The only immediate change we made was to replace the king-sized bed for our custom one, since we’d never get five people in the king-sized bed that we’d found in the master bedroom. It was a little too big to look right in the space, but it fit well enough without night tables. A reminder this was a temporary measure at best, if nothing else my mantel to rule wouldn’t allow me to hide indefinitely and allow them to get away with their perfidy.

  Even if I did kind of like them as people. There was only so much I could take on behalf of my past life’s evil actions. It wasn’t just my mantle of kingship that was pushing me, it was my mantle of justice.

  At the moment, the ladies all looked amazing in bikinis. We were relaxing in the backyard, faith snuggled up with me in the outdoor lounge chair, while Lianne and Cerise were snuggling in the other one. Aubrey wasn’t far, just a few feet away cooking dinner on the barbeque.

  Misty said, “The Manhattan brownstone has been infiltrated,” at the same time the wards told me they’d showed up there. No doubt she’d picked it up on the security cameras and the various heat and movement sensors.

  Finally hunting me down. According to the wards it was just the trio and Mandy. When I checked, Nadia was more than content to watch me taken me down from the sidelines while she plotted her rise in the power vacuum, and as I predicted Freda and Teresa just didn’t care, not enough to put skin in the game. Either way they had their jobs on the council, so weren’t going to choose sides.

  “It took them long enough. Maybe they thought I’d be coming back or something.”

  I kissed Faith softly, she looked really worried, for me, so I changed the subject, “How’re the steaks coming?”

  Aubrey smirked, “Like you can’t scent when they’re done? Three minutes.”

  Busted.

  Faith said, “What if you demand a trial.”

  I replied, “It’s not about what I did, it’s about what they want and don’t want. The true problem is they don’t care about me at all, don’t know how vital I am to the pantheon, and Gary thinks I’m little better than Nate despite my actions proving otherwise. I thought of using Amelia against them, but after considering it I rejected it. An hour or so later I realized I didn’t have to, I imagine she’ll be leaving them… very soon. Maybe that will knock some sense into them.”

  Lianne caressed my leg, “Why would she do that?”

  “She uses her power on them often, to make sure no one in the family is being or just feeling neglected. She’ll pick up that they’re all now guilty of betrayal and sedition, of plotting to dethrone me for no cause. That they’re all corrupt, and that Gary led them down that road out of petty jealousy. She’s justice and retribution, she won’t be able to accept that in her mates. The corruption and injustice of this will destroy that family, eventually. It’s sad really, and stupid.

  “So, yes. I hope that’s the feather that breaks the camel’s back, and finally overcomes the moral cowardice in the others out of love for Gary, will happen out of love for Amelia. They actually like that he’s an insanely and jealously possessive man, but this is the first time it’s ever led them down the rabbit hole of corruption, treason, and conspiracy.”

  I sighed, “The only way we can all win is if they come to their senses, otherwise we’ll all lose. This isn’t like last time with Nate like they seem to believe it is, they can’t rule well with other pantheons on the board, and while they weren’t bad at it before they weren’t great either. Hopefully I’m not wrong, I have no insight into the future save the facts and patterns of the past.”

  While that last point was true, if they did manage to kill me the next me would come into their power just two months after the new Odin. Still, two months was a long time, and I wasn’t going to lay down and die in the hopes they’d be less corrupt in another twenty years, and the next me wasn’t going to revert to an asshole. No, that would be insane.

  Faith asked, “If they don’t?”

  I shrugged, “Then I pick the lesser of two bad roads, and fight for the throne, and then rule as best I can and protect our people the best I can with a much smaller council of tier-one gods. It’s not just my mantel of rule demanding it, it’s my mantel of justice. But having the moral high ground means nothing, only results do. Not tomorrow, or even the next day, we’ll give it time and focus on business and family. Like a vacation.”

