2 comments/ 11384 views/ 8 favorites Rowan's Story Ch. 01 By: RedMonkeyButt The day was hot and humid and I was sweating as I jogged in small circles in the round pen, the horse trotting around and tossing his head. My only consolation was that he seemed to be as sweaty as I was. Finally, I clicked my tongue at him and he slowed to a walk as I sank to the sand. Thankfully, the round pen was covered so we weren't in the sun, but it was still hot as hell. The stallion stopped and snorted at someone walking up to the gate, thinking he might be able to escape the torture of having to run in circles. I stood up and dusted the sand off my jeans, walking up and grabbing his halter before the horse could bolt as the man obliviously opened the gate and walked through it. "Ms. Jenner," he said, but I ignored him and held on to Sparks' halter as he tried his best to walk me out the gate. I saw Jenny walking out of the barn with a lead rope heading toward the pen and sighed when she came and walked Spark to the pasture. The man cleared his throat and said again, "Ms. Jenner." "Yes, sir, how can I help you now that my horse is secure and not about to run me down trying to get out through the gate that you left open?" I turned to him as I said it, not caring if I sounded rude. He had the decency to look ashamed, but it didn't last long. "Ms. Jenner, I need you to come with me to meet my boss." "Yeah, that's not happening," I said, and turned to walk through the gate to the barn. Jenny was free to leave as soon as Spark was in the pasture, and I saw the flash of her taillights as she stopped at the end of the drive. I, however, had to get ready for a trail ride in the morning so the tack room was calling my name. The man followed me, barely avoiding a pile of horse dung. He looked disgusted, and it made me feel a little bit better. "My boss will pay you well for your time." "I don't even know what you want, and you're already offering me money," I said as I took a saddle down off the tree and pushed past the man. The trailer was right outside the second door of the tack room, so I set the saddle inside the little tack area and went back to get the bridle and all the other things that went with getting ready for a long ride. "Your boss could have come out here instead of wasting my time with you. I'm willing to bet he would have gotten to the point faster." We kept all the trail ride supplies in a trunk which made it much easier to move everything to the trailer. I didn't have to worry about not having wraps or an extra bridle or bit or anything. Jenny was very good at making sure everything was kept stocked. "He needs you to do a summoning for him," the man said. "He'll pay the going rate of a practicing summoner, but he wants you to do it." I stopped and stared at the man. I didn't even have to ask what his boss wanted me to summon. The only things people ever wanted summoned were demons. It had been years since I'd done a summoning, and I didn't want to start again now. "I don't think your boss can afford what I would ask to do a summoning." "You have no idea what my boss can afford," he said. "He needs a certain demon summoned, and he seems to believe you are the only one that can do it." A certain demon. That could only mean one thing. This man's boss wanted me to summon Viné, who had made it clear that he would only come if I called him. Unlike a lot of other demons, Viné had the ability to ignore a call if he wanted to. I had been the last one to successfully summon him five years ago, and no matter how they tried, no one else could make him come into our realm. "I won't summon him. Tell your boss to go fuck himself. I trust you can let yourself out of my barn and find your way back to the city." I waited through his feeble attempts to convince me to take the money and just do the summoning until he finally took the hint and left. It was a small consolation that his car bottomed out when he went over the cattle guard at the gate by the house. I finished loading everything into the trailer and then went to get Spark from the pasture and put him up in his stall. With everything finished I could finally go up to the house and take a shower. --- The spray was hot against my back and I had just rinsed my hair when I heard the doorbell ring in the distance. Figuring whoever it was could wait a few more minutes, I finished my shower quickly and threw on a thin pair of sweats, a sports bra, and a tank top. With a towel around my hair, I went to open the front door, and immediately closed it when I saw who was there. "Son of a bitch, Rowan," the deep voice still made things twist low in my body. "Open the door." I put my forehead against the cool wood of the door and sighed. He wouldn't go away. I straightened up and opened the door, "What do you want, Jason?" "I want you to take the offer," he said simply. "Brian came back with his tail between his legs and a lot of dust on his shoes. The Master is pissed because he didn't get you to accept his money." "I'm not doing it, Jason," I sighed and moved away from the door to let him in. It was pointless to make him stand in the heat when I knew he wouldn't go away. "You know I can't do it." "And you know I can't go back to my master with a 'no'," he shot back. Looking around, he finally sat on one of the bar stools off to the side. "You're the only one that can summon Viné, Rowan, and Viné is the only demon my master will seek for this kind of help. I'm begging you, don't make me go back with a negative answer." I knew who he was talking about the moment he said 'master.' Jason was an enforcer for the local werelion pride, and his master was one mean lion. I shook my head and walked into the laundry room off the entry and rubbed my hair with the towel before leaving it in the hamper. "I can't do it, Jason," I said when I came back out. "He already has three marks on me, one more and I'm his. Forever." "You won't have to take this mark," he said softly. "Luka will take the mark, all you have to do is call him and take the money." "It doesn't work like that!" I yelled at him. "The moment I call Viné he's going to come for me. He's not going to listen to Luka or anybody else until he knows he has me. You of all people should have known I couldn't do this!" "Jesus," he muttered and stood, moving to take me into his arms. I stayed stiff until he let me go, but he had felt good against me in that brief moment. "He's already tried three other summoners. Everyone says the same thing - Viné will only come for you. Luka has even tried to entice Viné over with the promise that you will be there if he comes. Nothing has worked and Luka is just getting angrier and more desperate." "Why does he need Viné so bad?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me. "Because Viné has power over the lions," he said. "Viné is the only one that can give Luka the power he thinks he needs to take over another pride in the area." "I didn't know there was another pride in the area. I thought y'all were the only ones," werelions weren't common. Having two prides in one area was unusual. "They've just come up in the last year," he said. "Since we stopped seeing each other." "And Luka can't get them to join with him?" I knew I shouldn't have asked, the goings on of the pride were no longer any of my concern. "They don't want to join us," he looked at me. "Their master thinks he should be the king here, not Luka. You can imagine how that meeting went." "So Luka wants Viné to teach him how to beat the other lions into submission?" I shook my head. "Even for Luka, I can't do it. I'm not going to risk my soul because he's too high and mighty to know when he's beat and needs to bow to someone else for a change." "That's just it," he shook his head this time. "The other master isn't that strong, but Luka can't beat him in a test of wills. This new guy would have us all go back to the old pride ways, with slaves and whatnot." He looked at me then, a new meaning coming through his features. "You were the last female I had, Rowan. He would want you with us. Not as a lion, but as a summoner. Prides that can summon demons are stronger and more feared than the prides who can't. When you were with me, Luka was able to lie and make everyone believe we had a summoner. If they take over, you would have more than your soul to worry about. There are worse demons to be marked by than Viné, and you know it." I stared at him. I knew Luka had used my influence as a summoner to keep other prides and lone lions at bay, but I had never known the true extent of what my reputation had given to the pride. "Then tell him to keep lying. If he can do that, then I don't have to summon Viné." "He tried that, but when you were no longer seen with me in public..." the sentence trailed off, but I knew what he meant. No one had seen me with Jason, so no one believed the lies anymore. "It has to be you that calls Viné. Luka will deal with him once you've called him, but since he'll only answer to you..." again, he trailed off. "I can't, Jason. It's too big a risk," I said, rubbing my arm where the marks were. He watched my hand and I stopped. "Tell Luka I'm sorry, but he'll have to find another way." Jason nodded and took a few steps toward the door before he turned, "You know he'll come himself after this. I can't help you with him now." He left after that, the rumble of his truck fading as he drove off. ---- The next day, Luka showed up as I was loading Newt into the trailer. Spark was already out in the pasture, happily trotting around, and Jenny was in the barn with the new two year old gelding we had bought a week ago. Newt snorted at Luka, but the horses were used to the lions coming around. I heard a whinny from the barn, though, and knew the new horse had scented the newcomer. He didn't say anything at first, just stood at the back of the trailer while I made sure Newt was comfortable. "I'm not doing it, Luka," I said as I shut the door on the trailer. "Jason must have told you why by now, though you should have already known." "He also must have told you that I will take the mark if Viné wants to give one," his voice was low, as though it shouldn't fit in his body. He had spent way too much time in lion form and his vocal cords never quite came all the way back. I stopped with a hand up on the tailgate of the truck and looked at him. He had dark circles under his eyes and his hair was a mess. He looked tired. "You know it doesn't work that way, Luka. He'll want me to take the mark, not you. You don't have as much to lose." "They want Maddie," he whispered. "One of the conditions of the