Daughters of Artemis

by Della Buckland

  Her hands knotted in the sheets as Jesse continued to slide her thigh back and forth, making her heart jump each time. She felt one of Jesse's hands move down her body, loosen the ties at her waist, and slip inside her pants. She tensed, suddenly embarrassed by the thick mound of hair she knew Jesse would be finding, but Jesse seemed to take it in stride, stroking it as lovingly as she'd touched every other part of Susan's body.

  She had just started to relax again when Jesse's fingers parted the puffy folds of skin they'd been touching and began to rub against the even more tender flesh within. Her entire body shuddered then, and Jesse's mouth swallowed her moan. As was natural for most people, Susan had experimented with pleasuring herself and still found release by her own touch at times. The feeling of another's hand against those sensitive, secret places, though, was another beast entirely. She found her hips bucking upward into Jesse's touch, unwilling to lose that contact for even a second now that they'd found it.

  Jesse's mouth left Susan's, dipping down to capture a stiff and throbbing nipple between her lips. With nothing to block them, Susan's whimpers of pleasure began to grow louder until 'whimper' was less accurate a word than 'groan', and 'cry' seemed to fit best of all. Jesse seemed to know her body better than Susan herself, responding to her body's signals faster than Susan could recognize them. Time barely seemed to have passed at all when she felt the first stirrings of her climax, like a tightness in her belly, spreading through her body. In between shuddering breaths, she gasped out, "Oh, please, Jesse. Yes, please. Don't stop." Then the wave crested and broke, and Susan's world exploded.

  It seemed to go on forever, more intense and satisfying than any orgasm she had ever brought herself. Jesse held her on the peak, knowing just where to touch to send Susan back into the throes of ecstasy whenever she threatened to emerge. By the time Jesse finally relented, Susan was literally weeping from the pleasure, and she collapsed back onto the bed, panting.

  "That was...." Susan shook her head; she just couldn't find an adequate word. "Thank you."

  Jesse chuckled. "And that was just these two fingers," she teased, wiggling them in Susan's direction before licking them clean. "Imagine what I could do if I really put my mind to it."

  "I think imagining is the best I can hope for right now. Any more, and I think I'll pass out."

  "Well, we can't have that. It's no fun if you're unconscious." Jesse rolled to the side, still half-draped over Susan, and snuggled against her.

  Susan ran her fingers absently through Jesse's hair. "But what about you?"

  "There's time for that later. Tonight was about you," Jesse said, softly kissing Susan's stomach. "I can go, if you like. Let you sleep in peace."

  Susan shook her head. "I've never been more at peace than right now. Please stay."

  "All right." Jesse stood up long enough to shed the rest of her clothes and douse the light, and then joined an also-nude Susan beneath the covers. It took a few minutes to negotiate a comfortable position for both of them. That achieved, Susan drifted easily to sleep, with Jesse's even breathing her lullaby.

  Susan left Jesse sleeping when she rose the following morning. Even after her customary cold shower, she could still smell Jesse on her skin, and she decided that was a good thing. She dried herself slower than usual, drawing the towel across her body, enjoying the tiny aftershocks of remembered pleasure. Her eyes fluttered shut, and the towel dropped away as her hands continued to trace the paths that Jesse had caressed last night.

  The creak of a floorboard caught her attention, though, and her eyes snapped open. Jesse was standing in the doorway of the bathroom, her naked form silhouetted by the morning light filtering through the closed curtains. "That is so not fair," Jesse purred. "No one has the right to look that gorgeous this early in the morning."

  Susan resisted the sudden urge to cover herself. True, Jesse's hair was mussed, and she bore a few reddish marks from where the folds in the sheets had pressed against her skin, but if anyone in this room was gorgeous, it was clearly Jesse. Susan turned, unable to meet Jesse's eyes, and looked in the mirror instead. "I'm really not, you know."

