Free Wolf's-own: Weregild by Carole Cummings

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    Vonshi's soft, creaky voice preceded Leu by mere seconds as she stormed past him and into Asai's study. Wet and bedraggled, a little bit bloody, and apparently altogether too angry for manners as she swung the door shut in Vonshi's face and advanced toward Asai. Hazel eyes were sliding yellow and cat-slitted then back to hazel again as she tried and failed to keep her temper entirely in check. Asai sighed again.
    "You did not acquire the earth-bound,” he said bluntly, hoping to stem her apparent anger with an oblique accusation of failure.
    Leu didn't appear to be inclined to cooperate. “How much of tonight did you see ?” she demanded. “Did you know about the Temshiel ?"
    It was a difficult question to answer truthfully. In its broadest sense, yes, of course he had. It was the whole point, after all. But Leu might kill him for that, and she could, quite easily. She was in her own Cycle, too, and Asai was still a mere aspirant, still suffering the lesser powers of Raven while abiding Wolf, and always with the threat of banpair over his head if he ended up rejected by both. He couldn't allow it. He would accomplish great things; he'd foreseen it, and Wolf would welcome him. It would be Asai's right .
    He chose to answer the question in the narrower spectrum of specific truth: “No, I did not.” Because he truly hadn't known Kamen himself would stoop to the rescue of a mere mortal—a waste of Temshiel power and resources, surely—and it only made that same unease tighten Asai's chest a little at the same time it stirred hope. It was all happening, what he'd foreseen, but it was too early, out of sequence, and the future had yet to set itself into unbendable shapes. The Temshiel was supposed to follow the Catalyst, damn it, not the earth-bound, and not yet .
    Had Kamen done it for the earth-bound or for the Catalyst? And why ? The earth-bound could be no possible use to Temshiel , but perhaps, if Kamen had done it for Jacin-rei....
    The answers were imperative, and Asai had no illusions that Leu would have them. He wished she'd just leave, go back to the rock under which he'd found her, and leave him to his contemplation. Except she was the only one of Wolf's maijin who would suffer him in his “exile,” and he might need her. He'd wrung compliance from her through her mewling cries of completion, but women had an annoying tendency to gain clearer heads when they were vertical. Sometimes he missed Skel with burning regret.
    Asai clenched his teeth and bowed his head respectfully. “I am sorry, Leu. I saw only—"
    "I don't want to know what you saw ,” she grated. “I don't want to know what you plan, I don't want to know you . I'm done, Asai."
    He lifted an eyebrow, turned slowly, purposefully showing her his back as he angled behind the desk and sat down. Putting a bit of a barrier between them, however thin, but it wouldn't do to let her know it. “You would abandon your god's favored people so swiftly, Leu?"
    Her eyes narrowed, gone to slitted-yellow once again. “I would abandon you and whatever you've done to draw Kamen's interest. Bloody Kamen , Asai.” She stepped over to the front of the desk, propped her hands on it, and leaned in. “He sends you ‘greetings’ from Skel."
    Asai rolled his eyes, though his stomach dropped a little. “And isn't it just like Kamen to hold on to that old grudge to justify his opposition?"
    "His opposition to what ?” Leu snapped then held up her hand and pushed her back straight. “No. I don't want to know. I'm finished, Asai. Find yourself another of Wolf's to plead your case. If you can."
    "You know I cannot.” And the more he thought about it, the angrier it made him. He was in the position he was in now because of Kamen. Forced to supplication, forced to seek acceptance with Wolf, when it should have been offered centuries ago, forced to kowtow to an inferior maijin to help him achieve what should have been given him. “I would bring glory to Wolf, Leu,