Sten and Orrick’s demeanor shifted back to being sweet and solicitous, which she decided she didn’t mind. The evening they’d shared teaching her how to shift was never far from her mind and had changed her opinion of them significantly. If anything, it made them more attractive, since she’d had a glimpse of the primal beast that lived within them.
Jade’s true nature craved release more often each day, and so the three of them took to shifting for a few hours at the end of the day. They taught her how to fish with her claws and she had her first taste of raw meat that left her craving more.
She tried to ignore the hopeful looks they would each give her in the evening, but they never asked the question she knew had to be on their minds. Would she choose them, agree to mate them?
In spite of her deep longing for the kind of connection the pair of them obviously shared, she just wasn’t sure if it was them she really wanted. It could just be the idea of what they had during those intimate moments she continued to silently eavesdrop on every morning.
On the fifth day, she awoke not to the sight of them making love a few yards away, but to a feast more spectacular than any other she’d had since their trip began.
Sleepily she sat up, then laughed at the eager grins on their faces.
“What the hell is all this? My birthday’s not for months.”
Orrick pressed a mug of coffee into her hands and Sten piled a tin plate full of food and set it on the sleeping bag beside her.
“We’re going to be at Gaia’s Falls by this afternoon,” Orrick said. “We thought the event deserved a little celebration.”
“So, tell me about this place,” she said.
“Nope.” Sten shook his head. “Words don’t do it justice. You have to see it. Eat up, because you’ll need your strength for the climb. It’s a tricky one.”
The excitement lingered, overshadowing any other thought or worry. When she spied a waterfall spilling down a sheer rock face, she let out a soft gasp at how lovely it was with the sun shining through the leaves above it.
“That isn’t it,” Orrick said, his lips close enough to her ear that the rumble of his voice made her tremble a little. “Wait until you see. The path up starts over there.” He stood aside to let her take the lead.
“You guys missed ogling my ass, didn’t you?” she teased.
“You found us out,” Sten said, then smacked said backside playfully. “Get a move on, we don’t have all day.”
It was no trickier a climb than any of the others, but Jade nearly toppled over when she reached the top and came through the trees.
Before her, stretched for what had to be acres was the clearest, glassiest lake reflecting the cloudless blue sky above. At the end closest to them, cascading down the lush, foliage-covered rocks was the most perfect waterfall. It wasn’t huge by any means, but fell like a wedding veil from high above, the white rush more powerful and deafening than any of the others they’d visited during the last few days. She couldn’t make out the crest of the falls, as obscured as it was by clouds of mist and greenery.
Orrick tilted his head up, gazing reverently at the top. “They say the source is Gaia herself, her fertile fluid flowing down the mountains and providing the Sanctuary with life.”
“So, Gaia’s a squirter, huh?” Jade said. The remark earned her a stern look from Orrick. Sten let out a loud laugh. At least she could count on him to respond to her jokes.
The terrain was more or less flat, and they soon found an ideal campsite. Jade resisted the urge to strip naked and dive into the water. She might shift later, but right now she just wanted to enjoy the serenity that permeated her very core. Solitude was something she had never really had, growing up. But after the last few days of traveling with a pair of males who alternately made her horny and achingly lonely for what they shared with each other, she could use a respite. After helping them set up camp, she wandered down a path that bordered the lake and found an outcrop of rock.
Jade sat, closing her eyes and letting the rushing pulse of the waterfall fill her mind. She’d discovered that if she paused to listen, she could discern a distinct pattern in the sound. Each waterfall had its own rhythm, too. This waterfall’s tempo seemed to speak to her more deeply than any of the others. With a deep, slow breath her tension and worries began to slip away.
“Jade?”
She jumped at the sound of Sten’s voice coming up behind her. Smiling, she patted the rock beside her, inviting him to sit and suppressing her mild annoyance at being intruded on.
“Actually, we were considering hiking around to the other side of the lake instead of camping here. It’s still early, and there are plants on the far shore we want to harvest and bring back to the lodge.”
Jade shook her head. “This spot is too perfect for me to move. You guys go on and do what you need. I’m not going anywhere for a while.”
Sten studied her, and after a moment, nodded. “All right. But it’ll take us a few days to get there and back. You sure you’ll be okay? We’ll only take what gear we need—we’ll leave the rest with you.”
“I promise I’ll be fine. I grew up in the woods, you know. Besides, I’d like some time to think.”
He smiled and nodded, then turned to go. Hesitating at the path, he turned back. “I know you’ve been watching us . . . in the mornings.”
Jade’s cheeks heated and she chewed on the inside of her lip, but kept her gaze aimed at the waterfall, waiting for Sten to continue.
“Just trust me when I tell you our greatest wish is for you to be a part of it, too. If you’ll have us, we are yours. But it’s all right if that isn’t meant to be.”
Her gut churned, but she tamped it down. “Thank you,” she said simply. “Have a nice hike, okay?”
He gave her a final nod and turned and walked away.
She didn’t see them go, but when she finally found the courage to walk back to the camp, they were gone and a small campfire burned near where she’d laid out her sleeping bag.