  Or I’d die trying, but I left that part off. Power corrupts, even the best of us, and it might be too late for them to see it and get back on track. I believed I wouldn’t, because of being born a shifter and the fact I wasn’t ignoring my justice mantel as Nate and Zeus so obviously had. They had no such guide, save Amelia as a mate.

  Another option could be Natasha’s father, mother, and the witch Brenna that taught her magic and principles in the first place. They weren’t corrupt, but I had no idea how to manipulate them into staging an intervention to push her into taking Gary to task as well as checking her own honesty.

  I shook my head, if saving Mandy’s and her father’s life along with his vast family hadn’t been enough to put steel back in her principles, then nothing short of Amelia threatening to leave would do it. Going against her father in favor of Gary’s perfidy would further poison her relationship and self-image, but on second thought I didn’t think it would be enough.

  It was Natasha’s mantel really that caused that moral cowardice. She would do anything for Gary, including burn in torment, out of love. She also loved Amelia, so given that scale it was my hope that would even things out, and her currently ignored principles would tilt the scales in Amelia’s direction, and therefore mine.

  Lianne snickered, “We could use a vacation.”

  Faith smiled despite her worry, and then kissed me softly.

  Aubrey said, “It’s ready.”

  But of course, I’d already been moving to get up, because I could smell it was ready too…

  Chapter Eight

  The hot water sluiced down my body, the shower felt good pounding down on my tense muscles. It wasn’t easy to sit on the sideline with two of my mantels pushing me down the same road of rule and justice, but it was the right play for now. They weren’t really bad people, and if they failed to come to their senses then my decision on what to do after that seemed to quell my mantels enough to resist acting.

  Technically, they were all already guilty of insurrection in their thoughts, but since I was hiding and they couldn’t actually act on it, there was wiggle room there to let it go if they did come to their senses. If they couldn’t find me, they couldn’t commit the crime.

  Sophistry perhaps, but I was working out of necessities at the moment.

  I credited my family, and being a shifter, with my current approach. My past lives never had so much to lose in family, nor were quite so protective of the pantheon as individuals.

  The shower door opened, and Cerise slipped in with a playful smile, her lovely light gray eyes looked into mine as she took the soap from me and started to clean me up. She was five foot six, and her lovely light reddish brown hair was up in a tight bun revealing the gentle curves of her neck and the severe beauty of her face. Oval, with sharp low cheekbones, and full sensual lips. Her light brown nipples were already straining on her deliciously generous breasts, and I could see she was already aroused, as well as scent it.

  “You seem stressed,” she noted with a sultry submission in her voice, “I’d be happy to help you with that, sir.”

  She giggled lightly, as she watched my cock twitch and start to grow.

  “Hungry?”

  She bit her lip, her eyes widening in hungry desire as she looked at the pulse point on my neck, “I could use a nip, but I’m here for you.”

  She slowly bent her legs and went to her knees, as she started to soap up my legs. Her eyes looking up into mine intensely, as her slightly parted and moist lips were just an inch or so from the tip of my now raging hard on. Her eyes and wildly wicked scents told me she ached to have me in her mouth and to be my release and relief.

  I caressed her face, and then put my hand on the back of her head, and then pulled her forward as I pushed slowly between her full silken lips. My moan of pleasure at entering the hot and myriad pleasures of her mouth was totally drowned out by her wanton moan of pleasure in the act of taking me in. That wickedly sweet and lovingly depraved moan sent tingling vibrations of pleasure down my cock and into my body.

  She suckled lightly and swirled the tip with her tongue, then moved her head forward to take me deeper. Her slick soap covered hands came into play then, one cupping my balls and rolling them as she teased my taint with her fingernails, and the other sliding and twisting deliciously on the base of my cock. She slathered the bottom with her tongue, then pulled back up to milk me with her suction before swirling the tip once more.

