I woke up the next day in the large bed in the bed chamber next to the room where I'd bathed the previous night.
"Sleep well?"
I yelped and grabbed the luxurious blankets around my breasts.
Itek lounged on the foot of the bed, back against one of the banisters. He had on a huntman's leather breeches and top, unlaced and careless, with enough of his chest exposed to show the gold thorn Trinket around his neck. His feet were bare and pointed in my direction.
"What are you doing!" I demanded.
"Keeping an eye on our new pet," he stretched contently, and raised one knee to rest his wrist on it.
"Where would I go?" I shifted the blankets and scrunched them up closer against me. Dim light creapt around the heavy curtains drawn across the massive windows. "Have you been there all night?"
I'd seen Ethat retire to his nest of stones after dinner. Korr clearly had a nest on the other side of the room, although I assumed he and Itek shared something a bit more comfortable to a griffin in another room. Perhaps not. Those two seemed to live for the joy of needling each other.
"I'd had to get past Ethat," I said, annoyed.
Itek smiled, a wicked glint in those eyes of his. "So you did contemplate your escpae."
"I didn't say that." I hadn't.
"Naughty, naughty. Do we need to put you on a leash?"
"Stop it," I demanded, although something about the threat promised the sting of a swat and his talons, and—
What the hell is wrong with you, Theia.
Itek shifted off the bed, and said, "It's time to get dressed. We have somewhere to go."
I shimmied out of the massive bed, still holding one of the sheets around myself for modesty. They hadn't give me anything to sleep in. Itek clucked his tongue at me. "Don't make more work for the maids by dragging the bed clothes all over."
"Then keep your back turned," I said.
"You have some unique anatomy I haven't seen before? Let me get the others. We'd like to—"
"No!" I blushed red. I'd never been really naked in front of a man before except for Tynn. I stared at my toes. "Stop it. I'm your pet. Not here to get tormented."
He softened. "Come out front. You can keep the sheet."
When I arrived out front, a cold breakfast had been set out on the sideboard, and several maids in dark livery were there, with fabric strew everywhere. Ethat watched the proceedings from his nest, his claws crossed one over the other. Korr was in yet another robe, this one actually sashed snugly shut, and sipped tea from his place on the couch.
I held the sheet against my breasts. Itek sat down next to Korr. Ethat heaved himself up off his nest and sat behind the couch, but his massive head between them.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"We're dressing you. Or, they are dressing you. We don't want our pet to look like a street urchin." Itek gestured to the maids.
"Wait, what—" I protested as the maids descended upon me and tugged me by my arms towards the table. The sheet fell away, leaving me completely naked. I squeaked and tried to yank free. "Wait!"
"Stop causing a scene," Korr said. Ethat snorted.
"Here, my lady," one maid said gently, pressing a sheer linen shift into my hands. "You can wear this while we try on clothing."
The maid tugged the shift over my head and around my breasts and hips. Then they made me stand on the low table between couches while a more senior maid (clearly versed in these sorts of things) directed the order of garments I was to put on.
"Can't I get breakfast first?" I asked.
Korr fetched a plate of fruit and little buns off the sideboard. He stepped up onto the table. The maids in livery dropped back to the shadows. I reached for the plate, he yanked it back. Korr picked up one of the bosenberries and brought it to my lips.
Now I jerked back. "I can feed myself."
"Indulge me, pet," he said with a cool smirk, his touch frosting the berry. "Have you ever had a frozen berry?"
"No."
"Then you must try it," he said as he offered the fruit again, the tip of it pushing against my closed lips.
I shivered and every part of me ignorited, and I parted my lips for the fruit, thinking of something else slipping between different lips, and ashamed of the moistness brewing between my thighs. I hoped Itek couldn't see how wet my thighs were. At least my nipples had an excuse for being pebble-hard from the chill. My clit had no excuse for being swollen and demanding.
How good was a dragon's sense of smell? Because Ethat was watching too.
The berry tasted pure and gorgeous and exploded in my mouth, the frost and chill of Korr's touch sending a painful sting along with it, and I gasped, eyes closing as I tried to process the purity of the flavor.
"From our private garden," Korr said. "One of Ethat's pampered plants. We thought you might enjoy them."
I opened my eyes again, feeling faint and docile and like I'd do anything this frozen serpent wanted. Korr moved a step closer. His robe swirled around his ankles. Was this turning him on too? What was happening?
He offered me another berry, which I wanted to refuse, but parted my lips for, and he placed it directly on my tounge, his fingers entering my mouth with the fruit, and stealing a caress along the rim of my lips.
My lady-bits were now officially drenched and on fire. My breasts felt swollen and begged for hands.
Stop it, Theia! Stop it! That's a married man and his damn husband is watching! What the hell is wrong with you!
