17. Give & Take

Iwalked back with Nuada and Lexi on two legs. It would have been easier to stay on all fours, but it was too easy to fall into the habit of being Nuada”s hound, and I was unsettled enough that I knew I”d want that comfort.

Lexi”s love for me hadn”t changed from her balance with the Master. I knew that. I could turn my face towards her and feel the balance between us, a sunlit warmth that filled my soul. But as I walked behind them, Lexi and Nuada murmuring sweet nothings to each other as she fell asleep in his arms, I couldn”t help but feel anxious, trailing behind them like a dog hoping he wouldn”t be forgotten.

”Key,” the Master said, his voice soft. ”Come talk to me.”

I slunk forward, looking over at Lexi. She”d fallen soundly asleep, her lips parted and face relaxed.

”Need I even ask what”s wrong?” He looked at me with compassion, his dark eyes kind. ”She may not have seen it yet, but I know you well. Tell me, and perhaps we can find a path together.”

With a low whine, I wrapped my arms around myself, embarrassed to have been caught out. ”I don”t know what it is,” I said, sounding miserable. ”She loves me – I know she loves me – but I”m still…”

”Envious?”

I shook my head. ”Afraid.”

Nuada”s brows came together as he looked over at me, a troubled expression softening the lines of his face. ”Of losing her?”

”Not… not losing,” I replied, feeling pathetic and stupid. Why should it matter that she and Nuada were balanced now? She”d been his soulmate all along, and it hadn”t ever bothered me before. ”I don”t want to… disappoint her. And you”re going to be… there,” I added guiltily, remembering all the times when Lexi had gone to find Nuada, with me standing between them. That wouldn”t be my place anymore. She”d stepped forward to meet him, set me to the side so she could have him—

Is that it? Am I feeling… jilted? Surely not.

”I am,” Nuada said gravely, speaking the words as unassailable truth. ”The bed will have to suit three, I think, and I have little desire to hold myself apart from her. The life you”re building with her is surely going to change with me in it, as well.”

I rubbed at my neck, my stomach twisting. I liked the life I was discovering with Lexi. Having her almost always with me, her focus on me and our lives intertwined, was wonderful. ”I don”t like having to make room for you,” I admitted, not looking at them. ”Maybe I”m…” I swallowed. ”Maybe I”m just greedy, but…”

He sighed, a heavy exhale, tilting his head back to look at the canopy of the trees as we neared the Ruined Palace. ”I don”t know how to prove to your heart that I don”t want to take her from you, or you from her.” Nuada shook his head, looking back down at Lexi as she slept. ”If Faery gave her both of us, surely it”s because her soul isn”t complete without both her Hunter and her hound. How could I desire to do her the harm of breaking her soul?”

”I know how to share the love of a Master,” I said, giving him a wry smile. ”You loved me, but I wasn”t the only hound you loved, and the touch of your hand wasn”t diminished for petting another. But we were all hounds, and you”re the Master.” I looked away again, my tail curling between my legs. ”The hounds may reach the prey first, but the Master takes claim of the doe, and the hounds get what parts of her they”re given, if anything. I don”t know how to do this any other way.”

We walked in silence for a while, reaching the walls of the Ruined Palace and stepping back into Nuada”s domain.

At last, I said softly, ”I shared the other”s body, but never her heart, and you know what happened when I lost that love.”

”You haven”t lost her, Key—”

”I know,” I said, cutting him off. ”I know that. But it still feels the way it feels.”

A dark doorway opened up in one of the walls, Nuada using his connection to the Ruined Palace to move us through it without having to walk the true distance. I followed him through it, feeling ill-at-ease. I didn”t want to feel like this, but I didn”t know what I needed to feel differently.

The doorway opened up into one of the fine bathing rooms, one Lexi had dismissed as being too grand for everyday use, the floor of every clear pool a mosaic of swimming creatures and the open ceiling letting in the sun and rain alike. Nuada took a seat on one of the stone benches, settling Lexi down onto his lap. She roused only for a moment, falling back asleep against his bare chest, bloodied and battered and beautiful.

”Is it merely that you”re unused to being my equal?” Nuada asked when Lexi had stilled again.

I took a seat next to him, leaning against his shoulder after a moment of hesitation, so I could look down into Lexi”s face. ”I don”t know. Maybe.”

