DuBois, Edith - Rugged Glimpse [Rugged Savage Valley, Colorado 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Edith DuBois

When he didn’t finish his sentence, Elena said, “Go on. What?” Elena asked, looking between the brothers.

  “Well, it would be nice if you were seen with us, you know, in an official sort of way,” Caleb said, smiling hopefully.

  “Official? I mean, that sounds really…well, official.” Elena grimaced. “And you know…I’m more of a behind-the-scenes kind of girl. I can just take pictures of the event, something like that. I don’t like being in front of people. Like, it’s just not my cup of tea.”

  Joseph sighed. “We are the sheriff and deputy of Savage Valley. This is our home and our town. People are always going to be asking questions. It’s better to get these things out in the open as soon as possible.”

  “And what exactly do you mean when you say ‘these things’?”

  “Being with us, of course.”

  She frowned at Joseph and Caleb. She liked them a lot, and she wasn’t totally adverse to a future involving the three of them, but could they really say, after only one afternoon of sex—granted, it was incredible sex—that they were ready to be seen as an item at town functions together? Her brain was still whirling around the fact that she would be gone in a couple of weeks. “I’m not exactly sure if we’re at the ‘being with us’ phase, though. So I’m feeling a little squeamish in regard to this Honey Harvest Hoedown stuff.”

  Joseph emitted a low growl, but Caleb cut him off. “Elena, squeamish or not, you can’t deny that something happened this afternoon outside of the normal. So like it or not, you’re with us.”

  Elena crossed her arms, not at all pleased with the direction of this conversation. “And who the bloody hell do you think you are? ‘Like it or not’? What’s that supposed to mean, exactly?”

  “It means you’re with us, and we’re with you. Is that really so hard to accept?” Caleb looked at her with wide, yearning eyes.

  Then Joseph grabbed her hand. “Yeah, Elena.” His yearning look matched his brother’s. “Is that really so hard to accept?” He stroked her hand and hit her with the full force of his large black eyes.

  “That’s not fair. You can’t go pulling the sad, teddy-bear eyes every time you want something.”

  “Please, Elena,” Caleb begged.

  “Please!” Joseph echoed.

  “All right! Fine, all right. I’ll be your date to this bloody hoedown or whatever.”

  “Good,” Joseph said, his disposition transforming from downtrodden to sunny in an instant. “After the town knows that you’re with us, you’ll be expected to attend events with us on a regular basis. You know, smile and wave. That whole bit.”

  That thought sunk to the bottom of her stomach like a lead weight, and it didn’t settle comfortably at all. Elena groaned. “I foresee a lot of headaches in my future.”

  “Just remember, all you have to do is take a whiff of our manly bear-scent, and all will be well. You’ll be as fearless as Pocahontas.”

  “I think you’re getting your Indian tribes mixed up there, brother,” Caleb said, rolling his eyes then winking at Elena. He pressed a warm kiss to her forehead. “You’ll be fine.”

  “Besides,” Joseph said happily, “now that you’re tied to Savage Valley until the next generation of bears comes through, you’ve got plenty of time to get used to your public image.”

  Elena shot out of their arms and scrambled to the edge of the bed. She glowered at them. When she was met with nothing but shocked expressions, she ground out, “What did you say?” Neither of them answered, but looks of sheepish understanding began to move across their features. “What the fuck do you mean ‘tied to Savage Valley?’”

  Caleb looked at Joseph, and Joseph looked at Caleb, and at the same time they both looked back to Elena with identical, lopsided grins. “Whoops.”

  Chapter Seven

  Caleb chuckled quietly to himself. It had been a week since Elena’s angry rampage in his bedroom. She’d been so upset, so loud, so volatile, and so naked. She had flung herself off the bed and kicked his dirty clothes hamper. Then she let out a long string of curses when her toe connected with a belt buckle he’d accidentally left on a pair of pants. She’d stomped back and forth at the foot of his bed, her face going red the more she shouted. All the while, Caleb and his brother were treated to one of the most beautiful and engrossing displays of female nudity that he’d ever had the privilege to witness. With every flounce, her breasts jiggled, slapping against the flesh of her torso beneath. Her ass cheeks rippled with each step, and the sight of her thigh muscles flexing and unflexing nearly caused him to go berserk with wanting.

