Chronicles of the West

Months had passed and Kurama was slowly coming back to himself. He had

stolen more precious treasures than he needed or wanted, simply because

it kept her from his thoughts.

To top it all off, his reclaiming of his throne as king of thieves was

slightly hampered by a mysterious newcomer. No one knew who he was or

what he looked like. Only that he was fast and clever, untouchable, much

like Kurama himself was.

The silver kitsune growled with frustation as he thought of the upstart

wishing to replace him. He'd made the decision that the only way to deal

with the new threat was to face it head on. There was honor even among

thieves and so he'd sent a blatant challenge to the would be ruler of the

shadows. To name his object and they would both attempt to steal it.

Only a fool would attempt such a one sided match, but pride would not

allow the other to back down. The result of the match would be death for

one of them and Kurama was very certain it would not be him. He leaned

back in his highbacked chair, a glittering strand of diamonds draped from

his fingertips.

Like ice, so cold but flashing with an elusive fire, an unforgettable

fire. Like her, pale and vibrant. He imagined Taisha spread before him

adorned in nothing but such baubles. His hand fisted around the jewels.

Damn it but he still wanted her. No woman could satisfy him, no wine

quench his thirst.

He set the trinket down and rose, he had to prepare for the challenge. A

perfect pearl larger than any other was tucked away in the highest tower

of a nearby palace. He would get it first and slaughter the upstart.

-------------------------~

Green eyes narrowed on the precious objects on the bed, so much beauty

and all of it a waste. She'd send this home and have it returned when her

game was over. It had not been easy to learn the skills of a thief and

she would never call one a layabout again.

The world of shadows was dangerous and tricky. She'd nearly misstepped a

few times and had learned the error of her ways quickly. Becoming a

legendary thief was difficult work for a woman of her social status and

it was that status that she protected in keeping her identity a secret.

When this was over, she would resume her titles. When she had proven to

herself and to him that she was his equal and always would be. Finding

Kurama had not been easy, it seemed that she was always a step behind.

She could not catch him, so she decided on a better plan of action. He

would come to her.

She challenged his exploits. If Kurama stole a great treasure then she

would do better. Most of the more difficult ones she got through

manipulation and family loyalty. Convincing lords to pretend she'd stolen

something and publically bemoan the fact, hence elevating her in the

ranks of the thieves until she was whispered of in the same hushed

whispers once reserved for the silver youko alone.

She knew that it must be driving him mad to be unable to call her out

personally. She'd felt a tremor of thrilling fear when she'd seen the

summons posted in the tavern of thieves, inviting her to prove who was

the greatest thief and warrior. Winner would take it all.

She'd cleverly named the object and the place, knowing no one else would

infringe on the challenge. She wondered what Kurama would do when he

discovered that the pearl was in fact herself. Would he feel the prize

worth it?

--------------------------------~

The midnight hour was approaching and she waited, tensed in the corner.

He would be here soon. She checked the mirror one last time, her gossamer

robe of white was perfectly tucked and folded in places to reveal so much

and yet nearly nothing at all.

A silver circlet adorned her brow, a perfect pearl resting against the

center of her forehead. Her silver hair piled high atop her head. With a

reassuring nod at her reflection she settled into the shadows to wait for

him. She pulled a dark velvety cloak around herself, to hide herself

better and slunk against the wall.

--------------------------------~

Kurama scaled the tower easily, the tall window in sight now. With silent

fingers he threw the latch and the window swung open making no sound. He

dropped into the darkness detecting nothing more than an odd perfume in

the air.

He stepped into the shadows, moving towards the center of the room, eyes

seeking the treasure. There. A shift in the air, he knew he was not

alone. Why couldn't smell or sense his opponent. He closed his eyes,

pulling the darkness to him, feeling without his senses to find the one

lurking.

Taisha watched him close his eyes, his handsome visage unmarred by

concern. She had used a dulling incense within the room and though it

affected her too, she knew that she'd not have gotten this far without

it. Damn her for moving, even fractionally. She understood perfectly that

a true thief was aware of everything within his surroundings. No doubt

she'd give herself away.

She held very still waiting for his next move. It came all too quickly,

he spun and leapt at her, knocking her back against the wall. The cloak

concealed her from his eyes and the strange smoke held her scent from

him. He had no idea who she was. His grip was like iron on her shoulders.

