Chapter 11

The firelight flickered over the three of them in the silence that followed Caroline's outrageous suggestion. She knew she had shocked them, but she didn't regret making the offer. She needed comfort and reassurance, not from either of them but from both. She shouldn't have to choose when they both wanted her. Playing this stupid hot potato game by pushing her from one to the other had to stop tonight.

When neither of them said anything she dropped her arms and stepped back.

"Don't overthink it, because it's just sex." Caroline saw the focused way they were staring at each other and guessed they were doing the wordless communication thing again. "I want to have sex with both of you, just to be clear."

From the hearth she went back into the corner to inspect the bed, which appeared too small to accommodate all three of them. The ticking looked clean, and smelled fresh, so she pulled that off the slatted frame and dragged it over in front of the hearth. The floor, made from something like cobblestones with dirt packed between them, seemed to be clean and looked bug-free. The fire had already warmed the air.

If they agree, I'm really going to do this.

The prospect of having sex with two men at once should have scared her; she'd never tried such a thing in her time. The attention and care Nyall and Jamaran gave her when they were together told her she would be safe with them. She had never noticed any signs of jealousy from either of them, which they needed if this was going to work out. If she were honest with herself, she'd been thinking about it since the day she'd arrived on the island. She also suspected Jamaran understood the situation better than the captain, and approved. Had he been fantasizing about this, too?

"Why cannae you choose one of us stay with you tonight?" Nyall asked.

"There's no reason I have to," she said as she went over to the big cabinet, opening it to inspect the linens on the shelves. "I'm not marrying you or him. I also refuse to become the reason your friendship ends. My way, no one has to go without. We all get what we want." She glanced over her shoulder. "You know I'm right, too. You just can't let yourself admit it."

"You shallnae end our friendship," the commander murmured.

Nyall watched her spread the linen coverlet she'd found over the ticking. "Neither the clan nor the Selseus would accept us sharing you as our lover, my lady."

"How is that their call?" she countered. "We're adults. This is our business. I'm not going to tell anyone, are you?"

"'Tisnae my meaning," he said, sounding stern now. "You must live on Caladh, at least until we may return you. Taking two lovers, 'twill make others name you an outcast, even a hoor. You shall be shamed by other women and leered over by every man who hears of us."

He was worried about how it would affect her, not what anyone would say about him and his friend. Of course men usually got a free pass to have whatever kind of wild and crazy sex they wanted, while women were instantly judged. Still, it warmed her to know he was holding back on her account.

"I don't care what other people think if they find out." She regarded him, and saw the strange sadness in his eyes again. "I nearly died in the water again today. I'm tired of pretending I don't want this. I never play games. I know you two are best friends, but being with me won't change that. Where's the harm in doing what we want when we're alone?"

Caroline sensed neither of them would make the first move, so she pulled the collar of the one piece over her head, and worked her arms out of the short sleeves. Jamaran was already on board, but the captain needed convincing. Pushing down the one-piece so she could step out of it left her completely naked. She looked even better without any clothes on, and from the way they both stared at her, they shared that opinion. The moonlight coming through the window made her glow as if she'd been dipped in liquid silver. She knew her body to be unconventionally appealing, just like her mother's. In the twelfth century she was probably the equivalent of a pin-up girl.

Will they be able to resist me?Maybe she was being too reckless, or taking on more than she could handle. Probably both. She didn't care. If she didn't try, they'd never know.

"If you're still not sure, you can just watch me and the commander," she told Nyall, who was staring at her face instead of her body. "But it will be a lot more fun if you join in."

He finally stood, and looked past her at Jamaran. "You're certain, then."

"'Tis a dream from which I never wish wake," the commander said, coming up behind Caroline again and resting his hands on her shoulders.

Leaning back against him, she held out her arms to Nyall, who stepped into her embrace. Being wedged between their two hard, warm bodies made Caroline shiver with pleasure; they fit together so beautifully, a sculpture they made together only like this. She reached up to unlace the captain's tunic, arching her back to nudge his chest with her hard nipples and brush her bottom against Jamaran's long, thick erection. She'd already grown so wet between her thighs she had to be completely saturated by her own arousal—something else that had never happened to her.

