The Faery Truth (Tonawanda Faery Tales)

A Silver Publishing Book

The Faery Truth

E-book ISBN: 9781622320370

First E-book Publication: August 2013

Cover design by Reese Dante

Editor: Monti Shalosky

Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only. Any person

depicted in the licensed material is a model.

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Dedication

For Cherie and the Nieceling who sparked this brilliant idea

and love me unconditionally.

For David, the boy, who inspired Eeiran's soul mate.

And as always in memory of Justin, my very own soul mate

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark

owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of

fiction:

Keeping up with the Kardashians: E! Entertainment Network,

division of NBC Universal

McDonald's / McNuggets / Big Mac: McDonald's Corporation

Private Practice: Disney-ABC Domestic Television

Grey's Anatomy: Disney-ABC Domestic Television

Rookie Blue: Shaw Media & Disney-ABC Domestic Television

So You Think You Can Dance: Dance Nation Productions

Frank Sinatra: Frank Sinatra Enterprises, LLC

Britney Spears: Britney Spears

Michael Jackson: Triumph International, Inc.

Chevy Camaro: General Motors Company

Marlboro: Philip Morris USA

Jersey Shore: Viacom International

Twilight (movie saga): Summit Entertainment

Twitter: Twitter, Inc.

iPhone: Apple Inc.

Drop Dead Diva: Sony Pictures Television Incorporated

True Blood: Home Box Office, Inc.

HBO: Home Box Office, Inc.

The Game: CBS Television Studios

House Hunters: Scripps Networks, LLC

Flip This House: Departure Films for A&E Television

Cee-Lo: Ceelo Green IP Holding LLC

Walker, Texas Ranger: CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

Discovery Health: Discovery Communications, Inc.

Cool Water: Zino Davidoff SA

7-Eleven: 7-Eleven, Inc.

Allstate: Allstate Insurance Company

Lifetime Network: Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC

Hollywood: Hollywood Chamber of Commerce

LIFE: Hasbro, Inc.

Axe: Conopco, Inc.

Incredible Hulk: Marvel Characters, Inc.

Chapter One

Wherein we meet Eeirana, princess of the Seelie Fae king,

after receiving a distress call from her brother Eeian.

Naked bodies littered the floor, my bed, and every other

available surface and space I had. There were eleven… no,
twelve faeries in my room: male and female alike. I'd had sex
with the entire dozen and not one turned out to be my mate.

Not one.
Life sucked big, huge, hairy balls—and not in a good

way.

"Time for everyone to wake up and get the fuck out," I

said in a sickeningly sweet, diplomatic tone, hoping they could
detect the low growl flittering in and out of my words.

One by one they woke up, looking up in confusion,

uncertain whether I meant what I'd said. Apparently my face
gave truth to my words because, one by one, they all stood,
grumbling beneath their breath, before walking out of the room. I
had no idea who any of them were, only that they'd all been at
the party my brother's best friend, Le-eon, had thrown the night
before.

With a disgusted grunt, I walked over to my bedroom

door  and  slammed  it  closed.  I  was  fucking  sick  of  looking  for
someone who might not even exist. All Seelie fae slept around to
find their mate, but the worst thing had to be not being aware if
their  mate  was  still  alive  or  not.  I  could  sleep  around  with
someone  new  every  day  of  my  life  and  never  find  my  mate.
Stupid, disheartening, and would send anyone, including me, into
a depression.

Trust me, I know.
I looked around my bedroom in disgust, my upper lip

pulled up in a snarl. I hated my brother sometimes. Older than
me, the favored child of both the Seelie and the Unseelie courts
—at  least  it  seemed  to  me—that  would  be  Eeian.  Of  course,
being  the  favorite,  he'd  gone  and  found  his  mate,  some  human
named Thomas, who already had a child and a younger brother
he'd  been  raising,  which  hindered  the  whole  have-to-return-to-
Fae-with-your-mate thing. A very large part of me wanted to be
upset on my brother's behalf. Thomas wouldn't leave his children
behind  and  yet,  Eeian  and  Thomas  couldn't  stay  in  the  human
realm without facing some serious, serious ramifications. On the
other hand, a part of me—a dark part like tar slithering through
my soul—felt happy Eeian might lose his mate. How twisted did
that  make  me?  What  Fae  in  their  right  mind  would  wish  such
unhappiness—death,  of  all  things—on  another,  much  less  on
their own blood kindred?

A fucked up one.
I knew I was wrong, not just mentally, but physically as

well. My parents spent a lot of time lecturing me and telling me I

well. My parents spent a lot of time lecturing me and telling me I
had a gigantic chip on my shoulder. I didn't have the heart to tell
them I'd eaten that monumental spud a long time ago and now
carried the whole fucking potato farm on my shoulders. They
wouldn't understand. They couldn't understand. I couldn't say I
totally understood myself the sheer wrongness that was my
being.

I stared in the mirror. Long black hair that fell to the

middle of my back, almond-shaped, bright blue eyes surrounded
by a fringe of long, thick black lashes above a pert nose and full,
pink lips. I was beautiful. And I knew it. I got told every day,
more than once. A fact of my life and so is the fact that Eeian
was the only member of my family who treated me like I have a
brain. I should really have been happier for him. I should have
been running out of the room to study the ancient texts to see if I
could help him with his current situation and I would, eventually.
At the moment, I just wanted to vent and pout over the injustice
of it all.

There. Now I'm done.
Turning away from the mirror, I surveyed my room—my

now empty, but still completely wrecked, bedroom.

I walked over to the bookshelf against the far wall to

look  for  something  that  would  help  Eeian  with  his  current
situation.  Picking  up  the  first  book,  I  looked  through  it  quickly
before tossing it away in disgust. I could read much quicker than
any Fae in history, but it was a little geek fact I kept to myself. I
already  had  enough  stacked  against  me,  what  with  being  the
troubled  offspring  of  the  Seelie  king  and  queen,  a  proverbial
thorn in my parents side, fucking everything that breathed around
me  and  still  coming  up  mate-less.  And  then  I  had  the  whole
'being uncomfortable with what I saw in the mirror' thing. I did
not need to add 'geek' or 'nerd' to the pile.

