Atomic Mage 3 Page 3

  "Hello my Cade what can I help you with?"

  As her question fell into the quiet air between them he held himself to the door frame with a crushing grip on the metal surface as he tried to rid his mind of the need to kiss her soft lips once again.

  "I wanted to check up on you after our... encounter. I would love to take you out on a date whenever you are ready."

  Shaking slightly with either the need to hold the skittish woman again or the fear of her rejection caused by her years-long trama he waited for her reply with every ounce of his patience.

  "I... I think I would like that Cade and I am doing ok, I think. I have replayed our kiss in my mind several times and I think I want more but I am not sure my mind will allow more than that right now."

  Taking the hesitant offer for what it was he strode over to the lamia and gently brushed her long black hair away from her face before lifting her trembling chin with a gentle push from his crooked finger.

  "As I have told you many times I want you, I think more than I even realize. I am more than willing to wait for the gift of your love and when you are ready I am going to thoroughly enjoy wiping everything from your mind but the bliss I give you. Now may I kiss you, I have been thinking about that day as well and wish to enjoy it again."

  After her small sweet smile and a slow nod, he closed the gap between their lips and made love to the beautiful woman with nothing but his tongue and mouth, allowing his one finger under her chin to be the only other part of their bodies touching.

  As he tasted her once again he noticed one of her delicate hands make its shaky way towards his hip out of the corner of his eye.

  He moaned into the kiss as that hand made contact with his clothed body and was rewarded for his patience as she gasped into the kiss as she found his hard length waiting for her before voicing her own needy moan as she stroked the reward that was waiting for her once she conquered her ordeal.

  As her breaths changed from lusty pants to something more akin to hyperventilation Cade leaned back from the lamia and gave her space to recover.

  "That was amazing my Cade but I think I need to lay down for a moment."

  As she made to slide by him, he pushed his luck and her resolve to not show him how much the kiss had affected her by asking "may I walk with you to your room".

  Saying the words into the air in front of him that had just been vacated by the gorgeous lamia he waited for her response, his belly churning with anxiety.

  Her soft "yes please" was music to his ears and after collecting his wits over the huge step she had just taken on the long road to recovery he walked over and stood next to her, ignoring the shaking of her body as she collected herself.

  As the quaking ended they both made their way down out of the kitchen to the garage, the inches that separated them speaking volumes but the surety of her movements attesting to her large step towards her goal.

  Leaving a smiling Xandia in her room Cade pushed his luck again with a quick kiss that was well-received if the long forked tongue that slipped down his throat was any indication.

  Still hard but with a new perspective on his problem, he decided a bout mixed with a lesson on the orc language would be just what the doctor ordered as he knocked on Nat's door.

  Finding her asleep after a few firmer knocks and a view into her room failed to rouse her he spied his Eve as she left her own room with an empty basket for their laundry.

  After her shy wave as she ascended the stairs he gave his libido a scolding as his heart raced, the tempting young woman called to him for him to claim her, no matter that she was off-limits.

  Sliding to his backside on the floor next to Nat's door he decided to go snooping to alleviate his... distraction.

  Sliding into her untrained mind was simple and caused him to make a mental note to ask Mina to add mental combat to her training as well.

  Sneaking through a forest similar to his Mina's mental landscape he wasted no time diving into her memories and was shocked at what he found and what it meant for their relationship.

  Arriving at a familiar scene with black-clad slavers capturing a village of jaguar men and women his vision of what was occurring was limited by the darkness that surrounded him and a preteen Eve as she hid from detection under a random house.

  As he watched, the slavers rounded up the members of the village and carted them off to be sold upstream in Opect.

  He thanked whoever was listening that they had missed his pixie in her hiding spot as she slowly crept out from under the house.

  The fear and loneliness written on her face made him want to hold the young girl and tell her everything was going to be ok, but he told himself firmly "the past was the past" even if he would give almost anything to change his Eve's.

  As he watched the next few months play out he gained more respect for her as she survived as well as she could, escaping slaver patrols and the dangerous flora and fauna, only to be rescued by one of her own race as he caught her breakfast one lonely morning.

  After her slow entrance into the muddy water of the stream she had claimed as her own, she stood as still as possible with a hand-made spear poised above the murky water quickly clearing of silt and mud.

