Free Wolf Tales IV by Kate Douglas Page B

two of you made love? Would you find that at all appealing? She’s not male… not a threat. She loves you as much as Stefan and I do. She is a gentle, caring lover, filled with compassion as well as passion. As Chanku , you should find her as sexually appealing as you would any male…”
    He allowed the sentence to linger. Holding Keisha in a loose embrace, he watched the thoughts unfolding in her brilliant amber eyes.
     
    Xandi ? Blinking owlishly, Keisha opened her mind to the idea of sex with another woman. Obviously, she’d never thought of herself as lesbian, though she’d often noticed women who she felt were sexually attractive. It wasn’t as farfetched as it sounded, not really. Xandi was beautiful, sensual…
    With their minds linked, Keisha had been more intimate with Xandi than with any other human alive. She’d participated in group sex, enjoyed the other woman’s responses and made them her own. There’d never been a feeling of wrongness, never a sense of shame.
    How could she feel shame with someone as loving, as giving, as Alexandria Olanet? And, if what Anton said were true, that the Chanku were polyamorous by genetics, that the love of the pack put sexuality aside, became, instead, a sharing of the sensual body as a whole, then her feelings for another woman within the pack were right and normal.
    How come she hadn’t thought of this before?
    Ah, but you have. I know you’ve pleasured yourself during the links with Alexandria.
    You do ? Struggling out of his light grasp, Keisha glared at Anton. “You snooped!”
    He laughed softly and brushed his hand over her hair. Damned if she didn’t lean into his touch! Jerking herself upright, away from the magnetic pull of his fingers, Keisha took a deep breath, prepared to tell him exactly what she thought of him coming uninvited into her head.
    “Yes, I was snooping. I’ve been worried about you, afraid you were withdrawing from us. When I realized you were finding sexual satisfaction in the privacy of your room, I was not so worried anymore.”
    He cupped her chin in his big hands, his fingers warm and firm. “I want you healed, my love. I want you able to come to me, to share your body with me… some day to share with all of us, with Stefan and Alexandria as well, so that there are four of us together… four of us as intimate as any two people can be. I want you to love me, to love them… most of all, I want you as my mate, as the one who will bear my children… I want you with me, for all my life. Before that can happen, you must be whole, a complete woman, without fear.”
    The breath whooshed out of her lungs. Anton’s hands trembled against her face and his jaw was tightly clenched. She’d had no idea… none at all, how much of a future he envisioned… how deep his feelings ran.
    What of hers for him? Blinking back tears, she reached up and touched the side of his face with her palm. “Give me time, Anton. Just a little more time. I want to say I love you, but not until I can come to you with a body and mind free of fear.”
    The disappointment in his eyes made her wish she could draw her cowardly words back. He merely nodded, leaned over and kissed her gently on the forehead, then turned and left the room.
    Keisha felt as if he took the sunshine with him, took the air she needed to breathe, the love she needed to exist. Stumbling in her haste to leave this suddenly cold and dreary place, she raced down the long hallway to her bedroom.

 
     
     
    Chapter Two
     
    Oliver brought her meals, a silent visitor, warning of his presence with a soft tap on the door. She felt so foolish, hiding away like this, but Keisha realized she’d put the day to good use.
    Xandi had been always in her thoughts. A silent, sensual image. Keisha found herself thinking of things with the other woman she’d never imagined, thinking of things sexual, and wanting to touch herself.
    More important, she realized she wanted to touch Xandi.
    The sun had begun to