Vicious Fates and Vast Futures (Tangled Auras #3)

Chapter One

Nairna

“ A delaide, you know I adore you, but...are you fucking stupid?” I stare at my mate blankly.

It has been seven days since the unseelies tried to execute me by fire. Merely seven days. And Adi, Bryn, Osmund, and I have been ensconced in Adi’s rooms at the nymph castle for that week. And oddly, it almost, almost , feels like home already. Quite possibly because I’ve been surrounded by my now three mates: Adelaide, in line for the throne of this court; Bryn, the guarded and sarcastic—some may say dickish—captain of the rebel group Elfin Anarchy; and Osmund, Norse and nymph, empathetic, and humongous—in all ways.

Adelaide finally decided to reveal what she has been silently brewing about for the last week. She’s been off-kilter, her aura...sharp since Osmund awoke from his magical coma four evenings ago. Even though we don’t yet know each other terribly well, I can tell she’s moodier than normal.

Osmund, the only mate I haven’t rolled around in the sheets with, makes a noise of disapproval from where he sits on the thick rug in the library, wrapped around Adelaide. I shoot him a glare.

He and I aren’t exactly close yet, despite him saving me from the execution. I did thank him. I’ve been trying to ignore my urges to lick his tattooed chest. I continue to glower at him, but he meets my annoyed look blandly and tosses his long blonde hair back.

Adi’s stricken face turns to me in silent shock. I feel her anger whipping up. Thankfully, though, her magic stays latent. It has been close to the surface, Bryn says, since the Mabon Bombing.

She opens and closes her mouth before saying, “Excuse me?”

I’m struggling not to laugh at her reaction, even as I’m getting turned on by her anger. I look to Bryn. He raises his dark shapely brows as he swirls the amber liquid in his glass before raising the whiskey to his mouth silently.

Alright, both the guys are pussies and I’ll have to do this myself. Not shocking, I suppose.

“Adelaide, your little tempest a moment ago is edging all three of us. Unseelie elves do not make nearby Fae horny as fuck whenever they’re angry. Nymphs, however, do.” I shake my head. “Why exactly would you believe a single word out of Barclay’s mouth? Did you not do any deductive reasoning before deciding you weren’t your father’s child and downing a bottle of liquor?”

Bryn is no longer able to hold in his laugh. Osmund looks stricken; I don’t know if he’s shocked I spoke to Adi like that or shocked because he hadn’t put it together. Adi glares at me, irritation written across her face.

“Well, where the fuck were you when I needed you to talk some damn sense into me?” she blurts out angrily.

She’s frustrated but her eyes are sparkling. Her violet aura twirls and eddies around me, as though I’m the center of the storm. I refuse to drop my gaze. As she searches my face, I watch the anger melt out of her. Most of her aura coils back, wrapping around her like a downy blanket, though tendrils stretch out to each of us, our colors blending and billowing with hers.

“Dammit, En,” Adi finally chuckles softly.

I beam at her nickname for me. I think I like it better than hearing her call me “love.”

This past week has been disorienting as hell. I’ve gone from being an unseelie guard, whose position was based on skill and who had the respect of her peers, to the waited-on mate of a princess of the decadent Nymph Court—and who now apparently has no job or responsibilities, save keeping Adi alive and sated.

Being aura-bonded to three Fae—whom I’d only meet a few weeks ago—is what’s really fucking with my head. Adi, Bryn, and Osmund have wrapped me up in their little already-bonded family, making me a part of it. Of them .

I’m not used to having anyone to rely on, nor needing to rely on anyone. The feeling of their emotions that shimmer down our bonds to settle in my chest still feels odd. Like ghosts, not really there, not tangible, but merely an intuition.

Even though we’ve been hiding in Adi’s spacious rooms, adjusting and getting to know each other, I’ve resisted Adi and Bryn’s gentle nudges to have sex with Osmund. I still feel awkward around him.

However, every other possible combination of the four of us has been going at it very regularly. Even better than the mind-blowing sex are the late-night chats, cooking meals together, and playing board games.

The mere memory of destroying Adi in Monopoly brings a grin to my face. My mate isn’t a very good loser, and I find it completely endearing and adorable.

