Stud Muffin Bears (Freshly Baked Furry Tails Book 1)

by Sable Sylvan

“Hell has room for two,” said Rufus.

  “Does it have room for three?” asked Jevon.

  “You know you’d never make it on the guest list,” retorted Rufus.

  “Please, Rufus — I need more,” begged Jennifer.

  Jevon went to touch Jennifer, but Rufus batted his hand away.

  “Uh-uh,” said Rufus. “What’s the magic word?”

  “I said please,” said Jennifer.

  “Uh…I guess you did,” admitted Rufus. “Well. Here. I’ll make you a deal. Do me a favor, and I’ll give you a hand.”

  Before Rufus could even get up, Jennifer leaned down to suck him. He kept himself propped up and as soon as he was sure he couldn’t hold back, he slid out of her mouth. He pushed his arm between her legs and played with her as Jevon gave it to her good.

  The three of them went on like this, balancing themselves on the edges of their tightropes before finally, a spark lit those ropes on fire.

  Like all great stories, it started with a hard spank.

  “Harder! Harder!” begged Jennifer.

  Jevon brought his hand down on Jennifer’s ass, hard.

  “Ouch!” yelped Jennifer. “What was that for?”

  “You said I’d need to punish you later,” said Jevon, pinching Jennifer’s ass…and feeling her canal pulse around him as she took his pinch. He hadn’t expected that, and it brought him closer to the edge from which he could not return.

  Jevon wanted to come, he wanted to just have his release, so badly, but his bear roared at him so loudly he actually got a little softer. The bear warned him that he was there to claim a mate, and if he failed to, well…he’d probably get a second chance, but time was still of the essence. Jevon was made for one thing — claiming a mate.

  He was made for many things, but the bear insisted the only thing the human was good for was claiming a mate, and Jevon was smart enough to know not to argue with a bear — even his own bear.

  Jevon slid into Jennifer, hard, groaning as her moistness and warmth engulfed his engorgement, and he took in a sharp breath, focusing on the taste of the night air to avoid coming too quickly.

  Rufus was having a hard time of it too. Playing with Jennifer was like dancing ballet. One moment, he was in her mouth. As she gasped for air and he tousled his cock, he played with her clit. Once she was ready for more, he gave just that to her — more. Back and forth, over and over, he was getting tired — but his bear urged him on, said that he needed to get Jennifer there before he could even think of retiring. He propped himself up so that his cock was near Jennifer’s mouth and as she sucked and as he held back, his shaking fingers found her quivering slit and pressed onward as he, too, pressed onward.

  One hard thrust.

  One more swirl.

  One last dance.

  “Oh, fu —” started Jennifer, before the world ended.

  The world smashed into a thousand smithereens, and there was no happy ending for that world. It simply ceased existing. The Jevon and Rufus and Jennifer of that world were gone, destroyed, obliterated, in a single instant, as the world exploded, from the inside out, without warning, without mercy.

  Jevon, Rufus, and Jennifer felt it at the same time.

  They felt the world ending.

  Well, it felt like the world was ending. They were so used to feeling the world moving, shouting, jostling them about, that when the world came to a standstill when the feeling inside their body made their eyes dark, their ears off, their mouths quiet, they didn’t know what they were feeling — except the feeling of their bodies.

  They’d all had orgasms before. They’d had experiences.

  But, they’d never been together, all three of them, or more accurately, the two bears with their shared mate, and they’d never done what they were doing at that moment

  They were doing something that could usually only be done once.

  They were claiming a mate.

  An old world, the world of their past, was dying, like a star caving in and becoming a black hole. A new world came out the other side, as sensation returned, as the world moved on, and as they came into that new world — with an emphasis on came.

  They came hard.

  A lurch from the chest to the pit of the stomach, whipping back up again, made Jennifer’s pleasure crystallize and then shatter into a million pieces, providing both pain, relief, agony, and comfort, in a single instant. She felt Jevon and Rufus click into her one last time before they too let loose, and pulled out, collapsing onto the picnic blanket next to her.

  As all three members of the ménage came at the same time, it felt like magic.

  It also looked like magic.

