Rift. (Rewritten in 2010)

First Winter, Year Two (2nd Moon)

"First Alpha! Second Alpha!" You've got to come and have a look at this one!" the voice of one of the hunting party called to Kriston and Garron from behind a clump of thick bushes to their left. The two made their way over leisurely, sniffing the air as they went. The wind smelled of human, and so they arrived, eager, to see what the pack had discovered. He was a human, no question about it, but a small one. Not small so much as undernourished. It was clear that he hadn't eaten well in a while, and his clothes, face, and hair were dirty. Six of the pack had backed him into a corner against the group of bushes, and were observing him curiously. The young man, to his credit, seemed unfazed by their proximity, and stood brandishing a saber, which he jabbed sharply at any of the wolfes when they got too close. The six were taking great pleasure in teasing him, approaching from one side or the other, taking turns keeping him off-guard. As soon as one wolfe got close enough, he'd push at the young man with his nose, startling him just enough to make him turn so that a wolfe on the opposite side could do the same. The young man probably thought he was being tortured; the wolfes thought it was a riot. Kriston shooed them away, changing back into his human form, and held his hands out to approach the man.
"Easy."
"Leave me alone." his voice had no waver to it as he tightened his grip on the blade. Kriston admired his courage. Facing down an unfamiliar wolfe, even one in human form, was usually at least a bit intimidating. Especially for a half-starved human.
"Just take it easy. Nobody's going to hurt you." Kriston made a gesture, and behind him, the six wolves retreated, only one more slowly than the rest. The human didn't look impressed.
"Stay back!" his voice had risen a little and Kriston could smell the fear on him.
"I don't want to hurt you."
"No, you want to eat me."
Kriston laughed.
"Reports of our voracity for humans have been greatly exaggerated."
The man didn't look convinced. In fact, he looked annoyed.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means we don't eat people."
"That's a lie!" he jabbed forward, and Kriston moved sideways to avoid the blade.
"Alright," he conceded, "There's been the occasional sociopath. But on the whole, wolfes don't eat humans. And on a smaller level, I don't intend to do a thing to you." the man looked even more annoyed.
"If you're going to eat me, just say so." The conversation was becoming faintly ridiculous.
"Listen, we don't want to hurt you - "
"You said that. What do you want, then?" the other wolfes had tired of this sport and began to urge Garron on. He darted off with them into the shadows.
"To help you. Let us take you home. You can eat there, get clean-"
"Not a chance. It's the gingerbread house all over again."
Kriston didn't quite understand this reference, but continued.
"We'll take care of you." He took a step closer.
"No. And not another inch closer."
"You're not stronger than I am."
"I know. But I bet I can shiv you pretty good and still have enough left to put up a fight when you try to eat me."
"Look, nobody's trying to eat you!"
"Kriston." Garron reappeared in human form from behind one of the larger trees, and Kriston turned to greet him. That split second exploded into pain and Kriston looked down in shock to where blood was pouring freely from a newly sliced wound. He looked back up in time to see the young man's back as he took off into the woods. Then he was on the ground and Garron was beside him, telling him, between chuckles, not to talk. As he drifted out of it, he heard in the distance screaming and the sound of a chase.

~~~

Garron was still laughing when Kriston came out of it the next morning. He winced and sat up in bed.
"Yes, by all means, laugh. My attempted murder is quite humorous - do continue in your mirth." Garron snorted and laughed unapologetically.
"He's quite small, you know."
"He caught me by surprise." Kriston growled.
"And we, him." this piqued the injured wolfe's interest.
"You have him?"
Garron nodded.
"I sent the others off after him and brought you back here. Had to nearly pry him from them. Half wanted to kill him, and half - well, you know."
"I assume the angry end was Peron's half?"
"Who else? It was a very unsatisfying trip for me, as hunts go. I go out looking for fresh meat and end up babysitting my best friend in the infirmary the entire night." Garron chuckled again, and shook his head. "Wounded by a human." he sang quietly to himself and Kriston snarled.
"Will I have to prove to you that my teeth are still sharp?"
"Maybe after you've healed up a bit. It'd be risky to do it now. If a half-starved human could do this, then one of our healthy nurses might try to break up the fight and accidentally kill you."
Kriston growled, then laughed.
"I want to see him."
"I knew you would."
"Is he comfortable?"
"He's been fed, if that's what you mean. He was a bit surly about anything else happening. Insisted we were all trying to eat him. Very uninviting."
