Realms and Rebels: A Paranormal and Fantasy Reverse Harem Collection

by C. M. Stunich

  “Well, there’s a pretty picture. You must get bored, all that history whirling around you all the time.”

  His tone was jaunty, but I had the feeling he was trying to distract me again. I wasn’t going to be diverted.

  “No.” I cocked my head as I studied him. “There’s always something interesting. But you don’t like that, do you? Some of the interesting parts you’d rather keep to yourself.”

  His handsome face went still. He managed to hold his smile. “I’d expect we all have things like that.”

  “I don’t,” I said honestly. “What is it about your banishment you’re talking around? Is there something— Jerrik thinks you might have hurt people somehow.”

  The smile disappeared completely. Svend shoved his toe against the central stone. “Jerrik thinks the worst of everyone,” he muttered. “Look, what happened with my family has nothing to do with that. He doesn’t know. My parents were ready to fight for me. To protest to the authorities that I should be allowed to stay, that accommodations should be made—they were going to make such a fuss they’d get themselves banished too. So I told them I wanted to go. I told them I was tired of living in that dingy cave and of their fussing over me, and that I was looking forward to being rid of it.”

  My stomach dropped. It took an effort to swallow the last of my bread. “You left them thinking you hated them.”

  “It was the only way to make sure they didn’t try to stop the banishment from happening, didn’t try to bring me back—didn’t meet the same fate.” He sighed, running his hand through his short black hair, his gaze trained on the ground. “I was convincing. I’m very good with words, you know.”

  “A very talented individual,” I said.

  He looked at me again, the corner of his mouth quirking back up at a bittersweet angle. “As for Jerrik… There was another who lived near the three of us. A troll, from Niflheim. He kept to himself—he’d done something that angered The Blaze, and he knew the giant was looking for him.”

  Svend paused. His voice dropped so low it was almost a whisper. “I could have earned a lot if I’d told where he was. But I didn’t. Jerrik thinks I did, because three of The Blaze’s guards came to gather him one day. The truth is, Gunnar let it slip, by accident. He mentioned the troll in passing to another cast-out who’d needed his foot patched up after a burn. It was three days later the guards came. I don’t think he’s ever realized.”

  The memory of the moment breezed past me with the words. Gunnar bandaging the foot of a wizened woman. A remark about the troll next door falling from his mouth. The woman perking up just slightly at the mention. Svend, who’d brought her there for help, tensing a little inside. Hoping he was reading her reaction wrong.

  And then the guards, the shouting, the clash of weapons…

  I shook those fragments of the past away, my brow knitting. “Why don’t you tell Jerrik?”

  Svend’s lips twisted. “Then he’d be angry at Gunnar. And Gunnar would hear about it, and I know how horribly guilty he’d feel. Jerrik already didn’t like me. It’s easier, leaving things like this.”

  Easier for everyone except him. Svend had seemed all charm and brightness, but there was a sadness to him too, underneath. A willingness to sacrifice that he extended automatically to everyone he cared about even a little.

  My hand moved as if of its own accord, rising to touch his cheek. His whole body went still, but he held my gaze with a hint of his former smile. “You’d better not be pitying me now. If there’s anything I won’t stand for, it’s that.”

  “No pity,” I said. Only a pull to be closer to him, to soak up that goodness in him as if I could become a part of it too. I leaned in and caught his lips with mine.

  I didn’t have much practice at initiating kisses yet, but I appeared to have done a decent job of it. Svend came alive at once, cupping my cheek and tilting my head so our mouths could meet even more deeply, his breath mingling hot with mine.

  The tingling I’d felt before raced all through my body. He kissed differently than Jerrik, more gently and yet with more certainty at the same time. I wasn’t sure I liked one more than the other, but the fact that there were even more sensations to discover sent a thrill to my core.

  I scooted to the edge of my seat so my bare knees pressed against his leg, seeking the warmth of his body. Svend’s arm came around me—

  “What in Hel’s name!?”

  There was nothing wry in Jerrik’s voice as it crackled through the room. I flinched, breaking the kiss. My hand stayed on Svend’s arm as we both turned to look toward the hall.

