She woke up in one of the guestrooms of the stronghold. A medical team was walking out of the room, and Ylara was sitting next to her on the bed. “Well, that was exciting.”
“Stop laughing, precog.” Hera sat up and rubbed her head. “I fainted.”
“You did. No wonder. That bruiser that you chose is terrifying. I thought that Riithan and his tail were worth a second glance. That is one big dude.”
“Yeah. Thanks. We... I didn’t choose him. I do now, but I didn’t then. He was a bonus.”
Ylara laughed. “You are having a baby boy, in case you wondered. Well, two of them. Twins are a thing in your family, huh?”
“Fuck. I used to be a fortress against pregnancy. Pills, implants, and installations. The bleed-out took the hormones from my system. The fucker carved the implant from my arm, and I am guessing my power move melted my IUD.” She groaned. “Add an alpha that smells like cookies, and I am doomed.”
“With twins.” Ylara grinned and ran her hand over her belly. “With the right match, it is amazing how fertile these guys are.”
“Apparently. So, Misker is getting twins.” She looked down at her still-flattish stomach. “Only thirty-nine weeks to go. Three months until I lose the death sentence.”
“They aren’t going to enforce that. Misker has made it really clear that he made the first move. His father was astonished, and then he actually listened and saw his son as a man, and then... Misker turned into Alejandro, and Alejandro explained that Misker had been pursuing you in his own clumsy way. This just kept things from getting embarrassing.”
“What about my dad? Wait, let me guess. He just stood there.”
“Yeah. Is that his move?”
“Yup. And my mother is nowhere to be seen.”
“Correct. But your twin was ready to punch the king.”
Hera laughed. “Hels was always scrappy.”
“You two have a strong bond.”
“Oh, yeah, and the two of us can combine our activations. It is wild, but it is the reason that our parents don’t want us too close together.”
“Wait. That is... exceedingly rare.”
Hera sighed. “I know. So, when am I getting kicked out? Shit. Misker has to be going back on duty soon.”
“Ah, he has been replaced.”
“Please, tell me I didn’t get him fired.”
“Geez! No. He’s off duty while you are pregnant. You are both from multiple births, more or less. Exceptional examples. They want to see what your kids can become.”
“Yeah, nothing like feeling like a genetic experiment. I wonder what my mother was thinking. Well, aside from I wonder if I can stay on for the whole seven seconds.”
Ylara burst out laughing, and the door opened to show Helena with a concerned expression. “Hera. Oh, thank goodness you are awake. I was really worried.”
Ylara nodded. “Yeah, that was unexpected. Even for me.”
“Well, don’t eat for forty-eight hours, have a cup of tea, get chemically knocked out for five days, and wake up to deal with alpha stench and the executioner lurking in the corner. Not that I was going to let him do that, but being actively hunted was something I wasn’t going to look forward to.”
Helena smiled. “Now you don’t have to worry. Misker’s father is excited about the thought of grandchildren.”
“Yeah, I am just hoping that they aren’t born to scale. Ylara said they are boys.”
Helena smiled. “Twins.”
“Twins.” She sighed. “I just want to go home and get a burger. My clothes. House. A nap in my favourite pyjamas.”
Helena gripped her hand. “So, my mate and I want to have a wedding in Aksalla. It is all the rage nowadays. Well, that or Daycross.” She smiled. “The boys are going to be groomsmen, and Cassie is going to be the flower girl, but will you be my maid of honour?”
“Uh, sure. I can get transport to Daycross.”
Helena smiled. “Ylara and Vallu and some other friends are going to go shopping with me. Do you think you can join us?”
“Probably. I don’t have medical clearance to get back to work. I don’t even know if I have my job, and there is still the matter of finding the guy who attacked me.”
Helena blinked. “Attacked?”
Hera used her senses to reach out, and when she found they were alone, she powered up the scars still under her skin. Her sister gasped, and Ylara looked queasy.
Hera sighed. “There’s live video of it being done. I had been dosed and was stuck staring at my reflection in the glass, well, until I passed out from blood loss.”
Helena asked, “You know who did it?”
