Several female heads lifted to observe their male. “Look for me at dawn.”
With a troubled expression, Akela watched Jarrk stoop through the door then turned her eyes, full of recrimination, on Chiarra.
Chapter Six
Finished with the chores Akela had assigned her, Chiarra wandered to the edge of the clearing where several young idlers gathered in the early evening. Her life with the Gryffin had been reduced to a comfortable routine. She rose at dawn with the rest of Jarrk’s fold and joined them in their activities. She’d made herself an extra jerkin, rough but functional, and Shani had loaned her a pair of shorts.
When Grat stalked into the clearing, she shrank into the shadow of the trees, holding her breath. But the golden Gryffin crossed the open space and disappeared without noticing her.
One of the young Gryffins palmed a set of toned drums while another played a brass bowl. Chiarra stood and watched the wet stick circle the bowl at different levels, producing notes to accompany the song of a third young male. Tar and Breeza! Gryffins could sing! Swaying in time to the music, her head nodded and her foot tapped with a mind of its own.
Another male joined the circle and several young females. Raising her eyes from the drummer’s hands, she found the Gryffin smiling at her. She returned the smile politely, removed her eyes, and discovered the bowler smiling as well.
Fingers like steel talons sank into the soft skin inside her elbow. She gulped back a squeal as Jarrk yanked her from the clearing. “What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed in her ear.
Several trees flashed by as Chiarra was propelled forward under Jarrk’s rough direction. He stopped suddenly, slamming her back against a tree. Chiarra took a quick breath just before Jarrk’s mouth opened. The next thing she felt was the pressure of his teeth, hard and possessive against her lips. Firm lips followed where his teeth had bruised. Chiarra caved beneath his onslaught.
Abruptly, he pulled back his lips, eyes angry on hers. “I took you into my fold! How dare you—”
But Chiarra’s attention was on his mouth, as her lips reached for his. With a curse, he turned her to the tree and plunged his hand between her legs. His body held hers tight against the tree. Spreading his fingers, he dragged his forefinger along the line of her pussy and back through her crease. Her gasp of outrage was followed by a shudder of desire, an outrageous, unexpected response to his finger’s inexorable incursion across intimate, yielding ground.
“If that’s what you want, little human, you’ll have to get it from me. As my female, you have no right to offer yourself to others.” Again, Jarrk stroked his finger over the thin material of her shorts and through her warm crease as his lips moved against her ear. “Don’t you dare make me a fool in front of my own clan.” his breath was harsh with a ragged edge. “You’re lucky Grat didn’t see you. You’re lucky Grat didn’t take you and fuck you.”
She gritted her teeth and put ice into her voice. “Get off me, you fucking animal.”
With the recoil of a bowstring, he jumped backward. She only just registered his stunned expression, his raised ruff, before she ratcheted on her heel and stalked away. “I didn’t offer myself to anyone, you jealous bastard.”
“Jealous! Jealousy has nothing to do with it!” he shouted after her.
Once inside the lodge, she jerked off her rough top and borrowed shorts before reaching for her original jerkin.
Jarrk blasted into the lodge behind her. And stopped to stare at her breasts just as they disappeared beneath her short jerkin. “Where are you going?” he asked, with a strained voice as his eyes dropped to her naked lower body.
His females scattered and she turned to face the furious Gryffin.
“The forest,” she told him, reaching for her wrap. “I’ll take my chances with the dragons. Dragons are looking pretty good right now—”
“Dragons don’t give you many chances.”
“—compared to rape by a fucking rooster.”
If he didn’t look angry before, he did now. “Don’t flatter yourself, woman,” he growled, “I wouldn’t have—”
“I was talking about Grat.”
He stopped, stunned.
“You needn’t look so disappointed,” she mocked, and tied her wrap off at her side.
“Actually,” he gritted, “Gryffin are more closely related to reptiles than birds—”
“Chicken. Lizard. Whatever.”
“—but as long as you brought it up, which do you prefer and how do you like it?”
She threw him a glare.
