Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Ice Fractures

"He does, but it can take a while. And you... you're different."

"Korr, you know he didn't mean to hurt me. He's not a monster."

"I know he didn't mean to. He never does. But he's explosive and flails and people get hurt, intentionally or not."

"You've been cleaning up behind him for a while," Ormiss said.

"Smoothing things over. Which I am sure the wolf next to you has done on more than a few occasions."

Asund shrugged. "I am not going to discuss my previous charges."

"I wasn't aware you had retired at all, and that your brother had just given you leave to pursue your mate. Or more like put the whip to you if you didn't."

"Technically, still a Captain. My brother's messenger will be here soon. Why, Korr, do you want to go live with a bunch of wolves at a distant enclave?"

"Not particularly, but I'm not ruling it out." Korr turned his attention to me and stroked his fingers through my hair. "Leave him be for now. He's always come around before, but it takes time. No one is more scared of Ethat than Ethat is."

"He should be scared of me," Ormiss said. "I am not forgiving or excusing this."

Asund grunted, and Itek clicked his jaw. Korr held out a hand. "Let the dust settle. He'll be below for a while. He's still her consort and she still wants him."

"And what happens when this happens again?" Itek asked.

"What if it happens if she's pregnant?" Ormiss raised a brow.

"What if he does worse than shake her?"

"And what if nothing ever happens again?" Korr said.

"You'd gamble?" Ormiss snapped.

"I don't know," Korr said, half-defeated. "I do not know. I know that my brother and I have always been together, and I know that Theia is his consort. Those things mean something. You three have said your part. It weighs heavily. Let it drop."

"You clamped a spiked ice collar around his throat to pull him off her," Ormiss said coldly. "You told her to run. Fuck you, Korr. That is damning and you know it."

"Please stop," I said. "Just... stop. For now. We can figure it out later. He's hiding in the basement, isn't he? What more do you want from him?"

Grumbles.

"We have other problems," I reminded them. "Soir? Ravens? End of the world? War? The fact humans think I'm human, and shifters think I'm a shifter? Asund's brother's messenger? That I might end up Queen of the Hippocamp? The bugs? My beautiful blood? What we pulled out of Korr? Who made me what I am? The fact I'm an idiot at best, and a monster at worst?"

"You aren't an idiot," Asund said.

"I am an idiot." I picked at my shoulder scar. "Let's just admit it, Asund. I'm not very smart."

"You learned whatever that bubble taught you," Asund said with a hint of steel in his voice. "And perhaps that bubble taught you to always feel like you were stupid."

"Were you listening in to what I said to Ethat?"

"Sound carries."

"Then I guess I'm too dumb to realize I might have been manipulated from the start."

Korr shifted, moving somewhat stiffly, but moving, and he pulled me against his side--gently, and with a bit of a wince--but his robe and his chill enveloped me. He kissed my temple. "Your life was a dream, but it was still your life. And it sounds like many parts of it made sense. You were raised a foundling. In total poverty. You survived the usual things children like you had to survive. You were smart enough to not fall into the usual traps, and never discount how smart and determined you had to be. It might seem simple, but if it was simple, and easy to do, everyone would do it, yes?"