  Jesse stepped into the room and closed the distance between them. "You really are. And if I didn't have an interview appointment with a wildlife expert today, I'd spend the whole morning convincing you." She gave Susan a quick kiss, swiping her tongue playfully across Susan's bottom lip.

  Susan moaned softly at the kiss, and then fought to control herself. "If you want a hot shower, you'll have to go back to your guest cabin. I don't have a water heater."

  Jesse wrinkled her nose at that idea. "I didn't bring a change of clothes anyway, so if I showered here, I'd have to put dirty clothes back on anyway. I think I'll pass."

  Not too much later, the pair emerged from the cabin. Jesse's clothes were rumpled, but she had managed to get a brush through her hair to free up the worst of the tangles. Even so, to anyone who looked in their direction, their appearances left little doubt as to the events of the previous night. Again, Susan felt a twinge of embarrassment, but quickly stamped it down. She wasn't ashamed of what they had done, and it hardly mattered who knew it.

  That resolve was put to the test just after the pair separated, Jesse returning to the guest cabin to change while Susan went to set about her morning duties. She caught the sound of snickering from behind her. She turned slowly and saw three boys only a few years younger than Jesse huddled together and laughing in her direction.

  "Well, that answers that," said Little Bear, the oldest, his voice just loud enough for Susan to hear without making it seem like he wanted her to. "Now we know why she never mated with a man all these years."

  Billy Two-Spears laughed. "She always acted like a man anyway, so we should have figured."

  "And what woman would want her when they have so many men to choose from?" offered Jacob Blackwater, Joseph Blackwater's grandson. "I mean, how desperate does that other one have to be that Susan Breaking-Wind is a catch?"

  Susan had been content to let them have their jibes. Wakan Tanka knew she'd endured enough of them through the years. But when Jacob took a swipe at Jesse, she refused to let it stand. The boys didn't try to run, they just laughed harder as they watched Susan stalk over to them. Despite having the grudging respect of the elders, Susan had backed herself down from too many confrontations with the younger generation for them to take her seriously. That was going to change.

  She clamped a hand onto Jacob's shoulder hard enough to send the boy to his knees. From the corner of her eye, she could see Billy and Little Bear frozen, unsure what to make of this new turn of events. Susan turned the full weight of her stare onto Jacob Blackwater. Jacob tried to hold his own, but when Susan bared her teeth and let loose with a throaty growl, the boy's eyes widened and dropped. Susan also detected the faint acrid scent of urine. She stepped back so that she could capture all three in her field of vision. "Go," she hissed.

  They scattered like startled birds.

  Susan spent most of the day away from the cabins, checking and resetting the various small animal traps. With winter coming on, the larger animals would be getting scarce, so the tribe depended more and more on the squirrels, rabbits, and foxes that populated the downslope side of the land. Today was a good catch, and Susan returned with a sack full of future meals.

  The SUV was already back, parked next to the beat-up Ford they used for trips into town. Susan automatically began scanning the clearing for Jesse while she emptied the sack onto one of the large butchering tables and set to work skinning and cleaning her haul. Jesse was sitting at the fire pit on the other end of the clearing. She wasn't sitting alone, though, and Susan had to squint a little before she managed to identify the man beside her as Joseph Blackwater.

  Susan's hands started to shake with anger, and her wolf seemed to be prowling circles around her mind. It was more than simple jealousy; between Joseph's words to her last week and his grandson's behavior earlier today, Susan knew that whatever he had to say to
Jesse was not going to be positive. And as she suspected, the more they talked, the more agitated Jesse seemed to get, until she finally stood up and ran for the guest cabin, breaking down into tears.

  It took oceans of reserve that Susan hadn't known she possessed to remain seated at the table and continue her work. Calling out Joseph Blackwater in front of the tribe was not the way to handle this, as much as she wanted in that moment to bathe her hands in his blood. Jesse was upset, yes, but unharmed. And nothing short of that could justify following through on that initial impulse. The hurt from words could often be soothed with more words. That is what separated them from the true wolves.