Nuada pressed a soft kiss to my temple. ”I love you,” he said. ”Not as I love her, true, and we”re not soulmates, but you have been dear to me these long centuries, and we will be companions into eternity. I don”t wish for my presence to be a trial for you.”

I looked up at him and found him smiling down at me, his expression fond.

”Chase her with me,” he suggested, ears canting forward. ”Can we hunters not work together again? I appreciate that you let me find my balance alone with her, as you did, but the hunt isn”t finished, and never will be. A hunter and a hound are a team, are they not?”

”Oh,” I breathed, something settling into place for me. I started smiling, and then I started laughing, the relief undoing the knot of anxiety in my chest. ”Oh, that”s it.”

”It is?” he asked, raising one brow.

”Yes,” I said, rubbing my cheek against him as Lexi started shifting again. ”You”re not carrying her away over your saddle. You”re just carrying her in your arms. It”s not the end.” I laughed again, bending down to nuzzle our soulmate as she made a sleepy sound. ”Gods. That feels so stupid. Of course you aren”t. How could you?”

Nuada rumbled a laugh, reaching up and tousling my hair with his silver hand. ”The patterns of the ages are difficult to break, no? But she”s no doe. She”s a wild mare, and she”s yours as much as mine.”

”Mmn… we home?” Lexi asked muzzily. She pushed herself up, furrowing her brow at me. ”Hey. What”re you two so happy about?”

”You,” Nuada said, crooning the word to her.

I traced my blunt silver claws down her spine, licking my lips as gooseprickles rose on her arms. ”You ought to have the dirt and blood washed from your skin, and the twigs brushed from your mane.” I licked my lips again, glancing up into Nuada”s smoldering gaze as he caught the direction of my intent. ”You ought to be licked clean.”

She laughed, tilting her head back to look at me. ”You”ve done that before.”

”I”d like to do it again,” I crooned. She thought I was talking about licking the blood off her sides. She”d learn otherwise soon enough.

With a low chuckle, Nuada stood, picking up Lexi as he did, who squeaked and swung her legs with girlish delight. ”Could you bring some supplies, Key?”

”Gladly.” I rose to my feet and padded over to one of the cupboards, leaning into my connection to the Ruined Palace as I did. It took me two tries to open the cupboard onto one that had the things I wanted, but I came away with cloths, soap, a brush, and a slim bottle of unscented oil.

Even picking up the oil made heat flush my groin, my pulse picking up. It had been a long, long time since I”d been with a man, but I remembered it, and Nuada was as beautiful as a panther, his powerful body and aura of danger enticing. I knew very well which position I”d be in when he decided to take advantage of my eagerness to please. Even were we to meet as equals, I would be helpless but to obey.

I turned back to them with a shiver, anticipation heating my blood. Nuada had settled into the water with Lexi between his legs, his eyes half-lidded as he wet her skin with palmfuls of water.

”You”re taking advantage of me,” she said with a lazy smile, lying back against his chest.

”I”m loving you,” Nuada crooned, cupping her breasts as he ran his wet hands down her front. He looked up at me, heat in his mahogany eyes. ”We”re loving you.”

I set the things down next to him, letting my fingertips linger on the vial of oil for a moment so he”d notice it. At his smirk, I got into the water with them, taking a cloth with me. Luxuriating in the pleasure of taking care of her, I started washing the blood off her flanks, pairing the cloth with my tongue. The taste of her salty skin made me shudder, my skin tingling and cock hardening.

Nuada chuckled as Lexi moaned, her legs spreading. He pinched one of her nipples, rolling the rosy tip between two fingers. ”You have both of us,” he said, still in that crooning voice. ”Would you like to decide what to do with us, or shall we choose for you?”

She hummed, wiggling back against him in a way that made him snarl, his eyes flashing. ”I”m too tired,” she said in a girlish whine. ”I don”t wanna make the decision.”

He shifted her so that his cock slid between her thighs, rubbing up against her folds. I raised my brows when I saw it, a little intimidated. It wasn”t as if I wasn”t well-endowed, and my knot was wider than his girth, but I”d never seen a cock with quite so much… volume.

”Horsecock, Nuada?” I asked with a slanted smile, sliding between their legs. I held his gaze as I ran my tongue across the tip of his cock, shivering again at the taste of his desire.

He smirked back at me, his eyes dark with desire. ”I”ve been a stallion for longer than mortal memory,” he said, swishing his horse”s tail. ”Are you surprised?”

