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Trusting the Wolf Ch. 01

By: kitten101



Faith Harrison swept into her apartment, barely holding her shit together. 

Today had sucked beyond belief - it had sucked so much that she hadn't bothered to holster her two handguns yet. Instead she clung to them loosely, not quite believing she was home and safe. 

She was beginning to feel like she would never be safe again. It had been a very bad day.

Her silver tinted blonde hair was in disarray around her face, escaping from the single braid hanging down her back. Her full lips were dry and cracked from the wind she'd been exposed to and her almond shaped eyes were red and puffy. 

One arm, and a knee were scraped raw in places, bruised and bleeding in a way that she knew should be causing her a great amount of pain.

Thank god for adrenaline. 

She slammed the door shut, sliding the deadbolt locks home, attaching the chain, and kicking the floor lock into place. With that she turned and slid her back down the wall, tucking her legs in tight to her chest, loosely hanging her wrists and the gleaming guns over her knees. 

Sitting there on the floor she finally bowed her head and gave in to the pressure to cry. She didn't indulge in the huge heaving sobs that she wanted to. Instead she closed her eyes and silently let the tears come, running down her face and dropping on to her tee-shirt unchecked. 

She didn't notice the dark form crouched on her balcony, peering in through the window at her. 

Taking a shuddering breath Faith picked herself up off the ground, moving like a 900 year old woman. All of her bones hurt. 

She holstered one gun at her hip and placed the other on her dining room table, undoing the straps on her shoulder holster and casting a dispassionate gaze around her empty home. It looked like a show-home, devoid of a single personal touch to prove that a person lived there. She liked it that way. 

Her eyes narrowed at the bar of dim light coming from under her bedroom door. She hadn't left the light on in her room. 

Placing her holster on the table she picked up her gun, folding herself against the wall like a shadow, ignoring the blood that smeared from her arm onto the paintwork. She would have to clean those grazes. She did a quick sweep of the apartment as she approached the bedroom, the kitchen, bathroom, and main living areas were all clear. 

Faith dropped into a low crouch at her door nudging it open with the nose of her gun. The room was empty, but her nose picked up a familiar scent. She felt a brush of too cool air against the back of her neck, and whirled to face the open room. 

With a gasp she found herself face to face with the Death Walker she wanted to see least in the world right then. He stayed her gun with a quick palm as she brought it around to fire, still in attack mode. With an annoyed exhalation she lowered the gun and stepped around the tall man.

"Christ Aaron, what the hell do you think you are playing at. I told you what I'd do to you if you snuck into my apartment again." Faith snapped.

She stalked to the table and placed the gun onto it, then set about removing her hip holster and gun with angry movements. 

"Pup..." He said in greeting, taking in her disheveled appearance. 

"I decided that your threat was physically impossible for a woman to carry through on, so I disregarded it. Anyway, what happened to hello? Nice to see you Aaron. What brings you to my apartment in the middle of the night, Aaron?" He asked watching her carefully. 

"Screw that. We have a problem." Faith snapped, perching herself on one of her sofa's arms. 

Aaron slid into an arm chair, his inky black hair shimmering insubstantial sliver with the movement, as if a gust of wind had disturbed it. The moment he was still his hair settled back against the nape of his neck, solid once-more. 

Neither of them had bothered to turn a light on and his eyes gleamed a reflective silver at her across the dark room. She paid it no notice - her eyes were probably gleaming amber from the streetlights below them. 

Faith was a shapeshifter. She could shift her human form into her wolf form at a moments notice. Without thinking she had adopted the wolf's eyes for better sight in the dark, along with it's more sensitive nose, and advanced hearing.

Aaron on the other hand was something entirely different. He was a Death Walker, a rare and dying race. They lived for hundreds of years, and had an uncanny ability to kill. The name came about because it was said that they were the living embodiment of Death, walking amongst human, shifter, and other.

Faith didn't know much about Aaron's history, but she did know he'd once been the property of the political elite - the Changers Council and the Royal Family were the sole reason Death Walkers were so rare. They caught them at a young age, binding them to a handler, and using them to enact punishment on shifters who didn't follow orders. 

When a Death Walker was bound to another they were limited to a certain number of kills, once the individual had reached that quota he or she would become insubstantial, slowly fading away to nothingness. 

Aaron was over two hundred years old now (which is why he still felt comfortable calling a twenty four year old woman 'Pup'), and he had escaped his 'service' some time ago - although she didn't know the details she did know that it was near impossible to do. 

Aaron lifted an eyebrow indicating that he was listening, and waiting for an explanation. 

"Simon is dead. The seer... Ruby, she's dead too." 

Faith and Simon had been undercover for the past year, protecting a seer and relaying information from her to Aaron.

Aaron closed his eyes for the moment. They had been so close. He had been working for a very long time on trying to assemble a new mixed race council. The old corrupted council had taken far too many liberties with it's power. It condoned slavery, killed freely, terrorized whomever it felt like in order to amass power and wealth, ignored the suffering of humans at the hands of Shifter and other, and treated it's people with casual disregard. 

It was time for a new age of joint, representative, council, integrated with the people, selected from all the races, and designed to enforce the rules that had kept them all safe and hidden from human persecution for so long. 

It was a tricky business tracking down the right people for this job - more difficult than destroying the current Council would be. The seers Aaron had been working with were almost there, they just needed to track down Alexia Devon, the most important piece of Aaron's puzzle.

Unfortunately with Ruby and Simon gone they were further away than before. He knew his attitude towards death seemed cold and mechanical, but he didn't have the luxury of time and emotion to waste on the dead - he had learnt a long time ago to focus on the living.

"Did she manage to pass on anything? She was close. I know she was." He said, frustrated. 

Faith rubbed her forehead across her arm, leaving a streak of blood that they both ignored. 

"She tried. She really did. She held on as long as she could - I had to get through a few guys to get to her, before she... Passed. She was gone by the time I got there but she wrote something - it was either Ferr or Fern or maybe it was longer. She got almost four letters before..." Faith let the thought trail off. She didn't really want to remember the horrific scene. 

The grazes were beginning to sting now, but she ignored them. The mission was too important. 

"It could be anything, a person, a place..." He sighed, knowing he had a lot of work ahead of him. 

"We could work with another seer. Put me on protection detail again, give me a new partner."

"How did they get through? How did they find her?" Aaron asked wondering what had gone wrong - Faith and Simon were good at what they did. 

Faith paused before answering. She really didn't want to reveal what had happened. She knew she had been in the wrong - the deaths weighed heavily on her conscience. 

"Faith? What happened? And don't bother lying. I can smell a lie a mile away" Aaron reminded her.

"Simon... Ruby and Simon got too close. They were having a relationship... I'm sorry. I should have made him break it off. I should have told you - he wasn't objective anymore."

Aaron closed his eyes. He had suspected as much.

"Love happens Faith. It's not fair to put it off for anything - not even this. Life's too short." 

His expression cleared as if he was realizing something of his own. 

"Well this love got them killed. Simon was distracted. He ordered me to give them some time alone, so I went for a walk. I was just outside, but they got in, past me. I couldn't get back inside the house in time. By the time I did they were dead." She explained. 

"Their deaths are on the Council's head, not your own. I know you did your best to save them." Aaron said softly. 

"I still feel awful. Put me on protection, or tracking or something. I can work on any leads that come up from Ruby's clue. I won't fail this time. We need to know where she is." Faith pleaded. 

"I'm not putting you back on protection. You're needed elsewhere..." Aaron paused thinking for a moment before continuing. 

"In light of Simon's death you're going to need a new partner. Nathaniel, come in please."

Faith stared at Aaron as if he'd grown another head. The door to her balcony opened and the biggest, most dangerous Shifter she'd ever met stepped through the gap. 

His eyes were clear blue, and his hair closely shaved, just like always. He had a little more stubble, and another scar over his right eyebrow, but aside from that, he looked the same as he had last time she'd seen him four years ago. 

Of course this time he was wearing clothes, which was a big plus. 

Not that his body was unfortunate looking. He was hard all over, heavily muscled, and big everywhere. Faith swallowed audibly. 

Nathaniel. The man that had trained her. The man who had made her the 'other woman'. The wolf who had taken her virginity, hurting her, and scaring her so badly that she had never wanted to go through the experience again. 

Faith's jaw dropped in shock, before she rounded on Aaron in anger.

"Tell me you're joking." She demanded, horrified. She couldn't work with that monster. 

"I don't see anything funny about the situation Faith. I need you to work with him. Simon's death should be more than enough proof that we can't have agents out there alone. The Council is too good. The Joint Council, and finding Alexia is too important." Aaron said calmly. 

Smug bastard. 

"Faith. We can work together. We've done it before, and it's too important now not to." Nathaniel said, his voice low and persuasive. 

His voice was the only part of him that wasn't rough. A shiver of fear went down her spine, but she covered it well, launching herself off the sofa, closer to Aaron, and further from Nathaniel. 

Nathaniel watched her appraisingly. He could tell that she was in pain, and tired, and if he wasn't mistaken, she was more than a little scared of him. 

He had hoped that she would be over that by now. He'd acted like a jerk and apparently Faith had a very long memory.

His mind flashed back to earlier in the evening. He'd only seen her cry twice in the time he'd known her, and he'd hated seeing it both times. Knowing he wasn't the cause of the tears this time didn't make him feel any better about it.

"I can't. I can't work with him." Faith said. 

"Well in that case you won't be working. That's your choice. Partner with him, or wait in the wings. I can't have any lone wolves out there. We can't afford it right now." 

She stared at the Death Walker in shock. She couldn't sit back and not help him in his quest. It was too important. Her head ached and she brought her fingers to her forehead wincing as the movement pulled at the grazes on her arm. They were beginning to close over on their own now - a bad thing considering she hadn't had a chance to wash the dirt out of them. 

