Realms and Rebels: A Paranormal and Fantasy Reverse Harem Collection

by C. M. Stunich

  Fur brushed my arm, making me twitch with surprise. I jerked my head around, but he wasn’t there. I could smell him, though. Jaguar, mixed with the pungent smell of burning copal incense. I couldn’t quite place all the different resins that had been used in that incense. Everyone’s blend of tree resins was slightly different. Grandmama’s always smelled slightly of lemon, but his scent smelled more like smoking chocolate and coffee.

  Something sharp grazed my arm and I recoiled, my hand clamping over the spot automatically. Thick blood welled between my fingers.

  “Wait,” I gasped. “I still want to try. I want to know the truth.”

  I felt the moist, hot blast of his breath against my nape. Shivering, I held firm. I wouldn’t run away. I wouldn’t scream. Even if he bit my spine in half.

  “Why would a queen descended from the Mother of the Gods feel shame at anything in her heart? That is what I want to know, Mayte Zaniyah.” He paused a moment and gripped the back of my neck in his mighty jaws. I could feel every vicious tooth scratching my skin. A fraction more pressure from his jaws, and he would tear my head off. “I want to know why you only allowed one of your jaguars to love you at a time. Why you hide, even from the alpha who would die to save you. Why would you deny him anything? Especially the truth?”

  His words cut worse than his claws and teeth. He was right. I hid, even from Eztli. My alpha. I loved him. We’d made love countless times, but somehow, I had always managed to hold back one small piece of myself.

  One small, devastating truth.

  “I’m a queen,” I whispered, my throat shredding as if I’d swallowed sharp shards of obsidian. “Queens are fearless. Strong. Protective. They wield their magic to protect their people. Queens take what they want. What they need. They don’t…” I swallowed, wincing at the sour, bitter taste of fear on my tongue. “They aren’t weak. They aren’t afraid. They don’t need to be hurt, even with love. They certainly don’t submit. Ever.”

  “Who says these lies?” Tezcatlipoca whispered, dragging his canines back and forth over the bumps of my spine.

  “Me.” My teeth chattered, and I clutched the mirror so hard my fingers ached. “I say these lies. To myself.”

  “Use this truth, queen, and take your jaguar god. If you dare.”

  He sank his teeth into my spine, and the mirror shattered into a thousand pieces.

  9

  Mayte

  Someone was screaming. Me. I fell through endless black. I couldn’t see anything, but I felt wind rushing past me. I smelled blood. My blood.

  I thrashed and flailed, trying to slow my descent. I didn’t want to die. Not yet. I had too much to do. I had to tell Eztli…

  I slammed into my body so hard that my scream cut off with a startled gasp. My eyes flew open, my chest heaving. I sucked in a deep breath and screamed again. I clamped my hand over the back of my neck, hoping to stem the blood flow from Tezcatlipoca’s bite. I had never tried to heal myself. I wasn’t sure that I could, especially not a wound dealt by a god.

  There wasn’t any blood pouring from gashes or punctures. I could move my arm. My spine wasn’t snapped in half.

  But the largest jaguar I’d ever seen in my life crouched before me.

  As soon as I looked into his mirrored eyes, he pounced.

  Instinctively, I slung my arms up over my face, but he didn’t go for my throat. He seized my braid in his jaws and started dragging me down to the shoreline, like a jaguar would drag his kill.

  My Blood roared immediately and attacked. Eztli’s beast leapt onto the black jaguar’s broad back and dug in with all four paws. But he looked like a stuffed toy on top of the mighty god. My alpha, who dwarfed my other Blood and made wild jaguars look like household kitties.

  I thumped my fists into the black jaguar’s face, trying to find his eyes, but he ignored me as if I was as inconsequential as a gnat. Cold water splashed me in the face as he started wading into the lake.

  He was taking me away, through a portal to the otherworld, as my mother had tried to do to reach her lover.

  No. I won’t leave so easily.

  Water closed over my head, but I was an Aima queen. I didn’t need to breathe.

  I needed to feed.

  I grabbed his shoulders and hauled myself closer to the jaguar god. Sinking my fangs into his chest, I punctured his hide easily. His blood filled my mouth, along with his fur.

