Dragoncrest Cliffs [m] salt plying

this is set for the evening of feb 4 after pepper talks to mireille and chacal! we can let that one get underway a bit first ofc, no rush <3

blackpines guarded the seaside, and chani hunted among them for weasels. they themselves were out pursuing rabbits. the rabbits themselves had taken advantage of the sheltered forest and come out to forage.
but her mind was only half on hunting, for the other portion was centered firmly on @Pepper as the sun went down. she hoped he would seek her out again; she'd coyly stayed away from the pack's centerland all day, lounging other beaches and collecting armfuls of seaflowers for her mother and aunt, something she had not done before.
a leap. a miss. a swear. the trees creaked overhead with cold wind, and night fell fast over the woodland as the saltwoman went on about her search and her ponderings.

The wolf had been thinking about this since the time before. It’d been too long since he’d allowed the smell of a wanting female to play in his mind, and now that it had, it’s all he could think about. 

Males were easy. Get what you want, then leave. Nothing lingered. 

It was late when he pulled to his feet. Cold, but he’d find warmth soon enough. 

He’d caught the tail end of her failed pounce. His tongue played hungrily against his muzzle before he stepped forward and called out. 

”Havin’ trouble?” he asked. He’d be willing to help her find food, if that’s what she wanted. But it wasn’t why he was here.

three steps. pepper's scent flooded chani's brain and she drew up at once to pass her eyes in desire over his grizzled face. "better now." she kissed him with the assurance that he wished it; with some possessiveness. she was becoming aware of how good it was to seek this pleasure, and with a trusted man who had the approval of others.
chani passed her cheek along his own, she arched along his shoulders and nipped at his ruff, painting him with her scent. a claim, though temporary. she knew very little of mateship and nothing of husbands, but while he was here among these dark trees, pepper was hers.

A grin settled over his lips, his brown eyes stared her down as she approached. He let his tail sway when she finally reached him, and pressed himself softly into her nuzzling. He felt his skin flinch under her biting, a tingling chill running from his shoulders down the length of his spine at her warm breath playing in his fur. 

”Was it too much last time?” he asked, figuring he shouldn’t need to spell out what he meant. 

He wanted more. But only if she’d allow it.

"you scared me. a little," chani said with frank clarity scintillating through the want of her eyes. "but you made me feel —" and here a grin said all he needed to know. chani did not fear him, and the thrill of pepper's change had added to the ecstasy of their encounter.
"do you be feelin' guilty?" chani inquired next, still seeking to heat his skin as they spoke. "remember dat i came to find you."

The old wolf turned to her, letting his muzzle catch against her temple before pulling away to see her eyes. A grin pulled at his lips, large enough to reveal his worn back teeth, some no more than an ivory stub. But there was no malice in his expression, and his often tired eyes were bright for her—maybe a reflection of her youth. 

He tightened into a smile and briefly shook his head. 

”Naw, darlin’. Spoke to Mireille ‘n yer mother this mornin’. I think they might even be happy about it.” 

He let his tail wag, softened expression never fading. He would be gentle, now. They’d have plenty of time to explore other things in a moment. 

”But, uh..” his tail stopped. ”What made you want to come ‘n find me? I mean, I’m old enough to be yer grandpa. And years ain’t exactly been kind to my appearance.” 

Scars on top of scars, a fucked up smile, a coat that, on top of being washed with grey, all out refused to lay flat. Sure, he might’ve been a looker in the past, but he was far from it these days. 

She didn’t really need a reason. And he didn’t need to hear one. But he was curious.

darlin'. she liked that, and peppered pepper with a peppering of kisses across his grizzled muzzle. could she tell him? if he thought they were his, or any chance, he would protect them? there were many ways to answer that were not lies, but might spare him the feeling of a tool; chani thought of him as far more than that.
but why had he gone to her mother? or mireille? she was no child; she could make her own mind.
"i enjoy dat you be older t'en me," she admitted with a glitter to her eyes. "you know more. an' you offer more, just by your years," the young woman rejoined in earnest. "dey be happy because it be our way. my mot'er an' my aunt, dey bot' chose inside de pack. i t'ink," she added with a conspiratorial wink. "an' so did my grandmot'ers. so. i chose you, an' you pleased me. a lot. you do. it was not a mistake."
her eyes, hungry upon his. "your body tells a story. an' i do like readin', pepper."

If wolves could properly blush, Pepper might be as red as one. 

Her response proved whst he was already suspicious of to be truth. And it only made him want this more. 

He was confident now, that this was right. Unorthodox in his old home, but he was no longer there. This was a decision made for the litter’s security, but no one said it couldn’t be enjoyable. 

Her flattery had him feeling like he could melt into a puddle, years of cultivating some hard persona penetrated without a hitch by her words, her warm voice. Her gaze. 