I was just a ball of sunshine, I knew.
I grabbed a book that looked to be of help and set it

down,  before  searching  through  my  collection  and  grabbing
another  one,  and  another  and  another.  Throwing  another  book
on top of the growing pile of ones that were of no use to me, I
finally hurled the heavy tome of The Seelie History & Culture
against the wall with a scream of frustration. Gods above, I was
angry  and  irritated  and  fucking anxious  as  hell.  My  fits  of
aggression  and  energetic  emotion  were  well  known,  so  no  one

aggression  and  energetic  emotion  were  well  known,  so  no  one
would  come  rushing  to  my  room  at  the  sound  of  my  yelling
something  that  would  have  bothered  me  if  I  wasn't  so  fucking
strong.  Everyone  stayed  out  of  my  way  when  my  temper
exploded.  I'd  taken  all  of  my  siblings  and  most  of  the  guards
down  in  hand-to-hand  combat  many  times  before.  It  was
something  I  was  proud  of,  if  my  continuous  boasting  was  any
indication.

Besides my geek status, I also kept the fact I had the gift

of sight  hidden.  No  one  knew  I  could  see  the  future,  though
many  knew  there  was  something  else  going  on  with  me.
Something  more  than  my  surly  disposition.  I  would  never  tell
them, even though it would be damn hard to explain, how I knew
Eeian would stay with his mate. I had to find the loophole in the
Fae order that required all Fae royalty to live in Faery once their
mate  had  been  found.  It  was  the  only  way  I'd  be  able  to  help
save my brother and his mate.

Yeah, I was a big softie, so sue me.
Having run out of books in my own bedroom, I turned to

head out when I caught sight of the corner of another tome
peeking out from underneath my nightstand. A book that hadn't
been there moments before.

"Okay, that's just fucking weird," I muttered.
I walked toward the nightstand with hesitant steps. I'd

watched  enough  human  films  to  know  when  objects  started  to
appear  out  of  thin  air,  it  was  always  best  to  be  cautious  when
approaching them. My obsession with the human realm proved
to  be  another  reason  my  family  and  other  Fae  looked  at  me
strangely. They couldn't seem to understand why I would spend
hours  reading  human  authors  like  Chaucer,  William
Shakespeare, and Langston Hughes. They didn't get why I spent
hours watching shows like Private Practice, Grey's  Anatomy,
Rookie  Blue and  my  all-time  favorite, So You Think You Can
Dance. My preferred artists and musicians were not the fiddlers,
harpists,  or  lyrical  singers  that  toured  the  palace.  No,  my
favorites  were  human  musical  icons  like  Frank  Sinatra,  Leann
Rimes, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, and Luther Vandross.
My tastes were eclectic when it came down to the arts, but one
thing remained consistent: I loved all things to do with humans.

I didn't know why. Perhaps the strength of the human

spirit drew me in or the fact so many seemed determined to try

spirit drew me in or the fact so many seemed determined to try
and change the world. Maybe the fact that most of them were
either sexually repressed or sexually uninhibited created such a
contrast, I couldn't resist.

As a Seelie, sexual expression came naturally to me. I'd

once  had  a  boyfriend  who'd  pushed  me  into  the  corner  of  the
library and fucked me… hard. Even though there were people in
the  room  trying  to  study,  I  had  moaned  loudly,  clawing  at  the
sides  of  the  bookshelves  and  yanking  books  from  their  resting
place.  It  was… awesome.  My  parents  had  been  livid  and
embarrassed, but to this day, I still didn't care.

No, really, not at all.
Okay, maybe just a little bit.
Contrary to what people whispered about me in the halls

of the palace, I did actually care what my parents thought of me.
I cared about the things people said about me behind my back. I
had just become a master at pretending like I didn't.

I was a master at pretending a lot of things.
I opened the book and flipped through the first few

pages before I started to scan the contents within it. Diet,
festivals, education. I didn't really care about all of that. Gods,
why couldn't I find what I was looking for. And then there was
the passage that I was looking for. Sort of.

If a Fae of royal blood finds their mate in the human

realm and said mate is Fae, then both are required to return
to Faery. If the mate in question is human then time shall be
granted to the mated couple, a time of one human year, to
settle affairs in preparation for their journey to Faery where
they shall live for the rest of their days.

"Well, shit," I groaned, using my favorite expletive. I

loved the different ways humans expressed themselves. I would
spend my life only speaking in profanities if I thought it would get
my point across at all. "This is stuff I already know. This isn't
going to help Eeian and Thomas; it will only give them a few
months. I have to keep looking."

No one was around; I was completely alone. Yet I felt

the presence of someone else, someone… powerful and
intimidating. Someone who set my every nerve-ending on fire. I
wanted to strip off all of my clothes and beg the phantom person
to take me, ravish me, fuck me until I couldn't breathe without
tasting them in my throat. I clutched the edges of the open book

in my hands and rapidly breathed in and out. My heart pounded
in my chest and my stomach quivered. My gaze went hazy and
then sharpened when my second sight took over. I saw a man, a
broad-shouldered, hugely muscled man, wearing a black striped,
buttoned down shirt, black pants, and a pin in the shape of an
'M' on his chest. He smiled softly, his green eyes glinted in the
light like emeralds, his black hair shined like a polished onyx
stone, and his lips spoke to my soul as they formed my name.

"Eeiran. Come to me Eeiran."
Eeiran? Who the hell was Eeiran? My name was

Eeirana. Was Eeiran a nickname he'd given me? Why would he
do that?

"I'm waiting for you."
The vision faded and my breath caught in my lungs. Holy

fucking shit. I had a human mate? What were the odds of that?

The words on the paper moved, spinning around as the

pages  flipped  one  after  another  and  then  stopped.  Before  me
were the words that would save Eeian and Thomas. The same
would save me and my mate, whomever he was, a man living in
the human realm. They were salvation to all of us, and I had to
tell  Eeian.  I  had  to  let  him  know  what  I'd  found  as  soon  as
possible. Time in the human realm moved a lot faster than time in
Faery.  In  the  few  hours  since  I'd  spoken  to  my  brother,  days,
maybe  weeks,  had  passed  and  I  had  no  time  to  waste.  Eeian
could even now be making his way to Faery, most likely without
Thomas. I had to get to him. I had to stop him.

