by Sable Sylvan
“What’s the other way?” asked Daisy, crumpling up the empty tin foil used for the s’more.
“Well...you won’t believe it, but there’s this thing called shifter paths,” explained Bill.
“A shifter path? What’s that?” asked Daisy.
“Watch...and you’ll see,” said Bill, taking Daisy by the hand and leading her away from the fire and the other men. Daisy looked back. The other men didn’t seem to be jealous at all. They were waving them away! Daisy turned back to Bill and looked up at him, trying to figure out just what his game was. His grip was firm and strong, and holding hands with him felt natural, his big shifter paw pads pressing into her own soft human palms.
Bill heard a snap and his ears prickled. He had forgotten something important. “Get up,” said Bill, holding out his arms as he crouched to hold her.
“Why?” asked Daisy.
“Because I just remembered you’re in bare feet, and these woods have a lot of sharp rocks and branches hidden within the underbrush,” said Bill. “Come on. Hop up.”
“Fine,” said Daisy, wrapping her arms around Bill’s strong neck as he cradled her. Bill’s broad chest made her feel safe and protected as he carried her into the woods. “Do you know where we’re going?”
“Of course, I’ve practically lived in these woods my whole life,” said Bill. “I know them inside and out. Plus...you know, I’m a bear. I can see in the dark.”
“I didn’t know bears could do that,” said Daisy.
“You ever wonder why we’re so grizzly? It’s because we’re up during the day. Bears are really unique, in that we can be nocturnal or diurnal, depending on a lot of factors, like genetics or proximity to humans,” explained Bill. “Us guys are all pretty nocturnal. Anyways, all bears have pretty good night vision.”
“That’s neato...but I can’t see anything,” said Daisy.
“Wait...” said Bill softly as he finally came to a standstill. “And watch.”
Everything was dark, at least for a few minutes. Daisy held onto Bill, a little scared because she was in the forest at night for the first time, and more than a little aroused by her proximity to the hunk of man meat.
Then, Daisy saw a spark in the night air. She thought it must be a trick of the light, but then, she saw the spark again. Then, another...and another, until there were dozens, then dozens of dozens, of tiny lights sparkling, in a line, illuminating a pathway through the forest, the path flanked on each side by fireflies, glowing and dancing around softly.
“Those are the shifter paths,” whispered Bill. “Or at least, that’s one. The fireflies light our way to special places.”
“Where do they come from?” asked Daisy. “Or, I guess...how are they formed?”
“Nobody really knows,” said Bill. “But my grandmother told me that the first bears came from the sky...that they came down to Earth by following the stars, but they couldn’t find their way back home. They saw fireflies, or some say mushrooms or fish, that formed familiar paths. They followed those paths because they had been told to follow the stars back home...and when we go to the moon watching ceremonies, we’re retracing paths our ancestors made for generations. We’re part of a tradition that’s bigger than us, maybe better than us. See?” Bill turned so Daisy was facing the opposite direction. There was a firefly path back towards the way they came.
“There’s a shifter path leading to my farm?” asked Daisy.
“Not just to it, through it,” explained Bill. “That’s why we always used the Craston Bros. farm to get to our moon-watching ceremonies: your grandpa used to let the bear clans use the land, until there was a falling out. Your grandpa wanted to start charging the clans money to use the land, when the shifter paths were, before, basically public property and usable by anyone. Your grandfather proposed using a toll system: of course, the bear clans were against this based on principal, but it left your grandpa with the nasty nickname of ‘Toll Troll’, which is why we called you that the first time we had...an altercation with you. There used to be a bridge on the property, over the creek. Our ancestors built it...but your grandpa tore it down. That’s why we had to take the long way, using your land, to get to the woods.”
“I had no idea, I wish you’d just explained to me,” said Daisy.
“Well, the shifter paths are a secret and we don’t just share the secret with anyone...but we’re friends now, Daisy, or maybe, even something more,” said Bill, pulling Daisy up close as he pulled her in for a kiss. He didn’t need permission, he knew how to read the signs, and he let Daisy bridge the gap between their faces. He just set the bridge up for her.
