Mara - The Lady Grief (Completed)

58 Foul Blood

Time Immortal, The Palace of Irkalla, the Underworld

Mara

My skin twitches, waking me up. My wrists are burning, just slightly as I rub them, half-asleep until my mind becomes aware of the thickly muscled, slightly hairy leg pressed between my thighs and the arm slung over my middle. The male's warm breath wafts over the back of my neck, my body nestled snug with his.

Oh, gods. I smooth my free hand over the furs I'm sleeping on. All at once the memories come rushing back. I'm in Urto's suite of rooms in Irkalla, where I have been for six days. Thelios and Thane are... oh gods.

Six days. And I don't know how my males are recovering. If they're recovering. I can feel them, the bonds telling me that they're still there, but that's all I can sense.

I open my eyes, trying to stay pliant in Urto's sleeping embrace. I don't want to alert the War god that I'm awake. Rasted and Gired are in front of me, their eyes glowing soft yellow in the dim light. I start to move Urto's arm off of me.

He wakes up, instantly alert, like always.

"Love? Where are you going?" he murmurs. I think he kisses the back of my hair.

I hate when he calls me, 'love.'

"To wash up?" I say, frozen with my body half-crawling away.

He chuckles, "liar," he says huskily. "Come back."

"No," I reply simply. "I don't wish to sleep anymore." I eye Rasted and Gired warily. They are agitated, my assassins. Glowing eyes fix on Urto meanly and I realize that my left-and-right-hands are frustrated that they can't do more to help me. I have tried to sneak away from the War god innumerable times. For the goddess of shadows I'm terrible at sneakery.

"I want to see my mother and daughter," I tell Urto when he is quiet.

I feel the bond flex in a way that I have never felt Thane and Thelios' do. It's a little like Urto is squeezing my stomach, making my heart pound harder in my chest.

"You wish to see them, love. And I won't let you do that."

"Why?" I ask. The blood bond has worked. He can tell that I am lying.

"Because, it's better if you have a clean break, love. No more twin bonds. It's just me, now."

"But it's not," I whisper. I can see those brightly radiating red bonds pouring from my chest. They aren't even dimmed.

"Why are you so loyal to them?" Urto sounds genuinely confused. "They have both betrayed you. The twin in the above killed you to be with another female and I know for a fact that Thelios' is one of Inanji's favored lovers."

My body slumps back down to the bed. Urto takes the opportunity to cuddle me back into his body with a satisfied rumble deep in his chest.

"What if I'm a terrible female, like Inanji said?" I ask him. I don't address his questions. I love my males. They were my choice for a reason.

He just snorts derisively. "I knew she was flapping her gums without cause. She is a jealous shrew, love. Always has been even when you were a tiny thing."

I think about it. "Did you know me then?"

"All of us watched you, sweet thing," comes the easy reply. "I know much more than you think I do."

"But you don't know everything," I reply.

"Not everything. I will find out. The secrets that you keep, even from the bond, I will discover them eventually."