by Edith DuBois
She looked at the three of them but shook her head. “I can’t do this in front of you three.” She shoved through them and ran out the door. She flew down the steps and ran across the clearing in front of Bo’s house. She didn’t stop until she’d gone well into the woods, far enough to be unseen from Bo’s front porch. Then she plopped onto the ground.
She pulled the cork out of the vial and took a delicate whiff of the liquid. Its sharp, acrid smell burned her nostrils, and she jerked away from it. Sniffing with more caution, she could detect a small hint of sweetness amongst its pungent odor, but it wasn’t enough to make her want to toss it back. She imagined, with a smell like that, it was gonna take a considerable amount of willpower to get it down her throat.
She put the vial to her lips.
A vision of James’s face sprang into her mind. She realized it was a memory. It was some small captured moment burned into the flesh of her mind. He’d turned toward her, and the sun had caught him at just the right angle. It shone across his face and into his eyes and all through his hair. He was golden and brilliant and perfect. Then he’d caught her looking at him, and his mouth broke into a wide grin. She remembered feeling something sharp rip through her at that moment. She’d reached out and touched him then, needing to confirm that he was real, that he was flesh and blood and man. Her fingers met his cheek, and his warmth melded into hers. The memory was so strong, she almost felt as if she could touch him now if she would just reach out.
Taking the vial away from her mouth, her mind began to flood her with other memories, other moments and pictures of James and Johnny and Jeremiah, each one caught and held like tiny feathers in her head unbeknownst to Marina’s conscious self.
If she drank the compound, those tiny moments in her mind would be all she had left of them.
If she didn’t drink the compound, she would never go on tour again, never record another album on a major label, never feel the warm embrace of stadium lights while performing onstage.
Her mind threw something else at her. She remembered her conversation with Jeffrey that morning. She knew exactly what she would be going back to. She would be going back to everything that had driven her to Savage Valley in the first place.
She tried to bring the vial to her lips again, but her hand wouldn’t do it.
Tears began falling down her face.
She couldn’t leave them. She couldn’t.
Scrambling to her feet, she began running. She ran back through the forest toward Bo’s small wooden house. When she broke into the clearing, she began shouting.
“James!” she shouted, sobbing and waving at the house. “Jeremiah! Johnny!”
Jeremiah came out of the house first. She could see the confusion on his face.
“I couldn’t do it!” she cried, still running toward him. “I couldn’t drink it!”
He flew down the porch. His smile was glorious, and when she was near enough, she leapt into his arms. Their bodies slammed into each other, but she didn’t care. She only wanted to be held in those strong arms of his. She wrapped her legs around him and sobbed into his shoulder, clenching her eyes and gasping as her body shook against his.
He whispered her name over and over again, pressing soft, warm kisses into her hair and neck. When James and Johnny reached them, she pulled back slightly to look into Jeremiah’s eyes. He didn’t put her down but used one hand to wipe at her tears.
“You’re staying?” he asked, amazement and love in his voice. “You’re not leaving us?”
She shook her head, and another sob broke free from her throat.
“Why? What changed your mind?”
She shook her head. “I just couldn’t.” She kissed him, desperate and hungry and elated. “I couldn’t leave you.” She laughed at the insanity of her decision. She laughed at its perfection. Looking at James and Johnny, she said it again. “I couldn’t leave you.” She sniffed and then giggled. “I guess I love you.”
“I’ll take it!” Johnny said, making them all laugh. Jeremiah set her back on the ground.
“And you’re sure, Marina?” James asked, his voice regaining some of its seriousness.
After putting her hand to his cheek and meeting his eyes for a long moment, she held up the vial. All three of them took an involuntary step away, as if its very presence repelled them. She took the cork off.
“I’m sure,” she said and then dumped its contents into the grass.
Johnny picked her up and spun her in a circle, kissing her while he did. Giggling and squealing for him to put her down, Marina felt an overwhelming happiness begin to spread through her body. She felt so wholesome and complete. She couldn’t remember the last time everything had felt so right inside of her.
James tugged her around to face him. Slowly, he lowered his mouth to hers. Every promise that she’d been told, every dream she’d had as a girl, dreams of love and fairy tales and magic, it all came true in his kiss. All of her despair and anger and hopelessness dissolved. It floated up above her and got tossed into the wind. It was carried away from Savage Valley forever. She felt that in her soul, and when she opened her eyes to look at the three men who loved her and who she loved in return, she found her home.
“What’s going on here?” Bo asked, approaching with a wide grin. “That doesn’t look like a ‘we’re about to be parted forever’ smooch. And, trust me, I know my smooches.”
“That’s because we’re not about to be parted forever, Bo,” Marina said, matching his grin with a wide one of her own. “I’ve decided to stay. I’m gonna stay mated to these two hooligans and get around to this third one sooner or later.” Jeremiah shot her a burning gaze. “I mean very, very soon.” She winked at Jeremiah.
“Okay, well, then if you’re not gonna use the compound, I’ll take it back. Never know when that will come in handy.”
All four of them shared a guilty look and then awkwardly cleared their throats or looked at the ground.
“Well, Bo—” Marina started.
