And when he looked back, Cressida was no longer Cressida. She had shifted, or the jewel had shifted her, and in her place was a giant, winged serpent, its huge fangs bared in a vicious hiss at both Chaiya and the collected tribesmen. The warriors lifted their spears as the serpent hissed again, coiling on the battlefield, golden eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Stop!” Sajja cried, putting up his hands. “Stop, she is the Keeper of the Jewel! She could not take this shape if she was not worthy!”
The warriors lowered their spears, and Chaiya went slinking, belly low to the grass, limping towards his father, at whose feet he collapsed. Reza sank to his knees before the great serpent, staring up at her. And finally the tribesmen let go of Kelly’s arms. He pushed them back and crossed the vines into the circle as well.
“Cress?” He asked. The serpent’s head turned. She was nearly four men taller than he in this form, and her batlike wings snapped open and closed ponderously. “Cress, can you change back, love?”
“She’s never shifted before,” Reza said. “It must be reflexive. She changed to protect herself.”
“No one will harm you,” Sajja said. “I swear it on my life, on the honor of my people. This battle has been won, and no one would dare harm the Keeper of the Jewel. She is sacred to us. The Jewel of So Sur is likewise sacred. I was mistaken to think that you had stolen it.”
The serpent gazed back at Sajja for a long moment before the light began to shine again. Her transformation back was faster. In a quick wink of emerald, the serpent was gone and Cressida lay on the grass, in her woman skin once more, naked and positively stunning, with the jewel still on its chain around her throat, glowing gently. She was unconscious. Reza hurried forward and gathered her into his arms.
“We’re leaving,” Kelly said.
“Kamala,” Reza said, looking at his sister. “Prija. Come with us.”
The two women looked at each other and then both hurried forward, sparing glances at the tribe they were abandoning. Kelly waved them on, relieved to see Reza pick up speed as he fell in after them, making haste for the beach at last. Kelly knew, perhaps more than any of them, that they were not leaving the fight behind them. There would be many more fights ahead, but at least they would face them together. And the first fight, of course, would be with his own den. When he brought more tigers into their midst.
Chapter 4
Cressida came awake slowly, and realized with blissful relief that she was once again in Kelly’s bed, in the captain’s quarters on the Oso Armonia. It was the first familiar place she’d found herself in in days. The feathered mattress was ecstatic perfection. The soft pillows and the rock of the sea were so comforting that she resisted waking for as long as she could. Until she heard a rustle nearby, someone rising from the chair at the writing desk. And she knew without opening her eyes that it was Reza. She could feel him. The mark burned through her heart and knew him.
She felt his fingertips drift up her bare arm as he arrived at the bedside, and smiled. The touch warmed her skin as sure as sunlight, and she opened her eyes to look up at him. He was bruised from the fight with Chaiya, cuts and scrapes and a particularly wicked-looking gash along his ribs. She had war wounds too from their time on the island, she knew. Everything ached, her whole body abused, but as her eyes roamed over Reza, shirtless to the waist, and the smooth, sculpted flesh of his upper body, she felt some of that soreness fade.
“You gave us a fright,” Reza murmured, smiling back at her. “Turning into a dragon and all.”
“It just happened,” she laughed softly. “I tried to think of the most frightening creature I could, and the jewel chose my shape.”
She lifted the hand to the stone, making sure it was still around her neck. And she realized it was the only thing she had on beneath the thin sheet on Kelly’s bed.
“You saved me again,” Reza said. “Me, all of us. Kamala and Prija have joined us. The den is somewhat at odds over it. We’ll have to sort a few things out.”
Cressida reached for him, taking his hand, and pulled him until he eased down to a seat on the bed’s edge. “Right now? Have we left the island?”
“Not yet. Finishing repairs.” He arched an eyebrow faintly. “Kelly is up top with the den. We should go help him.”
