I didn’t like Brynn. And she didn’t like , either.
In her opinion, I had no grace, no decorum, and no regard or respect for tradition. I had no refined qualities or charms that would distract from the catastrophe that I really was. I was too curious, too swift to speak, not nearly demure enough and apparently, I wouldn’t last a single day in Court because I was a complete airhead.
The first hour was spent on the Black pedigree, and the royal families before them. "The Grahams are the next powerful family after the Blacks. They are descent from a distant royal line and have managed to retain their status and the potency of their bloodline through nine generations. You will be expected to address them with their proper titles of Lord and Ladies—"
"Ladies?" I asked curiously.
Brynn looked annoyed. "You will not interrupt again. And yes, ladies. Lady Elowen and her daughter, Lady Tessa."
Sothing about the na Tessa rung a bell, but Brynn had already moved on.
I learned there were three more royal lines. The Chastains, descent from French nobility. Apparently, Regina had been right, because this was Quinlan’s bloodline. The MacKeltars, descent from Scottish nobility. And the Ivanovs, a completely died out Russian line with the sole survivor being Jericho, who prefers his last na be shortened to Vane.
I opened my mouth to ask what had happened, but Brynn shot a withering look.
"Now, it doesn’t matter if the rest are non-royals. It doesn’t make them any less lethal and dangerous. In the coming days, we will broach your mannerisms and fix them so as not to invite trouble at court, but before that, it is important that I explain our bonds, because everything in our lives revolves around this."
My ears perked up and I watched her pace back and forth with her hands folded behind her back.
"There are three types of bonds. The bond between Erasthais. The Convergence. And the simple act of marriage." Her eyes find mine. "More often, you will find a simple bond of marriage than you will find that of the Erasthai or Convergence, because both are soul-binding. aning? If one dies, the other surely follows, and for a dying out race, that is rather wasteful.
"While the werewolf matebond is a powerful Goddess-ordained tie between two souls, lethal when rejected or broken, and is by every asure the most significant thing a werewolf would experience in their life ti, the Erasthai is not a tie. It is a root system.
"It connects a female to her males and her males to each other—"
"Males?" I echoed. "As in, plural?"
There was that frosty look again, but she answered, "Yes, girl. What do you think happens when there are more n than won in a race unable to properly replicate outside themselves? It brings about the 4-8:1."
"Huh?"
Brynn looked irritated. "Four to eight n paired to one woman."
My brain emptied out. I couldn’t have heard that properly. Right? "Uh... what?"
She pinched the bridge of her nostrils. "Since the beginning of ti, there has always been a scarcity of female Lycans. Even when we numbered in thousands, the ratio of males to females were a cause for distress. It beca a problem. Too many n laid claim to one woman, sotis slaughtering each other to be the one. The Queen at the ti found an amicable system. Every one woman was entitled to no less than four males, and no more than eight, to keep the balance."
My eyes were wide. "How does that even work? And how is that even fair to the woman?"
It was the first ti Brynn smiled. It was a proud smile. "The trick is, the woman makes the choices. She takes her pick of her broods—and it does help that there are no unattractive Lycans—and mates with them or simply marries them. It is considered the highest act of selfishness to want only one man."
Soone please pick my jaw up from the ground. "But... but... eight? I can’t even think of being... being with two n at the sa ti."
Brynn had a creepy smile on her face as she leaned in, bracing her hands on the table. She was trying to scare . The problem was, it worked. "You know, when you join court, you will be expected to pick your broods for your harem, too."
My face erupted in flas. "Why would I even want that?!"
Brynn snorted. "It must be a strange concept to you, because you grew up in an environnt that seemingly frowns on these things. Your innocence is sweet, girl, but you must know it is not so different in your world. n commit to their wives and cheat with multiple partners. Won go on a spree they call ’double or triple-dates’.
"I assure you that if your kind was given the opportunity to make these sa choices, with the benefits of being loved and showered with affection by eight different n and their different ways, you would be surprised at how eagerly they will kill each other for it. "
Her smile grew devious. "Did I also ntion, that the n are prepared for the won, not the other way around?"
She leaned in and whispered against my ear. "All Lycan males are taught from the mont they beco mature, how to please their won. And they are all highly exceptional at the act of intimacy. Even the Queen herself enjoys this. With her five mates. I hear she is considering adding a sixth to the list."
I scrambled back, mortified. I swallowed, feeling a sudden heat in my skin.
Sohow, when I tried to picture how that could possibly even work, the only faces I had in my mind were that of Soren’s, rcer’s, Quinlan’s and Jericho’s.
I shook my head violently, heart racing. Oh goddess. The images wouldn’t go away, choosing to assault instead with more possibilities than I knew what to do with.
My mind flew back to the bathroom and heat began to gather under my skin as I recalled what it had been like to have Quinlan’s arms wrapped around , and Jericho’s teeth in my neck.
A very disturbing and forbidden question popped into my mind against my will.
Had Quinlan reached higher and touched , would I have... enjoyed it? If Jericho had reached lower, would I have enjoyed that as well? My body tensed when I recalled what it felt like to roll my hips against rcer... the hard length of him poking against my back side and...
I clamped my hands over my ears, ignoring Brynn’s bewildered and tried not to scream.
This, I thought, was utter madness.
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