by Edith DuBois
Agnes turned away from Larry, and despite her harsh tones, shot Elena a quick wink. “I’m going to go get something for poor ol’ Jim Bob,” she shot over her shoulder at Larry and Bobby, “but I’ll see you around, honey.” She gave Elena’s arm an affectionate pinch and then sauntered away to the beverage booth next to the Savage Hunger booth.
When Elena looked back at the display, two men were standing at the entrance to the bank. They were both tall with dark hair. Even from a distance, Elena could tell they were twins. Something clicked in her mind, and she remembered either Joseph or Caleb telling her that the Carson twins owned Savage Valley Bank. One of the twins noticed her gaze and leaned toward his brother to say something. The second brother looked in her direction, and they both watched her for a long moment.
She knew the Carsons were bear-shifters and, therefore, not a threat to her, but their frank gaze intimidated her. Slowly and together, they nodded at her, sending a chill down her spine, and then they walked down the front steps to disappear into the crowd gathered around the old cars. Despite her unease, she knew the twins were partly responsible for Joseph’s appearing before her in bear form. She hoped she would have a chance to thank them personally for that day.
Noticing that Agnes and Jim Bob were now deeply engaged in conversation and not wanting to interrupt them, Elena said good-bye to Larry and Bobby and then headed back toward the heart of the hoedown, looking for interesting booths to visit on her map. She spent the next hour or so exploring, picking up a couple beeswax candles, some Savage Valley lavender honey, and even some honey bath and beauty products from a sweet Savage Valley native named Lianne. Her favorite booth, though, was the photography and art booth run by the chamber of commerce. It displayed photos and artwork from local Savage Valley residents, and some of the work was truly breathtaking.
Elena wished she had known about it. She would have submitted some of her work. Maybe next year.
She stopped in her tracks.
Elena Susan Ward, she barked at herself. Next year is too far away. You are not allowed to think in those terms. She was feeling jittery. She hadn’t seen Joseph or Caleb in almost two hours, and the bee dance was about to start. The sun was growing larger and more orange by the second, beginning to lean farther and farther down the sky to tuck behind the Rocky Mountains.
The crowd had almost tripled in size, and it moved as a whole toward the stage. Elena glanced around her, unable to pick out either of their large forms from the hot throng of bodies. She had never been absolutely comfortable in large crowds, but she needed Joseph. She needed Caleb. She couldn’t breathe.
She got pushed closer to the stage, and even when she tried to turn around and head away, the crowd pushed her closer, in the opposite direction than where she wanted to go. She began struggling in earnest, wanting to get away, wanting a fresh breath of air.
Feeling a scream building up in her chest, she pushed and shoved against the people around her, terror gripping her chest. She felt so alone, so powerless. She had to break free.
A large pair of arms wrapped around her body, and a warm pair of lips pressed against her neck. Caleb spoke from behind her into her neck. “Shh, Elena. I’m right here. You’re okay.”
Finally, she sucked in a deep breath, and then it came spilling out of her lungs in halting gasps. She wrapped her arms around his for a moment and then turned to face him. He continued to hold her tightly, and she pressed her fevered lips against his, desperate for his kiss. The large crowd and the setting sun cloaked them from too many prying eyes, and Elena just needed him. She craved the feel of his thick cock plowing into her cunt.
She wanted his brother in her ass, too. She wanted them together.
Tonight.
* * * *
Standing at the back end of the crowd, Joseph scanned the mass of people for any shenanigan-causing miscreants. At the same time, he kept an eye on Caleb, watching him cut through the crowd and finally locate Elena. They didn’t have to see her. They trusted their feet to take them to her. She was theirs, and their bodies knew it.
Soon Caleb had Elena in his arms, and Joseph watched him pull her tiny body against his to place a heated kiss against her parted lips. The sight had his cock hardening, knowing that soon he too would have her warm lips all to himself.
“Damn,” he muttered under his breath, hoping none of the people surrounding him would notice his awkward stance or nervous fidgeting. He needed his cock buried balls deep in Elena’s cunt, and he needed it now.
