Home of Consequence

by Archibald Bradford

  The Heartstone Saga

  Book 3: Home of Consequence

  By

  Archibald Bradford

  Copyright © 2018

  Cover Art by Erik Von Lehmann

  http://erikvonlehmann.deviantart.com/

  Introduction

  Home of Consequence is the third book in a series that continues the tale of Nameless and his bond-mates as they return home and try to resume their lives while grappling with loss. All while knowing that a dark threat still looms.

  WARNING: This is a work of erotic fantasy, there is nudity, swearing, a fair bit of violence, and plenty of naughty sex between man (and woman) and monster girl/girls. If that isn’t your cup of tea please give this book a pass!

  Otherwise please enjoy!

  Legal Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you want someone else to read it please purchase them a copy.

  All of the characters in sexual situations are 18 years of age or older and any resemblance to persons living or dead is both coincidental and unintentional.

  For Kar.

  Prologue:

  Digney’s Fall

  Evening was falling over the Digney homestead and the occupants were bedding down for the night.

  But at least one toddler was entirely too energetic to sleep.

  “Dana! Dana! Tell me a story!” The boy demanded of the bespectacled Lambda who was tucking him in.

  Dana adjusted the glasses on her nose with one finger while her other hand smoothed out the boy’s blanket.

  “Not tonight Jordan, you need to get to sleep. Mistress will be upset if you don’t.” She warned in a mock severe voice.

  “Dana, I don’t unda-under- I don’t get it. How come you always call momma that?”

  “Because that is what she is to me, little terror. She is my mistress, we’ve told you about my heart.”

  “Yeah, but why not, like… um.” His tiny brow scrunched up as his young mind worked; “Dadda always calls her Mel, how come you don’t call her something like that?”

  “You ask a lot of questions for a boy who is supposed to be asleep.” Dana chided, ruffling his hair with one hand.

  Arms crossed and leaning on the doorframe, Melanie Digney watched with an indulgent smile on her face as her pet tried to get her youngest child to sleep.

  “But Daaaanaaa.“ He whined.

  “She is your momma, and she is my mistress. Enough of that now.”

  “But a story Dana! Please, you tell the best stories!”

  Dana pursed her lips, her woolen locks bouncing slightly as she turned towards the door.

  Her mistress simply quirked an eyebrow at her.

  “Oh alright, what story do you want to hear?”

  “One with Amazons in it!” He exclaimed immediately.

  “No surprise there.” Steven murmured into Melanie’s ear.

  She yelped at his sudden nearness as her husband wrapped his arms around her waist.

  “Away with you! Sneaky man!” She groused, slapping at his familiar embrace as Dana began to tell her story.

  He hugged her against him despite her half hearted blows against his forearms.

  “If I wasn’t sneaky I wouldn’t get to see your bouncy bits when you jump.” He said with a smug grin.

  “Bah! Men! One of these days I am going to take Dana and the girls and run away, leave you to fend off the little terror by yourself!”

  “Ha! Like you ladies could live without my mighty pen-”

  Crack.

  “What was that?”

  Melanie turned from him, a sudden noise catching her attention.

  “Me saying you two couldn’t live without my penis?” His mocking tone had turned questioning.

  “No, I heard something in the yard, are the girls down?”

  She broke free of his grip and turned to the hall window.

  “Yeah, put them to bed myself. Which puts the score at two for me, and not even one for you and Dana.” He threw a thumb at the Lamda within the bedroom and her bright eyed audience.

  Crack. Crack.

  “Shush! There! Again, you must have heard that.” She grabbed at his arm, pulling him towards the window.

  Steven frowned.

  He had heard it that time.

  “The wind, surely.” He muttered, though his tone was uncertain.

  The odd noise had caught both of their notice now. It was faint, but sharp and distinctive. Steve’s heart leapt for a moment, afraid that their barn might have gone ablaze, but the noise wasn’t quite the dreaded crackle of fire and there was none of the telltale orange glow coming in through the window.

  In fact, there was no light at all coming from outside. He pulled the curtain back.

  “Odd, the sun is down but not that long ago.” Steve said, and then glanced down at Melanie’s grip on his bicep; “Oh relax woman! It’s just some clouds surely! No need to squeeze my arm off!”

  He teased at her, but his heart wasn’t truly in it. For the couple, the mood of the evening had shifted from sleepy and jovial to something dark and threatening, though neither could account for why.

  Crack.

  Crack.

  Inside the bedroom Dana’s voice faltered as she picked up on her bond-mate’s anxiety through her heartstone in Melanie’s hairpin.

  “And then what happened?!” Jordan asked.

  “Hush now, something is wrong with momma, give me a moment.”

  Danna got to her cloven hooves and joined her lover in the hall.

  “Mistress? What’s wrong?”

  But before either of them could answer they all heard yet another snap from outside.

  “Okay, I’m going to go take a look. Maybe the gate in the wind…” Steven’s voice trailed off.

  He had closed the gate, he knew he had.