"Clever trap" he growled, "So this was your plan all along to trap and

kill me. Dead competition is always so much of amicable isn't it?". She

remained silent. "No matter, it ends here. Tonight".

He dragged her from the shadows to the center of the room. "Not much

fight in you is there?" he asked in disgust. Taisha moved swiftly,

breaking his grasp and pulling her sword to point it at his throat, "What

was that?" she asked.

In the dimness, she saw his eyes narrow in concentration. "Who are you?"

he asked carefully. She lowered her voice an octave, "Best me and find

out" . Kurama sighed, "I generally make it a point not to fight females"

he said, "I have better uses for them after all".

Female temper flared just as he knew it would and she surged forward, he

ducked to the side coming in far too close to be shaken off. His hand

clamped down on her wrist viciously making the lethal blade clatter to

the floor. With a smooth movement, he had her pinned to the wall again.

Growling, he kicked the burner with the nose clogging smoke out the

window hearing it crash below. Long minutes passed as he held her in

place, the scents slowly returning to him. He did not believe his nose

and snatched the cloak away, revealing a pale and slightly disheveled

Taisha to his eyes.

Golden eyes snapped wide, his whole body stiffened and he stepped back

from her. "What is this?" he demanded, eyes moving around the room and

then back to her. Landing on the pearl. "You?" he asked, "You challenged

me?". His voice was angry.

She nodded tiredly, "Yes I did. I had no other way of bringing you here"

she replied. He crossed his arms over his chest, "Who did you hire to

steal for you?" he wanted to know. Again she shook her head, "No one.

Although I paid Althos to train me" she admitted.

Althos, the once king of thieves. Kurama blinked, "You?" he asked. She

nodded again, "Me". He shook his head, then he was on her again, grasping

her shoulders and shaking her. "What were you thinking?" he shouted at

her, "You might have been killed! I might have killed you!".

Taisha bit her lip, "Better that than live a half life" she told him in a

tight whisper. He released her at once. "Why are you here Taisha?" he

asked in a weary voice. She slumped against the wall, "Because I was

wrong" she whispered.

His heart leapt with bright hope but he remained firm, "Wrong lady? How

so?" he asked. She straightened, "I should have gone that morning and

stopped you. I should have listened when you wanted to talk". Kurama

snorted, "Indeed, it might have saved you a useless trip in following

me".

Taisha blanched, wasted trip. Did he hold no care in his heart for her

now? "Wasted?" she asked softly, "I see. It seems I have been mistaken

again. Forgive me". She moved to pass him but he saw the remaining signs

of her recent self imposed illness.

He caught her round the waist and drew her back to his chest. "So you

will leave again?" he asked her. She was rigid in his arms, her shoulders

pressed against him. "I will" she replied, "I will respect your wishes

and your freedom. If nothing else I wish to tell you that being an alpha

female is not easy and I do not react as most would. I hope that you will

not avoid the west because of me".

Kurama growled softly to soothe her, "Taisha, I call this a wasted trip

because if you'd only sent word I would have come to you. So we are both

alphas, does that mean that you cannot submit to me even in the role of

woman, of lover?".

She shivered in his embrace, "I would not know, but I think I could". As

the words left her lips she felt him. Felt his lips graze the delicate

point of her ear, his arms softened around her. "Then let me find out for

myself, let me love you for always".

His hot mouth attached to the pale column of her throat, making her

breath catch. Her flesh was like water to a parched man, her taste

filling his head, making his heart beat lightly for the first time in so

long. Without warning, he flung her over his shoulder and leapt from the

window.

"What are you doing?" she demanded as they bounded over roof and tree

top. "Going home" he told her, "I am taking you tonight, and in my bed,

our bed". Taisha went limp, letting him have his way. His clawed hand

moved over her bottom in a caress.Perhaps submission would not be so bad

she mused.

It seemed endless as he ran but then they were there, before the entrance

to his underground haven. He set her on her feet gently and stared down

into her lovely face. She'd lost weight, looked tired, but enchanting

nonetheless. His clawed fingetips ghosted over her cheeks, "My Taisha"

he whispered, "Have you suffered for me as I have for you?".

He did not wait for her answer, but took her hand and led her inside.

Down the corridors of earth and root, to the hewn rock halls and on to

his room. The spacious chamber appointed for a king or in her case a

queen.

He left her in the center of warm bedchamber to pour them wine. "Come and

sit" he told her, "We should speak first". She nodded and slid into the

seat, wishing that she were sliding into the bed with him instead. But he

was right, there were many things that they needed to come to terms with

if they were to have a future.

