12. A Dog’s Love

As days stretched into weeks, my irritation with my two soulmates grew. It wasn”t that I disliked either of them. Nuada fascinated me, and Key was a balm for my soul, an endless well of affection that satisfied all the parts of me that longed to be loved. But it felt like neither of them were willing to give chase, which was a strange state of affairs for creatures who seemed so eminently suited to such a thing.

I never encountered Nuada without looking for him, specifically. It was like he”d vacated the premises so I never had to risk walking into a room and finding his beautiful, dangerous self sprawled across a couch like a waiting leopard. Even when I got irked enough to hunt him down, he always gave me the lead, and never followed up on any of the openings I gave him.

I didn”t know what that meant, and it bothered me every time I thought about him. He”d brought me here, displayed himself for me, let me touch him intimately… and then vanished. Had I done something wrong? Didn”t he want me?

I didn”t know what Key wanted, either, in the same way that I didn”t know what Nuada wanted. Every time I asked, the answer was some variation on ”you” or ”your happiness”, and that didn”t give me enough information to begin to figure him out. It felt like there was a wall there, his secret longings hidden away so that he wouldn”t bother me with them. But I wanted those secrets—wanted him sprawled out naked, body and soul, every piece of him bared for me in the sort of submission hounds know so well.

I wished I knew how to divine what was behind those lovely eyes of his. Almost hour by hour, his adoring gaze was a little less ruddy, the red eyes of the wolfhound who”d savaged me drifting towards royal purple, but I didn”t know if that meant the magic of the Wild Hunt was wearing off of him, or if he was just becoming a little more mine with each hour we spent together. What did he want from me? A mistress to hold his leash and rub his ears? A friend? A lover?

A mate?

He wouldn”t tell me, and I was too afraid of pushing to try to drag that knowledge out of him. I wanted him to give himself to me, not to have to be driven into confession.

Sometime around two or three weeks into my tenure at the Ruined Palace – I hadn”t bothered tracking the days – Keilain vanished in the late afternoon. That wasn”t unusual; he often went out on rambles, or chased down rabbits for my supper. But he didn”t come back, which was a lot stranger, and eventually I had to retire to our bedroom alone.

Given that I”d never found another similar bedroom despite my pointed exploration, I suspected it was actually Nuada”s bedroom, but he hadn”t made a move to reclaim it. God only knew where he was sleeping. Maybe he didn”t have to.

I started getting worried as the hour grew later, missing my hound, and finally remembered that I could just check in with the palace. I found him right away, in a distant room with Nuada. They were touching, and I was pretty sure both of them were naked.

Blushing up a storm, I yanked my attention away from them. Neither man had put a single move on me, despite me flirting with them as best I knew how. I”d never had trouble with that before; I was a curvy girl with a pretty face and reckless charm. I wasn”t a show-stopper – I could blend in if I wanted to – but picking up men had never been an issue for me.

Maybe they”re gay, I thought, a bit despairing, as I tried not to picture too intensely what two naked, inhuman men might be getting up to together. If soulmates could be anything, then sex wasn”t necessarily on the table. My fun little MMF fantasies featuring a certain Hunter and hound might instead resolve into MM and and their gal pal.

God, wouldn”t that be just the pits?

I put myself to bed, missing Key”s warm body next to mine, and resolutely ignored the murmurs outside my door when the two of them came back together.

Only Key came in, though, and he came in on two feet.

That was baffling enough that I sat up, taking the lid off the glowy lamp next to the bed. Key smiled at me as the light hit him, looking anxious, his shoulders hunched and one arm wrapped across his chest, his tail between his legs.

His tail was a four-foot-long weapon instead of the canine one I was used to, a naked spine made of polished silver. He had a pair of sharp-tipped silver horns, too, something like an antelope”s, and the light gleamed off of inch-long silver blades sticking out of his fingertips.

