Storm Unbound

by Leo Hull

  “As for what you’ll be promising, you already fulfilled what should have been your part of the contract. It’s only fair that the contract reflects this, but we’ll still need to include something that is primarily for the benefit of Lydia and myself. I think seeing us safely from Saeli at the end of this seems fair. The binding will survive until the latter of Annik and Nessa’s rescue, or three months. If you want, we can include an option for mutual extension, which Lydia and I are both supportive of, but we’ll leave that up to you. Any thoughts or questions on these?”

  Tristan stood there flabbergasted by Serana’s dizzying proposal. From the way she looked expectantly at him he knew he should say something. He tried to remember his binding with Nessa, but Annik had handled the details and he’d been too focused on finally bedding the woman that had been sleeping naked next to him to recall more than vague memories of terms that seemed to align with Serana’s proposal. He had too many questions bouncing around in his head to seize on any single one in particular and again wished Annik were here to help.

  “You two will help find Nessa and Annik?” Tristan finally said, focusing on the core of the binding. Trying to take everything else in was just too much.

  “Yes, and we already have some leads and plans,” Serana said with a smile. “I hear a lot of gossip in the kitchens. Food goes everywhere with Talek, so there were always servants returning with gossip and rumors. Lydia was able to follow up on a few things. Perran has gone into hiding, but before you rescued me, I was asked to plan a feast for two days from now to celebrate Perran’s return.”

  Lydia shifted and offered her input. “I followed the wine vendor you said Talek preferred last night. He had a meeting at Talek’s compound and left cursing because Talek cancelled the celebration and now he’s stuck with a dozen casks of Talek’s favorite wine. He was upset and I think he’s going to—”

  Serana shushed Lydia. “That’s enough until we bind. We need to get what we want as well.” Her eyes fell down Tristan’s hard body to where his arousal still stood tall.

  Tristan felt like he should slap himself to see if he was dreaming. This woman he had met only a day before was refusing to help unless she was allowed to submit to him. She wasn’t the only one looking at him hungrily. Lydia’s lower lip was caught in her teeth, her nose flaring as she breathed in deeply and snuggled closer against Serana.

  “We’ll need another Sliver, right?” Tristan growled, his mind clouding with lust.

  He felt a twinge of guilt at dismissing the complexity of the negotiations and Annik and Nessa’s situation, but Serana seemed intent on making things right even though Tristan had decided he didn’t blame Lydia for the way she’d acted. He had a long way to go with forgiving himself so he might as well start with being easier on others as well.

  Serana turned to Lydia with a raised eyebrow. Even though their original binding had apparently ended, Lydia still wore her chain and Sliver just as Tristan did. She stood and moved to the edge of the bed, bending at the waist to dig around under the mattress. She wore the same short tunic, and Tristan sucked in a sharp breath when he saw just how ready she was for him.

  “I took these from the kitchen guard that you whacked over the head with the pan when we escaped,” Lydia said with a shy smile to Serana. She held two chains with misshapen pieces of metal attached. “The one that you said was all hands and would stand right by the ovens.”

  “And his Bound?” Serana asked.

  “She helped ransack the guard’s apartment and I sent her to the docks with more than enough to make a new life.” Lydia handed over the Slivers to Serana, then took off her own and held out a hand for Tristan’s.

  “Now?” Tristan asked, surprised at how quickly things were moving.

  “We shouldn’t delay,” Serana said, giving a side-eyed glance at Lydia. She was hiding something, but Tristan was past the point of caring about any intrigue. He dropped his chain into Lydia’s outstretched hand.

  The women joined hands, staring so intimately into one another’s eyes that Tristan wondered if he should leave. Serana took the lead with Lydia repeating the words of the binding. They moved closer as they spoke until Lydia’s head tilted back to look up into her lover’s eyes, their lips so close they brushed as they spoke.

  Tristan held his breath, captivated by the intimate beauty of the ceremony. He realized that it always seemed to be the women speaking the words and holding the Slivers. Serana reached the end of the terms, and Tristan started to ask if there was something important about women leading the ceremony but was cut short when Serana and Lydia’s lips finally joined.

