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obscuraimagines · 7 days ago

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Where Did You Sleep Last Night

Summary: Follow up to In The Pines. Kodiak and Reader wake up the morning after. (Kodiak x reader smut.)

Content: Smut, drugged sex (both parties), dubcon/dubious consent, sex pollen elements, hallucinations, ambiguous supernatural elements, ambiguous rational explanation. Intended for readers over 18. Mature content under the cut. No use of y/n.

A/N: In The Pines is probably the most creative deranged thing I've ever written, to the point where I was a little scared to post it. So thank you so much to everyone who read it, liked and especially replied.

When you wake, it feels strange, as though you’re coming up from deep underwater. You remember everything about the night you shared with diamond clarity. It’s everything else that seems strange and unbelievable: the plane crash and everything that happened after it. Kodiak is still asleep, his limbs tangled with yours, your head resting on his chest. You’re both naked, lying on bearskin so thick you sink into it, your cloak pulled over both of you like a blanket. Your desire has burned down to embers, traces of it still lingering. Whatever force animated you last night is gone, leaving you alone in your own head.

Faint light outlines the fissure in the wall across from you. The way out has reopened, if it had ever been closed at all. You’re in no hurry to leave; you’re sure the consequences of last night will be out there waiting for you. You notice a pale, raised scar on Kodiak’s chest and trace it absently with a fingertip. He stirs, arm tightening around you. He opens his eyes and you see expressions chase each other over his face as he pieces together the night before.

You go to pull your hand away from his chest, embarrassed, but he catches it and holds it still, his fingers twining with yours. His other arm is still wrapped around you, keeping you pressed to his side, hand curled possessively over your hipbone. He’s looking at you like he can’t believe you’re real.

Kodiak turns to face you, close enough to kiss. He studies you as though he’s trying to memorise your face.

“Hey.”

“So.”

“Yeah.”

You have no idea what to say in this situation. There isn’t a script for this because it isn’t supposed to happen. Everything that’s led you here is fucking insane.

“You good?” Kodiak asks. He’s eyeing you almost warily, as though you’re a wounded animal in a trap.

“I– Yeah.” You fight to get a handle on yourself. You know you need to focus, to work with him if either of you are going to stand a chance of getting out of here, but your thoughts keep running into dead ends. This would be a lot easier if either of you were wearing clothes.

“You feel a little feverish.” Kodiak cups your face, his hand cool against your heated skin. Instinctively you lean into his touch. “Still have some left in your system, huh?”

You nod, not quite managing to bite back a whimper. You’re suddenly even more acutely aware of the feeling of his body against yours. Kodiak’s mouth curves into a slow smile.

“Here.” He pushes your hair out of your face. “Let me take care of you.”

Whatever had been driving you last night had left the two of you more or less evenly matched. Now it’s just you and him, he wastes no time showing you he’s in control. In one smooth movement, he has you pinned beneath him. His hand slides between your legs and you buck your hips, whimpering. You’re so sensitive from last night.

“I know.” Kodiak trails kisses over your jaw and down your neck. “I’ll be gentle.”

He kisses down to your breasts, rolling his tongue around a nipple and biting just hard enough to make you arch upwards into his mouth. You gasp as he slides a finger inside you, thumb brushing your clit. His hands are bigger than yours, calloused, with long fingers that reach deeper than your own can. You’re so sensitive that every touch sets your nerve endings alight. He slides another finger inside you, making you whine. He’s as gentle as he promised, so much so that you think he must be trying to draw it out, make you beg. If he is, he’s underestimated how responsive you are. All it takes is for him to curl his fingers and you come so hard your vision spots at the edges. He draws it out, keeps playing with you even while you’re clenching around his hand. You do beg then, a whimpered pleasepleaseplease. Even as you say it, you’re not sure if you’re asking for him to give you a breather or keep doing exactly what he’s doing.

“Fuck, you’re perfect.” He’s propped on his elbow, looking down at you with blown pupils. You want, more than anything, for him to keep looking at you like that. “I didn’t think you’d be here when I woke up.”

That breaks through the hazy glow you’re feeling. “I wouldn’t just leave–”

“No, I know. I thought this was all some fucked up dream.” Kodiak pulls his fingers out of you, the lewd unmissable in the quiet of the cave.

You raise your eyebrows. “Fucked up?”

“A really, really good dream,” he amends. “At least the bits with you in.”

You frown without meaning to. Your memories of Lottie’s ceremony are jumbled, hazy.

“I feel like I should pinch myself to check you’re real,” he whispers huskily. He pinches you instead, a playful squeeze on your inner thigh. You let out a yelp, tapering into a giggle. “Ticklish, huh?”

