Chapter 7
Gillian
The house is weirdly quiet when I wake up.
I almost drift back to sleep, since for it to be this quiet, the kids are either asleep or out the door for the day.
It has to be early. A bleary glance at my phone startles me fully awake though.
I never sleep past eight, but somehow I’ve managed to sleep right through my alarm.
Which means I’m way behind schedule to get everyone where they need to be on time.
Damn it, we’re going to be soooo late. I reach for the clothes I set out last night before bed as I surge out of my tangled blankets.
Even with my adrenaline pumping, I can't help the thrill that goes through me as my fingers brush the lacy panties Winny texted to ask me to wear for her today.
I pull them on and, before I can overthink it, I snap a hips down photo that captures my chromatophores with swirls of excited magenta playing over my bare thighs at just the thought of my raven telling me what to do and how hot I make her.
Ugh. The last thing I need right now is to get all worked up when I don't have time to deal with it.
I set my phone down without sending the picture.
I need to brush my hair and tidy my bed and I'm going to be late getting the kids out the door.
I absently shift my octopus limbs in and out of place to make my bed and brush out the tangles I got from going to sleep with my hair wet.
Taking advantage of my other form's semi-autonomous appendages has me ready to go upstairs and wake the kids by the time the initial surge of adrenaline fades and I realize that I'm panicking over nothing.
I slept in, sure, but that doesn't matter since I don't actually have anywhere to be today.
School is still closed until after the winter holidays so I don't have to be in my classroom.
And Lincoln and Trudy have been taking the kids to work with them to get them to the daycare on their usual schedule.
The only solid plan on my agenda for today is arriving at the aquarium by ten when the public areas open for visitors.
If I even plan to go in today after yesterday’s incident with the touch tank.
After what happened with Marina at the pool, that hardly seems worth noting, let alone filling out the incident report.
When I reach the bottom of the stairs, I take a moment to calm down. My heart is still racing. Someone is moving around the kitchen, I can hear them now that I’m not distracted. Trudy hums tunelessly to herself and my heart sinks. She probably sent Lincoln in with the kids to talk to me alone.
Tides, I hate this. True is the only person I’ve always known I could count on.
I hate not being able to trust in that foundational truth anymore.
I'm dreading dragging myself upstairs for breakfast after everything that went down yesterday, but it's not like I can put off talking to Trudy forever, much as I kind of want to right now.
I debate hiding in my room until she leaves for work.
My phone buzzes in my pocket and I almost fall over, I'm so startled by the vibrations.
I pull it out with a scowl, expecting the message to be from Trudy, calling me out for hiding.
Not my fault I listen to my octopus instincts to seek safety at the first sign of a threat.
I shake my head at myself, my sister may be a lot of things, but she's not a threat. No matter what else might change between us, that won’t.
I almost drop my phone when I see the actual message though.
My Dragon: Good morning, treasure. How are you feeling after last night? Any regrets?
I hug my phone to my chest, aching at the gentle kindness of her reaching out to check on me again. She has to be kidding, of course I loved every minute basking in her attention.
Gillian: No regrets about us. Counting down until I can see you in person.
My Dragon: Mhm. Me too. Our date can't come soon enough. Did you think of me this morning when you put on your pretty panties for me?
If she keeps sweet talking to me like that, forget our date, I'm going to be coming before I even have my breakfast. I flush at the reminder that she told me what to wear and seems invested in whether I obeyed.
Am I brave enough to show her the photographic proof I'm her good girl?
Yeah, I want to show her. I send the pic I snapped in my room. Her immediate reply doesn't disappoint.
My Dragon: Good girl, gorgeous. Feathers, if my sister wasn't asleep in the bed across from me I'd call you right now to tell you just how amazing you'll look when I take you out of those.
I bite back a needy whine and it's a toss up as to which of our sisters I most wish would be conveniently elsewhere right now. Damn it. I can't get my plans to move out in motion fast enough.
Gillian: Ugh, don't remind me that I have to face my sister again if I want to venture out of my room in search of breakfast.