Lexi bit her lower lip, reaching down to wrap her dimpled fingers around Nuada”s shaft. I opened my mouth for her, holding her gaze as she rubbed his cockhead against my tongue.

Nuada laughed again, low and dangerous. His hand wrapped around Lexi”s, halting her movement. ”None of that, pretty mare,” he said, pulling her hand off of him. ”You”ve already abdicated control. You answer to the reins now.”

She whined again, wiggling against his grasp with a pout, but all of us knew the game. Nuada manhandled her with ease, setting her on his lap facing him, cutting off my access both to his cock and her cunt as he sank his fingers into her channel.

I pushed myself up off Nuada”s knees, pressing myself against Lexi”s freckled back as I licked the salt off her neck. ”Don”t tell me you mean for me to merely watch, Master,” I said, wearing a playful pout of my own. ”I have a cock, too, and I”ve been a very good boy.”

”He has,” Lexi said, tilting her head to the side to bare her throat for me. ”You give good boys rewards, right?”

”Good girls, too,” he said in a rumble, eyes half-lidded as he twisted his hand.

Lexi gasped, her head falling back as her back arched, the heady scent of her arousal making my cock throb.

Nuada pulled his fingers out of our soulmate and held them up for a moment so I could see the gleam of her wet before he slid them into my mouth. He made a sound of satisfaction as I whined, sucking on his fingers with the perfect tang of Lexi”s cunt spreading across my tongue.

”She has two holes to fill, Key,” the Master crooned to me. ”Fuck her ass. As a prince.”

The force of his command rolled across me, and I had no reason to defy him. I moaned as the warmth of obedience enveloped me, my body shifting as he”d commanded, returning to that of the prince I”d once been. Blunt your claws for me, I thought, remembering Lexi”s command, and shivered from the pleasure as I obeyed her, too.

With a shaky hand, I poured oil into my palm, then stroked my hand up along my cock. It had spines running down the top of it and beneath the head, sharp and stiff, as dangerous as the claws and fangs of the Prince of Teeth. Blunt your cock for me, I thought, almost laughing at the thought—but it worked, my spines softening into something that I thought would feel good for her.

I ran my fingers against the entrance of her ass as Nuada finger-fucked her, my mouth and nose against her neck, the hot scent of her blood beneath her skin as rousing as the taste of her arousal. ”You”re ours,” I purred into her ear, slipping one finger into her gripping heat. ”Are you ready to be shown what that means?”

She only whimpered, her head falling back against my shoulder.

I growled out my pleasure, gripping her by the jaw as I kissed her. Her mouth welcomed me as much as her ass, wet tongue licking her own taste off of mine as I added a second finger to her tight hole. Lexi gasped, her body going stiff, then fell into orgasm. Her ass pulsed around my fingers, making the spines of my cock flare in hungry anticipation, and I heard Nuada snarl.

”Fuck her, Key.” He jammed another finger into her cunt, putting pressure against my fingers through the thin wall of Lexi”s body. ”I”m tired of waiting.”

”My pleasure, King of Ruin,” I said in a sing-song, pulling my fingers out of my panting soulmate. I lined up my cockhead with the hot ring of her ass, and with the command of the Wild Hunt on my tongue, I said, ”Take me.”

Lexi”s back arched as I drove my cock into her body, inch by aching inch. Gods, she was so warm, her body temperature higher than it had been the last time I”d fucked her, and the clench of her body around my stiff shaft was so perfect I almost came from it, my balls tight and cock throbbing.

Before I”d finished hilting myself in her, Nuada slid his fingers out of her cunt and shifted her position, sliding her back towards me and tilting her hips upwards. I didn”t complain; the motion shoved my cock deeper into her tight ass, and I paired his assistance with a sharp thrust that made her gasp.

The Hunter lined his own cock up with her cunt before grabbing her by the thighs, his fingertips sinking into her pale skin. He met my eyes with heat, his irises gone almost crimson with lust and a slow smile spreading across his face. ”Alexis Sharpe,” he said, all but growling the words, then leaned forward and gave her the same command I had. ”Take me.”

With inexorable force, Nuada dragged Lexi onto his cock, giving her no respite as she whimpered and squirmed. She kept closing down on us, her ass grabbing onto me as Nuada”s thick length pressed her open, the pressure against my shaft unbearably good. I started panting, my blunt claws digging into her as I fought not to just come there and then, every fiber of my being devoted to the grip of her body and the slow slide of Nuada”s cock pressing against mine through hers.

