A War Dawning Ch. 01

Neral Jaye's evening was setting up to be a most pleasant one as she padded barefoot to her room in nothing but a simple white gown. The house now was settled and quiet for the evening, save a few members of the house staff that preferred to do their work in the quiet hours before the rush of the day or those that were simply nocturnal and lived for the night in general.

But the members of her family proper, regardless of how they had come to live under her roof and bond to one another were retired for the evening and the rest of the night would be hers to spend. She walked the long hallway to the master bedroom and opened the door to find her mates in the oversized, custom bed, that, even with its size didn't take up enough of the room for it to so much as begin to feel crowded.

On that bed lay Deres, her husband by ceremony, and Bryana, their mate equally and in every other way that mattered. His broad, sculpted chest with sparse, dark hair made for a most attractive sight. His blue eyes and close-cropped hair coupled with the power of his body to give him the look of a rugged merchant sailor who rushed to cut and trim himself back to respectability once he made port.

The obvious power of his body served to remind her in its own way of the power he possessed that could not be so readily seen. As a child of Erette raised in a land thought mythical by most, he returned with an understanding of magic, science, and how they could co-mingle that was unmatched in any of the kingdoms in the known world.

Forbidden magics that included nearly everything beyond those that could heal were not unknown, as Bryana herself could attest. A mage herself, she'd learned the darker elements of the craft hidden from most in one of the secretive mage guilds that dotted the lands and whose members plied their skills for profit. A gifted outlaw, Bryana Lia was set on a collision course with General Jaye after having been hired to mold the officer into one that could kill her queen.

Happening upon the plot by chance, Deres used his own skill to unravel it and, in so doing changed her mind and soul in a way that bound her to both of them. Time and the circumstances of life had turned that binding into a union of three as one. With the freedom to choose restored to her years before she had chosen her path with finality, which led her to laying upon the bed in a black bra and panties with rather exquisite embroidery that accented her long frame and served to compliment the dark, intricate tattoos that covered much of her body.

Some served as marks of the guild she once served while others, like the serpent the eyes and viper like fangs of which started just below the belly button before coiling around the small of her back and down her left leg with a depth and shading that made it look alive. Her eyes were a lighter shade of blue than his and her blonde hair flowed downward in soft waves. She and Neral were, in some ways very different women, but that simply made their passion more intense.

Neral could freely admit that one of her joys was watching those she loved be close, from the easy smiles they have for one another, to the shorthand language they developed together to show emotional intimacy. From the way Tessa, House Mistress for the House of Jaye would bicker gently with Cassea Voss, the House's representative at Court, with the latter 'advising' the former about the best way to do things, to the way Neral herself could simply talk the evening away with Traymis Elan, a soldier that, by circumstance was now tied to Deres. That was something in and of itself since the archer was often shy and reserved.

All these instances were little things that showed her that it was more than just a group of people under a single roof. They were united with one another as much as with their House.

Bryana and Deres had also made a bit of sport over the fact that, in the privacy of their chambers, she loved to watch her loves together very nearly as much as she enjoyed being in the tangle with them. "All is settled?" Deres asked. "Khylen is finally asleep?"

Neral sighed, but it was a happy sound. "After the nearly third full reading of her story of choice, yes."

"She's been looking forward to your voice doing it for days," he told her.

"And I'm glad that I could accommodate tonight." Then worry crossed her features. "I fear I spend not enough time with her. I fear she might forget I'm her mother."

"Utter foolishness," Deres said lovingly. "If you were somehow lost to her already she would not have been giddy about the prospect of your rendition of The Grand and Fluffy Dragon."

Bryana turned to her, "Aside from that, she has some sense of how important her mother is. After all, she sees you with the queen. She sees men in full battle armor who fear nothing stop everything to salute you. She may not fully understand what it means yet, but she knows her mother has an important role to play in things."

"That matters little when I promise her a trip to the park and circumstance demands I break my word to her."

"Bryana is right. She knows. We explain. We all explain when she wonders when you are not here to do those things yourself, but she knows. I believe she has your sense of duty even now."