The pain brought her mind back to the current situation. She couldn't even look at Nathaniel without her stomach dropping in fear. She couldn't work with him. He'd hurt her again. She had promised herself she'd never go through that again. 

"I can't do it." Faith said

"I can't have you out there on your own. You don't make a move unless it's with Nathaniel. It's up to you. Nathaniel, you're working on tracking Alexia. I'll have a think on Ruby's clue and send you what I've found later on tonight, or early tomorrow. It's going to be a long list of possibilities, unfortunately." Aaron said turning to leave. 

Aaron knew Faith would come to her senses and relent on working with Nathaniel. She was too invested in finding Alexia, and far too involved in rebuilding the Council to leave now. He knew a kindred spirit when he saw one. 

Nathaniel spoke up stopping him from leaving. "Wait, Aaron, she's hurting, can you help?" 

Aaron turned rolling his eyes. "Sorry, I meant to fix that earlier, I got distracted."

Faith shot Nathaniel a slightly confused look from under her lashes, and shook her head at Aaron. "It's fine. It doesn't hurt that much. Don't waste your energy on it."

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "Pup, it's substantially easier to heal than it is to kill. It's no energy at all. Besides with all the dirt you managed to get in those it'll be a miracle if they don't get infected."

Healing was one of a Death Walker's lesser known powers. People were always more interested in the destructive ones. 

He pressed his hand to her grazed arm, drawing the cuts, scrapes, and bruises away from her skin, and into his own. There was a flash of pain before he healed, leaving Faith unmarked. 

With a wink he left her apartment, leaving her and Nathaniel alone. Faith shifted her weight, moving further away from the imposing wolf standing in her apartment. Nervously she ran her thumb nail under one of her fingernails, dislodging some of the dirt from earlier. 

"So, long time, no see." Nathaniel said breaking the silence.

She nodded, avoiding eye contact. It was amazing how those four years of growth could desert her so quickly, leaving her feeling like the stupid 20 year old she'd been when she last saw him. 

"Faith why can't you work with me? I know I did, and said some stupid things last time I saw you, and I'm sorry. I'm not the same person I was. You're not the same person you were. This mission, it's bigger than both of us. We need to find Alexia. I'd like your help if you'll give it to me." 

His voice was rich and low and persuasive. Just like always. She squeezed her eyes shut.

"Stop it." She whimpered. "Just get out of my house!" 

When she opened her eyes again he was gone, and she was alone in her apartment. 

After such a rough day and night all she wanted to do was sleep. She curled up in bed, placing a gun under her pillow, and a large brown bear within close reach. 

"The fact that I need you here tonight means that I pretty much fail at being an adult." She told the bear, before slipping into a restless sleep.

Trusting the Wolf Ch. 02



 Four years ago...

Nathaniel snorted as he watched Faith sway towards the bathrooms. She was very green, 20 years old, one year of intense training, and just barely holding her liquor. Of course he was only a few years older, but he felt eons older after all he'd seen in the past few years. 

Faith had completed the final part of her training undercover with Nathaniel and Angela. She had enjoyed herself immensely, learning the bulk of her skills from Nathaniel as his 'cousin' while he and Angela kept up the facade of being a couple involved in a relatively benign Wolf Pack heavily connected with one they were very interested in. 

Working in such close confines with Nathaniel over the last year had left Faith with a bit of a crush. She had started her initial training with him a year earlier, and he'd taught her everything she knew. He was one of the best, and it excited her to know she was one of the few agents he'd bothered to take under his wing for the entire duration of her training. 

Staring herself down in the mirror she wished she had the guts to learn one more thing with him. She had waited longer than most for sex, wanting a special experience for her first time. Faith was pretty sure Nathaniel would be special. He was huge and a bit rough around the edges, but he'd always talked to her like an equal, and treated her with respect and warmth. 

Besides, once you got past the whole scary, rough, and tough as nails appearance than man was truly smoking hot. One glimpse of his wicked half grin could give her heart palpitations for days. And his voice... Wow. It was at odds with his appearance, rich, low and persuasive, every time she heard him speak the contrast jolted her a little.

Nathaniel knew she had a bit of a crush, but ignored it. He was involved with someone else and Faith wasn't his type - he was too much of an asshole for her to be getting involved with him. He needed a woman with a bit more of a hard edge to her. Faith wasn't tough - instead she stirred up all sorts of unusual protective feelings in him, leaving him feeling a bit like an honorary older brother.

On the other hand, while she wasn't tough and hard, she was feisty, and at times a bit of a smart-ass He was looking forward to seeing how she developed as an agent and as a woman. 

Faith was beautiful too. She was just growing into her over-large lips and eyes, and still had a slight air of awkwardness about her. It made men stare at her and speculate, which in turn made him glare and wish he could warn them all to stay the hell away from her. 

He couldn't quite say what exactly it was that made him revoke his usual 'no newbies, trainees, or tagalongs' rule, but thankfully Faith had been a quick study. 

Nathaniel was relieved to finally be getting into the meat of his assignment - cozying up with a Pack known to be working in conjunction with the council. 

His regular partner - Angela - was staying undercover with him. She'd be along later tonight, they had arranged to meet in the woods, and head out in wolf form from there. They enjoyed working together, and they enjoyed screwing around together - discreetly of course. It wasn't really a serious thing, but both knew that in their line of work it was about as close as it would probably get.

Faith chose that moment to sashay her way out of the bathrooms eyeing one of the young males by the pool-table boldly. 

He signed grimly, and finished his beer. She was young, but when she wanted to, she knew how to use her inbuilt wolf sexuality to drive men crazy. He growled a little in warning and she looked over guiltily, making her way back to her barstool. 

"We should go. You've had about all the drink you can handle." He said, slinging his arm over her shoulder affably, and suddenly realizing he was a lot drunker, and a lot less in control than he'd assumed.

She smelt very, very good. 

They swayed out of the bar towards the strip of forest across the road. He had driven, but they were both a little drunker than expected, so they'd just shift and run home. It was standard practice for most of the Shape-Shifters living in the town, and the bar owner was Pack, so he didn't question the occasional pile of off-cast clothing or overnight use of the carpark. 

Stripping they both crouched and shifted form. Their ears, nose, and eyes always changed first, blasting them with an overload of noise, scent, and vision. Then with a wave of hot pricking pain as internal organs shifted, bones creaked into place, and hair swept dramatically over bare skin. Finally two wolves - perhaps a little larger than a biological wolf - crouched panting on the forest floor. 

Faith grinned at the much larger wolf beside her. She knew she was a little drunk, but ultimately didn't care. He'd take care of her - he always did. They playfully wrestled before Nathaniel remembered himself, and rolled away nudging her up and in the direction of the house. 

She really was a beautiful wolf. Silvery white she stood out plainly under the moonlight. It was a little impractical for camouflage but they'd worked hard on making sure she could blend in if she needed to. It was a lot harder for a pale wolf, but as long as she stayed aware of her surroundings she did quite well. 

It took all of ten minutes running to get close enough to change again. 

Faith bit her lower lip trying to get up the courage to touch him... Maybe to kiss him. She hadn't kissed many guys either, but she figured it would be a good way to lead into sex. 

She licked her lips, watching his skin ripple as he came through his shift. He knelt for a moment, giving himself time to adjust. She let herself look a little longer. It was easy to imagine kissing him when he was kneeling - he was much less imposing this way. 

When he looked up he realized that she was staring at him, her eyes wide, and her pupils dilated. It turned him on a lot more than he was expecting - they'd been naked around each other before why was tonight any different from any other night?

His eyes ran over Faith, seeing more than he usually let himself. Her breasts stood high, with taunt nipples, puckered a little from the cold. From where he crouched he observed the soft curve of her hip and belly, leading to her lightly furred pubic mound. 

Nathaniel could scent the warmth between her thighs. She was aroused, and would probably allow an advance from him. 

"Well pup?" He said, barely recognizing the rough rumble that passed as his voice. 

He was definitely less in control than he should have been. 

It didn't matter though because she shivered a little, widening her stance in invitation. He audibly scented the air as the space between her thighs widened. 

Standing in one smooth movement he grabbed her arm, hauling her up against him. She froze for a second as his thick cock came into contact with her stomach, but kissed him eagerly as he bent to roughly take her lips. 

He had meant to go slower, but the way she moved against him short-circuited his brain. Nathaniel lifted her off the ground, with one arm around her waist. It brought her closer to his height so that he wouldn't have to stoop over her. 

Sweeping his tongue into her mouth, Nathaniel reached his free hand down between her thighs. He slid two fingers between her lips, pressing them against her clit, and enjoying the obvious wetness he encountered. 

Faith felt overwhelmed. Good overwhelmed, and bad overwhelmed, and panicky overwhelmed. They were going a bit faster than she thought they would, but she also desperately didn't want to stop. His fingers felt amazing in the spot where only her own had ventured before. 

Her toes curled and she arched against him whimpering breathlessly, desperately wishing he would touch her breasts. 

Instead Nathaniel urged her to the ground, flat on her back. She paused for a moment, suddenly a little unsure. She had kind of envisioned a bed... Or at least a blanket or something - the pine needles were a little uncomfortable underneath her, and her shoulder was right on a pine cone. 

Urging her legs apart with his hands Nathaniel briefly touched her between her legs again, rubbing a little harder. She arched her back, wishing he would touch her nipples. 

He crawled up and over her, dwarfing her with his size. Her stomach flipped over, and she opened her mouth, feeling the first flicker of fear. She was unsure of what to say but knew that she should probably tell him she was a virgin... Unless... Maybe if she did that he would stop... 

