Lost Bloodline 5 - Chapter 1

All right! Now we move into the next adventures of Koda and his girls! These chapters are scheduled to run 10/20 through 11/17 then swap over to MGIS 7. Look forward to more shenanigans!

As always, these are pre-editor versions so there will be some errors. Thanks!

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Chapter 1

“Every time I see it, I can’t help but be impressed by our mate,” Calandra chuckled as Koda hefted the large iron felling axe onto one shoulder.

The thick dwarven woman was studying her own axe—a finely crafted artifact of bone and leather—while sitting right beside the kitchen hearth in just her pants and a straining breast band. The domestic scene warmed Koda’s heart as he studied her and the others in the room while Calandra continued.

“If it was up to me, I’d just move us all down into the kitchen here and we can sleep on the floor to make the most of the limited firewood we had, rather than go out into that storm to cut more.”

“Cold doesn’t bother me,” Koda said with a shrug and a smile at his shortest lover. The light of the fire gleamed on her skin and danced along the thick braids that Calandra kept her brown hair in, giving the woman a glowing, almost gilded look.

“I know it doesn’t, but you should still wear your cloak,” Sienna said pointedly from her spot at the kitchen table, a little further from the roaring fire in the stone hearth.

The wolf beastfolk was carefully sharpening loose iron arrowheads on a slick piece of black stone. Clearly feeling his eyes on her, Sienna looked up with a curious flick of her pointed wolf ears, sending her short red-black hair bouncing in response. She was wearing a sleeveless tunic, and there was a smudge of dark oil on her cute nose from her work.

“If you want me to,” Koda replied easily, swinging the axe back off his shoulder and gesturing towards the bison-hide cloaks that hung from pegs by the door.

Those thick garments were more like massive, fur-lined blankets than cloaks, guaranteed to keep out the worst of the winter chill even with the icy storm raging outside. If it wasn’t for his goddess-boosted strength, Koda would have found them heavy and cumbersome to wear. That same strength was also what allowed him to ignore the vast majority of the outdoor chill.

“I’d prefer it,” Samira said, the caracal beastfolk emerging from the bathing room which was situated behind the kitchen fireplace. She was wearing her close-fitting leather breeches and the beaded half-top that looked more like a sports-bra than a shirt to Koda, but the beastfolk woman looked so hot in them that he’d never complain.

 A flick of the cat-woman’s fingers sent a rain of droplets whisking off her skin as she practiced some more with her still-new water magic. Another gesture sent the droplets sailing back over her shoulder and into the bathing room before Samira pulled the door closed once more.

“I know you are strong, Koda. But there is no reason to take chances,” Samira continued a moment later when she could relax her focus.

“That’s why I’m taking Finna with me,” Koda chuckled, nodding towards the tall, muscular woman who was leaning by the door.

“Yeah, but you can’t wear me like a cloak to keep warm,” Finna teased in return, her bright eyes twinkling while the long, rabbit ears that protruded from her storm-cloud-gray hair twiddled slowly. “Though I wouldn’t complain if you wanted to try.”

Much like Samira, Finna was wearing leather breeches and a simple top, but hers was a close-fitting leather vest and Finna had a pair of leather armbands decorated with beads and small bones, while the leather pack that held her bow hung across her back with the strap running between her modest breasts.

“Maybe another time,” Koda replied with an amused snort of his own. “You are definitely large enough that I should be able to use you as a cloak or even a blanket.”

Finna’s amused chuckle made the other girls smile too. They’d gotten used to the large woman quickly after she’d inserted herself into their lives. It was hard not to appreciate Finna, given her friendly and helpful attitude and the fact that she was, basically, a demigoddess.

Like her bond-sister Arthene, Finna was a primal spirit who had incarnated into a physical body to assist Koda with safeguarding and growing the Beast Queen’s people. And just like Arthene, the amazonian-formed rabbit woman was a good size larger than others of her kind. Not so much that it was grotesque, but Finna stood out in a crowd.

The lapine primal spirit stood around six foot, eight inches in height, and that was before you counted her long ears, which would add another foot of height to her if they stood upright. Most times they folded back or draped to either side of her head though, but Finna’s long form was unmistakable regardless.

“If any of us would qualify as being a fur cloak, it would be dear Arthene. Are you alive over there, sister?” Finna jibed, directing the attention to Arthene.