  A god’s blood.

  He tasted like he smelled—copal incense, blended with smoking chocolate and coffee, as if the ripened fruits had been left out in the noon sun to dry, and then someone had lit them on fire.

  Through my bonds, I felt my Blood attack. They bit and tore and shredded the mighty god, trying to force him to release me. Trying to save me.

  :Stop!: I shouted through all of my bonds, even the freshly-forged bond with the god who was dragging me into the lake.

  Miracle of miracles, he did exactly as I commanded.

  Eztli

  Dripping wet and coughing up water, my queen clung to the black jaguar’s throat. His blood ran from her mouth, as well as from dozens of minor wounds we’d given him. Not that they’d slowed him down in the slightest.

  “Take me back to the fire.”

  Still holding her by her braid, the big cat turned and hauled her back toward the campfire we’d lit on the beach.

  My queen. Dragged like a rag doll over rocks and sand. Rage bubbled up inside me, but what could I do? Tepeyollotl was the jaguar god. He’d already proven exactly how much power he wielded over me.

  He sat back on his haunches by the fire but didn’t release her braid. His claim on her was clear, though he did obey her commands. So why didn’t she tell him to release her?

  Worry crawled through my veins like angry ants. I couldn’t help remembering the way she’d looked at me in the vision, as if she wasn’t herself any longer. Had the mirror corrupted her somehow? Changed her personality? Was she possessed by Tezcatlipoca?

  Sagging against the big cat’s chest, she dangled in his grasp. But her voice didn’t quiver with fear when she said. “Shift. All of you.”

  We did as she commanded, and I watched, curious, as Tepeyollotl was revealed in his human form. I wasn’t surprised that he was a big man with a broad, barrel chest, thick arms and thighs, and long black hair that hung in thick, twisted cables almost to his waist. His skin was darker than mine, only slightly lighter than the obsidian mirror or his beast. He might be the size of a sumo wrestler, but otherwise, he looked…

  Normal.

  Like a man. The same as me.

  Then I noticed he still gripped her braid, only this time in his right hand. He kept her head under his control.

  I dragged my gaze from his powerful hand locked in my queen’s hair to her eyes, staring back at me. Tremulous. Scared, now, in a way that she hadn’t been before.

  “I saw myself in the mirror,” she finally whispered, her eyes pleading with me to understand. To forgive.

  For what?

  Confused, I could only nod, immediately, as I moved closer to her. I would forgive anything. It didn’t matter to me, not as long as she was safe.

  She dropped her gaze to her hands, gripped together tightly in front of her. “I didn’t know.”

  Tepeyollotl gave a sharp tug on her hair that made her gasp, her entire body jolting with shock.

  “I suspected,” she said quickly. “I hid it. Even from myself. I was ashamed.”

  I shot a hard look at the man abusing her hair. Let him strike me down if he liked, but I wouldn’t back down. He’d have to kill me if he thought to hurt her. I took her trembling hands between both of mine and rubbed them lightly, trying to ease some of her fear. “My queen should never be ashamed. I don’t care what you hid. It doesn’t matter to me.”

  “That’s why…” Her voice broke and tears dripped onto my hand, alarming me even more. She took a ragged breath and tried again. “That’s why I only ever took you one at a time. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able
to hide it if you were all touching me. Surely one of you would discover the truth, and I didn’t… I was afraid…”

  “Mayte,” I ground out harshly. “Nothing you could ever do or say would change our love. You’re our queen. Always. Why would you hide anything from us?”

  “I didn’t want you to think I was weak. Or regret swearing your life to me.”

  “Never,” I retorted fiercely, squeezing her hands hard in mine. Tepeyollotl growled softly, probably a warning, but fuck the jaguar god if he thought I would meekly allow her to believe that I would ever surrender my queen’s love.

  She lifted her gaze to mine, and the fragile look in her eyes tore my heart from my chest. She wasn’t afraid or hurt. She wasn’t angry at me for squeezing her hands. And she still didn’t order the jaguar god to release her hair.

  Because she liked the way he pinned her against him.

