Chapter Seventeen

 

Two days later, Lach wondered if he was ever going to get home.

Roan finally called a halt to the day’s march. He’d been on his feet for days it felt like.

And he’d never felt better.

“I’ll go set up.” Shim gave him a smile. He was eager to get the night started, but Shim was thinking about the sex and not the forlorn look that Lach kept seeing on Bron’s face.

She was exhausted. She was confused. And there was a core sadness that was killing Lachlan’s soul. The last two nights she hadn’t even fought them. She’d come to the bed they made and offered herself up. She’d made love with them, shared her blood and her body. She’d submitted in the loveliest of ways.

And it wasn’t enough because every time he offered her the true bond, she’d retreated. He looked over and she stood by a huge tree, her back leaning against it. She stood apart from the group. She hadn’t simply retreated from the true bond. She’d retreated from everyone. Bronwyn answered all questions in two or three words. She didn’t even look at Gillian, a fact that seemed to add to his sister’s misery.

If he didn’t need Roan, he might kill him. Except he’d overheard Roan and his lieutenant talking the night before and he’d really watched them all day. Their every move was about Gillian’s safety and comfort. Their talk the night before had been a long, slow dialogue about how to tempt Gillian into giving them a chance.

He understood Roan and Harry. Damn it.

“You’re hungry?” She wouldn’t let him carry her through the forests. She wouldn’t let him shield her. At least she accepted that he could feed her.

She gave him a wan smile. “I am.”

He nodded and moved away, walking up to Roan. They were running out of supplies. They were running out of time. And every village they stopped in, his wife insisted on riling up the villagers.

And it had been fairly easy since the villages were empty of guards. They were all patrolling around Aoibhneas now, a phalanx Lach wasn’t sure they could break through without some loss of life.

Roan looked up from his tablet. “Can I help you, Your Highness?”

“You can tell me when we’ll be able to get my wife home. The Seelie princes are due here any day now. You know that they’re just waiting for a big enough hole in the wall to come through with an army.”

“I’m doing my best.”

It was said with Roan’s clipped efficiency, but something about the way he said it made Lach suspicious. “Tell me why we’re moving the way we’re moving. Aoibhneas is in the opposite direction.”

Roan’s eyebrow raised and his mouth turned down. “Every time we attempt to move to Aoibhneas, we get cut off by the guard, Your Highness. We talked about this last night. We’ve moved from village to village in an unorthodox path in order to deceive the guard as to where we are going.”

“We’re not deceiving anyone since you allow my wife to be put on display. She’s making speeches. She’s making herself a target.”

“She’s building her brothers an army.” Roan looked over to where Bron stood. “She needs to feel like she’s a part of this. Can you not understand that?”

“He’s right, Lach. You can’t understand.” Duffy stood at his side. “You don’t know what it means to want to fight and not be able to. I know I’ve played around, but we all know I wouldn’t be able to do anything at all on the battlefield except let warriors trip over me.”

His brother’s sorrow made Lach’s heart clench. He’d never meant to make Duffy feel that way. And he’d certainly never meant for… He wasn’t going to think about that moment in anything but the broadest of terms. “You saved me, Duff.”

“By throwing my body in front of a cloud.”

Gillian got to her knees in front of Duffy. “You saved Lach with more than your body.”

Gillian’s words were a bit shaky. Lach was rather glad to see it. She’d been as shut down as Bronwyn for days.

Duffy flushed and looked toward the ground. “It pretty much felt like me body.”

“It wasn’t your body that made you leap in front of that cloud. It was your strong, brave heart.”

Duffy shook his head. “I ain’t brave, Gilly. Not for a second.”

She put her hand out, lifting his face up to hers. “How can you say that?”

“Because I ain’t never said the thing I wanted to say. I won’t say them. I’m small and insignificant. I know how Bron feels. She wants to fight, but no one will let her. They’ll pat her on the head and tell her she’s doing fine. They might let someone train her so’s she doesn’t complain too much, but when it comes down to it, she’s not going to be allowed to fight.”

“Damn it, Duffy. It’s not the same. And I was just trying to protect you. Can’t you understand that? I didn’t want you to die.”

“But, Lach, there are some things that are worth dying over. Haven’t you figured that out yet? You would die for Bronwyn. Do you think she’s less a woman than you are a man? Do you think she doesn’t want her life to matter?”

What the hell was Duffy talking about? Didn’t he understand that everything he’d been doing was about how precious Bronwyn was? How precious he himself was?

He was about to answer when a little trilling alarm went off and Roan’s whole body shifted to full alert. He had a sonic blade in his hand in an instant, and he and Harry pulled Gillian behind them.