I placed the book on my bed and rushed to my armoire.

Throwing  open  the  doors,  I  grabbed  a  pair  of  curve-hugging,
dark as night pants and a tight, black, long-sleeved shirt. I pulled
my black hair back from my face and into a ponytail. Finding a
pair of black boots, I pulled them on one at a time and turned
back for the book on my bed. Picking it up, I shoved it into an
empty satchel I picked up from the floor. I headed towards my
bedroom door and yanked it open. I ran out of the palace and
through  the  courtyard,  the  field,  and  across  Faery,  ignoring  the
shouts and pleas of those around me to stop and tell them what
was  wrong.  I  didn't  have  time  to  stop.  I  didn't  have  time  to
explain. If Eeian came through the veil he would never be able to
return to his mate and he would die. Much as my older brother
annoyed me, he was still my brother and I loved him.

The words from the ancient text throbbed through me as

I saw the light from the veil opening and radiating up from the
bottom of the ravine. Entering would be tricky business, not to
be taken lightly, and should be done cautiously. At least, those
were the words that had been hammered into my brain almost
my entire life.

I didn't have time for caution. I had a deadline and I

hurled myself off the edge of the cliff and down into the veil. The
wind whipped at my face, pulling my hair free from my ponytail.
The strap of my satchel pulled against my chest and in between
my breasts.

My arms waved madly and I yelled. "No Eeian! No! I've

figured it out! Don't come! Don't enter the veil! STOP!"

Crossing through the veil could be very dangerous, or so

I'd been told, but I didn't care. I had to take the risk to reach my
brother. When I entered, a bolt of lightning exploded in my veins.
The process of crossing into the human realm created pressure
and the feeling of being turned inside out and then split in two.
My  breasts  were  smashed  and  reformed  into  manly  pecs,  my
vagina  enlarged,  twisted,  and  changed  into  a  penis.  Something
new?  What  the  hell  was  happening  to  me?  My  face  felt  as  if
someone was molding it into something different, and my body
grew broader than it had been before, my fingers thickened, and
as I screamed my voice deepened.

Did this happen to everyone, or was I special? The fact

my entire body had changed would freak me out later, how
could it not? But the shock hadn't quite hit me.

I couldn't focus on my reaction to entering the veil. I'd

worry about it later. Right now I had to remind myself to
remember one thing. The most important, life-saving thing I'd
ever learned in my life:

If the mate of a Fae is human with familial

obligations in the human realm and if the departure of the
human mate into Faery will be detrimental to the family,
then the mated pair will be required to stay in the human
realm. The gods will not tear apart a family and it would be
unwise for any Fae to do so.

Chapter Two

Wherein we meet Philip Sands, a human and the manager at

McDonalds, as he escapes into his office at work.

"I need an order of six-piece McNuggets out here

pronto!" I yelled for the fourth time to my cooks on the grill.

I absolutely didn't get why it was so hard for them to

understand me when I asked for an order of something. I didn't
know  any  language  outside  of  Ameriglish,  so  it  couldn't  be
because I spoke to them in a different language. We once had
one employee who had spent a year studying abroad in England
who  had  tried  to  correct  all  of  us  on  our  pronunciation  of
everything, but after the incident with the mayo on the front of his
pants,  we  never  heard  another  peep  out  of  him.  So  I  wasn't
speaking some obscure form of French or anything. They should
all  have  understood,  and  yet  they  still  stared  at  me  as  if  in
complete and utter confusion about what I needed them to do.

My savior arrived in the form of Lewanna, another shift

manager  who  showed  up  just  when  I  wanted  to  throw  in  the
towel.  Lewanna  seemed  to  have  'Psycho  Philip'  radar  and
always managed to appear just before I quit, or did something
really  stupid  like  fire  everyone  because  I  couldn't  get  some
damn…

"Nuggets!"
Damn. I think I might have strained my voice with that

one.  The  only  time  a  strained  voice  was  acceptable  was  when
you'd  lost  said  instrument  either  through  screaming  at  a  singer
onstage or yelling out during an intense orgasm. With the way my
luck  was  turning  out,  it  would  be  the  concert way  before  it
would be the orgasm.

I wasn't a bad looking guy. At least, I didn't think so,

and if the slew of broken-hearted twinks could be anything to go
by, no one else thought so either. The stupid thing? I never felt
fully satisfied with any one of my ex-boyfriends. They were too
clingy, too aloof, too possessive, too giving, liars, cheaters, gold-
diggers, drug addicts, or just fucking crazy as shit. I'd dated a
co-worker once, and only once, and I'd regretted it ever since.
The best day of my life had been the day when Max threw his
apron in my face and stormed out.

I had never been so happy to have an employee quit.
"Go on break, Phil. I got it from here." Trecee's husky

voice—to a straight man it would have been sultry, but to me,
just soothing—acted like balm to my aching, tired soul.

just soothing—acted like balm to my aching, tired soul.

"Thank you, god," I murmured, excusing myself from the

register and the waiting customers and hightailing it back to my
office. Right before shutting the door I heard one of the cooks
announce  the  six-piece  order.  I  growled  low  in  my  throat,
stomped over to my desk, and collapsed in the rolling chair that
awaited  me.  Usually  on  my  breaks  I  went  outside  to  smoke,
desperate  for  the  nicotine  to  mend  the  tattered  remains  of  my
fractured spirit, but this time I couldn't even summon the energy
to walk outside to suck on a stick of Marlboro. I needed peace
and quiet, and since the restaurant was far too noisy for quiet, I
would settle for peace.

"Yes. Peace. Sweet, sweet peace. That's all I need," I

murmured before closing my eyes, just for a minute, and
allowing my body to relax.

I dreamed of him again. The black-haired beauty

haunted my dreams. The fullness of his lips called to me, and I
found my own mouth falling open softly as I imagined, as I
always did, the way he would taste. My cock grew hard behind
my pants and I reached out a hand to him. He smiled softly and
walked backwards towards the edge of a cliff. I could never
remember his name when I awoke, but I knew it in my dreams.