“Well, Bo, what?” he said, his eyes narrowing in on her.
“The thing is, as a sort of proof of my devotion, I kind of…well, I…it was all for love, Bo!”
“Marina Andrews, what did you do?”
“I dumped it.”
“You what?”
“I dumped it.”
Bo closed his eyes and sucked in a breath. And he kept sucking. He inhaled and inhaled. Marina actually got a little worried that he was gonna pass out.
“Umm…Bo?”
He put up a hand and kept sucking in air. She exchanged a glance with James, but he only shrugged. Finally, Bo let out his breath in a tiny puff. “Okay, given that you are probably in a heightened emotional state at the moment, I can forgive you. This once, Marina. Do you understand?”
She nodded. “I’m really sorry.”
“Good.” He looked like he was about to let it go, but then he turned back to her. “Damn, girl. Don’t you know you’re not supposed to ever dump a Shoshone shaman’s magical compound? That is just ludicrous. I mean, whatever gave you the idea that it was a good idea to dump it all over the place? That stuff was valuable!”
Marina leaned over and pecked Bo on the cheek. He stopped mid tirade and looked at her with surprise. “I’m sorry. Let me cook you dinner soon to make up for it, okay?”
“More like a week’s worth of dinners,” he grumbled.
Marina smiled big at him. “Deal.”
Jeremiah slipped his hand into hers and bent over to kiss her. He was still smiling gloriously. He hadn’t stopped since she’d come running out of the forest.
“Oh, go on, you lovebirds,” Bo said, shooing them. “I’ve got football to watch anyway.”
After they said good-bye to Bo and he headed back toward his porch, the four of them walked into the forest. As soon as there was a screen of trees to block them from sight, Johnny and James began to strip. They handed their clothes to Jeremiah, who tucked them unde
r one arm.
“Well, you two certainly aren’t wasting any time.”
Johnny chuckled and James said, “We’re shifting. Our bears want to walk beside you.”
“Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. That’s…that sounds pretty sexy, actually. Like my own personal bear escorts. Eek!” She squealed when they both exploded into bears beside her. She jolted against Jeremiah, and he pulled her closer to his body, kissing the top of her head and then continuing on.
“Can I touch?”
“Of course,” Jeremiah answered, but Johnny had already stopped and moved a little in front of her. He peered up at her with one black eye. They were both so huge. Bigger than any black bear she’d ever seen at the zoo or on the Internet. With trembling fingers, she reached out and touched Johnny’s snout. His nose wiggled, as if her touch tickled him, and she snatched her hand back.
“It’s okay,” Jeremiah insisted. “We would never hurt you. You could even ride one of them if you wanted.” She dug her hand more deeply into Johnny’s fur, running her fingers down his neck. James moved in front of her, and she touched him, too, scratching him behind an ear. He groaned and closed his eyes.
She giggled. “Oh, you like that don’t you? You hedonist bear.” He nudged against her playfully. After a few more moments of petting, they began walking toward the center again. Marina sighed. Morning sunlight flickered through the pine needles above. The air was sharp and clean, and three warm bodies walked beside her and loved her.
Everything was so beautiful.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jeremiah whispered beside her.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
He ran a fingertip lightly over her lips. “I’ve never seen you smile like this. Your whole being is alive with it.” He sucked in a deep breath. “It makes me so happy to see it on your face.”
With wonder and amazement, Marina halted and put her own fingers on her lip, needing to touch, needing to feel proof of its existence.
She’d always known there was something deep and incomprehensively powerful in a “real” smile, just from the few she’d witnessed. But she hadn’t even begun to imagine what a “real” smile would feel like.
In fact, she didn’t remember ever believing that she would experience a “real” smile. But Jeremiah had brought one to her face. And Johnny. And James.
It was all encompassing. The love and happiness she felt had no ending and no beginning. It was perfect.
It was whole.
* * * *
They’d been moving at a leisurely pace. The center wasn’t too great a distance from the Shoshone land, and Jeremiah knew they were getting close.
Suddenly Marina stopped in her tracks, so Jeremiah stopped, too, wondering what she was up to. He still couldn’t believe that she was his, that the warm, smiling, loving woman next to him was his and that she wanted to stay with him and his brothers.
“Jeremiah,” she said, turning to him, “what about you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, come on.” She jiggled his hand in hers and then looked at his brothers in bear form. “You know what I mean.”
He smiled down at her. “Patience. Just a little further.” He kissed her forehead, and they began moving again. He noticed that she kept her hand on Johnny’s back as they walked. Her fingers were buried in his black fur, and the sight filled Jeremiah with a deep, satisfying comfort.
A couple minutes later, they reached their destination. James and Johnny loped ahead and stopped just in front of some wooden steps.
“What the hell is that?” Marina asked.
Smiling, Jeremiah eyed the wooden half-dome structure. It had a cream-colored canvas stretched over pinewood latticework and a set of wooden steps leading up to its door. “That’s the yurt.”
“The yurt? What the hell is a yurt?”
“It’s that thing.”
“But what is it for?”