Daisy pulled Bill close and let instinct take over as she explored his mouth with hers, at first, only pressing her lips against his, before parting her mouth to take his tongue inside of her mouth, before swirling together her tongue until they were as entwined as two separate flavors of soft serve in a swirl cone.
As Bill’s cock twitched with arousal, his eyes flashed, a bright amber color which illuminated his naturally brown eyes. The bear inside of him roared: a bear, with a potential mate, in the woods? There was no need to overcomplicate this: Bill should just take her, then and there, in the sticks and twigs and leaves of the forest underbrush, the way that mates were joined for centuries, millennia. It was practically tradition.
But Bill was the one to break the kiss as he noticed something happening in his peripheral vision. He turned to look: the fireflies had changed their pattern again. They had been softly floating and steadily glowing before, but now, the fireflies were erratic, jumpy, and turning their lights on and off quickly as individuals, no longer acting as a group.
“Why are they blinking so fast?” asked Daisy, following Bill’s gaze
“That’s why,” said Bill, pointing upwards towards the sky and looking up. Through the branches, Daisy could just barely see the dark clouds covered the sky, and it was nearly impossible to see the moon.
Bill turned and started to run through the forest with Daisy. “Why are you going so fast?” asked Daisy as her hair swirled around her face.
“We’ve got to get out of the forest, it’s dangerous during storms,” said Bill.
“What’s so dangerous about it?” asked Daisy.
A flash of light ran through the path in front of Bill. It hit a tree rather than the couple. The tree fell with a crashing thud, its insides glowing a bright red as the core of the tree was turned to embers and then to ash. The fire didn’t spread because rain started to fall around, soaking Bill and Daisy’s clothes. “Does that answer your question?” asked Bill, stepping back before running and leaping over the log with the curvy lass still in his arms, as he made his way back to Daisy’s farm, the fireflies around them blinking faster and faster as the storm raged on.
Daisy held onto Bill tightly as he guided them through the woods, not talking because that’d distract him. Sure there had been storms back on the farm, but her family’s ranch wasn’t in a part of Texas that had a lot of trees or forests, and the lightning would strike water towers or telephone poles rather than tall, towering trees.
Although night had fallen, Daisy saw a red glow towards the end of the path: it was the fire pit, which meant they were close to the farm. Another branch was in their way, but Bill navigated around it and got them to the fire pit before he put Daisy down so she could walk again. After being carried for so long, Daisy’s legs were wobbly and weak.
“Why did you idiots wait for us?” asked Bill. “You could get yourselves killed!”
“We were about to go search for you in the words,” explained Liam.
“Frikkin’ idiots,” cursed Bill. “Put out the fire and let’s head inside, quickly.”
Before they could even get the pig off the fire pit, a bolt of lightning illuminated the sky and it started pouring hail as well. This was a freak storm for Oregon and Daisy and the boys were anything but prepared.
“Come on,” said Liam, taking Daisy by the hand. “It’s too dangerous t
o be out here with the lightning.”
Daisy slipped in the mud, her white sandals more fashionable than practical and her legs still weak from being carried for the better part of an hour by Bill, and Liam picked her right back up, carrying her past the canes of marionberries and into the farm house. Wylie and Bill were at Liam’s tail, and Wylie grabbed the door to let everyone in.
Once they were inside, Liam put Daisy down and they all kicked off their shoes. Daisy flicked on the light switch, but it didn’t go on. Liam made his way to the bathroom and got a pile of towels for everyone to use to towel off while Wylie and Bill looked for candles and lighters.
“You don’t have emergency candles, do you?” asked Wylie, opening cabinet after cabinet, looking for storm supplies. Although the house was dark, Wylie and the other shifters could see just fine.
“No, I didn’t think to get any,” said Daisy. “But I have some scented candles in my room.”
“Those’ll be better than nothing,” said Wylie. “Where do you keep the matches?”
