Chapter 17: No Matter What
#17 of The Mating Season 5
Chapter 17: No Matter What
"Keeno Jr.!" Keeno yelled, holding his arms open as Enya charged at him. "Dad!" Enya squealed back. And though it had not been long since father and daughter had last embraced, Enya nonetheless tackled her father to the floor. The others watched in amusement as Enya kissed her father's cheeks and Keeno laughed to the ceiling like a boy. Kilyan shook his head in fond amazement: the two always seemed to become children whenever they were reunited.
Smiling as Enya embraced her father's neck, Yuri moved into the room with her staff. She had removed her cloak in the bedroom, and now carrying only the staff and a pouch on her hip, she went to Nontikmah's body. Kilyan had laid the witch to rest on the sitting furs near the fire pit, and Inden had knelt to stroke up a fire. Kilyan set to work removing the wet sleeping furs from Nontikmah's body, then draped them to dry over a wooden chair near the fire.
"Close that window, please," Yuri quietly told Wynn as she rummaged in the pouch on her hip.
Wynn moved to the window and pulled the wooden shutters closed. Though she had visited Cousin Enya and her wife's hut any number of times during family reunions, she still felt somehow awkward and out of place. After receiving a warm hug from Cousin Enya, she saw her uncle and cousin retreat to a couple chairs on the other side of the room, and there they set to quietly talking as Keeno, no doubt, caught his daughter up on the present events.
Kilyan, meanwhile, was preoccupied with holding Nontikmah's paw as Yuri knelt to press a small leaf on the witch's tongue.
"It will take away the pain for now," Yuri said, feeling Nontikmah's forehead and smoothing back her mane.
"You're in pain?" Kilyan asked the witch, almost in an accusatory tone.
Nontikmah smiled weakly, "You have to know everything, Kilyan? I wouldn't have had you know I was in pain, but yes, I am. She can't save me, Kilyan. For what I've done . . . I must die."
Kilyan frowned and kissed Nontikmah's paw. The witch soon fell asleep, and he fell to talking with Yuri in a low voice about the possibilities. Wasn't there anyway to save the vixen? And if not, couldn't they somehow at least give Nontikmah a few more days? He and Yuri whispered back and forth, and not knowing what to do with herself, Wynn wandered down the hall.
She entered a little room near the back of the hut. There was a room like this in every traditional hut while in bigger huts there were several. It was the guestroom of the house. Wynn loved her cousin's house: the smooth clay walls, the potted flowers hanging from the rafters, the sweet smell of magic and incense that came with Yuri's profession. There was even an upstairs - so very rare in huts unless the owner was of some great importance - and a wonderfully wild garden in the back, where Enya and Yuri sat together and watched the sunset. As head magic practitioner in such a large village, Yuri was of course very wealthy. Their mattresses were always stuffed with down, their pillows always amazingly soft in this house. And on the floor, the finest furs, made from the rare white bears that lived in the north.
Wynn rocked happily up and down on her toes, relishing in the fur's softness as it fluffed beneath her feet. She remembered doing the same when she'd been a little girl, and Enya had once walked in on her and tickled her to death for it. Her cousin had thought it was so cute.
"Wynn?"
Wynn looked around at the sound of Inden's deep, guttural voice. He stood awkwardly in the doorway, his wings folded behind him. Wynn grew very still when he took a step into the room.
"I felt - weird - back there. Outta place. So I left," Inden admitted.
"Me too," said Wynn, smiling. They had always had that in common, at least. Feeling out of place.
"I just wanted to say - that is --" He rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the floor. "I know we've put each other through a lot --"
"You're sorry," said Wynn for him.
Inden laughed weakly. "Yeah. You know I'd never do anything to hurt you, Wynn --"
"I know. I'm sorry too."
Inden blinked at her. He never in his life thought he'd hear Wynn apologize. Not stubborn Wynn, who believed apologizes were pointless.
Wynn laughed at Inden's surprise. "You didn't think I could be sorry for something?"
"It's not that. I didn't think you'd ever admit it."
They looked at each other and suddenly laughed. Wynn took Inden's paw, and smiling into his eyes, she squeezed it.
Inden felt his heart warming. Here was his Wynn at last. Here was the friend he used to laugh with, talk with, kiss on the cheek when no one was looking. It was like he'd finally gotten her back. Without thinking, Inden jerked Wynn into his arms by her paw and kissed her.
Wynn pulled away. "Inden!" she cried through trembling lips. She backed away, looking confused.
"Isn't it what you want?" Inden said, grabbing the back of her neck.
Wynn couldn't believe it when he pulled her close again, and he kissed her so deeply this time that she didn't fight: she melted in Inden's arms, she hugged his neck when his kiss grew more fervent, and when he placed her thigh on his hip, she said not a word in protest.
"You still love me, Wynn," Inden accused. He paused and dropped his forehead against hers. Wynn felt a sting of guilt when he closed his eyes and smiled, as if relieved. "I th-thought for the longest time that you'd stopped . . ."
Wynn closed her eyes too. "I couldn't stop," she whispered.
Inden backed her toward the bed.
"What are you doing!"
"What does it look like?" Inden returned.
