Rhalir shut the door behind them with a soft click, and the world outside fell away. Inside was dim: a single shutter half-open, letting in a line of moonlight that cut across the packed dirt floor. Rhalir had dragged in several pallets earlier for Sena and himself, thickened with scavenged blankets. A table with one broken leg leaned drunkenly against the wall. Everything smelled faintly of the slow thaw of early spring.

  Sena stood in the center of the room, pulse hammering, breath hot in her throat. Heat coiled in her belly like a patient animal watching prey. She could feel Hellen waiting for her. She could feel Rhalir watching them both.

  “Close the shutters,” Sena said softly.

  She didn’t order. It wasn’t quite that. But Heat sharpened her voice and gave it a hum that made Rhalir’s tail lift, attentive. Rhalir obeyed. Sena lit the fire.

  Then she turned to Hellen, whose hands were clasped behind her back like they might flutter out of her control otherwise.

  “Is this what you want?” Sena asked again. Her voice gentled. “I need to hear you say it.”

  Hellen’s breath trembled. “Yes. I want –”

  Her voice cracked. She tried again. “I want to be here. With you.”

  Sena nodded at Rhalir. “And him?”

  The way Hellen’s eyes widened and the smile snuck across her face, Sena could tell the Sister was shocked.

  “Is that –” Hellen looked between the two of them, smile widening. Shocked and excited, then. “Is that okay? Is that an option? Yes, with you and – and with him.”

  Sena exhaled through her nose, relief loosening her shoulders. Playfulness sparked in her chest in a bright shamelessness. She stepped closer, tilting Hellen’s chin up with two fingers.

  “Good,” Sena murmured. “Because if you’d changed your mind, I’d have to march you all the way back through that crowd and pretend I wasn’t about to climb the walls.”

  Hellen let out a startled, helpless laugh, and Sena felt it shimmer through her.

  Rhalir moved until he was standing just behind Hellen, steady as an oak tree. He put a hand on her shoulder, and murmured against her hair. “You’re safe.”

  Hellen inhaled, shaky and sweet. “I know.”

  Sena brushed Hellen’s braid aside, letting her palm settle lightly at the base of her neck. “Come here, love.”

  Hellen stepped into her. Their mouths met again, deep and slow. Hellen gave a small sound, half sigh, half surrender, and Sena felt it bloom inside her, tilting her bones warm. It made her playful again, bold in a way she’d desperately missed.

  “Oh, little Sister,” she teased between breaths. “You kiss like someone who’s been thinking about it for days.”

  Hellen flushed furiously. “I haven’t – I mean, I didn’t –”

  Rhalir chuckled. “She’s teasing you, Hellen.”

  Sena shot him a glance. “She’s adorable when she flusters.”

  “And when you tease,” Rhalir added, “your Heat warms.”

  “Shut up,” Sena muttered, but she was smiling, Heat-radiant and undone.

  Rhalir slid a careful hand to Hellen’s hip, another to Sena’s waist, drawing them into a loose triangle. His touch was grounding, steady even as the air between them trembled with want.

  As always, the Heat made Sena an empath by touch; so always she knew what Hellen was feeling, whenever Hellen touched her with bare skin. So when Hellen bit her lip at the feel of Rhalir’s hand, she felt it clear as if it were her own mouth.

  Hellen gasped. “Rhalir…”

  “Look at her,” Rhalir murmured, nodding to Sena. “She’s burning.”

  Hellen turned – and Sena was indeed burning, her eyes bright gold. Her chest rose and fell. Her tail flicked wildly, betraying everything she tried to control.

  Sena swallowed. “I… need you both close.”

  “Then come,” Rhalir said simply.

  He guided them toward the pallets.

  Sena meant to lie down gracefully; instead, her knees nearly buckled and she caught herself on Rhalir’s arm, breathless with want.

  “Sena,” Hellen whispered, rushing to her side. “Tell me what you need.”