“I have alarms set up all over. I placed them before we settled into camp. It could be a deer or it could be Torin’s guard. The last village said their guards had been pulled out just the day before to hunt for the princess.”

Lach was happy to see Shim hauling ass back to camp. He grabbed Bron and forced her behind them.

Dante walked in, his hands in the air. Kaja was at his side, in her wolf form, her delicate nose in the air.

A large man was behind Dante. He was at least Lach’s height at six foot five. He had an Unseelie look about him, and Lach would bet he wasn’t a pure sidhe. Emerald-green eyes and pitch-black hair made a stark contrast to Dante’s reddish blond.

“Dude, I told you we’re not Torin’s guard. I showed you my fucking fangs, man. I’m a desperate vampire looking for a consort. Do you know any? Because I will pay.”

Kaja growled a little.

“I’ve learned not to believe everything a person says. People lie, even when they have knives to their backs.” The dark man looked around. “You have women here. Why the hell do you have women here?”

“I’m ridiculously wealthy. I keep an entourage with me, even in faery forests. The men are here to ensure my safety and the women are here to do what women do.”

Gillian huffed. “As if I would touch you, Dellacourt.”

The dark man stiffened. “Dellacourt? Are you one of the vampires who’s related to our kings?”

A little laugh came from the trees above. “Yes, he is, Master Zane. He’s the billionaire playboy turned fairly ruthless political advisor. And the wolf beside you is his wife.” The phooka. Of course. It was chaos. Naturally the phooka showed up. It was in its tree form, hanging upside down from one of the low branches. “I believe I mentioned we could call them allies.”

Dante breathed a deep sigh as the man named Zane let him go. “I was giving into Kaja’s need to hunt when this asshole jumped me. When did the lemur thing start talking? You know we’re in a faery forest. It’s really best to shoot anything that talks and ask questions never.”

Lach felt Bron trying to get a good view, but he wasn’t certain anything had been settled yet. He blocked her, unwilling to expose her at all.

Zane sheathed his incredibly large knife and looked at Dellacourt. “So all that talk was bullshit. You don’t need a consort. You have a wolf.”

Kaja changed, her transformation so quick if he blinked he would miss it. “He has a consort, though after calling my friends cheap women, he might not get his meal tonight.”

Dellacourt shrugged out of his jacket and wrapped it around his wife’s shoulders. “I am sorry, lover. They are very expensive prostitutes. Is that better?”

“Much. One would always rather be expensive. Queen Meg taught me that.”

“Too bad she didn’t teach you to bite the people who pull a knife on me.”

Kaja shook her head. “He wasn’t going to use it. He’s protecting his son. And someone else. There are still two more out there. I could smell them. They’re afraid. And on the run. Fear is easy to smell.”

Zane turned back to the forest. “Nathan, you can bring Charlie out now.”

A second man, this one slightly shorter but just as fit, his brown hair curling over the edges of his tunic collar, walked out of the woods carrying a young man in his arms.

“I told you I would bring you to safety,” the phooka said.

Nathan struggled a little with the body in his arms, but he seemed resolute. “You told us you would take us back to Aoibhneas.”

Shim moved forward. “You’re the Harpers’ friends. The one whose boy was taken by Torin.”

Bron moved, sidestepping Lach and slipping toward the newcomers. Gillian moved, too, though Roan and Harry did nothing to stop her.

“She’s very good with white magic,” Roan said. “Why don’t you bring the child over here to the bed?”

Roan tossed the cube to the ground and in an instant it was a full-size air bed. Nathan gently laid his son on the top. The boy looked to be more of a young man, roughly fifteen or sixteen. He was malnourished, his body a mass of gangly arms and legs.

Nate put a hand on his son’s head, smoothing his hair back. “He was taken when we brought our wine to the marketplace. We’re isolated. We hadn’t heard that Torin was laying claim to all bondmates. Honestly, we didn’t know he could bond.”

“The mayor told us he could.” Zane stood over them both, his eyes worried.

Nathan’s lips turned up in a little smile. “The mayor is insane and he told us Charlie could bond because of that device Caleb made for him to track Planeswalker demons. Please excuse us. Our mayor is a brilliant warrior, but he’s deeply preoccupied with what he calls the coming Demon Invasion. Anyway. Zane and I were haggling and then Charlie was gone. He’s been missing for two years. If Torin is selling bondmates to vampires, why wouldn’t he feed our son? Wouldn’t a vampire want a healthy mate?”