Kriston nodded.
"I'll see to him."
"You've got a lot of work ahead of you."
Kriston paused mid-stretch.
"What do you mean, my First?"
Garron smiled indulgently.
"There's no need for pretense. You're among friends. I know you favor him."
"He is handsome." Kriston observed. "But I have no use for another means to shorten my life. I'll find him a suitable home, but I won't be keeping him."
"You haven't got any mate." Garron pointed out.
"And neither had you, until about a year ago." Kriston countered.
"The Council would be delighted to have both their Alphas mated." Garron pressed. Kriston exhaled in annoyance.
"I'm not certain that I entirely care where the Council stands on the particular issue of who I lie down with and for how long."
"Well, alright." Garron got to his feet. "I can see you're going to be stubborn about it. I've just been here to be sure you would come out of it all right. I'll call a nurse and we'll see about getting you something for the pain."
Kriston dropped his head back against the pillow.
"Thank you, my First." he said, and Garron nodded.
"I'll see you later in the day."
"At the 16 meal."
"16-meal, then." Garron turned to go, but paused in the doorway. "I think you'll reconsider your intentions for this man after you've seen him."
Kriston grunted.
"I saw him last night, immediately before he stabbed me."
"Yes," Garron said, and smiled, "But you haven't seen his eyes."
On that note, the gray wolfe winked and left the room. Kriston watched him go through the glass, wondering what the hell that could have meant.

~~~

Kriston went to the cell immediately after he left the infirmary, taking with him a bundle of food; assorted meats, some fruit, a boiled egg, and a few packets of juice. When he arrived, the cell seemed empty. He frowned and entered, looking about. No signs of the man. Then, a voice from underneath the bed.
"Leave the food and go." Kriston smiled. It was the same one, no doubt.
"I'm afraid I can't do that."
"Why not?"
"Because I'm here to talk to you."
"Why?"
"I want to get to know you."
"Playing with your food?"
Kriston sighed in frustration.
"I told you I'm not going to eat you. Now stop saying that."
The voice paused.
"Why am I in a cell? I'm not a criminal. Or an animal."
"Well, in all fairness," Kriston said, somewhat bitterly, "You did try to kill me last night. And you are quite dirty."
"That was self-defense. And I’ve been busy. You know, keeping alive and everything."
Kriston smiled.
"Self defense, was it? Well, thank that little excuse for keeping you alive." Kriston opened his bundle. "Will you come out and eat now?"
The voice, still underneath the bed, was tentative.
"What've you got?"
"Come out and have a look."
First an arm appeared from under the bed. A second arm followed, and then a head.
"Is anyone else here?"
"Just me." The head turned into a neck and shoulders. The man wriggled out, but didn't leave his corner. Kriston sighed. "Are you coming over, or shall I?"
The man eyed the wolfe suspiciously, and Kriston sighed and rolled him an orange. He snatched it up when it got close enough and took a bite.
"That's disgusting."
"What?" he looked sincerely surprised around his mouthful of orange peel.
"You're not supposed to eat that part."
"Says who?"
"Normal people."
"Ah. Not hungry people, then."
Kriston laughed at this.
"Come closer."
"No."
"Alright, then what's your name?"
The young man shifted into a cross-legged position.
"What's it to you?"
"Curiosity." For some reason, this answer seemed to satisfy the human, and he swallowed another bite of orange.
"Damon."
"That's a handsome name."
Damon paused.
"You really think so?"
"I don't lie."
Damon's mouth quirked into a little bit of a grin. Kriston edged closer.
"What are you doing?" Damon demanded, clutching his orange close to himself and backing away.
"I just want to see something."
"What - if you can get close enough for me to shiv you again?"
Kriston sighed impatiently.
"Your eyes, you silly little human, I want to see your eyes."
"Oh." Damon locked his gaze on the floor.
"Come, don't be shy about it." Kriston urged, then added, ironically, "I'll be gentle."
Damon glanced up to give him a weird look, and Kriston took the opportunity to catch Damon's chin in one hand and lift his face, drawing a thumb across the cheek as he did so. Garron had been right. Those eyes...had he ever seen a human with eyes that color? Not even close. Damon's were a lovely pale gold, strikingly close to the color of a barley field in sunset and penetrating beyond comprehension. Kriston found himself almost immediately lost in them. Then, tempted and taken, wanting to know more, he brushed his thumb smoothly across Damon's lips to feel their texture. It was only a stupid, momentary, self-indulgence, but it ruined everything. Damon froze mid-chew and looked up at Kriston. Still caught in a sensory labyrinth, Kriston moved his other hand towards Damon's hair, but the human jerked away from his hand and his face lit with terror.
