Rift. (Rewritten in 2010)

Guanaren paced the room he'd been led to after the fight. It was a simple guest holding cell. There was a bed along one side of the room, and a door to an exterior courtyard. The walls were yellow, and food had been brought recently. Guanaren ignored it. He couldn't eat. His skin itched, badly. His fingers tingled, and his heart pounded, and his cock, tumescent beneath his robes, slickened his skin. Ahhhhh, but he needed to run. To move, to be out, to growl, to howl, to run and pound the earth and snap and bite and claim his mate and spend himself in the sweet cavity of heart and jungle heat. Guanaren shivered. The moon was pulling at him, tugging at his fur and his toes and his ears and his hair.
Help me, he prayed to her. Help me find him.
He wondered if his room was under guard.

+++

Jara walked numbly to the private bathing rooms. His feet and head and belly ached. He wanted to go to the infirmary to check on Semmelin, but First Alpha Wolfe Garron had already posted guards outside of the young wolfe's room with strict instructions to keep Jara out. After being rebuffed, Jara had wandered until he was found by Alexei, who walked him home to the Alpha quarters, and instructed him to remain there for the evening. It would be best, he'd said. The evening meal would be delivered, and the family would return before midnight.
Jara had cried for an hour.
Afterwards, when it was almost dark, he had gotten up, undressed, and put on a robe to go to the Alpha's private bathing rooms.

+

Jara let himself into the warm water of the small bathing pool and settled on a bench. He couldn't believe that Semmelin had lost. That the young wolfe had tried, and failed, and lost Jara in the process.
That was not the way things were supposed to go.
Jara's heart ached for himself, for the consequences, for poor sleeping Semmelin in his infirmary bed.
He dipped his head into the water, wanting to rinse out some of the dust of the sparring field.
Above him, the sky dimmed and covered over with black, and the moon rose until it lit the hot water around him. Jara swayed his hands back and forth in the pool, the trickles of silver reflecting onto his skin, his hair, his eyes.
Out loud, he voiced the worry dominant in his mind:
I don't even know Guanaren.

Silence, and then Jara sat up suddenly - had that been footsteps behind him? He felt a rush of embarrassment at having been caught talking to himself.
"Mate Alexei?"
No answer rebounded, but no further sounds came either. Perhaps it was his imagination, or the sound of the trees outside, or a wayward cub who had since wandered off. Jara closed his eyes and returned to soaking in the pool.

Semmelin would be sleeping about now - the enforced regenerative sleep of the healers. Dreaming of him, perhaps? Jara sighed, feeling drowsy. Then there it was again - that sound. Like a rush of air. Like...movement. Jara sat fully upright, then found his feet to move backwards in the water.
"First Alpha Wolfe Garron?" he called out, tentatively. No response but a flickering of shadows. "First Alpha Mate Alexei?"

Then he heard it - low, menacing, and close.
A growl.

Jara startled and leapt backwards, feeling for just a minute that he had lost his footing in this time and slipped into the other one - the time of memories, of his mother and marks on the wrist and cold feet in the snow.
The shadow spoke.
"I am your alpha, little one."
Jara worked to draw breath. The shadow slowly revealed itself, and this was wrong, it felt all wrong, and Jara knew immediately where this path led. He didn't bother thinking of escape - there was none for this. No rerouting of desire or avoidance of instinct. No way out but through. Thoughts were clear. His mate was here, with rightful claim, and he was alone. No amount of shouting, or running, or distractions or escapes would remedy that fact.
So Jara accepted.
The prowling form of the challenger wolfe rose from the shadows, shaped itself out of darkness into lithe body, and movement, and eyes that reflected briefly the moonlight.
"It's you."
Jara heard his own voice; it sounded weak. The wolfe did not take offense.
"Yes, little one. It's me."
"I thought they - we were - supposed to wait."
The excuse sounded silly, even to Jara's ears, but at least it had been said. Guanaren came closer, padded on bare human feet forward so that he stood, naked and pulsing, at the edge of the water. His voice was bestial.
"Done with waiting."
Guanaren grinned - really a baring of teeth - and his eyes flashed brightly at Jara in a way uncanny for his human form. He knelt down and ran a knuckle over the rippling surface of the water.

