The Ancients Series

by Christine M. Butler

  I smacked his chest with the back of my hand playfully, and then grabbed his hand to pull him along with me. When he realized we were going deeper into the caves he stopped me. “Please, tell me you weren’t exploring deeper in these caves alone, Jess? You don’t know what or who is hiding back in all these little caverns and tunnels.”

  “I didn’t go far, just far enough to,” I had been pulling him along again, and now we were at the mouth of the next cavern, “see this. There are no other tunnels leading away from this room, cave, cavern, whatever. But look at that gorgeous pool of water. And I have this lantern to light the area for us. It would be much better with candles, but I didn’t exactly plan to find a private little alcove. I don’t know of anyone who ever comes back here. So, I figure we will have it all to ourselves.”

  “And what exactly would we need our own private cave for?” He slipped around in front of me, and put his hands on my hips to pull me close. Before he managed to get us too close, I was tugging at his towel.

  “For unwrapping presents, of course.” I teased as I snapped the towel free. Then I ran and jumped into the pool of water before he could catch me, throwing the towel and my bag off to the side as I went. It didn’t take Mikael long to follow me in. This pool was slightly smaller than the one in the first cave, but it seemed deeper towards the center. There was also a slight current to it, which lead me to believe it was fed from an underground stream of some sort.

  “Do you always unwrap your presents and run away?” Mikael asked as he moved right up to me. He was only inches away when he leaned in, rubbing his scruffy cheek up against mine. “Just in case you were wondering,” he whispered seductively into my ear, “I enjoy the chase.” And just like that the top strings on my bikini were pulled loose. When I gave him a questioning look he smirked. “It’s only fair, I should get to unwrap something too!” Just like that, I felt like I was burning up from the inside out. My skin flushed, my heart started hammering in my chest, and a lovely dizziness stole through me. I grabbed on to his hip to steady myself as I leaned back against the edge of the pool, only to have him step in even closer. There was nothing between us now, except the bottoms of my bathing suit, which I was suddenly wishing would just disappear. His arms moved possessively around me, eliciting a low moan from somewhere in the back of my throat. That just spurred him on.

  Mikael’s mouth trailed down the column of my throat, leaving hot, wet kisses, and nipping playfully as he went. When the nipping started, I was done for. I maneuvered myself into a better position to give him a taste of what he was doing to me. I went to work on his neck with my mouth while running my hands down his chest, and then around and up his back. I let my nails dig in a little as I pulled him closer, and he responded immediately, lifting me out of the water enough to wrap my long legs around his waist. He tugged me as close as he could get me with a quick jerking movement, and then pulled at my hair to tip my head back. Mikael worked his mouth across my collar bone, first one side, then the other, and back up my neck until he was nipping at the lobe of my ear. His hot breaths there were sending waves of heat all through me before he spoke. “Jess, we need to cool it, or…”

  I didn’t respond verbally, and I didn’t let him back off when he tried, instead I grabbed his head in my hands, and let my mouth speak for me. Every bit of what I wanted went into that kiss, and apparently that was enough for him, because in the next moment, he was walking us back out of the pool, and managed to kick the towel I’d thrown off to the side into a nice straight line. The whole time, his mouth never left mine, my legs stayed wrapped around him, and everything just managed to get hotter. It seemed like the world was on pause for me. This was my moment, with Mikael, and nothing was interrupting it. I slid my legs down, and stood on my own two feet for a precious few seconds before he swept me up and laid me down gently on the towel. “This isn’t exactly the most comfortable place…” His voice was thick and gruff, and the concern intertwined in it wrapped around me like another embrace.