One of Nuada”s robes covered most of his body, but there wasn”t anything dog about him, save for that tail position. It was like my hound had become someone else entirely.

”What the fuck?” I said, too stunned to watch my words.

”Don”t be upset,” he said, pleading in his words. ”I— I can still be your hound. But I…” He swallowed, looking down. There wasn”t any red at all in those stunning violet eyes. ”I wasn”t… happy.”

That made my expression soften, unfamiliar worry making my chest tight. That was the first time Keilain had ever said anything negative to me.

”I”m not upset,” I said, scooting back to lean against the headboard. I patted the bed next to me, where he always slept. ”C”mere. You wanna talk about it?”

He nodded, looking like he might cry, and crossed the room on his so-human feet. My soulmate got onto the bed with care for his deadly claws, then paused, looking up at me through his dark lashes. ”Can I… put my head on your lap?”

”Of course, sweetheart,” I said, concern for him tugging at my heart.

Key nodded again, looking almost scared as he curled up next to me, settling his head on my lap with care. I appreciated it; the tips of his horns gleamed in a way that suggested they could skewer me without any effort at all.

Gently, I started rubbing my fingertips against his scalp. Even his hair was different—silken instead of the wiry tangle of a wolfhound. ”What”s wrong?”

”I love you,” he said, sounding miserable, his eyes squeezed closed. ”I love you the same as I have from the moment I tasted your blood, and in all the same ways.” He shivered, curling up into a tighter ball. ”I still want to run with you, and hunt for you, and… and mate you.” Key looked up at me, his mouth trembling. ”You don”t fuck dogs, Lexi.”

Horror speared through me, those first minutes of waking up in Faery rising in my memory with searing precision. I”d never imagined that Key would base his whole world on my first jumbled reactions to Faery and to him.

But of course he had. What else did he have to go on?

”Oh, baby,” I said, guilt and sorrow making my eyes sting. ”I was just freaked out. Everything was so new and different, and the last thing I remembered was getting run down by dogs and halfway eaten.” I petted his hair, trying on a smile for him as he looked up at me with desperate hope. ”I don”t fuck animals, but you”re not an animal. You”re a person, and I love you, too. But you never said anything like that again, so I didn”t think I could ask for it. You didn”t have to do this.”

A line appeared between his brows as he tilted his head, confusion writing itself across his face. ”But I”ll do what you tell me to,” he said, sounding baffled. ”I would cut off my hand if that”s what would please you.”

My expression went wry, sorrow easing as his fear melted away. ”You”ve gotta see why that makes me wary of asking you for things that might hurt you, right?”

”But why?” Key asked, with total bewilderment. ”I”m yours. You can hurt me if you want.”

”Key,” I said, giving him a look. ”I don”t want to hurt you. I don”t ever want to hurt you. But you don”t ever tell me when something”s going to be bad for you, so I can”t do anything without being careful.” I paused, my mouth tugging to the side. ”It”s kind of exhausting, actually. I like taking care of you, but it”s pretty hard knowing that you won”t help me if I make a mistake.”

He relaxed, leaning his head back to look up at me with his lips parted. ”You can”t trust me to say ”no”, so you”re holding back,” he said slowly, as if experiencing the thought for the first time.

Holding back, I realized, my relationship with Nuada snapping into focus. He”d run me down and nearly killed me, and now he was standing back and staying in the shadows so I didn”t have to be afraid. But I wanted to be afraid—wanted the exhilaration of having a predator to my back.

I was his soulmate. Surely he knew we were well-matched… but maybe he was afraid of hurting me again, as I was afraid of hurting Key.

I ran my fingertips along Keilain”s sharp-tipped elven ear, filing away that little piece of information about the Hunter and focusing back on the now. ”It doesn”t have to stay that way.”

”I promise,” Key said, looking at me like a man in love, eager hope lifting his ears. ”I swear it. I”ll strive to tell you if anything you ask of me will harm me, even if the ask is implied.” He smiled at me, showing the tips of sharpened teeth. ”I will surely not always be good at it, but I”ll try. And late is better than never, true?”

