“I’d rather you didn’t. Save that for me.” He smiled slightly and kissed her back, before they headed towards her house on the other end of the compound. “So you know, this whole me being your prisoner thing could get kinda kinky if you had a mind to make it that way.”
“Oh yeah? Are you into being chained to the bed?” Aura asked flippantly, but he certainly wouldn’t be the first Ironborn with a fetish for chains.
“Don’t know. Haven’t tried it yet.” He said with a distinct emphasis on the last word. They walked back through the small town that their compound had turned into, past the looks they never failed to get from everyone that saw them. The place had turned into a mix of elements now that there were several packs all trying to work together, and so there was at least a variety of colored eyes staring back at them.
Ziem saw Nick and Zara first and tried to subtly adjust course, but it was too late, and Aura caught sight of Nick. Nick stood with Zara leaning on his arm, as always, as they spoke to a group of Stoneborn.
When she saw Nick she held tighter to Ziem’s hand, and she winced a little as though Nick was about to strike her. She wanted to look away, but all she could do was stare at Nick and Zara. Aura could tell that he loved Zara, from the way that he kept her close, the way that he glanced about suspiciously when bigger wolves got too close to her. It caused her physical pain to see them together, partially because it had only been months since Nick started to ignore her almost completely and partially because she knew that Zara was no good. She tried to warn him so many times, and the last time she said anything he actually looked like he might explode if she said anything else about Zara.
As she stared at him, Nick looked away from the conversation he was in the middle of, as though he smelled something, and actually sniffed a few times at the air before looking directly at her. She could almost feel the invasive touch against her thoughts as he looked her way, and the flick of disdain when he saw Ziem with her. He didn’t spare Ziem more than a moment’s glance before looking back at Aura, though, almost tenderly, but not quite. His scorn was more tangible than his compassion.
Her eyes burned with tears as she looked at him, but she looked away before she actually started to cry. Both of her hands grabbed tightly to Ziem’s arm, and she tried to steer them in any other direction. “Can we turn around?” She whispered, since she didn’t want to even walk past Nick to get to her home.
“Yeah. We’ll go the long way.” He headed the other direction with her, to go around the far end of the camp away from Nick. “He won’t stay this way forever, you know. We have long lives ahead of us. He’ll get over it eventually.”
“I don’t care about him anymore.” She replied sharply as she nearly buried her face into the side of Ziem’s arm. “We’re staying here for the puppies. Not for me.”
Ziem was far from being a Heartborn, but he knew that wasn’t completely true. Even so, he nodded and kept walking with her back toward her house.
The path they had to take to get there, though, took them close to the fence line that Orlando and Candra’s makeshift home was near. As they got there, there was no sign of human activity, but outside the house, there was an unnaturally bright spot of light centered around a small wolf that was currently chasing a large black wolf around the house. Every few moments, they would both stop, and it was obvious Candra was listening to Orlando give her some directions, because she would attempt the same run again, only a different way.
“Gods above…” She said quietly. “Can I not get a fucking break?”
“See, this is why I never take you anywhere.” Ziem said teasingly beside her, hoping to lighten the mood even though he knew it wasn’t terribly likely.
“Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to leave this place.” She wondered out loud, certainly feeling defeated as she kept walking along the path, hoping to get away before Orlando noticed her. Not that he would attempt to talk to her with Candra there. The light of his life.
It wasn’t long before he did see her, though, and it stopped whatever game they’d been playing in its tracks. Orlando looked at her for a moment, then back at Candra, obviously getting her attention. After a brief conversation (speech went faster when it didn’t have to be spoken), she went back into their house and came back out with a black piece of cloth that she handed off to him, jaws to jaws. Once he had it, he shifted, and wrapped the single black piece around his waist in a knot as he stood next to the fence looking at her.
“Hi.” She said quickly, but she just kept walking, since she wasn’t exactly interested in talking.
“How long do you want to keep doing this?” Orlando’s voice said gently from behind her.
“Another two hundred and twenty-four years. Give or take.”
“I hope more give than take.” He said just as gently. “Aura, stop. Just talk to me. Please.”
She looked over at him for a moment and she slowed down, but she didn’t stop. “Talk to you? What the hell could there be for us to talk about?”
“I don’t know, new ways for me to die that you might’ve invented this past week? I don’t care. I haven’t talked to you in months. I’ll take vivid imagery of my demise at this point.”
Suddenly she stopped and she looked over at Ziem as though she needed him to sustain her, but then she looked back at Orlando. “Why? Why do you
