Ice Wars Ch. 01

"Scouting," Gabriela supplied. "Jace's orders."

Julia blinked suspiciously but didn't say another word, allowing Gabriela access up the stairs and into the caverns. Branches of hallways broke off into a maze of directions, but she took the pathway to the far right. A window in the ice along the left side of the hallway looked out into the main plaza—the underground encampment where many of the warriors dwelled. Only a few torches lit up the dark space, and hundreds of bodies lay about, dozing.

Gabriela, on Jace's request, received her own living quarters away from the main room. Jace was her captain, she didn't question his antics, but she knew Jace fancied her. She was wary whenever he stopped by her room. He had yet to try anything with her, but Gabriela was warned by many of her friends that Jace had plans to take her for his woman.

Gabriela stomped up a narrow, circular doorway into her dome-like room beyond. It was cold here, so she lit the torches and changed clothes, wrapping herself in furs and huddling on her cot in the corner. She stayed awake, sleep unable to take her, for several hours until she heard footsteps approaching her room. Sure enough, it was Jace himself.

Jace was a particularly tall, strong man. He had long, blond hair, like hers, pulled back into a ponytail that chiseled his sharp face and grey eyes. He was handsome, highly toned, but his personality wasn't particularly likable. He wasn't the most emotional being, and Gabriela wondered whether compassion even existed to him.

He stared at her stonily, his gaze piercing, before he softened a little and nodded in recognition. Gabriela's beauty had him distracted every time he set eyes on her—his thirst for her growing every second in her presence. One of these days he was going to lose control.

"You have watch duty," he said. Gabriela nodded wordlessly and got to her feet. She diligently retrieved her fur jackets and tightened them, tying on her boots. She grabbed one of the torches along the walls and followed Jace out of her room and into the hallways. Their footsteps echoed across the sheer ice walls.

"When I went to talk to Julia," he said, as Gabriela watched his bold, broad shoulders saunter proudly through the hallway, "she said you were out scouting on my orders." Gabriela hid her fear as Jace glanced over her shoulder with an arrogant smirk plastered on his face. "You obviously weren't scouting...or at least on my orders."

"I was checking the enemy basecamp," she said quickly.

"I've told you not to go there. You disobeyed me again." Jace halted at the entryway to the staircase below. The torchlight flickered across his handsome face, casting his eyes in shadows. "You are a magnificent warrior, Gabriela...but you are terrible at following your captain's orders."

"My apologies, captain," Gabriela said sincerely, bowing her head. Jace grabbed Gabriela's chin and forced her to look up at him. Her eyes that were staring at the floor slowly looked up to meet him in the eye. He bore his grey, sleet eyes on her, and he feasted on Gabriela's shimmering blue depths.

"So beautiful," he murmured. He let go and Gabriela turned away. "You still haven't pledged yourself to a man."

"My priorities, it seems, Jace, are elsewhere," she said, her voice cold. Jace stared at her in silence for a few moments.

"I would not mistreat you," he finally said. He turned to leave. "Think about it. You need protection, Gabriela. I can give it to you."

He disappeared and Gabriela was alone. Jace's footsteps faded along the echoing walls and Gabriela stepped carefully down the staircase to perch at the base. She lingered near the candlebra in the wall and waited. There wasn't much to do when she had watch duty, besides just stand there.

The staircase stood at the base of two branching crevasses. One, to the far right, led to another section of the cavern city. The other led out into the open plain—straight to the Royals' basecamp.

An hour later, Gabriela was leaning against the wall, scratching designs in the ice floor, when a pair of footsteps approached. She flew to her feet, listening to the echoing steps down the crevasse to the right. Around the blind corner somebody appeared.

Gabriela's heart stopped when she saw it was Shayne. He stopped, too, his body going rigid, his eyes taking her in.

"Gabs?" he asked. She wanted to turn and flee, but there was nowhere she could run. Shayne's presence had her blood whirring, the heat between her legs and flaming inside her pussy longing to swoon to him. She kept her control, but only barely. Beneath all her layers, she felt the folds between her legs begin to moisten and lust clouded her thoughts. She tried very hard not to dwell on her imagination conjuring up him naked and in her room.

"Hello Shayne," she said. Shayne shuffled on his feet for a moment before he decided to stay. He walked up to her, his hands in his pockets.