  “I don’t care.” I whispered throatily as I pulled him down to me. “I want this. I want you.” Our lips were joined again then, and his hands were suddenly everywhere. As he leaned over me, his hair falling down along the sides of my face, tickling my cheeks a bit. When I didn’t think I could take the sensation anymore, he moved, dipping his head lower, kissing his way down my body, lips gliding over my skin, and sending shivers through me as he went. Fire bloomed inside me as his hands wrapped around my breasts, squeezing gently, his lips latching onto a nipple, teeth grazing the sensitive flesh there. The moans that escaped my lips then fueled his exploration further. My own body began to ache with wanting so much more as he kissed his way further down the length of me. His thumbs hooked the sides of my bikini bottom and started sliding them off of me. My hips lifted up to make it easier, and when they did his mouth trailed kisses across one, then the other, and finally lingered somewhere in the middle as his hands worked to free the bottoms from my legs. It was an effortless transition, and my mind was definitely not on what his hands were doing, until they were free to help spread my legs further apart.

  Mikael surprised me and instead of diving right in between them he started kissing down my thighs, nipping with his teeth as he went. The sensation was otherworldly and had me dripping wet with anticipation. As he slid further down my left leg, he sensed me watching him, and tipped his head up to smile at me, “I can’t even think of truly getting started until I’ve tasted every inch of you.” He emphasized the remark with a few more bites on his way down my calf muscles.

  “You missed a spot,” My whispered words were followed by a deep growl.

  “Uh uh, I just save the best for last.” I am not ashamed to say that elicited a whimper from me. My nerve endings were on fire, and I was already coming apart at the seams just from the anticipation of what was to come.

  By the time Mikael made his way back up my right leg, and to my middle, every little touch was sending me into sensory overload. My eyes were closed, head back, enjoying every sensation. The minute his tongue slid between the folds of my womanhood, I was completely undone. My hips thrust upward to meet him, and then he gripped a hold of me, to keep me right where he wanted as he lapped at my sex, sending shockwaves rippling through my entire body. Time stood still as he expertly worked my body until my muscles began to spasm and clench, and I was calling out his name in breathy pants. Pure pleasure coursed through every limb, and pulsated in the deepest parts of me as Mikael finally moved to position himself over me. It was a slow, torturous process as he slid up, inch by inch, dragging sweet, hot kisses all along my body.

  Once our bodies aligned perfectly, and I could feel the head of him pressed against me, begging entry, Mikael dropped a sultry kiss upon my lips before he made sure this was what I really wanted. “Are you sure, Jess?”

  “Yes, Mikael, I’m sure.” The words were foggy to my own ears, as if I were dreaming this instead of it happening. A low, base rumble of a growl came from Mikael then as he rubbed his face against mine, claiming me first with his scent.

  “Mine, Jess, only mine.” And then he pushed forward gently. A tearing pain gripped me as he tore through the barrier that marked my virginity. He leaned in closer, shoulder near my mouth as he slowly buried himself completely inside me. My teeth found his shoulder, and bit down as Mikael threw his head back and let out a mighty growl, and then he was moving inside me, the pain lessening, and the heat growing between us again. I understood now, the aching need I’d felt so many times. Mikael filled me, warmed me, and made me feel completely whole and wonderful in that moment.

  As another climax built, something else built inside too, and I knew in an instant what Ashley had tried to describe me. There was a flood of emotion and desperate need to claim this man as my own. If I let the wall down, and allowed it all to spill out right now, we would bond. There was no doubt in my mind.

  “Jess?” Mikael questioned thickly. He felt it too. My name was a question, and one I couldn�
��t answer for him as the climax that had been building slammed into me. All options were gone, I lost myself in the moment, and I took Mikael with me as he too reached the point of no return.

  Every nerve ending in my body fired off all at once. Warm waves of pleasure crashed through me until pure contentment settled in and made itself at home. Mikael was mine. There was no going back now. My heart felt as though it would burst, and when he lifted his head up again to look in my eyes, we connected in a way I had never known possible before. It was as if I could see into his very soul, and he into mine. I hadn’t realized tears were leaking down my cheeks until he reached up to wipe them away. “Mine,” he whispered, and then leaned in to place a gentle kiss upon my lips. I was overfilled with emotion, and with finding my other half, the part that had been missing for so long. I finally felt complete.

