by Ruby Dixon
Brooke smirks, tying off the end of his braid. “Good timing, because I’m all done here.”
“Incredible timing,” I agree as J’shel gets to his feet and approaches me. I’m pretty sure Brooke’s timing wasn’t just coincidence. As she saunters over to her mate with a bit of swing in her hips, I’m almost positive that her thoughts are moving along the same direction as mine—that the men need a bit of stress relief.
Luckily I know a fun way to do so.
J’shel, that sweet man, moves in front of me and gestures at the top. “This part will cover your teats,” he says, explaining as if I truly do have no clue.
“Great, hold that and you can help me put it on,” I tell him brightly, and then slip my tunic off over my head, tossing it to the ground. I’m confident doing so because Taushen’s never looked in my direction all afternoon, and right now I’m betting Brooke is distracting him in her own way. The only one interested in a flash of “teat” is the mate standing right before me.
And he suddenly looks very interested.
I fit the “placemat” over my boobs, settling the loop against my neck, and then turn so he can tie the back of it. J’shel does so, his warm fingers skimming along my spine in a way that has nothing to do with getting dressed. When the top is in place, I turn around again and bite back a chuckle at how poorly the top fits. Maybe it works for someone less chesty, but on me, it just looks ridiculous. My boobs jiggle out the sides and underneath, gravity not a consideration with this top. “Looks like I’m a little too busty for this,” I point out to him, grabbing my tits and pretending to adjust everything, knowing that his gaze is going to be all over me. “Shall we try the skirt?”
He growls low and leans in, even as he hands the skirt to me. “You are going to make it impossible for me to climb back up to our nest, little flower.”
“Because of your boner? I see it.” I flutter my lashes at him. “I’d have to be blind not to see that thing. It’s so big and juicy and—”
“H’nah,” he warns.
I wrap the skirt around my hips and fix the side-loop. Like everything else, it doesn’t quite fit. The ties hold it together, but there’s an indecent gap along the side because I have a big booty. It is a lot cooler than my leather, though. “I like this.”
“I do too.” His gaze is sultry-hot.
I fake-yawn, stretching my arms over my head and sure enough, the girls pop out from underneath the placemat top. Oops. “I’m sleepy from all that swimming. Shall we head up?”
My J’shel growls low in his throat and snags my waist with one arm, dragging me against him. “Hold on tight.”
“Because we’re gonna go nap?” I flutter my lashes again.
“We are going to our furs,” he agrees. “I said nothing about sleeping.”
And before I can tease him about that, he picks me up, fitting my legs around his waist, and begins to climb again. I hold onto him tightly, doing my best not to squirm. I want to rub against him like a cat in heat, but doing that while he’s climbing is a bad idea.
The moment we get to the top, though? All bets are off. I rock my hips and press my wet pussy against him deliberately. My cootie’s purring with need, insisting on more lovemaking, and I’m all too happy to comply. “Thank you for carrying me,” I tell him, wiggling against his flat stomach. “You’re so strong and big and—”
He doesn’t set me down. He heads straight forward, his hands gripping my hips tight, and then I smack into the cool stone of the cave wall, leaves rustling around me. He hitches me up higher, claiming my mouth with a hot kiss, and I feel one of his hands working beneath me, removing his leather loincloth.
Ooh, are we going to do it against the wall?
I get my answer a moment later when he sinks me lower, and then the fat head of his cock presses into my core. I bite back a gasp of shock, my eyes closing and my head tilting back because it’s so damn good. It’s like I’m being impaled on his thick shaft, and as I sink slowly down onto him, little twinges of pleasure shoot up my spine.
“My H’nah,” he murmurs, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. Like this, I come to his shoulder and kissing is impossible, but when he rocks his hips, it feels like my whole body jerks in response, and I cling to him. “My little flower.”
My only response is a moan.