My Dragon: Sorry? Would you rather I tell you exactly how I want you to finger yourself under that pretty lace? I can't wait to taste you through it. Get your pussy dripping for me and your tentacles wrapped around me, all desperate for touch, like you were clinging to the bath fixtures last night.
I squirm, already more than a little turned on by her words, even when they're mere text on a screen. I shudder at the fantasy of her husky voice whispering those same things into my ear while she touches me and my suckers are tasting the salt of her skin.
Gillian: Promises, promises. Is my dearest dragon all smoke and no fire?
I want to goad her, get under her skin as much as she's already under mine. I push more than I normally do this early in a flirtation because so far, she's shown me that I like what happens when I show her I can take whatever she has to dish out.
Winny exudes the calm capability under duress and air of command I crave in a partner without taking more than I have to offer. Hell, right now, I want to offer her a hell of a lot more than circumstances are allowing either of us to explore. I stifle my groan of frustration.
My Dragon: Hmm? What do you mean, I have every intention of having you naked in my bed by solstice, my dear.
I roll my eyes at the offer without any substance.
Sure, her intentions sound wonderful. Except we both apparently live with our sisters breathing down our necks, so I'm not sure where exactly we're going to find the privacy to act on all this bravado.
Still, what's the harm in playing along with a mutual fantasy?
Solstice is only a few days away and it's been ages since I looked forward to the holiday that kicks off all the other winter celebrations around town.
Well, not all of them since the bear shifters have their hibernalia thing in November, but still for a significant portion of Four Corners Solstice is the big winter celebration of the year and most of the rest fall sometime afterward.
Solstice isn’t exactly the highlight of my year for a lot of reasons.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate the holiday.
I do. There’s a parade and colorful light displays all over town, and going visiting to be sure everyone has enough fuel and food to symbolically make it through the long cold night of winter.
Visiting was great when I was a kid collecting sweets from distant relatives I rarely saw, sneaking sips of mulled wine with older cousins, exchanging gifts with most of my shifter friends, and devouring holiday sweets at Mom’s friends’ houses.
I could always eat my fill of cookies and let down my gaurd because it was one of the few nights she was usually in a good mood.
It’s less exciting now that I live with the only family members I’m on speaking terms with and most of my visiting night invites are as part of Trudy and Linc’s family.
I have a few friends who invited me this year, but it’s so awkward reciprocating the offer when I feel like a perpetual adolescent under someone else’s roof. Even if that someone is True.
Now, Solstice has become my yearly reminder that my entire life is in a weird sort of stasis where I’m not an adolescent under my sister’s care, but I’m also not fully independent of her.
Meanwhile, even my university freinds have been moving ahead and leaving me more and more behin in a perpetual akward holding pattern. Ugh.
Not that I don’t enjoy keeping the vigil with my family.
I do, but Solstice is for lovers, so I usually make watching the kids so they can celebrate in the traditional sense my solstice gift to Trudy and Lincoln.
They appreciate the gesture, and they almost never spend more than a few hours taking advantage of the childcare to find some privacy, but that still means my entire solstice night for years now has consisted of being at the kids’ mercy.
Much as I adore them, wrangling a gang of cranky, sugar-crashing, overtired toddlers who are determined to stay awake to greet the sunrise, no matter what is not a recipe for fun. Not for me anyway.
As usual, the kids are excited for presents and the chance to keep the first light vigil, even though they're still a bit young to actually stay up through the night.
I know the raven shifters have an all night party in the courtyard of their apartment complex on the longest night, so that might be something to look forward to this year.
Winny's extended family will take any excuse to throw a party, hence a lot of the younger shifters, avian and otherwise, call the flock a rave.
Maybe it would be fun to join them and she has a plan for alone time if I do?
Gillian: You want to unwrap me under your solstice tree, Winny?
My Dragon: Seems fitting to celebrate the return of light with my own beam of starshine, yeah. I want to invite you to our vigil party…unless you’d want to keep our vigil somewhere a little more private?