Witches, Wolves, & Warlords (Shifters of Bastion Keep #1)

Chapter Sixteen

Bruin woke to the sound of gentle murmurs. In his languid haze, it was indistinct. He stretched himself out, and found… resistance? Opening his eyes, he came face to face with a fuzzy chest, and remembered.

"He awakens at last!" he heard Sergiy say above his head.

"Mmm," he murmured, pressing his back up against Sergiy.

"Well, it's Saturday, and well past dawn. While I don't have any duties today, I am starving for some breakfast."

"I wonder what could possibly have caused you to burn through so many calories," he teased.

He heard him growl, and Sergiy kissed his shoulder, above the wonderful bite mark. "If you hadn't demanded so many encores, mate of mine…"

"Don't blame me, you're the one that kept getting it up. I was just trying to satisfy your apparently insatiable greed."

"It will subside in time," Russ told him. With his head on the pillow and the morning sun draping itself over his bearded face, he looked like a burly angel in repose. "Some. But our lord is a horny dragon, yes, so it's good that he has two mates."

"I'm going to head to breakfast after a shower," Sergiy said, apparently choosing to ignore the statement. "Do you two want to come with me?"

Bruin closed his eyes and buried his head in the blanket. "Mmph."

"We will," Russell said, poking Bruin in the chest and directing his next statement to him. "Yes?"

"Fine," he grumped."But maybe take your time in the shower? At least fifteen minutes."

He heard Sergiy chuckle, and then felt it as his weredrake lover kissed him again. "I'll give you as many as sixteen."

Bruin swatted at the air playfully, then lifted his head to watch Sergiy pad over to his shower. His lord paused before entering the bathroom, struck a regal, nude pose, then disappeared around the corner.

Glad that he'd insisted on being allowed to shower before bed—him and Russell both—he was about to pull the covers back over himself when he felt Russell touch his shoulder.

"My turn to be the big spoon?" he asked plaintively.

Bruin nodded, then flipped over. Vaguely, he remembered falling asleep with Sergiy at his back, and with his own arms wrapped around the bigger man. "You make it sound like such a hardship. Yes, absolutely."

Bruin had barely begun to turn over when Russell grabbed him, bringing him effortlessly up against his chest. In the next few seconds, he heard growling, and Russell seemed to get a lot bigger and hairier. He felt him lick the side of his face.

" Big spoon," the werewolf told him as he curled himself entirely around Bruin, throwing one leg over him.

"I love it," Bruin said, lowering his head to plant a kiss on the forearm that had him bound. "Now I kind of want to stay here for hours and skip breakfast."

"No skipping breakfast."

"I know. I won't. But I want to, because you're just so cuddly. Are you sure you're a werewolf and not a werebear?"

"Are you sure you're a witch, and not a teddy bear ?"

Russell squeezed him tighter, giving him a fond shake, and Bruin laughed.

"Bruin does mean bear, so I guess you're right. Fine. I'm a teddy bear. Yours and Sergiy's."

"Mm.Good."

Closing his eyes, Bruin just spent time appreciating the warmth of having someone in bed with him. With his free hand, he ran it up and down Russell's thigh, sliding it through the fur, sometimes reaching back to stroke the werewolf's butt.

After four or five minutes, he felt something warm pressing up against his ass. He groaned.

"As much as I would love to take you, Russell, my accommodation charm ended a long time ago. Human Russ was big enough.I doubt I could even get your head in, right now."

"It's fine. I just want to cuddle."

Breathing a sigh of relief—even if his charm were still running, he actually wasn't sure his ass could take another pounding so soon after last night's marathon—he settled himself back down, holding the arms that held him.

His willpower lasted five entire minutes before the feeling of the massive warm rod nestled in the crack of his ass became too much, and he rolled over. After a quick verbal check to make sure it was okay, he pushed his werewolf boyfriend down on the bed and began giving him a morning handjob. Sergiy returned before he finished, and began playing with Russell's apparently sensitive nipples. With the added help, it wasn't long before they had their werewolf gripping the sheets and bucking his hips, whimpering loudly. Bruin lowered his head to swallow what he could, but Russell's testicles were huge, and he had a load to match. Bruin wiped his mouth off, then used Sergiy's towel to clean up what had dribbled out.