  Sena laughed. “Closer. Anything. Just… closer.”

  Hellen pressed her forehead gently to Sena’s temple, as if she knew the tension behind her scalp where her antlers threatened to emerge. “All you had to do was ask.”

  Sena lay back on the pallet, breath shallow, Heat rising tidal and undeniable. Hellen knelt beside her, trembling hands hovering until Sena took them and placed them on her own hips.

  “That’s it,” Sena whispered. “Touch me.”

  Hellen did, cautious at first, then with growing surety as Sena arched into her palms. The simple contact sent a shudder through Sena so strong her tail curled. Rhalir knelt behind Hellen, his body a warm wall at her back. He reached around her to cup Sena’s cheek, stroking with his thumb, anchoring them both at once.

  His voice came low. “Let us hold you through it.”

  Sena’s laugh broke on a gasp. “You’re both going to kill me.”

  “No.” Hellen leaned to kiss her jaw. “We’re going to take care of you.”

  Hellen’s softness was devastating, and Rhalir’s steadiness was worse. She dragged Hellen down to another kiss, hungry, then nipped her lip just to hear the sound Hellen made in response. It was adorable and needy and sped straight up Sena’s spine.

  Rhalir’s hand slid to the small of Sena’s back. “You’re shaking.”

  “Because she kisses like a miracle,” Sena snapped back breathlessly. “And because you smell like spring rain and I’m –”

  She cut herself off with a groan. “Serpent, I’m on fire.”

  She’d thought they would center Hellen – the solitary human in the group, certainly less experienced. But Hellen guided Sena’s thigh gently over her own hip, breath hitching at the heat of her. “Can I… try you, Sena? Can we ease you?”

  Sena nodded, eyes bright with wonder, before her head fell back as Hellen and Rhalir worked in tandem, tugging off her robes, kissing the soft skin of her belly and her wrist and her breasts. Hellen’s hands were soft, exploring, learning; Rhalir’s hands were confident, knowing exactly how to press, where to soothe, how to counterbalance Sena’s rising instinct.

  Between them, Sena’s body slowly unfurled.

  Sena eased Hellen out of her clothing, and here Hellen’s shyness took on its fullest weight, and she wrapped her arms about her breasts self-consciously until Rhalir took her hands gently in his own and eased them aside.

  “You are too beautiful for shame,” he said simply.

  Sena asked permission to touch her and Hellen nodded, and soon it was Sena easing her fingers across Hellen’s generous figure, her ample curves a delight.

  It was Hellen’s fingers that traced from the wool of Sena’s thigh to the space between her legs, trembling but sure.

  As Hellen pressed, her moans softened into something warmer, looser. Her tail coiled about Hellen’s leg, her claws flexing in the blankets. Her lips parted in helpless want.

  Rhalir moved down, lifted her claw, kissed her ankle, slow and reverent. “There she is.”

  “Tell me if – If I’m doing anything wrong,” Hellen panted.

  Sena cupped Hellen’s cheek, pulling her close enough that their noses brushed. “You couldn’t,” she murmured. “You feel like… relief.”

  Rhalir’s hand slid up Hellen’s spine, guiding her. “Here,” he whispered. “Follow my pace.”

  The two moved together, Rhalir steadying Hellen’s hand, Hellen touching Sena with increasing confidence, Sena arching into them with soft, broken sounds. She watched them, Hellen and Rhalir, watched Rhalir guide and Hellen concentrate, her flushing cheek and Rhalir’s antlers arching protectively overhead.

  When her climax arrived it was all sunshine, spring, the smell of sage on Hellen’s discarded robes. Sena breathed, and laughed, and kissed Hellen, again and again.

  Then Sena rolled Hellen gently to her back.

  She moved down, down, while Rhalir held Hellen’s shoulders, and when Hellen tilted her face back to him he nuzzled at her ear, and murmured sweetly, and kissed her cheek while Sena showed her how the Kelthi love.