"Eeiran! No! Don't!"
Too late. With a sweet grin, and a kiss thrown in my

direction, the man of my dreams, my every waking fantasy,
stepped off the cliff and screamed my name as he fell.

"Philip! Find me please! Before it's too late. Let me love

you; find me and love me! Please, Philip, please."

With a gasp, I sat up in my chair, the legs slamming

down on the floor as my body jerked forward and I fell to the
floor.

"SHIT!" I yelled.
My heart pounded in my chest and my head spun from

the abrupt ending to my dream. Already my fantasy man's face
faded from my mind's eye, his name sinking into the deepest
recesses of my neurons. I looked up when the door to my office
slammed open and Trecee stood looking down at me. Her dark
brown eyes were wide as she stared in my direction. Her mocha
brown skin had a slightly ashen undertone to it; her hand gripped
the doorknob tightly as her chest rose and fell with her panting
breath.

breath.

"What. The. Fuck. Philip?" she asked angrily, narrowing

her eyes. "Why the hell are you back here making all that noise
and yelling out like an idiot?"

I stared up at her, blinking slowly as the haze faded from

my mind. Holy fuck me. That dream was a lot more real than
the others. Though I couldn't remember all the details, the fact I
felt such a sense of urgency to leave and find… well, someone,
let me know this dream was a lot more serious than the others.

"Sorry," I muttered and stood up.
I brushed my hands against my ass and smiled at her.

My very best grin. The one that flooded any normal human with
lustful  heat,  sending  a  shiver  shooting  through  their  body,
removing  all  coherent  thought  from  their  mind  and  left  them
completely breathless. I pulled out that smile. The slight quirk of
my lips, the independent lift of my left eyebrow, the way my eyes
closed slightly. I knew what it did to most people and I had no
qualms  about  pulling  it  out  and  using  it  on  Trecee,  not  in  this
moment  when  I  needed  her  not  to  go  all  overly-sensitive  best
friend on me. But Trecee was my best friend and she'd seen me
use  that  same  expression  on  everyone  and  well…  Trecee  was
Trecee and she didn't really fall for anyone's shit. Even mine.

"Oh, save it, fairy boy. Just like flexing your sweaty

muscles at me doesn't work, neither does that weak ass smile
you use on those little twinks every day to make them drop their
pants, bend over and beg you to fuck them. I'm looking forward
to the day when you meet someone who sends you to your
knees and has you begging them for something."

A pair of cerulean blue eyes flashed across my mind;

pale, milky white skin, and long black hair that surrounded a
beautiful face, and my heart stuttered in my chest. What was my
dream man's name? And softly, like a small voice called it from
far away, I heard a sound. A noise. A name.

Eeiran. I sighed mentally. Eeiran. My mystery man's

name was Eeiran. I looked towards Trecee to find her watching
me closely. She grunted when she saw nothing wrong with me.
She smacked her teeth and rolled her eyes when I shrugged and
grinned again.

Treecee huffed and tossed her dyed, caramel brown hair

over her shoulder. "Now, tell me about this nightmare."

Chapter Three

Wherein Eeirana Eeiran, now living in Tonawanda with her

his brother Eeian; his brother's mate, Thomas; Thomas's

brother, Steven; and Thomas's daughter, Lily, first discovers

McDonald's.

Two months later

I stood in the bedroom, staring at Steven and ignoring

the growls coming from outside of his bedroom door.

"Are you sure this is something you want to do?" I asked

him for the third time before climbing on the bed and leaning over
him.

The wide brown eyes of the young man below me

blinked slowly before narrowing. "How many times do I have to
tell you yes?" Steven asked.

I shrugged and looked off to the side, nibbling on my

bottom lip. We'd had Steven's eighteenth birthday party earlier
that day. His friends from school had shown up to wish him a
happy birthday. As soon as it ended, Steven turned and asked
me to take him into his bedroom to fuck him.

That had been two hours ago.
It wasn't that I didn't want to have sex with Steven. I did

—if my hard, leaking cock was anything to go by. And wasn't
that weird? I, Eeirana, no, wait, Eeiran, had a cock and balls and
pecs. I'd always enjoyed being fucked in my ass more than my
vagina—when  I  had  one—and  I  couldn't  wait  to  see  what  a
difference having a prostate would make. I'd spent the last month
masturbating at every available opportunity. My dick fascinated
me  and  I  never  grew  tired  of  pulling,  stroking,  caressing,  or
touching  the  thick  length.  There  might  have  been  an  incident
where  I'd  pulled  Eeian  into  the  bathroom  to  show  him  the
impressive  piece  of  meat  hanging  between  my  legs,  which  had
sufficiently  horrified  my  older  brother,  but  what  did  he  expect?
I'd been a woman a month ago and now I was a man! I wanted
to shout it from the rooftops and had Eeian not explained to me
about  being  arrested  and  'booked'  by  the  Tonawanda  Police
Department,  I  would  have  stood  out  on  the  balcony  of  the
apartment we lived in and shown everyone what I had now.

I wanted to use my new dick. It was like a new

motorcycle and I wanted to drive it all over the fucking world. I
wanted  to  take  it  to  every  restaurant  and  flash  it  around.  I
wanted  to  spend  all  day  either  showing  it  off,  or  letting  others
ride it to see how well I drove it. I wanted to spend the rest of
my time washing it, shining it, rubbing oils and wax into it so it
glistened  and  gleamed,  catching  the  eye  of  every  passerby  so
they  wanted  to  hop  on  as  well.  My  cock  was  amazing  and  I
wanted  everyone  to  know  it.  That  might  sound  a  bit  like  an
obsession with my penis and the fact of the matter would be… it
could  be  considered  as  exactly  that.  I  found  myself  totally  and
completely in love with my dick and because of that, I wanted to
use it with whomever I could. The only problem? Steven wasn't
just anybody.