”Not yet,” Nuada crooned to me when my cock twitched inside her, my spines flared and balls feeling so full I wanted to burst. ”Fuck her first, Key.”

I whimpered, struggling to hold onto my shape in the face of wanting so badly to obey.

”Keilain Ueteroxe,” Lexi gasped out, grabbing my wrist. ”Don”t you dare. I wanna come on you first.”

That was a reward too perfect to give up, and the name of the prince I”d been helped anchor me. With a masculine growl, I nipped her on the neck, focusing on the warm scent of her pulse and the knowledge of how easily I could harm her. I ran my tongue along my sharp canine, then met Nuada”s red eyes. ”Your majesty,” I said, my voice lustful. ”Shall we take her to pieces?”

He rumbled a laugh, shoving his cock deeper with a snap of his hips that made Lexi cry out. ”After you, your highness.”

Without further ado, I started fucking my soulmate, her body yielding to me in a chorus of whimpers and gasps that made me want to do nothing less than fill her tight hole with my seed while the taste of her blood bloomed on my tongue. I slid my fingers to her clit as Nuada started fucking her in tandem to me, working his cock deeper with every stroke.

”Fuck,” he groaned, his canines showing as he panted in pleasure. ”Your cock feels as good as her cunt.”

Recklessness lit a fire in my chest, my fingers pushing down harder on Lexi”s clit as I changed my angle to drag the spines of my cock harder against the slender barrier between Nuada and I. Lexi started shaking, her hand gripping my left wrist so hard that her fingernails bit through my skin. I grinned, fucking her harder, the pleasure spiking deep in my groin with every stroke. She would make me come, I knew, but I would be damned if I didn”t make her come first.

I could feel the second before it happened, her eyes flying open as her breath caught in her throat—and then Lexi cried out her ecstasy as she came on us. Come flooded out of her, soaking Nuada”s lap and splashing against the stone he sat on, and the rhythmic grip of her ass on my cock was too much for me.

Without any finesse or plan, I bit her shoulder, my viciously sharp canines piercing through her skin as I slammed my cock into her depths. The iron perfection of her blood filled my mouth as my come pumped into her, thick ropes of seed that shot through me with blinding pleasure. My spines dug into her and into Nuada, the flare of pressure as Nuada fucked Lexi and I through our orgasms so overwhelming I couldn”t think about any other sensation.

As bliss flooded my veins, the pressure and drive grew to be too much, my body oversensitized from my orgasm. With a whine, I let go of Lexi”s shoulder and pulled out of her, licking the blood off her shoulder as the wounds closed. She moaned, her body gripping down around Nuada”s cock with my seed dripping down her skin.

”Wash your cock, Key,” Nuada said, tugging Lexi”s head back by the hair to bare her throat as he kept fucking her. ”I have more in mind for you.”

I obeyed with a low moan, getting into the water with shaky legs and stroking my softening cock as I shifted back towards the form Lexi had chosen for me. When I turned back to her, Nuada had her with her back against his chest, her beautiful rose-gold hair dark with sweat and his silver hand gripping her breast.

She held out one hand towards me, breathing hard as Nuada slowly fucked her from behind, his cock wet with her come. The sight of her like that, his thick cock disappearing into her spread cunt with steady strokes, made my groin tighten, and I crawled across the floor towards them. I”d already come, but I still had a tongue—

Nuada blocked my access with his hand, making me snarl and Lexi voice a whine. ”Now, now,” he said, sounding amused. ”It wouldn”t be fair if only you got a taste, would it?”

”Not fair—to make him—watch, either,” Lexi got out between mewling sounds. ”Taste him—instead.”

The Hunter ran his tongue along her cheek, pairing the movement with a roll of his hips that sank his cock into her to the hilt. ”As you like, heart of my heart,” he said, dark with desire, and lifted his hand to his throat. ”Knot my throat, hound, and I might bite your dick off in recompense.”

I whined in protest and bent to my task with hunger, lapping at Lexi”s clit with dedicated need. A heartbeat later, Nuada”s hand fisted in my hair, yanking my head backwards without any mercy.

