Sajja smiled a little. “Everything changes. I have learned that at last. If you bring this den of bears to our island, we will share it under the terms that we have discussed. You will have your sanctuary.”
“Thank you, great Sajja,” Cressida said, and smiled back at him.
They stayed another hour, drinking hot tea with the chieftain, and Reza did his best to listen and not feel completely baffled by all of it. He knew, even if Sajja wasn’t saying so to Cressida, that the tigers would not welcome the bears. But if Sajja thought there could be peace, he had no intention of starting a fight before that peace had even been truly settled upon. Reza suspected that Sajja simply wasn’t willing to flat-out deny the Keeper of the Jewel, because the rest of the tribe would find that equally distasteful. It would be a long, hard road, though, to true coexistence. But at least Sajja seemed willing to let the bears onto the island, where they would find enough rope to hang themselves with, or not. When they left the village, a sense of satisfaction settled over them all. Except now it was time to speak to Kelly’s bears, and prepare for the long journey ahead.
Chapter 9
Kelly was up for most of the night, on the top deck with the den, bringing them around to the idea. At first, nearly all of them refused even the notion of bringing their families back to this island. All of them except Fat Tom, who had a clear and compassionate head on his shoulders, if a very large one, and who listened to Kelly closely when he explained it the first time. With his voice, and eventually with Cort’s, Kelly was able to convince the rest of them that the island was the best possible place. Free of people who would make them hide their true natures. Rife with natural resources and an abundance of green like the forests of their homeland. Lacking much of the comforts of the modern world, yes, but none of its hate and fear and distrust of things magical or mystical, as they innately were.
Moreover, it was safe. It was remote. No one would bother them here; no one would come to take the island away. If they could share it peaceably with the tigers, no man would dare try to claim it. A few ships to guard the waters, and they would have a veritable fortress of a home in which their people could thrive and live for generations. It could be a protected paradise, and in the end none of his beleaguered, weary crew could deny that. All they wanted was home and family. And Kelly could finally, finally give it to them. But it took a long time for them to understand it, to accept that it should come in a shape none of them could have predicted. When it was over, the lads were excited enough to take to their cups and what ale they still had on board in celebration, but Kelly was exhausted. He took himself below deck, intent on the barracks and a swinging bunk to sleep in.
Cressida was waiting for him, however, in the narrow corridor below. He smiled through his exhaustion when he saw her, a welcome vision where she slouched against the wall just outside the door to the barracks. When she saw him, she offered him a sly smile.
“I thought you’d be with Reza,” he admitted as he stopped in front of her.
“Why?” she asked.
And Kelly felt a bit stupid, mostly because of the way she was smiling at him. “Because…you were.”
“Yes, I was,” she laughed quietly. “But he needed some time to himself. And…I’m with you too.”
“I know that,” Kelly chuckled. “It’s just stranger in practice than it was in theory. I’m adjusting.”
“Me too,” Cressida said softly, and then she reached forward and hooked her fingers onto his sword belt, pulling him close.
He went with a sigh, but it was a happy one. His hands drifted down, coasting over her thighs in his borrowed trousers, and then up to her hips as she leaned back against the wall, and he pressed himself against her, bowing his head til his nose brushed her cheek.
“Right here in the corridor?” he asked softly, smiling into her skin.
“The boys are up top,” she said, hushed, breath coming a little quick already. “How long will they be drinking?”
Kelly’s smile sharpened. “Awhile yet.”
The rock of the sea beneath the ship brought them more against each other, and then eased them apart again, and Kelly felt Cressida’s hands leave his belt and instead get to work between them, unbuckling the belt altogether, and her own, until their swords hit the floor, clanking and clamoring. He kissed her cheek, her lips, her jaw, then lower, her throat, the mark, the curve of her shoulder, tasting the sea air on her skin as she kicked off her boots and shoved down her trousers.
He was hard before she’d even really touched him, desire couched in his heart and body, waiting for release ever since he’d felt her and Reza that morning. This was the delicate give-and-take of sharing the mark. Patience. Desire without jealousy. Unfulfilled passion without wrath. She tugged the laces of his trousers open and slipped a hand down to grasp him, and his hips jerked. He struggled not to thrust right into her hand, instead nipping at her ear as she laughed and stroked him. He got his hands beneath her shirt, cupping her breasts, and her laughter turned into a soft, pleasured moan as he brought his thumbs to her nipples, squeezing gently. The rhythmic side to side of the ship only fed their momentum, and as her flesh puckered and rose beneath his hands, his cock started to ache for her under her ministrations. He got one hand between her thighs and just the brush of his fingertips over her sex sent her to trembling. When his fingers came away damp, he knew there would be no more delay.
“Now, Kelly,” she gasped, leaning up to get an arm about his neck. He boosted her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as he pressed her back against the wall, one hand still holding the length of him so she could guide him to her entrance.
