Victoria Marmot- The Complete Series

by Virginia McClain

  So having Gwen show up saying they needed me and then blinking us out of existence was more than a little disturbing.

  Which meant that for the first time in my entire life, I was relieved to see Edik.

  Even though he was attacking Sol and Seamus, who had their backs up against Sol’s cottage, and was screaming something incoherent while he repeatedly tried to bite them.

  I sighed.

  Then I shifted directly behind him and put him in a headlock.

  “Edik, I give zero fucks about what you are doing here, but you have precisely 30 seconds to make me care enough not to rip your throat from your neck.”

  When he sagged in my arms, I relaxed my grip just enough to let him speak.

  “My darling Victoria, I—”

  I cut him off by tightening the hold once again.

  “Let me make this part really clear. I’m not your darling anything, and any references to me as such will lose you ten seconds of time to explain. Try again. Twenty seconds. Go.”

  “These heathens won’t tell me where my daughter is! They have hidden her from me, and I can no longer sense her. Where is she!? She is so frail, she needs me, she cannot make her way in this world withou—”

  I cut him off again.

  “Is she with the others?” I asked Sol and Seamus, who both looked as exhausted as I felt. No wonder, they’d been struggling against raging vampire. They nodded.

  “Great. Then she’s safe. Edik, your daughter is safe and that’s all I can tell you. I’ve been sworn to secrecy regarding her location, but you’re just going to have to trust me. Or I can just kill you. I’m really fine either way, at this point.”

  That wasn’t strictly true. I loathed Edik pretty substantially at this point, but I still didn’t know if I’d be able to kill him. Not if he didn’t attack me first, at least. I didn’t think I had it in me to snap his neck right now, for example, if all he did was beg me to let him see his daughter. Then again, if it had looked like he was really going to hurt Sol or Seamus, he’d probably be dead already. Regardless, I certainly didn’t have the time or energy to coach Edik through knowing where his daughter was. If she was still with the other children rescued from MOME, I had to assume that was where she wanted to be. I couldn’t imagine Seamus or Sol trying to keep her with the group against her will, and if a teenaged girl wanted to get away from her parents so badly that she was willing to stay in the dragon realm with a group of total strangers, I was not going to get in her way.

  I dropped Edik to the ground, stepped forward to grab Seamus and Sol by the wrists, and shifted us all inside Sol’s cabin.

  Where I almost fell to the floor from the intense heat that rolled through my abdomen, making my toes curl.

  Holy fuck, I felt like I was going to burst and the only thing that would stop me was getting in bed with Sol and Seamus right now.

  I dropped their wrists like they were on fire and ran to lock the door, hoping neither of them could tell how turned on I was. My whole body felt flushed, and I wondered how it was even possible to be this attracted to two people at the same time. I took a few deep breaths and tried to tell myself that it was just relief at seeing them safe and alive.

  When I looked up, they both looked like deer about to be taken down by a Mack truck. What was wrong with us?

  “I’m really glad to see you guys,” I said, desperate to distract myself from the molten longing that consumed me. “I thought you were back in the dragon realm, though.”

  Sol swallowed, licked her lips, and then swallowed again. I tried not to watch every move like it set my skin alight, but I failed.

  “We were. Rhelia took us there with the kids from MOME, but her matriarch decided that we were no longer needed and offered to send us home. We had no idea where you were, so…”

  She trailed off and I couldn’t help but notice that she seemed to be watching the rise and fall of my chest. For some reason that made my nipples harden, and I had to swallow a moan. What the fuck? Five minutes ago I had been in the middle of some weird assed dragon rite of passage, three minutes ago I’d had my vampire stalker in a headlock. I had so many more important things to think about than whether or not Sol was staring at my chest. What was wrong with me?

  “When we got here, that asshat was waiting for us, screaming his head off about his precious Renata, and then when we refused to tell him where she was, he started trying to bite us. As if his damned vampire venom would even work on a strong were.” She sighed, and my own eyes were drawn to the rise and fall of her chest in a way that was completely inappropriate to the conversation.

  “We’d already fought off five MOME agents today…. It’s a good thing you got here when you did,” Seamus said, but his voice sounded rough.

  Before I could even take a good look at Seamus, or ask what was going on, he rushed to the door, muttered, “I’ll be back in a minute, just going for a run,” and slipped out so fast I wondered if I’d even locked it.

  I should have been worried about Seamus running into Edik, or getting cold, or getting lost, or something, but instead all I could think about was how I wanted him back here so I could have my way with him. Ugh… what was wrong with my brain? Seriously, even teenage hormones didn’t explain this kind of single-minded lust.

  I almost voiced the question, but then Sol stepped up to me and I could feel the heat rolling off of her body in waves. I hadn’t ever been with a woman before, but I now knew deep in my bones that I wanted to be with Sol. I wanted to run my tongue over every curve of her body, and explore… everywhere.

  She leaned against me, and suddenly I couldn’t think of anything else at all.

  “Gatita, I know we haven’t known each other very long, but do you…” her voice trailed off, hesitant.