“Because I like mine hot…and running with juices. How about you?” he challenged, “light meat or dark?”
She gaped at him. Then. “Dark,” she answered, recovering quickly, “chopped fine in salad.”
He winced at the imagery. “Dark meat—Gryffin, then.” His ruff stiffened further as she watched. “And what will you do for meat in the forest? You don’t have a bow. How will you hunt?”
“Unlike you, I’m not a complete carnivore,” she grunted. “I can live on greens and roots. But if I get peckish for meat, I’ll dig for voles.” She brushed past him but he caught her upper arm in his hand.
She jerked her arm in his grasp without noticeable effect.
Her cool outer shell cracked then shattered. “Didn’t see me?” she cried, brokenly. “I’m lucky Grat didn’t see me? What’s wrong with me?” Her eyes filled with angry tears and she looked down her body, searching for offense. “All I did was smile at a young man! I didn’t realize that was a crime in your culture.”
Jarrk caught the glint of angry tears and, for an instant, looked uncertain. But his ruff was still up. He leaned over her. “Don’t feign innocence, Chiarra. It wasn’t the smile, it was what accompanied the smile!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“I’ll show you what I’m talking about.” Roughly, he took her chin between his finger and thumb. She clenched her jaw as he moved her head up and down several times. “Tar,” she heard him whisper, just before his mouth covered hers again, briefly, harshly. His body was all-over hard on hers as he crushed her in his arms. Again, she felt her body yield to his just before he recoiled from her.
“Jarrk!” She screamed, frustrated. “What did I do?”
He stalked across the room then turned to face her. “Do you really not know?” he gritted out with great care. His ruff was still raised and he still looked angry.
She felt a tear slide down her cheek.
“I’m sorry,” he said fiercely, having evidently realized his mistake, which still made Chiarra none the wiser. He turned from her. His back was stiff but his shoulders dropped a bit. “Tar! I’m sorry, Chiarra.”
She shrugged helplessly. “Now I don’t know what you’re sorry for,” she said, wiping at her cheekbones.
“I’m an ass.”
“No, you’re a dickhead.”
He dropped to sit on a stool. “I’m that, too.”
“What did I do?”
He winced as he raised his eyes to her. “You were…nodding.”
“Nodding?!”
“You were ‘nodding up’ the drummer and the bowler for that matter. It’s an invitation to mate…if you’re a Gryffin.” He shook his head. “But you’re not a Gryffin.”
“An invitation to—”
He gave her a curt nod. “With whomever you’re nodding at.”
She gaped at him. “You should have told me,” she whispered in horror. “Tar’s Ugly Children! I must have looked like a fool! I was…nodding at everyone.”
“No,” he said painfully.
“Yes, I was!”
“No. You didn’t look like a fool,” he said soberly. “It was…very sexy.” He shook his head. “But I’m afraid you sent every male home with a hard-on. Including me.” He raised his eyes to her carefully, hopefully.
But she’d turned from him, mortified, her face in her hands. “Tar, I’m sorry, Jarrk. I’ve made you lose face—again. I’ll…I
’ll try to be more careful.”
“Will you?” he asked with a small smile.
She turned back to him, lifted her face from her hands and nodded.
Then stopped.
They smiled at each other.
“Once a female is accepted into a male’s fold, she shouldn’t be looking outside her fold for satisfaction,” Jarrk explained. “Of course it happens but it implies the male can’t satisfy his females.” He shrugged. “Most Gryffin have no trouble mating several women—a night.”
“Oh?” she said, her voice a bit weak, her knees in total sympathy with her voice. “Several being…how many, exactly?”
Jarrk shrugged. “Four or five, easily.”
“He can raise it five separate times!”
Jarrk frowned at her as though he didn’t understand. “Maybe I’m saying this wrong. Normally it takes four or five females to…subdue a male. Before he comes.”
She stared at him with only an instant’s disbelief, as she recalled his mating with Shani and Akela. “And…ah…how many…ah…females does it take…for you to…”
He held her eyes. “Generally more than eight,” he answered with dissatisfaction.
