Lost Bloodline 4 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Night had fully fallen by the time that Koda left Kris’ home and returned to his. The night air nipped at his face, but didn’t really bother him besides reminding him that it was cold out.

I wonder how resistant to cold and heat I am as a champion? Koda thought as he strode along the back streets of Silverstone. I noticed that it doesn’t really affect me as much, but how much of that is the effects of Thera’s blessing, and how much is just me?

He didn’t have too long to worry about how his role had changed him, Koda arrived at his home’s doorstep only minutes after leaving Kris’ house.

The large house glowed from within, light spilling around the edges of the heavy wooden shutters closed against the chill of the night. The windows had been blocked with glass or horn panes, so the shutters did not need to be perfect seals, and that resulted in dim halos of light from each window.

Stepping up onto the porch, Koda paused to kick his boots against the edge of the steps and dislodge some of the dirt and mud he’d picked up in the trip from Kris’ home and his. He could hear the voices and laughter of his mates and houseguest from within, telling him that either they’d started dinner without him or were nearly at that point.

The front door wasn’t locked when he pressed on the latch—they rarely locked it during the day because no one would be foolish enough to rob the house knowing who lived there—Koda stepped inside and was promptly swamped with the warmth of his home and familiar smells: Wild fruit, leather, pine sap, blade oils, and the scent of cooking food swirled around him.

Koda had barely made it two steps past the door and was unlacing his cloak when the first of his mates rounded the corner with a broad grin on her sharp face. Bright yellow eyes glittered in the shadows created by her dense brunette mane. Arthene had taken the time to brush her curls recently, so the mane wasn’t as wild as usual, but it still shrouded her shoulders like a cloak since it hung loose rather than in the twin braids she sometimes employed to tame the unruly mass.

“My mate, you return to us,” Arthene crooned happily, the six-and-a-half foot tall Amazonian beauty reaching to pull Koda’s cloak off and toss it negligently onto a peg.

The gesture belied the strength and dexterity of the woman, as the heavy garment sailed through the air and landed right where she’d aimed. Though Koda wasn’t paying attention as Arthene was further distracting him.

Regardless of the colder season, Arthene was dressed in a brief top that barely covered her full breasts. The fur-on hide cupping her large assets and maintaining her decorum while a knee-length fur skirt did the same for her full hips. A pair of rounded bear ears wiggled happily amongst her hair as she pulled Koda into a kiss that mushed her full breasts into his chest and neck while she loomed over him happily.

Koda didn’t fight Arthene’s affection, savoring the kiss as the scent of sun-warmed berries surrounded him. He didn’t know how it was that the smell clung to her, but when she was happy, Arthene always had that smell about her. His arms draped around her waist, one smoothing over her bare back and up her spine while the other slid down to cup her bottom and tug lightly on the stubby bear tail that protruded from a slit in her skirt.

“Mmhm,” Arthene groaned happily into the kiss, her hips grinding into Koda’s in a way that told him she was only moments from dragging him upstairs and forgetting about dinner.

Thankfully, a distraction appeared a moment later in the form of Calandra. The dwarven woman coughed meaningfully once, and when Arthene didn’t release Koda, she smacked the larger woman on the rump with one strong hand.

That got a reaction out of Arthene, making the primal bear spirit jump in surprise and finally pull away from Koda’s lips. She didn’t release her prey though, instead turning to glare over her shoulder at Calandra though she had to crane her neck uncomfortably to look down on the smaller woman.

“Dinner is waiting, ‘Thene. You can mount him like a charger later, when the rest of us are able to watch and enjoy,” Calandra grunted as she swept her trio of thick chocolate braids over her shoulder with one hand.

The dwarven woman was thick of shoulder and waist, her career as a soldier and a guardswoman having given her an abundance of muscle and confidence to go with a sassy mouth and her well-padded figure. Right now, Calandra was wearing just a plain shirt with the top several buttons undone to reveal the tops of her breasts and a pair of linen pants.

Not waiting for an agreement or rebuttal from Arthene, Calandra turned from her spot by the door and strode back into the dining room. She paused just long enough to shoot a hooded smile over her shoulder at Koda, her olive-colored eyes twinkling alluringly while she bit her plush bottom lip meaningfully. And then she was gone from sight.

“Fiiiine,” Arthene grumbled in assent a moment later.