Jara took another step backwards. He needed a moment - time to think, to plan. Even if this was to be it, even if a claim was unavoidable, it didn't have to be violent. He just needed Guanaren to be calm, and to stay calm. Jara kept his posture submissive; his heart hammered away wildly in his chest, but there was nothing for that. He kept his eyes diverted.
Guanaren lowered one long leg into the water.
"I'm fresh." Jara blurted, in an abortive play for control. Guanaren paused and regarded his mate carefully.
"They think I will hurt you. Because of the fight today. They think Guanaren is wild." Guanaren's voice sounded disconnected and choppy - like a radio cutting in and out of clarity. Jara shivered. The wolfe turned his gaze fully on Jara. "Do you think I will hurt you?"
Jara bit his lip.
"No."
Guanaren dropped the other leg in, wriggling his toes in the water.
"I won't hurt you. No." he shook his head. "Won't hurt my mate."
Jara nodded, vigorously to cover the fact that he was trembling.
"OK. OK. I believe you."
Guanaren yawned suddenly, stretching and baring teeth that did not look completely shifted. Jara stood still, waiting. The wolfe dropped down to stand in the pool, covered to his waist in water.
"You are a bold beta." he took a step forward, and Jara swayed, but held his ground. Guanaren curled a lip as if amused. "Not afraid. Even of a strange wolfe in your bath?"
Jara blinked across at him. The moon reflected on the space between them. Jara's voice wavered.
"You're my mate. A beta does not fear his mate."
Guanaren took two further steps, placing him only a foot from Jara. Too close to run now, Jara knew.
"Your heart is pounding." the wolfe met Jara's eyes. "You want to run."
"But I won't."
The words came out defiant, and Guanaren smiled sincerely then, a sort of softness spreading to his features. He tilted his head and looked at Jara, speaking again with the eloquence of a human voice.
"By the moon, you would have been wasted on him."
Jara bit his lip because for this, there was no response fitting.
Guanaren closed the space between them, and Jara could smell sweat and dust and the vaguely medical smell of sanitizer and something else - a strong, musky odor that was unfamiliar. Guanaren watched the human's reactions carefully. Jara did not meet his eyes, and so Guanaren reached down with one hand and grasped his chin, turning it upwards for a kiss.
Jara went unprotestingly. Guanaren released him, but did not allow him to retreat far. He dropped his nose to the human's neck and inhaled deeply. A low rumble in his chest tickled Jara's skin, and he wriggled in the wolfe's arms. Guanaren's eyes shot up to the human's face, then narrowed, and Jara went still. Quietly, he offered:
"I - I could bathe you, if you want."
The wolfe pulled back and smiled.
"You think I need a bath, little one?" Jara shrugged sheepishly and Guanaren grinned. "Or are you trying to delay me?"
There was a small note of warning in the question, and Jara dropped his eyes.
"No, Alpha."
A moment of tension, and then Guanaren nodded towards the pile of cloth that lay poolside.
"Quickly."
Jara complied and returned shortly with a length of cloth, which he soaped in the water without looking at Guanaren. When it was sudsy, he paused, unsure where to begin. Guanaren watched him patiently, but when Jara decided to start with his back, the wolfe growled and caught the human's slim wrist in a sharp grip.
"Do. Not. Run." he warned.
Jara nodded, his pulse pounding in his veins so hard he was sure the wolfe had to feel it on his skin.
Guanaren released him with a grunt and turned away slowly. Jara moved into position, then lifted the dripping cloth to the broad expanse of the wolfe's back. He started tentatively, soaping one shoulder, then grew bolder and began dragging the cloth downward in long strokes across the length of the wolfe's spine. Guanaren relaxed and made a sound as close to a purr as a 130 kg wolfe was able.
Jara dipped low in the water to wash the wolfe's legs, leaving his tail for last. At the first touch of Jara's hands to the base of it, the wolfe hissed. Jara released him immediately.
"Sorry."
the wolfe laughed, his voice sounding scratchy.
"Don't be, little one. Now, come, wash my front."

Jara hesitated only briefly before circling, slowly, around to face the wolfe. Guanaren tried to meet his eyes; Jara denied him that and deliberately kept his gaze diverted downwards. He raised the cloth to bathe the wolfe's belly and brushed unexpectedly against his erection, causing the wolfe to shiver and Jara to step backwards.
"Bathe me." Guanaren commanded, his voice almost a bark, impatience creeping into the edges of it. His eyes shimmered wildly in the light of the moon. Jara swallowed and came forward again. The wolfe's ears pricked slightly and he relaxed.
"Good beta. Such a good little one."
Jara bit his tongue and soaped the cloth again, rubbing it in smooth circles across the wolfe's sharply muscular chest, pausing momentarily over nipples and scars until the wolfe's low voice urged him on.
Jara hadn't been able to tell before, but facing Guanaren as he was now, he could see that the wolfe had closed his eyes, reveling fully in the sensuality of the bath, blocking out the distraction of light and vision. His head was thrown back a little, lips slightly parted, and he appeared to be in the beginning throes of some sort of physical ecstasy.
Jara washed sides, shoulders, arms, belly, but then paused, uncertain of whether or not to continue, at the indent of hip that led to the wolfe's still semi-erect cock.

