“Yes.” Right now, that seems inadequate.
“Then do something!”
My eyes cut to him like glass. “Keep your voice down. It's out of my hands. We had a rough journey of jostling Paige with her injuries and in the middle of transition, no less.” I give a defeated shake of my head. Exhausted. Hopeless.
“But we haven't finished.”
I raise my head, allowing Jac and me to exchange a look. “We cannot breed her when she's half dead.”
A dull flush rises on Jac's nape. “Obviously, bright one. I just meant—fuck,” he says, sweeping his hair back with a frustrated scrape, “I don't know what I meant. I guess I'm anxious to finish her. You've begun the healing process, but without the final act, Paige will die regardless.”
I nod. Jac is certainly right. “Let us pretend that all is well.”
“That's fucking beyond my skill set, not gonna lie.”
I clench my jaw. “I need you to indulge me in this.”
“Okay, fuck me.” Jac sits back on his heels, arms planted on his thighs as we glare at each other.
With a painful gasp, I slip the skin of First and morph into gorillan. I tense as the pain from all the changes sears through me though there's nothing to be done. My form had to be First to impart my essence.
“Wow! That looks like it hurt.”
Breathing heavily, I don't immediately answer as I feel it doesn't require one. When I've gotten over the pain of the rapid shifts, I say, “Get water.”
Jac scans the deep gloom of the cave's interior. “Good news on that, Drest.”
I'm ready.
“This cave has an underground spring. Let's take Paige down there. If memory serves, I think there's soap and other minimal supplies left by my clan.”
Shutting my eyes, I let my gratefulness to the earth sweep through my body, my bones.
My soul.
Maybe there is hope.
“She seems better,” Jac says hopefully.
We have been watching Paige for the better part of an hour. Sconces wrapped in dirty cloth and lit by old kerosene that we found illuminate the underground river, causing the water to appear black, licked by wavering flames of tangerine.
Slowly, Paige's body throws off the damage, smoothing the superficial injuries that heal before our eyes.
Unfortunately, her broken foot and fingers might need to be set. Jac and I look at each other at the same moment in effortless communication. I stare at Jac and he mutters the unspoken comment I made with my expression, “Fuck, yeah—I see that.”
He gets it then. We might have to re-injure Paige to correct the breaks. That'll make for great foreplay. Which, of course, is the next step to seal her transition.
I hang my head just about the time Paige wakes up. Her head turns, first to me then Jac. Tears leak out of the side of her eyes and she lifts her hands high above her.
Carefully, oh so carefully—we each take an arm, mindful of the two broken fingers of one hand and one broken digit of the other.
Jac doesn't bother with pretense, his face wet with his grief at a female in this state. “I'm so sorry,” he whispers. “I saw your face. You looked right into my eyes, and I just laid there, watching them take you.”
She gives an obviously painful throat clearing. “It's okay. I know you guys were hit with a tranquilizer or something.” Her voice is a fragile thread between the three of us.
“We determined that they actually gave the wrong tranquilizer to us. Jac was to get the dose I received. As it turns out, Jac saved me by carrying me to the colony site.”
Paige chuckles then winces, and we tense. “So you got the woolly mammoth dose?”
The heat of my embarrassment over being carried two hundred miles on top of a woolly mammoth stings my nape. I was too doped up to function. “Yes,” I manage.
Her eyes find Jac, and she lays her face against his hand. “I would do anything to be with you guys now. You saved me. That Seiger guy, he was—he did.”
She snaps her lips closed.
“Did he?” Jac doesn't finish, searching her face.
“No. I-I guess the start of the transition saved me—it gave me just enough strength to fight a little.”
Releasing my hand, Paige touches the site on her throat where I healed her then lets it drop onto her stomach. “What did you do?”
Jac blinks. “He shot you full of First juice that made you heal.”
Paige gives me a steady look and, after a few seconds of thought, asks, “Where are we?”