  The two mate marks started to glow from within with a bright golden light, the color of the first autumn sunset streaming through Baltic amber.

  “What’s happening to your — oh!” started Jennifer, gasping, as she looked up into Jevon and Rufus’s faces.

  “What?” asked Rufus with a frown.

  “Your eyes,” said Jevon, turning to Rufus.

  “Your eyes,” replied Rufus. “They’re…”

  “Your eyes are glowing,” said Jennifer, reaching up to touch their faces. Jevon’s blue eyes flashed sky blue while Rufus’ glowed emerald. Together, the lights looked like the aurora borealis in the sky behind them.

  A pulse of golden light drew Jennifer’s attention away from their eyes. She looked down at their chests. Something was happening to their marks. The muffin tops were turning gold, while the muffin ‘liners’ around the bottom parts of the muffin remained black. Then, mahogany brown spots appeared on the muffins — features, the cartoonish elements of an animal with eyes, a snout, and two tufted ears that made it look like the cutest dang carnivore in the world.

  The muffin tops formed the shapes of the heads of bears — not quite cartoonish, but they were stylized. Rufus’ bear roared — to think, his mate mark was meant to turn into something so…so…so cute! So immature! So funny! His bear was doubled over in laughter, making Rufus blush. He couldn’t believe it — not only did the mark prove that he was meant to be in a ménage, to share a mate with Jevon, but it showed he was fated to be with Jennifer.

  “I guess that makes us your muffin bears,” joked Jevon.

  “Muffins…men…there has to be some kinda pun there,” said Rufus, looking at his chest, then looking at Jennifer.

  “Oh, what? Just because I’m a baker, I’ve got to have some kind of bakery-themed pun about hot dudes and muffins?” asked Jennifer.

  Jevon exchanged a look with Rufus and looked back at Jennifer. “Yeah — that’s exactly how it works.”

  “Muffins…muffins…uh…well, I could make a pun about bear claws, but you don’t really have bear claws,” said Jennifer.

  “Rawr!” said Jevon, gnashing his teeth and holding his paws out.

  “One — I’m not really getting bear vibes from that, more tiger, and no — I ain’t lion,” said Jennifer with a chuckle.

  “Did you really just tell me how to be a bear?” asked Jevon, raising an eyebrow.

  “Two — those are bear paws, not bear claws,” said Jennifer. “Muffins…muffins…well, I have a muffin top.”

  “Oh! That makes us your —” started Jevon, but Rufus put a hand over his mouth.

  “She has to figure it out herself,” said Rufus, drawing away his hand.

  “Where in the rules does it say that?” asked Jennifer.

  “Nowhere — but I agree,” said Jevon with a smirk.

  “Muffins…sexy…sex muffins?” tried Jennifer. “No…stellar muffins…what would that even mean? Stupid muffins…stew muffins…wait. Stud muffins? Stud muffins! Of course!”

  “No clue why we have bear ears on our little muffins, but hey — we’re bears, and we like muffins,” said Jevon.

  “To my stud muffins,” said Jennifer.

  “And to our mate,” agreed Rufus.

  “So…after all that…I am?” asked Jennifer.

  “You are,” said Jevon. �
�You are very much our…thirsty girlfriend.”

  “What?” asked Jennifer. “I thought I was your —”

  “Mate, you’re our mate, he’s a goofball,” said Rufus, rolling his eyes. “You’re ours, Jennifer — our fated mate. This? The three of us? It’s meant to be.”

  “That’s right — Fate said so, and them’s the rules,” said Jevon, drawing out the last syllable so he sounded like a hissing snake, not the kind that would scare her in the grass, but the kind that could damn her with sin by offering her forbidden fruit.

  Knowing Port Jameson, that fruit would be a marionberry.

  “So, what does this mean?” asked Jennifer.

  “It means that you’re ours,” said Rufus.

  “We’re both meant to have you,” said Jevon.

  “You’ll be able to share me?” asked Jennifer.

  “Not a chance,” said Jevon. “Well — with one exception.”

  “Yeah,” said Rufus, fist-bumping Jevon. “I won’t share you either — except for with this one guy I know, who’s actually kinda okay.”

