The Crimson Tithe

This gave Geir, and the rest of the pack for that matter, the opening that they needed to close in on the Minotaur to finish it off. The werewolves all piled onto the beast but Geir got in on the thing's jugular. He placed his powerful jaws on the Minotaur's neck and ripped his throat out. The Minotaur jerked, now grabbing for its throat and slowly asphyxiated to death before it pitched over.

As one, the pack all lifted their heads to the sky and howled. Part was out of victory. The other part was out of mourning for those they had lost.

"So," Hagan asked, getting up onto his hind legs to walk over to Kara and Geir. "Now what do we do with it?"

"I say that we burn the fucker for what it did to my village!" Kara spat out while standing up to look around at the devastated town square. "Just to make sure that it's dead!"

"Gods... Kara?" a familiar voice asked from a nearby doorway. "Is that you?" Diana was coming out and looking at the pack with a mixture of fear, awe, and wonder. "The voice is the same... sort of... but I see a werewolf!"

"Uh... surprise!" Kara said sheepishly, emulating her mate's earlier sentiment.

Diana wasn't sure what to say to that and so she just cleared her throat and changed the subject. "Your folks are alright. They were holed up in your place and that... thing... passed on by them," she indicated the Minotaur with a slight lift of her head. "How'd that thing get in here in the first place?'

"John led him straight here," Kara said with a sour note to her voice. "Don't worry; he's dead. The Minotaur broke his neck back at the gates. Did any of the other villages get hit?"

Diana shook her head. "Aside from the ones that were closer to the gates or the ones that were over here for the festival, it was mainly us that took the brunt of that beast's fury." She sighed. "I guess it could have been worse."

"Well," Geir interjected into the conversation. "Let's start cleaning up our dead and attending to our wounded. Then we can talk like old biddies until our heart's content, ladies."

*

It took a good part of the day to clean up. First, the Minotaur's body was hauled back out to the Stones of Sacrifice where it was promptly cremated along with John's body. The ashes had barely started reaching for the sky when the citizens of the villages turned back to their work. Then it was a matter to see to the human and werewolf dead.

It was easy to get the human bodies into the temple for cleaning, anointing, and preparation for their journey on to Valhalla. The harder part was moving the werewolf bodies. The Aqua, Golden, Violet, and Viridian Villages all pitched in to help the werewolves fashion up litters to take their bodies with them. Everyone took in stride the fact that there were werewolves walking amongst them. The villagers were even more accepting when many of the women transformed back into their human form so that they could see the family and friends that they had left behind because of the tithe in past years. It warmed Kara's heart to see families reunited and introduced to their new sons-in-law and, in some cases, be shown their grandchildren, nieces, or nephews.

Despite seeing them searching for her, Kara kept in her new wolf form. She wasn't ready to see them... at least not yet. She wanted more time to figure things out and to get to know her mate... husband... whatever he was now, more.

By the time their work was finished, it was nighttime and each of the villages demanded that the werewolves stay the night with them. As tempting as it was, the werewolves turned them down as they had internal matters to attend to but they would be back the next day so that the Five... no... Six Villages could celebrate the final day of Lupercalia together and possibly ratify a new treaty between them.

*

Kara was exhausted by the time that she and Geir had trudged back into their cabin back at the Den Village. She flopped onto the bed, naked from changing back into human form, and laid there with her arms and legs splayed out spread-eagled. "If you want me, you're going to have to take me since I am too tired to do anything right now," she complained.

"Gladly," Geir said with a smile as he came into the cabin. His features changing from humanoid wolf to just plain human while he walked in. He went to the foot of the bed and took a long, lingering look up and down her body. His cock was already rising to salute her beauty.

"How are you even able to get it up after today?" Kara wondered, flattered and disturbed all at the same time. "The pack just lost its leaders... your parents, I might add... today."

Giving her a sour look but keeping focus on the prize, Geir crawled up onto the bed, folding his arms and resting down onto her abdomen and looking up her body at her. "Yes, we took losses today and we spent a good part of the day mourning while handling our dead. Now tonight we honor them by living for tomorrow. We sleep with our mates, we console our young, and our newly found singles find solace in each other's arms so that we can rebuild our numbers. This is the way of the pack."