“We're in a prehistoric lookout. It's a spot we hole up in when things get saucy.” Jac's eyes hold humor though I find nothing funny at the moment.
“Like now?” Paige asks softly.
Jac’s face becomes somber. “Yeah, like now.”
A moment passes. “I thought we were supposed to have an orgy?” Paige asks.
Jac laughs, the sound tossing around the dank cavern walls. “Well, I don't think my man Drest and I can be classified as orgy material but... if you think so.” He waggles his brows.
I appreciate Jac's attempt at levity. However… “We are near a water source to bathe and drink. Then, when we have safely transitioned you, we will make our way to the closest clan.”
Jac's eyes slide to me. “I thought we had to go First clan all the way.”
My smile is wan. “No. At this stage of the game, either clan can afford protection. Paige is all that matters now. Not my pride.” I suck a huge inhale, feeling like I did the right thing, but not liking the process.
“Thanks, man. You're growing on me.” Jac reaches across Paige, clapping me on the shoulder, and I grab his arm, taking the other in my grip as well. “We are well met, Jac of the prehistoric.”
Jac grins. “Does this mean you like me?”
I feel one brow slowly rise. “Do not get cocky.”
Paige smiles between us, and we ready her for bathing.
And other things.
Chapter 23
Paige
T hey both appear human at the moment. But I know better. They've gone to their human form for me. “Let me ask you something,” I say softly.
Drest stops.
Suddenly, I'm so nervous I can barely breathe, blurting, “The water's warm.”
Drest nods and Jac lifts my broken fingers to softly kiss them.
“Why doesn't it hurt?” My eyes don't linger on the proof of what that Alpha prick did to me, but instead, I shift my attention from Drest to Jac.
“My essence has healed what it could and offered a sort of numbing to the worst of the injuries that remain.” Drest unflinchingly holds my gaze.
The silence holds weight.
“So my transition will be completed no matter what?”
Jac's brown eyes are large even in his human form. Expressive. Compassionate. “Yeah, Paige. We have to do this and worry about your broken parts later.”
I frown at Jac's wording but remember his empathy earlier, his tears.
“They'll come,” I say after a lengthy inhale, dreading the Mutables chasing us.
“Most assuredly.”
I feel my tear-filled eyes widen, meeting Drest's. “I'm scared.”
“We will take you most tenderly, female.”
With a broken sob, I use their arms to lower myself into the spring-fed water, an anomaly of heat easing the chill of my anxiety as the water rushes past our bodies.
Jac
Discarded clothes have been slung on adjacent rocks that line the shallow shoreline of the underground hot spring, steaming slightly as the cool air makes contact.
I never thought this moment would come. That a female would accept me.
Drest is probably all bent outta shape that he has to share Paige with a lowly prehistoric (from his pious point-of-view).
Not me, I'm made of more humble stuff.
Mostly.
Without words, I draw Paige's small body against mine. Prehistoric and First are the largest of all shifters. As far as prehistoric goes, if you
r animal type is big, your human form is commensurate.
Drest and I lock eyes, and he moves forward, bracketing Paige with his huge body.
We sandwich the female, making her feel safe, protected—hot.
She's already been bitten, primed for her transition in a way only a First can do, though if Paige also has prehistoric blood, we don't know.
She is a female that has proven First and maybe more. A female that can throw true.
Paige will be cherished.
I sink until my jaw edges the heated water, and for an instant, steam obscures my vision. But my nose works fine, and I scent Drest across from me.
Wordlessly, I seat my large palms beneath Paige's bare ass cheeks and lift, using the buoyancy of the water to offer her to Drest.
His eyes dip, and I know that he asks silent permission from Paige.
In another moment, his hands join mine beneath her, and as he raises her hips, his mouth meets her pussy for the first time.
Paige
Every step of the way, the men have made it clear that I can say no to whatever, whenever. Maybe they'd even let me die; their conviction for my choice seems that strong.
