MatingRitual (7 page)

His thighs flexed hard when he withdrew his cock, grabbed it
and rubbed it against the puckered hole spread before him. Holding back the
instinct to ram his cock inward, instead he checked his barely leashed lust and
eased his tip into her.

Kella squirmed as if to scramble across the bed, but Jaggar
held her close.

“I will not hurt you, Kella.”

“Please, Jaggar…do not do this…”

“I will not hurt you,” he whispered again. Slowly, with only
the tip of his cock, he rubbed it gently against her hole until her body
stilled.

“Jaggar,” her muffled voice came to him. “It is like the
other times…it will be like with my tribesmen. Please don’t hurt me.”

“No, Kella. This mating is not me forcing you. It is the two
of us walking to the edge together, hand in hand. Trust me.” He kept with the
slow, short glides past her tight rim, knowing she needed to accustom herself
to what he was doing. His fingers left her hair. Tenderly cupping her hips, he
held her in place and pushed a bit more forward, watching how her ass stretched
around his cock.

Kella’s forehead sank to the cushions. She said nothing
more.

Jaggar biggest desire was to drive inward. Instead, he
reached beneath her and stroked her clit, small sensuous brushes against the
swollen bud, caresses that would soothe her fear and excite her woman’s body.
Moments passed and still she said nothing.

“Kella,” he breathed. “Tell me what you want.”

Her head rolled against the cushions. Her body stretched
wide, but the sting of entry lessened. In its place, a hot fire built deep
inside. It spread from where his fingers stroked her clit, up through her belly
and on to her heart. This would not be like all the other times when she was
forced. This was what Jaggar called the mating ritual.

Jaggar was right. He would not hurt her. He could have
easily accomplished that moments earlier. Instead, he nestled his cock inside
her ass, prodding until she had relaxed enough to accept him.

She rose up on all fours and whipped her white hair across
her shoulders as his fingers tightened around her hips. Her eyes closed as the
flames built higher. The fiery heat licked at her core.

“Kella…”

“Yes, Jaggar! To the edge…together.”

His fingers firmed.

His cock slowly slid deep.

And joyfully, she accepted him.

Kella rolled to her back, her gaze settling on the high
window across the room. She sighed as she continued to stare. It had become her
morning ritual. To awake, most times alone in the room, and then think about
the freedom outside the window and beyond the stone wall.

She rolled to the edge of the bed and rubbed away the chill
on her arms. With a sigh, she rose and slipped a softly furred sarong over her
head and smoothed it into place. A smile nipped at the corners of her mouth as
she moved to the waterskin for a drink. Jaggar had presented her with the new
sarong only days earlier, stating another would be forthcoming.

Her fingers moved to the exquisitely crafted necklace of
shells around her neck. Kella had never seen something so beautiful. Jaggar
explained how on the edges of their world, a huge body of water rippled its way
to the horizon. Kella found that hard to believe. How was it possible that a
pond could be so massive as to reach the sun when the orb settled in the
evening sky? But Jaggar insisted he knew of what he declared. There was no
shore on the other side, no end to how far the water reached, and the shells
she now touched came from that water.

She perched on the chair and waited. Jaggar would soon
arrive as was his morning custom and take her to the ditch. Those times were
the only times she had a chance to speak with Marte.

Kella scraped her palm through her snarled locks, working to
smooth the tangles, thinking about the other women who were captured along with
her and her friend. Where were they? Neither she nor Marte had seen any of them
since the night they were tied in the market area. Kella fervently hoped they
were alive and faring as well as she was.

Every day she’d seen Marte at the ditch, and both Jaggar and
Crete allowed them to speak privately for a few short moments. The women never
let a day go by without whispering about the urgent need to escape. Neither of
the women had found the ragweed within the perimeter of the Stonemen’s fortress
and both began to fear the repercussions of a swelling belly. Somehow they had
to find a way to fix that problem or forever be scorned.

Kella leaned back in the chair, hoping Jaggar would arrive
soon. She needed to go to the ditch.

Jaggar. He confused her immensely and Kella found it more
difficult as the days passed to hate her captor as she should. Instead, she
found herself listening for his heavy footsteps in the outer hall. And now that
Jaggar allowed his servants to enter the room with food and water, Kella would
soon become disgusted with herself when her heart fell with their presence
instead of the Stoneman who made the blood race hotly through her body.

She’d finally found the courage and spoke with Marte only
days earlier, wondering if her friend experienced the same strange magic with
the Stoneman Crete. Marte’s reaction had been to stare at her with a scowl,
telling her to be ashamed. Her friend was adamant that being mated with one of
the big black warriors was still far more horrible than being under a grunting
Magya clansman. She’d grabbed Kella’s slim upper arms and gave her a good
shake, telling her to remember she was a Magya chosen one, an honor that could
never be surpassed.