  Once she had finished with all of the animals and washed herself clean, Susan made her way to the guest cabin and knocked on the door. Tyler opened the door. "She figured you might be by," he said.

  "I want to see her. Is she all right?"

  "That's not a good idea right now. She said to tell you that she'll come over to your place after supper. She just needs some time to herself first."

  "What did Joseph tell her?" Susan insisted.

  Tyler just shook his head. "She didn't tell me. But she promises that she'll talk to you about it tonight. You just need to leave her alone for a little while."

  Her wolf whispered inside her mind. We do not allow the white man to tell us what to do. He is a weak, fragile thing. Break his neck and go to your mate.

  The thought had a certain appeal to it, but Susan had not survived as long as she had by giving in to her baser desires. She nodded to Tyler and stepped back. "Tell her I'll be waiting for her."

  It was still several hours until the evening meal, and Susan knew that just sitting and waiting would drive her mad. So instead, she walked into the woods until the clearing was no longer in sight. Then she quickly undressed and draped her clothes across a tree branch. Her wolf had been restless all day, and for once, Susan agreed that she needed a run.

  Forcing the Change was harder than giving in to the moon's call, but it was a skill that had to be mastered to become a elder. With the need fairly clawing at her skin, Susan found it took very little coaxing to bring her wolf forward. Within minutes, she was bounding deeper into the forest on four paws.

  Susan let the stillness of the woods surround her and soothe her mind. She could guess why Joseph Blackwater would have chosen today to have made a nuisance of himself. No doubt Jacob scampered off to his grandfather after the events of that morning. Still, she couldn't bring herself to regret her actions. Had he acted that way toward any other elder, they would have reacted the same way and been above reproach. Susan was worthy of the same level of respect, and she was prepared to fight for it.

  The central fire was raging by the time she returned, and everyone was settling in to eat. Susan saw Tyler and Jorge, but Jesse was apparently still in the cabin. And as much as Susan wanted to take the chance to go to her now, she held back, trusting Jesse to keep her word. She filled a plate with a breast of rabbit and some steamed vegetables and carried it back to her cabin to eat. As usual, no one was sorry to see her go.

  She had just finished her meal when she heard a knock. Susan opened it and let Jesse inside. Her pale cheeks were streaked with tears, and her eyes were puffy and red. She'd been crying for hours, and it broke Susan's heart to see it. She reached out, but Jesse flinched away, so Susan waited.

  "I've never met anyone like you," Jesse said finally, pacing across the small living area, her hands wrapped tightly around her chest. "All the time we've spent together has been wonderful. I even thought I might be starting to fall in love with you."

  Susan swallowed back a lump in her throat. "But Joseph Blackwater told you something today that makes you think differently." It was hardly a question, and when she thought about it, Susan was almost certain what it was he said.

  Jesse nodded. Her voice was completely monotone as she continued, "At first, he just wanted to know how the film was coming. He seemed very nice. He asked about my family and my school. Then he asked about you, about how I felt about you. He said that you didn't make attachments and not to get my hopes up for anything lasting. I told him he was wrong, that you weren't like that at all. And then he told me that the reason your cabin is so far away from everyone else's, the reason that you sit apart at meals and that you hunt alone, is that you murdered your entire family." She took a deep, sniffling breath. "Is it true?"

  "Jesse, whatever—"

  "Is it true?"

  "If you thought it was, would you have come here alone?"

  "Then why, Susan?" Jesse stopped pacing and stared Susan in the eyes. "Why would he say such a terrible thing?"

  Susan motioned to the sofa. "Sit down. I'll tell you the story he obviously didn't." She pulled one of the kitchen chairs over so she could sit facing Jesse. "My family died the day I was born. Mother didn't survive the birth, and before the following sunrise, my father, grandfather, and three brothers had died as well."

  "Oh, God," Jesse breathed. "I'm so sorry! But that can't have been your fault."

