“Sorry I got caught up in greeting everyone as they got here. While you wrap up things I will get things chopped up and start cooking. I believe you put everything on the counter that you were going to need so it shouldn’t be that hard.” He turned around and shut the door before she could get mad at him. By the time she got there he had the meat in the pan and the cans opened and everything else chopped up.
“Ok that’s one way to get out of trouble.” Leaning over she kissed him. Then with a smile she started to walk out to the garden to get some herbs that she needed for the sauce when she saw a strange man out there. “Who is that in my garden?” He had light brown hair down to his shoulders, was about six four to six five in height with an athletic build. His broad shoulders were emphasized by the leather jacket that covered him to the waist. The jacket hung open at the sides allowing a deep purple shirt under it to show through.
“That is Dagda; he is the wizard I was telling you about. He wanted to talk with you earlier but I told him you were working.” He looked uncomfortable about her meeting him.
She thought about how she felt this morning and decided to fix it “Would you go out with me to talk with him. I would like you by my side.” A smile that lit his face up and she saw him relax all at once. He turned the burner on low and went over to her and together they went out to the garden to meet Dagda. He turned around and looked at them before they reached the garden.
“Dagda this is Kaylee.” He had the brightest blue eyes that she had ever seen.
“Thank you for coming out to help. This land is part of who I am and the fact that you are going to be protecting it in the coming fight means a lot to me.” She held out her hand for him to shake and he gently grasped it.
“The pleasure is mine. It is rare to find land in such good condition. I have a feeling that I will be spending a lot of time out here. Maybe you could help me find a place to buy.” He had caught a flash of something when he had touched her hand. “I believe this is the first of several battles to be fought here.”
“How do you know that?” she had almost caught something when he had shook her hand but it was gone before she could catch it. It was like a string that teases you always just out of reach.
“I could see several events over a long period of time. I can’t pin point them like you can. So, that being a fact, I need to set up a home base here.”
“We will see what we can do for you.” Reaching down she picked some of the herbs that she needed to make dinner. The sooner that was finished the better. She still had to show everyone where the fight was going to happen. As she finished preparing the sauce to simmer, Clayton went to round up everyone that had arrived. He was going to meet her out by the garden and walk from there.
After all the introductions had been made, not that she would remember them twenty minutes from now, they started walking into the forest. Thank god there were no tests she would just look like idiot for a while until she had their names down. She had tried to remember the berserker’s names but had only remembered three which was better than none. The ones she remembered were Mark, William, and Gavin. Walking into the forest most of the people were amazed. For the shifters in the group it was like Disneyland and they had just been handed a free pass. Every fern, leaf, or bird that moved caught their attention. She could tell who the shifters were in the group just by their reactions to the environment. Tonight they would get to play tomorrow would get here soon enough. When she had reached the spot where the attack would happen she stopped. “This is where it happens. I end up boxed in right here. Feel free to look around and see what you can come up with. Which will allow you to prepare your defenses.
Everyone went in their own direction. Each one knew their strengths and weaknesses. When everyone was done they would meet up for dinner and talk over what each person came up with. “Clayton I’m going to head back to the house. Are you going to be ok?”
“We will be fine. Go take care of dinner. I think we are going to be here for a while.” He watched her head back wondering how she was really coping with everything that was hitting her. He wished he could go be with her right now but they had to figure out a plan of attack before tomorrow. There were so many different places for them to hide that it was equal on both sides. They needed to make it tip to their side.
His main problem was hiding the berserkers and animal shifters that were not of this area. He would have to figure out how to blend in. He was looking for places that would work for him. One or two of them could hide in the bushes there was thick foliage to cover them. There just were not that many places in the area where the fight was going to take place. Looking around he saw something he hadn’t noticed before that he should have. Some of the trees were hollow at the base. Maybe even enough for a berserker to hide in.
Calling all the berserkers around him he told them what to look for around the area. It took them over an hour to find suitable trees that would fit them. Ones that didn’t work for them they let the rest of the group know about. It took another hour for the rest of them to finish looking around at the area. He knew they wouldn’t have a good idea about it till the night. He knew they would all converge here tonight and get a feel for the area in animal form. Tonight, he and the other berserkers would work on ideas for traps to set up in the area. There was a lot to talk about and do tonight. “Those of you that brought supplies that we need for setting the traps go and get them. While the rest of you are out playing tonight we will be working on locations of traps and the type of traps to set.”
“Like we have a choice about shifting tonight. Three nights a month we don’t have a choice one of these days you will realize that.” That had to have come from Bridget she was the biggest smart ass of the group. He couldn’t wait until she met her match. It was only a matter of time. In some ways he felt sorry for the poor soul.