Cressida sat up, the sheet falling away from her breasts, and let go of Reza’s hand so that she could climb right into his lap. He hands landed on her waist as she wrapped her legs around him, and she kissed him in reply, sinking her fingers into the spill of his hair. She didn’t know if the mark would let Kelly know what they were up to, but she decided that he would forgive her. They were going to have to learn to accept this anyway, to share, to let the mark link the three of them. She loved them both. She would make love to them both as well.
She felt Reza harden against her and she smiled into their kiss, rolling her hips against his, grinding a little against him. A delicious bolt of pleasure lit through her, completely free of guilt or doubt or fear, ignited only by passion. Reza’s grip on her tightened and he spilled her over and down onto the bed, settling atop her. His lips left hers and trailed down her throat, over the mark with a lick of his tongue as she gasped and arched beneath him, legs still wrapped about him. She got her hands on his hips, on the waistband of his trousers, and started shoving them down until she could grab handfuls of his bare ass.
“I love you,” she told him breathlessly. “I need you.”
A rumble of gentle laughter moved through his chest and he nuzzled her cheek a moment, even as she writhed, and then reached beneath them to fit the length of his cock at her entrance and then push inside her with a heavy breath. She let her hands skate up his back as he bowed his head again, teeth catching on the chain of the jewel around her throat. He bit down as he withdrew from her and then drove back into her, and the pleasure coiling between her legs grew nearly unbearable. His teeth scored the flesh of her breast as the pace of his thrusts increased, and she couldn’t contain a moan when he began to suckle at her nipple. She slid a hand between them as he filled her again and again, circling a fingertip around that most sensitive nub above her sex, and a few strokes brought to her a glistening, gasping climax.
Reza gripped the bedsheets on either side of her, still thrusting as she came, and she heard him growl with the rising tide of his own orgasm, lifting his head from her breast with his eyes clenched tightly shut. He was one of the most beautiful things she’d ever seen, in that moment. So much concentrated effort for the sake of pleasure and passion, so much strength. And every sweet slide of his cock inside her brought her to the brink of another burst of ecstasy.
She loosened her legs from about his waist and he slowed down, eyes opening to look into her face, a question on his lips even as she shifted, rolling beneath him onto her belly. She felt his hands smooth down her back and he bent over her, breath against her ear as he chuckled softly and gave her rounded ass cheek a pat. Then in a single, deep thrust he buried himself to the hilt inside her, and groaned. She put her face to the sheets, panting as he picked up the pace again, fingers digging into her hips as he rode her.
They came together this time, he with a last great lance of his cock into her sex, and she shaking and crying out his name. They both stayed thusly for another moment, trembling and raw with satisfaction and love. He finally pressed a kiss to her shoulder and withdrew from her.
“We really have to go help him,” Reza whispered.
“All right,” she laughed, breath still coming in hard gulps. “All right. I’ll get dressed. We’ll go.”
“He’ll know what we’ve done,” Reza pointed out quietly.
“We’re going to have to figure out all kinds of new things,” Cressida said. “This is only the beginning. But one I’m glad to face with the two of you.”
She leaned up and kissed his lips again, then rolled out of the bed and to Kelly’s trunk to dig up some sailing-appropriate clothing.
Chapter 5
&
nbsp; Kelly knew damned well what they’d just been doing, in his quarters, in his bed. He’d felt all of it himself through the mark. Which had been totally inappropriate and completely distracting while he was standing on the deck of the ship, trying to get his men to understand what had happened to them on the island, and why he had returned with not one but three tigers. Three tigers and a woman who smelled like a bear now, but was not. Was in fact anything she could dream of being.
“You said we would sell the jewel, Cap’n,” Cort said confusedly. “What will we do now if we don’t sell it?”
“We’ll find another way to find a new den,” Kelly assured him.
“And you took her to mate?” Cort pressed, frowning. “You took a human to mate? That you share with that tiger prick?”
“They’re family now, Cort,” Kelly sighed. “And yes.”