  "Naturally, the elders wanted to know what happened. They brought in medicine men, loremasters, and even a white doctor they drove up from the city. No one could find any reason why they had all died. It was a huge mystery for a number of years. In the meantime, I was raised by Black Crow. And for a while, no one thought any more of it.

  "But then people started noticing things. I was big for my age. I started crawling early. Walking and talking before children born even before I was. When schooling started, I moved too quickly through my lessons. I could outrun even the boys. And slowly, the mystery around my birth started to creep back into people's minds. With the magic of hindsight, people started slowly remembering that everyone in my family had seemed more and more tired in the weeks before my birth. At the time, it had seemed perfectly natural, but now everything was starting to look sinister. By the time I turned six, the elders had decided that I must have been draining my family's energy into myself even before birth, and that the day I was born, I took the last of it."

  Jesse shook her head. "But that's crazy! That's not even possible!"

  "Among the beliefs of the Lakota, it is. Even Fallen Star was discovered suckling at his dead mother's breast, having apparently taken all of her life force to enrich his own. So, while 'murdered' is a bit strong of a word—I'm sure Joseph Blackwater chose it deliberately to upset you—according to Lakota tradition, I did kill my family. And every achievement I earn, every milestone I pass, every impressive thing I do, only serves as proof. I'm too fast, too smart, and too strong for one woman, they say, so I must have stolen additional life force."

  "Susan, I..." Jesse slid off the couch and laid her head on Susan's knee. "I didn't want to believe him, but I couldn't understand why he would lie. That's just... horrible. I can't believe they would blame you for something you couldn't have done."

  "For all I know, it's true," Susan admitted. "I could have done it and not even been aware. I could be doing it right now, to you. That's why I live apart. I'm afraid that it's true just as much as they are. Staying away is the best way to protect them if I am dangerous."

  "That's bullshit. You've spent plenty of time with me, and I feel fine. In fact, I always feel better after spending time with you, not worse. The elders taught you to hate yourself, and you learned it too well." Jesse sat back on her knees and took both of Susan's hands. "And if you're willing to forgive me for doubting you—"

  Susan stood up and pulled Jesse up beside her. "There's nothing wrong with doubts. The trick is not to let them rule you. You asked me about it. A lesser woman would have run and never looked back."

  "Then I think it's time I start undoing some of that teaching."

  "You already have."

  They made love tenderly that night, with none of the frantic urgency of the first time. Jesse's mouth was even more limber than her fingers had been, something Susan would not have thought possible. And while Susan didn't have the same level of experience, her enthusia
sm made up for the lack if Jesse's cries of pleasure were any indication.

  The sky was beginning to brighten by the time they were sated. They snuggled in the bed, their bodies entwined, watching the light slowly fill the room. Susan buried her face in Jesse's neck, letting her lover's scent fill her nose. She felt Jesse's fingers brushing through her hair, and the last of the anger and stress of the previous day just bled away. It even seemed like her wolf was rolling over and happily panting from the attention.

  "Something's been bothering me," Jesse said, breaking the silence of the past hour. "I heard you with those three guys yesterday."

  "I'm sorry you had to hear that. I'm used to it, but you shouldn't have to be."

  Jesse shrugged. "Believe me, I've heard worse. That's not what's bugging me. But after you pushed one of them down, I heard you growling at him. It stuck in my mind because it seemed so familiar. I was just lying here thinking about it, and it finally hit me. It sounded exactly like the growl of the wolf that scared away the mountain lion. It was a total alpha dominance play."

  Susan stiffened, her wolf instantly coming alert. "Well, you said it worked so well on the mountain lion, I figured I'd give it a try," she said with a laugh that sounded forced even to her.

  "It wasn't just the same kind of growl, though; it was the same growl."

  "One growl is pretty much like another, I imagine."

  "Not really," Jesse insisted. "I've been in love with wolves since I was seven years old. They're my number one passion, which is why I picked the subject for my documentary. Wolf growls are as individual as human voices."

  Susan really wasn't liking the direction this conversation was going. "So, what are you saying?"