The woman in question was lying face-first on top of the kitchen table, a fork clutched in one hand with a still-faintly-steaming sausage impaled on the twin tines. Arthene’s fur-lined leather top was crooked, one of her breasts nearly escaping confinement, and Koda knew that her leather skirt was likely in the same state as well from how groggy the bear woman had been when she stumbled down for breakfast.

Arthene’s plate lay in the crook of her arm, a single fried egg and three more sausages lay on it, with her long mess of dark brown hair barely avoiding getting caught in the grease on her plate. But the quiet snore and how her rounded bear ears hung limply while she dozed on the table was enough to tell everyone she was fast asleep despite the food.

“Nope,” Sienna said with a loving grin as she bent over Arthene to study her hidden, sleeping face. “Our dear bear is back asleep. You must have really worn her out last night, Koda.”

“She’s the one who wanted me to wrestle her into submission and then mount her,” Koda replied, though he couldn’t help but puff up a bit in pride at having worn out Arthene to the point that the normally rambunctious bear-spirit was still tired.

“I mean, I can’t fault her,” Sienna added, her nose wrinkling cutely while she shot Koda a heated look. Her fluffy red-black wolf tail swishing happily behind her.

“Neither can I,” Calandra added as well, grinning broadly. “And despite it all, Koda didn’t fail to deliver this morning either!”

“Still say that you need to learn to share,” Samira grumbled playfully, tugging on one of the dwarven woman’s trio of thick braids as she went by headed for Koda. “You can’t be the only one allowed to wake our mate up like that.”

“She’s not,” Koda confirmed as he scooped the caracal woman up in his arms to give her a quick kiss while she purred happily. “Calandra just has an advantage because of how she likes to sleep.”

“It’s dark and warm, two of my favorite things,” Calandra said with a shrug and an irrepressible grin.

“We should get going,” Finna urged from her spot by the back door. “The storm is weakening right now, so we should hurry out to gather some deadfall and bring it back to process before it picks up again.”

“I have wind magic and I still don’t know how you are able to so accurately read the weather,” Calandra said with a shake of her head.

“Practice,” Finna said with a broad grin. “You learn to read the signs and the land when you spend most of your life in travel and patrol. Keep up your study and you’ll learn your ways to tell, mine only took this long because I don’t have your kind of magic.”

“All right, loves. I’ll see you all in a few hours once we get back. When Arthene wakes up, someone give her a kiss for me?” Koda asked, setting Samira down and letting the caracal woman quickly brush his long black hair back and secure it with a tie to keep it out of his way.

“Will do, Koda,” Sienna confirmed with a smile. “I promise we’ll only tease her a little bit about missing out on the orgy.”

“Mmzh?” Arthene mumbled, her bear ears twitching suddenly as she shifted on the table. “Wha? Orgy? Don’t leave me out…”

Happy laughter rang out through the warm house in response from the other women, including Finna as one of Arthene’s true passions was what teased her out of unconsciousness.

“Nothing of the sort, Arthene,” Koda said reassuringly, threading around the table to where his sleepy bear was pushing herself upright, blinking slowly while still brandishing the sausage on a fork in one hand.

“But I heard orgy…” Arthene whined, a whine that was cut off when Koda used a gentle hand in her hair to turn Arthene so he could press a kiss to her lips.

The large bear woman groaned happily into the kiss, shifting to press back into him and wiggle happily while they shared their kiss.

“Promise?” Arthene murmured sleepily when they finally separated. Koda nodded to confirm, leaning forward to brush the tip of his nose against Arthene’s while meeting her yellow eyes.

“Like he’d ever leave you out, ‘thene,” Sienna teased the larger woman, leaning over to rub her cheek against Arthene’s affectionately as well. “And you know we’d never really let him, either.”

“Good,” Arthene grunted, accepting the affectionate nuzzle from the wolf woman with a smile.

Apparently noticing her half-finished breakfast still at hand, Arthene snatched the sausage off her fork with her teeth and went back to chewing tiredly.

“Finna and I were just heading out to take advantage of the break in the storm to get more firewood,” Koda explained, gently finger-combing some of the curly brown hair away from Arthene’s face as he spoke.

Arthene made a questioning grunt while her mouth was full, which Koda was quick to answer.

“No, you stay here. Finna is going to hunt while we are out, and it’s going to be hard enough to do that with me crashing about. With both of us out there, she might as well not bother. Besides, you deserve to rest after all that work you put in last night.”

Koda said the last part teasingly, leaning in to press another kiss to Arthene’s temple. The bear spirit growled playfully, but didn’t protest, instead turning to rub her face into his chest lovingly for a moment.