”Yeah,” I said with a laugh, tousling his hair. ”And I”ll try not to be frustrated with you, and to praise you when you”re good for me.”

My hound shivered, heat coming into his eyes. ”I really like that,” he said, his voice dropping into a lower register. ”I think I always have.”

”Do you want to be mine?”

”Yes.” Key answered before I even finished speaking. He pushed himself up on his knuckles, keeping his deadly talons away from my skin. ”Everything I am is yours, Lexi, from the monstrous prince I was to the hound who ran you down. Whatever you want from me, or whatever you want me to be, I”ll strive to give you.”

”I want you, and I have the power of the Wild Hunt at my fingertips,” I said, my heart beating harder as I leaned forward, the man behind those violet eyes wholly mine. I could have him forever—and I would. ”I can put you under my command. Would you like that?”

A shudder ran down his body, his pupils dilating and black fur blooming into being along his forearms. ”I”m yours,” he said, his voice shaky. ”If that”s what you want me to be—”

”I want you at my side,” I told him fiercely, holding his face in my hands. ”I want you to run with me, and I want you to hunt for me.” I licked my lips, drowning in the depths of his eyes, the world fading away around us. ”I want to kiss you, and for you to love me. I don”t want to walk this world alone.”

He panted, a whine on the edge of every breath, staring into my eyes as if he couldn”t look away.

With slow deliberation, I slid my hands down along his body, pushing the robe off his shoulders to reveal his pale skin. ”I want to make you come so hard you forget how to speak. I want to take your knot, and feel you come apart for me.”

”Lexi,” he whimpered, tilting his head back, baring his throat for me.

I untied the cloth belt of the robe, shoving the cloth off of him to bare his body to me, too.

Key whimpered again, breathing hard. His body shifted as I ran my hands down to slot my thumbs along his fuck-me lines, the black curls of his pubic hair becoming fur and the knot of his red cock growing thicker.

Licking my lips, I leaned into Nuada”s power, the wild joy of hunting making my skin prickle. ”Blunt your claws for me,” I said, command on my tongue.

”Oh, black night,” he whispered, shuddering as his body obeyed me. His talons melted away to a dog”s dull claws, wrought in silver. His cock twitched, a bead of precome rolling down the thick length. ”Oh, Lexi, give me another.”

I grinned, my skin flushed and pulse pounding. With feral delight, I slid my thumb into his mouth, pulling his lips back to bare his sharpened teeth. ”Blunt your teeth for me,” I said, leaning harder into the command.

His teeth changed, becoming a hound”s in a man”s mouth, the blade-sharp edges of the Prince of Teeth becoming dangerous only by intention.

I cupped his furred balls, sliding my fingers between his legs as he whined with pleasure. ”You”re mine,” I said, anticipation making my breath shallow and my throat tense. This was eternity at my fingertips, and I knew exactly what I was claiming. ”Your teeth. Your heart. Your lungs.” I wrapped my hand around his knot, my pussy throbbing with want as I squeezed him. ”Your cock.” I took a deep breath, my heart pounding. ”And I”m yours.”

I put my command into every word, leaning harder and harder into Nuada”s wild power, and with the last word everything broke into brilliance, the whole world changing for me. It was a choice, and it was inescapable, the only thing that ever could have happened. My world was violet and black, and it was red and hot and full of overwhelming devotion. It was balance, like finding the perfect foothold on a solid wall.

Forever. Mine, forever.

”Oh, fuck,” Key sobbed out, his pulse throbbing in his throat and cock, every beat of his heart felt against my fingers and deep inside my soul. ”Oh, fuck, Lexi, I”m yours, I”m always yours—”

”Then kiss me,” I commanded. A heartbeat later Key”s mouth was on mine, and nothing else mattered.