  Jerrik had emerged from the room where he must have slept. Gunnar hovered right behind him, looking pained. Jerrik… His face had flushed red and the gleam in his clear blue eyes felt dangerous.

  His hands fisted at his sides. He drew in a long ragged breath. “What are you doing with her?” he demanded. His gaze jerked to me. “What are you doing with him?”

  “I was kissing him,” I said, and blinked. Oh. “Did you think, because of last night—” Something in me bristled in resistance. My tone turned sharp. “What we did doesn’t mean I belong to you. If I’d known you’d think it would, I wouldn’t have done anything.”

  Jerrik stared back at me. The anger in his stance deflated slightly. “I didn’t mean that. I know I don’t own you. But normally, when two people…” He motioned vaguely between us. Gunnar shifted behind him, his arms folded awkwardly.

  My hackles came down a little in turn. “This isn’t exactly a normal situation, is it?” I said. “And I’m not exactly a person. In another day or two, we’ll be going our separate ways anyway, won’t we?”

  “I suppose,” he said. He didn’t sound as if he liked the idea. “I still— It meant something to me.”

  “It meant something to me too. It meant a lot.” I paused, taking in the emotions churning inside me. “I like how I feel when I’m with all of you. I want to feel… everything. To feel all the things I never could before, while I have this chance. But you don’t have to be a part of that. Either of you.” I caught Gunnar’s eye for a moment so he’d know I welcomed him too. “As much as I hope you will.”

  “You want all of us?” the giant said, with the huskiness that had affected me so quickly yesterday.

  I licked my lips. Every nerve in my body screamed Yes! Preferably soon. Preferably now.

  “Very much,” I said.

  Svend had sat quietly through the discussion so far. Now he stroked his hand lightly up and down my side. “I can share. Whatever you want, lovely lady.”

  Jerrik wavered, but the hunger I’d seen last night had lit in his eyes. “But him… You don’t know him.”

  “Neither do you.” I swallowed down Svend’s secret, but it couldn’t hurt anyone to say this much. “You don’t believe him? Believe me. I’ve seen his memories for myself. He’s never hurt anyone, not the way you think.”

  Jerrik blinked. A flash of regret crossed his face. “I—”

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Svend said. “No resentment here. Shall we give the lady what she wants while we have this moment?”

  I held out my hand. Gunnar approached us. Jerrik exhaled in a rush.

  “You have no idea how hard you are to say no to, Miss Raven.”

  “Then don’t say no.”

  He hesitated only a second longer. Then he came too.

  “Let’s take it slow,” I said as they circled me. Now that I had a taste, I wasn’t looking to rush. “I want to savor this.”

  “Just as we will,” Svend murmured, and tugged my mouth back to his. Gunnar knelt behind me, his broad hands skimming my shoulders and trailing down my sides. Jerrik sat by my stone and pressed his lips to my knee, his thumb tracing a lazy teasing circle on my inner thigh just above it.

  I didn’t know what to do with all that warmth, all those touches, all around me. I broke from Svend’s kiss and pulled Gunnar’s head to mine to discover what he would taste like. As his the giant’s musky scent fille
d my lungs, the dark elf slid his hand across my chest, testing my nipples with soft flicks of his fingers. I whimpered, and suddenly slow didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.

  Jerrik’s kisses moved from my knee to my wrist and traveled up my arm. Gunnar reached around to stroke one of my breasts. Svend nibbled my shoulder and dragged the sleeve of my dress down, down, until the neckline jumped over the peaks of my chest with a lance of pleasure. I moaned as the giant fondled one of those small mounds skin to skin and the dark elf lowered his head to suck my other nipple into his hot mouth.

  Gunnar released my mouth to kiss my neck, his lips massaging the sensitive flesh in time with the swivel of his thumb over my breast. Jerrik rose up to claim my lips. His hand stayed on my leg, still drawing those teasing patterns on my skin, easing higher inch by inch.

  I hadn’t thought anything could feel better than the stroke of Jerrik’s hands last night, but the wet heat of Svend’s mouth on my breast and the flick of his tongue was another realm altogether. A whimper worked from my throat as he grazed his teeth against the nipple. It turned into a moan of protest when he drew back. But he was only sinking lower.