takeover was that they want Maddie. I can't give her to them, Rowan. I need Viné's help." "What do you mean 'they want Maddie?'" I asked. "They can't make you divorce her." He shook his head. "They can claim her, though. I couldn't beat them in the test of wills, Rowan. The next time we meet it will be a full-on battle. You know how it works. It won't end well if we can't beat them in a conference room where we just stare and throw power at each other." "I told you that telling the others you had a summoner would not end in anything good for your pride, Luka," I said, moving to the driver's side door of the truck. "You made this mess on your own, you should be able to get out of it the same way." I climbed into the truck and started it, the sound of the diesel engine drowning his voice out for a moment. "They will come after you, too, Rowan," he said after moving closer to the door to be heard. "I can handle myself, Luka. You need to handle your own issues," I shut the door and put the truck in gear. My knuckles were white as I gripped the steering wheel, and I hoped I could calm down enough to ride later. I would not put my soul on the line for Luka's stupidity. Maddie could handle herself. She was a lioness and knew better how the prides worked than even Luka did. Even their marriage was a way for them to seem united in all ways at the head of the pride. I pulled over at a rest stop ten miles from my house and pulled out my phone. Sighing, I dialed the number and listened as it rang three times. Maddie's voice was quiet on the other end, "Hello?" "How bad is it, Maddie?" I asked. "Worse than he probably told you," she said. I heard something moving in the background and then a door shut. "The other pride is strong, Rowan. Stronger than any I've known. They came to challenge his summoner, and if you lost they would take the whole pride. Luka has never been in a war between prides like this. They will kill him and any who try to defend him. Our women will be taken as slaves, and the weaker lions will be broken before they are allowed to move outside the pride. We will be made to tithe. Luka's never asked for a tithe from the pride, even though some of the older ones have offered. It makes him look weak, and it's attracted one big mess into our backyard." "What about the others? Will they help you?" I should have shot Luka when he was in front of me and saved Maddie the trouble later. "The wolves have offered, but only if it looks like the new pride will try to take them over as well. We're the strongest animals in the area, so it's likely that once we fall the others will, too," she sounded worried, and I could understand it. "Is there no other demon that can help? Does it have to be Viné?" I all but whispered into the phone, but I knew she'd heard me. "I told him not to ask you to do this," there was a muffled voice in the background and Maddie told someone to be quiet. "He doesn't understand what it could cost you. He wasn't there for any of the other marks. I'm sorry, Rowan." I slumped against the seats and clicked my phone shut. Luka's sports car flew by on the highway and I pulled the truck back out onto the road home. I would have to send a message to the head of the trail ride to let them know I wouldn't be there when I got back to the house. Jenny was just walking out of the barn when I pulled back up. "Did you forget something?" She asked when I got out and moved to take Newt out. I shook my head, "No. Something came up and I can't go." Thinking about it, I turned to her from the back of the trailer, "You can go if you want - take it easy for the day. Everything is already loaded." She smiled, "That would be great, but Spark is getting a bath today." "Go, I can take care of him," I tossed her the truck keys to make the point. "Have fun, Newt hasn't been out in a while so he should keep things interesting." I heard a faint, "Gee, thanks," as she started the truck up and pulled away from the barn. I went to the fence where Spark's halter and lead were hanging and whistled for him. He looked up from the other end of the pasture and then started trotting up. He'd always known when it was bath time, and didn't really care who it was doing the bathing. The white halter stood out against his dun coat, but it was starting to show it's dirt, as well. His hooves clacked against the concrete floor of the wash stall, and I tossed the lead over his neck to get him to stand still. For a stallion he was very well tempered, only trying to escape when he had to do any work. I grabbed the sprayer and stretched the hose out after turning the water on, spraying the water over my hand until it cooled off. Then, I turned the spray onto Spark's chest and smiled when he tossed his head and whinnied. I was soaking wet with soap running down my arms as I rinsed the horse's mane when I saw a car coming down the driveway. Ignoring it, I went on with rinsing Spark before I remembered that Jenny wasn't there to meet whoever it was. I went back to rinsing him off and waited for the person to find me. It was two people, and I didn't recognize either of them. Spark made it clear he didn't like them by stamping his feet and pinning his ears back while I held on to his lead in an attempt to keep him from lashing out at them. He had no problem with the familiar lions coming around because he had gotten used to them, but these knew men were unfamiliar and they felt off even to me. "Whoa, baby," I said to him, using calming tones even though inside I was as worked up as he was. I turned him to face the open end of the wash stall and the two men standing there. "Ms. Jenner," the one on the left said. He was wearing jeans, a button down t-shirt and dark sunglasses. "We need you to come with us." "I'm sorry," I said. "I can't leave the ranch unattended, and I doubt either of you can take care of things here. Whatever you want, it will have to be done here, when I have time for it." Hollywood-in-shades shook his head, "You need to come with us now, ma'am. Our master requests your presence." I started walking toward them, leading a very unhappy Spark beside me. "Your master will have to set up an appointment at least two weeks ahead of time, or come out here himself. I can't leave the ranch unattended, and my help is out today." The closer to the men we got, the more antsy Spark got. I gave him enough slack in the lead to really get off his front feet and let him move the men on his own. It beat the hell out of squaring off with them and I got no little amusement out of watching them back away from the stallion. I knew I wouldn't have the excuse of the horse acting up once I hooked him to the walker, but it didn't matter. Just as I looped the loose lead rope over my shoulder, I saw both Luka and Jason's vehicles turn into the drive. "It looks like help has arrived," Hollywood said, eyeing the cars and moving to take my arm. "They're not here to work on my ranch, Hollywood," I said, smirking at him. "That is my master and his enforcer." The men watched the vehicles approach and I felt a small smile touch my lips when Jason stopped his truck on the cattle guard and walk from there as Luka parked his car. Unless they went through the fence or rammed Jason's heavy duty truck, the men were trapped here. Luka's baritone voice carried through the still air as he addressed the men, "Your master is expecting you back, boys. He sounded very angry that you were out here at all, messing with my summoner." "Your pet will have to move his car, then," Hollywood said, never looking away from Jason. Nice, if they fought on my property I would shoot them both and leave them for the wild hogs to dispose of. Reaching into the tack room I was standing beside, I pulled out the shotgun I kept handy in case any wild animals showed up and pumped it for good measure. It got their attention just fine, "Jason, move your truck and let them leave." I swung the stock to my shoulder and pointed the gun in the general direction of the two enforcers in shades and added, "If either of you show up uninvited again, we'll find out how fast you can heal a shotgun wound to the face. I don't even have to aim this thing; just point and shoot." Neither of them said anything, they just got back in their car and drove off when Jason moved off the cattle guard. I kept the gun in hand as both Jason and Luka moved closer to me. "Maddie told me you called," Luka said. "I figured you would call off your trail ride and come back, so I called Jason for some company." "I don't need company, Luka," I said, pointing the shotgun at the ground. He had a familiar glint in his eye and I continued, "Don't look so happy, either. I'm not sure if I'll summon Viné or just show up to your meeting and hope they back down. Something is wrong with them. Spark has never acted like that around weres, even strange ones. They didn't feel right." "We know," Jason said, looking at Luka. "They have help. The same kind of help we need from Viné, but this help isn't leonine." He moved up beside me and took the gun, manually taking the rounds out instead of just pumping them out as Luka would have done. Then he took my elbow and pulled me into the barn to the office, letting Luka follow at his own pace. Rowan's Story Ch. 01 "I told you they would come for you," the master lion said as he came into the office. Jason had pulled bottles of water from the mini fridge and handed him one. "I just didn't think they would move this quick." "What if I had gone on the trail ride?" I asked. "Would they have turned and chased me out there with that many people around?" "It's likely," Luka said. "This new pride seems to adhere very close to the old ways. They tithe, they keep slaves, and they couldn't care less about the laws of humans. If they thought they could take you out there, they would. They knew you didn't go, though, so they've been watching you enough to have seen you come back and stay. It's probably a good thing that you sent Jenny on the ride instead of keeping her here." "You have to call him, Rowan," Jason said, and if he hadn't been so close to me I probably wouldn't have heard it. "They have a summoner, and they've found a demon that can help them. You can call Viné and end this all now, tonight." "Maddie told me that asking this was asking too much," Luka said, and I glanced up at him. "I'm not sure what will happen if you take the fourth mark from Viné, or if he forces it on you. She believes it means that he will own you, more surely than a master owns a slave. Can you convince him to mark me instead, or is the temptation of having you going to be too much for him?" I