Roan stared down at the boy, his mouth a harsh line. “Your son is certainly a consort or what you would call a bondmate. I see his glow as clearly as the female consorts here.”

“And any vampire would be horrified at his condition,” Dellacourt assured them.

Lach felt a building rage. Torin hadn’t meant to sell this boy. No vampire would accept that his consort had been treated in such a way. “I’m not a full vampire, but I know for a fact that the one way to have gotten the council to enter this war was for word to leak that consorts were being abused. They would have invaded.”

Gillian kneeled by the bed, laying her hands on the young man. She closed her eyes and seemed to be calling on that part of herself that worked magic. “He’s been fed upon, but not in any way I understand.”

Lach’s stomach turned. He remembered the vision the hag had sent him. “The hag. She’s been eating at his soul.”

Nate made a low moan of pain and clutched his son’s hand. Zane turned a stark white.

“What does it mean?” Zane asked.

Thank gods his smarter half liked to study. Shim folded his arms across his chest. “It’s not as bad as it sounds. Hags, even some non-corporeal dead, can feast on the living. What I believe she’s trying to do is absorb his psychic power.”

“She wants to be able to bond?” Bronwyn asked. “Why?”

Shim shrugged. “I don’t know, love, but it would explain the ritual of soul eating. It would take a long time. She would have to drain him over a couple of days or weeks. She would take his blood, withhold food and water. She would torture him. Anything to break down his resistance. The body needs a soul. It would rather die than go without one so she has to be careful. If she simply killed him, the soul would go wherever souls go.”

“Through the door,” Duffy said. Lach felt his heart twist as his brother, his little champion, spoke. His small hands clenched together. “There’s a door and light. It calls to a soul, tells you to go through, that more adventures are waiting, just waiting past that door.” He shook his head and a deep breath filled his lungs. “Or that’s what I’ve heard.”

Shim looked at Duffy, suspicion clear in his eyes, but he continued anyway. “She has to bring him to the brink of death, little by little so the soul hovers, unsure whether it’s time to go or not. And she catches it and consumes it in a ritual. I’ve only read about it, of course, but technically it should give the hag any powers the soul contained. Consorts and bondmates have measurable psychic energy. I’m sure that makes her spells more powerful.”

“She’s making up for the lack of three.” Charlie’s eyes opened, his voice strained.

“Don’t, son,” Zane said. “Rest. We’ll have you home to your mother soon.”

Charlie’s head shook. “Already feel a little stronger. How did you get into the dungeon?”

“Believe it or not, a sluagh guided us. He knew how to sneak in.” Nate gripped his son’s hand. “I know this sounds crazy, but he looked just like the old king.”

Bronwyn sniffled a little. “My father. I was told he fought to stay even after he died. He’s still fighting for his kingdom.”

A kernel of guilt opened inside Lach. Duffy’s words echoed in his ears, but he wasn’t going to let them sway him. Bronwyn needed to be safe. Duffy needed to be safe. It was better than any cause.

Charlie’s head turned at the sound of Bronwyn’s voice. “It’s you.”

She smiled, a little sadly. “I am Princess Bronwyn. I am so sorry I haven’t done anything to help.”

“No. Not the princess. You’re the voice. You’re the voice in our heads. Goddess, I can’t believe you’re real. Can’t you all hear it? Do you hear the hum?”

Kaja walked to the bed. “I have heard it for days, but Dante thought it was all the vampire technology.”

Gillian’s eyes turned down. “I’ve heard it since the day I met her as a girl. But it was faint. Just a hum in the back of my mind until the last few days.”

Lach closed his eyes, the enormity of what his wife was hitting him squarely in the chest. He didn’t want to be sure, but he had to. “Bronwyn, think something.”

She glanced at him, confusion on her face. “I am almost always thinking something.”

Shim seemed to understand immediately. “Think something at Gillian. Specifically. Try to get her to hear you.”

Bron turned toward Gillian and her brow set in a serious line.

Gillian, Kaja, and Charlie all winced, each holding their heads. “You don’t have to shout.”

“Sorry.”

“And I don’t think I’m old enough to hear those words,” Charlie said, his face looking boyish for a moment.

Kaja gave her a smile. “You should use a sharp knife, Bronwyn. A rusty one will cut off your husbands’ manly parts very slowly.”

“I think she was hoping to cause a little pain, baby,” Dante said.

“Well, I don’t see why they would stand there and allow their little men to be sawed off with something dull,” Kaja argued.

Shim looked at Lach as the others seemed to laugh and find Bron’s power curious, but Shim had a grave look in his eyes. “You don’t think she could do other things, do you?”