"So.Breakfast?"

◆◆◆

That afternoon, Bruin sat at his desk with his phone propped up against a few library books about the castle's history, listening as his o'ba —his biggest dad—talked about his latest construction job.

"As soon as I finish installing the A/C unit for this home, I've got ten more lined up as part of a new complex, and a verbal agreement to do a bunch of electrical work after that, which sets me for the entire summer. So if you want to keep some of the money you're sending us, now's a good time."

"And what am I supposed to do with it? Buy a bunch of pointless fancy clothes? I couldn't, not when that same money would pay for someone's groceries for a month."

His o'ba nodded. "It's appreciated, then, and lets us help out the community. We're basically running a small food bank at this point with what you send us, so I might ask Mrs. Natash if there's any kind of tax incentives on making it official or what have you. Having said that, show me your shoes. Right now, no repositioning them first."

Shit.

Holding back a sigh, he picked up the phone and carried it over to his footwear, showing his dad their states before returning to his desk.

" Bruin . "

"It's not that bad, I don't really wear them that much here. There aren't any brambles or sharp rocks on the grounds, so really it's only when I go to town, and I've got the sandals for that."

"And what about when you do your weekly walks? Ten to twenty-mile round trips? I remember your shoes when you left. Your best pair had two-inch holes in the toes."

"No, I sewed those parts up. It's all good!"

"And the insoles?"

"They're… not as good."

"Do I need to get your other parents on the line?"

"O'ba, no, I'll—"

"Too late!" Cackling, his o'ba turned over his shoulder. "Beloveds! Our eldest son is being difficult!"

" That bruska! What has he done now? "

" Yes, tell us ."

In moments, there were four people trying to fit themselves in the camera, three orcs and one human, who was bouncing a baby in her arms.

"I'm being good!" Bruin protested, smiling.

"He is," his o'ba said. "I just wanted an excuse for everyone to come see you. But! Your next government paycheck, you buy yourself some good shoes first, okay? Or see if you can't have your host pay for it, since equipment should be provided, especially if you'll be going up cold mountains. Ask on behalf of Rosemary and Lux, too."

"Yes, o'ba. I'll ask, and if I'm told no, or if it will take too long to get reimbursed for them, then I'll buy me some new shoes."

His parents made general sounds of approval, and then his littlest dad, mi'ba , casually spoke.

"So how are things with this whole promised going?

Bruin hopped up to first make sure his door was closed, then returned, keeping his voice down in case of sharp shifter ears.

He left out the finer sex details, only pointing out that yes, it was very fulfilling, and they were both respecting his boundaries, but he updated them since his last series of texts home.

"And in a few hours, the three of us are going out for a picnic. The valley here is really gorgeous, by the way!"

After each of his parents gave him specific advice on keeping boyfriends happy—comfort food, tease them before having sex, give them flowers, and give them sticky note love letters—and after he said hello to his younger siblings that were still living at home, everyone said their goodbyes, and he hung up.

With what time he had before he was to meet up with the other two, he decided to do some witchy upkeep.

First, he went to his shelf and double-checked his supply of gemstones. One at a time, he took each of the twelve charm bags that he'd made, making sure that the stones were still in harmony. He'd been worried about the bag he'd made for headaches and head injuries, but as he'd planned, and double-checked by Lux, the earth-imbued jade properly balanced out the fire calcite and water-tempered azurite.

Then, he took some time doing maintenance on his other witch's tools.He sharpened his gardening snips, applied a thin coating of shea butter to his djembe, and then wiped down his pipes and cleaned them of accumulated spit and grime.

He was in the middle of checking the quality of his dried herbs when he heard a knock at his door. Resealing a jar of fragrant lavender, he wiped dust and oil off of his hands using one of his dirty shirts, then went to the door.

"Hello," Russell said. "Ready?"

Bruin tilted his head up, receiving a kiss in turn.

