He took her hand and, after kissing her mother on the cheek, led her through a door that opened into a flowery garden. At the end of the walkway was a monolith carved from wood, and so beautiful Emma’s breath caught in her throat.
It was a clock, hand-carved and lovingly burnished. The face was a perfect, polished piece of quartz, the hands carved from obsidian. At the position of each number was a different colored gem, uncut, but polished, shining in the sunlight in a rainbow around the circle of the clock’s face.
At the moment, the hands said it was half-past four. The gems the hands pointed to were an emerald and an aquamarine. A huge ruby nestled into the mark at the apex. The gems the hands pointed to glowed.
“Papa! This is beautiful! Wow, and it’s nothing like the things you used to build.” Emma reached out to touch the smooth stone that represented the six, but her father grabbed her wrist.
“No touching. It’s delicate, and your power could throw it off time. It’s more than just a clock, honey. It’s a timer. Your mother helped me make it and poured all but the very last of her magic into it. Something bad is coming, and we need to know when it’s going to happen. This clock will tell us.”
“Something bad? Papa, what the hell is going on here? Tell me!”
Her father gripped her hands in both of his and rubbed her palms with his thumbs. The gesture soothed her, just as it always had when she was younger. His heavy brows drew together, his lips pursed in the midst of his thick beard.
“Tides are changing for us. For all the races. You’ve done the research outside already. I’ve read everything you’ve written, and you have all the details right. There are four races, just like you believed. We have a common enemy, and this clock is meant to measure time until we have to meet that enemy and fight them.”
Emma looked back at the clock. She noted smaller marks around the outside of the face. The second hand ticked away, the minute hand lazily following. Her eyes rested on one of the outer gems that glowed red right near the five.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“Those are years. And that little gem is when we have to fight them.”
“That’s twenty-five years from now, Papa. Why the hell are you worried about it?”
“Because you will be the Queen by then, baby. You need to be prepared to lead the ursa alongside the other races, to ensure the enemy fails.”
“Ah, I kind of need a little clarification on our role here . . . care to elaborate?”
He led her to a bench in the shade of a willow tree and they sat.
“Your mother is centuries old. She could have lived centuries more, but spent too much of her energy to help me build this clock. As a race, the ursa are the guardians of the elements. All of them. And they can use their magic to predict what Fate has in store for us. The other races asked us to build this, to monitor the conflict.”
“And you’re the builder in residence?” Emma asked.
“It’s what I’m good at, honey. Don’t knock it.”
“I’m not. It’s just a lot to take in. All of it. I don’t want a mate. I want . . . ” At first, Emma thought of her career. If there was anything in the world she’d left behind that would draw her back, it wasn’t a man—it was her work. She’d spent years on her research, and committing to a life here would mean giving all that up. But committing to her old life would mean giving all this up. Her family could be together again—all of them. Mate or no mate, that was something.
Then her mind wandered to Julian and August, and she immediately felt a little warm between her legs. She tried to tell herself it was just hormones—that they had been the first, and so far only, full-grown ursa males she’d met. Maybe there were others like them.
“You want what you want,” her father said. “You always were very decisive as a child.”
“What do I do about it?”
He let out a sigh that turned into an ominous rumble. “I want you to be happy, but ursa politics are tricky. If you choose to be the Queen, it will be a challenge to maintain the respect of the clans—to effectively lead them—without taking a mate the other clans deem worthy.”
Emma gazed back up at the clock, eyeing the glowing red mark he’d pointed out to her. “What do I need to do?”
Her father rested his warm hands on her shoulders as he answered. “Be the Queen you were meant to be. If you do not, it will have to be Jade, and she may not have the constitution for leadership that you have. It’s in your blood, honey.”
Chapter Six
Emma’s mind still buzzed from the conversation with her dad. He had always been her biggest advocate, and still was. Her mother was a different story—a wild card, but someone Emma felt a profound connection with, nonetheless. A Queen who would sacrifice most of her life’s essence to help protect her people would be a tough act to follow. And not just protecting her own people, Emma admitted, but the future of all the races. Races that, until very recently, Emma only dreamed could actually exist.
After their talk, she’d kissed her father on the cheek and told him she needed time to think. She spent the next hour wandering the paths through the woods behind the lodge. Part of her was terrified of the drastic shift her life seemed to have taken, but another part of her knew with utter certainty that this was what she was meant for. If she were to live up to her mother’s example, she knew what she needed to do.
She walked back toward the lodge, resolute in her decision. As much as the two ursa males she’d met today occupied her thoughts, they would not—could not—be the last males she let herself get attached to. Though now when Julian and August crossed her mind, a dull ache burned in her chest that rivaled the ever-present ache in her lower abdomen. She hoped that it wouldn’t take long for whomever they’d chosen to come, and that he would live up to the already lofty image she had of what a worthy ursa male should be.
Her decision left her morose and wishing for more solitude. When she let her parents know her decision, she just wanted to be alone and wait until she had to fulfill her duty. Hopefully her cousins would be all right and she would have them to talk to. If anyone would understand her predicament, they would.
