Unicorn Valley 3: Healer's Heart

by Lena Austin

  Brolly stomped down the small twinge of jealousy. It was true. Le-An could be all things to him, but he, Brolly, couldn’t be all things to Le-An. That day might come.

  Le-An waited for an answer.

  Brolly grinned. “You’re right, love. The day may come when you have to go seek a female to ease that side of your nature. I wish I could be female for you, but I can’t. Just do me a favor, hmm?” He kissed her pert nose as if he couldn’t help himself.

  “What’s that?” Le-An’s face betrayed a certain wary relaxation.

  “Try not to father any more unsuspecting half-squirrels on the humans. They can’t handle it well, and I don’t know what we’d do with a human village in the Valley!”

  Le-An’s face mirrored her shock before she understood he was teasing. “Oh, you!” She snatched up a pillow and hit him with it.

  He grabbed the other pillow as Le-An scrambled to the other side of his bed and readied her defenses. Since she was now giggling, he knew he’d eased her mind.

  One of the pillows burst before the third round of bopping, and the room filled with a snowstorm of feathers. A wolf chased a squirrel through the maelstrom, briefly, until she leapt and caught him around the throat, her chitters sounding like laughter.

  Brolly changed back to human, laughing so hard he couldn’t speak. His arms were suddenly full of naked human female again.

  Grinning, Le-An now kissed his nose. “You make all my problems go away.”

  Brolly gave her a smacking kiss on the lips before answering. “I wish I could make my own do the same.”

  She returned the kiss and deepened it. When again she lifted her head, her eyes were hot. “Make love to me, Brolly. Right here on the rug. I want to be female tonight. A whim, if you wish.”

  “Far be it from me to deny my mate whatever she wants.” He rolled her beneath him on the rug. He buried his face in her neck to kiss and nibble as he pleased.

  Her arms wound around his neck and she bared her neck for him. “Do you want me to change?”

  Brolly slid down to kiss the hollow in her throat. “No. Tonight I crave something small, soft, and sweet. You see? We are of the same mind tonight.”

  He proved it by taking one breast in his hands to hold while he suckled on a nipple. Even though her skin was more pliable, he could feel beneath it the fighter’s muscles that betrayed her occasional calling among humans as a mercenary. For some reason, this excited him further.

  “Does this mean I should submit?”

  He stopped to consider that, even while his cock twitched in answer. “I haven’t earned that.”

  Le-An bit his shoulder. Hard. “Oh. Well, then. Try to earn it.” She squirmed and fought him, grinning like any bitch beneath her jack.

  Gods, what a mate for him! He rolled with her on the floor, countering every trick she tried to earn her freedom. The chair scraped the floor when his body connected with it, and it rocked, showering them with its cushions.

  Brolly laughed aloud at the game. If Le-An had truly wanted escape, she had over forty ways to do so. Instead, she stayed in human female form, purposely weaker than himself. She would let him win, when he’d earned it.

  Finally he dragged a tiring Le-An onto his lap, face down, and spanked her pretty round ass until it was pink. He was in heaven. “I win,” he laughed.

  Le-An lay on his lap, panting, and her rosy cheeks practically under his nose. “Yes, this round, you win.” He could smell her arousal. When he put his fingers between her legs to gather up her juices she only jerked and squirmed. Hot, and sweet. “Brolly, fuck me. Hard. Please.”

  “That’s precisely what I had in mind.” Brolly picked her up and put her on her stomach on their bed, using the one remaining pillow to lift that conquered ass where he could access it with ease. Le-An helpfully shoved a few feathers off the mattress without moving her body, and grinned a challenge.

  He couldn’t get out of his clothes fast enough. A few laces popped, and his pants tangled around his boots. Forcing himself to calm, Brolly managed to get naked without looking too silly.

  He crept on the bed and kissed the still-pink ass he’d paddled, just to listen to her gasp. The scent of her need filled his nose and made him long for a taste. Just a little lick. He buried his nose in her crack and licked like he was still in lupine form. Sweet and creamy, she was better than a holiday confection. That deserved another lick.

