by Edith DuBois
“Okay, so you remember that the Kinmans had found themselves a woman. They disappeared—”
“—yes, and they came back with one wife for the both of them.”
“Excellent,” Thomas said, grinning. He swiped his thumbnail up the length of the bottom of her foot. Her leg jerked in reaction.
“Don’t,” she said in warning, but her laughter dimmed the effect. She put her foot on his chest when he put his thumb at her heel again. “Don’t,” she repeated, more forcefully.
“I’m sorry,” he said, grinning, “but bare feet are too tempting for me to resist, especially these delicate things.” He held up her size-ten foot.
“Har, har.” She yanked her foot out of his grip. “Elias, please continue,” she said while keeping a wary eye on Thomas.
“So when Anne—she was the wife of the Kinman brothers,” Elias continued. “When she found out that there were more bear brothers that needed wives, she promised her husbands to help them find four more wives for the rest of the families. She was a kind and nurturing woman, and it was her way to care for and protect the ones she loved.”
“Anne knew of a family that lived alone in the forest,” Franklin said, taking a bite of oatmeal with raisins and honey. “She knew there was a husband and a wife and two daughters. She went to speak to the father, to see if he was interested in finding a husband—or husbands, as it were—for either one of his daughters. When Anne found the cabin, however, she only found the eldest daughter. Scarlet fever had taken the rest of her family. The girl, Moira, had some skill in the healing arts, but it wasn’t enough to save her family. For some reason, she was spared, but if Anne and her husbands hadn’t come along, Moira probably would have starved to death.
“She’d never been farther than a mile or two from her cabin. She didn’t even know that Savage Valley existed. So Robert and Henry Kinman helped her bury her family and then took her home with them.”
Franklin scooped in another bite, so Thomas took over the story. “She stayed with the Kinmans a while, adjusting to life in Savage Valley, but it wasn’t too long before Anne and her husbands knew that she would need to marry. Another local gentleman, one of the lion-shifters in fact, from the Yeats line, had already begun sniffing around, hoping for a chance to court Moira.
“So one day, they took Moira out to the forest, they shifted in front of her, and Anne told her all about living with two husbands and living with shifter-mates. She explained that there were more shifters that needed wives, and she asked her if she wanted to be married to the next family—the Ashleys.”
“I’m guessing she said yes?” Michelle took a lingering slurp of her coffee, eyeing the brothers over the rim of her mug.
Elias smiled and nodded. “She said yes. Anne had become like a sister to her, and she saw that Anne was happy with her husbands. She figured she could be, too.”
“How do you know so much about them? I mean, I understand it’s your family’s history, but still…I barely even know my great-grandmother’s name, much less whom she married or how they met or even what they did with themselves.”
“One of the original wives, Helen Strong, she kept very accurate and detailed journals. She was the final wife to join the bears, but she spoke with each of the wives and got their stories.”
“Do you still have the journals?”
“The Strongs do. They belong to their family since Helen was the one to write them.”
“Of course.” She nibbled on her bagel, thinking. “So what happened after Moira told Anne that she would marry the Ashleys?”
“The Kinman brothers took her to stay with Cameahwait while they went to get Elias, Elihu, and Ezekiel. They didn’t want any of the young bucks in town to come sniffing around while they were gone. None of the roustabouts would fool with Moira or Anne while the Kinmans were around, but once they were gone, they feared Anne wouldn’t be enough of a threat to keep unwanted suitors away.”
“That didn’t sit too well with Anne,” Franklin added, winking. “But eventually she agreed. Things were still pretty rough in Savage Valley.”
“Were?” Michelle asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Anyways,” Elias said, drawing her attention back to the story, “while Moira stayed with the Shoshone, she became even more interested in the healing arts. By the time her future husbands arrived, she was extremely knowledgeable and well respected as a local healer.
