Unhuman Acts

by Candace Blevins

  Nathan opened his arms, and I slid into them despite the fact more contact might show me even more grief, but instead, I saw that Kane’s lionesses were surrounding him with love. They all grieved together, but his pride was taking care of him. Loving him. Making sure he ate.

  And Nathan was sending him love and strength. Yes, this was probably one of Kane’s darkest days, but he was loved and cared for.

  I pulled out of Nathan’s arms and stretched out between them, holding their hands without touching either of them anywhere else.

  Staring at the ceiling, I asked, “Ground rules?”

  “No having sex with my lions,” Nathan said. He’d already considered this.

  I had too, though, and I wasn’t sure of the promises I could make. “I’d love to be able to make that promise, but the truth is, I’m not sure what these new powers are going to mean. Until I understand them, the most I can offer is to tell you I understand your wishes and I’ll try not to do anything to hurt you emotionally.”

  “Fair enough. I think this is all going to have to be a work in progress. We need to keep communication lines open. I’ll get a bigger bed, and Mordecai and I need to talk, to make sure we don’t step on each other’s toes.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Mordecai said. “So long as we have Kirsten’s best interests at heart, and we show respect to each other, it’ll work out. You’re right about communication, of course, but I don’t foresee the two of us having problems.”

  I moved to the top of the bed to get out from under the covers, and then made my way to the base before I went over Mordecai’s feet and headed to the bathroom. “Ya’ll are talking like this is a done deal, and it isn’t. I’m not agreeing to date you both, or to have sex with you both. Nathan and I haven’t even... we aren’t an item!”

  I closed the door, peed, brushed my teeth, and came back out. “Why are ya’ll still in bed?”

  “I love you,” Nathan told me. “Apparently, so does Mordecai.”

  I sighed. “And I love both of you, but aren’t I supposed to, like, choose?” I’d worked with more poly groups than I could count, but I’d never considered the possibility I’d be in one. It still seemed fantastical. Also, both of these men defined the word possessive, and the idea of them being okay with this just didn’t compute.

  Nathan shrugged. “Bethany didn’t choose. Seems to be working okay for them.”

  “I can’t spend every night with you,” Mordecai told me. “I have obligations and responsibilities in other realms. Nathan can’t spend every night with you, either. The odds are, you’ll have one of us at a time, mostly, but I think it’s important we all spend time together as well. That doesn’t have to mean sex as a threesome, but I admit... I kind of hope it does. I’d love to hold you while Nathan belts you everywhere.”

  Nathan looked at Mordecai with a sly smile. “Well now, when you put it that way, I suppose I can see the benefit to both of us playing with her.” He grinned at me. “You know I can smell your arousal.”

  He wasn’t lying. The very idea of Mordecai holding me in still while Nathan used his belt had heat traveling through my veins, and I squeezed my thighs together to try to calm my clit, but it didn’t work. My pulse pounded through my body.

  Mordecai stood and moved behind me before I knew what he was doing, and I was suddenly held immobile in his impossibly strong arms. He pushed my arms close to each other behind my back, making my breasts jut out farther under my pajama top. His mouth moved to my ear. I felt the heat of his breath. “Imagine Nathan with a small flogger, torturing those beautiful breasts. Maybe the tips will hit just the nipples a few times, and then will strike the entire breast hard. Then harder. And then harder.” He kissed my neck, just under my ear. “Maybe I’ll have you sitting on my cock while he does it, perhaps in your ass, spreading you wide, piercing you deep. You’ll fight and move to avoid Nathan’s whip, and feel me in your ass with every struggle.”

  My eyes met Nathan’s, and he wasn’t arguing. They both knew I wanted it — denying my body’s reaction would be silly.

  I stepped out of Mordecai’s hold and came back into the room a few feet away. “Okay, so the idea sets me off, but we’re supposed to be getting ready for two funerals. I can’t do this right now.” I desperately needed to change the subject, so I told Nathan, “Mordecai didn’t get an invitation to Tyson’s funeral.”