  Hellen tasted wonderful, that earthy brightness of sage, and her own subtle sweetness. She was already so stimulated that when Sena took her with her tongue Hellen bucked against Sena’s face with a gasp.

  “So is this the sort of thing Rhalir told you about?” Sena teased, lifting her head a little. “Is this what you were expecting when you…” she returned to Hellen’s warmth for a few moments, feeling Hellen quaver against her face. “...when you came to dance with me?”

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  Hellen shuddered as Sena’s mouth returned to her once more. “Not – exactly…”

  "Not exactly?” Sena spoke between tastings, interspersing her verbal teasing with the teasing of her tongue. “What exactly were you expecting? What did Rhalir say?”

  Rhalir laughed softly. “You’re tormenting the poor Sister.”

  Hellen panted and moaned.

  “Oh, I see that,” Sena said between mouthfuls. “Poor thing. Let’s focus, shall we?”

  Sena didn’t let up, couldn’t do anything at all but draw Hellen up and up, finding the pressure that made her moan and gasp, letting Rhalir steady Hellen with his hands and his words while she brought Hellen to her pleasure.

  When at last Hellen came against Sena’s mouth, her hips flexing at Sena’s cheeks, Sena encouraged her, pressed and pressed with her tongue, until Hellen gasped and cooed and relaxed with contentment against the blankets.

  After a moment Sena moved forward, Hellen’s flesh pressed against her thigh, and both women laughed. Sena wiped her mouth but Hellen insisted on kissing her, on tasting herself, that curiosity so fresh and so loving as Rhalir stroked her hair.

  Sena rolled aside to catch her breath.

  Rhalir stood to remove what was left of his clothes in the warming room.

  Sena felt the Heat pooling in her pelvis, rising up her spine, catching in the cage of her ribs, a spark waiting for oil.

  Rhalir came to her side, hand paused on her wooly thigh, a stillness filled with intention.

  “Sena,” he said quietly.

  Her whole body answered the sound of her name in an involuntary groan. Hellen froze at once, sensing the change in the air.

  Rhalir lifted his gaze to Sena. His pupils were blown wide, breath warm and steadying at her knee. He looked both younger and older than she remembered, a man who had studied her for years without daring to reach.

  “Look at me,” he murmured.

  She did. Serpent help her, she did.

  He reached up, cupped her cheek with a tenderness that split her open. There was no teasing in her then, no bravado, only her pulse thrumming wildly against his palm.

  “I’ve waited a long time for this,” he said. “Thank you for that.”

  Her breath hitched. The Heat punched in her middle.

  Hellen watched them, cheeks flushed, chest rising with wonder at the shift of gravity between the two Kelthi. This was the axis of the bond, the point from which the triad would form, Kelthi instinct recognizing its partner, and Hellen caught in that widening circle of belonging.

  Sena had only ever heard of triad bonds, but she’d never seen one, never experienced it herself, and had so often doubted it was possible.

  She swallowed hard. “Rhalir, I –”

  She didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t let her.

  Rhalir leaned in and kissed her mouth for the first time.

  His mouth was warm and sure, patient the way a tide is patient, wearing down stone because it loves it too much to leave it be. Sena made a helpless sound against him. Hellen’s hand slid to Sena’s ribs as if to hold her steady through the impact.

  When Rhalir pulled back, Sena’s eyes were bright gold and perilously wet.

  “Rhalir,” she whispered.

  “I know.”

  He kissed her again, a story between them, until she trembled, until the Heat surged strong enough to make her hips lift off the blankets. Instinct demanded, ancient and clear. She took Hellen’s fingers, gliding them down. “Don’t stop – please – don’t stop.”

  Hellen obeyed, still learning the rhythm of Sena’s body, but eager, too. Sena arched with a gasp, pressing into Hellen’s palm.