“Yeah, but he is a serial killer of long-standing. And even weirder, someone wanted this done to me. I really want to kill those two, but I have to find them first.”
“Heckler should be able to help.”
“But... Heckler’s a patron.”
Ylara shrugged. “She still knows how to see a story. She can tell you what happened and who it was, but you meeting with another patron will be a little tricky, whether she is active or not.”
“I will ask Arcady. She’s personable and convincing.”
Ylara grinned. “You are the marketing maestro. You can’t do it?”
“I don’t have access to the patron files.”
Ylara nodded. “Right. I can send her a message.”
“Thanks. Well, I had better get a move on before the king changes his mind.” She scooted past her sister and got to her feet. Mistake.
She thudded back down. “Well, that sucks.”
Ylara rubbed her back. “We will get you something to snack on. Just sit tight.”
Helena nodded, but Ylara beat her to the door. She spoke to the guard on the other side of the door and then came in to rub Hera’s back. “Food’s on the way.”
Hera looked around. “Where am I? I thought this was the guest wing, but the furniture is all Sethir.”
Ylara smiled. “It is Neander’s family quarters.”
“He really doesn’t like me.”
“He is afraid you are going to hurt his baby boy.”
“I already have. I told him I didn’t like his body type. He gets it, but it still hurt.” She sighed. “I feel bad about that.”
Helena went to a pitcher and got a glass of water for her. “Here you are. It has lemon in it.”
Hera smiled and guzzled the water down, dousing the dress and not caring.
Ylara laughed. “Where is a camera when you need one? The start of the Sethir-Nin omega calendar. You can be June. Your sister can be July. I get to be September.”
They chuckled, and a soft knock at the door preceded the food tray carried by Misker. He looked at her and frowned when he saw Ylara rubbing her back. “Is something wrong?”
Hera said, “Just hungry. I haven’t eaten since I stole the pancakes back from your mother.”
He frowned, set the tray down on a low table, then hauled it all to her so she could reach it.
Ylara and Helena smiled. “We will be going.” Hera didn’t know which one said it because Misker sat next to her.
He sat with his huge hands between his knees. “Um. Are you really pregnant?”
“Yeah. Ylara has checked their future.”
“They?”
“Boys. Twins. Specks for now but thirty-nine months, and you will be holding them in those giant hands of yours.”
He smiled shyly and flexed his hands. “How do you feel about that?”
“A little surprised. I was trying to keep this from happening, but now that it has, I am in a good place financially to take care of the little fellas.” She chuckled. “Beats being beheaded.”
He took her hand. “Do you wish they were Alejandro’s?”
“Um, Alejandro is great, and I really enjoy being with him, but it was probably a combination of you nibbling my neck and your scent that caused me to ovulate. My body responded to you, not him.”
He stared at her. “Really?”
“Really. To me, you smell like buttery cookies. I love buttery cookies.”
He turned the table around. “Start over here.”
She chuckled and leaned her head against his shoulder. “Pick something. I am weak, and my brain is fuzzy.”
He picked a cookie and then did some other things, creating a tower of fruit and cream on the butter cookie.
She smiled. “That is going to take strategy.”
He blinked. “Oh, it’s too tall.”
“You hold it; I will eat it layer by layer.”
“I can make you one that’s smaller.” He frowned.
“Tilt that sucker over here and don’t get any ideas.”
His puzzled expression remained, and then she opened her mouth and took a few inches in before she closed her lips and chewed. A glance at him showed some red in his cheeks. “Oh.”
She swallowed and went to finish the rest of the tower and took the cookie from his rigid fingers. She nibbled it and swallowed slowly before reaching for the pitcher of water.
“I thought you alphas had to take sex classes.”
He blushed. “Alejandro took most of them for us.”
“Because you are shy.”
“Girls used to scream and not in a good way.” He hunched his shoulders. She rubbed his arm out of reflex.
She leaned against him and murmured, “So. A baby. Wait. Two. How are we going to manage this?”
“You don’t want to be a mom?”
“I do, but I wasn’t planning on this.”