He thrusts again, and then his hands lock on my hips and he’s holding me in place as he drives into me. My back presses against the rock, his weight pinning me, and it takes everything I have to hold onto him, even as my legs twitch and spasm with every thrust. His spur never leaves my clit, and it feels as if we’ve just started when my thighs clench and then my back arches with the force of my orgasm. I cry out his name as he pumps into me, and then he’s spilling his heat into my pussy, filling me with his seed. It was a hard, quick fuck, but I’m not complaining. I loved every moment of it.
J’shel touches my cheek, caressing my face as I smile up at him. I feel positively dopey with endorphins, and my whole body’s singing. If we have to stay here a month or three, I’ll enjoy every single day of this, just being with him and loving him. We can leave the rest of the world behind for a while. His fingers skim over my face and I capture his thumb, biting down on the tip of it.
He groans, and his hips surge against mine, reminding me that I’m still speared on his length. His arms go to my back and my legs, and then he turns, heading toward our nest of furs with me still on his cock, and every step he takes feels erotic and makes me crazy with need all over again. By the time he sets me down in the blankets, he’s hard again—thank you, resonance—and I’m squirming for more.
I don’t need anything but J’shel.
20
J’SHEL
One Week Later
Old Grandfather lets out another angry, territorial cry in the distance, as he has every day for the last two handfuls of days. He smells something in his territory and does not like it, and I know what it is he smells—he smells us.
And we are not leaving. We cannot. Not while he is out there and can snatch my curvy little human mate up in one bite.
I grit my teeth as he cries again, sending out a warning to interlopers. I work on weaving my newest net, my fingers moving quickly over it. I have made four of them this day, careful to strip away only the dead, old vines from the greenery so I do not kill the lifegiving plants. I would rather have more spears, but since I cannot go outside, I must do with the one I have.
So I make nets. Small nets. Large nets. Weighted nets edged with fruit pits and the occasional half-rotted melon. I have nets covered with sticky sap from a fruit that all creatures avoid. I have lengths of vine-twisted rope ready to go and snowshoes made from more stiffened mats of vines for my mate’s feet.
We are ready to leave, if Old Grandfather would but fly away.
But he does not, so I continue to prepare. Below, I know T’shen does the same. His mate makes a small fire and carefully dries fruits, just as my mate does, and he works on nets and his spear.
And we wait. There is nothing to do but wait.
Well, no, there is one other thing to do. Mating. This has been the best two handfuls of days I have ever spent. Even though Old Grandfather threatens us outside, I have spent my time with H’nah, laughing and touching. We have swum in the water, slept lazily in the furs, and nibbled on fruit.
We have mated. Many, many times we have mated. Each time we come together, it feels as fresh and exciting as the first time. She is hungry for my touch, eager for my caresses, and cries out with need every time I sink my cock into her hot cunt. I worried she would change the moment resonance was fulfilled. That she would look at me and not feel the same anymore now that it was no longer demanding that we mate constantly. I dreaded the day that I would hear her khui’s song change. But the morning that it did? I woke up to her mouth on my cock, her hand on my sac, and she licked me and suckled me until I spent my seed on her hot little tongue.
I flipped her onto her back and gave her cunt a turn
, of course. And then we mated again, my cock deep inside her, just because we wanted to.
Now it has been quiet for nearly a hand of days, but I do not feel any different, and H’nah reaches for me as often as she did before. Her smile is as welcoming as ever, and I start to think that perhaps this is truly what I am meant to have—a sweet human mate and a kit on the way.
My heart aches with the joy of it.
First, though, I must protect her from Old Grandfather.
I look over at my mate, where she sleeps in the furs. Just watching her causes me to feel possessive and hungry to touch her. She is all pink, flushed skin, her soft body naked in our furs. She wears her leafy skirt less and less, which I like. I like seeing the tuft of fur between her thighs and the rounded bounce of her bottom. I love the jiggle of her teats as she walks. I love all of it.
