She thought, “I love you, Glen. I wish…”

  Yeah, I kind of wanted to rut with her as well, really badly as the true depths of our feelings became apparent. There was no hiding my love from her, my feelings both deep and shallow, and we were swept away by a potent lustful need during the first moments of our pack bond.

  Never mind the fact I’d been balls deep in her just two hours ago, I needed her now.

  Rue sent, “Go for it, we’re done with the rite and are vigilant once again, not vulnerable anymore. You two don’t have to stay out there on patrol.”

  Right, all the witches were feeling my sharp need in that moment, so Rue’s message shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It was also clear to me with my mind open to her, that Carline would hear the witch communications when we were both in shifted form and our minds were joined as one, because she took off for our shared cabin like a bat out of hell as the scent of her arousal went up about ten notches.

  I chased Carline as I sent Rue a mental caress of thanks, and I felt fond amusement in return.

  As soon as we were inside the cabin, we started to shift. Despite that separating our minds, the scents of our emotions and arousal, the sounds of our fast heart beats, still gave us both a good feeling of the other. The pack bond was also still present, I could sense her direction still and feel her body state, even in human form, just no mental joining. Probably because our human instincts would reject such an intimate joining of minds, where for a pack predator with potent instincts it was treasured in our animal forms.

  Point being, I could still feel her submission to me, that she was mine, and I was hers. The joy and lust in that face poured off her, and I pulled her into a kiss that had her whimpering into my mouth and rubbing up against me like a cat in heat.

  I reached down and gripped her ass cheeks, and I lifted her up as I turned and crushed her body against the door. Her legs and arms went around me, and she let out the sexiest little gasp and whine of pleasure as her hips rolled. Her hot dripping sex slid against mine, pinning it to my stomach, as she left a dirty trail of liquid arousal along the bottom of my cock before grinding her clit against my sensitive cock head. The silken sensation sending a wave of pleasure through my body that had me moaning in need into her mouth. Her C cups crushed against my chest, and our tongues dueling as she slid along my cock two more times, before reaching down and lining us up.

  She cried out, and I hissed in pleasure, as I thrusted into her hot and snug passage. Her pussy quivered as I forced it open, and she whimpered needily into my mouth as she rolled her hips and took in another two inches.

  With the next harsh thrust I drove it in fully, our bodies fully joined, and she bore down around me like a vice as she squeezed her legs and rolled her hips. Milking me and grinding me which sent a potent wave of pleasure riddling through my body.

  The kiss broke and we stared into one another’s eyes, as I bent my knees slightly and started to drive up into her, sending her body bouncing up and down the wall. Her rounded and generous C cups jiggling riotously against my upper chest and face as she slid up and down the wall.

  Each time she crashed down to meet me, she rolled her hips subtly to add a little grinding action as I rutted up into her. Her eyes lost in both pleasure and lust, a mirror image to mine no doubt.

  She said breathily, “I’m yours, forever. Yours to fuck with that fat cock, whenever you want me. I needed this, so badly. Don’t stop, just take your pleasure in me, because the goddess knows I’m taking mine in belonging to you.”

  The irony perhaps, was that it was the deep meaningful thoughts in our joint minds, the love, protective feelings, respect and awe in each other, that led to this rutting shallow moment. The need to know everything about each other, and our deep commitment to being pack and sharing this life together, that led to this insanely lustful and rutting fuck, making our shallow attraction and needs spiral out of control.

  The insanely pleasurable liquid friction as I pounded up into her, her sweet sexy pants and whimpers of pleasure, the way she looked at me in surrender and need with so much wanton joy in her eyes as I pounded her. It had us both racing for the edge, the pleasure inundating our bodies was overwhelming at the wild pace we’d set.

  Then she cried out in ecstasy as her heaven clenched around me and she soaked my middle, her grinds growing sloppy, as she started to bounce on my thrusting cock like a rag doll lost in the pleasures I was engendering in her. Her hot paradise squeezing, wildly rippling, and writhing around and up and down my cock was heavenly and so entirely overwhelming to my senses.

