Hearts of Ishira (Hearts of Ishira Saga)

by Bethany Aan

  Hunter growled low in his throat, sliding into the pool in front of them to hide his reaction. Arianna shivered heavily as Hunter’s body stroked all along hers, Jace deep inside of her from behind. Using her shiver as an excuse to get out of there, Hunter said something about the air growing too cool for Arianna, and casually mentioned that they were going to go back out into the sun.

  They needed privacy, and now. Jace pulled out of her, and as one, the men sandwiched Arianna between them and swam for the other side of the waterfall.

  Once away from the crowd, Hunter led them to a little cove hidden from the main valley, where the men were able to stand chest-deep in the water. Ri, of course, could not. Not that they wanted her to.

  In seconds, her bathing suit was gracing a smooth river rock and she was lifted and smoothly impaled on Jace’s cock. His mouth latched to one of her nipples and drew strongly on it in his passion. Hunter wrapped an arm around her waist, his hand landing on her hip to hold her, while his other hand reached around and did its best to drive her clit crazy. With Hunter behind her, holding her firmly, Jace released her and used his hands to fondle her breasts, tease and torture her nipples, then hold them for his mouth’s attack on them. She bit his shoulder a little roughly to stifle her cry as he pumped powerfully into her over and over again. She and Jace came in swift, perfect harmony.

  Before she could fully come down from that, Jace slid out of her. He continued his assault on her breasts as Hunter growled low in her ear, tipped her hips back a little, and thrust easily into her from behind. Her head fell back onto his shoulder as he nibbled and bit along her neck and shoulders. His body rocked her in the water, rubbing her along all the right places to pleasure them both. She was close to bursting with another climax when Jace reached down and sweetly tortured her clit, driving her to a shivering peak, then over. Hunter ground himself deeply into her with a feral growl of satisfaction, biting her shoulder in his effort to keep quiet. She felt her body tightening in preparation for one last climax and begged wordlessly for more.

  Jace took the hint and intensified his worship of her breasts, capturing a pebbled peak between his lips and nipping strongly enough to make her body buck. That little spasm was enough to drag Hunter’s cock over her G-spot, enough to have her clutching at both men, calling their names, losing her breath and her sanity at the same time. She felt her walls clutching at Hunter, milking his seed from him, and he gave it willingly, shouting his joy into her neck, hoping to muffle the sound. He shuddered against her, his cock throbbing hard and fast inside her, which only kept her own glory going.

  She came down slowly, her body shaking and occasionally shivering as Hunter left her, as Jace released her nipple with one last sweet drag of his tongue. The men held her close, supporting her until her spasms stopped and she was breathing somewhat normally once more. They kissed and soothed and caressed her lovingly the whole time, reminding her of how much they adored her.

  Arianna was dressed and even breathing almost normally by the time the others began emerging from the cave. She and her warriors swam and played a bit, slowly making their way toward the shore, taking their time and enjoying water games as though they were all children again. Beneath the surface of the water, though, the men were sneaking indelicate touches and occasionally penetrating her, just because they could. She let them, reveling in the uninhibited fun. She got her own sneaky feels in, too, though, often bringing the most delightful wiggles and gasps from her men, who weren’t expecting such brazenness. When Jace glared at her for ducking under water and quickly tonguing his cock, she merely grinned sweetly and blew him a kiss. His hot gaze promised retribution at the earliest opportunity. She shivered in anticipation.

  By the time the threesome made it to the opposite shore, where their things were waiting, they had ‘played’ so hard that they were out of breath all over again. There was so much splashing, laughing, and playful teasing going on around them that no one really paid attention to anyone outside their family group for awhile. Arianna had the feeling that she wasn’t the only one getting fondled and pleasured by her men beneath the water.

