Realms and Rebels: A Paranormal and Fantasy Reverse Harem Collection

by C. M. Stunich

  Just another mind fuck from the gods, I supposed, as there was no dead or dying Praetorian splayed out in front of me, either. Just me holding a bloody dagger while standing next to three cages housing the lion, tiger, and black panther my father had given me.

  To my left stood several Selenian legionaries, their blue auras pulsing in the heat. Bright glares bounced from their raised swords.

  I squinted and shaded my eyes with my free hand.

  Everything went still like a movie scene where the main character is aware of the world around her but all else has been halted mid-pose.

  That’s where I was at. A frozen moment in time, but in this case, I wasn’t so sure said moment had actually happened.

  Static vibrated at my ear.

  “I’m…here.”

  The masculine voice came at me broken and whispered, like a faraway call straining for a clear connection.

  “Don’t…fear…them.”

  I spun to my right, thrust the dagger in my hand, but met with nothing save for hot, arid air.

  “You’re not alone.”

  I glanced at the Selenians armed at my left, but they hadn’t moved an inch.

  Trickery of the gods, that what it was. They were sick and perverse and had not a single care for humans. I hated them all.

  “Please…Keti…listen…”

  A woman dressed in flowing white robes appeared in the distance, drew my concentration away from the disembodied voice.

  Silence kissed my ears.

  I stared at the woman.

  Familiarity drenched my soul and not in a good way, as the crescent moon perched in her hair the way a tiara would sit on a queen’s head, said it all.

  Selene.

  My stomach clenched. I’d never met the Titan before, and personally I would have preferred to have kept it that way. But once again, higher powers had an upper hand in my world.

  Bastards.

  Selene smirked. “Precious little Keti.” The tone of her voice bore an arrogance only a goddess could manage.

  I held my head high and shoulders back. Goddess or no, the witch was not going to best me today. “What’s your game, Selene?”

  The Titan laughed. “If you have to ask, then you aren’t worthy to play.”

  So not the thing to say to someone seeking revenge for their mother’s murder. Vengeance was the most explosive of the emotional fuels. “I doubt you were expecting me. My presence here alone makes me a formidable adversary.”

  The goddess didn’t comment.

  She knew damn well I was a more-than-worthy opponent, she just refused to admit the fact, as had all the gods. But I was here and now she had to face me.

  Drifting nearer, Selene navigated the dunes with ease. Her decorative ebony headdress woven with stands of gold and lapis, swung gracefully around her face, the clashing of its ornamental beads clicking through the air as she ambled through the sand.

  I guessed she tried to emulate my mother, hoped to shift her appearance to be more acceptable to me. It hadn’t worked. She was a Titan, not an Egyptian. She hadn’t rights to the styles cultivated by the people I hailed from.

  A hint of cold, crisp linen, like a sheet just in from the wash line after being blessed by the moon for hours, circled beneath my nose. Night was always Selene’s domain. She probably hated having to deal with the likes of me and the fiery sun that burned through my veins. But fuck her. Day and night were both my world and if the Titan wanted a piece of me, then she was just going to have to deal with the sweltering heat.

  Selene stepped into my space, invaded my world no differently than she had my mother’s. Only this time she did so with the backing of my own blood, specifically Ra.

  She stroked my arm with her finger, her long nail scraping my skin. She stopped at my wrist, came within a hairsbreadth of the hilt of the dagger sticking out from the side of my clenched hand.

  “Your novice museum exploits won’t get you what you want,” she said.

  The magick H and I worked had earned me the dagger and that was all I needed.

  She smirked. “You don’t know, do you?”

  I hadn’t a fig what she rambled about, but the gods often tended to go on about things that didn’t jive with the human brain.

  “You’ve changed history,” she said. “The dagger was never meant to be found as it went missing specifically to prevent what will now come.” She paused, her long robes billowing in the sudden breeze. “Though I must say, it was a pleasure watching that magnificent specimen of a panther working you.”

  I didn’t like the idea she’d intruded on my private world, but what I disliked even more was the fact my guys and I hadn’t considered our actions would change Fate. I’d never even considered that the dagger had been lost on purpose.

  Selene withdrew her finger from my flesh. She leaned in at my ear. “Still think you’re worthy?”

  I fisted my hands, clenched the dagger tighter. I didn’t answer.

  “Ah, yes, take the silent route Keti. Be a good little coward as such action proves you’ll never be a match for a goddess.”

  The crackle of static returned but cut out in a flash without a single word having come through this time.

  I cursed.

  Selene backed off. “You’re very fortunate, Keti, for I am in a very forgiving mood today.”

  Forgiving for the gods didn’t mean the same as when a human used the word.

  “I will give you a choice,” she said. “I will return your scarab, even walk away from pursuing all living Cat’Hu.”

  Oh, gods, was I fucked. A goddess never gave you everything you wanted without it costing you an arm and a leg, a heart, a soul, and whatever the heck else she demanded in return.

  I held my breath.

  Selene tilted her head, then vanished.

  “You can have all you want,” she said from somewhere in the ethereal before reappearing in a lounging position on top of the cages bearing my three big cats.

