by Lillian Lark
“What do you mean?” Gregory asks. I’m also paying close attention to Zephyrine’s answer. Harpies are a secretive bunch.
“Only females are harpies. There aren’t any hybrids. The males in the family are whatever the father is.” Zephyrine gets leery when she’s done explaining.
I finish applying first aid and arrange her on a chair that allows for her wings to drape behind. Zephyrine gives me a look of thanks.
“I was unaware harpies had male children. So you have a brother? Are boy children unusual?” My question wipes the expression from her face.
“I have a brother. Male children are kind of unusual,” Zephyrine hedges. There is a forbidding air around her answer. My curiosity digs in deep.
“What did I say?” I needle. Gregory also looks intrigued.
“I don’t think it’s the kind of information you want to hear.” Zephyrine doesn’t just look uncomfortable, she looks sad. I combine her reaction with the subject matter in my head and know I’m not going to like whatever she’s going to say, but I need her to say it.
“If we are men who choose to have children with you, don’t you think we deserve to know?” I try not to let underlying anger color my words. I’ve experienced practices before that were unkind to children of beings. I will not be party to them.
“In ancient times, boy children were abandoned or killed. As history progressed it became more common that the boy children are sent to live with their father. Now it’s more common for the mother to keep them.” There is silence at Zephyrine’s confession. Only the worst of paranormal beings take the death of children lightly. “Luckily, for our blood-soaked history, boy children are uncommon.”
I must not be hiding my emotions well enough because when Zephyrine looks at my face, hers drops even more. Her brows knit in sadness and shame and I check a vicious protective instinct that takes me by surprise. This shame isn’t hers to carry. I’ve only known Zephyrine for a matter of hours, but I know she wouldn’t do those things to children. Rage at the history of her kind makes me want to destroy something.
Zephyrine looks up at Gregory then, face filled with the misery of a martyr. “Tell me, Greg, do you still want a mate like me?”
Chapter 7
Gregory
Zeph’s question takes me by surprise, though it shouldn’t. I’ve been watching the range of emotions on Asa’s face. Primed in case I had to come between them. I don’t think I could ever hurt Asa but I won’t let him do anything to Zeph he’ll regret. And I know he would regret doing anything that would hurt her.
This will have to be something we speak about later. I rarely see such strong emotions from Asa. His control is his favorite asset. I turn my attention to Zeph now, who looks so anguished it takes effort on my part not to reach out for her. This is a serious matter though.
“Is it a practice you condone?”
“Of course not! It’s barbaric and cruel.”
“Yet you still hold on to other parts of your culture?” This isn’t the time to try and convince her to let go of the “no mates” rule but I can’t help myself from poking one hole in the argument. Asa has brought himself under control now and gives me an annoyed look. He has always excelled in the long game while I’m better at instant action.
“It’s not the same thing,” Zeph says, but her words wobble. I retreat on that argument. Instead, I scoot close to her chair and take her hand for the first time since we’d shaken hands this morning. The touch sparks through me, making my wolf bask in the contact.
“I’d be honored to have a mate like you no matter your kind’s awful practices.” I must say the right thing because Zeph’s eyes meet mine and hers fill with tears. I panic a little at her crying, but Asa takes a knee near her chair and holds her other hand. Zeph looks at him.
“I’m so sorry—” she says, but Asa shakes his head, cutting off her tearful apology.
“No darling, you don’t need to be sorry for my poor reaction.” Asa struggles with his next words. “I’m not okay with your kind’s history. I’ve done a lot of work against crimes like those, but you aren’t guilty of the crime.”
This is news to me; Asa’s reaction makes more sense. I don’t know everything about his history. Had I kept from asking about his past because of my own issues with my wolf? This time around I’ll be a better mate.
Zeph wipes away a tear that had tracked down her cheek. “Thank you. I think I want to go to bed if that is okay.” It comes out a whisper. My heart aches at the sorrow in her voice. I don’t think she believes either of us yet. It’s another obstacle to conquer.
✽✽✽
Asa takes Zephyrine back to his bed. He’ll take the guest room and he offers me the living room couch, but I have different plans. We stand in the hallway in front of the bedroom as we make arrangements.
“I think I should go to see my family. I should have asked for their help when my wolf started acting weird,” I say. Asa nods but he has a smile on his face that tells me I don’t know something he does.
“I think that is a good idea. Say hello to Claire for me.” Asa’s voice is smooth now. “If you come back tonight, just let yourself in. You still have a key.”
I blush because I have questions that I don’t want to bring up with my mom, but it is as big of a hint as Asa is going to give me. The way he looks at me with hooded eyes starts a winding sensation of longing down my spine. Our bodies get closer until I can feel the heat come off of him. It’s the closest we’ve been since I’d messed everything up. Asa’s hand comes up, fingers feathering along the base of my scalp, the sensation making me want to bare my neck in submission and I shiver.
Asa smiles at my easy response and suddenly his mouth is on mine. The kiss is painful, hard in retribution and demand, and then it’s over and I’m panting gracelessly as he holds my face. A moment passes, then two, where we just share breath until Asa pulls away. The expression on his face is enough to make my soul tremor and my wolf want to hide.
