by D L Goddard
She lifted a tearful panicked face up to them.
“Did something happen when the ‘Sending’ happened? Because something is wrong with me; how can I be feeling what I feel now? Please … help me understand.”
The twins stared at the beautiful stricken woman, feeling her softness through the sheer gown. She felt like home and love and lust and they desperately wanted her, she was everything to the twins. Holding Anya tightly in their arms they knew they were lost. They belonged to Anya … there was no room for anyone else. ‘What in Seren’s name were the three of them going to do?’ They clung to one another, curled around each other as they sat on the plush rug, keeping her warm in front of the fire and from the heat of their bodies. They simply had no idea how to sort their problem out, but not for anyone were they going to let go of the precious creature seeking comfort in their arms.
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Chapter Eight
Anya dreamed … dreams of such terrifying portent that she felt herself struggling to escape. She seemed to be in a tunnel of sorts, black as night and filled with terrifying moving shadows that sought to grab hold of her as she fled past them. She was running somewhere, hopefully out; unsure where the end was, but something told her she had nearly reached the light.
Suddenly a huge monstrous shape leapt out at her, roaring and snarling, knocking her to the ground and crouching over her terrified body. She screamed feeling its claws tearing at her body. The creature leaned in so close to her prone form flattened against the hard stone that she gasped. It was her Beast.
“Why did you not come sooner? I needed you. Now, I am lost … lost without you.”
She realized from his plaintive cry he was afraid, and she began to stroke the unkempt mane that was wild around his head.
The Beast suddenly swooped over her mouth capturing her lips and kissing her frantically. He was growling low in his throat, but she caught some barely intelligible words among the snarls and rumbles.
“Anya … my sweet delectable Anya … love me once more … I long for the feel of your skin against mine, the touch of your lips, and your soft moans as we move together.”
Anya found herself kissing him back, lost in the moment and having forgotten the frightening place she found herself. The ground beneath changed abruptly and she was in a meadow with a low hanging full moon. Her Beast was still on top of her tearing recklessly at her old working clothes wanting to touch her skin. She was arching against him, desperate to feel his naked body against hers; her Beast was frantic, wanting himself inside her sweet body. Her scent was driving him beyond thought and he gave a ferocious growl and shredded the last of her clothes, ripping them from her body. In an instant he was on her, touching her everywhere. She felt him kiss her savagely before he thrust himself deep inside her waiting body, his movements urgent and half crazed.
The face above her changed; his beauty was astonishing and unearthly; she gasped in disbelief.
“It’s alright my beloved; you see me truly as I am without your Beast. My name is Arahir … promise to never leave me again my sweet, stay with me always. I will die without you by my side. I need you like air to breathe. Wherever I am I need you.”
Then, he kissed her … the most wonderful, sensuous, sensual kiss imaginable. He became gentle, measured as he sought to pleasure her; she was touched and stroked in ways she had never before felt from him as he took him time ensuring she was made love to as he had never before been able … her world became one of such sweet joy that she wept with bliss. Arahir wanted to ensure she felt nothing but pleasure this night; he wanted her to remember this time always. Anya knew she would never forget the way her beloved touched her heart and her body, remembering everything they shared in the meadow under the full glowing moon. She locked it away as a treasure beyond price. They kissed then … as if it was the last kiss they would ever have and she wanted it to never end.
A harsh voice rang out … chilling and dangerous. A woman stood behind them, seeming to tower over the lovers lying naked and still joined intimately on the lush grass. The woman was so unbelievably exquisitely beautiful that Anya couldn’t quite credit what her eyes were telling her. No one could be that beautiful; surely it was an enchantment or a trick of the moon?
“Arahir is mine … he is mine alone and none other shall ever have him. Until he begs to belong to me … he will never be as he was!”