"Do you want it fast? Slow? Rough? What would you like Faith?" He growled out above her. 

She bit her lip, wishing that he wasn't looming over her. It would have been nice to touch him a little. She wondered what his chest might feel like.

She would have liked to kiss him some more too. That felt good. 

He nudged the slick area between her thighs with the blunt head of his cock "Faith? What would you like?" 

"Um I... What would you like?" She asked breathlessly, chickening out on voicing any of her thoughts. 

Nathaniel wanted to be inside her. He wanted a hard slick ride. With a groan he nudged her again. "Ready?"

Faith bit her lip panicking a little. She wanted more though, so she nodded, tensing a little. "Yeah."

Nathaniel wrapped his hands around her shoulders, and pressed his face into her neck. His grip tightened as he thrust himself into her.

God she was tight. Hot and tight. 

Faith froze and tensed in pain as he ripped through her hymen. Nathaniel groaned loudly against her neck, and pushed deeper roughly pulling out, and then forcing himself inward again. She squealed a little in pain and fear as he battered her burning nether regions.

Nathaniel shivered, and licked tenderly at her neck, and hugging her a little closer, cradling her against his body. He squeals and moans of encouragement were exciting him - he loved a vocal partner. 

Trapped under him, Faith had nowhere to go, and his vice-like grip meant she was unable to wriggle off his huge burning hot cock. Her throat closed as she realized she was trapped. 

One big hand moved up to cradle her head and thread through her hair, in stark contrast to the brutal pain he was causing between her thighs. Faith balled her fists, her nails cutting into her palms as she struggled to draw breath. Tears ran down her face, unnoticed by Nathaniel who was nipping at her throat. 

He shoved himself deeper into her tight warmth shuddering at how good it felt - he was nearly fully seated inside of her. It occurred to him that he'd never had a woman as tight as Faith before, at the same time he registered how stiff she was beneath him. 

"Stop..." She hissed so quietly he barely heard her. 

Immediately he froze, drawing back from her neck to see her face - the tears and pain he saw there horrified him. 

Another noise intruded into the night - Angela calling out into the night "Nathaniel? Is that you?" 

He jolted, causing her to wince in pain again. Fuck. He'd forgotten his plan to meet Angela - he needed to find some way to get Faith covered, and away from Angela... He had the feeling Faith wouldn't want the older woman to see her - they weren't exactly close. 

He could hear Angela moving closer, and quickly withdrew his cock from Faith. She gasped in pain and he sat back, looming over her and staring in horror at the blood between her thighs. 

Fuck. 

She had been a virgin - how in the hell had he not known that? He wondered, pissed off at himself, and his own lack of control. 

Faith looked up at his pale, horrified face, whimpering as she caught a gleam of anger in his eyes.

"You're supposed to meet Angela here?" she asked quietly, drawing back from him slowly. 

He swore again "Yes. Fuck! We need to get you out of here." 

Her eyes grew wider. "You're... You're together?" 

That wasn't what he had meant, but he realized that lying at this point would be a bad idea. "Sometimes." 

He stared silently at her, regretting the pain and horror on her face. What the fuck had he done? Why hadn't he realized? Why didn't she stop him? Why the hell hadn't she told him she was a virgin at least? 

Swallowing against the bile in her stomach Faith rolled away from him, she scented her own blood on the air, and looked towards his cock recoiling at the liberal smear of red she saw there. 

"Faith, wait... Why? Why the didn't you tell me? I don't sleep with virgins... Fuck. We didn't use protection or anything. I could have... Fuck, Faith!.... Idiot! Why didn't you stop me?! Why didn't you talk to me?" 

His mind racing he tried to figure out what to do with Faith, and how to deal with Angela. Faith made up his mind for him. 

Shifting to wolf, she scrambled away towards the house, and around Angela - well downwind. Nathaniel growled again, and then shifted, heading after Faith. He needed to meet Angela before she came into the house looking for him, but he'd take a few minutes to make sure Faith would be ok, and then head back out. 

Hell, it was the absolute least his worthless, unworthy, stupid, drunk, idiot ass could do. Well... That and protect Faith. And he'd do that by getting Angela away from the house. Soon. 

Faith whirled in full panic mode, dropping the wet flannel in her hand as the bathroom door flew open behind her - Nathaniel filled the frame looking impatient. 

Nathaniel swallowed audibly as he saw her fear. It was a new experience for him - she'd never been scared of him before. He didn't like the feeling. 

"Are you OK?" He asked gently.

She frowned in confusion. She really wasn't sure. Physically she wasn't sure, and mentally she was pretty sure the answer was no. 

"May I see?"

Seeing her hesitate and inch further away he decided not to waste anymore time. Angela would be back at any moment, and he needed to get them both out of there before she suspected anything. 

He moved unexpectedly quickly, snagging her around the waist, and sitting her up on the edge of the basin bench and forcing her thighs wide. Crouching down he picked up the flannel dabbing away the blood. It didn't look like he'd done too much damage beyond the obvious. The bleeding was almost stopped, and although she would be sore she would heal. 

"I have to go Faith. You're going to be sore - probably for a day or two. The bleeding should stop soon though. If it doesn't or if you're still sore, go to the doctor and get checked out. I'm a bit bigger than average, and I was rougher than I should have been. You're not on the pill are you? It might be an idea to go and get Plan B or something similar just in case. It's unlikely that you'll need it, but just in case. It's happened before." 

Staying low to the ground he let her close her legs again. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She sniffed and shrugged, trying to stop the way her hands were shaking by tucking them under her armpits. "I didn't know it would be so awful." 

"Faith, it's not usually like that. It hurts a bit the first time, but it gets better. I promise. I rushed you, and I was too big, and too rough. It will never be like that again, alright? You were stupid to not tell me, but no one will ever hurt you as much as I did this time. Trust me ok?" He said soothingly, trying to reassure her, while also beating himself up for his own stupidity. 

"I don't care. I'm not doing that ever again." She said avoiding looking at him. 

He stood and brushed a kiss across her forehead, his heart sinking as she cringed away from him in fear. 

"I promise it gets better."

He left, shifting the moment he cleared the back door, and intercepting Angela on her way back. After an impatient Angela had berated him for making them late, she shifted and they headed at a run towards their next assignment. 

Faith sat in the shower until she had stopped shivering, and came to terms with no longer being a virgin. It wasn't had as freeing, or as fun as she'd thought it would be. After a few hours of feeling sorry for herself she had a stern conversation with the mirror, reminding it of all the hard work she'd put in, and how much she believed in Aaron's cause. 

Then she put all her pain, and fear, and horror inside a box, and locked it away from her determination to do this job - and to do it damn well. At dawn when her extraction team and her new partner arrived she was ready to take on the entire Shifters Council, and eventually, win. 

*** 

Present day

Sitting in the darkness of her room Faith groaned at the memories. 

She could have done without the reminder of how stupid she'd been. Unfortunately, her brain didn't want to co-operate. 

She took another gulp from the bottle of cheap scotch she clutched beside her. It went down like turps. 

He had been involved with Angela. She wondered if he still was. 

She also wondered what the hell he'd been thinking, trying to convince her 'it got better'. Snorting in derision she took another gulp of scotch. Like she would ever try that again. Faith was nothing if she wasn't stubborn. 

When she had said she wouldn't ever have sex again, she meant it. And she'd stuck to her guns - despite the number of propositions along the way. 

Simon - before he'd met Ruby, fallen in love, and died - had wanted to sleep with her. She had threatened to castrate him if he ever touched her. 

True, he had been a little shocked that his invitation to join him for dinner and a drink had been met with threats of bodily harm, but he'd wised up in a hurry and refrained from trying again. 

Faith took another swig from the bottle, seeing for the first time how much she'd drunk while lying around in her bed. 

She put the scotch down and instead picked up one of her guns. She checked the clip quickly, seamlessly, despite the alcohol. Some things you didn't forget. Like guns, and Nathaniel. 

Why should she give up this mission? She was close. Closer than any agent had ever been. Ferr.... What the hell could it have meant?

Nathaniel didn't deserve to sweep in and take what she'd worked so hard for. 

Perhaps she should sweep in and take it back? Quietly. She was quite a good thief. He'd made sure of that. The asshole had made sure of a lot of things. 

With a grin she launched herself up off the bed. She had a plan. A good plan. A half-a-bottle-of-cheap-scotch plan. 

***

Later that night.

She'd got what she came for. 

Palming the USB stick she flicked it casually back into it's case, and slipped out of the room. 

Swaying slightly she shut the door and locked it the same way she had unlocked it. It was rule #8 - always leave a scene as undisturbed as possible - but it was a pain. For whatever reason, she had always found picking a lock shut harder than getting the damn things open. 

Back out on the balcony she stuck to the walls, staying low... Well... Sort of low anyway. (The scotch made it a little harder to crouch, walk and keep her balance.)

It took her valuable time to realize that her sensitive ears were picking up a noise... Footsteps! 

Nathaniel wouldn't be back so soon would he? Faith really hoped not. She was in no real shape to fight. 

Too late she realized that the footsteps were coming closer. There was nowhere to hide. 

Faith pushed up off the wall, using the railing and one of the supports. She missed the first time, but on the second attempt she miraculously found a hold and flung herself up into the balcony roof supports. 

Willing herself sober for a moment or two she tried to draw herself up and back out of the light, and out of the oncoming persons line of vision. 

She had moved too late though. 

Before she could tuck herself up out of reach, a long pole connected painfully with her left side, jolting her grip. She watched as the USB stick clattered to the ground, flying from its case and cracking against a stone pillar. 




Trusting the Wolf Ch. 02



Faith winced, remembering rule #6 - always secure the retrieved object, and any tools before leaving the scene. Opps. 

