A Pack of Tales
Copyright Β© 2013 Naoko Smith
Thank you so much to Bramblethorn for continuing to support my writing in spite of the many demands on your time.
Please leave comments and feedback for me so I know what works and what doesn't as I write up the rest of this story.
This series will include two kinds of chapters: story chapters, called '(story)' in the blurb and sex scenes, called '(scene)' in the blurb. The sex scenes will be diverse. You can choose to read them all or, if e.g. hetero sex isn't your thing, to skip some and only read the story chapters and e.g. lesbian sex scenes. (You can identify which scenes are what kind of sex from the tags, the category the chapter is uploaded into and description at the start of the scene.)
All characters in this story are fictional. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
This scene contains an account of a rape. I hope I have made clear in this account how disgusting a crime rape is and how angry it makes me to see how little support is offered to victims of rape, although I do believe things are getting better.
A Pack of Tales Ch. 10 β Red/Christa
Red turns (scene)
The breath was catching in Red's throat and she was bristling, choking against her collar. Max had come to a halt in front of her and was turning not to her but to Col, as if in supplication on Red's behalf.
But Col had called her. He was the upcoming Alpha and he had called her name. She would have to answer.
Col had put his hand on her shoulder. He gripped it and pushed her, gently but firmly, to the armchair nearest the door where she usually sat.
They were all there: the cubs sprawled on the sofa and chairs, Rex in his armchair by the fireplace, Jenks and Nye had come to hear how Red's interview had gone. Only Christa was absent β in the kitchen getting tea.
Col pushed Red to the chair and then went to sit on the end of the sofa by Rex's armchair. Max went slowly across and sat on the sofa between Col and Rob.
Red sat catching her breath and sliding her eyes around the room at them all: Rikki and Rob turning puzzled curious faces to her, Nye and Jenks waiting patiently, Max folding his long lean body onto the sofa, his face cold and reserved. Col and Rex also looked at her with the whites of their eyes showing, their expressions telling her they already knew it must be bad.
"I ... I," Red stuttered. Finally she took a deep breath and turned her yellowing eyes to stare out of the window. She slid a finger inside the collar of her silk shirt around the red leather collar hidden underneath. She sat up straight in the armchair, the strength and character of her muscular body made apparent in the clothes Max had selected for her, her feet resting squarely on the floor in her elegant court shoes. The short wings of hair brushed her cheekbones, sweet strawberry blonde, appealingly boyish.
"It was when I started college," Red said in a monotone. "There was a bus to get us there, an hour's journey. I met her on the bus."
Clare. The same age but seemingly worlds wiser. Red knew now that it was just an act but to a shy girl who had never made many friends, Clare seemed like the fount of all knowledge. She was a dark-haired siren with a catch in her laugh. She said she was a witch: "I'm a witch, you know," looking deep into people's eyes and making that catchy laugh. They were not quite sure if she was joking.
Why did she pick Red? Looking back with the perspective gained by the time that had passed since, and with the confidence of having a pack at her back, Red said: "She liked me. She liked ... girls like me. We were the same."
Except that Clare was popular, with her long dark hair, catchy laugh and the hint of the mystic about her. When the friendships from school shook up and people discovered new friends, Clare picked Red.
Red knew better than to obtrude her clumsy person into the circle of people with whom Clare socialised at college, of course. They were on different courses. But on the bus home they would sit together until Clare's stop β which was before Red's - and then Red would sit staring out of the window not daring to question how incredibly happy she felt.
They kissed. Lightly, quickly on saying goodbye. Clare would put her mouth to Red's cheek by her ear. Red would feel the blood suddenly thundering in her veins, her heart thumping in her chest, her thighs loosening and she would smile. She hardly knew what this might mean until Clare carefully carelessly started showing her magazine pictures.
"Christ, look at this, Red. How do you think they can?" She looked deep into Red's eyes and laughed her catchy laugh, pointing at two women entwined in the glossy paper of a men's magazine. "Would you like to come to my house for tea next week?"