Chapter 10: Mating at Last in the Gods' Valley

Awaking shivering, lying on top of snow, the Colonel felt heat in waves pass over him and the snap and crackle of a fire and smelled the smoldering smoke unpleasantly tinctured with the smell of burnt flesh. He also heard the swooping noise of blades battering air. Surrounding him were Wolf and Maria and Heinrich and Bobbie and Gretchen, all of whom except Gretchen holding pistols loosely and impotently towards the ground. Raising his head, he felt a pain at his chin. Wanting to rub it, he found his wrists had been shackled behind him painfully since he lay on his back and thus on top of them. He managed to see the remains of the lodge, the last of the flames licking at blackened timbers.

"Sorry, Colonel," said Wolf standing over him. "I had to slug you when you refused to settle down."

A heavyset man approached the Colonel, and he realized to whom Wolf's lie had been for. The Stasi general, his boss, shook his head.

"It's them, General!" shouted the Colonel. "They're all werewolves. I came here to destroy them at last!"

"Sure you did, Foxx," the General sighed.

Gretchen approached the General shyly. "Here's the tapes. Sorry about the deceit."

"I understand," said the General, taking a small red canvas bag from her. "Being a problem inside the Stasi made for unusual counterintelligence. Your parents must be proud."

"Did you manage to capture Yablonski?" asked Gretchen.

"I'm afraid not. He managed to escape to the west. His works won't be welcomed in his home country, that's for sure." The General gestured at the remains of the lodge. "What happened here?"

Maria reported, "Comrade General, last night we caught the Colonel limping away from here, the lodge ablaze, muttering something about insubordination and silver bullets and werewolves and such. We couldn't find any of his soldiers and most of Gretchen's troupe has gone missing. You'll find a pistol in the bag with a couple silver bullets. I'm afraid the rest of the bullets might be found lodged in the bodies of those trapped inside and burned. Major Bauer and I along with Gretchen with the help of a local nurse who injected him with a sedative, managed to interview him. The ravings of a madman I'm afraid, and they're in the sack along with video tapes Wolf took over the last few months as he became suspicious of the Colonel's mental health. Further tapes we believe had been taken by an associate of the Colonel's who had worked with him over the years on his insane research and were delivered to us via messenger. We believe Dr. Katarina Manx began questioning the Colonel's sanity several years ago but had fears for her safety. Unfortunately her fears may be well founded as she seems to have gone missing as well. She had been last seen here working in Heinrich's laboratory."

"Heinrich?" asked the General.

Maria gestured at the sad faced, handsome blond man standing nearby with pistol in hand. "Heinrich Foxx, the Colonel's son. He's shook up as you can imagine. His father threatened his life as well, and ... finding his father to be quite mad after being such a model for him..."

"I'm sorry son," the General nodded. Heinrich sadly nodded back. The General noticed a beautiful black haired woman grasping the man's hand in comfort. In fact he noticed the folks surrounding the fallen Colonel were all exceptionally beautiful or handsome. "Such fine looking Germans," he thought to himself.

"They're all a bunch of fucking liars, General, don't you see?" shouted the Colonel.

"Get this..." the General began angrily before interruption.

"Don't be a fool General, you have to..."

"You're the fool, Foxx! Muzzle him!"

Instead Wolf silenced him with a fist. The General chuckled. "Muzzle him anyway, Captain, and toss him on the helicopter. Good work Majors. Report to Colonel Schilling when you return to Berlin."

"Uhm about that, Comrade General," said Wolf carefully. "Would it be possible if the Major and I had a couple weeks of R and R. You see, Gretchen and I plan to be married in a couple of days and Maria, Major Braun, she's to be my, uhm, best man or whatever."

The General chuckled. "Congratulations. Fine. Such work needs to be rewarded, and the processes need to be done discretely without your continued involvement, so perhaps its best to keep you out of Berlin and without assignments for let us say one month?"

"Thank you Comrade General," smiled Wolf sternly.

"Yes, thank you Comrade General," smiled Maria equally stern.

The old woman opened the door to her quaint cottage upon hearing a gentle knock. Smiling she greeted the visitors, "Hello Bobbie. Who's your handsome man?"

Bobbie smiled, "This is my fiancé Heinrich, Frau Heilemann."

"Oh Bobbie, that's wonderful, but what's with that Frau shit. We played together in my youth for god's sake. Call me Olga, Heinrich. Your lovely friend had a good night's sleep after we chatted. She's making sausage and eggs, bless her heart. Hungry?"

"Ravenous," smiled Bobbie and they chuckled.

"Thank you for helping, Hilda," Heinrich said as he entered the warm abode. "I'm afraid she had a most terrifying night. Is she okay?"

"Come and see," Olga said and they followed Olga into the kitchen smelling the spicy smells of sausage cooking and the rich smell of coffee.