  The kiss was slow, gentle, and yet both women were clearly holding back. Lydia’s pale cheeks flushed and Serana’s cleavage heaved with every breath. Serana giggled and pulled away, Lydia rising up on her knees to try and follow.

  “Not yet,” Serana said sweetly, with just a hint of a taunting glint in her eyes. “I know you want it as bad as I do, but you still need to be punished for what you did to our new vulta.”

  “Punished?” Tristan asked in wonder as Lydia pouted.

  “Of course. I can’t have my little Shade behaving like Lydia did.” Serana reached a hand up to Lydia’s cheek and stroked her softly. “Why don’t you tell him what your punishment is.”

  Lydia looked up, panicked, but Serana kept up her reassuring touch. “I have to watch you and Serana before she’ll sleep with me again,” Lydia whispered.

  “And?” Serana prompted.

  “And I’m to be spanked. By you if you want, or Serana if you’d rather watch. Unless you have a different punishment for me?” Lydia asked breathily, her eyes hopeful.

  “That is a good start,” Tristan agreed, completely out of his depths with how to handle these two. Playing along with their game seemed as wise an option as any. “Serana will spank you, but if she holds back, I’ll have to come up with a new punishment for you both.”

  Lydia seemed to light up at his words, though she quickly puffed her lips out as if she were worried. She held out her Sliver, Serana copying the movement. Tristan accepted them, detaching Serana’s and adding it to the chain with Lydia’s renewed and Nessa’s dormant links.

  Lydia was as eager as him, because by the time he had the chain around his neck, she was laid across Serana’s lap with her tunic lifted to expose her cute milky butt. Her pixie size seemed exaggerated next to Serana’s curves, but Tristan appreciated the two contrasting forms of feminine beauty—each different but captivating in their own ways. Serana seemed all the curvier next to Lydia’s lithe form.

  Serana’s eyes sparkled as she softly stroked Lydia’s upturned ass. She stared into Tristan’s eyes then raised an eyebrow as if asking permission. Tristan couldn’t contain his grin and gave a short nod as he started to pull at his clothing.

  Serana did not hold back, and it was clear that her time in the kitchen kneading dough and working meat had given her a strength hidden behind her soft curves. She spanked Lydia’s ass, alternating cheeks and increasing the forcefulness of the punishment with each blow. With her other hand, she lovingly stroked Lydia’s hair, cooing encouragement so softly Tristan couldn’t hear the words.

  By the time he stood naked, Lydia’s cheeks showed red handprints and she submissively squirmed. The pain didn’t stop her from arching her back, offering her ass up for whatever Serana deemed appropriate.

  She was moaning softly now, and Serana clucked in mock disapproval when she helped Lydia up and found her lover’s wetness had stained her apron.

  “I’m sorry,” Lydia whispered without sounding the least bit apologetic. Her tunic started to fall back in place, but Serana took it and Lydia dutifully lifted her arms, her perky breasts topped with hard nipples popping free. She moved to kiss Serana, but her lover turned away and giggled.

  “Now you have to watch, right Tristan?” Serana asked, laughing as Lydia whined in displeasure. Serana stood and untied her apron. It fell to the floor, quickly followed by her panties. She ha
d a small furry patch of light-brown hair between soft thighs that begged to be held apart.

  Tristan stepped forward, then hesitated. “You said this was your first time? I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Lydia and I have played plenty,” Serana teased. “And I said it was my first time being bonded, not with a man.” She moved confidently towards him, one foot placed in front of the other to exaggerate the sway of her hips, and took Tristan in hand. She stroked him gently and put her lips to his ear. “Make her jealous,” Serana said, loud enough for Lydia to hear judging by the way the Shade gasped.

  Tristan didn’t need to be told twice. He wrapped his arms around the curvy chef, easily lifting her as his hands spread her cheeks. She squealed in delight, clearly not used to being so easily manhandled, but Tristan cut off her cry with his lips. Serana twisted, reaching behind her and guiding him to her wet entrance.