looked at Jason, who had been there when I received two of the three marks I had on my body. Both of them I had taken to save his life. The third I had taken to learn more complex summoning spells so I could summon more powerful demons. I had been very young and stupid when I got that mark, but I had figured that having only one mark wasn't so bad. Had I known I would take two more marks from the same demon in the years following that first one, I may not have taken it. Now, Viné waited in his Hell dimension for me to call him one more time; to give him one more chance to truly own me. Could I really give him that chance? Jason looked away first, probably guessing what I had been thinking. "I'm not going to call Viné," I held up a hand when Luka looked like he would protest. "Not right away, at least. I want to try something else and see if there's another way to do this without being trapped in a bottle on Viné's trophy shelf." "What will you do?" Jason asked. "I'm going to call Sitri and see if he will help, first," I said. "Rowan, no," Jason said, shaking his head and then looking at me. "You can't call him again." "We're not together anymore, remember? I don't have to listen to your advice," I knew the words would sting, but I couldn't just make them disappear once I had said them. "Sitri will know why the other pride feels off." "Yeah," Jason said, walking toward the door. "And he'll tell you all about it while he fucks you." He walked out and Luka watched him go for a second. Then he turned to me, "Is that true? This other demon will want sex in exchange for information?" "Not entirely," I said. "He's more likely to tell me if I have sex with someone in front of him. The one time I've called him, he got a little too up close and personal for Jason's liking. He got so much amusement out of Jason's reactions that he didn't even demand a mark, he just told me what I wanted to know. Since then, Jason has refused to be present when I did any summonings." Luka's eyes widened a bit and he said, "Oh, the poor boy. Do what you need to do, but do it tonight. The final meeting is in two nights, and we need to know how to beat them." With that, he left the office. After a few minutes, I heard his car start and the gravel pop as he drove off again. I laid my head on the table and tried to keep my hands from shaking in my lap. Light footsteps and then hands on my shoulders made me sigh. The familiar scent of Jason's aftershave washed over me and I could feel myself starting to relax. He had always had this effect on me, and today it was welcome. "You don't have to be here when I call him," I said quietly. He pulled me out of the chair and against his chest, wrapping me in his arms. "What kind of friend would I be if I left you to do this on your own?" A pained laugh burst from me and I put my arms around his waist, "A smart one." It felt good to have his arms around me, and I let myself revel in the feel of his shirt against my cheek and his breath in my hair. Underneath the faint smell of sweat and his soap I caught a light whiff of musk and open air. This was how he'd always smelled to me - like a lion. The musk was always there in the background, but it was stronger just after he'd turned. His hand moved up my back in a familiar caress, and I moved away without looking at him. "Rowan," he started, but I cut him off. "Don't, Jason," I sat back in my desk chair and opened the large drawer that was meant to hold hanging files, but I used it to hold my spell books. "I don't need you here when I call Sitri, and I know you don't want to stay." I heard him sigh as though he was going to say something, but he finally just walked out of the room. The smell of lion had gotten stronger than I'd realized, and I got up to open the window and let the room air out a bit. From the open drawer, I lifted a heavy leather-bound book and opened to somewhere near the middle. After flipping a few pages I found the spell I needed and set about getting everything in the office straight. The office floor had been specially made with a summoning circle carved into the wood. The symbols for basic summoning were drawn in the appropriate places, so all I had to do were add the symbols specifically meant to summon Sitri and leave a gift of some sort for him. With a stick of chalk, I set about drawing the more specific runes and left a bullwhip in the middle of the circle. Sitri would generally take any kind of gift that could be used in a sexual encounter, or he would take the energy of a couple having sex in the middle of the circle. I had sent Jason away, so Sitri would have to make do with the whip. I stood off to the side of the office and felt my senses stretch into the circle. With a mental 'pop' the circle snapped closed, and the runes I had drawn began to glow. To anyone watching, nothing had happened. Most humans wouldn't even see the runes glowing. To me, however, and to anyone who knew what to watch for there was a thin layer of silvery aura that made a perfect semi-spherical shape in the middle of the room. The power built as the runes glowed brighter and the whip lifted off the floor and unfurled. With a crack, the whip lashed out and struck the circle. I hadn't been expecting the whip to actually work, but the low laughter that came through the thin layer of my aura was evidence enough that it had. Sitri appeared in the middle of the circle wearing jeans and white t-shirt, winding the whip in his hands. "I haven't been summoned with a gift of this sort in so long," his voice was low and raspy, as though he was getting over a sore throat. "And to have been summoned by you," he seemed surprised when he looked up, but smiled anyway. "Are you trying to avoid Viné, love?" His eyes were a fiery red underneath his shaggy black hair, but I was able to meet them. "I need to know who is helping the other pride, Sitri." "Who's saying it's not Viné?" He raised his eyebrows. "They don't feel like Viné," I said. "I don't know who is helping them, but I know it's definitely not him." The smile turned to a smirk and Sitri sat down in the middle of the circle. It was at least seven feet high at the center, and I knew he had plenty of room but he was still getting comfortable. "You leave a whip in the middle of a circle and ask me to tell you our secrets? What if it's just time for Luka to give up his power and let it go to a younger lion?" I shook my head, "That's not it. This new pride has help. I would be more than willing to sit back and let Luka take the fall if this other pride was stronger, but they aren't. Their enforcers were here today..." He didn't let me finish, "You've met the enforcers of the other pride already?" "Yes," I looked at him to make sure he wasn't going to keep interrupting. "They came here and Spark couldn't get away from them fast enough. Both of them felt," I waved my hand back and forth trying to choose the right word for how they had felt to me. "Slimy," was what I settled on. "Viné's power has always felt natural. Dangerous and deadly, but natural." Sitri looked at the whip on the floor by his leg and then back at me, "They don't have demonic help. We are creatures of nature, Rowan, all of our power feels natural. Even the more reptilian of us doesn't have power that feels slimy. I'll take this," he held the whip in the air. "And I'll try to avoid telling Viné we had this chat. I honestly thought this would be more interesting than a chat about your cats, love. Unless you're going to let me out of this circle to have my way with you," the sentence drifted off and he leered at me. "That's it?" I asked, confused. "Yes," he stood up and began to fade. "Viné knows you're summoning again. Now, I have to go before he gets here and all hell breaks loose." He disappeared and I wiped a hand through the runes I had drawn to summon him before anyone else could break through into my office. I sat back in the desk chair after straightening the room and put my book back. My phone buzzed in the drawer and I pulled it out to see that I had missed three calls and Sitri had been in my office for almost an hour. Every call was from Jason, and the last one came with a message that he was on his way back. Good, I wouldn't have to call him if he was already on his way. I sent a text to Luka saying that the summoning had gone well but he owed me about fifty bucks for the whip. After that, I leaned back and tried to relax until Jason got back. I had no idea what else could be helping the other pride, but Sitri said it wasn't demonic. What the hell was it, then? Rowan's Story Ch. 02 Jason spent the night on the couch on the pretense that he was guarding me and the house in case the enforcers from the other pride came back and tried to cause trouble. I tried my best to sleep, but I couldn't seem to get comfortable. My mind kept wandering to the lion in my living room and the odd things Sitri had said. When sleep did find me, I dreamed of Viné taking me to his Hell dimension and I woke screaming to find Jason sitting on the edge of my bed. "It's ok, Rowan," he reached out to put a hand on my shoulder. "He's not here." When I didn't move away he took the opportunity to draw me into his grasp. "You and Luka want me to summon him," I said, sitting back and looking at him. "If I do that he'll have me. You don't know what they do to their slaves, Jason. I can't let him mark me again." He let me go and put his hands in his lap, "What did Sitri have to say about it?" "He said that demonic magic - their power - is natural. None of it feels slimy. He knows something is going on with the other pride, but he wouldn't tell me for just a whip," I got out of bed and grabbed a flannel robe. "I'm not going to be able to sleep. Do you want some coffee?" "It's three in the morning, Rowan," he sighed. "Get back in bed and I'll give you a back rub. That always helped you calm down." Having him in my bed with his hands on me wasn't the best idea in the world, but I wasn't going to be able to sleep whether he was there or not. I had a couple hours before Jenny would be getting here, and another hour before I was usually up. "No, Jason," I said and headed for the bedroom door. "I won't be able to relax. Especially," I added when he looked like he was going to say something. "If you're in my bed with me." The hardwood floor was cold against my feet as I padded toward the kitchen and grabbed the coffee pot and started filling it with water. I had told them that Sitri had been helpful, but he hadn't. Now that I had called Sitri, Viné would know I was summoning again and would try to break through if I called anyone else. I