The pretty, buxom blonde hid her body in an old housecoat as she worked on the sausages and eggs. "I'll make some more if you're hungry," she asked her lovers.

"Bobbie said they're ravenous," Olga chuckled. Hilda laughed nervously.

"So Olga told you everything?" Bobbie asked, noticing the nerves of the barmaid.

"Unh-hunh," Hilda responded.

"And?"

"Yes please," Hilda smiled uneasily.

"Are you sure?" asked Heinrich.

Turning towards the stove as she added sausages and eggs to the pots she nodded. "I love you Heinrich. You too, Bobbie. I'm sure."

Bobbie kissed her neck. "It saved you, you know, loving us and us loving you."

Receiving the kiss pleased Hilda, but the words made her tense. Bobbie responded to the tension, "I'm sorry I would have ended your life, sweetheart. It wouldn't have been avoidable. Just know that the Colonel intended it, not me."

"I'm sorry Heinrich, but your father..." Hilda sniffled.

"I'm sorry for my father. You know I'm like him. Until I met Bobbie and found a match for my ... confidence shall we say, I had no room in my heart."

Hilda turned to him. "You're not like him though. You sensed my needs just like Bobbie did and gave me pleasure the way I like it. Your father ... used me cruelly and tossed me literally to the wolves without a gram of compassion. There's a vast difference between shame and abuse given to a submissive and brutal torture."

"But ... I have no models for compassion. Father made sure of it. He made sure I had no such weakness."

Shaking her head and approaching him, Hilda looked up at his eyes lovingly. "You're the stronger man, Master. Being cold and heartless there's no struggle to be human, to be a real man. Your confidence as you call it, maybe I'd call it arrogance if you let me, despite your compassion, makes you quite a man."

Bobbie chuckled and kissed her mate. "I agree, Hilda my love. You're the strongest man I've ever known, Heinrich, and that's what won me."

"Sit you crazy kids and let Hilda finish the meal," Olga demanded cheerfully

They sat and Heinrich grumbled. "Coffee, slut, now!"

A thrill shivered through Hilda's body. "Yes Master," she replied with quiet submissiveness.

Walking surrounded by the ultimate beauty of his three very different new mates as they headed to the meeting house where Gretchen's troupe had slept, Wolf felt like the luckiest creature alive and only wished he had another hand to hold Maria's hand. Fortunately Gretchen held hands with the blonde beauty and seemed to command her through the holding.

"Wolf my love," asked Gretchen, "Karen reminded me last night that wolves mate with only one partner. Not that I'm complaining," she beamed a smile at Nina and Maria, "but what happened?"

"I'm not sure," Wolf replied. "And forgive me Gretchen if I'm delighted. You two know she's the alpha bitch, right?"

"I understand," Nina answered tentatively. "You love her more."

"No my love. She's a leader. Let's not compete about love. I love you all differently but equally, okay?"

"I accept, Wolf," said Maria. Gretchen pulled on the much taller and stronger blonde's hand. "I'm sorry, Mistress. Yes Master." Maria blushed, especially when the others chuckled.

"Tonight we find out what the gods have planned for us," said Wolf. "In millennia, I believe this is a first for werewolves."

"Trixie said there's like a quadruple relationship involving homosexuality with Jag and Leo and Kat," Gretchen pointed out.

"Yes, Gretch," Wolf explained. "That's old news. Cats aren't mated monogamously as a norm, but they do tend to bond closely as same sex friends and share the bonded friendship with a bonded friendship of the opposite sex. It adds to the possibility and viability of procreation although even then these past few decades they've proven sterile at least hopefully until now."

"Uhm, Master? How exactly are you going to ask the gods?" asked Maria.

"I know," Wolf said. "Sounds crazy."

"Being a werewolf sounds crazy, Master."

"Of course. It's what keeps our secret as we demonstrated with the humiliation of the madman. Talking with the gods, well, even Nina's skeptical."

"It's an alpha thing," Nina explained. "Some of us lesser weres have doubts. It helps to perpetuate the importance of the alpha."

"Like high priests or something," Gretchen remarked.

"Exactly, Gretchen," Nina smiled. Gretchen's intelligence continually impressed her, especially for a human less than half her own age. "But I never doubted it. Just looking at Wolf when he talks about the gods makes me certain."

"Tonight you'll know for sure," Wolf told her, squeezing her hand lovingly.

"Tonight?" Gretchen shouted. "What about mating? I'm not waiting another second more than I have to!"

Wolf laughed loudly. "I promise I will fuck you the instant the sun sets. I want it as much as you."

"You had Nina last night," Gretchen grumped.

"And I wished I had you too. If it hadn't been necessary, you'd have been well fucked by now."

"He means it, Gretch," said Nina. "You'd have been first."