Arahir’s beautiful face dissolved once more into the terrifying beast, but Anya was not afraid. She would never be afraid of her soul mate no matter what he looked like. She held the bestial face in her small hands and kissed him in such a way that the Beast roared in triumph as he reached fulfillment. His seed took hold as she screamed in joy at the thought of being with his child and being joined to him forever.
The beautiful woman screeched in fury at what they had done. She grabbed the Beast by his long hair and yanked his head backward. He roared in fury as the woman snarled into his face.
“You are mine Lord Arahir, no one and nothing will take you from me.”
She waved her hand and they vanished leaving Anya bereft. She was once more in the dark tunnel, naked and kneeling on the floor weeping for her Beast.
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Anya woke to the feel of strong arms tightening around her. Struggling … she sat up. Mir and Val looked terribly worried.
“You were screaming, weeping and clawing at yourself. We had to stop you from harming yourself any further.”
Mir pointed to the claw marks down her arms. Then, she noticed scratches down both of the brothers’ arms as well.
“You were so frightened but we could not break into the dream, so instead, we held you to stop you doing any further harm.”
“It was my Beast … my poor Beast.”
Anya burst into tears while the twins held her. They were cuddled together lying on the bed. Pulling her into the circle of their arms, the twins had made a protective shell of their bodies around her. Warm light covered the three of them as Mir and Val sent love and comfort to the young woman between them. Snuggled into the hard bodies Anya felt such joy that she sighed, drifting back to sleep with no further terrors to disturb her dreams.
Mir looked over her lovely head to his brother knowing Val felt all he was feeling. Val had tears in his beautiful blue eyes as they knew the dream of the one true match for them both was lying in their arms, but she was as untouchable as the moon. Regardless of the connection they had made, she had bonded to the Keeper with a joining of such power only death would separate them, if she survived the Beast’s demise. They weren’t even sure if the Beast died, whether or not being heart-touched would keep her with them.
They had wanted a mate of their own, one to share the union that twins on their world shared, but such a woman was rare in the extreme. The twin’s appetites were ferocious and so far in their fifteen hundred years of life, they had not encountered one whose nature matched their own. But in the bed with them between their bodies lay the one woman who was a perfect match in every way for the lonely twins. What they would have given to have met her before she met the Keeper. It seemed so cruel to meet Anya after she was soul bound.
Hard as it was on the brothers, they had sworn to protect Anya and her unborn baby and to rescue her soul mate. But the temptation to do nothing and just stay in the bed with her forever was almost overwhelming; why could she not have been their soul mate instead of Arahir’s. Val looked across at his brother who had tenderly kissed her forehead causing Anya to smile dreamily in her sleep. They no longer could look for a mate, she had tied them securely to her and they would never be free to seek another to even ease their lusts. It would be a betrayal of their connection to Anya even though she was bound to Arahir. ‘How had things gotten so complicated?’
“We must do all we can to reunite them, we have no choice.”
Mir nodded to his brother knowing his words were true.
“Without him … Anya will get sick and even die if they are apart too long, and
so will Lord Arahir. You know all this. You felt the love they made tonight; we went through every single moan and gasp with them. Arahir knew we would; he was staking his claim tonight, telling us no matter what happens … Anya is his soul-mate first and foremost. The most we will ever have is sharing in the glory of their love.”
Mir nodded again. His heart was breaking.
“But he is right. Arahir met Anya, loved her as their hearts recognized. It should have been as straightforward as that, no complications needed. But what we did because we felt a connection with his soul-mate … is to make a bed of misery for the both of us to lie in.”
But Mir still didn’t regret what they had done. In the time they had known Anya … they had seen her innermost being … discovering her joyous nature, her great capacity for love and her even greater need for passion, which drew the twins like moths to a flame. She was a sweet, loving woman, giving of herself without stinting … living and enjoying life every moment of every day. She treasured the twins, loving them for all they were and all they had done for her and they felt it in every look, every touch, the way she spoke to them … their hearts longed for her, their bodies craved her, but they knew they could never have her. Their grief threatened to overwhelm them and they had to fight to remember she was another’s.
