Nailed (Black Mountain Bears Book 3) (4 page)

Chapter Four

“Y
ou want to see all the waterfalls in the Sanctuary.” Orrick repeated Jade’s words as though he didn’t quite believe her and was trying to understand.

“Why is that so strange a request? There are others besides this one, aren’t there? I’m just so tired of hanging around the lodge. If I’m going to live here, I should get to know the place, right?”

Orrick and Sten exchanged a private glance and Orrick shook his head slightly. “That could take months, though. There are literally
hundreds
of waterfalls scattered around the place.”

Jade’s face fell. They weren’t going to go along with it. She let out a soft sigh.

“Never mind. Forget I asked.” She bent to gather her clothes from the pile beside her blanket and began to dress. It felt odd to be the only one in clothes when the pair of them were still gloriously, beautifully naked. She turned to go and a large, warm hand gripped her elbow.

“Hang on,” a deep voice sounded behind her.

She turned to look up into Orrick’s face, her skin prickling at the nearness of this huge, gorgeous male specimen. Was he actually about to take the initiative now?

He dropped his hand quickly to his side, flushing a little as though he’d committed some breach of etiquette.

“I didn’t say we can’t do it,” he said. “But maybe you don’t want to see all of them in one trip. What if we just show you the five best falls inside the Stonetree Clan’s territory? They’re all along the same waterway. This one’s part of it. And they lead all the way to Gaia’s Falls in the center of the Sanctuary, which is the most beautiful of all of them.”

He sounded so earnest and eager to please, she forgot for a moment that she was irritated. She supposed having a pair of males willing to cater to her every need couldn’t hurt, even if their solicitous nature turned her off otherwise. It would be like having a pair of Jaspers to hang out with, but less inclined to get a rise out of her. She could do a lot worse, under the circumstances.

Jade looked up at Orrick, then at Sten, who looked back expectantly. A smile tugged at her mouth. This was precisely what she needed—a few days on a hiking trip to clear her head would do wonders for her mood.

“That sounds perfect. Can we leave today? I can pack my gear and be ready in an hour.”

“Definitely,” Sten said, face breaking into a huge grin. “We’ll meet you on the front porch of the lodge.”

With that, the pair of them shifted enthusiastically, their huge, black-furred shapes barreling off into the woods with even more of a commotion than they’d made diving into the swimming hole earlier.

Jade envied them the access to their true shapes, an ability she had yet to discover, though her mother had told her that it would come in time. Sooner, now that she was inside the Sanctuary.

She took off at a jog through the woods, eager to get her things together and get on the path.

Forty-five minutes later, she said farewell to her beaming mother and met the two males at the wide, stone front steps of the lodge.

“Wow, I almost didn’t recognize you two dressed,” Jade teased, eyeing them each in turn. She had to resist an eye roll when Orrick’s face reddened and Sten stared at his boots. “Geeze, you two. You spent the last two weeks in my cousin’s bed doing who knows what, and I can’t tease you about not being naked?”

She readjusted her hiking pack and tightened her ponytail, shook her head in amusement at them, then trundled down the steps. Turning and walking backwards down the path beyond them, she grinned.

“Are we doing this, or what?” she called up to them. She had to admit, the exhilaration of calling the shots for once felt good, but it didn’t diminish the deep wish to find a man who exuded more power than these two did, with their boisterous exuberance and eagerness to please.

They galloped after her, Orrick taking the lead while Sten walked at her side.

“Have fun!” her mother called after them. Jade turned to wave, and as she did, she caught another silent look between the two males that was far too suspicious to let go. She could get past the idea that her mother may have been their first sexual experience with a female, but they were definitely hiding something.

When they were half an hour out, and hiking up a narrow path beyond the top of their favorite swimming spot, Jade finally broke their companionable silence. “My mother put you up to something, didn’t she? What is it?” She stopped on the path, unable to take another step until she knew.

The pair halted at her side and she found herself awash in their male muskiness. Jade closed her eyes, wishing like hell she wasn’t so damn attracted to them both. She took a deep breath and looked between them.

