Chapter Twenty-One: The Claiming
Bella gasped, the sound hacked off unattractively as Jacob toppled them over so that he could lay himself and his marvelous heat over her smaller body. His hands kept the upper part of her body from scraping along the hard ground while her legs curled a little painfully around his waist to keep them from the moist ground. She felt the butterfly bandages pull for only a moment before Jake's lips trampled her own.
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"Ah fuck." Jake murmured heavily as she opened her mouth to free him. She swallowed heavily, a little sick from the blood. She was happy that though she could taste his blood she could not smell it because of their still emitting musk. Her eyes stared sorrowfully at the eclipse of teeth marks she'd left in his chest. She didn't think she'd ever understand how they could possibly find joy in the pain.
"Bella?" The softly-spoken, husky words of her would-be-lover caressed her as much as the hands at her back did. She released his deflated penis slowly so as not to overstimulate it so soon. Her brows knitted together as her bite marks healed before her eyes, the fairly small amount of blood concealing any scars he might have retained.
"It wasn't the right time," she whispered, tilting her head back so that she could look up into Jacob's weathered face. He looked like she'd just run him from Washington to Texas, not made him cum in her hands. It made smugness bloom in her. For being a virgin she unquestionably knew how to get her men off.
"Oh Spirits." He rasped, his eyes showing his shame. He dropped his head to let his forehead nuzzle her own. "I'm so damn sorry. I just…I lost it. Oh, fuck no. I would have raped you. I would have…"
"No, Jake," she snapped firmly. Her hands rose to caress his bare shoulders. She would have cupped his cheeks, but felt a little awkward about putting her hands, which had just jerked him off, anywhere near his face. "No, you wouldn't have raped me. None of you would have. Even like that you care about me and my needs, but…"
She nibbled on her lip with indecision, staring into his fathomless black eyes, and then sighed. She might as well speak her mind. "This isn't what I'd want my first time to be like. I want to be in a bed where it's familiar and comforting. I don't want to be watched like an animal in an exhibit. I just…I want it to be special."
"I'll make it special." He promised her wholeheartedly, his eyes softened to the extreme as he looked down at her. His lips kissed hers tenderly, his tongue licking away the leftover blood from her bite. "You deserve nothing short of perfection. You deserve better than what I was about to do."
"It's okay. I'm a big girl." She grinned coyly, a small flush tinting her cheeks. "I think I handled the situation well."
Barking laughter made her arch her head back at an odd angle to view the six getting shakily to their feet. Sometime during their climaxes they had apparently fallen to their hands and knees. They all had different sorts of smiles on their faces, but had guilt shimmering in all their eyes. Quil scratched his shoulder nervously.
"You could say that, Princess." He waved his free hand at them. "How about you two get up, hm? We still need to get Bella the attention she needs and the others are waiting in the cabin."
As Jacob nodded and lifted them both to his feet the others took a single step forward. They all looked at her regretfully. Seth gulped audibly, reaching forward to brush her matter hair out of her face.
"We're sorry," Seth murmured, despair clear in his tone. His warmed hands cupped her cheek and neck. "We lost control of ourselves and that would have hurt you badly. Can you forgive us?"
"Of course I can!" She cried emphatically, fighting from Jake's arms to lurch forward and hug her youngest wolf. His arms banded around her, cautious of her bruised and sore back. She pecked him on the chest since cheek was too high. "I told you, I love you all. This isn't something I ever imagined would happen to me and it sure as Hell isn't going to be easy for any of us, but I'm willing to try anything to see us through. You're not just my mates. You're my best friends."
"Thank you, Baby." He hushed into her hair. He stooped above her so that he could slide his forearm under her rump and then pulled her upwards on his chest. She winced at the pull in her injured legs, but eagerly held onto him. His other hand braced itself behind her nape to cuddle her to his neck. "Let's go inside and finish looking you over, okay? We can talk to the others while we're at it."
"Okay." She glanced over his shoulder as he walked to see the others following obediently behind, Jacob rubbing the drying blood from his chest with a triumphant grin on his face. Paul diverted her attention to him when she walked directly behind Seth. He tried to smirk.