  He looked to Mordecai. “An oversight. I apologize. You’re welcome to ride down in the plane with us, or to show up at your leisure, though you’ll need to enter at the road.”

  “Thank you. I’ll provide my own transportation, and I’ll sit near the back so I’m not seen with the two of you, but I’d like to show my respects.”

  “There’s more. You think something’s going to happen.” Nathan didn’t ask it as a question.

  Mordecai shrugged. “I have no direct intelligence telling me it will, but nothing feels settled. I’d prefer to be with Kirsten until it does.” He looked to me. “You’re still figuring out your new title and power, and there are rules we haven’t been able to talk to you about — in part because of the timing, but some of it we just don’t think of until a situation presents itself.”

  “You left me alone until we killed Rinaldo, Griffin, and Nero. I managed okay.”

  “It’s easier to get away with those screw-ups in the heat of battle. During times of supposed peace, it’s more important to follow protocol.”

  “He’s right,” Nathan told me. “And since the two of you can talk telepathically, he’s in a better position to help you than I am.”

  “Is there a way for us to talk in our heads?” I asked Nathan.

  No one said anything, and I looked to Mordecai since it appeared Nathan wasn’t going to answer.

  “When you understand your powers better, you and Nathan should probably discuss it. My guess is he’s going to want things a little more... settled, before he lets you in his head.”

  So I’d be the one activating the connection? I’d been assuming Nathan would. It seemed I had a lot to learn, and I was so tired.

  “I wish I could go to bed for a week, but there’s too much to do. Where are we eating breakfast?”

  “I’d rather do that at my house,” Nathan said. “RaeLynn and Wednesday had planned to make it for us.”

  “Let me pack some clothes and we can go back to your house.”

  Chapter 7

  Mordecai

  Nathan was going to have trouble with RaeLynn, but it wasn’t my place to tell him. He probably knew, but he’s depended on her to let him know about issues with the lionesses for so long, I wasn’t positive he was clued in.

  She didn’t want to leave, and she held a lot of resentment towards both Kirsten and Wednesday.

  Breakfast was excellent, though. Wednesday had taken cooking classes and had apparently even spent a few semesters at a famous culinary school. Nathan had been grooming her to take over when he sent RaeLynn away.

  “None of my personal pride will be going to Randall’s funeral,” Nathan told me. “Several of my lions will be there, as well as a bunch of cats I claim, but I’ll be free to stand with you and Kirsten without having to worry too much about my people. You don’t need to stand at the back. The sooner we show up as three, the better. We don’t want to give the appearance of trying to hide this.”

  I looked to Kirsten, who seemed to be enjoying her fried potatoes on something close to an orgasmic level. “You’ll be at Tyson’s funeral as his friend. The fact you’ll be standing with Nathan won’t really matter today. You’re the Harlequin saying goodbye to a dear friend. However, you need to figure out which hat you’re wearing to Randall’s funeral. Are you there as the Alpha wolf’s mate or partner or whatever, or are you there as the Harlequin?”

  She didn’t even have to think about her answer. “I’m the Harlequin, and I’m her partner. I won’t choose.”

  “The Harlequin’s relationship with the wolves is completely different than the Alpha’s partner’s rel
ationship with them. I’m not sure that’s going to work.” If it were anyone else, I’d have said there’s no possible for way it to work, but Kirsten’s so damned hard-headed, I didn’t dare speak in absolutes.

  “I think that what he’s saying is that tonight is Cora’s show. You don’t want to upstage her,” Nathan explained.

  “Do I risk upstaging you at Tyson’s funeral?”

  “You don’t have a direct path to my lions.”

  Did Nathan really not understand Kirsten’s new power? I sat back and waited for her to tell him. If I looked tense, they’d both pick up on it, so I focused on staying relaxed.

  “I have a direct path to all shifters, Nathan. To all animals, actually, but my connection to shifters feels personal. I know I keep arguing with the Mother Nature title, and I understand it isn’t exactly right, but it might not be terribly far off.”