She couldn’t stop the smile. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
He cocked his head a little as his eyes narrowed. “And you’re looking at me like it’s a good thing.”
She returned his gaze with something warmer than sympathy. And didn’t mention how much she liked a challenge.
Rising to his feet, Jarrk lifted a wide leather pouch from a hook on the wall and strapped it around his waist. “I have to go. I’m joining some others to help young Gerak finish his lodge. His initiation is tonight.” He smiled at the girl. “Try to stay out of trouble, will you?”
“I’ll do my best.
“Jarrk,” she said suddenly, stopping him at the door. “Your females. Why do they not…use other means to satisfy you?”
He stared at her. Here it was then. He stood face-to-face with every young Gryffin’s fantasy of having a human female in his fold. “What do you mean?”
Her small laugh was a little impatient. “Why do they not use…their mouths—for instance?”
Jarrk swallowed in a dry throat. And that was the problem. “That doesn’t sound as good as you might think. Our mouths aren’t as moist…” his eyes were glued to her full lips, “as yours.” He breathed the words out. “It would be abrasive.”
Her full lips crimped into a little “O” and he couldn’t help himself. He gave himself up to a short mental aside, visualized his hand beneath his dick, feeding his cock into that pretty little “O”. His ruff was still up, his cock was still up, and his knuckles ached to stripe the woman before him.
He groaned at that last realization. When it came to sex—especially where this female was concerned—he really wasn’t much more than an animal. His nails dug deep into his palms as he clenched his fists.
“Your mouths aren’t very wet,” she restated in revelation and calculated what else might not be exceptionally wet. “And that’s why…that’s why you were holding your own, at the geyser pool the other day.”
He nodded and didn’t tell her that was only part of the reason.
The other part of the reason was her.
And she was driving him crazy.
Chapter Seven
It was dusking when Jarrk’s fold made their way to the clearing but two large fires illuminated the circle of trees. The mood was festive with an undercurrent of cheerful expectation. Members of Gerak’s fold passed through the crowd, long platters on their shoulders heaped with pit-roasted offerings. Jarrk took a place at the circle’s edge and knelt in the grass as his females joined him. Chiarra was surprised when he pulled her close to his right side.
“Tranth!”
A copper Gryffin raised his chin to acknowledge Jarrk’s greeting then made his way across the clearing to drop down on Jarrk’s left.
“You just get back?”
Tranth nodded, his interested eyes on Chiarra. “Wedding gifts.” He leaned forward to include Chiarra in the conversation. “I think my brother’s females will like the stones I found.” He reached behind Chiarra’s ear and produced a small dark emerald. “To go with your eyes.” He opened her hand and closed her fist around the stone. “I’m Tranth,” he said. “You’re…?”
“My female,” Jarrk filled in, a firm warning in his voice.
“Who’s asking you?” Tranth laughed. He returned his eyes to Chiarra.
“My name is Chiarra.”
“Chiarra. That’s nice,” Tranth decided. “She’s nice,” he told his friend, “even if she is tiny.”
Jarrk grunted. “Only next to you.”
The circle quickly filled in, the only negative aspect being Grat’s arrival and installment to their immediate right. Chiarra watched Jarrk’s mouth tighten and turn down at a hard angle. He said nothing, however.
There was a mountain of food and laughter. Loud conversation which Chiarra followed with interest in the midst of which the drums started up. This appeared to be the signal for more-to-follow. The crowd quieted with interested anticipation. When Chiarra lifted her head, she caught Grat staring at her.
“Ignore him,” Jarrk instructed and pulled her closer.
A young Gryffin stepped into the circle. Tall and lithe, he was the most beautiful youth Chiarra had ever seen. Chiarra watched, entranced, as he sank his teeth into his bottom lip, his expression one of youthful vulnerability combined with boyish confidence. The bowls joined the drums in a swirl of music. Raising his hands above his head, the copper Gryffin twisted into a spin.