He flattened a hand against the wall beside her, catching her mouth in a deep, heated kiss as he thrust himself inside her. It was too hasty, perhaps, and something desperate in it, but he loved her and wanted her too much to slow himself. Once he had her pinned to the wall, he let go of the near painful longing he’d been carrying in his loins since that morning, and pounded into her. She held on to him, her hair spilling back against the wall, and gripped at his shirt as he plunged deep inside her again and again, his pace steady and unrelenting. The slide of her wet sex around his cock drove him nearly mad with lust, and as it had been in the jungle between them, so it was now. No games or teasing at all, just an animal need that had to be sated. But one that came hand in hand with incredible love. He was never going to need or desire another woman, ever again. But in that moment, he had to have her, and he had to fuck her silly.
The gasps and cries and delicious little mewling noises she was making between him and the wall, however, indicated to Kelly that she did not mind at all about the ferocity of this tryst. On the contrary, she grabbed a handful of his hair and braced her back against the wall, shoving her hips to his to bring him even deeper inside her. He groaned, slamming her more roughly back, but that only inspired her to do it again. And again. He gripped her thighs, gasping against her shoulder as she began to grind her hips to his. With his head bowed to her in ecstasy, he came inside her, bucking once, and she let out a delighted cry of triumph and began to tremble in his arms.
And Kelly knew that he had been a fool ever to think that perhaps Cressida Avery would not have been enough to satisfy him. Though she was human, she was so much alive, and so much stronger than any other woman, human or shifter, that he had ever known. He didn’t regret or resent sharing her with Reza, but he knew he should have taken her for his own long ago, and that he’d only wasted time by resisting his own heart.
“You are the fire of my heart,” he told her softly as he lowered her feet to the floor and stole another kiss from her lips.
She smiled, exhausted from their efforts, and pulled up her trousers, brilliant blue eyes sparkling up at him. “I love you too.”
“I want to take you to my bed,” he told her.
Her smile dimmed a little, and she shook her head. “We haven’t figured out how that’s going to work, have we?”
He looked down, righting himself and his trousers and fetching up their rapiers from the floor. He handed hers over. “No, we haven’t.”
“We will,” she said.
“Cress, I just want to sleep with you in my arms tonight. Why is that more complicated than what we just did in this hallway?” He lifted his eyes, meeting hers.
“It isn’t,” she said softly. “It shouldn’t be. You’re right. I’ll sleep in the bed with you tonight, and then tomorrow night you’ll stay in the barracks, and Reza will stay in the bed with me.”
Kelly blinked. “My bed? In my bed?”
Cressida arched an eyebrow at him. “There’s only one bed on the ship, Kelly.”
Kelly let out a snort, buckling his belt as she buckled hers, and shook his head. “Fine. If…fine. I…hate that.”
She smiled and leaned up, kissing his cheek. “But you love me.”
“Yes. Tart.”
“Tart!” She laughed.
“My favorite tart. Who is going to clean the sheets on my bed every time she defiles them with her other mate.” He smirked. She blushed.
And then she took his hand to pull him down the corridor towards the stairs that led to the captain’s quarters. “Fine. I hate that. But fine.”
Kelly ceased negotiations at that point, simply pleased to get to spend the night with her in his bed—however plain it was that the bed was no longer actually his.
Chapter 10
The morning that the Oso Armonia left the island for the long journey back to fetch the rest of Kelly’s den, Cressida went to the village with Reza. Reza went to say goodbye to Kamala, but Cressida had another purpose in mind for her last visit before they finally took to the sea again. While Reza took his sister for a walk through the village, Cressida was left in the chieftain’s hut, where she waited at the low table until Prija appeared from one of the adjacent rooms.
“My father said you wanted to speak to me,” Prija said, and Cressida could tell that she was confused by that bit of news.
“I do.” Cressida got to her feet and approached the tigress. She smiled, even though it was awkward as hell. Reza had not told her anything of his day and night spent in the village betrothed to Prija, but Prija was beautiful and Cressida wasn’t stupid. There was, at the very least, attraction there. She understood it. And certainly she understood why Prija might have been drawn to Reza. “I have a favor to ask of you.”
Prija’s eyebrows shot towards her hairline, plainly surprised. “To ask of me, Keeper?”
“Well, that’s the thing,” Cressida said. She lifted her hands to the chain around her throat, and picked up the stone, looping it free of her neck and holding it in her palm. “I think the jewel needs to stay on the island. While I’m gone, I was hoping you would keep it for me, and the sanctuary.”
Prija’s bright green eyes widened in shock and she actually took a step back, a hand covering her heart. “Me? But…can you do that?”
“I’m the Keeper of the Jewel.” Cressida laughed quietly. “I think logically that means I can do what I like. Only we will be going on a long voyage, and a perilous one, and I don’t want to risk losing it.” She held it out to Prija. “Will you guard it?”
“But I have not been judged worthy,” Prija said.
“I judge you worthy,” Cressida told her. “And you’re like me, I think. Your heart is wild, and your will is free, and you won’t be swayed by anyone. I want you to protect the jewel for me while I’m gone, and the bears who stay behind to build, and the sanctuary itself. You can turn me down, of course, but you’re the one I choose to hold my place.”
