There was a rustle at her shoulder. Akela leaned forward to whisper in Chiarra’s ear. “Grat would probably back down if another female were offered for his temporary use.”
“What!” Chiarra turned her eyes slowly to meet with Akela’s.
Akela nodded her head at Chiarra but her hand gripped Chiarra’s wrist tightly. Her lips formed the word “you”.
Chapter Eight
Jarrk exploded to his feet, flinging his fists downward as his barbs shot into position. Tranth sprang up beside him. Grat stood at the focus of three angry males— Gerak, Jarrk and Tranth. Teeth clenching silence ensued and the fires crackled.
On the other side of the clearing, a female stood and moved swiftly toward Grat. Putting her body up against his, she smoothed her hands down his chest and looked an invitation up at him. Grat didn’t see the sly look she slid at Tranth.
There were a few more seconds of Grat’s insolence before he swept the female to the edge of the circle. As the music picked up, Jarrk lowered himself slowly back to the ground. Tranth stood staring into the fire a moment before he dropped to a crouch beside Jarrk.
Self-conscious, Chiarra dipped her head.
“You’re going to owe Sheena for that,” Jarrk pointed out pitilessly. “She saved the night. Saved the initiation. Saved your brother’s whole life!”
Tranth nodded, still looking a little stunned. “I didn’t even know she was interested.”
Jarrk allowed himself a small chuckle. “They’re all interested in you, Tranth.”
Jani turned with Gerak as he danced, her hands all over him. Dropping to her knees before him, she pulled her lips over his knuckles then dragged her hands down his flanks. With Jani’s head in front of her male’s groin, it was a moment before Chiarra realized she had Gerak’s pants off. He stepped out of them as Jani turned on hands and knees and offered Gerak her bottom.
Chiarra found herself staring at Gerak’s stiff cock as the youth stepped away from Jani and placed himself behind Teela. Lowered himself to his knees. Pulled her short skirt up and out of his way.
“He’s not going to actually…”
Jarrk laughed at Chiarra’s expression. “It’s just a ceremonial mounting,” he told her as Gerak thrust into the young female.
Teela let out a long wailing moan and Chiarra returned her shocked expression to Jarrk.
“Well,” he said apologetically, “it’s supposed to be ceremonial. Gerak’s an attractive male,” he reasoned.
Tranth leaned into the conversation. “She’s fast off the mark.”
Jarrk nodded. “She’s got a hair trigger.”
Gerak pulled out of the female as she jerked beneath him and left her writhing into orgasm on her own.
“That’s it?” Chiarra intoned. “That’s it? That’s amazing!”
Jarrk turned to look at her.
“I could never—humans just don’t get there that fast,” she explained.
Jarrk just stared at her.
Gerak was up against his second, pulling her onto his erection. Chiarra shook her head as she looked away, uncertain she wanted to share in Gerak’s final mating—the mating with his beloved. She found Grat staring at her. Sheena was in his lap and Grat’s big hands clutched the top of her thighs as the female jerked on him. Jerked on his dick, Chiarra realized. Grat was inside her. He had her on his cock!
Grat smiled narrowly at Chiarra.
She was on her feet and bolting before she realized it.
Crashing and stumbling through the forest, she didn’t stop until she came up against Jarrk’s geyser pool. The clearing was well lit, the moon nearly full and reflecting from the pool’s surface. Chiarra wrapped her arms around herself and paced irritably.
“Are you alright?”
She turned to stare at the silvery male at the forest’s edge.
Again, she saw him in her mind’s eye as he turned toward her, smiling, his hands reaching for the strings on his pants.
No. She wasn’t alright! She needed a man. Needed a hard, male presence thick inside her.
Now!
Preferably this male, she thought with a helpless melting.
The corner of Jarrk’s mouth tweaked upward, in a knowing smile, as he put his back against a tree.
Damn him.
“Grat frightens me,” she said, to sidetrack him.
The smile was replaced with a frown of concern. “Stay close to my females…when you’re not with me. You’ll be all right.”
