by Lillian Lark
“I am very sorry, Zephyrine. I would tell you that isn’t his usual attitude, but I don’t think it would make you feel better. You are a dazzling woman. Smart, brave, and captivating to be in the presence of.”
My eyes burn for some reason, it can’t possibly be because I’m holding back tears from getting complimented in such a heartfelt way.
“Gregory deserves to be flogged if he made you feel like you were any less. Maybe when he gets here, he will.”
A wicked glint in Asa’s eyes makes me suck in a breath. It’s much darker than the teasing looks we’d been volleying. I swallow and want to squirm in my seat under that sort of look. I have never engaged in the sort of bed play that I think Asa is implying. Suddenly I’m curious, curious about a lot of things.
“Before you successfully distracted me with alcohol, you said that you like me but that would cause problems. What kind of problems were you talking about?” I ask. Somewhere in the house a door bangs open and there is a roar.
“Asa!”
Asa flinches at the roar but still responds.
“In here! You big brute.” Only the first part is shouted but if that is who I think it is, chances are he can still hear it. Sure enough, like a bull Greg rushes into the room. The Greg who hates me, or if not hate, dislikes. The Greg that Asa knew would show … What’s going on?
Greg looks even more Viking-esque than he did earlier. He’s in the same clothes he wore to the job but the way he’s wound up and his wolf showing through his eyes adds violence to the air. Greg takes two steps forward, raising a finger.
“If you’ve touched her—"
“Would you hurt me, Gregory?” Asa’s voice sounds funny; it sounds full of hurt.
Greg looks down in what looks like shame. The shame pales in comparison to the heartbreak on Asa’s face. Suddenly a lot of things start to clear. Not the why of Greg coming here for me, that still makes no sense. But the reason Asa wants to speak with Greg hits me over the head.
So stupid. Maybe not stupid, definitely slow. My cheeks go hot, and my eyes burn again for a very different reason. Asa loves Greg. The whole time I’ve flirted, badly, with a beautiful man, after another had upset me. Only to find out that they are an item. Or were an item, based on the pain on Asa’s face.
“Oh.” It’s all I can say for a second as I try to keep my own hurt from cracking my chest and pouring out. I don’t know why I’m so very disappointed. Don’t cry, for the love of the gods don’t cry. You don’t know them, not really. Asa squeezing my hand brings me out of the spiral of despair I’d tripped into.
“Zephyrine, stop it. Whatever you are thinking right now, stop.” There is a commanding edge to Asa’s tone that makes me want to sit up straighter in my position against the pillows. “It isn’t like that, or not just like that anymore. There are other things to consider right now, trust me.”
Trust him … I just met him, and now Asa wants me to trust him? The unexpected thing is that I do trust him. All I have to go on is our interaction up till now and something in me that inexplicably pulls me to believe this demon. I’ll have to decide later whether this feeling is wise, but I find that I’m hopeful in this impossible situation.
“What do you mean things are different now? Are you going to fight me for her?” Greg’s voice is gruff, and he looks even more confused than I am. I can’t be sure why I so readily trust Asa, but I can be sure that no fighting will happen over me.
“Hey, big guy, I don’t know what you’re doing here or why, but you should leave. You don’t just storm into the house belonging to someone I consider a friend and start throwing around threats over me. I don’t know you and from what I’ve seen, I don’t want to.” My words sound sharp and they must hurt because Greg’s face goes white as if he’s going to faint.
“But you’re my m-mate.” Greg’s eyes keep bouncing from me to Asa and back again and he doesn’t sound sure. My brain explodes at his statement.
“What?!”
Chapter 5
Asa
This is a fucking mess. Zephyrine looks shocked by Gregory’s clumsy words and Gregory looks so confused I wouldn’t give him the job of cracking an egg for breakfast, let alone securing the woman who he wants to claim. Zephyrine deserves confidence, competence, someone who can satisfy the submissive streak I sense in her. Not someone who can’t keep from looking to me for direction.
