by Ruby Storm
A smile twitched his lips. Kella had most definitely experienced the real mating ritual, even if she did not understand the heat that overtook her—and there would be more in the days to come.
Chapter Five
Kella’s eyes fluttered open to take in unfamiliar surroundings. She scrambled to a sitting position, taking in the huge fur dais she laid upon, the sputtering candles mounted around the room, and the fact her body ached horribly. The early morning light filtered in through a high window in the stone wall, a window she had not seen the night before. The back of her hand stifled a groan as she fell back into the softness surrounding her.
Jaggar.
The beat of her heart quickened.
Where was he? Would he be returning soon to do the same things to her body? She couldn’t understand what happened, only that the Stoneman’s mating ritual was a far cry from what she’d been accustomed to seeing and to participating in throughout her life. Jaggar’s cock pounding inside her body was totally unlike the times she waited out the frenzied mating of a countryman.
Rolling to her side, she hugged her knees to her naked chest, again wincing at the many aches rippling through her muscles and forced thoughts of the huge warrior from her brain. She needed to think about the coming days and form a plan.
Marte. Kella worried over the fate of her friend. Would they ever see one another again? Had Marte fared the night unscathed, or had the Stonemen’s magic taken over her body and mind the same way? Mating with Jaggar was like nothing she had ever experienced. He had done things to her like no other man of her own tribe. His hard man part inside her only brought joy, not pain and disgust, and then the need to eat ragweed to keep her belly from swelling.
Kella shot straight up, her hair wild and heavy against her bare skin. Her slim fingers brushed across the flat of her stomach.
She needed to find the magic weed! If not, her belly would swell and she most likely would become an outcast for all to torment, both within the Stonemen boundaries and her own tribal laws. If she could even escape to get back to her homeland. Her swollen lips parted and the tip of her tongue darted out to wet them. She needed water. Her stomach growled and Kella realized how long it had been since she had eaten. She and the other females had not been allowed to partake in any sustenance before the Purification Rite.
Her brain swirled. Yes, she needed to eat. She needed cool liquid to quench her parched throat. Those two things would give her strength to make an escape. Without them, there was not much of a chance Kella could find her way back to her clan.
Memories of the night before flooded her swimming brain and she tossed them away as her gaze settled on a high window in the room. Quickly, she shoved aside the furs, dropped her feet to the cold stone floor and hurried across the room. Even stretching on her tiptoes, she could not reach the window ledge with her fingertips. Her blue gaze cast about in search. Within seconds, she dragged a wooden chair near the window. Before climbing atop the rickety piece of furniture, Kella raced back to collect her torn sarong. She slipped on the still-damp garment and grabbed a longer piece of leather thong hanging from a hook. It was enough to hold the torn edges together.
With a fortifying breath, she climbed onto the chair’s seat. Now she could reach. Outside the window lay freedom and Kella had no choice but to take it, even though she had no clue how high off the ground she was. She had been chosen only days earlier, something she had waited a lifetime for, so she needed to do something! She grabbed the rough-hewn window ledge and hung on for dear life as she struggled to balance her body weight and pull herself upward. Her tired and sore muscles protested and her bare feet found the top rung of the chair as she rested and searched the outside of the building.
Suddenly Jaggar’s voice boomed loudly from somewhere in the house. She cast a quick glance at the exterior of the wall, noting a way to drop from the window and not be hurt. She could not give herself away by being discovered immediately. Surely he would see her from the window and her only chance would be gone. When his voice resounded more closely in the upper hallway, she made a decision. Leaping to the floor, she dragged the chair back to its original spot and plunked down on top of it just as he entered.
Jaggar’s huge frame filled the doorway. Kella’s fingers clasped the edges of her sarong and she forced herself to remain still as he stepped into the room and used an elbow to slam the door behind him. In one hand, he balanced a flattened vessel. The other held a waterskin, no doubt for drinking. He crossed to a thick-legged table and tossed his possessions on the flat surface without taking his gaze from her. Retracing his steps, he reached up and pulled the wooden latch into place.
“You are awake,” he noted while crossing his arms over his wide chest.
Kella straightened in the chair, remaining mute and struggling to keep her senses about her when he approached.
“Stand up. Bring the chair to the table.”
She lifted her chin, ready to do battle, but suddenly he grabbed her arm and yanked her upward and hard against his chest. He breathed heavily as he stared down into her wide eyes.
“Who said you could clothe yourself?”
Kella swallowed, refusing to back down. “I was cold.”
“Then you should have covered yourself with the furs on the bed.”
He uttered the word “bed” and Kella’s stomach jumped in remembrance of what happened on that very surface. “I was sitting on the chair. I wanted my sarong.”
“Take it off.”
“What?”
“Take it off or I will rip it from your body again.” He let go of her arm and stepped back.
Kella knew it was hopeless to argue. He never took her gaze from his, her fingers plucked at the knot until her torn sarong fell open. Quickly she shrugged it away and tossed it to the floor. Her heart pounded, but she was not sure if it was fear or excitement induced by the lustful heat settling in his dark eyes.
