“You’re our man, darling,” Vidalia said, her breath tickling his ear. “Taking care of you is our privilege.”

  “It was mostly Vidalia and her sister, anyway,” Mariella said, looking down shyly. “I mainly just kept you warm at night.”

  “That’s not a small contribution, Mariella,” Tybalt replied immediately, smiling. “Not when I was sick and suffering from occasional bad dreams and chills.”

  Even now, he could feel he was still not fully recovered. His necromantic and pestilence mana was doing violent things inside of his body. He would need to meditate soon, or use a bunch of mana up, to try and control the effects.

  “Still, I really didn’t do much,” she insisted.

  Tybalt reached over to her and petted her on the head a few times, which Mariella seemed to enjoy despite herself; her expression was a mix of embarrassed and pleased. Then he pulled his hand away, reached back, and gave Vidalia the same treatment.

  She rewarded him with that low sound in her throat that was almost a purr.

  “Now, before we start talking about future plans,” Tybalt said. “I want you both to know I care for you, deeply. But I also know that we’re not all necessarily completely on the same side. Mariella, I know you have conflicting claims on your loyalty. I don’t hold it against you, of course.” He reached out, cupped her face, and then caressed her cheek. She leaned into his touch. “I’m grateful to you for fighting to save the village beside me. All those fireballs you threw at Volusia probably saved my life. And I don’t expect you to deny your family’s importance to you. There’s also the Kingdom and the gods to think about, and I assume you still feel torn over those loyalties too.”

  Mariella simply nodded but looked a bit sad.

  “Can you promise that you’ll never take up arms against me or the beastfolk again, and you won’t share my secrets with other people?”

  The fire mage lowered her head and went silent for a few long moments.

  “I’m sorry,” she said finally, her voice soft. Tybalt thought there might be tears in her eyes, but she was avoiding eye contact, so it was hard to tell. “I would never give you my word lightly, and I just… I don’t know. If my family demanded it, I might very well violate even that limited request. You are not my husband, you’re my lover. The two positions mean entirely different things in my world. By the standards of my class, I should not have even formed a close connection with you, if I was behaving properly.” She tried to keep her voice steady, but a tremor of emotion escaped as she spoke. She sounded miserable. She half-rose. “I should leave. So that the two of you can discuss plans in circumstances of complete secrecy.”

  “I…” Tybalt sighed and pulled Mariella close. In truth, he had known what her answer would probably be before he asked. But they needed to be out in the open. “I understand, Mariella. We’ll figure this out.”

  She nodded into his shoulder, and then the two shared a long, open-mouthed kiss—the passionate, desperately enthusiastic affection of two lovers who both thought their affair might be doomed. Then she pulled on her clothing and discarded the ribbon she had worn around her neck. She crawled out of the entry to the room, and Tybalt and Vidalia heard her leave the hut.

  “You’re twisted, my future king,” Vidalia said in a very low voice, an unmistakable note of admiration in her tone.

  “Yeah, maybe,” he said, turning to face her. He felt slightly guilty. He hadn’t said or done anything unnecessary, and it was true the fire mage couldn’t be fully trusted, even after they had saved each other’s lives repeatedly. Mariella had acknowledged as much. But it still wasn’t pleasant, sending her out. “I guess I am a bit twisted. Not on purpose, but… well, are you sure you want to do this? To be with me? I put it mildly with Mariella, because I’m still easing her into this, but the truth is, I’ll insist on anyone I’m involved with being completely loyal to me and only me, in the end. I’m not even necessarily a person who deserves to receive the trust and loyalty of others. But I do insist. You have to be loyal to me over your race, your tribe, even your own family. Not that I anticipate that being a conflict for you, but—”

  “I know what I signed up for,” she said, cutting him off.

  “Are you absolutely certain?” Tybalt asked in an insistent tone. “You dreamed about me for years, right? Then you made what you saw in the dreams happen. I’m here. I’m happy with it. But are you certain you didn’t manipulate yourself into accepting something that’s not in your own best interests? This is your chance to make an independent decision—”

  “As long as you never abuse my sister, I’ll be a hundred percent loyal to you even if it kills me,” Vidalia replied, interrupting. “You might think I’m naive, Tybalt, but I’m not completely lacking in self-awareness. I know who and what I am and how I come off. A silly girl who’s lived her whole life in dreams, waiting for a man to come along and change things for her. Pathetic, right? Except that I have powers and priorities of my own. I’m not just an accessory to a man, not even you. Not even… if I might choose to act like that sometimes. I didn’t sit on my tail waiting for you to arrive! I prepared. Vicky was only ready to help you with a concentrated health elixir because I asked the alchemist to prepare something special for you in advance… which I could only know to do because I dreamed about our encounter so many times over the years. I prepared for three different alternate scenarios, too.”

  Wait, so was Vicky the one who was administering the health elixir? He filed the question away for later consideration.

  “I never called you naive, Vidalia,” Tybalt replied. “You seem like a great woman. If my life was in a more stable place—”

  “Then you wouldn’t be the man I grew obsessed with,” the foxgirl interrupted again. “He’s unstable, dangerous, selfish, power-hungry, manipulative, vengeful, ruthless—and broken in all the right ways for me. It’s natural that your life would be unstable right now. I’m not the girl who only wants you once you’re established and have everything you ever wanted. I’m the one who helps you make it there and cheers you up when things get tough. I know exactly who you are. You’re the same man who fought the Army, not because you care deeply about the value of innocent life, but mostly because you wanted to claim me and because it was a convenient way to get more powerful.” There was a strong note of pride in her voice, mixed with something closer to lust. “I know that. No one else will ever have to know it, and I don’t have a problem with it. I want you just the way you are.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Well… yeah, I’m a real piece of shit, when you put it that way.

