Erin laughed hysterically. "It's okay, I kind of like it."
Erin wrapped her arms around Marlow who kissed her passionately on the mouth. Marlow liked that as well.
"We don't have time for this!" The Elder growled still in his bear form, huge and white. "We must find these boars before they do any damage to our people."
"Looks like they found us," Gage said, intimating with this snout towards the tree line.
"Is that their eyes?" Bran asked.
"Yes," said Marlow. "They don't glow golden like ours. It's a strange white color..." Marlow glanced at the color of the Elder's aging fir. "No offense, Elder. Looks great on you…"
"Let me handle this," the Elder said in a low, commanding voice.
He walked in bear form towards the tree line, his steps loud and imposing. Eight glowing eyes stared out at him from within.
"My dear fellow shifters!" the Elder shouted, his voice echoing around the clearing. "You are most welcome in our lands. Please, we welcome you as guests; but understand that any form of aggression goes against the Tournament rules and will have consequences for us all."
One of the boars now appeared through the tree line walking slowly towards the Elder. Bran stepped forward, but Gage stopped him. "Let the Elder handle this, this is when real diplomacy matters most, if any of the other boars join in, then we fight."
Bran nodded. He may have been the current champion of the world, but when it came to fighting, no one was as knowledgeable - or as good - as Gage.
The boars growled. "We are not in the Tournament, and haven't been for generations."
"Now that I see you in the open, I know this to be true. I haven't seen a boar shifter for at least a hundred years, perhaps two. It is good to know that you're still around." The Elder said, holding his ground.
"You dishonor us by even mentioning the Tournament and its twisted slave masters," the huge boar grunted, waving its tusks in the air.
"Understand that we are no friends of the Cabal, we merely obey the rules of the Tournament to keep peace between all shifter clans."
Erin was learning a lot that day, but Marlow moved her behind him and his kin for protection.
"If you fight in their Tournament, you are accomplices in their cowardice!" The boar suddenly charged, but the Elder stood his ground grabbing hold of the beasts tusks with his paws and pushing its snout into the earth.
As the Elder struggled to keep the boar in place, he spoke quietly. "I do not wish to fight. Please, tell me why you're here."
The boar broke free and then charged again, this time the Elder evaded. The boar again steadied itself, charging once more. The Elder was unwilling to start a violent blood bath, and so slapped the boar's tusk attack away with his paw.
By this time the other boars had exited the forest, and were now taking up an aggressive stance.
"Brothers! We do not have to fight, we have a common enemy!" The Elder roared.
He waited for a reply, but one was not immediately forthcoming; for the boar now changed suddenly into a man. He was around 5 feet in height, stocky and muscular. A long trail of hair ran up the back of his spine. His eyes were now transfixed on the Elder.
"So it's true..." the man said. He was pointing at the Elder's paw.
The Elder now changed back into his own human form. The blood dripping from his hand where the tusk had cut him - but it was not red, it was as black as night.
"You're a black blood," the boar said. "Forgive me, we have much to talk about." He turned to the other boars, "stand down, men". The boars also returned to their human form, and it appeared that the conflict was over.
Words were exchanged, quiet and almost whispered between the boar leader and the Elder. By the time they had finished, the Elder approached Gage and asked for him to round up their inner circle. Their most trusted few.
* * *
Within an hour, the Elder had welcomed four of the boar shifters into his home. A large log hall, which sat near the center of town. Walls were adorned with paintings depicting the glorious history of Swiftclaw, stemming back thousands of years. A roaring fire in the middle of the room welcomed all inward.
Gage and Lacey and their little daughter, Sho, were there. Bran and Elizabeth too. Marlow was in attendance, and insisted that Erin be present. Several others who the Elder trusted most were also there. That was when all was revealed.
The boar leader was called White Tusk. He seemed older than his brethren, yet young compared to the Elder.
"Please," said the Elder. "You're among friends here, tell us of your plight."
White Tusk stood up and cleared his throat. He then began: "As some of you may know the Cabal created the Tournament to settle disputes between all the shifter clans throughout the world. Yet, over time, it became clear that the Cabal's true desire was to control us all, to increase their influence over the world. There is a reason why none of you have ever seen a boar shifter before. Hundreds of years ago, we were wiped out almost overnight. We refused to take part in the Tournament any longer, because the Cabal was tinkering in our own clan business, something which is supposed to be forbidden by the rules of the Tournament. The next day after our leader informed the Cabal that we would no longer play their games… That was when they came.
"With smiles and open hands of friendship we welcomed them. They seemed open to hearing our concerns. During negotiations, one of the Cabal, a man who called himself Belial, revealed a red stone to our clan. It seemed to pulse with an energy..."
