A few days ago, when I still had some pride left in me, I might’ve cleaned up. Now I just let it leak. Part of the recipe for the regret-and-jealousy stew I’d unwittingly signed myself up to bring to our three-king, one-wife potluck.
No wonder so many of the Mountain Kings had gone mad.
As I listened to him fuck her—probably between the sweet thighs I’d been dreaming about wrapping around my own waist—my eyes burned with mad bear-glow, and a spike of petulant anger erupted in my chest.
“Didn’t I tell ye to turn that off last night?” I asked the Shadow King, whose lemon scent now drifted from the direction of the couch where I’d taught Sadie how to properly binge.
The Shadow King, of course, did not answer. And that turned out to be the thing that made me wrench my forearm from over myeyes and shout, “I told ye to turn it off. I can’t take much more of?—”
I cut off when I saw the whiteboard propped against a pillow, so it’d be the first thing I saw when I woke:Day 6. Worried. Running analysis.
SADIE
Someone was moaning like a wounded animal in need of treatment.
That someone was me.
Something was wrong.
Declan had fucked me. He’d fucked me for who knew how many days. Servicing every estrus cycle. But it still wasn’t enough.
Even though he’d only pulled out a little while ago, the world remained a fire pit of need. Burning me from the inside out.
My hips mindlessly rocked against the nest, seeking relief. Everything swollen. Heavy. Desperate for more.
“Sadie…” Declan’s voice was somehow both too far away and too loud.
Like he was screaming through water, directly into my ear.
“How are you in cycle again? So soon? We just finished not forty-five minutes ago.”
I don’t know! I don’t know!
But I sobbed into the fur stole of his robe, needing relief. “It hurts!” I whined, feeling sick in the head—and even more so down below.
“Sssh, I’m here.” He rubbed my back with more gentleness than I probably deserved. “I’m here for as long as it takes to get you through this.”
I noticed he was no longer talking about babies, and I got the sense he’d given up on that particular dream for himself.
We were both sore and tired. And like me, he probably wanted this to be over.
CIAN
The Mountain King was shouting about something in the distance, but I couldn’t rip my eyes away from the screen, where Declan was once again mounting Sadie.
Something was wrong.
TADHG
“What kind of analysis are you running, then?” I asked theShadow King.
No answer.
And my eyes went to the screen I’d been trying to avoid, like a feckin’ moth to a flame.
Holy…
Declan wasn’t between her legs, but on top of her back, rutting with the mindless abandon of an animal, until Sadie’s soft mews turned to faster cries.
