Griggen’s shoulders slumped forward in silent surrender.
“What’s this about?” Helmut said, walking up to the door. “Griggen. Ulpi. Good morning.”
“Helmut, I need you to do something. I can’t go on like this, with this…good for nothing!” Ulpi said, gesturing to her husband like a pile of filth.
“Domestic matters are matters for our Grace,” Helmut said, putting a hand on my shoulder.
I stood up a little straighter, trying to look regal in my still damp track suit.
Ulpi eyed me up and down. “But…you always judged in the past,” she said. “No, Clarissa will not do. I demand an audience with you.”
“Ulpi, my door is always open to you and Griggen, but this is a matter for the Grace. I used to do this in the past, true, but now we have a Grace. This is one of the Grace’s duties,” he said.
“I refuse!” Ulpi said, crossing her arms. Her brow was a furrow of angry lines.
“You’ll take my help or learn to solve your problem yourself, whatever it is,” I said, puffing my chest out.
Her mouth turned to a sneer. “Fine,” she said through gritted teeth.
Griggen’s shoulders shook briefly with a chuckle.
Ulpi turned to unleash a savage belt of words against the poor man.
“Excellent,” I said with authority. “Wait here on the porch while I change into something more suitable. Keep your voices down: some people are still enjoying their breakfast.”
“If only we were one of them,” Helmut said, so quietly that only I could hear him.
I gave him a soft elbow, not wanting to laugh in front of Ulpi and Griggen. I closed the front door and leaned back against it, sighing.
“You’re going to do fine,” Helmut said, kissing my forehead. “Just remember that if both parties hate you afterwards, you probably made the right decision.”
I looked at him in shock. “What have I gotten myself into?”
“Responsibility. Leadership. Power. That’s what you’ve gotten yourself into,” he said, pulling me into his arms. His strong arms wrapped around me, comforting me. “Sometimes they just need someone to listen to their sorrows. Most of your job will just be to hear them out.”
“Breakfast is getting cold,” Sven called from the kitchen.
“I’m full, dear,” I called into the kitchen. “Helmut will finish my plate.” I freed myself from Helmut’s embrace.
Helmut’s eyes went wide with my betrayal, his hands reaching out to grab me. Probably to tickle me for my insolence. I took the stairs up to the bedroom two at a time, thankful to not have to return to that table.
I shook my head as Clarissa ran up the stairs, leaving me to face both our plates alone. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, as they say. She also left me alone with my thoughts, and I needed to talk to someone about what she saw.
“Sven, I’m headed out for a bit. I’ll be back later on,” I called into the kitchen.
“Want something for the road?” he said.
“No, that early morning run killed my appetite,” I said as I headed out the front door. I nodded briefly at Ulpi and Griggen as they sat on our porch bench. No doubt there’s been drinking involved. Probably something else as well. Whatever it was, Clarissa could handle it.
I knocked on my uncle Ezekel’s front door and waited. I heard something fall and a sharp curse come from behind the house. I walked around it and saw him in the garage, underneath his old Chevrolet truck. He’d won it in a city poker game twenty years ago, and everyone in the village loved to tease him that he got the short end of the stick. It would probably never run again, but that didn’t stop him. He just loved to tinker.
“Uncle,” I said.
“Number six,” he said, thrusting an open hand up to me.
“Ok,” I said, digging around in his red toolbox along the wall until I found the wrench he needed. I handed it to him. “Do you have a moment to talk?”
“I have many of those moments. All day, in fact. But right now, I’m close to figuring out this ignition. Hammer,” he said.
I handed him the ball peen hammer. “It’s rather important,” I said.
“You young people think everything is important,” he said. A loud clank echoed through the garage as he hit the wrench with the hammer. “Whether it’s women, money or pride, it’s never as important as it seems.” Clank! “That’s the gift of age that I can bestow upon you, but I know it will be wasted.” Clank!
“Clarissa was out in the woods,” I said.
“Ha! Relationship problems, those are best nipped in the bud,” he said. Dropping the hammer. “Flowers and wine mend all bridges.”
“She saw a Redcap,” I said.
Ezekel rolled out from under the car and stood, giving his back a stretch. He walked past me to his tool bench, grabbing a rag. He wiped the thick black grease from his hands. “You don’t hear that every day.”
“When was the last time a Redcap was seen?” I said. “I had written them off as fairy tales.”
“Most people have. When they are seen, it’s often by,” he said, hesitating, “touched people. Special people. People favored by the Moon. A woman over on the Russian side claimed she saw one about twenty years ago, but no one believed her.”
