A Flash of Fang
by R.E. Butler
Copyright 2011 R.E. Butler
Smashwords Edition
A Flash of Fang
by R.E. Butler
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
**Cover Design by Kameko Gay. Photographer: Holly Amlin (Image: "All fires have to burn alive")
* * * *
This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.
Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those over the age of 18 only.
* * * *
Because I couldn’t leave Elizabeth, Ash, and Axe’s story alone...this book is for anyone that has ever sacrificed their own happiness for love. To B.B. because you love me. To K.G. because you are awesome. And to B.L., just because.
Table of Contents
From the Author and Other Works
Chapter 1
Drumming my fingers against my purse, I sat in the doctor’s office waiting room with one of my two were-bear husbands sitting next to me. The picture of perfect calm, Ash reclined in the straight backed chair and fiddled with his cell phone.
“Why are you so nervous, aleni?” Ash asked, calling me their pet name for me, which meant little bear.
“I don’t know.” I sighed and shifted in the uncomfortable seat to look at my husband. We’d been mated by were-bear standards since before the full moon in March, prior to the spring solstice. In June, we married by human standards, and he and his identical twin Axe became not only my guards for the wiccan ceremonies that required me to officiate as South Corner, but also my all around guards so that I never really went anywhere alone anymore, ever.
I wasn’t complaining. Not exactly. But I’d never been to an OB appointment with a man before, and it was just a little weird. But that wasn’t really what was bothering me. The last few weeks I’d started to have bad dreams. Not nightmares, exactly, but they were bad nonetheless. I always woke up unable to remember what was in the dreams except that it wasn’t good. Try as I might, I could never remember anything about them. And with the bad dreams came unhappy days, as worry plagued my thoughts. Was I just having generic bad dreams for no reason at all, or was the universe trying to tell me something? I knew that Ash and Axe were picking up on my unhappiness even though I tried to shield my mood from them.
Picking up my harried thoughts, I said, “I don’t know what’s going to happen when my IUD is out, and with the fall mating season coming up quickly, I’m just kind of worried.”
He flipped his onyx hair over his shoulder and gave me the weight of his dark eyes. “If you don’t become pregnant with this heat, there’s always spring. And if not then, eventually, I know that you’ll carry our cubs.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that it wasn’t that I worried about becoming pregnant, necessarily, but that I had this weird tickling feeling in the back of my mind because of the dreams that something bad was coming. It made me feel like the last thing I should be thinking about was having a child.
Something wicked this way comes….
My thought process was interrupted when the nurse opened the door and said, “Elizabeth….Stalking Horse? Is that right?” She looked up in confusion.
“Yes.” I smiled and took Ash’s hand as he stood to his full six and a half feet of hot goodness. She looked up at him and said oh softly, making the connection of my last name to the man next to me. Ash was gorgeous. Long, straight, onyx hair fell to the middle of his back. His skin was the beautiful coppery color that heralded his Native American heritage. Set in his strikingly handsome face were brown eyes like melted dark chocolate surrounded with thick lashes, a straight nose, and a perfectly kissable mouth. Even though he wore a long sleeved Henley and jeans, it was easy to see that his body was sculpted, masculine and muscular. He looked so very young, like me, but there was nothing boyish about him except perhaps his sense of humor. That he was an identical twin just made him – both of them – that much hotter in my book.
My 5’5 curvy frame, ivory skin, dark brown hair, and jade green eyes were a stark contrast to the exotic man next to me. It never mattered to me, though, what others thought of us together. Because we just fit together perfectly. I was technically 18, although since my last birthday I was 18 plus 4, which was how supernatural beings talked about age. From the age of 18, I aged one full body year for every 12 years that passed. My husbands were 18 plus 10, identical twin were-bears that shared my unique long-life. I was so glad to be married to two men who aged as slowly as I did. If I had to watch my husbands die of old age while I stayed young, I wasn’t sure how I would deal with that.
We followed the nurse down the short hallway to the scale and I huffed at Ash and he grinned. Dropping a kiss to my ear, he made exaggerated motions of squeezing his eyes shut, clamping his hands over his ears and humming The Star Spangled Banner.
“He’s adorable,” the nurse gushed, swiftly clicking the weights around in front of me.
“He’s something alright,” I smiled at him even though he couldn’t see me.
“You’re right where you should be. Were you worried or something?” She asked, sliding the weights back to one end and casting a glance at Ash. I stepped off the scale and tugged on his arm.
“No, I just think there are some things that should be kept secret between husbands and wives and one of them is the exact weight of the wife.”
He rolled his beautiful eyes at me. “I’ve seen your drivers’ license, Elizabeth.”
“I rounded down. Maybe.” I grinned and he laughed, shaking his head.
The nurse sat down at the small desk in the narrow exam room and asked me the cursory questions about my health and history. When I turned 18, I had an IUD implanted to prevent pregnancy. I had known my own flighty brain would not do well with a daily pill, and extra hormones tended to make me wiggy anyway. And there was something unsatisfying about the thought that the quarterly shot could make me gain weight. So I got tested for the IUD to make sure it would fit, and it did, which meant at least in my head that I had the perfect sized uterus. Not that I could take a picture of it to frame or anything, but still. I liked having medical proof of my perfection, not just my glowing husbands’ comments. I found that most men, probably all of them, would say anything to get a woman naked. And once she got naked the first time, they said lots of wonderful, sexy things about her to encourage her to stay naked. Maybe it was just my horny husbands, though. I never really asked my friends about their sex lives and their men's abilities to encourage said nakedness.