  Her eyes were so intensely loving, and wickedly submissive, as she started to really work me with a smooth and fast technique, both hands and her mouth working in perfect harmony and sending waves of potent pleasure into my body. The built up quickly at her wanton efforts and a powerful response to it rose from the depths of my being as I rose quickly to my height. She really knew how to suck dick, to edge me or get me off fast, and this time it was the latter. The love and debauched enjoyment in the act just made it even more amazing to me, and I rose quickly toward ecstasy.

  “So beautiful, my wild nymph,” fell from my lips as I felt overwhelmed by her love, but also my love. There was plenty of naughty lust and fulfillment involved as well, but it was the love that had me so mesmerized as those words were spoken.

  She just worked my cock harder under the hot spray at that, another wanton feminine moan sending tingling and vibrating pleasure racing through body as her warm gray eyes begged me to fill her hot mouth.

  “Fuck, Cerise,” I growled in warning and adoration, as I locked my knees and slapped my hands into the shower walls for balance as my legs numbed and my balls boiled.

  She moaned in wanton approval, as she milked and sucked me dry. When she was sure she’d gotten it all, she winked up at me and continued to wash my legs. When she stood up, I pulled her against me and claimed a deep kiss. One arm around her and holding her tightly by her thin waist, as my other hand invaded her between the legs and I plundered her mouth with my own.

  My fingers digging possessively and firmly into her side, and our kiss wildly passionate, but my other hand was teasing her toward an orgasm with light touches on her sensitive labia and a slight grind on her clit.

  She shivered, moaned into my mouth, then gasped sharply as she came beautifully for me, my firm hand in her side now holding her up and against me while I continued to work her through it. The shower’s purpose totally forgotten, as I manhandled her against the slick tiles and lifted her by her ass.

  Her legs went around me like a vice, as she reached down to line me up, and I dropped her on my fat eight inches, to her delighted gasp and wildly pleasured eyes as she stared into mine. She was lost in the pleasure of it, as I pounded my way deep inside, the pleasures of her slick and silken sex, so hot and snug around me, was pure heavenly pleasure on my body.

  Then our bodies fully met, her body and breasts pressed into me as I kneaded her ass and waited for her sex to grow accustomed to my insistent invasion. She was so tautly stretched, and I could see the mixed pleasure and discomfort in her eyes, along with the love and lust.

  She begged, “Fuck me, Liam. I want to feel you use my body and fill me. I love how much you love me, care for me, and respect me. But right now, I just need to be fucked hard for your pleasure,” and if that wasn’t enough to get me going, she also clenched around me like a vise and milked me hard with a rolling gyration of her hips. The churning sensations around my sensitive cock and her sweet moan of wicked surrender and desire was entirely overwhelming after her naughty little speech.

  Dirty talk was also not her thing, not usually. She was my quiet one in bed, all ridiculously hot and sexy whimpers and suppressed sexy gasps, which I loved. Her wanton submissive surrender was more than enough. Point being, her dirty talk was a clear invitation to take out all my frustration and stress on her. To just pound her like an animal and take my pleasure, and I knew that would also deliver her pleasure in spades. She ached to be my release and relief.

  But I never could, never would, use her. I didn’t have to either, being with her had left no room for those worries, the lust and love pushing out the mantels that had been pressing on me. Of course, that didn’t mean we didn’t both like it hard and fast on occasion, even a bit nasty.

  I lifted her up slightly, and then started to thrust up into her as hard as I could. She whimpered sexily in pleasure as she started to bounce up and down the wall from the strength of my thrusts, my hands merely guiding her body at that point.

  She started to gyrate subtly, while rolling her hips on the downthrust to meet mine. Wild clenches, writhing squeezes, and powerful milking of my cock as she worked me just as hard in return.

  I didn’t have to tell her I would never use her, my eyes did that. She could clearly see the love and lust in my eyes, the enjoyment of her, the awe and admiration, there was no anger or frustration in me at that point, and she could sense it. We didn’t speak of it, but as much as she was willing to let me use her for that purpose, she was clearly thrilled that I didn’t have it in me to do it.