  “Yes,” Lydia groaned causing Serana to giggle and Tristan to growl as he sunk into Serana.

  She was tight but so wet she took him easily. Her breasts, the largest pair he’d ever had the pleasure to have pressed against his chest, begged for attention, so Tristan walked the two of them to the bed, laying Serana on her back without pulling from her.

  His grabbed her breasts, her soft mounds spilling out of his grasp. He held them tightly, and she encouragingly placed her hands on his as he started to pound into her. She gasped, her back arching to encourage him.

  Lydia whined, her hand between her legs as she helplessly watched. She stared at the union where her love gripped Tristan tightly, the strangest mixture of desire and jealousy writ across her face. Tristan’s head swam with the heady cocktail of lust in the small room, so reminiscent of the times Annik watched him take Nessa, yet more powerful because of the intense connection Lydia and Serana shared.

  Suddenly having Lydia watch wasn’t enough. Nearly snarling, Tristan reached out and pulled Lydia to join them, easily lifting the slim woman to kiss him. She met his lips eagerly, melting with need and grinding against Serana’s soft body.

  “She’s supposed to watch,” Serana gasped, though she didn’t seem upset. “Lydia, you’d better—”

  Tristan cut off her protestations by spinning Lydia around and planting her right on top of Serana’s face.

  Lydia whimpered in pleasure, one hand rising to her small breasts while the other gripped Serana’s hair for leverage. Her hips rocked, sliding her sex across Serana’s lips and tongue.

  Serana writhed under Tristan, her hands clutching Lydia’s slender thighs in encouragement.

  Tristan’s thrusts moved the three together, their rhythm becoming one as each lost themselves in the sensations of unleashed lust. Tristan grabbed Serana’s legs and tossed them over his shoulders, bending her as he reached for Lydia. He twisted Lydia until their lips met. She looked at him desperately, as if she wanted nothing more than for this moment to last forever. Her unbridled need for him coupled with Serana’s wet, quivering pussy were too much.

  With a roar, he swelled inside Serana, his peak triggering her climax and reducing her to a twitching mass of pleasure too distracted to keep her tongue working.

  Lydia gasped in frustration as the group’s rhythm broke down. She doubled down on Serana’s face as she sought her own release, gripping Serana’s brown locks for leverage. Tristan saw Lydia’s need and pushed Serana away, her wide hips thrusting helplessly into the air. He moved quickly up Serana’s body, spraying his seed over her stomach and breasts as he pushed Lydia over and mounted her from behind.

  Lydia came immediately, crying out wordlessly as Tristan pumped the last of his pleasure into her. From below, Serana lavished Lydia’s clit with practiced ease, her own moans of pleasure muffled by Lydia pressing hard against her mouth. Tristan’s abandonment didn’t seem to hasten the end of Serana’s pleasure, and when Lydia joined the already climaxing couple, Tristan felt his very being unwind only to reform intertwined with the tapestry of Lydia and Serana’s existing love.

  The Sliver seared against his skin as Tristan collapsed to the side spent. Lydia tried to wiggle away from Serana’s tongue, but Serana didn’t let her go until she cleaned her completely. Tristan couldn’t muster the energy to show his surprise when Lydia crawled across him and curled up in his arm. Serana sighed as she slid against his other side, wrapping a leg around him.

  “Fuck,” Serana said simply.

  No one else had anything more to add.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Nessa hung her arms through the bars of the inner cage, idly swinging them back and forth as she watched Perran pace. He’d been at it ever since the report detailing the rescue attempt of Annik had arrived, his celebratory mood dashed at the news Tristan had somehow escaped alive. The move out to the safety of the ruined Fallen off Saeli’s shore had calmed him at first, but now he fretted about how Talek thought him weak and unable to protect her.

  His was annoying and she wondered how she had ever seen him for anything other than the stooge that he was.