  Rhalir moved behind Hellen again, but this time he gathered both women close, his hands large and warm at their waists. He kissed Hellen’s shoulder as he reached to steady Sena’s thigh.

  Hellen watched Sena come apart in her hands, and whispered, awed, “Sena, you’re beautiful.”

  Sena’s chest heaved. “Come here.”

  Hellen leaned in, brushing her lips gently across Sena’s cheek, then her mouth. Sena grabbed Hellen’s bare shoulder and pulled her into a kiss that devoured the last of Hellen’s shyness.

  Rhalir’s breath grew uneven as he watched them. “Sena,” he murmured again. “Your Heat. It’s calling.”

  Sena understood what that meant. For the Kelthi, the heat was no symbol. It demanded a body opened, shared, demanded that the soul surface.

  Sena turned to lift her hips toward Rhalir as instinct demanded, but she didn’t let go of Hellen’s hand.

  “Wait,” she said, trembling. “I want her with us. I want – both.”

  “You will have both,” Rhalir promised.

  Hellen understood. She slipped behind Sena and put her legs around her, their bodies forming a soft cradle around Sena’s trembling form. Hellen held Sena’s shoulders, pressed her breasts against Sena’s back, breath warm against her ear.

  Rhalir kissed Hellen once in a brief and reverent touch before he lowered himself between Sena’s thighs.

  Sena sucked in a breath so sharp she nearly folded. “Rhalir –”

  His hands came to her hips, steady as stone. “Look at her,” he said softly.

  Sena did. Hellen’s face glowed, open and aching and tender in a way that made Sena’s heart twist painfully.

  “Is this what you want?” Sena whispered to her. “Truly?”

  Hellen nodded, voice thick. “I want you both. I want… to belong here.”

  Something in Sena collapsed at the word. A sob of recognition rose in her throat.

  Rhalir leaned forward far enough to kiss the place where her thigh met her belly. Then he pulled her hips over his, found her entrance, and eased inside her.

  Sena gasped a startled, keening sound as her Heat surged to meet him. Her tail arched hard enough to thump the blanket beneath her, then found Rhalir’s, and they coiled tightly together. Hellen held her tighter, pressing kisses to her shoulder, her neck, whispering her name.

  Rhalir groaned, his forehead dropping to her knee, folded up between their chests. “Sena… Serpent, you’re –”

  “Don’t stop,” she begged.

  He didn’t.

  He moved with long, slow thrusts at first, grounding her, anchoring her, letting the bond-thread spool between their bodies. Each movement pulled a sound from Sena’s throat she couldn’t have swallowed if she tried, raw and wild.

  Hellen felt every trembling gasp through Sena’s back and nearly cried with the intensity of it. Sena reached back blindly, grabbing Hellen’s thigh, pulling her down until Hellen was pressed flush to her back. Her voice cracked open.

  “Let me have you,” she whispered. “Both of you – Please –”

  The bond flared. Rhalir entered her deeper, a groan tearing from his chest. Sena cried out, full-bodied, her Heat exploding in a rush of molten instinct. Her mind brushed Rhalir’s, that familiar, steady presence she’d loved and feared loving, and then Hellen’s, warm, terrified, hopeful.

  The three threads intertwined to form something larger than the whole.

  Hellen clutched Sena’s shoulders, her voice breaking. “You’re glowing.”

  Sena’s scales shimmered faintly, the early crest of the bond rising beneath them.

  Hellen kneaded Sena’s flesh, first stroking the sensitive scales at her throat and collarbone, then caressing her breasts, gripping lightly and then firmly as Sena reacted to the touch.

  “You’re so beautiful,” Hellen murmured.

  Rhalir fell forward and his breath caught against her collarbone, one long antler tine brushing Sena’s cheek, the pressure inside her building, pulling him closer to climax, closer to union.

  “Sena,” Rhalir gasped, “look at me.”

  She did, her eyes meeting his. And she saw, fully saw, his long and patient love for her.