While last week has flown by in an utterly confusing blur of healing and emotions and sex and bonding, I’m sure the queen won’t let us hide forever. She still needs an heir.

Bryn clears his throat. “We’re going to need to get back to the grind here soon.”

I blink slowly, suspiciously. I wonder if he could tell what I was thinking from the emotions I was unconsciously allowing down the bond. I better work on the blocking techniques Adi taught me.

“By grind, do you mean murders?” Adi asks pertly.

Bryn lifts an eyebrow silently, his brown curls falling near his hazel eyes.

Osmund shifts Adi on his lap, looking nervous. “Have the abhorrent things that occurred at the Dark Court caused you to make any decisions about the throne, baby?”

Adi makes a noncommittal sound and I feel a wave of unease from her. A loud knock on the outer door interrupts us. Adi hops up to answer it. Bryn starts to stand, but I wave him back to sitting as I follow her from the library to her reception room.

I quietly ask, “When will we be telling them about the birth control?”

While at my former court, the Dark Court, she had secured two doses from her lawyer in Boston, having decided that parenthood, at the moment, was off the table. She had taken a dose a few days ago. And, after watching Bryn and me fuck the next night, she offered me the other dose to inject. I took it without hesitation. Not having to rely on a bit of magic and luck to keep from getting knocked up sounded like a blessing.

Adi sighs, obviously feeling some sort of guilt about not saying anything yet. “Soon, Nairna. I promise.”

I open our outer door, one hand on my sword. But it’s just Adi’s cousins, the twins. I have only met them briefly.

Adi positively squeals with delight as she throws the door open all the way and presses past me to hug them. “You made it!”

The tall blond nymphs are muscular and smile easily. They slip inside. One turns to me and bows.

“My cousin’s mate, I dearly wish you were single, as your beauty is as wondrous as the first rays of the morning sun after a dark night.”

I snort. “Seriously?”

“Ahh.” He grins. “You can’t blame me for trying.”

“Quit, Urien,” Adi scolds. “C’mon, we’re in the library.”

As we head that way, the other, Albon, produces a handful of silverware. I cock my head.

“Yes!” Adi screams. She then chuckles. “Maudey is going to spit in your soup, though, if she finds those missing.”

“ Why do we need utensils?” Bryn asks suspiciously from his chair, as the four of us enter the library.

Albon grins, tossing them down a table and taking out a deck of playing cards.

“Because I’m about to kick your asses at Spoons!” Adi beams as though already triumphant. The look on her face is enough to fuel a thousand daydreams and get me through any struggles we face with the Court.

THE NEXT MORNING, WE wake to the mirror chiming. We had all collapsed, exhausted, in Adi’s huge bed after playing multiple rounds of Spoons and drinking more whiskey than is advisable. It’s the first time we’ve all slept in a big puppy pile since Osmund had awoken.

As the chiming gets louder, Bryn quickly disentangles himself from Osmund’s very large, and very nude, body. I take a moment to ogle Osmund’s inked pecs and arm before turning away quickly. Adi silently slips out of the room after Bryn.

Osmund’s eyes are half lidded. He meets my gaze with a languid grin and rolls onto his back, his soft but still huge dick laying across his thigh as he watches me. I lock my eyes on the ceiling, determinedly ignoring him and feeling weirdly self- conscious. I should just fuck him, get it over with. Then maybe he’ll stop vacillating between being shocked by my audacity and eye-fucking me.

I’m contemplating if the ceiling is real stone or not when I feel both Adi and Bryn’s anger from the other room. Ah, shit. They’re fighting, aren’t they? Osmund must think so, sitting up and scooting to get off the enormous bed. Before he can, however, the door opens and they come back into the bedroom, both still nude.

“I’m telling her and that’s the end of it,” Adi says firmly.

“A chroí, I urge you to reconsider. They will know the source of the information, and that puts you in jeopardy.” Bryn’s words are polite but his tone is bossy. He’s trying to order her.

I raise my eyebrows. That’s probably not gonna work out for him.

“It’s not up for discussion, Bryn,” Adi says forcibly as she strides up to the bed. She holds her hand out to me in silent command. She looks every inch a queen. A naked and pissed off one. I slip off the bed reverentially.