Thomas's little brother, essentially my brother-in-law,

and if I really looked at it, was like my little brother. Which made
our  having  sex  very  much  a  fae-cestuous  relationship,  as
opposed to an incestuous one. Steven didn't see things that way,
and we'd been 'dating' over the last month. Watching movies and
television  shows—I  found  myself  confused  by  the  appeal  of
Jersey  Shore  and  the  movie Twilight. I've  met  vampires  and
they  do  not  sparkle,  unless  someone  tosses  glitter  on  them,
which had happened before to a vampire friend of mine named
Domenic,  a  member  of  the  VWA—Vampire  Warriors  of
America—but that would be a different story—and generally just
getting a chance to know each other better. Steven was a great
kid,  already  sexy  at  the  tender  age  of  eighteen,  and  had  I  met
him months ago, nothing would have stopped me from jumping
him and finding out if he might be my mate, but something held
me back. I just wished I knew what.

"I think you're just shy because you're a faery or

whatever. Here, let me help you," Steven said with a smile,
pulling my head down toward his own and pressing his lips firmly
against mine.

I moaned low in my throat. My hands drifted up to his

naked torso—we'd completely stripped out of our clothes when
we'd  entered  the  room.  Nothing  separated  the  press  of  my
overheated,  sensitive  skin  to  Steven's  equally  hot  and  naked
body. If I wanted to, I could easily push my throbbing prick into
his tight channel. Yet something held me back, and it wasn't the
sound of Ir-nae's low, threatening growl emanating from outside
Steven's  bedroom  door  where  Steven  had  commanded  him  to

Steven's bedroom door where Steven had commanded him to
stay. Ir-nae, a member of the royal Fae guard, had been
ordered, or rather cursed, by Eeian to watch over and protect
Thomas and his family for the rest of their lives. Ir-nae took the
whole thing a little too far, in my opinion. I think he did it because
he was still upset about Eeian's tasking him with protection detail.
I thought it was hilarious as fuck.

I pulled my mouth away from Steven's and decided to

just go with where my dick wanted to lead me. I trailed my lips
down the thin, pale form of Thomas's, my older brother's mate,
younger  brother. Shit.  Just  think  of  him  as  Steven,  with  no
familial  ties;  it  will  be  a  lot  better  that  way.  The  sound  of
Steven's  breathing  vibrating  in  his  chest  and  the  low  moan  he
gave when I swirled my tongue around his belly button made my
cock  leak  fluids  onto  the  sheets  below  me  and  my  own  heart
speed up in my chest.

It also caused Ir-nae to growl louder.
"You know, every time you growl it just turns me on

more," I called out to him before kissing and licking from one
side of Steven's hips to the other.

The loud growl from the faery guard caused the door to

shake from the power of it, and I knew the large man was just
this  side  of  breaking  down  the  door  to  get  to  me,  so  if  I  was
going to fuck Steven then I had better do it now. Ir-nae knew
my reputation for fucking around and apparently thought I was
doing  the  same  thing  with  Steven.  I  wasn't.  Well,  not  really.  I
liked  Steven,  thought  he  might  even  be  my  mate,  or  at  least  a
really  good  friend,  and  I  also  knew  that  if  we  did  have  sex  it
wouldn't be a one-off thing.

I opened my mouth, fully intending to suck Steven's

cock, with its angry purple head, into my mouth, when my gaze
went hazy then sharpened. My heart pounded and my stomach
filled with butterflies. Shit. Not now. I almost pleaded. Who had
visions during foreplay? The gods obviously cursed me for the
trick I pulled on my former tutor when I put a pile of brown
pudding sauce in his seat on a day he'd been wearing white linen
pants.

I saw him then; my mate looking at me, and his

appearance resembled nothing like the young man underneath
me. He smiled, his green eyes pulling my soul from my body and
toward him. My head filled with air and my entire being focused

toward him. My head filled with air and my entire being focused
on his. He winked at me from the vision, the muscles in his arms
stretched to capacity the fabric of the white button-down shirt he
wore. Suddenly I felt as if I were being sucked out of the
building where my mate stood. I found myself outside of a
medium-sized structure with a white exterior wall and a red roof.
The white letters seemed to glow and I read them hesitantly.

"Mic. Mick. McDonald's."
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me. Why in the hell are

you thinking about burgers when you're naked in bed with me?"
Steven's voice made the vision shatter into a million fragmented
pieces in my mind's eye and snapped me out of my haze.

Sitting back on my knees, I tilted my head to the side

and looked down, confusion racing through my mind.

"Burgers? What?" I asked, ignoring the snort of

amusement coming from Ir-nae.

"You're the one that said something about McDonald's,"

Steven pointed out with a slight pout to his pink lips.

A pang of guilt shot through my heart and my hand rose

to rub lightly at my chest.

"What is this McDonald's?" I asked, watching Steven's

eyebrows rise in shock.

"It's is a fast food restaurant," he explained.
My confusion must have shown on my face because,

with a sigh, Steven sat up on the bed and stared at me.

"They make burgers and fries and apple pies. They make

a lot of stuff, really. I mean if you eat too much of it you'll get
extremely fat and have a heart attack and die… at least that's
what my coach is always telling me at school." Steven shrugged.

I found myself wondering why humans would eat at such

a place, and more than that, why my mate would be working at
an establishment that would try to kill off its customers.

"I don't really think it does," Steven said and I startled. I

didn't realize I'd spoken that aloud. "I think their stuff is really
good and parents just say that because there aren't a lot of
vegetables or 'healthy' things to eat there."

I nodded, although I still had no idea what Steven meant.

Humans had healthy and unhealthy food items? Why would they
eat the unhealthy things? That seemed completely ridiculous.

"Here, let's get dressed and I'll take to McDonald's and

you can see what I'm talking about. It's not actually a bad place

you can see what I'm talking about. It's not actually a bad place
to  go. A  lot  of  people  go  there  to  hang  out  and  meet  people.
Their  milkshakes  and  apple  pies  are awesome.  We'll  get  a
couple  of  those  and  then  some  burgers  and  fries  and  you  can
make an informed decision," Steven said.

With a smile, he rose from the bed and walked over to

his dresser to pull out a pair of boxers, pants, and a new T-shirt.
The  beautiful  young  man  got  dressed  and  a  jolt  of
disappointment  and  anxiety  shot  through  my  gut.  Why  couldn't
Steven be my mate? It would make things a lot easier. I wouldn't
be  making  a  trek  out  into  the  human  realm  to  find  a  restaurant
that sold its patrons unhealthy burgers and fries.