As I stare hungrily at her, her eyes open and she yawns, then smiles sleepily at me. She stretches, her arms rising over her head and making her teats lift. I eye them appreciatively, noting that she still has a pink mark on one from my mouth the last time we mated. I must be more careful with her. Her neck is covered in similar marks from when I sucked on her skin too eagerly. She likes them, but I worry they hurt her and she is just reassuring me.
She sits up, rubbing her eyes, and her smile disappears when she sees the project on my lap. “Another net?”
I shrug. I know she does not like that I am constantly preparing. “I must be ready.”
“You don’t need nets,” she tells me, that bossy tone returning to her voice. “You’re not confronting it. We’re hiding out until it leaves, remember?”
I grunt, because I do not want to argue. I do not point out that we have stripped much of the ripe fruit from the walls. Some is dried for taking home to the tribe, but fruit is not a filling meal and we eat more of it than we should to stave off the pinch of hunger. My belly constantly rumbles for meat, and I am torn between eating more fruit to keep my strength up, and saving it for my mate who even now carries my young.
“J’shel?” she asks, getting to her feet and padding to my side.
I know it is not the answer she wants to hear, but it is the one I will give. “I must be ready, H’nah. We cannot stay here forever.”
It’s early yet,” she protests. “Plenty of time later on to panic.”
I shake my head, putting aside my net and pulling her into my arms. “We must do something soon while we are strong enough to fight him.”
Worry fills her eyes. She puts her arms around my neck and presses her glorious teats to my chest. “You’re not fighting him!”
“H’nah,” I say gently, stroking her soft skin. I love touching my mate. I love reaching out and caressing all this softness, knowing the fierce sounds she makes when I am between her thighs. Only J’shel can make her scream with pleasure. Only J’shel licks her cunt until her legs clamp against my ears and she shudders.
She is mine and mine alone, and I will do anything I must to protect her.
“You must be reasonable about this,” I say gently to her, pressing a kiss to her small nose. “How many days ago did we have the last of the kah?”
H’nah makes a face at me. “You mean, how many days ago did I eat the last of the trail mix or did you? Because you know how I felt about that.”
Laughter rumbles up in my chest. We argued over the food—H’nah has definite opinions on everything and is unafraid to share them, which I enjoy. I gave her my share so she could keep up her strength, and told her it was because of the kit in her belly. She did not like that idea, so I told her I had my kah still…and then gave her the last. When she found out, she scowled at me until I kissed her frown away.
She is frowning up at me right now, her brows furrowed. She does not look pleased. “I don’t want you confronting it, J’shel. All you have is a spear and some nets, babe. That terrifies me. I don’t want to lose you.”
“I will not go anywhere,” I promise her, taking her small hand in mine and kissing the palm. “But he is not going anywhere, and we must make plans.”
“I’m fine with making plans as long as they don’t all involve you flinging yourself into its mouth.”
I chuckle. “Such confidence in your mate’s hunting skill.”
H’nah looks even more upset. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
“I know.” I kiss her palm again. “I will be here for you and the kit, my H’nah. I promise that.”
It feels false on my tongue, a bit like a lie. But I mean it. If there is any way I can get her out of here without having to confront Old Grandfather, I will. I have never felt such happiness…or such fear. Even the Great Smoking Mountain’s second attack did not terrify me like this does.
Perhaps because then, I did not have everything to lose. I did not have my sweet H’nah with her bouncy teats and silly smile and bossy attitude. I did not have the kit in her belly that grows every day. Before H’nah, I was existing. Now, I am alive…and I wish to keep it that way.
So I hold my mate and tease her with words and kisses until the heat in her eyes becomes impossible to resist. I take her back to the furs, part her thighs, and sink deep. This time, I do not mate with frantic energy. I take my time, savoring every sigh, every touch, every quiver of her cunt as it squeezes my cock. She comes hard, and I tease and caress her third nipple—her clit—until she comes again, and again. By the time I reach my own release, H’nah is dazed, a sleepy look on her face. She sleeps a great deal these last few days, and I do not know if it is because she now carries my kit, or if I am too vigorous in the furs…or the fact that we have no meat.
