Of Ashes And Sin: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Fire Trails Book 1)
Page 20
“He doesn’t like water,” I whispered as Rael landed beside me with a splash.
“That could be handy for keeping him at a distance if he continues to be all possessive and moody,” Rael said treating me to one of his sexy grins. “You’ve got to stop getting into scrapes, Ranger. You know how much I missed you last night?”
I grinned, too. “I have no idea. How much?”
He spread his arms wide. “This much!” He skated his hands along the surface of the water until he created a mini tornado, and I shrieked with laughter as it drenched me. It was killing me not to be intimate with the guys, but I knew it was likely to unbalance Draven, and keeping him balanced right now was vital.
To distract myself from my feelings, I suggested we played Marco Polo. And while Draven watched us, we raced up and down the pool, laughing and shouting like kids until the sun went down.
Before it got fully dark, I got dried off and dressed, and then I went over to Draven and took his hand. “Do you think you could make us a fire?” I asked him quietly.
“Of course.”
“But what do we use?”
“There’ll be some dead branches down there.” He indicated the place where he’d snatched me twenty-four hours earlier.
“Let’s go look,” I said, and he followed me. The sticks we found were like driftwood, brittle and bleached white by the sun. I didn’t think they’d burn for long, but they were better than nothing. Excited to give the guys a treat, I kept looking and looking, piling Draven’s arms full. When we had as much as we could carry, we came back. The guys greeted us on the river. Rael and Zain were pacing along the water’s edge, while Oran sat hunched on a rock, raking his fingers through his hair as he often did when stressed. Their relief when they saw me rolled at me like a gust of warm air.
“We started looking for you again,” Rael said.
I bit my lip. It hadn’t occurred to me that they’d think I’d been abducted yet again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I wanted to surprise you.”
“It’s fine,” Zain said. “Can’t blame a guy for being a little paranoid though.”
We brought the wood over to the camp site and after Draven dropped it on the ground, I arranged a small amount of it into a pile. Without being asked, Draven knelt and huffed onto it. Immediately, it ignited and flames leapt up from the wood.
“Oh, my God,” Oran breathed. All three of them pushed up their sleeves and crouched close. I knew that feeling from yesterday. When you’ve gone without fire for so long, you want to feel its warmth on as much of your skin as possible. I looked at each of them, their features illuminated by the orange glow, revealing three identical expressions of bliss that warmed my heart. This—being together with the guys, our emotions perfectly aligned—was home. I just hoped it was possible for Draven to become a part of it, too.
Suddenly, Oran got to his feet. “Okay, I’m going hunting.” He stripped off his clothes, and before any of us could say anything, he was soaring into the air with a graceful swoop.
“Can he even see anything in the dark?” I said.
Zain shrugged. “Let’s find out.”
Oran was back in fifteen minutes with a rabbit dangling from his talons. And, generously, he dropped it at our feet and took off again. This time he was gone a little longer but returned with a second rabbit.
“Oran, that’s enough,” Rael said when he was about to take off again. “Don’t tire yourself out.”
Oran stayed in his eagle form while his sharp talons ripped through the rabbits, disposing of the skin and removing the guts. Then Draven snatched them up, ran a stick through them and fashioned a kind of spit over the fire. Soon they were roasting and smelling delicious.
I refused to have any since I’d eaten so well the night before, and Oran admitted he’d already eaten his fill while hunting, so Zain, Rael, and Draven shared them uneasily, Draven looking like he wanted to keep them both for himself.
“Dragons aren’t known for sharing,” Rael said with a chuckle when Draven left us for a moment to relieve himself.
After we’d eaten, we decided to head to bed. Everyone got up and started shuffling around, casting glances at the tents and the wagon.
“We’ll sleep here,” Draven announced pointing at the space in front of the fire. I looked at the others and shrugged, and they shrugged back. For tonight, it was probably easier this way. I went to the wagon and got some bedding, then laid it out in front of the fire, then I lay down and watched the others disappearing into the darkness. Draven was watching them, too, growling low in his throat.
I knew they were understanding, but I hated being parted from them. It was like a physical pain in my chest, and I knew what it meant—that I loved each one of them, individually, and all together. I was less certain of my feelings for Draven, who had looped a burly forearm around my waist and was whispering “mine” in my ear, over and over. This level of possessiveness was all new to me, and it was making me twitchy and restless.