Orrick’s throat worked and his lips parted, his brows tilting down as he studied the path. He reached back and pulled his shoulder-length hair into a knot, securing it with an elastic hair-tie, yet another object brought from Outside. Jade studied him as his jaw flexed and watched a droplet of sweat trickle down the side of his tanned neck.

Tearing her eyes away from that raw masculinity, she looked at the other male. Sten looked back briefly, then averted his gaze, his dark lashes falling to his cheeks. He bit his lip in a way that evoked a kind of sensuality Jade had never seen in a man before. His expression looked troubled, and she felt a brief pang of regret.

“Tell me I’m wrong, if I am,” she said, her voice shaking a little.

“Jade . . . ” Orrick said, turning to face her. “You aren’t wrong.”

A dark dread sank into her gut. She should have known better after hearing Emma’s story about how the Queen had planned Emma’s own mating long in advance. If it hadn’t been for Jade and Jasper’s dire situation and the intervention of her brother’s new mates, Emma would have been locked into a mating with someone she’d never even met before.

“Was it bribery? What did my mother offer you to entertain me?” she bit out, furious at the thought that her mother—who she’d established a comfortable affection with over the last few weeks—would do this kind of thing to her own daughter.

“We wanted to tell you,” Sten said. “We were going to tonight. She wants us to . . . please you enough that you choose us as your mates.”

Jade let out a bitter laugh. “Of course she does. And what do you guys want? Does that even matter to you, or do you always do everything the women tell you to do? Do you even
have
a fucking opinion? If so, please, share it now.”

Orrick just stared at her, and Sten bit his lip again in a way that drove her mad. Fuck, could he be any more delicious with his thick shoulders stretching his sweaty t-shirt. Every so often, he’d use the hem of it to wipe the perspiration from his face, giving her periodic glances at the toned muscles beneath. And they both smelled so amazing, like fresh cut cedar. She could die happy, surrounded by the scent of them.

God, why had she never been so attuned to her senses the way she was now? So aroused by such a little thing as a man’s smell. She lost it when Sten finally released his lip from his teeth and the full, wet, worried flesh caught a glimmer of sunlight.

Jade stepped close, gripped his t-shirt with both hands by the collar and latched onto that enticing mouth of his.

Sten let out a soft grunt and grabbed her hips with both hands. He didn’t pull away, though, like she’d feared. He kissed her back, his mouth eagerly pressing as hard in return, his tongue lashing out to meet hers. It was all Jade could do not to let herself get lost. She hadn’t done it impulsively, but to try to get a rise out of him, and judging from the hard press of his cock against her hip through the barrier of his cargo shorts, she had succeeded.

“Tell me you don’t want me,” she challenged, pulling away and staring at them both. “And tell me that my mother’s
wishes
have nothing to do with it.”

“I want you,” Sten whispered, nuzzling at her ear. The roughness of his voice made her quiver with a deeper need that terrified her a little.

She didn’t quite know where that outburst had come from. Her deepest core was still tender from the few experiences she’d had, so she didn’t quite believe Sten when he said it.

His eyes raised to meet hers and his eyebrows twitched. With a clench of his jaw, he repeated himself.

“I
want
you, Jade.” He grabbed her hand and pulled it to his groin, pressing her palm against his arousal. “Isn’t this enough? Your mother ruined it by asking us to do something we’d already hoped to do. Don’t blame us for what she did.”

Jade reclaimed her hand and aimed a cry at the heavens. “Fuck! Do you two have any idea how frustrating you are? I’ve been watching you go in and out of Emma’s room for weeks, and now here you are, telling me you want me, yet doing
fuck all
to get me. Don’t make me do all the work, guys. Show me you want me, for Christ’s sake.”

She started walking and halted again at the deep voice of Orrick calling to her.

“Jade. Do you want us? I think that’s the more important question.”

Jade clenched her eyes shut and turned. “Yeah,” she admitted. “But I will never be happy with a guy who’s just with me because I outrank him. Relationships don’t work that way in my world.”

Orrick nodded and moved to walk beside her again. “So, do you want us to overpower you? Assert dominance? Is that it?”