I have been hungry before. It is not something I wish for my curvy mate to experience. I do not want her to lose her softness. I do not want her face to grow hard and lean as I’chai’s did when food grew scarce.
I must protect her from the world.
I stroke H’nah’s cheek as she curls up in the furs and dozes. When I am satisfied she will slumber for a bit longer, I clean off, put on my loincloth, and then climb down to visit T’shen and his mate B’rukh.
By the water, T’shen’s mate is stretched out on her belly, her arms crossed under her chin. She dozes, from the look of her, while T’shen sits cross legged and sharpens his spear. He and I are alike in this thought—we know that above all else, our mates must be kept safe.
I say nothing in greeting, not wanting to wake his mate. He hears the rustle of vines and nods at me as I approach. When I sit next to him, I gesture at the sleeping B’rukh. “H’nah sleeps much of the day now.”
He nods. “My Brooke, too. I worry they need more food than we are providing. She says she needs pro-teen. I just say she needs meat.” He shrugs. “Even when I eat, I am still hungry. We cannot stay here forever.”
“I worry we will become too weak if we stay here much longer,” I admit to him. Already his face looks leaner to me. H’nah, too. “We must go while we are strong and capable. If we wait for a full turn of the moon, we might be too weak if we must fight Old Grandfather.”
“Do you think we must fight him, then?” T’shen frowns. “Even with an entire tribe of hunters I would still be wary. With just you and me…I fear we are staring death in the face.” He shakes his head, running a fingertip along the point of his spear. “He is too big and too dangerous to take head on. We must be sly.”
“As T'aashi was,” I agree, thinking of the old stories. “But we do not have the supplies that T'aashi did.”
“We have the chakk leaves,” T’shen points out. “Brooke and I had some last night. It was great fun, but her head hurts this morning.” He gazes out at his mate, his expression thoughtful. “I would normally take her to the healer, but of course there is no healer here. We are alone. I like that far less than I thought I would. Once, I wanted to explore this whole world with her, see new places and creatures…but with my kit in her belly, I realize how vulnerable she is. At least with the tribe there is safety in numbers. There are others to lean on. There is food
for all. I want to take her back to the beach.” His mouth thins. “But then I worry this Old Grandfather will follow us back there and we will destroy everyone.”
I rub my chin, scratching at the bristle there. “I worry this too, but I think he will stay here. If we can get away, I do not think he will follow. He shows no signs of leaving this area and the calls he makes are those that he would make to a challenger in his territory. I think he views this as his home.”
“Lucky us,” T’shen mutters. “I have been thinking of ways to hunt Old Grandfather. We do not have to kill him, but we have to make sure it is safe for us to take our mates safely out of this valley.”
He has ideas? “I am listening.”
“The leaves we ate last night? Chakk? They were interesting, but I noticed that if I ate too much, my head spun and it grew difficult to focus. What if we somehow got chakk inside of the sky-claw? Like your ancestor?” He gestures with his spear. “We could kill a dvisti, stuff it full of leaves, and send the carcass out like in your story.”
I shake my head. “We would need a larger predator that eats the dvisti and would pass the dizziness along. He will not take something already dead. Plus…we have no dvisti here.” I spread my hands. “If we did, we would simply stay inside and feast on their meat.”
T’shen grunts. “Do sky-claw eat fruit? We have a lot of it and little else.”
“They do not.”
“If he will not eat the leaves, perhaps we can somehow force them into him.” He gestures at a freshly woven basket of vine, and I notice he has been gathering chakk leaves. “All we have to do is get them into him somehow. Make him slow and sleepy, and then sneak away with our females.”
It is not a bad plan. I pick one leaf up, thoughtfully rubbing it as I consider. “It would have to be tricked. They snap at everything…perhaps we can get close enough to get him to snap at a bag full of leaves. Then, we let his gut do the rest. This is a good plan, T’shen.”