Leena
Since I was allowed to walk around freely, I decided to do so. I wanted to experience the House of Heida and get to understand the way they worked. Normally they lived alone on their lands in the North. Sometimes completely alone, sometimes with their mates. They came together in these temporary tents for rituals and festivals, and it seemed the limited timeframe made it easier for them to tolerate being social.
Now that I knew what the jewelry meant, I was fascinated. I walked behind a woman wearing a long blue skirt and corset that went under her breasts, but not over. She wore two ankle bracelets, a belly chain, and an armband. Up for anything. The woman beside wore four armbands of silver and gold. I wondered if there was more meaning with the colors and numbers. Did four mean she was interested in finding four companions? Were silver and gold code for a kind of woman or a kind of sex? Or simply a fashion choice?
The women stopped, so I stopped too. To the left was a naked woman on her back on a cushioned piece of furniture of some kind. Like a bench, but also like a couch, but different. A man and a woman stood on either side of her, sucking at her nipples. Another man pumped into her with strong, long strokes.
As I looked around I realized there were at least a dozen of us all watching them. The woman writhed and moaned, arching up. I felt my cheeks grow hot and a slickness between my legs. It was erotic. The women in front of me began to make out, fondling each other and moaning, too.
It was too much for me, so I stepped around them and continued down the road, my ears ringing. Now I was all too aware how much sex was taking place all around me. Couples between tents, going at it in the shadows. Groups of four, five, even six on similar benches, combining and recombining into different configurations.
Sounds of pleasure from the tents I walked past.
Even though the air was cool, I was hot. Once I found a tree in the shade, just off the road, I sank to the ground and tried to calm down. They were right. The House of Heida was a more sexual experience than I was used to. I heard the blood parties were like this. Lou and Rhysa said the House of Axl could be like this all the time. Perhaps I needed to adjust my perspective of a high sex drive.
Not that I minded. I always felt a little boxed in back home. I think it had to do with how many of us there were. It was highly unusual to have as many siblings as I did. We grew up together and the youngest were just reaching their sexual awakenings. It meant our House was a little quieter. A little more conservative, perhaps.
The sounds of grunts came from behind me and I peeked around the tree. It took me a moment to find the source, but after a moment my eyes adjusted to the darker forest and I found two bears fighting.
No.
Not fighting.
Fucking.
They phased in and out of their forms. Flashing to samhain and then back to bears. Occasionally taking turns. It…fascinated me and I couldn’t look away. Were they back there so they could have some privacy? Privacy I was invading. Or did they simply enjoy the space to be as wild as they wished?
After a few flashes I was able to determine that it was a male and female. As bears they shook the trees and growled loudly. As humans they moaned and panted, fucking hard and fast. Tugging and pulling on sensitive parts until the other came.
“You want it?” the male asked the female.
“Please?” she begged.
“You’re absolutely sure?”
“Do it!” she moaned.
He shifted back into bear form and took her one last time. She phased in and out of her human form during the experience, writhing, and moaning, and wild.
I was so hot from watching that I had to run off. My nipples tingled and my thighs were slick. I wasn’t a virgin but I was starting to feel like one. I was out of my element but fascinated and excited.
At the end of the road I found a watering station. I took a cup and drank it down, then spread a little across my chest. Maybe I shouldn’t stay for Midnight Dreams. If this was the leadup I might not be able to handle the actual night. Besides, I was only staying that long out of personal curiosity. If Atsila really didn’t have an interest then all I needed to do was convey all the important information and leave him to convince his Queen we all needed to work together.
Dinner was as much a festival as the rest of the day. Long wood tables sat in rows in a meadow. Platters of meat and vegetables were placed down the center of each one, along with pitchers of beer. It was loud and friendly.
I felt like an outsider looking in. Until Klah and Kuruk found me.
“Leena!” They called out together. They each had a tall woman under their arms.
Kuruk kissed the temple of the lady beside him. “Lady Leena of the House of Wren, may I introduce Daisy of the House of Heida.”
She smiled down at me with bright blue eyes and dimples in each cheek. Her brown hair hung down to her waist with braids interspersed. “Kuruk has talked about you all afternoon. I feel like I know you.”
He hadn’t once mentioned Daisy in all our conversations, but I didn’t tell her that. There could be a dozen reasons why. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well.”
“And this is Carly,” Klah said as he poured out some beer, the amber liquid sloshing onto the wood table. Another man appeared on her other side and slid his arm around her waist. She went to him with Klah barely acknowledging the change. “I’m hungry enough to eat an entire deer.” He rubbed his belly.
“That’s because we’ve been fucking for two hours,” Kuruk said in a singsonging laugh as he kissed Daisy some more.
“You’re all drunk.” The grand gestures, the weaving steps, the brilliant smiles. It all seemed so obvious now.
“Yes,” Klah nodded and smiled. “We are quite drunk already, but we’re also high on multiple orgasms.” He and Kuruk clinked their mugs together, more beer sloshing around.
“It’s the normal release after travel,” Kuruk said. He and Daisy sat on the bench and piled meat onto plates. “Did you meet with Lyla?”
I sat across from them and poured myself a mug. “Only for a few minutes. Gave her the quick and dirty.”
Klah seemed oddly sober all of a sudden. “How did she react?”