Chiarra’s eyes widened and her breath caught as Gerak rotated his hips slowly into the turn. Watched those hips all the way through the turn as the Gryffin continued his mating dance. Elbows bent, hands above his head, the male’s pelvis undulated in perfect rhythm with the music. The male’s eyes were closed and his lips pouted, sulky in a hard mouth. Mesmerized by his dance, Chiarra couldn’t drag her eyes from the youth’s body.
Chiarra’s mouth dried and her breasts sparked as the copper male slowed, nodding as he offered his hand to a young female.
Jarrk growled, as did many of the other males in attendance and then leaned to his left to share a word with Tranth.
“What?” Chiarra asked. “Why are the men growling?”
Jarrk leaned right and Chiarra sparked some more when his lips brushed her ear. “It’s a polite challenge, for Teela’s sake. Not that any male here is actually interested in the female. She’s too young and inexperienced.”
Chiarra watched as Gerak circled his chosen, crowding his body close against hers in the dance, nodding slowly as she returned his invitation, finally halting behind her and dragging his hands down the front of her body. Chiarra let out a breath she’d been holding and realized she was all sparks. The young female fell to her knees, pulled one of Gerak’s hands to her mouth and ran her tongue along his knuckles. Turning her face, she put a kiss on his sporran. The youth gave her a look of surprise and Jarrk chuckled. “Cheeky lass,” he murmured.
Chiarra looked a question at him from the side of her eye.
“Her behavior’s forward for a first-picked,” he explained. “The boy will choose three females tonight. As the first-picked, she’s the least of his choices. He’ll save his favorite for last.”
Chiarra frowned as she shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense.”
“When a Gryffin mates, it’s the last female that receives his seed,” Jarrk pointed out.
Chiarra nodded slowly.
“Jani will be his last-pick. He’s mad about her. She’s already carrying his childing.”
Now Gerak pulled a turquoise female out of the circle. Another round of growls followed as the youth started his dance around his second choice. The dancing stopped when a bronze Gryffin stepped into the circle.
The bronze male was only slightly older than Gerak. He rumbled a threat as he approached the youth.
Chiarra shot Jarrk a look of concern.
Jarrk smiled. “More posturing. It’s an honor for the female to have a challenger. Sometimes a cousin or even a brother will challenge the initiate, for the female’s sake.” He pointed at the challenging Gryffin. “Chacun is Gerak’s best friend.”
As the two males circled each other, Gerak’s ruff lifted and his fists bunched—his hackles pulled back to reveal his barbs. After completing a circle around Gerak, the challenger backed away from the youth. Chacun shot a grin at his friend before he resumed his place in the circle.
Gerak completed his dance with the female. Like the first, she too dropped to her knees and pulled Gerak’s fist to her mouth, as she appeared to suck on his barbs. Chiarra watched the young female run a hand up Gerak’s leg to stroke him beneath his sporran.
Chiarra started to melt beneath all the sparking activity.
Gerak left the two females on their knees between the two fires. Now his dance changed subtly. The steps were the same but there was more passion in his movements and his eyes were lit as he made his way toward an elegant female with a purple fan. She jumped up to meet him, her eyes lit like his. He stopped before her as the couple nodded at each other slowly.
At Chiarra’s side, Jarrk growled politely.
“Tar’s Pit!”
Chiarra flinched at Tranth’s angry words. The music stopped and tension flared as heads turned and craned. Grat stepped into the circle.
“Bastard,” Tranth gritted.
“What’s wrong?”
“This isn’t a polite challenge,” Jarrk growled. “He’s going to fight the boy. Grat’s going to take Jani from Gerak.”
Chiarra shook her head, horrified for the young female, obviously in love with her Gerak. “Is there nothing you can do?”
“Not the way you mean,” Tranth answered. “We can’t fight Grat. Not without making Gerak lose face.”
Grat turned slowly and put insolent eyes on Chiarra. Jarrk jumped to a crouch. “I’ll kill the bastard,” he grated.
Chiarra gave Tranth a look pleading for explanation, but Tranth’s angry expression was fixed on Grat.
Gryffin Strain: His Female Page 3
