The Wolf Pack

Chapter 59

Kriari's yellow skin looked orange from how hard she was blushing. Her robes had been tugged hurriedly as she made her way towards the bridge in a rushed attempt to look decent. As the blast doors to the bridge slid open, she finally finished redoing her padawan braid and tied it with a tiny hairband.

Kriari tried to finish tidying herself up as she looked up and addressed her Jedi Master's hologram.

"You look flustered, child. Is anything bothering you?" Asked General Plo Koon as his Padawan stood straighter and tried to hide how guilty she felt.

"No, Master. I'm just wondering about an urgent comm from you, it is most unusual… Even more so when I was told this was a Mission Briefing" she answered as the blast doors opened and closed behind her.

She could now feel Wolffe's stable presence right behind her.

"Oh I told Headfirst to tell you that so that I would not be kept waiting. I am just calling to let you and the Commander know that I will soon rendezvous with the Pack. A Republic inspection is due and we are heading to Bracca. I should also mention Admiral Zapal will be there, since I know both of you have had grievances about his treatment of Commander Foreas."

Kriari felt the shift in the mood immediately, every single one of the officers on duty tensed up at the mention of the man who had almost left Kriari and Wolffe to die on Korm. The only thing that had stopped him was the entire battalion's refusal to obey him.

"I will make sure everything goes smoothly, Sir. You will have no trouble from us " Answered Wolffe.

We all knew what that meant, there would be no trouble started by the Pack, but they would be sure to finish anything Zapal started.

"That's what I like to hear Commander. Oh and one last thing: please refrain yourselves from being too obvious, you two. If I can tell something is up, Admiral Zapal will know too." And with that, the transmission ended.

Someone on the bridge started to try and cover their laughter with a cough, and the rest of the men were definitely failing at covering their smiles.
Kriari's face flushed even deeper and she hurriedly tried to make a run for her room, leaving the bridge behind. She knew everybody was aware of what she had with Wolffe, but being teased so openly by her master was not something she was eager to repeat. She had a reputation to keep and she doubted her relationship with Wolffe was doing anything to inspire the men's confidence in her as an officer.

She was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to feel Wolffe come up behind her and grab her from the waist before dragging her into a maintenance deposit. He slammed his hand on the console, shutting the door as soon as they were both through and pushed her against the cold metal wall.

"Wolffe, what-"

She couldn't even finish asking him what he was doing, the man was already kissing her. He pushed his entire weight against her body and held her steady by the waist. Kriari took a second longer than she should have to realize what was happening, so when she finally decided to kiss him back, Wolffe pulled away.

"Did you think that was funny? Did you enjoy leaving me like that without even giving me the chance to kiss you back?"

He seemed more frustrated than angry, and Kriari actually understood why he would be. He thought she was leading him on.

"I'm sorry," she said as she stroked his left cheek with her hand. "Things were getting a little out of hand and I panicked."

Wolffe sighed and dropped his head onto her shoulder. It had become a habit of his, to cuddle close and have his face right next to her neck where he could feel the pulse of her two hearts. Kriari smiled to herself and brought her other hand to the nape of his neck and started caressing him.

"I understand if you aren't ready for sex yet or ever, I wont force you to do  anything, but please don't leave me hanging like that. It's hard enough to keep my hands off you as it is."

Kriari started to feel a little bad, she did want him, a lot, probably as much as he wanted her, but there was something stopping her. Several things in fact.

"It's not that I don't want you, Wolffe, believe me I do, but there are a few things that don't really sit well with me that I need to figure out before that." She sighed as he looked up to her. " my vow to celibacy, our position and rank in the army, your actual age. Sometimes I forget you are technically underage and what I'm doing is basically grooming and VERY wrong."

Wolffe started laughing, actually laughing. Kriari had to shush him at one point because he was laughing so hard, even his prosthetic eye was watering with mirth.

"You actually think you are grooming me? Oh Kriari, love, that is so cute and considerate of you but I'm not twelve."  He continued to giggle as he wiped the tears off his face.

"What do you mean you aren't twelve? The clone army was ordered 12 years ago…"

"Twelve standard years ago, Kamino has a faster solar return cycle than the standard galactic year. And while yes, we have been modified to age more rapidly, we are not really children. We just age faster. All of us have all the mental and physical developments of a human adult and what we lack in experience we have made sure to make up for since we were first deployed."

"But I was seven when the order was placed-"

"Seven standard years Kriari. How old would you be if you kept to Tatooine's solar calendar?"

Wolffe seemed to be too impatient to wait for her to do the math, so he decided to do it for her.

"Kamino has rotations of 463 days of 27 hours each day. The standard year is 368 days of 24 hours each. So, if you calculate the amount of standard days that would be in a Kaminoan year and then divide it by 368 you would get how many standard years is in a Kaminoan one, and if you multiply that by the amount of standard years that have passed since the order was placed you'd get a more accurate approximation of my age, which would actually make me about a year and a half younger than you."

All Kriari could do then was blink.

"It sounds like you've thought about this for quite some time." She said finally, not able to acknowledge the fact that her biggest reason for refusing him was not that much of a concern anymore.

"I thought you and your "do the right thing" mentality would need reassurance at some point."

"So I'm not a pedophile.."

Wolffe laughed again and held her just a little tighter to bring her back to the moment. He did want to get back to what they were doing, after all.

"Well, kind of. I'm still a minor, just not as much as you thought I was."

She slapped his arm and blushed as he went in to kiss her one more time. They didn't have much time, and he wanted to get as much of her as he could before the inspection arrived.