“Anne only went part of the way with Moira to meet her new husbands, knowing of course what would happen once they smelled their new wife. So meet they did, and once the Ashleys became human again, they joined their wife in town, learning from her until the Ashley family—all four of them—become known throughout the region as the most trusted physicians, often traveling for days to care for people living in isolation or travelers visiting nearby areas.”
Michelle swallowed the last bite of her bagel and followed it with a healthy swig of orange juice. There was a French coffee press on the tray, so she poured herself a fresh cup, adding cream and sugar as she preferred. “So…” There was something about the story that was bugging her. At first she hadn’t been able to put her finger on it, but then as the story progressed and as she watched her three mind-blowingly attractive men, she realized what it was. “How come there are never any women bear-shifters in your family? What’s up with that? Was Cameahwait sexist or something?”
Each of their faces fell. “No,” Elias said, his voice subdued. “He wasn’t sexist.”
“It’s rare for a daughter to be born into a bear-shifting family,” Thomas said, holding on to her ankle. “The women born into our family are barren. Something happened when the curse was initially cast, maybe it was so that the first bears couldn’t give birth to bear cubs, but whatever happened, none of the women have been able to conceive.”
“That’s horrible. Not that everyone wants children, but to not even have a choice.” Michelle put her hand over her stomach, feeling a sort of womanly empathy. She wanted to have children, and the idea of it not being a possibility filled her with great sadness.
“There is one upside, however,” Franklin said, grabbing her hand. “They usually have some sort of extra ability to compensate.”
“Ability?”
“Like our great-aunt Sarah. She could communicate with animals. Most of the time it was birds. She loved listening to mockingbirds. She’d whistle with them for hours, exchanging tunes with them.”
“Umm…”
“It does sound kind of weird,” Thomas admitted. “But when you see it, it makes sense.”
“Like what did she say? ‘Bird, fetch me some berries!’ Because, yeah, that does sound crazy.”
“No,” Thomas said, laughing. “It was more like she could see them, understand them. Like if a flock of geese flew above us, she knew where they had been, where they were going. That sort of thing.”
“Animals don’t speak,” Elias said.
“Unless you’re a bear-shifter.” Michelle dug her elbow into his ribs playfully.
“They don’t speak”—he grabbed her elbow—“but they do have urges and desires and basic instincts. Our Aunt Sarah could understand these things.”
Michelle moved her hand to Elias’s leg, dragging her fingers across the hard muscle of his inner thigh. “I think I understand what you mean.” She put her other hand on Franklin’s leg, stroking him. “Urges”—she cupped Elias’s cock—“desires”—she cupped Franklin’s cock—“basic instincts.” She put her toes under Thomas’s groin and then pushed up, holding the weight of his balls on the top of her foot and wiggling her toes against him.
Thomas groaned and rolled his hips against her, so Michelle circled her foot a few times around his hardening bulge while also gripping and then releasing the two hard cocks she held in her hands. She made sure her fingers went to the undersides of their sacs and danced across the sensitive area there.
“You are all so huge. I feel like a goddess with each of you at my fingertips.”
She felt Thomas put his hands on her ankles. He yanked her legs wide open.
“Thomas!” She gasped his name, her eyes flying open. He watched her with dark, hungry eyes.
“Are you scared, Michelle? Are you afraid of what I can do to you?”
“No.” Her voice sounded weak and unsure, so she said it again. “No, Thomas.” She meant it with everything that she was. “I’m not afraid. I want it. All of it. All of you. Take me as you will. Use me as you want. I am yours.”
She turned to Elias. “And yours.”
Then she looked at Franklin and held her palm to his cheek. “And I am yours,” she whispered. She took a deep breath, the scent of each of her men filling her with such strength, with such a sense of purpose, that any qualms, any tiny lingering doubts that she may have had, completely vanished. They disappeared, and she was completely and utterly herself with them.
Thomas moved up between her legs, licking her cunt from the back to the top, swiping his tongue up one side of her seam and then down the other. His hands gripped her ass so that she fit snug up against his face, and he buried his tongue in her pussy.