Bryana slid in again. "Her understanding is the least of your concerns anyway, Neral."

"Oh?"

"Were I you, I should begin to fear for the security of my position. I have seen the two of you at the park together and she already marches better than you."

"How dare you?" If the grin didn't betray her feelings, the cartoonish level of affront did.

Bryana shrugged. "Things are how they are."

She drew closer to the bed. "At least she has a mother for when I cannot be there to be her mother."

"She has many mothers here," Bryana countered, attempting to maintain some semblance of humility. "She has no shortage of strong women here to draw from and to help shape her."

"But there is one she goes to first." The loving softness in Neral's voice was unmistakable. "There is one hand she reaches for as readily as my own."

Bryana shrugged again, but the softness was contagious. "Must you watch everything? She is my child, too. I did not birth her but my heart does not know the difference." Bryana's tone softened "Her eyes are bright, her mind is sharp, and she is a joy even with her mother's stubbornness. She is mine, too."

Neral had known that it was so for every day of Khylen's life up to now and it gave her a sense of security in many ways both spoken and not. She positioned herself at the edge of the bed as she wondered, "And just what is it that the two of you are chatting about?" She rested her head in her hand under her chin and displayed herself, enjoying the fact that both seemed to be entertained following the outline of her with their gaze.

"The usual things, Neral," he began, ticking them off casually, "the events of the day that we did not manage to talk through at the dinner table, plans for tomorrow, how we barely tolerate you..." The devilish grin that accompanied the last made her smile. Then again, most things about him did. Their meeting was certainly an unconventional one and their courtship even more so in many ways, including Neral willingly adding a love spell to the mix.

Agreeing to marry him in return for his aid in the plot against the queen in order to give him the status he would need to return home to Erette and have a successful life, she had initially agreed to love him via magic because it would make her married life simpler. There was also the truth that touching the magics of submission as she had with Bryana when the latter had attempted to reshape Neral's mind, she found that she enjoyed the sensations. All the days since had shown her that he was her match even without the magic and that his love of her at first sight of her on the streets of the upper markets had been true. The three of them had built a fine life over the years.

Bryana had interrupted him before they could continue. "We spend so much time talking about how difficult she is to live with though. Sometimes I wonder why we bother?"

"Perhaps you admire my prowess as a warrior and you take as much pride in that and in my position as I do?"

Deres and Bryana exchanged looks. "Unlikely," he said.

Bryana put on her best indifference. "You can hack away with a sword? So can anyone. Let's see you take their sword from them at ten paces without touching them."

"Perhaps it is my wealth?"

"That which lets us disarm you lets us pick your pocket," Deres said, his eyes drifting along the outline of her form covered by her silken slip. "Wealth is not so difficult a thing for a mage with ability and flexible morals."

"In my days of witchery, I could have one pleading with me to take every coin and leave them on the street with nothing," Bryana told her.

Neral prowled over to him on all fours until she was nearly nose to nose with him "Perhaps then it only this body that appeals to you, Husband? Is that truly our relationship then, with me as a toy for your amusement?"

His hand went from the small of her back around the slope of her firm backside. "Is that not the way of things? Lovers give to one another, yes, but there is...using the other for pleasure as well."

Her lips touched his forehead and she stayed close enough to him to feel his breath and his heat. "And that is what you like, Deres. Love me? Certainly. I know you do. I feel it in even your roughest touch. But it hardens your cock to know that the head of a grand House and the leader of every man and woman that carries a sword and shield for Erette will surrender her body like a street whore for you to use."

His lips met hers and his tongue darted into her mouth to taste her heat and her sweet. Breaking away from her pouting lips he eyed her. "And you get nothing from being used?" His lip turned upward with a hint of wickedness. "I'm certain that's not so, not with the way you mewl and whimper in those times where I simply take what is mine before the Goddess. You like that submission General Jaye. You do not have to lead. You do not have to worry. You can let go and only concern yourself with how pleasing you are to me."

She dragged her teeth across his neck. "You believe that is so?"