He closed the distance between them. She braced her stance, watching one big hand reach out to settle warmly against her waist. His fingers tripped across an imaginary line and up her midriff. Jaggar fondled a firm globe and like magic again, a line of heat shot through her body to smolder between her legs.
Silently she stood there without swaying, letting him knead her breasts, understanding the pleasure now that his touch created. Whether she wanted to escape or not, nothing could have pulled her away, not when he played with her and made the fire build inside. In her mind she followed the journey of his hand when it brushed over her lightly pelted mound, then lower. She waited, hoping, knowing…
A thick finger flicked inside her cunt. A light gasp echoed from her throat when he pulled it back out to trail a damp path over and around her hip. His eyes narrowed, the hint of a smile turned the corner of his mouth. A fingertip drifting up and down her crack taunted the opening of her ass. With gentle ease, he pushed his fingertip inward.
“I brought you food and water.”
Kella’s jaw clenched hard as she squeezed around his fingertip to hold the digit in place. Food and water were a thing of the past. She existed in the heated moment, living for her next breath and the enjoyment his finger would bring.
She nearly toppled over when he slipped it out, moved away and turned his back to cross the room. Kella blinked hard as she gasped her instant disappointment.
“Bring the chair. I wish you to eat.”
Her gaze darted slowly from his broad back to the meat piled in the vessel, and then back to Jaggar when he sank to the sleeping furs with an audible sigh.
She blinked again, in awe with how a simple touch of his hand made her magically teeter on the edge of something she was only beginning to understand.
“Eat!” His voice boomed out.
This time his words startled her out of her revelry. Kella hurried to the chair. Picking up a charred piece of meat, she took her first bite and realized how hungry she was. Silently she finished the entire bowl, washing it down with chilled water. She also needed
to attend to another need. “I need to go outside.”
Jaggar lifted his head from the fur. “For what reason?”
“What reason do you think? I have been in this room long. My body needs to go outside.”
She watched him roll from the bed, again amazed at his sheer size. Jaggar strolled to her sarong, bent to pick it up, then handed it over.
“Cover yourself and we will leave this room.”
Kella quickly slipped into her torn sarong and tied the leather thong securely around her waist. Jaggar said nothing as he reached up to lift the lock. He turned to her. “If you try to make an escape, know that I will catch you and you will pay for making that mistake.”
She remained mute. It was as if he had read her mind.
She followed him down the passageway to the steps. Jaggar acted as if having a white-haired woman in his shadow was an everyday occurrence. Not so with the servants. They stared at her, whispered behind cloaked hands and pointed as she was led to the outside door.
Once clear of the house, Jaggar took her arm and led her to a wall. Behind it, water tunneled by in a ditch.
“There.”
Kella hurried across the short distance, relieved Jaggar had turned away, yet knowing all his senses were tuned in. If she tried to run, she would not make it far.
Once her bodily ablutions were completed, she quietly rejoined him. Jaggar nodded at the path and indicated she was to go first. With a longing glance at the forested mountains in the distance, Kella trudged forward.
Rounding the first bend on the way back to Jaggar’s home, she glanced up to see Marte heading in her direction with Crete flanking close behind. She raced headlong in her friend’s direction with her arms stretched wide and unmindful if her actions angered her captor or not. Seeing Marte’s face and knowing the woman still breathed filled her heart with joy.
They came together, clasping each other with tear-filled eyes.
“Marte, I have worried over you!” she whispered in the other woman’s ear.
“Oh Kella,” she cried quietly. “I did not know if I would see you alive again. We have to escape.”
“Do you know of the others and their fate?”
Marte leaned back to gaze at her friend’s features. “You are the only one I have seen.” Her trembling hand rose to touch Kella’s cheek. “Kella, I have been mated the entire night.” Tears sprung to her eyes. “I know of nowhere to find ragweed. I…” She could not continue.
Kella heard the despair of her words. “Marte, be brave. If there is a way, I will find it. I will be sure to get it to you.”
“Get what?” Jaggar’s voice boomed beside them just as Crete approached from the other direction.
“It is nothing,” Kella said as she backed away from Marte. She watched sympathetically as Crete grasped her friend’s arm and pulled her slight body against his. Marte’s fearful gaze dropped to the stones around her feet in total submissiveness just before Crete forced her back down the path before him.
Kella felt Jaggar’s hand reach around her body and he pulled her against his firm belly.
“Who is that woman?” he asked.
“A friend,” she returned wistfully.
“She is Crete’s mate now before she is your friend.”
Kella spun from his hold and tossed him an angry glare. Fear of the future raged in her brain. “She will always be my friend first! I have known her since she was a small child! And no Stoneman will ever come between us,” she ground out. “Not even when our Gods forsake us for your horrid grunting upon our bodies.”
She turned from him and raced down the path. His heavy footfalls echoed on the stone directly behind her, but Kella kept running until she reached the stone steps of his domain. Shoving the heavy wooden door open, she sprinted past open-mouthed servants, one of whom she was certain would halt her flight until he saw Jaggar’s large frame enter behind her. Up the stairs she went until she hurried through the door to her captor’s chambers and flung herself onto the fur-lined bed.
