Ash’s body stiffened, and a new bolt of magic took that bit of their souls as she climaxed, crying out, shaking in their arms and the orgasm wracked her body.
The pure sensuality of the moment had Russet close to come too. Instead he took long deep breaths to hold himself back, reveling only in the taste of her in his mouth.
A moment later her legs gave out under her and her head lolled back onto Dunn’s shoulder. They lifted their mouths from her and Russet couldn’t take his eyes off the sparkling mark his teeth had left behind on her skin.
The first step toward mating her was complete and they were all still alive and well.
Being mated scared the ever-loving shit out of him. He was man enough to admit it. He never believed he’d have a mate, or that he was worthy of one. What if by bonding with her, giving her their souls, it took hers over and destroyed her.
That was what he’d seen happen with his twin uncles who shared a soul like he and Dunn did. They’d found their mate, unlike so many other sets of twins.
The mating frenzy had taken them over, the instinctual need to mark, claim, and share their mate had been too much for their woman.
She had been a strong bear-shifter too. When they gave her their soul embers, she joined them together for the first time, her body and own soul creating a bond between them all.
It had taken her over completely. Her own life essence had been slowly devoured. She lost her ability to shift but had grown feral like a wild animal. It had driven her mad and eventually she’d thrown herself off a cliff.
Her last words had come in shattered tears. She’d told them that she didn’t love them, that she never had.
His uncles had lost their own will to live after that and were found dead in their beds only a few days later.
Even as a cub, he’d understood that was his fate. If he never found his mate, or never gave her his soul, he could protect her and Dunn from that tortured demise.
When they’d gotten to Earth and this strange town full of witches and soul magic, his soul ember glowed, pushing his plan and fears away. The need to seek her out and join with her had been overwhelming.
She felt so perfect in his arms. Her lush body fit to his hard one like they were made for each other.
They were.
That tore him apart.
He needed her with every part of his soul. But, his head said to wait a fates-damned minute. His carefully controlled emotions and wise-mind rule he had over his soul had been taken over by the pure sensual need he had to mark her and claim her for his own.
For the first time his head and his heart were battling it out for which was in charge.
He couldn’t risk mating her.
He absolutely had to mate her.
Six: A Pass at Ash
Ash had never had an orgasm like that in her life. Not even her magic wand vibrator had come close. There was something visceral to what had just happened between her, Russet, and Dunn.
She knew in a way that went beyond intellectual, that had been more than sex.
She was still breathing hard and had her eyes clamped shut, not ready to open them and face the men who had just claimed a small part of her soul.
That was not a term she normally used. Soul was an abstract, nonscientific, uncomfortable thing for her to think about. So, she didn't.
Until now.
Russet slipped his hand out of her Batman panties and Dunn fingers released his tight grip on her nipples. She was pretty sure she turned 12 shades of crimson. They were still standing outside the tiny house in full view of anyone who might want to be a voyeur. Now, she really didn't want to open her eyes to see who had witnessed that little show. She didn't consider herself a prude but being fingered and felt up by two men was hell of a lot kinkier than anything else she had ever done.
Done moved from out behind her, leaving her feeling exposed and missing the touch of his body to hers. “Sweet thing, look at me.”
She shook her head.
“Ashmiza, open your eyes. We need to know that you are okay.”
She still didn't want to but felt compelled. She blinked a few times and then looked up into the faces of her mates.
Was she really ready to own that? Seemed like she needed to be.
Dunn was staring back at her, studying her face with concern. She hadn't seen that from him before. Even when he had been kidnapping her he'd always had a grin on his face.
Russet on the other hand, was licking her juices from his fingers. He didn't look worried even one bit.
“How do you feel, love?”
She glanced around and didn't see any of the people who had been gathered there earlier. Phew. “A little embarrassed. I don't normally let men make a meal of me in public.”
Dunn's face relaxed and his normal smile returned. “No one would blame us for indulging in a little taste.”
“Delicious.” Russet pulled his thumb from his mouth and licked his lips.
“I hope there's more where that came from.” Dunn waggled an eyebrow at her.
Unexpectedly, she did to. That made no sense to her, but what had today?
“Has Russet convinced you that we are the good guys yet?”
Good in bed maybe.
Oh, wait. He meant something different entirely. She knew that.
Russet laughed. “Yes, my sweet, Dunn did just change the subject. You will serve soon learn as I have that where his heart goes, his mouth follows.”
Was that in innuendo? No, not this time. She was getting better at figuring it out. “Okay. I think I can keep up. The answer is, mostly. I still don't understand why or how the Task Force Omega would be using, or possibly working with the spectral beings. But, I understand that you and your people have been hurt.”
“Yes, we have.” A little bit of the sparkle from Dunn's eyes faded.
Ash found she didn't like that, just like she hadn't liked when he hadn't been smiling at her.
When she got back to a computer or a lab she was spending some quality time in the scientific journals to research more about hormones and the brains chemicals involvement in animal mating rituals. Because she definitely felt like an animal right now.
