Page 39 of Warrioress

That wasn’t the only sweetness going on. Over the last handful of days, the boys had been all over her to a startling degree. The moment that stopped, and sometimes not even making it entirely to where they were camping for the night, they were rutting her—whether held between them or ass up while bent over a log. If she didn’t know better, she would have sworn that the Withering Days was making a repeat performance. She hadn’t brought it up because, as odd as it was, she didn’t want them to think that there was anything wrong with their new amorous drive or that she didn’t enjoy their attentions—she most certainly did.

It wasn’t the only unusual things to catch her attention either. In terms of experiencing new levels of sweetness, there was deliciously sweet—which she typically loved—and there was godsawful sweetness that made her want to throw up. And for some reason the Great Forest was increasingly plaguing her with the latter, enough so that there were many occasions where her gagging was so bad that she was forced to stop and breathe her way through the need.

Uma wrinkled her nose as the air stirred once more with that same underlying sickly-sweet fragrance. What the hell was that anyway? Although the Ragoru did not mention it, she knew that they smelled it and had been smelling it for a while now that she thought back on it. There were many times over the last couple of days where they would stop and a strange look would come over their faces, though they never told her why outside of Vrin more recently muttering about a smell. She hadn’t detected it at first, but the farther they got into the forest, she began to pick up hints of it, like something fruity or heavily floral rotting in the woods.

She had picked up her first hint of something similar to it when they were standing by the strange flowering tree comprised of several scraggily, rapid growing trunks. But it had only had a faint resemblance to the smell that assaulted her nose now. She gave herself a subtle sniff, praying that it didn’t cling to her. It was hard to tell, but she was fairly certain that it didn’t.

Glancing over at Kam walking in his customary spot at her side, she frowned with concern. He didn’t look well. His throat constantly worked as if he was struggling against an urge to retch, his ears twitched restlessly, and his eyes were glassy and continuously moving as if searching for something and yet unfocused. She might have thought he was ill except that his genital sheath was obviously swollen with his arousal. Craning her head, she looked back to Laro and noticed that he appeared to be in a similar state, his large body practically shaking like a junkie in the lower district on pheryne dust, the ground-up seeds of the carnivorous pheryne noctus. Dangerous to grow, and even more dangerous to those who took them in search of mindless bliss, Uma was accustomed enough to seeing the symptoms to suddenly make her very concerned.

But pheryne dust didn’t smell like that, and as far as she knew no one was affected by scent alone. Unless it was just a component and contributed to very different reactions in a creature not human.

And was clearly being dispersed through the upper Great Forest by someone. Her heart thudded violently in her chest as she cast an anxious gaze around her. Did the males even perceive the woods the same way at that moment?

Just ahead, Vrin stumbled slightly but caught his weight on a tree before giving his head a sharp shake. Definitely not good. Uma’s hand went to her sword at her hip, her eyes scanning the forest worriedly.

“Kam? Kam!” she hissed as she pressed into his side, elbowing him as hard as she could.

The male grunted in surprise, blinked at her, and gave her a groggy smile. “Is it time to stop?” he growled playfully. “Do you need a rutting as much as I need it?” He sighed heavily as his body leaned into her.

Up ahead, Vrin stumbled to a stop and turned toward them, his ears pricking in their direction, his entire body tense in a way that made the straining bulge of his sheath even more apparent even at the distance that separated them. He had a look about him of a male ready to pounce, and she swallowed nervously. She wasn’t afraid of him—of any of them—but the way they were behaving suddenly made her feel very vulnerable to whatever else was out there.

Someone was drugging them. That was the only reason she could come up with. And given the way it was affecting the Ragoru and following so close to the Withering Days, she was starting to believe that it was a hint as to why triads were showing up at the citadel at such a vulnerable time.

“Kam, focus and think carefully. Have you ever felt this way before? Did you recognize that smell?”

He blinked down at her and whined softly as he looked around. “I feel strange. I want to rut but the smell, it is terrible, but I want more of it. I want to rut with it in my nose because it makes me feel a need that lets me forget everything else. I can forget that you do not want to mate with us and just enjoy the heat.”

Right. That was a good dozen red flags right there.

Reaching up with both hands, Uma grabbed his muzzle and forced his head toward her. “Think, honey. When did you first feel that way?”