"It's why you mewl and whimper. It's why you chose the spell to bind with me. So you could be your powerful and independent self, but still taste that hint of being owned. You liked that feeling when Bryana touched you with it regardless of the why of it."

Neral planted soft kisses along his forehead. And that hardens your cock nicely, too," she whispered as she touched him over his loose, dark pants to confirm the state of things. As expected, he was quite ready to play.

"That's actually what we were discussing before you came in," Bryana said to Neral, sliding next to Deres without effort, letting her fingers run through the hair of his chest.

Neral prompted her as she was drawn by those eyes. "Hmm?"

"My day was a difficult one," she began, "and I wouldn't mind both a more playful and restful evening. To that end..."

Neral picked up the thread for her. "To that end you would like to simply be our plaything for the evening?"

She moved towards Neral seductively. "You surely can think of things to do to a suitably clouded pet?"

The general eyed that lovely form. The marks did not consume her body, but rather, managed to accent it where the sharp lines of the runes touched her flesh. "A little restraint, perhaps a bit of...discipline?"

"That will not be for me to choose, will it?"

Deres looked to the beauty that was Bryana, "I admire your faith that you will be yourself by morning."

"We both have always been before, and we always will be when we play in that way, but that is your fault."

"Mine?"

"Because beyond for a few hours of play you have no interest in an empty toy. You want them to challenge you. You want to know them and enjoy them as they are."

He rolled his eyes, "You believe I love you for your sometimes deliberately contrarian views that exist seemingly only to give you cause to argue with me?"

She smiled, enjoying the fact that she caught him, "You said 'love,' not me. But, since you did, yes, you love me for me and as I am. I know where I stand with my two."

Deres and Neral exchanged glances. "Apologies, Neral, my heart, but it is so."

Neral's deep brown eyes conveyed her sympathy. "It's all right, I am similarly enchanted by the sorceress. Still, I see no harm in dimming the mage for a bit, especially since she's asked so politely."

With that, she gave Bryana a grin as she moved towards her and the blonde settled in front of her, leaning into her. Neral spread her legs wide so Bryana could relax and nestle herself between them, simply enjoying the feel of her. Deres looked deeply into those blue eyes. "Hold her," he said. "You want to resist it, don't you?"

"I do."

Neral hooked her arms at Bryana's elbows and held them like a vise, smiling at the response. "Squirm, my sweet. Fight as you please and we'll see you in the morning."

She did indeed squirm and struggle with more than a little ferocity, twisting her body to try to wrench herself free. Bryana couldn't feel whatever intricacies Neral had employed when it came to the joint lock behind her, all she knew for certain was that she was afforded precious little movement. It created lovely feelings inside her; a mix of anger, frustration, and desire as her heart began to race in her chest, knowing what was coming, but not exactly when. "You will let me go or you will feel my wrath."

Neral laughed into her ear. "I'll let you go as soon as you're a touch more agreeable, which will, of course, be soon."

"Your wrath will be most pleasant in a bit," Deres began, moving to straddle her, drawing patterns on her forehead. "See? You could struggle more even now. You could make it more difficult for me to do what I have to, but it will end the way you want it to end either way and you don't want to truly delay it, my love."

Her breaths deepened as she began to feel the energy from him enter her. As much as she enjoyed the struggle it lessened simply because he wasn't wrong. There was excitement in the struggle in that it made the eventual, inevitable submission so much sweeter. Her skin tingled, not only from the magic and the promise of more of it pouring through her, but from the touch of his fingers to her skin.

Already she could feel her senses narrowing focus as the spell weaved its way through her. Any sense of depth regarding her environment began to slip from her. Her legs slowed their squirming as the sensation of immersing herself in a perfectly hot bath slowly took her.

"You wish to relax for the night and think of nothing but fucking and pleasing and submitting."

She looked up at him, eyes wide, with all the love and trust she had in her to give even as words began to muddle together in her mind. "You just like me...stupid."

"Now and then," he teased. "You do seem to fuck better when you're re-focused."