“We will find the Beast and reunite them and then, only Seren knows what will happen. How can one woman be the soul mate of not just one of us but all three? Has Seren decided that she needs the both of us as well as Arahir, or is this a way to tell us this woman will need more than one mate in her life? I do not know Val, but I would not harm either Arahir or Anya by playing games with their hearts. It hurts too much when the one you love is not for you.
Mir sighed …it was a pained broken sound. Anya fit them both so well and she had responded to the ‘Sending’, by blooming under their kisses … so passionate had been her response that Arahir was furious at their playing. They had been testing her, seeking to discover if Anya truly was all they needed. She was … she was all they had hoped for … and much, much more … they found out just how much more when she surprised them by linking them all together forever. The twins were caught. They were both hopelessly, impossibly in love with the beautiful woman and in spite of the fact that they were delivering her to her soul mate; they could no more leave her now than leave one another. They truly were bound in joy and misery.
“We just have to make the best of it. I want to enjoy the time we have with her and I am not going to dwell on the time she will have to leave us. Arahir is a good and noble man and he has waited twice as long as we have for one to complement him. Maybe Seren is testing us and if we do this right, something truly unexpected will happen.”
Val was looking into Anya’s beautiful peaceful face.
“Maybe Seren has another plan for us … but why make us all heart-touched. I know in my heart our beautiful mother-to-be is the only one for us. I cannot even imagine another mate for us … in fact; I do not even want to be with another woman since we were linked. My desire has centered on one woman alone …. Anya.”
He looked across at the startled face of his beloved twin.
“I see in your eyes it is the same for you. We are both totally committed to Anya and our hearts are hers. She has made us part of her world and neither of us ever want to leave.”
Val laughed self-deprecatingly.
“Probably just as well since we cannot have another woman and we cannot leave her. I do not know how we are going to unravel the Gordian knot we have found ourselves in … I love this woman, she is our breath and our life. Do you feel her as you take a breath or do I imagine it?”
Val lifted pleading eyes to his brother. Mir felt tears prick his eyes.
“No Val … you are right. Anya is breathing with us and feeling all we feel now. I feel her presence even when we cannot see her … we always know where she is and what she is feeling. I feel her passion, even the love she made to her Beast just now in her dreams. It was what drew me to her in the very beginning … I felt her passion. We should have never played with the Sending because we are the ones caught, but with a web we cannot get free of. We are hers … body and soul even though it was our hearts she linked. How can our body or soul go somewhere else when our heart yearns for Anya? We may as well be soul-bonded.”
Val swore softly under his breath not wanting to disturb ‘their Anya’. He spoke the words softly to his brother, “Our Anya … Ours.” It felt so right when he said it and he knew his brother felt the same. It sounded like an affirmation and a celebration of their future together. The twins smiled, happy suddenly. Peace filled their hearts and they slid down the bed getting more comfortable, coming together in their usual sleeping positions from long habit. With their arms around Anya and each other, they pulled a duvet on top of them. It had grown cold.
Each of them placed a tender kiss upon their lovely Anya’s cheek and lay their heads as close to hers as possible. They looked like a single entity, unsure where one left off and another began. As they slept, their bodies shimmered with magic and the human guises they wore always … never taking off … came to the surface for but a moment. The sheer beauty of the three asleep on the bed would have shocked an onlooker knowing nothing human could be that exquisite. But, the image shimmered once more and was gone as if it had never been. The trio slept on unknowing, comforted and content in the arms that held them and the nearness of those that loved them.
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Chapter Nine
While the twins waited for Anya’s wardrobe to be finally finished, they escorted her around the fanciest shops, taking her to the finest restaurants and showed her off to only the upper crust folk that they really liked. The entire capital was ablaze with the news that the twins’ Princess had been found. It was thrilling and so amazing; the Princess was so beautiful and so gracious, everyone tried to catch a glimpse of her. And the clothes … she wore the most astonishingly glorious clothes.
