Maeve's Hut.

Dove grey silk ribbon and a few hard stone beads that were all Elain, had left with to Lennox. Something to always remember her with. He had only planned to go for winter but it soon turned to three.

Elain watched Maeve stir the pot of stew, bent over and unaware of her surrounding. As always, Elain laughed at the thought. For a long time, he watched her. Stoic and serene, eyes welled-up. How he had wished to hold her. He sighed and a teardrop betrayed him. He wanted to fall at her feet and ask for forgiveness. He wanted to hug and comfort her. He had broken her heart and wanted to apologize but he knew she neither blamed him nor judged him. He was Maeve's Elain.

"Why did you come back?" Maeve's tart words brought him back. The pain of separation surged.

"I had no choice, Evie, I had to go." Elain had longed for her. Eyes— a sea of ultimate longing.

Maeve turned and Elain gasped.

Could three winters change a person?

She had aged. Had grown more beautiful. Maeve was a woman of willowy stature. Her dove-grey, deep-set, sleep-deprived eyes peer out through an escaper wild tangle of mousy hair from her braid. Her mouth large, her nose upturned. Nose septum pierced and gleaming green beads sat in the hollow of her cupid's bow. Maeve was defiant and intense. His madwoman.

"How beautiful," Elain whispered, awed.

"How long have you been standing there?" Maeve had a softer smile playing on her lips now, her eyes found him. While dreams and desires flowing like a brimming river.

"Longer than you'd like," Elain rested against the back kitchen door.

"When did you get back?" Maeve waited. Waiting to be united.

Elain with precise features was worth all admiration. With rough earthen red hair and a beard, and thoughtful dark brown eyes with a look of wariness, he stood elegantly. Dirt seemed so worked into him that the lines of his face were like writing. He had travelled without waiting, appearing to be in a hurry. Braids embedded with hard rock beads pulled together in a messy half-pony secured with dove grey silk to match her eyes. Tattoos of old writings and animals baring teeth run down his chest, back and arms. He was a proud male. Her proud male.

"Come here," Elain reached forward for her, limping. One leg weakened in a raid, it had no feeling below the knee- something about breaking a half-healed bone. The injury never fully healed. But that never stopped him, dragging the injured leg making a half-circle. He hobbled just as fast as others, often faster.

"I have to hunt," Maeve didn't move. Just starring and committing him to her memory. "I am thinking something simple... umm— maybe a hare?" Maeve turned away to grab a fur coat. She was inviting him to the hunt. She feared if she missed this chance, he'd disappear again. "Maybe then we'd come back and clean ourselves."

"Tomorrow? I'm tired today. " Elain dogged the invitation.

Her heart ached. Rejected, again.

"Tomorrow?" Maeve frowned at Elain. "You were away for three winters, and I have missed you, " Disappointment seeping in her blood. "Do you care?"

Unreqqieted shame simmered just under his skin.

"Well, it's not like I haven't missed you. Do you know how many times I have dreamt of you!" Elain quickly shut his lips, eyes widened.

"Me? And not alpha?" Maeve scoffed. "'Give me command my alpha," She teased him imitating his bassy voice. "I'll bring you his pelt!' "

It sometimes felt as if he might be alphas rather than hers.

Elain laughed and it fell silent again.

"Have you slept with many women in Lennox?"

"Don't be silly." Elain scolded, aghast by the proposition.

Elain's face gave away nothing. Always stoic. He stood there admiring Maeve. "Evie..." he sighed when she didn't budge.

"I can do without it,"

"For three winters?" Eyes squinting. "Liar."

He wished she could just open his heart and looked inside and cast away all her insecurities.

"I couldn't sleep most of the nights, I felt lonely— yearning for you and irritated."

"You should have taken me." Maeve moved forward, just within reach but not further. Keeping a distance. A sparkle crackled between them. Heat devoured her. This male so close. This virile male so... so close, liquid desire warmed her between her thighs.

"I should have." There is regret in his voice. Elain put back the hand he had tried to reach her. "But I have a favour to ask, help me," He spoke empty words his mind was somewhere else. One sniff and he was aware, her smell...

A rumble of sound from the middle of his chest. His core shuffled and she trembled.

"Please."

So engrossed in Elain, she failed to notice a person wrapped in a bundle of discarded fur supported by the door frame on the ground. Elain slowly moved to hand it to her. It seemed to have appeared out of thin air!

"What is this?" She could not contain the exasperation in her voice. She sniffed and her eyes widened.

"Igutt."

"An Igutt!" She gulped. "H-how? Is it real? " Maeve blinked, she had only heard of Igutts in hushed whispers or drunken tales. "How did it climb up?"

"I don't know."

"Is it even possible for her to be here, after The Great Cleansing?"

"I don't know."

Igutts were the filthy, lowly breed of humans but just as supirior to them, and had the gift of foreseeing future and communicate with the otherworldly. They were given these gifts to guide the Moon's divine incarnations King Alpha and other Alphas in ruling the Shifters. Maeve remembered her manna's (grandmother) words from when she was a pup:

Manna spat in disgust while talking to her mother. Little Maeve hid behind her mother's legs clutching her skirt in tiny fists, peeking and listening.

The dammed breed talked to the dead, cursed others and brought disease and death. By the Moon, they deserved to be hunted and burnt.