  It also threw her over the edge, fast, although my harshly pounding cock surely had something to do with that as well.

  Her sweet whimpers as she looked into my eyes and her body splintered apart around me was quite a turn on, and quite satisfying as I enjoyed her writhing around me as I continued to pound into her heavenly paradise. So hot for me, so sexy cumming for me, she was amazing to me.

  “Wild nymph, cum for me again,” I ordered as she bounced breathlessly on my cock, only just now recovering from the first potent orgasm and regaining her counter rhythm to my sensual assault.

  She said, “Yes, sir…” breathily and then her eyes widened, and she started to come apart around me again, wildly milking me, her hot body begging for the bounty of my pleasure. It was the second round though, so I just powered through her second potent orgasm to extend her pleasure as she lost herself in the pleasure and in my eyes.

  Her face was a study in pleasure and watching her cum was one of my favorite things in this life.

  I didn’t think I could take much more though, not at the furious and wild pace we’d set, as we went at it like animals down below, and made love up above with our eyes. She was so wickedly depraved, yet so sweetly submissive for me, as she worked hard for my pleasure, even as she surrendered completely to the pleasure my cock and firm drives were having on her.

  When I was close to the edge, I took one hand off her ass and wrapped it behind her neck, then tilted my head as I pulled her sweet lips to my throat.

  She whimpered right in my ear, “I love you, Liam,” then I felt her nip my neck, then strike. The pleasure of the bite and the feeling of her feeding on me, sent us both over the edge profoundly, fast, and undeniably. There was no stopping it, the storm of pleasure broke across me, and I started to fill her wildly milking and greedy pussy.

  Her sexy gasping whimpers filled my ear as I grunted and filled her, was a powerful experience. The only downside to her feeding during sex was I couldn’t see her beautiful eyes or share pleasure through our gaze, but it was also the most powerful of orgasms, the pleasure rapturous and eternal, for a short time.

  Until we came down.

  She licked my neck daintily to seal the wound and clean up the blood.

  She said softly, “Never stop doing that to me.”

  I chuckled, “Wild nymph, no chance of that.”

  She giggled, then kissed me languidly.

  I held her for a little while longer, enjoying the decadent feeling of my spent cock in her body’s embrace, while I held her and teasingly caressed her ass in the aftermath of post bliss. Then we cleaned up.

  I also wasn’t done with her yet, as I carried her to the bed and made love to her, before our other three mates joined us for our nightly five-way marathon.

  The five of us were lounging in the backyard. It was the next morning, after breakfast and a morning run. I’d made a point of adding it to the schedule, I’d teleported Aubrey and I to the Adirondacks in upstate New York, and I covered us both from farseeing during our time together. It was also good, fun and nice, so I decided even when we did work it out, I’d make it a point and make time to run with her daily, not just some days.

  At the moment we were all working from the backyard loungers. I had to admit, it looked a little odd at times. Like my lush green-eyed beauty was laying down and soaking in some sun in a white bikini, but her hands were raised and she was using her augmented reality keyboard. I knew what she was doing of course, but if a stranger saw her they’d think she was as crazy as she was sensually hot.

  Misty said, “Someone’s trying to hack us. Our business computers. They’re not bad, but nothing out there can outmaneuver me that way, yet.”

  “Can you trace it?”

  Misty hummed, and she started to twirl her hair. She looked lovely in a red bikini, laying on her stomach with her sexy and tight ass sticking up slightly. She got a pleased smirk on her face when I couldn’t seem to help enjoying the offered view, even if there was no salacious fantasies along with it. I was used to it now, really.

  I mean, used to her being in my mind. I didn’t have salacious fantasies of my mates either, not every time I admired their beauty, I mean. It’d only happened with Misty all the time, because it was like not thinking of a pink elephant when someone mentioned one. The fact she was in my head had a lot to do with that in the past, not just that she was my ideal in personality, beauty, and form.