Uleni's Gamble (15 page)

Anton wanted to know the same thing, so they sent for the mage watching the town while the enemy slept while they ate lunch. After a hushed conversation between Anton and the mage, Anton filled them in.

“He just didn’t think to get a head count, he watched for Riese and followed him and a large group of soldiers,” looking at the man in disgust Anton continued, “Please let the others know we need full headcounts, he might leave more ambushes behind.”

After the mage left, his face red, Anton said, “It may have been stupidity, but to be fair, mages aren’t really trained in this kind of work, I should have made it clearer. It better not happen again though.”

He sighed, it was close to a week to cross Egeria to the capitol, that meant Riese would probably be there close to three days before they were. Nothing to do about it though, so they packed up and moved on, going as quickly as they could.

He had considered getting the travel mage to move some of them out front, but it was just too risky. They needed the numbers in case the enemy closed with them, especially in light of the fact they had already managed to ambush them once.

Sara was a welcome distraction to his thoughts when she walked beside him and took his hand.

She said quietly, “Did you know Trina and I…”

He smiled, “Yes, congrats. Do I need to go fight her for bed time or something? I’ve never been on this side of things before. You look nervous, what’s wrong?”

She smiled and kissed his cheek, “Not anymore, I… didn’t know how you would take it.”

He asked her confused, “What do you mean, take it? Isn’t it an open thing and all?”

She nodded, “Normally yes, but some don’t see two woman being together as natural. After all, we can never really be true mates in the sense of having children together.”

He was thoughtful for a moment and said, “It doesn’t bother me at all. Besides, if and when we become mates, she can be our child’s crazy aunt.”

She snickered, “And no, you don’t have to fight for bed time. Maybe when Trina and I become start sleeping together as well, then you have to ask for that. But sex time is easy, I can be with her when you’re with your other mates.”

He sighed and said in a faux serious tone, “Fine, but I’m not sharing our ropes, you’ll have to find more if you want to tie her up too.”

She giggled and bumped his arm with her shoulder. “Behave.”

He finally realized she had been nervous because she had expected him to reject her for having a relationship with another woman. So he kissed her softly and concentrated on all the feelings he had for her, and what she meant to him, knowing she would read it. She shouldn’t have to doubt him… He loved her far too much for that…

Chapter 12

Katrina moaned in pleasure.

“Right there honey, right there, little deeper… yes, that’s it baby, right there, don’t stop…”

She wondered where he learned to do this, it felt unbelievable. She felt something in her body give way and the tense muscles in her neck and shoulders relaxed. She moaned again as he started working on her lower back, goddess she loved this man.

He whispered softly, “Feel good Kat?”

She just smiled, twisted her head around as far as she could, and looked up at him. He seemed to enjoy spoiling her as much as she did, which, really worked out well in her opinion.

“You know I do love. But I have other places that need attention,” she said with an arched eyebrow.

He grinned, “My pleasure,” and she felt him slide a hand between her thighs, grazing her now hot and slick passage.

She opened her legs farther while looking at him in faux shock, “I meant my feet!”

He looked innocent as he said, “But I have to go in order, top the bottom, or I might get confused and miss something,” as he slid a finger into her welcoming heat.

She gasped and closed her eyes, “Oka… okay then, but you have to remem… remember!”

Goddess he drove her wild, she could never get enough. She only teased to hide what a besotted wench she was who only wanted to please him. She couldn’t help that he made her a wanton slut, it was just the way it was. The thing that made it okay for her though, was their deep love, and the fact she could wind him up just as easily with a simple look.

He playfully smacked her butt and grabbed her hips pulling her up on her hands and knees. She looked back coquettishly and said, “What are you doing?” with false alarm.

He coughed, hiding a smile, then said deadpan, “My fingers aren’t long enough to massage you properly there. I’m only thinking of you babe, this is selfless right here.”