  Her body stilled in preparation to strike at her morning meal he caught sight of a pair of spotted ears that the young girl in front of him missed as she focused on the fish slowly returning to the spot she had scared them from.

  At the same time as her downward strike that succeeded in securing her breakfast the owner of the ears rushed out of the cover of the foliage a few meters behind the focused girl and pulled her onto her ass in the muddy water.

  As the older jaguar woman secured a chokehold on the struggling girl he watched as her still strong legs crossed over the frantic girl's middle securing her hold as Eve's struggles grew weaker and weaker.

  The light illuminating the scene of the memory grew dark following the struggling girl into blackness.

  Following the path of Eve's memories to the next moment of consciousness, he saw the jaguar woman standing over her as she awoke.

  The hard glare she was giving the girl made his stomach clench in dread, the woman with streaks of grey running through her brunette hair as old as she knew her way around a fight and had handled the starved Eve with ease once and a second fight didn't look to swing in her favor either.

  "Up, you scrawny thing, your splashing is going to draw the slavers to us, and then where will we be huh? Up on your feet girl and follow me if you don't want to become a plaything for those monsters."

  Watching a recovering Eve rise to her feet and pick up her spear pointing the split end of the now-useless weapon at the back of the departing woman Cade smiled as common sense won over her frazzled mind as she did as the older woman bid and followed her into the jungle.

  His Eve's rescue was a blessing that the girl badly needed as the old jaguar woman who had brought her down in the muddy water of the stream with ease nursed the ragged girl back to full health.

  Catching a bit of their conversation on one evening as he watched her memories play out made his jaw drop and his heart thunder in his chest at the implications.

  "Little one how old are you?"

  The question asked to an Eve who was currently stuffing her face with as much food as she could, safely, get in her mouth received a shrug as a response.

  The aging jaguar woman, whose name happened to be Creesta, gave the girl in her care a look that all kids know.

  "Answer the question or take the punishment" was writ large on her feline face and produced the desired effect as Eve swallowed the food in her mouth.

  His heart tore asunder as he saw the girl try and fail to answer in a tone that belayed the cracking in her voice as she recounted what she remembered from her months alone in the jungle.

  "I am not sure, when my village was attacked I was thirteen years old and I don't know how long I lived in the jungle alone. Please believe me, don't send me away."

  Wanting t
o replace her arms around herself with his own as she finished her story rocking with distress he cleared his throat unconsciously and waited for Creesta's response.

  As he collected himself and wished Graft was here to torture again the firm no-nonsense look on Creesta's face smoothed out into caring concern as she hugged the shaking girl to her chest.

  "Shh shh little one it is ok, we will let you be thirteen ok? And for as long as you want this is your home, alright?"

  Her shuddering breaths caused him to take an involuntary step towards the two women before he stepped back and remembered it was only a memory, one that changed how he saw the beautiful woman his Eve had become.

  The young woman who had stood her ground against him and Mina and forced her way into their family with her stubborn nature influenced not a small amount he assumed by the tough old woman who had taken her under her wing, was balanced out by the bubbly personality that endeared her to him and his other wives even as she tried to drive him crazy.

  If what he had just witnessed in her mind was true he had been putting off accepting what his pixie was offering for months because of the machinations of a bunch of slaving asshoes.

  If he could kill them again he would as he remembered her distress the day they moved Beth from their old home to theirs, his Eve had earned her spot in their family and at the next opportunity, he was going to give her all that she had begged for and more.

  With that thought in mind, he enjoyed the rest of their talk before a tap on his real body's shoulder brought him back to reality.

  Shaking his head he looked at his Natty as she smiled at him from right outside her door.

  "What can I do for you, my warrior?"

  Remembering what he had been there for before his need for a distraction had drawn him into his pixie's mind he smiled at his Nat, leaving the surprise he had for her for later.

  "Want to teach me orcish while you kick my ass a little? I think I need a distraction from my distraction."

  Smiling at her confused look he followed her to the dojo ready to work out the bundle of emotions and repressed lust.

  Hitting the mat at an odd angle Cade felt the metal bones in his wrist grind together painfully causing him to growl out a few choice words in the language his wife was teaching him as she beat his ass with her training spear.