  “I mean, the guy I’m sharing you with is a total bastard, but —” started Jevon, before Jennifer shut him up with a kiss as Rufus ran his fingers through her hair.

  Sitting outside, underneath the lights of the stars in the moon, ass on the grass, wasn’t something out of Jennifer’s fantasies. She’d always thought she’d find true love in between silken sheets, hair splayed against satin pillows — definitely not with cornbread crumbs on her back.

  But the reality was so much better than anything she’d ever imagined before, and the best part was, she’d never have to come up with her own fantasies again, as Rufus and Jevon would be by her side, forever.

  There was nothing that could ruin Jennifer’s summer. All she had to do was win that frikkin’ bake-off — the bake-off that, in a round-about way, had led her into the ménage, to begin with. If she hadn’t gone with Jevon to steal berries from Hemlock Crew and gotten caught by Rufus, well, maybe they would’ve never ended up coming to the bakery at the same time, fighting, and getting punished by their bosses.

  They never would’ve found out their mate mark secret, and they never would’ve ended up having a picnic with one heck of a dessert.

  All that was left was winning that bake-off that started everything.

  How hard could that be?

  Chapter Nine

  Broken wooden fences — pushed to the ground, in splintered planks.

  A door ripped from its brassy hinges, lying against the same tree Rufus had sat in while watching Jennifer and Jevon

  The wire trellises were naked and exposed and lay tangled in the vines, like tangled necklaces in a jewelry box.

  The vines were no longer woven into topiary-like bushes. They were merely creeping vines, on the patch’s ground like dirty laundry on a hardwood floor.

  The floor was dark and wet, not with blood, but with the juices of berries.

  The berries themselves were nowhere to be seen.

  “What…what happened here?” whispered Jennifer, looking around the marionberry patch. The patch had been torn to shreds.

  Jennifer had finalized her recipe the night before — the best version of her marionberry muffin yet.

  Over the last few weeks, things had been perfect. The guys hadn’t fought — more than friends would. They’d helped her out by picking the berries while she worked hard at the bakery making the muffins. They’d meet up at night for dinner, up in the hills, in town, or at her house. It had been bliss — just like her muffins, which she’d finally perfected after countless attempts.

  She’d used up the last of the berries, and her final tweaks had made the muffin perfect. The addition of lime juice as a marinade for the marionberries had made her muffins tangier and summery.

  The only problem was that the recipe required the special Hemlock Crew marionberries — the marionberries that had disappeared like a Millennial ghosting someone on a dating app.

  “Bears,” said Rufus.

  “Oh no — don’t go blaming Grizzlyfir for this,” said Jevon defensively.

  “I’m not,” said Rufus calmly. “I’m just saying — it was bears.”

  “And what other bears would you blame for ruining the patch?” asked Jevon.

  “Actual bears,” said Rufus.

  “Oh, don’t go on with that ‘Grizzlyfir bears aren’t real bears’ bullshizz,” said Jevon.

  “I’m not,” said Rufus, turning to Jevon, arms crossed. “I’m saying real, actual, wild-ass bears came to the berry patch for berries. What makes more sense? Would Grizzlyfir shifters wreck the fence, instead of just shifting into their human forms to open the gate and come in? Why would they ruin the trellises and eat all the berries — especially knowing that Jennifer’s your mate, and she needs these berries for a bake-off? No Hemlock Crew bear would dare piss off Terrence. I’m not part of Grizzlyfir, but you know that none of you would poke Darius’ bear. The one way to piss off both of them is to mess with Bear Claw Bakery. A bear would need to have mate madness, have a death wish, or be downright wild, to come and raid this patch.”

  “So, you really believe that Grizzlyfir is innocent?” asked Jevon incredulously.

  “I’m not going to blame you guys for something you didn’t do — and after all, my mate happens to be in love with one of those bastards,” said Rufus with a wink, elbowing Jevon playfully.

  Jennifer was still looking at the berry patch, visually searching for any leftover berries.

  “Just my luck,” said Jennifer, shaking her head. “I perfect the recipe with the last of the berries — and now, the berries are gone. The bake-off is tomorrow! What are we going to do?”

  “We can still check for berries,” said Jevon, nodding over to the patch.