  “I will give you your people and return your scarab—in exchange for these three.”

  “They’re not up for grabs.” She was not taking my guys.

  “You don’t get to pick that option.” Selene fingered the cages, the rattle of metal echoing as her hand glided over the iron bars.

  My frozen-in-the-moment guys each stood mid-stride, their mouths open ready to chomp. If only they could devour Selene like Ammit snapped up hearts.

  The Titan glared at me. “The choice is yours, Keti. The Cat’Hu or the cats.”

  My mother’s feline face popped into my head. As did the memories of all the Cat’Hu I’d sent off to Duat. The memories of their grieving families, the memories of my mother’s priestesses. An emotional punch socked me in the gut.

  How could I choose between the three men who’d risked everything for me…and our entire race?

  I still had time before I had to produce my scarab in front of Ra. “The cats stay with me.”

  Selene pushed off the cages and sauntered over. “You are so gullible, little Keti. You’re like one of those stuffed toy mice—easy to grasp in one’s claws and toss in the air. And stomp on once you fall back down. And make no mistake, you will be pounced upon.”

  I’d made no mistake.

  At least I prayed I hadn’t.

  The world spun.

  Wind enveloped me like a tornado, tossing me about, the cat cages flying along with me, the blood dripping from the dagger splattering on my kalasiris and bare arms. It even painted my lips and seeped into my opened mouth.

  The soft caress of memory foam hugged my spine and legs.

  My bedroom returned.

  I rolled my head to the right.

  A sleeping Horatio greeted me, his chains gone, his beautifully masculine human body fully exposed. He never did care for a sheet or blanket.

  A light snore accompanied his breath.

  I clenched my hand. The dagger and piece of scarab remained in my palm.

  I let out a deep breath, though I wi
shed relief had come with it.

  It hadn’t.

  I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling.

  Hopefully, my nightmare with Selene had been nothing more than a dream.

  I licked my lips. A salty, metallic essence accosted my taste buds.

  I wiped my hand across my mouth.

  Blood.

  Selene was no nightmare.

  Oh, Keti, what have you done?

  8

  Marcus

  I scrunched my nose as the scent of ancient times—a mix of mold, soot and vegetable gum—lifted off the papyri stacked on my desk. Even the cup of hazelnut coffee at my mouth didn’t help disburse the odors of the past as I sorted through the texts of unordered spells. It amazed me how Bastet had ever managed to find one fucking hex with this convoluted system of hers. Nothing was in order. Not a name or number labeled any of the papyri.

  I tossed the top sheet to the side and proceeded on to the next one.

  The squeak of sneakers stepping against tile drifted in to the library.

  I glanced up.

  Lucius appeared in the doorway. His gray sweatshirt and jeans the same as he’d worn yesterday.

  “You look like shit,” I said, lowering the coffee mug and returning it to the marble coaster on my desk.

  “I haven’t slept,” he answered.

  “Well maybe you should get a few hours because once that Praetorian returns, we’re going to need every ounce of strength we’ve got to fight him.”

  I moved the entire stack of papyri out of the way.

  At my back, a blast of wind pounded the windows. “The storm is getting worse.”

  “Two feet already,” Lucius said.

  He sauntered in and settled himself in one of the black leather chairs in front of my desk. “She chose us,” he said.

  The words didn’t quite register. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “The day we’ve all dreaded has come.”

  I sat back, my thoughts returned to a day long ago when Horatio had learned through his circle of supernatural information traders, that one day Keti would meet with Selene in the Otherworld. He had assured both me and Lucius that once the meeting had taken place, Keti would save the Cat’Hu by choosing them over us.

  The news originally came as a shock to me, but after much talk, the three of us decided it was for the best. We also agreed we’d keep what was about to take place, from Keti, because we knew she’d do everything in her power not to make that choice. And we couldn’t have that.

  Sacrificing ourselves to save an entire breed was a noble end for the three of us. And while I hadn’t aligned myself with Keti’s mind to the point I could have peered into her meeting with Selene when it took place, Lucius obviously had.

  “We’re not Selene’s.” He continued. “Keti chose us.”

  My stomach dropped. “Are you certain this meeting has taken place?”

  Lucius nodded. “I piggybacked her dream or whatever the hell it was that she experienced last night.”

  No wonder the man looked like crap.

  “She still believes in us,” Lucius said. “I tried to get through to her, to tell her to remember her destiny, remember who she was. But I failed and she ended up choosing us over the Cat’Hu.”

  “Now why would she do such a stupid thing like that?”

  “For the very reason we did the same for her.”

  Fucking Jupiter. Keti loved us, the foolish woman. “That was different.”

  “Was it?”

  “Our choice was a win-win situation.”

  “Is that what you really remember?” Lucius leaned forward, gripped his fingers around the desk’s edge. “We gave up illustrious careers as the finest Praetorians the empire ever had. And if we’d wanted, we each could have had all the women Rome offered—from slaves to imperials. We didn’t have to throw it all away for one senator’s daughter.”