needed to find a way to talk to him that wouldn't let him break through to our realm where he would have a chance to try and take me again. --- I was sitting in the barn office, going through a book about higher summoning that I hadn't studied when Jason walked in. Jenny had been ecstatic when I texted her to take the day off because she had been needing to go into the city to go shopping. After that, I took my coffee out to the barn and let the three horses out in their pastures. Newt and Spark were together, but the new gelding had to be separated until they got used to each other. Jason found me scowling at the book and dropped into the other chair. "You look like you have a plan," he set his coffee mug on the desk and moved his chair closer. I knew the runes and text meant nothing to him, but he looked over my shoulder at the page anyway. "I think I'm going to have to call Sitri again," my voice was barely above a whisper. "Rowan," he started, but I didn't let him finish. "I came across a spell that will let me call Viné without actually summoning him into the room," I leaned back in the chair and rubbed my neck. "Kind of like an interdimensional cell phone. The only problem is the spell in the book is incomplete. I can't risk it without the whole spell." "And you think Sitri will just tell you?" I could hear the anger rising in his voice. "No," I shot back. "I know he won't. Not without wanting a mark or something in return." "I'm not going to stay here while you have sex with him." "I'm not going to have sex with Sitri," it must have been the odd way I emphasized the demons name because something seemed to dawn on Jason. "I knew it was a crap shoot." "Wait," he spun my chair around so he could see my face. "You want to have sex with me in front of him?" "It was a thought," I answered. He growled at me. "The other option would be I could masturbate in front of him." He groaned and put his hands on his knees and leaned toward me. "How much will he give you if he sees any of that?" "I can't be sure," it was the truth. "He's never gotten me in any kind of sexual position, but I know he would give a lot for it. More if I gave myself to him," I shuddered. "I can't do that." "I don't know if I can do that, Rowan," he sighed and leaned back. "I still love you, and I was an ass, but I don't know if I can do that." His confession made my heart ache, but it had been over between us for almost a year and I hadn't been the one to leave. "I know, Jason," I tried to keep the hurt out of my voice. "Let me know if you change your mind." He looked at me then, "What do you mean?" "Luka agreed to do it if you couldn't," the look on his face might have scared me a year ago, but now it had almost no effect. "It's just sex, Jason. Nothing more." "Bullshit," he growled. "He's been trying to get in your pants since we met. Now you asked him to do this." "You didn't seem to have a problem sleeping with other people, so keep your jealousy in check," I stared at him as his anger left. "I explained what happened," he whispered. "Yeah," I said, my own anger taking hold. "You explained how it was a hunt and you were all hot that night. I was there, remember? I knocked two other males out hoping you would come to me only to find you buried in her. Every other pair managed to find each other, and you found someone else. Well, congratulations. She's one hell of a four." He stared at me for a long while before he stood up and left. "You've always been good at leaving." I managed to get him to pause at the door before adding the final shot, "Luka will be here in ten minutes, you're welcome to watch." He left the office and I heard a door slam somewhere outside. Assuming he had gotten in his truck, I let my head fall to the desk. The night had been cold and rainy, but the hunt was on and tensions ran high. Pride hunts were few and far between, and every member of the pride was welcome. Surrounded by lions, I had been wet and excited and holding on to Jason's hand for all I was worth. They would hunt, and they would kill, and then we would fuck. Sex with Jason was beyond amazing. Strong shifters could change specific body parts at different times as they needed, and the only lion stronger than Jason was Luka. We had been together, lion and summoner, for almost two years. This would be my first hunt, and I was more than ready for him. At the sound of Luka's roar, we were off into the woods. They were hunting deer, and I just had to lose myself in the feel of Jason's hand on mine to keep up. We knew the deer had been taken down by the huffs and growls ahead, so I let go of Jason so he could feed. It wasn't something I wanted to see again. The first of the couples fell out of the feeding group and the male mounted the female, using his teeth on the back of her neck to hold her down as he thrust into her. It had surprised me that the werelions had decidedly human genitalia even in full lion form. In a matter of minutes the lions were rutting around me, the sounds getting me more and more aroused. When I saw Luka and Maddie going at it against a tree I started walking toward the last of the feeding lions. I saw Jason's all-too-familar black mane duck down behind a lesser lion and walked toward him. A large male with a golden red mane grabbed for my hand and with a flick I knocked him back with a spell. He got the hint and found an unattached female. I could see Jason's tail when a second man, this one looking more like a traditional lion, but bigger, stepped up and swiped his paw at me. With the same spell I knocked him back, letting him know I wasn't interested. Finally, I stepped around a couple screaming their orgasms into the night just in time to see Jason bury his cock into another female. I think her name was Chelsea - an unattached lower lioness who had been after him since she entered the pride - but at the time I didn't care. Without a thought as to the consequences I snapped the two of them into a circle of power and threw one up around myself. I concentrated on the air around the woman's open mouth and made it thick and impossible to breathe. Her eyes snapped open in shock as she tried to pull air into her lungs, but I stopped that real quick. Using another gesture and spell, I pulled Jason off of her and forced him to turn around. Chelsea had changed back into her human form and her face had turned an unattractive shade of grey when she passed out at his feet. "Rowan!" Jason had been yelling at me for a couple minutes. "Let her go!" When the girl had stopped struggling, I released her from the air block spell. Jason stared at me as I released both circles, and then made a move toward me. I knew what he would say, what he would try to do, and I was having none of it. With a flick of my hand I sent him flying over the roiling bodies of his pride and walked away, never looking back. There was a light knock on the door and I looked up, fighting the clutches of the memory to see who had come in. It was Luka, and he didn't look as pleased as I had thought he would be. "I saw Jason outside," he said as he stepped into the office and shut the door. "I'm going to assume from his reaction to me being here that you two have talked." "Yeah," I put my head back on the desk. "He still seems to think I owe him fidelity." "As much as I would love to have you, I'm not really sure I want you in these circumstances. Are you sure Jason refused?" "Absolutely crystal fucking clear that he doesn't want me right now," I kept my voice as level as possible in an attempt to hide the tears that had started falling silently to the floor. "Come on, Rowan," his voice was as soft as I had ever heard it. "You can't hide this from me." "He fucked her in a field orgy! He won't even fuck me for the possibility of saving your precious pride." I shot a glare at the master of the pride I had once been a part of. The door knob rattled and I groaned and let my head fall back to the desk. I didn't look up when Luka opened it to let Jason back into an office that was suddenly too small for the three of us. I resisted the urge to knock him back with a spell and just get this over with, but barely. "You didn't have to try to kill her," Jason said. "We were doing what was natural in the heat of the hunt." "You brought me along specifically so you wouldn't 'do what was natural' with some mewling female. And there has been more than one occasion when I wished I had killed her for what she did." I looked up as I said it and saw the grim look on his face. "You don't mean that," his voice was quiet. "Then you really don't know me," I shot back, almost enjoying the flash of pain that crossed his face. "Do you know that for her soul if I killed her, Viné would have removed two of my marks?" His face lost all its color and he stared at me. "Yep, and I had seriously considered it. Sitri had told me what would happen if I didn't go with you. It happened anyway. I should have killed her." "I never understood why you didn't," Luka quipped from where he had stood. "It was well within your rights as our summoner and Jason's girlfriend. Any other female would have." Jason stared at him, but I said, "Because Sitri also showed me that she would become the pride's doctor if she lived out the night. I went knowing I wouldn't kill her, but I thought that me being there would ensure she never got her claws into Jason." "Sometimes I forget you're not a lion. Our jealousy suits you," Luka said as he walked toward the door. "Where are you going?" I asked, suddenly sure he was going to leave me here with Jason. "I'll be over in the house, but I have a feeling y'all won't be needing me for this," he shut the door and I stared at Jason as his footsteps faded into nothing. "Sitri told you all of this after I left that time?" He asked, sitting in the other chair. "I thought you were lying to me when you held that back, that you had fucked him after I left to avoid the mark. I thought that if you would fuck a demon, then I could fuck another lion and it wouldn't matter." "Sitri was so amused at your reaction to his comments that he gave me the info for free. Then he offered a warning about the future as it directly pertained to you and me. If I didn't go to the hunt, you would fuck Chelsea. If I went, you only might fuck her. If I killed her, the pride would lose a valuable member since she was about to become a doctor. So I went hoping you would take me, and when you didn't I spared her life. I found out Viné would have taken her soul in exchange for the marks much later." "Would you have killed her?" "Had I known?" I looked at him and he nodded. "I don't know. Don't