  "My mother does what with who?" Nat asked as she cringed at her husband's delivery of what she assumed was an attempt to curse in her native tongue.

  "Mother fucker, I was trying to say MOTHER FUCKER!!!"

  As the bones of his wrist realigned with his healing enchantment he sat on the mat for a moment and let the enchantment do its painful work.

  "Oh, what you meant to say was..."

  Growling out the curse words she smiled as with a grinding sound her husband's hand returned to its proper position as he repeated the growling phrase, with feeling.

  "Much better if you do a good job I will move on from single words and phrases to full sentences. Now up, I'm not quite done with you yet."

  As she assumed a perfect ready stance, he rose to his feet groaning as the last of the bumps and fading bruises he felt along with the pain faded.

  "I kind of miss when you were just trying to get in my pants."

  Finishing his statement he assumed his ready stance, polished by hours of pain from all of his wives attempts to get him battle-ready.

  "Do well enough my love and I might teach you the phrase you have been assuming is just me coming all over that magnificent dick of yours."

  As she sprung forward he was caught off guard by his crass wife's comment, receiving blow after blow as she worked him over.

  As he regained his balance he hoped to learn that phrase as he redoubled his efforts to best his orc wife.

  Hours later and without the pleasure of learning that special phrase he groaned out his release as he filled his shaking Natty once again.

  "Is it always so good? I figured after a few weeks it would lose its appeal or something but damn... just damn."

  Laughing at her incredulous expression he rolled over and spooned the short woman in his arms as they laid in her bed.

  "It's called the honeymoon phase and I think you should have a conversation with the others, it's going to take a while to calm down. That little trick of yours is not hurting things either. If that is what you can do to me now I quake at the thought of what will happen when you get pregnant with my child."

  Cupping her full womb with a large hand he enjoyed the silence after their intense session in and out of the bed.

  "I... I need to ask you something."

  As his eyes opened slowly after hearing his fierce Natty's hesitant tone he gave an affirmative grunt before returning to the calming patterns his fingers were making on her toned middle.

  "I need to mark you as mine before we go to Kandar, I... I am a little jealous when it comes to the men I am fucking and I don't think I can let you out of my sight while we are there without the mark that you belong to me."

  His hand stilled for a moment as he processed what his wife had asked of him.

  "And what of the others, you don't seem to have a problem sharing with them."

  Delivering his question in a light tone, he could appreciate the sentiment, he wasn't about to share.

  "They are not Orcryum, they do not challenge me for my chosen males seed. They will help me raise and train our children to be great warriors. They have earned the right to be allowed to join our clan. They are worthy of sharing, but the females we will see when we reach Mustef have not earned that right. I need to mark you as mine before we arrive or I will kill any who touches you without my permission."

  Finding her words spoken in a hallowed tone cute, he nevertheless gave them his full attention.

  Cutting off his healing enchantment left him feeling vulnerable but his Natty's piece of mind was worth a little pain.

  "I am ready whenever you are my love, and I do mean that my Natty. I will be yours for as long as you want me just as you are mine. Now mark away and I will do the same after, nothing says taken woman like a bun in the oven."

  Her short chuckle at his joke warmed his heart before she used the short tusks on her lower jaw and ravaged his forearm for several seconds.

  Hissing at the pain he held her close, the necessity of the "love bite" and the meaning behind it helping him somewhat bear the pain.

  As she finished her task with a few loving brushes of her tongue, he renewed his enchantment and dialed back the power until the scars healed over and returned it to its normal setting.

  Lifting his arm he gazed at the two ragged puncture wounds that matched his Natty's little tusks with a smile, a wedding ring it was not but that was ok with him.

  "I love you Cade Willmartin, now fill me. I need your baby in me in the worst way right now."

  Smiling into her black locks he gave his wife what they both wanted with a simple "as you wish".

  Finishing up with his breakfast Cade was graced with a kiss from Xandia as she retrieved his empty plate.

  Caressing her lower back he let her leave with the plate and turned to his wives as they ate their repast.

  "Any news today?"

  Smiles went around the table before Mina spoke up.

  "The ladies and I have made our list of food we might want, but I spoke to Xandia last night and I think you two might be able to finish the shopping yourselves. Though our pixie might object."