“Your sister has three.”
“And her next heat kicks in tomorrow. That should be fun for her mate.”
“And exhausting. I hear that heat sex is draining for both parties.”
“It can be.”
“How do you know?”
“Uh, I have several friends who are omegas. Some that are known to the Sethir, some that aren’t.”
“But... you aren’t one.” He was trying to say something, and she smiled.
“If you say so.”
“But you aren’t, are you?” There was a whine to his growl.
“Twins always match. Alejandro is a small alpha, and you are a large one. Helena is a beautiful and graceful omega, and I am not. She’s gold and glory and gentle touches, and I had to protect her.”
“From what?”
“The world. Her adventurous nature. Our grandmother.” She snorted. “Lady Minera. She’s not a good woman. A better attack dog.”
He frowned. “She was mean. She taught some of the alpha classes on etiquette. She mocked me for my lack of grace.”
“Yeah, she’s good at finding weak points. With Helena, her mate agreed never to force Helena to be in the lady’s presence without him. The one time he was pulled away, my gran came after her, and Helena filed to get a new alpha. Seriously. Didn’t threaten to do it, just did it. He scrambled to make sure that the bitch didn’t get near his Helena after that.”
“She was mean to your sister as well?”
“Oh, no. But when she tortured me with a force whip, she made Helena watch. Every time. She was punishing my ugly and aggressive nature, and Helena had to stand there to be a good example.”
He was stiff. “How old were you when she used the whip on you?”
“It started when I was ten. Helena had broken her arm, and I was blamed. Helena fell out of a tree.” She explained.
“Your parents didn’t stop it?”
“Um, no. There is a thing Minera does that makes everyone see things her way. It doesn’t work on me, but it works on most folks who are susceptible to psychic and audio attacks.”
“And you aren’t.”
“No. I got to remember everything. By the time Helena got her mate, I was thought of as a hulking brute by the entire court. She had gotten to all of them. Even the asshole who was supposed to take me as mate. He treated me like I was a disgusting creature, insulted me, and promised to hurt me during sex. I looked over to see Helena’s mate holding her hand and whispering softly to make her smile, and I snapped. I shoved him away. He hit me in front of the entire court, then came to destroy me. I defended myself when his fist came up, and he was sliced into ribbons by my lightning.”
“How tall are you?” He stroked her shoulder and kissed her hair.
“Five five.”
He stiffened. “You are tiny. I thought you were much taller.”
“Yeah. Anyone who had contact with my grandmother thinks I am six-foot-plus. Ugly. Scaly skin, dull eyes. Clumsy. She loved to call me clumsy.”
“I remember her calling me clumsy as well. A brute. I vicious thug.” He held her carefully. “When you jumped me at Salat and Khytten’s, part of me realized that I might not be what I thought. I didn’t hurt you.”
She chuckled. “Nope. Did I hurt you?”
“Nope.” He chuckled.
“So, neither of us is what she said we are.”
“I guess so. Now I am going to be even more nervous with you. You are tiny.”
She laughed. “You did just fine. This place is never one I will be comfortable with. She told the next candidates I was so hot that I would blow them in the open court area. I tried to decline, but when they grabbed my head, things were cut off.”
He sighed. “I guessed it must be something like that. So, what do we do about her?”
“Cover her mouth long enough for me and Helena to remove her activation?”
He paused. “What?”
“And more cookies.”
“What did you say about you and your sister?”
“We can remove psychic-based activations. We can also put them back.”
He chuckled. “Really? I have never heard of such a thing.”
“Well, as a set of twins yourself, you know that just because someone hasn’t heard of it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. We accidentally did it to our dad when we were eleven or so. So, we fixed him.”
“How would that happen to your grandmother?”
“Tape her mouth shut and step aside.”
He chuckled. He murmured softly, “Did you get that?”
“Got it.” Riithan’s voice came out of the earpiece she could see now that she was looking for it.
“What the hell?”
“Helena said she didn’t remember clearly, but you would.” Misker stroked her cheek. “So, I had to ask you.”