I've never been this excited.

Nyall cradled her chin with one big hand, tilting her head back before he kissed her lips. At the same time Jamaran put his mouth against the side of her throat, grazing her with his teeth before he sucked lightly. The two kisses made her groan into the captain's mouth, and then the three of them were kneeling together on the coverlet-draped ticking. The straw crackled under their weight, but provided the right amount of cushioning.

This is really going to happen.

Jamaran eased her down onto her back as Nyall rose and stripped off the rest of his clothes, and then the commander stood to do the same with his fitted garment, which came apart from some hidden seams in the front. Seeing both men standing over her, both naked and made silvery by the moonlight, sent Caroline's heartbeat into a frantic thrum.

Mine. All mine. Both of them.

"If 'tis more than you wish, say now," Nyall told her, his voice so deep it sounded like a purr. "For I dinnae think we may stop once we touch you."

"That would be a wish come true," Caroline said, reaching out to them both.

She'd had several lovers in the past, but her relationships had all been basic and conventional. She'd also never bothered to watch porn. That was why even in her fantasy she wasn't quite sure how making love with two men at the same time would work. Lucky for her, the guys took charge, cradling her between them as they slowly kissed and caressed her. Being able to touch them both at once made her hands shake, but their warmth and the excitement of being with them at last wrapped her up with delight and anticipation.

"Your heart, 'tis beating so fast," Jamaran said, nuzzling her neck as he stroked her breast with the satiny palm of his hand. "'Tis fluttering."

Nyall rubbed his thumb along the curve of her bottom lip, his eyes narrowing when she caught it between her teeth. "You're truly no' frightened."

Caroline sucked gently on his thumb before she released it. "Why would I be afraid of something that's this good?"

He leaned forward, capturing her mouth and tasting her before he said, "I wish see you kiss him while I take you with mine."

She had guessed Nyall would be the one to take control, and from the sound Jamaran made he approved. Only they were still trying to be polite boys, and she wasn't going to have that.

"Just kiss? I think you want more than that." She curled her arm around his neck and drew his head down to whisper, "You want to watch me suck his cock while you fuck me."

The captain's expression went taut with need. "Aye, so I do."

Caroline smiled. Until this moment she'd never understood why she'd been so unsatisfied with her former lovers. None of them had ever been able to light up her body like these two men were doing.

They seemed to know the ebb and flow of how to make love to her together, for as things progressed Caroline became aware of a rhythm to what they did. When Jamaran sucked her nipples and stroked his hand over her belly, Nyall shifted back, pillowing her head on his arm as he watched them. Then, just as she thought she would go crazy, Jamaran nudged her legs apart and rubbed her thigh, watching Nyall's hand move between to cup and explore her folds.

Neither one of them showed even a flicker of jealousy as they touched her.

Sounds began bursting from her lips as Caroline's need grew almost unbearable, and that was when her pale lover turned her over, urging her onto her hands and knees. She pushed him onto his back, looming over him as she took hold of his cock and rubbed her cheek against the heavy length of him.

Nyall moved behind her, lifting her hips as he slid his shaft against her folds. "Take him in your mouth as I come in you."

Caroline gently kissed the satiny dome of Jamaran's cockhead, waiting as Nyall notched her pussy with his. Her lips and her sex seemed to flare with heat as she dreamily engulfed her pale lover with her mouth, and welcomed her dark lover's slow penetration. Having them both inside her made excitement flood her. They were tall enough to see everything the other one did to her. Nyall was watching her mouth slide up and down Jamaran's long shaft. Jamaran's gaze shifted from her face to where Nyall was pumping in and out of her.

The commander's webbed fingers caught her hair and lifted it away from her face, and when she looked up at him she saw desire sharpening his features. By watching him she learned that he loved her tongue on his shaft, and the exact pressure she needed to use as she worked her lips over him. When she sucked him, he uttered a soft grunt that sent shivers dancing over her skin.