She was breathless as she felt her silken folds part, his long pole stretched and filled her aching heat. Her muscles released and contracted, trying to adjust as he filled her inch by inch, pleasure flooded her body, radiating from her core. She considered continuing their banter, but she was breathless and scattered. His fingers were doing circles on her ass and lower back, it felt amazing along with his now completely buried cock.

She felt him playing with the rim of her dark star while the other hand ran fingertips up her back. He grasped her hair and pulled back, arching her back, which increased penetration and caused him to hit some good spots when he started to saw in and out of her clutching needy core.

She gasped as the pleasure started to spiral and started bucking back against him, slamming their flesh together. She felt her center clench and the pleasure spiral in her body.

“Faster, please faster, and harder, oh goddess Justin, yes, fuck me harder!”

It was so intense it was almost painful, and just when it was about to be too much her coiling center exploded, releasing all that tension into pure bliss. Her eyes widened as he just kept going, not stopping, her second trip to heaven started just as she felt him expand and start emptying his seed within her. She closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of his hands rubbing her back and ass, her body blissfully spent after two orgasms, for the moment.

He turned her over and gave her a long kiss, “I love you Kat.”

When he turned around, grabbed her legs and wrapped them around his waist, with her sitting behind him. She wrapped her arms around him, caressing his chest with her fingernails and said, “What are you doing?”

He said innocently, “My massager is on a short break, figured I’d get your feet now. I can finish the other part later.”

She started laughing helplessly and fell back. Her laughter abruptly turned to a moan when she felt how good his foot massage actually was…

*

Nora watched the tent entrance, guarding Katrina’s and Justin’s time together and to make sure they stayed safe. If anything happened they wouldn’t hear it behind the privacy spell Sally had set up each night. Sally came in wearing a huge smile, and walked over to join her.

She said, “Hey Sal, I could do with some good news, what’s up?”

Sally’s grin grew wider and she said, “We are pregnant.”

She froze a minute, “We?”

Sally nodded happily, “Yes, both of us. He finally got it right.”

Her mind spun, it was both the thing she most craved, and most feared. She was beyond happy, and terrified that she could lose it. They weren’t exactly on vacation. She pulled in Sally for a hug, realizing she wasn’t exactly responding right. Sally stayed with her for a while and they talked about the future, a future so bright with everything she wanted.

A future she wondered if she deserved, or if it was even possible. She knew she would calm down once they were safe, relatively safe anyway. But right now she just couldn’t help but expect the other shoe to drop. It was the way her life worked. Always had been…

*

Nicole spent some time with Anton in the command tent, filling him in on all the stuff she’d gotten up to after running away that he didn’t know about. He filled her in on some stuff going on in his life also; apparently he has an intended mate now, who he left at home.

She had a good time, but it was starting to get late so she turned in. Luckily their tent was fairly close to the command tent and she made her way over there. She giggled as Nora handed her a drink to celebrate Nora’s and Sally’s good news. She shrugged, one small drink shouldn’t hurt anything.

She was thrilled they were all pregnant now, except for Sara who was not yet a mate, but she was sure her friend would catch up. She just hoped this crisis would be over, they should be at the tavern getting the nursery ready and just being a family. She shook her head, it would take a while, they still had to go back up to the capitol of Uleni after they took care of Riese.

She was sure everything would work out, but she said a prayer to the goddess, just in case…

*

Sally was ecstatic she was pregnant, she was also a little worried about Nora. Nora was both the strongest, and most fragile of them all. She had lost so much already at the start of this. Her, Justin, and the rest of them had helped heal her heart, but Nora still feared, and maybe too much.

There wasn’t much she could do though, outside of supporting her sister she didn’t know what else there was. She hoped that would be enough.

She started to wonder if Katrina would keep him back there all night, not that she would mind, but she was anxious to tell the father the news. Plus, they needed to get to bed soon if they were going to wake up at dawn and continue the chase.