“Be ready to pay your penance, Gregory.”
✽✽✽
I make the short drive over with my pickup truck to pack land while trying not to ponder what Asa is going to require of me to grant forgiveness. I won’t be showing up shirtless; I have an old sweatshirt I’d forgotten at Asa’s. Shifters are pretty open to nudity, but I need whatever armor I can muster for this. The tight borrowed sweatpants were already revealing enough if I let my mind wander to the kiss Asa had given me.
Asa gave his warning to increase my anticipation and it worked, he is very good at the games he plays. I have other things I need to focus on in the meantime. Like how I haven’t spoken to my family since my own issues with my wolf started.
My brother has tried to contact me, but I haven’t wanted my problems to turn into pack business since I’m technically not under pack rule. Branson and I both have alpha tendencies. When the position of alpha needed to be filled, I didn’t want it, but my wolf wouldn’t submit to him. The simplest solution was for me to just leave the pack. They are still my family but instead of living on pack lands and having the council have a say in my business, I live in town and am my own boss.
When Asa isn’t my boss, that is. My cheeks burn and I blow out a breath. Family-friendly thoughts.
Branson had known that something was up. Pack lands border Asa’s property. Asa had been a distant neighbor and ally to the pack for decades. His reputation within the pack had been why I’d sought him out to fund the bakery to begin with.
So, while I had never met him before seeking him out, Branson and my mother had known him for years. I’m sure they noticed when I started sleeping over at his house and carrying his scent on me. There were some heavy-handed hints dropped in the few family dinners I attended about how they’d accept me no matter who I dated but I couldn’t make myself tell them.
Asa is wonderful, there should have been no hesitation on my part to claim him in the eyes of my family. But I can now see how the concerns with my inner wolf grew in
my mind until I didn’t want to talk to anyone about anything. Now, I’d not only have to confess the problems I have with my wolf but that I possibly have two mates.
I pull up to the large, multifamily lodge house and park. Branson is already on the porch; no doubt having received a perimeter warning. When I get out of my truck, he beams at me and before I can blink my life is being squeezed out of me in Branson’s best imitation of a bear hug.
The familial warmth makes my eyes sting and I’m suddenly grateful that I came over. I’ve missed this. Branson pulls back before smacking my arm.
“It’s so good to see you, you bastard.” He growls affectionately. While our mother’s lectures about swearing have made my mouth cleaner than anyone that I know, they have never stuck with Branson.
“Boys! Language! What would you do if Katie’s girls heard you?”
I flinch at my mother’s tone. Claire Erickson comes down the stairs of the porch and runs at me and I’m being strangled with a hug for the second time within a five-minute stretch. “My son! My son is home, I’ve been so worried.”
“Hell, Mom,” Branson says. I would have snorted if I could breathe. Branson could always shrug off Mom’s disapproval with ease.
“Mom.” My voice cracks. While brotherly warmth had cracked my defenses, nothing can compare to how destroyed I am from feeling Mom hug me like she thought she’d never see me again. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
She smacks my arm then, reminiscent of how Branson had just done. Blood will out.
“Just don’t do it again.”
I can only nod and try not to sniffle. Branson gives me a knowing look.
“Asa called; said you were on your way over. Does this mean you’re finally going to tell us about the two of you?” Mom goes straight to business. Annoyance flairs in me at Asa but I can’t hold on to it in this atmosphere.
“Can we sit? I have news but I also have some questions.”
“Do you want me to call the whole family?”
I flush at the thought of asking all my questions in front of the rest of my siblings as well as my mom and shake my head. I can’t say I want to even talk to my mom about this, but she knows the most about our history and Asa has already taken that choice from me. I wonder what other choices he is going to take before he feels he’s gotten his recompense for me leaving.
When everyone is situated in their respective seats on the patio, I start with my issues in chronological order. Neither Mom nor Branson is surprised when I tell them Asa is my mate. My chest is tight when I confess the issues about my inner wolf and how I’d ended things with Asa months ago. My mother moves to sit next to me and puts an arm around me in comfort.
“I wish you had come to us. We could have helped you figure this out.” She rubs my back and it loosens the pressure around my heart.
“I know I should have. I was just so confused and scared that I was going to hurt Asa.” I let the stress of everything ease and Mom nods in understanding.
“I’m very happy you’ve found your mate. Asa is a good man.”
“Uh- there’s more.” My face heats again because this is the part I hadn’t wanted Mom around for. What if she thinks I am a freak? Nothing my mother has ever done makes me think she would but a large part of me still wants her approval. Mom hums and waits patiently while Branson has his understanding alpha face on. It makes it easier.
“I met another person my wolf wants as a mate. It wants two people at once.” Am I normal? My mom is already nodding, not missing a beat. Branson only raises his brows in surprise.
“I didn’t think that was possible,” Branson says, and I feel my hopes start to fall.
“This is why Asa called me,” Mom says while she’s still rubbing my back. “Didn’t you know your great-grandparents were in a triad? It’s rare for shifters but it happens. Who is this other person? Is it anyone we know?”
What? Ringing deafens me until my mother’s questions make it past the shock.