"Mixed feelings about it, but I'll deal. Let's head out."

◆◆◆

Thirty minutes later, with the sun beginning to set over the western mountains, Russell came to a stop at the base of a cliff. Currently in his large wolf form, he lowered himself down carefully to the ground, making it easier for Bruin to swing a leg over. As he fell off of his boyfriend, staggering to regain his balance, he hurried around to give Russell some proper scratches around his ears.

"Yes, I like it when you do that," Russell rumbled, his tail wagging.

"What about me?" Sergiy asked in an amused tone, tilting his draconic head. "Do I not get head scratches?"

"Of course you do," Bruin said. "But Russell carried me here, so he gets first dibs on my hands."

"Yes, very fair." Russell rolled over onto his side, which made it easier for Bruin to reach, considering that right now the werewolf's head was as large as a rose bush in bloom.Bruin rubbed his hands through his fur as vigorously as he could without disturbing their packed dinner in the backpack that he wore.

"Come, we need to hurry if we don't want to miss the sunset," Sergiy said, striding around. He nuzzled Russell's snout with his own, then knelt down. "Climb on, Bruin. You can grab hold of my mane, and I'll fly us up."

Bruin gave Russell a last kiss between his ears, then stood, looking up at the near-vertical cliff wall, experiencing a wave of vertigo. He could see a few switchbacks and other paths wrapping around the mountain, but their destination was at the top, a flattened area hundreds of feet away that he was told had a nice view.

He nearly tripped when Sergiy nudged him with his head, and he turned to look at the dragon.

"Hang on, hang on," he said, finding himself dry in the mouth. "How exactly are we going to fly up? I mean, I've heard you say you can fly, the guardians all say you can fly, but I haven't seen you fly. Is it like levitation? Or like a bird? Or, or…"

He felt Russell approach, putting human hands on his shoulders to steady him. "Easy. Easy."

Sergiy shifted into his human form as well, today dressed the same as Russell, shirtless and with Bastion's red-and-gold kilt.

"We don't have to if you don't want to," he said softly, taking hold of his hands. "I just thought it would be a nice idea, having a private dinner while watching the sun set over the horizon."

"I do want to," Bruin said stubbornly. "Just, maybe help me out, and give me a minute?"

"Of course we can do that. And to answer your question, I fly with my wings." Sergiy turned his back to Bruin and made the shift into his weredrake form. "Do you see the tattoos?"

Bruin looked at their lord's sun-scaled back. It was shaped a little differently than a human's, with a much bulkier upper half, and larger than average shoulder blades. There were two ragged scars on either side, but both were covered in intricate emerald green tattoos, shaped like intertwining celtic knots.

"Yes."

"The tattoos are magic prosthetics. They let me summon forth wings, no different than shifting forms. Here, see?"

In the span of a breath, wings that looked to be made of a soft, green light extended out from his back. They were draconic in shape, and somewhat transparent. Bruin reached a hand out, paused to give either Sergiy or Russell a chance to stop him in case he was overstepping, then touched. His hand passed through them with only a vague warmth.

"I can feel that, a little," Sergiy said. "But the wings are only really solid to air. They function using the same internal magic as physical wings, they just look a little different, is all."

"Can I ask about the scars? Is… I'm guessing something happened to your original wings.A combat injury, or something?"

"No, nothing like that."

Bruin found himself reaching out, laying a hand comfortingly on his back as Sergiy shrugged.

"My natural wings just never grew in properly.Genetics.Instead of full limbs, all I had were a pair of knucklebones beneath the hide, useless for flying. I ended up having them removed."

Sergiy said it so cavalierly, but Bruin could tell there was more weight to the story. Stepping forward, he wrapped his arms around Sergiy's waist as best as he could, his cheek pressed up against those same scars. He felt Sergiy cover his hands with his own.

"My mom has five children, but I'm the only drake shifter, and I knew I wanted to follow in her footsteps. She and I had a long talk, planning out options. We tried a few non-invasive treatments, first, but without real success. So eventually, I had the wings surgically removed in order to make room for these prosthetic ones."