Kam’s ears flattened as his brow furrowed in confusion. “The first—no, second—snowfall. We had finished supplying our den for the winter and were out hunting, and this scent suddenly came over the forest. It was not so strong, but we started talking then of how much we wanted a mate.”

“A mate,” Laro panted, and Uma’s gaze swung over to him. He had come up on them so quietly she hadn’t even heard him. He nodded his head and his entire body shook. “Days we talked, each day our need grew greater... our desire for a female that had come to life in our minds. It was all we could think about.”

He drew a ragged breath, and the forest fell into an eerie silence that made the hair on the back of Uma’s neck prickle. It was worse than the silence of the grassland and slumbering fields because the sounds of the forest were completely snuffed out as if caught in terror.

Uma slowly drew back away from the two males, her hand once again dropping to her sword. She slowly drew it from her sheath and turned toward Vrin who was still standing some distance away.

“Come here, Vrin,” she called, her voice hoarse with the strain seizing her. “Come over here with us.”

She didn’t want them separated for even a moment. The male’s ears swiveled and pricked toward her, but then he moved as he burst forward into a run. She stiffened as she prepared herself for the possible impact of his large body colliding with hers, but the hissing sound of swords pulled from scabbards had her whirling in their direction just as men boiled up and burst from the trees, their distinctive uniforms giving their identity away.

Huntsmen!

With a shout of warning, Uma rushed forward, lunging for the nearest huntsman as the Ragoru whirled around and snarled in a violent frenzy. Her sword smashed against his and she heaved her weight forward, setting him off balance so that he stumbled back, giving her the perfect opportunity to drive the top of her blade into his gut. His scream was bloodcurdling, but Uma refused to register it as she turned on the next huntsman and parried his strike. Another raced up behind him, but Vrin leaped out from the conflict with a snarl, his heavy body bringing the man down as she swung her blade to counter the numerous swords that came at her.

There were too many. Her heart pounded in her chest as she came to that realization as more huntsmen poured out from the forest. There hadn’t been that many in Old Wayfairer. They had to be gathering from all over the western continent. Suddenly this was a lot more serious than she had ever guessed. This was not just a handful of huntsmen too stubborn to lie down and die backed by the club. This was an entire force of them nearly equal in size to those originally headquartered in Old Wayfairer. Everywhere she turned, there was another huntsman on the attack with swords and spears.

She swung out, striking away the blade coming for her face, and then whirled to knock a spear from another’s hands. She ducked and dodged where she could, every blow feeling like the next heartbeat that drew the line between life and death. All the while her eyes continuously searched the chaos for her boys as they drove slashed and dove at their foes. From the corner of her eye, she saw Laro shoot forward, and her head turned, following his movement as he jerked a huntsman off the ground, his jaws gaping wide to tear into his throat. Her world came to a standstill, everything slowing down in her mind when two men materialized at either side of him, a large net in their hands. Her mouth parted in an angry scream, but there was nothing she could do to stop it as the net dropped down and huntsmen swarmed upon him, grabbing ahold of the net and anchoring it as others jabbed with their spears.

Tears streaming down her face, she roared, fighting her way across the distance. Vrin leaped with a bellow but was brought down by a giant hammer driven into his skull by a giant of a man with a blood-thirsty smile before a giant net was thrown over his prone body too. Another scream of sorrow and rage broke from her, but huntsmen rose up between them, driving her back with each well-placed blow. Cuts stung and bled wherever they made contact, her muscles ached, and her movements grew slower as she began to tire. Every blow that drove her back or to her knees was becoming harder and harder to recover from. She swiped the sweat out of her eyes with the back of one hand and turned her head. An ax split the air as it dropped toward her, but a large furred hand shot out, striking the side of the blade, knocking it away from her as Kam’s large body curled protectively around her.

Uma squeezed her eyes shut, certain that the death blow was coming at the sound of numerous feet rushing toward them, thudding on the ground and breaking through the tender growth of the forest.

“Wait!” The command shot out over the huntsmen, stopping them in their tracks.

The men froze for a heartbeat or two before slowly, and cautiously withdrawing, but not before Kam was likewise secured by a massive net, Uma’s only protection within the shelter of his arms as he crouched protectively over her.

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