The Dom Tests Her Serenity [Unchained Love 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (11 page)

“That’s clever,” said Josh, watching carefully.

Josh and David took a pile of strips and some tools and began installing the protective strips. Very cautiously Josh brought their conversation around to what he wanted to know. “So how are you adjusting to living with a pack in one place instead of moving around?” he asked David.

David squatted back on his haunches and said, “You know, when I was first kicked out of my father’s pack, I reveled in the freedom to be myself, to be alone, to go wherever I wanted to. But after months of that, I realized I didn’t just miss my mother and little brother and sister, I missed the bonds of community and belonging. Finding Leticia was the most awesome thing ever. It’s not the same as having Bethany back, but it gives me the sense of family I was so missing.”

Josh nodded. “I suppose I’ve been lucky in that Pete and I have been friends for so long. Basically our entire lives. So not having other family hasn’t affected me much, as we’ve always had each other and the pack.”

“I thought I had friends. Certainly I had people I grew up with and we hung out together. But when the Alpha decided we were second-class citizens, they disappeared in the blink of an eye. That pack was home to me, but it was nowhere near as organized and…civilized, I guess is the word I’m looking for. I truly believed any woman would be happy to mate me once I was Alpha. But here I can see there’s so much more. Our Alpha always had the best of everything, and everyone had to do whatever he said. Here people care about each other and share what they have. I’m going to apply for membership here at Carnal Connections. I want to stay and give back something of what this place has given to me.”

“It’s good you’ve found somewhere to belong. Omar is a good Alpha. He can be mighty fierce and scary, but he’s always fair and wise with it.”

“Fuck yes, Omar’s scary. But even when he’s very angry he’s never out of control. He always knows exactly what he’s doing and means what he says. Larry, too. Our Alpha…” David shook his head, and Josh wondered what crazy things the Alpha had done. Certainly David had lacked normal socialization. The kinds of things every adolescent panther—or human—learned growing up.

As for throwing David, his mother, and his siblings out for being mixed blood, that was stupid, too. There were far too few female panthers around and the Alpha had discarded not just a woman but also her daughter. Insane indeed.

Josh and David worked all day tidying the storage barns, raising things higher off the ground, installing protective threshold strips, putting wooden shutters over windows, and generally preparing for winter. Heavy snowfalls were forecast for next week and snow couldn’t come soon enough for Josh. Snow meant that he, Pete, and Serena would mate formally. Meanwhile, he came away from the day believing David was not just reformed but sincere.

Which only left Galen, Sam, Drew, Charlie, and the rest of the rogue panthers to worry about!

* * * *

Serena was very excited about Thanksgiving. The entire community was joining together for a special meal and celebration. Serena couldn’t remember ever having so many people in the one place for a meal. The men had spent an entire day moving the furniture in the barn. The stage had been pushed to the back wall, couches and small tables placed around the walls, and down the center of the room was a long rectangle made of trestle tables covered in crisp white cloths with chairs to seat over a hundred people.

The folks from the movie studio would be there as well as everyone in the BDSM community and the entire panther pack. Of course Serena knew all the panthers, they were her pack. But she didn’t know the names of everyone in the BDSM community. Some of them were very private people who stayed in their own homes, went to work outside the property, and only appeared at communal BDSM events sometimes. She guessed she’d know their faces but possibly not even that much about them. To share the holiday with everyone like this was thrilling indeed.

The women had spent a long time discussing the menu and decided to go with traditional dishes. As well as the roasted turkey and mashed potatoes there would be a green bean casserole, butternut squash, sweet potatoes and yams cooked with cheddar and rosemary, homemade cranberry sauce, gravy, and stuffing made with celery and mushrooms. There’d been so many arguments over whether to serve pumpkin pie or pecan pie they’d decided to have both. With so many people eating together it was better to have a choice, Serena thought, although she guessed some of the men would want a slice of both pies.

Serena smiled internally. Fifteen, or even ten years ago, she and Verity would have dressed identically at a gathering like this and tried to fool people as to which of them was which. More recently Verity had decided to trim her hair into a short bob cut, while Serena had left hers long. They were not identical—Verity’s hair was more reddish and her eyes more brown than hazel—but they were sufficiently similar that when they tried to confuse people they almost invariably could. Growing up, Verity had always been a fraction of an inch taller than Serena, something they’d been able to disguise by never standing exactly side-by-side to permit people to notice the difference.

But tonight was not for that kind of fun and games. Tonight was about sharing together, being truly a united community of humans and wolves and panthers. A group where many practiced lifestyle BDSM, some just played at it, and a few didn’t even do that much, but where everyone was accepted as a person with their own distinct tastes and needs, be it for bondage play, ménage sex, or to run through the night in animal form.

At the end of the room, the stage, hard against the back wall to leave enough space for the long tables down the center of the room, had a lovely display of fall-colored leaves and flowers, with lots of oranges, golds, and bronzes among them. The center of each table had been decorated with more leaves and flowers, as well as tiny origami panthers, wolves, and people. And on four stands equally spaced in the middle of the tables were more vases of flowers.

Serena thought the room looked truly lovely, decorated simply and with understated elegance. She also guessed many of the vases of floral arrangements were Leticia’s work. Leticia certainly had an affinity with plants.

The room was filling with people now, and Pete and Josh came and stood beside her. They both looked very handsome, Pete in a red business shirt with narrow white stripes on it and Josh in a long-sleeved, deep-blue T-shirt. Serena couldn’t help thinking that, of all the ménages which had formed since the panthers arrived at Carnal Connections, theirs was the only one with three big cats and that they all had brown hair. Not a blond, a redhead, or a person with black hair among the three of them. Of course, she was a cougar, not a panther, but they were all big cats. Only shape-shifters seemed to innately sense the differences between the subspecies. Her fur was more tan than brown in animal form, too. But nonetheless, as a triad, they were quite similar. More so than any of the other groups.