“—Do they have plans for Thanksgiving, I know it’s half a year away but with three people in a relationship, I figure that planning is going to be your best friend. Oh! What color of sweater do you think they’ll want? Have you talked about children yet? I’d really like—”
“Mom!” I interrupt her rudely but I’m still off kilter. “Sorry Mom, but what do you mean our great-grandparents were a triad?”
Branson suddenly nods. “I think I saw some pictures forever ago. That explains it.”
“Well, Grandpa Wallis and Henry were understood to be very ‘friendly,’ the pack knew about their relationship of course but they kept that information quiet to the outside world until they snatched Grandma Martha from town and said she was their mate!”
“It was very unusual to mate a human back then and they had to fight the pack on it. But then her parents said the idea of her living with two men was ungodly and they disowned her. The pack accepted her heartily after that. The idea that her own family rejected her. Anyway, the whole business was terribly scandalous, but it blew over pretty quickly. Especially when my mother was born.”
“That’s,” Unbelievable, “something. Thanks, Mom.”
All this time I’ve spent worrying about this all, to find out that I have relatives who are the exact same way. It takes a minute for me to remember to breathe and then relief cascades through me. I want to kick myself for hiding my issues.
Both Mom and Branson are accepting this with no issue. Why had I doubted them? Had it just been that I had doubted myself? All of my worries feel baseless now. Except for one.
“So, the wolf will stay loyal to them?”
“Of course, sweetie! Your wolf just wants what is best for you and sees these two individuals as who you need.”
This changes everything. My wolf howls in triumph.
Zephyrine
I can’t stay here. For the past hour, I’ve lain awake on luxurious sheets that I’ll definitely need to get for my own bed, even if those won’t carry Asa’s scent on them, debating all the things. I am over my head in this situation. These two men have had a whole relationship before inviting me in.
That isn’t even the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that I don’t want to say no to them. I want what they’re offering but what will I be willing to pay for it? The standing in my community? My family? I know my immediate family will support any decision I make but my extended family will not.
My world is nice, orderly. All tidy with my insular community and challenging job. It’s quiet in my oasis of a house. My life is everything I had expected to want.
Bringing these two men into it will change everything. There will be no controlling the cascading effect of this. What if it causes issues for my sisters? My mom keeping a mate was written off as an aberration. Me keeping two mates? The harpy community could reason that the whole branch of my family has been poisoned with subservience to men.
That’s without including my newly discovered proclivities. Submitting in bed with two men isn’t dancing with a line in the sand, it’s destroying the sandcastles of our culture. Or that is how it would be seen anyway.
I still want to keep them.
Against every logical explanation, I still want to keep them. Asa with his soft touch but weighted sharp words. Greg with his soothing ability and devotion. That I’m having such a hard time saying no to this, no matter what damage it can cause, emphasizes how dangerous this is and why I can’t stay here.
Coming to a decision, I sit up in bed and try to gently move my wing, expecting the sharp pain from earlier but only get a dull ache. I’m relieved that the majority of the healing is done and start to quietly remove the bandages Asa had so carefully arranged. The splint falls from the wing and I stretch my feathers upward gingerly, having to bite my lip from moaning in relief at the stretch. I furl my wings back into my body.
I’m nude in the bed, having decided it would be more comfortable than wearing my day clothes and easier than destroying one of Asa’s shirts to accommod
ate the wings. I dress, trying to suppress the sounds I’m making. I don’t want to have to explain myself to either of them. If I’m lucky, Greg has stayed with his family, who conveniently live on the land bordering Asa’s. That way I won’t have to sneak past a shifter’s senses.
I remember Asa carrying the laptop that I had sent emails out on to the kitchen so that’s my goal. I’ll use it to contact my family or a driving service or anyone that can get me back to my place. I’ll fucking walk if I have to. Over dinner, we had discussed where I actually am and realized that we all frequented the same town. I have probably, obliviously, driven past Greg’s bakery before. I live in a more suburban area while Asa’s home is more secluded with the woods bordering his property.
I creep down the dark hallway to the kitchen and in the moonlight coming from the window I see not just the laptop, but the outline of the bag I had brought to the job this morning. Greg must have brought it with him and dropped it off before he left to see his family.
Rifling through it, I bring out my phone. Score! The hairs on the back of my neck rise and I turn quickly as a shadow soundlessly moves at the kitchen entrance. I almost scream when the shadow speaks.
“Zeph? What are you doing in the dark?” Greg’s voice makes me melt in relief. After the relief, disappointment swells. I didn’t want a confrontation but now a confrontation is what I’m going to get. Greg moves to the light switch and I panic.
“No! Please don’t wake up Asa!” I whisper.
I can’t deal with both of them right now. My goal is to leave, and I have to get Greg on board with that goal. I know that neither of them will keep me here against my will. But they always sound so reasonable that I also know I’ll agree to stay longer. Who knows what would happen then.
“Ookay,” Greg says, confused, as he backs away from the light switch slowly. He looks even bigger in the dark than in daylight. If it weren’t for the softness of his voice when he spoke to me, I might be scared. But I’m just anxious to get past him. To get out of here. To get on with my life. Without these men. My throat tightens.