  Shaking off the anxiety and the gripping hands of his wife, the burly farmer threw on his heavy coat against the night’s chill and took up his splitting maul.

  “If it’s just the gate why do you need your axe?”

  Melanie’s stomach was in knots, something was terribly off about the night.

  Steven looked at his wife of nine years and gave a brave smile belied by the nervous sweat on his brow.

  “In case it isn’t the gate.”

  “Steven… don’t.” She whispered, fear choking her voice and tears finding her eyes.

  He made to say something reassuring but all he managed was a jerky nod as he opened the front door and walked out into the oppressive night.

  Melanie’s heart pounded in her ears.

  “I’ll go with him.”

  Dana’s voice shook; she hated the fear that had taken over her home, but fell prey to it nonetheless.

  “No, stay with Jordan.” Melanie said as she turned to check on her daughters.

  She didn’t get more than a few steps before both of them rushed out of their room at the end of the hall, fear on their faces.

  “Momma, we heard a noise!” Her eldest whispered loudly.

  Wordlessly she gathered them into her arms and joined the rest of her family in Jordan’s room.

  “Anything?” Danna murmured.

  The Lambda’s voice still wavered but she worked hard to hide her fear from the children.

  Melanie shook her head.

  They waited for a full ten minutes, not hearing anything from outside, not even the normal night noises until-

  Crack.

  They all flinched and Jordan began to cry.

  The sharp noise was right outside the hall window, and this time it was followed by a faint rustling sound, the noise amplified by the oppressive silence of the house and the nigh
t outside.

  Melanie breathed heavily through her nose, clutching her daughters together.

  Where is Steven?

  They all flinched again as another crack sounded, again followed by a slight rustle.

  A deathly cold certainty settled on Melanie Digney.

  If she didn’t act, her children would die.

  She stood from her place on the bed, pulling her children’s arms off of her and handing them to Danna.

  “Mistress…” Her pet whimpered as the three young children clung to the wool on her hips.

  “Keep them safe for me.”

  Melanie moved as quietly as she could towards the door to the room. As she entered the hall, the curtained window loomed oppressively to her right, and she gathered all of her courage before she glanced to the left.

  She nearly screamed.

  At the end of the hall the back door was wide open.

  They rarely used that door so it was always kept locked. Beyond the threshold was nothing but inky blackness, the same oppressive dark that made it hard to breathe.

  Whatever evil had descended on her family was just beyond that door.

  With a mother’s courage she turned and ran into the front room to arm herself with the heavy iron fire poker. She then ran back into the hall and placed herself between her children and the terror of the night.

  Crack.

  Rustle.

  She flinched as a tiny object flew out of the darkness and pelted her in the cheek with a painful sting.

  Her eyes searched the floor, confusion written across her features.

  The empty half-shell of a walnut was spinning in an unsteady wobble on the floor.

  “Wha-”

  “I like breaking walnuts.”

  Melanie jumped with a shriek as a female voice spoke from just beyond the threshold.

  “The nut itself, I could do without. Too bitter. But there is something satisfying about the snap of the shell.”

  The voice was as cold as death.

  A figure emerged from the darkness; a dark haired woman, pale skinned and dressed all in black, stepped just past the doorframe.

  “Who are you?! Get out of my house!” Melanie cried out.

  She could here Jordan crying through the door to her left and brandished her makeshift weapon at the darkness.

  “Who am I indeed.” The woman said absently.

  “Wh-where is Steven? Where is my husband?!”

  Melanie’s eyes darted to and fro, vainly trying to pierce the inky black rectangle behind the woman.

  He should be here. He’s the brave one, not me.

  “The man with the axe? He’s right here.”

  There was another rustle and the mysterious stranger turned to one side as another figure emerged from the darkness of the doorway beside her.

  Melanie nearly cried in relief as she recognized her husband’s shape in the night, though there was something odd in his posture.

  “S-Steven?”

  She leaned her head forwards, squinting her eyes to try to make out his features.

  “He can’t hear you, not anymore. You can have him back now, there’s no snap left.”

  Melanie’s eyes widened in horror as her husband drifted into the light and she realized why his form looked off.

  His body was slumped like a ragdoll, his feet drifting just off the ground, his head was upright, but only because the serpent wrapped around his neck and holding him aloft kept it that way.

  His eyes were bulged out and his mouth was open in a scream that would never come.

  The serpent uncoiled from his neck and drifted down behind the woman.

  His body slumped to the floor, and Melanie knew that she was now a widow. For a moment her grief threatened to overwhelm her but she held it at bay.

  This monster had taken her husband but she would not harm her children.

  “Stay away from us you evil bitch!” She sobbed angrily.

  “Where is the sheep?”

  The woman still spoke without emotion; her snake tail had risen up again and was now draped over her shoulder, staring at Melanie with its dead eyes while its tongue flicked out to taste her scent in the air.

  “Wh-what?”

  “I gave you back your husband, now you need to give me something. It’s only fair.”

  “What do you want with Danna?”

  “Who is Danna?”

  Melanie was at a loss for words for a moment.