So far the three mages from Uleni were avoiding her, with the exception of a suspicious glare or two, which she could deal with as long as it didn’t get worse…

*

Justin would probably have been panicking about having four children on the way, if it wasn’t for also having four, almost five, mates. He thought they were closing the gap now, after today they would be two days from the capitol, Riese had reached that point a couple of hours ago, and had not moved since. He worried though, how many converts and how many dead could pile up in those two days?

It was hard not to run ahead but he did have Anton pick up the pace, hoping they could cut it down another five or six hours. They couldn’t keep it up the whole way, the increased pace was having an effect on his magical reserves as he kept restoring the troops every few minutes. To make sure they wouldn’t blunder into another ambush they had increased the scouts both on the ground and in the air.

When they stopped he ate ravenously, hoping that would increase his stamina. The ladies didn’t look happy at the shape he was in, but that wasn’t going to stop him.

Sara said worriedly, “We can’t maintain this pace, you can’t maintain it.”

He shook his head, “Just for today, tomorrow we can slow down enough for me to rebuild my magic. I’ll be fine for the day after tomorrow when we get there. The longer we leave them the more we will have to face when we get there. If he builds up more than a few hundred more, even untrained, it will make the battle too close with only eighteen hundred of our own.

“We are attacking this time, we can’t set any traps for this fight. Plus, those lives are weighing on me, even if it isn’t our fault, we can’t give that butcher more time with the city’s population if we can help it. If we don’t move as fast as we can, some of those deaths will be our fault.”

Sara frowned. “That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

All too soon they were back on the road, at the end of the day he was a mess, but it seemed clear they had traveled half again as much as they would have otherwise. After he ate a large dinner, he was taken away by all the ladies and put in bed. He guessed they decided he was too tired for his mate duties, and he couldn’t really argue about that, he was exhausted.

The last thing he remembered was Sara staring at him as a wave of exhaustion put him to sleep…

A short time after starting out the next day, one of the scouts returned with warning of another ambush. This time it was where the road came a little too close to the forest. He, Anton, and the mages made quick plans, he was hopeful as they were prepared this time, they would not lose two to one. Although they weren’t sure how many of the enemy troops were there, it was a maximum of a hundred he thought.

That guess was based off the fact only three hundred of the troops made the capitol with Riese, of course, that didn’t mean they were all at this one ambush point either. Two of the mages went ahead to slowly build a storm system in a way that looked natural, rather than magical. He was tense as they caught up and started running through the ambush area.

To his surprise though, soldiers did not rush out from behind the trees, instead a large hail of arrows came at them. Their first surprise volley took out twenty soldiers, but the next attack was neutralized by the mages and air talents as the soldiers returned fire with the rifles, taking out the enemy soldiers they could see.

It had been a good plan for the first strike, but they should have closed in melee range after that, but the enemy continued sending arrows allowing them the use of magic. Bolts of lighting, magical bullets, and even return arrows from their few archers took down enemy after enemy. After the enemy’s third blocked volley, they screamed and pulled swords, charging out of the forest.

The now very visible charging enemy was inundated with lightning from the six mages including Sally, more than that, the side of the road facing the forest exploded with stakes and other obstacles to slow the enemy’s charge before they were in range to stop such things. Still, the enemy didn’t have far to go and many just jumped over the stakes and into the soldiers behind them who drew swords.

After that the fight was brief. They had lost another ten men after the first volley, so thirty altogether. A count was done of the enemy corpses and they only found fifty, so there was still another fifty soldiers out there somewhere. They sent the scouts back out, and got back on the road as quickly as possible. Someone else would have to bury the enemy dead; they did not have time to linger. The ambush had already delayed them close to an hour.

*

Sara was trying to think of other ways to use her power. While growing up, she had tried not to project feelings at all, and when on the run had only sent a deluge of anger and fear that seemed to snap something inside the targets mind. She was pretty sure she had quite literally scared the people she killed to death.