The heat of the summer afternoon had her hot and sweating when she came into sight of the gardens again. A sudden spasm that was half pleasure, half pain gripped her abdomen, making her double over with the power of it. Her vision swam and she stopped to lean against a tree, her chest heaving under the sheer top. It was too hot, yet a cool breeze drifted over her skin and she realized the heat was radiating out of her, from her core up through her body. Her pussy throbbed with unquenched fire, and her nipples ached.
Emma tugged the collar of her shirt down, baring her breasts and hoping to cool them off. How in the world did ursa females survive? She’d never felt this level of raw hunger to be fucked. She’d rarely felt any hunger to be fucked before—nothing more than a vague ache that was more easily sated with her vibrator than the effort it took to find a willing male who didn’t treat it like he was doing her a favor.
The breeze drifted over her nipples in soft gusts and she slid down the trunk of the tree. Her backside came to rest on the leafy ground and she tugged her skirt up her thighs, spreading her legs and pressing her fingers tight against her clit. Her pussy was a molten lake, aching with need, but stroking herself only made it worse.
Yet she couldn’t stop. She sat against the tree in the dappled sunlight of the forest, tweaking her nipples with one hand while she worked herself furiously with the other, seeking something that resembled the relief she’d felt after her earlier encounter with the two beautiful males.
“Oh, God, where are you? I need you.” Emma let out a frustrated groan as the barest ripple of an orgasm fizzled and subsided, leaving only greater pressure, an unbearable need for more. Her head throbbed from it, her vision darkening with spots of black. The entire world swam around her as she floundered to keep her
mind in the realm of consciousness, but it was no use.
As the forest faded to darkness around her, she believed she saw them again—two dark shapes, guarding her. Her guardians. They would help, would deliver her from this affliction in the way only they could. Because they were hers, after all.
* * *
Emma woke on a bed surrounded by soft cushions and the scent of honeysuckle filling her nostrils. The pleasant caress of a hand made soft, kneading circles in the center of her lower back. Another hand rested over her belly, cupping it.
Hushed words in a female voice were murmured near her ear—words she recognized from her research—a song in an ancient language that she’d only translated snippets of. The song calmed her, drawing back a memory that she’d believed was a dream her entire life. Cool energy seemed to flow from the hand over her stomach, through her skin, and the unbearable ache finally receded, though didn’t leave completely.
“There you are, baby. You’ll be all right. As soon as the guardians return, they’ll take care of you.”
“Mama?” Emma said, blinking up into her mother’s kind, worried face. “Oh, God, what’s happening to me?”
Her mother shifted closer, pulling Emma’s head onto her lap and continuing to stroke her hair. “You’re in your fertile time, sweetheart. While you were in the human world, your body was charmed with magic to make it function like a human’s body. You grew up, had your menses like human girls do. Ursa females don’t go through that. Normally, an ursa female, when she comes of age, will hit her first estrous shortly afterward, but you only came of age a few weeks ago. It was your father’s blood in your veins that kept you in that state of human childhood until the time came for you to grow up. Now that you’re here, you are fully ursa now, with all the joys and trials that come with it.”
Emma thought back to the disastrous conference presentation on the night of her birthday, and the affinity she’d felt that night for the woman who had kissed her. Not sexual attraction, necessarily, but a kind of kinship that went far deeper than their shared academic interests. She wondered where Erika was now. Had she found what she sought? Had it affected her as much as Emma’s own experience?
“What did you do to make it stop?” Emma asked, clutching at her mother’s thighs and sighing under the gentle ministrations. She’d never had this kind of maternal comfort before, and it felt wonderful.
“Just a little magic. You’ll be able to do it too, once you’ve conceived your first child. Pregnant females wield powerful magic, and it lingers for a long time after they’ve had a child. In your state, your body’s need is sapping all that magic from you, which is why you need to couple with a male. Even without intercourse, the guardians can replenish your energy, calm your spirit. Until you’ve conceived, this need will come in waves, not unlike labor pains, but just . . . different.”
“But they do calm my spirit, Mama. I want them, so, so much.” Her chest seized, her throat choked by a sob that worked its way out. “I can’t have them, though, can I?” she said through tears. “Don’t answer that, it’s okay. I made my choice. I want to be strong for you. For everyone.”
And she would be strong. She snuffled and wiped her eyes, sitting up. When she looked into her mother’s face, she saw anguish and sadness.
“Are you all right? What happened?” Then alarm struck. “Did they find Jasper and Jade? Are they safe?”
“No, baby. I just want so much for you to be happy, but I’m so proud of you for choosing the clans. I got lucky with your father.” Her lips spread into a secretive smile. “He pleased me more than I’d hoped. But living apart from him was hard. Trust me when I say we’re sparing you from that. Now that your father and uncle are living inside the Sanctuary, August and Julian need to take their place, to guard the outer barrier. They wouldn’t be here for you the way you need them to be. You need a mate who will.”
Emma’s heart lurched at that revelation. They had to leave?
“When? When do they leave?” she asked. Her mother reached out a hand and gripped Emma’s forearm with more strength than she thought a woman so frail could wield.
“Not until the New Year. Calm down. You’ll have plenty of time to say your goodbyes.”