He takes full advantage of that, hands spider-walking up your sides, seeking out your weak spots. You try to get your own back but he pins you easily, your wrists held in a one-handed grip above your head, while you twist under him. You’re breathless with laughter until he shifts and you feel him, hard against your naked core. Desire arcs through you, hot and electric. You draw in a sharp breath. Kodiak’s easy grin turns calculated, even predatory. You realise, of course he planned it like this.

Kodiak squeezes your wrists, just hard enough to remind you he’s being gentle with you. There’s something thrilling about how easily he can overpower you. It makes you think that maybe he could keep you safe too, if he wanted. Part of you wants to give him a reason. Another part of you wants to show him that you’re not prey, that you can give back as good as you get. You lock eyes with him, gratified to see his widen a little. Then you grind your hips slowly and deliberately into his.

Kodiak brushes his thumb against your lower lip, pressing inside so you taste traces of yourself lingering on his skin. You suck reflexively, circling his thumb with your tongue. He lets out a shuddering groan.

“You have to warn me before you do shit like that,” he scolds you. You’re gratified to hear his voice coming out a little strangled. “Or else I’m going to forget to hold back.”

“P–Please–” you stutter. You’re not even sure what you’re asking for: whether you want him to go easy on you, or unleash everything he’s got. You’re not even sure you have another orgasm in you. You can’t bring yourself to ask him to stop.

Kodiak eases into you, achingly slowly. You let out a low whine and feel his cock twitch in response. He gives you time to adjust, kissing you almost tenderly, smoothing your hair out of your face.

“You’re so sensitive,” he breathes into the shell of your ear. “Guess I fucked you pretty good, huh?”

Your brain pretty much short circuits at that. You nod breathlessly, making a wordless, involuntary noise of approval in the back of your throat. Kodiak chuckles, a low sound that’s almost a growl, and you feel it vibrate through you. He starts moving slowly and takes his time; slow, languid thrusts that force you to feel every inch of him.

Just as you feel your desire begin to crest, he slows right down, moving just enough to keep you right on the edge. You try to grind your hips against him, chasing the sensation. He uses his weight to pin you down, splayed out and helpless beneath him. He still has your wrists pinned above you, making you feel like you’re stretched out on display.

“What the hell?” you protest weakly. You were so close.

“You realise this makes you mine?” Kodiak trails a hand up your side, ending with a possessive squeeze of your breast.

“Fine. I’m yours.” If he wants dirty talk you can give it to him. You’d agree to anything at this point.

“Say it like you mean it.” Kodiak’s smile sharpens. “I’m going to hold you to it.”

You blink up at him, not understanding.

“The others won’t take you back now anyway,” he tells you. His voice is soft, even as he thrusts into you hard enough to make you gasp and whimper. “What would they think of you, sleeping with the enemy?”

“You don’t–” your words are cut off by a sharp inbreath. “You don’t know them.”

“You tell me then; do you think they’d trust you again if they knew what you’d been doing? If they could see you right now?” Kodiak’s being rougher with you now, focused on his own pleasure rather than yours. You’re dimly aware that he’s still holding back: it only feels rough because of the aftereffects of last night, every sensation amplified a hundredfold. You make a series of soft, needy little noises, entirely against your will. “Do you think they’d accept you, if they knew you spent all night wrapped around my cock?”

You feel a wave of mingled guilt and desire thrill through you. He’s right: you betrayed the others when you brought him here. Now he’s using you like a toy for his own pleasure. It’s humiliating how much you want him, even when he’s threatening you.

“Or maybe,” he continues, running a hand up your side and palming roughly at your breast. You try to bite down on a moan as he flicks a hardened nipple. “You were just playing innocent. A year and a half is a long time to be stuck out here. A lot of long, cold nights. Maybe they already know you’re a Good. Little. Whore.”

He draws the last three words out, thrusting into you with each one, hard enough to make your breasts bounce. His words sear through you, white hot, leaving glowing trails in their wake. You bite down on your own lip so hard you taste a faint trace of copper, not wanting to give him the satisfaction.

“You like that, huh?” Kodiak stops, sheathed in you to the hilt. He kisses you roughly, one hand wrapping around your face, tilting your jaw upwards, letting him take control. He lets go of your wrists so he can grope at you roughly. Mortifyingly, you leave your arms stretched out where he left them, wanting to be good for him. You want him to hold you down and take you. Instead he pulls away, tugging your swollen bottom lip between his teeth. “I’m still waiting. Are. You. Mine?”

He’s propped on his elbows, arms caging you in. He looks almost feral, his blue eyes so dark they’re almost black. He rakes his gaze over you, your body laid out for his enjoyment. You can feel him straining to hold back, determined to make his point.

“Answer carefully.” Kodiak presses a kiss to your lips, so light it’s almost mocking. When you try to deepen it he holds you down. You make an undignified, needy noise and feel him smirk against your lips. “I take good care of what’s mine.”

“I’m yours.” The words escape you as a frustrated sob. “Only yours.”