  Of course she had every right to be angry. Joseph should have told her what she was getting herself into before he had wild forest sex with her. And Caleb should have told her what she was getting herself into before he fucked her so hard on his bed. However, neither had been in their right mind, so to speak, and Elena certainly hadn’t turned them away. She’d been just as up for it as they had, figuratively speaking, of course, Caleb thought to himself with a satisfied smirk.

  After finishing her rant, Elena had gathered up her clothes and stormed out of his house with a warning that neither of the brothers should even think about following her back to the Woodland Den. She would find them when she was good and ready to find them, if she ever was, she’d threatened on her way out.

  Caleb chuckled again, and Elena turned around to glare at him. They were on their morning walk. She’d come over to his house the very next morning before the sun was even up, all in a huff, annoyed that he wasn’t ready to go and waiting for her. She’d said nothing about the night before, and when he tried to bring it up, Elena shot him an angry glare. He’d quickly snapped his mouth shut and avoided the topic ever since.

  There was one question, however, that he and Joseph had pondered over for while. After Elena had left, they’d called the Carson brothers to ask how they’d managed not to mate her. Turns out they were only calling Joseph to tell him that she’d seen them in bear form, not that they’d caught a whiff of her. She was downwind of them and far enough away that they had time to hold their breath until she was gone. Joseph had looked a little sheepish after hanging up the phone.

  Caleb watched Elena walking in front of him. She’d grown proficient in navigating her way through the forest and had begun to notice the small, subtle signs of animals, enough to track them at least. By now, he’d seen all the pictures of the elk she’d taken that he’d missed. She’d told him stories about their little calf and his mama, but even seeing the pictures, Caleb wasn’t prepared for how much the calf had grown since he’d last seen him.

  The elks had joined the rest of the nursing herd at this point, and they could usually be found near Brown Trout Lake. He and Elena were working their way along Old Deer Trail, looking for tracks or clues as to where they were grazing today. They were about a quarter of a mile to the northeast of the lake, following a promising trail of freshly broken grass stalks and hoof prints in the dust.

  A sharp breeze washed across his face, and he caught the scent of something foul on the wind.

  He snapped his hand out, grabbing Elena as he continued to sniff the air.

  It didn’t smell good. It smelt like flesh and meat and blood and death.

  “What is it?” she asked, glancing nervously around.

  As they moved farther through the trees along the elk trail, the scent grew stronger, and a sense of foreboding rose up within Caleb. “Elena, honey, I think we should head back.” He tugged on her hand, suddenly knowing that whatever they found would be too much, even for Elena. The scent was uncomfortable in his nostrils. It was thick and clogged his lungs.

  Elena frowned up at him, the creases in her forehead becoming more pronounced. “What is it, Caleb?” He knew that her nose wasn’t as sensitive as his and that she couldn’t smell what he did, but if they got any closer, she soon would.

  “Something’s wrong.”

  He looked in the direction of the breeze, debating on what he should tell her. He knew a smell l
ike that could only come from something very large and something very dead. That left only a narrow margin of possibilities. When Caleb didn’t elaborate any further, her features hardened and she turned on her heel. “Elena, wait!” He reached out for her again, but almost before his hand even touched her, she twisted away from him and glared up at him.

  “I have a right to know.” Her voice was low and intense. “You can stay here and wait for me, or you can come with me, but I have to see. I have to know.”

  Caleb smoothed a lock of her dark blonde hair away from her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. “You’re sure?”

  The lines in her forehead softened, but her eyes remained tight, and she gave one stiff nod. Then they turned and continued toward the tight knot of trees. Each step caused the anxiety in his gut to grow. The smell grew almost unbearable. Caleb knew when Elena got her first whiff because her nose immediately crinkled in distaste, and her steps faltered for a moment.

