by Dark, Raven
He must have realized that whatever I was running from wasn’t serious, because he nodded and took my hand. “We’ll be leaving in a couple of hours or so. Come with me.”
“Where to, Master?”
He said nothing, pulling me close and walking out of the camp across a meadow toward a river a few minutes away.
“Something’s been bothering you the last few days,” he said finally, lacing our fingers. “Out with it.”
I bit my lip. I had told the guys what Gita and the others had told me, about Serena and Lord Bain’s death. But I didn’t tell them how much it was affecting me. Drawing a deep breath, I went for the direct approach.
“I can’t stop thinking about Lord Bain, Master. About Serena, how horrible she must be feeling. Losing Falnar, now Bain… It just feels like everything Julian touches, turns to death and destruction.”
He ran his palm down his face. “Ah. Yeah, that whole thing is sad. He was a good man. And I know Serena is a good friend.”
He sat with me at the edge of the river, turning to face me so that his head was above mine and his warm chest was at my shoulder. “I wish I could tell you that Serena will be okay, but I can’t. You’re right, Julian is determined to destroy all that is good in this world.”
I nodded, staring at the water, envying nature its freedom from all the troubles that mankind had made.
“Doc said you were sick earlier, and you had a dream.” His voice rumbled above me. “Was it about him?”
“I don’t know. It’s strange, I don’t remember it. But it scared me enough to make me sick. I’ll tell Hawk as soon as we’re done here.”
“Good.”
After a few quiet moments, he tipped my chin up. “Do you remember that time I took you to the well? Do you remember what we talked about?”
I swallowed hard, my heart leaping wildly. “Yes, Master.”
He traced my lips with his finger. “I should have gone first, you know.”
“What?” My brain was too foggy to think straight.
“It’s an Old World thing.” His throat worked. “When an MC member took a woman as his Old Lady, if there was more than one man, the highest-ranking member went first.”
My heart purred. His Old Lady.
“Yes…” I said softly.
“I let Steel go first because he was the one who was smart enough to figure it out before any of us, but it should have been me.”
I chewed my lip, waiting on tenterhooks.
Sheriff’s lips brushed my ear. It was cold out here, but my skin was on fire. “I will marry you, Setora, but not with any of those backwards Critian rules. I want it my way, with my whole fucking crew watching you say you’re mine.”
My eyes stung with joy. I closed them, savoring his words. It wasn’t that long ago when Sheriff would have never dreamed of saying anything like that to me.
“But for now, this will have to do.” He paused and ripped a flower out of the grass, then slipped it with surprising tenderness into the side of my hair. “Say it, Setora,” he whispered.
“Say what?” I pressed.
“You know what,” he growled softly, pinching my chin. “Say you’ll be my Old Lady.”
My whole body jolted with the words, happiness filling me until it overflowed. I threw my arms around him, and I wasn’t sure if he’d fallen back with me on purpose, or if I’d knocked him flat, but he chuckled, and his arms caged me against him.
I gazed into his perfect indigo eyes. “I am your Old Lady, Sheriff. I think I have always been, and this is just a formality.”
“Yeah.” He cradled my nape. “I think so, too. I mean, when I asked you to be mine before at the well, that’s what I was trying to tell you. I just had my damn head so far up my ass, I didn’t see it.” His lips teased mine. “How is it that it took me going fucking blind to see what you meant to me?”
“I don’t know. Funny how things happen, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “Master Leif may be kind of a jerk, but he’s fucking brilliant. He said something that made me get it. He said…” He paused, thinking, then his voice took on a wise, philosophical air. “He said, ‘Only when the eyes cannot see, does the heart truly view what we’ve lost.’”
“That’s beautiful.”
“A lot of what the Yantu say sounds like mumbo jumbo, but in this case, that one was true.”
He pulled my head down and possessed my mouth in a long, deep kiss. I groaned. His tongue flicked between my lips, and I tasted him eagerly, already feeling my sex clench.