  Lucius was right. The three of us loved Keti right from the first day we’d each laid eyes on her—between that gorgeous brown hair of hers, those chocolate eyes that often shifted to a combination of blue and yellow, and those curves. “I wanted her in my bed the moment I’d first noticed her, but not just for the sex. It was more than that. I wanted to talk to her, to hold her, protect her, share my world with her.”

  “We all wanted those things.”

  Never once had one of us been jealous of the other two. We simply accepted Keti owned the three of us. “We were lucky bastards her father gave us a choice.”

  Lucius lifted his hands from the desk. “Damn straight. He could have sliced our balls on the spot. Then our necks. I would have if I were in his shoes. Thank gods he only made us promise to retain our feline forms until the day Keti needed our protection.”

  Aquila was as powerful as the eagle his name represented. Not only had he been legate over two legions for three years each, but he’d left the soldier’s world to become an influential senator. And he’d retained his power and wealth under Octavian, despite his previous friendship with Antony. He could have indeed killed the three of us once he’d realized we lusted after his daughter, the sole child he’d sired with an Egyptian goddess. He knew the secrets of ending the life of an immortal, our deaths would have come easy to him. And not a single citizen would have convicted him of the crime. But he went easy on us, allowed us to serve as his daughter’s protectors, but not until she needed that help. Remaining as lion for several years—save for the hours Keti slept when she wouldn’t know the three of us were half-human—had been pure hell, but in the end worth it.

  “We need to fix this.” I rose. “Where’s H?”

  Lucius raised an eyebrow.

  “Right. Poor bastard, he’s probably exhausted from helping Keti get that dagger. But we’re going to need him, because if we don’t raise the ghostly Praetorian, and kill him, Keti loses everything.”

  I was not going to have the woman I loved, lose her world.

  “You get H,” Lucius said, rising from the chair. “I’ll go make things right with Keti. I piggy-backed her Otherworld experience, so I think I should be the one to tell her about our pact.”

  I let him go. Keti was going to be pissed at us, but it needed to be this way. She was the Cat’Hu’s future. And we couldn’t take that away from her.

  9

  Lucius

  I didn’t have to travel far to find Keti. She was sitting at the top of the stairs leading down to my dungeon, a white silk bathrobe draping her curvy body. I stopped and turned around to join her on the stone step. “What are you doing down here?”

  “Selene made me an offer—the three of you for the Cat’Hu.”

  “About that…. We need to talk.”

  She furrowed her brow. “You sound as if you were aware of my meeting with the Titan.”

  I took Keti’s hands in mine, her long, thin fingers dwarfing my own, reminded me how delicate she was compared to three soldiers. “I tried to reach out to you, but I don’t think you heard me.”

  It took a second, but eventually realization settled in her big, blue-yellow eyes, the brown shade they sometimes were, now completely gone. Her pink, plump lips formed into a sensual ‘O’ shape, though she didn’t utter a single word.

  “That’s right. I was the voice you heard.”

  “Why didn’t you say so?”

  “This isn’t going to be easy to tell you, but I’ve often piggy-backed your out of body experiences or whatever you want to call your trips to the Otherworld. It’s something I’ve done all along, but never had reason to let you know about my presence, until last night. And I’ve only intruded at times when I feared for your safety. Just in case you needed me. Which you’ve never had as you do a damn good job slaying Selenians and Ra’ians in the ethereal plane.”

  “Well, I’m glad you acknowledge my battle skills, but that is not going to get you off the hook.”

  The scent of Keti’s natural rose perfume enticed me. She always smelled like the oils she’d worked wit
h but rose stuck out the most as it was part of her natural essence. “I didn’t tell you about riding your supernatural experiences because I never thought you’d choose us over the Cat’Hu. None of us thought that.”

  “None of you thought?” She paused, a flash of anger igniting in her eyes. “You mean the three of you knew last night’s visit with Selene would take place?”

  I lowered my head, too guilty to face her. “I’m sorry. But it had to be this way.”

  “Explain.”

  I stared at my sneakers. “H found out years ago that last night’s events would one day take place, though we didn’t know the exact date. But the three of us decided it was best not to tell you because we didn’t want to influence the outcome. You needed to fulfill your destiny, to save the Cat’Hu, not us.”

  “Well, I failed to do that, so you three not interfering hasn’t helped.”

  I glanced her way. “We love you, Keti, but we can’t change your fate. Our job is to protect you, to battle along side you, to save the Cat’Hu with you. Not put our hearts first.”

  She leaned in. “What about my heart? Where does that figure in?”

  I loved her to pieces, but I didn’t want her to give up her everything to spare my life. None of us wanted that. Except, apparently, Keti. “I’d die for you,” I said. “And that is what should have happened last night. It is what I was prepared to do. It’s what H and Marcus were prepared to do as well, though they weren’t aware your visit with Selene took place last night. Marcus only now found out, when I told him. And I’m guessing H doesn’t know yet.”

  She closed her eyes, a tear falling down her cheek.

  I pulled her close.

  She fell into me as I wrapped my arms around her, then she opened her eyes and brought her lips to mine. I wanted nothing more than to take her, but not like this. Not when her emotions were vulnerable. I gently pushed her away. “I love you Keti. And that is all you need to know.”

  “But you were prepared to leave me.”