  “You aren’t close to my lionesses. They’re mine.”

  Ah, and the Amakhosi was in control now, not Nathan. Still, I sat back and watched.

  “I don’t want to do this, Your Majesty. They’re yours, without a doubt.” Perhaps Kirsten was going to manage the politics okay after all. She understood she was speaking with the Amakhosi and not Nathan now.

  “Then why tell me you have a personal connection to them?”

  “Because I do. It doesn’t take away from your title or power.”

  “Doesn’t it?”

  Kirsten looked to me for help, but I shook my head. I wasn’t sure how to help her through this minefield.

  She looked back to Nathan. “I’m the Harlequin, and maybe I’ll eventually figure out how to turn that on and off, but I have no idea how that might work right now.” She blew out a breath. “You seem to be able to turn the Amakhosi thing down sometimes, but it’s never off, and sometimes it surfaces whether you want it to or not. You can’t just demand I turn who I’ve become off. If you aren’t okay with your girlfriend having potentially more power than you, I guess it’s good I found out now and not later.”

  “No. That isn’t it.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  Point to my little redheaded spitfire, and it seemed she might have gotten through to him — though cats are hardheaded and stubborn too, so maybe not.

  “They’re your cats, Nathan. I’m still figuring out my connection. It’s there, but that doesn’t affect your authority over them.”

  “I believe this will be easier once the two of you are having sex,” I told them. “Once Nathan and his lion see you as more theirs, they’ll also see your power as theirs, and not as something to compete with.”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to say her power would never be anyone’s, but she thought better of it and closed her mouth before she spoke. She turned from me and met Nathan’s gaze. “We don’t have to figure everything out today.”

  He shook his head. “You made a point I hadn’t considered. I was worried about you upstaging Cora, but the thought never occurred to me we might run into the same problem at Tyson’s funeral.”

  “I don’t believe it will be a problem,” I told them. “It could be, sure, but Kirsten’s going to be in tears, and if she needs help you aren’t in a position to provide, I’ll be there. You focus on your people today. Kirsten will focus on being part of your support system, and I’ll help keep watch over everything.”

  In truth, the Harlequin was never intended to live in Midgard. She was Queen of Alfheim, and she was expected to live there, but with the Stewards still in place, she might be able to go back and forth and make it work. I was here to try to help because she needed to live with Cora, and she needed to be a phone call away from Lauren. In a hundred years, perhaps she’d live primarily in her new home realm, but for now, I needed to help her find a way to live here.

  Almost as if she’d picked up on the direction of my thoughts, she asked, “Why are so many of the old poems and legends of the Erlkönig focused on child-stealing?”

  Aaron had already answered part of this for her, but I gave her the rest of the story.

  “Any elf of power was considered Erlkönig by the humans in this realm, and one lived at the time who fancied children. He wasn’t allowed to practice his wicked appetites at home, so he went to other realms to steal the children he desired. This powerful being was long ago given to the Siabhra. I imagine he’s quite mad by now, if he’s even still alive.”

  “Gavin saved my life during the battle.”

  Others might not understand the change of topic, but my mention of the Siabhra had made her think of Gavin. I got it.

  “I’m aware.”

  “Has he recovered?”

  An excellent question — one I wasn’t positive I could accurately answer. “It’s possible he needed to be a little broken in order to get fixed. Or, perhaps Abbott has given him suggestions he has no choice but to follow. I can’t tell which is in play.”

  Kirsten was going to have a lot to navigate even without Nathan in her life — dating me, being bound to Cora, dealing with the power and office of the Harlequin, and maintaining the friendly relationships she had with Abbott, Kendra, Dawg, Bran, Apollonius, and others. Her life would be easier without Nathan by her side, but the two of them had a connection I couldn’t watch her throw away. Maybe they’d make this work, maybe they wouldn’t, but I cared enough about her to try to help her see it through.