"You'll let us take care of you later, won't you, Button?" She gave him a genuine smile, snuggling more solidly into Seth's shoulder.
"If you're good boys." She teased, scratching her fingers very lightly over Seth's opposite shoulder. "Maybe."
Definitely, the inner her snorted derisively, already lost in the thoughts of her impending deflowering.
The rest of her, though, was trembling with nerves under the bravado.
Bella traced one of the butterfly bandages on the ball of her ankle idly, a cup of hot tea in her other hand. The heat permeated through her still frigid skin and made things a little more bearable. As soon as Seth sat her on the sofa Jared got back to work plucking the splinters out of the few cuts she had left that he hadn't already seen to. Following that he'd doused her with heavy antiseptic ointment and applied the bandages gingerly. Every time she'd hissed he'd apologize profusely, but kept on with his task. When he'd finished he set one of their thicker quilts over her lower half to help her warm up.
She'd have preferred to have been seated in one of their laps.
"Don't pick." Evy soothed next to her on the sofa. They'd been stationed next to each other, Evy having been treated for the same issues minus the drowning, and sufficiently tucked in until the Reservation doctor arrived. With the Rez being as small as it was and so many of the locals travelling out to the hospital in Forks for emergencies and such the man was left with mainly only the locals and regular doctors' visits to tend with.
It's still some miracle that he makes house-calls, she thought mirthlessly. In or out of a hospital, she didn't much care for doctors.
"I can't help it." She muttered back, flicking the end of her blanket over her feet so she wouldn't be as tempted to toy with the white adhesive bandages. She had always been a horrible patient. Grumpy, irritable, rude, and over-all misbehaved. They needed to practically put her in one of those doggy-cones to keep her from messing with her various remedies.
Evy grinned brightly. "They'll just overrule you physically if you keep screwing with them." Her tone dropped to a whisper as she leaned towards her conspiratorially. Bella played along, knowing anything said between them could be heard by any Shifter at least a couple hundred feet away let alone in the same room. "Sometimes it's fun to push their buttons. I like to leave the apartment without my phone."
"Yes," Caleb began sovereignly, his eyes not leaving the circle of Shifters he was currently clustered in, "and it's earned you more than just a few scolding's."
"Exactly," Evy giggled. When she turned her attention back to Bella she rolled her eyes. The 'sneak' had been blown right out of her because her next comment was as clear as day to any human within hearing-range, which was thankfully only them. "They like to think they're in charge. They're not, though. As mates we rule the den."
"Says you." Boone snorted, his head pivoting to take them both in passively.
"Yes, says me!" Evy patted her ivory hand over Bella's only faintly darker one. "You boys go back to your little powwow. I have some important stuff to teach Bella."
"Be good, Evy." Caleb warned with serious intent in his gravelly voice. Something about his tone made Bella wonder if Evy was as sweet a darling as she first seemed. She doubted it. Bella knew that she herself came off as reserved and quiet to most people, but the ones closest to her knew her for the spitfire she really was. Why would Evy be any different?
"They find the dullest things interesting," Evy continued unfazed. She shifted her body a little on the couch to face her fully, a slight wince her only show of discomfort. Well, that and the shadows under her eyes from crying. Bella knew the look. She got it whenever she cried, too. It was in her experience that about ninety-eight percent of all females with pale skin got shadows under their eyes which resembled faint bruises that looked horrid whenever they cried, were sick, or tired. It was one reason she was so livid that she had never been able to get any lasting color on her skin. Nothing could hide those stupid 'bags'.
"Are they seriously talking about their penises?" Bella asked even though she could hear them clearly enough. It was just so…like a man of them. Caleb, Daire, and Boone were trying to explain the various ins-and-outs of the wolf form and they seemed to have gotten stuck on the topic of canine genitalia.
"Sounds like it." Evy chuckled. "I think the fact that your men have the ability to complete a successful half-shift got mine thinking. They told me once when we stopped in Quebec for a stay with a pack up there that only a few Alphas could do that anymore. It's something to do with their stores of energy and how strong their mate is that allows them to do that."