There was a long moment when Prija simply gazed at her, astonished perhaps and overwhelmed and processing it all. Then, suddenly, she smiled.
“I always wanted a life that was bigger than a single island,” she told Cressida, eyes bright with delight.
“Me too,” Cressida told her, laughing. “Different island. Same idea.”
Prija came forward and took the jewel from Cressida’s hand. Its light flickered, changed, dimmed and went out, but pops of color and light like falling stars still shot through the stone. Prija looped the chain around her neck and settled it between her breasts, turning it in her fingertips.
“It doesn’t shine for me.” She sighed.
“Maybe it will one day.” Cressida shrugged, but she felt a great emptiness in her heart now, a warmth fled from her veins without the stone. Then she blinked, and laughed softly, because Prija had spoken in English. Or Cressida had heard her in English, because though the jewel’s light was dimmed, its power was not. “Thank you.”
Prija covered the jewel with one hand. “I’ll guard it for you until you return. Safe travels, Keeper.”
They sat together for a little while, until Reza returned with Kamala. He was startled to find Prija wearing the jewel, but when Cressida explained her reasoning, he offered no argument. It wasn’t until they were back in the dinghy rowing towards the ship that, in between strokes of the oar, he apparently became unable to help himself.
“Are you sure that was the right decision?” he asked.
Cressida frowned. “It was my decision. I never know if I’m making the right one, I suppose.”
“The jewel gives you great power, Cressida.” He frowned back at her.
“I know. But it also belongs here. And I don’t think I should take it traipsing about the globe with us. It’s precious. It should stay in the home we intend to make.”
She watched him row, saw his expression change as she spoke of making the island their home. She wondered if he hadn’t believed her before, if he’d thought she would never come back to this place. At last, he looked at her again, and he smiled a little.
“You are very brave,” he told her.
She smirked. “Or very stupid. I just try to do what’s right. Well—and to get what I want. And I never, ever want to lose the jewel in some terrible sea storm or something. Prija will take care of it until I return for it. Until we return for it with the others, for good.”
Reza squinted. “You really think you could be happy on the island, forever?”
She shrugged. “I’m not saying I won’t want to go on the occasional adventure here and there, but it’s a much better place than most. With you and Kelly, I think I will happy just about anywhere. I will try desperately to be happy wherever you are, anywhere that you are.”
Reza’s smile seemed to broaden. “I think maybe you’ve saved us all.”
Cressida laughed. “Wouldn’t that be mad?”
Reza just shook his head and rowed the rest of the way in silence. Later that evening, in bed, he showed her just how very safe he felt, and between the panting breaths and gasping cries, Cressida perceived his gratitude that their incredible, insane journey together should end in such promise, such bliss.
And then it was time to weigh anchor, and it had been so long since Cressida had felt unmoored that when the sails unfurled and she felt the breeze gust against them, the thrill of the sea lit through her like it was the first time. She stood on the forecastle with Kelly, watching for hours as the island got smaller and smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared from the horizon altogether.
Kelly arrived beside her, drifting a few fingers down her arm. “We’ll see it again,” he said softly.
She nodded. “I know. It just feels strange to be going…back.”
Kelly leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple. She knew that his thoughts were heavy of late, that he had his den’s happiness to worry over. And the trip. They had all nearly died on the journey to the island to begin with. They might not even make it back. And it would take time to gather all the dispersed members of the den, all the women and children they’d had to leave on islands in the sea, people they’d left behind during these long months. But at least they had hope. They had the hope of a home. Cressida thought that was the singular thing that kept them all going. Certainly it was the one thing that
they all had in common, no matter what incredible differences existed as well.
Chapter 11
After months at sea, again, Reza was convinced that once they put to port, finally, on the island of his birth once more, he would never leave it again. Dry land. He’d have given anything for dry land for the rest of his days, firm ground beneath his feet that never moved. He simply wasn’t meant to be a sailor, yet here he was, at sea for now nearly two years of his life overall.
The journey back was no less perilous than the journey out. The sea cared not at all about man, or his intentions. It was a summer of storms, too, and more than once they were left adrift in the great, wide blue with torn sails or snapped rigging, nothing to do but sit and sew and starve until they could get moving again. What couldn’t be like before, however, was Reza’s position amongst the crew. Though none of the bears really understood the relationship between the three of them, over time they had grown to accept Reza a member of their den at last. They didn’t yet afford him the same respect and obedience that they did Kelly, but he knew that it would take time. Patience, determination and time.
It was quite the adjustment for all of them. Though the mark bound them together in love and affection, it did not make them any less fallible, any less mortal. Neither Reza nor Kelly were prone to fits of jealousy, but they had them. Neither one of them wanted to hurt the other, but they got into several raucous brawls on the top deck over whose night it was to spend in the captain’s quarters with Cressida. Who had, in all practicality, become the captain herself. On each of those occasions, she had emerged from her quarters and simply exiled them both to the barracks until they could cool their heads. The rest of the den, the crew, never chose between Reza and Kelly. They always chose Cressida. Slowly, her alphas were learning to compromise. They were learning to communicate better.
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