“She said it threatened her,” I said, my pulse racing. “She said it was going to hurt her,” I said, balling my hand into a fist. My fingernails dug into my palm painfully.
He nodded slowly. “Make no mistake, they are mischievous at best and deadly at worst. More troubling, though, is the why. Why is it here? Who summoned it?”
I looked up at him. “Summoned it? Someone brought it here?”
“Don’t you remember the fairy tale? Leave a shoe filled with bloody meat outside your door and the Redcap will come,” he said.
“But Clarissa didn’t…” I said.
“Yes, so someone else did. You said it threatened her. Did it say anything else?” he said. “Sometimes they harm the body, and sometimes they harm the soul.”
“I don’t know, Uncle. Can I find it somehow? Get rid of it?” I said.
“I’ve never heard of a Redcap being killed. They can be banished, but those means were lost millennia ago. If you know where she saw it, you might be able to taunt it into showing itself,” he said, rubbing his chin. “They’re oddly vain. But if you succeed, then what?”
“Thanks, Uncle,” I said, shaking his hand then leaving the garage.
It was harder than I thought, finding the spot. Our scents had faded, and the wind had blown the dried leaves around, obscuring our earlier footsteps. I had to backtrack many times, but I finally found the spot. The sun showed it was late in the afternoon.
I saw no cave. I pulled at the overgrowth that ran up the side of the hill, long vines of ivy coming up like wires. Nothing was hidden beneath them. I clawed at the earth, almost expecting to find some kind of hobbit door. But there was nothing there. I stood up, sweat pouring down my face.
“Where is this ugly little fucker?” I whispered to myself.
“Ugly?” A small voice shrieked. “The big oaf calls us ugly.”
I spun around, looking for the source of the voice, but it was everywhere. “Show yourself!” I demanded.
“The big oaf is too blind to see us! Ha! Too blind to see how handsome we are,” it said. “We should show it how wrong it is.”
I heard some rustling from behind a tree. A small head peaked out from behind it. It was just as hideous as I imagined. Yellow syphilitic eyes took me in, a stubby tongue licking it’s endless row of sharp teeth. His red cap was flopped to the side. “There you are,” I said, walking towards it.
“Or are we here?” a voice said from behind me.
I spun around too see the Redcap now behind another tree. “So you do have your tricks,” I said.
“Aye, we do. Tricks of the mind and tricks of the tongue. We will see if you are as blind as you seem,” it said, cackling with glee. “You are the one,” it said plainly.
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br /> “What does that mean?” I said. My patience was running thin, but this creature was slippery.
“You will see, or you will not see. Big oaf. Big hairy oaf. Your failures will haunt you all your nights. Ha!” it said.
Those words…I’d heard them before. From Helga, when she and her sons were banished. “What did you say?” I said.
“Now the oaf is hard of hearing. No ears, no eyes, no brains. It’s a mercy that it’s seed is hollow,” it said.
It’s words struck me like a freight train. “You lie,” I said, leaping towards the little monster.
It disappeared before my hands could reach it’s neck.
“Ha! The big oaf doesn’t know! It sticks its big oafish prick into everything that moves, yet has fathered no children,” it said. “Blind, deaf, sterile and stupid!”
“Liar!” I screamed.
The voice grew quiet. “Oh, but there will be more pain in store for you,” it said. “With your blind eyes you will see your legacy end. With your deaf ears you will hear the screams of all whom you love. And with your big oafish muscles you’ll strike out and do nothing to change your fate,” it said. “You’re cursed, mutt.”
“All lies,” I said, turning away to leave. “You’re just the wind blowing through the leaves.”
No more lies followed me.
I looked out the front window, the setting sun running deep shadows across our massive log cabin. I knew it was stupid to worry: Helmut was fine. He had to be. He had been gone all day, but he had important Pack Alpha things to attend to all the time.
I was relieved to be done with Ulpi and Griggen. Those were hours of my life I would never get back, and in the end both of them looked at me with measures of contempt. I felt like a failure, but that probably meant I’d done my job.
“He’ll be back soon,” Sven said from behind me. He put his hands on my shoulders and kissed the back of my head. His hands kneaded my neck muscles.
I closed my eyes. “That’s it. You know,” I said, “your time in the kitchen is a waste of your skills as a masseur.” I leaned back against him, enjoying his unmovable presence.
“You just want me for my body,” he quipped, his ministrations unlocking the stress in my neck.
“Oh, not just for your body,” I said, my hand dipping back behind me. I felt his manhood through his jeans, relaxed and powerful. I tried to grab around it’s circumference but it was too thick. “Just mostly for your body.”