Quick, heavy footsteps came rushing down the hallway outside the bedroom. Her father burst in, short of breath.
“The twins have been found. Maia, they need you. They’re in bad shape.”
Her mother moved to stand and faltered. Emma reached out and took her hand, steadying her, then stood.
“Here, Mama. Let me help you.”
She wrapped an arm around her mother’s waist and the older woman leaned on her. Outside the door, a large balcony overlooked the throne room and Emma could hear a commotion from down below.
Glancing down, she saw a pair of prone forms laid out on stretchers of rough-hewn wood, four figures kneeling around them. A sudden jolt of fear made Emma’s heart speed up at the sight of Jasper and Jade, pale and unconscious in the room below. Her mother gasped beside her.
“I must get to them. Oh, Gaia, please let them still be alive!”
Emma said her own silent prayer to whatever deity might be listening and matched her mother’s pace, carefully steering them both down a huge, curving staircase behind her father.
On the floor before the giant wooden throne, her cousins lay, unmoving. Their skin was deathly pale and a layer of luminescent, crystalline powder coated them from head to toe. Her aunt and uncle were beside them, and another male and female she didn’t recognize, but the male had a striking shock of wavy white hair in spite of his youthful face. His red eyes met Emma’s for a second before he looked back down at Jasper mournfully.
“We brought them here as quickly as we could, My Lady,” the female said. “They came through the Windchaser portal early this morning, nearly delirious from cold. They fell unconscious shortly after we found them, but not before we learned their identities. The male came to halfway through our trip, but was only lucid for a little while.”
Emma’s heart lurched into her throat. “Oh my God, are they . . . ?” She couldn’t even bring herself to say the word.
She helped her mother kneel down beside Jade. Mona sat at Jasper’s head, stroking his hair gently while tears streamed down her cheeks.
“They’re alive, just barely,” Emma’s uncle said. “The barrier wasn’t ready for them, but it must have sensed enough of Mona’s magic to avoid killing them when they passed through. We are in Autumn and Gunnar’s debt for bringing them so swiftly.” He nodded to the newcomers with a tight smile, remaining by Jade’s side, her hand held limply in his. He was dry-eyed, but his face was just as stricken as his mate’s.
“Maia, my power isn’t as strong as yours. Can you help them?” Mona pleaded, her eyes red with tears.
Emma’s mother laid a palm against the center of Jade’s chest, concentrating. She closed her eyes and breathed a series of low syllables that struck a chord in Emma, the way the song she’d been singing earlier had. Her mother’s face grew strained and with her free hand she reached out, grasping at air in Emma’s direction. Emma took her mother’s hand, the contact between their palms sending a cool, tingling sensation up her arm. A second later, the tingle went the other direction and Emma gasped as a wash of dizziness overtook her, stronger even than the vertigo she’d had in the woods that afternoon.
She closed her eyes and gripped her mother’s hand tighter. If this could help her cousin, she’d endure it and anything else her mother needed her to do. But her mother only let out a soft sob and released Emma’s hand, her shoulders sagging.
The strange tingling ceased and the room stopped spinning. Emma rubbed her palms together to regain the lost sensation in her hand.
“What did you do, Mama? Did it work?” Yet as she said it, she knew from the tears in her mother’s eyes that it hadn’t. Jade still lay as inert as before, only the sl
ightest bit of color showing on her cheeks for a moment before fading back to the ashen tone they’d had before.
“I am too weak. Even if I spent every last glimmer of my life’s essence, it would not be enough to revive them. I’m too far past my prime, I’m afraid, and Emma hasn’t come into her full power yet.”
She rested her hand on Emma’s knee and squeezed. “If you were mated and pregnant, you would have the magic required to revive them, baby. But your chosen mate is too far to reach us in time.”
“Who cares about my chosen mate, Mama? They’re dying! There has to be another way to save them. Just tell me what I need to do. Anything!” Emma stood, shaking with barely contained anguish and fear for her cousins’ lives. She would give her own life for theirs right now, if she knew how.
Her father stepped forward with a frown and helped her mother to her feet. Her mother shook her head.
“The Sundance clan village is a week’s journey to the East. They know you’re here, but there’s no way they can get here in time to complete the mating ritual. Even then there’s no guarantee you’ll conceive. Only Rainsong clan have fertile enough males to guarantee conception on the first try. If your chosen mate were here, we could perform a fertility rite during the mating to guarantee it . . . but . . . ”
“But it only took us a day to hike the outer boundary. If they live inside it, why would it take so long?”
Her father rose up and came to her. “The area inside the boundary is far larger than the land in the human world encompassed by that path. When you passed through the portal, you entered another plane of a sort, sweetheart. The Windchasers had to spend their power to reach us within a day with your cousins, to give us time to help them, and their clan’s portal is even closer than Sundance.” He nodded silently at the young pair. They looked nothing alike, though the male’s pale features and red eyes may have obscured any family resemblance.
“Are you brother and sister?” she asked.
The woman glanced at the white-haired man with genuine affection.
Clawed (Black Mountain Bears Book 1) Page 7