Wynn's heart quickened when she felt the brush of his erection against her. She let herself fall gently onto the pillows under his tender kiss, and as his paws explored her gently and yet so firmly, her body twisted under him. She sighed and moaned when his fingers sank in her wetness, when he gasped to find just how much she wanted him. He kissed her slowly, wetly. And when he pushed his way inside, she arched her back, pressing her belly and breasts against him. Inden blushed when her little thighs clung to him tight, and as he moved in gentle and steady rhythm against his Wynn, he knew at last what it was to really love a female.
Wynn was amazed when she awoke some time later to find that no raging adult had come bursting into the room with a leather strap to tan the hides of them both. Instead, she and Inden had been left in bed together! She could hear the others talking calmly in the front room, the crackle of the fire as its warmth spread through the house. And in the distance, the storm kept raging.
Snuggled in with the winged prince, Wynn thought she knew why she and Inden had been left on their own: Kilyan felt guilty. He was tired of whipping Wynn - not only physically but emotionally. It didn't matter as much if she got with pup now: Kilyan seemed to have finally accepted that his daughter was leaving the summer village . . . and she wasn't coming back. There would be no banishment in the jungle were she to discover herself with pup. She was their princess and damn-near above the law. And if she ran away with Sylas, Wynn being with pup was the last thing that would worry Kilyan. Perhaps he was even relieved that she had slept with Inden. Perhaps he thought it meant she would stay in the jungle with her childhood sweetheart. Wynn closed her eyes. If only her choices were that easy.
Inden grunted in his sleep and threw a big arm across Wynn. She felt crushed under the weight of that arm and wriggled to get free but could not without waking him. She sighed in defeat and smiled at Inden. He looked so cute, so innocent in his sleep. He was such a boy still. And, yes, she loved him. She knew that. But it didn't mean they were right for each other, nor did it mean that they should try and force something that would never work. She had wanted to tell him this as his kisses deepened, as his hungry paws explored her body, but all she could think of was each explosive thrust and the helpless look in his eyes as he made love to her.
"God, Inden," Wynn moaned. "Why do you have to make this so hard?"
"There's nothing hard about it. Just tell him you're with me."
Wynn looked around with a start: Sylas was laying on her other side, looking livid. His arms were behind his head and he was scowling.
"Sylas," Wynn whispered, blushing guiltily, "I can explain --"
"No need," answered the fox. "I'm assuming this was a goodbye fuck, right? You're going to tell him you're coming with me, aren't you?"
"Yes!" Wynn hissed. "Now get out of here before --"
Too Late. Inden's eyes slowly came open, and when they landed on Sylas, they filled with rage. "You!" Inden scrambled to drag himself up. He attempted to lunge at Sylas and instead fell on top of Wynn, who squealed and thrashed her legs and snarled for Sylas to get out. But Sylas was already gone.
Wynn shoved Inden off, and they both sat panting.
"What was he doing here?" Inden demanded, glaring at Wynn.
Wynn clenched her fist. Why was it that only Inden seemed able to see Sylas? She wondered if he'd seen him before, but he couldn't have: had Inden seen Sylas kneeling beside Wynn as she slept, he would have beheaded him. It seemed Inden only saw Sylas when he wanted to be seen.
"Answer me!" Inden demanded much louder than he meant. "You two-timing --"
"I haven't two-timed you!" Wynn snapped over him. She shoved him in the chest so hard he fell back on his elbow. "I haven't done anything wrong! I told you we were over, Inden, why do you have to make it so h-hard!" And she sobbed into her paws.
Inden sat in amazement. Wynn wasn't the kind of girl that cried in a break up. She was the kind that kicked you into the mud and threw your stuff after you. He didn't know that Wynn had cried before, for his back had been to her. All this time, he'd labored under the delusion that she'd broken up with him with dry eyes. But to see her crying like this now . . . He reached out and gently pried her paws from her face. "Hey," he said, pinching her chin affectionately, "hey, Wynn, don't cry. I thought since we - I mean . . . I thought since you still love me . . ."
"Oh, Inden," Wynn said, dragging her paw across her cheek with a sniff. "Just because I love you it - it doesn't mean that this is going to work! We can never make each other happy! Not really. I enjoyed being with you," she said, cupping his face, "but I'm always going to want things that you aren't going to, and we'll just get bitter and hate each other, and I don't want that."
Inden looked down a moment, then he took Wynn's paw and peered into her face. "And you really believe that Sylas can make you happy?"
Wynn didn't even have to answer. Just thinking of Sylas, a glow came over her. Seeing this, Inden's ears flattened miserably on his head and he swallowed hard.
"Then," he said, caressing the back of her paw with his thumb, "your happiness comes first, my princess." He lifted her paw to his lips and kissed it, just the way he had when they were children.
Wynn only cried harder. She had secretly wanted it to work with Inden. She had wanted that so badly. She admitted as much in a broken whisper. Inden was happy to hear it - though his heart had been crushed, he was happy to hear such a thing. He pulled her down onto the pillows with him and held her close.
"I'll always look after you, Wynn," he whispered as her sobs slowly quieted. "It doesn't matter."
Wynn sniffled against his chest. "Will you?" she said, closing her eyes happily when those big paws rubbed her back to sooth her.
"Yes. Because no matter what . . . I still love you too."