She grabs me around the back of the neck and pulls my lips to hers. Her lips are plump and soft and I immediately lose myself in the kiss. When she pulls away, she simply says, “I need you, En.” And without another word, she tugs me by the hand to the doorway near her bed.

The other day, she had asked the castle-slash-sithen to create some new rooms for her. What “she”—Adi says their sithen is female, but I don’t have a clue how she knows that—designed for Adi is nothing short of incredible.

A large common area, just off Adi’s bedroom, that includes a smallish but well-stocked kitchen, a long heavy wooden dining table, and a mirror alcove at the end. The common space then extends to a living room and game-room-type area. A pool table stands near the door to the previously created gym and training room. The living room area is sunken, with invitingly plush couches and pillows and blankets that looked hand knitted, all in jewel tones. A screen drops from the ceiling if you want to watch TV, which is a technology that most Fae still shun. Between the kitchen and the sunken living room, a hallway leads back to our bedrooms. Each door had come with a plaque clearly marking my, Bryn, and Osmund’s rooms.

We had been delighted to discover that each bedroom suite was different. Not just different, but the sithen had somehow decorated them according to what Adi had told “her” about us. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I realized my room had a very large window that opened and an old maple tree complete with limbs large enough to hold me in my bird form directly outside it. The tiny bathroom and kitchenette were merely frosting on the cake.

Adi and I pass through the kitchen and I smile at my mate’s back as she leads me to my room.

I shut the door behind us and Adi, beautifully naked, sits on my white bedspread, legs hanging. It’s a bit tall for her, and it makes me smile.

“C’mon here, love,” she purrs easily.

I start to cross the room but she growls. I freeze, waiting.

“Crawl to me and eat my pussy,” she says as she spreads her pale thighs for me to feast upon the sight of her cunt.

I grin and drop to my knees. I’ve already learned that her anger makes her more of a dom in bed. I don’t mind, as long as I get to touch and be touched by her.

I crawl slowly, back low, ass and breasts up, meeting her eyes as I do so.

I’d stab Bryn on the spot for suggesting this. But Adi?

Adi gets what Adi wants.

A purr emerges from her as her hands dig into my hair. “Good girl,” she whispers as I rush right for her clit. My hands raise to stroke her thighs, and as I get more and more lost in her delicious taste, my arms slide around her ass, pulling her to me. I look up. Her head is dipped back, her curls brushing my hands on her ass, her gorgeous large breasts jutting forwards. I release her ass with one hand to start to tease her nipples. She groans needily.

“On the bed, love,” she says gently. As I hasten to obey, she stands and pulls a box out from under the bed.

“You getting me gifts, birdie?”

A huge and slightly evil grin splits her face. “Well, you could say that.”

She opens the box and pulls something out. My eyes strain to focus, trying to make sense of it.

Oh shit. It’s a double-ended harness. I feel a flicker of something; I’m not sure if it’s need or concern. Both, mayhap? I had been with a few other females before Adi, but we always kept things simple, no toys involved.

I watch silently as Adi does up the black straps over her gorgeous hips, then eases the one end inside herself with a small sigh. I raise an eyebrow.

“It has features both the wearer and the receiver will enjoy,” she says softly, as though she’s nervous. She has no need. She can rail me into next week for all I care.

“Can I wear it and fuck you sometime?” I ask calmly. I’m just curious. I don’t mind either way she answers.

She grins. “I’d like that.”

“Can I use it on Bryn?”

She laughs loud and long before finally saying, “I don’t think he’d approve.”

I smirk. I had just been teasing. Mostly.

“Get on your back and spread those pretty grey legs for me.”

I roll into position and drop my knees to the bed. She climbs on top of me and rubs her cock up and down my slit.

“You’re wet, love,” she murmurs.

In response, I arch my back, pressing into her. I’m aching. I need her inside me now or I’m going to die. She pulls the need from me so easily; I almost don’t believe it.

She chuckles. “Needy little slut.”

I groan. “Don’t let the boys hear you say that. If they call me that, I’ll knock their teeth out.”

She laughs uproariously. I love her laugh. I love laughing with her during sex. It’s positively incredible.

“I would too, if they called me that...but you can, Nairna.”