Chiarra nodded at him. Unable to pull her eyes from him.
“Is there nothing else? You seem tense.” When she said nothing, he continued. “You need to find an outlet. Work off some of that stress,” he suggested.
“Yeah. And I’m just betting you’ve got some input on an outlet.”
He smiled slowly. “What do you mean?”
She tossed her head impatiently. “You know what I mean. I’m not a fool, Jarrk. I know what you’ve been doing to me.”
He raised his eyebrows. He knew what he’d like to be doing to her.
“I know your poison is an aphrodisiac…when I drink it. To make me want you.”
He covered his smile with a hand.
“You had no right!” she exploded. “You have no right to force this on me. I don’t want you. I don’t want to…to…want you,” she said in a diminishing voice.
He nodded, head down, lips twisted into a serious expression. Slowly he raised his eyes to hers. “It isn’t.”
“Wh-a-t?”
“It isn’t. It doesn’t. Gryffin poison doesn’t act as an aphrodisiac…on anyone.”
“No? Wh…why. Why do your females lick…?”
“It’s arousing for the male. It’s an expression of love. Devotion. Submittal, if you like.”
He watched her expression as she realized how much she’d revealed. She looked horrified. Then she looked angry. He caught her arm as she stormed past him. “Don’t be angry with me, Chiarra,” he teased. “I can’t help it if you fantasize about me…constantly.”
“Constantly! It isn’t constant.”
“Occasionally?” He pulled her up against him.
But she broke free. “It’s the poison,” she insisted. “After…after I taste it, I have these…visions. Visions of you!”
“Visions of me. And what am I doing in these visions?”
She looked at him painfully.
“Sounds like fantasizing to me.”
“No!”
He sighed with mock regret as his laughing eyes slid sideways in a considering pose. “Okay,” he said finally. “I have another theory. But you’re not going to like it, either. In fact, you’ll like this one even less than the last.”
“What do you mean?”
“Occasionally, certain females experience hallucinations…” he started slowly.
“That’s it! It’s a hallucin—”
“…that foretell the future.”
Her jaw dropped. “No,” she whispered. “No. You’re yanking my chain.”
He shook his head slowly, pushed off from the tree, his ruff lifting as he took several threatening steps toward her. She backed away.
“I’m ready to see the future, Chiarra. How about you?”
She shook her head, eyes on his angry ruff. “No. It’s not…I’m not seeing us…” She raised a finger as she continued backward. “If that’s the future, it doesn’t work for me.”
His eyes got very hard. “What’s the matter, Chiarra?” he growled. “Don’t want to fuck with an animal—like me? Good luck stopping the future, little human. Good luck stopping me.”
She shook her head again, took a step backward, teetered for an instant as she held a brief argument with gravity.
Gravity won.
She fell backward with a splash.
She gasped as she got her head out of the water.
Jarrk laughed as he offered her his hand. “Sorry. But you should have seen that coming.”
“Yeah. Well, I might have if I could
see the future!”
She took his hand and let him lever her out. Liked his big hand wrapped around hers. Liked his strength.
He pulled her against him for an instant then, without giving up her hand, dragged her back toward the village. “We’d better get back. I have a speech to make, if it’s not too late.”
“Shouldn’t Tranth be the one making speeches for his brother?”
Jarrk nodded. “My speech precedes Tranth’s toast.”
“What about your family, Jarrk? Your brothers?”
She caught his wince, felt his hand tighten on hers. “A lot of Gryffin were lost…five years back. You remember…that winter. The cold.”
She caught her breath at the look in his eyes.
“It was bad,” he said simply.
“Have you no one left?”
“I have my own fold now,” he pointed out gently. “But no. None of my home fold.” He tipped his head, diffidently. “It could have been worse. Some lost more than I. Tranth.”
“But Tranth has a brother, at least.”
“Tranth was to have been initiated that spring. He lost his girls. All three of them. They were sisters.”