Clearly Nathaniel had either been a crappy teacher, or she'd been a particularly dense student. Considering her current state it was probably the latter.

She kicked out, catching the guy in the side of the head, but without enough weight behind the blow to do any damage. The pole slammed into her upper arm, sending a frisson of pain along her nerves. She tumbled to the ground, landing gracelessly.

The pole slammed down on her stomach, momentarily stealing her ability to breath. The alcohol she had consumed lurched uncomfortably in her gut, and she swallowed quickly in an effort to avoid throwing up. 

Sprawled on her back, trying to get air back in her lungs, she forgot all about the man with the big stick. (There was probably a rule about that too, but at that particular moment she could think of nothing but pain and breathing.) 

The shadowy figure paused, guard up, to stare at her. 

"Faith? What the fuck are you doing here?" Nathaniel asked, not lowering his guard for a moment. 

"Oh... You know... Just admiring your balcony." She gasped painfully, eyeing the pole he held. 

She had been aiming to sound cool, calm, and composed in the face of danger, but thought that perhaps the gasping for breath, and hugging the ground, might have ruined the effect. 

Nathaniel stared at the woman lying before him. She was dressed for stealth - sort of - most ninjas would probably agree that the messy blonde hair was a bit of a beacon. 

He weighed the pole in his hands, looking for all the world like he was considering using it to beat some sense into her. Mostly because he was. 

The scotch haze was still present, but knowing that she could be a mere-moment away from the beating of a lifetime had cleared up Faiths' thinking a little. She didn't bother getting up, figuring that he'd allow that when he was good and ready to. It was best not to push his temper. 

Probably. 

"Let me guess... You've reconsidered working with me? You thought you'd break into my house and ransack my office in an attempt to find a message pad on which to leave me a polite note?" Nathaniel used the pole to carefully nudge the USB that had fallen from her hand. "After you liberated a little confidential information sent to me by Aaron?" 

From the floor Faith took a moment to swallow nervously. He really was a very intimidating man. The urge to throw up was back. 

"Can I get up, or are you going to hit me again?" She asked. 

"I haven't decided yet." He answered truthfully. 

With an inelegant snort she decided to chance it, sitting up and rolling painfully to her feet. Keeping a wary eye on his intruder Nathaniel picked up the USB, snapping it in half, and placing it in his pocket to incinerate later. The pole, he set back against the wall he'd snatched it from. 

Faith followed him back inside, seating herself gingerly on the arm of his sofa. 

Scowling he sent a pointed look her way. "I didn't pay an arm and a leg for that couch for people to ignore the seats."

"And I didn't put five years of my life into this mission to have a shovel-headed asshole steal it from me." Faith snapped. 

"I didn't steal anything from you, you vacuous drunk." He said mildly. 

"Syphilitic serial killer."

"Stubborn, mange-ridden bitch" 

"Arrogant, unwashed, mentally-deficient delinquent. With fleas." 

Despite herself, Faith was remembering why she worshiped him as a trainee... Now that he wasn't beating her with sticks, anyway. 

Nathaniel smiled unexpectedly, his teeth gleaming in the low light. "I've missed our little chats Faith. We will have to catch up more often. Now get the hell out of my lounge, and let me get back to my job."

"My job. You stole it from me." Faith growled. 

"I stole nothing from you." He said heatedly. 

She snorted. "Right. You didn't steal this and you didn't steal anything else from me." 

Nathaniel looked at her - really looked at her. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Four years ago-"

He interrupted her "Four years ago you consented."

She fell silent at the unwelcome reminder. He had given her opportunity to stop him. She hadn't spoken up. In fact, she'd given him permission. 

Nathaniel continued talking. "I went about it the wrong way, and I hurt you, which I regret, but I stole nothing. You had ample opportunity to speak up - to stop me. I was in the wrong - I wasn't a good enough man to turn down the opportunity to have you."

"But Faith? You were in the wrong too - it was your responsibility to tell me you were a virgin, and scared. I'm not a fucking mind reader, as much as I wish I was." 

He remembered the sick feeling he had when he'd drawn back, realising how stiff she was in his arms, and seen the tears on her cheeks. "Fuck Faith! Why the fuck didn't you-" 

Faith flinched as he broke off, and glared angrily at a spot on the carpet. If she concentrated long enough, and hard enough on how much she wanted to go back in time and smash a pinecone over the big scary man's head... Well, as her grandmother had been fond of saying, maybe dreams could come true. 

With a deep breath Nathaniel managed to get his self loathing back under control. Faith continued to ignore him, instead choosing to aim a death stare at the foot of his coffee table. 

They sat in silence. 

"How much have you had to drink?" He asked reluctantly.

"What the fuck does it matter to you. It never has before." She growled again. 

He ground his teeth together, and waited.

She broke. "Maybe five... Or ten standard drinks. I wasn't counting." 

He would have to drive her home. Sighing he got up, and grabbed for her arm. Unfortunately Faith thought the move was for an entirely different purpose. 

Yelling "No!" She jerked away from him, eyes going wide in alarm. Rolling backwards off the couch she hit the carpet in an off-kilter crouch and backed up putting a good distance, and the couch, between them.

Finally remembering the knife tucked into a sheath at the back of her pants she drew the blade and rose to stand, staring at him with wide horrified eyes. 

Nathaniel jolted. The expression on her face mirrored the last time he'd hurt her. 

"Easy, easy..." He murmured stepping slowly around the couch, and keeping his hands up so that she could see he was unarmed. 

"Put the knife away Faith. I'm not going to touch you. I'll give you a lift home."

She slowly dropped her guard. She didn't sheath her knife again though. "I don't need a lift."

"How did you get here? He asked, confused, but intent on keeping her calm and distracted from the knife. 

"Taxi."

He chuckled little. "Only you would have the balls to-" 

Moving abruptly he grabbed her wrist jerking the knife from her fingers, and restraining her as he did a quick check for weapons. He did not want to be in a car with a drunk woman considering vengeance with a hidden hand-gun. She was clean. 

"As I was saying, only you would have the balls to take a taxi to break into my house. And with only one knife. I am impressed. I'd be more impressed if I hadn't caught you hanging from my roof like a drunken newt - but I'll give you points for originality."

He frog-marched her to the door, and ignoring her angry growls managed to get her to the passenger door of his car. Releasing her he opened it, and waited. 

With quiet dignity she stepped in, and buckled her belt. He chuckled again, shutting the door, and going around to the drivers side. 

On the ride back to her apartment she ignored him, as he frowned in thought. 

"Faith... I really am sorry I hurt you. There isn't a night that goes by that I don't think..."

She pointedly looked out the window. 

"Did you... Were you ok? After we left?" 

Her jaw tensed. "Yes. Fine."

"Okay. Did you ever... Never mind." He shook his head at himself. 

You do not ask a woman you once slept with how her follow-on sexual experiences went, Nathaniel reminded himself.

That was just asking for trouble - and from the stubborn angle of her jaw it might also be the cause of grievous bodily harm. He was big, but angry female wolves could do a lot of damage when they put their minds to it. 

When he stopped the car he cleared his throat again. "Faith, you can join me. Partner with me. I don't want to take this away from you. You deserve to be in on this, and I need help."

"No, Nathaniel, what you need is-"

"Faith! Stop for a moment and think. How many years of your life have you put into this? How much do you want to help Aaron? We're so close to finding Alexia. Everything you've sacrificed will be for nothing if you let it go over me. Haven't you already let me take enough from you?"

Faith paused with her hand on the door handle. He was right. She so desperately wanted this. 

Something about 'Haven't you already let me take enough from you?' jarred her though. Logically she knew she was just as much as fault as he was. She did hear very real regret when he spoke about that night.

She knew a lot about regret. 

Faith screwed up her nose and nodded reluctantly. "I'm in." 

Without waiting for an answer she swung herself out of the car, and slammed the door roughly, enjoying the wince she caught on Nathaniel's face. 

Staggering unsteadily from the car, and towards her apartment again she hoped she wasn't making a huge mistake.



Trusting the Wolf Ch. 03



At 8.00am, the morning after her spectacular failure at combining alcohol and B&E, Faith rolled reluctantly out of bed. 

As tempting as it was to slap the snooze button on her evil little alarm, she kind of felt the need for some penance. 

Some super secret spy she'd been. What had Nathaniel called her? A drunk newt? She groaned and raked her greasy hair out of her eyes. 

Fucking Nathaniel. 

And now she'd gone and agreed to partner with him. Sure, it was pretty much her only option after plain-old giving up... But still. Talk about salt in the wound. 

Faith bit her lip, and stared at her unmade bed. Maybe it was time to admit more openly that it wasn't entirely Nathaniel's fault? She had kind of fucked up by not saying anything... But still... That tearing pain... The way he'd pinned her with his body? How in the hell had he been so blind to the pain he'd caused? 

Surely women didn't enjoy... That... 

Despite all the stuff she'd read? And the occasional comment she'd overheard? 

Maybe some of them did enjoy sex. Maybe Faith was built wrong? Or Nathaniel was just too big? 

For some reason, thinking about his cock made her flush with warmth. 'Horrified warmth' she assured herself. 

After shaking herself, Faith set her lips stubbornly, and made her way to the bathroom. She wasn't going to think about it anymore. She'd just do her job, and find Alexia Devon. And Nathaniel could throw himself under a train for all she cared. 

**

Nathaniel paused for a moment on the balcony. He could see Faith slumped with her forehead resting against the table where she'd sat her firearm the other night. 

He had been about to just walk in... But he remembered the fear from last night. Maybe surprising her would be a bad idea. Instead he knocked, and watched as her head snapped up, and her eyes widened in fright. 