Despite her verbal acceptance of Calandra’s demands, Arthene didn’t release Koda. Instead, she picked her man up bodily by shifting her grip and pinning him to her chest. This resulted in Koda being pressed almost face-first into her bust. He gave a token struggle, but didn’t fight it too much as Arthene carried him through to the dining room.

His hearing was muffled by the delightfully soft pillows enveloping his head, but Koda still heard the laughter of his other mates as Arthene carried him into the room. It was only when she freed him from his proverbial prison that he caught the words being said.

“Arthene, has Koda ever tried to run away from you? You don’t have to treat him like a child that you are worried about escaping a punishment,” Sienna said with a laugh.

“I don’t know. I think it’s rather cute,” Samira teased. “I know that I wouldn’t want to let him get far out of reach if it was up to me.”

“Koda isn’t going anywhere,” Calandra snickered with the kind of confidence one normally held while stating that the sky was blue and water was wet. “Hell, I’d half expect him to complain because you pulled him out of your tits, rather than for him to run away.”

“Complaining would imply I’m not happy like this too,” Koda said, getting a laugh from the girls as he still dangled several inches off the ground in Arthene’s grip. “Give me a kiss, love, then we can eat. You are going to need your energy for tonight.”

“Bet,” Arthene laughed and bent to accept her bribe of another kiss from Koda before releasing him to settle onto the floor once more.

As soon as he had his balance, Koda turned to survey the room and his new family with a broad smile.

Sienna had called it earlier, the meal that Arthene had prepared was a large roast seasoned with herbs and mashed berries. Several steaming loaves of fresh bread had to have been the work of Calandra, as the dense loaves were some of her favorites and they stood ready beside fresh butter and more fruit jams. The vegetables that Sienna had promised were in another bowl, a collection of chopped and pan-fried potatoes with their dark purple skin still on.

The other three women were already seated at the table, with Sienna working a long serving knife and fork to cut the roast dexterously. Calandra was beside the wolf woman, the dwarven guardswoman cutting into the bread with a broad smile to pair it with the roast meat.

“How was your trip?” Samira asked, the caracal woman bouncing in her current spot on the near side of the table.

They rotated who sat where, with only Koda remaining in his spot at the head of the table. That meant that Samira and Arthene were sitting on either side of him tonight, and Koda could tell that the cat-eared woman was happy from the wiggles of both her body and her long tail.

“Good. We made it up to Windwalker Retreat and back without a problem. No signs in the high mountains. I ran into Hannah on my way to report to Kris, looks like either your tribe is sending a full trading group or someone from the other tribes near the Silent Plains is coming to make contact.”

“Ooh!” Samira’s happy bouncing picked up speed, sending the barest of jiggles through her form.

Like Sienna and Calandra, Samira had opted for a long-sleeved shirt and pants combination, though the tufty-eared woman had added a leather half-vest over top decorated in hundreds of bone and stone beads. Her intelligent green eyes sparkled in excitement at the news and Koda had to fight the urge to reach over and rub the girl’s ears. Samira was always so lively and joyful that it was hard not to match that energy. Something that regularly got her and Arthene into mischief.

“Well then, good of them to come. I was wondering if any others remained loyal to the Beast Queen,” Arthene said with a sniff as she settled into her seat on Koda’s right, accepting her plate from Sienna. A plate that held easily two pounds of roast meat and only a small heap of potatoes on a thick slice of bread to counterweight the protein.

“I’m sure that part of it is just getting word spread,” Sienna said while passing down Koda’s plate, which had a much more balanced mixture of food on it. “Vysin will be focused on rebuilding from the damage the trolls caused and ensuring the village would make it through the winter.”

“I still think there should have been more thanks given for that work. You ran a heavy risk there and nearly died…” Arthene growled as she grabbed up a hunk of roast with her fingers.

The primal bear spirit ignored the fork beside her plate, simply gnawing happily away on the meat. Koda was fairly certain that Sienna only gave Arthene a fork as a joke anymore, since the big woman ignored utensils unless she absolutely needed to use them to eat something. Which was very rare.

“Vysin offered to have a party for us,” Koda reminded her gently, rolling his eyes as Arthene dug into her meal messily. She just looked so happy doing it that Koda couldn’t bring himself to be annoyed by it. Instead, he forked up a roast potato and took a bite, happily groaning at the salty flavor of the well-cooked vegetable.