At the same time the captain slid his hands under her, cupping her breasts as he thrust in and out of her pussy, his fingers caressing and tugging at her nipples. That steady, stretching friction made her clit swell so much her own heartbeat began thrumming there. He kept plowing deeper and harder as they moved together, pushing her so that her mouth slid down on Jamaran, who then thrust back to impale her on Nyall's thick girth. Both men made her writhe and moan as the three of them found the perfect rhythm.

It couldn't last for long; all of them were too aroused. As soon as Caroline sensed Jamaran was close, she clenched around Nyall as hard as she could. That triggered her own climax, which nearly made her scream, and then both men began pumping their seed into her. She swallowed the silky jets Jamaran spilled, and relished the pounding strokes Nyall gave her as he reached his peak.

Somehow they ended up on their sides with her caught between them as they all shook with the tremors of remnant pleasure. Having Nyall's cock lodged deep inside her as Jamaran kissed her mouth sent more pleasure spreading through Caroline.

This is why no man was ever enough for me. I needed them.

Bered remainedon the shore as he watched the landcrawlers and Jamaran enter the cottage, and saw through the window the flare of a fire being lit. The fact that they had rescued his prize from his trap deeply enraged him, but could not be helped now. The facking landcrawler hoor had seen him, too, which the commander would use against him with the king. He knew Merrick only too well not to heed the warning he'd issued after disowning him. He would order him driven into exile, forever denied the prize of the Selseus throne.

Making his way toward the cottage, he imagined barring the entry and setting fire to the hovel. If all three burned, then he would be saved from exile or worse.

"You cannae prevail over those bastarts, my prince," a familiar voice murmured, making him freeze in his steps. "Yet if you come to my aid, I shall see you crowned."

He turned to see Duxor, the king's traitorous cousin, standing in the shallows. Dark shapes moved slowly behind him in the water, but stopped as he approached.

Bered wondered if seizing the traitor and presenting him to the king would convince Merrick the trap he'd set had been for his worthless cousin.

"We reckoned you dead," he said, watching him closely. "What do you here?"

"Your plan to use that female, 'twas clever. A shame those eejits came to her rescue before you could take her. Ever I've reckoned you a wily schemer." The traitor bared his teeth. "I've plans as well, and mine shallnae fail. Come with me, and I'll protect you."

Serving a mewling coward held little value for Bered, but with a little effort and some flattery he might convince the king's cousin to do his bidding. "Where shall we go?"

Duxor's grin widened. "Where I keep my new garrison."

He joined the traitor in the water, and from there swam with him to an island beyond the mist barrier. Seeing light filtering out of the underwater caves made Bered eye the other Selseus with fresh suspicion. Since Freja had disappeared everyone at the settlement had suspected Duxor had lured her away to kill her, and Bered had no desire to become his next victim.

I shallnae end you, I vow, the traitor thought just before he entered the largest cave. I need you.

Bered looked around the caves for the garrison Duxor claimed to have, but saw no other Selseus. Had he recruited some of the young males from the settlement? His curiosity overcame his wariness, and at last he swam after the traitor.

Inside the cave torches fitted with flameless light orbs glowed with blue-white light, illuminating a chamber half-filled with air. Bered surfaced and climbed out onto a shelf of rock, where Duxor stood waiting. Behind him marked hides covered a wall, and showed various features of Caladh etched into the surface. Urchin spines pierced several spots as well.

"You make a habit of breathing air like a landcrawler now?" Bered asked once he'd cleared his gills.

"'Tis where I issue my orders," Duxor said. "I'm teaching my warriors how they may walk on land as well."

He glanced around the empty chamber. "I see naught of your garrison."

"They're shy." The traitor made a beckoning gesture, and something swam up from the depths and surfaced.

Bered stared at the thing, which resembled a shark with a man's features. When it turned slowly in the water, he saw its body had both mortal limbs and a tail, all covered in the hide of a white-mouth. The ghastly creature then met his gaze and grinned, showing rows of jagged shark teeth.

"Meet Erskin, the first of his kind," Duxor said. "He began as a drowning mortal I intended save by transforming, as Merrick did Jamaran. Only a shark attacked him in mid-change, and my power instead joined them together." To the thing he'd transformed he said, "Show you've yet manners."