"Don't." This protest came out less like a command and more like a plea.
"Damon?"
"Don't! Please?" he edged away.
"Damon, love, calm down."
"Don't touch me, don't."
"You've got to talk to me."
Damon scrambled away.
"Leave me alone!"
"What's wrong?"
"Why did you touch me like that?"
"Damon."
“Answer me!”
Kriston sighed.
“Because I wanted to. Because you are entrancing.”
Damon stared back at him in silence, and Kriston, concerned now, reached out to touch him once again. Like a shot, the human snapped backwards, trembling visibly.
"They were right. The stories were right. I didn't think they were, but they are."
"What stories?" Kriston tried to get closer.
"Stay away! I'll kill you before I let you make me your whore."
"Damon." Damn. He knew. It was too soon. "It's not like that." Damon was huddled into a corner now. "I will never treat you like that."
The human ignored Kriston's assurances in favor of retreating back as far as possible into his corner.
"It makes sense now. The stories were true. They were all true. Nobody ever comes back. You're keeping them, aren't you?"
Kriston frowned.
"Well, not me, particularly..."
"You’re…attracted to us. To our species! You make us your…your concubines, don't you? You make us – “ here, Damon had to stop and take a few deliberate breaths to keep from passing out. “Oh, I was so stupid. I was so stupid. You don't want to eat me."
"I told you that before." Kriston pointed out. "You didn't listen to me." he complained, shifting into a more comfortable position on the floor.
"Stay back!" the human shouted, and brandished an orange at his captor.
"Damon - "
"I'll bite!"
Kriston frowned. This was going poorly. He raised both hands in surrender and spoke urgently to the human.
"Listen to me! No one is going to touch you, alright? No one is going to eat you, or hurt you, or make you do anything, alright? But you have to calm down, and you have to learn to listen. At this moment, I am responsible for you. And I am also the Second Alpha of this Pack, which makes two good reasons why you're going to have to listen to me."
Damon shook his head.
"Not good enough."
"Fine!" Kriston snarled. "I outweigh you, I outrun you, and I have teeth that can crush human bones, so when I say listen, you do it. Better logic?"
The human looked wary, then gave a little snarl of his own.
"Get away from me, monster!" he snapped.
Kriston sighed and relented, scooting backwards several feet so that he sat against the opposite wall of the cell.
"Better?"
"Maybe."
"Will you answer a few questions?"
"Will they get me out of here?"
"Maybe." Kriston answered truthfully.
"Fine." Damon put his orange in his mouth and wriggled back under the bed. Two golden eyes stared suspiciously out at Kriston.
"Where are you from?" This question had been nagging at the back of Kriston's mind since they'd first found the man. He was too skinny to have eaten well, but there was no way he could have been living in the woods. They were no man's land for humans after nightfall. That meant he had to have come from somewhere nearby. He was armed, which made it unlikely that he was a Lout or Psire runaway, since neither would have ever allowed a human near a weapon. The likeliest possibility was a human compound, but the area had been searched and none had been found.
"I live with other humans."
"Where?"
"Not telling." there was a muffled chewing sound. "If I tell, then you'll go looking for them, too." Fair enough. "I don't know where they are now, anyway." This part he said with a note of resignation.
"They left you?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I got separated. Then lost. They couldn't wait."
"Is that why you were alone in the woods?"
"Yes."
"You're very lucky, then." there was a pause.
"Am I?"
"We could have been a pack of dumbwolves."
"At least they're sincere about eating humans."
"Listen, that's just a rumor. Nobody here eats humans."
"Apparently not, otherwise you'd never get any mates."
Kriston exhaled in frustration.
"My First." A voice from outside of the bars interrupted the interaction.
"Ah, Peron." Kriston acknowledged awkwardly. At the sight of another wolfe, there was a rustling, and Kriston saw that Damon had wriggled back underneath his bed. "You may as well stay out there. He's a bit wolfe-shy."
"Delightful." Peron deadpanned, and Kriston laughed.
"Oh, Peron. You can't keep that distaste alive forever. You'll find a mate and then your tune will change, I guarantee it."
"If that day ever comes, My First, I hope that you would be merciful."
Kriston raised an eyebrow.