  Relieved, I almost laughed, but I was afraid she’d mistake my reaction for ridicule. Instead, I squeezed her hands harder and lifted them both toward my mouth. I pried her clenched fists open, so I could plant a kiss on each palm, deliberately using my larger hands and strength to force her fingers open. “Did you honestly think that I didn’t know?”

  Her mouth fell open with surprise, and this time I did laugh, though I dragged her into my arms, at least as far as Tepeyollotl’s unrelenting grip on her hair allowed. “I know every beat of your heart, my love, but I would never force you into any situation. I felt your unease. As alpha, perhaps I should have pushed you harder to face that discomfort, but I thought to let you come to the conclusion in your own time. As you’ve done.”

  She buried her face against my throat. “You’re not disappointed? I’m not a strong queen, Eztli. I never will be. And now…”

  This time, when Tepeyollotl jerked on her hair, I approved. I released her, and he dragged her back against him. “You’re gravely mistaken. A strong queen knows what she wants, what she needs, and she takes it, no matter what it is.”

  Tepeyollotl twisted her around by her hair, forcing her to look into his gleaming eyes that glittered like the obsidian mirror, rippling with power. “If you want to take me, Mayte Zaniyah, then you’ll ask me for exactly what you want, as the strong woman you are.”

  10

  Mayte

  Shaking, I stared up into the god’s dark, shining eyes. I had his blood burning inside me. If he chose, he could certainly rip us all to shreds and disappear back into Aztlán.

  But he stayed. Waiting for me to decide if I would take what I most wanted in the world. Even if it meant I had to surrender my pride and embrace all that I was, inside and out. No matter how uncomfortable it made me.

  Already, my body hummed with unexpected pleasure. The tugs on my hair. The force Eztli had used to squeeze my hands. Such powerful, strong men, willing to do anything I asked.

  But I had to ask.

  I’d thought I wanted a child more than anything in the world. Enough to risk my life, my nest, even my beloved Blood, all to sire a daughter to continue the Zaniyah line. And I did still want this child. Desperately.

  But whether I had a daughter or not, I would never be complete if I didn’t accept that beneath my power and magic, I ached for a lover’s strong, unforgiving hand. I burned to be taken. Hard. Out of control. Even hurt.

  Like when I’d called a centuries-old Blood, who’d never had his own queen, to my bed the very first time.

  “Please,” I whispered.

  Tepeyollotl twisted his wrist, wrapping my hair tighter around his fist. “Please what?”

  I moaned, helpless to hold back the small sound. “Hurt me. While you make love to me.”

  He turned his attention to Eztli. For a moment, I froze, afraid that I’d offended or upset my alpha, but when I touched his bond, all I felt was a river of molten lava.

  “What does her alpha say to this request?”

  Eztli’s voice rumbled with the growl of his beast. “I would beg only that I be allowed to love her, too.”

  “Granted,” Tepeyollotl agreed. “Remove these wet clothes. Our queen is cold.” He looked to my other Blood one by one. “Are you willing to participate if called upon?”

  “Nothing will keep me from our queen,” Maxtla said. “Not even you.”

  “Agreed,” Luis and Diego replied together.

  Tepeyollotl laughed softly and focused back on me. “So eager. So willing to please you in any way you wish, even if I bat them away like annoying cubs. It’s a shame that you waited so long to fully take these young jaguars.”

  Maxtla grumped beneath his breath. “Nine hundred isn’t exactly young.”

  “It is for someone who remembers a time before humans roamed this earth.” Tepeyollotl narrowed his eyes on the man behind me. “She shivers.”

  The sound of my clothing shredding away made me shiver harder, but not because I was cold. Eztli used his claws to tear my hoodie and jeans away from my body. The sound of ripping material was barbaric. Feral.

  It made my blood simmer hotter in my veins.

  Tepeyollotl pulled me upright so I stood before him, naked and exposed. Had it just been last night that I was so embarrassed by all my Blood looking at me? Seeing me vulnerable? Aching with need? It seemed so long ago.

  He took his time looking at me, even making me turn around and face Eztli. Then Maxtla. Diego. Luis. The god waited for me to look into each of my Blood’s eyes, acknowledge my need, and see that nothing had changed.

