Hideaway Strath The sun caught in her raven hair Is blazing in me out of all control

 



Once upon a time Isley Kali had assumed she had her life figured out. Then came Teaghlaigh, and Palisander, and life had seemed right - but things of course never really go as planned and Palisander's death and her consequential quest for blood to pay for that loss had taken more from her than she had ever anticipated. It had taken her sense of self, her very identity, the ways that she understood her life. Isley Kali had become Hemlock Kali - a name of death, not life, not vitality. She had made a life for herself among her wolves again, carrying Teaghlaigh's banner as proudly as it's founder did - in her humble opinion - and she had made a family for herself in the children she raised and the relationships that she cultivated. 

Ran was not Roarke. Her gentle soul was not made for the world and Hemlock had known this. It was easy to see in the awkward gait and the uneasy look to her - the healer would never know her true age but it was easy to see she should not have made it long. She had not made it long enough. Unaware of the horrid truth behind Ran's death the woman had locked herself away for a bit, refusing everyone even the children and Lotte and Arturo. She needed a few days, some solitude, and she needed to focus. She had not had enough time with the child to grow attached other than to the concept of the small grey cub. She might have grown to be a smart woman, to use her brains and overcome her disfigurement - but she would never have that chance. Not now. 

Early in the morning Hemlock rose with a feeling she hadn't encountered before. 

It prickled her spine, made her uneasy, made her pant even in the pre-dawn light with a sensation that would not relent. She itched without means to scratch, her jaws worked restlessly. It was with a muted horror that the realization came upon her and the only thing that Hemlock could think of was to call for @Lotte and Lotte alone. It was to the dark haired woman that her thoughts fled and that her hope for comfort - for some sort of relief - rested in. It had not even been considered to call for Arturo, or to ward herself from the other males of the pack. She might have been small, but she was not afraid of them. Her place in the pack as the highest female did not matter right then, rational thoughts were gone. 

She just wanted Lotte.

Maintaining a lie was tiring — Lotte had forgotten just how tiring.

She liked it.

She liked the weary feeling that came to her some nights in the form of a stress headache; she liked the feeling of being swollen with a secret; she liked the wicked surge of power and control it gave her. Risk was an adrenaline rush that she'd let go since living in the Teekons, and it was unfortunate that she was rediscovering it in such an unsavory way — but the brass in her personality wouldn't let her quit. She was addicted to the renewed sensation of strength, feeling as though she'd lost a measure of her own after losing Dagfinn, Roarke, and her position of authority in a few short months. When she was calm and collected, she worried that even linking herself to Hemlock and Arturo would not be enough — but as the fireflower's call rose in the air she pushed those thoughts aside and kicked into a sprint.

Before the healer's song could die, Lotte was adding her own voice to it, black velvet on red silk; she tangled her voice sinuously with Hemlock's, making sure that her claim upon the dryad was painted in the sky in slow-rolling undulations. She was at the female's side in a matter of moments, and she crashed into the viridian-eyed sylph's comfort zone without permission or demur — half-hoping that Hemlock would retaliate with a saucy flash of her teeth. Although Lotte would relinquish the woman to her husband's embrace, she had every intention of taking active part in the dance. She snaked her body against the older female's, hard and rough, a breathless rumble stirring in her breast as she flashed a sultry smile.

In her there was a near wickedness, something that had not surfaced before, and Hemlock felt it lick up her spine. She shuddered, hearing Lotte's response as it curled around her own; claiming her songs and notes and self. If there had been a question among her packmates there was none now - owned, fully and wholly by Lotte, Hemlock found she did not care. When the woman approached Hemlock could not help herself - for the first time her posture changing to assert herself above the female. Her teeth were a flash as the woman pressed into her and the contact she so sorely craved somewhat given though not in the capacity she demanded. "Does he know?" She hissed - and caught in her mood and the rise of her emotion and hormones she found another sinful thought. Did Arturo know his wife left his side for her?

Hemlock pressed into Lotte, teeth cutting through her silky fur to tease against the curve of her ear as she reached for Lotte. She did not test their bonds - not outright - she did not seek to displace the love they felt for one another. But the thrill of Lotte being there in her embrace and far from Arturo's still stoked the flames inside of her. She danced away from Lotte, dropping to a bow to encourage the woman closer; to play - but this was not the game at hand, not truly. Still she wanted more contact and being separated even briefly was hard for her. 