  Her confinement to the special built double-walled cage didn’t help her assessment of him. He was a Ground yet relied on the metal structure to contain Nessa’s power. Sure, she’d grown in strength in recent years to the point where Perran broke out in a sweat trying to manage her, but that wasn’t an excuse for being weak. He should have trained instead of gambling himself into debt.

  Nessa had never thought Perran a particularly bad vulta until her brief stint with Tristan. Lacking experience, she assumed that it was normal for a vulta to remind his Bound of how grateful they should be or how no one else would ever see them for who they were like he did. Perran had seemed a supportive and accepting vulta until Tristan had shown her more respect mere hours after meeting than Perran ever had.

  The revelation that Perran was a lackey for Talek further depressed Nessa’s opinion of her former vulta. Everyone in Saeli knew about Talek, but he had been just a distant societal fixture before she woke up in a cell under his house and discovered her entire contract was built to serve Talek’s purposes. Her father had negotiated her contract with Perran, but she and her mother had been involved too. Nessa refused to accept her parents had known about Talek’s involvement, but it was hard not to wonder.

  Unlike Perran, Talek scared Nessa. He appraised her and Annik as if they were a nothing more than a tiny sliver of his vast empire of trade, sleaze, and power. He didn’t see them as human, as people, but instead only as resources to be hoarded and spent in furtherance of his goals.

  Nessa had tried to be as fiercely defiant as Annik, but in truth she was grateful to be released back to Perran’s care even if it had meant separating from Annik. She hated that Talek scared her. It was the first time in years that a man had made her want to hide rather than fight, but she suspected Talek had seen the fear in her eyes and mistaken that for defeat. Whatever his reason, Perran had her again and Talek had made it clear he expected the two of them to bind.

  That had been days ago, and now she was bored.

  Nessa sighed and reached a fingertip towards the outer metal mesh and let the energy that coiled inside her arc, then disperse harmlessly along the cage. Perran muttered to himself, pivoting on his heel like a soldier on the parade ground, then continued his path without ever looking her way.

  The boredom was the worst part. Nessa hadn’t realized how bland her life with Perran had become until the excitement of the few weeks she’d spent with Annik and Tristan. Even though they were just heading back to her home, it seemed like a grand adventure with those two along. She had her own purpose and had been treated like a team member rather than just a useful tool for fulfilling someone else’s goals. Tristan and Annik had seemed as interested in helping her as they were in her assistance.

  The sex had been outrageously good too, something she felt acutely as she went to sleep alone each night.

  “He has no one else,” Perran assured himself for seemingly the hundredth time, speaking as if he was alone. Nessa could practic
ally recite his monologue by now. “He’ll have to protect me if he wants to control her.”

  Nessa regretted feeding into his paranoia by planting the idea that Tristan would be coming for her next. Teasing Perran about how useless he was without her sparks had been fun, but he hadn’t stopped his pacing and muttering since Nessa’s barbs about Tristan’s impending assault.

  Perran pounded a fist into his other hand. “I’ll ask for more guards. He won’t be able to say no.”

  “I never realized how much of a coward you are,” Nessa said idly, gently tapping her forehead against the cold metal bars.

  “What?” Perran’s head swung wildly to gaze at her with bloodshot eyes.

  “I said, ‘I never realized how much of a coward you are,’” Nessa repeated, speaking slower and enunciating her words as if speaking to a child. “You’re actually helpless without me, aren’t you?”

  “Big talk for a little girl in a cage,” Perran spat back, turning to continue his pacing.

  “You poisoned us! You were too afraid to even defend me in the forest much less try and face Tristan to reclaim me. Like I said, coward.”

  Perran’s mouth flapped as he tried to process her words. Nessa sighed, already bored with poking at him when an idea started to worm its way through her brain. She kept her face still, trying to maintain her aura of indifference.

  “You know, Talek thinks you can’t handle me yourself, either. That’s why he ordered you to hide me here. You’re only useful for him because you’re a Ground, but you’re not the only one in town and I’m sure he’s already lining up capable replacements that won’t fuck up so bad. With how you failed to defend me, I’m surprised he didn’t just kill you when he caught you trying to take my contract payout.”