* * * *
Sulie walked with his brother along the path to where their mate waited. Both of them wanted to race there, and acting dignified was taking its toll. The area’s inhabitants thronged the edges of the ceremony grounds, and excitement filled the air. No one missed a ceremony, and everyone attended the meal afterward, offering both good wishes and advice on mating. Things took a similar bent in the other realm according to his Internet search, and he hoped Jolene wouldn’t miss having her family there too much. It was unfortunate her uncle hadn’t come, but he clearly hadn’t been well, and if his refusal alluded to other reasons, they were obviously private.
He and Xander spent a restless night, knowing their intended slept alone just a few houses away. They hadn’t talked with her in detail about the mating, but Sulie had no worries in that regard. Jolene was content with doing so in human form first, and that gratified Sulie. He and Xander had discussed positioning and technique like schoolboys, and he wondered if he could wait until the guests departed or if they could leave for the forest early. He could feel Xander fairly jumping out of his skin with impatience, and the links around his wrist, the same ones that Sulie wore on the opposite hand, jingled and shone in the sunlight. They rounded the curve of the path and beheld the sight of their mate beneath the arbor of wildflowers.
Sulie stumbled to a halt, his shoulder catching his twin’s, and Xander nearly went to his knees. They both stared, openmouthed at their intended. She looked so tiny and yet so regal beneath the ceremonial arch. The traditional robe flowed almost to her feet and was like gossamer in the light breeze as the wind rustled the natural fibers. Her thick mane of hair had been braided with garlands of tiny golden flowers interspersed with the rare blue violets from the mountains, and her sweet face with its glowing eyes and plump lips was turned up to the sun. But it was the manner in which the mating links were woven around her voluptuous breasts that drew everyone’s attention, especially the Caprines in the crowd. Xander tossed his head back as he caught his balance, and Sulie distinctly heard him repeat exactly what had gone through Sulie’s head. The ceremony needed to be completed, immediately, and Jolene’s attributes covered. They rushed the arbor, and Jolene visibly jumped at their approach. Sulie didn’t miss the narrowing of her eyes and how her mouth set in the way he was coming to associate with bad things to come.
“Chiron! What have I done now?” Xander hadn’t missed the signs either, despite the distraction of Jolene’s bound breasts and shadowed, pointing nipples.
Sulie spoke out of the corner of his mouth. “Let’s do this, Brother, and then we can find out. If we fight with her now, it will delay the ceremony and Arion and all those other males will get to stare at our intended’s breasts! I’m not putting up with it!”
They took what was becoming a natural stance for them, with Sulie on Jolene’s left and Xander on her right. Arion stepped closer and connected the links from their wrists to the ones at her waist. He quite obviously averted his eyes from their witch’s chest, despite the proximity of those uplifted mounds, and Sulie managed not to huff or paw the ground. Xander didn’t bother to contain his annoyance, and Arion’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t remark on it and didn’t raise a brow at the evidence of their arousal. Instead, he said the traditional words in a low and reverent voice, and the ceremony was over as quickly as always. The crowd rained flowers over them and called congratulations and not a few lewd comments, albeit made within the safety of numbers, and then everyone wheeled away to go and celebrate with food and drink in the meadow.
Sulie bent to kiss Jolene just as Xander did, and there was some awkward maneuvering before they could simultaneously press their lips to her opposite cheeks. She still gave off certain vibes, but turned first to him and then Xander to place a soft kiss on their mouths.
“I thought the ceremony would be lengthy, but Arion spoke beautifully, and it was really quite touching, don’t you think?”
Sulie blinked and turned to Xander, who looked as helpless as he felt. There was an underlying tone in their mate’s voice, and Sulie was at a loss. He’d never paid much attention to the words of any ceremony. He doubted any of the males had done so, being distracted as they had to be. He had heard Arion announce Jolene as Jolene Etain Phillips Ahearn, something that made him feel incredibly proud and possessive, and his libido responded as he recognized she was christened both a lover and a rider of horses. Destiny had indeed prevailed. But other than that, his mind had been elsewhere as he reveled in the heat of her body and the scent of her. He decided to go for honesty.