Fat Tom stood with his big arms folded across his broad chest. “We came all this way, and lost Esterbrook and Harry…for nothing?”
“Not for nothing,” Kelly argued. “Not for nothing. We’re going to hunt down Cressida’s old ship, the Black Fortune, and take it, and then we’ll have two ships and we can bring in more money, faster. And if we bloody have to, we take more ships and build a fleet, and move the women and children right onto the sea with us.”
He looked around at the frustrated, worried faces of his men, and realized that he had shattered their dreams. He understood. He’d felt his dreams crumble as well as soon the Keeper of the Jewel had explained what the magic inside the jewel would do. But he’d also gained a mate and a deeper understanding of all that they might be together, and that was the great treasure of the island, for Kelly.
No matter what said mate was doing in his bloody bed with her other mate, even as he spoke.
“I’m sorry,” he told the bears. “I truly am. I know it isn’t what I promised. But I will do everything I can to reunite our people. I swore it. You all believe me, don’t you?”
It took a tense moment, but eventually a round of nods answered him. He wanted to give them everything he’d promised, but the world and fate kept getting in his way. Slowly, the sailors moved off, back to their duties, back to finishing the ship’s repairs, and Kelly was left standing alone on the deck, with the ache of someone else’s satisfaction sore in his veins. He went to the railing and looked out at the horizon, his heart a knot, his desire pulsing. Yet in the shadow of the island, he wondered what other grand mistakes he was going to make before one of them saw him lose his den altogether.
“James.” He turned, and there was Cressida. “Are you all right?”
“Been better,” he muttered. He wanted to turn away but he couldn’t take his eyes from her. She’d put on his clothes and though they were ill-fitting and too large, she was still so beautiful that it made his breath catch in his chest. He recognized the dishevelment of her pale hair as from a tumble in bed, the flush to her pale skin and the drowsy look in her eyes. Reza had satisfied her thoroughly. Kelly expected to feel jealous, but he didn’t. He just felt longing and love at once.
“They didn’t take it well, then.” She came to stand at the railing beside him. “I’m sorry.”
“They’re confused and disappointed. I don’t blame them. We thought that this long journey would be the last one before we got to go home again.”
“Do you…regret it?”
He looked down at her, frowning, and shook his head when he saw the worry climb into her bright blue eyes. “No, Cress. I don’t regret it. Not for a moment. This adventure may not have gotten me home, but it did get me you.”
She laid a hand upon his arm and then it drifted down, their fingers touching. He simply took her hand and laced their fingers together.
“What now?” she asked quietly.
“Now,” he said, hauling in a breath. “Now we fix the ship and go find the Black Fortune, like I promised.”
He saw her hesitate, and then she shrugged. “Is that what you really want to do?”
“It’s what I said I would do, Cress.”
“I know that, James. But I would understand if you wanted to go find the rest of your den first. To spend time with them.” She squeezed his hand, and he sighed.
“Why?” he asked. “To tell them I have nothing to offer them? To show them how I’ve failed again? No. We’ve a lot of work to do to fix the ship, to make the men accept the tigers and us, and I won’t put them through the agony of going to their families only to pull them away again after. That’s not fair to anyone.”
“What can I do?” Cressida asked.
“Help the tigers,” Kelly told her. “They’re uncomfortable. The men are comfortable. Only you and Reza speak the girls’ language. Help me figure out where to put them.”
“What do you mean?”
“Cress, they’re two beautiful women, but they are tigers. I can’t put them in the bunks with the others. You, that’s one thing, they know you. Not them.”
Cressida frowned. “Put them with me in the captain’s quarters.”
He laughed. And then realized she was being serious. “What?”
She arched her eyebrow at him. “We three women will sleep in the captain’s quarters, and you will room with the men. At least for the duration of our trip back West.”
“But…” Kelly shook his head. “But what about—what about—us?”
She bloody well smiled at that, and Kelly felt his head spin a little bit as she leaned up to press a kiss to his mouth. His hand landed automatically on her hip.