I smile and pull her mouth to mine. She chooses that exact moment to shove the thick toy inside me. I squirm and gasp as she starts to thrust in and out of me at a steady and slow pace, soft thighs against mine and her breasts bouncing in time with her deep thrusts. I palm one and graze my thumb over her hard nipple.

She slows and reaches between us, fingers playing with something in the harness. Suddenly, a low buzz emits from the ends. Both of us groan at the vibration and press into each other harder.

Her mouth is claiming mine, our tongues dancing. The toy’s vibrations push me quickly towards the edge. Before I can finish, I grab Adi’s nipples, one with my fingers, one with my mouth. She easily whimpers out an orgasm as her hips falter.

Her pleasure was what I needed and I let go. Let go and fall into an orgasm of an intensity that only Adi seems to bring out of me. My eyes close as I cry out loudly. Time seems to pause for a few heartbeats and the only thing I’m aware of is her skin against mine. Slowly, my muscles relax and my eyes open to meet her indulgent gaze.

My arms are wrapped around my gentle mate as she pulls out of me and rolls to the side. My hands go to fiddle with the straps, to help her remove it, but she swats me away and pulls a blanket over us, pressing against me. We lay in silence, floating in that incredible almost-dozing state for a good long while.

I blink as I feel her stir against me. “So what were you and Bryn arguing about?” I ask.

She snorts, annoyed, but it just makes me smile harder. I’ll wait her out. I let my hand trace up and over her hip.

Finally, she sighs, meeting my eyes. “Before we came to the unseelie sithen for the Courts Gathering, we toured Ossy’s FEC. FEC1.”

I nod. She has mentioned this to me before.

“Well, the queen of one of their two courts, the Light Alf Queen Gitta, requested my assistance if I were to hear of any issues within her court.” Another sigh slips out of her. “Turns out, I know of a rather large one.”

“And you want to tell her, but Bryn thinks that the traitor will know you’re the leak.” I finish the unspoken implication to be sure I understand her.

“Yes.”

“So...?” I prompt.

“So, I’m telling the queen. I gave her my word.”

I frown, thinking. “Does informing the alf queen of her traitor endanger you or our aims? If so, fuck that. We need to protect ourselves first and foremost.”

Adi grimaces before answering. “It probably does endanger us.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Then you should not tell her, birdie.”

Adi’s eyes go distant as she thinks. I run my fingers gently up and down her marked arm.

Eventually, she sighs yet again, as though disliking the conclusion she is coming around to.

“What did the Morrigan say?” I venture. “Do what is right, not what is good?”

She nods silently, lying relaxed in the circle of my arms. I can tell she is continuing to weigh her decision, so I stay still, stroking her without comment.

Suddenly, she sits up and paces to the call mirror I have hanging. She tugs the heavy fabric off of it, revealing a small oval mirror surrounded by a gilt wood edge. She grabs the crystal hanging on a copper chain between her breasts and holds it as she silently presses her palm to the mirror.

As the mirror clears, I see a yellow alf, her gauzy dress drifting lazily in the air currents created by her big fuzzy moth wings. She hovers, appearing as if on the other side of my mirror. The alf raises her dandelion-colored eyebrows. “Priestess. Can I help you?” she asks in a snide tone.

“Why yes, Maja, you can,” Adi says with an evil purr in her voice. “You see, my guards have only just talked me out of ratting you out to Queen Gitta on account of the promise I made her.”

The alf’s skin darkens to a shade of ochre in her anger. “That would not impress the other EA leaders, Priestess.”

Adi grins like a cat that ate the canary. “Turns out, I don’t give a fuck.”

Maja scowls. “Would your captain not care?”

The magic laying dormant inside my powerful mate jumps to the surface, making her luminescent. “ I don’t have a captain. I make my own decisions. And I require your cooperation in return for my silence to your queen.”

The little Fae hisses in fury. “Cooperation with what?”

“You are my spy now. I need your eyes and ears in your court and in your chapter of the EA.”

Maja crosses her doll-sized arms over her chest and glares. “And if I don’t agree?”

“I’m sure Queen Gitta would be overcome with rage should she learn that her trusted handmaiden is a leader of a rebel group trying to overthrow her.”

The insinuation hangs heavy between them for a moment. Maja finally nods tightly, wrath radiating from the small Fae.

Adi merely smiles sweetly and blanks the mirror.