The nurse handed me a short gown and walked out, shutting the door soundly. I had been sitting in Ash’s lap in the only free chair and when I stood, he eagerly tugged on the bottom of my shirt.
I slapped his hands away with a growl, “No, no. No touching. This isn’t for fun, it’s for…science.”
Toeing my shoes off, I began to work my shirt off and then my jeans. “Science, yeah? Sounds sexy.” He settled back in the chair and crossed his very long legs at the ankles and gave me a wicked smile. He could get me wet with a look. Damn it.
“You know,” I groused, tossing my clothes at him one by one until I was naked and climbed onto the exam table, “it’s not exactly okay for me to be all horny and wet before I get a pap.”
He snickered and tried to stop from laughing, but he couldn’t. He was just too good natured and funny to not enjoy the situation for what it was. I tugged the front opened short gown over my shoulders and laid the blanket across my bare hips. “You’re just lucky I was willing to trade my very handsome male doctor for a female.”
He stopped laughing abruptly. “Aleni,” he protested, “I don’t think you would want me to slaughter your doctor for touching your sweet treasure, would you?” He looked genuinely remorseful but I knew he was faking it.
“You’re impossible, Ash.”
“And very lucky.” He stood up and leaned over enough to kiss the tip of my nose and settled back in the chair with an amused look. The doctor came in a few minutes later as Ash and I were discussing our plans for the coming weekend. She was slender and tall, mid-40s with her long mouse brown hair pulled back in a sensible ponytail. After the cursory pleasantries, and trying to explain to a human that my husband wasn’t going to leave the room without me, she started the exam.
As she declared everything looked just fine, and then took out the IUD, I tried really hard not to make any pain noises, but it damn well was as uncomfortable coming out as it had been going in. Kind of like having someone push a stick up inside me and root around for kicks.
Ash was at my side the instant a little whimper caught in my throat, worry streaking his face and anger flashing in his eyes. He didn’t say anything, but I could tell from the tension in his face and body that he was controlling his overprotective bear nature by a thin thread. Thankfully the doctor didn’t notice anything about his behavior.
Scribbling on the chart while Ash helped me sit up and I quietly groaned at the new ache in my belly, she said, “Okay, your cycle should start up within four to six weeks. You may have spotting at first, even for a few months, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get pregnant and shouldn’t look for signs of it, such as tender breasts and mild cramps. If you’re actively trying to get pregnant but are not within a year, then we’ll start some testing.” She smiled in a doctorly way and walked out of the room. As soon as it shut, Ash was rushing me into my clothes. I could almost taste his desperation to get me away from the humans and home so he could fawn over me.
The nurses behind the reception desk all sighed in envy when he walked out of the room carrying me in his arms. I would have thought it was funny if I hadn’t suddenly been so exhausted. I really hadn’t been sleeping well.
The drive home was quiet and he carried me into the house and laid me down on the couch and settled my head into his lap. I dozed off to the gentle stroking of his hand up and down my arm, his thumb sometimes tracing the length of my neck, and the quiet hum of whatever tune was in his head.
Groggily I was pulled slowly from my nap by a massaging hand on my foot. Since I could tell that Ash’s lap was still under my head, I knew it was Axe that had picked up my feet and put them in his lap. I heard the soft sound of a fist hitting flesh and Axe dropped my foot.
“Shit. What was that for?” Axe hissed.
“Don’t wake her up yet, she’s tired. I don’t think she’s sleeping well and that doctor hurt her to top off everything else.”
Axe growled gently, “Do I need to have a talk with this doctor?”
“No, no, she didn’t do it on purpose, but it’s a good thing I was there and not you. I could barely handle the look on her face when the doctor pulled that little birth control thingy from her. I could have broken her neck for it.”
Axe hummed in his throat, “You’re right, if I thought she was in pain I would have had the doctor by the throat in a heartbeat. You have better control than I do.”
“By a thin margin, brother.”
“Did she…mention how long it might take for her to be able to have a child?” Axe asked almost shyly.
“The doctor said four to six weeks before she would be back to normal. Then, we’ll see.”
“Do you think she’s ready?”
“She got it taken out, so I think so, but,” Ash sighed and his rhythmic touch faltered slightly. “something is bothering her but she won’t talk about it. Last night she was thrashing in her sleep and woke me up.”
“I’ve felt it, too. Our mate is unsettled. Maybe the full moon next week and the solstice right after it? Maybe we’re pushing her about the fall heat?”
I didn’t want them to get any further in their worried thoughts so I stirred as if I hadn’t been eavesdropping, and stretched between the two of them. I felt a kiss land on the space of my belly bared by my stretching and I dropped my hands to cup the back of Axe’s head.
“Hey baby,” I smiled at him. He kissed my stomach once more and leaned up on his impossibly long arms to kiss me on the mouth.
“Aleni, did we wake you?” He asked.
“No, I’m good. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” I looked up at Ash and pulled him down for a kiss as Axe moved to make room for him. “You’re very comforting and warm.”
“I aim to please my mate,” he said with a smile.
