Page 7 of Claiming Their Slave
To share her with his twin as they claimed her at the same time.
Damn. What was he thinking?
Several unattached Banded females would arrive in his settlement soon, and he and Wolfe would be able to claim one of their own kind. Banded females would feel the strength of a mating bond, but he knew a human woman would feel no such magical bond for any pair of Banded brothers who claimed her.
Still, even knowing Ava wouldn’t instantly love him after he sank his cock between her thighs for the first time didn’t completely deter him from imagining her as his mate.
His blood heated and perspiration trickled down his temple.
He couldn’t wait to give her another command, just to hear her say ‘yes, Master.’
During times of emergency, the urge to take a mate became suspended in Banded males, but now that the great war against the River Lord was over, his biological need to claim a female burned stronger by the day. If Jaxon and Wolfe took Ava into their bed and mated with her, would she eventually grow to care for them, despite not being able to experience the traditional Banded mating bond? Trent and Gavin, the brothers who’d renovated the nearby castle, had reportedly taken a human girl as a mate. It was possible, though he suspected a human female would prove quite the challenge. Banded men simply claimed the female they felt called to take as a mate, whether or not she was willing, because in the end, a Banded woman would feel the mating bond and love them. But when it came to claiming a female from another race, such as a human, the experience would be difficult, as it might take time for the non-Banded woman to accept a pair of Banded brothers as her mate.
Yet, as he looked at Ava, he imagined he was up for the challenge. But he still didn’t know how Wolfe would feel about her. The two brothers had been separated early during the fighting against the River Lord and spent years apart, both believing the other was dead, until finally reuniting at their old homestead. Though they were twins and had been raised to manhood together, after years apart, there were times Wolfe seemed like a complete stranger to Jaxon.
His attraction to Ava was strong though, and it was difficult to ignore the way his heart squeezed at the thought of letting her go.
“Stay here.”
“Yes, Master.”
He turned and strode into his tent, needing to put some space between himself and Ava, lest he snap and start mauling her in the middle of this clearing. He reminded himself that the Goddess sometimes sent signs to Banded males, to help them realize which female they should pick. He’d heard of other Banded males who’d known the moment they laid eyes on a particular female that she was the mate for them.
Until today, when he heard the noise of a human village, he would turn and walk the other direction. He’d been on a long patrol of the countryside for a fortnight, to ensure there were no human settlements too close to his homestead for comfort. Twice he’d heard voices belonging to humans, probably hunters, and had promptly gone in the opposite direction, not wishing to interact with them. In the days when humans were stronger, before the forests had grown up around all the villages, armies of men had driven the Banded far away from their homes and into the mountains.
Many of Jaxon’s people believed the curse that caused the forests to grow thicker and the beasts within them to grow larger and become deadlier, wasn’t a curse at all, but rather the Goddess punishing humans for their treatment of the Banded.
Now the world was more suited for the Banded. The humans had smaller numbers and could no longer join together in large armies led by powerful kings. In fact, all the kings were gone, their lines having died out long ago.
The Banded’s settlements would soon be as strong as they once were, before the elves led by the evil River Lord attacked them and tried to steal their lands. Jaxon took comfort in the fact that a prosperous and peaceful time had finally arrived for his people.
As he packed up his supplies and constructed a pair of makeshift shoes for Ava out of spare pieces of cloth and leather, he tried to focus on the positive and ignore the beating of the war drums that sometimes echoed in his mind. He tried not to think of the war, ever, because when his dark years on the battlefield rose in his thoughts, the carnage of battle and the deep pain of losing his two younger brothers, several cousins, and countless friends became too much to bear, not to mention the years he’d spent believing Wolfe was gone as well.
His time spent with Ava today had been the longest he’d gone without remembering the war and all he’d lost.
Once he had her shoes finished, he found a small block of cheese and a heel of bread in his food pouch. He’d heard her stomach growling on the way to the campsite. Once she ate and he took the tent down, they would set off for a few hours of travel. Since he’d planned to double back in this direction today before finally aiming for home, he hadn’t packed up his campsite yet.
He exited the tent, holding the shoes and the food for his little slave. When he gazed at the spot where he’d left her standing, right in the middle of the grassy clearing only a few steps from the tent, she was nowhere to be seen. The daisies she’d collected were scattered on the ground. He tucked the shoes and food into pouches that hung from his belt.
“Ava!” Worry clutched him, and he glanced in every direction, while listening for sounds of distress. He’d placed a handful of safestones—tiny gems mined in the Caves of Reshee that held predators at bay—around the perimeter of the small clearing. He hadn’t worried about anything happening to Ava while he was in the tent, as the stones would offer protection from the beasts of the forest, but he hadn’t thought she would attempt escape. He’d ordered her to stay put, and she had promised not to run away.
Anger began to simmer as he set out to find her, easily tracking her by the path she’d left through the underbrush. Broken branches. Footprints in mud. A strand of her golden hair, fallen in the grass.
A petite human girl didn’t stand a chance alone in the forest. What had she been thinking?
He continued following her trail, running faster, ducking under branches and jumping over fallen trees. Finally, he spotted her footprints leading to the hollow of a large tree trunk. Several fallen branches had been placed strategically in front of the hollow, but he knew she was hiding within the tree. Even if he couldn’t see her footprints leading there, he would have been drawn in by her enticing feminine scent.
“Ava,” he said, standing in front of the tree with his arms crossed. “I know you are in there. Come out now, or your punishment will be worse than I’m already planning.”
A few moments passed, and still nothing. But he heard her little panicked breaths and thought he detected the sweetness of her arousal drifting toward him from the hollow of the tree. He took a deep breath, stunned. The threat of punishment didn’t only make her flush, but it made her wet between her thighs. He’d thought he smelled her arousal earlier when he’d threatened to give her a thrashing, but it had been so faint he’d wondered if he only imagined it. Now, however, the scent of her pooling moisture was strong and undeniable.
His cock went hard and he had to resist the urge to adjust himself in his trousers. Fuck, the things he wanted to do to her. But he couldn’t let her get away with this bit of naughtiness. She could have gotten hurt during her failed escape attempt. He decided to give her one more chance at a lenient punishment.
“Ava, come out now, and you’ll only receive a spanking with my hand. Keep hiding, and you’ll also feel the sting of my sword belt on your naughty bottom.”