Kara couldn't argue with that.

There was no arguing a moment later especially when Geir then buried his face in between her legs. His tongue immediately traveled down the length of her slit. "Oooohhhhh..." she moaned, hands gripping the fur blankets underneath of her. Then his tongue was inside of her as he parted her pussy lips and attacked her clit while at the same time sliding it past and down into her opening. Her nipples stiffened and his hands came up to massage her breasts. His mouth covered her mound while he continued to pleasure her with his tongue.

Head swimming, Kara soon became delirious from the oral pleasure that was being administered to her. Tensing up as the orgasm overtook her; she doubled up, grabbing his head as she came hard. Geir continued lapping at her clit as she rode it out. Even when she fell back to the bed, exhausted, he still drank her in.

"No more! No more!" Kara cried, trying to push his head away from her pussy. Geir licked her a few more times before shuffling up to bring his cock to bear. "Oh you're not..." she protested as he took hold of her knees and positioned himself accordingly. He gave her a wicked smile as he slowly entered her so that she could feel him slide in, inch by inch. "AHHHHH!" she breathed as his cock slid home.

His hands slid down to her bottom and she gripped him with her thighs. They kept a firm grasp on one another as their bodies soon began to move as one when he thrust into her. Their eyes locked and in that instant Kara knew that this man had indeed claimed her... there would be nothing that she would not do for him and him for her.

Seeing her final surrender reflect in her eyes, Geir leaned in to her, cupped the back of her neck, and kissed her deeply. Their tongues intermingled and Kara threw her arms up around his neck while wrapping her slender legs around his waist. Geir groaned deeply while grounding his hips down into hers, burying his cock as far into her as possible. Unable to contain himself any longer, he released inside of her.

"Yes," Kara breathed as she felt his cock become engorged inside of her a moment before his seed spurt into her. "Ohhh, yes, don't stop," she whispered into his ear while she nibbled on neck right behind it. "Yes, yes, yes!" she cried out as she reached her peak while Geir was enjoying his.

They fell asleep in a tangle of limbs with Geir's head on her breasts while she idly stroked his black hair and thought about the future.

***

CHAPTER 9:

Geir woke up in a panic the next morning, the third day of the Lupercalia, when he found that Kara was not in bed with him. A quick glance told him that she wasn't in the cabin either. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath through his nose, he caught her scent easily and followed it out the door like a trained bloodhound. He wandered through the Den Village until he came to the doors of the village library that was packed full of old books and tomes from the mortal world in addition to those that exist within the supernatural world.

He found Kara in one corner, dressed back in that tunic of his that she wore like a short dress, engrossed in a few different books all at the same time. When she noticed that he was standing there staring at her she looked up and smirked. "Going without clothes today, dear?" she said playfully.

That's when he noticed that he'd neglected to get his hunting leathers on prior to tracking her down. "I was... uh... in a hurry," he admitted.

"Thinking that I'd fled the countryside, no doubt," she said, reading his mind.

"It did cross my mind."

"Relax," Kara stood up and kissed him passionately, making heat go straight to his groin, "I'm here for the long term, big guy." She reached down to stroke his manhood a couple of times before sitting back down. "And I'll take care of this big guy later. First I wanted to finish this reading before the pack meets this morning.

Geir took a long look at all of the books she'd been reading. "I didn't take you for a reader. A hunter, sure, but not a reader."

Kara shrugged. "One has to read and learn the knowledge of others before them in order to know how to hunt, where to hunt, and what plants in the woods can aid in your survival. It's not that much of a jump from there to read other things as well."

"Folklore, Village History, Den Journals..." Geir said, looking at the titles. "What's this about, Kara?"

"In less than a few hours the pack meets and will more than likely name you as their leader making us the Pack Alphas, correct?"

Geir crossed his arms and smirked at her. "A bit presumptuous of you, don't you think?" He let out a harrumph. "You were a normal mortal just the other day and you think that you can go straight to Alpha Female in the span of a couple of days?"