He lets out a low groan in response. His forehead rests against yours, his mouth ghosting over your lips, so close your breath mingles.

“Good.” He rewards you by starting to move, slow and gentle. You wrap your legs around his waist, wanting more. He allows it, caressing your heated skin, kissing every part of you he can reach. You slide your hands up the muscles of his arms, stopping to trace the lines of his scars.

“I’m yours,” you manage. You dig your nails in and draw them lightly across the muscle, eliciting an approving noise somewhere between and a groan. You want desperately to break his self control, to stop him drawing this out. “I’ll do whatever you want.”

You throw your head back but he grips your chin, tilting your head to face his. His gaze is unexpectedly serious.

“If you’re smart, you’ll leave with me.”

You almost sob in frustration. That’s what this has been about? As if you hadn’t begged the Wilderness for that exact thing.

“I can keep you alive,” he continues. “If we’re going to get out of here, you need to obey me without question.”

“And if I–” you break off into a gasp. “If I don’t?”

Kodiak answers you with a lingering kiss. Despite everything you return it. It’s hard to care about what happens afterwards right now: all you can think about is him. Your bodies fit together like they were meant to, two halves of a whole. When Kodiak breaks the kiss you try to follow him, making a soft noise of protest when he won’t allow it. Instead he layers kisses along the line of your jaw, nipping your earlobe between his teeth.

“Then I guess you’re back to being a hostage.” His breath is hot against your ear, his beard rasping against your cheek. And somehow it’s that that tips you over the edge and makes you clench around him. He fucks you through it, his thrusts getting rougher more erratic, until he comes with a choked moan.

You lie still, in the afterglow, neither of you talking. He’s still inside you, supporting his weight enough that he’s pinning you without crushing you. It occurs to you that he’s ruined you for other men. Even if you do make it back to civilisation, nothing is going to compare to this.

“So,” he asks, once you’ve both got your breath back. “Which is it going to be?”

“I want to go home,” you tell him. “If you can get me there then–”

You stop yourself from adding ‘I’ll do anything you want.’ You have the feeling it’s strongly implied.

“Smart decision.” Kodiak pulls out of you, helps you clean up as best you can. He’s surprisingly gentle, for someone who just threatened to take you hostage. He lets you curl against his side for a while, holds you while you come back to yourself. You lay your head on his chest and feel his heartbeat turn slow and steady under your cheek.

Kodiak takes one of the candles from the altar to light your way out. You squeeze through the narrow rocks, feeling your body ache and protest at the rough treatment you��ve given it. You’re sore in places you didn’t even know about. You should be afraid but you’re not: you’ve been hurt worse out here before. You’ve starved. You’ve frozen. You’ve lain shivering on a wood floor feeling bruises form where your bones press too close to the skin. You’ve been poisoned by bad mushrooms, rotten fruit, meat that you were too hungry to let cook all the way through. By the end of the last hunt you were running on a twisted ankle, afraid of looking like an easier target if you showed weakness. The sprain never fully healed, although you hide it from the others. It still aches sometimes, when it’s cold.

You feel a dull acceptance settle in your chest as you realise you won’t get to say goodbye. What you feel for your teammates is beyond love or hate. They’re the only people who will ever understand you. But you won’t survive another winter out here and there’s no heroism left in you anymore.

“Still with me?” Kodiak asks you, as he emerges from the passage behind you. He’s lowered his voice to a whisper, scouting the bend in the cave ahead for danger.

You catch his free hand and squeeze it.

You see it a second before you feel Kodiak freeze beside you. Firelight catches the rocky wall. You turn to him in mute horror and see him snuff the candle flame between his fingertips, grimacing. Neither of you dare to breathe.

You hear your name, said by the last voice you want to hear right now.

“It’s all right,” Lottie says. It’s eerie how serene she sounds: last time you saw her, she was standing over a body with an axe. “The others aren’t here yet.”

There’s no way out except past her. Cautiously, you step around the bend in the cave and into the light of her torch. You motion for Kodiak to stay out of sight behind you.

“I don’t know how I got here,” you bluff. “That tea you gave me made me black out.”

Lottie is kneeling with her back to you. When she hears your footsteps, she looks round. There’s dried blood on her face, matted into the furs she still wears, streaking her bare arms up to the elbow. It was bad enough seeing her splattered with blood and viscera last night, back when she was screaming, raving, incoherent. It’s worse somehow, now that she’s calm.

“H-How did you find me?” you stammer.

“I came here the same reason you did.” The blood transforms Lottie into a martyred saint. It’s hard to tell in the low light of the cave but you think there’s more than the last time you saw her. Either she put it there on purpose, or she found the other stranger and killed her. Neither feels reassuring. “It spoke to me.”