"That's a bit extreme. Perhaps you're in greater need of a warm bed than I had anticipated." Peron ignored this.
"I came to tell you, My First, that there are questions in the compound. And rumors."
"Both? Already? News does travel fast in small circles. Who's been talking?"
"Everyone. The Elders, mostly. They want to know what you intend to do with this one." Here, Peron nodded his head towards the hiding Damon, who shrank back from the wolfe's gaze. Something about that wolfe frightened him. His looks lingered just a bit too long.
"Shit." Kriston dropped his head down and rubbed one hand over the back of his neck. "Well, I don't - "
"If you are unwilling, First, then perhaps the BRC - "
"I'm not sending him to the damn BRC. They'll ruin him."
Peron's look darkened.
"He has proven himself quite dangerous, My First."
"Dangerous?" Kriston snorted. "He got lucky. Once. It won't happen again."
Peron appeared mildly irritated, but controlled it.
"What should I tell the Elders, First Alpha? They are quite...curious."
"You mean demanding." Kriston sighed. "Fine. Tell them that I'll have him. Bring me his papers." Damon, who had been silent during the exchange, spoke up once Peron left. His voice was quiet; not resigned, but definitely prepared.
"I have papers.”
"Everyone who comes through here has papers. I have papers myself.”
"What are those papers for?”
"What papers?”
Damon looked exasperated.
"The ones you asked for.”
Kriston wasn’t sure how, or if he should answer that.
"Bonding records.”
"Bonding?”
"Uh, it will connect us to each other in – “
"Marriage.”
Kriston shrugged. That was roughly it.
"Yes.”
"No.”
Kriston was taken aback, and, truth be told, a little offended. There were worse wolfes to be bonded to than him, he felt.
"Well, I don’t know that you have a choice, human.” he answered shortly, then heard the harshness in his own voice and regretted it. There was no honor in snapping at a half-traumatized beta.
"You're going to makeme bond with you?” Damon inquired, nervously and sincerely.
Embarrassed by his own behavior towards someone so naïve, Kriston shook his head.
"No. A bonding cannot be forced, little one.”
"But a mating can be forced.” Damon replied, then looked probingly up at Kriston, his face partially obscured by the corner of the bed. “Can't it?”
The wolfe blinked at his newfound little human, then looked away.
"Yes, human,” he said, and his voice had a note of apology in it – not for actions done or not done, but for the simple unfairness of the fact. “A mating can be forced.”
Damon drew back a little then, as if he hadn't truly been expecting that answer.
"So?”
"So.” Kriston met his eyes evenly.
"So you're going to rape me, then.”
"No, Damon – "
"Are you going to kill me afterwards?" Kriston looked at his new mate in horror.
"What?! Kill you? Of course not! Why would I kill my mate? What in the hell gave you that idea?"
Damon wriggled out a little from underneath the bunk.
"That wolfe. He told me -"
"Told you what?" there was an edge to Kriston's voice that scared Damon, and he shook his head and skidded back under the bed.
"Nothing. I don't remember."
"My First?" Kriston turned to find Peron standing patiently, holding several papers and a small bag. "I can ready him for you, if you like."
Kriston looked skeptically over his shoulder at the wolfe behind him.
"Thank you, Peron, but I'll take him myself."
"The Council is waiting for you, First Alpha. It would be less trouble - "
"They can wait longer. We'll be out shortly, Wolfe Peron." Kriston's tone dismissed him, and Peron nodded mutely and set the things down by Damon's cell, then left.

~~~

Half an hour later, Damon was taken, under strict guard, out of his cell and up to Kriston's wing, where he was shown the sitting room and instructed not to leave the area. He sat on a small chair that seemed to be haphazardly placed in the center left of the room.
"Where am I?" he demanded.
"You're in my home."
"Your lair?"
Kriston shot him a withering glare.
"My home."
Damon eyed the quarters skeptically.
"What did you bring me here for?"
"I had the grave misfortune of claiming you while we were in the secondary levels. You're to be my bondmate. You live here now."
"Oh.” Damon’s fingers played idly on the patterned fabric of the chair. “Is this what happens to all the people like me?”
“Humans, you mean?” Kriston tilted his head, wondering where this was going.
“I mean your whores.”
“Damon, stop it. You are not a whore.”
“A victim, then.”
“Damon - “
"How about we just agree that I was kidnapped?”
“You were not kidnapped. It was a rescue.”
“Right. Rescue.”
“You could show a little appreciation.”
Damon just ignored him.