As Thomas continued to lave at her cunt, Elias and Franklin pulled the large white T-shirt over her head, and the warm morning sun tingled on the tips of her nipples. They put their mouths on her hardened buds, and Elias moved his fingers to her clit.
Michelle needed something. She needed something to do to keep from crying out, but Franklin grabbed one of her wrists and held it pinned against the bed. Then Elias grabbed her other wrist so that, with Thomas between her legs, she lay completely spread-eagled.
As she thrust her hips up hard against Thomas’s face, her breathing became harsh. She could feel an orgasm building, and she reached for it. Her pussy clenched in yearning need. She wanted to wrap her legs around Thomas and suffocate him until he made her come, but he held her legs wide open, pressing them against the mattress, and he forced her to suffer the sweet torment of each delicious flick of his tongue.
“Thomas,” she pleaded. “Fuck me, Thomas. I want to be fucked.” His tongue stopped, and she whimpered, rolling her hips and trying to get his tongue back in motion.
“Oh, we are going to fuck you good and hard, Michelle.”
She stopped her frustrated movements, frozen by his words and by the dark promise in his voice. She sank into the black depths of his gaze.
“And not only are we going to fuck this pussy…” Slowly, he slid his hands up her legs until his strong fingers bit into the soft flesh of her cheeks. “But this ass is also going get fucked good and hard, too.”
Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. Her body was a burning blaze.
He sat up on his knees between her legs. “Do you two have her?”
A shiver of anticipation skipped through her blood as Elias and Franklin tightened their grip on her wrists. “Michelle, I want you to close your eyes,” Thomas said.
“What?”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes, but—”
“Do you trust my brothers?”
“Yes, of course, but—”
“Then close your eyes. If you open them before I tell you, I will slap your pussy.”
“You’ll what?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “You heard me. Now do as I say.”
“Thomas, you are being an insufferable, pig-headed, chauvinistic—”
“Just close your eyes,” Franklin said, grinning. “You’re gonna like it.”
She frowned at all three of them, glaring.
“Please,” Elias said, kissing her wrist. “You gotta trust us.”
“All right, fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But if I don’t like this game, I’ll get you back for it.”
Thomas nodded, so she did what he asked and closed her eyes.
For a long moment, nobody moved. She could feel all three of her men, breathing next to her, parts of their bodies touching her, but not moving. Then, between her legs, she felt Thomas moving. He left for a moment. She heard a drawer open and close, then his feet padding across the wood floor.
The bed shifted as he returned to his place between her legs.
“Spread wide for me,” he whispered. Her stomach jolted at the sound of his voice, but she did as he said. A moment later, something soft fluttered against the lips of her pussy.
She jerked, her eyes flying open. “What is that?”
“Michelle,” Thomas chided, “you didn’t even last thirty seconds.”
Biting her bottom lip, she offered him a sheepish grin. “Whoops.”
“I’m going to have to punish you for that.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. It took me by surprise.”
“Close your eyes.” His voice was heavy, but his eyes held a teasing lightness.
“Okay, sorry.” She closed them but not before catching a glimpse of a long blue feather in Thomas’s hand between her legs.
“Since this is your first offense, I’ll only give you three slaps.”
“Three slaps!” Her eyes flew open again as she tried to sit up in protest.
“Michelle,” Franklin and Elias said at the same time, yanking her back down to the pillow.
“Damn, now I’ve got to make it the full five,” Thomas muttered. “Why don’t you go ahead and clench your eyes closed. In case you feel the urge to open them again while I slap this beautiful pink pussy.”
A tremor ran through her at his words. He spoke of it so casually, but a spasm of fear lashed through her body. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her, not really. But the idea of someone slapping her pussy had her sucking in deep, hurried breaths.