“I guess I’d say she was receptive and not entirely surprised.” Now that I thought about it, she almost seemed prepared.
“Really.” He frowned at his beer.
Atsila appeared out of nowhere, looming over the table with his shadow. “Why are you upset?”
Klah poured out another mug and shoved it at Atsila. “I’m not upset. This is how I look.”
“When you’re upset.” Atsila climbed over the bench and sat.
Klah pointed my way with his chin. “She says Lyla wasn’t that surprised when she explained why she’s here.”
I hadn’t known them long, but our short time together was intense and I learned a lot about each of them. Klah was always lonely even though he pretended he was the happiest Heida in the world. Kuruk’s eyes pinched at the corners when he didn’t trust someone. And Atsila…well I noticed a lot about the giant who rarely looked me in the eyes. When he knew something with absolute certainty he stood a fraction of an inch taller and watched the conversation around him with a kind of peace, waiting for the moment he could shut it all down with a single sentence. When he sensed danger his shoulders slid forward and his abdominals engaged, his ear perked. And when something unexpected happened, like now, the corners of his lips turned up into a pretend smile.
“She is the Queen.”
Interesting. He said it like he wanted to believe it, but didn’t. “So how does this work? How formal? You call her your Queen and Lyla. You’re the future King…does that mean you’ll marry her?”
Klah laughed. Daisy smiled at me like I was amusing. “You really don’t know anything about us?”
“No. The Heida are very mysterious to the rest of us. Even the older generation. They speak of you in hushed tones and have very few stories.”
“Huh,” Daisy tapped her chin, “we live with the impression that all the samhain know everything about us. We always feel exposed.”
I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of that statement, but I simply smiled. “No one comes to visit and you almost never leave the North. We have no idea what the Heida are like outside the old timers stories, which are pretty much just, They’re big and scary and live alone.”
Klah, Atsila, and Kuruk nodded in agreement. Kuruk spoke while waving around some meat. “It’s true. I tried to avoid all of them, which means I overheard a lot of conversations. They know nothing.”
“Well that’s wonderful!” Daisy clapped.
They really liked their space. “So, at the risk of being laughed at again, how does this King and Queen stuff work?”
“Sorry we laughed,” Klah said. “We’re not like that House of Axl with their throne room and shit. Lyla’s the Queen which means she’s the leader of the House. She makes the big calls and stays up to date on the state of the world and the Plane. But she’s still Lyla.”
“So you know her well?”
“Well yeah,” Kuruk shrugged. “We all grew up together. It’s weird that she’s so important now. I still think of her as the beer chugging champion at camp.”
Beer chugging champion? “Okay backup. How does one become Queen?” A and B weren’t equaling C.
Atsila followed me only with his eyes. I found the effect arousing and exciting, if not a little dangerous. Like I was prey he didn’t want to spook. “Again, we’re not like the Axls. This isn’t a hereditary appointment. Our Queen and King are chosen.”
Like the Doctor? “How?” So much of our samhain life was at the mercy of the Plane. We each had a different relationship with the metaphysical world. Some of it was in our genes. Where our ancestors evolved in connection with sensitive areas of the Plane. It’s why the Heida were bear shifters and the Axls could give life to the dead and the Nala could use words to manipulate matter.
“Some of us are naturally more in tune with the Plane. Lyla is even more powerful than our last Queen, so she took over when it was clear her abilities far exceeded any of us,” Atsila said, his voice so low it was almost a murmur.
I held my breath because the next piece of information felt incredibly invasive but also like a clue to everything that still confused me about my attraction to Atsila. “And you?”
His gaze fell to the table. “I was making my home near the most northern part of our border. There were about six males within twenty miles of me. Some had mates. There was an attack and I was the only one who survived. So it was determined I would be the next King when the time comes.”
A very uncomfortable silence fell over the group while I tried to process everything he just said. I could feel the loss, the sadness, emanating out of them all. It was so powerful I almost choked on it. Or maybe that was my own grief for the lives I never even knew.
“A good death.” Klah held up his mug.
Everyone else did too. “A good death.” We all drank.
It wasn’t the time or place so I didn’t ask who attacked them. It couldn’t have been one of the Houses. Was it an animal attack? Or was there something else I knew nothing about? A secret war of their own? Did a faction of the House of Heida want control? So many questions.
But one huge answer. Atsila didn’t ask to be the future King. It came to him with a heavy price. I could see now that his quiet stoicism was grief. And burden.
“Let’s take Leena into the forest tomorrow,” Klah said, breaking the silence. “Before she leaves she should experience it.”
Atsila scowled at him.
Kuruk thumped the table in agreement. “Ah, it will be good to stretch my legs and breathe the air! You’ll love it, Leena. Come with us, Daisy.”
She ran her hand through his beard. “I can’t. I have a meeting with Lyla when Leena is done.”
“Yes. Of course. About the food supplies for next year. I forgot.”
She smiled up at him with the kind of adoration my future sister-in-law smiled at my big brother, Dray. It made my heart clench and a little bit of jealousy stir in my belly. “But until then, you’re mine.”
He growled at her.
I had to look away. It felt too intimate. Like I was watching something I shouldn’t. But as I turned, my gaze collided with Atsila’s. He stared at me with confusion.
And wonder.
