Forgotten (49 page)

“
So I believe it would,”
Rone growled. “But I won’t do that to you,
Lalli—
I won’t take you that way.
It’s too rough—too harsh. The Beast has no gentleness in him and
you’re so small…so delicate.” He looked away. “It would be too much
like…”

“
Like what?” Kate prompted
when he broke off.

“
Like rape,” Rone said
harshly, looking at her directly. “That’s what breeding with the
Beast is. It’s rape. And I won’t do that to you—especially now that
I know what you went through in college.”

“
I’m sorry.” Kate put a
hand to her mouth. “I…I didn’t know.”

He sighed. “You don’t remember but we’ve had
this discussion before. You actually tried to convince me to do
it—to take you in my Beast form, but of course, I refused.” He
shook his head. “It was one of the worst arguments we’ve ever
had.”

“
It was? But why? Why
would I want that?” Kate asked, shaking her head. Why would she ask
to be manhandled and forced into rough sex with his Beast? Had she
been extra kinky or something? It didn’t sound like something she
would want—or even something she could stand. So why…?

“
Because you wanted a baby
so badly,” Rone said softly. “And breeding with the Beast is an
almost certain way to get a female pregnant.”

“
But…but I thought that’s
what the Breeding Chair was for,” Kate protested, her eyes sliding
to the strange, rocking-chair thing in one corner of the
room.

“
The Breeding Chair takes
longer—sometimes years—to accomplish what a single night of
intensive breeding with the Beast can do,” Rone told her. “You see,
a female’s body has to be prepared for a Wulven’s seed to take
root. That can be accomplished by many long, slow, gentle sessions
in the Breeding Chair or one rough night of fucking with the Beast.
You were tired of waiting—you said you wanted to start a family and
you weren’t afraid my Beast would hurt you. So…”

He let the sentence trail off.

“
I see.” Kate nodded.
“Well, you don’t have to worry about me wanting
that
right now, anyway. I’m nowhere
near ready to start a family.”

“
Which is why you’re going
to stay with Tante Corii while I change at the Howlund.” Rone
smiled at her. “Wait until you meet her again—you’re really going
to like her.”

* * * * *

“
Well now, well now, if it
isn’t my favorite sister’s son’s mate in the whole universe.” Tante
Corri welcomed Kate with open arms, just as Rone had known she
would. He had taken the precaution of calling ahead and letting her
know exactly what had happened and what to expect and she had taken
it in stride—all but one part…

“
So you’re
still
not going to let
her tame your Beast?”
she’d asked when
Rone had explained that he needed a place for Kate to stay while he
went to the Howlund.

“
Tante Corii, we’ve been
over this before,” Rone had told her patiently as they spoke over
the viewscreen. “Kate’s too delicate and precious to me to risk her
around my Beast.”

The old lady shook her
gray hair and made a
tsking
sound.

“
I know she’s petite,
Rone, but there are girls here on G’nera nearly as small who tame
their mate’s Beast. I’m telling you, the two of you won’t have a
true bond until she does.”

“
We managed just fine
before and she’d never tamed it,” Rone had pointed out. “And she’s
from Earth, Tante. The females there are more delicate.”

“
Delicate or not, you’re
going against the natural order of things and the will of the
Goddess by not letting her tame your Beast.”

“
I love her too
much—I
just got her back and I
won’t
risk losing her
again.” Rone had run a hand through his hair in agitation. “Please,
Tante Corii, just let her stay with you while I take my
fur-form.”

“
Well…” She sighed. “All
right. Your business is your business, Rone. But I can’t help
feeling like you’re going to be sorry if you won’t at least let her
meet your Beast at some point.”

“
There’s nothing to meet,”
Rone said darkly. “We all know that the Beast is nothing but carnal
appetite. It’s the worst part of a male. Why would I let Kate see
the worst part of me? Even if it was safe, I wouldn’t want
that.”

“
If she loves you, Rone,
she’ll take the good with the bad,” Tante Corii had said
gently.

“
But that’s the
thing—she
doesn’t
love me—not yet. She’s forgotten everything we had,
everything we shared and I don’t know when she’ll ever remember.
I’m trying to bring her to me all over again, Tante. I don’t want
to scare her away or make her hate me.”

“
All right.” She’d nodded.
“She can stay with me. But mind you think about letting her tame
your Beast some time in the future—when she’s regained her feelings
for you again.”

“
I hope that will be
soon.” Rone had sighed. “I’m so in love with her, Tante—I never
stopped. But I’m having to build her trust in me from the very
beginning. It’s a very delicate time right now. So please…just keep
things light between you while she stays with you. All
right?”

“
All right, all right,”
the old woman had said. “I won’t put my nose where it doesn’t
belong. You bring Kate here to me and I’ll watch over her while you
change.”

“
Thank you.” Rone had felt
a surge of relief. He loved his Tante Corii—she was his only living
relative. But she could be really stubborn at times…

Now as he introduced her to Kate, he hoped
she would remember her promise. So far, at least, she seemed to be
on her best behavior…

“
It’s so good to see you
again!” she told Kate, giving her a big hug.

Kate hugged back, an uncertain look on her
face.

“
I, uh, know that I knew
you in the past but I’m afraid I don’t remember you right now. My
memories…”

“
I know all about that,
never you mind.” Tante Corii smiled at her. “Why don’t you just
come along into the domicile and we can all have a nice hot cup
of
chuurah
tea
before Rone goes off to the Howlund to change?”

“
Actually…” Rone shifted
from foot to foot, looking in the direction of the forest which was
filled with silvery green and blue trees. “I’d really like to go
now. I’m sorry, Tante but can I visit with you after?”