"Why would it matter how strong their mate was?" Bella queried as she sipped lightly at her tea. Her stomach felt like it'd just suffered the world's worst bender and was now threatening to revolt if she made any false moves…such as drinking her mint tea too fast.
"Their wolf – their souls and inner magic, feed off of their other half's soul. As mates we're connected to them on some basic level and when our souls connect they are able to know us better. That also means that they have a permanent link to us that lets them draw energy from our bodies. They actually pull from us without even knowing it."
"Is that why I got sick?" She wondered aloud, more to herself than to Evy. Still, she directed her explanation to the other girl. "Just after my, uhm, ex-boyfriend left I got really sick. I thought it was a bad cold or the flu or something. The guys took care of me until I got better."
"You mean you haven't had sex with them yet?" The words were blurted out in an automatic jumble and both of them blushed hotly when they realized what was said. Evy cleared her throat loudly. "Oh, I mean, ah…Sorry. I just assumed that you had mated with them since you all were so connected. Mates only get sick after mating that first time. It's when we open ourselves up to them fully and their souls can connect with ours."
"It's because she is Induja, Pumpkin," Daire soothed, walking up in front of them from the kitchen. He took their cups from them gently before replacing their tea with a newer, hotter supply. They both muttered their 'thank-you's. "Induja are essentially mates that are more in-tune with their own energy. Normals and Supes both have stores of energy; they just use them in different ways. Shifters shift. Vamps 'live' past death."
Daire set the kettle onto the coffee table with an oversized oven-mitt under it to keep the wood safe and then smiled sincerely at her. "As Induja you have more access to your energy than Normals do, but without the genetic coding of a Supe you can't really do a lot with it. With your mates, though, you'll find that you have a lot more to give energy-wise than Evy could with my brothers and me. You don't need to be in the throes of passion when everything else is forgotten to open to your mates because, even unconsciously, you had opened yourself to a connection with them. Regular mates can't do this."
"Well, what does it mean to be an Induja?" She tossed in her scratching voice, puzzled by the whole thing and what it meant for her. A thought came to her and instantly made her blurt out, "I won't get sick again, will I? 'Cuz, honestly, that sucked."
Daire chuckled and ruffled her hair affectionately. Several growls made him pull it back as if she'd scalded him.
"No, you won't get sick again. You connected to your Alphas already in that way and they have been feeding off of your energy since. It will make no difference in that way after claiming." His head tilted in thought as he continued. "Induja are not common. Perhaps two are born every three-hundred years or so. The only one that I am aware of living now is in Quebec with her five mates. She is quite aged now. She is said to be able to see things…premonitions. Not often, but at times when it's needed the most. She also has a deeper connection with her mates than most mated groups do. A perk of the added energy. I don't know if it's true or not, but I've heard that Induja live longer than other Normals. Not by a lot, but well into their mid-to-late one-hundreds. That's just a rumor, though."
"Well, wouldn't somebody know?" Bella began incredulously. "I mean, you said she was in Quebec. Surely someone's been around them long enough to tell if they've aged or not."
"No," Daire shook his head lightly. "They only established a pack there in the last ten years or so. Before that they were Wanderers like most Shifters. It's impossible to keep track of Wanderers unless they're purposely leaving a trail."
"Is that what you guys are? Wanderers?" She glanced between Evy and Daire.
"Yep." Evy bobbed her head jerkily. "I met the guys when I was fourteen. We mated when I was sixteen. My parents found out about me being with three men and that was when they disowned me. We've been travelling ever since. It's kind of fun and I've met a lot of other Shifters and mates with the guys, but I really miss having a solid home. We can never stay in any one place for long, though, because of how taboo it is everywhere to be in a relationship like we are. When people find out they practically start a lynch-mob."
"That's why you're leaving, isn't it?" Bella asked sadly, her eyes becoming downcast. Her fingers picked at a stray thread in her quilt. "You all weren't accepted."