Shayne was a skinny guy, strong in his own way—his courage like steel in the battlefield—and incredibly smart. He was sensitive, unlike Jace, and had a good heart. But he was too sexy for his own good—the way he carried himself and his sparkling dark green eyes, the mellow face, almost boyish but impossibly attractive.

He was Sydney's ex-boyfriend. Before the wars hit and tore the rogues in two, Sydney and Shayne were in a very passionate relationship. A relationship that made Gabriela seethe with jealousy, not of Sydney, but of Shayne. She hid her envy, for her friendship with Sydney was far more important to her. Near the end, things had gotten complicated and Shayne confessed he cared for Gabriela as much as he did for Sydney, and especially since the two girls were beginning to show signs that they, too, cared for each other beyond friends. There was almost a breaking point, where the three of them formed a love triangle, but then the war started...and sides were chosen. Gabriela and Shayne were caught on one side, with Sydney on the other. And without Sydney, there was an emptiness between Gabriela and Shayne.

The two of them made a point to avoid each other, but the sexual tension always thrust them together inconveniently.

"How's...how's Sydney?" Shayne asked, his voice hesitant. He was the only one of Gabriela's friends that knew of their relationship.

"Good." Gabriela paused, heaving in a steadying breath but it did little to douse the flames pulsing in her clit. Shayne's huge layers of fur coats also did nothing to stop Gabriela from imagining him naked, his toned muscles around his skinny body, the golden skin, and his glorious cock, plump and hard with arousal, ready to puncture her deep in the hole that felt so empty without it. A whimper of longing nearly burst through Gabriela's lips. "Lonely," she added breathlessly. "I only get to see her maybe once every few months. And she...misses you, too."

Shayne looked down at the floor for a moment before his worried, adorable eyes met hers again. "Is she out in the battlefield?"

Gabriela nodded gravely and Shayne huffed out an anxious breath.

"Jace says we're attacking tomorrow," he said. Gabriela's eyes popped open.

"What? Since when?"

"Jace told us earlier today."

"He didn't tell me."

Shayne didn't talk for a while, filtering through his thoughts. "It's because he doesn't want you fighting."

"Why not?" she demanded.

"You're too important to him." Shayne sounded defeated and angry. Gabriela fumed, her eyes going furious and frosty. Her jaw clenched tighter, teeth snapping together. "Gabs?"

"What?"

"When do you get off guard duty? I'd really to talk to you...about Sydney. I haven't been able to talk about her...at all...lately...you know."

"At three," Gabriela choked, clearing her throat embarrassingly. "I'll meet you in my hallway."

Shayne nodded once.

"Don't disobey Jace this time," he begged. "Please...just stay behind. I promise no one will hurt Sydney. I swear on my life. But I don't want you hurt, either. The battles are getting too dangerous."

Gabriela sighed and turned away from him without a word. Shayne took the hint and left, trotting up the steps and disappearing completely. When he was gone, Gabriela waded out the last hour of her guard duty sitting against the wall and the first step, eying designs in the ice.

Shayne was waiting for her in the hallway to her room. Gabriela approached with her hands stiffly at her sides, biting her lower lip. She walked up to him and he continued to lean against the wall, his arms crossed and gazing at her. There was conflict in his eyes—he certainly shouldn't be looking at her so provocatively, but he couldn't help it. Shayne was the more reserved type of guy, the one who second-guessed himself. It was endearing, one of the things Sydney liked so much about him. But it drove Gabriela a little nuts—he constantly played hot and cold and she could never get a reading whether she should just seduce him or stomp all over him.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey."

Gabriela opened the door to her room and both of them entered the threshold. Once beyond in the dome-shaped, blue-tinted room, Gabriela immediately stood before the fireplace on the opposite side and tried to warm her hands and feet. Watch duty was frigid work, and downright arctic after her heated session with Sydney. Shayne lingered near her bed and finally sat on the edge of it, elbows on his knees and staring up at her across the room. Gabriela sighed and turned around, pulling off her coat agonizingly slow. She tossed it onto the floor near her bed and worked to untie the second layer.

"Jace told me you were in the Royal's camp," Shayne said, breaking the crisp silence. "Were you with Sydney?"

Gabriela nodded wordlessly and Shayne sighed with angst.