Lifting me gently so he could slide out from under me, he left the couch to make dinner for us, and Axe slid up the back of the couch and cuddled me into him. “There are some families that don’t have a mate that can cook, you know. We’re very lucky to have Ash.”
“I thought that twin bears were rare?”
“Twins are, yes, but not the multiple matings, especially in areas where there are so few females. Sometimes, two bears will feel the same mating pull to a single female. If she’s willing to share herself with them, then they enter into a family like ours.” He nuzzled under my neck, his warm breath skirting over me.
“And if she doesn’t want to share?”
“Well, the king could choose for her, or make her choose, or they could fight each other and the winner would get her. But it’s not in the males’ best interest for her to not want them both, because if they are called to her as a mate, then they may never have another opportunity to find a mate again.”
“That’s sad.” I rolled over completely until I was pressed against his chest and relaxed with a sigh. “But none of the males in our den are multiple partnered.”
“True. Like I said, it’s not a common thing, but it does happen. The den that is visiting us this month from Denver has a multiple partnered marriage; both of them are warriors for the den and share a mate.”
“And she’s a bear, I suppose?” I was always the only non-shifting person in any dens we ever visited or that visited us. Since our first full moon celebration in April, we’d spent most full moons entertaining or visiting other dens who wanted to see the collared bears and witch and revel in the power of a den in harmony and protection.
“Yes, love. Not everyone can be as lucky as us to share a feisty, mouth-watering, temptress of a witch like you.”
“Flattery won’t work. I’m too sleepy to have sex.”
He laughed and kissed my temple. “I love you, aleni. My sweet Wicca mate.”
Chapter 2
On Thursday, I stretched in the chair behind my desk in my office at the Cleveland Mother Earth Store, owned by the coven, and yawned. Ash looked up at me from his desk. “Do you want to go home, sweetheart?” He asked, concern etching his sweet face.
“Nah. I need to work on the blessing spell for the full moon next week and get ready for the solstice.”
“You aren’t sleeping well.”
I took a few seconds to think about how to answer him. I hedged with a half truth. “No, I guess not. There’s a lot going on this month. I can’t seem to shut my mind down long enough to rest.”
“Maybe we’re not wearing you out enough before bed?” He quirked his head to the side like he was really considering the situation. I laughed. “You guys do just fine, but I’m not turning down any extra hot sex.”
“I will totally keep that in mind.” He graced me with one of his devastating smiles and we both turned back to our work. While I perused a book of blessings and decided what to put together for the bears’ full moon ceremony, Ash busied himself programming a new mini laptop.
Axe joined us for lunch, bringing deli sandwiches on his way in from dropping off supplies at the house for the deck he was building on the back. He pulled me onto his lap on the comfortable couch in our shared office after we finished eating and nibbled light kisses up and down my neck.
While Ash smiled at us, Axe whispered in my ear, “Did I tell you how sexy my marks on your neck are?”
“You’ve mentioned it once or twice.” I shivered. When I performed the collaring ceremony to bind us together, they both marked me the way that bears mark their mates - by sinking their fangs into my neck. The marks scarred, and now I had one on each side of my neck.
His hand slid up underneath my skirt slowly. “I love seeing them.” He growled lightly, pressing his tongue to each mark with a slow lick. “I love knowing that anyone that sees them knows you’re taken.”
His fingers danced lightly across my panties, tickling my skin through the thin silk. “So wet, aleni, you must be thinking very wicked things.”
“Always,” I promised, tipping my head back while he kissed my neck, drawing my skin into his mouth and biting gently. His fingers slipped beneath the flimsy barrier of fabric and two sank into my hot depths and I groaned, biting my lip and closing my eyes. His fingers were perfect. Talented. Wicked.
He leaned me back slightly as he kissed down my neck and nuzzled the bare space of my chest visible from the low neckline of my top. His fingers twisted and curved inside, searching for my softest place that would send me tumbling over the edge.
He bit down on my breast through my top, sending little flares of seductive lightning through my body as his fingers found my soft as velvet spot inside and rubbed over it again and again. I tangled my fingers in his hair and moaned softly, trying to keep one ear trained on the hallway outside the door.
Close. So damn close. I panted for breath, my body shivering with need, and Ash’s voice broke my concentration, “No, Mistress Elizabeth is occupied at the moment. Is it an emergency?” My eyes popped open and I saw that Ash had opened the door only enough for his body. I tried to get up but Axe squeezed his arm around me tighter and began to work his fingers faster inside me.
His voice was a dark whisper in my ear, “You’re not going anywhere until you come, baby.”
I whimpered softly, knowing he would hold me right there until I came, and the longer I fought it the longer he would work to make it happen. I trusted Ash to not let anyone see me in such a compromising position, so I relaxed completely and gazed up at Axe’s eyes.
A sinister smile curved his lush mouth and he growled, the sound rumbling in his chest as his fingers worked and twisted and pounded into me. The orgasm crashed down on me and I ground my teeth together to stop from screaming out my pleasure as he slowed his furious movements inside me and drew me down slowly from the heavens. I went limp with a groan and he laughed softly, adjusting my panties and pulling his hand from under my skirt.
I peeked at him and he grinned, swiping his tongue across his wet fingers with a happy growl. “You taste like candy, aleni. Sweet, wicked candy.”
When I could wriggle off his lap and stand up I said to Ash, “Who was that and what did they want?”