What had started as a plan to talk it out with Gregory, since we are both miserable, has morphed into something else altogether. Am I going to fight him for her …? I don’t want to fight Gregory. I want to spend my life with him. But I also feel pulled toward Zephyrine. A mess indeed.
I told Zephyrine the truth when I said that I hadn’t wanted to like her. Jealousy had burned in me as I took care of her injuries. But at some undistinguishable point, that roiling emotion had shifted.
Maybe it was when she opened her mouth and brazenly spoke with confidence threaded with a delicate self-consciousness. I just know that something about us fits. I have only experienced this sensation once before and that was with the man I’m staring down.
I love Gregory, but something in me rebels at the idea of him taking Zephyrine away. More than just jealousy. Now Zephyrine comes to my rescue, calling me a friend. I don’t make new friends very often and consider them a rare treasure. Maybe we would fight over her after all.
Is there a way around confrontation? Gregory had described what it was like to have an animal as part of his soul to me and it had sounded damn uncomfortable. To have an entity that could sway Gregory’s decisions and actions, that doesn’t have a way to communicate other than in the way animals do, through emotion.
The animal isn’t supposed to cause a great amount of conflict or confusion. It has the ability to detect what shifters consider to be fated mates through soul magic. Simply put, a shifter meets someone, the animal would demand that person as a mate and the shifter always agreed. The couple mated and lived happily ever after.
When Gregory met me, he had been adamant that we be together, but he had never said the term “mate” outside of the bedroom. I had chalked it up to Gregory not wanting to admit to his pack that his mate is a man. That Gregory had never introduced me to them as his mate just compounded that belief.
I have lived next door to the Evergreen pack for decades. I know them well and don’t think that they would have taken issue with our relationship, but I’m a patient man. It was important to me that Gregory felt comfortable with our mating. I didn’t expect him to leave or for his wolf to want to claim another.
Suspicion sparks. This scenario is reminiscent of something, a memory I’d forgotten in the haste of everything. Could there be a solution to this situation?
“Your wolf wants just her as your mate, Gregory?”
Gregory looks down in confusion and a thrill sparks in me at the confirmation of my guess. A dark thing in my being wants to grab both of these beautiful souls and hold them to me like a dragon clutches its hoard. Both? Could it work?
I’ve heard of this happening just once before. It’s something to ponder, but first things first. I turn to Zephyrine, who shakes her head.
“Harpies don’t take mates.” It looks like it hurts her to say it and I have suspicions about that too. Out of the corner of my eye, Gregory gets even paler, his distress yanking on my heart.
“Sweetheart, I know your people have a lot of feelings on the matter but if you could just suspend those for the time being and try not to eviscerate the man, I’d appreciate it. I do actually care a lot about him still.” The endearment makes her blush even as the rest of my words make her brows come together.
That she appears to trust me even though we just met makes the tingling on the back of my neck increase. Fate has funny ways of going about things.
Gregory is back to looking like a lost puppy with too much energy. He must have worked himself up about this on the drive over. His crashing into this house and throwing around threats that he can’t back up may
be the result of that.
“Do you still care for me, Gregory?”
“Of course.” Greg’s eyes water at that, but he won’t let himself cry. The guilt he has for leaving should be satisfying but it just hurts. Everything, since he left me, has been painful. Even meeting Zephyrine was painful until we got to know each other. If there is a way to work this out painlessly, I want it.
I straighten, decision made. “You should go for a run around the property. Take some of your edge off so we can talk about this like adults. Will your wolf be fine with you leaving me alone with Zephyrine?”
Gregory contemplates for a moment before nodding reluctantly. Another point to support my case. Fate is a bitch, but this could work. “When you get back, we will all have dinner together and get to know each other.”
Gregory’s shoulders drop in relief. Probably because Zephyrine will still be here when he gets back. The conversation we have over dinner should be interesting. Gregory looks to Zephyrine then but doesn’t seem to trust himself to say anything before turning and leaving the room.
