Chapter 62: Get Over Here! (18+)
He hit a thick tree trunk with a sickening crack and crumpled to the forest floor in a boneless heap. He did not move.
Kiri’s smile vanished.
She stared at the unconscious jackal, then at the shelter flap that had fallen closed again. From inside, there was no further sound. Whatever had just expelled a fully grown jackal beast man at the speed of a launched boulder had already dismissed the incident from its awareness.
Kiri was scared.
That did not sound like the shiftless one at all, but it had been the voice of something that would eat a fox alive and spit out the bones.
Kiri wanted to check on Feron to make sure he was still alive and drag him back to the clan with her.
But her legs would not move.
They were shaking, and her tail was pressed flat against her spine.
Whatever was in that shelter, she did not even want to go near it.
She had never heard a voice like that come out of the shiftless female before.
She had never seen anyone thrown with that kind of strength, either.
Kiri slowly backed away.
Only when she was far enough that the trees began to obscure the shelter did she finally turn and hurry toward the settlement, her heart still thrashing wildly in her chest.
Whatever was inside that tent right now...
She wanted nothing to do with any of this!
Meanwhile, Ermin returned to the settlement with the first group of hunters with a pair of small game. Xavi was still further out with the second group, soon to return. But a part of the panther’s mind was already on the private shelter near the settlement.
He wanted to see her.
The thought still sat strangely in his chest, but it was there. After the last few days, with the way she had changed, stayed with him, and given him those small cheek kisses, something in him had shifted as much as he was scared to acknowledge it.
Tera did not seem to be with the other clan members, so he went to her shelter.
The moment he stepped into the trees, he saw the body.
Feron was slumped against the tree trunk in a heap that looked less like sleep and more like someone had tried to throw him into the next territory, and the tree had gotten in the way. His jaw was slack, a thin line of drool trailing from the corner of his mouth. His left ear twitched weakly.
He was breathing, but only barely.
Ermin crouched beside him, scanning for injuries. There were no injuries, but the bark behind Feron’s head was cracked in a pattern that suggested his skull had made forceful contact with it at significant speed.
He was at first confused why Feron was near her shelter when the scent hit him.
It rolled over him in a warm, heavy wave. Sweet, thick, and so strongly fertile that heat flooded low to his groin so fast it almost made his knees weak.
Tera was in heat?
He didn’t know shiftless females could go into heat.
But the realization slammed into him with an ugly thought.
His gaze snapped back to Feron.
The jackal had been near her shelter during her heat.
Rage replaced arousal so fast that Ermin’s vision narrowed to a single, burning point. A growl tore from his chest.
This worthless jackal had come to her shelter while she was in heat.
Had he touched her? Had he gone inside?
Ermin was already moving, his feet carrying him to the shelter, wanting to see Tera immediately and know she was alright.
He had barely reached for the flap when a hand shot out.
Fingers closed around the hide at his neck with shocking force. Before Ermin could react, his body was wrenched forward with a force that should have been physically impossible for someone smaller than him. The world tilted sideways as the shelter swallowed him, and his back hit the thick moss bedding with a dull thud.
Tera was already on top of the confused panther.
She was straddling his waist, her hands flat on his chest as her face hovered above his.
Her eyes were burning with a raw, primal look he had never seen before.
A violent shudder ripped through Ermin’s body as her pheromones crashed over him at point-blank range.
His cock strained upward, pressing hard against the hide separating them, and the pressure of it pushed directly against the curve of her ass.
Tera looked down at him.
"Where the hell have you been?"
Her voice was lower than usual, rough around the edges, and the sound of it sent another pulse of heat straight to his cock. She shifted her weight slightly, and the movement dragged the damp heat of her through the thin barrier of his loincloth.
Ermin’s breath left him in a sharp exhale.
"Hunting," he managed, his voice coming out raw and strained.
His stomach tightened as her nails dragged lightly over his muscles.
Unable to take it anymore, he grabbed her hips and jerked upright to a seated position, his tail wrapping around her waist to pull her against him.
Tera grabbed his face with both hands and pressed her mouth against his.
Ermin froze.
He didn’t know what this was. Her lips were soft and warm and moving against his in a way that sent electricity arcing down his spine and pooling at the base of his cock. It was not a bite, not a lick, not any form of affection he had ever experienced.
Her tongue brushed the seam of his mouth, and the wet heat of it sent a thrill through him. His mouth slightly opened, and her tongue slid against his, earning a light purr from him.
He grabbed her head and pressed her closer, wanting more of the sensation as his hips bucked upward involuntarily, grinding the aching length of him against her core.
Tera moaned into his mouth, and the sound made the hairs on his body stand on end.
When she finally pulled back, a thin thread of saliva stretched between their lips.
"Do it again," he growled.