  And maybe I was being a little selfish, wanting her in my life when I couldn’t give her my all. I didn’t have the time to be her only relationship, but I could carve enough time to be her part-time inamorato. My life is on Olympus, and I couldn’t expect her to spread her time between three realms. She was going to have enough trouble splitting it between two.

  But damned if I hadn’t fallen head-over-heals in love with the little spitfire. I needed her in my life. I needed her to be mine. She didn’t need to be exclusively mine, but so long as she wasn’t intimate with other gods, I could handle her being with others.

  Chapter 8

  Kirsten

  I stood at Nathan’s right hand side on the dais under a beautiful blue sky while he talked to the audience about Tyson. I’d used waterproof mascara and eyeliner, and I’d gone easy on the foundation and contour so it wouldn’t be tear-streaked.

  But I knew I was going to ugly-cry, and there was nothing I could do about it. I’d warned Nathan though, so I had to assume he’d be able to deal with it. I’d once made a promise to stand by his side, so I was doing this. I did okay while Nathan talked. Tears leaked out, but I didn’t need to blow my nose, and I was silent.

  And then he handed the mic over to Kane, and salty, burning tears flowed down my face. Kane told of his brother’s final heroic moments, and then asked if anyone else would like to speak about their memories of Tyson.

  I’d spent a few weeks in Africa with Tyson and Kane, working security, but I couldn’t think of a story to share. Kane had saved my life a few times with his medical training, and Tyson had given me energy when I was depleted, but those weren’t stories to share. Instead of sharing a story, I walked to Kane and hugged him when he stepped away from the podium.

  “I’m here. If you need a friend, I’m a text or phone call away.”

  “You’re crying the tears the rest of us wish we could shed. Thank you for that. I’m so glad you’re here.”

  Nathan came to us and hugged Kane after me. The three of us walked to the first row and sat, and I noted Nathan was between us. This put me by RaeLynn, when Nathan had intended to sit here.

  I telepathed Mordecai. Did I screw up?

  You broke protocol, but I think it’s okay. Nathan’s lion doesn’t want you sitting with Kane, but he doesn’t seem pissed — just a little territorial. That should fix itself once ya’ll are having sex. Or, he might be even more territorial. It could go either way.

  More territorial isn’t going to work for me.

  Then you’ll have to talk to Nathan about it.

  Right.

  A lioness with a child in her lap ha
nded the little one off to another lioness before she walked to the microphone.

  “My kids are going to grow up without their father. I’m not the only woman to have given him children, but I’m the only one with a son. I’m grateful Kane is old enough to take the reins, because I know he’ll do right by his nieces and nephew. My heart breaks for all of us, but most of all, I hurt for my children and for Kane.” She looked at Nathan. “We are blessed to have our King here today. Thank you, Your Majesty. It means so much, having you with us.”

  He stood, walked to her, and pulled her into his embrace. No tears, but it was more emotion than I’d seen from any of the lions.

  I’d worn long johns under my pants suit, and I had my hair down to help keep my ears and neck warm, but we were outside and it was freezing. They’d brought a small stage and podium out, and the first six rows of people were seated, but hundreds of people stood behind us. Two hours in, I was still crying and blowing my nose, but also shivering. Everyone stood while Nathan, Kane, and two other lions dug the hole. When it was so deep we could only see the tops of their heads, they finally jumped out.

  My grief was raw, and my breathing ragged around my sobs. I thought my heart might shatter to pieces in my chest as I watched Kane cradle his brother to his chest and jump into the hole. I assume he arranged him respectfully before he leapt out, and the four men with shovels filled the hole back in.

  When the ground had been smoothed over and the squares of grass replaced, I sent what felt like sacred energy to that spot of land. I needed to honor him, and it felt right. Maybe sacred wasn’t the right word. It’d been the first thing that came to mind, but hearing myself think the word seemed wrong. I didn’t have the ability to consecrate land.

  Nathan gave me an odd look, but Kane jumped up on the little stage and spoke without the microphone. His voice boomed across the field. He didn’t need it.