“The bath water is refreshed too,” Samira suggested, sitting down at the table across from Arthene and pouring herself a cup of tea from the still-steaming pot that sat in the center of the table. “It should be warm by the time you are done eating, Arthene. A nice soak might ease any sore muscles.”

Koda didn’t need to see Arthene’s face to know that the bear spirit was wrestling with the idea. Accepting would admit that she was sore after Koda’s ‘attentions’ the night before—something that they all knew but no one had said out loud yet—but not accepting would mean that Arthene would miss out on luxuriating in a simple comfort, an act she dearly enjoyed.

Sienna knew just how to help her sister-mate to make a decision, and put it into practice without hesitation. And from the meaningful grin Sienna sent his way, he knew that she was doing this intentionally to ensure he had some time alone to get to know Finna better.

“Arthene,” Sienna said sweetly, getting the still-sleepy bear spirit’s attention. “I was thinking of taking a nice bath as well to relax when I’m done with this. Did you want to join me? If you are sore, then I can help work out some of the knots?”

Adding the prospect of cuddles to soaking in the hot bath decided it for Arthene, as she nodded vigorously without hesitation. Koda saw Calandra and Samira hiding laughs behind their hands, while Finna rolled her eyes at the bear woman’s simplistic nature.

It’s just who Arthene is, Koda thought while he continued to lovingly pet Arthene’s thick hair. She’s more in touch with her instincts and nature than the rest of us, even Finna. It’s part of what I love about Arthene. I also love that all my mates look after each other. I’d put good money on Sienna having decided that Arthene might hurt something if she pushed herself today.

Despite being smaller than the two primal spirits, and just a mortal to boot, Sienna was the head of Koda’s wives and took it in stride that she would look after the others in the family as well.

That’s not to say that the other girls didn’t dote on Sienna in return, but Sienna was the one who spent the most time ensuring the other girls took care of themselves. An attitude that helped Koda come to terms with the fact that children might be making an appearance in their lives before too much longer.

I know that everything Thera is hoping for is pinned on me and my family, Koda though silently as he watched the interplay between his mates. And that means me having kids will help secure the chance of her returning successfully. I should feel terrified at the idea of being a father, but I’m not. And since we aren’t using any form of protection right now, it’s only a matter of time…

Thinking about his mates and the future drew his attention back to Finna as the lapine woman unwrapped her elaborate bow and quickly set the string on it, testing the wood and string with the ease of long familiarity.

Of the women living under his roof, Finna was the only one not sharing his bed or calling herself his mate. Not because she didn’t want to, far from it in fact. Finna had, much like Arthene before her, declared her intent to join his family within hours of meeting Koda. But unlike her ursine sister-spirit, Finna was content to let a relationship form first, rather than enthusiastically bowling her way into Koda’s bed.

Things might have been different with Arthene if she’d shown up before Sienna and I finally consummated things, Koda thought with a wry smile. But that’s in the past and things have worked out. I need to keep my eyes firmly on the future.

With that thought held firmly in his mind, Koda bent to press a quick kiss to first Arthene’s cheek and then Sienna’s before circling the table to repeat the feat with his other mates.

Calandra set aside her work to haul him into a deep lip lock, her hands wandering over his tunic-clad chest suggestively as her tongue tangled with his. The dwarven woman was short in height, but never in passion, and she made sure to remind him of that before finally releasing him.

Samira settled for a quick peck and a nuzzle, purring happily as he rubbed the base of her distinct, tuft-tipped caracal ears.

With his round of farewells done, Koda swung his bison-hide cloak around his shoulders—getting a nod of approval from several of his mates—and collecting the felling axe once more. His home was warm and comforting, but there was always more work to do to ensure that it remained that way.

Turning back to the group, he gave his wives another broad smile and shrugged the cloak closed over his shoulders before pulling the lined hood up to shield his face. He already had his boots on and what tools he was used to carrying on his belt.

Surprising how quickly I got used to not having my cell phone out here. Not having the Internet is weird, but the perks definitely outweigh any negatives, Koda thought with a small, contented smile as he remembered waking up in a pile of feminine curves and limbs that morning, to Calandra’s warm morning affections beneath the blankets.

“Shall we get going then, Finna? You said we only had a few hours break in the storm,” Koda asked the lapine woman, who nodded firmly and beckoned him to follow her out the door.

“Yes, just a few hours, but that’s enough time to get done what we need to. The more wood we can get drying now, the better late winter will be. One thing I’ve learned from living in the mountains in the past was that you can never have enough firewood ready.”