“Vivi needs help with a healing balm for a client.” He held out his hand to me and I took it after turning back around and kissing Axe on the lips. “You’re pretty wicked yourself, my sweet husband.”
“Praise from Caesar, baby.” He laughed as Ash and I walked out to the front of the store.
Vivi was an unnatural witch who manned the storefront a few hours a day.
“Do you still need help, Vivi?” I asked, coming around to the front counter. The young woman looked up from where she was counting small pretalia leaves into a glass container for the client and froze. She stared at me with an odd look on her face. It took me a moment to realize she wasn’t staring at my face but at my chest. I glanced down my pale blue silk shirt to see a very large wet spot over one nipple, the material stained dark.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” I hissed, crossing my arms over my chest while Ash tried to stifle a laugh and my cheeks heated with blush. Clearing my throat I said, “Vivi? Did you still need me?”
“Um, yes, mistress, thank you.”
After helping Vivi put the balm together while keeping one arm across my chest, I stalked back to the office and exchanged the ruined top for a spare from the armoire in the corner. I always kept several changes of clothes in the office for all of us, from dressy to casual. You just never knew when you might need jeans or a gown. This was one of those times I was glad I planned ahead. Axe didn’t apologize for loving me so inappropriately in the office, but he did promise to replace the top, and that was enough for me.
When we arrived home that night, Ash cooked dinner for us of meat lasagna and a fresh salad. Afterwards we tumbled into bed together, a delicious tangle of arms and legs, our cries of pleasure melting together as the moon rose in the sky, until sheer exhaustion called to all of us.
As I woke up, I stretched and groaned, my body pleasantly aching from the previous night’s activities. They’d never worn me out so very thoroughly, and that was saying something. I still had that nagging sense of foreboding, but it was dull by comparison to other mornings. My brain had clearly been fucked beyond all reason to conjure up the bad dreams.
I blinked at the sunlight streaming in the windows and sat bolt upright. The clock said 10:17. I was late for work! I jerked out of bed and stumbled out to the kitchen naked where I heard Ash and Axe talking quietly and demanded, “Why the hell didn’t you wake me up?”
“You’re not going to work today, aleni,” Axe said, straightening from where he was bent over a knapsack.
“What?”
“We told your grandmother that you were taking a long weekend to relax and we let you sleep in. When you get ready, we’re going to eat and then get going.”
I opened and closed my mouth a few times, half relieved that I didn’t have to go to work and half pissed off at them for once more making caveman decisions for me without the courtesy of a discussion.
While I crafted a reply I looked them over. They were wearing hiking boots and worn jeans. Ash wore a soft green flannel shirt and Axe wore a dark blue long sleeved cotton shirt. They had tied their long hair back in low ponytails and two more knapsacks sat by the one Axe had been looking through.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.” Ash said with a smile. “Now go get cleaned up. I laid clothes out for you on the dresser.”
“You’re dressing me?” I asked incredulously.
“You don’t know where we’re going.” He shrugged.
I opened my mouth to protest and Axe said, “Elizabeth...get going or we’re going to take you out of here naked and hungry.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to decide if he would actually take me outside in public naked but the look on his face dared me to try him. Assuming that Ash made sure that no men were around, I was certain that Axe would sling me unceremoniously over his shoulder and haul me wherever he wanted to take me. Clothed or otherwise.
“Fine.” I gave up and went back to the bedroom and peeked at the clothes Ash had laid out for me. Carefully folded on top of the smooth cherry dresser were a pair of jeans, a white tank, a wine long sleeved button down shirt, a wine thong, and white socks. On the floor was a pair of my hiking boots. A hair tie on top told me they wanted my hair in a ponytail, too.
After showering and drying my hair, I dressed in everything, noticing that he’d not laid out a bra for me so I didn't put one on. When I walked out in the front room, Ash was on his cell in the kitchen and Axe was looking out one of the sliding glass doors that overlooked the backyard.
He put his arm around me and kissed the top of my head. “Did I ever tell you that I really like the view here?” He smiled down at me before returning his gaze to the lake.
“I like it, too.” Being a corner in the coven gave me some privileges and one of them was that I got a lake-side home in the coven owned cul-de-sac. I especially loved to watch the sunset on the water. There was something very magical about watching that big golden orb melt into the water.
He tipped my chin up and when our eyes met he smiled. “I’m sure I wouldn’t like it nearly so much without you. You definitely improve the view.”
“Aw, you’re making me blush.” I laughed.
Ash called us to the table and we ate breakfast. They talked about everything but why they thought I needed a three day weekend or where we were going. I had a sneaking suspicion that they were worried about me and were going to try to get me to share what was troubling me. But there wasn’t anything to share. I didn’t know what was wrong, I just felt like something was coming that wasn’t going to be good. Even though they were supernatural creatures themselves, they didn’t quite understand my wicca stuff. And telling them that I was having bad dreams I couldn’t remember and waking up with a sense of evil looming over me like a knife blade poised over my throat wouldn’t really make sense to them. Bears had a sixth-sense about danger; but only physical danger, not abstract. I was certain they would tell me to not worry or that they would protect me. And all I’d do is worry that much more and try harder to hide it from them.
After breakfast, I helped Ash with the dishes and then Axe called me to him in the middle of the family room. He wrapped his arms around me and squeezed tightly, and my whole body melted at his touch. “Love you, baby,” he whispered huskily.