After Mayor Cash’s brief introduction, a singular, low drumbeat echoed from the stage and across the dirt lot between the courthouse and the bank where the masses had gathered for the opening ceremonies. A long moment later, another beat rang more solidly through the air.
Even though Joseph had been to countless hoedowns, the opening ceremonies always sent a small thrill through his blood. Maybe it was the bear’s blood that coursed through his veins answering Bohagande’s ancient ritual. Whatever it was, it was potent. It made his body throb.
Soon the drum had been joined by a few others and had picked up a steady, driving rhythm, and a chorus of voices broke through the still air. Since Main Street had been sectioned off and the crowd was mesmerized by the drums, the singing voices rang clear, reaching all the way out to and past Joseph. A line of Shoshone came prancing onstage, dancing and singing and thrusting their bodies with practiced abandon. Their beat grew faster and wilder. It grew more intense. Soon it had reached a crazed level, and Joseph felt his bear rippling beneath the surface. His hands clenched and then unclenched, and he felt a growl rumbling in his chest, despite his best efforts to keep it quiet.
The five dancers circled each other, their voices at once piercing and then soaring. They beat their drums until sweat glistened across their skin in the wild, fiery light of the setting sun. Joseph’s muscles trembled with the effort of keeping his bear contained.
He had one errant thought in which he was thankful for sending the Strong bothers to Letty’s. They’d been drinking for hours now, and if they had been swallowed in this music, there would be a catastrophe on hand.
All of a sudden, the drums beat no more. The voices were quiet.
The whole crowd breathed in once and then out.
It was magic.
After only one breath, a single voice cried out, trembling but somehow powerful. Joseph recognized Bo’s baritone timbre. The older Indian walked onto the stage from the back, the mountains and brilliant sun framing his dark silhouette. Tiny dark specks moved all around him, circled and flitted and vibrated around him.
Joseph had seen the bee dance too many times to count, but each time he saw it, the sight still managed to mesmerize and enchant him. Thousands of bees covered Bo’s chest and torso. Bo never seemed nervous or uncomfortable. In fact, he looked downright blissful, like the bees made him whole.
The five dancers behind him began a low, steady rhythm, and Bo turned to the side, in profile to the crowd. He lifted his arms and began a tuneless chant, his voice ringing out in pure, solid notes, while his body moved with fluid motion in time to the drums. He faced each direction, repeating his dancing prayer to the north, to the south, and to the east and to the west.
After it was over and Bo had left the stage, Oliver took the stage again for a moment to officially announce the beginning of the Savage Valley Honey Harvest Hoedown. Soon after, Jeremiah Greenwood took to the stage with his old resonator guitar, a Greenwood family heirloom from the twenties, along with a couple of bluegrass musicians from around the area, and they kicked things off with a lively jig.
Caleb strode out of the swirling bunch of bodies with Elena’s arm tucked in his, her cheeks flushed and her eyes full of desire. When she saw Joseph, she said something to Caleb, and he let her go. She ran toward Joseph and, without pausing, leapt into his arms. He caught her, laughing, and buried his nose in her neck.
When he let her down, she grabbed his hand. “I’ve missed you too much today. I don’t
like being away from you.”
“You can thank the Strongs for a good part of it.”
“I’ve a mind to give them a tanning of my own. See how they like that.” She held her hand out for Caleb who had just reached them, and the three of them walked along Main Street together. Elena swung her hands and practically hummed beside him as she told him and his brother about all the things she’d seen that day. Strings of large, golden-glowing lightbulbs hung between each booth, and twinkly lights had been woven through the trees that lined Main Street. They cast an angelic glow across Elena’s features until Joseph found it difficult to concentrate on anything besides the idea that his dick should be pounding into her beautiful body.
He met Caleb’s eyes over Elena’s head and saw that his brother’s thoughts were running along the same as his own. Waiting for a natural pause in Elena’s ramblings, he said, “Hey, little darlin’?”