  “Want to take you into that bedroom and learn everything I can about how to pleasure a woman?” I finished for her. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

  FROM THERE A few sizzling kisses quickly progressed to an incredibly hot sex scene that I’m not going to relate to you, because that’s not the point of this story. I will say, however, that I was surprised by how good it was, considering that first time sexual encounters with a new partner aren’t always very good and also that it was my first time with a woman at all. I had expected more awkwardness. Instead, we both finished at the same time with a pair of mind-blowing orgasms. I didn’t think it was that suspicious at the time, but afterwards…

  Well, anyway, I had been on the cusp of initiating round two when a familiar voice announced, “I’m afraid the two of you are needed elsewhere.”

  I nearly jumped off the bed as that voice doused me like a cold a shower.

  “Ack! Fuck, Gwen! You can’t just show up like that when people are getting it on!”

  She was standing just inside the door like it was no big deal.

  “You’d be surprised how often I show up like that when people are getting it on, actually.”

  “What?!”

  “Goddess of fortune, remember? For some folks that’s all about makin’ babies.”

  “Ugh… Gwen, why are you here?” I asked. Sol had been surprisingly quiet, but unlike me (trying to cover myself with whatever bit of blanket I could grab) she was just lying there casually, as though she spent most of her time naked on a bed, with another woman, expecting random deities to show up and announce things. And hell, for all I knew, maybe she did.

  “Seamus needs you,” Gwen said, then poofed out of existence.

  Luckily, she only poofed as far as the living room. I could hear her rustling around the small kitchen, likely looking for tea paraphernalia. I guess she was giving us some privacy to wrap things up. Sol kissed me in a soft lingering manner that promised all kinds of fun was to be had later, then grabbed her clothes and walked out of the room. I chuckled at the thought of her not giving two fucks about strutting around naked and then put on my own jeans, shoved the ladies back into my sports bra, and pulled on a hoodie. Then I did my best to think of things other than the am
azing sex we’d just had, but largely failed.

  I took a deep breath and walked out into the kitchen.

  Gwen was busily fussing with a teapot and Sol had put on pants and a bra, an outfit I didn’t object to in the least, but found incredibly distracting. I couldn’t get the feel and taste of her out of my mind, and every time I looked at her, I instantly started replaying everything we’d just done to one another.

  That was weird. I didn’t usually find sex to be all-consuming. I had thought the way we felt before Seamus had run out was just an anomaly.

  I walked over to stand beside Sol, and almost purred when she put her hand on my back and started sliding it under my hoodie. My skin caught fire wherever she ran her fingers, and all I could think of was dragging her back to bed.

  Focus power, Vic. Come on.

  I mentally shook myself, trying to pay attention to Gwen and her tea.

  Sol’s hand wandered up the front of my hoodie and began sliding over my sports bra, making me thoroughly ready to pull her back into the bedroom to have my way with her again, when Gwen must have dropped the teapot. A loud shattering noise briefly took my attention away from Sol.

  “Damn it,” Gwen said, looking between us. “It’s happening already.”

  “What is?” I asked, leaning into the feel of Sol’s hand playing over both of my breasts. I ducked my head and kissed her shoulder.

  “That damned mating bond!” Gwen said, clapping her hands, presumably to get our attention, but I was too busy kissing my way towards Sol’s exposed cleavage to care.

  “Mating bond?” Sol asked, sounding vaguely concerned. “Can’t be, we’re not a mating pair. No testes.”

  Her hand had never stopped roaming my breasts, and now she was pinching gently at my nipples through my sports bra. Apparently neither of us were at all concerned that Gwen was standing right there, cleaning up fragments of shattered teapot.

  I had started running my fingers under the fabric of her bra, and she was leaning her head back in exaltation.

  “Well, then how do you explain your sudden inability to keep your hands off each other?” Gwen asked.

  Sol snorted.

  “Because we just had some of the best sex of my life,” she muttered, grabbing my breasts more forcefully and bringing her other hand under my hoodie to join the fun.

  “And mine,” I seconded, running my tongue along the tops of her breasts again.

  “And how common is that between two people who’ve never had sex with each other before?” Gwen asked.

  I shrugged, knowing that Gwen had a point, but not really caring. Sol sat up a bit though, and her hands paused in their task, which made me growl a bit.

  “And how often does a woman who has never been with another woman before know every move that will push her partner right over the edge?” Gwen continued.

  Sol stopped everything and dropped her hands, and then I really did growl.

  “We can’t have a mating bond,” Sol objected. “Those are for pairs that can procreate. My kind never have them.”

  Gwen just looked between us. Sol looked at me and stepped back.

  “What. The. Fuck. Is. A. Mating. Bond?” I gritted out.

  “It’s an unbreakable lifelong bond between two weres,” Sol replied.

  “Two or more,” Gwen corrected.

  “Multi-way mating bonds are a myth,” Sol replied.

  Gwen shrugged.

  “Suit yourself.”

  “What are you two talking about?” I asked, through the haze of lust that was clouding my mind. Now that I considered it, thinking was a lot harder than it should have been. All my body seemed to want to do was pin Sol down to the bed in the other room with various forms of pleasure. As I forced myself to think through the fog of lust, I had to recognize that even though she was hot, and we’d just had amazing sex, something was definitely not right about the single-mindedness of this.