  When a small copse came into view, Elena grabbed Caleb’s arm and clung tightly to him. “Oh God, they’re in there,” she whispered next to him, her voice full of anguish.

  “We can still turn back,” Caleb whispered, stopping them to hold Elena’s face in his hands, searching her eyes one last time.

  She shook her head, and they closed the last bit of distance to the screen of trees. Elena didn’t let herself hesitate. She kept walking through. Then she stopped, frozen with shock.

  “Oh no,” she said, quiet and still, unable to rip her gaze away from what she beheld.

  He’d known what to expect, known from the first whiff, but he still wasn’t prepared for the sight of the mama and her baby, their corpses bloody and mutilated against the stiff, dry grass. They’d been laid open, only a scarce bit of the meat missing from their bones.

  At first glance, this looked like an animal attack, or what was supposed to be an animal attack, but Caleb’s instinct told him otherwise.

  “This isn’t right,” he said, more to himself. “Something’s not right.” He walked around the dead animals, studying them from every angle. After he had gone around a few times, he realized that Elena hadn’t moved a centimeter the whole time he’d been assessing the elk corpses. She continued to stare at them, her eyes glassy and round with shock.

  He approached her and spoke with a soft voice. “Elena? Honey? Let’s go, okay? Come on. It’s going to be all right.” Caleb cursed his stupidity. He shouldn’t have let her come. He knew it was too much. She loved these elk, especially the baby.

  He noticed she was mumbling something under her breath, and he leaned closer to hear.

  She was repeating something over and over again, shaking her head, as if in denial. “This is nature,” she said. “It happens all the time. This is nature.”

  He tugged gently on her arm, and she looked up at him with her big brown eyes. “Come on, honey. Let’s go.”

  “What’s not right?”

  “What?”

  “You said something’s not right. What’s not right?”

  Caleb frowned, surprised that she’d heard him and wanting to get her away, yet feeling that she needed to know what was going on. “I don’t think they were killed by animals.”

  Her brows drew together in concentration. “Why?”

  “Well, first, there’s barely any meat gone. Generally, the type of predator that would lurk around here would be a bear. Bears aren’t necessarily known for cleanliness after a kill, but this is unusual. See these flecks of blood and flesh?” He pointed to a tree about five feet away from the carcasses. “That’s not right. And why would a bear kill more than one? Why would he bother with the mama?” Caleb frowned. “They had already joined the herd. A bear would have to get past all of the mamas.” He walked around the animals again. “It doesn’t add up.”

  “But if animals didn’t kill them, then who would?” Distress flitted through the depths of her eyes.

  “My first guess would be humans.”

  “But?”

  “What reason would a poacher have for making this look like an animal attack? There are no bullet holes, no knife slashes. These marks here…” He crouched and pointed out some slashes along the shoulder of the baby. “Those are definitely from an animal.” He stood up again. “In fact, I don’t really understand how a poacher could do it—kill an animal this large without any marks from a weapon—much less why.”

  “So…” The lines in Elena’s forehead were the deepest he had ever seen them. “So what you’re saying is they were mindlessly slaughtered. For no reason at all?”

  Caleb met her gaze and nodded. He expected her to cry, expected her to fall into his arms, but she surprised him, as Elena often did, and began preparing her camera. To be honest, he felt a little aggravated that she hadn’t turned to him for comfort. Instead she’d turned to her camera. “Don’t you think that’s a little cavalier, Elena?”

  She paused, turning to him at the flat tone in his voice.

  “What if this was my fault, Caleb? Because of me it’s no great secret that these elk were here. What if someone saw, and they…” She took a deep, shuddering breath, clenching her eyes tight with the thought.

  “It’s not your fault.” He shook her until she looked at him, deep into his eyes. “Even if someone did see your pictures and came out here for them, they did this. Not you.” He dug his fingers into her shoulders when he saw her focus drifting away. “Elena, this is not your fault.”