“And you turned him down,” Arthene grunted through her food while giving Koda a reproachful look.

“They needed to conserve their supplies already. We made off with our own rewards from the killing of the trolls,” Koda reminded her while the other three girls got their plates ready and set to eating immediately.

“Arthene,” Calandra interrupted while she carefully cut her roast up and used her bread to soak up the juices, “have you finished up shaping those weapons out of your old bones? I haven’t seen you working on them the last few days and Hans told me he managed to break another mattock today.”

“Not surprised,” Samira laughed around her own bite of food. “He’s always showing off for his ladies. Do you think he’s going to actually bring Layla in fully or just keep showing off to her? I know Brit said the other day she was fine with it.”

“That’s news to me,” Koda said, enjoying a bite of his roast.

“Yeah, I don’t know if she’s actually told Hans yet or not that she’s decided she’s fine with it, but she mentioned it in passing while I talked with her about some clothing.” Samira said quickly, a faint blush coloring her cheeks.

Koda knew that Brit worked with the village tailor, but Samira’s tribe may have done things differently so he didn’t press on it. For all that the caracal woman had been living with them for the last several months, Koda still kept finding surprising things about her as they got to know each other better.

“To your question, Cal, yes I have finished them up. I was waiting for the last of the treatments to cure on them and they should be done tonight. The air is finally cold enough that it will properly set the infusions,” Arthene said while gnawing on her food.

Despite the fact she was eating with her hands and talking at the same time, Arthene managed to do it without spraying food or chewing with her mouth open. Something Koda was grateful for.

Honestly, it’s likely a contributing factor to why her eating like that doesn’t bother me that much, Koda thought with a shake of his head. Arthene continued to discuss what she’d achieved now that she’d finally had time to properly treat the ancient bones like she had her thigh-bone club.

“I’d say midday tomorrow they’ll be ready. I could have rushed one or two through like I did with my club, but doing them as a group allowed me to perform the proper ceremonies. Yours will take the most getting used to, but I guarantee you won’t have to fight as hard to keep it sharp.”

“Thank Chandra for that!” Calandra muttered into her crust of bread, naming the dwarven goddess that she followed.

Despite being a mate to Koda who was a champion to a different goddess, Calandra still prayed to her own goddess. No one minded though, as Chandra had long been considered Thera’s closest ally.

“My axe hasn’t been the same since those trolls. I can get an edge on her, but she won’t keep it. She’s overdue for retirement as it is.”

“You’ll have your replacement. Just need to fit it to a shaft,” Arthene gave Calandra a messy smile that the dwarven woman returned. Both of them had managed to get some of the berry jam the roast had been glazed with on their noses and Koda had to fight the urge to laugh at how adorable they both looked.

“Did you also treat your club too? Would it benefit from those same ceremonies done slower?” Sienna asked while carefully buttering a hunk of bread herself. Koda could tell the wolf beastfolk was also excited at the idea of the new weapons from how her fluffy tail whipped rhythmically behind her, but Sienna affected a relaxed pose.

“Of course,” Arthene snorted. “It’s already baptized in blood and combat, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t improve it. Your little healing spring helped a lot too, thank you for that.”

Arthene’s tone turned devious as she said the last part, and Sienna’s facade cracked. Koda’s wolfish lover had been getting better at her blushes, but the reminder of the fact that not only had the goddess watched her and Koda ‘get busy’ for the first times, she had also used the act to consecrate a nearby spring to heal ailments would still would make Sienna blush.

“So envious,” Samira said quietly, her words partially muffled by her food. However, they were not muffled enough for Arthene to miss them.

The bawdy bear spirit turned her smiling gaze onto Samira and she gave the smaller woman a broad wink.

“Don’t you worry, Samira. You’ll get yours too.”

Koda knew that Arthene had been making weapons for Samira too, as the incarnate spirit viewed the caracal woman as part of their group already. But the implications and innuendo in her tone gave the statement a far more sensual undertone. One that Koda was sure Samira picked up on when she blushed faintly too and darted a hopeful look his way.

Something else to sort out this winter, he thought with a wry smile. Not that he would complain. Thera promised him a big family, and he was happy to embrace that.