The wool thickened in her mind and she welcomed it even as she resisted it, working to put more words together. "Any fucking is...good fucking for you."

"Don't let him have all the fun," Neral whispered into her ear. "I like fucking, too."

The wool had weight now and Bryana could feel it pulling her mind down even as her body responded to the rising sway of the primal forces in her body. Her nipples tried to push through her bra and the slow movement of her legs excited her as she saw his eyes drift to the promise between them. Complex thoughts couldn't knit themselves together anymore and that was a lovely thing at that moment. The feel of his fingers on her forehead as he dulled her was sexual now and her sounds broadcast that feeling.

"Ffff-ucking," Neral said, drawing it out after seeing how Bryana's body was falling limp and how her eyes were locked on the bulge in Deres' pants, loosening her hold on her other.

Bryana giggled with more than a hint of lust. "Fucking."

Deres leaned in closer to her. "What does Bryana like?"

She puzzled. "I like lots of things."

"You know this one. Neral just gave you the answer."

She thought about it some more before the light flared behind her eyes. "Fucking. I like fucking."

His hand touched her breast through the fine fabric, "Which do you like more, fucking or getting fucked?"

Bryana got one right and she was happy for that and saw the opportunity for another. "Both are different fun." She saw an opportunity and scooted herself up to him, her hand pressing against him hard, so she could make it known through the fabric. "I want to fuck you."

"Eventually, pet," he said sweetly, running his fingers through her hair as Bryana hummed at the pleasant sensation, "But I think you should help me get ready for Neral first. Pulling the tie loose from his waist, his pants fell, exposing the plum head of his cock and the thick shaft that brought it forth with a hint of bounce.

Bryana knew what he wanted and, coincidentally, it was all she wanted, too. Her tongue left her mouth and licked upward to taste the pre-cum from him before grabbing his ass with both hands and driving him into her mouth with zeal and a symphony of wet sucking sounds.

The second or two that it took for Neral to peel her slip from her body and toss it aside annoyed her simply because it meant that she lost sight of what was going on before her eyes. Even now, it wasn't just the sex, though Goddess, the sight of her attempting to consume him and the way he breathed deeply to power the pleasure and feed his lust was lovely.

It was seeing the way that blonde mane moved in rhythm with her. It was knowing that she had wanted to be dimmed for a time to more thoroughly play with the sexual creature within. It was knowing that, even without that, she could play with the same enthusiasm and place him in her mouth to focus on his pleasure in a way that she saw as the most profound of intimacies.

All of it together ignited a fire in Neral's belly as it always did. There was no painful jealousy and, where the feeling existed at all, it was only toyed with by Neral to up her own heat. She watched his eyes roll and the lids droop now and then as she touched particularly pleasant spots on her journey. In response to it all, her hand drifted beneath the panties covering her damp womanhood as she looked at him. "Does the empty thing have a nice little mouth? You always seem to enjoy it a great deal."

"Mmm...I do."

"How she just slides that thing down her throat for your amusement."

He groaned against her tongue and the virtual inhaling of his flesh.

"Yes, you do seem to like that."

"So do you," he moaned as Bryana whimpered at the touch of his hands on her head.

Seeing the way her head moved rhythmically upon him and the sounds of her lust from her as though she were being fucked simply doing it, moved Neral. She is a darling woman. And so responsive in this state, too."

"You enjoy it well enough. She sets you to screaming."

Neral withdrew her fingers from between the soaked nest between her legs, bringing them to his lips to be cleaned and kissed his cheek as he did so. "But we're not talking about me tonight. And I do like her this way...now and then."

She looked to Bryana, seeing how her chin was now reflecting the lamp light as it was now covered in her slick drool. She drew a finger down her cheek and Bryana squeaked and quivered in response. "Not much of a mage right now, are you? Not one simple spell that you can get to right now with your mouth full of cock and that bright mind dimmed out."

Bryana pulled her mouth away only long enough to look the wet mess she made with vacant eyes before making her throat bulge again in taking it down her throat again. "Choosing to be an empty little fuck animal"