Arctic Spirit Read online

  A few more passes with Drew’s fingers and swipes of his tongue, along with Chris’s command for her to come, finally sent her over the edge. She screamed out her release, her body bowing. She barely had time for her heart rate to return to normal before Chris was telling her to straddle him, but first she wanted to get a taste of Drew’s cock. She turned to face him on her knees before licking him from root to tip, then she swirled her tongue around his engorged head. Finally, after teasing him a little more, she took him fully into her mouth, humming with pleasure at his salty, sweet taste while he cupped her cheek.

  When she brought him nearly to the brink, she popped him out of her mouth. He got down on his knees, embracing her as he kissed her. “I can’t wait.” He sounded breathless, brimming with need. “Get on top of Chris.”

  She turned to Chris and straddled him, then leaned in close, placing her body flush against his. She lifted her hips enough for him to enter her and kissed him deeply, moaning into his mouth. She moved against him, pushing down and lifting up until Drew stilled her movements by placing his hand on the small of her back.

  She felt the head of his cock at her entrance and then moaned loudly when he began to push in slowly, holding her breath as more and more of him entered her.

  “I wish you both could see how hot this looks,” Drew said when he was fully inside of her. “All three of us joined. So fucking hot.” And then he began to move, slowly at first, finding his rhythm with Chris as they thrust in and out of her. In unison, one pulled partially out, as the other pushed in deeper.

  Drew’s hands tightened on her hips as he picked up the pace, driving them all to ecstasy. She felt so completely full, everything was tighter and heightened with the added stimulation of her breasts rubbing against Chris’s chest and Drew’s pelvis slamming into her. The combined sounds of their heavy panting breaths, her moans, and Chris’s and Drew’s throaty growls, filled the tent.

  Her orgasm was just within reach, and though she wanted to make the moment last, to stave off her release for just a little while longer, there was no way she could stop the oncoming force. In seconds, her world exploded as an earth-shattering orgasm hit her. Her body convulsed, she screamed, and both men went over the edge with her.

  Charlotte collapsed on top of Chris. Drew leaned forward and placed his forehead on her upper back, but kept his weight off of her. “That was amazing,” he uttered, his voice sounding gravelly and spent. He kissed one shoulder blade and then the other, before pulling out of her.

  Her bones felt like jelly and she could barely move, so she was quite thankful when Chris, after pulling out of her as well, gently maneuvered her to lay in between him and Drew.

  She had never felt so content before, so at peace. Those pieces of her heart she once thought she had to bury were now fixed in place, making her feel whole again. Soon, the guys would be traveling to Florida with her to help her pack up her things. She’d be moving back to Taika—permanently this time. This was something the three of them had already discussed in the last few days.

  The two very warm bodies next to her embraced her tightly, each sighing with their own happy contentedness. Charlotte hadn’t even realized she’d closed her eyes, but when she became aware that she did so, her lids felt far too heavy to open. She felt a set of lips kiss the top of her head and another set on the tip of her nose. She heard their dual “I love yous,” and then she sleepily murmured, “I love you both so much.”

  Charlotte then fell into a deep sleep, blissfully unaware of anything looming outside of her happy little bubble.

  Chapter Ten

  “I almost forgot how beautiful it was up here.” It had been far too long since Charlotte had been hiking, and she missed the feel of ice and snow crunching beneath her feet. Thank goodness for her sturdy boots, she thought, not to mention her two sexy hiking guides, who would undoubtedly keep her safe.

  “Chris and I come out here to run sometimes.”

  “This was actually one of our favorite spots when we were kids,” Chris added. “And one of the places we never had a chance to take you before.”

  Charlotte smiled at the thought of them frolicking in the snow in their tiger forms.

  “We most certainly do not frolic,” Drew groused when she told them her thoughts.

  “Still,” she said, “I’d love to see your tigers up here against the snow.”

  It turned out that the guys were more than a little excited to show her, another of the many firsts she’d be getting to experience with them. She shamelessly ogled the pair of them as they got undressed. When they were naked, they handed her their clothes for her to put away into the backpack they had brought with them on the hike.