The fascinating woman I had unthinkingly placed in my bed earlier tilts her head. Zephyrine’s expression is open but I don’t doubt that the judgment of her community will be an obstacle in this. I’m still holding her hand. It’s a nice sensation, it grounds me.
This will all have to be done carefully. I can only control so much when it comes to having a relationship with two different people. But it’s an exciting prospect to have both Gregory and Zephyrine in our bed, under my hand.
I hope this doesn’t cost me both of them.
“I guess you’re wanting to know about my relationship with Gregory?”
Zephyrine
Knowing about the relationship that sparked tension between the two men would be a good place to start. Start? It shouldn’t matter, I can’t give either of them anything lasting. Harpies don’t live that way. I had planned on a sexy romp with Asa, not a relationship. I don’t have a place in either of these men’s lives.
“It really isn’t any of my business,” I force myself to say.
Asa raises a brow. “Are you saying you’re not curious?”
The idea of them being a couple affects me in a way I wouldn’t have anticipated. Usually, I don’t see someone in a relationship as a candidate for anything sexual. But finding out that Asa is still in an emotional relationship with Greg doesn’t dim my lust for him. It’s troubling. I refuse to be a party to cheating. Emotional or otherwise.
“It doesn’t matter if I’m curious,” I say.
It would be better if I could just shut my attraction to the two of them off. Because as much as I don’t like Greg right now, my body is still drawn to him. He probably isn’t acting like himself. I’ve heard that shifters have difficulties sometimes with the animals they harbor as a part of their souls.
When the person and beast are in conflict, they do things that normally they wouldn’t. Like convincing themselves that a harpy is their mate. It sounds miserable to have a part of yourself turn against you.
“Zephyrine, this is your business because Gregory says you’re his mate. If you’re going to try and convince him you’re not, shouldn’t you have the whole story?” Asa sounds so reasonable when he says it that way.
Asa takes my silence as assent. “Sometime last year Gregory and I met—”
“You didn’t start it with a once upon a time,” I interrupt and Asa chuckles darkly.
“Brat,” he says. Things I didn’t expect to tighten at that do.
Asa starts again, “Once upon a time there was a baker who needed funding to get his idea off the ground, so he went to a certain investor who was known to his pack. I, being the benevolent benefactor I am, invested in his idea and now Gregory runs a bakery that caters to some specific needs of paranormal beings but also has the best cinnamon rolls in the state.”
Greg is a baker? The big man didn’t fit the stereotype of a baker in my head. It’s a silly thing to be surprised by and I’ll have to work to mentally correct my expectations. Asa continues on, ignoring my lifted brows.
“After the paperwork had been drawn up, Gregory demanded we go on a date. I was enchanted by him. I’ve dated many men and women before but hadn’t clicked with anyone like I had with Gregory.”
I have a strange reaction to this. A mixture of jealousy and other things that make me feel small. A squeeze of my hand brings me back to what Asa is saying. His face is soft. “Or you, but that is interrupting the story.”
It shouldn’t matter so much that he said that; I’m a casual passerby. It shouldn’t matter, but it does. I squeeze Asa’s hand back.
“The story? I’m assuming it doesn’t end there.”
“No, no it doesn’t. Let me check the healing on your wing first.”
I turn from Asa, to give him whatever privacy he needs for the next part of the story. But he shakes his head.
“No, don't turn, I don’t want to rotate anything that shouldn’t.” He’s right. A sharp pain hits me as I move, making me wince.
“Easy.” Asa performs some adjustments and the pain dissipates. He continues to move me in small, careful movements until I am scooted forward and he slides onto the bed behind me. My breath catches at the intimacy of it. Asa stops moving as if realizing the same thing.
“Is this okay?” he asks.
I nod and Asa moves a hand over a muscle in my back with a pressure that makes my body melt and I whimper.