"No, we weren't." Daire placed a light kiss to Evy's temple before returning to the male group, apparently seeing that he wasn't needed anymore. Evy patted her knee. She bit her lip to avoid whimpering from the accidental hit to a particularly tender spot. "But we'll be around for another month or so. If you ever need someone to talk to about all this you can have me. I'll even make my men drive me all the way out here." They both ignored the indignant triad of snorts that answered that remark.
I'm not worried about having someone to talk to…I just don't want to lose a friend.
Bella nibbled her lip and concentrated. There was a spare room in this house if Evy and her men needed a place to stay for a while, but she wouldn't offer room-and-board to anyone when she didn't even own the house she was offering for use. Surely there could be another way to keep her new friend with her? There was her, Larissa, and now Evy, all mixed up in a Polyamorous relationship. It could only be beneficial if they stuck together and figured things out with each other's help.
I'll talk to the guys later. If they aren't against it maybe they can help me think of something.
"What's it like being a mate?" She tossed out randomly, wanting to get off the subject of Evy leaving Port Angeles and most likely Washington state altogether.
"It's nice." The red-head's smile was wistful. "Don't get me wrong, sometimes I just want to rip my hair out, but for the most part it's really nice. Mates are doted on, cherished, listened to, given the best of everything available, and not to mention that the physical part of the relationship is to die for. Shifters are remarkably well-endowed."
"You're a closet-slut." Bella laughed joyfully, having just figured out the ripple in Evy's pleasant exterior. The girl was as horny as she was!
"You know it." They beamed at each other before returning to the real conversation. "With your mates pulling from your energy you'll feel more tired than you ever were before you met them. I usually have to have at least one nap a day. Sometimes two if I've had an exceptionally hard day. We usually get sick or hurt easier, too, because of the whole energy depletion thing. Less to take care of ourselves, you know? You can feel them, too, if you concentrate. You can know their moods, especially when they're mad or sad. That's why you ran out to Jacob like you did. You felt him and responded to it instinctually. They feel you the same way, but a lot stronger.
"Then there's one other thing." The girl's grey eyes sparkled a dazzling dark blue as mischief crept into every pore of her body. The change was so tangible that Bella could see it. "You can influence a certain part of their emotions." The emphasis on the word 'part' had her cheeks alighting.
Oh yes. She had figured that one out, if only recently. She could make them all cum, even at a distance. She connected them all in a fundamental way, no matter how abnormal that was, and when one's orgasm loomed the others could feel it through her and responded in kind. She'd guessed at how it worked before, but now with the explanation on their 'connection' it made a lot more sense. Well, as much sense as something as illogical as the Supernatural world could be.
Bella was startled when she felt her body being lifted slowly by her thighs from the cushions and then placed tenderly into a wide, hot lap before she could teeter. A blissful sigh expelled from her mouth as she snuggled back into Paul's chest and arms when they wrapped around her.
"Hmm. Why couldn't we do this sooner?" Her voice cracked, as she knew it would for the next few days, so she steadfastly ignored it. She had been lethargic before, but with Paul's body heat soaking into her frame where her quilt didn't cover her she felt fully at peace and more than willing to drop off to sleep.
"Because you were too cold, Button. It would have been too much of a shock to your system up against our body heat with the fire going." His nose nuzzled into her ear as he continued shamefully, "We deserve to be castrated for panting over you earlier. It could have hurt you more…probably did hurt you more. We're so fucking stupid."
"No pity-party, please." She lifted her right hand so that she could rub her fingers through his scalp in the way she knew soothed him the most. His lips met the side of her jaw in thanks and reverence. "I knew what was happening and I stopped it before any harm could be done. I'm fine."
I am so sick of that damn phrase. If I have to hear 'I'm fine' one more time I'm going to stab somebody. The inner her cried peevishly as she battered against the solid metal door she'd been locked behind the moment they entered the cabin. The sensible part of her, the angel, had locked away the demonic side of her that was raunchy and demanding sex. Until she heard from the doctor's mouth that she would be just fine she wouldn't give in to her more basic desires.
Fuck you! I want sex!