“I hope not, brother, otherwise she would be a powerful weapon. I also think I know why the hag is doing it.” The thought had occurred to him almost immediately.

But Shim was right there with him. “They intend to kill Torin and take over the plane.”

Charlie held out a hand, and his father helped him to sit up. “Yes. What the big guy said.”

The phooka laughed and fell to the bed Charlie lay on. “The big guy is the Unseelie prince, Charles.”

Bronwyn stared at the phooka. “Why are you here? You’re the same creature who convinced me to run.”

“Then he is the same creature who I am about to throttle.” The fucking phooka seemed to have his hand in everything. Lach was ready to put the little shit out of his misery.

“I am simply more adept at this game than any of you,” the phooka replied, his midnight-black tail twitching. “I am certainly smarter than the Unseelies. Princess Bronwyn is the most important piece to this little game we’re playing. If you take her off the board, this plane falls to Torin and Torin to the hags. The only reason the hags haven’t taken over yet is the fact that they lost a sister. Everyone knows they’re stronger in threes, but they found a way around it.”

“To become soul eaters,” Gillian said hollowly. “I don’t understand what any of this has to do with Bronwyn. Is she going to hum the hags to death?”

Bron looked up at Shim. “How do you send power to me?”

Shim frowned. “I don’t think I do. I feel you pull it from me. The first few times I fought it a little and it went wild. When I realized what was happening and let it flow, I could control it a bit more.”

Bron took Charlie’s hand. “Don’t be afraid.”

The young Fae had a wisp of a smile. “I know what fear is. I’ve moved long past it. Fear is something you get through or you die. So feel free to experiment, Your Highness.”

Bron took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

“Damn it, Bron.” Shim gritted his teeth. “Fine, but this is a mistake.”

Even Lach could feel it. Bron reached and held the connection. She drew on it, passing up his cold power for Shim’s hot one. Lach was fascinated. Now that he knew what was happening, he realized it had happened before. His power was buried deep, deep down inside, but Shim’s simmered at the surface. It was easy to reach and hold. It was easy to share.

Charlie gasped and looked down at his hand. “Bugger me. I’m on fire and it doesn’t hurt.”

He wiggled his fingers a little, flames at the tips. His fathers both stared.

Dellacourt cursed. “She’s a conduit. Gods, she isn’t a broadcaster. She’s a bloody conduit.”

Bron’s whole face lit up. “I can help us win. Lach, Shim. I can win this war.”

Lach shook his head. “Absolutely not. You’re going home and there you will stay. Roan, if you don’t have us in Aoibhneas by dark tomorrow, I will find my own way. If any of you thinks for one bloody second that I intend to let you use my mate as a fucking psychic cannon, you’re insane. She is not going to any battlefield.”

Lach turned before Bronwyn could curse him.

Curse him or not. She would be alive at the end of the day.

 

* * * *

 

Bron approached Lach with no small amount of trepidation. Shim walked behind her, his boots shuffling along the ground. Shim hadn’t argued, hadn’t said much at all. He’d just watched Lach walk away after ordering Duffy to not walk past the river.

The gnome had looked up with a sad look on his face until Gillian had taken his hand and asked him to sit with her while she healed Charlie.

A curious excitement flowed through her, but it was tempered with sadness. She had one more play to make and then it would be over.

She would lose her kingdom or her men.

“Please don’t be angry with him.” Shim reached out and grasped her hand.

Funny. His hand felt right tangling with hers as though all these years it had been waiting to be entwined with his. She’d only been physically with them for a few days and already she knew she wanted them forever. She was happy just being around them, but happiness wasn’t the only thing important in life.

She respected the fact that they would one day rule a kingdom. They owed their people. Couldn’t they understand that she owed hers, too?

“I’m not angry, Shim. I’m sad.”

His eyes turned down, watching the place where their fingers met. “I can feel it. It’s worse than mad. Please, Bron. Can’t you understand?”

“I can’t. Don’t you love your people? Wouldn’t you do anything to keep them safe? You will rule over them one day.” She remembered her father’s words. “A king is only good to his people if he is useful.”

It was a lesson her uncle hadn’t learned.

“After Lach was burned and I was weak, I think my father decided we would never be fit to rule. Bron, we weren’t brought up to lead. We were hidden away because my father feared we would either be killed or judged as too weak to rule. So we concentrated on the one thing we had.”

“Me.” She understood that much. They loved her. She accepted it. Over the last days, they had treated her with an affection that went far beyond courtesy. They seemed to anticipate her needs. When they had stopped in a village, they would bring her favorite cheese and bread and fruit. When her feet hurt from walking, Lach had dropped down, removed her boots, and rubbed the soles of her aching feet until she was purring.