  “Keep looking at us that way, Char, and we’ll have you naked as well.”

  She couldn’t help the shiver that ran down her body, one that had nothing to do with the weather, but her curiosity and their eagerness to be free in their tiger forms with her won over.

  The white glow appeared close to their skin, fascinating her as much as the first time. She didn’t think it would be possible for her to ever get over the beauty of it, the beauty of them. Tiger Chris and Tiger Drew trotted over to her and nudged her playfully.

  “I’m going. I’m going.” She continued up the trail with them, stroking their fur periodically. She marveled at the softness, and both of them looked content at her touch.

  When they were nearly at the top of one of the peaks, she made a run for it. Naturally, she could never outrun them and they caught up to her before she even made it a few feet ahead. “Hey,” she squeaked when Tiger Drew nudged her forward. She lost her balance and slipped, but Tiger Chris was there to break her fall, and she managed a careful slide, landing on her ass. If she didn’t know better, she could have sworn that he was laughing at her, Drew right along with him.

  Charlotte dug around for some snow and threw it at Chris. “You did that on purpose.” And just for good measure, she threw some at Drew. Her two tigers got even more playful with her then, rubbing up against her … “Frolicking,” she giggled. She laughed harder when she heard Drew growling at her.

  Both tigers were fierce enough to make grown men cry and shake with fear if confronted by them, but Charlotte’s peals of laughter, which echoed all around her as her tigers played in the snow with her, would have made anyone think she had lost her marbles.

  After the three of them were spent, or rather she was, she lay mostly on top of them in the snow. The heat radiating off her tigers kept her warm. The sun was just beginning to set, making the sky look like fire. Charlotte wanted to stay like this with them all night, out in the open air, but hunger … and nature called.

  “Be right back,” she told them.

  She found a hidden spot far enough away to get a little privacy, but not too far to call out to them if she needed. She was just about to head back to Chris and Drew when footsteps behind her had her spinning around and coming face-to-face with two men. They had rifles strapped over their shoulders.

  The two strangers looked a bit off to her, drunk most likely given the stale stench of vodka in the air. She felt her heart begin to race. “There’s no hunting allowed on Taika,” she blurted out.

  Instead of getting a response from them, she saw both men widen their eyes. She turned her head to look behind her and found two very pissed-off looking tigers approaching.

  “Don’t move, girl,” one of the men said. He laid his hand on his rifle.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Charlotte warned. Her tigers came up on either side of her and she placed her hands on the scruffs of their necks, relief washing over her that she was no longer alone. She almost laughed at the twin jaw-drops from the two men. “They’ll rip your arms off before you even manage to take aim,” she told the drunks. She knew that Drew and Chris were superhumanly fast in their human forms, and could only imagine the enhancement of their abilities in their animal forms.

  The two men slowly backed away. “P-please,” the m
an who hadn’t spoken yet stuttered, “call them off.” He and his drunk buddy quickly turned and ran like their asses were on fire.

  Instead of fur beneath her fingers, Charlotte felt hands entwine with hers. “We’d better catch up with them and make sure they don’t hurt anyone or anything,” Drew said. “Let’s get you back to camp, Charlotte. You can call the sheriff.”

  “Go,” she said. “I can make it back by myself. It’s not that far.” Before either one of her men could protest, she added, “Seriously, I’m military trained and I memorized the path. I’ll get there before it’s fully dark and you’ll probably be back soon after.”

  “I don’t know, Char,” Drew said. Chris was shaking his head, the same indecision warring within him.

  Charlotte reached into her backpack and took out Chris’s and Drew’s clothes.

  “We should look into obtaining the special stretchy chainmail the dragons wear,” Chris said.

  “The what now?”

  “The dragons wear it underneath their clothes.”

  Charlotte was confused. “You said they were pretty much indestructible.”

  “It’s for modesty reasons,” Chris explained. “They designed it to stretch and shrink with them when they shift. Pretty cool-looking, actually.”