"Do you love me?" he asked bluntly. She sipped her wine feeling some of

her former spark return, "If I didn't would I have risked so much to be

with you again?" she asked in turn. Kurama nodded his head in agreement,

"What do you want Taisha? Not just from me but from your life?" he asked.

She pondered that for a while, "I want to see the wide world, but I don't

want to go alone. I want more than a title and position, I want to live

outside of a gilded box. Does that make any sense to you?" she asked him.

He nodded again, "Will you submit to me? Not in everything, I would

always want you to be your own person. Could you be happy with a

relationship like your father's?"

She nodded, smiling brightly, "Yes, that is what I want". He set his cup

aside and rose looming over her. "After tonight you cannot ever run from

me, we will always be bound and in the eyes of the world you are mine.

You understand that?" he asked.

She blushed, nodded and then looked away, setting aside her cup with

unsteady hands. She gathered her courage, and met his smoldering gaze. He

held his hand out to her and she slipped her hand into his.

Kurama grinned evilly in triumph, his heart's desire was now his. He

pulled her to her feet with such speed that she crashed against him. He

held her there tightly and slammed his lips onto hers.

His kiss was hungry and pushed all thought from her. Moments later his

lips softened against hers, his tongue stroking slower now that his

passions were in hand again. His hands roamed over her, claws dancing

over that maddening robe, until nothing but tatters remained.

He stepped back from her, letting them fall to the floor between them. He

turned from her and she watched him poke around on a table. "I want you

clad only in these and myself" he told her, lifting the glittering stones

before her.

With gentle hands he clasped them around her neck. They flared in the

firelight, looking just has he'd imagined they would. Taisha blushed at

being nude to his eyes with only sparkles to wear. "Kurama" she whispered

and he pressed a finger to her lips. "No Taisha" he growled softly, "I

have wanted you for so very long, let me worship you as I wish".

She closed her eyes as he moved slowly around her, fingertips and claws

lightly caressing. Bring her flesh to higher sensitivity. The barest of

brushes only and her scent blossomed in the chamber. Kurama reached up

and slid the laquered stick from her silver hair, letting it cascade

around her in shining sheets.

He gathered the mass in his hands, inhaling the clean scent of it. He

pressed a fanged kiss to the nape her neck, peppered soft kisses across

her shoulders and then let her hair drop. Stepping in front of her, he

shrugged out of his clothing.

She had kept her eyes closed and now, he wanted her gaze on him. "Open

your eyes my love and see the man who would give everything to secure

your happiness" he told her.

Green eyes slowly opened to take in the bronzed strength of the kitsune.

She forced her eyes to his stomach and lower to see the proof of his

ardor standing erect before her. With hesitant hands she reached out and

touched the tip of him.

"So hard" she whispered. Kurama nuzzled her ear, "For you" he told her. A

shiver passed through her. Kurama covered her hand with his own, keeping

them connected, "I shall do my best to insure that you feel no pain" he

promised her.

Gently he pushed her back to the linens. She lay before him like an

offering, shining eyes, warm flesh. He crawled over her and fused their

lips together in a moist caress, slow. He had all the time in the world.

No woman had ever meant so much to him and he planned to show her that.

His hand appeared before her face, and she opened her eyes to focus on

it. His smile was enigmatic. He stayed so still above her that he might

have been made of stone. "What is it?" she asked in confusion. Kurama

pressed a kiss to her brow, "There is something that I have been meaning

to do" he told her in a reverent voice.

He opened his hand to reveal a brilliant ring in his palm, "I have

carried this with me for sometime" he told her, "Ever since I decided

that I should have you. The exchange of rings is a tradition in your

family is it not?".

She mutely nodded, feeling the prick of tears, "Be my wife, my mate, my

lover for a lifetime Taisha?" he asked. She surged upwards from the

bedding, her arms twining around his neck. Her lips locked to his and he

supposed it was all the answer he needed. With swift fingers he slipped

the dazzling bauble onto her finger and broke the kiss.

Taisha gave him a trembling smile as he pressed a kiss to her fingers.

"Mine" he told her. She tugged him back down to her by his silver hair,

"Mine too" she growled to him.

Kurama nosed his way to her breasts, his hands moving in delicious

patterns over quivering flesh. Lips and claws teasing in unison until her

breasts were heavy and aching. Kurama felt the peaks strain under his

lips and slowly took one into his mouth.