  “There’s no way there are any berries left — but we have to try,” said Jennifer.

  “It’s dangerous,” said Jevon. “Let Rufus and I clear it up first.”

  “The tools are this way,” said Rufus, nodding toward a small shed that had not been broken into by the wild bears. Rufus and Jevon went into the shed, grabbed some buckets, gloves, trash bags, goggles, face masks, and two old axes that weren’t super sharp but would do the job they needed to do.

  “Suit up,” ordered Jevon. Jennifer put on goggles, a face mask, and gloves.

  “What’s all this for?” asked Jennifer.

  “We need to clear this up because it’s a danger to others — other members of Hemlock crew, hikers who pass by, and wild animals,” explained Rufus. “Stand back and don’t get hurt.”

  “Because I’m a girl?” asked Jennifer.

  “Because you’re our girl,” said Jevon. “Also — because you don’t know how to do what we’re gonna do, do you?”

  “No, I guess not,” admitted Jennifer. She felt helpless in that she was unable to help with the already helpless situation. She watched while Rufus and Jevon worked in tandem to clear out the splintered wood, the rusted nails, and the tangled wires that had formed the marionberry trellises and the fence surrounding the patch. Rufus pushed his sleeves up and brought his ax down on beams that couldn’t easily be untangled from the vines, his ax’s blade slicing down through the wood like the wild bears had sliced through Jennifer’s dreams of winning first place at the bake-off.

  Jevon and Rufus sorted the debris into the construction bags, with one sack for metal, and one for metal and wood, as pulling nails out of the beams was a job that could wait for later, but they decided it made sense to separate the materials out as they went along, at least, the best they could. Jevon cleared away some busted fence, revealing a young tree that couldn’t’ve been more than a few years old.

  “Ah, jeez,” said Jevon, leaning on his ax. “Rufus, this…this has got to go.” The tree was bent at nearly a ninety-degree angle.

  “No, it doesn’t,” said Rufus. He rummaged through the metal bag carefully and found some wire. He walked over to the tree.

  “What are you going
to do with that?” asked Jevon.

  “Clamp the tree, and I’ll show you,” said Rufus.

  Jevon moved the short tree so that the tree top was facing the sky once more. Once he’d done that, he used one hand to push together the split parts of the trunk

  “What I’m going to do is wrap the tree with wire to give it some structure,” explained Rufus. “Maybe it’ll save the tree, maybe it won’t, but at least I can try to save it.”

  “Like a cast,” said Jennifer.

  Rufus turned. “Yeah — a lot like a cast.

  “Let me help,” said Jennifer.

  “Sure,” said Jevon. Rufus looked at Jevon who gave Rufus a look in return. Obviously, Jennifer needed this.

  Jennifer walked over. Rufus wrapped the first loop of wire around the tree trunk and then, gave Jennifer the free end of the cable.

  “Wrap it around the tree like this, see?” said Rufus. “Just tight enough to keep it together — not too tight.”

  “Trust me — I’m a curvy gal who hates wearing tight clothes,” said Jennifer. “If it’s not comfortable for me, why would it be comfortable for a frikkin tree?”

  Jevon smiled. Jennifer’s sense of humor was showing for the first time since they’d shown up at the patch. Jennifer wrapped the tree trunk up in wire and Rufus made stints to keep the tree’s broken branches supported while they healed. Jennifer thought to herself about how it was funny that metal could both rend the trees apart and bring them together — a lot like how the shifters’ animals could make things worse, or fix things that were broken.

  Jevon and Rufus took five more minutes to clean up the patch before they started to dig for their buried treasure. That was the thing about buried treasure — it was incredibly rare, and although people believe in it, they very rarely find it, even when working with friends.

  Jevon, Rufus, and Jennifer searched through the remains of the berry patch to see if there were any leftover berries. What berries were left were under ripe, green, or smushed. After ten minutes of sorting through the rubble, and getting very sticky purple hands, Jennifer stood back up.

  “I think we have to call it, guys. There aren’t any berries we can use. Those bears did a damn good job at berry picking. What are we going to do?” asked Jennifer. “I can’t make my recipe with regular marionberries. I’ve tried.”