RAFF

Raff barked a harsh laugh, but when Meribella didn't crack a smile, he sobered up. She wasn't joking. "And just why would you be willing to do that?"

"Can we take a walk, please?"

    "As long as you put on some real clothes."

    She nodded, a smirk teasing the edges of her rosebud lips. "I can probably manage that."

    In a flash, she disappeared into the cabin below, leaving him alone with the young black woman. She eyed him with distaste evident in her mocha colored eyes, and her lips were pressed firmly together as if she were fighting the urge to speak.

    "Meribella didn't seem to have many friends when she was here last. How did you two meet?" He thought building a rapport with the woman might help in the long run, but the sound of his voice must have loosened her control on her tongue.

    "You met her just a couple of times. How would you know how many friends she kept? She mentioned you were a bit of a stalker."

    "I certainly behaved that way." His confession stole her thunder. "But I would hope that no friend of hers would have allowed her to live in such squalor, especially in the winter time. So, if you did know her then... well, I wouldn't consider you to be much of a friend."

    Distaste became careful consideration. "My name is Thorne Wildwood. I'm a pearl witch in the Sixth Circle-most outsiders will know as the Hearthstone Circle."

    "Well met Sister," he replied. Before their curse, werewolves had once worked closely with witches as both the angel halflings and the Brotherhood held nature in high regard. After they'd been unable to remove the Lupa's curse, distance had grown between the two groups, but Raff held no animosity.

"Well met indeed," Thorne replied, her voice kinder than it had been. "I met Meribella when she moved to Cutler. Vivian asked me to keep an eye on her."

He swore. "I'm guessing Joe had something to do with this too? Damn it. Cutler? How on earth could those two think sending her to Starless territory was safer than having her near me?"

"She was scared," Thorne hissed, her eyes darting to the staircase. Whispering, she said, "We both know why Joe has no love for you, but according to Vivian you've never been one to intentionally hurt anyone. But she was scared for her-scared of what happens to human women around your kind."

"But she isn't human."

"We didn't know that then."

"Okay, I'm ready--Did you two have a good chat?" Meribella, always so perceptive, stared at the two people glaring at one another.

"Wonderful. Nice company you're keeping these days."

"B, be careful. Call me if you need me. No use in you throwing yourself into the ocean and ruining a perfectly good outfit if you need to get away again."

The witch's barb struck with force, and both he and Meribella winced. "That was unnecessary, Thorne."

"We'll have to agree to disagree. And buddy, you harm her...I will hex your man parts with so many blisters that you'll be praying it'll fall off."

"Alright, then. We're going. I'll be back later."

She grasped him by the hand and tugged him into the spring morning. They walked a ways down mainstreet before either of them spoke. He honestly didn't know what to say to her. Last night, he'd been so caught up in touching and tasting her, he'd never considered why she'd returned after all these months. Certainly, he'd never have guessed it would be to kill him.

"Let's walk here," she gestured towards a path that led to the beach. His wolf sniffed in distaste, but Raff followed her lithe frame without hesitation. "

"I very much doubt there are any prying eyes or ears nearby," he said as they reached the rocky shore. She twisted to peer around them, her nostrils flaring slightly as she scented the air. How he'd not noticed that before, he wasn't sure. But the little things she did now clued him into her animal nature.

"You never know," she mumbled. "I'm learning that many in the supernatural community have excellent eyes and ears. Or spells that give them both."

"True, but I consider myself to be towards the top of the food chain around here. I assure you we're quite safe."

Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, she tisked at him. "Still so cocky, Mr. Bossy."

A slight thrill ran through him at the affection in her voice, but he shoved it aside. No distractions. "Meribella, I think you owe me an explanation."

A heavy sigh escaped her lips before she settled herself onto one of the larger rocks. "This may take a minute."

He sat beside her, forcing back a grimace at the cold dampness that seeped through his jeans. His wolf was not at all please with the location, but he didn't care. Not when he could see that being so close to the ocean made her light up and shine in a way he hadn't expected the irritable, testy woman he'd met so many months before to be capable of.

"After... After I saw you shift, I ran away. It scared me."

"I don't understand," he cut her off. "You're a shifter. Why would you be frightened?"

Dropping her head so that her hair hung like a sable curtain in front of her face, she explained, "I-I don't have the best track record with men, and you were so pushy, so arrogant. You hurt me the night of the wreck. A normal woman would've been crippled for days. And you made me feel things I didn't think were possible."

He trembled. How badly he wanted to reach out and pull her to him.