She’d never felt so loved and taken care of. They held her at night, passing her between them. Lach would hold her with a possessive strength that made her feel safe and Shim with such delicacy that she felt adored.

Why couldn’t they see to her soul? She could answer that question. Because she’d been too afraid to show them.

That ended tonight and she would either have them on her side or she would have a decision to make—one she feared she’d already made.

“Shim, I am sorry for how your father handled your illness and Lach’s injury, but you have to see that I can win this war.”

He used his free hand to touch her face. “I see that you can die. Gods, Bron, a handful of days wasn’t enough.”

She was just going to have to show him. She couldn’t tell him what she was going to do. They would shut down. But she knew them. She knew what they longed for. She would make love with them and when they reached out for the true bond. She would take it, give them her soul.

And she would have her answer.

There was no more point in talking. She went to her tiptoes. Shim was so tall. He made her feel small and delicate though years of hard work had proven to her how sturdy she was. She brushed her lips to his. It was good to feel feminine. They reminded her of all that should have been hers.

She should have been a fragile thing, a sweet princess who waved at her people from the palace walls as her husbands made the decisions. She should have laughed with her maids as her mother had. Her whole world would have been wrapped up in children and love and making things beautiful.

But she knew too much. She couldn’t go back. She wasn’t that dainty girl.

She was a warrior. She had to fight.

And, in this case, the battle would be a sweet one.

“Bron, you’re killing me.” Shim kissed her again, his tongue playing along the seam of her lips. “We need to talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” She ran her hands up his chest, reveling in the feel of his ripped stomach. For all his previous weakness, he was a muscular man. Every inch of him was lean and hard. She let her hands drift to his tight waist and pulled his hips to hers. It wasn’t something she could get away with when making love with Lach. He would turn her over his knee and tan her ass red if she thought about taking over, but Shim liked it when she got aggressive. She could feel how much it made him feel wanted.

She let her tongue forage deep as she rubbed against Shim.

She adored the differences in them. Because they were split, she could really know every aspect of the man. His dominant half and his softer heart. She was welcomed to both sides of his souls. He was right there, a whole man laid out in two parts ready for her to love, to adore, to worship. She couldn’t think of anything better.

Yet she had something she had to do. She had a plan in her brain and it was a horrible thing. But it just might work.

She felt Shim’s hands skim her breasts as he came up for air.

“Please tell me this isn’t good-bye.”

It wasn’t. She hoped it wasn’t. “Can’t we just make love?”

He sighed and she felt the moment he gave in. He leaned over and picked her up, his strong arms lifting her high on his chest. He walked toward their little base.

Lach sat on the bed Shim had made, his head in his hands. He looked up as they approached. For a single second, she could see his naked pain before a mask of cold will settled over him.

“It won’t work, Bron. I won’t accept good-bye.” He straightened his shoulders. “You should just go to bed because we have a long trek in the morning. I’ll find a way into Aoibhneas. I will find us a way home. I know what Roan’s been doing. He’s using the fact that the guards are patrolling to start building an army for Beck and Cian Finn. I won’t allow you to be used.”

He wouldn’t allow her to be in a moment’s danger no matter how important it was to her soul. He needed his arrogance, but it got to her sometimes. She wrapped her arms around Shim’s neck and kissed him, knowing just how to get to Lachlan McIver. She let her tongue play against Shim’s, allowing it to show as they kissed. She could feel Lach’s interest rise.

“It won’t work, Bron. You can’t fuck your way out of this.” Lach’s voice was hoarse.

She didn’t intend to fuck her way out of it. She intended to show them the truth of her.

Shim lowered her to the bed, his weight coming down on top of her. She opened her mind to him. His had been open from the moment she’d kissed him. His cock was hard, pressed against the leather of his trousers. He loved the feel of his own arousal. He loved the fact that it wouldn’t be long before he would be inside her. He craved it.

Shim broke off the kiss long enough to pull the shirt over his head. “Take it off.”

He wasn’t normally dominant. She felt her eyes narrow. “Why?”

His face went hard and he reached down and flipped her over. A loud smack filled the air. Bron gasped. Shim had never spanked her. Never even hinted at it. But he knew how to do it. He slapped her ass in three quick successions and then he flipped her back over. “I said take off your shirt.”

Bron felt Lach’s eyes on her. He watched her with a heated stare. Sweet and slow didn’t do it for Lach. He liked it hard. He liked it rough. He might be able to ignore them, to hold on to his righteousness if Shim kissed her and petted her and treated her delicately. Shim was trying to draw his other half in with his show of dominance.