The creature's wedge-shaped head dipped. "Greetings, my prince."

Bered thought he might empty his belly at that moment, only his throat remained so tight only a few appalled words passed. "You did such a thing?"

"No' deliberately, at least, the first time." The traitor made another gesture, and a mortal with mismatched eyes came out of the water and climbed up onto the rock shelf. "Ah, I'd hoped you'd spied my signal. Present yourself to the next king of the Selseus, wench."

The male's body suddenly shifted into that of a dark-haired female with a narrow face and flat, dark eyes. "Fair night, my prince. I'm called Fiacail."

Now he really would puke, Bered thought. "You're Cait Sith?"

"She was before her Fae princess ordered her stabbed and dropped in the sea." Duxor put his arm around the female. "Now she's like Erskin, and rather more. She may take any shape she chooses, stay on land, and pass as a mortal. Indeed, she's pledged me her service for life."

"As long as my master lives, I shall serve him," the shape shifter agreed.

"How many more of these creatures did you make?" Bered murmured, unable to look away from Fiacail's lethal gaze.

"'Tis seven at present, for 'tis taking much from me to change them alone." The traitor approached him, reaching for his hands and holding them in a fervent grip. "With another Selseus to make the transformations, we may build a true garrison in a few weeks."

"You're mad." Bered yanked his hands free and stepped back. "I want no part of your schemes. These things of yours, they're abominations that you must slay at once. Do thus and leave the settlement, and never return."

Duxor sighed. "I had such hopes."

When Bered turned to dive into the water, he saw six other creatures with Erskin, and froze. The traitor had not limited himself to blending mortals with only sharks; two appeared to be part conger, and one had a whale-killer's big, black and white body with arms and legs sprouting from beneath its fins, and ruddy brown hair wetly curling around a man's face.

"Get out of my way," Bered demanded, and then saw a blade flash in front of his nose.

"Dinnae fret, sweet prince," Fiacail whispered against his ear as she pressed her knife under his chin. "I shall remember you, always."

As Merrick leftthe north side of the island to return to the bay he considered going beyond into the sound. The pack of whale-killers he needed find often haunted the depths between Caladh and the mainland. He also needed more time away from his people to compose himself. Everything inside him demanded he go and find Margret, and take her away with him to a place where they could be alone. If he made love to her, he wondered if that would convince her to come to him. He could also drive her mad by forcing her into the water.

As the last of the sunlight faded, and the turquoise waters turned midnight blue around him, Merrick wearily resigned himself to go on denying the only thing he had ever truly wanted.

The sleek black and white figure of the matriarch came to him just outside the mist barrier, and from her agitated movements he knew she had been very recently disturbed by something. She calmed when he reached out to touch her thin, sensitive skin and looked into one of her brown eyes. One of the oldest of her kind, she usually met him with a serenity that came from decades of memories of him. Whatever had distressed her made her incapable of communicating at the moment, so he followed her back to her pod.

Nearly a hundred of her sons, younger daughters and sisters swarmed around them, all showing the same signs of distress as their leader. The females kept herding all of the youngest in their center, as if they detected a threat nearby. Merrick finally caught the attention of the matriarch's second, another female past her bearing years, who allowed him to clasp her conical head between his webbed hands.

Reaching into her mind with his power, Merrick closed his eyes to receive her thoughts. Unlike the Selseus the whale-killers had no language of words, but expressed themselves in emotions, memories and patterns that formed intricate combinations with the sounds and movements they made.

The second female recalled something like his own power enveloping the pod along with the taste of blood and waves of a single sound. It had triggered the matriarch's terror, for she had never encountered such a fearful occurrence. The entire pod seemed to be on the verge of mourning a death, and yet not from the loss of one of their own.

A terrible being, he thought, had killed somewhere close enough to taint their water.

Aware that he would get nothing more by pestering the creatures, Merrick made a gesture of respectful gratitude. The matriarch began a gathering swim, using her movements to tell the pod they were to leave the area immediately. She paused only long enough to briefly show him a farewell before she led her family away.