“I need you to verbalize it, Zephyrine; are you okay with me being here like this?” Asa’s voice is smooth, his instructions clear, and I start to understand what he’s asking. I shouldn’t keep this going. I stopped my pursuit of Asa when Greg came in. But the temptation is a live thing inside me, a roiling ball of snakes.
“Is that going to make telling the story easier for you?” I ask, breathless in some sort of insidious anticipation. Asa’s breath warms the back of my neck and I can’t help tilting my head to give him more access. A movement like a brush of lips on the skin, but I can’t be sure.
“I think it just might.” He answers the question I almost forgot I’d asked.
“Then by all means, continue. I like you where you are.” What exactly have I given him permission for? Something about the open-endedness excites me. His scent envelopes me and I want to bask in it like a cat to sunlight. It’s spicy with the hint of woodsmoke that must come from his demonic nature. The huff of his breath tells me that he’s laughing at me.
“So trusting.” Asa’s hands run over my back again and some of the bandages shift as he checks his work.
“You asked for my trust. Wasn’t there a story you were telling me?”
“Ah yes, the story. So, dating led to other things and before you know it, we’re in love,” he says.
I try not to flinch at that. At feeling left out of a story that has nothing to do with me. What is wrong with me?
Asa continues, “But Gregory never publicly claimed me, nor did he ever call me his mate, when he was lucid, anyway. I wasn’t as concerned about that… I thought we were happy.”
Asa stops talking then, as if this retelling hurts him. The reason for him bearing this vulnerability to me is still unclear, but hearing the way he stops and starts this story makes me want to hug him. Instead, I let a hand drop to just above his knee, the only place I can reach without turning.
He’s wearing slacks and the material is thin enough that I can feel the muscles under the fabric. I’d meant it as a comforting gesture but touching him like this, the warmth of his skin through fabric, just increases the closeness between us.
It isn’t just where we touch. Asa’s body radiates heat behind me; he must have leaned in. The heat flusters me. Having his presence wrap around me like this is so distracting that I almost jump in surprise when he continues with the tale.
“Then, two months ago, Gregory said that our relationship wasn’t going to work and left. Six months of sharing a bed, a home, and he left. Today I had planned on cor
nering him after the job you two were working on. I wanted to convince him that it could work between us,” Asa breathes out, “and then you fell from the sky and plans changed.”
“They changed because Greg thinks I’m his mate. I’m not, though.”
Asa deserves to be happy. Even if the idea of not seeing him again after this makes me ache. I’ll eventually convince Greg that mating a harpy is impossible, and then maybe they can be happy together.
Asa hums, not responding to my statement. Instead he starts stroking areas of my back and the sensation has the dual effect of pleasure and pain. His heat wraps around me, sinking into my skin and I relax. I’m unaccustomed to having my wings out for long periods of time, and my muscles are sore and tense. Asa digs a thumb deeper into the tissue and I gasp.
The pressure of my wings on Asa’s chest and his face near the side of mine make me realize that I’ve leaned back. An attribute that demons possess, that had slipped my mind, is their talent for seduction.
I let myself be drawn under Asa’s spell. It isn’t a literal spell of course. But one that feels real enough, binding in its purpose. A sound comes from my throat as his hands hit another point of tension on my back.
Asa’s lips come to my neck then and the subtle heat of arousal swirls in me, dissolving some of my inhibitions but not all.
“What about Greg?” I ask.
“What about Gregory?”
“You love him—”
“Yes.” Asa’s answer is solid.
“Won’t this hurt him?”
“I have a hunch about that.”
That is a vague answer. The wolf shifter had been the one to leave Asa, though. I won’t make promises I can’t keep. “This is casual.”
“Whatever you say, little bird.”
“My wings?”
“I’ll be careful. You’re healing well but we don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” Asa’s voice is a seduction in itself. I haven’t done anything like this sexual dance before. Most of my encounters were quick one-night stands. I’m an outclassed ship needing direction. I lean back into him, wanting more of what he’s started. Thoughts about denying this run off my mind like water on bird feathers. His lips smile on my throat.