“Good. So, you will help us with your knowledge to find a way to defeat the scourge?”
“I'd like to, but without my lab I don't know if I can be of any help.”
“I have a surprise for you.” Dunn took her hand and dragged her away from the tiny house. She hadn't expected that. After the sexy times session, they'd all shared, she thought they would want to take her inside.
Instead, he was dragging her back toward their spaceship. Russet followed closely behind but did not enter with them.
The cargo bay had been converted into an experimental physics lab. “How in the world, where in the world, what in the world?”
“It's a gift for you. It seemed more fitting than the dead plants that Lacey suggested.”
Yes. As far as gifts went, shiny new lab equipment beat out flowers any day. “It's perfect.”
She kissed him on the cheek and went to play with her new toys. Dunn followed her around the interior seeming pleased with each of her oohs and awes. He also took every opportunity to touch her, whether it was a caress of her arm or their hips meeting as they stood side-by-side.
It didn’t take long before his casual touches became a little more serious. Like hands on her ass, caressing it in ways that made her go all gooey inside, serious.
The analytical part of her mind noted that this time the new light that accompanied her magic didn’t rise up quite so quick or bright now as when they’d touched her before.
Her first hypothesis was because they had marked her. Not that she understood either that process, or it’s affects. She did infer that this new increase in her magic’s spontaneous manifestations had a direct correlation with Russet and Dunn.
She’d like to talk to Kady about that.
Dunn’s fingers danced along her neck and over the place where he’
d bitten her. “Where have you gone, pretty mate? You’re certainly not here with me right now.”
“Oops. Sorry. Sometimes I get lost in my head.”
“I know someone else like that too. What were you thinking about?”
“That I have a sister.” It was even hard for her to say that word out loud.
His playful touches turned soft as he “That came as a shock to you, didn’t it?”
“I’ve never had any kind of family. I never thought I would.” She’d given up on the idea of a mother and father the first time a foster parent had hit her. She’d never even considered that she might have siblings.
“I won’t say I’m sorry, but that does make my heart sad to hear.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips. “But, if you’ll accept us, let us be yours, we will be a family for you along with your sister.”
Ash had to went to swallow the Jupiter sized lump in her throat and found that she’d forgotten to breath too.
When she remembered how to breathe again and cleared her throat, she asked a question that no theory or equation had ever been able to solve for her. She’d shoved it aside after so many years and told herself it didn’t matter. But talking with Dunn now, she knew she’d lied to herself.
“What if I don’t know how to be part of a family?” Each word burned on its way across her tongue.
“Aw, mah wah. You don’t have to know how. You just have to be you. We will love you no matter what.”
Just be her.
No, that couldn’t be right.
“You didn’t even know I existed until a few hours ago. How can you love me?”
“We’ve known you existed from the time we received our own halves of our soul ember. It took only one look, one touch for me to fall in love with you. By the Fates, we were meant for each other.”
“I don’t put much faith in imaginary higher powers.”
Dunn laughed which took her off guard. That was not the usual reaction one got when dismissing someone’s religion.
“You’re smart not to. The Fates are fickle bitches. But, don’t tell them I said that. I’d like to keep my cock where it is.”
“You don’t mind that I don’t believe in your mythology?”
“The Fates are a part of our culture, not yours. I know in my heart that our destinies have been entangled—”
Russet’s walked into her newly minted lab joining their discussion as if he’d been a part of it all along. “And I happen to believe we make our own fates. I’d choose to tangle my life with yours in any world, any time, any way.”
How could they be so much alike and so different at the same time?
Inside, in a place Ash discounted, isolated, made sure to keep from the world so that it never mattered if it was hurt or not, a warm glow, similar in feel to her magic, warmed.
Her heart could have fueled a thousand iron man suits at that moment.
Russet took her other hand in his and kissed her palm. “Now, how do you like your new lab? Think you can make something to help us take care of the spectrals in here.”
And he accused his brother of changing the subject on a dime. She had an inkling he’d done that for her so that they got back to a subject she was comfortable with.
Science she could do.
Family and love. She didn’t yet.
“The lab is amazing. But, I’ve been trying to replicate a containment field the TFO have surrounding one of the spectrals with Bose-Einstein Condensate. What they have is alien tech, so maybe you can tell me if I’m on the right path using BEC. It’s the closest I comparison I’ve been able to make to the field surrounding the thing.”
The twins looked at each other.
“I’ll go get Kady,” Dunn said.
Russet nodded. “My universal translator is having a hard time interpreting Bose-Einstein condensate, but I think you’re talking about fifth matter.”
Ash thought about it for a second. “First matter solid, second matter liquid, third matter gas, fourth matter plasma, fifth matter Bose-Einstein condensate, sixth matter fermionic condensate and so on?”
“Yes, but we combine all the condensates into fifth matter when speaking in general terms and subclassify them, sixth is what you call superfluids, seventh is supersolids, eight is—” Russet said a stream of terms that Ash didn’t understand mixed in with the numbers and a few random English words like quarks, dark, photonic, and quantum.