Merrick knew whale-killers to be highly intelligent and sophisticated beings who feared nothing. The pod mostly ignored the Selseus, the MacMar and any mortals they encountered, as they did not consider them prey animals. When they grew threatened, however, they formed a vicious and merciless pack, and pursued whatever they considered a danger, which was why other creatures gave them a wide berth. He'd once watched his matriarch and her sisters hunt and kill a gigantic white-mouth that had strayed across the border currents of what they regarded as their territory. They had worked together so well the shark hadn't enough time to even defend itself. Whatever had frightened them now presented a similar danger, he suspected, yet they wished to flee it.

What could terrify the terrifying?

Merrick finally returned to the bay, and then swam to shore. From there he went to the walking labyrinth, where Connal stood waiting for him in the center. Thoughts of Meg and the matriarch tangled inside him, rendering him incapable of finding calm along the shell-lined path. When he finally joined the laird, his bewilderment had hardened into a tight dread.

"You found Shaw." Connal looked into his eyes, and frowned. "Never tell me dead."

"Your brother yet lives, and seems sane. He bid me say he shall return when he's able. From his state I reckon he'll come home soon." Now he had to somehow convince the laird of what he still did not know, nor understand. In the simplest terms he told him of the encounter with the matriarch and the pod, and what they had done.

His friend looked out at the sea. "'Tisnae time for the whale-killers leave our waters."

"Aye, and still she took them away. I wonder if I shall ever see them again." He glanced over to see Jamaran, still dripping with water, assume his position as second on the side of the labyrinth. "Why came you here alone?"

"Kai, that castaway you pulled from the bay, went walking tonight but never returned." Connal sounded tired now. "My men found his tracks at the water's edge. They approached the water, but didnae return."

He thought of the strangeness of the whale-killers, and remembered what they had sensed, and the severed hand they had found indicating a shark attack on a mortal. "You reckon 'twas the white-mouth?"

"I cannae tell you. Brochan says the lad's a hard worker, and seemed happy enough to serve in the kitchens. 'Twas no reason for him run off." The laird's expression darkened. "If 'twas the shark killed him, we need end the beast now."

"Aye, so we do."

A third man came into the Selseus side of the labyrinth, and as soon as Merrick saw him he swore softly. Bered seemed indifferent to his displeasure as he approached and joined them, and even ignored Jamaran when he stepped into his path.

"I ken you dinnae wish welcome me here, my king," his former heir said, staring stonily at the commander, "but I bring news of the lost traitor, Duxor. He nearly captured with a net trap that dark mortal wench who swims as we do." As Jamaran went rigid, he added, "I saw him attack her and then flee the settlement with my own eyes. 'Tis why I dared your displeasure and came here, so I might tell you."

"Such 'twillnae restore you to the palace," Merrick told him.

Bered shrugged. "I've made my peace with that. What I desire, 'tis an end for your cousin's schemes. I reckon he intends use that female as bait so he may lure and kill you, and then take the throne for himself. He yet carries royal blood, and never did you exile him. The elders, they couldnae refuse his claim."

"What he says makes sense," the laird put in, sounding grim.

Dinnae trust him,Jamaran thought at once. You ken he lies whenever he opens his mouth.

Looking into the smaller Selseus's handsome face, Merrick tried to detect any flicker of deception. All he saw was weariness and determination, two things he'd never before seen Bered show so plainly. While he knew his commander was correct, he also understood how desperate his cousin had become, living a non-existence on the outskirts of the settlement.

"If you're lying to me, I shallnae exile you," he told Bered softly. "I shall cage and starve you."

"Aye, and so you should." His cousin reached into his suit and pulled out a familiar-looking chain that had been broken. "I found this by the reef where he set his trap."

Jamaran took the necklace, which Merrick recognized as one fashioned by his uncle just after Duxor's birth. "The pendant?"

Bered shrugged. "I didnae see the thing. I shall return and search again, if you wish."

"Go to the palace and wait there for me," Merrick finally said, and waited until Bered departed before he turned to the laird. "'Twould seem Mistress Parish needs our protection."