“My attention was on you, my witch,” he advised. “I heard and felt little beyond the beating of my heart.” And the throbbing of my cock.
Xander nodded in agreement and shifted his stance, probably to ease his own aching organ and keep it from being visible to all and sundry. Jolene probably didn’t need to see what they would be giving her later, once she had transformed.
“Well, it was lovely. And I listened to every word, just as you probably listened to everything Arion shared with you yesterday and naturally passed onto me!”
Sulie froze. His mind cast around for an interpretation of what Jolene inferred. Xander looked back at him in confusion. They were no further along in their thinking when Jolene announced she was hungry. They hastened to escort her along the path to the feast. Sulie covertly tried to loosen the links above her waist and came in contact with Xander’s hand attempting to do the same thing.
“You should leave it, guys!” Jolene’s voice held an interesting inflection. They were in the shit.
She continued, “It is tradition, after all, and your mom explained it to me. All the females are bound in this way for all the males to see. Your mom explained it serves to make the husbands more virile because their possessive instincts are raised. We talked about many things this morning. Things I probably would have been made aware of had my mates spent less time talking about who goes first and what form to do it in! Things that would appear to be important given they are going to have a big freaking impact on my life!”
Chiron help them. Sulie tumbled to it just as he knew Xander had.
“Jolene,” he began, only to have her walk away, the links binding them together melting at her waist like snow in the heat of the sun, leaving them to dangle symbolically from their wrists.
“Jolene!” Xander’s bellow filled the air. “You will not walk away from us again, or there will be a correction instead of a mating later!”
Sulie turned a horrified look on his twin. Xander obviously heard the words he had just uttered, and the blood drained from his face. He raced after their mate and spun to a stop in front of her, forcing her to halt. Xander took both of her hands in his, and Sulie wrapped his arms around her shoulders, resting his chin on the top of her head, trying to calm her with his presence.
“I didn’t mean that, our witch,” Xander stuttered.
“Oh?” she replied sweetly, with just a touch of poison. “Perhaps you still want to mate, but you also meant providing a correction before, or perhaps after? After you put a baby in my belly?”
They both spoke at once, a jumble of apologies and explanations and pleading that seemed to move her, particularly the one Sulie thought made the most sense to her. The one telling her how their brains had been overruled by both their hearts and their cocks. She pulled away from them both and faced them. She smiled brilliantly and tossed her head, much as any Ipotane would, and her braid unraveled and her heavy locks flowed around her like a mane, fortuitously covering some of her gorgeous chest from other’s prying eyes. Sulie wanted to drop to his knees, and so he did, followed immediately by Xander. Their witch laid a hand on their heads, almost like a benediction, and Sulie thought it would be all right.
“I hope this realm has condoms, my husbands,” Jolene said sweetly. “Condoms for both events, or our lovemaking will be limited to acts guaranteed not to make babies. Now, feed me!”
They rose and walked h
er, hand in hand, toward the meadow where the crowd waited. Sulie could see his mother’s anxious face and his father’s amused one. He wondered if Arion’s magyk extended to conjuring up birth control devices. Xander was thinking hard, if the furrow in his brow was anything to go by. If anyone noticed the golden links no longer bound them, nothing was said, and Sulie found it didn’t matter in any event. They were together, and no physical tether was necessary. Once they dealt with the issue of premature conception, life would be perfect.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jolene ate her meal, sitting quietly between her horse men, accepting the continual stream of introductions and well-wishes from all of those who attended the ceremony. Sulie and Xander smelled redolently of leather and musk, and it was making her crazy with want. The only children present were those of adolescent years, miniatures of their parents, and Jolene found herself wondering where the little ones were. Sulie told her the young inhabitants of this realm were corralled some miles away during such events because of their boisterous behavior and inability to control themselves. Several older Hinds apparently supervised them, although there was little overt danger to them. Sulie looked at her searchingly and offered to introduce her to the little ones at another time. Jolene gave him a noncommittal nod, but was honest with herself in acknowledging she was curious. She wanted to see the babies of this world, even if the idea of having one, or two, was overwhelming at present.