And Kella tried to remember that always, but it was becoming
harder and harder…

Her head snapped up and she stared at the door when she
heard Jaggar’s voice on the other side. When he stepped into the room, her
heart beat a bit faster. Why? She needed to think about escaping, needed to
remember she was a chosen one. Kella tossed away her instant elation with his
presence and struggled for aloofness. She had to tear her gaze away and pretend
to study the clasped hands in her lap. Above all, she needed to remember her
ancestry.

“Are you ready to go to the ditch?” he asked. “I have a
surprise for you.”

Kella shrugged.

“Kella, I asked you a question.”

She stood, never meeting his gaze as she walked stiffly past
him and into the hallway. A shiver of goose bumps rippled down her bare arms
and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end when she discovered he was
following directly behind her.

“Am I to be ignored today?”

She quickened her descent down the steps, never
acknowledging him. Soon they were on the path to the ditch and she hurried to
stay a step out of his reach. For some reason, Jaggar allowed her mood, which
she thought was odd. Not once within the entire scope of her captivity had he
let her do anything her way.

Once they reached the ditch, he turned his back to her and
gave her privacy, but with the set of his shoulders, Kella knew he was aware of
her every move. Finished, she stepped beside him, her gaze searching the path
for her friend. Before she knew it, Jaggar took her arm and headed in the
opposite direction from where they’d come.

“Where are we going?” she asked with a slight tug, but his
hold was tight.

“So now you speak?” he questioned without looking at her.

Kella dug in her heels and forced him to stop. “I want to
wait for Marte.”

“Marte has already been here.”

“But why? We always come here at the same time.”

“Today will be different.”

Kella’s stomach tumbled, knowing she had made a mistake by
dismissing the big warrior earlier. She needed to fix her error or she might
never see Marte again. “I am sorry, Jaggar, for being childish this morning.
Please let me see Marte. Seeing my friend helps me get through the day.”

He spun on his heel and towered over her with a menacing
look. “That is the only thing that helps you? You lie, Kella.” He yanked her
close and rubbed his growing cock against her body. “This is what helps you
through the day. This is what puts a smile on your face and softens your heart.
You are mine first before you are a friend to Marte.”

“No!” She swung out with her fist, but Jaggar captured it in
midair before she connected with his chin.

“Yes! You are mine. And you would do well to remember that.”

“I hate you! I will never be completely yours. I am a Magya
chosen one, and I will never forget that.”

She watched the changing planes of his face. First his eyes
widened at her rebuff. Then his jaw tightened. When he swung her around and
dragged her from the path and into the dense brush, Kella knew she had pushed
him too far. He shoved her against a tree and pinned her body against the rough
bark.

She had never seen him this angry. Kella waited for his
hands to circle her neck, expecting the worst. Instead he dragged her sarong up
over her hips and clamped his hand between her legs.

“You push me, woman, and I will prove you wrong. I have been
kind and patient. I have fed you and sheltered you instead of tossing you to my
men.”

“You mate me against my will!” she screamed at him as he
shoved aside his leggings and his cock sprang free to rest against her naked
belly. Her scream ended abruptly when his finger entered her. She struggled
against the instant quake of desire that rushed through her limbs.

“I have never forced you, only guided you along the way.”
His mouth dipped closer and Kella rolled her head to the side. Effortlessly,
Jaggar chased her lips until he captured them, his finger plunging in and out
of her now wet tunnel, stopping to linger with a roll of her clit, then back
deep and hard inside.

Kella groaned as she opened her mouth to allow his tongue.
His magic drugged her. His finger coaxed her to the flame she knew would soon
burn bright. She couldn’t fight it, no matter how she hated him at the moment.

He lifted her from the ground with her back now against the
tree. Automatically her thighs curled around his waist, finding secure anchor.
Her eyes opened and she stared into the blackness of his steady gaze.

“You are mine,” he whispered as he adjusted both their
bodies and his cock slipped inside her cunt…deep and throbbing. He held her
there, filling her completely, stretching her wide.

The fight completely left Kella when she grasped his broad
shoulders. He clutched her slim hips and stroked upward, filling her time after
time. The bark of the tree bit into the tender flesh of her back. The heat of
his body grinding against her clit with each stroke, urged her on until her
mouth sank open and her head sank to the side. Her body burned and Kella
welcomed the intense heat.

“Say it, Kella,” Jaggar grunted out as his body pierced her.
“Say it. Say you are mine…”

Her head lolled from side to side, but she remained silent.
In answer, Jaggar stilled his strokes.