Before I could respond, Ash said, “Ready.” Axe released me and I turned to look at Ash who had come to stand behind us. He held a blindfold in his hands.
“Alright, what are you guys up to?” I demanded, noticing their carefully blank faces but bright, eager eyes.
“You have to wear this.” Ash said.
“Why?”
“Because we don’t want you to know where we’re going.” Axe supplied.
“Why not?”
“Because anticipation makes the reward that much sweeter.” Ash grinned and slipped the blindfold over my head before I could ask anything else. It was satin and made so that no light peeked from the edges. I couldn’t see a damn thing.
Axe said, “I’m going to carry you, aleni, okay? Wouldn’t want you to trip or hurt yourself.”
“I trust you both. I know you wouldn’t let me get hurt.” My stomach nearly flipped over as Axe swung me up into his arms. I rested my cheek against his shoulder and hugged my arms around him. “I love you.” I said, settling into my temporary blindness.
“I love you, too, baby. And you know something? Your trust in me, in us...it’s so precious. I love that you trust us. I covet it. And your love.”
I hugged myself tighter to him as he walked me out of the house. Axe was not the most sensitive man on the planet, but he was damn romantic when he wanted to be. My curiosity was piqued about the weekend, and the need for a blindfold, but I wasn’t going to ask any questions yet. Whatever they had in store for us, I knew that it would be amazing and perfect and wonderful. Just like them.
I heard a door creak open and Axe carried me up a few stairs and turned to the left. My foot knocked against something and he apologized. After a dozen steps he leaned over and laid me down, and I felt a quilt under my fingertips and a firm mattress under that. It was a bed.
I felt the bed dip as Axe climbed in with me, settling on his side. After a few quiet moments, a very loud engine rumbled to life and we rocked on the bed as what I figured was an RV of some sort lurched away from the curb.
“Can I guess?” I asked.
“You can do anything you like except take off the blindfold, aleni. Although, I wouldn’t recommend walking around blind.”
“So you’ll answer me?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Oh.” I knew I was making a face because he chuckled and pressed his fingertip to my jutted bottom lip.
“I love the hell out of you, baby. Truly.”
“Okay. I don’t really want to know, but I can guess we’re in an RV. I’m up for a road trip. But I have a request.”
“Sex?” He teased.
I laughed and turned onto my side, snuggling against him. “Tell me a story.”
“Ah, a story? What kind of story?” His arms snaked around me and he curled me into his chest with a contented sigh.
“Tell me...something from your childhood.”
“Curious about what I was like?” He chuckled.
“Of course.”
He took in a slow breath and when he let it out, he began to share stories from his childhood. As the time melted away from us, we laughed and talked, and I mostly listened while he told me about his childish exploits. The RV stopped moving and the engine turned off just as he was finishing telling me about the first time he shifted into a bear and got lost exploring and wandered into a hunting camp site.
When we’d both stopped laughing at his description of the hunters screaming and running away, he said, “So you liked my storytelling?”
“Very much.”
“Someday I’ll tell our children all about mine and Ash’s exploits.” He sounded almost wistful and my heart clenched in remembered worry.
Ash moved back to wherever we were. “We’re here. I’m going to make sure everything is ready.”
I felt Axe nod but I was too lost in the twirled thoughts in my mind to say anything. The desire to carry a child for my husbands was great, but I was too worried to even consider it at the moment. All I wanted to do was figure out why worry blanketed me like a quilt.
We lay in silence while I mentally flipped through my spell book, wondering if there was a way to manifest a dream. I hadn’t figured out anything by the time Ash came back into the room and climbed up next to me, pulling me away from Axe and cuddling me into him. He kissed me, drawing his leg over mine and snugging me close. “You like the blindfold, or not?”
“Depends.”
“On what?” He laughed.
“On the reward that was mentioned earlier.”
“Ah.” He chuckled and the blindfold was pulled off slowly. I squinted in the brightness of the room and when my eyes adjusted, I saw I was indeed inside a small bedroom in an RV. Through the open door I could see a kitchen area and the driver’s and passenger’s seats at the front.
“We’re going to do something unusual. We brought you to this special place and we have clothes to change into, too. For all of us.” Ash said, smiling down at me.
“Yeah? For what?”
“Because you shared an important ritual with us when you did the collaring. Axe and I want to share something important that’s not about our bear nature but our family.”
I kissed him lightly. “As long as there aren’t any brands involved, I’m good.” They both laughed, but I was dead serious. The day after my collaring ceremony, they both took brands with the symbol for my tribal name Alisiquete over their hearts. I loved the gesture and seeing them when they went shirtless, but that was a level of pain I wasn’t into by a long shot.
“No pain. Promise.” Ash kissed me and got up, hefting one of the knapsacks I’d seen earlier onto the bed. He pulled out buckskin clothing that had been dyed black. Pants for them with thick fringe on the sides and what looked like a long skirt and corset for me.
Axe sat up and began to undo the button of my jeans while Ash untied my boots and placed them on the floor. I lay passively while they stripped me and then Ash pulled me gently to my feet and unfolded the skirt and helped me step into it. The soft buckskin skirt reached my ankles and was split up both sides high up on my thighs. The corset was plain and just wide enough to cover my breasts. It tied at my back and made me think of a tube top.
They stripped themselves and donned the black trousers. I noticed that the front of the trousers had a triangular shaped panel of leather sewn into it, with a leather tie at the side.