"As a man, you made me feel vulnerable. As a shifter, you scared the shit out of me."

"Even if that's all true, and I'm not discounting your feelings- I was a brute- but don't you think your reaction was a bit extreme?"

Her head snapped up and blue peered at him between the black. "Yes, but I was delirious by the time I reached Vivian and Joe. Burning with fever. I thought they'd talk me out of it if I was being extreme, but they didn't. They helped. I regretted it almost as soon as I was settled in Cutler, but by then, I felt it was too late. You thought I was dead, and what were we really to one another but strangers with chemistry."

"Gods, you think that's all this is? Just chemistry? Lust? I've lusted after women before. It's nothing but physical- sweat slick skin and pleasure." Those sea blue depths darkened to a tempest as his words fed the fire between them. "And we have that in spades, but watching you die broke something in my soul."

"I'm sorry."

"That's it. Sorry. Am I nothing else to you then?"

"Raff- you have to understand. I haven't ever allowed myself to--" she swallowed hard, "to be that way with anyone. My mother and my grandmother raised me to trust no one. I was taught to stay in the wilds, far away from the shores of man. I was told you were nothing but deceitful creatures, and the first time I ventured into this world, all of their stories turned out to be true."

She trembled so hard he could no longer resist. Taking her hands in his, he rubbed his thumbs over her palms in soothing circles. "What happened Meribella?"

"Selkies are different than other shifters. We're born seals. We shed our seal form to become human, and without that skin, we cannot return to the sea. For centuries men have stolen the skins of selkie maidens, enslaving them as wives and mothers. Most find their skins eventually and return to the sea, but the man who took my skin hid it so well that I couldn't find it. I couldn't go home."

Rage flared within, and he had to pull away from her so the claws that sprouted from his fingertips didn't harm her. Raff knew she saw them, but she said nothing. "Where is the bastard?"

She shrugged. "He was a bit confused about his mythology. Because so many selkies married the men who stole their skins, he thought possessing my skin would compel me to sleep with him. When he realized those women only married the men because back then they had no other choice, he left, taking the skin with him. I found out he died a few years ago."

"I will help you Meribella. We will find your skin." He didn't add that he couldn't imagine the pain of being separated from your other half. For all the woe being a werewolf caused, he never once wished to lose his connection to the wolf inside of him. To not be able to shift-- no, it would be unbearable. Almost as unbearable as losing her when she goes back to the sea.

"I don't need help finding the skin," she said, wiping another one of those odd, sparkling tears from her cheeks. "I found it."

Elation and disappointment didn't mix well. But he managed to stretch his lips into a broad grin. "That's wonderful news."

She was already shaking her head. "There's a catch. The Starless pack has it, and they won't' give it to me unless I kill you."

"A life for a life."

"But you know I can't Raff. I told myself I'd come back here, to get some distance from them, but I knew the moment I saw you again. I could never-- What are you doing?"

He'd stood up and walked towards the waves. Even now, the water would be chilly, never warming much above the sixties. But compared to the dip he took in the winter, this would feel like a hot tub. Wading into the sea, he didn't try to stop the shiver that wracked his body. Werewolf or not, he'd freeze eventually.

"Raff! Stop, get out of the water."

"This is poetic, really," he called out, only turning to face her when he was standing so deep that only his head was above the surface.

She was in the surf now, her golden, glittering  legs lathered in seafoam as she pressed her way to him. A large wave broke over his head, filling his mouth with salt and grit and choking him. Meribella didn't slow as it crashed into her hips, and he fought the urge to send her back. To make her safe, but she was a creature of this world.

"You're going to fr-freeze," she gasped before diving into another wave. Here in the depths, he could see her body blaze like a star as she swam towards him. He had seen her that night, had almost gone to her. How different things would be now.

Her dark head broke the surface, and he found himself entranced by the swirls of light beneath her skin. "If you don't get out of this water now, I'll make you."

Curious, he raised an eyebrow, but resisted asking the obvious question. "Isn't this what you need? Drown me and you can go home. Do it Meribella."

Her mouth popped open, the pink petals tinged violet with the cold. Around him the water began to churn, and the liquid seemed to solidify as it wrapped around his legs. She wrapped her arms around his neck, fingers crossing at the back and pulling him closer. "Just remember," she hissed in his ear. "You asked for it."

a/n- This chapter... really, all of my works, are dedicated to my sister, Nikki (middle). She used to ask when I'd finally put my stories to paper, and I wish I would've done it sooner. Love and miss you always.