Slowly, his tongue swirled mine. I let mine mate with his, and he moaned into my mouth, deepening the kiss. My legs instinctively spread to either side of his hips, my sex grinding into him. His cock twitched in response, pressing against my belly.
Still kissing me dizzy, Sheriff hauled me up until my core pressed into his hardness. His hands jerked my cloak up, my frock, and dove into the back of my panties, covering my ass in heat.
Men’s voices reached my ears from the camp, piercing the hammer of my heart.
“The men can see us,” I panted when he broke the kiss to bite my neck.
“I don’t give a shit.” He ripped my panties at the side, and I lifted up so he could remove them.
Maker, I was so wet, and suddenly I didn’t care either.
“I want them to see me fuck you.”
The notion made me hotter, and I groaned my agreement.
Two of his fingers teased my soaking clit, and he purred his approval. “Soaked for me.”
I panted and rocked my hips, loving every stroke.
Sheriff slid his fingers inside. A moan ripped out of me. He nipped my ear and I whimpered, rocking faster.
“Master…”
He rolled me onto me back and worked open his belt and pants, his fist stroking his cock. I looked down, watching him pump himself, watching that piercing at the tip wink at me. I loved the look of him, thick and long and ready.
Sheriff sat up and teased my core a little more. Then he lifted my hips and hammered into me.
I cried out and bucked. He pumped faster, growling into my shoulder, licking the side of my neck and my ear.
“Shit. I love the fuck out of you. You hear me?”
I nodded into his shoulder, choking out the words on tears of joy and pleasure. “I love you too…” I said raggedly.
He growled, almost a roar and thrust home fast and hard. White lights exploded across my vision, and I flew over the edge, rutting wildly. He grunted and pulled out, pumping himself and spreading hot come onto my belly. He’d come on me plenty of times, but never like this. It had never felt like he was marking me as his for all time.
For that moment I forgot about the journey. I forgot about the danger, about Julian, about the violence and the death and the lives lost. Right here and now, there was only us, and this, I would never ,ever forget.
* * *
The dream, whatever it had been, never came again, but I did get sick. I wasn’t the only one. Bear, Grim, and at least one of Ivek’s men had colds and upset stomachs, and Grim kept sneezing. I heard Bear empty his stomach twice. He joked about Blade’s food, but Doc had warned us about altitude sickness, and I had a feeling it was only going to get worse.
We’d crossed into the first few miles of the Orial, camping deep in the caves that bordered the high mountains. The mountains and our bonfires kept most of the cold away…until we set out again.
Days passed with more traveling, more cold, more decimated towns. More sickness. There wasn’t much out here this close to the Orial, but there were a few cities spread out over the lower mountain ranges, where the paths weren’t so treacherous. Julian found them. He found them all.
Snow lay everywhere, thick drifts that sometimes rose high enough to bury the unwary traveler. We huddled for warmth, me sometimes with all four of my men. Out here, with temperatures that could freeze on contact, there was no time to worry about Hawk’s lone wolf tendencies, or Sheriff’s usual tendency to sleep only
with me.
Doc slept crammed in between Bear and Blade, grumbling about their snoring. I lay warm and cozy with my Four.
“Steel, get your elbow out of my back,” Sheriff mumbled, spooned behind me.
“It’s not me,” Steel muttered. “It’s Pretty Boy.”
“Whatever, roll over or something.”
My shoulders shook.
“Are you laughing at me, woman?” Sheriff smiled against my ear.
“Never, Master.”
“Go to sleep.” He squeezed me tighter.
I closed my eyes.
Ali’san came chattering into the cave, and I opened one eye. Then the other, very wide. She was currently pulling Ivek’s thick fur blanket back and slipping inside it with him. He jolted awake and then smiled, closing her in his arms. “Come to your senses, did you?” he murmured.
“This is for warmth,” she muttered forcefully. “I’m cold.”
“A good excuse. I will keep you warm then. Give me your mouth.”
She started to protest, but he smothered it with a kiss.
Soft groans filled their corner of the cave. From both of them.