And Bron could help him by being difficult. “I don’t want to.”

He ripped her shirt off, holding it between his hands and tugging it into two pieces. He bared her breasts and then caught her nipples in between his thumbs and forefingers, twisting with force. Her eyes watered and her pussy got soft and moist.

“This is my time, Bron. We agreed to it. You obey in our bed because you won’t obey anywhere else.”

She bristled a little at the accusation. “I’m not given much of a chance to disobey.”

Her nipples were tweaked again, pain making them throb with awareness.

“No back talk.” Shim drew his hands back. He got off the bed and put his hands on the bottom of her skirt. He tugged it off and tossed it aside. “Turn over and put your ass in the air.”

“What do you think you’re doing, brother?” Lach asked. He was standing over them, his arms crossed over his massive chest and a frown on his face. “You don’t believe in discipline.”

Shim didn’t. Bron had figured that much out. He believed in play and fun and studying. He was an odd combination of sweet, playful, and intensely smart. He reminded her so much of Cian, though he held a wealth of soul-deep guilt her brother didn’t have. There was a river that ran between Lach and Shim. They loved each other, held on to each other, but she wasn’t sure they trusted each other.

Bron wanted to know why.

“If you’re not going to make sure she behaves, then I have to.” Shim looked at his brother, an arrogant expression on his face. “Feel free to leave. I can handle her just fine. When she doesn’t behave, I’ll simply torture her for a while.”

Shim picked up her ankles in both hands and flipped her over, forcing her to her stomach. Her ass was naked and cool air caressed her skin, but only for a moment before Shim smacked her fleshy cheeks again, the sound cracking the air around her.

“Damn it, Shim,” she complained. “That hurt.”

It had, but now there was a sweet heat in the place of the pain. She wriggled her hips.

Lach seemed to decide to be the voice of reason. “Damn it all, Shim, can’t you see what she’s doing? She thinks she can manipulate us with sex.”

Shim’s hands were on her ass, tracing the curves and making her shiver a little. “She can try. It doesn’t mean it will work. More than likely she’ll play the siren and call me to her and get a cock up her ass for her troubles.”

He parted her cheeks. Bron tensed. “Shim, I don’t know about this.”

Three smacks made her howl. He was serious.

“Where did you think this was going, a chumann?” Shim spread her legs wide. “Did you think I would be satisfied with your pussy? Never. I want to fuck every part of you. I want your mouth and your pussy and I definitely want that tight ass around my cock. I’ve watched it. I watched it one night in my cousin’s club. A pretty sub was being initiated. Her dominant partner tied her down. Legs and arms. She couldn’t move. She was draped over an ottoman. He was a vampire, of course, as was she. A little blonde thing and I wondered how she would take it. His cock was so big, but she allowed him to tie her down.”

“I remember.” Lach’s voice was a low roll of thunder. Shim’s plan was working. Bron could see Lach’s erection tenting his pants. “Her ass was in the air, like it was the center of her whole being. He spanked her first. He used his hand and then a paddle. He got her nice and pink. I thought he was hurting her, but then he held his fingers up and they were coated in her cream. That spanking had made her pussy all juicy.”

Bron gasped as Shim smacked her ass. He struck again and again, never giving her a moment to take it in. He slapped her ass, the fleshy parts and then right at her center, along the crack. Heat bubbled up from within, making her heart race. The pain each time was brief like the cusp of hurt that quickly turned to something erotic before flaring again. Wave after wave of pain and heat and sparks of pleasure hit her as Shim continued his torture.

Goddess, she wouldn’t have expected it from him, but she was the reason for this dominant show. She bridged them and they could access each other, understand each other, so much more now that they were all on the same plane. Shim could understand Lach’s need to dominate and temper it with his need to worship.

That’s what this was for them. It was a revelation to Bron. This play, as they called it, was another form of deep affection, a way to show her their love.

Bron lost count at fifteen. She simply gave over to all of it and felt the pain melt away. Everything melted. The past and the future. The war. Their own problems. All that mattered was the smack of Shim’s hand on her ass. A dreamy feeling took over. She didn’t have to be a princess here or on the run. She could exist fully in this one moment, forever held in their love and admiration. She only needed to serve them and be served by them.

This was a safe place.

Shim stopped, but it didn’t matter. Bron was exactly where she wanted to be.

“Show me,” Lach commanded.

Bron sighed as she felt Shim’s hand on the folds of her pussy, pressing in and around. He moved easily because like the woman in the fantasy, she was juicy and ripe.