Kara turned and looked him right in the eye. "Yes because you wouldn't have picked me otherwise if you didn't think that we'd be ascending to pack leadership someday. You just didn't think that it was going to be this quickly. You also know that I have the temperament from this based solely on how I was able to sway your parents into defending the Five Villages."

She had him there and the sad part of it was that she didn't even need to use the bond between them to read his mind. The evidence alone would have told her that. "So what's your plan then since you obviously have one?

"Abolish the annual tithe."

Geir blinked at her to make sure that he'd heard her correctly. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"We need that in order to keep our breeding stock going!" Geir said, his voice now close to shouting. "Why should we give up a good thing?"

"Because you can get a better thing by doing away from it." She explained her idea and her plan and Geir found himself nodding along with all of her arguments and her points. "So you do away with the old treaty, draft a new one, and everyone... and I do mean everyone... will benefit from it."

"Okay, okay," Geir half raised his hands in mock surrender, "You win, woman. If we're named the Pack Alphas, then I'll have the scribes draft up a new treaty. Okay?" When she nodded, he smiled at her. This just went to reinforce his belief that he'd chosen the best mate ever. "So now you need to do a little something for me since you decided to leave me hanging." He reached down to grab his hard cock that had stayed rigid throughout the conversation.

"Ugh... men..." Kara rolled her eyes but didn't do anything to resist him when his hand snaked out to snag her by the back of her neck and pull her close. Her body melted against his as they kissed and she moaned passionately in response. Despite her protest, her hands drifted down to his cock to start stroking him again.

Geir put downward pressure on her neck to drive her down to her knees. "You know we're in a public place, right?" she said once she was kneeling before him.

"You know that I don't care right now?" Geir retorted. "If someone walks in they will see a male communing with his mate."

"Mm-hm..." Kara hummed, giving him a sarcastic look up at him before bringing his cock to her lips. She relaxed her jaw and took him in as far as she could until he was nearly all the way down her throat. Then she moved her head back and forth while she sucked on him, occasionally wrapping her lips around the base of his cock. Due to his size being more than she'd ever had before, it was a strain for her to keep him down her throat.

"Oh Gods," Geir rolled his head back and sighed but still kept pressure on the back of her head as he rapidly approached his breaking point. On impulse he rammed his cock hard into her mouth while pulling her head forward.

Thanks to the link between them now, Kara was able to anticipate this. She let her throat and mouth relax as much as possible when Geir shoved his cock in all the way to the hilt. His white cum filled her mouth and she struggled to keep up with the swallowing. Even then it was still a stress on her body and tears welled up in her blue eyes. When he was finally finished and had pulled out, she'd put the back of her hand up to her mouth to keep his seed down despite her urge to cough and sputter it out.

She didn't want to ruin any of the books with evidence of their sudden bout of passion.

"Oh my Gods, Kara, I am so sorry!" Geir suddenly gushed out when he saw the tears in her eyes. He knelt down in concern to check on her with one hand on her shoulder. "Are you hurt? Are you okay? I'm sorry I don't know what came over me."

"No it's okay..." She coughed a bit to clear her throat. "You're just... a big mouthful... that's all," she said with a laugh. Geir joined her and they laughed long and hard at that. "Now shoo! I want to get the last of these books done."

*

While walking into the den hall, Kara was apprehensive. She knew that she had a measure of respect from the pack in how much she had stepped up and accepted her new lot in life in such a short time. Indeed, with some of the women that she had talked to in passing over the past couple of days, many of them have said that no one before her had been so accepting of being the chosen tithe. Beside her, Geir squeezed her hand in encouragement and smiled at her.

However, some of the 'pure-blood' werewolves were not as accepting. Granted, she showed Alpha traits and was wise in holding them to the terms of the treaty but she had yet to prove herself to all of the pack in the area of true pack leadership. This decision that the pack made today would not only affect them; it was also going to affect the people back at the Five Villages as well. She had to ensure that Geir was chosen as Pack Alpha Male and, by proxy, herself as Pack Alpha Female.