“Naughty, naughty,” he said, his thumbs rubbing tiny circles along the base of my scalp.
“Mmm,” I moaned, leaning my head forward so he had better access. I pressed my ass back against him and slowly gyrated myself against his cock. “I love waking little Sven up.”
He laughed. “Little?”.
“Just an expression,” I said, my hands going to my aching nipples. I noticed I’d become hornier lately as well, something well appreciated by my men.
Flickering flames came to life behind us. We turned and saw Helmut in the back yard, standing over our fire pit. Sven took me by the hand and we walked outside to meet our Alpha.
“Where were you?” I said, walking up to him.
Helmut smiled at me. “Just out taking care of something minor. Turned out it was a waste of time,” he said.
The fire flickered brightly as Sven placed another log over the rowing flame. Then he walked behind Helmut and began rubbing his neck. “You’re tense. Relax,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” Helmut said, letting his head fall forward as our Seneschal massaged his shoulders and neck. “That feels so good. You have a talent for it, Sven.”
“That’s what I said!” I kissed Helmut, interlacing my fingers with his.
Helmut pressed his ass back against Sven and let out a groan. “You two were up to something before I arrived. I hope I didn’t ruin a moment.”
“No, just made it better,” Sven said, using an elbow to dig into Helmut’s back. “There’s the spot. This is where you hold it all in.”
“How did things go with Ulpi and Griggen?” Helmut asked.
“I listened to what they had to say and made some suggestions. I think they’ll eventually come around to each other again,” I said, my hands running up under Helmut’s shirt. “But that’s up to them. There’s only so much I can do.”
“Wise words, Grace,” Helmut said, kissing me. His hands wrapped around my waist, pulling me to press against him. His tongue spread my lips and dove past. He lightly bit my upper lip and tugged on it.
I moaned. “I don’t want to be your Grace tonight.” I felt his hardening need through his pants and my own body responded to that hot masculine presence. I ground my wet pussy against his thigh, my clit aching and in desperate need.
Helmut’s hand pulled my boob out from my top with one motion. The cold air made my nipple hard, then his mouth clamped down around it. His tongue swatted my nipple in delightful abuse. He growled around it, pinning me in place so he could suckle.
Sven bent forward and began to kiss and bite Helmut’s neck. He’d stopped massaging his Alpha, and now I saw his hands had gone further south. One big tattoo’d hand had lowered our Alpha’s zipper, and Sven pulled him out of his pants. I was hypnotized, watching Sven stroke Helmut’s cock. It was the hottest thing I’d ever seen.
“I think he likes it,” I told Sven.
“Oh, he always like it,” Sven responded. “All big and gruff, which this huge slab of meat dangling between his legs. But at the end of the day, he just wants someone to hold him.”
Helmut released my glistening nipple and bent his head back to kiss Sven. Their tongues reached for one another, stubble scraping on stubble. Helmut put a thumb in my mouth, and my lips closed around it.
Sven’s other hand joined his first, pulling Helmut’s balls out of his pants. His experienced hands cupped them, two heavy stones full of cum. He stroked up and down Helmut’s shaft, his knuckles getting slick from Helmut’s pre-cum.
I got on my knees in front of our Alpha. I put my hand on Sven’s, letting him know I was down there now. I didn’t want to catch a softball sized pumping fist in the face. I opened my mouth and took Helmut’s purple head into my mouth. His musk filled my nostrils, his virile masculine scent that broadcast his need to mate. My own sexual heat turned up another notch, and I knew both my lovers could smell my excitement. “Watching you two kiss is magnificent,” I said.
Helmut put a hand on the back of my head, guiding my mouth up and down his pole. He was also grinding his ass back against Sven, enjoying the feel of a hard cock pressed against his backside. Helmut kissed Sven harder, hungry for his friend and Pack Mate.
Sven’s hand slowly pumped Helmut’s cock. Squeezing him from the base and running up to the tip, he was lazily filling my mouth with our Alpha’s pre-cum. I held it, the salty treasure laying heavy on my tongue until I could hold no more.
I stood up and pulled Sven’s mouth down to mine. His tongue shot into my mouth, discovering the gift I had for him. He scooped it out with relish, and we both swallowed our Alpha’s jizz.
Helmut’s tongue crashed into our kiss, and the three of us were a tangle of flesh. Hungry mouths, soft lips and searching tongues. We all pulled our clothes off until we were just three naked bodies against one another.
Slade (BBW Bear Shifter Moonshiner Romance) (120 Proof Honey Book 5) Page 144