But whatever is now.
My life would end without their involvement, and I've seen their sacrifice for me firsthand.
It's easy to tell they don't see eye-to-eye with each other. But right now, a molten pair of gold irises beg silent permission.
I try not to think about what's just happened. The abuse, the running, the weird half-thing I turned into.
I dip my head as a yes, and Drest lifts my hips, brushing his own against the top of my mound, a shiver of breath that heats my chilling flesh as droplets of water mix with his touch.
Oh, I have time to think when he twists his tongue, running it down the center of my slit, using the dense heat to break apart my pussy lips and insert just the tip.
Gently spreading my legs, he softly drives his tongue back to the top, riding that pleasure button, and I feel the bundle of nerves begin to swell with his insistent maneuvering.
“Drest,” I breathe then remember that Jac suspends my body in the water.
Reaching behind me, I feel weightless as Drest laps at my sensitive clit.
Jac bends down as I reach, and encircling his neck, I stretch my torso as he touches my lips with his own.
Groaning, I give him my tongue, and our hot wet flesh twines together.
His hands leave my ass and find my breasts, kneading them as he plunges his tongue into my mouth.
Drest dominates my clit, twirling his tongue and alternatively flattening it against my clit.
Gripping Jac's neck, I can’t help when my hips buck.
I whimper against his tongue.
Pulling away, I notice his eyes have changed. They're melted chocolate—deep and wide, luminescent within the strange gloom of the cave.
“You're not human.”
Jac smiles down at me, his lips swollen from our kissing. “Neither are you.”
Without faltering, Drest presses a finger deep in my channel, and I cry out, so close.
My hips begin to shove down as he pumps inward.
Jac doesn't break eye contact, and one finger slides down my bare spine as Drest relentlessly thrusts.
When Jac's finger finds my back entrance, I don't move as the tip insistently nudges me open, stretching me, filling me deep with the pierce of his digit.
My eyes fly open at the same time that Drest's roll to mine, and his finger buries itself deep—along with Jac's, in perfect synchronicity.
Body arching, I fling backward as I explode, the men plugging me deep, imprisoning me with their penetration.
My pussy helplessly throbs and pulses around them, the mother of all orgasms crashing over the shores of my mind, sweeping away all thought except the raw sensation of pure pleasure.
Jac's chest cradles me as he buries his finger inside my ass, owning me.
Drest finally releases my pussy from his mouth, savoring my juices as he licks his lips.
Fingers slide out of me, and that's when I fully understand.
The men will take me.
Both.
I should be alarmed, I should be getting the hell out of here. No threesome was ever entertained, at least, not really in the front of my mind.
But with limbs gone post-orgasm liquid, I wait.
Seeing my lack of resistance, Drest gathers me against him, and I wrap my legs around his waist.
Standing, he brings my body out of the water, and I feel the smooth, hot hardness of his erection seated perfectly between us, and Jac's own hardness warms the crack of my butt cheeks.
“I can't take you,” I whisper to Drest. “Both of you, I mean.”
I'm too close to see his frown, but I sense it. “Any female First or prehistoric is designed for two male cocks.”
“I will not hurt you, Paige,” Jac adds quietly, his lips on my neck, and my head falls back against his shoulder.
“Our seed must be buried deep, my female,” Drest whispers, and even as he says the words, I feel the mushroom head of him line up at my entrance.
Grabbing my cheeks, he spreads them wide, leaning slightly backward, and a second head seats itself at my rear entrance, nicely lubed from the pussy juice that Jac used to bring me by thrusting hard in my ass with his digit.
“Relax, we will heal you. We will make you what you are meant to be.”
I surrender. “Okay.” My breath shudders out of my body, and the men start to pierce my holes, breeching me inch by erotic inch.
Pleasure and pain mix. The tight, full sensation of being taken by two cocks is so unique I have nothing left but to hang my arms around Drest's neck as they invade me fully.