With a grunt at the things I'd just learned about humans

and  their  strange  eating  practices,  I  got  up  from  the  bed  and
began  pulling  on  the  jeans  Eeian  had  bought  for  me  the  day
before. Picking up the blue shirt with the golden words Legalize
Gay emblazoned across the front, I tried to once again not think
about either my mate, the fact humans seemed to have the need
to  make  statements  on  their  chest,  or  that  my  shirt  was  telling
people to legalize something people were born as, or that I was
about  to  go  to  a  restaurant  where  I  could  eat  something  that
would potentially kill me.

I had just pulled up the zipper on my jeans when I felt

Steven's gaze on me. Looking up, I winced at the complete
disappointment ravaging his face. His sad eyes, the small frown,
and the slight pucker in between his brows made me feel like the
world's lowest form of being.

"I'm not your mate, am I?" he asked.
I swallowed thickly and shook my head. "I don't know

how I know, Steven. I could be wrong but…" I sighed and
turned to look out the window for a moment, gathering my
thoughts.

"I've seen him. I've heard his voice and I'd hoped…

stupidly, perhaps, that when you turned eighteen you would
magically become him. You're not, though. You're you. While I
have a definite affection for you and I wish you were my mate
because of how comfortable I feel when I'm with you, I'm afraid
it's just not meant to be."

I glanced back, hoping my words hadn't devastated

Steven too much. He shook his head slowly and let out a
shuddering breath. I wanted to kick my own ass in that moment.

How could I do that to one so young?

Steven's laughter had my eyes widening in surprise. Had

he gone crazy? Had he become hysterical?

"Well, shit. I'd hoped it was me because you're so

goddamn hot. But who says we can't still fuck around until you
find him?" A grin of pure mischief crossed his face and his eyes
sparkled with a deviousness I appreciated.

The loud, rolling growl from outside the door only made

Steven laugh harder. Ir-nae apparently took his job very
seriously. He was determined to protect them from everything.
Even from another royal Fae.

"That's a great idea, Steven," I agreed with a chuckle.
My entire body shook with mirth when Ir-nae's growl

turned into a full-on roar.

"Let's go to McDonald's. You've got to try their chicken

McNuggets," Steven stated and headed out the door.

I shook my head in bemusement. The resilience of the

human spirit completely fascinated me.

Chapter Four

Wherein Philip meets Eeiran for the first time and gets

burned… literally.

I looked up when the door opened and smiled when

Steven  Hume  walked  into  the  restaurant.  I  tapped  Caroline's
shoulder  and  when  she  moved  away  to  take  her  break,  I
stepped up to the register to take Steven's order. I knew what
he  would  get  before  he  opened  his  mouth.  He  always  ordered
the same items and I could generally read him like a book.

"Hey, Philip. Can I get a McDouble with no onions, no

pickles, add mayo? Also a six-piece nugget meal with sweet and
sour sauce, large sized with a Sprite. Oh yeah, and two apple
pies and a medium strawberry milkshake. To go." Steven's tenor
sounded completely infused with happiness.

I smiled at his enthusiasm, shaking my head at the

amount of food he could eat and still look so slim. I envied his
super-fast metabolism, his youthful exuberance, and his
optimistic outlook on life. I'd been like that once, a long time
ago. Before reality took a large chunk of flesh out of my ass and
left me gasping for breath and bleeding out.

I went to the fryer, wondering where Rudy had

disappeared to, and lifted up the basket preparing to set it in the
hot oil when Steven's voice drifted over to me.

"Hey, Philip? Just give my brother-in-law the same

thing."

I'd heard Thomas and Eeian had finally hooked up,

which meant I'd lost the pool between my coworkers on when
those two would get together. I hadn't even noticed anyone
come in with Steven, which is so unlike me. I was one of the
most observant men in Tonawanda.

"Sure thing, Steven"—I turned towards them—"and

what's your bro… oh…" My breath left my lungs quickly when I
found myself looking into the clear blue eyes of the most
gorgeous man I'd ever seen in my life.

The sound of my racing heart roared in my ears, and as I

stared at this man, this beautiful man, a sense of vertigo overtook
me. Reaching out a hand, I grabbed onto the corner of the wall
and exhaled loudly. What was it about him? This stranger caused
my knees to feel weak and made my head spin.

"Hi." My voice sounded breathless even to me, and I

wanted to sink into a puddle on the floor and slink away.

I needed to hear his voice.
"Hello. My name is Eeiran."
Yes. That voice. I'd heard it before. Maybe in a dream

or  something,  but  the  effect  was  the  same.  Shivers  of  desire
raced  up  my  spine  and  my  limbs  trembled.  Such  a  visceral
reaction to five simple words. A soft tone that sounded like the
purr  of  a  cat,  its  resonance  echoing  in  my  own  chest,  like  the
most  delicious  melted  caramel  poured  over  freshly  popped
popcorn.

Eeiran was beautiful, gorgeous… sexy. The sheer

volume  of  stares  turned  in  his  direction  astounded  me;  the
possessive  growl  that  left  my  throat  kind  of  shocked  me.  I'd
never been the possessive type. I'd never actually felt a reason to
be all alpha male with or for anyone. The few brief relationships
I'd had in my past, mostly started after drunken one-night stands,
were all fading memories discolored by the one long relationship
that had been a mistake from day one. I'd felt stifled, drained of
life, overly exposed, and listless in all of them, so there had never
been  a  need  for  me  to  be  possessive  of  someone  who  would
make me feel that way.

make me feel that way.

I felt alive for the first time in a long time just looking at

Eeiran. Electricity thrummed through the blood in my veins. My
hardening cock, racing heart, and sweaty palms only intensified
the yearning, the need I had within me for him. I didn't know
anything about the guy. I didn't know his last name, if he was
gay, or if he had a partner, but I didn't care. He could have my
last name, if he was straight I'd make him gay, and if he had a
partner, I'd take him from the unknown man, whomever he was,
because Eeiran belonged to me.

Belonged to me? What the hell kinda thought process

is that, Philip? Have you lost your mind over a pretty face?

