Celeborn's Nine - Riders of the Night

No one was more happy to see Gondor than Celeborn, who was welcomed back by a very pregnant Arwen. After months and months of no word, not even a hint of a rumor, Aragorn had resolved himself to the fact that they were now dead. And it was with no small surprise that he viewed the ten horsemen returning bone weary with a dozen tales to tell.

Tiger's welcoming committee, Dog, was so ecstatic that she joined him in his 'happy' dance. Even Gimli did a step with her.

"You're looking lovely Tiger," the dwarf complimented her. "Although a little thin, I think."

Tiger didn't care, she was just happy to be home. And that first night back, she sat beside Haldir and listened to Glorfindel, and the twins, and the Galadhrim tell their great adventures to Aragorn's court. The queen even hid her eyes when Glorfindel told her about the fight with the hags in the snow and the Saka horsemen. And the dragon and the balrog and the minotaur. And Haldir mentioned for the first time their meeting with Prometheus. After weeks of travel without any Helllenes gods or goddesses bustling around, he felt more comfortable mentioning the Titan and how he had helped them.

"Well," Lady Eowyn spoke, "I can not say we have had such great adventures, but we haven't been entirely unbusy."

"Oh, look at you," Rumil mused. "I would say winter must have come early," he laughed, noting her very pregnant condition.

Tiger noticed for the first time that many of the ladies in the court were expecting cubs. It surprised her, and it bothered her. She suddenly thought of her own cub, and it hurt her. She looked around for a moment; everyone was so happy. She pushed her chair back, reached under it for Dog, and then got up.

"Where are you going?" Haldir asked, his smile fading at the look of sadness in her eyes.

"Fresh air," she said. "Dog wants some fresh air."

She didn't want to upset Hal-dear or anyone else and walked slowly out of the great hall into the passage. Then she ran outside. Tiger didn't want to cry, the wound was too old now for tears, but her arms ached in a way that a small dog could not soothe. Still she held him to her breast as she sat in the grass and thought back on her own lost cub. Tiger wanted a cub.

"So what is it you desire most, Tiger?" a familar male voice asked.

Tiger turned around and gazed up at Himeros. "Tiger wants a cub," she answered this time, the god's presence magnifying the ache in her heart. This time she couldn't keep the tears away.

"Poor Tiger," he sympathized. "Why won't Master give you a cub?" Tiger looked confused. "The next time you fuck him, my dear, get a taste of blood. That has been the missing ingredient. Just a taste will do." Himeros stopped; Haldir was coming.

"I thought we lost you folks in Hellenes," he remarked suspiciously.

"I can go wherever I want," Himeros retorted indifferently.

"Except into battle," Haldir reminded him and crouched beside Tiger. "Why are you crying, my sweet?"

"Tiger wants cub," she answered, fresh tears flowing. "Himeros says you can give cub to Tiger."

Haldir looked up at the Hellene god and resisited the urge to punch him out. But he didn't. STanding up, a dozen troubled thoughts running through his head, Haldir said, "All right, tell Prometheus I will give her a cub."

"Good," Himeros replied and vanished.

Haldir helped Tiger up and held her against him. For weeks she had laid beside him at night, sometimes making love, sometimes just enjoying the closeness of her body. Now he was going to fulfill Prometheus' promise to her.

He walked her back to their room, his arm over her shoulders, accutely aware of the way she was looking at him. He loved her, but she didn't understand that this was taking her one more step away from him.

In that soft darkness, a solitary candle illuminating the room, he held her face between his hands and kissed her. Her mouthed open for him, her tongue sensuously sparring with his. She bit down on his lip and for a moment he thought she was going to take his blood that way, but she released him and slipped her hands under his tunic and raised it up over his body. The room was cool, and his body shivered at the sudden cool air brushing over it. Tiger leaned forward and closed her mouth around his right nipple. It was intoxicating.

She stepped back and shed her clothes, her eyes boring into his as he finished undressing himself. The feline part of Tiger was close to the surface, her hunger as much for meat as for sex. She was tasting his blood in her mind, joining it with the seed she was about to take from him. Tiger would have her cub fi she had to feed everynight.

There was no point in trying to impress Tiger with his love making skills; her thoughts were turned elsewhere. She wanted him on his back, a deer whose throat was exposed to her. That he shivered with desire when she nuzzled him only excited her hunger, her need. The body over him was pure female, a ripe woman of his imagination. She was what he desired. But he could see in her eyes the tiger. If her tongue had been feline, it would have been ripping the skin off his body instead of boiling the blood in his veins. She licked him, the strokes slow and long. She nuzzled his groin and ran her tongue slowly up the swollen shaft. She did not try to take it into her mouth. Too dangerous. If the tiger surfaced completely, it would not be pleasant.

She brought him to the edge of climax several times, before she decided it was time to mount him. How could he not lose his mind and heart to the tawny haired warrior woman who rode him like a stallion. Her inner muscles grabbed him and milked him. He arched his back and cried as exquisite pleasure shot up his spine. Tiger's claws shredded his left breast, but in that perfect moment he didn't really feel it. Tiger leaned over and licked the beading scarlet. She even suckled the damaged nipple, feeding, pulling on it and drawing the hot blood into her mouth.

The pain would come later, but right now, swimming in the warmth of good sex, Haldir lay there letting her nurse. When he tried to move, she laid her hand on his belly and stilled him. The bleeding would end soon enough. Then she would release him.