“No one spoke to me, Lottie. I got high and– and lost and–”

“Do you still have that little faith? In Her? In yourself?” It’s worse somehow that Lottie isn’t angry. She looks disappointed but not with you; she’s disappointed for you and everything you’re denying yourself. “She spoke to you. What will it take to make you see that you’re worthy?”

A memory resurfaces of crying into her shoulder an ugly breakup sophomore year, even though you barely knew her then. She’d stroked your hair, listened without saying much and flinched at every ugly self-recriminating thing you said about yourself. You always loved her for that: she understands that pain needs a place to go, that if people could just get over it they would. You feel an overwhelming wave of grief for her, even though she isn’t dead.

“Lottie, it’s been a long night.” You cast your mind around frantically for an excuse that might make her go back to camp ahead of you. “You should go find the others…”

“It won’t let you leave.” The firelight throws Lottie’s eyes into shadow. For just a moment, you think you see a familiar presence looking through them. She raises her voice, casting it into the darkness behind you. “Either of you.”

The first thought, that arcs like a thunderbolt into your brain, is that it’s all real. There’s no way she could have known about Kodiak. The Wilderness really does speak to her. You always believed it but your belief was always at least half hope. Now, for the first time, you fear it. Your second thought is that you don’t know how well echoes travel in this cave, or how long Lottie has been out here, listening.

You’re so focused on Lottie, you don’t hear Kodiak behind you. You’re jerked backwards: you feel an arm clamping around your waist, the cold press of metal to your neck.

“You let us both walk out of here or I cut her throat,” Kodiak snarls, right above your ear. You don’t know him well enough to tell if he’s bluffing.

Lottie stands and moves to face him. “You won’t.”

You feel your stomach drop; you know with an absolute cold certainty that Lottie means it. You’re not sure what is or isn’t true out here anymore but Lottie’s faith is the one unshakeable constant.

“Lottie please…”

“It’s okay,” she tells you. “He won’t hurt you. I don’t think anything could kill you right now”

“The knife to my throat says different, Lot.”

Kodiak draws the knife tip along your collarbone and you feel blood beading along the shallow cut. You let him. There’s a chance he might still be bluffing. Even if he isn’t: you’re far more afraid of Lottie.

“See,” he says. “She bleeds. Move.”

“Just let us go, Lottie. Please.”

Lottie stands between you and freedom, still bloody, still in her furs. Your stomach drops as you hear footsteps outside the cave. You’re trapped in here, any hope of escape gone.

“It chose you. Both of you.” Lottie’s voice is soft, gentle, like she’s bestowing a gift beyond your understanding. There’s a note of apology, but not enough to stop her face breaking into a beatific smile that chills you all the way down to your marrow. “You fed it. It will get hungry again.”

Masterlist

A/N: As always, I'm so grateful to everyone who likes, reblogs, replies and sends anons/requests, so please let me know what you thought. If you'd like to see more of this story, feel free to send an anon request. I'm not sure how long you'll all continue to enable my hyperfixation/obsession with this character but I'm having fun so for now at least, I'll keep posting as long as I know people are enjoying them.

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obscuraimagines · 17 days ago

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i love your work!!! do you have ao3? also i was wondering if you could do one where reader is the one who catches kodiak when they ran away after lottie killed edwin. thank you

A/N: Thank you Anon, that’s so kind!!! And thank you so much for this request! I was trying to make it different from the Bite Me Reader and it ended up going in a really unexpected direction. I hope you enjoy it!

This prompted me to set up a new AO3 account here under the name SilvaObscura. (This sideblog is actually my first time writing smut and the first fanfic I’ve written in years, so I wanted a fresh start lmao.)

In The Pines

Summary: Set during Croak. Desperate for rescue, you pray to the Wilderness to let you find Kodiak first. The Wilderness grants your wish. It expects something in return.

You sing and the Wilderness sings back.

It’s like the sound rises up from the ground and through you, borrowing your voice to make audible what has always been there. You feel the note vibrating through you, filling you until you feel your edges blurring. Bitterness lingers on your tongue from the tea Lottie gave you. Everything feels heightened: colours are brighter, the dark is darker, the world shimmers like a mirage. You’re no longer a girl: you’re a creature of sound and darkness. The firelight, the trees, the ground beneath your toes all feel as much a part of you as your physical body. You feel a surge of euphoria so strong it lifts you out of yourself. You can feel the Wilderness take notice of you: it’s like a quiet place opens inside your mind, a listening presence inviting you to speak into it. You focus your whole being into one word. Rescue.

Kodiak appears suddenly and silently, like a vision. You stop mid-spin, staggered by your own momentum, a wordless song dying in your throat. The Wilderness spoke to Lottie, then Travis and Akilah. Now it’s speaking to you. He’s limned in firelight, the one bright thing in the darkness, as though he’s the only thing that’s real. Your world sharpens to a pinpoint. He’s here for you: the answer to your prayer.