  All three fell into the grass at the lake’s edge, catching their breaths and enjoying the warm sun on their naked flesh. Arianna squeaked as soon as she realized she was naked, then glared at Jace, who grinned with boyish glee and tossed her sodden swimsuit to Hunter. Hunter, rat that he was, balled it up and tucked it under his butt, then laid back, arms up and fingers clasped behind his head, whistling cheekily to the clouds as she tried to pry her hands beneath his big, solid body to get her suit back. Jace just sat back and watched the show, enjoying the sight of her luscious posterior wiggling and bouncing in the sun as she fought for her suit.

  Finally, when she felt Jace’s hands roaming her butt, exploring as though he were planning another attack, she whirled and glared at him, then sat down, pulled her knees up to her chest, and draped her hair over the front of her, hiding all the interesting bits. Hunter finally relented and, chuckling, tossed her suit at her.

  She was dressed again just in time, as the others began heading back to shore and several teams gathered together to enjoy lunch on the banks of the lake. Trey and Bev’s team joined their ground cloth with Ri’s and they all ate with gusto as they chatted and watched the antics of their people.

  An hour later, Ri was dry and hot again, but the water was still nice and cool, so she took another dip. Her men took turns trying to yank her suit off of her, enjoying her squeaks and squeals, the name-calling, and the wrestling that ensued when she got frustrated enough to attack one of them. She always lost, but she ended up with tons of triumphant kisses and quite a few naughty fondles, on all sides.

  As the sun hit its zenith, Hunter took stock of the group and realized how tired the girls were. He suggested that the teams find bits of grass beneath the trees lining the valley, and rest for awhile out of the sun before they started back to the compound. Ri giggled almost uncontrollably at his suggestion of a cat-nap. Agreeing, the various family groups moved to more sheltered areas, laying out cloths for relaxing.

  Ri decided that, while she was a bit tired, she wasn’t going to waste an outing on a nap, so she asked Hunter if he and Jace would point out some of the local flora and fauna for her. The attack from the slider had inspired her to learn much more about this world, and quickly. The men shrugged but, ever eager to feed her intelligent, curious mind, they did as she asked. Donning their trousers, boots, and weapon packs, they guided her into the shade of the forest. Ri wrapped a light, gauzy length of material around her hips, so that she had a sarong, of sorts, then walked with her mates into the cool gloom of the woods.

  Hunter pointed out many of the plants that she already knew were edible, but had not seen in the wild. Jace showed her the ones that they knew were poisonous or harmful to their men, but lamented that he hadn’t yet completed programming his scanner for her race yet.

  “What about fiber plants?” Arianna asked at one point. Hunter cocked his head at her.

  “Fiber?” he asked, curious, “From plants?”

  “Your world doesn’t use plant fibers?” she asked, incredulous. He shook his head slowly.

  “We get all our clothing from the animals, though mostly from their wool, since that is a renewable resource. We only get leather from the creatures we must kill for food. There is no need to waste arable land on plants for fiber, when we have everything we need already.”

  “That’s nice,” she said, “But what about linen? Cotton? We have those back on Earth, and they’re fairly easy to cultivate, though linen takes a lot more preparation to spin and weave.”

  “Then why use it?” Hunter asked. “And why would you waste land cultivating plants for fiber, when you have animals that will give it freely?”

  “Because it’s another fiber option,” she said, shrugging. “We figured out we could use it, so we did. And cotton is a neat one to have, though it’s a bitch to spin. It’s light and fluffy, but tends to be cooler th
an wool, so we like making a lot of summer clothing out of it.”

  She looked around the forest speculatively.

  “So you’ve never looked at any of the plants here with an eye toward spinning and weaving?” she asked excitedly. Hunter and Jace both shook their heads warily. “Oh, wow! Then I have a quest!”

  “Ah, hell,” Hunter muttered. Before they could warn her to stay near them, she was hurrying through the woods, touching this plant and that, until she found a stand of what appeared to be nothing but thick grass. She was already kneeling in front of it, digging up a stalk, when they got to her.

  “Hunter, do you have your knife with you?” she asked, staring at the plant. “I’m thinking that this one has the right look to the stalk. See? It has all these ridges. It looks like it could be stringy inside.”