Terach stopped by for a brief moment to speak, to offer his congratulations and welcome, but didn’t look at her below her face and didn’t attempt to touch her hand. Sulie and Xander fairly gnashed their teeth, and he took his leave promptly. Rhiannon gave her a hug, accompanied by a searching glance, and then slipped away into the crowd, and Jolene hadn’t seen her since. Agrippas valiantly tried to keep his eyes on her face and on his sons, but was clearly affected by her garb, and he, too, made his excuses and vanished after a brief word with Xander. Several of the couples began to slip away, and Jolene wanted to laugh. It seemed weddings affected this realm’s inhabitants in a similar manner to those at home.
“We should go, our witch.” Xander spoke quietly, but with authority. “It is a distance to the ancestral forest, and we still need to transform.”
Sulie chuckled. “It appears our guests have forsaken us.” He swept a hand over the meadow. There were only a few dozen people left, and some of those were tidying up.
Jolene stood up from where she had been sitting, pushing her hair back over her shoulders, and stretched. Her men’s eyes followed the lift of her breasts, and their eyes darkened, their simmering arousal again coming to the forefront. Her own desire spiked, although she had been swimming in her own juices for some time, and she ached for release. She was beginning to regret her earlier ultimatum, but while the idea of having their child wasn’t at all repugnant, she still wouldn’t be rushed, regardless of their customs. What if she was ready right now? She hadn’t begun to explore this realm and get to know her men and their family, and hers.
Rhiannon and Agrippas came from the dwelling area and embraced them all, beginning with Jolene. She felt her in-laws’ warm acceptance and hugged them back, fiercely. Agrippas spoke quietly to her men. They then stepped back and wished them the best of matings. Her horse men took her hands, and they began the long walk toward the forest. Jolene suddenly wanted to run, and they felt her need and quickened the pace.
She took stock as they hurried along in sexually charged contact. Her heart felt stronger, and her lungs seemed to draw in ever greater amounts of oxygen in this pure air. She wanted to dash long distances and trample the earth and sink her teeth into both Xander and Sulie. It was exhilarating, and she threw her head back to catch the breeze in her hair, feeling it stream out behind her much like a flag would do. She was experiencing the need to transform, to be Ipotane. Her magyk was awake and speaking, having rejoiced along with her during the ceremony and having basked at the feast. Arion spoke the special words, and she had known them for what they implied, had understood the language, just as she now spoke it. Love and honor, cherish and hold safe, not so different than in her own world, and Arion had used the word master not as a noun but as a verb that applied to the three of them. They would master one another with love and joining, and none would rule the other. Xander would do well to remember that.
Sulie scooped her up as her steps faltered, and for a moment she struggled and then allowed him to carry her the remaining distance. Xander led the way. They came to a place under the enormous trees where mosses and lichens grew thick, and Sulie set her down gently. Jolene’s toes curled into the sensation of velvet. She watched as the twins transformed and took human shapes, their lithe, strong bodies appearing within the skeins and swirls of magyk, only now it was her magyk, and the significance of it didn’t escape her. It didn’t matter what form they took. They were mated, and her magyk was theirs.
She stood quietly while they unwound the golden links their mother had so painstakingly set about her, and put them aside. The fine weave of her robe slipped from her shoulders and pooled at her feet, and she reveled in both their hot stares and the gentle breeze that swirled between and around the thick trunks to craftily cool her secret places. The trees spread their wide branches overhead and threw dappled shade, and Jolene could hear the chuckling sounds of running water in the distance. It felt cool and sensual in this place, and her magyk swirled and cast itself out and around her as Sulie and Xander approached.
