“What?” Jill urged him. “If you’re going to barge in here and tell me I shouldn’t exist, you can at least finish a sentence every now and then.”
King turned to her, confusion on his face. “She certainly reminds me of our last mate,” he said to Rogue.
“I am right here,” Jill said, pinching him hard enough to get a reaction. “You can use my name instead of talking like I’m livestock.”
It was King’s turn to smile. “I don’t understand this,” he said, “but you are right. She – Jill,” he said, catching himself. “She makes me feel like I’ve not for a long, long time. But Jill,” he turned to her. “You’re human.”
Slowly, she nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “I’m glad we’ve established that. And you are a giant magical bear who isn’t supposed to exist.”
“We do tend to stay to ourselves,” Rogue said. “But I think he’s referring more to the difficulty you’re going to have in delivering our children.”
He said that with such plainness, with such complete matter-of-factness, that it took a second before Jill actually realized what he’d said. “I met you a week ago and you three minutes ago,” she said, looking at King, “and you’re already talking about babies?”
“Cubs,” King corrected, helpfully.
“Right, yeah, cubs. I mean, don’t you think that’s a little forward?”
Rogue obviously got the joke, but King stood there, shaking his head. “I’m not sure why? We’re fated to be together, why would it be strange for—”
“Ah,” Rogue patted the other bear on the shoulder. “I think maybe this is one of those times where me being worldlier than you is a very good thing. Brother, I say this as gently as I can, but I think that she might be joking.”
King furrowed his brow and shook his head.
How can anyone be this serious without having an embolism?
“But the joke,” he said. “It wasn’t funny.”
For a moment, the three of them sat in silence before King broke it with a loud, single laugh that sounded more like a cannon going off. “You see?” he asked. “I pretended like I didn’t understand the joke, and then when I fooled the two of you, I said that I did, but that it wasn’t very funny.”
Rogue smiled an easy half-grin, and began nodding slowly. “Sure you did, sure,” he said. “I’m sure that’s exactly what happened.”
The two of them turned their attention back to Jill, who was still in more than a little shock. She let her arm flop limply down.
“Oops,” she said, as she squeezed where it landed, and realized what she had her hand around. King swelled larger in her palm, his shape apparent through the flimsy fabric covering he wore. “Sorry, I—”
Rogue silenced her with a kiss that forced her head backward against King’s chest.
The intensity, the power, with which terror had gripped Jill when the wolf was baring down on her melted away, replaced by a longing, a yearning, that was just as hard to swallow. “I want,” she whispered, then paused to gasp as a hand – she didn’t know whose – massaged between her legs, against the soft denim of her old jeans.
“What is it?” Rogue whispered as he kissed her neck.
“What do you want?” King asked, pulsing the fingers she just realized were his against her sex. “Tell me anything at all.”
Jill felt her mouth fall open again, but this time it was to draw in a hissing breath. “I want... this,” she whispered. “I want you, just like in the dreams.”
Rogue tilted her head backward with another ravishing kiss, and then nibbled on her chest. He grabbed her shirt and yanked the collar, popping the top two buttons off, sending them skittering to the ground.
His neck sucking kiss was halfway down her breast. He wrestled her bra off, ripping it slightly, and the kiss afterward swirled slowly around her nipple before he took her nib in his mouth.
She took a deep breath, inhaling the smell of these two massive creatures, as the cock in her hand swelled harder. Jill reached out with her other hand and found Rogue’s thigh. He adjusted his position, leading her hand to his bulge.
Her breath quickening, Jill tried to reach inside Rogue’s jeans, or underneath King’s strange garment, but instead found herself being moved and then laid backwards on the floor. “You’re big for a human,” King said. “But for a bear?” He smiled and kissed her foot, then slid a hand up her leg, before unbuttoning her jeans and sliding them off, over the gentle curve of her hips.
She tried to open her mouth and form some sort of reply, but before she could manage, a mouth opened around her, a tongue slid along her opening, warming her through the soft cotton of her panties.