Chiarra was silent as she watched him struggle to get the next words out. “He…they…all three of them were to have been his last-picked.” Jarrk squinted at her. “Do you know what I mean?”
She nodded. “And he never found…anyone else?”
“He never found anyone.”
She tightened her grip on his hand. “Tranth…looks different from the other males in your clan.”
“His father was human. Like you.”
“But, Tranth is so big.”
“The Islanders are tall.”
“Did he live here, on The Spit?”
“Tranth’s father? No. He never knew his father. His mother was carrying him when she was taken into Cherak’s fold.”
“So tell me,” Jarrk said as they made their way back to the clearing. “Was I any good…in these visions of yours?”
She shrugged.
Oh Tar, yes, she thought.
But.
“Not bad,” she told him.
“Not bad?” He frowned. “Are you sure it was me?”
Chapter Nine
A rumbled growl froze Chiarra in place. Scanning her companion’s faces, she confirmed what she suspected—they were all in serious trouble.
“We’re dead,” Akela said flatly.
“Spread out,” Chiarra ordered quietly and wished she had a crossbow. She’d accompanied Jarrk’s females to forage for eggs. Weeks of sharing tasks, sharing tears, sharing laughter—and sharing Jarrk—had closed the gap between Chiarra and the women in Jarrk’s fold. Now she watched the women move apart and away from her. Thick trees and tall rock outcroppings moved between her and her companions. She didn’t turn since she knew what she’d find. There was no confusing the rumble of a dragon with any other creature.
She held Akela’s eye. But the women had no weapons other than their small knives. They were indeed dead. At least most of them. And she had to assume she’d be the first to go.
“Where’s a male when you need one?” Akela intoned flatly. Her ruff was up and she stared at the hackles on her knuckles, raised but useless without poison barbs. Only the males were barbed.
Chiarra still hadn’t moved, knowing that any movement on her part would draw the dragon’s attack. “Does Gryffin poison kill them?”
Akela nodded carefully. “Unfortunately, there are no males within screaming distance. Generally, one male distracts the dragon while another puts his barbs in.”
Chiarra reached into her pouch and pulled out the long narrow flask containing Jarrk’s venom.
The two women stared at each other.
“The poison acts quickly,” Akela told her, as Chiarra opened the bottle and dipped her blade into the thick blue liquid, “but you must move rapidly to escape the dragon. The venom is agonizing and he’ll thrash himself to his death. I’ll run right—my right—to distract him. Are you ready?”
Chiarra nodded, fractionally.
“NOW!”
Chiarra turned and threw herself at the huge scaly creature. She’d seen dragons before but never this close and never this big. It was a mountain! With claws longer than her hands! Its thick scales glinted green and gray, as its keen eyes shifted to the running figure. As the dragon lurched toward Akela, Chiarra lunged at his foreleg, ignoring the scorching breath that raked her back.
Terrified the blade would rebound on the dragon’s armor, she took the time to angle the blade so it would slide beneath its scales. Tough flesh gave beneath slashing steel as she used both hands to shove the blade deep. The last thing she remembered was the dagger ripped from her hands—just after she was yanked into the air.
* * * * *
Tranth watched his friend’s ruff stiffen. “Hey! Pay attention.”
The two males were on the low branch of a tree, repairing a leak in the water delivery system.
Jarrk gave him a lopsided smile of apology.
“It’s no mystery what you’re thinking about. The question is: Who are you thinking about doing—what you’re thinking about—with?”
Jarrk shot a reluctant grin at Tranth, pulled the split chutes together. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Tranth applied the tarry resin to the break. “Oh, I don’t know. I might. I’ve heard stories about human females.” He laughed as Jarrk’s head snapped up. “So how is she?”
Jarrk winced and shrugged with one shoulder.
“You haven’t taken her yet?”
Jarrk frowned painfully. “Are they true?”