I pointed to the panel. “That looks interesting.”
Axe’s gazed darkened considerably and it made my body tingle. “You’ll see later what all this is about.”
I couldn’t help but grin. My curiosity was blazing and I had no idea what was going to happen. We all put moccasins on and then Axe took my hand and led me towards the door. Ash took my other hand and followed closely behind. When I stepped out of the RV, we were deep in the woods. The trees were so thick around us that the afternoon sun barely penetrated.
I glanced around and saw the narrow path that the RV had traveled on, cut through the woods so that the trees on either side of it made a wall. The older model RV sat in a small circular clearing. A man knelt in front of a fire pit, lining it with stones. When he looked up at us, I recognized him immediately as their grandfather Quanah. I met him at our official marriage ceremony in June and we traveled to his den in July to visit. He was king of his den that was located in the lush mountains of West Virginia. At one time, he had been king of the den in Northern Ohio. But had stepped down to start another den in West Virginia, wanting to live in the mountains. Their tribe had lived on the land for many generations. I looked around for his mate and their grandmother, Naeyli, but didn't see her.
He stood up and came over to us and the boys hugged him with one arm and kept their holds on my hands. Quanah put his hands on my shoulders and looked down at me, age and wisdom in his handsome features. He was well over 400. “Granddaughter, it is good to see you again.”
“Thank you, grandfather.” I smiled at him.
“Have they told you anything?” He looked at my boys.
“No.” I shook my head.
He smiled further until a dimple appeared in his cheek. "Good. Your first duty is to go west with your mates and find the sacred grove of red cedar trees. They will know what to do. Mind the time, boys." He cast his dark eyes upwards to the canopy of trees. "We must begin the ceremony at dusk."
They nodded and we began walking together in what I assumed was a westerly direction. I had absolutely no sense of direction myself. If it weren't for the GPS in my truck, I would have no idea what direction I was traveling in.
"So where are we, exactly?" I asked, walking between them through the woods, Axe leading the way.
"We're on the den's property." Ash said.
"But we drove for hours. Didn't we?" I looked back at him and he grinned and shrugged.
"Aleni, if I only drove an hour you'd know exactly where we were and the blindfold would have been silly. And besides, Axe asked to have some time to talk with you, so I drove the very long way from the house to the den. We're at the back of the property, on sacred land. This area is used for special, private ceremonies."
Questions abounded in my mind but I didn't voice them. If there was one thing I'd learned about my husbands, it was that they wouldn't tell me something until they were ready.
We walked in silence for a long time in the cool woods. Although the day had been relatively warm, the lack of sunlight through the trees made it chillier and I was seriously wishing for a jacket. Axe stopped and Ash and I came to stand with him. The trees of the forest had been a variety of ones I was used to seeing around Northern Ohio - oak, maple, ash - but now I was staring at a stand of trees in a rudimentary circle with reddish-brown bark and light green leaves that were like pine needles but thicker. We walked around the circle of trees and I saw places in the bark where strips had been cut away and symbols carved into the surface left behind. The wood underneath the bark was red.
"This is our father's tree. He brought our mother out here when they mated." Axe said finally, stopping in front of a tree. The strip of removed bark revealed two symbols. Axe pulled a pocket knife from a pouch on his hip and opened it. While Ash held me, we watched Axe cut a mark about three inches wide just slightly below and to the right of the mark of their parents', and then slide the blade underneath the bark and begin to peel it. The strip that Ash took as Axe finished cutting it away from the tree was fibrous and thick, about eight inches long.
Ash held the strip of bark and we watched Axe carve the symbols for all three of ours names in the flesh of the tree. Mine between his and Ash's.
He closed the blade and put it back in the pouch when he finished carving the intricate symbols. He touched his symbol with his finger and Ash told me to touch mine while he touched his. For a moment, in the silence of the forest, it felt like the most significant thing I'd ever done.
"The red cedar can grow for several hundred years. But these are blessed trees, sacred to our people, and they are already older than any normal red cedar on record. These here are well over a thousand and will live as long as the were-bear tribe lives, down to the very last member. This is our family tree. Our brothers and sister will carve their symbols when they mate, and our future children will, too." Axe dropped his hand and took mine, kissing my fingers and pulling me into his arms. Ash joined us and I was held tightly between them, warm and comforted.
We headed back to the RV and Quanah was waiting by the firepit. On the other side of the stone pit, laden with wood, was a dark brown bear fur. At their instruction, I toed off my shoes and then stepped onto the hide. They stood on either side of me. Ash handed the bark strip to his grandfather and Axe turned me to face him. The three of us had our sides to the firepit and their grandfather. With a gentle nudge, I went to my knees with them, Axe's hands on my shoulders and Ash's on my hips.
A suede blanket lay rolled up next to me on the fur.
A spark caught my eye and the wood in the firepit flared to life. Quanah began to chant softly and held the end of the bark strip over the flames until it caught fire and then he placed it into a stone bowl on the ground. The flames licked at the bark while he chanted in their ancient language. Because Axe and Ash were watching quietly, I did the same. The language was beautiful, and although I didn't understand the words I knew that whenever they chanted it was important.
Quanah picked up the bowl after a few minutes and looked into it and then stood up slowly. Moving to us, he sat just outside the edge of the fur and held the bowl in both hands. "Axe, as oldest you are charged with watching over not only your mate but also your younger brother. Do you accept the task as given to you by our maker, the Great Bear?"