“Here. She enjoys discipline,” Shim said. Then she could hear as he softly sucked the juice off his fingers.

Lach chuckled softly and she felt the bed dip. “It’s a good thing since she obviously will require so much of it. But you remember the rest, don’t you, brother?”

“I do.” She felt Shim’s hands on her hips. “Higher, love. And spread your knees.”

He forced her knees wider until she was in a position that left her utterly vulnerable. She curled, bent over with her ass high in the air and her legs spread wide so her cheeks split and exposed her asshole to the cool night air. She might have protested, might have felt a deep shame, but the spanking had taken her past that. It had placed her somewhere it no longer mattered. Silly things like shame and embarrassment held no sway here. There was only sweet submission.

“I remember the way the other dominant men admired the sub’s pretty hole.” Shim was talking around his fangs now.

Bron shivered at the thought. Those fangs were delicious. They carried her somewhere else as much as their cocks did. When her men fed, she was pierced by sweetness and a deep, bonding intimacy.

“It is beautiful,” Lach said. “But she’s so small. Do you think she can take a cock?”

“I’ve played around. I’ve stretched her a little, but Julian told us the discomfort can be replaced by our pleasure.”

They would share it with her, the feel of breaching her tight asshole. They would send out just how good it felt.

“Yes, love,” Shim said, obviously picking up on her thoughts. She would have to learn how to not think so loud around her husbands. “We’ll share the feeling.”

Lach growled a little as his fingertips traced the line of her spine. “We’ll let you know how hot your ass is and how tightly the muscles of your anus clench down on our cocks. Gods, Bron. It’s so intimate. I remember the little consort’s face as she first took a cock.”

“She whimpered and cried a bit as her lover forced his dick in. He had to be careful, so careful. He had to seduce her ass, an inch here and a little more there until finally it opened to its master and swallowed him whole.” Shim’s fingers rimmed her hole, and sure enough a whimper was forced from her throat.

She wanted to protest. She wasn’t sure this was a thing that could work. She was small and their cocks were so large. She’d only taken Shim’s fingers and only for a night or two. She wasn’t even sure she liked the sensation, but their desire was overwhelming.

“Did the consort like it?” Bron asked, her voice coming out on a little squeak as she felt Shim dribble oil on her asshole. She’d been told the vampires always carried a small bottle of what they called lubricant. Vampires, it seemed to Bron, were a deeply perverted people if part of their preparations for daily life were to always be ready should the chance to fuck an asshole arise.

Shim worked the oil in, over and around, massaging her most intimate place. She felt her asshole quiver as though it meant to fight and keep the invader out.

Lach’s hand traced up her spine and settled on her neck, a deeply possessive gesture. “The consort submitted and took her master’s cock. She was beautiful and she was rewarded with a long orgasm and a deeper bond. But I worry that isn’t what you want.”

“I do want to be closer, Lachlan.” It wasn’t a lie. And she definitely wanted them to know her better.

He stroked her hair as Shim worked her ass. “I’m not stupid, Bron. I might be the warrior half, but my brain functions, too. You’re going to bond. You’re going to show us what you need and then you expect that we will be so overwhelmed by love for you that we’ll let you fight, but I think it will work the opposite way. We’ll be so madly in love we’ll protect you more and that will make you hate us.”

A simple truth came to her. She wasn’t ready to say the words yet. She wasn’t there. She’d loved in her dreams, but reality had smacked her straight in the gut. Reality was so much harder and they’d had a lifetime to come to terms. But she knew one thing for absolute certain. “I could never hate you.”

“I pray to Danu that is true.” He leaned over and kissed her, a soft brushing of lips against lips. “Because it would kill my soul and I don’t have any power over that.”

Shim’s fingers foraged deep and she groaned. A sexy little smile came over Lach’s lips. “What’s he doing to you?”

“He’s tearing me up.” But it also felt good. She wasn’t sure how many fingers Shim had deep in her backside, but they burned and stretched and made her nerves come alive.

“It just feels like that, love,” Shim said. “She’s doing beautifully. She’s stretched wide and waiting for a cock.”

“Don’t you do a thing until I get inside.” He walked down toward the river.

Bron felt her eyes widen. Both? Now? But she didn’t have time to protest. Shim’s fingers slipped out and Lach lifted her up. She wasn’t sure when he’d shed his clothes, but his body was bare, his cock standing straight up against his washboard belly. He lifted her as though she weighed nothing at all and placed her over his cock.

“Take it, Bron. Take my cock. Fuck it, princess. Ride me.”