She was more than thrilled that she was too tired outwardly to show her inner agitation and need. Even sick she knew that she needed to keep her wits about her and be the strong one. She could only crash once she knew everyone was settled.
Paul allowed her to sip at her tea on her own. She suspected that he knew that her hands would be warmer wrapped around the mug she had the tea in than out in the open if he were to hold it aloft for her. She appreciated that. Being fed like a baby, or a pampered Queen depending on her mindset, could be nice if she let her normally up-tight personality unwind to something more submissive and soothing. At times like this, though, where she was already out of sorts she didn't need pressure.
Bella needed what he was giving her.
Calm and patience.
And blessed heat. She thought as she dropped her head back into his collarbone. His chest moved rhythmically against her back as he breathed in and out, his breath fanning across her scalp. She felt beyond crappy and wanted nothing more than to get fully cleaned from her little 'swim' and then to fall into bed for a long nap.
Her inner slut slapped the door viciously and remarked that there would be no sleep until she got laid. The bitch was extremely needy, apparently.
Jacob came towards her from the kitchen, having been in there while Daire was getting her and Evy's tea, and set the backs of his fingers to her cheek to gage her temperature. Her eyes drifted downward from his concerned, yet slightly stiff face to view his recently acquired jeans. A part of her was thankful for the decency he and his brothers adopted since entering their home, but a greater part of her whined over the fact that she could no longer view him unhindered.
Dang, I'm turning into as much of a wanton-slut as that she-devil in me is.
"Your temperature has finally begun to come up to somewhere around normal." She bit her tongue sharply to keep herself from asking how he could possibly know since his hands were always as hot as a frying pan. "Do you feel sick? Dizzy?"
"Tired." She conceded to that. Even a drunken blind-man would be able to decipher that much about her. "I hurt," she said on a whisper after a drawn out minute. She was rewarded by Paul stiffening minutely under her before he began to knead his fingers into her arms with calculated strength.
Jacob's head cocked to the side as she sighed contentedly and the other boys went silent. His head nodded in a definitive manner an instant later.
"The doctor's here." Bella didn't bother asking how he knew. Either he'd smelled the doctor or he'd heard him. Maybe his wolf-senses had tingled? She didn't much care with Paul soothing away the minor muscle aches in her arms and shoulders.
Jacob waited until the front doorbell was wrung before going to let the doctor in. She smirked a little in her elected seat imagining the doctor's startled face if the door had been opened prematurely. Someone might have thought her men were psychics…or crazies always watching through the windows like peeping-Toms.
"Hello Jacob. How are you this evening?"
"Fine, Doc. Bella's in here with her friend Evy." Being faced away from the front door on Paul's lap she wasn't readily able to give the man a welcoming smile and eye-contact until he'd rounded the couch.
"Hello, I'm Doctor Kurt Jamison. Everyone around here calls me Doc. Clichéd, I know." The man intoned in his raspy old voice. He stretched out his grizzled hand for her to shake, which she did. She took him in from his pale brown eyes, wrinkled-tan forehead, and salted black hair tied in a low pony at the nape of his neck to his casual washed jeans, burgundy button-up, and well-loved black loafers. Doctor Jamison had to have been somewhere in his mid-to-late fifties, but he didn't look overly aged. He had wrinkles and a few age spots on his dark cheeks, but life seemed to have treated him well.
"I'm Bella." She cleared her throat when it cracked on her. Her left hand gestured towards Evy beside her. "This is Evy." She neglected to mention Paul. She didn't doubt that the two men knew each other and since the older man didn't object to her positioning she wouldn't bother to bring up her closeness to any of her men. He'd draw his own conclusions anyway.
"Nice to meet you." He slid the tea across the table a little ways before perching himself on the edge unabashedly. It made her smile softly. He had nerve, which would go a long way with her Shifters. They had enough people rolling onto their backs to please them. "Can you tell me what happened today, Bella?" The man asked as he opened a bag she hadn't taken notice of before. It looked like a paramedic's kit, minus the emergency symbols.