Hera grabbed a stack of cookies and started cramming them into her face. “She told my parents I was a liar. There has never been a point to telling anyone.”
“There is now. Riithan says that Helena knows it was bad, but she didn’t know what, which bothered her as you were never separated until she was with her mate.” He sighed and lifted her onto his lap.
He nuzzled her neck, and she relaxed. “Damnit.”
He chuckled. “It is an excellent thing to know.” He gently scraped his teeth across her neck, and she gasped.
She squeaked out, “Don’t do that.”
“Why not? You like it.” He continued to nuzzle her neck with the occasional squeak.
Hera sighed, gathered her dress up, grabbed one of his hands, and shoved it between her thighs. “That’s why.”
He jolted when his fingers grazed the fabric. “It is very hot and very, very wet.”
She shivered. “Yeah, I felt it happening.”
“You respond like that to teeth?”
“Your teeth. Those other guys all smelled very much of locker room and old sneakers.”
He slipped his fingers under the edge of her panties. “And what do I smell like again?”
She groaned as they slipped and slid until two fingers were inside her. “Cookies. And giant pervert.”
He chuckled. “The last is more of a state of mind. It was spurred on by that schoolgirl outfit.”
There was an audible, “Dude!” from the earpiece.
He was slowly dragging his fingers across the front wall of her sex, and when he found what he was looking for, he flexed his fingers until she whined and bit his arm. He chuckled and continued until she jerked and curled around his hand with a groan.
He kissed her temple as she twitched and her body grasped at his fingers. “Looks like I remember something from class, after all.”
She shuddered, then realized that she was lying on her back and her skirt was away from her legs, pushed up to her torso. “When did that happen?”
“Alejandro gave me some speed. We didn’t want you to ruin your dress, so your underwear has been rinsed and dried, and I can still feel you pulsing around me. I wish we were both together in it, but the expression on your face makes up for my loss.”
She blushed as he moved his fingers lazily inside her. Her body was gripping the digits greedily.
He leaned in and kissed her, but his fingers still moved slowly. His thumb slipped and slid around her clit, and she slowly climbed toward a gentle orgasm, and he tipped her over.
He pressed his lips to her shoulder before he stroked his teeth on her skin. His fingers got to feel the rush of slick, and she felt the smile against her shoulder.
“Oh, stop being so smug.”
He chuckled.
There was a soft knock on the door, and Hera muttered, “I swear if that is your mother...”
He chuckled, lifted his head, and opened his mouth to speak, and they heard, “Misker! It’s your mother. Get away from that whore!”
Hera winced and eased away from him. “And there she is.”
She pushed his hand away and pulled her skirt down. “You might want to wash up, and can you get my underwear from wherever you stashed it?”
His expression was thunderous. He got off the bed and stalked to the door.
He wrenched the door open and stepped forward so that his mother thudded into his chest. He nearly took up the whole span.
“Where is she? I am going to carve her up myself. How dare she touch my beautiful boy?”
Hera smiled wryly and got up, walking to the bathroom to find her panties draped on a hanger. She wiggled into the damp underwear and listened to Misker read his mother the riot act. He had her backed out of the room, and his voice boomed while the walls shook.
He asked her how dare she speak that way to the mother of her grandsons, and she was spluttering for understanding.
His father was there and holding his wife and looking at Hera urgently.
She paused and then understood what she was supposed to do. She walked up to Misker and touched his arm. “Easy, big fella, she’s gotten the hint.” She kept her tone low, and he looked at her with eyes that were blue in blazing red orbs. “Wow. I can only imagine you hung over.”
She stroked his ribs under his lightly armoured suit and turned him to her. “Now, honey bunny. What were we doing?”
His fangs were visible when he said, “Cuddling.”
“Do you want to do that again?”
He nodded.
“Then come inside and sit down. I can’t reach you unless I jump, and I am too tired to jump.”
He held her hand and walked back to the bed, sitting down with a thud and looking at her with those disturbing eyes. She smiled and cuddled on his lap, leaning her head against his chest and putting her arms as far around him as she could. “Does this happen when you get mad?”