"You two...still...?" Gabriela narrowed her eyes over her shoulder until her gaze darkened with warning and confusion. Shayne looked at her with a bit of incredulousness. He was a funny guy, when he didn't let his nerves get the best of him. "You know what I mean, Gabs." Gabriela smiled and sniggered under her breath.

"Yeah. We are."

"Wish I could say the same," he admitted.

"You still love her?"

"Course I do. I miss her. In every way." Gabriela dropped her outer fur layer of pants and her second coat. She worked tentatively on the last layer before she was only in her undergarments. She couldn't help notice Shayne's acute, wary eyes on her.

"We all do," Gabriela said openly, right as she slipped off her second pair of pants and her last leather coat. Standing bare in nothing but her boots and undergarments, Shayne didn't say anything as he just stared, his eyebrows rising fractions of an inch at each passing second. He could never forget how beautiful Gabriela was, but it'd been a while since he'd seen her so...exposed. She quickly grabbed a robe from a nearby chair and wrapped it loosely around her shoulders. She pulled her hair out from under the fabric and it spilt gloriously golden down her back, waterfalls of blonde hair that reached her waist.

"Hey Gabs?" She turned around, putting her back to the fire and her eyes were open and curious. Shayne forced himself to look her straight in the eye. "You still haven't pledged yourself?"

"No," she said quickly, tilting her chin downwards and her eyelashes cast a glorious shadow on her cheekbones. Her skin glowed warm from the fire, peach and dazzling. Shayne was rapidly losing control of the spark in his crotch.

"Because I know Jace has his eyes on you." Gabriela huffed out a breath and strode over to the bedside, her robe hanging loose so it exposed a good portion of her bare shoulder and just the peak of her breast before it disappeared behind a baby blue bra. Her bare legs were weaving out of the skirt of the robe, smooth and glistening from the firelight. Shayne tried not to focus on where her luscious thighs pressed elegantly together between her hips but his eyes had minds of their own.

"Jace has never ill-treated me," she said, "but he's never shown me compassion, either." She sat down beside him, close enough that their legs touched. She flickered her eyes up to meet his face. "I feel being with him would be like a man-machine, a true barbarian. He's masculine, not deep. Sex would be...animalistic but boring. With him, at least."

"I..." Shayne lost his train of thought.

"What I mean to say is, he's not you," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. She slit her eyes as she cast them downwards for a moment and then back up. For several moments, Shayne bit back the urge to snag her into his clutches and found his words.

"Gabs...before the wars?" he started. Gabriela nodded for him to continue. "I meant what I said. And my feelings haven't changed. Towards you, I mean."

Gabriela smiled and blushed a little pink, which jerked at his frantic heart and pulsed all the way into his cock, warm and pleasurable.

"I just think after the wars split us apart we were missing Sydney and too afraid to, you know...betray her in any way," he went on. "Because I know she'd feel...left out if we..."

"I still want you, even though I love that girl," Gabriela admitted, her eyes focused and gleaming. "I don't think we'd betray her, necessarily." She leaned closer and Shayne groaned quietly as he slit his eyes and nearly took her lips but he pulled back a second before.

"Gabs..." He shook his head. "This is probably not a good idea."

"I don't care," she said. "I'm just horny right now..."

Gabriela pulled his head towards her and mashed her lips against his. The frantic kiss, which started out desperate, turned fierce and hungry. Shayne and Gabriela had only kissed once before, a long time ago before the first battle. But Sydney was there, too, and the kiss was just part of the orgy moment. That night was the only time Gabriela ever came close to being with a man, even though Shayne didn't come near her. He had sex with Sydney, while Sydney had sex with Gabriela. He saw her naked, he saw her orgasm, and vice versa, but never did he enter her.

This kiss brought back that night, and their unfinished business. Sydney had wanted them to feel each other, but both Gabriela and Shayne resisted. That night was about Sydney, not them. They thought they had a hundred nights ahead of them to explore their new love triangle, and they didn't want to take it too fast.