He would be hers tonight. Unapologetically hers. 

Taken by sheer passion and instinct, the wolf’s scarred muzzle found hers. Aggressively, he worked his way into her. 

He’d held back the night before. He wouldn’t do so this time.

joyously she accepted pepper, twining together with him, arm rearing to encircle his neck. her laughter was breathless against his mouth; she felt the renewed strength of his grasp, the power of his large body and all of it centered on her, on them.
against the backdrop of blackpine her voice rose, proudly; sanctioned by gemstone leadership and the winsome ghosts of the cliffs, chani urged him on, finding pleasure in the sound of his own breath, the shift of the sandstone against her.
she plied him again with the same sort of kiss; returned; filling them both with fire, bringing all senses to bear upon pepper as he gave to her.

He could taste her like this for hours, let their tongues play against each other. Nothing about it sounded appealing. But the feel of her  warm breath grazing past the short fur on his cheeks made the fur on his back stand on end.  The nearly pleasant sensation of her sharpened white teeth on his tongue was not erotic in nature, but the old wolf found it so. 

He broke away from her, already panting heavily. His eyes never left her face. 

”If.. it’s somethin’ you’d want to try.. I like bein’ rough. More than last time. Scratches, bitin’, all that.” 

He sort of shrunk down, offering her a nervous grin. 

He felt a little bad for roping her into his weird fantasies last time without asking. But she didn’t shy away. And she did say she liked him for his experience. One of the only things the wolf enjoyed about getting old was having plenty of time to fine-tune exactly what he liked. Seasoned would be his word of choice. For him, that happened to mean exploring a predator and prey dynamic. Something or another about one’s sacrifice for another’s gain. 

He had inklings of an idea of where it originated from. Pepper wasn’t always a hunter. As a pup, in fact, he wanted nothing to do with it. He’d been devastated to learn that wolves should kill to survive. It was his father that ensured he learned to love hunting. Forcing him to deliver killing wounds on anything the pack brought down. Wounding him if he refused. Eventually Pepper learned that he did value his own well-being over his food’s, but those repressed feelings of grief toward killing turned into fascination. An unhealthy fascination, and one that he felt shame for. 

”But we ain’t got to. ‘N I know how to stop if you ain’t about it.”

chani wanted to tell pepper she was well aware of his liking, but didn't want to come off as aggressively know-it-all. that was not her intent. she nodded slowly, searching his eyes. he had transformed into a beast for a while, but it was indeed these eyes and this face that had tended her afterward.
she was flushed with quick breaths. "why do you like it?" she challenged. would he only transform if she let him? suppose she goaded him into it?
endowed with a natural sense of superiority, an inherent sense of dominance, chani wanted to test the man, to see if his eyes would darken with anger, if he would try to grab her.
tonguetip held between teeth; the curve of her mouth said she was not opposed, as did her slow winding of honed arms around his heavy shoulders.
pepper was too intriguing not to know, chani decided, searching his face.

Why did he like it? 

Maybe it was the sense of worth over another being. One creature deemed food, unfit to continue life when another, more important grew hungry. 

But why did he like it? 

The flavor of blood, or the power that came with seeing something accept the reality that he alone held their future. The sharp pricks of teeth, the warmth of breath in fur. The feeling of a satiated appetite. 

But why did he like it? 

He didn’t know.

Maybe studying the process in a fictional environment allowed him to come to terms. Numb the extremities. Taking a life never went away. Taking a thousand lives normalized the first. And something normal warranted little afterthought, little reconsideration. Used teeth grew dull. If he could just feel normal.. make those thoughts go away. 

But he didn’t know. 

”Power,” he stated, somewhat sheepishly. “Seeing it in their eyes—the moment they know I could—will—kill them. You ain’t ever felt that when huntin’?”

It felt embarrassing when he said it... but, he couldn’t deny the truth. Hunting left him full, but not just in the belly. Hunger and power were intertwined. It was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.

He didn’t know which he craved more.

chani nodded. she had felt flooded with such before; she had leapt from the saltcliffs into the sea to pursue this sensation. teeth disentangled pepper's pelt as she listened. did he speak to any other in this way? who else knew him as she had come to know him? did it make her jealous to think of his past, how many others he might have put to the dominant spurring that she had experienced with him?
not jealousy; quite.
"but i do not be scared of you," she proclaimed, winding herself close with explorative  kisses across the muzzle which had brought such pleasure. "i want — hm," words failed where body did not, but chani sought pepper quite gently.
a new challenge, opposite his own; hunting him with satin ribbons, exhaling her smiles upon his eartip.
leaning back, she sought his eyes, urging him in the same vein, wondering what else existed, if beast might find new outlet in softer beauty.
she tasted power; she reached for the same sort as he.