Then, even more incredible was the news the twins were her Uncles and were foreign Princes’ themselves; everyone nodded knowingly. They expected as much. With so much money and the lifestyle they lived, it must be true. It was all too, too exciting. Women fanned themselves gossiping over ‘at home’ visits spreading the word like wildfire.
When the last of her exquisite garments were done, they decided to celebrate and take her to the theater, ensuring she got to see the very brilliant musical showing at the very best theater. Tickets were impossible to get, but the twins just happened to have the best box in the theater and three tickets to the amazing ‘The Golden Bird’ sung so incredibly that it was rumored to quieten even the noisiest audience so that it was possible to hear a pin drop. The trio wondered if the outrageous idea was even true.
Anya looked unbelievably exquisite in an off the shoulder gown of deep cream. The bodice was fitted accentuating her full bust and still tiny waist even though she was nearly five months along, the baby might have been growing rapidly, but as yet, only a very small bump was showing. It had caused Anya some concern but Mir and Val assured her it was perfectly natural. So … she let it go and decided to just enjoy herself.
She felt the cloth of her dress, luxuriating in the feel of the fabric, heavy rich satin that draped from the waist over several full layers of soft cotton ruffled petticoats giving the skirt its beautiful fullness. Simple in design the satin underskirt was shown in all its true beauty by the most delicate intricate handmade lace overdress. The lace was so incredibly crafted that it made the satin appear to have been embossed. The bodice was covered in the lace along with two long sheer sleeves. The sleeves fitted over her hands and came to a vee being held in place by glittering diamond bands around the middle fingers. Extending three quarters the length up the arm; the sleeves were held in place by being cunningly sewn to the top of the dropped shoulders by diamond strands, leaving her neck and shoulders completely bare.
Randomly strewn diamonds were scattered into the floral design of
the lace appearing as if the whole shimmered and sparkled. Glittering, slightly pointed, cream low heels were worn over sheer silk stockings making Anya squeal in delight at the feel of such opulent luxury against her bare skin. While she danced around admiring the dress in delighted glee, she sobered when she realized the sheer lace was ruffled to appear like a soft floral wave sitting across the top of the high back of the dress, drawn down dramatically over the off the shoulder sleeves making them appear joined to the lace to end in the low vee that showed off to delicious effect the lush bosom.
When Clara her personal maid came to dress her hair, it was decided by the twins to leave her raven black hair down to sit around her hips framing the entire gown. Strands of diamonds were strung around her head and through the hair looking like she had a draped net strung back from her ears and leaving the crown of her head clear like a glossy black jewel. Diamond dust was then sprinkled liberally through the strands making the whole shimmer in the light. Clara, using the tiniest comb imaginable then, carefully brushed her long eyelashes with the dust as well. But what she did next stunned Anya. She opened a small pot of shiny clear gel that looked to have been mixed with the diamond dust and used a small round pad on a short rod to dip in the shiny stuff then, expertly applied it to Anya’s eyelids and dark red lips.
Her green eyes glowed and her red lips shone in the glittering lights. As Anya looked in the long mirror she couldn’t believe the stunningly beautiful young woman looking back at her was the same woman that worked in Lord Savage’s home not six months ago. She tentatively reached up with a perfectly manicured slender hand to touch her cheek.
“Is this really me?”
She whispered afraid to break whatever magic the twins had used on her. Mir and Val came to stand beside her. They were both in black tails, top hat and cane with silver dragon’s head accent. They had cream shirt fronts and cummerbunds with diamond pins and cufflinks, complementing Anya’s gorgeous dress. Black polished boots, cream gloves and warm capes to keep away the chill night air finished their attire with their hair pulled back into silver filigree clasps holding their magnificent hair away from their heartbreakingly handsome faces. Standing together they looked incredible and Anya was proud to have Mir and Val on each arm. She pushed onto her tiptoes and kissed each of them on their cheek, smiling joyfully at the twins.