She ignored Jaggar’s entrance into the room only seconds behind her, silently listening as the lock was put into place. Pulling a heavy fur over her body, she kept her back to him as silent tears wet the softness beneath her head.
“Kella.”
She pulled the furs tighter around her body, waiting to see if he would yank her from the bed and finally beat her for her insolence. Kella did not care. She fervently hoped her Gods would slay the beast of a Stoneman. Let him advance, her mind screamed. But after a minute passed, it seemed he would keep his distance. She continued to stare at the opposite wall.
Her peace was short-lived, however, because soon she felt the weight of him beside her. Kella tossed away the furs and scrambled to the far edge, but before she could drop her feet to the floor, a huge hand snaked out to drag her back. She fought, kicking and swinging with her fists until suddenly she was flat on her back. Jaggar easily pinned her wrists above her head with one hand as the other quickly unknotted the strap of leather at her waist. Her sarong fell open and her naked body came into full view. His flinty gaze stared down as he maneuvered a thick thigh across her lower body. Kella was caught.
“No!” she screamed up at him.
Tenderly he reached out and wiped a tear from her cheek.
“Yes. It will be because I say it will be.”
“No!” she repeated and turned her head away as his lips descended.
The slim length of her neck presented an easy target for Jaggar’s mouth. Soft kisses were pressed against her warm skin. Kella swallowed hard, battling to remain inert and unresponsive as her heart beat crazily. It was like this with him, the emotion that drugged her senses and yearned for the magical release only Jaggar induced. Her gaze skittered about, then anchored on the window opening and the blue sky lining the highest peaks of the Grand Mountains.
Freedom. Just outside. And all she needed to do was to wait for the perfect opportunity.
Jaggar’s hands slipped between her thighs, lightly prodding them open. Heat crawled up her spine as a thick finger dipped inside her cunt, only to slip back out and circle her nub. His magic was too strong. To make an escape she would need to forget the touch of his mouth against her breast, the complete bliss of his tongue against hers.
Suddenly he rolled to his back, pulling her atop him. One large hand spanned her waist as the fingers of the other toyed with her, coaxing moisture from her body. Yes, she wanted this, desired the hot feeling of ecstasy as he played. Her eyes closed when he easily slipped her onto his cock and guided her down the length. Kella clutched at his wrists to keep her balance, needing, wanting to move, to feel his thickness moving, but Jaggar held her still.
Her eyes opened to question and his black gaze met hers. “It is because I say,” he repeated confidently.
Kella could not fight it. Yes, she would escape because she was Magya and needed to be mated with one of her own. But fate at this very moment decreed a very different morning. She let go of his wrists and slipped her palms up the smooth black plane of his chest before grinding down harder on his cock. He pierced her deeply. Her breasts tingled. Pearly liquid from her body wet his bullocks as she rocked upward and downward, slow, tantalizing, more for her own sexual pleasure than his.
This feeling…this magic was too powerful and Kella would battle it no longer. She was here, in Jaggar’s den, and when he declared they would mate, then she would.
As she was rolled to her back and Jaggar pounded into her with abandon, a fleeting thought tripped through her brain just before she wrapped her ankles around his waist. Mating with Jaggar may be wrong, but the intense shared pleasure was something she would never forget.
* * * * *
Jaggar sat quietly in a chair and stared at Kella as she slumbered beneath the warm blanket of fur. His gaze moved over the gentle curve of her cheek to the strands of white spread across the pillows, and he fought the need to strip the cover from her body and find solace within her heat once more.
Jaggar’s large hand swiped across his jaw, contemplating how his cock ached with need. He shot up from the wooden chair and strode across the room to stand beside the raised dais where she slept. It baffled him to think how quickly she’d clamped an invisible hand around his heart. Fate and the gods brought them together. It was the only way to reason how strongly he felt.
Reaching out, he gently tugged the furred pelt down until the edge slipped over her rose-colored nipples. Amazingly as she slept, those delectable peaks hardened before his eyes. Jaggar bent and ran the pad of his finger over one pebbled bud. Kella purred quietly but continued to sleep.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. She would continue to purr but it would not be behind closed eyes or because of the comfort of the bed. Easing off his heavy robe, he shrugged it from his shoulders. Pulling at the furred blanket once more, he slid it slowly down the length of her trim body. And as each inch of her satiny skin was revealed, his cock grew harder.
Kella’s eyes fluttered open to meet his devouring gaze. She stretched languidly with a lazy sigh. And then to his surprise, she smiled. His heart opened joyously.
“Jaggar…”
He sat beside her and rested a heavy palm against her smooth thigh. “That’s the first time you have said my name.” It was the only thing he could utter in order to not give away how his name rolling off her tongue made his heart beat faster.
“I was dreaming of you,” she said quietly. “I called you by your name. You did not beat me for saying it aloud.”