“The stories? Tar. I hope so. I’d like to think so. I’d like to think there’s a woman that could wring me out, all by herself.” Tranth smiled, his look distant. “I’ve heard that they’re a long time coming. That they’re tight. Always tight. They don’t open and loosen the moment they come. According to Grat’s females, he couldn’t leave his little human alone. As long as he had her.”
Jarrk’s face was grim. “Don’t remind me.”
Tranth shook his head. “There wasn’t anything you could do, Jarrk. There wasn’t anything any of us could do. He never let her out of his lodge. We didn’t know what was going on. And we didn’t know he was going to kill her. The stupid bastard probably forgot she was human and striped her as he came.”
Jarrk grunted. “He’ll never harm another female.”
Tranth nodded his agreement. “Chiarra’s lucky you challenged for her—and won. She’s got to be grateful. So, what are you waiting for? Permission? Get on with it, man!”
“She thinks…we’re animals, Tranth. She thinks I’m an animal.”
“When did you decide that?”
“When she called me a fucking animal.”
“Really.” Tranth frowned. “And what were you doing when she said that?”
Jarrk shrugged, reluctantly. “Pretty much acting like one.”
“Well, then. I’d say—from the way she looks at you—she’s into animals.” Tranth grinned at his friend. “Way into animals. Take it from me, man. And take the girl.”
Jarrk laughed. “This from a Gryffin with no female in his lodge.”
Tranth looked like someone had slipped a knife under his heart.
“I’m sorry, Tranth. But you’ve grieved long enough,” he said awkwardly. “Have you settled your account with Sheena?”
Tranth forced a smile. How could he tell his friend the only woman that attracted him—in the last five years—was in Jarrk’s fold and was in love with Jarrk.
“You need to do that.”
“That I must.” Tranth stopped smiling as his eyes, focused beyond Jarrk, registered alarm.
Jarrk turned. Then vaulted to the ground and was on his feet running.
“Jarrk! It’s not as bad as it looks,” Akela was trying to tell him.
But Jarrk had the girl in his arms and was striding toward his lodge.
; * * * * *
She woke once, but everything hurt, so she thought, Tar’s Pit, and went back to sleep. The next time she surfaced, the pain had diminished to a dull, overall ache and she decided to open her eyes. It was dark but she could tell she was in Jarrk’s lodge. She was curled up on a cool, unyielding surface that was somehow molded to fit her body. She snuggled her cheek into a soft bed of feathery silver.
“You’re back,” Jarrk murmured against her temple, and she would have jumped, except she estimated that would be a painful mistake. The mold that encased her moved slightly and she realized Jarrk held her. Closing her eyes, she nestled her head into his shoulder. “How do you feel?”
“Don’t ask.”
His chuckle was reassuring warmth. “It was a miracle you didn’t break every bone in your body. As it was, all I could find were some bumps—very big bumps, mind you—some scrapes, as well as a long slash on your shin which we painted with linden.”
“Hope I didn’t bleed all over your coat,” she murmured.
He shrugged. She winced. “Sorry,” he said quickly, realizing his mistake.
“It’s not a coat,” he put to her mildly. “It’s skin. Like yours, little human. And it washes up nice.” He went on to catalogue her losses. “You got a bit singed. Lost your jerkin. A few inches of hair on the right side. Half your right eyebrow.”
“How much hair?”
He stroked his hand through her hair and brought the ragged ends up to brush against his lips.
“It needed a trim,” she allowed. “But half an eyebrow? How do I look?”
“Overall? Pretty good for having wrestled a dragon. I wouldn’t kick you out of my pit.”
She smiled a contented sigh. “Why is it so dark in here?”
“It generally gets dark, at night.”
“Why aren’t you hunting?”
“I took a few nights off.”
“A few nights! How long have I been out?”
“Don’t ask,” he murmured.
There were several moments of silence and she was thinking she would just go back to sleep.
“Thank you for saving my women,” he said quietly.
“I was only saving myself,” she murmured, sleepy. “And Akela helped me do that.”
Gryffin Strain: His Female Page 4