Wincing, he realized that someone loitering on her balcony - five floors off street-level - probably wasn't the least scary thing she'd ever come across either. 

"Going to let me in?" He asked. 

She narrowed her eyes. 

With a shrug, he popped the balcony lock open the same way he and Aaron had the last time they'd been there. He strode in, taking another look around her apartment. 

Spartan. Aside from the plate of uneaten toast on the table in front of her... It looked... Empty. Unused. It was clearly just a place to sleep until she had to move on again. 

"How did you do that to my door? And for that matter? How did you get onto my balcony?" Faith snapped, eyeing him nervously. 

Her throat seemed to be closing up again... And for some reason? All she could smell was him, and his clean male scent. He was wearing some kind of deodorant, or cologne, that she liked.

A lot.

It was weird. Unexpected. 

Why should she like his scent?

Nathaniel shrugged, drawing her attention to his shoulders. Wide, strong shoulders.

"I think Aaron modified it. A hard tap to the left of the handle... And it just pops right open. And I climbed." 

Faith sat staring in shock. That was how the tricky fucking Death Walker kept getting in undetected? Fucker. This time she really would slam his ball-sack so far up his ass he'd taste it. And she'd kick extra hard for making her notice how nice Nathaniel smelt.

Clearly it was all Aaron's fault.

"In broad daylight?" She asked.

Nathaniel shrugged. "Stealth." 

They both remembered the lessons on stealth he'd given her. The hours they'd spent together patiently learning one trick after another - she'd needed the tutoring too. Her wolf form was too pale for natural stealth, and it didn't come as naturally to her human form as it had to Nathaniel's.

The times he'd caught her from a fall, or quietly warned her about an upcoming threat. The patience he'd had with an untrained wolf - even though he was far more interested in getting back to his real job. How protective he'd been, up until that night...

Faith shuddered, and shrank in her chair. 

Nathaniel didn't miss the movement. 

With a sigh, he swung the backpack off his back. He'd brought the information from Aaron. He thought, maybe they could go through it. Start narrowing down the leads. Seeing her shrink back from him though... Maybe he should have waited for her to come to him. 

She was jumpy. 

He sighed, and dropped the papers in front of her, watching the tense set of her shoulders. "Info from Aaron." 

Then he'd crouched down to thoughtlessly check her ribs.

A bolt of panic shot through her, and Faith scrambled up away from his hands. "What are you doing??" 

"I slapped you around last night... Remember? You were drunk, I had a big stick? I was just making sure I didn't do any permanent damage." Nathaniel explained, remaining crouched. 

"I'm fine." 

He gave her a disbelieving look. "Yahuh. Prove it." 

With a hesitant frown she lifted her silk shirt, until it exposed the purple bruises on her stomach and left side. Nathaniel sucked in a breath. 

"Fuck. Come here." He tapped the seat in front of him. 

She slowly stepped closer, and flinched, and he urged her to sit with a hand on her hip. He understood she was jumpy, but when it came to injuries he'd inflicted, he wasn't prepared to let her assessment of 'fine' stand. If he'd done serious damage they needed to know. 

It chafed that he'd only thought to check now. He could have sent her home last night with broken ribs. Sure, at the time he didn't think he'd hit hard, but he'd been so angry with her last night... 

After a careful examination, he concluded she was probably right about being fine. Nathaniel drew her shirt back down to cover the bruising, and moved away, hoping the erection that had sprung up upon touching her smooth skin, wasn't on obvious show. 

Despite the self loathing, and recriminations, she still made him hot. 

He moved to the other side of the table, and stripped off his sweatshirt, before sitting across from her. 

Faith didn't know what possessed her to look... But she did. The ripple of muscle in his shoulders as he'd peeled the top off had been... Unexpectedly exciting. 

And the tee-shirt he'd had on underneath had ridden up a little, as he peeled the top layer off. She held her breath as it caught, rose, and then shook loose, covering his abs again. 

God, he really did have a dangerous body. 

Faith snapped her eyes back to the papers in front of her. This was what she wanted. Not the terrifying man across from her. She focused intently on the papers, hoping she didn't look too much like a crazy person. 

It took her a few calming breaths before she could actually understand the words on the sheet in front of her. 

Nathaniel for his part, sat quietly, observing her out of the corner of his eye. She was obviously uncomfortable. Tense. But... He'd heard the way she had gasped. And now she was reading Aaron's message with the intensity of a serial killer. 

Something was... Off... And he resolved to figure out what it was. 

***

That first day had been the hardest. She'd barely relaxed enough to read, and Nathaniel knew it. The next week went better though. They started some of their own research, and decided to narrow down the search to locations - that was, after all what the seeker had been focused on, not names, or objects. 

Aaron had sent them some ideas initially, and they used those for a jumping-off point. Aaron was also working with another couple of seekers, and a witch, though, so with any luck, they could narrow it down further. 

It was hard, because the list of possibilities were endless - Ferr wasn't much to go on when you didn't know if it referred to a country, or a house, a person, or a landmark, a captor, a friend... Add to that it was entirely possibly Alexia had changed her name... Or the possibility she wasn't even still alive... 

It was hard going. 

***

"God-Damn-Stupid-Mother-Fucking Computer!" She said, slamming her hand onto the table in front of her as the 'god-damn-stupid-mother-fucking computer' froze in the middle of a search for a Tiger body-guard rumored to have been exiled with Alexia. 

-Of course the rumor HAD come from a drunk 80 year old leopard who they'd been unable to confirm had actually lived at the court in Aruba. 

"Yes, continue doing that, because swearing at it has produced results so far." Nathaniel said dryly. 

"Shut up." She snarled. 

"Oh good. Now you're taking it out on me. Your PARTNER. Who you FORGOT to take with you on this mythical breakthrough interview." Nathaniel said, still smarting over being left out of that one. 

Faith fought down a flash of guilt over that. She should have taken him, but she'd chickened out. She was meeting the leopard in a bar... She didn't want to be anywhere near Nathaniel and beer at the same time - look at what had happened last time!

Even so... Aaron had been pissed at her when he'd found out. He'd yelled at her for two days straight - via a series of phone calls - and threatened to fire her. He was within his rights to do it, too... She would have done the same if it had been any of her partners sneaking off to meet informants without backup. 

"My partner who's doing shit all - I'm the one making all the discoveries here." Faith sniped to cover the flash of guilt. 

Nathaniel had been making some discoveries of his own though - about Faith. 

It was true, she was jumpy, and fearful around him, but after a few days they both settled into each other's company. She only really got fearful around him when she thought he was going to touch her. 

The first time she'd done it he'd reached past her for a pen. She'd nearly thrown herself off the couch in an effort to get away from him. Nathaniel had frowned, and filed the information away in his brain, making more of an effort to keep physical contact to a minimum. 

In the second week he'd begun talking more socially with her. She'd laughed at a few of his jokes, and relaxed enough to talk about the past few years. He couldn't help but notice that she'd said nothing about men in her life. 

It made him feel guilty. 

He'd fucked up, and because of it, she might be missing out on the chance of having a relationship, or falling in love. 

-Yeah, he was a big, rough, scary guy who swore a lot, but he believed firmly in love. Not for himself, or anything - He was well past that point - but Faith was definitely going to need someone in her life. 

Now she had the search for Alexia to keep her busy, but one day they'd find her, or they'd find evidence she was dead, and then what? Alexia would be alone, and purposeless.... And seeing the near-rabid way she threw herself into the hunt, this was a girl who needed a purpose. 

He even imagined her with pups. Lots of them - A whole house-full. 

It was presumptuous, but when she wasn't tentatively making conversation with him, he had a lot of time to think. And, naturally, being that he was spending all this time with Faith, he thought about her. And pups. 

Faith, for her part was slowly coming to some realizations about Nathaniel. 

He was still the same wolf she knew from 'back in the day'. He still looked out for her. He was still world-weary, a little grouchy, a lot sarcastic... He also hated himself. She saw the way his eyes followed her when she got tense. He blamed himself for it. 

One part of her though 'Good. He SHOULD blame himself. He HURT me.' The other part was a little more honest... She had played a part in what happened. Maybe she should move on? Get over it, and stop looking at every man with a cock like he was a potential threat...

Not that 'potential threat' was strictly how she saw him these days - Oh there was A LOT of that... but also... On the odd occasion, his scent would catch her unaware again. Or she'd notice some small thing about him... 

Like how his terrifyingly large and scary body, actually seemed to ripple with strength and grace sometimes... And actually? On occasion that made her more warm than terrified. 

And, yes, it was true, Nathaniel had a cold, unforgiving kind of face... A lethal killers kind of face... But, when he relaxed enough to smile some times she forgot about the coldness of his eyes - in fact, sometimes they looked down-right warm when he looked at her. 

And his voice? That sinful, persuasive, rich voice? It gave her shivers. 

She wasn't supposed to have shivers - not the kind that ended up tightening her nipples. Faith had decided that she wasn't going to ever act on that kind of thing. She was HAPPY not having sex. Sex hurt. It was terrifying... 

Which is why the occasional response from her body was so terrifying. 

She'd gone four years without a single desire for closeness... And now she barely went two days without wondering.

It was scary to have her body acting so weirdly. 

**

Nathaniel had been noticing her tension for most of the morning. They'd gone out for lunch though, to get out of the house, and he hoped that would help a bit. 

The restaurant Faith had picked at random was good, and relatively quiet. They joked around for a bit about some of the stupid stuff Nathaniel had done as a pup in training, and she'd told him about Aaron catching her breaking into his house one time - leading to his insistence on breaking into hers every time he came to visit. (Some people just don't know how to let go of a joke it seemed...)