Bron reached down and held him in her hand, pulling him into position and lining him up to her ripe pussy. She was so wet, but she still felt impaled as she began to slide onto Lach’s monster cock. He filled her up. She had to control it, slipping down inch by glorious inch.

Lach gripped her hips. “Damn, woman, you’re killing me. So fucking tight. So good.”

She finally seated herself fully, his cock invading every inch of her pussy. She could feel him practically touching her womb. He would come inside her, filling her with his essence. He would give her his cum and she could already carry his child—a future king. Should she do as they asked? Should she hide herself away and bear children and let the men run the kingdom?

But didn’t she owe her children a strong mother? So many obligations. She owed her future children, her dead parents, her hopeful brothers, her husbands, her people.

What did she owe herself?

“Not now, Bron. Please.” Lach looked up at her with troubled eyes pleading.

He was right. It wasn’t the time to worry or let future cares cloud her. This was their time, a shelter from everything else. Tomorrow might fall like a hammer on all of them, but tonight was a beautiful thing. Bonding.

Lach sighed as she drew up a bit and moved back down, his cock moving inside her. A wave of pure pleasure hit her and it was from Lachlan. He loved this, loved being inside her. This was his home.

“Lean over, love. Put your chest against Lach’s.” Shim had returned from the river where she was sure he’d dumped his clothes and cleaned himself. He pressed down on her back, forcing her forward.

“What’s he doing?” Bron asked. Her nipples brushed against Lach’s hard chest.

“Getting ready. He’s oiling up his cock so he can fuck your ass, love. This is what we’ve always wanted. You in between us. You completing us. We weren’t whole without you, Bron. We would be shells if you went away.” Lach held her, opening her for his brother’s invasion.

She gasped as felt his cockhead press against her asshole.

“Feel me, love. Listen to what I’m feeling. Know me.” Shim sent out a wave that slammed against Bron.

Every nerve in his body was focused on her. Every muscle was ready, every cell in his being awake and alive. He’d waited his life for this moment and it went beyond the sex. He’d waited to bond, the true bond. He’d waited to know her. Shim didn’t want sex. He wanted to make love to the woman who bridged his soul. He wanted to share with her. Even though he’d had Lach, he’d been so alone without her.

Shim didn’t know how or why they had connected at so early an age, but he never questioned it. He’d known she was his and he was hers. No other women had even been a blinking thought. He’d wanted Bronwyn. Needed Bronwyn.

She felt his heart pounding in his chest as he fucked in short strokes, opening her a little more each time.

“Feel me,” Lach said, his eyes steady on hers.

He loved being in her pussy, loved the feel of her all around him. He loved the heat of her body because he thought there was a cold, dead place inside him that only she could fill. He was lonely, too. Shim was light and heat, but he had only a chill. He had worried all his life that she would reject him because he was made of the cold dead things of the planes.

She shook her head, tears filling her eyes. “No. You’re not cold.”

He didn’t answer, but the look on his face told her he didn’t believe.

She kissed him, feeling Shim as he finally breached her ass. “You’re not cold, my Lachlan. You aren’t cold to me.”

“Never to you, love.”

Shim overwhelmed her with the feel of her asshole clenching around him as he finally slid deep. If there was discomfort, she couldn’t feel it. She could only feel his pleasure as he pressed in, the tightness making his balls draw up, curling in ecstasy.

It was so tight. Tighter than ever since she was packed with their cocks.

Shim pulled out, almost to the rim of her anus while Lach pressed up until she could feel his balls against her flesh.

This was what she’d dreamed of. Both her men. Her Dark Ones. They filled her, surrounded her, protected and held her. For so long they had been the dream she’d retreated to, and then they were a reality she might have to flee from, but here and now they were everything.

She rode them, pumping back and forth, accepting everything they had to give. She sank into them, their pleasure, their emotion and gave them back her own.

Pleasure singed her spine, heated her skin.

She felt the moment Shim’s orgasm started. It blasted through her system. She heard herself shout and the men move. Lach pulled her down, grinding into her. His pelvis rubbed across her clit, sending shivers of pleasure, opening her up, enfolding her senses.

Lach shouted beneath her, and she felt the hot wash of his cum filling her pussy.

They fell into a heap and Bron felt it. Both men reached out to her, opening themselves to the bond.

“Is tú mo ghrá,” they said in one voice.

She gave them back the traditional words. You are my love. It’s what they would have said had their marriage been properly witnessed. “Is tú mo ghrá.”

Bron reached out and grabbed the bond and fell headlong into chaos.