Hagen was at the front of the hall to officiate today's gathering by sheer virtue that he was the oldest living Alpha out of all of the males. Kara noted that he looked slightly older than Geir did and that he could possibly pass as an older brother or even an uncle or something to Geir. Hagen stood somberly to address everyone. "Today we choose our new Pack Alphas. Jarl and Astrid have passed on to Valhalla after our battle with the Minotaur along with many of our elder pack members. Their songs will live long in the annuals of our people but now we must replace them in order to move forward."

A female stood up from what Kara was calling the 'pure-blood' faction; they were a group of werewolves that had come from only werewolves and not human stock. "I nominate you, Hagen, for pack leadership."

"I decline," Hagen said at once. He held up his hand to forestall the protest from the female. "I am unmated and our ways dictate that an Alpha Male and an Alpha Female must lead."

"So go grab a wench from the villages and be done with it then," the woman said. "Or," her voice dropped to a suggestive level and she waggled her eyebrows, "I am available."

"Get over yourself Bergda," a male called out. "You would've slept with the Minotaur if given the chance!" That elicited a lot of laughter from the other males including Geir and Hagen. Kara elbowed Geir to shut him up and gave him a mental earful to show some respect to his fellow pack-mate.

"There's only one clear choice here; Geir and his new mate!" another male called out from the back.

"Are you insane?" yet another male called out. "She just got here!

"And yet she's shown more leadership in two days than you have in all your years, Beta," the nominating male called out. "You got someone better then I'm all ears! Face it; he's an Alpha and he's the eldest living son of Jarl and Astrid AND he chose well from the tithes in that he looked for a mate who would one day help him lead the pack. That was the whole reason why he was picked to go choose this year!"

The dissenting Beta had no choice but to sit there and glower. Hagen looked around. "The nomination has been put forth. Are there any challenges?"

Kara leaned in to Geir. "Challenges?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"If there are people who do not like the nominee or who think that they can do a better job, then they fight the nominee for dominance," Geir whispered back. "Winner take the position of the nominee."

"Then what?"

"Then more challenges until none remain and there is one single Alpha left standing."

Kara's eyes widened at that implication. "Are these usually lethal?"

Geir shrugged, "sometimes. I mean; it is combat in werewolf form that we're talking about here." He noticed that Hagen was looking his way and stood up. "I accept the nomination and will take on all challengers." He looked amongst the pack. "I know that each and every one of you know me and like me but it is my mate that you have reservations about. Know this; she, as a human, was the one who reminded us who we were and why we have a treaty with the humans in the first place. She has shown us that we have become... complacent." He said that last word with bitterness in his voice. "Our losses to a single Minotaur have shown us that she was right."

Shaking his head and rolling his shoulders, Geir squared himself in preparation for a fight. "Hagen is right; I was chosen this year to select a mate and I have chosen. If you truly do like and respect me then you should be respecting the choice I have made."

The pack were looking from Geir to Kara expectantly. Kara stood up and faced them while the Priestess' words from the other day came back to her; Be Yourself. She cleared her throat and spoke. "You don't know me. All you know is that I was selected from the Crimson Village, stripped naked, tied up, and placed out on a stone as a sacrifice to the pack. What some of you do know is that on the way here Geir and I were set upon by both human and a Minotaur both of who wanted to take me away with them to be their mate. What none of you know is that I had multiple chances to escape and go off with either of our attackers."

Kara gestured to the front of the hall where Hagen was at. "Jarl and Astrid initially wanted to stay out of the conflict and leave the Five Villages to the mercy of the Minotaur as it was something that they felt they'd brought upon themselves. But what they forgot was that effectively invalidated the treaty and made my mating to Geir null and void. However, I stayed. I stayed here. I made my choice and I advocated for the treaty to be upheld."

She lifted her chin defiantly. "I chose to remain with the pack. I chose you over my former life. That in itself should count for something." With that, she reached out and interlinked her hand with Geir's. "This is my mate of who I am very proud of and am very much in love with."

Geir had been watching her speech with tears glistening in his eyes as hope, pride, and even love, swelled in his chest. He looked back at the pack. "Any challengers?" he asked, his voice choked up with emotion. Never in all of his years did he think that he could be so truly blessed by the gods to have found a mate such as Kara.