Her back arched from the sensation of his mouth and fangs, she whimpered

as his skilled tongue curled around one pink nipple and then his lips

closed over it and he suckled. Feeling her shift beneath him, Kurama

swept one hand lower, teasing the flat of her stomach.

Lower still, until his fingertips met the slick evidence of her desire.

The thought making him growl with long repressed desire. Now basking in

the light of his fire, draped in his jewels, resplendent in his passion,

she was his at long last.

He buried his face against her stomach and rumbled happily, his silver

ears twitching in response to her every sound. He took deep, full breaths

wanting to savor every nuance of her scent, of her taste. He closed his

eyes as long slender fingers slid in the shining mass of his hair.

Taisha shivered as he pressed fanged kisses over her abdomen and along

the tender flesh of her thighs, even to the back of her knees. Her blood

seemed too hot to be contained in her body any longer, the air around

them sizzled in her ears.

And then the world exploded in the sensation of wet softness against the

very heat of her. She cried out, as Kurama's tongue danced over the pearl

at the apex of her sex with varying degrees of pressure, making her body

tighten, her claws scraping against his scalp.

Her throat constricted as wave after wave of passion crashed over her,

her entire being reduced to nothing more than a quivering, mewling mass.

Light burst in ephemeral colors behind her eyelids as she hurtled

headlong over the precipice.

"Kurama!" she cried out, feeling him move fully into her embrace a moment

later. She clung to him as though he were her lifeline in the raging

storm and through it all, he was strong and steady as a stone.

His control all but gone, he pressed a kiss to her ear, "I cannot wait

Taisha" he ground out. She turned her face to meet his and captured his

lips with her own. She doubted she had any maidenhead left after her

training and her battles, but she wondered how badly it would hurt.

Kurama pressed against her soaking entrance, determined to take it slowly

for her and if he felt a barrier, he would rend it away with swift claws.

He didn't think he would encounter one though, she was far too active for

that.

Inch by inch, he sank into her depths, her body constricting around him.

"Shh, relax Taisha, you've no barrier but the intrusion of my body can

still be painful if you tense. I do not want that" he growled softly to

her. She pressed her face against his neck and nodded, forcing herself to

allow him entry.

Kurama bit his lower lip, it was heaven to be inside her, hell to go so

slowly. Then she shifted and he was lodged inside of her. She gasped at

the feeling, felt his hardness pulse within her body, like a secondary

heartbeat. Her eyes opened to find his face inches from hers. "Are you in

pain?" he asked softly.

She smiled up at him, "In pain? I have never felt so complete" she

whispered to him, tears trickling down her cheeks. He kissed them away,

and pinned her hands above her head with one of his own. Then he began to

move, slow, deep, artful strokes. Angling his hips to catch that hidden

area within her body.

All too soon, she felt it again, the impending release he drove her to.

She tightened her grip on him, lifting her hips to match him stroke for

stroke. Kurama dropped his head into the crook of her neck and pounded

into her. He was so close now. With quick motions, he pulled free from

her and flipped her to all fours.

Instinct told her what he needed and she lowered her head, her shining

hair falling away from her slender throat as he mounted her again. His

claws lightly digging into her hips as he rode her hard. Her cries and

whimpers of pleasure driving him onward.

Feeling his own body tighten he growled when her release washed over him,

he draped his long body over her back, and lapped at her neck. His hand

slid beneath her and flicked her pearl. She screamed his name and he bit

deep and true, his seed erupting from his body and coursing into hers.

She turned her head to the side and managed to nip him enough to draw

blood from him. Enough to scar.

For long minutes they remained locked together by body and fang.

Heartbeats pounding like the hooves of wild horses. Slowly he lowered

them to the linens, shifting them to their sides, unwilling to lose his

connection with her. He wrapped her in his arms, and pressed a kiss to

the sweaty tangle at her temple. "I love you Taisha" he murmured her to

her, hearing her heartrate slow, she was drifting off to sleep.

"Mm, love you" she replied and rumbled her pleasure as he slowly lapped

at his mark. He lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm and then

slid his palm over her womb. One day, hopefully very soon, his kits would

grow there. Of course knowing her, she'd call them pups anyway. Stubborn

dog and she was all his. He decided as he fell to sleep, that they would

return to the west and do this properly. She deserved it.

Deserved to have the world know that she had tamed him, and that his crown he had willing lay at her feet.