“Oh? You mean, you can’t guess?” Jeremiah dropped his brothers’ clothes on the ground and then unzipped his red-and-black-checkered coat. Marina’s eyes widened. He shrugged out of the coat, letting it fall to the ground, and then tore off all three layers of sweater and undershirts at once. He undid his belt. He unbuttoned his fly. He pulled down his zipper.
Marina’s mouth fell open, and she took a step back.
“Right now?” she whispered.
Jeremiah nodded, shooting her a lascivious grin.
His pants fell to the ground.
Her eyes fell to his cock.
It was standing up for her. His bear rumbled through his blood. It had been held back too long. It was ready for a wild mating with Marina.
He couldn’t fucking wait.
Marina stumbled backward. Maybe some of his determined ferocity was coming through, but he didn’t care to hold it back if it was. Her feet hit the bottom step, and she grabbed the rail.
“Jeremiah,” she whispered.
“Honey, you’d better start taking those clothes off if you want them to remain intact. Once I shift and breathe you in, nothing is gonna stop me from shredding anything that gets between my cock and your pussy.”
“Oh my,” she said, a smile beginning to curl her lips. Then her fingers worked on her jacket, unzipping and shedding layer after layer until she stood before him in nothing but her bra and panties. He could see she was shivering, but she stood with her chest out so that her nipples poked aggressively against the flimsy rose-colored lace of her undergarment. Moisture had begun to darken the delicate fabric that covered her cunt, and his bear could endure no more.
The animal side of himself ripped through his body. It raced through blood and muscle and sinew and then tore out of him. With a bellowing roar his paws landed on the earth-ground. His stormy-eyed-Marina jumped at the awesome display of his bear-power, which was as it should be. She was his. Her blood belonged to him.
Each footstep pounded the earth-ground. Each footstep carried him closer to his stormy-eyed-Marina. A winter-wind whipped through dark ribbons of her hair. Then the winter-wind twisted toward him. It curled up his bear-nose. It danced through his veins. It washed his stormy-eyed-Marina through his mighty, terrible, ferocious bear-body.
She was finally his.
As his human hurled to the surface, he flung his body at her.
She cried out, holding him as they fell backward, slamming into the wooden door. He’d already discussed everything with his brothers. Upon the slim chance that Marina decided to stay with them, they had agreed to stay in bear form until he and Marina had completed the mating between all three brothers.
In other words, it was just him and Marina, and she was pounding through his head. His whole body pulsed with her vibration, her breathing, her rhythm. He reached for the doorknob, and they stumbled inside. Jeremiah couldn’t stand the thought of not touching, not kissing her. Not even to open the door or close it behind him. He slammed his foot into it to close it.
He couldn’t even make it to the bed.
The inside of the yurt had lavish, decadent furnishings and decor, but for now, he couldn’t spare the time to let her appreciate it. Now he just needed to be inside her.
“Jeremiah, I feel you.” She sucked in frantic breaths and clawed at her stomach. “I feel you here. I need you here.” She cupped herself.
Grasping her hand, he pulled it away from between her legs and bit at the soft flesh on her wrist. Then he ripped her panties off, enjoying the sound of tearing lace. Somehow they made it to the ground and he was on top of her, poised at her entrance. He was going to dominate her pussy.
“Don’t you dare wait.” She pulled and her knees up to the sides of her chest, spreading herself wide for him and urging him onward. He thrust forward, his cock sliding so perfectly into her hot pussy. Her moist cunt welcomed him, lured him in to her depths. He pulled himself to the tip, and her eyelids fluttered. Then he dove back in, rocking himself in as far as he could go. She
grunted as his huge cock jutted up into her. Her cunt was so tight. It squeezed him mercilessly.
“Come on,” she urged. “You have to go faster, Jeremiah. I’m going insane,” she whimpered, wriggling her body around his dick. He rocked back his powerful hips and then let loose, slamming into her body with all the wild abandon he felt coursing through his blood. She moaned in time with each demanding thrust of his cock.
He looked into the swirling abyss of her eyes, and he could see a wildness that matched his own in those dark blue orbs. He was the master of it. He would harness it and command it. He would possess all.
He pounded and pounded. Each plunge of his cock brought her fever closer to the surface. He could see that it wanted to break free, that he couldn’t stop until it did. She panted and shook her head. She snarled as he embedded his cock in her pussy over and over. They crashed against each other, each one struggling to reach that all-encompassing pleasure. Her moans grew higher in pitch. He knew she was close. As she rose, so did he. It felt as if every thought, every emotion, every signal that had ever passed through his nerves struggled and swam through his body. Everything was moving to his cock, and the moment it all met up, he would shatter.
He focused on the feel of her hot, wet cunt pumping around his dick. She squeezed herself around him and pulled him deeper, desperate for a release.
Then she exploded.
Everything surrounded him. He existed only in her tightness.
His seed erupted. It jetted out of him, and he held himself still and deep inside her, inside his stormy-eyed-Marina. Their bodies shook against one another, and he felt as if he could barely hold the cells of his body together.
When rational thoughts began to return, he slowly rolled himself off to lie beside her. He couldn’t muster much energy, but he discovered enough to grope around for a moment or two until he caught her fingers in his.