Larry’s voice boomed through the room, causing everyone to hush. “The food is ready, people. Please take a seat.”

Pete pulled out a chair for her and settled Serena between the two of them, and people waited quietly as the huge platters of food were brought across from the main kitchen and placed up and down the tables. Serena couldn’t imagine how much work it must have taken to prepare such a meal, although she knew many women had begun working on it yesterday. She also knew they’d used the kitchens of some of the families, too, as even the huge commercial kitchen on the property was not big enough to cook such a meal as this.

The next half hour was full of noise and happiness as people laughed and talked, moving around the room to chat to other friends once they’d finished eating, sharing stories of the past year and generally enjoying themselves. Again Serena realized she’d never seen so many truly happy people together in the one place before. Even at movies and other parties she’d attended, many people remained unsmiling, likely talking about serious things or just watching other people dance. But here every face was beaming, and everyone seemed genuinely pleased to be present.

Once again Larry’s voice boomed out. “Before you can have your pie you have to sing for your supper—”

“From the 1938 Broadway musical—” Jubilee began only to be cut off by Carey’s louder voice, “—
The Boys from Syracuse
.”

“One point each,” said Larry, not missing a beat as most people laughed at his mates’ interruption. Jubilee and Carey’s never-ending trivia competition provided entertainment for the entire community as well as occasional fascinating details.

“I’d like some of you to say what has been special for you about the year that’s just past. What are you, personally, thankful for?”

Omar stood, and everyone turned to look at his commanding figure. “I’m very thankful that you people have accepted the panthers here. Life was difficult for us on the farm. We’d spent many happy years there, but with the coming of the rogue panthers we were no longer secure. When they tried to kidnap Ramona, my heart nearly stopped beating. You are my heart,” he finished softly, looking straight at a blushing Ramona.

He took a breath and looked around at all the people lining the tables. “So thank you to everyone in the BDSM community and to the others who’ve welcomed and accepted us.”

People clapped and cheered, then one after another many of those present spoke a word, a sentence, or a short speech. Serena was almost overwhelmed with the love and acceptance being put into words.

David stood and said, “I’ve never been to a communal Thanksgiving meal such as this before. My mother cooked for us each year, but it was just our nuclear family. To be part of a community like this is wonderful.”

Leticia, who was sitting next to him, said, “I’m thankful for freedom. I never knew how much I’d missed it until it was restored again. I can’t thank everyone here enough for accepting me.”

Raegan spoke next. “I had been told my child had died at birth. To find I had a son, a living son, a wolf like me, was the most wonderful thing that could ever have happened to me. I’m grateful to this community for bringing us together. I’m grateful for my son and his two mates.” Raegan smiled at Tor, Gaynor, and Cameron. Serena rather thought his eyes were damp as he looked at his family.

Lucy and Bill each spoke, then the tall, blond panther, Galen, stood and stepped behind his chair so everyone could see him. “I know some of you have worried about where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing. I didn’t even tell my Alpha because I didn’t want anyone to know until it was finalized. While I was in Texas I studied photography, and as I’ve traveled through the country I’ve taken pictures. Not calendar-type pretty, scenic pictures but stark pictures of drought, poverty, and abuse.

“I entered a dozen of my shots in an international competition in the hopes of winning enough prize money to establish myself as a photographer so I could be based here and only travel to and from commissioned assignments. Well, I didn’t win, but I did pick up three honorable mentions, which got me an interview. When I left recently it was to rush to the airport for the interview. I only got an hour’s warning of the flight time, likely to prevent me from padding my resume.”

People laughed and clapped.
He won prizes in a photographic competition! I didn’t even know he took pictures, pretty or otherwise.

“Thank you. I have a job now and want to thank y’all for letting me stay here. I know some of you have been worried about my intentions, and I can assure you I know nothing about the rogue panthers. World Photography website has offered me a three-year contract to take specific pictures for them. Obviously I’ve accepted. Some are location and time dependent, so I’ll be away from time to time, but my home will be here. I’m also hoping to pick up some work in this area for when I’m between projects. I just wanted to say thank you for letting me stay here, and I hope this will be my future home.”

Galen sat down to more clapping and cheering.
He’s a good guy, not a rogue panther. He didn’t help Jim escape from jail. He’s just what Leticia remembered him as being, a nice ordinary man, pushed out of the pack because of Leticia’s father’s overprotectiveness. I hope he finds true happiness.

While the pie was being served, Serena got out of her chair and deliberately moved around to speak to some of the women in the BDSM community who she didn’t know very well. She tried hard to memorize names and faces, and time and again her gaze was drawn to the collars so many of these women wore. One of the women had the most incredible corset piercing all down her back, with black ribbon threaded through the loops tied in a bow at the base of her spine. Several had collars that couldn’t ever be removed, they’d been sealed shut around the sub’s neck. Serena especially enjoyed talking to these women and learning more about the lifestyle she and they had chosen. Would she like a collar herself? Maybe not.

She was content to be a sub in the dungeon or the bedroom, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to hand all her life over to Pete to make the decisions. She certainly trusted him now, it wasn’t anything like that, but she wanted to be submissive in the bedroom. She rather thought she liked being able to make her own decisions in some things.
Balance, that’s what it is.
The freedom to give everything to Pete in the bedroom, the freedom to relax and just do whatever he wants me to do with him or with Josh, but the ability to make decisions in the outside world and at work. If I fail there, it’s on my own head. It’s my own fault. But I like both, freedom and responsibility. Both are empowering in totally opposite ways.