Running with Raiders: (Alphas of Black Fortune: Part 5) BBW Werebear Shifter Menage by Scarlett Rhone Read Free Book Online Page A

was time to weigh anchor, and it had been so long since Cressida had felt unmoored that when the sails unfurled and she felt the breeze gust against them, the thrill of the sea lit through her like it was the first time. She stood on the forecastle with Kelly, watching for hours as the island got smaller and smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared from the horizon altogether.
    Kelly arrived beside her, drifting a few fingers down her arm. “We’ll see it again,” he said softly.
    She nodded. “I know. It just feels strange to be going…back.”
    Kelly leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple. She knew that his thoughts were heavy of late, that he had his den’s happiness to worry over. And the trip. They had all nearly died on the journey to the island to begin with. They might not even make it back. And it would take time to gather all the dispersed members of the den, all the women and children they’d had to leave on islands in the sea, people they’d left behind during these long months. But at least they had hope. They had the hope of a home. Cressida thought that was the singular thing that kept them all going. Certainly it was the one thing that they all had in common, no matter what incredible differences existed as well.

Chapter 11
    After months at sea, again, Reza was convinced that once they put to port, finally, on the island of his birth once more, he would never leave it again. Dry land. He’d have given anything for dry land for the rest of his days, firm ground beneath his feet that never moved. He simply wasn’t meant to be a sailor, yet here he was, at sea for now nearly two years of his life overall.
    The journey back was no less perilous than the journey out. The sea cared not at all about man, or his intentions. It was a summer of storms, too, and more than once they were left adrift in the great, wide blue with torn sails or snapped rigging, nothing to do but sit and sew and starve until they could get moving again. What couldn’t be like before, however, was Reza’s position amongst the crew. Though none of the bears really understood the relationship between the three of them, over time they had grown to accept Reza a member of their den at last. They didn’t yet afford him the same respect and obedience that they did Kelly, but he knew that it would take time. Patience, determination and time.
    It was quite the adjustment for all of them. Though the mark bound them together in love and affection, it did not make them any less fallible, any less mortal. Neither Reza nor Kelly were prone to fits of jealousy, but they had them. Neither one of them wanted to hurt the other, but they got into several raucous brawls on the top deck over whose night it was to spend in the captain’s quarters with Cressida. Who had, in all practicality, become the captain herself. On each of those occasions, she had emerged from her quarters and simply exiled them both to the barracks until they could cool their heads. The rest of the den, the crew, never chose between Reza and Kelly. They always chose Cressida. Slowly, her alphas were learning to compromise. They were learning to communicate better.
    And there were nights when none of them could stand to be apart at all. Those nights were like being back in the cave at the stone sanctuary of the Keeper of the Jewel, a tangle of limbs and breath and sweat, the three of them discovering each other. Cressida had a gift, or perhaps the mark led her instincts, and even in bed with both of them she managed to balance them. She managed to love them both at once, and never did Reza feel that she showed any kind of favoritism. Even when he did feel those jealous pangs, knowing that she was with Kelly on an evening when he was alone, they sent him into a rage for loneliness, not envy. He missed her when she wasn’t in his arms, and he supposed Kelly did as well.
    It was a dance, and one that they grew ever more skillful at dancing. By the time they put in to