  Le-An ground her ass in his face and covered his chin with her juices. She moaned. “Brolly! If you don’t get up there and fuck me properly, I’ll… I’ll turn male and fuck you. That’s a promise.”

  “Yes, ma’am!” He wiped his chin and climbed up, ready to cover her.

  There was no need for a slow, careful entry. He paused only long enough to give her warning of her impalement before he plowed in and buried himself to his balls. The hot silk of her pussy made him shudder even as her muscles tightened around him.

  Gasping, Le-An raised up a tiny bit more from the pillow. He used the upstroke to pull almost completely out before plunging back in.

  “Oh, gods, Brolly! I wish you could feel this.” She moaned, and squirmed for more.

  “I wish I could too, sometimes. Idle curiosity.”

  The wet slickness of Le-An’s pussy caressed his cock. It made him give her precisely what she wanted -- a good, hard fucking.

  Le-An buried her face in the pillow to muffle her cries, and used her hands to brace herself on the headboard of the bed.

  The seeming fragility of females belied their ability to take what would injure a male. Brolly was a healer. He’d seen for himself that females were, in some respects, stronger and more durable than males. He took advantage of those strengths to ease his considerable need for release.

  The sound of flesh meeting flesh clashed with heavy breathing. Incoherent words of encouragement were uttered in both high and low tones.

  “Faster, Brolly! Give it to me quickly! Please come inside me, now!”

  Le-An’s begging spurred him on until he thought he was hammering her fast and furious. He pounded until his body signaled his impending orgasm. However, Le-An had not cried out her own release. His body begged to finish, but he forced himself to remove himself from her. He had a rule he didn’t intend to break. The lady came first, always.

  Le-An whimpered. “Why did you stop?”

  Brolly pulled out the cushions from beneath his beloved mate. “Because I want you to orgasm first.”

  She rolled over, her face uncertain and wild-eyed. Brolly fell beside her and kissed her thoroughly before moving down to latch onto a breast, suckling happily.

  Le-An moaned. “If you don’t finish me quickly, then I’ll go to male and turn the tables on you in desperation. Then we’ll see. Oh, gods!”

  Brolly’s hand had crept lower while she threatened. He found her clitoris, already ripe and swollen, and ready for his fingers to discover. He dipped his fingers in her slickness, and used it to tickle and rub gently.

  Le-An threw back her head and howled, a sweet sound to her jack’s ears. She was bucking like a mad thing, alternately thrusting up to meet his fingers or trying to bury her ass in the mattress. Then she stilled and tensed, gasping.

  Burying fingers in her tenderized pussy, one by one, Brolly used his thumb to continue stroking. One finger was clamped down upon, and then released. Two fingers, and he pumped gently. Three fingers, and he buried his hand to the third knuckle.

  He could feel her impending orgasm with his healer’s empathy, and it was flavored with joy and love. There was no better proof to him of the constancy of her love than the emotions that hammered at him now, and he wondered briefly how he felt so much more than ever before.

  Only a few strokes on her clit, and she exploded like a mage spell gone bad. “Those talented healer’s hands have more skill than I thought possible.” Le-An panted, her skin flushed. Her hands buried themselves in his hair and clenched, before running her fingers through his curls. She shuddered and cried out until
she begged him to stop.

  Brolly chuckled in triumph, released her breast, and climbed back on to ride her willing person to his own release. He’d seen a Unicorn who’d been stung by a bee on its hindquarters once, and he felt as if that bucking, twisting filly was beneath him now. Le-An writhed like a mad thing, clawing and crying out under him, giving him the ride of his life.

  The pulsations of her continued orgasms milked his cock toward an impressive finish of his own. He loved giving massages, but this was the first time his cock had been kneaded until his balls rose, begging for their own release.

  The whole room seemed alive with lights and colors as his body screamed its orgasm into his happy and receptive mate. What was more, his suddenly enhanced healer’s senses made him feel it from both sides now. His body, divorced from the happiness and love that surmounted even the sexual release, continued to pump all he had into her. For the first time in his life, sex was more than an act of simple pleasure, but one of shared love. Now he knew the meaning of the term “soul-bond” and reveled in it.