When they are at the end of me, I feel something huge building.
“Something's happening,” I whisper.
Jac whispers at my temple, “Not yet—soon.”
Then, the men begin to move in tandem. Drawing out of my body slowly, they're gentle at first, using me with perfect timing. Jac fucking my virgin hole and Drest pumping deep inside my pussy.
Jac slides in and out as Drest grips my thighs and meets him stroke for stroke. Jac wraps his hand around my waist and finds my clit.
“Come for us, Paige. Your transition must occur with seed and female orgasm, together.”
Then, they really begin to thrust. Jac's lightning finger travels over my clit with a wet friction that has me moaning and screaming. They seat their cocks so deep I can't move, helpless to—getting fucked so thoroughly I never want the sensation to stop. When the golden edge of my orgasm peeks, I throw my head back on Jac's shoulder as he shoves his cock to the hilt in my ass, and Drest starts to unload his cum, throbbing inside my wetness. My pulsing pussy milks the men, forcing more orgasms from them.
When my body explodes a second time, I don't expect it, and another shockwave of an orgasm renders all thought, making the edges of my world go gray.
Can someone die of pleasure? I have time to think.
Then even those thoughts sink to the blackness of unconsciousness.
“Oh my God,” I whisper. I lift my hand, noticing the broken fingers are straight and perfect.
But this hand can't belong to me. Fine boned and double-jointed doesn't even cover the new look. I flick my fingers, and they cooperate perfectly. Slim and strong, a fine dusting of gold hair covers them. Long, delicately tapered talons in a variegated bone color of chocolate, beige and pale taupe tip each finger.
“Beautiful,” a voice says from the dark, and my head turns in the direction of the sound.
Drest.
A hand covers my lower belly, and I look up to see Jac staring down at me.
“Hey,” he says softly.
“Hey, yourself,” I reply. “I'm something now.”
“You are First Species, Paige.”
I give a hard swallow. “Do I. Am I okay now?”
Jac's face cracks into a wide grin. Even in the low light of th
e cave, I can see the square jaw, the white teeth inside a very human-looking face.
My other hand is held, and I turn away from Jac to study Drest's face.
“You are beautiful as I said a few moments before.” Like Jac, he is in human form.
“I can't believe I survived that.”
Drest's eyes fall. “We are ecstatic that you did.”
“Um... I don't want to sound like an idiot.”
“Never,” Jac says in such a somber tone I give him a quick look.
“How come I passed out?”
“The shock of the change. It's natural. A lot for the system to take in.” Jac gives my hand a gentle squeeze.
“What about my fingers?” Ribs, head, etc. I finish mentally.
Drest is propped up by an elbow and rolls the shoulder that he's not using into a shrug. “Sometimes the body will right itself.” He gives a rueful laugh. “I know that Jac and I are very happy to not set those breaks.”
I give a shiver. Me too.
“Help me up,” I say, lifting my newly formed hands.
The men stand, and they're naked, in a perfect position for me to gawk, which I don't seem to be able to help doing. I flush all over thinking about my slut episode.
Drest's nostrils flare, and he slides his jaw back and forth. “I scent your shame.”
I keep my hands high, and they carefully haul me to my feet. The world spins for a moment, and I tumble forward, landing against Jac's chest. “Weak,” I manage to say.
“Also normal,” Drest says as Jac holds me securely.
My stomach's growl is more like a roar. I tilt my head back at Jac, and he laughs.
But I don't have to look up as far. “Oh my God, I'm a super-model.” Well, as tall as one, I guess. That's something, right?
Drest chuckles, coming around so I don't have to move and still see him. “You're taller in the form of First.”
“Super-what?” Jac asks, brows together.
“Nevermind. I guess the height's a bennie.”
Drest gives a tiny frown. “You are still small.” He circles my waist with his hands, and they almost touch.
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