“Doesn’t matter, I found them,” said Bill, holding up a box of matches and a flashlight. “Daisy, you can’t see, right? Take this.”
Daisy headed to her room, using the flashlight that Bill found, and picked up all the scented candles she had on her dresser before getting the scented candle from the bathroom. She brought them all to the living room and Bill carefully placed them on her empty mantle and lit them, bathing the house in a warm golden glow.
Daisy looked over the three men; they were sopping wet, as their jeans had gotten thoroughly soaked even during the fast trek to the house. Her dress was made of a synthetic fabric, so it was already drying off, but the men were wearing all-American denim, which kept water in its fibers like a sponge. The denim, usually roomy on the farm hands, was now plastered to their legs and left little to the imagination. Even through the thick fabric of the jeans, Daisy could make out the outlines of their packages, although their cocks weren’t as accentuated as their firm, broad abs were from under their wet shirts, shirts that were surprisingly thin and which clung to their skin like a spider’s gossamer to a fly.
“Get out of those clothes,” said Daisy. “You’re soaking wet.”
“We’ll be fine,” insisted Liam, looking over Daisy. “Plus, you’re soaking wet yourself, Daisy.”
“I’m already almost dry, but you three...you’ll catch a death of cold, and I have a washer and dryer, so we can do a load of laundry when the power comes back on, don’t be stupid,” said Daisy.
The three men looked at one another. They had agreed that they wouldn’t do what they were being asked to do until the moment was absolutely right. “Trust me, Daisy, its better if we don’t take our shirts off,” said Liam.
“Well, if you aren’t, I will,” said Daisy crossly...before she did the most impulsive thing she’d done her entire life.
Daisy undid the halter tie on the side of her dress and then undid the side of the dress, leaving her in a pair of undies and a bra, which were white and lacy and matched the shade of white on the dress’s polka dots, a bright cool white like something out of a bleach ad. “There. I showed you mine, now you show me yours.” Daisy crossed her hands over her chest and looked at the three men who were soaking wet in their t-shirts and flannels and jeans.
“Alright,” said Liam. “But you’re gonna wanna sit down.”
“And ruin my grandpa’s chairs? No way,” said Daisy, picking up the dress and holding it in a ball in her hands as the men undid their belts first, removing their wet socks and jeans before they undid their flannels. This left them in just boxers and wet t-shirts.
The boxers were soaking wet, and left little to the imagination: all three of the men were very well endowed and it looked as if they had a full grocer’s worth of vegetables down their pants, from the zucchini and tomatoes in Wylie’s boxers to the squash and potatoes in Liam’s boxer briefs, and of course, Bill had a full eggplant and a pair of heads of lettuce to match.
Daisy tried not to blush, but she knew she was bright pink. How could any girl keep a straight face when looking at three sets of junk? And weren’t men supposed to, well, ‘shrink’ in water, not get bigger?
Finally, the men looked at Daisy. Bill asked, “Are you sure you want us to strip?”
“I don’t see what the big deal is,” said Daisy, motioning at her body. “I did it. It’s not a huge deal. It’s just going topless.”
“You’re not topless, you’ve got a bra on,” said Liam.
“Yeah, well, I don’t have a top on, so I’m topless,” said Daisy. “Shirts. Off. Now.”
“Fine, fine,” said Liam, and he pulled his shirt off slowly and the others followed suit. It was like a Mexican standoff in reverse where nobody wanted to remove their shirt unless the other two did so themselves, but Liam took the lead.
What Daisy saw shocked her. By the dim lantern light, she wasn’t quite sure that what she was seeing was real, and thought it had to be a trick of the light, but the longer she looked, the more she realized that what she was seeing was absolutely real.
Chapter Six
The three men all had the same mark on their chest. Over their left pecs, there was a yellow circle, as bright as the sun, and around the pecs, there were twelve oblong marks, in the palest white color that Daisy had ever seen on skin. The marks were petals around the yellow core...forming a symbol that looked just like a daisy.
“What...no, there’s no way,” said Daisy. “Your mate marks are all daisies?”