“Count ’em off for me.” A moment later Thomas’s hand landed a slap on her cunt. A sharp, piercing sensation ripped through her, stemming from her clit and shooting straight up her stomach. “Michelle?”
“O–One.” She gasped for breath, and as she did, a different kind of sensation struck her. It was a warm swirling.
Then his hand struck her cunt again, and she whimpered at the sharpness.
“Two,” she said. The swirling warmth spread further and deeper.
Thomas continued his punishment, and with each slap, the pain grew more defined, but then so did the pleasure. Her mind didn’t understand it, but oh, her body sure did. After the fifth slap, her hips arched up, and the swirling warmth moved all through her stomach and her thighs and even tickled from beneath her nipples.
“Okay, now keep those eyes closed.” A moment later, something else brushed against her pussy lips. This time the object was hard and had tiny knobs on it. Thomas kneaded it into her flesh, some of the knobs poking into her. He rolled and jiggled it. He pressed hard. He was gentle.
Michelle had to fight to keep her eyes closed. She clenched as tiny tingles began to spread through her. “This is torture,” she said in a harsh whisper. “I can’t—oh god, yes.” Elias and Franklin each had a feather now and began tickling her nipples while maintaining their hold on her wrists. They could have let her go, though. Her body was their captive. She would do anything they wanted.
Thomas’s fingers plunged into her pussy, and pleasure unfurled, the movement of his fingers resonating sharp and poignant. Moisture rolled out of her, and she could tell it coated his fingers almost immediately.
“Thomas, may I open my eyes? I want to look at you.”
“Go ahead.” When she did, Thomas’s eyes burned into hers. “Turn over.”
She did without hesitating.
“You’re our mate. You have to trust us to take care of you, Michelle.”
“I do. I promise I do.”
Elias ran his fingers through her hair from behind. “We know that you are used to taking care of yourse
lf. We know that you feel obligated to take care of everyone except yourself, but we can’t have that, especially not in bed.”
Thomas ran his hand over her ass. “I didn’t do that to hurt you. Michelle, whether you realize it or not, your body belongs to us, and we will push it as far as it can go—in pleasure, in pain, in love. You belong to us.”
She looked over her shoulder at him. “And what about me? What about your body? Don’t you belong to me as much as I belong to you?”
He gripped her chin, holding her tight. “Yes, Michelle. I am yours. My body, my heart, my soul—all of it belongs to you. And my brothers, they are yours, too. You can do anything to us, and you will never change that.”
“Even what you just did to me? I could do something like that to you, and you’ll let me?” She thought he would come up with some excuse, some way of explaining how as a man, it would be different, but he didn’t.
“Do you want to try it right now? You can if you want. I am yours,” he said in absolute seriousness. His eyes were steady and unrelenting in their gaze.
“You mean that?”
“Yes.”
Her breath came out in a soft exhalation. “No. Not right now.” She frowned and met his eyes. “But promise me that when I ask, you will agree.”
“I promise.”
She smiled faintly as Thomas leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. He sucked gently on her bottom lip and then pushed his tongue into her mouth. He rolled it slow and easy against hers, building up her desire, starting a rhythm between them that she knew would never end, would never stop calling to her.
As she rolled into his embrace, Elias got off the bed, heading for the bathroom. Franklin, however, pressed his torso against her back, putting his hot lips to the top of her shoulder and kissing his way to her neck. His erection pressed against her spine.
Thomas broke his kiss with her and turned her toward Franklin, who fell back, wrapping his arms around her. His head landed at the side of the bed.
“Curl your knees up,” he said, rising up for a quick kiss. “Put your thighs against my ribs.” When she’d done as he said, she reached down between their bodies, wrapped her fingers around his cock, and guided him to her open and waiting pussy. They held on to each other as he slid into her. His face was tense as he started to move slowly. When she tried to increase the pace, he grabbed her hips. “This has to last.” She pushed down against his restraining hold. “Trust me, Michelle. We’re going to take our time with you.”