  Sena’s whole body arched, pressing back into Hellen, forward into Rhalir, caught between both of them as if the world narrowed to exactly this point, this fire, this joining, this impossible softness.

  She reached for Rhalir’s antler and held him steady as he thrust deep and deep. Her climax came bright and fierce and devastating, the bond snapping wide, letting Rhalir fall into it with her. He groaned her name, breaking apart inside her, his hands gripping her hips as if grounding himself in the act of giving himself over.

  The bond reached for Hellen, whose thigh was gripped so firmly in Sena’s other hand, and Hellen brought it in, too, and together they formed a perfect braid.

  Sena collapsed back into Hellen’s arms. Hellen held her with both arms wrapped around her chest, kissing her temple again and again.

  Rhalir eased out of her slowly. He stroked the wool of her thigh and whispered:

  “Beloved.”

  Sena shuddered, tears finally slipping free.

  Hellen kissed her cheek. “We have you.”

  Sena closed her eyes, breath still broken. “Yes,” she whispered. “You do.”

  They fell together in a tangle of laughter, of soft kissing and whispered love. Sena rubbed the softening place where her antlers were emerging until the nubs broke gently through and she laughed with relief. They drifted to sleep in that tangle of thought and feeling only the bond could provide.

  Sena woke to real warmth. It wasn’t the burning edge of Heat, nor the frantic pulse that had driven her the night before; instead it was slow, and golden, like stepping into sunlight after too long in the shade. Her eyes opened to the soft gray of dawn seeping through the shutters.

  And she woke to them.

  Rhalir’s arm was slung over her waist, heavy and protective even in sleep. His breath stirred the loose hair at the back of her neck. Hellen was curled into her front, cheek pillowed against Sena’s chest, one hand tucked under her ribs like she’d claimed that spot for herself and would not be moved.

  Sena lay very still.

  The bond hummed, a braided warmth that threaded through her sternum and throat and temples. She felt Rhalir’s dreaming in the distance. She felt Hellen’s breathing like a bell struck under water, filling her ears with something soft and steady and profoundly trusting.

  Serpent, she thought, her chest tightening. They were hers. And she was theirs.

  Sena hadn’t bonded with anyone since the fall of Lethen Bay. She’d satisfied her Heat countless times, with innumerable partners; there was a boy at Morgan’s estate she had a particular fondness for when the Heat flared hottest. But she hadn’t bonded with him, nor with her other lovers. Because the one she’d known best had succumbed to the waves brought to her home by the Dagorlind. And she could not have imagined any lover holding her as tenderly as that again.

  Not until last night.

  For the first time in months, Sena did not feel alone in that way only the Kelthi know.

  She eased herself from between them, careful not to wake them. Both murmured in sleep when she slipped free.

  Sena wrapped a blanket around her shoulders against the early chill and crossed the small room. Her legs trembled, pleasantly sore, and she snorted at herself. “Pathetic,” she muttered under her breath, smiling foolishly.

  She lit the stove, then sifted the leftover flour they’d scrounged from a pantry, adding water and salt. Her hands remembered the motions even as her mind drifted back to the way Hellen had gasped her name, the way Rhalir had whispered beloved like it was a truth he’d been carrying for seasons.

  She kneaded dough. Flatbread would do. Something warm. Something easy on the stomach after a night like that. A gesture that said: I choose this. I choose you. I choose what we begin together.

  As the first piece browned on the pan, Sena glanced back to the pallets. Rhalir had shifted closer to Hellen in her absence; Hellen’s hand now rested on his chest without either of them waking. They looked peaceful, an image she had never let herself imagine.

  Sena swallowed as warmth rose behind her eyes.

  She flipped the bread, wiped her cheek with the back of her hand, and whispered to the quiet house that she would feed them both. That she would take care of what they had just made.

  The flatbread cracked in the pan. Dawn brightened through the shutters, smiling at the simple truth of what it was to be in love.