“We’ll figure it out,” she promised him softly. “But it would be better, for now.”
He sighed. “Fine. And they have to work. If they’re on this crew, they have to work.”
“I’ll talk to them. See what they can contribute.” She nodded.
“Good.”
She leaned back, as though to leave him, but he held her close a moment, finding her eyes. “And it would be greatly appreciated if you and Reza would warn me before you take a tumble. The mark does bind us all, Cress.”
He felt some satisfaction when she blushed scarlet at that. He gave her a squeeze and then let her go.
“Sorry,” she whispered, smiling. “Sorry, sorry.”
“Off with you.” He shooed her, and smirked, watching her giggle and go, cheeks pink in the midday sunlight.
He also knew that none of this, what they’d spoken of, would be as easy as they’d just made it sound. Understanding and respect and the future were all a tangled knot, a net caught about all of them. It was going to take as much bravery and fortune to go home again as it had to get them here.
Chapter 6
When Cressida went topside to talk to Kelly, Reza found Kamala and Prija in the sailors’ barracks. Their flight from the village had been so quick that they hadn’t brought anything with them but the clothes they were wearing. And those were somewhat inappropriate, so far as the bears were concerned, and so they had changed into borrowed clothes not unlike Cressida’s. They looked incredibly uncomfortable, and Reza felt bad for that. Kamala looked better, though, calmer, her eyes dry. Prija was tugging at her trousers like they itched her.
“You’ll get more comfortable in the clothes,” he promised them.
Kamala smiled at the sight of him, which warmed his heart. “I think perhaps if we just had clothes that fit.”
He nodded. “Yes, we’ll find you some on our way back West, I promise. There are plenty of ports to stop in.”
“Where will we go?” Prija asked. “Do you have a home, Reza?”
The question caught him off guard. He looked back at her, into her big green eyes, and faltered. “I…no, I suppose I don’t. I have Cressida.”
“Then what will we have?” Prija was looking at him, her eyes a little wide, and he knew her fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the world away from the island. He knew it and he knew how unprepared they were, and he realized he had not thought this far ahead.
“I don�
��t know yet, but I won’t leave you alone,” he told them. He watched Kamala’s face fall and it was like a weight dragging his heart towards his gut. “Salamander, I won’t leave you, I promise. We’ll find a place you like and get you rooms to live in, find work you like. You should have things to do on the ship. What do you favor?”
“I’d like to alter these clothes,” Kamala said immediately. “If that’s all right.”
He nodded. “I’m sure it would be. Could you mend the men’s clothes?”
“I suppose so, if they wanted.”
“I can cook,” Prija said.
“You can help the cook, then,” Reza decided. “Especially during the first leg of the voyage, when we’ll be eating mostly supplies from the island. He’ll be unfamiliar with them.”
“But is this sustainable, Reza?” Prija asked worriedly.
“No,” he admitted. “But we’ll find a situation that is.”
“Are you going to just live on this ship forever?” Kamala asked.
“I…don’t know yet,” he said. “Everything happened so fast. Just…give me some time to sort things out, to make a plan. All right?”
They looked at each other and then back at him, and nodded. Reza ran his hands back through his hair and turned to leave them to put their bunks in order, but Cressida walked into the barracks.
“They’re going to come stay with me in Kelly’s quarters,” she told them, smiling. “For the time being.”
“They…are?” Reza blinked at her.
“Yes, that’s easier, for now.”
Reza looked over his shoulder at Kamala and Prija, and then took Cressida’s hand. “I need to talk to you,” he told her softly, nodding to the girls. “We’ll be back. Try to make yourselves comfortable.”
He pulled Cressida out of the barracks, into the narrow corridor without, and sighed at the complicated tangle of feelings that washed over him. He still felt caught between his old life and the possibility of a new one, his past and his future.
“Cress, I don’t think this will work,” he murmured.
Alphas of Black Fortune (Complete Boxed Set) Page 20