“Yes?”
“Did you have your heart set on dancing tonight?”
“I thought maybe a slow dance or two but not particularly, no. Why?”
“Good,” he said and then swept her up in his arms.
She squeaked in surprise. “Joseph Kinman! What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?” Joseph could hear Caleb chuckling beside him.
“Now, quiet down.” He shot her a half-menacing look, and she clamped her mouth shut but continued to glare up at him. “Tonight, little darlin’, our magic is only for you.” Her brown eyes grew large. “Tonight, everything we are, and everything we do is for you.”
She studied his face for a moment and then looked over at Caleb. Without another word, she snuggled into his chest.
“That’s right,” Joseph said, taking her away from the crowd. The bear had been humming in his blood all night, and now that he was a safe distance from the festivities, he put Elena back on the ground.
“Elena.” She immediately became alert at his use of her name. “You trust me?”
She looked deep into his eyes and placed her palm against his cheek. “Of course.”
“Then don’t be scared. Caleb and I would never do anything to hurt you.” She swallowed but then nodded her head.
Joseph began undressing, removing his shirt and then his uniform’s trousers until he stood stark naked in front of the woman he loved. She looked him up and down and mindlessly licked her lips. The small gesture caused his cock to jerk up. Caleb walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. He whispered something in her ear, and her eyes locked with Joseph’s.
Then she nodded at him.
It was all he needed. His bear had been yearning to break free all night. And at her nod, his body exploded.
Chapter Nine
Elena involuntarily jerked backward, pushing against Caleb’s strong chest.
She had seen Joseph in bear form only once before and that was only briefly. She’d been tempted to ask Caleb on their numerous walks each morning, but something always held her back. Maybe it was because deep down she knew that she wanted them to all three be together.
Caleb’s thick arms tightened around her, warm and stolid. His chest moved up and down behind her. “Just breathe,” he said.
As Joseph’s body ripped and shifted into that of a bear, as the fur sprouted from his skin and a snout grew from his face, as his hands and feet grew into great paws and his grunt grew into a roar, Elena remained frozen. She’d never seen anything so terrifying yet so magnificent at the same time. It took her mind a moment to process, and by then, Joseph’s large front paws had slammed onto the earth.
He stood watching her, his large back and chest moving up and down with his breathing. His black eyes stayed focused on her. Every instinct she possessed urged her to flee, to run away, to place as much distance as possible between her body and that of the gigantic animal before her.
“Don’t be scared, Elena. It’s Joseph. It’s only Joseph in there.” Caleb pressed a small kiss behind her ear, and the bear took a tentative step toward her, not breaking eye contact.
Her muscles shook with the effort to stand still as he took another step and then another until his bear face was less than a foot away from hers. His hot breath spilled across her chest, and Caleb held her. As long as he was with her, she knew everything was okay.
The bear—Joseph—made a low, frustrated sound and slapped a paw to the earth. When Elena jumped, Caleb grabbed her wrist and held her arm out toward Joseph. She held her breath, and then her palm moved over Joseph’s rough fur.
He pushed his head more firmly against her hand, making a low rumbling sound. “Oh,” Elena said, surprised. “You like that?” She rubbed him behind the ears, and his lips rippled.
“We’re going to take you to Brown Trout Lake.”
“Take me?” Before she had time to get some clarification, Caleb had swept her up in his arms and dumped her over Joseph’s back so that she was straddling him. She ran her fingers through the black fur on his back then ran them over the hard ridge of muscles that constantly rippled beneath the surface of his skin as he shifted his weight from paw to paw, anxious to be off.
After a moment she glanced over at Caleb, in time to see him shift into a bear. Not expecting such a sight, she jumped, nearly falling off Joseph. She grabbed onto a patch of fur on his back, and he let out an irritated grunt and then whipped his neck around to point one dark eye at her. He grunted, and when Elena had righted herself, he began hustling toward the lake.