"Evy and I were walking the pier in Port Angeles when it fell in on itself. The splintered wood cut us when we fell. I helped Evy get out of the water, but got stuck. I drowned, but I was pulled out and they got me breathing again." Her throat was more raw after having explained, had been growing worse as she continued to use her voice after the incident, so she took a sip of her tea. The heat was nearly agonizing on her abused throat, but felt wonderful to the rest of her still chilled body.
"I see." The elder male pulled a stethoscope from his bag and proceeded to check her breathing despite Paul's refusal to remove her from his person. She inhaled and exhaled when asked, feeling the rasping in her chest and knowing he could hear it just as well. He took her pulse, checked the dilation of her eyes, inspected her ears, and tested her muscle reaction in her arms and legs. Following the preliminary exam he checked the wounds Jared had cleaned and bandaged before nodding. He mimicked the same procedure for Evy.
"All right," he began as he plopped back down onto the lip of the coffee table, "here's what I can see without any of my equipment. The first is that while your abrasions were tended to marvelously, I must say, the wood from the pier will have undoubtedly contained microbes and bacteria that can cause infection. I believe it would be best to give you both a tetanus shot." Bella paled considerably at those words. Her men gave her supportive and encouraging looks from behind the 'good doctor'. "You, Bella, also still have a very small trace of water left in your lungs. I imagine that you'll be sick several times through the night. You'll need somebody to watch you in case you get sick while you're asleep so that you won't choke. Will someone be with you for at least tonight?"
"She has us," Sam supplied unequivocally. The doctor responded in surprise, his brows receding up into his hairline for several moments before his previously sedate mannerisms returned. He was apparently well-versed in appropriate bed-side manner.
"Parents?" He inquired flatly.
"Bella's father is coming in a matter of a few hours when he's off work and Evy's guardians are these three." Jacob waved offhandedly towards Caleb, Boone, and Daire as they flanked Evy.
"Then I'm going to prescribe some antibiotics and painkillers for you girls. I have enough with me to last until tomorrow when you can go to a pharmacy and get the rest. Are either of you allergic to anything?" At their head-shakes he pulled a notepad with prescription sheets from his bag and scribbled on two of them. "The cuts, just so long as they're properly looked after, will heal cleanly and most won't even leave a scar. Mainly, Bella, you need to rest and recover. If you have any trouble breathing, become feverish, or remain sick for several days you are to go straight to the hospital. Do you understand?"
"Yes Sir." She agreed meekly, allowing Seth to take the prescription sheet from the man so that she could remain comfortably curled up on Paul's lap.
Doctor Jamison delved into his bag for a moment and then pulled out two intimidating looking needles, a vial, and a hazardous waste bag. Bella pulled back into Paul's chest as if she could disappear into him. She hated needles.
Seth stepped up beside them as the doctor prepped the needle. She bit her lip and glanced up at him pleadingly. Maybe they wouldn't make her get the shot? She'd be fine without it.
Her hopes were dashed, however, when Seth gripped her right shoulder with one hand and elbow with the other to keep it still and open for the doctor. She scowled deeply at him, silently promising retribution for this betrayal. He just gave her that indulgent look that she was becoming all too familiar with. It was look that said that she held all the strength of an adorable kitten.
"There now." Doctor Jamison proclaimed cheerily after he'd depressed the plunger into both of their arms and retreated to where it was safe…out of smacking distance of their hands. She and Evy fumed silently under the veil of their exhaustion. The damned shot hurt worse than a horse-fly bite. It felt more like the older man had jammed her arm with a blunt knife than a pin-sized needle.
The elder Native stood, packing up his supplies following his short visit, and giving all the men in the room sour looks. "I expect everyone to behave themselves. These girls have been through enough for one day and need rest to heal."
Clever man, the inner-her thought, paying him little heed nonetheless. She knew what she wanted, despite her fatigue, and she would get it regardless of her physical discomfort.
Eventually.
"Thank you, Doc," Jared spoke up, taking her pills from the older man. Boone took Evy's. "We'll stop by your office tomorrow to cover the charges."