look at me like that, it's the truth." He had rolled his eyes like he didn't believe me when I answered. "Yes, I want the marks gone. I'm just not sure to what extent I would go to have them removed." He looked at me and I couldn't read his face. He seemed to be torn between leaving me to have sex with Luka and believing me. I hoped he would believe me because I really didn't think I could do it with Luka. Everyone in the pride knew he and Maddie took lovers, so it wasn't a matter of taking him away from his wife. Luka just never did have that effect on me. When I was about to get up and leave Jason grabbed my upper arms and pulled me into a rough kiss. After a brief hesitation I opened to him and he growled as his tongue warred with mine. In preparation for the summoning I had drawn Sitri's specific seal in the center of the circle. I invoked the power now while I still could and gasped as a tingle ran up my spine. "What's going to happen?" His lips traced down the side of my neck and I melted against him, pulling myself up to straddle his lap. "I used his seal in the circle. It will act as a direct line to him," I started unbuttoning his shirt so I could touch his chest. "Whatever he says or does, don't stop. I know orgasmic energy is a good price to pay for this without getting his mark alongside Viné's." "Does he have to see anything?" He had undone the front of the robe and moaned when he found me nude beneath. "I'm not sure," I bent and nipped along his collar bone, sighing when his head fell back. In one swift motion he stood me on the floor and rose out of the chair. He unbuttoned the shirt all the way and tossed it in a pile by the door then followed suit with his jeans. If he had been wearing underwear I didn't see them. He reached out and slid the robe off my shoulders, letting it fall to my feet. I stared at him, still wondering at his amazing body even though I knew he went to the gym on a regular basis. His erection stood at attention and lightly bobbed as he took a step closer to me. When I looked into his eyes they had turned the golden shade of his lion form. Almost painfully slow I watched his hands lengthen into claws, and his cock grew by several inches in length and width. That was all he let change before pulling me to his chest and kissing me again. I wrapped my arms around his waist, pressing my stomach into his hardness and moaning. He let out a low rumbling growl as he sat back in the chair and lifted me into his lap. Holding my hips, he kept us apart and leaned me back against the desk as he nuzzled my breasts. I held onto the back of his head, trying to push him harder against me and moved my hips so I could feel the very edge of him rubbing my pussy. With his claws retracted he was able to run a finger lightly over my ass and to my opening. I gasped and whimpered as he traced the edge of my vagina with slow strokes, never pushing inside me and not touching anything else. My hips bucked against him as I tried desperately to be impaled by him, but he held me still and continued his teasing. Unable to get him to move I ran a hand down his back to his hip, and then cupped his balls and started to massage them. We had been lovers for two years, and I knew just what he liked. Pinching the looser skin between his balls and his ass I was rewarded with a thrust of his hips and a low growl as I moved my hand away, rubbing the head of his cock as I arched my back against the desk. He let go of my hips and took both of my breasts in his hands, keeping my shoulders against the desk and my back arched as he squeezed and pulled my nipples. "Shit, Rowan," he whispered, his hands stopping their wonderful kneading. "He's here." I opened my eyes to see Sitri sitting in the middle of the circle, completely nude and all-to-happy to be there. He winked at me just as I closed my eyes and moved my hips toward Jason. "I don't care, don't stop. Ignore him and fuck me." His hands started fondling my breasts again and I felt his breath on my pussy lips a moment before his rough tongue lapped over my swollen clit. Not all of his changes had been so obvious, and I was moaning and thrusting against his mouth as he sucked and licked my mound. One hand left my breast and I used my own to twist and pull my nipple as he slid one long finger into me, making me cry out. I opened my eyes to see the demon rubbing his cock in a luxurious manner while he watched us. For some reason the audience made me hotter and I squeezed my pussy around Jason's finger. Feeling the gush of wetness, he inserted two more fingers into me and with his other hand squeezed my breast so hard I cried out in a mix of pleasure and pain. We knew from experience that I would have to come at least once before I could take his cock, and he was working on it. His fingers moved against my inner walls, finding all the most sensitive spots and pushing me gasping toward the edge. Just as I thought I was going to lose it, he pulled his fingers out and reached up to me. I licked my juices from his hand as his tongue lapped up my wetness and rubbed roughly over my g-spot. I came, and he did something we had only done once before. He took my clit into his mouth and set his teeth into my most sensitive area, making me arch my back and scream as I came so hard I thought I might pass out. I opened my eyes in time to see Sitri shoot his load onto the floor, and the sight of it had me moaning again as Jason ran his tongue over me one more time before pulling me toward him. The velvety head of his cock twitched at my entrance before he shoved it into me in one massive thrust. His arm snaked over my back and he held onto my shoulder as he lifted me almost off his lap before surging into me again. I cried out with every thrust, my pussy still pulsating from my orgasms, and I sank my nails into his shoulders and back. "Oh, fuck, Rowan you're so wet," he moaned as he slammed into me with more frequency, losing the hard and slow tempo as he neared his own climax. I muttered a silent spell of contraception and clenched around him as he penetrated me to the hilt. I reached around my leg and grabbed his balls, rolling them in my hand and gasping as he seemed to grow even more inside me. Putting my other hand on the back of his head I arched my back and brought his mouth down to my nipples, aching to be sucked and nibbled. He sucked as much of my breast into his mouth as he could as he lost control and slammed into me as fast and hard as he could. With one hand on his balls I could feel them swelling, and I pinched the now tight skin and moaned as he growled around my nipple. He pulled my hand away from his balls and gave my nipple a final lick before pushing my shoulders back onto the desk and taking my hips in his hands. Every thrust brought a grunt from him and a cry of ecstasy from me, and I looked to find Sitri standing as close to the barrier of my circle as he could stand. I reached down and started to furiously rub and pull my clit as Jason stood to get a better angle. The pressure of another orgasm was building low in my stomach and I pulled my knees toward my chest for the best angle. Jason's balls slapped against my ass as he cried out and shuddered in me, and the first stream of his hot semen deep inside me pushed me over the edge again and I bucked against him. Rowan's Story Ch. 02 He sat back in the office chair still sheathed deep inside me, and I whimpered as his cock kept twitching. Our juices oozed out of me, but I didn't mind. I laid my head on his shoulder and wondered when I would be able to walk again. The demon clearing his throat behind us brought me back to the situation at hand and I nudged Jason to spin the chair so I could see Sitri without having to move. "That was the best show I've gotten in a long time, love," he raised his hand with visible cum on it to his mouth and I clenched around Jason's still hard cock. "To what do I owe this pleasure?" It took three tries for me to find my voice, but I finally said, "I need to talk to Viné without summoning him to this realm." My eyes closed as Jason started running his claws over my back, making me shiver and twitch around him. "And what makes you think I would teach you that?" The demon hadn't missed my reactions to anything. "You got your own orgasm today, that's got to be worth a scrying mirror, at least." I played my fingernails lightly over the top of Jason's ass and he thrust against me a couple times, making me moan. The show was obviously working for Sitri because his cock jumped against his stomach. "Viné can jump here any time he damn well pleases," he cupped his balls and looked at me. "I'm pretty sure if you offered him something this tasty he might help you without it costing a mark." I sat up, holding myself away from Jason with my hands on his chest, "You're lying. If he can come across when he wants to, what's keeping him from doing it now?" "Me," the demon had started to rub himself again. "Viné's as straight as an arrow. He would love to watch the two of you, but he won't step foot in this circle if I'm here like this." "That's what you think," the voice made Sitri jump, but he never took his hand from his cock. I, on the other hand, was suddenly cold and over-exposed. "Viné," Sitri turned to face the second demon. "Making a liar out of me yet again. Come to join in the fun?" He emphasized the word 'come' and rolled his hips a bit as he masturbated. I reached to grab my robe and Jason helped to spread it over me. He didn't pull out of me, but he had grown a bit smaller when the leonine demon had shown up. I got my arms through the right holes and sat up to tie the sash before I very carefully slid off of Jason and turned to sit in his lap. This helped to keep him covered since his clothes were by the door. I knew now that he had done that to keep himself from leaving in the middle of things. "Ba'al has been looking for you," Viné made a complex motion with one hand and I heard the other demon swear as he disappeared, cock still in hand. Turning to me, he smiled, "So you've gotten back with your toy." "Why are you here?" It was a stupid question, but I was scared and I ask stupid things when I'm scared. "For you, of course," he was still smiling. "My favorite summoner having sex with an open circle in the room. How could I resist your sweet call? Three orgasms would be hard for any self-respecting demon to resist." He walked around the edge of the circle, running his hand along the line of my aura. I shivered and he laughed. "While I would really like that fourth mark so I could taste you myself, we have more urgent business together. I