He nodded. “Yes. Stay out!” He bellowed, and the guards that had been coming in froze.
She gently held out her palm and sent crackles along the floor to ease the alphas out of the room. It chased them past the doorway.
She said, “We will come out when he’s calm, but his mother really doesn’t want to see what I am about to do.”
One of the guards grinned and nodded to her. He closed the door, and she heard it lock.
Misker was still in fury mode, and she eased her gown off her shoulders, exposing her breasts. She looked up at him and kept her expression soft. “You can do whatever you like to me. I am in your hands.”
He blinked. “Really?”
He started to stroke her breasts, watching her nipples tighten.
“Really.” She smiled at him, and he moved her to the bed, coming down on top of her. He pushed up her skirt and pulled down her panties, tossing them to one side. Hera just watched them go.
He opened the crotch of his suit, and it was Alejandro’s cock.
“I want you, Misker.”
He gave her a faint smile. “This is just to start so you feel good.”
He positioned himself against her, and after rubbing the wide head in her slick, he pushed inside. Slowly and carefully, he rocked into her.
She pulled at his shoulders to bring him down to her, and she kissed him when he complied. He felt good. Really good. When he finally was fully inside her, he broke the kiss and started to nuzzle at her shoulder.
There was a pause, and then she felt the cock inside her swell, right to the knot that was now lodged into her. She gasped and let out a low moan as she was stretched, and he sealed them together.
He groaned low, and his body shook.
She threaded her fingers in his hair and whispered, “Go ahead.”
She heard his soft whine and then the licking. The bite came next, and she gasped as he hung on while his hips worked to rock him inside her. The pleasure-pain at her opening gave her a tight, shivering orgasm that triggered his release.
He growled with his teeth still against her as his cock jerked and heat filled her.
Hera caressed his head, and he slowly started licking the wounds. He looked at her, and his eyes were calm.
His voice was rough when he asked, “How did you know that would work?”
“BDC intuition. You are a little awkward but sweet at your core. You only want to be like any other mated Sethir-Nin. Your parents will be pissed. They would want to choose your partner.”
“Tough. Alejandro chose for both of us.” He smiled and shifted his hips. “I have never been knotted to someone before.”
“Wow. You asked a lot of those socks, huh?”
His eyes widened, and he laughed. “That is possibly the most crudely accurate thing I have ever heard.”
“And don’t forget the hardworking lotion.”
He reached down and patted her hip. “You are cruising for a spanking. I have definitely had an interest in trying that out.”
She blinked. “You have to be really careful with that.”
“I know. My brother told me. He also said your response was most favourable.”
Hera gasped. “You ungallant jerk!”
He grinned and kissed her. “Since we have a few minutes before we can separate. I want to practice this.”
“You could shift to Alejandro and slip out.”
He grinned. “Could but won’t. My brother is laughing like mad right now. He is happy to see me growing a spine to more than villains.”
“If that thing grows a spine, you and I are going to go on a handjob-only diet.”
He laughed and kissed her with delicate care. “No actual spines. Promise.”
He slowly started rocking his hips.
“What are you doing?”
“Instinct. My hips are doing this on their oh-oohhh.” He gritted his teeth, and she felt another hot rush.
She arched against him and shivered. “That feels... nice.”
She grabbed his neck and pulled him down to her. They spent several blissful minutes before the disconcerting feel of him leaking out of her.
“Do we have to rejoin the world?” Misker sighed.
“We do, or your mother will be catatonic. How long do your rages usually last?”
His cheeks pinked. “Hours or days. I usually get shoved to the front lines when I am in that mood.”
“Well, twenty minutes is a record. Now help me get cleaned up.”
He sighed. “Can we just stay here for a few minutes?”
She snorted. “It was answering yes to that that probably got me pregnant.”
He grinned and pressed his forehead to hers. “I just feel better when touching you. Is that weird?”
“No. You have been seeking contact for a very long time. Now you have it, so you feel better.”
He frowned. “How do you know that?”
“Because I was seeking it, too.”
His kiss was passionate and thorough, and when he lifted his head, they were both crying. Time for a shower.