Xander pressed a kiss on her lips and something small and firm onto her palm. When he withdrew from the kiss, Jolene studied the minute object. It resembled nothing less than a star, with tiny points of silver.
“It is to prevent conception, our mate,” he explained. “Our mother provided it.”
Jolene was overwhelmed. Rhiannon intuited how the newness of the situation made her fearful and anxious. She hadn’t wanted the mating to be spoiled, showing another woman’s understanding, something Jolene supposed was too early to expect from her passion-addled men. But the journey here had clarified her thoughts. She would conceive when she was ready to do so, and with both of her men’s child. Twins, but of the heteropaternal aspect to carry forth this new tradition. She should have known to trust her fate and her destiny. She smiled at Xander and bent to set the little star on her robe and then went to her knees. Two big cocks appeared like magyk before her, and she leaned to kiss first one, then the other. Two loud groans sounded above her head, and Jolene hid a smile. Ipotanes appeared to like this as well. She drew the mushroom-shaped head of the cock on her left into her mouth and caressed the other with her hand, memorizing the shapes and imprinting the taste. Two hands pushed into her hair and held her head steady as she learned what they liked, her tongue mirroring the tracing of her fingertips, and the suction of her lips coincided with the tighter grasp of her hand. The cock in her mouth swelled and hitched against the back of her throat as she drew him deeper even as the one in her stroking fist wept over her palm.
Sulie pulled out of her mouth, groaning. “I cannot control myself, Jolene.”
She took Xander inside and tasted him next, her other hand unerringly seeking and finding Sulieman to caress him gently. Xander stroked harder than his twin but took care not to choke her, his fingers circling his shaft at the deepest point she could manage. She teased him with her tongue as she sucked, and he, too, pulled out, tugging her hair gently in warning.
“I would come deep inside you, my mate, and you will not tease me.”
Jolene gave him her best innocent look and fluttered her lashes at them both. She rocked back on her heels and offered her breasts, spreading her legs slightly, and was rewarded with the sight of their flaring nostrils and swelling chests.
The moment dissolved in a rush of male bodies. Jolene found herself lifted and lowered with almost unseemly haste onto a bed of moss, the springy mass cradling her body. Sulie’s hot form blanketed her, and he slipped a hand to her apex, pressing a finger up inside of
her, facilitated by her copious juices.
“We can wait no longer, Jolene,” he nearly rasped. “You will receive us.”
His cock notched itself at her entrance and drove deep to seat fully within her. Jolene gasped at the invasion and buried her face in his throat. He rolled onto his side and held her tightly against him. Xander crouched and a cooling substance soothed her back entrance, followed by the press of his cock. He fitted himself to her back, and she relaxed to allow him to penetrate past the tight ring guarding her there. Splinters of ecstasy and erotic pain accompanied his forward surges, as Sulie soothed her with gentle strokes of his hands and nonsensical utterings into her hair. At last Xander was fully seated, her body full and enveloped.
Jolene relaxed every muscle and let her men take charge of her pleasure. They were gentle, if determined, rocking and thrusting in tandem. Jolene saw flashes of light behind her closed lids and wondered that she could breathe. She was held closely between two smooth chests, and her heart began to beat in the same cadence like a kettle drum. It seemed impossible, but they were one. Her climax curled up from her toes and the soles of her feet and climbed ever higher as her magyk infused the sensation with greater and greater purpose. It encompassed her entire being. Her skin heated, she clenched hard as she spasmed, and Jolene screamed her release to the treetops, milking her horse men dry. Xander and Sulie sank their teeth high on her shoulders in exactly the same place if on opposite sides, and Jolene went over again, this time in such a surge of magyk the sun appeared to blink and the earth definitely moved. Jolene felt the total evolution in her being even as Sulie and Xander slumped away in postcoital bliss.
Riding Magyk Page 18