  “Fuck, Carline.”

  I pounded up into her two more times as my balls boiled, and my fingers dug into her tight and supple ass cheeks as I held her firmly and started to cum explosively up into her hot body.

  She keened wildly as she rolled into a second orgasm in response to mine, and her pussy milked me hard enhancing my potent release. Her beautiful amber eyes were so wide with ecstatic pleasure and vulnerable surrender, as we rode the heights of ecstasy as one. It felt like it lasted forever, the two of us frozen in that eternal short moment of rapturous bliss, but then we both gasped in a breath as the pleasure released us and we came down.

  “Love you, Carline,” I said softly, and the lingering kiss that followed was wickedly sweet and sensual.

  Carline replied, “Love you too, Glen. I was not expecting that.”

  I chuckled, “Me either. I take it that’s not a normal pack bond connection?”

  Carline shook her head, “No. Our love and the heat between us made it so. How about one more round, before you get the tour and I get back on patrol? I don’t think you pounded me hard enough.”

  I chuckled at the challenge in her voice, then accused playfully, “Wicked hedonist. Sure, twist my arm,” as I held her tight and carried her toward the bed.

  She leaned in and nibbled my earlobe, before whispering, “Your wicked hedonist, and loving being so thoroughly debauched by you. Do you like that? What a wickedly depraved woman I am for you?”

  She giggled, at the feeling of my flagging cock twitch hard inside of her, and start to recover, stretching her out once more.

  “I’ll take that as a yes, goddess your scent does it to me, and your thoughts were even more delicious.”

  I chuckled, “So it’s my fault you’re a depraved nympho.”

  She kissed my neck, “Absolutely, and I love that you do that to me. Now make me scream for you, and enjoy my body.”

  So I did, several times, before taking my pleasure which finally burned through all the lustful energy we’d engendered in our initiation of the pack bond.

  All in all, between that and the coven bonding rite, it was a hell of a morning.

  The hot bath had been relaxing, and I was kind of in an endorphin clouded state and totally spent, after filling all nine witches and my tiger shifter twice. I was feeling pretty damned good, as I got out, dried off, and got dressed, before heading to the kitchen and dining cabin.

  Astra felt me moving in that direction, and I felt her respond and move that way as well, from our shared cabin. No mental message required. It was going to take time to get used to things like that, the constant new awareness, sensations, and information flooding my mind from my nine coven mates. I’d adapt.

  A lot had changed in the last month, since waking up from my three century stasis in a crumbling apartment building. It was a whole new life, including the fact I’d taken two lives, and would no doubt have to fight and kill for my coven’s survival again in the future.

  I’d kind of glossed over that part so far in this account, the cost of taking a life, because honestly it didn’t bother me. At all. Which was the only thing that bothered me about it. I was not a sociopath, I felt for my witch lovers and shifter fiercely, and I had a strong connection to the rest as well without the romantic components.

  I cared, they were all my family now, a coven and pack. So that was the only worrying thing, the fact taking those lives didn’t seem to impact me at all. In fact, it’d taken days before I even realized it hadn’t. It wasn’t a callous disregard, I just didn’t give it any thought for a while, until I realized that fact, anyway.

  The best I could figure out was it was my shifter side that was a lot more accepting toward violence, and I’d been shifted at the time I’d done it. They say even self-defense had a cost on the human soul, at least that’s what I’d always believed and read about in stories. The angst just wasn’t there for me.

  Point being, before I got off on that tangent, was over the last month my mind had come to terms with my new world, the state of it, as well as the existence of magic and supernatural races. It was a hard life, but also a rewarding one. I’d learned early there was satisfaction and reward in hard work.