  “What is going on?” I asked, finally snapping out of things enough to understand how strange this was. I tried to take a step back from Sol, but found it was a surprisingly difficult proposition. My body did not want to move away from hers, no matter what my brain told it.

  “Gwen is suggesting that we’ve somehow become a mated pair,” Sol said, still sounding incredulous. “But that’s not possible, because that doesn’t happen to same-sex couples.”

  “It does sometimes,” Gwen corrected.

  “Only in legends,” Sol scoffed. “Not in the real world.”

  Gwen only shrugged again.

  “Why would the mating bond snap into place for two women? We can’t MATE, not in the sense that Gaia, or whoever decides these things, would approve of, anyway.”

  “Maybe the gods have gotten more progressive,” Gwen suggested.

  I laughed.

  “You would know if they had, wouldn’t you?” I asked, even as I tried to restrain myself from touching Sol again. My hands did not seem inclined to listen, and I noticed that she was subtly raising her arm towards the waistband of my hoodie once more.

  Gwen fixed me with a glare.

  “Some of us have never cared about such things, and I don’t keep tabs on all the other gods and their politics. Gods are slow to change, but some of us do. Gaia might be one who does. Or maybe she never cared to begin with. We don’t talk much.”

  “It just doesn’t make any sense,” said Sol, even as her hand started to slide up under my hoodie once more. I moaned before her hand even reached my breasts, then shook myself and tried to take a step back.

  “What. The. Actual. Fuck.” I gritted out, through clenched jaws. I wasn’t opposed to wanting to jump Sol a bunch in the foreseeable future, but I was trying to hold a conversation, damn it. This was getting ridiculous.

  “Ok. For the sake of argument,” I managed to say, while stepping back from Sol and her free-roaming hands, “let’s say this is a mating bond. How do we get out of it?”

  “We don’t,” said Sol. “Mating bonds are for life. Or… well, that’s what I’ve always heard, anyway.”

  “But surely no one lives like this?” I said, finding myself sliding towards Sol again, despite not wanting to. “How do they get anything done?”

  “It’s only supposed to drive people like this until it's completed.”

  “What do you mean, completed?”

  “Consummated.”

  “Did we, or did we not, just consummate the crap out of each other back there?”

  Sol smiled, then forced her hands to her sides.

  “We did. If this were a mating bond it should have cooled down by now.”

  “Not if it isn’t just a two person bond,” said Gwen gingerly from behind the teakettle that had somehow reassembled itself.

  “WHAT?!” Sol and I chorused together.

  “That’s not possible!” said Sol. “Those bonds are legends, and nothing more.”

  “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

  I couldn’t resist putting on my best Iñigo Montoya voice.

  Sol was so angry that she ignored my Princess Bride reference completely.

  “There hasn’t been a three person bond in… I don’t know… a thousand years? It’s possible it was just a myth to begin with. Why would there be one now? And who would the third be anyway?” Sol looked ready to tear something up, and I was suddenly glad that her hands were no longer under my shirt.

  “Um, three person bond, two person bond, why is ANY of this happening? And why us? Why me in particular? I didn’t even know this stuff existed.”

  Sol turned to me and looked like she was finally taking pity on me. “Ok. The short, short version is this: mating pairs feel a very strong pull when they meet each other—the more time they spend together, the more they are drawn in. If they take too “long” getting to know each other without consummating things, they can be thrown into a frenzy until they finally manage to seal the deal. Once they mate properly, they are mated for life. They will always be with
that person.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Why what?” Sol’s eyebrow rose in what I could only assume was confusion.

  “Why any of it? Why mate to people for life? Why stay together after the mating bond is consummated? Just… why?”

  “Not a believer in monogamy, are you?” Sol asked, smiling.

  “Not particularly.” I shrugged. “It’s not that I don’t believe in it. I just have a hard time buying that it’s the default switch for most humans. I think the reason most people become dissatisfied with relationships after a few years is a general human tendency towards genetic diversity and thus towards having multiple partners over the long run. Plus, I think it’s lame that we try to get everything we need in a partner from a single person. No human can reasonably expect to find someone who gives them everything. That’s crazy.”

  Sol’s smile widened.

  “Well said.”

  “So, I take it neither of us is thrilled at the idea of being mated for life?” I hedged.

  Sol shook her head.

  “Gatita, you're hot as fuck, but I do not want to be saddled with you, or anyone else, forever.”

  “Are we having a sharing circle or something?”

  Seamus’ voice sounded perfectly calm, and perfectly normal, but for some reason it sent a jolt of liquid heat sliding through me.

  “Damn,” I said, turning to see him standing in the doorway. He was silhouetted by the afternoon light shining over the mountains behind him, and his long, dark hair was pulled back from his angular jawline and high cheekbones. His amber eyes seemed to glow from the doorway, and suddenly I decided he was wearing entirely too much clothing. I’d crossed half the distance between us before I even noticed that my body had moved. I managed to stop myself before I got to him, though.

  “What is happening?” I asked, feeling more lost than ever.

  “We may have figured out why the earlier consummation didn’t take.”