Loneliness nearly overwhelmed her. Maybe solitude was overrated. Maybe she should accept that they wanted her, choose them as her mates and be done with it. She knew she enjoyed their company, and there was no doubt in her mind that they could satisfy her.
Mindlessly, Jade cooked herself supper and went to sleep, trying to ignore the ache of longing to find what the pair of them already had with each other. She didn’t think she could ever compete with that. No matter how much they tried to convince her they wanted her, she would feel more like an intruder than anything else.
She slept fitfully and awoke in the early morning with a deep ache in her lower abdomen. Chilled, she discovered she’d kicked off her sleeping bag during the night and stripped naked without realizing it, but in spite of the cool morning air, her body felt inflamed from the inside out.
Groggily, she got up, clutching at her stomach and groaning at the way it seemed to tighten under her hands. It felt a little like the moment she’d discovered the power to shift, except instead of the fullness of that sensation, this was the opposite. Now, she had the clearest sense of a void inside her that desperately ached to be filled. She wondered briefly if it was menstrual cramps, which she’d dealt with for years before coming here, but her mother had assured her that was a thing of the past. Once she had her first estrous, she would only have to deal with that kind of discomfort every four years.
My first estrous. Was it starting now? Oh, fuck, please let it not be starting.
Not after she’d willingly sent the only two males on the mountain away for the next few days. But maybe it was for the best, since they had a hard enough time holding back when she wasn’t fully fertile. If she didn’t intend to choose them, it would be cruel of her to make them endure this with her.
Her eyesight wavered as she stumbled toward the shore and waded in, seeking to quench the heat in her. The chill of it sooth
ed her, but only for a moment before a spasm gripped her and she cried out. Her nipples tingled and she touched them, craving the contact the way she craved cool water after a long hike.
Behind her, the steady, pounding pulse of the waterfall filled her senses. Teasing her nipples only made her core burn hotter. Touching her clit simply made her vaginal walls clench painfully. All Jade could think of was how amazing Sten must have felt to be fucked by Orrick, to have that glorious cock pounding into him. She could hear the sounds just as clearly as the waterfall. Drawn to the rhythm of it, she waded to the base of the thick, white curtain, somehow hoping that she could completely drown her need in that steady, violent rush.
She found a ledge to one side of it and grabbed ahold, using it to leverage her body so that her spread legs were on either side of the rush, the stream of white water hitting her core. This was no gentle flow of water, though. The force of it was too much and Jade lost her balance, lost her grip, and soon found herself plunged beneath the violent surge.
Struggling to find purchase on something, anything, she forgot her earlier ordeal in the terror of drowning. She found her way to the surface once, gulping for air and spluttering as the torrent of water forced her down beneath again. The sunlight had disappeared when she came up again, crying out in panic. A rock ledge loomed nearby, but the current kept pulling her back beneath the falls and it was too far to reach.
Before she got pulled under the third time, she thought she caught a glimpse of a face above her. She yelled out a plea that she wasn’t sure could be heard over the roar of water, even if she’d had enough breath to make a sound.
Suddenly something clamped hard around her arm and she felt herself being hauled bodily out of the water and pulled up onto a rough, rocky ledge.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” The rough male voice was unfamiliar and incredulous, and probably the most beautiful thing she’d ever heard in her life. She clung to his thick shoulders and sobbed in gratitude.
Chapter Seven
Aidan knew he was in trouble the second the drenched young woman uttered the words, “Thank you” in his ear. The hoarse, breathy voice held a deeper plea, and he became acutely aware of the true reason why she’d done such a reckless thing.
But she was still terrified, her heart thumping so hard he could hear it even over the din he’d lived with daily for the past week since arriving at Gaia’s Falls.
He lifted her into his arms, cradling her gently as he carried her over to the low bed he’d crafted his first day here out of fallen trees and dried grass, covered with his unrolled bedding.
“Are you hurt?” he asked when he laid her down.
She shook her head and coughed, then pressed a hand to her lower abdomen, wincing.
Gaia sure had a wicked fucking sense of humor, didn’t she? He’d spent the last week up here, communing with his goddess and hoping for a little enlightenment. Of course she’d see fit to send him a young she-bear in the middle of her estrous. At first when he’d seen her with the pair of males, he was sure they were a mated trio, but then the two males had gone off together, leaving her behind, something no mated male would ever do.
“What’s your name?” he asked. He grabbed another blanket and crouched down before her, wrapping it around her wet shoulders.
She finally raised her eyes and met his gaze. A jolt of recognition shot through him. He’d seen those big brown eyes before, only a week earlier. They’d been in the face of a male who gazed at his Autumn with such unabashed love it left Aidan feeling inferior.
Jade Stonetree.
“Jade,” she said and gave him a little smile, her cheeks flushing prettily. “I guess that’ll teach me to turn the pulse setting on high?”
“Ha!” Aidan blurted. “Yeah, a waterfall is sexy from afar, but pretty damn dangerous up close. I’m Aidan . . . ” He started to add “Sundance,” but cut himself off. He wasn’t a Sundance anymore. He wasn’t anything anymore. He frowned and stared down at his hands.