  The coven of course was incredible. Nothing in my experience compared. Nothing was perfect, but they were all supportive and in harmony. I suppose that had a lot to do with our crappy world, the human inclination toward strife was fed by the hardships of the world and being surrounded by enemies. In short, it was what we faced in order to prosper, and how badly we needed each other to survive, that led to such a deep harmonious existence within the coven.

  I pushed down my wandering thoughts as Astra came in wearing a revealing red sundress, that she looked incredible in. I still wasn’t an introspective person, especially not in company, but some level of it had led to the conclusions I’d just shared, and my acceptance of this new world.

  Astra asked, “You ready?”

  I nodded, “Where are we going?”

  She just winked as she took my hand and led me outside and to the bathing cabin. Her magic surged as we went inside, and the center tub slid to the side, revealing a hole with a circular stairwell leading down.

  The stairwell was lit by witch lights, concentrations of glowing magic, about the same strength as a half a dozen candles each. It was made of cast iron and quite sturdy. The lever to move the tub back was also much more apparent on the hidden side of things, about six feet down. The tube moved back over the hole as we took the stairs down a good forty feet to a tunnel.

  She waved, “That way is the stairwell up to the kitchen, which is the one we use most often, to move food and daily supplies up. This is the secondary one. The kitchen one is under the middle stove, the lever behind it on the right side. I didn’t expect it to be so close to lunch before we started the tour, which is why the plan changed.”

  Right, because the stove had been in use to prepare lunch, it probably wasn’t a good idea to move it when it was in use.

  She moved down the hallway in the opposite direction of her wave. The tunnel was shaped stone walls and floor, the ceiling vaulted to handle all the weight of that dirt above us.

  The first room we came to was a round and vaulted room, with a curving bookshelf against the back wall with maybe fifty books, and a rounded table for four.

  She waved, “These are our grimoires, spell books. With the exception of the primer and coven bond rite for obvious reasons, none of the books are taken from this room. When we learn a new spell, we do it here. They contain all the spells created through the ages by our joint coven lines. The top left shelf contains an index book of sorts, you can read through that for a list of spells available in the library with a brief description of its purpose.”

  I nodded, “That’ll make things easier.”

  She grinned, “It does. Rue will guide you in it for a while, focusing on the spells we use most. The different active wards we use, concealment spells, witch lights, and the fire spell that maintains our cabin air to start with. By the time you learn all that, we’ll be confident in your ability to learn spells on your own, and you can have the run of the library solo. Of course, we’ll all be available to help if you have questions, even after that.”

  “Love the dress, by the way.”

  She smiled, “Thanks. It’s new, and I made it just for you.”

  I pulled her close, and I gave her a soft lingering kiss.

  She squeezed my hand and held onto it as we left the room and headed deeper into the underground area. The first large cavern took me by surprise, the domed ceiling easily thirty feet high and about thirty yards in diameter. The room was filled with fruit trees. Oranges and applies mostly.

  Everywhere we went had hovering witch lights.

  The next one was just as large and held a field of wheat. Then a room with six different vegetables, and the next room a spice garden. All the different vegetables, fruits, and plants went on for quite a while, until it gave over to animals. Rooms with pigs, chickens, cows, and even one room with a few horses in it.

  I shook my head, “How the hell is there enough time to take care of it all for a small coven?”

  Astra giggled, “Magic, of course. The wards aren’t just protection, defense, and concealment. The watering and simulated sunlight are all automated. Even milking the cows and collecting chicken eggs are done with automated magic. We check on it daily, but outside of harvest time it pretty much takes care of itself.

  “We use active spells to harvest and process things. Cream, milk, butter, cheeses, drying the spices and jarring them. It’s been three hundred years since the fall of the old civilization and technology. Since then, the covens have been developing spells to handle it all as efficiently as possible. That will be all the spells and wards you learn that I mentioned earlier, that Rue will guide you in. So you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of how it all works in about six months.