“Just make sure you retain your human mind and come up with some ideas while you’re in animal form playing in the area tonight. Listen to your senses don’t ignore them. If you guys want to win this war we have to protect Kaylee, she is one of the keys.” Everyone stopped and stared at him. Crap he hadn’t meant to say that, but it was the truth. “Not only can she see the future she can find the rune stones. So if they get their hands on her we are in trouble for me more so. She is my life mate, but she doesn’t know that yet.”
Reality had a way of hitting you between the eyes and he had just hit them with a full blast. It was his way of saying welcome to my hell. Now, he not only had to worry about the end of the world but his mate. What was that saying something about only being given what you can handle? He wanted to yell back, ‘Hey dude the plate is overflowing you can stop now.’ And people wondered why he was grumpy all the time.
“You’re not kidding are you.” One of the people in the group said. He just shook his head indicating that he wasn’t.
“Let’s go see how close dinner is to being done.” When they got to the house she had the paper plates out and glasses for either water or ice tea that she had made. Also, for the non-shifters she had made some coffee so they could work while the rest of them were out in the woods. The sauce was done and they were just waiting for the pasta to finish cooking. She had made a big salad to go with it.
Brad and Tim had left while the others were in the woods. Tim said that Clayton had given him a list of the people that would be waiting on shore to help them. So at least they were covered. It wouldn’t stop her from worrying about her friends though. She just hoped that no one noticed the unusual sea creatures in the area. The ones that noticed were usually the drunks and no one took what they said seriously.
As she was rinsing off the pasta she had a thought come at her from left field. There was only one person that could help her with it though. “Dagda maybe you can help us a little bit here. I don’t think anyone else has thought of this, but when we change back into human form we will not have anything on. Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but I would rather not be that close to so
me of you.” She wondered how red her face was getting because it felt hot. Public speaking was not her forte.
“I really don’t see the bad side of that.” One of the guys piped up. However, he was quickly shut down when Clayton glared at him.
“I think I speak for all couples in the group when I say please fix this.” The thought of someone else seeing Kaylee without clothes on brought the berserker in him to the surface. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if someone actually did see her.
“I need the shifters to get closer together please. That should do it.” he said as reached into his pocket and said a few words that she couldn’t make out. “You will change with your clothes on and they will be on when you change back.”
“How long will this last?”
“Well I cast it on you not your clothes so it should last as long as you live. This will be happening quite a bit more often than we are used to so I felt a permanent fix was in order. I will do the same for the people that are going into the ocean. I will be back in a few.” He walked out of the front door and was gone. She didn’t have to look to know that and she would bet money he was at the ocean right now doing the same thing to them.
Brad was meeting the new shifters so that they would know friend from foe. Just as he was about to meet the girl that had captivated him since he had first seen her Dagda showed up. “Kaylee and Clayton sent me. I need you all in close so I can cast the spell. When I am done the clothes that you have on when you shift will be there when you shift back in the morning. This will be a permanent fix you will never have to worry about where your clothes are again.” As he said the spell Brad was both happy and disappointed at the same. He was happy because no one else would see the girl with long black hair without her clothes on and sad because he would not see her without her clothes off. “Well you are all set have a safe night.” With that said he was gone.
Walking over to the girl he introduced himself. She looked at him and smiled “I’m Bridget. I am the narwhale that Clayton sent for. He was going to enjoy getting to know her. She had long flowing black hair to her waist. Her eyes were brown with gold flecks in them.
“I am glad to meet you. I guess you have many things to teach me and tell me about according to Clayton. We can start on that tomorrow for tonight let’s just enjoy the first night of the full moon.” Taking her hand he walked with her out into the water and waited for the moon to show itself.
“Dinner is on.” She let everyone else dish theirs first before getting up to get her plate. As she went to stand up Clayton sat a plate in front of her.
“Thank you.” Twirling the noodles around the fork she took a bite. “We didn’t do a bad job.” She told him. They ate in silence. As everyone finished eating she noticed that the sun was starting to go down. “If you will excuse us for a few minutes.” She grabbed Clayton’s hand and led him back to the bedroom.
When they were in the room he kicked the door closed so they would have a few moments of privacy. He took her in his arms and pulled her close as his mouth descended onto hers. This was all they had time for and he made it count. He probed every recess of her mouth leaving nothing untouched. When she pulled back he knew that it was time. With a groan he let her go and watched her change. It really was amazing to watch. The films showed it being a process that the body goes through and the film had it all wrong. Kaylee started to glow. Just bright enough so you could see something was going to happen. Then where she had been standing was sparkly dust and a bob cat sat at his feet. If the body actually had to go through the change it would kill them nothing could withstand that kind of agonizing twisting, popping, movement that it would require.
“Go do your thing and come back to me in the morning.” He went over to the window to open it so that she could go out. However, instead of jumping out she stretched up on her hind legs using his leg to do so. He bent down and picked her up. “You are so soft.” She started purring as he petted her. He sat her on the window sill. “I will leave this open for you in case you want to come back in.”