Korr offered me one of the tiny little buns, just one bite in size, drizzled with honey. The honey froze in proximity to his hand. "You can manage this on your own, hmm?"
Dumb, I took the bun and put it in my mouth. Its more regular taste helped bring me back to earth, and warm (or chill? I couldn't tell) the parts of me that needed warming. I refused to look down, but somehow I knew if I had, the heavy folds of Korr's robe would have only partially concealed his own response.
I also managed to not look at Itek. I sensed the griffon watching us with his predator's gaze, but couldn't tell if he approved, disapproved, wanted the show to continue, or was as confused as I was.
Were Trinkets a lie?
Now Korr pushed the plate at me. "I believe you can manage the rest on your own."
And he abruptly got down in a swirl of hte heavy silk and wool wrapped around his body.
Confused, I ate another fruit, and tried to read Itek, but the griffin was as inscrutable as a cat, and Ethat betrayed nothing at all. So I just hurridly ate the remaining food while the maids waited—obviously uncomfortable—in the shadows.
Once I was done one of them came forward, not looking me in the eye, took my plate, one came forward with a towel to wipe my hands, while a third and fourth carried in my first dress so the fitting could begin.
Someone needed to take that towel and mop between my thighs. My core ached to be filled with some non-specific shape I craved. At least it squeezed out any lingering longing for Tynn. I barely thought of him. Hard to think of him when you're dying of thirst and in the company of Itek, Korr, and Ethat. Asund, though, prodded my memory everytime I saw Korr or Itek's Trinkets.
"This is stupid," I told the dragons and griffin after the third dress. They contemplated me like I was a statue, had me twirl around, and dismissed or accepted various garments with flicks of their fingers one way or the other. Even Ethat was voting.
"This is necessary," Itek said. "We need to take you in public, and you don't have scales, feathers, fur, or a hide. What do you expect to wear?"
"I don't know," I said defensively. I hadn't gotten that far. I'd just wanted to get to Haven and find some food and somewhere to sleep I wouldn't get molested or lice. I hadn't expected to end up in the high city as the pampered pet of some mythological shifters where the least of my concerns were food and lice.
No guarantee I wasn't going to get molested. Itek and Korr and—
No, stop imagining things, Theia. Itek and Korr have Trinkets. Stop it. You just want to fill up that hole in your soul so badly you're willing to believe anything. Stop being a sucker.
Once they'd selected six dresses of varying colors and styles from the rainbow array, they dismissed the maids, leaving me dressed with my hair loosely arranged, still standing on the table.
"Now," Itek stood and went to a table along a far wall. Korr rose and gestured for me to come ot the end of the table. I did as he asked. He clasped large, cold hands around my waist and lifted me onto the ground. Did his hands linger a moment, or was it my imagination?
Itek returned carrying a silver circlet necklace. It was plain and simple, decorated with just a tawny gold feather, an ice-blue scale, and a bright green scale. I glanced at Ethat, who blinked beetle-carapaice eyes at me, and exposed his throat to show that one of the scales from his bright green underside was missing.
Itek stepped behind me, while Korr stood in front of me, blocking any escape. Korr's hands rested at his side, but he stared at me, unblinking and intent. Itek slipped the necklace around my neck, and secured it. "A collar for our pet."
A collar? I grabbed the silver ring and gave it a tug. It didn't budge. "I don't need a collar!"
Korr smirked. "It's beautiful on you. Now behave, or we will put you on a silk leash."
"We already have the leash," Itek added.
Ethat rumbled.
I refused to say I'll behave because I sort of wanted to see if they'd really parade me through the streets on a silk cord, but decided that might not be something I'd ever live down. Like crying at the Meeting over Tynn and begging Asund not to leave me. Like an idiot, because guess what: Trinkets were bullshit.
"Where are we going first?" I asked as a maid brought me a delicate pair of sandles. I moved to slide my feet under the straps, but the maid secured my ankle and did it for me. I sighed. "I can also put on my own sandles."
"No, no, you are our pampered pet," Korr said. Itek rolled his eyes but said nothing.
I suffered my feet being slid into sandles. "Why do I have to wear a collar?"
"All pets wear collars. For identification," Korr said. "At least, if they have good owners."
They were taking this pet thing too far. They must have been some very, very bored mythological shifters. They clearly did not have jobs or anything to do. What were they? High-born brats spending their parents' money here in Haven?
I groaned.
If I was the most entertaining thing to have entered the sphere of their lives in the past fifty years, that was fucking sad. The world was rotting, they were mythological creatures, and they wanted to feed me berries while making me think of getting fucked by the two of them who were married, while the third one (who refused to so much as shift to say hello) watched.
"You need to put on some proper clothing, Korr," Itek mentioned.
"Fine, fine," Korr sighed. He sweapt out of the room.
Ethat rumbled, amused, the headed into the main gallery. Itek escorted me down, hands behind his back, a smirk lingering on his expression like a satisfied cat.
