Owned By The Alphas: Part Three (4 page)

“
S
he’s panting now
,” a soft voice whispered from a distance.

“Her fever won’t break,” came a steadier, louder one.

Someone was brushing her hair from her face and the touch was gentle, maternal. Ali drifted into consciousness slowly. She had been dreaming of running through the forest as fast as Red had; only she was alone. Low, dense, leafless branches snapped as she passed, and her bare feet felt the dull sting of sharp rocks and other natural debris of the forest floor. It had been nighttime, but she’d been able to see. She’d felt vibrant and awake, so when she realized it was just a dream, disappointment laced her blood.

“She’s waking up,” whispered the softer voice.

“Yes,” said the other as a warm hand cupped Ali’s moist cheek.

Her heavy eyelids struggled to open, and the room slowly came into focus. There was a small torch stuck in crevices of a rock pile. Its kaleidoscope glow made it seem as though there was more than just one torch, and knowing that had to be wrong, Ali blinked until she saw only one. The pelts beneath her were soft but wet where she lay, drenched in a clean sweat. Concave, dark reddish brown walls confused her. It took a few moments to understand she was inside the tree now. But how did she get here? She looked to the right and Shaynah came into focus, watching her with a benevolent expression, sitting by her side. Lorn was behind Shaynah, standing with her hands on her knees so she could balance as she leaned forward, her chestnut-brown hair hanging down in straight sheets.

“Lorn, help me get rid of these pelts. Grab those dry ones over there. We’ll trade them out. Here Ali, I’m going to lift you.”

Ali pulled back quickly. She felt like she was on fire, her skin itching all over in the most unusual way. “What’s going on? Don’t touch me!” Even as she said it, she knew she needed to be touched more than anything.

Shaynah tilted her head, her pale green eyes soft and patient. “You fainted. You are…under a great deal of stress. Let me help you.”

Ali sunk backward on a frantic cry. “Are they okay? Calt? Red? Where are they?”

“They are fine. Your fainting stopped the fight. For now. Now, here, let me
help
you.” To Lorn, she quietly said, “We have to do something about this fever. It has to break.”

Ali didn’t like the tone of that warning. “Oh, God, what’s happening to me? Am I going to die?” Her heart was pounding so quickly and sweat dripped down the sides of her face. Ali didn’t fight the healer’s touch again. She let herself be lifted up. When she felt Shaynah’s fingers wrap around her legs, Ali moaned and squeezed her legs tight, the wet place between her legs aching with need.

Shaynah frowned. “Hurry.” Lorn swapped out the pelts and Ali closed her eyes and laid her head against the elder wolf’s shoulder. Her entire body was wet. She breathed in, but didn’t smell an odor. She smelled delicious. She knew they thought so, too, because their nostrils flared over and over.

“What’s happening to me?” she groaned. “Why did it have to be
you
seeing me like this?”

Shaynah set Ali down very carefully, speaking to her in a smooth, soothing tone. “You misunderstand me if you think I have ill feelings toward you, or would harm you in any way. When I watched you last night, watched how the arousal fire took over you as it is doing now, I was not judging you, Ali. I was merely learning and taking note of who you are.”

“Get this pelt off me!” Ali whimpered, twisting her body. “Oh God, I can’t stand it. I’m on fire.
Taking note of who I really am?
You mean an insatiable slut, don’t you?”

Lorn glanced to the elder wolf as Shaynah frowned. “That’s not what I mean. Lorn, remove the pelt. Is there another one nearby, one meant for clothing?”

Lorn rose quickly and searched. “Here is one!” She returned with a mountain lion’s pelt and knelt by Ali’s side. “I’m going to take this off of you, Ali.”

Ali nodded frantically, pulling at the drenched pelt and ripping it in her haste. “Arghhhh!!!” She went limp and Lorn and Shaynah exchanged looks as Lorn removed the torn remains. Shaynah dipped a handful of flower petals in a carved-out rock filled with spring water, bringing them up to wipe down Ali’s neck and naked breasts. The water was cold and made her cringe but she loved it just the same, the way the droplets slid down her cleavage and tempered the heat boiling within. “Lower,” she begged, opening up her legs. “Just a wash. Nothing more,” she mumbled. Shaynah dipped the petals into the water again and bathed Ali’s mound, inside her thighs and then hesitated before she dipped the soft, wet petals against her swollen walls.