  A warmth began to spread through my body then, and Mikael pulled back, away from me, putting a little space between us, and I could smell the concern flooding free of his pores. That wasn’t right, how could I smell concern? Warmth turned to heat. Light consumed me, it ate away at me, body and soul, and then it pulsed forward coming from inside of me and bleeding out to light the entire cave we occupied. Brilliant white light.

  “Oh my God! Jessica!” Mikael’s voice held nothing but awe when he spoke. I couldn’t focus on him at all though. My body seemed weightless, the sensation of floating and becoming lighter than air filled me, then pulsed forward one more time spilling out of me and into Mikael. His eyes grew far too large, and then the same other-worldly contentment settled in his features as the light and warmth built in him and transferred back into me. The light that had bloomed between the two of us dimmed from there, but left behind traces of a soft glow. At least, I thought it did. I was beginning to think some strange euphoria had settled in and induced hallucinations. “What in the hell was that?” Mikael asked.

  “That couldn’t have been the bond. Ashley never described that light thing happening.”

  “I’ve been to true bonding ceremonies before, Jess. What came before, that was the bond. I’m not sure what just happened, but that something more, something else altogether.”

  As we lay there, trying to figure out what happened between us, beyond the bonding, I was suddenly struck with a thought. “Mikael, I don’t want your father to know just yet. Do you think we’ll be able to hide the fact that we’ve bonded?”

  “You want to hide our bond?” He seemed concerned, and pulled away from me a little.

  “I can’t explain it, I just have this feeling deep down that we need to keep it from him for now.”

  “Well, I would prefer to keep you away from my father, period, so I don’t see where that will be a problem. What about everyone else?” He reached up and gently brushed a strand of hair off my cheek. “Are you going to be okay hiding this from everyone? Your mom? Ashley?”

  “Let me be clear, I don’t want to hide the fact that I bonded with you from anyone, at all.” I smiled at him and took hold of the hand that still lingered on my cheek. “I really can’t explain this gut reaction I have, but I think it’s important to keep as quite as possible about it. Just for a little while. Something about that light we saw…”

  “Jess, I trust your instincts. That being said, if you want to keep this a secret you might want to steer clear of people who know you well for a day or two. Come stay at my house. Honestly, I don’t want to be away from you right now anyway. Our secret will stay under wraps better at my place, away from the prying eyes of the pack, than having them all wonder why I won’t leave your parents’ house.”

  I leaned over and kissed him then. “Okay.”

  “Okay?”

  “Did you expect an argument from me?” I laughed at him, and pulled him close for another kiss. “I need to get some clothes and stuff together, and we’ll have to ride separately, because I will need my Jeep with me too.”

  “Okay, well, when we get back I am going to take off and you can meet me at the house when you get your stuff together. If your parents see us together right now, there’s going to be no denying what happened. You know that!”

  “I know.” I hated keeping it a secret, but every time I thought about shouting it out to the world that Mikael was mine in every way, my gut clenched and there was almost a physical ache warning me that I couldn’t. There was an inner voice telling me, ‘not yet.’

  We stashed my bag, and everything I brought with me, in it. I tucked it all neatly into a dark corner of the cave so that we could run back to the house in wolf form. When we got there, I grabbed a robe out of the storage closet on the porch, saw Mikael off, and went inside. It was close to dinner by the time I got home, and as soon as I came through the door, my mom’s head popped out of the kitchen. “Jess can you come here a minute? I could use your help.”

  “Sure.” I took one, last longing look at the stairs I was about to climb to go get showered and dressed, and went to help my mom. “What’s up?”

  “Could you hand me the…” my mom stopped cold, and stared at me. “Jessica!” She breathed out my name in an excited gasp. “Oh my God! Jess, you’re glowing!”

  “Mom, keep your voice down. I don’t want anyone to know yet.”

  “Know what? What the hell happened?”

  Okay, now I was stumped, especially when my mom came over and touched my hair. “Mom?”

  “I wasn’t kidding, Jess. There’s a light coming from you, and it’s all over. It’s amazing. What happened?” Before I could answer her we heard voices outside the kitchen window, and my mom hurriedly said, “upstairs, now!” She killed the stove and followed behind, pushing me along faster.