Jade gawked at him, frustration and confusion rising so swiftly in tandem she felt tears pricking at her eyes. “Do you really have no idea what it feels like to have an opinion? Don’t you care about getting what you want once in a while?”

“We get what we want,” Orrick said. “We want for very little, though.”

“Do you want love?” Jade asked.

The pair of men looked at each other over her head.

“We have love,” he said. “A female represents status for us, as males. Belonging to you would be an honor—the highest honor available in the Sanctuary, now that your cousin is mated.”

“See, that contradicts what you just told me. Do you want me for the status, or because you genuinely want to be with me? I’m not a moron—I know what I am here. But I’m never,
ever
going to choose a mate who doesn’t want me
in spite
of who I am and the status he can achieve by being with me.” Her throat tightened up and the tears threatened to become full-on water works as she spoke. Yet she kept walking, wiping at her eyes.

“It’s against our ways . . . ” Orrick said. Jade nearly stopped and punched him.

“Fuck everyone’s
ways
,” she snapped, shoving down her emotional surge. “Just do me a favor over the next few days and forget the rules. I want you to
not
consider every action in the context of your—our—rules. But based on simple, true desires. Can you do that? Also, don’t let me boss you around. I’m getting way too into it, and I don’t like who I’m turning into around you guys.”

They didn’t respond, and Jade avoided looking at either of them. She took a few deep breaths as she walked until finally calming down enough to enjoy the scenery again.

Another half hour up the steep, narrow path, she became intensely conscious of the incline and the fact that she was in front with Sten behind her, his eyes aimed at about hip-level. She struggled a little to make it up the treacherous bank, grabbing onto a nearby sapling that came out by the roots when she used it for leverage.

Behind her, Sten said in a casual tone, “So, if I want to tell you I think your ass is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my life, that’s cool?”

“Don’t fucking mock me,” Jade said, grasping at a rock that looked at least more solidly anchored than the small tree had been.

A pair of hands pressed against her backside, not pushing, just simply squeezing. She froze, her entire body flushing from the hyperawareness of their contact.

“I said, don’t mock me.” The words came out distinctly less forcefully than she’d intended. Had Sten really taken her words to heart, or was he fucking with her?

“No mocking,” Orrick said, though he stood behind Sten and could only observe. “Just agreement. Your ass is amazing.”

Finally, Sten pushed and she managed to clamber up and away from his grip.

When her companions made it to the top of the ridge with her, they paused to catch their breath on a fallen log that rested in a shady spot overlooking the valley beneath.

“Your turn,” Orrick said. “We shared a little, now you share, too.”

Jade nearly choked on her water. “You
shared?
You call ogling my ass and groping me sharing?”

He grinned at her while Sten chuckled softly on the other side. “You gave us leave to express our desires, didn’t you? Maybe we misinterpreted your instructions, but I thought that’s what we were doing. Or does open appreciation of your anatomy not count?”

Jade took another quick swallow of her water, to give herself a second to think. Finally, she nodded.

“Fair enough. I can take it if you have nice things to say that aren’t lies.”

“So . . . ” Orrick cleared his throat. “Are we allowed to ask for the same in return? Our honesty in exchange for yours?”

The back of Jade’s neck prickled, but she nodded gamely. “What do you want to know?”

Sten stood up from his seat and went to lean against a tree facing her. Orrick, ever the spokesman of the two, asked the question.

“Are you as, ah, worldly as your cousin?”

Jade had braced herself for the question, but let out a loud laugh now. “What the hell? Do you mean am I . . . what? A virgin?”

She stood up abruptly, more to cover up the way her hands shook at the thought of telling them the truth. She hurriedly hoisted the pack back onto her back, hanging her water bottle on the carabiner at her belt.

They didn’t need to know precisely
how
inexperienced she was. But God, was it completely irrational that she wanted to maintain control while still wishing like hell that one of them—hell,
both
of them—would take it away from her?

They said nothing, only falling into pace beside her again, but the tension between them dug at her gut. Why did they need to know her sexual status? How the hell did it have any relevance?