believe you have a bit of a pride problem, am I right, kitty cat?" He was looking at Jason, who nodded. Looking back at me, he continued, "Tell me exactly how they feel to you." "What do I get for it?" "You get me in a good mood. Now come, girl, I don't have all day for games." "Slimy is the best way I can describe them. Not like some scum off the street, these guys seriously ick up my senses when they're near." He turned to Jason, "What happened with the test of wills?" Jason flinched against my back, but answered, "They shouldn't be as strong as they are. Their alpha is maybe ten years out of his first change at a generous stretch. Luka has been alpha here for three times that. But they wiped the floor with him." The demon picked at his lower lip, staring at the floor, before he spoke again, "I can help you with them." The look in his eyes when he raised his gaze to mine had my heart fluttering in my chest, and not in a good way. "What's the catch?" Rowan's Story Ch. 03 "Mmmm, the catch," Viné ran his hand over the circle again and smiled when I shivered at the contact. "I want out of this infernal circle. I want to watch while he fucks you." "Hell no!" Jason gripped my hips and his claws bit into my skin, making me wince. I looked at Viné, a knowing grin spreading across his face. "You can't touch either of us." Jason gasped behind me, but my eyes didn't leave the demon in front of me. "You will stand three feet from us at all times, and when we're done you will take one of your marks back after you tell us how to handle the new pride." He wasn't smiling anymore, "That's a steep price for a little look 'n' see." It had been a shot in the dark, but he hadn't refused or countered the deal, so I kept talking, "We will fuck in front of you in exchange for one mark and the key to defeating the other pride. You cannot touch us or make suggestions." "For the mark," he said, his eyes running up and down my body in obvious lust. "I want to touch you." Jason started to protest and Viné held up a hand, "Calm down, kitty. I don't want to touch you." He looked back to me, "Just her." I turned to look at Jason as he seethed in Viné's direction. "Jason, snap out of it," I said to get his attention. "And remove your claws from my hips." I turned back to the demon as Jason retracted his claws and changed his hands back to human. "Touching is fine, but you can only use your hands and it has to stay above the waist. We stop after the first orgasm, and you give me the information I need against the other pride and take one of my marks back." Jason growled behind me and I elbowed him in the ribs as the demon considered what I had offered. "You both must orgasm, and I can touch you with my dick." "We both orgasm, and you can touch me with your hands only," I countered. "When we're done, you take the mark back and give me the info and then you return to your Hell dimension until you're summoned again." "How can you -," Jason started to protest, but I wove a spell around him so he was hard and ready in moments. "Jesus, Rowan." Viné watched all this and cringed when Jason spoke, but nodded, "You have a deal, but make sure he watches his language." I released the hold I'd had on the circle this whole time and raised the hem of my robe around my hips as Jason rubbed his cock between my ass cheeks. He lifted my hips and settled the head of his cock at my opening and reached around to play with my nipples under the top of the robe. I tensed as Viné pushed his hands under the shoulders of my robe and his touch burned along my skin. He leaned across the desk and untied the sash so he could pull the garment completely off of me and toss it in a corner. His clothes had disappeared sometime between the finalising of the deal and the arousal spell I had cast on Jason to get through this, and his dick stood heavy and erect in front of me. Jason's hand left my breast to reach around and rub my clit with rough urgency, trying to coax me open after the long wait had calmed me down. "Just fuck me, Jason," my voice was already husky and I could feel my juices starting to run down the inside of my thighs. He did as he was told and stood behind me, growling as he sank himself into me. Despite the earlier sex, I was still tight and at this angle he had to fight for every inch. The near pain of the position made me cry out and grab onto the desk with white-knuckled force. In front of me, Viné started jerking his dick and covering his fingers in pre-cum. Reaching out, he smeared the the thick liquid over my nipples, making them ache and tingle. It felt as though there was a hot line connecting my nipples and my clit, and when he squeezed my breasts I shoved my hips back against Jason. I lifted one knee onto the table and raised myself up on my arms, giving Viné more access to my sensitive nipples. Jason's rhythm started to falter as he slammed into me from behind and I cried out, almost there. In this position we would both be coming soon, and Jason was already close. A few more strokes and I was moaning my orgasm into the room, dropping my face back down to the desk and feeling my hair tangle around Viné's throbbing cock. Jason came, growling, a few moments after me, holding himself as deep inside me as he could get until his climax had finished. Sliding out of me, Jason pulled me back to sit on his lap as he sat back down in the chair. "We're done, demon," Jason said as I laid my head back against his shoulder. "Now it's your turn to hold up your end of the bargain." Viné smiled and shrugged, conjuring clothing onto himself and a stack of papers onto the cleaner part of the desk. I reached out and grabbed them as he disappeared back to Hell, and was quickly immersed in reading them. "They have a spell," I said as Jason moved from behind me to retrieve his clothes and my robe. "The bastards have a summoner of their own but he or she is not very good. The spell is from a lesser demon and it wasn't done well. That's why they feel off." Jason wrapped the robe around my shoulders and I quickly put my arms through the sleeves and tied the sash. Not even worrying about being seen by Luka I headed back to the house. I left Jason with Luka in the living room as I put the papers in my gun safe and headed to the bathroom for a shower. My nipples were still tingling as the water cascaded down my back, and I had to soap up three times before the sensation subsided. Jason was leaning against the counter when I stepped out and handed me a towel before getting into the shower. The house only had the one so it was either wait and switch or share. I put on a pair of bike shorts and a loose t-shirt before taking the papers out of the safe and going back to the living room where Luka was still lounging on the couch. "Oh, this won't be awkward at all when he comes out," Luka quipped as I sat down in my favorite chair. "Did he really remove one of the marks?" I rolled the sleeve up to my left shoulder and turned so he could see the two slash marks where there had been three. It hadn't even twinged when the mark was removed, but it had been the first thing I checked after getting into the bathroom. It was gone, and I was one step closer to being free of Viné. "Jason says it should be a simple thing to defeat the intruders now," Luka had never been very patient, and I held up the last page in an attempt to get him to wait. When I finally looked up at him again, he was straining on the edge of the couch like there was a big game on the TV. "You need to call the shots on where the next meeting is. I need to be able to ward the location so the spell will break when they enter. It would be easiest if you could challenge them to another test of wills in an office, but barring that try for a clearing where I can ward the border. Once they're inside the ward the damaged spell will break and you can defeat them." "That's it?" I nodded and turned when Jason came into the room in nothing but an old pair of boxers. "These were all that fit," he looked sheepish and a little uncomfortable standing in the doorway which, considering the lions were wont to sleep in large naked piles, was an odd thing to see. Luka slapped his knees as he got up, startling me out of my thoughts about Jason naked, and headed for the door, "I'll see about setting up a meeting. Jason, you stay here in case they get any stupid ideas and come back. I'll bring you some clothes when I can." I was surprised to see the sun near setting when I got up to lock the door behind Luka. Turning back to face Jason, I was suddenly unsure of what to say. He took care of that for me, "Rowan, I loved it. I didn't think I could do it but then you were so sexy that I had to have you." He was beet red and stared at the floor until I moved toward him and hugged him, his chest was warm against my cheek. His arms wrapped around me and he sighed against my hair. "I don't have to sleep on the couch again, do I?" I giggled and stepped away from him and toward my bedroom, knowing he would follow. After returning the papers to my safe I climbed into bed and sighed as Jason settled himself behind me and pulled the sheet over my hips. The nights had been getting cooler and I had taken to sleeping with the windows open. It kept the house smelling fresh and if anything made too much noise outside I could hear it. I fell asleep almost immediately with Jason's arms wrapped around me. --- It was a little after midnight when something woke me. I reached out to find Jason's hand, and he squeezed it letting me know he was awake, too. Straining to hear if anything was moving in the house I heard Jason breathing through his mouth, scenting the air. Something or someone was outside, and I felt the bones of Jason's hand start to shift. His beathing got heavier as the pain of his bones breaking and reforming got to him, but other than that he didn't make a sound. When I heard a rustling sound outside the window Jason turned to me and wrapped an arm over my hip and ass. If anyone was looking in they would think he was just copping a feel and they might go away. We weren't that lucky as I heard the unmistakable sound of screen being shredded. In an instant Jason was flying through the air toward the window and pulling a man the rest of the way through. His growls and hisses filled the room as he wrestled the man to the floor and bared his considerable teeth in his face. The man was crying and not trying to fight which meant he was either human or very low in the other pride. Of course, I had thought to ward the house before getting into bed, so it could be that the other pride was this weak and the man wouldn't