"The beast stone…" The Elder said quietly.
"Yes," White Tusk said. "The aftermath was hideous. The beast stone, an ancient relic which we believe was forged by the first shifters, an ancient people called the black bloods. The Cabal have somehow laid hands on the stone. It has the power to change any shifter into either a mindless animal or a fragile human, for ever. On that day my clan was turned into a swarm of mindless, soulless, beasts. Stuck in their boar form, with any hint of humanity removed, they were then used by the Cabal as muscle to intimidate all around the,. A few of us escaped, some of them my ancestors, and ever since we have had to hide our existence in the deserts and dark forests of North America. Fearful that one day the Cabal will come for us again."
"But why were you following me?" Marlow said, the flames of the fire lighting up his already bright eyes.
"Word came our way that the Cabal had discovered the existence of a blackblood. A descendant of the first shifters, those who created the beast stone. They believe that it is someone in the Swiftclaw clan."
"That still doesn't explain running me off of the road…" said Marlow.
"Or locking me under a trapdoor…" one of the boar shifters replied.
"Okay… We're even…" said Marlow, almost laughing.
The Elder stroked his beard in thought. "Indeed, it is a good question. Why did you attack one of our own?"
"We wanted leverage," said White Tusk. "We thought that if we kidnapped a Swiftclaw, we could persuade you to hand over your blackblood."
"Why did you want our 'blackblood' as you call it?" asked Marlow.
"We don't know exactly why the Cabal wants to harvest the blood from your Elder. But we believe it is something to do with the beast stone. There is an old legend which states that only a blackblood can unleash its true power. We suspect that the Cabal fears the beast stone ever falling into the hands of a blackblood, then they would have no power over the shifter clans in the world."
There was a silence. Many there did not know what to believe, but it was clear that the entire clan was heading into dangerous, uncharted waters. The Cabal would stop at nothing to apprehend the Elder, and without him to protect the town, LoHawk and the Cabal would rule supreme.
That night, after the meeting was disbanded, Marlow felt exhausted. He and Erin were given the spare room at Elizabeth and Bran's, above the doctor's office. Erin seemed shy about sharing a room at first, but as they closed the door behind them and it was just the two of them, she looked at Marlow.
Not with kindness. Not with tired eyes. But with lust.
Marlow could not contain himself. All that conflict. All the stress of spying on the Cabal, and fighting off the boar shifters. Suddenly, he wasn't tired anymore. His body cried out for a release. It cried out to be uncaged, untethered, and enjoyed.
He rushed to where Erin was standing next to the double bed, and picked her up in his arms. He kissed her passionately, and as he did so, Erin opened her mouth and pushed her tongue against his. Marlow growled deeply and picked her up in his arms. He lay her down on the bed, and pulled at her clothes. The blouse. The jeans. The shoes. All of it now gone.
Erin lay there, her chest heaving up and down as she looked at Marlow. As he stripped, she marveled at his physique. Sure, he wasn't as big as Gage or Bran, but by any normal standards he was practically an Adonis. Once he was naked - the second time she'd seen him naked that day - Marlow knelt onto the bed and kissed at her ankles. Slowly but surely he worked his way up the inside of her milky thighs, teasing with his tongue and lips.
Then, he pulled off her panties, and immediately began kissing her pussy. Soft at first, the firm and passionate. He licked at her clit, watching as she writhed in pleasure. Erin couldn't believe that her fantasies were finally coming true. Marlow pushed his tongue inside. In and out it moved, but Erin was in a rush. She wanted him. She needed him. She had to have him.
Pulling at his hair, she almost dragged him up to kiss her. As she did she pulled at his cock, feeling it hard and rippled in her hand. She pulled it towards her as they both allowed their inner stresses to be vented. He thrust forward and entered her. She let out a groan of pleasure, and that was when Marlow started moving.
In and out he thrust, all the while staring into her eye. Her body quivered in delight. She practically begged for more with her eyes, as his golden gaze moved all over her body, taking in her perfect figure.
As they locked together, the quiet secretary and the bookish shifter, came as hard as they ever had. The sweat dripped between them, and that night, they had both sealed their fate, intertwined together as one.
Marlow lay there with Erin in his arms moments later.
"What will you do if they come for the Elder?" Erin said.
"We'll fight to the death," was Marlow's frank reply.
They lay there staring at each other smiling, and soon they were both asleep.
An hour later, Erin slipped out of bed. She smiled down at Marlow, and then took her phone with her to the empty doctor's office below, bathed in the silence of night.
Punching a number in, the phone rang a few times before it was answered.
"Uncle, I have some important information for you," Erin said.
On the other end of the phone, Harold Whitmore grinned from ear to ear.