  The light elf eased to the side as his darker companion dropped to his knees between my legs. Svend kissed the skin newly sensitized by Jerrik’s touch. Jerrik yanked my dress even higher, all the way to my hips, like an offering, and then he was bringing his mouth to the breast Gunnar had just released. The giant kissed my mouth, caressing me on the other side now.

  Svend traced a path up my thigh with his lips until his breath spilled over my core. I was trembling with wanting now, my fingers clenched tight in Gunnar’s soft chestnut curls, in Jerrik’s familiar shirt. Svend slid me just a little forward, and then he pressed his mouth against the neediest part of me.

  I cried out, my hips bucking of their own accord. Svend’s tongue slicked over that nub of pleasure and then down across my opening. Bliss sizzled through my veins. So much I couldn’t bear not to give some back.

  I pushed Jerrik upright while my hand slid down his chest to wrench at his trousers. As his cock sprang free I turned my head and licked the salty liquid beading at its tip. Jerrik groaned. Svend suckled me harder, his tongue dipping right inside me, and I arched right off the stone with a gasp.

  Jerrik’s cock still stood at attention, waiting for me. I closed my mouth around the head. The light elf’s breath stuttered. His hips started to sway in a needy rhythm as I took him deeper, my tongue lapping up the salty sweet taste of him. The pulse of him in my mouth and Svend’s mouth against my core came together in perfect harmony.

  As I found that rhythm, I reached for Gunnar. My giant was still kneeling beside me, heightening the pleasure radiating through me with each stroke of my breasts. He shifted closer with a rough rumble of encouragement as I groped at his pants. My hand dipped inside and closed around his erection, just as hard but thicker than Jerrik’s. I gripped it hard and pumped it. Gunnar’s head lowered next to mine, kissing my earlobe, the corner of my jaw. His breath came ragged.

  That heady swell of pleasure was filling me again. My hips rocked, riding Svend’s mouth. He was devouring me, leaving every nerve in my body quivering for more, and more, and—

  I came with a gasp, the release shuddering through me from head to toe in a wave of bliss. My lips closed tight around Jerrik’s cock, and a second later he was following me, filling my mouth with a salty flood. Gunnar groaned. He squeezed my breast and brought my head back around to kiss me, regardless of Jerrik’s taste still on my lips. His cock twitched in my hand as I led him over the edge to his own release.

  Svend nuzzled my thigh before straightening up. The heat in his bright eyes sent a fresh quiver of anticipation through me. But before I could find out what else he might have planned, the ground tremored in a way that wasn’t pleasant at all. The smile dropped from the dark elf’s face.

  “As much as I hate to say this,” he said, “that means we’d better get going. Now, and fast.”

  8

  We all wrenched our clothes into some sort of order and hurried after Svend out of the lodging. My skin was flushed, my nerves still giddy from the passion we’d just shared, but another rumble from far down the tunnels was enough to chill that heat right out of me. A sound like the distant scrabbling of sharp claws carried to us.

  “Come on!” Svend said. He tugged my arm in the opposite direction, and the four of us ran. The dark elf led the way, ducking down one side passage and veering the other way at the next split, following the maze of caves without hesitation. I hoped that meant he knew where in Hel’s name we were going.

  The scrabbling sound got louder. A thick smoky smell wafted over us, the sulfur of the air above mixed with a stench like the dragon’s breath. I shuddered and pushed my human legs faster, wishing for the speed my wings could have given me.

  Svend didn’t falter. He pointed to a low opening in the wall of the tunnel ahead of us and dropped down to slide through it as if he’d made an escape like this a hundred times. I dashed after him, pushing myself through the cramped space on my hands and knees.

  The walls shook, and my pulse tripped with the fear that the rock at my back would collapse on us. But we made it through to another tunnel on the other side, grit-smudged and panting but uncrushed. With a grunt, Gunnar squeezed his bulky shoulders out last.