You walk towards him. It feels like being in a dream: time stretches, dilates. Your body feels heavy but you feel light, as though the rest of you is somewhere else. You’re barely aware of your teammates dancing around you except as obstacles. The Wilderness howls and you feel your own blood rising to meet it, every fibre of you taut and expectant. You feel his gaze lock on to you as though it’s a physical charge, the intensity almost too much to bear. He’s staring at you with the same mixture of fear and wonder you think must be reflected on your own face.

You reach out and touch him. You were half expecting your hand to pass through him like smoke. Instead, your palm splays across the muscle of his chest. He grabs your wrist hard: his reflexes are so fast you barely see him move. He doesn’t seem to know what to do when you don’t resist him. You feel his heartbeat trapped beneath your palm.

You barely notice the others’ singing taper off into silence. Then the screaming starts: it’s ugly, discordant, nothing like what came before. You feel the vision fade but he’s still there, as though he followed you out of it. You only register the presence of the other two strangers when you see Lottie bury an axe in the other man’s head.

Suddenly everyone’s shouting. You turn to Kodiak but he shoves you so hard you fall backwards. An arrow tears the air above your head; behind you someone howls in pain. Kodiak and the strange woman run. Panic strikes you. It isn’t supposed to happen like this.

You take off after him, knowing it’s hopeless. You’ll never get to him before the others: Shuana is too fast, Lottie too surefooted, Taissa too strong. You sprint into the darkness, muttering desperate pleas as your lungs burn: please let me find him first, please don’t let them hurt him. I’ll do anything, give you anything, please.

You see a white shape between the trees, crowned in antlers, her face veiled. You veer sideways to avoid her but a tree root snags your ankle, sending you pitching towards the forest floor. You throw a hand out to catch yourself and a sharp stone slices through your palm.

“Lottie?” you gasp. But it’s not Lottie. It’s not Shauna either. The eyes that meet yours through the veil are ancient, inhuman. She holds a hand out to you, the palm slick with blood, and you’re too stunned to do anything but reach out to take it.

The second your fingers brush hers, the world lurches sideways. You’re on your feet again, running. You can’t remember how you got here. Your senses are so sharp it’s almost painful: everything is too much. In the near distance, you hear your teammates’ hunting cries and closer the sound of someone running. Kodiak. Your body takes over, surging forwards. You catch him at the exact point in his stride to knock him off balance, tackling him to the ground.

He rolls, pinning you underneath him. There’s a hunting knife pressed in a cold line against the soft skin of your throat.

“What the fuck is happening?” he hisses. “Who are you?”

“I can hide you,” you blurt. “Please. I want to go home.”

Kodiak angles the knife, the tip pressing against your pulse point. “Why should I believe you?”

Your teammates call to each other, closer now. They’re all around you, closing in. You glance around to get your bearings and realise where you are. Of course the Wilderness would guide you here.

“You can’t get away from them. Please. There’s a cave…”

Kodiak gets up, yanking you after him. He pins you against him with one arm, the flat edge of the hunting knife pressed against your throat like a warning.

The cave seems more sinister at night: an endless swallowing mouth cut into the mountainside. You feel a clawing panic as you hear one of their birdcalls, less than a hundred yards away. Kodiak drags you inside, throws you down behind a boulder, covers your body with his. His hand is over your mouth, the knife jabbed against your ribs, his weight crushing you into the dirt. You feel him hold his breath and you bite down on your lip, willing yourself to be quiet.

Your hear running outside the cave and brace yourself. Then it’s gone. You sag with relief. Above you, Kodiak lets out a long, silent breath.

“I know who you are,” you tell him, once it’s safe to speak. You’re deeper inside the cave, sitting on the ground with a burning torch jammed in the dirt between you. You’d found a stack of unlit ones ready down here, left by Ben maybe, or by Lottie. Kodiak says you’re his hostage but, except for some rough handling dragging you down here, he hasn’t really hurt you. There’s a shallow scrape on your side where he pressed too hard with the knife. “Kodiak. The Wilderness told–”

“No shit. It’s written on my shirt.” Kodiak cuts you off, irritated. You can’t make much out in this light but it doesn’t matter: the Wilderness wouldn’t send him to lie to you. “Who the fuck are you?”

You try to explain haltingly about your team, the plane crash.

“That plane went down over a year ago.” Kodiak interrupts you, his head from side to side. “If there were survivors, they would have starved.”

“We nearly did.” You stare at your feet, avoiding his gaze. You feel unclean, branded. The memory of the last time you hunted a person rises in you, refusing to be denied: the relief of no longer feeling like yourself, the way your whole being sharpened down to a single point, the overwhelming guilt and grief when it all came back. “We learned to hunt.”