  He handed over his knife silently, throwing a rueful look at his brother as they stood watch over their intrepid mate. Arianna removed the stalk from its root, then sat on her knees in the loamy dirt to cut the stalk open and examine the inside. Finally, she cut a tiny notch in the stalk and, grasping it, pulled gently upwards. The fibers came away with her pull, wispy strings curling on the edges as she yanked the piece away from its stalk. Delighted, she got to her feet and began pulling individual strands from the plant, until she had a handful of long fibrous strings.

  “What are you looking for now, woman?” Hunter asked, amused, as she patted her waist and hips.

  “Something to make a spindle out of.” She grinned sheepishly up at him. “When I was working at the renaissance fairs back home, I had a leather holster someone gave me. It hooked on my belt, and it held my hand-spindle so that I always had it with me. I kinda wish I had it now!”

  “Well, you’ll simply have to contain yourself for the moment,” Hunter told her, chuckling. “We could cut a number of these stalks and take them back to the compound for further study and experimentation, if you like.”

  “Yes!” she breathed. “This stuff is silky, but seems nice and strong. It didn’t break while I was separating it, so that’s a good sign. We’ll have to see how it does when it dries. Oh, and maybe get a few with the root systems, so we can see if they’ll grow back home, too.”

  Hunter bent to cut a nice sized bundle of the fibers and Ri tied the strands she’d already separated around them. Jace wandered the area, using his scanner to note the locations of more stands of the plant. This way, they could come back and find more, if her efforts to spin and weave with it were successful. Arianna, on the other hand, was off in search of a new plant, her excited chatter echoing off the trees. Hunter grinned and followed her through the underbrush.

  Several minutes later, bundle in hand, he caught up to her, then stilled. She was shock-still, her head cocked to the side. She seemed to be listening to something. Hunter knew that look, knew that her Reader senses were kicking in, and wondered at that. He could sense nothing. But just in case, he motioned for Jace to be ready for an attack and slowly slid his sword from its sheath at his waist.

  “Ri?” he asked softly, nudging her to get behind his big body. She shook her head at his question.

  “There’s something out there, in the woods,” she whispered. “It doesn’t want to hurt us. It’s just … curious.”

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t know. But… I think it’s a female. It is concerned because we’re close to its nest. It isn’t dangerous… yet. But if we move much closer, she’ll be really upset and someone could get hurt, I think.”

  Hunter nodded at Jace, who punched a few commands into his scanner, noting the location so they could avoid it hereafter. No sense in riling up the natives, especially if they were aware enough that Arianna could sense their thoughts.

  “In case it’s sentient,” Hunter said softly, guiding Arianna backwards with a hand on her waist, “Let’s just leave it. Can you tell it that we mean no harm, and that we will try to avoid its nesting grounds?”

  “Of course,” she murmured, doing so. The creature seemed to accept her promise and Arianna relaxed a bit more. Hunter sensed her tension dissipating and relaxed, sheathing his sword. He turned to look at Ri, arching a questioning brow at her. She smiled and kissed his chest. “So… what are those red leaves over there? That’s the most gorgeous shade of crimson I think I’ve ever seen! If we can use it as a dye, wouldn’t that be incredible?””

  “They’re just weeds, as far as we can tell,” Jace said, following her gaze.

  She hurried over to kneel beside the red-leaved plants, looking at them closely. A large insect chose that moment to buzz around her head and she automatically swatted it away, losing her balance. She grabbed for the first thing she could reach, which was a thick stalk of the red leaves. The cry she let out as the leaves were crushed in her fist made the fur on Hunter’s back stand up. He and Jace were at her side in a matter of seconds, and in that short time she had already started swelling, her face turning red as her throat closed up. Jace bellowed for a medic, then slung his ever-present pack off his back and dug through it for the medicines he was never without.

  “What is happening?” Hunter demanded, holding Arianna still so that Jace could inject her.

  “I don’t know. There should be no poisonous plants here! We did not pass any that I was aware of.”