“You are more inflamed than I realized,” the healer whispered. Lorn leaned down, too.

Embarrassed, Ali covered her eyes with her hands. When soft fingers touched her gently, she knew they were Lorn’s. She froze. “Don’t!” she moaned. “No. Not again.”

The fingers withdrew and Ali groaned, “Arghh!!!” She twisted and shut her legs, rubbing them together.

“Let me help you, Ali.” Lorn reached and touched her again, tentatively this time like she wasn’t sure she should. The yearning sparked from her touch was agonizing. It was so sweet, so wanted, so good.

Ali moaned, “If I tell you to stop again, don’t listen to me!” The soft fingers swiped up her folds, exploring until she found her swollen pearl.
Please keep touching me.
She arched her back, her hips opening.
Please don’t stop.
A middle finger joined the index and slid up and down her folds, slipping in and out skillfully.
Sooo good.
The sensations were mind-bending, the desperation for release more and more acute every time they rose and fell.

Ali felt a tongue slide in. As soon as the hot tongue flicked her clit Ali threw her head back on a long moan, her breasts rising in the cold air, the nipples tightening painfully hard. She grabbed Lorn’s hair and pushed her head harder into her aching flesh. The heat from her mouth was so much hotter than her past, human boyfriends, and they didn’t know how to tease her like this, that you have to pick up the pace then slow down, then build up again, and the moans guide you. She rubbed against the soft lips, the slippery, hot tongue, and begged for more as Lorn slipped her tongue inside. She muffled a cry, afraid someone would come in and find them like this.

Lorn shoved two fingers into Ali next, pushing them deep as she lapped her. Ali whispered again and again, “We shouldn’t be doing this. We shouldn’t be doing this.”

Lorn rose up and told Shaynah, “Hold her down,” before burying her face in Ali’s sweet cunt once more.

Shaynah leapt onto her and straddled her middle. “No!” she cried, but Shaynah grabbed her arms and pinned them above her head. “Stop!”

“You said don’t listen to you if you say stop,” Shaynah whispered in her ear, struggling with Ali, the tips of her naked breasts hardening, too.

Lorn slipped two fingers in again, this time pumping in time with Ali’s heartbeat. She breathed on the sensitive skin with quick, hot little puffs, and then pointed the tip of her tongue to flick one side of the clit until the burning settled all in that one little place. It built fast and Ali moaned low and long as the rushing ache began to peak. The fingers roughly entered her and then held still, as Lorn lapped and then flicked with her pointed tongue, rubbing the sweet spot deep within.

Shaynah rose up. All Ali could see were breasts hovering above her face, perkier than they should have been. Only one scar sliced across them and Ali stared at it in a daze as Lorn worked her, moaning as she did it. Ali craned her neck up, her lips parting and hovering near the tightened dusky crest. At that moment, Lorn buried her tongue deep inside Ali, bringing her slippery fingers up to finish the job on her swollen bean. Ali bit back a scream as the orgasm stripped away her sanity, so big and gorgeous.

Lorn panted, “Good, good, that’s good Ali. That’s it,” until Ali melted into a heap. She held her with a cupped hand, gentle and caring. “Well?”

Shaynah felt her forehead. “The fever’s broke.” She climbed off and reached for the pelt.

Speechless, Ali stared at them through hooded eyes, and let herself be dressed in the super-soft mountain lion pelt by the two she-wolves. She watched Lorn concentrate in tying a rope around her middle. “They use rope here, I guess,” Lorn said casually, as though nothing had just happened.

“Saves them the need for hooks and buttons. Those aren’t easy to find way out here. When ours fall off, we’re out of luck,” Shaynah replied, acting the same.

Lorn nodded, sitting back and looking at her bow. “We’ll have to go into town. I hate that. What do you think, Ali?”

Ali looked down at the wide knot and adjusted it. “I’m not really a bow kind of girl.” She retied it and looked up at the she-wolves. She wanted to thank them, kiss them, or run away and never see them again. She didn’t know which, so she sheepishly offered, “I could go into town for us. It’ll give me a way to help. You know, do the human things.” She offered a weak smile.

A guarded wall rose up in Shaynah’s eyes even as she said, “That would be nice.”

Ali stared at her and then realized what the healer was thinking. Her smile faded and she looked away. “You don’t think I’m going to choose Calt. You don’t think I’m going to be a part of your pack…so why offer my help?”