“You could also show a little respect.” the wolfe added. This lit a fire, and Damon’s indifference switched to anger.
“To you? Show respect to you? To the one who invaded my planet, destroyed my society and drove my species underground, kidnapped me, and now has plans to violate me to boot? You want me to respect you?"
Kriston was feeling too short of patience to deal with this.
"Fine. Go back to the cells then." Kriston got up to leave, leveling a cold stare at Damon. “The guards can fight like dogs over who gets to have you first." he tilted his head as if pondering this. "Perhaps they’ll all take turns this time and won't go two at once like before.”
Damon looked utterly, utterly sick with fear.
"No, wait." Damon assessed the situation and decided immediately that, if rumors were true and Kriston didn't lie, then he was better off with the wolfe in his quarters than without him in the prison. "Don't take me back down there."
Kriston narrowed his eyes and glared at the human with an annoyed, suspicious expression.
“Why shouldn't I?"
Damon hesitated, unable to supply a response; his breath came in short, insufficient bursts that made him feel dizzy and disoriented.
“I don't - I didn't - this isn’t fair.” he whined, and dropped suddenly into a sitting position on the carpeted floor. Kriston sighed, then sat next to his new mate.
“That’s the same thing our people said, thirty-seven years ago, when the Plague first struck.” Damon didn’t respond, so Kriston went on. “It’s why we’re here, you know.” Damon maintained a facade of apathy, but his muscles tensed and Kriston knew he was listening. “Arem'mir was a paradise before this. Our people were efficient, careful, kind, and sustainable. We were poised to take control of this galaxy as well as our own. But then, our enemies, our ex-bretheren, attacked. They released a plague that ravaged our world. It killed nearly half of the children, sterilized what females it left alive. In vitro fertilization was attempted; most of it failed and we soon discovered that we had been genetically affected. As a race, we were ruined. So we put down our weapons and we left. We had to go looking for a way to survive; just someplace new, to begin again; that was when we found you, Erim. Your home was in the midst of so many changes – some of them, like the Louts, so dangerous. We wanted to end the war that our brothers had started, and yes, we also saw a new opportunity to save ourselves. So we did both.”
If the story satisfied Damon, he didn’t show it. Kriston trailed off, not really wanting to relive the past anymore. He turned his attention back to his mate.
"But I am not a monster, Damon."
A silence followed, and Kriston thought he felt something like sympathy - perhaps in the set of the shoulders or the straightness of the back that was turned to him - emanating from the little human. He brushed it away and stood.
"should get settled in.”
Damon looked around the apartment, then hesitated.
"Where should I sleep?"
"In the bedroom."
Damon's pupils dilated ever so slightly, and Kriston heard his heartbeat pick up.
"With you." It was a statement, not a question, and so Kriston just nodded and headed off into the other room. "I don't even know your name." Damon had said it mostly to himself, but sensitive wolfe ears heard.
"Kriston." he said. "It's Second Alpha Wolfe Kriston Narrin'tel of the ColdRiver Pack on Erim."
Kriston returned, shortly, with a pile of cloth – bath linens, some robes that would be too big but would suffice until they had something better, and extra blankets for the sparse bed. He set them down in front of Damon and explained each one. The human listened, dutifully but listlessly, until the wolfe had finished.
"So." Kriston said.
"So."
"So this is our home.”
"This is your home."
Kriston growled, but it was a tired growl that had no teeth in it.
"Fix your attitude."
Damon shrugged.
"Let me go."
"I can't do that and you know it."
"You can; you just won't because you want - " There was an awkward pause over the implication. "I promise," Damon began slowly, obviously deciding on one last pitch for freedom, "I'm no danger. I'm no threat, and I'll never tell anyone what I've seen." Kriston exhaled sharply when Damon's eyes, pleading, looked up into his. "I'll disappear! I promise."
Kriston turned regretfully away.
"I'm certain you will. That's the problem." he went over to the window and peered out. "I could release you. You're right about that. But I doubt you could make it out of this compound, let alone the pack's territory, without some other wolfe taking you first. And if you managed to get beyond that, into the borderlands? Then you might still be taken; only this time by a rabid wolfe, or a lone, or an exile, and because he won't be bound to any standards of behavior, he'll do with you whatever he likes and no one will stop him. And even if you did make it the first night without capture? Then what? When we found you, you were shivering, you were starving, and night was falling. You said it yourself - your pack, they've all left you. They had to. And if they're smart, then they're long gone from here. Where will you go? Would you expect us to just leave you in the woods, to be eaten or mauled, or at best, made into a wife for some barbaric Lout? Is that what you want?" Kriston shook his head. "Not my humans. Not my mate. Not while I am Alpha here."