  Brolly rolled off and took Le-An into his arms. “That’s the wonderful thing about being a healer. I can feel your release as well as my own,” he commented as soon as he had the breath to speak again. “Let’s hope I can continue to be a healer.”

  They lay in the bed, cuddling and sharing the one remaining pillow. Le-An reached down to snatch the blanket and pulled it over both of them, her hands shaking. Brolly could feel a certain smugness radiating from both of them. He knew where his self-satisfaction came from -- in seeing Le-An nearly helpless and flattened by a happy, loving sexual encounter.

  He rose briefly and donned a robe. Sneaking through the darkened cavern and avoiding the busy Vampires who worked to see to the comfort of the sick, he brought back a goblet of wine to share. When he returned, Brolly sensed a change in Le-An’s mood to something nearly as dark as the room. Putting the wine on his clothes press and removing the robe, he crawled back in bed and drew her against him.

  “You never answered my question, Brolly.” Le-An’s voice was hesitant against his shoulder. “What will you do when I must seek out a female?”

  He started to give the generous lie that he would wait patiently for Le-An’s return. Some core of him rebelled against that dishonesty, and he opted for truth. “I don’t know. I’d be lying if I said I won’t feel any jealousy.” He hesitated, and searched the core of himself and the words to express the emotions.

  “It’s not females I fear, though I do envy them. I fear more that someone else will take you away, because I cannot be all things to you. I want to be, desperately.”

  He searched deeper. Memories of Le-An’s shape-shifting back and forth, overlaid with awe and, yes, envy. “I’ve been watching you change blithely back and forth all my life, and felt a certain envy for that ability to change genders according to need. What a marvelous thing that is to see. I’ve wondered a thousand times what it must be like to do that, and be so many things.” He shrugged the shoulder she wasn’t lying on. “I suppose I’m curious.”

  Le-An was silent, though a small spark of hope flared in her. He sensed it, and felt it ruthlessly squelched, and then hidden in some deep, abiding pain. “Why would you want to be female, Brolly? You are delightfully male. Most males, especially Werewolf jacks, would find the idea repugnant.”

  Brolly got up from the bed, and lit a lantern. “I need to pace, and think this through. I’ve never vocalized this, much less dared to think beyond the slight envy.”

  He put on his comfortable robe and belted it against the coolness of the night air. Le-An watched from the bed, and pulled up the blanket, no doubt feeling the same chill now that they no longer shared body warmth.

  Frustrated at his inability to put his emotions into words, Brolly ran an impatient hand through his hair. “I see different types of strength in all beings, no matter what their gender.” He looked into Le-An’s eyes. “You taught me that. It goes beyond the physical, and because I am an empath, I see things differently.”

  His memories supplied several instances where each gender displayed fortitude beyond the ordinary. Times when a male lost control and wept like an infant, and times when a female withstood pain far beyond her tiny frame.

  “Here, in the hospice, I see no genders. I see souls, weak and strong. I see bodies that need mending, and spirits that fight with strength far beyond the norm against disease and injury. Gender has nothing to do with that.”

  Le-An sat up and nodded. “I hesitate to put words in your mouth, but what you seem to say is that the spirit within is what holds the strength, not the form. Each being defines itself from within.”

  Brolly nodded. “No matter what form or gender you are at the moment, you are still Le-An. I see no particular ‘loss’ when you change to female. How can I not want to gain advantages by shifting to whatever suits the need?” He bent to kiss her hand. “I want to suit your needs. All of them.”

  Le-An snatched her hand away and faced the wall. He felt something indefinable, like hope mixed with something darker, pour from her. In a strangled voice she asked, “Have you ever tried?”

  Brolly resumed his pacing. “I don’t know how.”

  Le-An kept her back to him. “You know anatomy better than most.”

  “Yes, but as you well know, it’s more than that. I don’t want to be an ugly male with tits.” He shuddered. He had visions of himself with large hairy breasts, and winced.

  Le-An sniggered. “What an image. You won’t be. It’s natural for everything to… soften, I guess is the best word.”

  He bit his lip, and ran a hand over his chest. What would it be like? He’d always been as curious as a Gryphon cub. Nevertheless, his self-image was indisputably male. Could he manage it?