  When we got up the stairs my mom put me in front of my full length mirror, “look!” She hadn’t been kidding. I was glowing with a faint white light. It seemed to illuminate the whole of me, down to my hair follicles. The most amazing thing was my eyes though. There was an inner light behind them, an almost emerald fire. “Jess, what in the world happened today?”

  “Well, that’s kind of a long story.” My mom was scrutinizing me as I spoke.

  “You’ve bonded!” The elation in her voice couldn’t be missed. “Is this because you’ve bonded?” She picked up a piece of my hair and marveled at the light emanating from it.

  “We bonded, but then something else happened too. I’m not sure what. It was like a hot white light flowed from me to Mikael and back again. Neither of us knew what was happening. It was just after, um, the bonding.”

  “I think maybe this will be a question for you to ask in your next vision pow-wow with the white wolves.” She was watching me as I went to my closet and grabbed some clothes. “It’s fading, at least.”

  “Well, that’s good. Nothing says, ‘I’m no longer a virgin’ quite like becoming a walking flashlight.” My mom gave me a look, and then laughed at me.

  “I guess you’re right about that.” She swooped in, pulling me close, and hugged me tight. “My little pup’s all grown up!”

  “Mom! Seriously, embarrassing.”

  “Oh, no! You are going to let me have my moment, Light Bright.”

  “Seriously, Light Bright?” My mom was giggling, like a school girl, as I was shaking my head in disbelief. The really funny thing was people were never going to understand why she was calling me that. “I’m going to get some stuff together, and go stay with Mikael tonight.”

  My mom nodded, “what are you going to tell people?”

  “Well, we decided not to tell anyone yet.”

  “Jess, people are going to know.” She smiled at me. “I would have known right off, even if you weren’t glowing like a light bulb when you came in. That was a bit distracting, but I can smell him all over you now.”

  “I know, but everyone’s used to me smelling marked up anyway. If we’re not together around anyone else, no one will be able to notice the difference.”

  My mom looked skeptical, but she just shrugged her shoulders. “Why do you want to hide it?”


  “Honestly, I want a chance to ask the wolves about what happened after the bonding, and I have a feeling somewhere deep in my gut that keeps telling me it should remain a secret for now. So, we’re going to act like we’re dating. It’s not like our kind haven’t had relationships without officially bonding before.”

  “Just be careful, Jess. I worry about you with that family. Mikael isn’t the worry,” she added when she saw me getting ready to jump in and defend him. “I didn’t like the way his older brother was looking at you the other day, and his father, well… We all know what kind of a person he is. I want you to watch your back, you hear me? Don’t be afraid to run, and gather your strength first if it comes down to it. You promise me!”

  “I promise mom! I can’t help my people if I don’t survive.”

  “Exactly!” My mom turned to leave so that I could go get my shower and get ready.

  “Hey, mom?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Who was dad talking to outside?”

  “I’m not sure. He got a call about a visitor to the pack lands earlier. You go on and get ready, and we’ll talk when you get back. Will you be back in the morning, or…”

  “I will be back for a while tomorrow.” Mikael’s going to have to make sure things are getting done with the rescue and stuff anyway.” My mom had fresh, unshed tears in her eyes as she leaned in to give me a hug. “It’s not the end of the world, you know?”

  “You just wait until you have a daughter and watch her grow up. We’ll see how it feels for you then.”

  My mom left and I jumped in a shower, suddenly unable to think about anything other than what life would be like now that things had changed so much. A daughter. That, above everything else stuck with me. My mom had planted a seed I’d never really considered outside of the theoretical before. I wasn’t even sure I wanted kids, and now, it was something to think about. I didn’t even know how Mikael felt about kids. I felt a minor panic attack coming on as the day came crashing in on me. I was bound to him now, and there was no going back. “So much for taking things slow, jackass!” I said to myself, out loud, while I rinsed the shampoo away from my hair.