I yelped, back arching and cock twitching as blood rushed to my groin. Nuada”s antlers scraped against my stomach as he set his head beneath me. He let go of my hair and I fell forward again, fumbling my cock to his mouth and dropping my tongue to Lexi”s cunt again. Nuada sucked on me, one broad hand shoving my hips forward to make me give him my hardening length. I obeyed, that one thrust so blindingly good that I couldn”t stop myself from driving my shaft into the heated embrace of his throat over and over again.

Lexi”s fingers wrapped around my horns, tilting my face towards her, and I fell into that silent command, dedicating my attention to her even as bright pleasure sang through my body from the caress of Nuada”s tongue and the gripping sensation as he swallowed me whole.

I whimpered, trying to hold myself back from the brink. Heat throbbed in my groin, the pressure of Nuada”s mouth around my cock so good I could barely focus on my task, my movement growing desperate. I couldn”t stop the rhythm of my hips, moving in time with Nuada”s thrusts as he fucked our soulmate, the taste of her slick as I licked her clit and his shaft flooding me with need.

Lexi forced my face closer to her cunt with my horns, angling my face so the flat of my tongue pressed harder against her swollen clit. I couldn”t stop making pathetic little sounds, my knot aching and balls tight, humping my cock into Nuada”s wet throat. I wanted to fuck her again, oh, gods, needed to make her come, had to do it, shouldn”t come yet, wasn”t allowed to knot Nuada”s mouth. Be good be good be good—

I felt Nuada groan around my cock, and then Lexi”s hands jerked me so hard against her wet skin that the bases of my horns ached, her thighs closing down on my face as her orgasm shook her. Nuada’s come spurted around his thick cock, a flood that overwhelmed me with the taste of their intermingled pleasure. I cried out, nothing mattering but that taste—and as I came from it, Nuada”s hands grabbed my ass and shoved my cock deep into his throat.

Fear struck at the same time as orgasm, my back arching as Nuada swallowed me, ecstasy hitting me with the killing force of lightning. The glorious pressure of release swelled, my pulse throbbing through my knot, pressing against his tongue and palate and teeth—

”Don”t, don”t bite me, please, I didn”t mean it—” I gasped out through the white pleasure shaking my body.

Lexi dragged me up by my horns, kissing me on my wet mouth, and the power of the Wild Hunt roared through me. I moaned, falling into it, bliss rolling over me as she changed my body away from a hound”s, my knot melting away and my absolute need to obey easing. The shivering pleasure of obedience to the Mistress of the Hunt washed through me, my eyes rolling back and lashes fluttering as even my body obeyed her command.

Nuada”s teeth closed on me with a sharp reminder that made me yip, but he let go before he hauled my hips up, pulling my softening cock out of his throat. ”Wicked hound,” he crooned, his breath hot on my belly.

”You made me do it,” I said with a whine, moving so he could retrieve his head.

The Master did, settling his head on his neck and wiping his mouth off. ”I did,” he said in an agreeable voice, giving me a rakish smile. ”I enjoy causing a little fear from time to time. I”m the Dullahan, after all.”

Lexi leaned her head back against Nuada”s chest, smiling at me with love in her eyes. ”You did good, baby,” she said, holding out her hand to me. ”C”mere.”

I shivered with pleasure, sprawling in the vee of her legs with my head on her shoulder. ”I love you,” I said, licking her neck in a dog”s kiss. ”I even love you,” I added, glancing up at Nuada with a smirk. ”But I”m cross with you right now.”

He chuckled and ruffled my hair, leaving his heavy hand on my head. ”How troubling. Whatever can I do to return to your good graces?”

”Sexual favors,” I said pertly, grinning at him as Lexi laughed.

”Isn”t that what got him into your bad graces?” she asked, sounding delighted.

”He could use his cock instead of his tongue,” I said, tail wagging.

That made Nuada laugh, his basso voice deep and beautiful. ”Do you like taking it, then?” he asked. ”I”m amenable. Perhaps I could fuck you while Lexi rides you, and see how long it takes you to come to pieces.”

”We could tell him not to come,” Lexi suggested, biting her lip as she regarded me through lowered lashes. ”See how good of a boy he can be.”

I whined, heat coiling in my groin. ”Cruel.”

”And you love it as much as I love you.” She tilted my chin up, pressing her mouth to mine.

I melted into the contact, basking in the warmth of her love. I was forever hers, loved and wanted and entirely under her command. I”d found the best place in the world in the taste of her blood and the touch of her hand, and I would never have to leave.