Eventually, I fell asleep, feeling more like a baby wrapped in swaddling than a woman lying in a man’s arms. When I awoke halfway through the night, I was startled by the sight of the stars dazzling overhead in a perfectly clear sky. I got up as quietly as I could and walked away from the camp to pee, but Draven awoke immediately and came with me, hovering nearby and watching me silently.
Chapter 16
We awoke at dawn the next day and got ready quickly. The horses seemed impatient to be off as well, having had no exercise for the past few days. Oran took the reins, and the other two climbed up beside him to help weight the wagon during the descent. I decided to hang back to give Draven a moment alone with me. I’d woken still wrapped in his arms, and he’d been almost attached to my side while we’d had breakfast.
“We need to talk,” I told him.
He folded his arms and fixed his amber eyes on me with curiosity.
“I feel a bond between us,” I began.
He nodded. Of course.
“But I also feel a bond with the other three.” My next sentence was cut off by a snarl. I held my hand out. “No, Draven, you can’t act like that. If you want to be with me, you have to be open to sharing because I can’t pick you over them. I can’t pick anyone as my sole mate because you all complete me. And I can’t live with all this tension and possessiveness.”
He snorted and snarled a bit more.
“You saw me with the other guys before you snatched me, didn’t you?”
Smoke puffed from his nostrils.
“Draven?”
Reluctantly, he nodded.
“So you did know they were already my mates. And you know that shifters mate for life, so I wasn’t about to abandon them for you.”
“I knew,” he huffed. “I just couldn’t help myself.”
“But are you going to try now?”
“I guess.” He lifted a hand and stroked my hair. “I’ll try for you, Ranger.”
I took his hand and laid it on my heart. “Yes, try for me. It will make me very happy.”
His face brightened, and his irises dimmed to sunset orange. “I’ll do anything to make you happy.”
My heart skipped a beat as I clasped his hand in mine and began to lead him toward the others.
All day, Draven stayed by my side, but he began to talk to the others, asking about their true forms and elemental affinities. He was a smart guy. Before the fires, he’d worked as a biochemical researcher and he was and interested in Rael’s theories on the loss of the fire and how they might be able to bring it back.
During lunch we discussed where to spend the night. Zain, Rael, Oran, and I were keen to return to the comfort of Bill’s Inn, but one look at Draven’s eyes when we mentioned staying in civilization, and we knew it was too soon. We needed to ease him in gradually, get him used to communicating with us first.
Even driving through the town was too much. Instead, we found a patch of forested land a little farther on the road and coaxed the horses
and wagon along a very bumpy approach.
We settled the horses and wagon in a clearing among the trees, and then we discussed dinner. We were all eager to have a fire again but worried the sight of it might draw curious eyes. Eventually, we couldn’t hold back. We’d missed it too badly. We gathered wood, lots of it, since the forest was full of healthy-looking deciduous trees. Then we agreed that I, Oran, and Rael would go out hunting, while Draven and Zain would stay in their human forms as they preferred to. I was a little apprehensive about leaving the two of them together, but we didn’t have much choice, and I could see that Draven liked Zain, as much as he was pretending he didn’t. It was impossible not to like Zain; he was so honest and straightforward and good-natured.
It was incredible being in my wolf form for the first time in days, and I howled joyously as I exploded into the forest on my agile, fleet paws, immediately picking up the tracks of a variety of small, furry prey. The three of us spread out, and the hunting was easy. We returned four times, each time with our quarry dangling from our jaws, until we decided we had enough for a feast. Zain prepared all the meat with a knife, and Draven set it up on the fire. I was almost touched to see a kind of grudging camaraderie developing between them.
During the meal, Draven joined in the conversation from time to time, and I was glad he was making an effort. When we’d finished, I got to my feet and announced I was going to go wash in the stream I’d passed earlier while hunting. Draven immediately stood up, too, and announced he’d accompany me.
“No,” I said very firmly. “Sometimes I need to do things alone. And this is one of those times. Stay here with the guys. They’ll keep you entertained, and I’ll be back soon.”
He glowered, eyes burning with the same hue as the fire. But when I started to walk away, ears straining for his footsteps, he didn’t follow me.