“I noticed.” Kodiak grabs the torch, shoves the lit end so close to you you feel the heat on your face. His face is half in shadow but you think you see him studying you, taking in your deerskin cape, the lean muscle of your bare legs, your tattered converse, your wild grown-out hair. “How would some girls’ soccer team–”

“I can prove it.” You shove your cloak over your shoulder and then jerk back as Kodiak jabs the torch at you threateningly. You hold your hands up in surrender, your back pressed to the cave wall. “Look.”

He shifts his weight, leaning in to read the faded Yellowjackets on your practice shirt. The torch isn’t giving much light so he has to lean in, pulling the fabric away from you so he can read it.

“You’ve been out here a whole year?” When he speaks, his voice is softer. He’s looking at you differently but it’s hard to read his expression. “How did you survive the winter?”

“Some of us didn’t.”

Kodiak seems to realise he’s still holding your shirt. His fingers brush your breast as he lets go. Despite yourself you shiver. It’s been a long time since anyone touched you. It hits you then that he’s a strange man and you’re alone with him.

Kodiak is tall – easily over 6ft – and powerfully built. After living for so long among malnourished girls, his physical presence is overwhelming. The flickering amber light plays over his scars: a neat line curving upwards from one eyebrow, a mess of scar tissue half hidden by his collar.

He’s studying you back and you try not to think about how you must look to him, half wild in ragged clothes and skins you helped hunt. You wish he could see you as you had been before the crash. You thought you were so grown up back then: nearly nineteen, almost graduated, college mapped out in front of you. Back when everything about you was still measured in potential.

“We shouldn’t stay here too long,” you tell him. You’re afraid of him looking too long, seeing too much. “It’s not safe.”

Kodiak scoffs. Whatever fragile understanding existed between you breaks. “Safer than outside.”

“There’s some kind of… I don’t know…natural gas or something.” You scramble for a version of the truth he’ll believe. “It makes you see things. That’s why the others are afraid to come here.”

“Or,” Kodiak says. “You’re trying to lead me into a trap.”

“I wouldn’t do that. I swear. I just want to go home.” You feel your face fall. “I don’t know why Lottie… did that. I’m– I’m sorry. About your friend.”

Kodiak is no longer listening to you. He goes still, staring at something past your shoulder. He’s outlined by the faint light coming from the cave entrance behind him.

“I thought you said this was as far as it went?”

“It is.”

“Then what’s that?”

You turn and see light flickering against the stone, too bright to be cast from your torch.

“I don’t know.”

Kodiak gets up, jerking you to your feet by your elbow and pushing you in front of him. You feel the knife cold against the back of your neck. “Lead the way.”

There’s no way anyone could have got past without you seeing them. You’re not even sure there should be anywhere for them to be. You creep forwards, until you reach a narrow fissure in the rock. You turn to Kodiak, pleadingly but of course it’s no good. He doesn’t trust you; there’s no way you’re going to convince him that the cave has rearranged itself. You squeeze through the fissure, letting out a whimper when your hand touches something soft. Kodiak hisses at you to keep going and you push aside what turns out to be some kind of pelt and stumble into a circular chamber you’ve never seen before.

The pelt half covering the entrance behind you is bearskin; huge and glossy with dark fur. It makes you uneasy: you’d cut up the skin of the bear Lottie killed into smaller pieces for easier tanning. Someone other than your teammates must have put it here. Anything that helps you keep warm is precious out here. It makes no sense to abandon something so valuable underground.

You’re so distracted by the pelt that it takes you a second to pay attention to the source of the light. There’s a low stone slab against one wall that’s bright with lit candles. They turn the air soft, golden, gently flickering around the edges. You edge towards the altar (the word arises unbidden in your thoughts), scenting a trap. You burned nearly all the candles last winter and the fire took the precious few you had left. There’s no way for your teammates to have brought them here and no way anyone else would have lit them and left them to burn in the dark. They’re clustered around a stag skull with huge, branching antlers. In front of it lies something dark and shrivelled, perhaps a heart. Suddenly the candle flames flicker and burn brighter. You feel a presence at your back.

“We shouldn’t be here.” Your voice sounds small, faraway somehow. Every instinct you have is screaming danger.

You turn to face Kodiak, only to realise it’s not him.

The Antler Queen stands in front of you, her face rendered blank by her veil. She’s silent but you feel knowing settle on you: you’re exactly where she wants you to be. You see her face contort through the veil, mouth stretched wide as a pit. When she speaks to you, it’s in the voice of the Wilderness: the scream of the forest, the crackle of wildfire, the roar of the wind through the trees. The force of it hits you like a sledgehammer.

You stagger away blindly, clapping your hands over your ears. You collide with something. You cry out but your scream sounds hoarse and thin in the sudden silence.

Kodiak catches you around the waist, one hand splaying across your stomach.

“Where did you go?” his voice is thick, slurred. His jaw presses against your temple as he speaks, his beard rasping against your skin. “What’ did you do to me?”

You crane your neck to face him: his eyes are dark, pupils blown wide.