I knew my sub-conscious might be right, but Eeiran was

more than a pretty face. His blue eyes and black hair, patrician
nose, pouty lips, and pale skin were just the icing on the cake.
Almost  as  tall  as  me,  he  also  looked  thin,  and  I  willed  him
subconsciously to turn around so I could check out his ass. He
had  the  body  of  a  swimmer,  and  I  found  myself  imagining  the
two  of  us  making  love  in  Lake  Erie,  Eeiran's  legs  wrapped
around my waist as I drove into him harder and faster.

His eyes widened, and for a moment, I wondered if I'd

said my thoughts out loud, but no one else responded and my
jaw ached from gritting my teeth. Shaking my head to dispel the
heavy haze of lust, I stepped back toward the register. Ringing
up the exact same order Steven had requested, I looked back
up at Eeiran and smiled.

"My name is Philip." God above, why did my voice

sound so husky?

"It's nice to meet you, Philip," Eeiran responded with a

seductive smile and I grabbed the counter when my knees
buckled.

"Philip? You okay, buddy?" Steven's voice acted like a

giant bucket of ice water dumped right on top of my fiery libido.

What the hell? I was at work. I couldn't be standing at

the register in front of everyone, lusting after a customer. I could
be severely reprimanded and it would seriously embarrass
Eeiran.

Standing to my full height, I gave Steven a smile. "Yeah

man, I'm good. Just got a little light-headed for a second. I'm all
better now." I fought to keep my eyes from straying back to
Eeiran's face.

Eeiran's face.

I failed.
When I glanced back, Eeiran's gaze remained trained on

my face. His eyes moved over every feature as if he were trying
to memorize everything. I wanted to say he didn't need to
commit anything to memory, he only had to say the word and I'd
drag him back to the office and fuck him over the desk. I wanted
to talk with him, get to know him better. I wanted to fuck him,
kiss him, hold him—that last part a shocker because I'm not a
cuddler.

"What's our total, Philip?" Steven's voice broke through

the fog.

I had to hand it to the kid. Steven seemed to have an

uncanny knack for knowing when I started to drown in my lust
for his brother-in-law. I should do something for him, find some
way to repay him.

"Don't worry about it. It's on the house."
I'd have to put the seventeen twenty-five into the cash

drawer at some point, especially since I'd already had to comp
three meals that day, but I didn't care. I wanted to pay for it. I
wanted to find a way to thank Steven for bringing Eeiran my
attention and I wanted to find some way to thank Eeiran for
being born.

Buying their dinner seemed like a very small thing.
"Aww, man, really?" Steven asked, excitement filling his

voice again.

I turned to look at the young, brown-haired boy and

chuckled. Steven was adorable. He had all the makings to be a
gorgeous man and I knew, from the few times we'd spoken, he
would give some man or woman, or both, a run for their money.
It would be fun to sit back and watch.

"Yeah, Steven, really." I pressed the buttons on the

screen to open the register and wrote a quick note on the back
of their receipt—my name, phone number, email address, home
address,  and  Twitter  handle—and  handed  it  to  Eeiran  then
closed  the  register  drawer  again  before  glancing  up.  The  small
smile  on  his  face  made  me  grin  and  sigh  with  relief.  I  hoped  I
hadn't overstepped, that I hadn't been wrong about him. I was
really happy to know I was right.

"Thank you, Philip. I will certainly give you a call later."

Eeiran's voice washed over my senses and I closed my eyes and

Eeiran's voice washed over my senses and I closed my eyes and
inhaled deeply, trying to capture the smell of it in my nostrils.

I knew words don't have aromas, but I could have

sworn the savory scent of jasmine and maple were intertwined in
the melodious rhythm of Eeiran's words. I could smell and feel
the echo of their truth in my body. I opened my eyes and looked
into his blue ones filled with amusement.

"I look forward to hearing from you," I responded, my

face heating in embarrassment. Did Eeiran think I was strange
now? Too weird? I opened my mouth to apologize but he
looked down at the paper and traced the words I'd written with
a finger.

Good to know I wasn't the only one affected.
An employee walked over with the bags of food ordered

by  Steven  and  Eeiran  and  I  took  the  order  and  the  drinks.
Turning  back  to  both  men  with  a  smile,  I  handed  the  items  to
Eeiran, hoping his hand would touch mine. Nothing prepared me
for  the  jolt  of  electricity  that  shot  through  my  body  when  our
fingers touched.

My skin tingled, the current of an unexpected connection

zapping its way up my arm and planting itself firmly in my heart. I
gasped, my gaze locked on Eeiran's as he stared at me with wide
eyes. The forgotten bags of food hung between us as our hands
touched, our gazes holding for another moment… mine drifted
down to the pulse fluttering at the base of his neck. I could feel it
and see it, our hearts beat in sync with each other.

"Who are you?" I whispered to him.
"Your destiny," he responded, and my mind fizzled with

the truth I felt resonating in those words.

Chapter Five

Wherein Eeiran calls Philip then learns who he was truly

meant to be.

I nibbled on my bottom lip and stared at the strange

rectangular object in my hand. A cell phone, but in that moment
it seemed more an item of torture than a communication device. I
gazed at the iPhone Eeian bought me a few weeks before like it
might be a viper ready to strike without the slightest provocation.
I called the number Philip had written on the back of the receipt
earlier and when he hadn't answered, I'd left a message.

earlier and when he hadn't answered, I'd left a message.

Hey Philip. It's me… um… Eeiran. I was just calling

to say hi and to give you my number just in case you wanted
to call me. It's um… 716-555-5658. So… yeah, if you want
to call me back, you can. I'll um… talk to you later.

I—was an idiot—
No. I was a Fae—a newly-turned male Fae—in the

human realm. Only a month before I'd been living a rather
unhappy existence as the youngest child, a princess, of the Seelie
king and queen, and now I'd become an unemployed and
apparently verbally-challenged man.

Talk about weird. Talk about the perfect material for a

Lifetime  movie.  No,  even  better  than  that,  I  could  be  a  living,
breathing,  walking,  talking  Hollywood  blockbuster.  I'd  only
intended to come through in order to help Eeian keep Thomas.
Yes, I'd been hoping to find my mate, I wouldn't lie about that,
but  that  hadn't  been  the  reason  I'd  thrown  myself  through  the
veil.  I  had  done  it  to  help  my  brother  and  how  did  the  stupid
thing repay my selfless action?