“Those last couple of ones didn’t translate very well, sort of like that word ma-wa. How many states of matter do you people know about?”
He smiled “Twenty-three, mah wah.”
Holy Stephen Hawking may he rest in peace. She wanted to clap her hands and do cartwheels. This was like the time in elementary school when she’d discovered there was more than just gas, liquids, and solids. Back then her mind had been blown, now it was blown away.
“We are having a nice long talk about all of those later. What does ma-wa mean?”
“This,” he said and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her, gently at first. Until she felt her magic rising and she couldn’t help herself, she shoved her hands into his hair, wrapped one leg around his thigh and put a whole lot of her long-suppressed passion into it.
She really didn’t want to fall in love. Her logical realistic part of her brain rejected the idea. That couldn’t even happen. The heat coursing through her body and settling between her legs flipped her brain the finger on its way to sexy times land.
Someone nearby squeaked. “Oh geez. Sorry. I’ll come back.”
Russet broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers taking three long deep breaths that matched hers before he cleared his throat and spoke.
“No, Kady. Please. Come in.”
She did but was looking everywhere but at the two of them. Dunn and the other brother, Black, that was his name followed her.
They all stood around awkwardly for a minute until Kady said, “Looks like you two turned your Millennium Falcon into the Enterprise. You got a holodeck in here somewhere too?”
Ash snort laughed. Like out loud. She covered her mouth but didn’t quite contain her giggle. “I was wondering the same thing. Do they have that kind of technology?”
She and Kady smiled at each other, both clearly excited to find that something new that they shared.
“Sadly, no. Did you know they don’t even have movies where the come from? How can an advanced civilization, that can do all of this, not figure out that video is the perfect storytelling model?”
“What?” Ash looked at Dunn. “Tell me you have comic books. I can’t like you any more if you don’t have the epic adventures of the Avenger Bears, or the X-Bears, or maybe the Justice League of Bears.”
Dunn looked stricken. “Umm. I don’t know what a comic book is, but Honaks have a rich tradition of oral storytelling. I’d be happy to tell you my favorite tale of Brundar Bear and his journey to find the Fates.”
Black groaned. “Do you know how many times we heard that story as cubs? I think even I could recite it by heart.”
Dunn growled at his brothers, until Ash grabbed his hand. “I’d love to hear it later.”
“Later it is, sweet-ling.”
Another man wearing a cowboy hat poked his head into the entryway to the ship. “Barretts, two of the other dragons just flew in with reports that the TFO is on the move. If you’re working on some sort of defense it needs to be now.”
“Thanks, Theo,” Black said, then turned to Kady. “Mah wah, let’s show your sister what you can do.”
Kady took Black’s hand in both of hers. “Are you sure?”
He touched her cheek and nodded.
What could her sister possibly do that would help defend against Omega? They were a huge well-funded tactical operation. They had helicopters and tanks and spectrals.
All they had was one spaceship, two sisters, three bears and a town of magical people.
“How much do you know about your magic, Ash?” Kady asked her.
/> “Not much. It’s kind of erratic. Until today I hadn’t ever manifested except to do small things like some light telekinesis. To be honest, it seems so weird I haven’t wanted to. But, some pretty crazy things happened with it after I met these two.”
“Right. I didn’t even know I had magic in me until I met Black. There’s something about the connection between him and me that brought it out in me.”
Black cupped the back of Kady’s neck in move that was both so supportive and possessive of her that it made Ash’s heart tingle with wishing she had someone who was that for her.
Before she was even finished putting that yearning out into the universe Dunn slid his hand beneath her hair and gave her neck a gentle squeeze. Russet’s hand softly swirled over her spine, settling at the small of her back.
The tiny tingle in her chest burst into a million sparkles across her skin and theirs.
Kady blinked and glanced up at her mate, then back to Ash. “I was about to ask if being with your mates, you know, uh, sexually brings out your magic too. Guess that’s obvious.”
Ash’s mind whirled putting the pieces of that puzzle together. “Can you show me – I mean, not like have sex, geez. Sorry. I’m just curious to see how it works.”
Kady didn’t seem bothered in the least by Ash’s complete social blunder. Phew.
“Yeah. Dunn asked me to come over and show you the shield I can put up around a spectral because you might be able to recreate it with whatever you’ve been researching for the TFO.”
“Yes. Please. I’d love to see it. Do we need to like, leave, or turn our backs or something?”
“No no. I’m much better at pulling the magic up than I used to be. I don’t need much more than to think of him now. I’ve learned a lot from the other witches in town. Although, physical touch brings it out a lot faster and stronger.”
Kady moved closer to Black, looked at him for a long moment and a flash of something Ash thought might be worry was quickly replaced when he took her hand in his. He brought her palm to his lips and kissed it in a moment so intimate, Ash really thought they all should turn away.