Soon the only sound that rose louder than the wind whistling by her ears was that of her breathing and the breathing of Joseph and Caleb and the sound of their thick, heavy paws beating against the earth.
After only a short while, their powerful bodies had carried her all the way to the lake. She slid off Joseph, feeling heavy as her feet hit the ground. Caleb came up from behind her and stuck his snout between her arm and her body, niggling his way in until her arm was wrapped around his neck and her fingers scratched his hide.
He grumbled contentedly beside her.
Her very own pair of bears. The thought made her giggle. She would have never, not in a million years, envisioned this for herself.
Joseph’s fur began to shiver, and then he rose up on his hind legs. Before Elena could react, he had already shifted back into human form.
He stood before her, moonlight gleaming in his black eyes, still panting from his run, and sweat shining on his smooth skin. She took a step toward him, but Caleb made a small sound and followed her movements.
Turning to Caleb, she placed her hands on either side of his face and looked deep into his bear eyes. “I want you both, Caleb.” A growl rolled around his chest but didn’t come forth. “Do you understand?” He let out a puff but then he took a step back. Elena did the same, giving him ample room to shift.
As Caleb transformed, Joseph caught her from behind. She felt his thick shaft pushing with insistence against her back. Reaching around, Joseph hunched over her and cupped her throbbing cunt, rippling his fingers across her lips in a steady pattern. Caleb was gone for a moment but soon returned, approaching her from the front, as naked as his brother. He had a blanket and a small tube in his hands, and glancing around, Elena noticed the wildlife preservation center a few hundred feet down the lake’s shoreline.
He grinned when he saw her eyeing the objects. “We always keep supplies at the center. It’s a convenient place on the edge of the forest for us to keep supplies—clothes and food and whatever else we may need when we shift.”
Now that he was closer, she could see what the tube contained. She raised an eyebrow. “And that includes lubricant?”
“Naw,” he said, shooting her a saucy grin. “That was in the bedroom. Knew it would be, those kinky bastards.”
The blanket exploded upward out of Caleb’s hands and then settled gently onto the grass next to the sand that led to lapping water. Straightening up, he slid his hands under her shirt, raking them across the skin of her belly until he reached her breasts, pushing their weight upward as his
face fell to her shirtfront. His teeth nibbled through the fabric, tickling and pinching her hard nipples.
As Caleb attended to her breasts, Joseph began undoing the button to her jeans. He slid them over the gentle slope of her hips and over the smooth skin of her thighs and then slid them over her calves until he kneeled behind her.
“This is the most glorious pair of ass cheeks I have ever had the pleasure of viewing.” He kissed the rounded curve of first one and then the other cheek, sending ripples across her flesh. “I can’t wait to watch it jiggle and grow to a sweet rosy pink under the guidance of my palm.” Elena felt her back muscles tense at his statement, but he only smoothed his palm over her ass. “Not tonight, though, little darlin’. Tonight, Caleb is going to spread this hole wide with his cock.” He pulled her cheeks apart and blew on her exposed anus, sending a wild tickling sensation straight through her nerves.
A strained noise came from her throat as she buried her face in Caleb’s chest. He tipped her chin up until she looked at him. “You aren’t scared, are you? We’ve prepared you for this. We’ve used the beads, the plug. You’re ready for this, Elena.”
“I know. But still…I can’t help…”
Caleb put his lips to hers, pressing against her hard until she relented and opened her mouth to him. His tongue dove in and flicked upwards against the roof of her mouth. Her whole body rolled against his, and his dick poked aggressively into her stomach.
“Your body knows what it wants, Elena.” He pushed even harder against her stomach. “All you have to do is listen.” Tentatively, she reached her hand between them and wrapped her fingers around his familiar length. It jerked, and he chuckled. “This cock belongs to you and only you. Do with it what you will.”
She knew what she wanted. The time for being afraid had passed. She met Caleb’s gaze, feeling strong, feeling empowered by the weight of his cock in her hands and in her control. “I want you in my ass. I want Joseph in my cunt. Make me howl, Caleb. Make me fucking come.”