignorable, and it pulled at something deep in his marrow.

kanuux’s chest swelled, shoulders like the drift ice of his homeland rolling forward. he moved with that inevitability, a glacier cutting down all paths before it. no word, no explanation, only the story in his scars and the salt-stench that came off his skin.

his head dipped, muzzle brushing at her nape once, a silent claim. not gentle, not cruel— simply the truth of what he was, what he had come for. his body spoke where his tongue did not, a predator’s patience married with a seal-hunter’s demand.

the snap in the woods was forgotten. this woman’s eyes, her scent, her sway— they were his attention now.

A sound in the undergrowth distracted each of them for a moment, and while Hokulani too hoped to investigate further she found her attention pulled by the hulking figure in front of her.

His knee-jerk reaction, that had impressed her. A man ready to fight, and for her! That could have her on her back purring like a house cat. It was enough that when he approached, staked his claim, Hokulani did not refuse him or investigate further. He had won her heart, and with no words at that!

Her teeth reach to grab at his jowls, more aggressive than a lick, but playful all the same. She was interested, and she was waiting for him to finish making his move. A silent way of demanding him, impress me.

Hokulani was never one to be submissive to anyone. They would each hold the scent of each other for a day or two to come, and as far as she was concerned, her ability to carry children meant she held the real power. But today, maybe she would be nice. It was a special occasion.