Nathaniel excused himself for a moment and Faith surreptitiously watched him go, before taking a close look at the couples around her. Funny that she hadn't thought about doing it before... She was with Nathaniel, and for whatever reason, she seemed to trust him enough to relax in public, and let her protect her. 

Just like old times...

A couple in the corner caught her eye. They were obviously oblivious to everyone else in the restaurant, giggling to themselves, and sitting about as close as they could to each other without actually being in the other's lap. 

The guy was telling the woman a story about something, using his hands to illustrate. Seemingly without even thinking about it, he dropped a kiss on her forehead - mid sentence - and carried on talking. 

The woman's eyes shined just a tiny bit brighter, and she smiled - he might not have realized he'd kissed her, but she did, and she clearly treasured it. Their conversation was peppered with tiny near-meaningless things like that... 

It kind of made Faith ache... For the first time, she understood that she wanted that. She wanted closeness, and intimacy, and stupid stories, and kisses on the forehead. 

She bit her lip, and devoured the couple with her eyes. 

Nathaniel paused on his way to the table. Faith watched a couple enviously. She looked sad, and it made his heart lurch. 

Over pasta he finally asked her "Have there been men in your life?" He had a suspicion as to what her answer would be, but he wanted to hear her say it.

Faith snapped her eyes up in surprise. "Some. Partners. And Aaron." 

Nathaniel's mouth twitched into a smile. "Not like that. Like that." He said, nodding at the couple. 

She frowned. "No."

Nathaniel regarded her over the table. "Why not?" 

"You know why not." 

"What we did, Faith? It wasn't the way it was supposed to be. It does get better." He said, feeling the familiar rush of regret. 

She laughed humorlessly. "Sure, what did you say? 'Trust me'? Forgive me if I wasn't in the mood to do that. You hurt me. And you were supposed to be with someone else... You made me the other woman! I didn't know."

Now that she'd started, she didn't seem to be able to stop. "And it was too much, too fast, and I felt like I couldn't tell you, because you would have stopped completely, and I didn't want that either. It was terrifying. And then afterwards you just... Left. You left me sitting there. And you GLARED at me, and you called me an idiot! You were so..."

"I know... I scared you. But I didn't mean to. I wasn't angry at you, I was angry at myself for fucking up. Fuck, you must have been so fucking scared." He groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"NO. You were so fucking exciting that I couldn't bring myself to say anything... I was mostly terrified you'd stop. Then... It hurt, and you treated me like shit, and I was so fucking ashamed of myself for wanting it..." She trailed off.

"Fuck." Nathaniel started to understand why she'd avoided men. Yeah, she'd been scared, but she was also punishing herself for having wanted it in the first place. 

"I know it means nothing... But I am sorry. I'm the one that fucked up. I just didn't realize. I would have done a million things differently if I had known." Nathaniel's eyes met hers, looking impossibly gentle - for a killer, he really did like to confuse a girl. 

"When you find a man you trust, and when you're ready, ask him to help you. If he's the right guy he'll go slowly, and you'll be able to learn from him. I promise it won't hurt - not like before." Nathaniel said, clenching his fist. 

Faith snorted, and looked down at her pasta dish. Both of them knew she wouldn't be taking his advice. 

Later, as he dropped her off back at her place, he watched her leave. An idea was beginning to form. 

**

Finally they found a link, a name on some property papers in a place called Fern, that indirectly linked with a Jeremy Maddox. Possible former guard to the royal family. It wasn't much, but it was the closest thing they had to a lead. 

Faith leaned back against the office chair she'd been sitting in, and blew out her breath in relief. 

Nathaniel watched her with dark eyes. "I don't know about you? But I'm stiff as a fucking board. I could use a little exercise."

She wrinkled her nose and agreed. They'd taken advantage of the small gym he had set up in his building a couple of times. He'd run her through drills every couple of days, just to reassure himself that she hadn't forgotten anything. 

She'd bristled the first couple of times he'd suggested she was rusty, but arguing back earned her a reminder of how badly she'd performed when she'd snuck into his house, drunk on scotch, trying to steal the information from Aaron. 

Now she just set her chin stubbornly, and strove to outperform his expectations in the gym. So far she'd been yet to elicit anything past a grudging "You haven't forgotten how to do this then."

It made her mad. She was sharp, and he knew it. 

Hell... He'd trained her. Of course she was good. 

"Close combat?" He said challengingly.

Faith narrowed her eyes, and grabbed her backpack, storming out of the room to change. She wouldn't say no, because that was as good as admitting she couldn't do it. And she sure as fuck wasn't doing that. 

She waited out on the mats looking agitated. He stood for a moment in the doorway, watching her wrestle her blonde mane viciously back into a ponytail. She hardly ever wore it up - it was a bit wild and untamed... Kind of like her. He liked it. 

Making a small noise, Nathaniel pretended not to see her whirl around to face him. He kicked off his shoes, and casually pulled off his shirt. He wore nothing underneath. 

Still not looking directly at her, he grabbed the pile of clothes and moved them to the wall, noting the way her eyes widened. He bit back a smile. She was interested - perhaps despite not really understanding why. 

He moved towards her, utilizing his wolf-side to add a little extra grace and fluidity to the movements. He was projecting 'predator' at her, and for some reason, that made her wolf perk up. 

A casual roll of his shoulders made her nearly gasp. Oh boy... The man had some muscle. 

Finally he made eye-contact, making an effort to keep his face relatively friendly. "Warm?" 

She resisted the urge to fan her face and whimper a yes. Instead she nodded firmly. 





Trusting the Wolf Ch. 03



He pinned her like he could do it in his sleep. She lay for a moment underneath him, gasping for breath, the warmth of his bare chest across her back for a mere-moment before he stood, and hauled her back to her feet. 

"Again." 

He pinned her again. 

"Again." 

This time he took her down with a lock to her wrist. He used only the bare minimum of needed strength. When her had her on her back, and she tapped out, he released her immediately. Nathaniel lifted her back up, with a hand under each forearm.

"Again." 

This time she nearly got him down. She threw herself into him (rather than retreating like she usually did) and managed to hook his knee. 

Unfortunately he took her down with him, and a quick wrestling bout on the floor ended in her pinned, as he sat on her stomach and held her wrists. 

This time he paused for a moment, imparting a few tips before sliding off her, and slowly releasing her wrists. 

"Again." 

He pinned her, bare chest to back and Faith panted with her cheek against the mat. 

She wasn't getting turned on by this, Faith assured herself. 

Nathaniel slowly pushed up off her, hovering for a moment above her back, his breath teasing her ear and neck. Faith closed her eyes for a millisecond, imagining what it would be like to feel his lips there. Then he was gone, and lifting her back to her feet with a firm arm around her stomach. 

He squeezed her waist, almost imperceptibly, before letting her go again. 

"Again." 

Finally she managed to get him down. She sat on the small of his back, with his arm pinned up along his spine. He rumbled in approval, and Faith jolted as the vibration of the noise shook his body. 

She froze, before slowly releasing his arm. She liked the way his back moved. He had the flexibility of a cat.

Without warning Nathaniel lurched under her, unseating her, and rolling her to the side. He pounced and landed on top of her. 

Faith gasped, and shivered. His eyes were hard and focused. She noticed that he had his killer face on again, and was focused entirely on her. It wasn't a comforting thought. 

Slowly Nathaniel lowered his face to her neck. He breathed in once, confirming the scent of arousal on her, and lapped gently at the hollow between her collarbones. Faith whimpered, and he lifted his head to make eye-contact with her again. 

She lay there staring at him. Staring at his lips. He lowered his head again, and lapped at her bottom lip, before moving to fit his mouth over hers in tender kiss. 

She whimpered again, sucking in a breath, and opening her mouth enough for his tongue to venture into. 

Nathaniel coaxed her to kiss him patiently, lapping softly at her tongue, and lips, like he had all the time in the world. Drawing back slowly, he ran a finger slowly down her neck. 

Faith squeezed her eyes shut. This felt good, but she knew what came next.

"Stop." 

The finger stopped moving. "Please? Let me show you how good this can feel."

She shivered with indecision. He was different this time... But she knew where it ended. She had promised herself... 

"I won't penetrate you. I'll stay dressed. Just let me make you feel good Faith." 

She bit her lip and nodded. Nathaniel smiled tenderly down at her. "I need the word, sweet."

"Yes." She whispered. 

He lapped at her lip again, soothing where she'd bitten it. Rolling off to her side, he leaned up on an elbow, and watched as his fingers slowly traced along the front of her singlet. With a couple of flicks, he slid the straps down, caressing her shoulders.

"Will you take this off for me?" 

Faith hesitated for a moment before sitting up and lifting the blue fabric over her head. Nathaniel sat up too, and leaned in to kiss the newly-bared flesh on her upper chest. He ran his fingers along the underwire of her bra, and she shivered. 

"This too?" He asked. 

Faith hesitated. 

Nathaniel smiled, and eased her back down to the mat. "Leave it on. We'll work around what makes you comfortable." 

It was ridiculous, Faith told herself, being a Shifter generally meant being fine with nudity. It was a fact of life - you couldn't avoid it... And yet... She didn't want to be bare and vulnerable in front of Nathaniel just yet. 

His fingers traced over her breasts, which were nearly pushed flat by her sports bra. Her nipples tightened, and tented the fabric. She watched as his fingers swirled closer, and then brushed softly over the bumps. 

Everything clenched. 

Faith's head dropped back, and she closed her eyes, panting, as he toyed with her. She was so sensitized she was almost glad her bra was still in place. Imagine what this would feel like skin on skin? Or - God forbid - mouth on skin?

She almost wanted to try it. 

Nathaniel's mouth pressed a wet kiss to her trembling stomach, before he smoothed a hand down her abdomen, and slid his fingers beneath the waistband of her shorts and underpants. 