"That would be much appreciated. Now, I'll wish you goodnight ladies and gentlemen. My wife is waiting for me at home." Bella waved to the man as Jared handed her her tea back along with the pills. She swallowed them without argument while the doctor was escorted out.
"He seemed nice." Evy yawned, being scooped up by Daire to cuddle in his lap after taking her own pills.
"He's a good man." Seth assured her with a light smile on his handsome face. "He's been working on the Rez as a doctor for the past thirty years or so. He deals with a lot of unique cases as well as random, normal things you'd expect from disobedient children always playing on the Cliffs. He's also aware of our dual nature since he's a member of the Council."
"I didn't know that." Bella yawned widely. Her brow furrowed when she registered that tiredness was creeping in a lot closer to her than it had been before. Could the pills really be working that quickly? If they were she didn't think she wanted to take any more.
Not like I'll have a choice, she thought waspishly, miffed that the guys always seemed to get high-handed with her at the worst times. Maybe when I go home with Dad after the weekend I can just throw the spare pills away? Hmm, it's a thought.
"We should be going." Caleb's deep voice intoned. His right hand swiped through Evy's inferno-like hair. "Evy needs to be put to bed."
"I do not!" Her friend snapped childishly. Bella knew the feeling. She always felt petulant when her men treated her like she was incapable of taking care of herself.
"You're falling asleep already, Pumpkin." Daire bopped her up and down on his lap gently. Evy's head lolled. She yawned again. The men, even hers, chuckled.
"They're all butt-heads." Evy spoke directly to her. Bella eyed her friend and suspected that the lethargy assailing the red-head was equal to her own. Undoubtedly she was due to be chastised as well if she fought against her men in this.
Jacob dropped to a crouch in front of her, drawing her attention there. His fingers caressed her cheek.
"Let's put you down for a nap before your father comes here, hm? We can bring Evy and her men and the pups with Issa over tomorrow to talk more, okay?" A lame argument that tomorrow was Friday and that Issa had school and she had work sprung to her mind, but did not pass her lips. Her men did what they wanted without reservations. She'd already decided she wouldn't have school since she was going to join her father in La Push for the weekend and now that she was injured she knew she wouldn't be allowed without coercion to return to work until she was better. Maybe not even then if they had it their way.
She just wasn't strong enough to take on an argument of that magnitude at that moment.
Bella drowsily opened her eyes as she was hoisted off of Paul's inviting lap and into Jacob's arms. Her own arms, heavily laden with the pain-killers the doctor had given her, settled over his shoulders so that her fingers touched each other behind his shoulder-blades. Her head, mouth facing and breathing over his neck, rested along his left shoulder. His hands held her aloft by her rounded posterior while her legs lightly embraced his thick waist. She was too spent to do much more than allow him to maneuver her.
"Escort them off the Rez and then come straight back here." Jacob's baritone rumbled through her like a vibrating chair. It made her hum reactively into his hold. She was swiftly losing control of all parts of herself to the welcoming embrace of sleep. Jake shook her a little roughly when her eyes fluttered against the darkened column of his throat to keep her conscious. "You know what to do."
With that he pivoted and began to carry her to her room. She didn't even have the energy to wave goodbye to the three Shapeshifters that were Evy's mates and her already softly-snoring friend as they were led to the front door. The doors to her room opened and closed with the same soft click of the metal handle and the swish of the aged wood across the carpet. It only served to lull her more.
The gentle rocking motion stopped abruptly as she was tipped backwards as her best friend pulled the sheets down as far as his single arm would allow him and set her down with such care she thought she might have evaporated into space without his loving devotion. She let her eyes close languorously as her body succumbed to the softness of her bed and the clean-smelling sheets all but swallowing her.
They flicked back open readily, however, when Jacob's hands hooked around the lower hem of her borrowed t-shirt.
"What are you doing?" She squeaked, grabbing onto both of his wrists with her much daintier hands. Her fingers had no hope of ever touching each other.
"Getting you comfortable." He responded easily, tugging her shirt upwards towards her head despite her grip on his appendages. He obviously saw her hands and knew she was expressing resistance, but chose to ignore it. It was feeble, anyway.
