Deer meat was stacked up against the snow bank, Wolverine helped her pile stone on it, packing the snow tight around it so it'd freeze into an ice layer keeping the smell sealed in.
It was nearing dark when she'd finally finished, tired arms bloody and her furs sweaty from the inside. Her claws were sharp but not as sharp as metal, she'd done her best and she'd seen Wolverine assessing her strength as she'd butchered the meat. The learning curve was nearly vertical now and she knew that he expected her to follow him on this other hunt. He *needed* her to come with him, she'd promised herself to him, she had to defend this place too.
So when he just stood up, turning his head into the vast darkness all around them and walked away without a word she followed, tonight would be long, arduous and cold. Stamping some life back into her feet she followed in his footsteps, noting he walked steadily and softly. She'd have no problem keeping up if he kept this pace, she jus hoped when they got to wherever they were going they'd find the place empty.
He'd caught the scent on the wind, a fire, burning fir, seasoned wood, old spicy and sweet, the direction to the south. The land levelled out there for a while, making his mind reveal a scrap of memory. Hunting alone out here, nearly naked in the summer heat, coming across remains before and putting them down to wolves. Now he knew better, wolves didn't leave shells behind, didn't need guns to bring down elk. Men did this, men who didn't belong here, men who had to be taught whose land this was, the storm had taken away their scent but the wind had brought him their fire and that was enough. Tonight they'd learn the error of their ways, Wolverine defended his territory and they'd pay the price for coming into it uninvited.
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Windows spilling yellow light met her gaze, the wood was so new it still sparkled in the frost, Marie was running on instinct now. Her fear had jacked her higher than anything she'd ever experienced, inside her mind Wolverine was pacing, angry, ready for her to release him on their enemy. Her knuckles itched, the feeling odd and she understood Logan's reactions now, her mind putting all the times she saw him rubbing his knuckles into perspective. Scott really had been a very lucky boy if this feeling was anything to go by, supressing her own growl she hid under the eaves of the small cabin.
Wolverine snuck around the structure checking for other entrances or exits and finding none, there was only one room here, a hunting lodge if the smell of blood was anything to go by. It seemed to be everywhere here, if the men inside were stupid enough to store meat in there with them raw they deserved everything they got.
What he did bring around was the frozen corpses of at least three wolves, they'd been skinned and gutted. Taking them in hand he just slammed the door open to the cabin, throwing in the forzen corpses before plunging in himself. The sounds of frightened voices, three at least distinctive sounds, three men who'd been here killing their food, taking from his larder.
Gunfire ripped through the silence and she heard a body fall, iinstict over rode her fear, training kicked in, she rolled in the soft snow and came up inside the doorway, arms down, claws drawn, teeth bared. Wolverine was down, a shotgun blast to his throat had almost decapitated him.
Suddenly all bets were off as her mind slid past all the gears, two men were trying to reload guns, rifles in the confined space. Snarling she launched herself toward them, Wolverine screaming in her mind, rage blurring her vision.
Hitting them square on, one hand diving into soft flesh, the tear of the skin as she opened him up like a fish. The slippery slide of intestine making her own stomach flip as the acid smell of bile reached her nose, knowing she'd punctured his stomach with a claw. Twisting her wrist to shred more of the vital organs she had in her grasp, pulling her hand free and seeing the ropes of blue twist as they fell from the hole she'd torn into him. The words of his friend becoming clear to her as she turned her hate filled gaze toward him. Seeing the fear in his eyes turn his bowels to water as Wolverine stood up again, his claws slicing through the mans face in front of her. Seeing his face part under the blades, bone and sinew covered in blood and brain as the parts seperated. The mush that been a face still twitching as she watched the man die, turning her attention finally to the one she'd gutted; still breathing trying to keep his insides in, hands stuck to his own twitching flesh.
Wolverine growled at her, nugding her to finish him, to kill him properly, she hesistated and he growled at her this time baring his teeth. Her own throat whimpering as the man beneath her began to pray, it was his words that brought her mind to the front of her brain. "Holy Father, accept this sinner into your arms, forgive my sins and see fit ot include me in your host." Shoving her aside Wolverine took his throat in one hand and squeezed, the words choked and died. Her eyes blurred as the weight of what she'd done hit her, she'd killed a man, not with a gun, not with her skin, with her claws. Suddenly the food she'd kept down fought its way back up, throwing herself outside in the now freezing world she threw up everything into a drift.