"Wait!" She gasped. 

He waited, pressing soft kisses to the corner of her mouth, as she panted. 

He didn't withdraw his hand, but he did make soothing circles with his thumb over to soft skin beneath her belly button. 

Faith was burning hot. And the clenching? That was still happening. In her nipples... In her stomach... And lower... If she wasn't careful, she was pretty sure she was going to faint. 

"Ok?" He asked softly, watching her face. 

She bit her lip again, and looked up to meet Nathaniel's eyes. 

"Um... Yeah... I just feel..." She didn't know how to tell him how she felt. Luckily he seemed to know already. 

"I know." He said soothingly, kissing her softly. 

Nathaniel slid his free arm under her neck, and along her shoulders, bringing the length of his body to rest against Faith's side. The contact, and the feeling of being held seemed to sooth her. 

His fingers moved down, brushing sparse blonde curls, and teasing at the top of her slit.

"Open your legs for me?" He asked. 

She opened her legs a little... Not a lot, but enough for him to be able to slide his index finger along the damp curls. He applied a little pressure, and his finger slipped into her wet folds. 

Dragging his finger up, he located her clit - knowing he had it when Faith jumped, and keened in his arms. 

"Good?" She nodded quickly, opening her legs a little wider. 

After a little exploratory fingering, her circled her tight opening. 

"When I took you the first time, I pressed in here." He dipped his finger shallowly into her, until her was teasing the band of muscle that fluttered at his touch. 

"It hurt, because your hymen - a thin membrane of skin - was still attached here." he moved his fingers again, watching her face. 

"It also hurt because you were tight - I was too large for you to take without preparation. I should have gotten you used to having my fingers inside of you, and slowly stretched you that way." 

He explained, drawing his fingers back up to the damp bundle of nerves, sitting swollen between her lips. 

"Have you masturbated before? Made yourself come at all?" He asked circling to the side of her clit, not quite coming into contact with it. 

"Yes. Before we... Had sex... But not after. I wasn't interested in it after that." Faith said, arching her hips. 

She wished he'd touch her properly. 

"I'm going to finger you, Sweet. Ok?"

"I'm pretty sure that's penetration." She gasped, not really caring too much at this point. 

Nathaniel took it as a tact agreement, and slid his index finger back down to her opening. With a slow thrust, he was in up to his second knuckle, and doing his best not to come in his pants. 

He pressed his face into the crook of her neck, and licked. 

Faith whimpered, and shifted, as he slid his finger in and out. Each time his knuckle passed her entrance, she felt herself clamp down around it. 

And when his thumb got in on the act, cleverly brushing over her clit? 

Forget about it. 

She splayed her legs wider, listening to his suggestion she hook her knee over his thigh, and lost herself in the sensation. 

Seconds later she came harder than she remembered coming as a teenager. And his finger inside of her? Wow. 

She lay on the mats, with Nathaniel's hand down her pants, and his body curled around hers, and floated. 

Nathaniel kept moving his finger slowly, until every last twitch and aftershock had finished. He was hard as a rock, and doing his best not to grind his cock into the side of her ass. 

He pulled his finger out of her, pussy's clasp, as she shuddered and made a breathy noise of complaint.

'This isn't about you.' He reminded his throbbing cock again. 

Still, he couldn't quite stop himself from licking his finger clean, and savoring her tangy-fresh taste. 

"Did you just lick that?" She asked with her eyes closed, sounding mildly disgusted.

He grinned. "Yeah. You taste like sex and sea water." 

She snorted tiredly. She was confused, and she felt good, and disconnected - which shouldn't have been good.

... And since when did she let Nathaniel hold her? She wondered. 

Faith decided that the second she managed to pry her eyes open, she'd demand he let her go.

"Sleep, sweet. I'll keep you safe." 

And she did. 



Trusting the Wolf Ch. 04



Faith slammed pots and pans around in the kitchen while she tried to find her back-up gun. 

Spy movies had told her that it was always important to have a back-up gun in a weird, but easily accessible place. The problem was? She'd moved so often she had a hard time keeping track of exactly where that place was. 

Plus the back-up gun wasn't actually ever going to be any kind of useful, because she REFUSED to keep a loaded gun floating around somewhere in her apartment. So in the case of emergency, she'd either be in her office, with the locked ammunition drawer, In her bedroom with the locked gun case (conveniently hidden under the floorboards), or in the kitchen, with a lost, unloaded gun. 

Essentially? She'd be screwed.

That wasn't what was annoying her though - she'd find the gun eventually - it was Nathaniel. 

She'd woken after a brief nap on Friday, still in the gym to find him curled around her, hugging her back against his chest, with his chin resting on the top of her head. 

She'd wriggled free immediately, and he'd let her go, sitting up slowly. He was still shirtless, which caused her to sit and stare for longer than she should have. God he was beautiful... Scary and beautiful. 

"Why did you do that?" She asked, pulling her tee-shirt back on. 

Nathaniel had grinned his wicked half grin and hadn't replied, leaving her confused. 

"Ahah!" She exclaimed pulling her gun out from her pasta strainer. 

"Interesting storage place for it." Nathaniel remarked quietly behind her. 

Faith resisted the urge to squeal like a girl, and instead spun on the balls of her feet and arched an eyebrow at him. He was leaning against the stove, clearly having let himself into the house some time earlier. 

"Since when did we stop knocking?" 

Nathaniel arched a scarred eyebrow right back at her and said "I did. You were busy having a temper tantrum."

"Was not you lying prat. I was looking for this, and I found it. Yay. Mission accomplished." She lied.

"Yahah. Get a move on, we need to be at the airport in a couple of hours. Bad-tempered hellcat." 

"Irritating shit head." She muttered under her breath, heading for her bedroom. 

"Distemperate whore." He called back cheerfully, managing to make it sound like a sexy little nickname. 

Shaking her head at the non-weirdness of him being in her kitchen, after... Well, actually, after making her come like a steam train. 

The non-weirdness in itself was weird. 

She heard his softly pad into the room behind her and flicked a glance up at him, before opening the floor gun cache and depositing the gun from the kitchen there. She also grabbed her shoulder holster gun, and the one from her bedside table, locking them away. 

Flipping the door shut, she laced the floorboards back where they belonged, and nudged the bed back into place over top of it. 

"Clever." He murmured.

"Yeah, well, I learned from the best." She said, standing upright. 

Nathaniel leaned back against the door frame, taking her measure. She was tense, but didn't seem scared of him. He exhaled a small breath of relief. He didn't want her scared of him. 

In fact? If he was right, she was turned on.

"Faith? Are you packed?" 

"Yeah" she said, patting the bag beside her on the bed, giving him a strange look. Of course she was packed. He could see that. 

Nathaniel's face lost expression as he became focused on her. He had his killer face on again. Her breath caught in her throat. 

"We have a couple of hours though. Why are you here so early?" She asked warily. 

He didn't answer instead stalking forward. When he got close enough to touch, she took a step back, turning her face away slightly. 

Nathaniel stopped moving forward, but reached up to touch the curve of her jaw with a single fingertip. 

"Can I kiss you?" He asked. 

She bit her lip. "I'm not... I don't want sex. Not with you, not with anyone. I promised myself..." 

He smiled reassuringly. "I know. That's not why I'm here Faith."

"Why ARE you here?" She demanded "Are you trying to apologize? Or are you trying to make yourself feel better? Am I some project? Some thing in need of fixing?" 

Nathaniel traced his fingers along her jaw, and applied a little pressure to turn her face to him fully. "No. None of the above." 

"Then what?! Why are you here?"

"You can't guess Faith?" He asked. 

No. No she couldn't guess. 

It seemed that all she could do was stand there and stare up at him. Meeting those icy cold blue eyes. Cold eyes that burned warmly for her. 

She bit her lip again, and Nathaniel ran his thumb along it, disengaging her teeth. "Be gentle to your lips. They're one of my favorite things about you." 

He leaned in to lap at her bottom lip, and Faith held her breath. 

"Can I kiss you?" 

She slowly nodded with a single downward jerk of her chin. 

He waited. 

"Yes." She said grudgingly.

Nathaniel flashed her a warm grin before leaning in to capture her lips. His kiss started slow, with gentle laps of his tongue. She opened her mouth, and stroked back against him eagerly, sucking his bottom lip into her mouth and nipping it softly with her teeth. 

Still he hadn't grabbed at her - his only point of contact was with her mouth, and a single finger on her chin. 

Faith wanted closer. Hesitantly she stepped into his body, shivering as a hand came up to cup her shoulder. She decisively placed her hands on his stomach, stroking the planes of flesh she had wanted to explore the other day. 

Nathaniel shuddered, and moved his mouth to her neck. God he loved how she smelt here. He licked, and kissed the dips and curves of her throat, steadily moving lower, until he had urged her to sit on the bed, as he crouched in front of her. 

"Take this off for me?" He asked looking up, and stroking her belly under her black shirt. 

She considered the request with wide eyes. He waited patiently. She wanted to ask him to do the same, but was worried it would be construed as an invitation to sex. 

"This is the same as Friday, Faith. No penetration. I'll stay fully dressed. We'll work with what's comfortable for you. Just let me make you feel good." 

"Take your jacket off." She said. 

He removed his jacket, throwing it to the side. Faith took matters into her own hands by sliding his teeshirt over his arms herself. Nathaniel's grin widened, and he stayed crouched low, stroking her stomach. 

Biting her lip again, she removed her own top, and gave into a little curiosity about his body. She leaned in to scent his neck - just like he did with her. God. That scent. It drove her crazy. 

She moved closer, and pressed herself to the front wall of his body, luxuriating in the feel of his warm skin against hers. She had liked this four years ago - the skin-on-skin contact. 