  “You’re insane!” She finally sputtered.

  “So I’ve been told. Very well, I will give you a choice. Give me the sheep- pardon me, give me Danna, or I go back to cracking walnuts. I believe there are three more inside. Quite small, but they’ll snap all the same.”

  Melanie sobbed again at the thought of her children in the grip of this creature. She raised her iron, ready to go down swinging, but Danna took her by the arm.

  “Mistress, please.”

  Her bond-mate’s voice was so calm it almost frightened her more than the monster in the doorway.

  “D-Danna?”

  She turned to look into the gentle orange eyes of the second love of her life, while the first lay dead on the floor before them.

  “If I come out, you’ll leave my mistress and the children alone?” Danna called towards the pale woman.

  There was a brief pause, and then the snake-tailed monster broke another walnut with a snap.

  “Sure, why not?”

  Danna closed her eyes and nodded, tears beading from her lids, the children clung to her wool, but she pried them off.

  “Danna, not you too.” Melanie quietly sobbed as her iron hit the floor with a thud.

  “Mistr- Mel. My love. We must keep the children safe. Steve did all that he could, now I need to as well. You still hold my heart, you will always hold my heart.” Somehow the formerly terrified sheep girl kept her voice from faltering.

  “Yea, need that as well, Danna.”

  With a grimace at the dark creature’s interjection, the Lambda pulled the hairpin containing her heart out of a sobbing Melanie’s thick locks and pushed it into her own.

  Danna kissed her bond-mate, and then walked towards the monster, stopping at Steve’s prone form.

  Try as she might she couldn’t keep herself from looking down at her bond-mate’s husband.

  He was a good man and she had loved him too.

  “I’m ready, please, don’t do it in front of the children.” Her voice gave out as she closed her eyes, expecting death.

  Melanie sobbed again, falling to her knees as her children swarmed around her.

  Crack.

  “Hmm? Do what?” The woman asked as she flicked another walnut shell into the house.

  Danna swallowed nervously and she fidgeted with her glasses.

  “Um, I don’t know, eat me?”

  The monster grimaced.

  “Do you know how hard it is to get wool out of your teeth? Blech. I’ll stick with walnuts.”

  “What do you want from me then? Why have you done this to my family?”

  “Your… family?”

  Her black eyes narrowed, and her voice trembled with sudden anger.

  “Do not speak to me of family!” She hissed; “You know nothing! Now come, we’re leaving. Try to run and I kill them all.”

  Danna swallowed at the woman’s threat, but stood her ground.

  “I w-won’t run.”

  “I know, but I can hope.”

  The monster’s words were emotionless once more.

  As Danna stepped out into the darkness she felt the serpent tail coil around her waist.

  Her last fleeting thought was that Jordan was still crying.

  Chapter 1:

  The Dragon’s Kiss

  “Wait, so supposedly he somehow found the last Valkyrie, thereby taming all of the Amazons, and now he has a fuck-ton of monster girls bonded to him?”

  Brandon Dixon, the son of Rory the local blacksmith, had missed Nameless’s arrival back in town and w
as skeptical to say the least.

  “Yeah, and don’t forget about the Hornets! Man what I wouldn’t give for a taste of those honey-pots!”

  “Ewww, don’t be gross Dillon!” One of the Lambdas said, throwing a glare at the horny young man.

  “I don’t believe a word of it.” Brandon spat into the fire.

  “I do.” Cordelia Loskins said quietly.

  She hadn’t spoken much, the other young people and monster girls around the fire had dominated the conversation.

  The nameless orphan that they gossiped about had left town a few months prior accompanied by his own bond-mates as well as an entire Aegis tac-team. And that was after palling around town with a Dragon, which was something they had all seen.

  He came back only a short time ago, accompanied by a bunch of Amazons, an entire hive of Hornets, and a Valkyrie no less!

  No wonder the young folk in the small town of Kettering couldn’t stop speculating about his return; immediately rushing to one of their usual hang-outs to start a fire and swap theories.

  Brandon’s eyes narrowed as he considered Cordelia’s quiet admission.

  “Yeah? Why is that? Cuz his little kitty-cat tried to claw your face off?”

  A few of the others snickered and she couldn’t hide her blush.

  “Yeah, I saw that go down. Man, that cat tore you a new one! Seriously what did you do to piss her off?” Dillon asked.

  Cordelia sighed, it wasn’t the first time she had been asked that question.

  She thought of that day often, and of the events that precipitated it. The righteous anger on the face of the Katje, and the fierce determination on Nameless’s face when he yelled at her for calling his bond-mate a whore…

  She doubted she would ever forget it.

  “Aww, she won’t say! Probably the creepy little brat made a pass at her or something.”

  Her head jerked to Brandon at his unkind words. Cordelia didn’t like what he was saying about Nameless, she hardly knew anything about the diminutive man, but what she did know was that he didn’t deserve their scorn, just as he hadn’t deserved hers…

  “Shut up Brandon! You don’t know what you’re talking about!”