“Say it and we will go over the edge together.”

She squeezed her muscles around his cock and moved her hips
to no avail. The flame was there, ready to engulf her. She needed his magical
heat. Kella licked her lips and opened her mouth.

“Say it.”

“I am yours…”

His wide hips jerked upward with her three words. She gasped
with delight.

* * * * *

Kella hurried to keep pace with Jaggar on an unfamiliar
trail. She realized they were still within the Stonemen compound, but each step
took them farther from the ditch and the sexual encounter that still made
Kella’s stomach lurch with remembrance.

When he was done mating her, he kept her body pinned against
the tree, his cock still inside her, and dallied with his lips upon her neck.
He’d even managed to do all this and divest himself of his shirt.

Kella swallowed hard. Her gaze settled on his hard muscles
rippling beneath his black skin as he walked in front. From there, her gaze
traveled lower to take in his buttocks and long legs. She felt herself flush,
thinking again about the hot mating against the tree.

Time was running out for Kella. Jaggar’s hold on her
emotions was building, was becoming too strong. If she did not find a way to
escape soon, his magic would bind them forever. She needed to remember she was
Magya. She needed to never forget she was a chosen one, no matter how his lips
felt against hers and how his huge cock made her blood sing with joy.

She nearly ran into him when he paused at the end of a
trail. A warrior guarded the wooden exit. She waited as the man opened the door
for her and Jaggar. Quickly she followed him through, realizing with excitement
they were now outside of the compound. It was the first time she’d been allowed
since being taken captive.

Jaggar stepped aside and immediately she saw Crete and Marte
in an open field. Crete leaned against the trunk of a tree, seeming to enjoy the
cool shade, his eyes on his woman as she moved about in the tall grass to bend
and pluck greenery and stuff it inside a basket she carried.

Kella raced headlong in her direction, calling out her
friend’s name. Marte turned, set the basket down quickly and ran to Kella. They
embraced, ignoring the men who spoke quietly beneath the tree.

“Marte! I despaired of seeing you today! What is happening?
They actually let us out of the fortress!”

Marte grabbed her hand, pulled her away from the men and
picked up her basket. “We don’t have much time. Here…” She reached inside her
tote and a second later shoved some greenery into Kella’s hand.

Kella’s gaze snapped from her fist to Marte’s eyes. “You
found ragweed? How did you talk Crete into bringing you here?”

Marte’s guarded gaze darted to the men and her voice
softened. “I told him I needed medicine because I did not feel well. I have
pretended to be ill and finally he relented and brought me here. I asked that
you join me and Jaggar consented. We need to eat the ragweed, Kella! Today! Or
there is a good chance we will be cast aside by our own clansmen when we
escape.”

Kella glanced at Crete and Jaggar. “How are we to ever
escape? They watch too closely.” Jaggar’s magic raced through her brain and
once again, Kella felt the indecision overtake her. Panic filled her but she
wasn’t sure of the exact reason. Was it because she needed to escape as soon as
possible, or did she want to stay in his arms always? Her knees shook thinking
about the many different things he did to her body. She needed to show
strength! She had to do what was right no matter how her body betrayed her.

She grabbed her friend’s arm. “Yes! We must make plans,
Marte. The Stoneman’s magic is strong. He is casting a spell on me. Soon it
will be too late.”

Marte tipped her head and studied her friend. “What magic do
you speak of?”

Kella could not meet her eyes and Marte shook off her hold.
“What does he do to you that you think this way? Tell me now! You are my friend
and I will help somehow.”

Kella shrugged silently. “He does things to…me. He makes me
forget that…that I am a chosen one. He touches me…”

A sudden realization dawned in Marte’s eyes. “He mates you…
His mating makes you forget? Kella! You cannot let it happen!” She grabbed
Kella’s clutched fist and forced it tighter around the ragweed. Her voice
lowered when the warriors turned to look at the women. “You must eat the weed.
You must not let his magic change you. We will escape,” she hissed. “Kella,
Crete mates me. I say nothing, I do nothing. Now instead of being wary, he has
allowed me to stray from his home. We are here, Kella, in this field because I
play at being stupid! Even your Stoneman is less wary now or he would never
have let you join me here! And we will continue to visit the outside world and
our escape will happen.” Her gaze cast about as her thoughts suddenly took a
different direction. “We are chosen Magya. It is an honor we prayed for since
we were young. I will never forget and I will never let
you
forget. This
is what we must do. You must also insist they let us journey outside the gates.
I will tell Crete I need other herbs and greens. He is stupid and only thinks
about what is between his legs. I will insist you come with me. It will happen,
Kella. We will be able to make our escape.”