  Her eyes snapped back to him, and her back snapped straight. “Then if they were killed for no reason, then no, I don’t feel that documenting this atrocity is cavalier. I’m a photographer. I have to do this. I’ve a duty to show people the truth. If I don’t take these pictures, no one will, and their deaths will be more pointless than they already are. It’s not in my nature to sit back and do nothing, and the thing that I do is take pictures. And so I will.”

  Her hands shook. She could rarely pull in a steady breath, but she forced herself to work. She worked for almost an hour, adjusting things here and there, crouching and leaning and hovering. Caleb stood by her the whole time, a part of him still waiting for her to get too much, to turn away, unable to capture the photographs she needed

  But she didn’t. She dug in, and she did what she said she would. She documented the atrocity.

  When she had finished and had packed her things, she headed for the trail. Caleb said a quick prayer that Bohagande, the local Shoshone shaman, had taught him that would help the spirits of the elks return to their rightful place in nature, and then he followed Elena away from the sorrowful place.

  They walked in silence, not speaking and not stopping for any breaks. They made it all the way back to the northern edge of Brown Trout Lake before it hit her. One second she was walking next to him, her back straight and stiff, and the next she suddenly stopped.

  Then she screamed. It was terrible, full of anguish and such deep misery. Clawing at her backpack, she got it off and threw it to the ground. Caleb reached out to her, and he pulled her into his arms. Her whole body shook with the force of her screams, but Caleb held her tight, needing to hold her up as much as she needed to be held up.

  She screamed, and she sobbed, and Caleb kept his arms tight around her.

  When her throat became raw, and she had no more energy for the anger that consumed her, she fell completely against him, her broken sobs muffled against his shirtfront.

  She clung to him like a child.

  After a long while, after only sniffles remained, she looked up at him, agony written plainly across her features. “They were so innocent, Caleb. They were just alive. They were living. How could anyone…” The thought choked her, and she buried her face against him again.

  “Shh…” he cooed to her, ran his fingers through her hair, and stroked her back. “You can’t let yourself think about it. Some things are too much, even for the bravest.” Caleb took a deep breath, and then held her face so that she looked up at him again. “And you were very brave today, Elena.�
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  “No. That wasn’t…I’m not brave.”

  He kissed her fiercely. “Yes, you are. Don’t let me hear you say otherwise. You understand?”

  He wrapped his arms around her again and pressed a hard kiss to the top of her head. “You are brave, and you are beautiful,” he whispered fiercely.

  Chapter Eight

  “Savage Valley Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff Kinman speaking.” Joseph spoke in a lagging manner. He held the phone up to his ear and leaned far back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling as he twirled slowly back and forth on his swivel chair. He was alone in the office that afternoon as Caleb and Elena still weren’t back from their morning walk.

  Despite the everyday tasks and work that needed to be done, his mind kept wandering back to the night before. It filled up with the delectable remembrances of Elena. He could see and feel the beautiful arch of her back beneath his hands as he’d pounded up into her, the graceful vein in her neck as she threw her head back in rapture, her wild, fawn-colored mane of hair flaring around her elegant features as she screamed out his name and his brother’s. She sure knew how to take her pleasure.

  And last night, she’d told them she wanted both of them inside her at the same time. She’d grabbed his cock and said, “Soon I want to feel this in my ass, Joseph,” and then she’d taken his dick into her mouth, to the very back of her throat, and sucked the cum out of him.

  “Sheriff, this is Letty Hargrove over on Kwitakusix Cove.”

  Letty’s raspy voice dragged him away from his warm and tingly memories of the night before.

  “How can I help you, Letty?”

  “Well, a couple of the neighborhood trashcans have been tipped over and rifled through. Now, ordinarily I wouldn’t bother you with something like that. You and I both know those damn coons’ll go through anything they can get their paws on. But earlier this morning, Jessup’s little girl, Ashley Fey, was hollerin’ ’cause that mongrel of hers done went missing. Of course, Jessup couldn’t stand them tears, so he went lookin’ for that worthless pup.” Letty coughed a couple times.