Oddly enough, Lotte did not take offense to Hemlock’s show of dominance and responded instead with a rare and overt display of submission. When the fireflower lifted her head and tail, the ambrosia of her season thickening the air of the clearing, Lotte went meek and mild. Small, bearlike ears skimmed back against her broad crown as she licked eagerly at the older female’s chin, her tail whipping wildly against her hocks even as a whine of supplication surged up through the column of her throat. She was an eager participant in the game as Hemlock danced away, but the frustrated curl of her lips was very real — imperious, she didn’t want Hemlock to put distance between them and lunged forward on surprisingly spry paws belied by her thickset appearance. “He knows,” she assured the other female, aiming to place a swift nip against one tantalizing hip. She probably should have thought of something teasing to say, but to atone for the lie she lived, Lotte found it necessary to employ honesty whenever possible. She elaborated with a greedy grin: “He knows that we all three of us belong to one another, but in particular — you both belong to me.”

It was an intense feeling to see Lotte defer to her; still in her head she was Banrion and that would not change no matter her title. If Lotte needed time Hemlock would give it; shouldering any burden that she could to help the family she loved so much. This was a different feeling though. This was something that began far beyond her - and as she had told Lotte when she had whelped there had been millions who had done this with her and she could lean on that strength. Instead, Hemlock was consumed with the wants that were purely selfish - it was not about anything but how she felt right then and her deep need for Lotte's touch. She smirked at Lotte's flash of annoyance, the briefly visible flash of her teeth somehow brought a satisfaction to her and Hemlock let out a low sultry growl. It was a different emotion set than she was familiar with, savoring the sensation and the newness of it as Lotte drew closer. The nip brought a near purr from her, Hemlock turning to face her. Hemlock faced her from the front, shoving her skull into the tender fur of Lotte's chest to rub and press her scent across the woman. "Yours," She murmured with a little teasing smirk. "And that is what you crave?" She asked, tongue teasing along Lotte's chin slowly. 

“Minx,” Lotte accused at the saucy smirk on Hemlock’s face, her moonbright eyes narrowed with playful malice. Her hackles rose unbidden at the sultry growl that fairly purred from the Kali’s humming throat, every sense heightened to an impeccable level. It was only when Hemlock touched her that Lotte felt the first inklings of true guilt regarding Ran’s death and the lie she’d told — but she swallowed down the remorse and the tension and focused on the joy she could still see in the wise woman’s eyes. To preserve that joy, Lotte would do anything. She had given up her title, but she still felt it was her duty to provide for each wolf, and for Hemlock the former alpha harbored an especial liking. “Yes,” was her honest answer.

What she felt for the fireflower was different from pure physical attraction; it was the ownership of Hemlock that hit her in a carnal way. The healer was fierce and competent, steel-strong and sweetly vulnerable, and the combination of these things made her an ideal companion for the soturi — but there was a layer of trust there that made her different from other females. There would always be a sense of competition. That was simply the way the Leifteanant functioned. Still, despite the fact that the punch of raw sexual desire was reserved for her husband, there was an allure about Hemlock that she didn’t understand and couldn’t deny. It wasn’t in her to spent time puzzling it out. She just wanted to be lost in the sensation.

Craning her neck from this new vantage point, Lotte mouthed teasingly at Hemlock’s nape — an erogenous zone, she assumed, since Arturo would grip there with his teeth. “I want to see you happy,” she said honestly, her voice solemn and her eyes intent. “I crave your happiness. Say you will be happy, liekkikukka, and I will do anything.” She adjusted her stance slightly to try to encourage Hemlock to lean against her in a loose uppercase “T” shape, nibbling a meandering path along Hemlock’s ribcage and whuffing at the sensitive convex curve of her flank just before her hips. “He will hold you here,” she rumbled in a teasing under current, boldly pressing her tongue into the hollow of Hemlock’s hip and then licking against the grain to return to her nape, “and here. You need not fear.”

It was foolish, but Lotte realized quite suddenly that in owning them both, she was giving both of them away — and the feeling hit her like a punch to the gut. There was a sadness in her that she couldn’t afford to acknowledge or give in to, but it didn’t show on her black-masked countenance. “You must call for him when you are ready,” she urged her friend in a low, undulating murmur, “and I will be with you as long as you want me here. We will never forsake you.” With the heady rush often came vulnerability — something Lotte had disliked greatly — and she wanted Hemlock to feel surrounded by love and protection and comfort for the entirety of her season and her ensuing pregnancy.

It brought a crooning growl from Hemlock's lips to hear that Lotte craved her; and though she was loathe to shackle herself in any sense it was different. What Lotte was saying - what she was offering - was a thing that she craved. Though she did not leave Palisander from her thoughts most days his image and the feelings she'd had for him were drowned out by the grayscale woman now teasing her. He would have wanted her happy; certainly, but this - was this too much? Was she too greedy? 