“That’s right,” said Liam.
“That’s why once we learned your name, we knew we had to be with you,” said Wylie.
“And you didn’t just think that you could tell me?”” asked Daisy.
“Because this is crazy, and we know it,” said Bill. “It’s rare for shifters to share the same mate mark. Even two shifters sharing the same mark is rare. Three shifters? Even rarer.”
“You have no idea how unfair this is,” said Daisy.
“How is it unfair?” asked Bill. “Most women are lucky to find a man...you were lucky enough to find three.”
“How am I supposed to pick one of you?” asked Daisy. “How am I supposed to make such a difficult decision? I feel something for all of you.”
“You don’t have to choose,” said Bill softly, as he leaned in to take Daisy by the waist, nuzzling her neck.
“You remember what you told me about the farm?” asked Wylie. “About how the logo, the name, and the farm are a package deal? How you can’t have one without having all three?”
‘Well, we’re the same,” said Liam. “We’ve waited for you our whole lives, Daisy...and we can’t pick, and neither can you. It’s three or none.”
“You’re awful presumptuous,” said Daisy. “I don’t know how you Northern boys think women down South operate, but where I’m from, things are more...traditional.”
“You mean humans and shifters don’t mix?” asked Liam.
“What? No, of course they mix, even if it isn’t that common,” said Daisy. “Although the times are still changing. No, it’s just...three guys? One girl? That’s not how I was raised.”
“It’s uncommon, that’s for sure, but it’s fate, Daisy, and even you have to believe in fate,” said Liam, taking Daisy’s hand and helping her up from the couch. “Let us show you just how strong the power of fate is.”
“How?” asked Daisy.
“Well...we could get you a bit more comfortable, for starters,” said Liam. He reached around and unhooked Daisy’s bra, but let Daisy take her bra off slowly and carefully.
Daisy lowered the straps of her bra and pulled it off. It did feel good to be out of her wet undergarments. She leaned down to take off her underwear, which was wet from more than just the rain. “There. And now, I showed you mine...so show me yours,” said Daisy with a smirk.
“Your wish is our command,” said Wylie as Liam walked back to his two friends. Each of the men removed his wet undergarments and placed t
hem on the pile of wet clothes in the corner of the living room, away from the nice things.
Even in the dim light, Daisy could see that the men were very well endowed. “Those...are pretty big,” said Daisy. “There’s no way I can take all of them at one time. Heck, I don’t even think one of them will fit in me.”
“Well, of course they won’t fit right now, you’re not relaxed,” said Wylie. Wylie spread out one of the throw blankets onto the couch and led Daisy over to the couch, sitting her down...and then he got down on his knees and hiked Daisy’s legs up over his shoulders. Daisy gripped the sofa, but Bill sat down next to her to help her ride Wylie’s face carefully.
Wylie went to town on Daisy’s nethers. Her honey pot was wet and ready, but he pressed two fingers in to see if the canal could really take a huge shifter shaft. The two fingers went in with ease, and he kept them in there while he licked in circles around Daisy’s clit, tracing out the shape of her namesake flower over her special nub. The shape was made of many intricate loops, back and forth, as if Wylie was crocheting an orgasm for Daisy.
“Wow, that feels...amazing,” admitted Daisy. Bill leaned in and kissed Daisy while Wylie kept sucking on Daisy’s clit. Bill pressed his tongue against Daisy’s mouth and explored her more passionately than he’d been able to in the woods, sucking Daisy’s lower lip into his mouth to lightly nibble on it before letting her do the same to him. “Oh, Wylie”, she sighed.
Daisy let out small soft moans as the men explored her body with their hands. The storm raged on outside, but it was nothing compared to the sensual, slow moving event that was taking place in the plain farmhouse living room, lit only by the candles and every so often, the occasional strike of lightning which let out a thunderous clap that could drown out even Daisy’s mewls of pleasure. Daisy pushed Wylie’s head closer in, pushing his face further into her nethers while running her fingers through his hair, feeling his short brown locks part beneath her gentle spreading touch.