"Yes, grandfather." Axe's voice was strong and sure.
"Mark them both, and recite your pledge."
Axe pushed his thumb into the bowl and it came out covered in gray ash. He swiped his thumb slowly across my bicep and then across Ash's in the same place. "I pledge myself as eldest to your care and love, my mate Elizabeth, and my brother, Ash."
He smiled softly down at me. Quanah said, "Ash, sharing a mate is never an easy task but the Great Bear has seen fit that you and Axe should share Elizabeth. As youngest, you are charged with supporting your brother and watching over your mate and your brother. Do you accept the task as given to you by our maker, the Great Bear?"
"Yes, grandfather." Ash's voice trembled slightly with emotion.
"Mark them both, and recite your pledge."
Ash's hand came away from the bowl as he gathered ash on his thumb and marked just under where Axe had drawn on me before marking Axe's bicep. "I pledge myself as youngest to your care and love, my mate Elizabeth, and my brother, Axe."
Quanah took a thick black bear claw from inside a pouch around his neck and at his words, we all held a hand out to him and he pricked the tip of our index fingers and stirred the ashes in the bowl with the claw. He wiped the flat edge of the claw across Axe's cheek, dipped it back in the bowl, and wiped it across my cheek and did the same for Ash as he chanted.
He pulled a small pouch from under the rolled suede blanket and opened the top. He extracted a wooden vial with a stopper and gathered ash from the bowl into it. Tightening the stopper, he put it back in the pouch along with the claw. He pulled a blade from his own pouch and cut off a thin lock of hair from all of us, wrapped them with a length of leather and put it into the pouch. Tightening the drawstring on the pouch, he placed it over my head. It hung low on my chest.
Quanah moved back to the other side of the fire and fed more wood into it before dumping the ashes from the bowl over the flames. He stood, smiled at us, and walked away.
Axe tipped my chin so I had to look at him. "It's our turn now, baby."
"For what?" I whispered, feeling like the scene was too intimate to talk normally.
"To make love, here, on the blessed fur in front of the sacred fire." Ash said softly, kissing my neck. "The clothes were made so we don't have to be naked."
Ah. That explained the panel and the lack of panties on my part along with the high slits on either side.
Ash reached for the suede blanket and pulled a tube of lubricant from underneath and I watched Axe unfasten the panel and free his already hard cock. Axe stretched out on his back on the fur and pulled me with him so I straddled him. He shoved the front of the skirt aside and I settled myself down on his cock. I loved that feeling of being filled and stretched. Every time it reminded me how perfectly they fit inside me.
Ash joined us, first preparing me and then slowly guiding himself inside. We made love in front of the fire, in the darkness of the woods, marked with ash and reveling in our joining.
When we came together, our cries of pleasure echoed through the woods like nature itself was taking its pleasure right along with us and we snuggled together on the thick fur with the suede blanket draped over us. Eventually, Axe put the fire out and we returned to the RV, falling asleep together like I always loved, nestled between the two most important men in my life.
The weekend passed both fast and slow. We spent a lot of time walking around the woods and talking about our pasts, learning about each other - secrets, desires, hopes - before returning often to the RV to make love. On Sunday evening, we returned to the den and the pouch I'd worn around my neck the whole weekend was laid in a wooden box on the small dresser in our tent in the den, to be worn during ceremonies and celebrations. The red cedar was sacred to their people, and the ash that had been rubbed onto our skin and then anointed with our blood, was a way of honoring the sacrifice of the tree's bark and the pain it endured while the symbols were carved into it. The fur we laid on was a family heirloom, taken from a real bear and used for joining ceremonies. I'd never felt closer to my husbands than I did at the end of that weekend, and although real life awaited us back home, for a few short days I had peace about our life together and our future.
But it wasn't a peace that would last.
Chapter 3
Late September in Cleveland can be an incredible last shout of summer or a blistering foretelling of cold to come. We were fortunate this year that summer decided to stay on a long vacation, and when the den from Denver arrived on Tuesday afternoon, it was a perfect, warm day. Ash, Axe and I spent the day at our condo on the Vermillion River, watching the fishermen and the boaters make good use of the weather. I had owned both the condo and the house in Bay Village before I met them. When the boys left their home in Indianapolis after our mating to move in with me, we decided to pick the house in Bay Village as our permanent residence, only because it was larger and in a protected development. The condo was nestled between other condos, and with the marinas and public docks and bars and restaurants, they decided that it was too busy and unpredictable of a place to live full time, and I didn’t disagree.
Our den now had 27 members. When I joined, there were 16 unmated males and two couples; and Daeton their younger sister was the only unmated female. Griegs, the boys’ youngest brother, had been furious when the collaring spell didn’t choose him and left the den. At one time, he had been my bear guard for the solstice ceremonies and sometimes my bed partner. No one had heard from him since.
Ash, Axe, and I dressed alike for times like these, when we were meeting other dens or doing official were-bear-related activities. Several members of the den were artistically, gifted artisans that spent days embroidering intricate designs for the den’s ceremonial clothing. And because we always liked to match, it meant they were all working overtime for us. Tonight we wore soft buckskin trousers with colorfully dyed braided belts. The matching vests were embroidered with our tribal names in shiny thread and intricate patterns along the edges. Ash had become my hairstylist and we all wore our long hair in the traditional club style. Although it was a traditionally male style, when we matched...everything matched.