“I don’t know what will happen. I try not to predict the unpredictable.”

Ali nodded. Lorn sat beside Shaynah and produced a cupcake seemingly from thin air. Ali’s mouth watered as the waves of chocolate frosting came closer.

“Oh my God! Tell me that’s for me. Lorn, I will love you forever.”

Lorn grinned and handed it to her. “It is for you.”

She snatched the extended sweet quickly, and stared at it. “Sorry. I’m really hungry.” She looked at the young wolf from the corner of her eyes. “When I say I will love you forever, I meant a friend kind of love. I don’t want you to get any ideas because of...”

The light brown skin around her unusual beige eyes crinkled against a grin. “I was only helping.”

“Well, you’re really good at it,” Ali murmured, taking a bite.

“Tawny taught me how.”

Ali choked on the cupcake and covered her mouth. “Oh. I see.”

Shaynah reached behind her to a pile of picnic food on an uneven large rock. Ali hadn’t been in any position to notice it before, but now it looked like heaven had dropped a present down just for her. “We take care of our own.”

Ali blinked at her and at the food and not knowing what to say, took a bigger bite of cupcake, scooping up a glob of falling chocolate from the side before it fell. “Mmm...” The thing was gone within seconds, and a chicken breast was handed to her next. She smiled at the order of courses, thinking these were her type of ‘people.’ Dessert first…YES!

The chicken was breaded and fried and while it was cold, it was fucking delicious–great spices and tender meat. So good. The two wolves watched her rip off strips with her fingers until it was all gone. Shaynah handed her a thigh next. She took it eagerly, crossing her legs, so happy it was like she hadn’t eaten in weeks. It wasn’t until she was halfway done with that piece that she noticed they weren’t eating.

“You guys don’t want any?”

Lorn sat back on her heels and let her friend do the talking. “You need your strength first. You were very pale and weak up until now.”

Ali frowned. “What happened?”

Shaynah picked up the rock filled with water and floating petals, and moved it aside as though it weighed nothing. “You fainted outside. I carried you here and Lorn and I covered you with pelts. Your heart slowed almost to the point of stopping.” She frowned at the memory. “Then I moved your energy until you were balanced again, but it was not easy. You fought me, and the struggle in you burned hot, causing a fever. You are better now, though. Lorn, hand me one more pelt to cover her legs.”

Lorn did as she was asked and Ali thanked her, taking mental inventory of herself. Now that she had some food in her stomach, she could honestly say she felt better than she had in a long time. Stronger in her own skin. Calmer.

She moved my energy around? Was that even possible?
“Is that what that white glow was, when you touched Calt? Energy?”

Shaynah reacted with surprise. “You saw light coming from my hand?”

Ali nodded, taking a bite of chicken.

Lorn was watching the healer with excited curiosity. “What does it mean?”

“Give me a piece of chicken, Lorn,” Shaynah mumbled, holding out her hand. The young wolf hurriedly obliged and grabbed one for herself as well.

The three ate in silence while Shaynah thought about what Ali said. When she was done eating, she laid down the last stripped-bare chicken bone and regarded Ali with the kind of look professors use at college. Taking a deep quiet breath, she began.

“I was born with the ability to heal. That is my destiny. I see light around you,” She turned to Lorn. “…and you. And everything living. I see the glow that humans call
Aura.
I can see when it is cloudy or when it is bright. I can see when it is off balance or clear. The colors indicate a person’s mood or essence, or both. For plants, there is always a light gold–except when they are diseased, it is gray. When animals, humans, and supernatural creatures are ill, diseased, off-balance, murderous, etc. The aura is always in shades of gray all the way to black. White light is universal for all when there is wellness and love, balance and health, harmony and truth. The colors in between are various grades of that health when they are bright. When they darken, there is trouble or extremes. Extremes are not always trouble. Like last night for instance, when you were watching Dak and Bloo, your light turned deep red, the color of dried blood. That was not bad; it was merely intense. You see?” Ali nodded, following along. “When something is ‘off’ I can use my own light to correct it. I have that ability, to share my light on purpose to balance another’s. The white glow you saw was me giving my light to Calt, to balance his lowered, dangerous frequency and bring it higher where it belongs.” She paused, glancing away. “With you, when you were unconscious, you were grays, dark greens and bright purple, even a little brown, a combination I have only seen once from a human. But that did not last.”