Page 29 of Shared By the Werebears
The demi-goddess stared at me coldly and I was sure she was going to kill me right there, where I stood, for my audacity. But to my surprise, she seemed to be honestly considering it.
“It has been a long, dry time since I had pleasure of the sexual variety,”she murmured at last, her voice echoing through the trees.“Perhaps it would ease my pain.”
“Goldie,no!”Ronan growled, glaring at me possessively. “You don’thave to do this! Finn and I can take care of ourselves—you don’t have to fuck a demi-goddess to get us out of the mess we made!”
“Oh, it won’t be me that she’s fucking, as you so crudely put it, Shifter.”Locasta narrowed her eyes at him.“It will be you…and your fellow Were. I will need the pleasure of all three of you to even begin to pay for the pain you have caused.”
Ronan’s eyes went wide in shock…then narrowed.
“Weres don’t share mates.”
“Tonight they do,” I said firmly—because it was absolutely nighttime now. I didn’t know if the time had magically changed or if Locasta had brought the night with her but either way, it was dark in The Blighted Forest. I could even see the moon—almost full—rising above the gnarled branches of the trees.
Ronan started to protest again, but Finn gave him a look.
“We know how you feel, but you’re going to have to get over it,” he growled. “Goldie is right—this is the only way out of this situation. The only way we can make up for what we did. We owe it to the demi-goddess to try and ease the pain we caused.”
Locasta seemed to approve of his words.
“Well spoken, Shifter. For that, I will lead you to a place where your pleasure is fuller—both for you and for myself,”she told him.“Come with me to the Clearing of Echoes.”
Then she turned and swept deeper into the dark forest, leaving us no choice but to follow her.
17
GOLDIE
The Clearing of Echoes was unlike anything I had ever seen.
It didn’t feel like a place made for mortals, not really. The trees circled tight and close around it, their trunks twisted in agony or ecstasy—it was hard to tell which. Moonlight spilled like liquid silver across the soft, mossy floor, dappling stones that shimmered faintly in the milky brilliance. It felt as though the glade itself remembered every footstep, every gasp, every scream of pain or pleasure that had ever echoed through it.
It wasalive, and it waswatching us. Or rather…shewas.
Locasta hadn’t followed us in, but I could feel her out there, part of the forest, her awareness woven through bark and bramble. Her hunger for our offering curled through the air like smoke. She was waiting.
We needed to do this now.
Ronan stood stiff beside me, his shoulders like stone. He said nothing but his mouth was set in a tight line.
Finn looked equally tense, but when I reached for his hand, he didn’t pull away. His fingers tightened around mine, warm and rough and reassuring.
“She’s in the trees,” I whispered. “She’s already listening.”
“We have tomeanit,” Finn murmured. “Every bit of it. All the way.”
“Yes.” I turned to look up at him. “Can you do that with me? Let it be real?”
His answer was a kiss.
It was slow and searching, his lips brushing mine like he was asking,Are you sure?And my answering moan told him yes—yes to everything he wanted. To everything webothwanted.
I opened to him and he devoured me, his hands sliding up to cup my face, then lower, until he was tugging at the hem of my fuzzy black sweater. I let him strip it over my head, baring my breasts to the chilly night air. Finn cupped them in his big, warm hands.
“God, you’re so beautiful, Goldie,” he breathed, tracing his thumbs lightly over my nipples. They went tight instantly and I gasped at the feeling—no, at theamplificationof it. Everything was more here. The pleasure doubled, tripled, spilled back into me like a feedback loop.
I realized this was the Clearing’s magic—our offering would be magnified, echoing into the forest, into Locasta. This was why it was called the “Clearing of Echoes”—because it echoed and magnified all the emotions…all the pain and pleasure and need that were spilled here were amplified a hundredfold.
I undid Finn’s shirt, pushing it off his shoulders and down his arms, letting my fingers trail along the hard muscles of his broad chest. I wanted him naked. Needed tofeelhim. His heat. His hunger for me. My Succubus half was nearly drowning in delight—the amplification effect was a dream come true for the side of me that was always hungry and never quite satisfied.