She jumped out as he left the room. When he got back to the kitchen the rest of them were around the table with supplies, looking at the map. The hardest part was correlating the map with what they had seen today. ”So let’s get the ideas on the table.” They had nets, rope, and each one of them carried their own choice of weapon with them. They had to come up with traps that would not disrupt the area. That was going to be easier said than done.
“Unfortunately, they are going to be manually activated traps so that we don’t get our own people. Also we have to figure out how to set them up and have a pull rope.” Pointing down at the map Mark said “If we lay the net in this area then hide the ends of the rope tied to the corners of it, then have them unite over one large branch so that one person holding the rope could pull it. That is the best idea I have come up with so far.” It sounded like a good idea.
“How many nets and sets of rope do we have? If we can, we need to set up several of these nets with one of us holding the lead rope. This may work to our advantage.” It ended up they had five nets and about twenty rope bundles. If they needed more they could cut some in half.
“Let’s grab the gear and head out to the site. I want to see what we can get done tonight.” There were a lot of different animals out there. “Be careful of these trees the bark is full of slivers and they are a bitch to get out. In fact, where is Dagda?” He couldn’t believe he forgot the results the last time he had climbed those trees, damn slivers!
“What’s the problem? Is it against the rules to maybe protect us from the trees?” Dagda started laughing.
“What’s the problem?” Clayton looked at him “what are you laughing about?” He had a bad feeling he wanted to kill Vie.
“I heard this rumor about you and an incident with one of these trees. So is it true?”
Yep she was dead, dead, dead! This was only going to be the beginning and he knew it. “Yes. Now drop the subject. Can you help or not?”
“Since you told me the truth then yes.” Some sort of dust covered all of them. “You have about five hours so I would get busy if I were you. I believe you have a lot of work to do in that amount of time.”
“You heard him guys. Trust me you don’t want to be caught up in one of those trees without protection.” As a team, four of them started with ropes climbing up, and two on the ground to coordinate everything. They would each take turn until it was done. As the first group finished climbing they dropped part of the rope that they carried to the ground. Then one guy would climb to a different point and gather the rest of the ropes and drop them over a large branch while they coordinated with the people on the ground as to the hiding point. They did this one trap at a time.
By the time they were done they had two minutes to spare. That was cutting it a little too close. Now they had to cover the nets with debris from the forest floor and hide the ends of the rope. By the time they were done with everything the sun was almost up. They got home about the same time as the shifters started to come in. Lions, tigers and bears, oh my, kept running through his head. It was like being at a zoo. The most impressive part was they did not try to kill each other. I mean it had to be hard to overcome your animal instincts right?
Looking down he saw Kaylee at his feet in her cat form. Bending down he picked her up. “I am going to bed. Wake up call is at one to go over strategies’ for tonight.”
With that said he walked into the house and to the bedroom. He put Kaylee on the bed and went into the bathroom to clean up. Turning on the water he undressed while he waited for the water to warm up. Just as he was getting in Kaylee walked in quickly shed her clothes and got in with him.
“Did you get everything done last night that needed to get done? We saw you in the area setting things up but stayed out of your way. I don’t see any slivers so how did you climb the trees?” Taking the scrubby she put some shower gel on it and rolled it between her hands until it had a good lather on it. Just as she
started to wash herself he took the scrubby out of her hands and started to wash her inch by inch. She didn’t think having someone else wash her would be a turn on, but it was. He slowly moved down her body and didn’t seem to miss one spot as he went. In some areas he seemed to pay extra attention. She believed in fair play grabbing the rag she turned around and started to wash him as slow as he had her. She wondered just how far she could push him. Only after she had washed his back and slowly finished his chest did she slide the rag down to finish.
Just as he had slowly washed her, she did the same with longer strokes and small light circles as she went lower. She had now doubt that he was enjoying the attention by the fact that he was getting harder by the second.
The next thing she knew he turned her around so that she was facing the wall of the shower. One of his hands moved down and with a finger made tiny circles and then moving back and forth across her cleft. Then with her next breath he slipped into her then glided back out causing her to moan.
As she moaned she felt his mouth on her neck trailing little kisses down and across her shoulder. She could feel his cock as he slowly moved his hips back and forth just enough to tease her. His free hand had moved to rub and pull her nipples she didn’t care were they were she needed him inside her now. Reaching behind her she found him and guided him as best she could into her. “I need you.” She panted out and leaned forward using her arms to brace herself so he could slip into her. As he slowly filled her she felt the fire within her building up as he pulled out part way then sank back into her picking up his pace each time until she screamed in release. Still shuddering from her release she sank to her knees not having the strength to stand like she had been. Clayton turned off the water and wrapped her in a towel and carried her to bed. He was not done yet he wanted to make her cum again but he wanted to make her more comfortable before he proceeded.
Clayton's Jade (Runes Stone Series) Page 10