Guanaren solved this crisis for Jara, seizing the hesitant hand in his larger one, opening his eyes and viewing his beta with renewed intention. Jara's skin, flushed from the heat of the bath, shielded his embarrassment, but the wolfe no doubt smelled the spike of fear on him. Guanaren took the wrist he held and used it to pull Jara behind him as he began to leave the bathing pool.

On dry land, the wolfe refused to allow Jara to towel down or dress either of them, instead dragging his quarry behind him out of the bathing room and into the hallway. In the corridor, he paused, confused, and Jara tried fruitlessly to shield his nakedness with his free hand. The wolfe, still grasping him, seemed unconcerned.
"Room." Guanaren eventually growled, and Jara noticed that his voice had lost its human-ness again. How long had they been in the bathing room together? Jara suddenly worried. A half hour? More? What time was it? Would anyone be coming home soon?
"Room!" the wolfe repeated, and shook him. Jara refocused himself. Don't worry about who's coming. No one is coming. Worry about what's going on. Worry about your new mate.
"Here." he said, leading the wolfe down two more doors to his room, "In here."
The room was dark, but lit by its single window. Guanaren went in first, sniffing the room to assess its suitability for a mating den. Discerning no other occupants or immediate threats, he dragged Jara in and shut the door.

Fully alone now, and without even the paltry, public light of the bathing rooms, Jara felt far more intimidated than he had before. Guanaren faced him, looming large in the slim light, enormous in the darkness. Heavy hands pushed Jara backwards, onto the bed, and the massive weight followed the smaller body with his own. Jara sucked in a breath as the wolfe's erect penis plunged recklessly against his thigh, and the wolfe's left knee wedged between his legs. The same hands now drew up along his sides, followed immediately by a tongue that lapped the water from the crevices of belly and hip.

In Academy, all betas learned the basics of mating: how it went, when it could be anticipated, how a beta should react, how to determine whether a wolfe was in a frenzy, (when it would be unsafe to reject him) or simply amorous (when it would be fine to walk away). Guanaren's eyes were shifting, back and forth between beast and human, and Jara knew, therefore, what was coming before it came.

The wolfe was making low, baying sounds to himself now, preoccupied in investigating every sliver and aperture of his mate's lithe form. Hands led, and tongue and nose followed and eventually Guanaren ended with Jara's legs hiked onto either shoulder, nose pressed flush against the thatch of brown hair at the base of the beta's cock and tongue lapping eagerly at the heated entrance.

Within his hands, Jara writhed and squeezed the bed linens and gasped in little nervous breaths. Fear, and the unparalleled thoroughness of Academy training kept him from fighting the wolfe, from pulling away.

Guanaren's touch grew faster, more urgent; he dipped the tip of his tongue into Jara, then dragged it out, tracing the outline of the pink, flushing wetness and the underside of Jara's hardening cock. Jara yelped and whimpered and arched up off of the bed and Guanaren smiled a short, feral smile and slid his tongue deeper into the little beta's sweet flesh. Jara rewarded him with another whimper and a touch to his shoulder. Guanaren grunted, but then the human's touch became more insistent.
Keep as much control as you can, they had told him in Academy, even if the wolfe is completely wild.
Guanaren looked up and met his beta's eyes.
"Now." Jara whispered. "If you're going to do it, do it now."

Guanaren's ears flicked in a decidedly wolfish fashion and he released Jara's thighs, sitting upwards to a kneel. Jara wished one last time for the cavalry to arrive - for his Alpha and Mate Alexei to come bursting in at the last moment, hackles raised, to defend him. He wished briefly for Semmelin, but felt guilty and silly for even considering it. Of course he wouldn't come. And if he did, to what end? He'd failed once against Guanaren, and would likely fail again. The guilt doubled at the thought of Semmelin's weakness - at least the young wolfe had tried.