  “All the wards are tied to the coven’s magic, not just the coven bond. You probably hardly feel it, since all our power doubled the moment you joined the coven. It’s only the defensive and protective wards that will double in strength, the rest are fine the way they are.”

  Past that was rooms full of supplies, such as tools, lumber, metals, and the like.

  We headed back to the beginning, and we moved past the stairwell up to the bath and down the other way. Right under the kitchen, near that other stairwell, were three more large rooms. One was a walk-in freezer, another a walk-in fridge, and the last a room temperature storage room. For all the finished products. The fridge and freezer were kept cold with those woodless fires that consumed the heat in the air.

  “You mentioned making the outside healthy to be in?”

  She nodded, “We won’t be building storms like they do in the city. We’re double the power, but they have five hundred witches at double the power, and a warlock at fifty times the power. Our atmospheric filtered containment spell will work similarly theirs though, if be a lot smaller just to cover the field. It keeps in the moisture, but otherwise the air exchanges normally except with heat exchange. The way we create that moisture will be more like what we use in the cabins, then trying to create a storm. That process will also make it cooler. I know you’re feeling overwhelmed right now.”

  I chuckled, “I’ll learn it, but it is a lot to be hit with all at once. At least I’m already pulling my weight by supporting the wards. Still, part of that overwhelmed your feeling from me is the coven bond, my mind will take time to get accustomed to it. This,” I waved, “I’ll figure out and take it one step at a time.”

  Our emotions were in the open, but like she’d just proven, the root of those emotions weren’t always obvious. Like my mistake with Rue, I’d scented her anger for weeks and thought her mad at the world, when it had been aimed inward to drive herself to be vigilant because of a past mistake.

  She bit her lip, “I get it, and that’s actually good to know. You will be given assigned duties and an area of responsibility, splitting the workload ten ways instead of nine, just like the magical cost is already split ten ways now. For now however, your only coven duty is to catch up, learn the magic and get to that point. Also build what we need built if anything comes up that way. Helping in defense as well if we’re attacked, obviously.”

  “That works for me, Astra. You’re the boss. You mentioned heat exchange in there?”

  Astra nodded, “The air blowing through our ward will be cooled, while the air being pushed out of it will take on that heat. An even exchange of heat like that can be accomplished with very little magic. So it will keep our small glade and area cool.”

  She smiled, “Let’s head up here. They’re done with the stove, and lunch is ready.”

  I pulled her to me, and her warm light brown eyes sparkled with breathless excitement as I slowly leaned down and kissed her. My arms around her and hands on her were firmly possessive, while my kiss was meltingly sweet and giving, a combination which really worked for my matriarch, as she melted against me with a dreamy sigh.

  She really did look sinfully delicious in that red dress, even more than usual, but that was only a tiny part of it. Our intense connection in that moment had very little to do with lust or physical desires.

  We were both feeling the emotional intimacy of the other, the thrilling love and admiration we shared, which was a potent thing. That the other eight witches in the coven could feel that with us, how we were sappily drowning in our mutual admiration and love in that moment, didn’t bother me at all either. I’d never been one to wear my heart on my sleeve, but when it came to the coven and my coven sisters, I truly didn’t have a choice.

  If I had no choice, then why not be shameless about it, and own my feelings proudly. I certainly wasn’t ashamed by how I saw, admired, and loved Astra. Plus, women loved confidence in a man, so having my emotions on my sleeve and being timid and uncertain about it would be the worst possible thing I could do.

  I mean. I’d been ready for it, expecting it, that loss of privacy and all that was involved. But there was a difference between knowing something would happen and being in the actual moment experiencing it. It was far more visceral with the connection, but as I said, I accepted it with confidence.

  Like that earlier lack of reaction in me to taking lives, I think my equanimity in that rested solely on my instincts as a shifter. If I hadn’t been a shifter, that acceptance still would’ve come. Humans can get used to anything in time after all, but I’m fairly sure I’d have struggled with it first.