  “This way,” Svend said in a low voice. We hustled after him through another few turns, until the stink and the scrabbling behind us had faded away. Finally, he stopped. He leaned against the tunnel wall to catch his breath. I swiped my hand through the sweat on my forehead.

  “What was that coming after us?” I said.

  “I don’t know for sure,” Svend said. “I just know it wasn’t anything we wanted to tangle with.”

  More creatures out to destroy any hint of Asgard from the place, I guessed. A shudder ran through me.

  “How far off track have we gotten now?” Jerrik asked, glancing around with a skeptical expression.

  “Not really at all,” Svend said, the corners of his lips curving up. “You could almost say we’ve taken a short cut. If we get moving, we should see the fortress in just a few hours.”

  Gunnar took my hand with an affectionate squeeze. It sent a softer warmth through me. I twined my fingers with his, and we set off for our ultimate destination.

  Even underground, the landscape changed as we approached the fortress of the giant who called himself The Blaze. The patches of crystal appeared more frequently, flooding us with an even starker red glow. The light shifted through them as if they were reflecting a flow of magma above. With them came a sharper heat that kept sweat beading on my skin. A hot metallic odor rose around us, as if we were walking into a blacksmith’s forge.

  “Here,” Svend said. The tunnel split, the branch he took us down narrowing and slanting upward. It twisted into a spiral, up and up, the floor tilting so much my feet skidded here and there. Gunnar walked behind me, his brawny form ready to steady me.

  “I assume we don’t just walk up to the fortress door and knock,” Jerrik muttered.

  Svend chuckled. “No. We’re here to get a nice overview of what we’re dealing with.”

  We finally scrambled out to find ourselves not on the regular ground but high on a cliff overlooking most of the rocky terrain. I didn’t have to ask where the fortress was. Tall walls of jutting boulders surrounded an even taller building that looked like a hill constructed out of stone slabs half melted together. The entire structure sprawled the length and width of a small village. Pits of fire spurted flames at its base.

  A moat of magma surrounded the outer wall. Dark creatures splashed in its steaming contents. A rock dragon sprawled across one end of the fortress, its eyes closed—for now.

  I swallowed thickly. “The gates out of Muspelheim are all in there?”

  Svend nodded. “The Blaze built the fortress to encompass all of them. It’s not as if he’d need a home half that size otherwise. For now it houses his
‘pets’ and all the stragglers he’s brought under his sway to act as guards—or torturers, as he sees fit.”

  What a lovely fellow. I eased to the edge of the cliff, peering down into the stretch of cracked stone that lay like a courtyard inside the fortress’s walls. “And he just sits around in there all day?”

  “He doesn’t like to leave his throne room,” Svend said. “But he enjoys giving the impression that he’s watching over everything out here, too. You see those statues at the corners of the walls? I’ve never laid eyes on the giant himself, but I’ve been told they’re a good likeness.”

  I hadn’t noticed the statues before. I bent down, squinting at the one closest to us. The boulder at the corner had been carved by someone with an expert hand, bringing out the lines of a hulking form, a bearded face with a protruding brow…

  My breath caught in my throat. My fingers curled against the stone I was kneeling on as if searching for more purchase.

  Jerrik studied me. “What, Miss Raven?”

  “I know him,” I said in a distant voice. Distant because my own memories were welling up around me, so swiftly I almost felt I would drown.

  That last battle during Ragnarok. The shouts and screams of gods and giants. Whirling darkness, flashing blades. Spittle and blood. The immense wolf rising up for Odin and Huginn and I, jaws gaping wide, and only a burst of feathers saving me from being snapped up in that maw along with the Allfather.

  I’d spun around to see a darkly bearded giant ramming his blazing sword into Freyr’s chest. As the god fell, the giant whipped around, and more fire seared from his blade. Flames hissed across the whole great plain, consuming everything in their path, lashing up to swallow me in a blink of agony.

  And then we’d woken after a time in the numbing dark to Asgard and its people reborn. To a world wiped clean of the rot Odin had seen spreading through it, ready to begin again.

  “That’s Surt,” I said. “The giant who killed Freyr. The giant who set all of Asgard burning at the end of Ragnarok. I’d thought the flames had consumed him too.”