“
Of course. A male’s got
to do what a male’s got to do.” Tante patted his arm and smiled.
“Just you go on and don’t worry about a thing. Kate and I are going
to get to know each other all over again.”

“
Thank you.” Rone gave her
a grateful smile and a peck on the cheek. Already he could feel his
Beast rumbling inside him, demanding to be let out, to roam free,
to hunt and kill or breed—whichever he permitted. It had been too
long since he took his fur-form—too long since he’d allowed the
other half of himself room to breathe. But he took a moment to kiss
Kate as well—gently on the lips.

“
I love you,” he murmured,
looking into her eyes. “I swear I’ll be back tomorrow morning. Just
promise me you’ll stay here, safe inside with Tante
Corii.”

“
I promise.” Kate looked
up at him, an anxious expression in her pale green eyes. “But…will
it be safe for you?”

Tante Corii gave an amused laugh.

“
My goodness child—he’ll
be in his fur-form! There’s nothing on the Goddess’s green planet
that can hurt him in that form.”

“
Well that’s good to know,
anyway.” Kate smiled at him and Rone was warmed to see the concern
she felt for him in her lovely eyes.

She’s coming back to me,
little by little,
he thought.
Soon I’ll win her love again and we can be like
we were before. And even if she never gets her memories back, we
can make new ones together. We’ll have another joining
ceremony—another wedding—whatever she wants. We’ll be a team again
and the first thing we’re going to do is hunt down that
son-of-a-bitch Dark Kindred, Two and make him pay for wiping Kate’s
memories in the first place. After that, we’ll be free to do as we
want…living our lives on the Finder, traveling the universe and
loving each other every day, rebuilding the perfect life we
lost…

It was a wonderful thought—a perfect plan
for their future together. Rone was certain they had turned the
corner and were on the right track—nothing could pull them apart
now.

Nothing.

* * * * *

“
What does it mean, his
‘fur-form’?” Kate asked, when she and the old lady were inside the
little hut which was covered in some kind of flowering blue vine.
They were seated at a table which appeared to have been grown
rather than made—at least, all four of its legs seemed to be rooted
in the floor which was carpeted by some kind of dense, purple moss
that felt heavenly on her feet when she took of her
shoes.

“
Well that’s just what
Wulvan males call it when their Beast comes out.” Tante Corii
poured her a steaming cup of aromatic tea into a long, thin
drinking vessel that looked like a champagne flute and a coffee mug
had mated and produced a baby.

“
So…they don’t actually
turn into an animal? Or some kind of hairy werewolf-type creature?”
Kate wanted to know.

“
Oh gracious, child—no!”
Tante Corii laughed good naturedly. “Now mind you, they
used
to before the
Kindred came along and started intermarrying with the Wulven. They
used to turn into a ravening, wild, four-legged creature with huge
lamp-like eyes and fangs as long as your finger. But the Kindred
genes are strong and they bred most of that out in a few
generations. Now when a Wulven male takes his ‘fur-form’ he mostly
just gets a little harrier and his eyes turn silver.”

“
Really? That’s
it?”
Kate was slightly
disappointed. After all Rone’s dire talk about his big, bad Beast,
she’d been imagining at the very least, a character out of the
Beauty and the Beast fairytale and at worse, some kind of
wolfman.

Tante Corii gave her a level look.

“
Believe me, child—that’s
enough. For when the Beast comes out, a male Wulven doesn’t just
change outwardly—he changes
inwardly
as well. The good and
decent and civilized part of him is gone—just
gone.
And all that’s left is a
monster in male form—one who has only two interests.”

“
Breeding or feeding,
right?” Kate said in a low voice.

“
That’s right, I’m
afraid.” Tante Corii sighed. “But you know, that isn’t to say the
Beast is evil or worthless—it’s just a personification of the most
simple and direct drives that live in all of us. They’re just
especially strong in males, that’s all.”

“
Rone told me that before
I lost my memories I wanted to…wanted to try and tame his Beast,”
Kate said, looking down at her tea-flute or whatever the weird
drinking vessel was called.

“
That you did, child. You
confided as much to me the last time the two of you were here.” The
old woman got up from the table for a moment. When she came back,
she had an ancient, worn volume in one hand, bound in blue leather.
“Here.” She slid the text in front of Kate. “You asked me to get
you that.”

“
What is it?” Kate stroked
a finger over the leather spine of the book curiously. It was
strangely smooth, as though hundreds of hands had touched it over
the generations.

“
The
Landii-Katrum—
the Volume of
Submission.” Tante Corii tapped the blue leather with one crooked
finger. “In there are explicit instructions on how to get your
male’s Beast to breed you rather than feeding on you.”

“
My God. Is that really a
problem? I mean, does it happen often that the girl gets eaten
instead of, uh, bred?”

The old woman shrugged.
“It happens from time to time but mostly when the match is wrong
for some reason or the female doesn’t truly love the male she’s
trying to tame. The Beast can sense things—it sniffs out true
intentions and if true love and caring aren’t present in the
female’s heart, it can smell that in her scent.
That’s
when things tend to turn,
well…bloody.”

Kate shivered. “Ugh! Well
I guess you don’t have many gold-diggers on G’nera, huh?” Then,
seeing the confused expression on Tante Corii’s face she explained.
“Someone who only wants to get married—uh,
joined—
for wealth or
power.”

The old lady’s face cleared. “Oh. Well no,
we don’t. Any male’s Beast would smell such duplicity. And usually,
it isn’t a problem—almost all Beasts are more interested in
breeding than feeding when they catch their chosen female’s
scent.”

“
I would think it would
never be a problem at all, if you only marry for love here,” Kate
said thoughtfully.

“
Well, there have been a
few tragic instances where a female was forced into a joining by
her family…we even have an old legend about it. The story of Trane
and Jalla.”