  “Then she must be having a reaction to that fiber plant,” Hunter guessed as Ri calmed down and her color began returning. She stared up at him, fear in her eyes, then weakly moved her arm. He looked down and saw the scrap of red leaves in her hand. Frowning, he wondered what she meant by them. They were just pretty red leaves… but all over her palm, where she had obviously grasped them, were blisters. They were huge. Some had already burst and were weeping a mixture of yellow pus and blood.

  Jace made a concerned noise and brought his scanner to her palm, testing a bit of the fluid. Then he very carefully took hold of the plant and pulled it from her skin. She shrieked in agony, her body bowing, as the entire top layer of her flesh came with it, great patches of skin peeling off, having already attached to the plant somehow. Hunter had to hold her still so that Jace could finish removing the thing. Jace apologized to her the whole time, assuring her that he had to do it. As the last bit came off, Ri trembled and wept against Hunter’s chest. He used their mental connection to drain off as much of the pain as possible, but there was simply too much of it. He was shaking and clammy as well, by the time she calmed down a bit.

  “I’ve stopped the allergic reaction,” Jace said quickly, looking up at Hunter, “But I think the poison is a two-level substance. The first reaction is anaphylactic, closing the airways and throat. I’m more concerned with the speed of her skin’s reaction. The necrosis is spreading, even though I removed the plant.”

  “The plant has tiny spines on the bottom,” Trey, also a trained medic, said, having just arrived and quickly surmising what had happened. He had the plant in his hand and was turning it over to examine it. “We should take it back and let Erik look at it. He’s a botanist. But why would it affect her like that? It does nothing at all to us.”

  “Back on Earth, some people have reactions to plants that others don’t have.” Bev panted, having run after her men at their leaders’ bellows for help. She was now leaning over and looking at the plant. “Like poison ivy. I had brothers that got it really bad, but I could roll in the stuff and not get the first blister. Ri could just be allergic to it, and you guys aren’t.”

  Before anyone could stop her, Bev touched the plant, as well. Her reaction was just as quick and dangerous as Arianna’s, but Jace had already been reaching into his pack for another syringe when he saw her hand moving. He injected her before much damage could be done, but the tip of her finger, where she’d barely touched the spines, was already peeling and blistering.

  “To the infirmary with them both,” Jace snapped out. “And warn the others. None of the women are to so much as brush up against the red-leaved plants! And Trey, don’t touch Bev until you have washed your ha
nds! The oils in the plant might be to blame.”

  Rom bolted off to relay Jace’s warning to the others while Erik guided Bev, and Hunter carried Arianna to their mounts. Jace took the sample of the red plant and, knowing Arianna would kill him if he didn’t, thought to grab the benign stalks Hunter had already cut for her fiber experiment. He leapt onto the back of Hunter’s mount, grabbing onto his brother’s waist as the beast galloped toward home.

  “What’s going on?” Tanya asked, as Rom came running back to the valley and signaled everyone to gather around.

  Amy, who had been granted permission to come along on the trip, though her group was ordered to stay well away from Hunter’s family, shook her head. “I don’t know. It sounded like someone got hurt. I hope it wasn’t Hunter or Jace!”

  “Amy!” Tanya hissed warningly, but one of Amy’s men had heard her. He narrowed his eyes on her in warning. Since the beginning of her ‘training’, her men had been tightening their watches on her, though they were starting to loathe her. They kept her near them simply to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn’t do anything to harm either Bev or Arianna, as she constantly spoke of doing. She didn’t care about the punishments they meted out when she disobeyed them. She had a course of action and the determination to see it through.

  “The commander and doctor have chosen their mate,” Rian told her succinctly. “You should forget your pursuit of them and accept what is.”

  “No,” Amy said, curling her lip at him. “Arianna gets those two hunks, and I’m stuck with you losers? I don’t think so! I’m so much better than she is.”

  “The fact that you feel the need to tell everyone makes it clear that you are not,” Rian snorted. Then he shook his head and stepped away to listen to what Rom was telling everyone about the plants. Amy listened as well, delighted that Arianna and Bev, the fatties, were the ones injured. She couldn’t keep back her grin.