Damon was very, very quiet when Kriston finished.
"So what else can I do?" he asked, in a small voice.
Kriston took a moment, then turned away, stepping up to a counter across the room to pour himself a drink.
"You can stay here. With me. Let me bond with you." for some reason, as if it would matter, he felt compelled to add, "It's what the Council wants."
Damon nodded, and caught between his teeth was the whole right half of his bottom lip, which made the left pout out so perfectly...
"Is that my only option?"
The wolfe hesitated.
"No. You can leave me."
"And then what?"
Kriston took a sip from his brightly-colored glass.
"Take your chances in the Pack. Go to the Beta Academy. Learn a trade. Choose another mate."
Damon frowned.
"But I will have to choose a mate, eventually."
"Betas who have not yet carried a litter by twenty-seven years of age are forcibly bred." Kriston said, by way of an answer. Damon's breath caught in his throat. Trying to comfort him, Kriston added, "But you will not be forced. Not with me. I am the Second Alpha Wolfe of one of the largest packs on this world. You will never find a better life than with me."
Damon shook his head.
"Why me?"
"Because I want you."
"How can you? You don't even know me."
"I would like to; if you'd let me. This is the way things are done in the Wolvish life - we do not have to know each other to bond. The Old Ones say that a Wolfe knows his mate from the moment he sees her. But we must have mutual respect and minds open to the possibility of loving each other. Time will tend the rest."
Damon looked uncertainly at Kriston.
"I'm not a 'her'."
"It's an old adage."
There was another long, contemplative pause.
"If my family comes back, I’ll run away, you know.”
Kriston swallowed.
"Understood."
There was some tension in the room now, because it had become apparent that Damon was approaching acquiescence.
"Don't get the wrong impression."
"I haven't."
"Don't think that this means that I'm your…your soulmate or some shit."
"Don't swear."
"It's just that right now, I don't have anywhere else to go."
"I understand."
"And I don't like to gamble on my future."
"OK."
They just stared at each other across space for a moment, then Damon looked down, and away.
"I don't know what you expect from me - "
"Are you tired?"
"What?"
"Tired. Do you want to go to bed? When I came to get you, you didn't look as if you'd slept well during your night in the secondary levels."
Damon shrugged this off.
"I was afraid. What makes you think I'll sleep better here?"
Kriston smiled a hopeful little smile at the human.
"You won't have to be afraid.” he answered, sincerely. "And my bed is softer than that pile of blankets on the ground.”
Damon scoffed.
"I've been sleeping on the ground for eighteen years."
"Well, you're my mate now, and you don't have to do that anymore."
Damon shook his head and eyed the room around him once more.
"So what are you going to do with me?" he asked again, almost like a child who kept wishing the answer to his request would change.
"I thought that was clear."
Damon looked distant for a moment before responding.
"I'm your..." he struggled for a word. "...boyfriend?"
Kriston smiled broadly, and an intimidating pair of canines appeared.
"No. I'm far too old for that."
"How old are you?" Damon interjected, suddenly interested.
"Thirty eight. Ages old in wolvish time. To be bonded, at least." Kriston laughed at himself, then quieted as a thought occurred to him.
"How old are you?"
"Near twenty-one."
Kriston raised an eyebrow appraisingly.
"Not even birthing age."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Damon demanded, and Kriston abruptly realized his mistake.
"Nothing. Wolvish females were allowed their first - " Kriston paused and struggled to remember the word humans used, then gave up, " - pup around that age. It was a milestone of adulthood."
Damon shrugged.
"Oh." he said, and fell silent again.
Then, changing the subject, Kriston asked,
"Would you like a bath?"
Damon thought about it, then nodded warily.
"Good. You're hurting my nose." Damon looked affronted. "Follow me."
Kriston picked up the linens and led Damon away, through the sitting room and into a narrow room stacked with linen. He picked out another towel and began to move on to the bathing area. Damon halted.
"What's the other one for?"
Kriston shrugged.
"I'll bathe with you."
"Not on your life."
"Why not?"
"I'm not that easy."
"I’m not going to attack you.”
"I’m not going to give you the opportunity.”

In the end, Kriston caved, and Damon went to bathe alone.

~~~~~