  As if she could read his mind, Vidalia threw her arms around him and cradled his head to her small bosom.

  “I’m not trying to tear you down, darling, just—I know you. I really do. I know you better than Mariella does. Maybe better than she ever will. You won’t ever have to lie to me or manipulate events to win me over to your side. My fellow future wife is wonderful, and I hope we succeed in keeping her with us. I’m really glad you’ve been able to share the truth about yourself with her, more and more. But it’s a different situation. With me, you can relax. I know you don’t know me the same way yet, but you will, I hope. You’ll learn that you can just be yourself, and I’ll be your calm in the storm. Trust me. I’ll be worth it. Worth you opening your heart up and risking getting hurt, by actually being your selfish bastard self. The man, across timelines, who I grow to love.”

  Did she practice all that? It was persuasive. I do want to just… do exactly what she said. Trust in her, all that. But…

  He let himself just remain in her silent embrace for a few minutes while his brain quietly worked.

  But what?

  His mind was trying to come up with a reason to distrust her, a reason to keep an emotional distance. All he had was the idea, which Mariella had mentioned back when they were on their own, that perhaps he was being played like a game piece. Maybe Vidalia was manipulating him. She could literally see the future.

  Fuck it. I have to let my guard down sometime. Even when I was having sex with Mariella, in the back of my mind, I was still thinking at least a little bit about how to manipulate her. That fucked with me probably almost as much as it fucked with her. I hope I can be more honest with her in the future. I’m trying. If Mariella’s really going to be my wife… I need to get into a better pattern, with her and with the women close to me in general. Maybe I can start with Vidalia now.

  “You might be manipulating me,” he said quietly, finally. “But if you are, you’re too good for me to see through it. If you think I’m your destiny, all right. I’ll try to embrace you completely and not hold anything back.”

  “Me and my sister,” Vidalia said. There was a small tremor in her voice, and Tybalt looked up. She had tears in her eyes, and she gave him a slightly crooked smile as he met her gaze.

  “That’s a whole separate series of conversations,” Tybalt replied. “I’m not saying no, just that you should leave it to me and her.”

  “I would never disobey you, future husband.” She winked.

  He leaned in and kissed her tenderly on the lips. There was a spark of electricity, and both foxgirl and necromancer let out little laughs of surprise, a giggle and a chuckle respectively, through their joined lips.

  Tybalt kept going despite the spark and despite the laughter, a long kiss that ended with lips gently parting and tongues shyly touching for the first time.

  Right, he thought. Despite all the dreams, all the shared lust, all the plotting and scheming together, all the talk about our future, all the long walks holding hands walking along the mountainside… that was our first kiss in real life.

  It still felt slightly surreal that this was genuinely their first waking encounter.

  He heard her take a slow, shaky breath as he pulled away.

  “That was better than I expected,” she said, her eyes a little wild. She ran a hand along his neck. “You know I waited my whole life for that?”

  He nodded.

  “I waited for this, too… From dreams to reality, darling.”

  She slid down his body, kissed his neck and his collarbone, down his chest and stomach, until she got to his pants. She started unbuttoning them, smiling up at him affectionately as she worked.

  He could almost hear her thinking, I love you. Watch me prove it.

  “Wait,” he said after a moment, sighing.

  “I know you want this,” Vidalia said, running her hand over his manhood, her movements slow and lustful. “Almost as much as I do.”

  “We told Mariella we were doing a strategy session, not this,” Tybalt said, wrinkling his forehead.

  “We’re still doing that,” Vidalia replied. “Just, um, you tell me your strategy so far, and I’ll listen. With my mouth full. Then, after we’re done, I’ll tell you what I think.”

  The necromancer couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm.

  “We literally just met. I think we should wait on this part.”

  Tybalt noticed how her hand shook slightly at his words, but she forced herself to keep smiling. “I—Tybalt, I’m not nervous right now. Do you know how nervous I was expecting to feel the first time we did anything? I’m so excited from meeting you that my mind isn’t letting me think about how nervous I should be. If we wait, you might need to… do a lot of work to get me to this same place again.” She was rubbing him rather aggressively through his pants as she spoke.

  Very persuasive. But I’m in control. I might regret this later, but I’m in control.

  “That’s all right with me,” he made himself say. “You’re worth the effort. Anyway, you made a bet with Mariella, didn’t you?”

  That stopped her in her tracks.

  “Oh… yeah. Yeah, I did.”

  “I thought so. Wasn’t it about this? A sexual thing? You seemed to be implying that earlier.”

  “Yeah. It was.”

  “Winner gets me first?”

  She nodded silently.

  “All right. That settles it.” He pulled her up and away from the danger area.

  “Whatever you say.” Her lips formed a pout.

  Tybalt struggled not to laugh at that. The little vixen is actually pouting because she doesn’t get to pleasure me. This is my life now. Not a dream.

  “Look, you and I have to be on our best behavior with Mariella,” he said, giving her a semi-stern look. “If either of us proves to be dishonorable or untrustworthy, she won’t be willing to join us. Think about the long term here. Even if you were keeping within the letter of whatever specific wager you made with her, if you broke the spirit of it, that would be a strike against both of us. A demonstration of how we treat our word. Understand?”

  Her expression changed. It was subtle, but she went from showing a streak of impatience to merely disappointed and accepting. He noticed that her tail seemed to have been fluffed and raised in a sort of agitated posture, and now it relaxed back to its normal state.

  “That’s why you’re in charge, darling,” Vidalia said softly. She kissed his collarbone. “All right. So, let me first explain the basics of my people’s situation…”

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