  My Blood still looked at me as their queen, whom they loved more than anything in this world. Nothing would ever change that.

  Even if I asked the god of jaguars to hurt me. Especially if I asked it of them, too.

  Tepeyollotl jerked me back around to face him. I wasn’t sure why, not at first. He didn’t make any demands of me, but merely stared back at me steadily. I allowed my gaze to run over his body. He sat on the ground, leaning back against the log I’d sat on earlier, yet his head was barely below mine. He was a big man. A strong man.

  I dropped my eyes lower and gulped. A very big man.

  Then it dawned on me. The god of jaguars was erect. He wanted me.

  “Prepare her, alpha.”

  Eztli engulfed me with his body and heat, eagerly taking me down to my knees on the ground. He thrust into me so hard that I fell forward and had to grab onto Tepeyollotl’s massive thighs on either side of me to brace myself. Eztli had made love to me many times over the years, but he’d never felt so large inside me before, nor as out of control.

  He was as aroused as Tepeyollotl. My admission had not put a dent in Eztli’s desire at all. Instead, it had inflamed him more than ever.

  His arms slid around me so he could cup my breasts. His fingers sought my nipples, as he’d done last night, but this time, he pinched. Hard.

  I moaned deep in my throat. He always felt incredible inside of me, but the small pain made my nerves scream with sensation. I twitched around his cock, already coming. I would have let my head fall back against his shoulder if I could have, but Tepeyollotl refused to surrender my braid. In fact, he tugged me closer to him, bringing me eye-level with his magnificent cock.

  As an Aima queen, putting a man’s dick in my mouth wasn’t something I ever considered, for fear my fangs would cause him too much damage. Eztli would have allowed me to do so, without question, but I’d never wanted to risk hurting him. Not like that.

  Tepeyollotl released my braid, and yeah, for a moment, disappointment rippled through me. Until his palm slid around my nape and he squeezed so hard I moaned again, making him chuckle with a dark, sexual heat that turned my moan into a whimper.

  “That’s better,” he said a silky voice that somehow managed to convey both menace and lust. “You want more than pain, little queen. You want to surrender, too. What should I make her do, alpha?”

  Eztli bit my earlobe, making me jolt against him. “You should make her suck your dick while I feed.”

  “An excellent idea.”

  His hand
was so heavy on my neck. So strong. It snapped something inside me. Something that I’d shoved away and locked deep inside me. That lock sprang open as he hauled my mouth onto his dick. He didn’t bring me gently to him. He didn’t care about my fangs. I had a feeling he wouldn’t have cared if I deliberately tried to bite him, though that was the furthest thing from my mind.

  The locked doors inside me swung open wider. All the chains and locks and secrets I thought I’d buried so well were exposed. Tepeyollotl pushed into my mouth so deeply that I couldn’t breathe. Relentless, he filled me, making me choke. Breaking me apart.

  No, that was Eztli, sinking his fangs into my throat.

  I hung, suspended between them, consumed with complete and utter ecstasy. I’d never known such freedom. Such relief. I didn’t hold anything back. I moaned around Tepeyollotl’s cock. I clenched harder on Eztli’s inside me. My blood danced and sang in my veins, filled to the brim with power. It welled up inside me like a geyser.

  I had never felt so much power.

  Eztli shuddered on top of me, his release pushing me higher. The only thing that kept me from soaring into the night sky was Tepeyollotl’s heavy hand on the back of my head.

  He pulled me up onto his lap, shifting me onto his thighs. “Take me at your speed, little queen.”

  I sank onto his cock slowly. Loudly. Because I couldn’t help the raw sounds of desire escaping my throat. He was so big, everywhere, not just his cock. One big hand palmed my head easily. His other hand roamed my body, plucking and playing me like a delicate harp. Small pains blended with the pleasure, until I honestly couldn’t tell the difference. It was wondrous.

  He was wondrous.

  This was wondrous.

  Why had I been so terrified of my secret need? When I could have felt so… free?

  I didn’t have to control my reactions or worry about showing too much. I had already given them everything. They knew everything. And they were still here. Loving me.