“You’re kidding me, right?” Sheriff murmured into my neck. He chuckled.
Ali’san gave an unmistakable whimper.
‘Guess not,” Sheriff grunted.
“What the fuck is going on?” Pretty Boy. I glanced back at him and saw him look over at them. “Oh, man. How are we supposed to sleep now?” In a huff, Pretty Boy crawled over to my side and scooted in beside me, Sheriff still at my back.
“Maybe we should leave them alone,” I whispered teasingly to Sheriff and him.
Especially since the lovebirds were getting more…enthusiastic. I saw Ali’san’s hand grope the top of Ivek’s pillow. Her head lifted from under the blankets. The sheer ecstasy on her face, almost a look of agony, made my sex wet.
“No way,” Sheriff rumbled into my ear. His cock jabbing into my ass. “This is hot.”
He was right, it was.
Ivek’s hand seized Ali’san’s shoulder from behind. He groaned and pumped into her, and her ass pushed back into him under the covers, her knuckles white as she gripped his pillow.
Hot wasn’t the word for this.
Without a word, Sheriff slid his hand to my stomach and down between my legs. I pulled a leg over Pretty Boy’s warm thigh, and my blond master buried his face in my neck with a low moan.
Oh, yes. Yes, yes.
Sheriff finger fucked me slowly. I swallowed a whimper.
Ali’san and Ivek rutted faster. Ivek gripped her shoulder to stabilize her and give himself leverage, pounding into her with hard possessive strokes. Ali’san panted and bucked.
I captured Pretty Boy’s mouth.
His tongue marauded mine, while his hand found my nipple and tugged. “Fuck, Princess.”
Ali’san gave another whimper, Ivek grunted, and the two of them slumped on the furs with an exhausted sigh. The sound of them coming must have made Sheriff wild, because he tilted my hips and slid into me from behind.
“Mine,” Sheriff whispered in my ear.
“Yes…” I grabbed Pretty Boy’s steely cock, sliding my hand up and down, Sheriff’s hard strokes inside me making me come apart again and again. Pretty Boy’s hot come spilled into my hand at the same time Sheriff came inside me, two long groans echoing softly at my ear.
We panted hard, lying there for a few minutes before Pretty Boy got up and handed me and Sheriff a clean towel. Once we were settled again, I snuggled into my masters’ loving warmth.
For now, the cold of the outside world was million miles away. Love was in the air, two of my friends had finally seized it with both hands, and I was the Property of the Four. Nothing could be more perfect.
I should have known it was too good to last.
* * *
I was lost.
I was lost in the most fantastic orgasm I’ve ever had. Pretty Boy had his hand in my hair, tugging it hard as he took me from behind. Sheriff had his perfect cock in my mouth, sliding in and out. Hawk’s hand seemed to be everywhere at once, stroking my clit while his other hand pumped his cock. Steel was doing what he always did in situations like this, watching the whole debauchery from the side until he was ready. My husband, working his cock slowly. I could feel every sensation as if magnified ten fold, hear every sound as if it were everywhere at once.
It was perfect, utterly perfect, except something was terribly wrong.
The thought slid through my mind, making my skin prickle with dread. I drew up on my knees and looked around at my men. My men. My Four. They all looked fine, except…
I didn’t know what had been behind Sheriff before, but now the sun was behind his head, bright enough that it burned my eyes. It rose higher into the sky until it was a span above the snowy mountains that marched in the distance behind him.
The sense of someone watching pressed in on me. I turned my head to look at Hawk.
I opened my mouth to speak, but whatever I’d meant to say died on my lips.
The shadow of a man stood behind Hawk, a form in the distance that watched him and the others. Without seeing the man’s face, I knew he was watching us, watching everything like a predator.
The man shifted, and the sunlight caught the silvery bluish scales of his uniform. A topknot gleamed in pale purple at the top of his head.
My heart stuttered.
Tahmi…
Julian’s commander raised a bow in his hand, drawing the fletching of an arrow to his ear. The arrowhead was aimed right at Hawk.