dare change and challenge Jason. I got out of the bed and grabbed my cell phone, dialing Luka and waiting for him to answer, "Yeah, Luka." Jason looked up and nodded when I spoke. "Call the other pride and tell them to quit the games or we'll take them out one by one right now." I listened as he got out of bed and said he'd be right over before ending the call and grabbing some zip ties I had in the back of a drawer. The man whimpered and was all but prostrate on the floor when I slid the makeshift cuffs over his hands and tightened them down. Jason gave one more wicked growl before standing up and looking at me. He sniffed and licked me until he was sure I was fine, then turned back to the other man to growl some more. The man stammered but finally got out, "How did you stop my change but not his?" "Trade secret, asshole," I said as I sat on the bed. I was tempted to just shoot him before Luka got there for nothing else than that he woke me up from a sound sleep. It was about a half hour later when Luka rang the doorbell and I let him in. He grinned at Jason in his lion man form and then scowled at the little man on the floor. "They sent a lesser lion as an insult. Jason can take care of him and you can get back to sleep." He glanced at the shredded screen on the window and added, "You might want to sleep in the guest room that you denied Jason last night." I was just shutting the door when I heard Luka tell Jason, "Make an example of him." I warded the guest room and pulled the heavy quilt to the foot of the bed as Jason drug the man out of the house. I didn't want to know what Jason would do to him and I was glad when his truck fired up and drove away. Whatever was going to happen was not happening here. Luka moved around in the living room, getting comfortable I supposed, and finally settled on the couch. I woke several hours later to Jason kneeling over me in the bed, still in his half lion form. He bent to rub his head over my arms and chest, and then nuzzled into my neck as his weight settled over me. It was a possessive gesture, and one that I hadn't dared hope would happen between us again. I sighed and gave him my neck in a show of submission and moaned as he growled against my shoulder and ground his erection into my thigh. He sat back up on his knees and I pulled my shirt over my head while he worked my shorts down my legs. His claws tickled up my calves and along my thighs as he slid his body up mine. The boxers he had been wearing earlier were long gone and I could see his massive cock down the length of his body. I shivered as he ran his teeth lightly over my bare mound and threw my head back when his tongue flicked between my lower lips and lapped over my clit. He held onto my hips and ran his tongue in a circuit from my clit down to my entrance and then back again, and I tangled my hands into his short mane as I curled around his head. His teeth grazed me every so often and finally he stopped being gentle and pressed the long incisors into the flesh around my clit and sucked hard on me while his tongue raked over the sensitive button. I came screaming and pulling his hair, falling back against the pillows as he growled and held my hips still. The vibrations of his growls made me moan and whimper as my vagina convulsed. When I calmed he sat up and jerked my hips to him until he slid along my slit and made me shiver. "Please, Jason, I want you inside me now!" I sat up and straddled his thighs, trying to get him to fuck me and only succeeding in having the head of him rub against my clit. His clawed hands cupped my ass and lifted me up so he could nuzzle against my breasts. The roughness of his tongue had me holding his head tight to me as he sucked first one nipple and then the other into his hot mouth. His hands had spread me wide, and he positioned the head of his cock at my entrance but he didn't move to penetrate and I moaned in frustration. My pussy was dripping and I clenched around the little bit that was in me. He eased into me so slow that I cried out, wanting him to fuck me hard enough to bruise. Instead, he kept up the slow sliding thrust and used his teeth on my shoulder to keep me from moving too much. When he had his head against my cervix he ran a single claw from the middle of my ass crack to the top of my shoulders, making my back arch and my vagina clench. He had told me once that I was the only woman who could take his whole cock when he was in this form, and he loved it. When I was about to start begging him to fuck me he moved to the head of the bed and slammed me against the wall. The motion made him shove against my cervix almost to the point of pain, but then he started to move and I didn't care anymore. With my shoulders braced against the wall, he grabbed my ass and started pounding into me and grunting with each impact of his balls on my asshole. I dug my nails into his shoulders and cried out as he hit my g-spot right away and kept assaulting it with every thrust into my depths. The pressure built deep in my belly and I reached between us to finger my clit just as my orgasm exploded over me. My juices flowed down his balls and made the slapping and slurping noises all the more obvious as I cried out into the night. His roar of ecstasy made the windows rattle in their panes as he shot load after load of hot come deep into me. I moaned as he slid out of me and thrust over my inner lips and clit before laying me back against the pillows. He rumbled what might have been a purr as he slid three fingers with their claws retracted over my clit and into my pussy, making me squirm and gasp. His thumb kept an even pressure against my clit as his fingers wriggled against my g-spot, causing waves of pleasure to rock my body. When he pulled his hand away from me, I brought it up to my mouth to lick our fluids off his fingers as he rumbled low in his chest. --- We woke to Luka banging on the bedroom door a few hours later, "Get up! We have a meeting to get to!" I groaned and rolled out of Jason's warm embrace and went to the door. Luka stared as I walked past him in the nude and went to the bathroom at the back of the house. When I had first joined the pride as their summoner I hadn't been as comfortable with the open nudity the lions enjoyed so much. Now, I just wanted an empty bladder and a shower and to hell with whoever saw my bare ass. The men talked outside and then Jason came into the bathroom just as I was stepping under the spray. "No time for a steamy shower tryst, I assume?" He grunted and stepped in behind me, "Not this time. We need to get clean and then we need to get you to the office to put up the wards. The man last night wasn't as low in the other pride as we all thought. He was fifth under their master. Your wards worked and Luka wants to put them in their place." He had taken the shampoo from me and started massaging my scalp, working on a particularly sticky spot I had missed the day before. I moaned and relaxed against his chest, relishing the feel of his hands in my hair. He moved down my neck to my shoulders and around to my breasts when he had to get more soap. His hands moved slowly over my stomach and hips before wandering over my ass and up my back. He was careful not to touch my thighs, and when I groaned my frustration he just smiled and bent to kiss me. I reached out and squeezed his hard on as the kiss deepened and soon he had me pushed against the tiled wall and was thrusting his cock against my soapy stomach. It wasn't what I wanted so I shoved my hands into his hair and tried to crawl up his body so I could have him inside me. Just then, the door to the bathroom opened and Luka stood there, watching us. "Jason," his voice held a warning I didn't think should be there, but the lion in my arms knew what it meant and let me go. He soaped his cock and scrubbed with his hands while I watched and then he rinsed off and got out. I washed and rinsed quickly before following suit, only mildly frustrated at the interruption. We rode to Luka's office in the city in Jason's truck. This meant Jason had to drive and his master got to sit shotgun. We were halfway there when Luka turned in his seat to look at me, "This isn't a test of wills. They want to meet our great summoner and to demand recompense for last night. You will have two hours to set your wards around my conference room before they arrive. The pride master will come with his mate and his top ten lions and their mates. I will be showing up with the same contingent. Their summoner has a mate, but he is a wolf and will not be allowed in. Since you and Jason are fucking like rabbits again, you will be included as both his mate and the pride summoner." When he was done I let my head fall back and stared at the headliner. If we were going to be in his large conference room I would need almost all of that time to ward the large plexiglass windows. The headliner of Jason's truck was starting to come unglued in places and I thought about replacing it on the sly with neon pink fabric to get back at him for leaving me hot in the shower. I thought about what Luka meant about being Jason's mate. Was that what they were talking about when I was in the bathroom earlier? Had Jason asked to be mated to the summoner? If that was the case he had another thing coming. Luka didn't get the final say in whether I would be Jason's mate. Lions didn't mate for life, but the stronger couples tended to marry to cement the bond in front of everyone. I was so not ready for marriage. Jason pulled into a parking garage and entered a code into the fence that let us go deeper than the two levels below ground the general public had access to. There were ten stories of office building above us, and I knew the garage was at least that deep if not more. The other pride would be restricted to the first two levels. We took an elevator up to the top floor where Luka had his two smaller main conference rooms and the one large conference room that took up half the floor. I set about with a water pen filled with an oil and herb mixture and wrote the runes for the warding on the large windows that comprised three of the walls. The fourth wall, made of cement board, was a little different and I had to use transparent ink to ward it fully. By the time I was finished I was sweating and the meeting was scheduled to start in ten minutes. I sat down and put my head on my arms and tried to relax as the power of the warding spell coursed through my senses. Amazingly, the spell started to disappear into the cacophonous sensory noises that a city this size always had. By the time the other lions of our