  Charlotte was as scared as she was excited about the prospect of coming face-to-face with a real live dragon one day. Ferocious ancient beings, who were also the deliverers and seekers of justice and wore chainmail were beyond intriguing, and she was now a part of this surreal-like world she could have only ever imagined existed in a fairy-tale.

  Finally, after the guys got dressed, they reluctantly agreed to let her go back to camp on her own.

  “Please be careful,” she said. “They’re armed.”

  Drew came over to her and kissed the top of her head. “And their guns will have no effect on us, baby. I’m more worried about them accidentally shooting someone or something else. They are completely drunk off their asses.”

  They waited for her to set out on the trail back to camp before going after the hunters.

  She made it halfway back to camp in record time, feeling quite proud of herself, as well as relieved at the revelation her men were bulletproof, but the sight of Jill and Bonnie stopped her dead in her tracks.

  “What are you—”

  “I think it’s time we had a little talk.” It was Bonnie who spoke, interrupting her. The look she wore was cold, a very different Bonnie than Charlotte was used to seeing. At least the guys had already informed her that Bonnie, as well as many others in town she was familiar with, were shifters as well, so she wasn’t caught off guard with that one. “I like you, Charlotte. I really do. You were always such a sweet girl.” She spoke matter-of-factly, despite proclaiming her fondness for her. “But you’re human, dear. You do not belong with our kind.”

  Charlotte’s surprise at seeing her and Jill was quickly fading and being replaced by anger. Actually, she was becoming downright pissed. “They are my mates. Who the hell are you to tell me I don’t belong with them?”

  Jill meanwhile stood quietly and stoically next to her. Charlotte couldn’t get a good read on her yet.

  “Mates,” Bonnie snorted. “I think something must have gone wrong there. Perhaps because the boys had always loved you, they willed it so.”

  “That’s not the way it works,” Charlotte snapped. “Chris and Drew explained it to me and being a shifter yourself, I think you know the way mating works.” She clenched her fists at her sides, her patience running thin. “So, I ask you again … who the fuck are you to tell me who I belong with?”

  Bonnie looked unaffected by Charlotte’s words. She huffed out an exasperated breath. “Think about what’s best for them if you love them so much. Now, I know Jill here,”—she inclined her head toward the still silent Jill—“isn’t the most pleasant person. I’m hardly a fan myself.” She waved a dismissive hand. “But she would be far better suited for them than you, especially now that she no longer has mates of her own. How on earth are you going to keep up with them? And will you be selfish in subjecting them to take care of you every time you get the sniffles? Just look at how sick you got from one little meal.”

  “Selfish? That’s what people who love each other do. They protect and care for one another. Even if I were still susceptible to such things as sniffles, it wouldn’t make me less than.” Perhaps Bonnie was unaware that Charlotte’s physiology was altered due to the mating bond. Regardless, her point was the same. Chris and Drew never saw themselves above her and she would not be justifying anything to Bonnie.

  “Wait … how do you even know about me getting sick?” And then it hit her. “You tried to poison me?”

  Bonnie appeared sympathetic as she shook her head, but Charlotte wanted to wipe that condescending look off the older woman’s face. “No, dear. If I wanted to poison you, you’d already be dead. I gave you a bellyache.” Bonnie went on to explain how she grew special herbs and spices in her little greenhouse, those found buried deep in nature. They enhanced certain flavors of food. “But I discovered that these don’t sit very well with humans, as their stomachs are much weaker.” She emphasized the last word for effect. “So, I make sure only to use them for the food we serve to shifters. Can’t have humans getting sick and complaining about our food, now can we?” She explained further that the scent of the spices when cooked are virtually undetectable and given the fact that she had been putting these herbs and spices in Chris’s and Drew’s food for years, they wouldn’t have sensed anything off about her breakfast that morning before going sailing.

  “What was the purpose of that?” Charlotte asked with disgust. Sure, it was a cruel thing to do, kind of like slipping ipecac in someone’s food or drink for a prank, but she was fine a few hours later and had no lasting side effects as Bonnie herself just admitted would be the case.

