Severed Read online

  “I’ll consider it. What are you willing to pay for the privilege of using the Key?” Mandrex asked.

  “What do you want?” Lucian asked levelly. “I can pull upwards of a million credits personally. My family can get more if I ask.”

  “Ah, but asking would mean admitting to your fathers you’re bonded to another Alpha—a great shame in your culture,” Mandrex pointed out blandly.

  “True,” Lucian said stoically. “But we’ll do anything that’s necessary to get the Key.”

  Mandrex leaned forward, steepling his fingers under his handsomely cleft chin.

  “Anything?”

  “Well…yes.” Lucian looked at him uncertainly. “Why—what did you have in mind?”

  “Something you might find rather…unusual,” Mandrex said.

  “Unusual how?” Drace asked, scowling suspiciously.

  Mandrex sighed and leaned back in his elegantly scrolled, high-backed chair.

  “I am, as you know, attempting to adopt the Denarin culture as my own. I love the art and the music and the food—even the more unusual dishes.”

  That was certainly an understatement, but I didn’t say anything about it out loud. I wondered what might be coming next—what in the world did Mandrex want from us in order to let us borrow the Key?

  “I am, in fact, completely comfortable with all aspects of Denarin culture except one—the idea of two males sharing a female.”

  Drace snorted and Lucian looked at Mandrex in apparent disbelief.

  “Forgive me, Lord Mandrex, but that is the very essence of our culture. No matter what clan we come from the idea of sharing a female, of protecting her with a partner you can trust to back you up in any situation, is at the core of our very identity.”

  “I know…I know…and I’m trying to embrace it.” Mandrex made a curt gesture with one hand. “It’s just foreign to me. Cantors are fiercely monogamous. The idea of sharing a female I care for—that I love, if I could ever find such a female—makes me tremble with rage.”

  “I don’t know how we can help you then,” Drace remarked. “The idea of having a female to yourself with no other male to share her with seems as wrong to us as our sexual needs seem to you.”

  “But I want to understand it—I want to embrace it.” Mandrex leaned forward again, eyes blazing like blue flames. “I want you to show me the beauty of it.”

  “Show you how exactly?” Lucian asked, frowning.

  Mandrex looked at him levelly. “I want a private exhibition. I want to see the things the three of you do firsthand—I want to see the beauty in it.”

  “So…you’re asking us to put on a sex show for you?” I stared at him in disbelief. I had been mostly quiet during the discussion because I was still feeling slightly tipsy from all the fizzy Kool-Aid-champagne I’d been drinking throughout dinner. But now it seemed time to speak up.

  “Essentially, yes,” Mandrex said mildly. “And in return I will loan you the Tanterine Key and keep the secret of your shameful Alpha-on-Alpha joining to myself.”

  “This is blackmail!” Lucian exclaimed. “What we do together in the privacy of the sleep chamber isn’t for you to judge!”

  “There will be no judging involved, I assure you—I only want to observe, not participate in any way.”

  “I don’t get it,” Drace said roughly. “You’re fucking rich. Why ask us to perform for you? Why not hire some pleasure girl and a couple of pleasure boys to act it out for you?”

  Mandrex raised one black eyebrow. “And have it bruited about that Lord Mandrex is a perverted foreigner who only came to Denaris because he has a fetish for watching three-way sex? No…” He shook his head firmly. “I value my reputation as much as you value yours, you know. Far better to ask the three of you, who have something to hide. This way, you will keep my secret and I will keep yours. Neither of us will betray the others because the stakes are too high. Besides…” He cocked his head to one side. “If I hired sex workers to act out the scene that is all I would get—acting. I want to see a Triumvirate with genuine affection between them.”

  “You’d best look elsewhere then,” Lucian said bitterly. “Drace and I have no affection between us—why do you think we’re working so hard to be free of each other?”

  “He’s right—we fuckin’ hate each other,” Drace rumbled.

  “No, you don’t!” I snapped, surprising myself. “Whether you admit it or not, the two of you care about each other. You saved each other’s lives.” I looked back and forth between them. “And it doesn’t matter what you had to do in order to do that—it still counts. And you still care.”

  Neither Lucian or Drace answered me but Mandrex looked surprised and interested.

  “A lovers’ quarrel, it would seem. Would you then, gentlemen, at least both admit that you care about the female you share between you?”

  “Of course we care about Rylee,” Drace growled, moving closer to me. “We’d protect her with our lives.”

  “She is our lady—we are sworn to keep her safe at all costs,” Lucian put an arm around me protectively.

  “Fascinating.” Mandrex nodded. “Given the feelings you both have for your female, it should be most interesting to watch you share her.”

  “Wait a minute!” I protested, some of my tipsiness wearing off. “We can’t…we’ve never…”

  “Our bond is not sealed—we’re not a true Triumvirate, nor do we plan to become one,” Lucian said sharply. “So we have no intention of performing bonding sex with our female in front of you, just for your viewing pleasure.”

  “You don’t have to perform bonding sex,” Mandrex said. “I just want to see the three of you together—to see your interaction.” He shook his head. “I still can’t understand how it’s possible for the two of you to share a female and not feel any jealousy when you watch your bond-mate take her.”

  “Nobody’s taking anybody anywhere,” I said quickly. “At least…” I bit my lip. “Not until we talk about this some more.” I looked at Mandrex. “Can we have some privacy?”

  “Certainly. In fact, allow me to lead you to another, more intimate setting to discuss my offer.”

  He rose from the table and led the way out of the vast dining room, his feathers making whispering sounds as the tips of his wings dragged against the richly carpeted floor.

  Without a word, the three of us followed him. I think we all wanted to talk—we were bursting with things to say. But none of us felt like we could really cut lose until we were in private. At least, I know that’s how I felt.

  I can’t believe you’re even considering this, whispered a little voice in my head as we followed Mandrex down a long hallway that led off from the main corridor. What is wrong with you even thinking about agreeing to this?

  It’s in my contract, I tried to tell myself. That I’ll do anything I can to help them get free of each other.

  Of course, there was also a no-sex clause in the contract—one I’d put in myself. If we went through with this, we would be breaking that part all to Hell. I told myself, a little uneasily, that it was all right if I broke it, since it had been my idea in the first place.

  But there was another reason besides the contract and the promises I’d made to stick with Lucian and Drace until the end that I was considering Mandrex’s proposal instead of rejecting it out of hand. I felt—felt strongly—that this was the only way to get the two of them back together. Which of course was silly—the whole idea was to break them apart. But I missed the way they’d been—their cooperation, the way they’d shared glances that communicated more than words could say. The way they worked together to pleasure and protect me and make me feel comfortable and cherished. I missed that and I wanted it back.

  Even if the three of us were only together for another few days, I wanted them to be good days.

  I can make that happen, I thought and felt a strange little tingle running through me. A power I hadn’t known I had was awakening…growing.

  You’re a La-