Nathaniel stifled a groan as she pressed into him, and lifted slightly, to envelop her in a hug. One of his hands moved upwards to tangle in the hair falling wildly down her back, and the other swept lower to brush his fingertips over her spine near her bra strap. 

Faith shuddered as the tension slowly seeped from her. She felt safe in this man's embrace. 

Nathaniel ran his fingers over the lace on her back. "Can I take this off?" 

She agreed, and he unhooked it on his first try (silently thanking the moon gods that it wasn't one of the difficult ones) and smoothed the straps down her shoulders, before easing away from her body, and baring her breasts to his gaze. 

They were as high and pretty as he remembered them being, her nipples pale, but taunt. He was glad he'd remembered them right - he'd had a surprising number of fantasies about these small handfuls over the years - and at the time he hadn't even touched them. 

It wasn't even until later that he had gone over that night in his head, and remembered that he had completely bypassed those nipples. 

He made up for it now, urging her to lie back on the bed, as he rose above her, and trailed his fingers over her collarbone to stroke over her chest. "Ok?" 

Faith nodded, panting a little. She really hoped he wasn't finding the panting a turn off, because she didn't seem to be able to control it. Every time his fingertips stroked whisper-light over her nipples, her diaphragm clenched involuntarily. 

Along with other things...

She felt him trace those fingers lower, and then all of a sudden, there was warm heat pulling at her breast. A quick glance revealed him suckling at her, before her head fell back to her bedcover. 

"More!" She demanded. 

Nathaniel chuckled, and lowered himself to lie with his belly between her thighs, his head at exactly the right height to spend a little more time with her breasts. A quick glance up confirmed that she didn't mind the weight of him - in fact, she even pressed her jean-covered crotch a little closer to his body heat. 

When he had graduated from soft suckling, to small nips and hard sucking pulls - and when Faith had gone from panting to moaning - he moved again. Kissing lower down her stomach, with the occasional wet lick, he rested his knees on the carpet, and moved his fingers to her waistband. 

"Can I take these off?" 

Faith's head shot back up off the bed, and some of the tension re-entered her body. "Why?" 

Stupid question she silently berated herself. She knew what came next. Pain. 

Nathaniel held her gaze effortlessly. One hand trailed down the seam of her pants, to press lightly above where her clit rested. "I'd like to kiss you here."

Faith shivered. If her pants came off, she'd be vulnerable to him... Well, more-so than now, anyway. 

"Ok. But if you twist this somehow to make 'kissing me' mean anything involving your cock inside of me? I'm going to tear your balls off your body, and use my favorite gun to shove them down your throat." 

Nathaniel gave her that wicked half grin. "Delicate and poetic as always, Faith."

Despite his flippancy his cock wilted a little - which, frankly, was a relief. The pain from being confined in his pants was distracting. 

He unbuttoned her jeans, slipping them and her panties down her legs. He took a second to admire her sleekly muscled thighs, and the soft, trimmed curls at their apex. 

Faith twitched, tense again, as he licked the inside of her knee, and pulled her down the bed a little. She nearly unleashed her claws to grab at the bed covers. 

That rich, persuasive, voice broke through her thoughts. "If you wanted to take me down from here, how would you do it?" 

"I'd slam my knee into the side of your face."

"How else?"

"I'd get my foot in under your chin, and kick your throat. Or I'd pin you with my thighs, and break your nose with my fist." Faith said relaxing again. 

Nathaniel chuckled warmly. "Bloodthirsty." 

Then he lowered his face to kiss the curls framing her lower lips. "Open for me." 

Faith widened her knees trustingly. He was right. He was in a far more vulnerable position than she was. 

Nathaniel's fingers opened her to his gaze, and he took a moment to appreciate the slick wetness in front of him. She was beautiful here too... He'd have to add this to his top ten list of favorite things about her body - although, technically, number one on the list: "Everything" did cover this. 

He lowered his face to her vagina, and Faith clenched her teeth. 

Oh. This was nice. 

He started with a flat tongue, exploring her like he'd done with his fingers on Friday. He even slid it inside of her, which felt weird, and then amazingly good as he'd growled. (She was pretty sure it was a good growl.) 

Moving up to her clit Nathaniel licked across it, and she watched his eyes flick up to gauge her reaction. It had felt good, so she smiled. Next he tried a suck, which made her shiver, and a decadent swirl of his tongue, which felt downright nice. 

He watched her polite smile, privately thinking he could do much better than a smile... It was just a matter of finding the right way to caress her. 

With a slightly cheeky grin, he made his tongue stiff, and nudged her clit firmly. Faith's head fell back again, and her hips rose involuntarily to press her wetness to his mouth. He nudged her firmly again, and everything clenched, as she cried out. 

The wolf on his knees kept up the pressure, occasionally adding in a swirl, or a soft bite... And Faith pretty much found herself reduced to a quivering pool of jelly. 

At some point his free hand rose to brace her hip, preventing her from accidentally breaking his nose with her pubic mound. It was good, because blood would have definitely ruined her moment.

The fingers holding her open to him were no longer needed - Faith's thighs were splayed as wide as she could get them - so Nathaniel occupied himself by sliding a finger inside of her pussy. When she was on the verge of coming, he slid his finger out, and added another one, stretching her slowly. 

The warm tightness made his cock leap and drool a little, And a small pained moan escaped from somewhere deep in his throat. 

Unaware of anything but the heat pooling in her belly, Faith keened, and then came, clenching hard around his fingers. It was long moments before she slumped back to the bed.

Nathaniel smiled at her limp body, and crawled up to lay at her side, leaving his fingers secured in her warm vagina. He wiped his face on the bed cover, and slid his free hand under the nape of her neck. Every so often her wet walls would flutter around his fingers tightening, and then relaxing again. 

When Faith finally managed to open her eyes again, it was to Nathaniel watching her. 

"Do you feel this?" He asked pushing his fingers deeper, and pulling out a little. She gasped as the movement sent her body off on another round of clenching, and nodded. It was impossible NOT to feel that. 

He'd made his point though. There was no pain. 

Slowly he withdrew his fingers entirely, and lifted them to his mouth. She screwed her nose up at the thought of him licking them, and so instead he offered them to her. 

"Yellow-bellied chicken." He teased. 

She gave them a small lick, reluctantly admitting that her flavor wasn't terrible, before watching in fascination as he sucked them clean. 

Much later Nathaniel rose up off the bed, and put his tee-shirt back on, and adjusted his cock - which had finally relaxed, much to his relief. 

"We have to be in the airport in half an hour."

Faith quickly re-dressed, and grabbed her bag. She was a little annoyed at his casualness. 

She still didn't know what the hell this was, if it wasn't him trying to have sex with her, or an apology, or a project, or an attempt to fix her... She was stumped. 

AND she had to leave her guns and various knives in her apartment, otherwise airport security would tackle her. Today was just down-right irritating.

Nathaniel guided the rented car into the driveway to the house he and Faith were there to visit. They both shuddered as they drove through a witches ward. 

"Fuck I hate those things." Faith cursed. 

You could never tell they were there until you walked through one, and once you did there was nothing you could do to stop the witch from realizing you were somewhere you shouldn't be. 

Nathaniel stopped the car closer to the house... It was a freaking mansion. Three stories high, with a massive garage. He very much doubted that an 80 year old widower lived here alone. Besides, there were a bunch of dying pot-plants sitting out on the side of the house. Old ladies loved all that plant-shit. 

"You stay in the car, keep it running, and I'll get closer to the house. See if anyone is home." Faith said. 

Nathaniel grunted in agreement. There was nothing they could do about the witches warding now. They'd just have to get a move-on and make sure they were out of there by the time anyone emerged to check out the threat. 

Faith grabbed her phone, tucking it into a pocket, and liberated a pocket knife from the unused ashtray under the radio. 

Checking the windows confirmed the house was empty. If she had to guess, she'd say it had been a good couple of months since the house had been used. A quick check of the garage revealed the same. There was a bike, she was pretty sure, stored under a tarp, and an older-model sedan parked. 

All the doors were locked, along with all the windows - an unusual level of security for a garage with an old car in it. Most people never bothered to lock all the garage doors. 

Walking towards the back of the house, she found a massive swing set. Unusual choice for a widower. Also unusual choice for the guy who had owned it before her - Faith was pretty sure he'd been unmarried and in his 50's. 

She failed to see the older woman who watched her covertly from the treeline, instead intent on a new discovery: the wooden support logs for the swings had been scratched to hell and back, and not by any house cat. Alexia Devon was a Jaguar - this could be the break they had been looking for.

She snapped a photo with her phone, with her hand as a size reference, and headed back to the car. 

Nathaniel grumbled irritably when she re-joined him, and gunned the car, getting them the hell off the property before either of them spoke. 

"You took your time."

"I found something. A swing set. Covered in scratches." Nathaniel knew the history of the house as well as she did. 

"The house is empty?"

"Yeah, a car and a bike stored in the garage. Everything is locked up tight." She said, accessing the photo on her phone. 

Nathaniel pulled over to study it. He grabbed her hand to compare the spread of the claw marks, and she let him, without even thinking about it. 

"I'd say that's about a female adolescent Jaguar... And if it's not, it's a hell of a group of coincidences..." He said, caressing the back her hand before he released it, and putting the car back in drive. 

They also checked out a few local businesses, and most patrons recognized Alexia. They told them about her 'cousin' Rider, and her 'father' Jeremy, and although the last names were different, it was pretty clear it was Alexia Devon, and Jeremy Maddox the towns-people were talking about. 

Unfortunately Alexia and her companions had been gone for over fourteen months now, and no two people had the same story as to where they'd gone, or why.