Jara was forced from his thoughts by the wolfe's slick, turgid member pressing pressing past his outer muscles. The feeling was curious, immediate, and attention-grabbing, but not painful. Then, in a breath, the wolfe surged forward, and Jara's entrance was forced open and his legs were thrust apart. Jara choked on the brief discomfort - it was not unlike the times Semmelin had touched him there, just...heavier somehow. More demanding. The wolfe paused then, to sniff at Jara's neck and press short, soothing licks to the side of his face. Then, marshaling himself, Guanaren slid farther forward and sheathed himself fully. Jara keened, but the cry came more from surprise than pain - Guanaren, even frenzied, treated him kindly, it seemed.

The ending went faster than the beginning had - Guanaren slid into him, with him, almost through him, and Jara raised his hips to meet the sensation which had changed from curious to difficult to manageable to arousing. Everything was gone. The fight was gone. Guanaren was gone. Semmelin was gone.
This is mine, Jara told himself, determined. This moment belongs to me.
Then he was coming, his orgasm rippling over him in little spotty stars and waves of color and light. He held on to Guanaren, frightened of being lost in the tides, and the wolfe growled and spent himself inside of his mate.

+

After mating twice more, they slept for a brief time - Guanaren, soundly and Jara, fitfully. When the wolfe woke, Jara was awake and watching the moon dance across the sky. He sat up so that he could look down on the slim body.
"Mate?"
No reaction but for a quick intake of breath.
"Yeah?"
The wolfe was uncertain of himself. He reached a hand out to touch the skin lit by silver light. Jara didn't flinch.
"Are you harmed?"
Jara shook his head.
"No."
Guanaren felt honest relief.
"I apologize. I never meant to come to you this way."
Jara jerked his lips in what could have been a grimace or a smile.
"I know. You weren't yourself. It was Frenzy."
Guanaren watched the boy for further insight. None came.
"Did I frighten you?"
Jara shrugged, but spoke no answer.
Guanaren nodded and sighed.
"My apologies, little one. I know the first time can be difficult for betas. If I had been myself, I would have taken greater precaution to ensure you were not unduly stressed."
Jara didn't answer; just nodded and shrugged again. Guanaren frowned.
"What's the matter, cub?"
Jara's grimace/smile returned.
"Nothing."
Guanaren shook his head.
"I am a wolfe of more than thirty years. I cannot be put off like a pup."
Jara shrugged.
"Doesn't matter."
Guanaren frowned.
"You are my bondmate. It matters."
Jara shook his head. Guilt was beginning to pound through again - guilt for betraying Semm, for forgetting him, for accepting Guanaren as a mate. It made his stomach hurt. Guanaren's hand had moved to stroke his hip; he moved away from it.
"I'm not your bondmate yet."
The wolfe's expression darkened.
"I see." Guanaren drew back and was quiet for a moment. "You intend to refuse me."
Jara shrugged. Guanaren's tone grew grim.
"This is because of the wolfe I fought."
Jara raised an eyebrow.
"Don't you mean wolfes?"
"Only one was invited. The little one. Your wolfe."
Jara almost laughed at the irony of attaching them in that way. Instead, he simply made a sound of accord.
Guanaren grumbled.
"He lost, Jara. There is no appeal. Forget him."
The harshness in the wolfe's tone made Jara almost tremble.
"He's my friend. He's - it's Semmelin. I can't - he's my friend. I don't have a lot of friends, but he's one of them, and I like being around him; he makes me happy - he makes me - I don't - I mean, I can't just forget him." the words were jumbling together; there was no right way to explain what the young wolfe meant to him.
In the dark, Guanaren watched his mate closely. The supple body was trembling, the hair mussed and legs crossed as if to defend himself. The moonlight spilled across slim thighs and curved hips and into the indentations of waist. Such a beautiful picture, presented before him. Guanaren sighed. How had he even gotten into this? It was only meant to be a demonstration - just a short fight to prove a point. To prove openly he was loyal to the Pack; that he was loyal to The Way of Things. That he, unlike Garron, would not allow resistance, dissent, clever upstarts.
He hadn't meant to acquire a mate for himself in the process. Suddenly, Guanaren felt grumpy and out of sorts. None of this was supposed to happen. He wasn't supposed to like this beta, and he wasn't supposed to be here, in the Alpha's quarters, and most of all, he wasn't supposed to befriend the Alpha. Jara spoke again.
"I want to go and see him."
Guanaren snorted.
"Go, then. The infirmary is open."
"Alpha won't let me."
Guanaren raised an eyebrow.
"I am your alpha now. You go."

+++++