pride started coming in, I was confident that the other summoner wouldn't be able to sense the spell. Rowan's Story Ch. 03 Maddie smiled and came to give me a hug and sat next to me and Jason. She made it clear that I was supposed to be there and that the room would be seated in rank order. I saw Chelsea glaring at me as she took a seat five chairs down next to a nerdy looking lion I knew only wanted her for the sex. Ricky could have had any female with his rank, but Chelsea thought she was hot shit and he liked to make his women submit. I smiled at her and stroked Jason's thigh. The other pride filed in by rank, and I sighed as the slimy feeling disappeared the moment they walked through the door. A small woman kept staring at me and I assumed she was their summoner. However, as I sat next to the master of my pride and his mate, she sat at the end of the row of lions seated along the table. "What is the meaning of this meeting, Luka? You already lost the test of wills. We are well within our rights to challenge you and take your pride," their master was a tall thin man with a voice that was a touch too high. The feeling of power rolling off of him pegged him as an alpha, but not nearly strong enough to have ever hoped to beat Luka. Whatever their summoner had done had been strong because I would have thought Hollywood-in-shades next to him would have made a better master than this scrawny douche. Luka smiled, confident in my abilities. I knew he had felt the change as they walked in, "Nature hates a cheat, Robert, and I just had to give it another go." Suddenly, the room filled with so much power it was difficult to breathe. The musk of lions was overpowering and I resisted the urge to bury my nose in the neck of my shirt. Robert's eyes bulged as he stared at Luka and then broke eye contact to watch what was happening to his lions. Of the twenty or so lions that had come in, twelve had dropped out of their seats and changed into full lions and three had changed into a half lion form. Hollywood-in-shades, who I had pegged as the second in command, was gripping his chair with knuckles gone white under the pressure. Then, one after the other, Luka's lions let loose their powers and as they did the other lions started to change. The summoner had stood and was looking around frantically as the lions started sniffing her. Robert, in half-man form, was growling. The only unchanged lion on the other side was Hollywood, and Luka took notice. "Leave my territory, Robert. You have no place here if even you can't hold your human form under the power of my pride. Any of yours that wish to stay may apply to my pride. As it is, you're lucky I don't kill you all right now." The speech was dismissive and the other master rose to leave. Not surprisingly, he slashed at his summoner as he passed her and almost brought her to her knees. Maddie nodded at Chelsea, and she went to aid the other woman who had passed out. I watched it all with a kind of detachment, knowing I couldn't leave the pride so vulnerable again and wanting to know just what the other summoner had done to make them so powerful and why. Hollywood had stayed behind and was now showing his throat to Luka in submission. Luka wouldn't pass up the chance to add a strong lion to the pack, but he would be wary of this one. Someone had sent for the summoners wolf and he carried her out of the conference room saying something about the local wolf pack being a much better place for her. It was all over, and no blood had been shed yet. Chelsea tried to approach Jason, but I shot her down with a shock spell that had her writhing on the floor in agony. Luka looked at me when I stood and pointed to the new lion, "You can take Ash out to your ranch, Rowan. Some manual labor ought to do him good, and it will keep him out of my hair until I can figure out what to do with him." Jason turned and growled at Luka, but the alpha had already started ignoring everyone. I sighed and sat back down, knowing full well this was my punishment for hurting his precious doctor. When the rest of the pride started to leave the conference room, I got up and followed Jason out to the elevator. "You didn't have to shock her," he said as we waited in the hall. "She didn't have to approach you without acknowledging my presence. I simply laid a subordinate pride member low," I shot back, seething. "If I am the girlfriend of the second-in-command, and the acknowledged summoner for the pride, then she will damn well bow to my power. If she doesn't then there will be more shocking and painful lessons in her future." I caught his smile in the mirrored interior of the elevator car as we entered and headed down to the parking garage. --- It had been several months since the other pride had been run out of the territory for the most part. Some of them had tried to take over despite the failed power spell and they had been killed as an example to other prides who might think Luka was weak. Ash had taken nicely to the work on my small ranch and had been allowed to build a house at the back of the property. He was now in charge of training the new gelding and was doing a damn fine job of it. Jenny appreciated the help, though she had bristled at the thought of me having hired another hand at first. Over the months since the other pride had been expunged from the territory, he had fought his way up in the pride and was an enforcer under Jason. He was thriving in a healthy pride and had stopped bullying women. I was in the round pen with Spark again when Jason opened the gate and captured his halter, handing him off to Ash to be led to the pasture. The dust from the workout had turned to mud long ago, and I smiled as I trudged up to the house behind Jason. He pushed me toward the bathroom with a towel, "Take a shower. I don't want all that sand in the bed again." He was a dominant lion, but he had found the only work he knew how to do on the ranch was housework and he left me and the other two to tend to the outdoorsy things. So when I came in after a long day on the trail, or fixing fences, or in the round pen and just crashed on the bed he would gripe about having to clean the mess up afterward. The water was hot as it ran over my shoulders and back, and it relaxed my tired muscles while I leaned my forehead against the tile. I heard the door open and the strong scent of lion wafted over me in the steaming shower, made all the stronger by the heat and humidity. A low growl made me look through the glass at the thick black mane of the pony-sized lion standing in the bathroom. Smiling, I turned the shower off and stepped out beside the giant head. Jason nuzzled his nose and mouth between my legs, forcing me to grab the counter as he almost knocked me off balance. His rough tongue lapped the water off my skin and I moaned as it sent shivers up my spine. He circled around me and nudged me out and toward the bedroom as he continued to lick my thighs and lower back. I had just passed the door into the bedroom when he pushed me to my knees on the rug and pressed his teeth against my shoulder, growling before he licked the dents in my skin. I turned and sat with my legs open, my pussy already dripping, as he lay on his stomach with his massive head between my thighs. The feeling of his huge tongue on my labia and clit had me moaning and holding onto his mane as my hips ground against his muzzle. His growls echoed around the room and the vibrations had me trying to pull his head against me as I cried out. His tongue was large and flexible enough to curl inside me and it didn't take long for me to come screaming, holding his head and riding his mouth as much as I could. Finally, I lay back and he licked my thighs and hips before using a paw to turn me onto my stomach. I lifted my hips into the air and flattened my chest as close to the floor as I could as he ran his tongue up my spine and set his front paws on either side of my head. In this form his cock was monstrous, but I was more than ready for it when the head stretched me wide and he shoved into my pussy inch by inch. I was stretched around him and moaning into the rug when he started to move. At first he was slow, but I didn't want that so I pushed back against him as hard as I could, "Mmmmmm, fuck me, Jason." My moans sent him into a frenzy and I screamed with every thrust as he pounded into me. His growls and roars rang out above me as I came again, my juices running down my thighs to my knees. I could feel his dick throbbing deep inside me as he came, and I looked down my body to see thick ropes of his come dripping out of me. The sight made me moan again, and I bucked back against him as he started to pull out. One paw was on my shoulder, telling me to stay put, as he pulled out of me entirely. I felt his hot breath a moment before his tongue rasped from my knee to my pussy on one leg and then back down the other. When I pushed back onto his tongue as he licked our juices off me, he thrust it inside me, making me cry out again. His huff of a growl made me push up and back against him as it vibrated over me. I was close to the edge when he turned me over onto my back with a paw on my hip. He huffed and batted at my breasts as I snaked a hand down to finger myself. My pussy was still contracting back to its usual tightness, sending me into spasms as it convulsed around my fingers. I held onto his mane as he licked my nipples and arched against him, the long fur on his belly was just anoher sensation against my skin. My fingers made slurping sounds as I furiously shoved them in and out of my pussy, and he sat back and watched for a while. I could see his cock swelling again and I moaned and arched so that he could see my wet mound in its entirety as my fingers circled my opening. Finally, after an eternity of teasing both of us with my moans and movements, he moved back up my body and slammed into me. There was no pretense to going slow this time. His thrusts made the rug slide along the hardwood floor until I threw my legs around him. This time, I could look down and watch as his cock slid in and out of me, and I cried out at the sight of it. In this position, he could only manage to get about a quarter of himself into me, so I reached down and wrapped my hand around the base of him and squeezed. He roared and thrust a final time into me and I came as I watched his semen shoot out of me with the force of his orgasm. I lay back on the rug and he fell beside me, changing back into his human form to curl around me and kiss my shoulder. We slept like that for a few hours until we both got hungry and went into the kitchen.