With a breathless gasp, Shayne and Gabriela broke away and he feasted his lips on her neck, her collarbone, down her bare stomach as he pulled the robe apart and she lay back on the fur blankets. He lifted her legs onto the bed as he nestled between them. He kissed her belly button, each point of her hip, as he hooked his fingers around her black cotton bikini panties and pulled them over her tight, round ass, down her thighs until they hooked at her ankles and she looped them through. Each of his hands pressed against her thighs to open them further and she obeyed, until she splayed them open like a flower. Shayne kissed both the insides of her thighs and the tip of her mound, his eyes unable to break away from her coral pink pussy. It was oozing wet with arousal, the juices soaking the folds and outer lips. Her hole was so tiny, a dark spot that dropped a droplet of juice as it twitched with excitement. Though he loved being inside Sydney, that night before the wars he was looking at Gabriela's pussy as he came.

"Shayne I..." Gabriela gasped as his lips met her cunt and his tongue snaked out to taste her. She was succulent, a perfect syrup. He groaned with his own arousal, the heat coursing straight to his cock, as he found her clit and Gabriela's head flew back against the bed and she arched her back. She cried out, her hand gripping his hair and knotting her fingers through it. "Oh god!" she screamed. "Keeping going, oh god. Shayne, fuck!"

He lapped at her bead for a few seconds before he kissed her lips and surfaced, meeting her highly aroused eyes. She was breathing heavily, her thighs twitching a little in excitement. They stared at each other for a moment before Gabriela sat up at the same time he did and flew herself at him. Their mouths collided and their tongues filled each other's as Shayne fell back and nearly toppled over the side of the bed. Their lips parted as Gabriela backed away and worked to untie his shirt.

"I can't believe this is happening," Gabriela remarked breathlessly, a triumphant smile on her face as she finally got the ties undone and Shayne helped her pull it over her shoulders, through his arms, and then it fell onto the floor behind them. He used a free hand to grasp her neck and kissed her again.

"You afraid?" he asked around her lips. Gabriela looked at him incredulously as she untied his pants and pulled them down his legs. Even through his underwear Shayne's erection was obvious—a tent in his pants begging to burst free. She was able to free his legs from the pant legs before she sat on his ankles and hooked her fingers on the edge of his underwear and gently yanked downward. It was a feat to get the top string around his cock but finally it sprang free with a vengeance and Gabriela froze, her eyes fixated on it. Shayne watched her expression with interest, and he could hardly tell what she was thinking.

She abandoned getting his underwear off and her head dove, her lips immediately wrapping around the mushroom tip and her tongue tickled the underside of the shaft. Bewildered and surprised, but not at all disappointed, Shayne bit back the yelp of pleasure but it still came out as a long groan vibrating in his throat that turned guttural. Gabriela's hot, wet mouth wrapping around his cock was better than in his dreams.

At first she was tentative, afraid she might bite him, but soon she gained confidence and began to pump him faster and deeper, until she was taking half his length with each thrust of her mouth and her hand gently messaged the base. Shayne's hips bounced a little with enthusiasm and Gabriela stopped pumping, taking her hand away and landing it on the bed next to his hip to balance herself. Her lips still wrapped around his tip and her flexible tongue licking at his dickhole, her eyes flickered up to look at him and her look said it all. Unable to compose his expression, Shayne placed one hand on the back of her head to keep her in place as he began to buck his hips and slide his dick freely in and out of her mouth.

She tightened the ring of her lips so it snugly wrapped to the shape of his dick as he thrust, and her tongue was wild, blanketing him in warm, wet heat every time he entered. Shayne struggled to breathe, the shallow breaths were all that he could manage as he got lost into her mouth and began to move faster, his dick making a satisfying swishing sound at each pump. Her saliva coated his shaft, dripping down around her lips and pooled near his balls. He longed to thrust deeper but he was afraid of gagging her.

"Gabs..." he breathed. She lowered onto her elbows and brought her hands under his bucking ass, squeezing his cheeks and coaxing him deeper into her throat. She gagged through her nose and pulled away, gasping in a breath.

"Fuck my throat," she demanded, her voice hoarse. "Fuck it!"

"Warn me," was all he got out before he began to thrust again, each time his large cock pumping in deeper, until he began to feel the back of her throat with the tip, and then slide down even further. Gabriela gagged but encouraged him for several thrusts where Shayne was able to fuck her mouth all the way to the hilt of his shaft.

She extracted him, massaging it with her hands, as she sat up again. His eyes remained fixated on hers as she got to her knees and shimmied forward until she hovered over his crotch. She guided his dick to her vaginal opening with her hand, coaxing the tip into the tiny hole. She gasped in pain and took him out again. He reached out and grasped her hand tenderly.