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ChapterSix
Sebald
Icouldn’t decide if I was stunned by Peter’s outburst or the way he seemed to unravel at our discission or not. He’d reacted exactly like I’d thought he would…and totally differently. There was something more going on with him, which Neil seemed to confirm when he whisked Peter out of the cottage.
“Do you think he’s alright?” Lefric asked as soon as Peter and Neil were gone. “Should we go after them to make sure there are no hard feelings?”
“No,” Jace and I answered at the same time, then exchanged a look.
I almost laughed, but it wasn’t a particularly funny moment.
“Neil is taking him to Magnus. Magnus will sort it,” I said.
“You’re right,” Lefric said with a sigh, sinking back in his chair. “I kind of feel bad for Peter,” he went on. “You know that he’s thrown everything he has into abolishing pupdom. He hated being Sascha’s pup. And he was really scared after what almost happened with Bela, even though he tried to make light of it later.”
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, cursing myself for forgetting those things. It was easy to forget that Peter hadn’t always been Magnus and Neil’s beloved husband. He’d been a pup too, and he’d almost been dragged into a fate similar to Gennadi’s.
Jace must have seen those emotions flit across my face. “Peter is my best friend, and I hurt because he hurts, but he’s not going to change my mind about Gennadi, or about pupdom,” he said, then let out a breath. “I’m starting to see that the whole pupdom thing is more complicated than I initially thought.” He glanced at Gennadi and stroked a hand over the side of his beloved’s face as he did.
We were silent for a moment before Olympus appeared in the doorway from the garden.
“I just wanted to check to see how you were,” he said, then stopped abruptly, startled to find us all naked. He grinned from ear to ear, but focused in on Lefric as he continued more seriously with, “I take it there was some conflict.”
Lefric laughed ironically, then stood. “You could put it that way,” he said, gathering up his clothes, then heading to the door to meet his man. “I’ll tell you about it. Preferably while you bend my ankles back to my ears and stuff that big cock of yours in my ass. I could use with a good comfort fuck right about now.”
He grinned at Olympus, and Olympus grinned back as though he were a boy of our age or younger. “I will never say no to a request like that,” he said, winking at Lefric and making a show of checking out his bare ass as they exited into the garden.
“I’ll happily return the favor anytime you want,” Lefric bantered as the two left. “I think you could use a good ass-stuffing now and then.”
Lefric. I shook my head. It didn’t matter how dire circumstances were, Lefric always made me laugh.
“I can honestly say that I’m overjoyed Lefric found that man,” Jace said, turning away from where he, too, had watched the two of them leave to look at me. “You should have seen them on the journey up the river. Olympus acts like a man half his age when they’re together. Personally, I think it hasn’t served him as well as he thinks it has in his life, but it makes him and Lefric perfect for each other.”
“Did you have a good time in Good Port?” I asked, nudging Avenel to get up. He’d relaxed a little after Peter and Neil left, and even more once it was just the two of us, Jace and Gennadi.
And since it was just the four of us now, I moved across to the chair where Peter and Neil had been sitting. Avenel moved like he would kneel on the floor, but once I was seated, I pulled him across my lap so he could lean against me, his feet dangling over the arm of the chair.
“Yes, actually,” Jace said, spreading out into the space on the sofa I’d vacated and arranging Gennadi to lay against him, half on top of him. “I wish we could have stayed longer. Good Port is gorgeous, my oldest sister lives there, and the Hakobyan estate has the most amazing view of the harbor. And besides, there really is a fantastic mystery going on there right now.”
“Someone was murdered?” I asked.
Jace nodded and stroked the back of Gennadi’s neck. “Olympus’s secretary. The circumstances are incredibly suspicious. And I’m with Lefric. After what you told us your aunt heard, I think the murder and meddling in Good Port’s election last year has connections to the Old Realm.”
“I’m sure it does,” Gennadi said in a soft voice. He pushed up to look at Jace for a moment, then went on with, “There’s something I need to show you. I’ve been meaning to show you, but I didn’t fit the pieces together until now. But…I’m so tired after tonight.”
“Tell me later, sweetheart,” Jace said, nudging Gennadi to lie on him again, then stroking his neck. “We’ve had enough for one night.”
“There is so much going on and it’s bigger than any of us have fully realized,” I said with a sigh, stroking my hand along Avenel’s leg, then turning to smile at him as he rested his head on my shoulder.
It struck me then like the ringing of an out-of-tune gong how bizarre the moment truly was. The four of us were still naked, Jace and I were holding and stroking our pups—our actual pups—like they were beloved pets…and it felt natural and right. And on top of that, we were casually talking about the potentially deadly political machinations of a faraway kingdom that was very likely attempting to undermine everything we held dear.
I must have frozen and gaped at nothing for a moment as the thoughts struck me. Next I knew, Jace was laughing tiredly at me and shaking his head.
“You get used to it,” he said.
“Get used to what?” I asked, shifting the way I sat and circling my arms around Avenel.
“Having this sort of a relationship.” Jace nodded to Gennadi, then started stroking his back. “Being the master.”
