I aimed the browning skyward and shot two shots off.

Everything froze.

"Richard. Get. The. Fuck. Off. JASON!" My words were clipped and precise. Hopefully I
wouldn't have to go to drastic actions to retain the situation.

Richard slowly climbed off of Jason, turned to me and used that amazing shapeshifter speed to
knock my gun out of my hand. Damn it.

"I am Ulfric. Do not tell me how to run my pack." His words were packed with power.

Micah decided to stop calling the power to shift. I guess he figured that shifting would cause
more problems than it would help. He was probably right about that.

"I'm not telling you how to run your pack, Richard. I'm telling you to stop trying to kill your pack
members. There's a difference between the two. Unless you've changed that much."

"And what if I have changed that much? What would you do, shoot me?" He took a demanding
step towards me.

I took advantage of the situation. I pulled my short sword from my back, and took up a
defensive stance. I did it so fast, it made my head spin. Sometimes I just amazed myself at how
fast I was.

"Oh. So now what? Huh, Anita? You going to slice me open? Eat me for dinner? Or would you
serve me to your leopards?" He was so antagonizing.

I took the opportunity and sliced Richard's forearm. It was deep. Blood overflowed from where
I cut him. Blood so intoxicating to the scent. Blood spilling down, wasted on the ground. The
Blood called to the ardeur. Since it was a vampire curse, the ardeur was very attracted to
blood. I didn't even realize it, but I took two steps forward and would have dived right in if
Micah hadn't stopped me.

Richard didn't even looked shocked, he expected it, but it didn't look like he liked it. He was
having difficulty controlling his anger. Things could go very astray if Richard lost his temper.

The ardeur really bothered me. I did not enjoy feeding off of sex, for in effect, feeding the
hunger. But with so much offered blood oozing out of Richard's arm, dripping almost seductively
off his forearm, trailing between his fingers, it was damn hard to resist. Thankfully Micah was with
me to help control the ardeur. This has happened many times before, the ardeur rising, and
Micah and I practiced just for such occasions as this.

Micah's beast rolled through my leopard power, calming the hunger, easing it to a blurred world.
The only side-effect of having Micah calm the ardeur, is the odd fact that my vision blurs, and I
can't see two feet in front of me. Bad thing to happen in situations like this.

I held on to Micah's entire arm. I didn't trust anyone here, but him.

"Anita. That is just too pathetic." Richard stood bleeding, and laughing at me.

A low growl came from my throat. At that exact moment I didn't like Richard at all.

I hated to feel defenseless. Even when I was, I acted as though I owned, and ruled the world.

"If you want to know what's going on here tonight, I have to show you. But seeing as you can't
see at all, that will prove to be very difficult. Let me help you Anita. Let me show you what you
so badly want to see." Richard took some cautious steps toward Micah and me, I'd like to think
he was afraid of me and what I might do, but I probably wasn't that lucky.

"How do you plan to let me see again?" I relaxed my grip on Micah's arm, so as not to have him
loose circulation, and stood up a little straighter.

"It's complicated, but the jist of it is, that I will share some of my power so you can sharpen your
senses. I can concentrate on just your vision, so your other senses aren't enhanced. But no
guarantees."

"Okay, I got that. But can you tell me how your going to do this?"

"Well, I'm just going to try sharing power, by how we usually do," Ha, which practically meant
public sex at this moment. "Of course I don't know if it will work or not. I've never tried to do
this before, but since the connection of power is so strong between us, it makes sense for us to
share power to heighten senses. We are part animal."

His last words were truth. He was a were-wolf, and I was a human servant gaining master
vampire powers, that enable me to call the were-leopard. So in a round-about way, we both
really are animals.

"Okay, but on one condition."

                                 Chapter 4

"And what would that be?"

I may not have been able to see two feet in front of me, but I would have to have been deaf to
not notice the humor in what Richard just said. To me conditions were not a funny thing. I really
didn't think my mind or body could handle sexual contact with Richard, even if it was small.

"Well for starters, keep the sexual contact to a small amount, don't over do it."

"Well isn't someone full of themselves tonight. Come off it Anita, I don't want your body that bad.
Besides, you don't want mine either. I think your vampire and your kitty is a full enough plate for
you to handle. I won't add to the confusion."

Boy was that underplaying it or what. I had way too many men than I knew what to do with. But
still contact with Richard would be too much to handle at this point in time.

"Richard, I'm not trying to be self-centered. I just want to get it clear between us, that things
should not get out of hand. Okay?"

I seemed like too much time for him to answer this simple question. It was times like these, where
I wish I could just read his mind to find out what he was thinking. But no, Richard didn't want
that.

"I think I can keep that promise."

"Good."

He just stood there. Not moving. Not even making a move towards moving.

"Richard, we don't have all day here. Will you hurry up and give me my vision, or what?" That
may have been a tiny bit too bitchy, but whatever might get the job done is what I was aiming for.

Richard was there in a flash. He stood over me, leering into my eyes, calling me to him. Before I
even realized it, I had let go of Micah's arm, and was slowly going forward into Richard.

There was a sliver of space between the two of us, to me it was like a mile long river between the
two of us. The power Richard was calling was having an unusual effect on me. He drew me to
him like the sun drawing a flower in the early spring. I felt like a flower too. I felt like I just woke
up from the longest nap I had ever taken, and was just beginning to start the new year off right.

A moment later I was in Richard's arms, his lips pulling mine into his intoxicating warmth. It was
more than I could bare, but I couldn't pull away. The power that washed over the two of us from
the moment we touched, was still strong, and even appeared to be growing with the intensity of
the kiss.

The power was harboring in my head, or more exactly, near my retina. The power washed my
eyes away from their clouded depths. I felt like I could see again, so just to be sure, I pulled
away from Richard and looked up into his face. Big mistake.

Richard looked so hungry. Hungry for me.

His amber eyes glowed, his mouth agape, his breathing hard and almost restless, with an
abandoned sensuality.

At that moment I blocked out everyone but the two of us. And in my mind, if it was the two of
us, I would have jumped him, which is precisely what I did.

I leaped up into his arms, wrapped legs and arms around his body and kissed him with the same
force and intensity. Richard had no problem responding to my audacious movements. It seemed
as if he joined in willingly, like there was nothing else he would like to do, or do it with.

Richard's legs grew weak, and I felt it throughout his body, how he almost shivered with the
continuing fragility of my weight on him. Finally, Richard lowered the two of us to the ground, at
first going to his knees then finally to riding me.

Richard's weight on top of me was pleasant and welcome. I kept kissing him, and he kissed me
back with the same willfulness and hope. My hands traveled from his face to his shoulders, boy
did he have nice shoulders. The muscles beneath his skin were a welcome pleasure, a pleasure
that coursed throughout me, a pleasure that demanded more, and wouldn't take no for an
answer. Richard responded to that plea, that so obviously showed with my body movements. I
guess he couldn't miss the fact that I was trying to grind my body into his, starting with my hips.

Richard returned my plea's with his own. He matched my slow thrusts, and his hands that have
been traveling down the length of my body and back again, began to focus in on my breasts. His
strong hands fondled, caressed, stroked, and even pinched all over my bosom. Each of his
movements tightened my stomach muscles, and made me beg for more.

My more was interrupted though. Micah stepped up to us and pulled the distracted Richard off
of me, and growled right in his face. Not a smart thing to do.

Faster than lightning, or at least it seemed like it to me, Richard pitched Micah across the clearing
to land on the line of shapeshifters, yeah I'd say he was pissed.