The Mating Ritual (4 page)

He did that for what seemed like a very long
time, amazing Toni. When he moved to the side, he brought her with
him, remaining inside her. Her eyes flared with disbelief, he was
still hard as stone.

“I hurt you?”

His concern surprised Toni. “No,” she said
softly, embarrassed now that it was over. She wasn’t sorry though.
She’d never done anything like this before, and she’d never felt
this content after being with a man. But still she had to ask
herself what had just happened. I’ve just had the best sex I’ve
ever had, that’s what. How was she supposed to feel about that?
Last night she’d been running from killers, and today she was
fucking some kind of primitive mountain man.

As insane as it was, somehow she felt that
might give her leverage over things to come.

He pulled, not slipped, out of her. Toni had
the feeling that under normal circumstances that wasn’t something
he would do. As he got to his feet she noticed he was still
somewhat hard, and dripping. The pungent smell of sex assailed her
nostrils and had a strong effect on her. It was like an
aphrodisiac, keeping her semi aroused. And him, too, it seemed.

She took the hand he offered, and soon found
herself on her feet. Then he snatched up the fur and wrapped it
around his hips. She in turn snatched up her ruined thong and put
it on, tying the broken ends to keep it in place.

“Go.” He pushed her in front of him.

A man of few words, Toni thought. She went
because she knew she didn’t have a choice. As the voices became
louder she became more nervous and self-conscious of her
semi-nudity. There was a mixture of male and female voices, and
surprisingly, she could hear children, too. That small thought
calmed her a little, and before she knew it, they were entering a
large, open cavern.

She took in the primitive scene before her
with a quick glance. There was a large fire pit in the center of
the cave, with skewers holding large fish and some kind of
vegetables on them. Two women who appeared to be the oldest in the
group were tending to it. She estimated there were about fifteen
adults and five children of different ages playing about. But what
caused her to gasp out loud and capture the attention of everyone
was the couple fucking in the corner. They were going at it like
dogs, lost in their own pleasure, and uncaring that they had an
audience.

There was no question that they were another
race of people, perhaps one that hadn’t yet been discovered. They
were tall, even the women, and muscular, with long hair the same
color as Cormac’s, and brown eyes, their bodies tanned from living
out doors and using the skins of animals as clothing. They looked
healthy, rugged, and powerful.

All at once, everyone stopped what they were
doing, and all eyes were on Toni. Even the couple screwing paused
for a few seconds before taking up where they had left off. Toni
stopped, aware Cormac was directly behind her, and she was
half-surprised that he didn’t push her forward. Feeling vulnerable
and exposed, she brought her waist-length hair forward to cover her
breasts.

The women, some clothed fully in pieces of
hide, and some naked from the waist up, were obviously curious. The
expressions on their faces ranged from being faintly welcoming to
coldly indifferent. The open stares of the men were altogether
different and slightly frightening. Carnal lust was the first
thought that came to Toni’s mind. It was as if they were all
instantly aroused. Their nostrils began to flare, and some even
raised their noses to the air and breathed in deeply.

She wanted to run screaming from the cave
when a few began to walk towards her, their gazes running over her
with definite purpose. When she saw their penises lengthening on
the males that were unclothed, she leaned back against Cormac with
growing panic. Her eyes grew round with fear because his cock was
just as hard. It was as if seeing her effect on his friends had
renewed his arousal, too. The possibility of being gang raped
entered her mind. She was thankful when Cormac’s strong arm slid
around her waist, pulling Toni against him sharply.

She wanted to believe he was sending a
message to the others that she belonged to him. One of the younger
men stopped abruptly, his brow furrowing.

“You have mated with her,” he said angrily,
his gaze focused on the lower half of Toni’s body.

Toni closed her eyes with embarrassment.
There was nothing she could do to stop the trail of cum that was
soaking through her thong and running down the inside of her
thighs, not with the amount of semen Cormac had spilled inside her
body. And the scent of their coupling was still strong and fresh,
surrounding them like a cape. When she opened her eyes again the
few men who’d stepped forward had stopped now, and were half
circling her and Cormac. Toni was suddenly afraid they were going
to attack.