“It’s the cave.” You struggle, trying to pull him towards the exit. He’s too strong. “We have to get out of here.”

“Did you drug me?” Kodiak tries to shake you but he’s clumsy, uncoordinated. Instead his hand slides under your shirt. His skin is fever-hot. You feel an electric thrill you through you where his bare skin touches yours, so intense it’s almost painful. Kodiak’s breathing hitches: you feel his breath hot on your check, the sharp rise and fall of his chest pressed against your side. “Hurts…when I’m not touching you.”

You feel heat spreading through you. The longing to touch his bare skin is almost overwhelming. You wrench yourself out of his grip and he stumbles.

You glance backwards: he’s dazed, feverish. You can’t abandon him: not when he’s your only chance of rescue. You grab him by the sleeve and pull him after you, careful not to touch his skin, as you pull aside the bear pelt covering the entrance.

There’s nothing behind it but solid rock. You struggle with it and Kodiak pulls it free from the cave wall, tossing it on the floor behind you. He presses a palm to the now solid rock, leaning on it unsteadily.

You run your hands over the wall, unable to believe the evidence of your eyes. You keep muttering no no no like a litany, the sound blending together until it barely sounds like words anymore. You lurch drunkenly, your limbs oddly leaden; there’s a roaring in your ears and your chest is tight. It’s getting harder and harder to think. “The way out was here. It can’t just be gone.”

You begin to circle the walls, running your palms over the rough stone. Kodiak covers your hands with his, holding them still, his chest pressed against your back. “Don’t leave.”

Heat flares where he touches you and the awful constricting pressure lessens. You let out a strangled moan.

At that sound, whatever control Kodiak has left snaps.

He spins you to face him so hard you lose your footing and fall into his chest. You barely have time to steady yourself before his arms are around you. Your back slams into the cave wall with the force of his kiss. It’s messy at first: urgent, breathless, your teeth crashing into his. Then you throw an arm around his neck to anchor yourself and he tilts your jaw upwards and suddenly everything makes sense. The feverish pain you feel doesn’t lessen but it stops being pain. Touching him feels like gorging yourself after starving.

You whimper when he breaks the kiss. He presses the side of his face to yours, unable to stop touching you, speaking directly into your ear.

“It’s not enough.” His voice is rougher, deeper. The sound vibrates through you, leaving you needy, desperate. His hand trails downwards from your breast, settling on the button of your shorts. “I need more. Need you.”

You nod breathlessly. You fumble with the ties of your cloak until Kodiak gets impatient and snaps them. The heavy furs fall to the ground at your feet. You both pull at your clothes, wanting to feel as much of each other’s skin as possible. Kodiak pulls you to him, pushing you down onto the bear pelt. The fur is sleek against your bare skin. You’ve shed most of your clothes, down to your sports bra and unbuttoned shorts. You wrestle out of your sports bra, tossing it aside, while Kodiak sheds his own clothes. He looks golden in the candlelight, the hard planes of his muscles thrown into sharp relief.

Kodiak tugs at your shorts and you lift your hips to let him slide them down your legs. Your underwear comes away too, leaving you bare for him.

You feel him line himself up against you. He’s bigger than you expected. You tense. You try to tell yourself that it’s okay, that the first time hurts for everyone, that it’s only pain.

Kodiak draws back. He seems a little more in control of himself now; but only a little. “You good?”

“Fine.”

“Is this… have you done this before?”

You shake your head. “Just do it. I’ll manage.”

“If I do that I’m going to hurt you.”

You go rigid at his words, bracing yourself. Instead he trails rough, open-mouthed kisses down your chest. He palms at your breast with one hand, taking the other into his mouth and tugging a nipple between his teeth. You writhe under him, trying to clamp your thighs together, desperate for friction. Instead, Kodiak pins you down and takes his time teasing you. Then, just as the force of your own desire becomes agonising, he hikes your leg over his shoulder, kissing down your inner thigh. He stops to suck a lovebite into your skin, his beard rough against your skin, his teeth scraping the sensitive skin.

When you feel his mouth on you, you cry out. Instinctively you cram a hand over your mouth, conditioned by a year of living in close quarters with no privacy. Kodiak pulls up and looks up at you. The sight of him between your thighs makes something twist pleasantly inside you.

“Don’t you dare,” he tells you. “I want to hear you.”

You nod, breathless, grabbing fistfuls of the bearskin to keep your hands still. His mouth is hot against you, his tongue slick and velvety. It’s so much better than anything you’ve been able to do for yourself out here, so much better than the adolescent fumblings with long-forgotten highschool boyfriends back home. You’re almost afraid of how much you want him, the power he has over you. You shift under him, unsure if you want more or less, until Kodiak grips your hips between his hands and holds you still, so you’re at his mercy. The cave amplifies your cries, echoes your own ragged breathing back at you. You come hard, the orgasm slamming into you.