  “I just wanted to remind them how much weaker humans are than us,” Bonnie replied. “I never told Jill to send her spirit tiger after you, but I am glad she did. They had to jump in and save you, driving my point even further home.”

  Finally, Jill spoke up. “I only wanted to scare you. I swear.”

  “Be quiet,” Bonnie snapped, dropping her calm and collected facade briefly. “Walk away, Charlotte. Find yourself a nice human to settle down with. Live your life and be happy. We’ll trust you to keep our secret.”

  The woman was bat-shit crazy, especially if she thought Charlotte would simply agree. She called her bluff. “Or what?”

  Bonnie shrugged. “Jill will have to kill you.”

  Charlotte gave her a sarcastic laugh, in part to cover up the fear she suddenly felt squeezing her chest at Bonnie’s threat, but more so because no doubt Bonnie was quite aware of the laws that bound all shifters, especially with regard to the sacredness of mates. She turned to Jill. “And you think … what exactly? That Drew and Chris will suddenly want to be with you?” Turning to Bonnie, she added, “What kind of antiquated bullshit do you live by? This won’t be a fight to the death for my men. They’ll rip out both your throats!”

  “Or maybe they’ll see reason,” Bonnie said.

  This woman was completely devoid of any reason, Charlotte thought. “Oh, Bonnie,” she began with the same condescending tone Bonnie had been using on her, “did some human reject you once?” She saw the woman’s lips curl and knew she had hit a nerve, so she continued to goad her. “I get it. Your ego was bruised, and it makes you feel better to see all humans as beneath you.”

  “You are beneath me,” Bonnie said menacingly. She stepped closer to Charlotte and slapped her across the face.

  Charlotte felt the sting of it all the way down to the bone, rattling her. It was definitely going to leave a mark. Her first instinct was to hit back, but she fought against it. Despite being a decently trained fighter, she knew she didn’t stand a chance against Bonnie, especially given the force of her slap just now, and she most definitely could not stand against the two of them. Instea
d, she turned to Jill, and couldn’t believe she thought she was the more reasonable of the two. “Jill, I believe you only wanted to scare me. And I know we were never friends, but on some level I can relate to you.” Jill arched one of her perfectly sculpted brows in surprise. “I didn’t think I would ever be with Chris and Drew and my heart was broken. I know what happened to you and I know you have one mate out there who wanted you, who would probably still want you if you tried to make it right. Don’t do this.”

  Bonnie snorted again. “Her mate left her. Why should she go groveling to some guy who didn’t even try to make his own brother see reason? Enough of this.” Bonnie shoved her hard on the ground in front of Jill, and Charlotte could not help the cry of pain that escaped her. She then pulled Charlotte up to a kneeling position. “End her, Jill, and we’ll convince Chris and Drew that you should be their rightful mate.”

  Another yelp of pain escaped Charlotte when Bonnie tilted her head back by pulling on her hair, exposing her neck to Jill. “She obviously has never felt the mating pull, Jill,” Charlotte tried to reason. “They’ll never really fill the void your mates left, will they?”

  Bonnie pulled on her hair again, harder this time, and Charlotte let out another painful cry. “I did feel the mating pull, you little bitch,” Bonnie sneered. “He was just a pathetic human and he didn’t want me. You are all fickle, disloyal creatures.” She shoved Charlotte to the ground again and went over to Jill and put a hand on her shoulder. “She’ll get bored of them one day and leave, Jill. Don’t let that happen to them. You know what that feels like. Don’t let her taint our sacred bloodline.”

  She felt them even before she saw them—her two spirit tigers—as she writhed in pain on the ground. Two ear-splitting roars echoed all around them. They were close, but Bonnie waved her hand in the air in dismissal, telling her that Chris’s and Drew’s spirit tigers will be no match for her and Jill’s actual ones. She’d be dead before their corporeal forms got to her. And then she felt something strange happen. Her pain completely left her as new energy filled her body. She stood up with agility and opened her mouth to speak, but instead of words, she let out a menacing growl.