“You know our laws,” another man said in an
accusing tone, stepping closer. He could be considered handsome if
not for the frown governing his expression.

“Cormac is our leader, Malik!” An older man
came to Cormac’s defense, his gaze shooting arrows at the circle of
men. He’d remained in the background until then.

Toni digested that information, but remained
quiet. She sensed that something of significance was taking
place.

“Until the mating ritual any man can claim
her!” Malik barked.

What?
Toni didn’t like the sound of
that. Especially the way Malik was looking her over with eager
lustiness. His large sex was dangling at half-mast between his
stocky thighs.

“You forget your place, Malik.” Cormac
growled, adding, “There will be a mating ritual when we reach the
others.”

Toni had no idea what that was, but intuition
told her that Cormac might indeed be staking his claim to her. She
didn’t care, as long as he kept her close she felt safer. The men
facing them were aroused, and their eyes, slightly wild looking,
said they wanted a go at the new girl.

“You claim this woman as your mate?” Malik
questioned with outrage. “She’s not from our kind.”

Toni felt as if he was reminding Cormac of
something important. She sensed that of all the men, this one in
particular was the most threatening. He was as big as Cormac, and
clearly not afraid to challenge his leader. The scowl between his
dark eyes said that he was angry, yet he was obviously aroused,
too. Toni’s gaze encompassed the various clusters of women who were
quietly looking on, searching for an ally, yet finding none. It was
as if they accepted this kind of behavior as normal.

“As leader of Oh-Mah I can claim any woman I
want,” Cormac finally said. “I want this woman as my mate. “

“Your mating with her already doesn’t change
anything,” Malik snarled. “It must be done according to our laws if
you want to keep her from us.”

Cormac said something low and menacing to
Malik in a language that Toni had never heard before. Whatever he
said, Malik responded by glaring at Cormac silently.

It appeared that as far as Cormac was
concerned there was no longer an issue, because he took Toni by the
arm and pulled her toward the fire. She squealed when one of the
men reached out and caressed her butt on the way by, but Cormac
didn’t break stride. When they reached the fire he addressed one
woman in particular.

“Take her.”

The woman nodded. Cormac left Toni there and
walked off. She followed him with her gaze, curious to see where he
was going, aware that most of the men were still ogling her as they
slowly returned to what they’d been doing before. She was glad that
they were keeping their distance. The couple rutting against the
wall finally finished with loud groans, but no one seemed to pay
them any mind. Cormac joined the older man who was resting against
the cave wall, the same man who’d spoken up for him earlier.

Toni took a deep breath and glanced back at
the woman in front of her. “My name is Toni.”

“I’m Lila.” She turned back to the fire.

“Lila, I’d like to go home.” Toni made sure
her voice didn’t carry. “Can you help me?”

Lila’s gaze flickered on Toni briefly, but
she ignored her comment. “Sit.”

Toni lowered herself carefully to one of the
smooth rocks circling the fire pit, feeling less on display once
she was sitting down. She examined the animal skin covering Lila’s
breasts and the bottom half of her body. It was simply made but
fully adequate in covering what it needed. Her long salt and pepper
hair was braided. It was hard to gauge her age, considering that
she appeared to have spent years in the sun. But despite her deeply
tanned skin and the lines around her eyes and mouth, it was obvious
that she’d been a beauty when she was younger.

“Do you think I can have something to wear?”
Toni decided to play dumb. With the exception of two women who were
completely naked, all of the women in the cave were covered like
Lila.

Lila glanced up from the pot she was
stirring. “Not until the mating ritual. Until then you remain as
you are. That’s the way it has always been. You already have
Cormac’s scent on you; it is what arouses the other males. Keep
your distance from them, and go nowhere alone.”

Gladly, Toni thought. She didn’t want to
invite trouble, and she especially didn’t want Malik to get his
hands on her. Her gaze moved about the cave, seeing more than one
passageway and wondering which one led the way out. It dawned on
her that even if she did find her way to the cave entrance, she
would still need help finding her way back home.