"I can sleep with my shirt on, thank you."
"It's better off." He replied firmly, his eyes shining with that yellow light as his wolf crawled to the surface. It was a gradual change that she was easily absorbed in. She half-heartedly struggled to keep her modesty as she monitored the change and their inability to revert back to coal-black. Apparently the wolf was going to be around for a while.
Her vision was temporarily cut off as the fabric of her top was pulled completely over her head, the hem from the neck-hole tickling across her nose as it was tossed aside. Her eyes followed it for only a second before they trained in on Jacob, who stepped back admiringly.
A flush suffused her cheeks when she realized that she lay before him wearing only her bra and panties. She was showing no more than a bathing suit would show, but this was somehow more intimate and dangerous. His eyes raked over her hotly wreaking havoc in their wake. His lustful gaze awakened the previously, and currently, horny demon inside of her consciousness that had been prepared to sleep without much complaint only minutes before.
Not anymore, she thought smugly, eating up the alpha male through her hooded eyes.
She felt her jaw quake and threaten to unhinge as Jake slowly, but surely stripped right before her eyes. There wasn't much to lose since he was wearing only a pair of well-loved jeans, but the loss of the constrictive clothing had an instantaneous effect on her.
This isn't happening, a part of her thought demurely, bashfully aware of how inexperienced she was. That part of her would forever wonder how a male like Jacob, or any of the guys, could find her appealing in any way. They were veritable Native Angels dropped to Earth and they looked at little-ole-her like she was some grand prize they never wished to let go of.
"Can I have a bath?" She asked softly, wanting to escape for a chance to think on what was about to happen and gather her senses rather than to clean herself, though that was on her list of things-to-do as soon as she had the energy.
Jacob gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll bathe you later, little one."
With him? She wondered blithely. A bath with him? That's a joke, right? She couldn't imagine someone bathing her like she was a child again. She wouldn't deny that the idea of him washing with her was arousing as all-get-out, but she had been giving herself a bath since as far back as she could remember. Like feeding her, bathing her as a toddler held as much charm as it did repulsiveness. In the right mood she guessed that she might accept anything.
FULL SCENE and STORY AVAILABLE ON LINKS ON PROFILE
Hopelessly lost in the great tidal wave that was her claiming she could only weakly accept the sudden openness of her heart. Warmth of another kind flooded into and out of her soul to some distant points. Seven of them. She registered a feeling of triumph echoing throughout her body, though the triumph and pride was not her own. A well of power she'd been unaware of having until only hours before swelled around them, even her wolves outside, and cocooned them. Seven shots of pure, sparkling energy released themselves from her and out to the men she called her own.
Bella sighed in both bliss and contentment. Jacob purred into her neck, lapping up at the blood she knew he'd drawn from her.
Bella shook like a leaf in her post-coitus high, her muscles spasming and locking uncontrollably. Her eyelids fell heavily closed as her mate continued his attentions on her. Sleep beckoned and with the aid of both her forgotten injuries, the medicine she'd been given, and the unsurpassable orgasm she'd been given she found no will to fight her body's desires. It was a wonder she hadn't passed out during her orgasm!
Falling into the abyss she didn't even register that Jacob was still buried in her, a tight knot having formed at the base of his penis near her entrance to hold him there, or that he kept mumbling words of endearment into her neck…the place he'd marked his territory to all others for the rest of their lives.
Nor did she notice that she wasn't the only one with a claiming mark on her person.
…For in her claiming, she'd indisputably used her own innate powers as mate to mark all of her men as hers.
Notes: So? What do you think? I know you've all been waiting for this and I hope that it hasn't let you down. Keep in mind that Jake is the Prime and needed to claim his alpha female first…from here on out they're all game at any time in any order or sequence.
Also, thank you all for the wonderful reviews on the previous chapter. Over a hundred reviews on that one!
Anyway, review at your leisure. As always, keep your language clean towards each other as you'll be heard much better if you're respectful.
…I hope y'all like it.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Twilight.