Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Too Far

"You went too far," Itek said, eyes narrowed, and if he'd been in animal form, his tail would have been swishing.

"He touched our pet," Korr growled back. He tapped his fingers on the back of the couch, coat off, boots off, and his shirt unlaced halfway to his navel. They'd left shortly after the incident with Ivern's wife, partially because the party was dull, partially because of the incident, and partially because Theia had wilted after whatever Soir had said to her.

She'd said they hadn't had much of a conversation, just that the Lord-Raven wanted to meet her, which was no surprise, but she'd clearly been exhausted and a bit drunk. Probably not used to the strong wine of Haven. Been drinking that watered-down swill the low-city served.

"And you grabbed his wife," Itek said. "Those two things are not equivalent."

"I'd have kicked him if he'd kicked our dog."

"We don't have a dog."

"*If* we had a dog."

"This woman does strange things to you," Itek accused.

Korr snorted. "She does not."

"She has an effect on you."

"How often do we run into a puzzle worth solving?"

"You are making excuses," Itek snapped. "We are here to do a job, and you insist on getting distracted."

"Because she is distracting," Korr sat up straight. "She makes my cock hard and my blood boil, but do not lie and say you don't watch her sleep and want to slide under the blankets with her, and that you didn't want to rip Ivern's arm off."

Itek growled. "We don't know what kind of shifter she is. We don't know what she is. We can't give in to anything, and you are playing with snakes like you always do!"

Korr looked at the fire burning in the hearth, smug arrogance melting away into consideration. "Do you believe her when she says she can't shift?"

Itek said, "You don't?"

"We know she's a shifter. We're all agreed on that. But she claims she can't shift and has never shifted. It sounds impossible."

"I don't believe she's lying," Ethat said.

"Then why can't she shift?" Korr asked his brother. "What is she that she doesn't even recognize she's a shifter?"

"Something dangerous," Ethat said.

"She is harmless," Korr said roughly. "She is the one who needs protection, and do not try to say she does not. I can see it in you. I can see it in both of you."

Ethat stood. "I am going to sleep. On her floor. In dragon form."

"I sleep with her," Itek said.

"Which is exactly why I am doing it tonight," Ethat said.

* * * * *

I woke up to no Itek at the foot of my bed.

"Ethat?" I asked the big green dragon absorbing the floor next to my bed. I tried to sit up. My head pounded and my stomach made an uncomfortable lurch. "Ug."

Ethat blinked and raised his large head.

My head ached, and the back of my throat tasted disgusting, and I just wanted to go back to sleep. It seemed too bright in the room, even though only slivers of light outlined the windows. I laid in bed waiting for the rotten-ness to ebb until Delia and Yanice let themselves in and informed me it was time to get up. Ethat waddled out.

"Here," Yanice shoved some peppermint-laced water at me. "You over-indulged last night, didn't you?"

"I just had one glass," I said. I'd only sipped my first glass, and it had been almost full until Soir had replaced it with the shit wine. "It was shitty wine though."

"You wouldn't know good wine," Yanice scolded me.

"I worked in a kitchen. I know more about wine than you," I shot back. The water helped a little, although I tasted all the taint in it. I craved cool, fresh water. I'd never had pure water, but I knew what it'd taste like.

Hilarious. My keepers all thought I was a shifter and should just know how to shift. But I didn't. I did know what pure water would taste like.

That shut Yanice and Delia up: they weren't about to argue with a kitchen servant on the matter of wine. They set out my bathwater and soaps and the infamous sponge that made even my addled brain think naughty thoughts as I drew it across my nipples and between my thighs.

The bath helped, and I just tuned out Yanice and Delia as they picked out my wet hair, braided it, and brought me a tunic and pants and riding boots.

"Oh no," I said, clutching a robe around myself. I stormed out into the main room, where my three keepers were waiting for me. "Not another riding lesson!"

"Yes," Korr said.

"Get dressed, we are already late," Itek said without pity.

Ethat ruffled his wings.

"Back to this again?" I asked Ethat, frustrated and feeling a bit crazy. "I'm not dangerous!"

Ethat clicked his teeth.

Itek came over to me. He hesitated a moment before he spoke, peering at me with those sharp eyes of his. "Are you well?"

"Soir gave me garbage wine last night," I said. "I'm fine. Guess he didn't want the pet drinking the good stuff."

He hesitated again.

"Now who's being the unreasonable one?" Korr asked.

Ethat clacked his jaws at his brother and snorted fireflies. Korr drew a design of ice in the air with a finger. It was probably a rude bit of dragon graffiti.

"Get dressed. We're expected. The sooner we go, the sooner we get it over with," Itek said. "And this time, we aren't humoring your desire to walk home."

"I'm going to fall off you the way you fly!"

"You won't fall off me unless I *want* you to fall off," he snapped. "Now get dressed."

What had these three so rattled this morning? Maybe they'd gotten teh same shitty wine I'd gotten. I stomped off to get dressed. Everyone was in a bad mood.

Itek launched himself into the air even before I had settled over his spine, sending my thighs slamming into his wings and my hands slipped an inch on his fingers. I shrieked, but clung to him for dear life.

I hated flying. I hated it, hated it, hated it. The wind tore at me, and today it was charged from an incoming storm, and stank of taint and brine and the gross greenery that washed up during low tide, and there was a tail-wind pushing my ass forward on Itek and he was flying so.damn.fast I didn't have to have my eyes open to feel dizzy.

Itek swung back and forth in the air, and I screamed, and he made a harsh sound in reply. I didn't speak cat-bird, but it sounded like *knock it off.*

Sure, I'd stop being afraid, just like I'd stop being an uneducated foundling, and will my scars to disappear.

He swung in the sky—and kept swinging... and kept—

I fell.