She stayed there for a while, her mind mercifully blank as the taste of bile filled her world. Inside her head Wolverine was still growling, his sound almost silencing Logan who was trying to tell her to get up, to move. She couldn't stay like this in the cold, she *had* to move, slowly, almost painfully she rose, holding her cramping stomach together as she walked back to the lit cabin. The snow outside was stained red, the colours of bile and stomach contents spilled all over the pristine white.
Inside Marie noticed that Wolverine had packed gear up into a bundle, pushing past her he hauled it outside and onto a small sled he pulled from inside the door. The bodies were there, eyes staring blankly to the ceiling, the lamp light giving them shadowy movement that made her want to run. She'd seen dead bodies before but she'd never killed personally, not like this, not so close, not so personal. Her breathing was unsteady as she felt hands turn her round, the look in his eyes was one she'd seen before. When he'd left her on the road back when she'd first followed him out on a mission, but this time she couldn't run. He'd just killed three men for invading his territory, for taking what was his, and the information burned across her brain as she realised what he'd need to make this go away. He wanted her *here*, right now and he wouldn't take no for an answer.
Her choices had brought her here, to this blood soaked cabin, to this poachers hut on land owned by the man she trusted more than she trusted herself. Letting her eyes go soft she relaxed in his grip, throwing her head back to reveal her throat. Listening to his approval as he bit her, grinding himself against her, already hard, already needing to be inside her. Letting herself be turned by him, so her face was against the rough wall, his large frame shielding her from the dead bodies at her feet. At least one of them due to her own actions, splaying her hands on the wall to support herself. Letting him undress her, concentrating on keeping her skin low, the buzz in the background of her mind deadening to a hum.
Feeling him lift her bodily as he slid inside her, tight and dry she winced at the width of him. Concentrating on the sensation she felt her body slick as he moved into her, gripping her tight as he fucked her against the wall. This had nothing to do with love and everything to do with ownership, of the land, of the cabin, of her. Silent tears rolled down her face as she felt Wolverine slam into her rear repeatedly, Logan was love, this was ownership. She'd never be the equal to Wolverine, not until she threatened him and could go through with the threat.
It didn't take long, Wolverine never did, it was Logan that spent hours on her skin, spent hours touching her, loving her. Wolverine just took what he wanted from her, when he wanted it. Panting he rested against her smaller body for a while, only when he shifted did she dare move her clothing back. As soon as she was dressed he turned her to him, the eyes were Logan's as were the tears that were running down his face. She'd seen him, the real him, the killer,the rapist, the thing he never wanted her to see never mind *feel*. But it was a package deal, if she stayed with him she had to deal with Wolverine too. He wrapped her up in his embrace, just holding her in the light of the cabin. When he let her free his face had hardened a little, "Go wait by the sled, I've got a few things to do." Nodding she shifted out of his grip, her body stiff and her movements feeling odd, seeing the sled painted in colour against the white world she let the emotions free inside her body, she could cry now for herself. She knew the toll this would take on Logan, what he'd think about what he'd given her, what he'd made her but it *HAD* been her choice and no matter what she didn't regret it, not for a moment.
As she heard the whump of a fire eating up wood she turned to see flames licking at the window. He needed to burn everything, she'd killed a man in there, her forensic trace was everywhere and she didn't leave traces behind. She was a killer like him now, she had to be careful, learning her skill as she went and that meant destroying what others had built. Logan joined her to watch the cabin burn, the heating oil had been enough to set the wood afire, the men would be logged as missing. The locals wouldn't search out here, they'd just nod and say that it was the mountain that killed them. Poaching in winter was a fools game, there'd be nothing to find come spring, nothing but bone and wolf shit.
It was dawn when the fire had died down enough to be ashes, the bodies burned to bone and crumbled ash, the winter would break the bones further, seedlings would take over the spot soon enough. Logan took the reins of the sled and pulled it back toward home, Marie gave it a final look. The memory of the place where she changed, the pivot point in her path where she became more than a mutant, the point where she became an assassin, a killer of men. Turning her back on the dark spot on the snow covered ground, she followed Logan into the lightening day.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Wolverine gets some *out* time and Marie has to face what choices she'd made by siding with him.