I tried to scream, to warn him, but nothing came out.
Tahmi drew the arrow back a little more. I swore I heard the bow string stretch as he prepared to fire.
Julian’s voice filled my head—soft and deadly calm.
“Come.” The word reverberated, whispering across the recesses of my mind like a haunting ghost. “Time is up, Coma Di. Leave before the dawn and come to me. Alone and unarmed. If you do not, they—your Four and everyone else you love—will die.”
As if to make a point, Tahmi let the arrow fly.
It streaked across the snow-covered plains, straight for Hawk’s head. It struck him, and he fell forward. I scrambled away as an arrow struck Sheriff in the side of the skull…
I shook awake in the darkness, panting and clawing at the bed of furs under me. My heartbeat thudded in my ears. Sweat slicked my face. The cave opening stood in front of me, moonlight streaming in. It was still night, and there was no Julian, no Tahmi.
I glanced at the spot beside me.
Sheriff lay on his side, pressed against me, his hand on my thigh. He was warm and safe and fine. There was no arrow sticking out of his head.
My eyes raised to the blankets spread out beside him. The still lying forms of Hawk and Steel were there. On my other side, Pretty Boy groaned in his sleep and rolled over. They were all there, alive and well.
The panic racing through me slid away. I looked around the cave. Doc slept near the entrance in a roll of furs, his chest rising and falling slowly. I stood up silently, carefully, letting the fur blanket that covered me fall away.
To my left, Bear and Grim lay. To my right, Ivek lay on his back, huge chest expanding on slow breaths. Ali’san lay in his arms, her cheek pressed to his chest, tendrils of her pale violet hair falling over her face. Ivek’s arm tightened around her.
In the middle of the floor of the cave, Gita and the girls…they all lay huddled together for warmth. I let out a calming breath. Everyone was fine.
I tiptoed around the slumbering bodies of my friends to the opening of the cave. The cold air brushed my body, sending goosebumps across my naked skin.
He’d said to come to him, to leave before dawn.
The moon was low in the sky. The first slivers of dawn would come soon. Within the hour.
I looked over the camp outside. Ivek’s men talked in low voices around the fires.
A glance back into the cave, and I could see I
vek’s fur cloak hanging near him over a box of supplies.
My throat went dry as my mind raced.
On more look out at the moon, where dawn would soon show its light.
Come to me before the dawn or they will die.
I looked at my sleeping Four, and my gut twisted.
I tiptoed over to Ivek’s cloak and swung it around my shoulders, putting the hood up to hide my face, my purple hair, closing its bulk to hide my feminine shape.
Quietly, I slipped on my boots and covered my head and face with one of the fur masks all of us now wore. The mask would ward off the cold, but it also hid my hair. Then I grabbed my pack with a few days-worth of food, and a supply of those eyed-drops that turned my eyes black
Then, putting up the thick hood on Ivek’s cloak, I took one last long look at my men.
I love you. I will not let you die today.
Slipping the pack onto my back, I sneaked out of the cave toward the edge of camp and into the snow-covered night.
Chapter 34
Mergence
“What exactly do you think you’re doing?”
I was less than thirty minutes from camp, at the edge of a narrow river when the voice spoke up behind me in a fierce whisper.
Heart in my throat, I spun.
Ali’san stood there in the moonlight, one of the men’s thick cloaks over her shoulders. A sword stuck up from a scabbard at her back.
“Ali’san.” I clutched my chest. “I… I have to go. Julian… he threatened them. He’ll kill my men. All of you, if I don’t go now.”
She lowered the hood covering her head. “You aren’t going alone.”
“Neither of you are…arg…Gita, get off my cloak,” Tari hissed.
Gita, her sister, and Yaela scrambled out of the trees I’d just come though, pushing and shoving past sharp branches.
Kash brought up the rear, a fur cloak draping to her feet.
My eyes stung with tears of love for them.
“Ladies, go back to bed. This is too dangerous. Besides, he said I had to—”
“We know. We heard him call you, too,” Kash said simply, crossing to me.