I washed quickly in the small stream. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing, and I needed to feel clean for the plans I had.
I returned in my wolf form for convenience, carrying my clothes in my teeth. When the others came into view again, I paused in the woods and watched them. Draven was speaking to them a little, and they were clearly trying to draw him into the group, but he looked tense and restless, in a way that I knew only my presence would ease. I sighed quietly. I was burning to mate with Rael, Zain, and Oran again, but I could only imagine what fireworks that would create. But no. Draven needed to accept the full reality of the situation to decide whether he was going to stay with us or return to his dragon lands. And it had to happen now before things got any more complicated.
I dropped my clothes on a tree stump and shifted. Then I walked over to the four guys huddled around the fire.
Four mouths fell open at the sight of me, faces lit with hunger. And I suddenly felt incredibly sexy and powerful. All four of them wanted to be with me. These four stupidly hot shifter men. Arousal charged through my body as I stepped closer, approaching Zain, Oran, and Rael, as Draven was still sitting a little apart from them. Oran was in the center with Zain on his left and Rael on his right. I took Zain and Rael’s hands in mine, and I leaned forward and began to kiss Oran deeply.
Immediately, the three of them came to life, their hands running over my naked body, caressing me gently, driving my arousal to a deep, throbbing need. There were soft growls behind me, but I chose to ignore them as I encouraged the guys to undress. In seconds, they were naked, all hard and ready for me. As Oran took me from behind, cupping my breasts in his big hands, I took the other two in my mouth, alternately, and then they all swapped and swapped again. It was blissful, each guy taking me for only a few seconds before he was replaced by the next. I could feel the difference in their cocks, one thicker, one longer, one gentler, one more forceful.
I was aware that Draven was watching. I kept glimpsing him in flashes, first angry, then transfixed. Now naked, he was obviously aroused. He walked over to us, and when he was close enough, I pulled him to me and kissed him deeply, taking his cock in my hand. The guys made room for us, and when Rael pulled out of me, Draven entered me hard, and began thrusting fast. He was soon close to coming, but I didn’t let him, because I had an idea. None of the guys had come yet. I was keeping them right on the brink. And so was I, my body shuddering from the effort of holding back. I kept working them, their energy ebbing and flowing, muscles trembling.
“Jesus, Ranger, you’re killing me,” Rael muttered through gritted teeth.
“That’s the idea,” I said sweetly. “No one comes until I say.”
Finally, with Zain inside me, and the other three either rubbing against me, or in my hand, I whispered “now,” and they all came at the same time with deep sounds of relief, as I orgasmed hard around Zain’s cock. At the same moment, a very bright light engulfed all of us. It was the same light that had shone when I took on my true form for the first time. It was somehow hot and cold at the same time, and had an incredible radiance and purity. And it was then that I felt complete.
I collapsed onto the leaf-covered earth, the final tremors of my orgasm still rolling through me, and I laughed in happiness. The guys all gazed at me with amusement and affection. “Wow,” I whispered over and over. “Just wow.”
We didn’t speak to each other for a few minutes, as if we were all too overwhelmed by the experience to put it into words.
“How do you all feel?” I asked at last.
“More balanced,” Rael said thoughtfully, and the others agreed.
“And you?” I asked Draven, looking at him intently.
“I feel good,” he said. “More grounded, I think I have more control over my dragon.”
“Well, if this is what you need to retain your humanity, then I’m happy to provide it for you,” I said with a mischievous grin.
That night, we all slept in front of the fire, the guys moving around during the night so I ended up snuggling with each one of them at one point or another.
Who knew what tomorrow would bring, or the day after that, I thought when I woke up briefly at one point, wrapped in Zain’s arms. All I knew was that we’d be together.
THE END
Book Two is coming out late summer 2018!
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THANK YOU!
Hi, thank you so much for reading Of Ashes And Sin, the first book in our new reverse harem series! We really hope you enjoyed it and if so please consider leaving a review; even if it’s only a line or two, it’ll make all the difference, and it will be greatly appreciated.
Book two in the series will be out in late summer 2018. Sign up to our reverse harem newsletter to get exclusive excerpts and sneak peeks, and to get notified when it’s out.
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Yours,
K.N. and Ariana
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