Page 48 of Feral Werewolves
“I can help it,” he said.
I laughed.
“No, I mean, I would fall in love with you no matter what. If you weren’t a tithe, I would love you. If you weren’t a woman, I would love you. If you weren’t—”
“You can’t even know that.” I was touched. I kissed him. “I love you, too, Paladin,” I murmured against his lips. He was sweeter than the others, less hardened, somehow. I wondered if Paladin hadn’t been through as many bad things as they had? I wondered how Paladin had retained this sweetness out here in this rough, harsh, place.
“I worship you, Clementine,” he said in a low voice. “I adore you. I’m all yours, forever.”
“And I’m yours,” I told him. “I’m yours.”
He groaned into my skin. “I want to make you come. Help me. I don’t know how you like to be touched orfucked. Help me, please.”
So, I took his hand and moved his fingers so that they were barely nudging my clit, and I fucked him into his chair, fucked my clit against his fingers, fucked myself on the thick gloriousness of his cock buried all the way inside me. I fucked him until I came, and he came almost immediately after I did.
Afterwards, my coffee was cold.
He insisted on making me a fresh cup.
kestrel
I DID CHORES, because they still needed done. I was used to checking on whatever Paladin’s responsibilities were to see if he’d actually done them, because it was a fifty-fifty chance he’d just forget. So, it wasn’t a big deal to do Paladin’s chores, too.
But then I realized Lazarus wasn’t doing anything either, and this pissed me off.
I could have gone and talked to Lazarus about it, which was what a leader should do, undoubtedly. But I didn’t like yelling at people, really. I didn’t like throwing around my weight. So, instead, I just got the plow and took it out into the field to do Lazarus’s plowing.
He’d left the tractor out there, which was when I remembered that there were issues with the plow, and that he hadn’t explained to me what was going on.
So, it wasn’t the plow. It was the tractor, which wasn’t starting.
He had a bunch of stuff out there, some gasoline and some tools, and I just started running through a battery of ideas that I had in my head.
Turned out the fuel filter was clogged.
I found the clog, but couldn’t get to it with my fingers, so I went back to the garage attached to the farmhouse, got a tool that could snake down further, and was able to yank it out. It looked sort of waxy. I had no idea what it was.
Whatever, the tractor started now.
I hooked the plow attachment up to the tractor and started working on the field. It was best to get these fields plowed now in the fall, so that they could sit and be ready for planting in the spring. We had other fields that were growing crops right now, but we would not plant those next year. We were rotating them. If you plant in the same soil over and over, you deplete it, apparently. Farming is more complicated than it sounds.
I finished one field, and I probably could have done more, because Lazarus was days behind, and if he’d just taken my help with the stupid tractor, we wouldn’t be behind like this, but I was kind of done at that point.
I had this low-level buzz of anger at the base of my skull, radiating down over my shoulders.
Fuck them for doing nothing.
Fuck them for leaving everything to me.
Fuck them for thinking they could keep the damn tithe.
I stomped into the house, to find her and Paladin in the kitchen, flour everywhere, kissing next to the counter.
“Lucky I’m around to take care of all your responsibilities,” I threw over my shoulder as I headed towards the shower.
“Did you do my chores again?” Paladin said.
I rolled my eyes, moving out of the room.