She glanced around his little hideaway, then back at him. “You’re too good-looking to be a crazy hermit living on a mountain. Why are you here?”
“Maybe I am a crazy hermit,” he said, smiling. She was sweet and blunt, which he liked, but if she were a true Stonetree, she was likely impulsive and stubborn, too.
Suddenly her curious expression was split with a grimace and she let out a gasp, doubling over.
“I think I’m in trouble,” she said through her teeth. “I know we just met, but . . . oh, God, I didn’t know it would be this bad. Why does it have to hurt so much?”
Aidan cursed to himself and to his cock, which had decided to wake right up the second he caught a whiff of her fertile aroma. He placed a finger beneath her chin and urged her to look at him.
“Tell me where the males you were with went. I can bring them here for you.”
She let out a soft groan and shook her head. “Not them, please. I don’t want to do this to them.”
“But it’s their job, Jade. And the fools should have never left you alone.”
“They’re not fools. They want me too much, and I pretty much told them I don’t want them. They didn’t know this would happen.”
Her voice quavered and her shoulders began to shake uncontrollably. Sweat broke out on her upper lip.
Aidan pressed the back of his fingers to her forehead and cursed aloud at the nearly searing heat of her.
“Please help me. You can, can’t you? It has to be a male and you seem . . . older. Like you’ve done this before.”
He nodded, pushing away the memory of how very recently he had done it, in fact. He could still taste Autumn on his tongue.
“Tell me what you need,” he said. He knew the answer already—there was absolutely no question about what she needed, but he said it out of a sense of propriety anyway.
“Fuck you,” she said, glowering at him. “Fuck all of you. Tell me what you need for a change.”
She surprised him by reaching out a shaky hand and gripping his cock through his shorts and squeezing.
“There are rules,” he said gruffly, standing and moving away from her. He stared at her sidelong. Her arms wrapped tighter around her torso and she gritted her teeth. Her entire body shook now, and her eyes were red-rimmed as though she were wracked with fever, though it wasn’t an illness that gripped her.
“Fuck the fucking rules,” she spat. “I don’t have the patience to walk you through what I need, and I’m pretty sure you know much better than I do, anyway. Please, help me.”
He watched her for a moment longer, a glimmer of an idea sprouting in his mind. This was Jade Stonetree, one of the highest-ranking females in the Sanctuary. Not even Autumn possessed such a rank. If he could please her well enough to choose him, his prayers would indeed be answered. He would have a mate, and a name again.
But at what cost? She would be stuck with a broken man for her mate, never able to have children, thanks to his personal affliction. And he felt like he owed it to her brother not to do that to her. No, she was better off with the two fools who had left her. Except they weren’t here right now, and Aidan was.
Letting out a deep sigh, he knelt down before her again. “Lie back,” he said.
Her brows twitched uncertainly. “Why?”
“You said it yourself: I know better than you do what you need, so just do what I tell you and I’ll get you through this, all right?”
“Thank you,” she whispered and lay down on his bed, her hands still tightly clutching her abdomen.
Aidan gently moved her hands away and opened the blanket, revealing one of the most beautiful, luscious bodies he’d ever seen. She was smaller than Autumn, but fuller in both breasts and hips. Her breasts were large, but still possessed a firmness that betrayed her youth.
His cock pulsed in appreciation. His goddamn cock, the bane of his existence, ju
st had to have an opinion, but it wasn’t going to get the better of him this time. As lovely and irresistible as she was, she didn’t need a man like him. He’d keep this as impersonal as he could and just hope she didn’t get attached.
“By the sound of your argument, I take it this is your first estrous. Have you ever had sex before, when you lived Outside?”
Jade shook her head, but otherwise watched him steadily through fever-glazed eyes.
That did change things a little. A virgin going through her first estrous was tricky. He could simply service her and be done with it the way he had with Autumn the week earlier, but he knew Autumn’s body like the back of his hand, and Jade was entirely unknown to him. He’d have to take his time if he wanted it to at least not be traumatic for her.
He urged her to move over a little and lay down beside her, propping his head up on one hand.
“I’m going to touch you now,” he said. “Please tell me if anything either hurts or feels really good. I want this to be good for you.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
Gaia save him, but he was looking forward to just touching her way too much. He had incredible self-restraint after nearly two centuries of practice, but this might prove difficult even for him. The power she exuded left him just a little bit dizzy from desire. But she was the one in need here, not Aidan.
He rested his hand gently on her hip and slid it up, reveling in the softness of her skin. She had faint remnants of a tan line, but signs that she’d been sunbathing nude lately. With his fingertips, he traced the outline of that faint difference in coloration on her breasts. She let out a soft sigh and smiled up at him.
Even a touch as light as his could provide some relief and his fingertips tingled slightly from the magic seeping from her skin and into him. He had wondered if he would even be capable of absorbing a female’s excess power, what with his newly infertile status, but it seemed that part of his physiology still worked just fine, as did his cock.
Nailed (Black Mountain Bears Book 3) Page 6