"Have you considered murdering it?"

"Of course I've considered murder! That was my first option."

"Then?" Maeve found irritation bubbling in her.

"But how are you supposed to murder a Dokkaebi?"

"You mean an immortal lesser deity?"

"Yes, bound to her. When I reached forward to claw out her heart, you know, to show mercy, thick dark liquid oozed out. First shapeless then formed a mouth and roared at me. I panicked and put her in a container and brought her here."

"And yet you brought that thing here!"

"I didn't know what to do!"

"This is high treason!" Maeve seethed. "Our pelts will be used as rugs!"

"Evie... " Elain whispered.

"Do you even know what it takes to bind a deity to a human soul?" Behind the rising annoyance, however, was a tremor of terror and worry. It's dark magic! This is why the Igutts deserved to be punished because they had later begun to become greedy, using their gifts for their personal gain.

Buinding immortal spirits were just one example; they were rumoured to have used their sorcery to curse the King and the Queen.

"Enough!"

'Bastards.' Her manna's voice echoed in her ear. Like the wind blowing, in a swish.

"If the Capitol were to know?" Maeve whispered, angry. "We all will be banished to the lower earth, to rot with the humans! Our wolves killed." Even mentioning Igutt was punishable by law and here it was in her house.

Oh Ammun protect her. Maeve prodded the bundle of discarded fur, to reveal a ... female.

"I said enough!" Elain shouted, trying to stop Maeve from speaking too much. After all, it could kill them.

"You have to kill her."

"How?" Elain grabbed Maeve by her shoulder, shaking her. "Evie, please help me. Hide her here. You have to, you are my only hope."

"No!" With her ashen face, she looked at Elain. She wouldn't commit high treason! She could not.

How could she?

"Evie, please. Just for some time, just until I figure out what can be done," Elain looked deep in her eyes, pleading. "Huh, please Evie."

It was Elain's pleading her, was it even in her bones to deny him?

"Look, this is what the Igutts do, they breathe distrust- they talk to the other side, meddle with nature's course and take no responsibility for anything. And they betray."

"I know." Elain rubbed his face.

"Is this why you came, to dump that thing here? Stupid me, I thought—"

"Evie, no!"

"Then dump that thing far from here!" She grated out. "Elain, we could get in trouble..." Maeve warned.

"We are already in trouble." Elain resorted, his voice hardening. "We need to hide her."

"You want me to keep her here? How? Others will ask, what am I to say then?"

"A young relict who's wolf died along with her mate in the recent raids. And that you were allotted to help her." Eyes tracing her mouth. Maeve's resentment only grew, he had well thought out the argument before asking her help. Asking under the pretext of being polite, he actually means an order. Maeve thought.

Silence.

Was it even in her bones to deny him?

He waited.

She picked up the fur wrapped person and laid her on a cot far against the wall.

His smile was now gone, a serious side showed. He moved closer. And closer next to her. Side to side. Her shoulder blade grazing his chest if she moved. He revelled in the touch.

While she stifles in anger, disappointment, and bitterness.

"I envy you," Maeve whispered, inaudible. Spine straight and aware, breathing in her ear he stood, unmoving. Daring her. Breath fanning her shoulder. Lips grazing the ear-shell, slow caresses.

A war begins.

To give in or not.

To push or to pull.

To bite the apple or turn away.

She unconsciously leaned forward, giving in. A hunger ignited in her gut, a heavy hand splayed across her stomach, heat spreads through the fabric.

A shaky breath, when lips meet just below the jaw. Lips tasting the drumming pulse, just below the skin.

The skin on skin. Tugging and tugging.

An ungoverned breath.

Another kiss on the shoulder blade. Angling the neck as his teeth descended. His hands move higher and fingers settle into spaces between her breasts. Never inching away, feeling her heart thud against the ribs.

Lips close near the edge of lips, seeking sweet nectar. The tip of the tongue touched flesh between his parted lips.

Nails digging into his wrist, she trembled. A thumb on her cheek guided her eyes to his.

Engorged and dilated, Wild's hunger stalking them. A low toned growl rumbles deep from his chest into hers. Sending ripples up her spine. A faint graze of lips against hers... desiring more and more.

He pulled his desires away.

She shifted fast into action, hands reaching his neck keeping him still, lips tracing his.

She couldn't push her desires anymore.

"Evie..." mouth full with teeth Elain mumbled again pulling away. A deep growl rubles his chest when she resists, claws digging his nape- keeping him to her. Elian settled for resting on her forehead. Exhaling a breath out she pulls in the same breath deep in her chest.

The cocoon of the skin flatters momentarily as the wild ascended to take charge, only to be driven away with a shake of the head and an iron resolve.

A cry of agony as the wild within her battles her.

"I have to go," Elain gulping as he breaks away from the spell with a protesting war raging within. "Alpha must be waiting."

Silence. It holds frustration and raw hunger denied.

"You always walk away."

With a small smile, he parts way. She's left the same way she was earlier.

The surging pain of separation.

Eyes— a sea of ultimate longing.

While dreams and desires flowed like a brimming river.

Waiting to be united.

***

 If I had known...

... this Igutt would become death and destroyer of all my world... I would have smothered her myself.

If I had only known this back then...