Even as you come back to yourself, you can feel your desire begin to build again until wanting him is almost painful. Kodiak works his way up your body, nuzzling at your neck.

“I need to be inside you,” he tells you, his voice almost a growl. You can feel him hard against you but this time you’re not afraid: you’re slick and aching for him. You nod and he begins to ease into you.

“I need you to fuck me,” you breathe.

Kodiak slams into you, as though he can’t control himself. It hurts a little but the pain is overshadowed by an overwhelming feeling of rightness.

“I was trying to be gentle,” he chides you. You can feel him straining, trying to hold himself back, giving you time.

“You can be a little rough.”

“Only a little?” Kodiak breathes the words against your ear as he starts to thrust into you. Despite your words you gasp and cling to him, your nails biting into his shoulders. “You have no idea. How rough. I want to be.”

He punctuates the words with thrusts, grinding his hips against yours in a way that makes you see sparks.

It’s hard and fast and sweaty after that. You wrap your legs around his waist as he thrusts hard into you, whispering absolute filth into your ear. He tells you how tight you are, how well you’re taking him, how good you feel. You feel yourself clench around him and the sensation is enough to tip him over the edge so he spills inside you.

Afterwards, you’re both out of breath, his forehead resting against yours, his lips a hair’s breadth from yours. You close the distance between you with a kiss and he returns it lazily, keeping you pinned under him. You can already feel the tide of desire rising in you again.

“I don’t think we’re done yet.” Kodiak pulls away but barely. His body is moulded to yours, your breasts pressing against his chest with every ragged breath. His face is so close to yours that your noses brush, you feel his breath against your swollen lips. He slides a hand up your thigh, fingers dipping inside you, smirking at the moan he draws out of you.

He takes pleasure in playing with you until he’s ready to go again. You try to grind against his hand, whimpering, needy but he’s merciless, bringing you right to the edge and keeping you there.

“Maybe I want to play with you a while longer,” he teases when you beg him to let you come. He kisses you long and slow, proving to you that you’ll take whatever he chooses to give. “Maybe I like you all helpless and pleading.”

You let out a low whine and he kisses you again, chuckling against your mouth.

“I’ll fuck you if you ask nicely.”

You glare at him and he brushes a finger over your clit, not hard enough to give you the release you need, hard enough to make you whimper and try to grind into his hand.

“Please,” you manage.

He smirks down at you, the shadows turning his blue eyes almost black. “Now, I know you can do better than that.”

“I-I need you inside me.”

“Good girl.”

You’re not about to let that stand. Not when you know he needs this as badly as you do. You push Kodiak onto his back. You shouldn’t be able to do that – he’s powerfully built, easily over six foot of lean muscle – but somehow you do. Perhaps he lets you. Perhaps he wants to see where you’re going.

“I want to be on top,” you tell him, your voice ragged.

He looks up at you, amused. You feel the dynamic between you shift, recalibrate.

“Sure, I’ll allow it.” He drags his eyes over you, lingering on your breasts.

He guides you, hands curled around your hipbones, as you sink down onto him. The awful building pressure in your head releases and you let out a long, shivery sigh. He strokes his hands up your sides, almost tenderly at first, until he gets impatient and kneads at your breasts. It’s easier to take him this time; you roll your hips experimentally, rewarded when his breath hitches. He returns his hands to your hips, guiding your movements until you find your rhythm.

Your body takes over. It’s as though something bigger than you is guiding you, watching you from behind your eyes. The cave amplifies your own sounds back at you: ragged breathing, moans, the sounds of your bodies moving together. The candles gutter and flicker, outlining the seams in the rough stone walls like branches moving in a high wind, like antlers.

You lean down to kiss Kodiak. It’s rough, intense, his hands tangling in your hair. When you pull away he follows you up, shifting position so he’s sitting with you astride his lap. The change in angle drives him deep inside you, making you cry out and cling to him. Kodiak grasps you to him, one hand splayed across the small of your back, the other wrapped around the back of your neck, anchoring against him as he fucks you hard. You cry out, back arching, breasts pressed against him, hair tossed back. He bites down hard where your shoulder meets your neck and you understand that he’s marking you, claiming you, letting you know you’re his. Somehow that knowledge is what undoes you. You come hard. Kodiak fucks you through it, prolonging your response, until he comes too, biting your shoulder again, hard enough to draw blood.

You collapse against him and he holds you up. He’s still inside you and you feel a delicious ache. Kodiak strokes your back, whispers meaninglessly into your ear. You enjoy the moment of respite, knowing that there’s more to come, that whatever force is guiding you both is far from finished.

It’s going to be a long night.

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reads, likes, comments and especially requests. If you enjoyed this then please do tell me (and especially tell me which parts you want to see more of.) I enjoy writing these but it’s knowing that people want to see them them that gets them edited and onto Tumblr.

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