To have Lotte and Arturo in the capacity that the woman offered, it was near dizzying, intoxicating, just as much as the grip that Lotte posed to her fur and the way that she gripped. Hemlock tipped her head back when her scruff was tugged, even briefly, giving a breathy groan at the sensation of having Lotte so close and in such an intimate way. "You make me happy," Hemlock murmured softly, making sure that she was heard even without being too loud. "You both do." She had never been so supported after all, and she owed much to the pair of them. 

Even as she leaned against Lotte there came a soft whine, rubbing her face against her friends at the idea of Lotte staying. "I...I....I want you here. I do not want you to suffer though," She admitted, turning to press her kisses along Lotte's cheek. "You are doing me such a kindness, giving me this gift, and I never once want you to think I do not forget that." 

Lotte considered the idea of remaining during the act. Her kneejerk reaction was to decline, but her heart turned over in her chest at the naked vulnerability in Hemlock’s eyes. “I will not suffer,” she reassured the fiery woman, unsure as to whether or not she was lying. “I will stay with you — with Arturo — but if at any point you desire me to go, promise me you will be honest.” It was bold of Lotte to demand honesty when she herself was keeping secrets, but she didn’t stop to think about it or feel guilty. Her lie and this incongruent plea for truth were equally designed to contribute to the wellbeing of the Family.

“I want you to forget it,” Lotte insisted. “When your moment comes, I want you to forget what you feel you owe and what you feel you are being given. I want you to feel only the pleasure and the demand of your body, and know that you are Hemlock, powerful and strong and capable of joy.” She bathed her sister-wife’s face in gentle kisses, dropping her shoulder to lay on the ground in front of Hemlock. “Lay with me,” she begged, puppy-soft and submissive as she whined up at the viridian-eyed dryad. “I want to show you something. I want to give you something. Please lay with me, liekkikukka.”

Hemlock reached up to press a kiss just between Lotte's eyes, for a moment holding close there and just inhaling. She heard her words, of course, but that was not what she wanted - it wasn't what she craved at all! "You- I need you, you do not bother me." She promised quickly. "I want you - the both of you, understand?" At some point it would be good to discuss things all three of them together but there was no time for all of that. Not now. She had to face the facts that some of this would go into the unknown, she had no more time to think and discuss when she was demanded of so much more by her body and it's needs. 

Lotte's plaintive whine brought one of her own and she gave a soft little sigh, leaning down to kiss her way from Lotte's hip up to her scruff, even daring to tease her teeth against Lotte's soft flesh before she laid down with her. "I am selfish," She admitted, breathing deeply even as a shiver ran down her spine. "- to want so much from you both." To want them both. To need them both.

Close up with your post? ♥

When Hemlock acquiesced, Lotte shifted her position. She moved to hover over the smaller female and set about delighting her with the tender ministrations of her teeth and tongue. Catlike, she poured her body like liquid silver into a prolonged slink, spicing her body with the heated ambrosia of Hemlock’s season. “I want you selfish,” she insisted in a throaty murmur. “I want you wanting — I want you needing — ” The gold of her voice pooled in the hollow of Hemlock’s throat, in the concave curve of her flank before it met her hip, and still she greedily stroked the length of the russet wisewoman’s body with her song and her touch. Her lips pressed to fur, eager and searching, as her tongue delved against flesh. “Turo would say something like this — perhaps I have learned from his wicked example,” she chuckled. “I want you this way very fucking badly.” She liked the hard consonants of the word, but she knew she’d botched it. It didn’t come naturally to her, but she liked the idea that she, like her wayward children, had learned from her chivalrous devil of a husband.

 

Lotte might have felt herself a lesser to Arturo's skill but Hemlock could only pant and whine beneath her attentions, eventually falling near silent in her bashfulness. Hemlock could scarcely settle herself, teeth teasing along the darker color of Lotte's coat every chance she got among the crooning sounds of her own low growls. "His wicked example," Hemlock echoed, pressing and arching into Lotte's touch as it was offered. "I want you - so badly - you and Arturo, it...I am on fire." She was in no rush to call Artruo though, not when it came to Lotte's touches and the way she felt. She would bask in this, soak it up, and then call him. "Let....can we go somewhere, together, just for tonight." It was less a question and more a demand with a bit more ferocity as she realized she was encouraged to be selfish. It was hard, but, she pulled herself up from Lotte's embrace to find a haven for the evening, just the two of them. Let the next day bring more, and more for them all. 

and my 300th for you as well <3