The house had indeed been built into the side of the moutain. A square courtyard was carved out of the back, but through the iron gate, we had to walk single-file down winding, ancient stone steps that carried a distinctive unpleasent smell. The steps twisted down numerous stories, passing other similiar gates that led to houses carved into the hillside. Ours was just the top-most, but the bottom one that opened onto the street had a lovely walled garden.
The street on this level was clean—having been washed by the previous night's storms—and wide enough for three carriages to pass abreast. The cobblestones were a yellow-white that reflected the sunlight, and street lanterns dotted at even paces, although they were turned off for the day. Well-dressed people moved back and forth, and street vendors plied items outside of houses and shops. Unlike the hawkers on the lower levels, they were more quiet and demure, not wanting to shout, and there was no livestock to be seen or smelled.
"This way," Korr indicated the path to the left, which took us towards the massive and magnifcent stone building I'd seen before.
The path widened as we walked, eventually becoming a massive circle carved right into the mountain itself, with the massive structure placed in its center, sheilded on all sides by the peaks. Once there had been gardens and water ways woven throughout the immense square, but all that had been replaced with fine beach sand groomed in intricate patterns and decorated with beautiful rocks.
There were no crowds here, but there were guards wearing the livery of the Ravens, each holding a halbeard. Although they looked at me, they did not move to stop us from walking up the three flights of huge stone steps to the gold-leafed doors.
There two wolf shifters in human-form, and two more in wolf-form, wearing vests and war-harnesses with Raven emblems, moved to stop us.
Ethat alighted next to us.
Korr said to the guards, "Let us pass."
"Of course, Lord Korr," one of the wovles said. "But you have a guest that is not on our list. We know she came in yesterday and is not cleansed to be in the temple."
Korr tossed his hair while Itek snorted. "Are you afraid she will offend the gods? Stand aside, wolf. She is our pet, has bathed in our roost, has slept in our nest, and wears pieces of us at her throat. We say she can enter the temple, and as the official represenatives of the Dragon Clan and Gryphon clan in Haven, you have no say in those we bring to our confidance."
"The Ruling Seat will object."
"Considering the Ruling Seat's interest in her, I very much doubt it. But run along to your master if you like. We are going inside."
Ethat growled. The wolves growled back.
"And if you do not move," Korr added. "I am certain you will learn to fly. But I am not sure dogs land on their feet quite so adeptly as cats."
"We should find out," Itek said. Then he looked up and hissed.
A raven wearing a gold necklace—but somehow I knew it wasn't Soir—alighted on the stones. It twisted up into human form: a beautiful woman with inky dark hair and dressed in a fluttering, many-layered gown of purple-black silk that clung ot her slender form. She clasped one forearm with the off-hand, and her lovely face suffused with a smile that encompassed all of us. "Lords Korr, Itek Ethat. Is there a problem?"
"Your guard dogs seem to believe they can block clan represenatives from the temple," Korr said, voice ice.
"A misunderstanding," the raven looked at me, lips parted, and eyed the items around my neck. Then she stepped aside, and gave the wolves a look that shrivelled them where they stood.
Ethat shoved open the huge doors with his snout.
"Thank you for your prompt assistance, Lady Raven," Itek said, bowing to her with all insincerity.
"Of course, Lord Griffon." the Lady-Raven said, equally insincere. "And as for your... guest..."
"Theia," Korr said. "Her name is Theia."
The raven reached up into her swirling hair and withdrew a beautiful purple-black feather. She extended it to me. "Take this. Should you want somewhere else to go. Carry it upon your person and the ravens will deliver you to us."
"That will not be required," Korr moved to swipe the feather.
The raven yanked it out of reach. "It is for her, not for you, Korr. Do not presume."
Korr barred his teeth at her. "She is ours."
"I did not see you pay for her. I see no title," the raven hissed back. "Are you afraid what she may do with choices? You have shown such interest, dragon. Do not fault a raven for being interested in turn. What has prompted the mighty Korr and Itek and Ethat to grace an urchin with their bodies?"
She offered me the raven feather. Korr growled, but Itek put a hand on his shoulder to still him, and stared at me with hooded eyes, his non-existent tail practically swishing.
Why did the ravens care so damn much? They had attacked me first. But perhaps Itek had spotted me on my way into Haven, if he had been about flying during the day. It was going to piss off my... keepers...but oh well. They could just be angry. There wasn't any harm in having a little something to keep them in check if they got really... unpleasent to deal with.
I took the feather and tucked it into the folds of my gown.
The raven transformed and flew away.
"You infurating creature," Itek murmmered over my shoulder.
"Are you concerned her feather is prettier than yours?" I shot back.
Ethat growled and raked his tail acros the stones. He rumbled as if to say Silence.
The vast temple waited.