  What was the harm in trying? If he failed, they were no worse off than before. “Well, I can but try. Come here, Le-An. Let me hold you, and touch you. Maybe that will help.”

  She got up slowly, and went into his arms. He ran his hands over her body, and shut his eyes to feel the differences without lust. The weight of the breasts, the small waist, the fragrant skin. He formed an image in his mind. It was difficult not to keep falling back on the visage he saw in the mirror every day. He fought, and feminized that face.

  He felt a shift, and cautiously opened one eye.

  Chapter Eleven

  Fearfully, he opened both eyes. He was nose to nose with Le-An, who had a look of complete joy on her face.

  “You did it.” Her voice was quietly triumphant. She caressed Brolly’s chest, and a wave of pleasure ran up his entire body as her hand caressed a nipple.

  Brolly ran to the mirror on the wall of his bathing room, throwing off the robe that was now too large. There he beheld a short female with golden brown eyes and curly brown hair. He reached up to feel large breasts, and ran one hand down a trim waist he couldn’t see in the small mirror.

  Le-An’s smiling face joined his -- hers? -- in the mirror. Two feminine faces.

  Brolly stared in wonderment a moment, and then tried to look down. Frustrated, he tried to move his tits aside. “Can’t see a damn thing.”

  Le-An giggled. “There’s nothing to see, remember? It looks fine from here.”

  He began to dig in the cabinet below the mirror. “Ah-ha!” Brandishing a hand-held mirror, he strode back into the bedroom.

  Le-An burst out laughing. “What are you going to do? Sit on it?”

  Brolly looked up sheepishly. “Well, uh, yes.” Blushing was a new experience in this form. He tried dignity. “I’m a healer. I want to make sure everything is correct.”

  Le-An pounced, flinging Brolly backwards until both lay on the bed, leftover feathers flying around. “Everything looks fine.”

  The kiss between them was a new experience as well. Softness met its equal. Not unpleasant, certainly. In fact, it was very erotic, in its own unique way.

  When the kiss ended, Brolly grinned. “So I make a sexy bitch, do I?”

  Le
-An caressed Brolly’s new equipment, causing a gasp. “Yes, you do. I can’t wait to take your virginity.”

  “I am not a virgin and haven’t been for nearly 300 years,” he replied indignantly.

  Le-An laughed and leered suggestively. “You are in this form, unless you were lying about never having done this before.”

  “Oh. Hmm.” Heat suffused his face again. “Guess I am.”

  “I’ve half a mind to take care of that little inconvenience right now.”

  Le-An caressed again, and Brolly felt the new sensation of heat and wetness where none had ever been before.

  Things might have gotten interesting, had they both not heard a commotion outside the room. Sella’s voice rang out, coming closer down the corridor with every syllable. “Brolly!! Get up, lazybones! Emergency surgery!”

  Brolly dove for the bathing room, while Le-An laughed like a loon. The door crashed open, and a bloodied Sella stood in the doorway.

  Sella took in the feathers flying around and a laughing, naked Le-An in female form. Sella put her hands on her hips. “Where’s Brolly? He’s needed in surgery. Two patients.”

  Brolly sweated and managed the change back to male behind the bathroom door. He snatched up his robe and donned it hurriedly.

  Sella breathed a sigh of relief when he strode out. “Kenalf returned last night. He and Aahz fought less than an hour ago. Kenalf isn’t bad off, just a dislocated shoulder. However, Aahz is wounded badly enough to need stitching up. What are you waiting on? Get washed up. You stink of sex.” She turned her nose up and left, slamming the door.

  Brolly threw off the robe and performed a sketchy bath at the basin. Le-An made use of the basin to wash while he put on his loose, comfortable working clothes.

  “Why didn’t you just stay female and do the stitching as a female?” Le-An asked quietly, as she pulled on her pants.

  “I would feel more comfortable doing it in my usual form, that’s all. Besides, my changing gender is likely to cause quite a stir. Let’s keep it between us for awhile.” Brolly dug around to find his boots, where they’d ended up under the bed from their play.