Daeton stood shyly next to me as I stood in the receiving line with Ash and Axe. They were standing next to their father Adriel and their mother Filene, along with their two younger brothers Tavian and Lynk. Daeton was a lovely younger version of her mother and shared Ash and Axe’s onyx hair and chocolate eyes. She was tall, curvy but also lean in a youthful way. And very, very innocent.
Daeton’s 18th birthday was tonight. In the eyes of the den, that her birthday was also on a full moon was incredibly lucky. To them it meant that she was going to be blessed in her life and that she was special. And at 18 for the first time, it was possible she would find her mate tonight. A young bear from another den we visited in the spring named Bastion joined our den because he was so captivated with her, but something told me that Daeton wasn’t all that interested in the equally innocent young male who had only just turned 18 that summer. And it wasn’t just because of all the handsome bears walking towards us from the other den.
“You’re shaking like a leaf,” I whispered to my sister-in-law. “What’s bothering you?”
“I um, I’ll tell you later, okay?” She looked down at me from several inches over my 5’3” frame and her eyes were troubled.
“Okay, sis,” I squeezed her hand and she gave me a half hearted smile and watched the progression of the king bear and his wife, followed by his sons and the den. Ash pulled my hand from Daeton’s and situated me between them so that he and Axe held both my hands. They were all business now. I glanced up their tall, identically gorgeous bodies hidden underneath their ceremonial vests to their faces and saw the grim determination that scattered both their features. They were always aware of danger, always suspicious, and always worried that I might be taken from them. I wondered what it would be like when I became pregnant. They would be just that much more worried over me.
Part of their protective nature came from their beasts. Bears were fiercely protective of their mates and den and I knew that Ash and Axe would both go to the grave to keep me safe. The other part of their worry was a combination of things including the fact that I was a hereditary natural witch and south corner of the most powerful coven in the Midwest. And last winter, I was kidnapped by a wizard who planned to turn me from good to evil and use me in some nefarious plot to take over the world. Before I collared them, before I cast the Wicca spell that chose them both as my permanent guards and mates with a supernatural, invisible bond between the three of us, I was sleeping with seven men. Sure, in retrospect it seemed slutty, but there were five were-groups in the area and the coven used guards from each group on the solstice ceremonies. For me, calling all that power meant that I was a little horny when we were done. And it wasn’t just four times a year.
The falcon prince, the tiger king’s personal protector, the theto of the wolf pack, the king serpent, and Ash and Axe’s brother Griegs were all my guards. I also was in a relationship with two vampires, the master of the city of Cleveland, Mishka, and his coven assassin Brone. When I collared the boys I cut all ties with everyone immediately. It wasn’t in my character to cheat. I’d been playing before, enjoying my youth and lack of attachments, but what I hadn’t known was that four of the men that I was sleeping with – Tosh the serpent king, Jesuit the falcon prince, Griegs, and Melo the tiger protector – had deeper feelings than I could have imagined. Tosh and Melo and Jesuit were angry at first, and Jes was willing to fight for me. But in the end they realized that mates meant forever to me, and I’d made my choice and stood by it. Originally, I’d chosen to collar a guard out of a sense of duty to the coven. But once I collared them, I was so completely overwhelmed by the sense of family and belonging, the love they gave me, that I never looked back in regret over the life I’d left behind.
Ash squeezed my hand, bringing me back to the present and I shoved my scattered thoughts into the far corner of my mind. Two towering males bowed slightly to Adriel and a tall, willowy woman held both their hands. She gave me a smile sparked with curiosity as she darted looks to my husbands and I had a feeling that she and I would have plenty to discuss later during the party.
When all the pomp and ceremony of something very akin to a wedding receiving line was completed, we adjourned to the sacred circle in the middle of the den, which was a large complex underground that they referred to as their city. Everyone that was part of our den had a home underground, which was a tent that was furnished fairly modernly depending on the desire of the bear that set it up. Ours was very, very modern. We only spent full moons in the den, and the occasional Sunday night after a visit with the family and I wanted to be as comfy as possible. Extra large bed for three? Check. Exquisite marble bath? Check. Entertainment system with surround sound? Oh hell, check!
The den knelt around the sacred circle made up of a ring of lava rock stones with a fire pit laid with wood in a particular pattern that I would light with my power. Behind our den was the visiting den, watching with curiosity to see what a Gaia – or den witch – would do. When I collared Ash and Axe, I became Gaia to the den. It was a position of honor within the den and I never felt safer than when I was surrounded by over two dozen were-bears.
Adriel called for quiet, speaking in their native tongue. Ash and Axe taught me some of their language, but most of the things I knew how to say weren’t suitable for outside the bedroom so I just closed my eyes and prepared for the spell casting. The Gaia of the den was a serious position, providing goodwill and prosperity spells for everyone along with specific blessings if requested. I was protected not only by my mates, but also by the den as a group. If I was in trouble, any of them would come for me.
As the full moon neared its zenith in the sky, Adriel left me alone in the dirt surrounding the fire pit and I stepped forward to the pit and raised my arms up and closed my eyes. Centering my power within my mind, I spoke loud and clear.
Download this book for your ebook reader.
(Pages 1-26 show above.)