"Then I'm glad we waited," Gretchen stated.

"Really?" Nina gasped.

"Yes. Because you've been his friend for so long. You've needed him and desired him and prayed for last night to happen for decades, haven't you?"

The brunette beauty sniffled, releasing her hand from Wolf's and lifted Gretchen into her powerful arms and hugged her. "I love you, Gretchen."

"I love you, too, my beautiful new friend," Gretchen choked out.

Nina lowered her to her feet gently. "Sorry."

Gretchen giggled. "I love your strength and your passion, Nina. I can't wait to hug you that hard."

Nina kissed her sweetly on the lips. "Me neither."

As they approached the meeting hall, Wolf's brother Harry approached them, a surprisingly broad smile on the serious, quiet man's face. Though similar in features being of the same litter, Harry stood a couple centimeters taller with a thinner frame and a smoother, less scarred and thus less rugged visage. Beside him, his long arms draped over their shoulders, walked Laika, his mate of several decades, Sensei's daughter and Reyna's cousin, and another brunette beauty, Linda, cute and full figured, a member of Gretchen's troupe. Gretchen noticed, along with a glow of satisfaction emanating from Linda as well as Laika, that her comrade performer, usually on the fleshy side, looked firmer and more beautiful than she had ever seen her.

"You look amazing," Gretchen told her troupe member.

Linda's grin widened, revealing the cute little gap in her upper front teeth. "I feel amazing," she said, glancing lovingly at her new mate.

"It seems the gods have finally removed the curse and with quite a flourish," Wolf smiled.

Harry nodded. "I predict a village full of pups in nine months. It's strange though, isn't it? Laika took to Linda immediately, not the usual reaction from a mate towards a challenger when in human form. Of course my big brother has to have one more beautiful mate than the rest of us."

"Satisfying three randy werewolves," Laika observed wryly, "and three strong females. You think that's better? They'll fuck him to an early grave."

Gretchen and Maria and Nina blushed but laughed with the others. Gretchen asked Linda, "How did you meet?"

Harry explained, "The quickest courtship in history."

"I found my hero." Linda glanced at her mate fondly, rubbing his thick arm.

Harry continued his explanation, "As we feared, the Stasi goon left here to watch the troupe had orders to kill them if he didn't hear from the Colonel at a specified time. Unfortunately we were delayed too long to rescue the troop. Yablonski took forever to become convinced Gretchen had ratted him out and needed to flee immediately to our porous checkpoint. His boyfriend, an important reason he resisted, actually convinced him to go and let him take the heat."

"Poor sweet Simon," Gretchen sighed. "He's the most radical of us all and Connie's true muse. I used to confide in him my fear of capture and he told me he'd relish it. I used to tease him about all those fresh cocks. He didn't deny that, the slut, but he insisted he intended to organize the prisoners. Radicalize them. I knew the General's trust in my betrayal of my cousin hinged on Simon taking the fall for him. And we used Michael as scapegoat for Connie's foreknowledge so Simon's tortured confession would go easier."

"Simon performed his duty and kicked his lover out finally," Harry continued. "But by the time it had been resolved the sun had set and Laika and I had to fight to stay human and finish business. The couple who let us use their phone had locked themselves into their bedroom in fear for their lives. Resolved to finish business, we headed to the meeting hall next door, snuck through the back door and found the troupe dead, shot with silver bullets, except for Linda."

"All of them?" moaned Gretchen, envisioning her troupe, once vital, being murdered. Anger and sadness mixed heatedly in her eyes. "We should have flayed the skin off that motherfucker. He's getting off too easy."

"I know, my love," Wolf said gently, pulling her into his arms and feeling her tears on his shoulder. "We had to make sure he remained alive and blamed and taken as a crazy man."

"His complete vanquishing, his loss of dignity, his defeat is the greater torture," Maria added. "Believe me."

Gretchen's head nodded against Wolf's shoulder.

Linda shakily took over the narrative, "The fucking Stasi goon tore open my shirt and sliced open my pants and had his dick in his hand ready to rape me when instantaneously I saw my hero standing where the fucker had stood, the fucker's knife which had been at my neck in Harry's hand bloody from the Stasi goon's neck gash, Harry's strong hand reaching towards me. 'You okay?' he asked me as I gripped his hand and he lifted me. I looked into his soulful eyes, the depth there and the concern blowing me away. Practically naked, I hugged him as I shivered. Then I smelled his rich smell, the smell of dawn in the forest. He sniffed too and I felt him harden. Terrified no more of being raped, I wanted to be ravaged by my savior. I clung to him like a vine and kissed him. I wanted him then and I wanted him forever. When I opened my eyes, his eyes looked past me with concern. He said, 'Laika, smell.' I turned my head and saw Laika changing into a wolf, growling."