She watched Lila turn the fish over the fire.
“What exactly is the mating ritual?” she finally asked.

“It is when Cormac mates with you in front of
the whole village. Then you belong to only him, and no man is
allowed to touch you.”

In front of the whole village!
Toni
didn’t like the sound of that. She was the girl who didn’t like to
explore when it came to sex, who would never consider a threesome
or an orgy, or letting someone watch while she had sex, much less a
group. She wasn’t a prude, or she would have never enjoyed the
lusty romp she and Cormac had shared earlier, but public sex? Not
going to happen!

She had to get back home. By now the local
police would know that something had happened to her. Detective
Todd would have been notified, and Mary. Mary would be worried
sick, but with two little ones, a third on the way, and a husband
who traveled a lot, she wouldn’t have time for much more than that.
Toni had to make Cormac listen to reason, and if he refused to help
her she’d just follow the river until she reached somewhere that
she could get help.

“He will not let you go.” Lila’s soft voice
broke into Toni’s thoughts. “There are others, females, in the
mountains who are not descendants of Oh-Mah. In the beginning they
all tried to escape, too. But they were mated early on, and became
pregnant. Once that happens they will never let you go.”

“Oh-Mah?” Toni remembered Cormac using that
word.

“Your people call us Bigfoot.”

What is she saying?
Toni shook her
head with shock and disbelief. Was the woman crazy? “Bigfoot? I
don’t believe you. That’s a legend, a myth. He doesn’t exist.” She
began to glance at everyone with a different eye, looking for signs
that proved what Lila was telling her was the truth. She almost
burst out laughing that she would consider it for even a
second.

“It is true,” Lila insisted. “There has been
Oh-Mah for many centuries. But a sickness took their women, and
made others infertile, so Oh-Mah men took women like you to breed.
This go on for centuries, now Oh-Mah look like your people.

They’d evolved?
Toni was shaking her
head in denial the entire time that Lila spoke. “No. That’s not
possible!” These people are the descendants of Bigfoot? Other than
outrageous stories of sightings throughout history, no one had ever
proved that Bigfoot actually existed.

“Is true,” Lila insisted again. “There is one
small family of full-blooded Oh-Mah left, deep in the mountains up
north. They are dying off because they refuse to weaken Oh-Mah
bloodline.” She stopped stirring the pot she was squatting next to
and fixed her gaze on Toni. “You will see one day.”

“No.” Toni slowly rose to her feet, horror
setting in at the wild story the woman was telling her. “I don’t
believe you! You’re crazy!” She began to back up, forgetting where
she was, and unknowingly drawing interest from the rest. “You’re
all crazy!” When would she wake up from this nightmare? Without
thinking, she turned to flee. There was only one way to go, and
that was back the way she’d come. She’d gladly take her chances and
jump into the river.

An animalistic roar echoed off the cave
walls. “Woman, stop!”

Toni recognized Cormac’s loud command but she
ignored him. It didn’t matter anyway, because she slammed into
another male in the group. It was Malik. He took her by the
shoulders and with a snarl threw her up against the wall. Toni
screamed when he followed her there, crushing her with his huge
bulk. His large hands found her breasts, squeezing them until she
cried out. He was hard and wet against her belly, and real terror
raced through her at the possibility that he was going to rape her
before anyone came to her rescue. Everything was happening so
fast.

Then he was pulled from her body, and
suddenly she was able to breathe again. Cormac had come to her
rescue, his features contorted with rage, his eyes flashing like
lightning in the dark, most of which he directed at her. Then he
turned his attention to Malik, and for the first time Toni noticed
that the other man had been thrown practically to the other side of
the cave.

He’d hit the wall as if it was nothing,
swinging around to face Cormac. His body language spoke volumes. He
was ready for a fight. Cormac spoke in the dialect Toni had heard
him use earlier. The two men squared off as if getting ready to
fight. They went back and forth, swinging their arms in her
direction. The guttural language sounded old and primitive, almost
making Lila’s outrageous story believable. The others in the group
were standing by and watching, their expressions tense. The
children had stopped playing and were hiding behind the women that
Toni assumed were their mothers.