"Could you not have kept them? Tattoos over knucklebones?"

"No. The remnant wings claimed neural precedence. As long as they were there, there was a strong chance that midflight, my body would reflexively try to fly with the 'wrong' wings, and I'd fall. This was the best way."

Sergiy dismissed his wings, then turned around. Bruin immediately raised his hands up to ruffle the sides of his cheek.

"I don't have any regrets. I can fly now, which lets me better do my job as a warlord, and in return I just have to be seen by a specialist once or twice a year, for maintenance and therapy."

Sergiy bent down, giving Bruin a kiss on the forehead.

"My flying is perfectly safe, but I can understand if you'd rather not. We can have our dinner here, it's fine."

Bruin was already shaking his head, refusing the out that he was being given. He sniffed, then grabbed the end of Sergiy's jaw, wiggling it about. "Ooh, don't you dare, mister. You're flying me up the mountain, even if Russell needs to tie me up in his kilt."

"Bondage witch," he said.

"Exactly. But let's try it naturally first, okay? Now park your ass on the ground so I can mount you."

Sergiy snapped his teeth, but shifted forms and did as he was asked.

It took Bruin several long breaths to muster the courage to climb on, and his hands were shaking as they grabbed hold of his mane.

"You're doing good," he heard Sergiy say softly. "I'm going to face the cliff, okay? It'll be in front of us the entire time, and at any point I can just flap a few yards forward and we can put you down. Just stare straight ahead, we're going to rise like being on an elevator. If you get too uncomfortable, you can just close your eyes and bury your face in my neck, like the third time I fucked you last night."

Bruin snorted a laugh, took a few more steadying breaths, then sat up.

"Ready."

Sergiy summoned his wings, and the base of them passed through Bruin's legs with a warm tingle. Extending them out, he began to flap.

"This first jump is a doozy, but after that it'll be gentle, okay?"

Sergiy leapt straight upwards, ten or twenty feet, and Bruin felt himself pressed into his back.

"Doing good, Bruin. Up we go."

"Yeah."

They were climbing at what felt like hundreds of miles an hour.

"Remember to breathe, mate of mine."

"Right," he squeaked.

The cliff in front of him seemed to flip upsidedown.He buried his head down, closing his eyes.

"Halfway there. Doing great!"

"Mmhmm!"

Wind and gravity.He felt a like he were made of stone himself, unable to move, and he could feel his heartbeat through his fingers.

"And… there! Coming in for a landing. See the flat area?"

"Yup."

Nope.Eyes firmly shut.

"Not so bad, right? Bruin?"

Concentrating on taking deep breaths, he opened his eyes, then shakily pulled one knee up to his chest, sliding off of his mate enough where he could touch the ground with his other foot. He would have preferred to just fall off, but he wasn't sure what that would do to their dinner.

Once he had both feet on the ground, he sat down and let the nausea pass. He gave Sergiy a half-hearted smile, and the drake nuzzled him in return.

"I'm proud of you. Be back in a minute, I'm going to get Russ."

Bruin took off the backpack, made sure the contents hadn't been too disturbed, then laid himself flat on his back, having renewed appreciation for the stability of the earth as he tried not to float away into the spinning sky.

He lifted his head a moment later, hearing Russ whoop. Sergiy was flying through the air, going up much higher than the landing, and then diving down. Russ had his arms in the air, only holding on with his legs, and even from this distance, Bruin could make out the manic smile.

When they came in for a landing several minutes later, Sergiy setting down gracefully like a bird, Russell hopped off. He pumped his fists as he circled Sergiy, laughing, then swung his arms around Sergiy's neck, rocking his head back and forth.

Russell noticed him watching and waved, then hurried over. Once he arrived, though, his smile became more of a frown, and Bruin saw him sniffing the air.

"Was it less fun for you? I'm sorry."

Bruin shook his head, looking between him and Sergiy as his mate shifted into his human form.

"It wasn't the worst," he said, mentally sighing as he realized what he was consigning himself to. "I'm sure I'll get used to it in time."