“Her smell, brother,” Rogue said in a detached, intoxicated sort of way. He lowered himself between her legs, and inhaled her deeply. “She makes me feel things I’ve never felt before. She makes me burn, makes me ache.”
“She feels as good as she smells,” King whispered. “And she tastes...” he paused. Jill arched her back as a tongue slid down one side of her, and back up. She gasped when a finger pushed between her folds.
He groaned a long, low, rumbling groan that vibrated Jill to the core of her being. Delicious waves lapped up her stomach, raising a hot flush as they went. Rogue kissed her belly softly, then nibbled again at her breast before sucking her nipple in his mouth, swirling his tongue around her sweetly aching nib, and pushing a finger inside her, right alongside King’s.
Jill threw her head back, gasping at first, and then letting the attention, the pleasure, carry her away. She spread her legs, and took handfuls of both men’s hair, grinding both of them deeper.
Rogue’s tongue circled her clit, then flicked over the top. King sucked eagerly, harder than before. His hunger puckered her nipples, and before she knew it, the waves sliding over her body turned tight.
“Oh... oh God!” Jill gasped. “I can’t believe this, I’m... you’re making me.”
Another groan escaped King’s lips, as he and Rogue curled their fingers inside her.
“Squeeze,” she whispered. “Bite, squeeze, yes!”
The tiny muscles inside her pulled at the fingers. Every nerve in Jill’s body flared to life. For every bit of adrenaline that rushed through her with the wolves, her two bears, her two alphas – her two mates – made her feel the exact same, only with pleasure.
As the wave crested, Jill began to hum, to purr. She tried to speak, but no words came out, only more purring. Her hands fell to wood beneath, fists balling up as her climax erupted, and then relaxing as the afterglow washed over her.
“If it’s us you want,” King said, after a few blissful moments.
“Then fate has given you exactly what you – and we – need,” Rogue finished.
In the distance, another howl broke the silence. Rogue and King exchanged a glance that communicated more than words ever could. “We can’t stay,” Rogue said. “The lupines are... something’s got them riled up again. We have to get back to the cubs and make sure they’re safe.”
A last kiss, a last caress, and then Jill was alone with her thoughts, and the scent of her two bears lingering in the cool darkness.
-7-
“Run. And fast.”
-King
They shouldn’t be howling like this, King thought as he slid off his perch above the camp, and ordered the eldest cub to stand watch. Lupines don’t howl when there’s no reason. Either they killed something... or someone, or there’s something I need to know about.
His feet slapped against the ground, already bare, since he refused to clothe himself past a loincloth. He’d never seen the point, even though Rogue always wore ridiculous human clothes. What use did a clan bear have for all of that pointless fabric?
With each footstep, his body changed, twisting and contorting, until he was running on hands and toes, and then on four massive paws.
In the distance, the howling continued, growing more irritated with each passing moment.
Irritated? Or scared? He lifted his head to the sky as he entered a rare clearing in the Appalachian forest, staring at the moon for a moment, drinking up the light, taking its strength inside himself. Where are you, brother?
There was no telling. Even though they were connected, body, soul and blood, King hadn’t ever been the best at the psychic stuff. Overhead, a helicopter whipped past, black against the dark gray of the night sky. Clenching his jaws tight, King smelled the air, caught a whiff of distant exhaust, and smiled grimly to himself.
It’s a real good thing those damn lupines can’t keep themselves quiet. If not for them, I might have to actually try when I scout.
The chopper made a second pass. This time a spotlight boomed on, and flooded the woods on the other side of the grass-covered clearing King stood in. He could have retreated to the opposite trees, could have slinked off into the shadows, but he decided to keep his ground. He squinted up, barely able to make out the diffuse form of the aircraft against the sky.
The smell though. That exhaust, he’d know it anywhere.
As the helicopter disappeared against the horizon, the lupines howled again, and King re-entered the woods. His mind immediately transported back to the first time he smelled that scent.