By turning me into a man!
Okay, yes, I could have the major freak-out I should

have had a month before. My chest tightened and my vision
grew hazy. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. I was a fucking man—a
motherfucking man! My brain latched onto the idea and wouldn't
let go of. Why had this happened to me? The fact I was a man
when I used to be a woman acted like an echo, swirling through
my head, over and over again; a tape that just kept repeating.

"Holy fuck!" I gasped as I bent over at the waist and put

my hands on my knees as I struggled to breathe.

"Eeiran? Are you okay in here?"
Eeian's voice drew closer from the other side of the door

and instead of filling me with calm, it filled my body with icy cold
terror. Shit, shit, shit. How the fuck could Eeian be so calm
about the whole me-being-a-guy-now thing? Why hadn't he
freaked out? Run for the hills? Labeled me an abomination and
tossed me out on my ear? Beaten me to death and then disposed
of my body?

I obviously had something wrong with me if the veil

would change my gender when I went through it. Maybe my
obsession with the human realm? The fact I was a Seer? I had
never heard of another Fae going through the crossing over and

becoming a totally different gender. So why me? And why didn't
Eeian think of it as a big thing? Why was he acting as if I'd
always been a man? Like I hadn't just been a woman with
breasts and a vagina a little over a month ago?

"Deartháir? Are you okay?" Eeian's voice sounded

from outside of the bedroom I currently slept in.

Moments later, the door creaked opened. Rushing

footsteps  toward  me  caused  my  already  frenzied  mind  to  spin
out of control, and without conscious thought, I lifted my hands
and  held  them  in  Eeian's  direction  and  let  out  a  loud  yell.  My
eyes  widened  when  my  older,  much  heavier  brother  sailed
through the air and hit the wall before collapsing onto the floor.

"Fuck! Eeian? Are you okay?" My momentary panic

attack receded and I rushed toward Eeian, who slowly pushed
up from the floor with a groan. The shouts from Thomas, Ir-nae,
Steven, and even little Lily rang out as they all ran to us. They
were of no concern; I focused on Eeian, my brother who hadn't
freaked out when I'd gone from being his female sibling to his
male one.

Seconds before I reached my brother, I felt a hard band

wrap around my throat, cutting off all air to my lungs as I was
slammed against the wall next to my bedroom. Colors exploded
behind my closed eyelids as my head bounced off the wall
behind me. Ir-nae's growl sounded loudly in my ear.

"What the fuck did you do to the prince, you little

miscreant?" he hissed.

"E-E-Eeian," I stammered, darkness rushing up over me.

My vision went hazy and my limbs grew heavy.

"L-let him go, Ir-nae," Eeian choked out.
I breathed a sigh of relief my brother was not dead. The

secondary  part  to  my  gift  of  sight  kicked  in  and  a  bright  light
shone around my neck. Ir-nae gasped and let go of me and I fell
to  the  ground  in  a  heap.  Lily  clapped  happily  and  chattered  to
her father about my pretty necklace made of light and 'sparkles'.
Certain  she  had  no  idea  what  the  light  meant,  I  also  wasn't
surprised she'd noticed it. Children were precious and innocent
and therefore much more likely to witness the light of protection
Seers used to keep themselves safe.

"Y-you are a Seer?" Ir-nae's voice came to me through a

fog.

"What the fuck is a Seer?" Thomas sounded slightly

hysterical.

"Ir-nae, why are you always trying to kill Eeiran?"

Steven's voice was angry and trembling with fear.

"Oohh, Daddy, you said a bad word." Lily. Oh, sweet

Lily had just seen my secret. The one thing no one besides me
had ever known.

"I know, honey. Sorry," Thomas apologized.
I wanted to smile, but I couldn't. My breath stuttered

into my lungs and I sat up with a gasp.

Eeian's kind eyes were trained on my face. Thomas sat

at  his  side,  his  arms  wrapped  around  Eeian's  waist  as  if  to
protect  him.  Protect  him  from  me.  But  he  had  it  right.  They  all
needed to be protected from me. Not only was I some sort of
freaky  genetic  abomination,  but  I  was  a  Seer  and  I  was
dangerous.  I  should  leave  now  before  I  brought  any  harm  to
anyone else.

An image of Philip's face flashed across my mind and I

viciously shoved it away. Especially him. Before we even got
involved, the man whom the gods had designated to be my other
half would be the main one I had to protect. I needed to get up
and go before everyone around me freaked out and attacked
me.

Eeian's chuckle was the last thing I expected to hear and

my jaw dropped.

"So you're a Seer, too, huh? That explains a lot." He

laughed loudly.

Shocked, I stared at Eeian. "Why aren't you mad? Why

aren't you freaking out about this whole thing?" I asked, my
voice rising with each word.

Eeian stood slowly to his feet. He towered over me after

he  walked  to  where  I'd  risen  to  stand  with  my  back  pressed
against the wall. He glowered down at me, a fierce look on his
face, and I swallowed thickly, fear once again seizing hold of my
body and locking every muscle in place. Eeian's eyes narrowed
and  the  growl  that  rumbled  up  from  his  chest  made  me  shrink
back more firmly against the wall behind me. In a fight, I would
be able to hold my own. Not only was I extremely skilled in the
art  of  hand-to-hand  combat,  I  was  a  Seer  and  that  meant  the
gods  had  blessed  me  with  the  power  to  always  defend  myself
against any type of immediate threat.

against any type of immediate threat.

The Fae respected and revered Seers, it was true, but

there were those who would like to do nothing more than to kill
or kidnap a Seer, either because the gifted one would see their
misdeeds or because they wanted to use the power for their own
purposes.  Usually  I  was  happy  about  the  power  I  wielded.  It
had saved me once or twice when I'd found myself in a sticky
situation,  but  now  I  was  surrounded  by  my  family.  My  power
engaged without my control when I got terrified and felt as if I
were  in  danger.  That  couldn't  be  the  case  here,  but  how  did  I
explain to Eeian who looked ready to throttle me?

"Eeian?" I whispered.
I yelped when he lifted me up into his arms and squeezed

me tightly before setting me back down on my feet and shaking
me  lightly.  "How  could  you  ever  think  badly  of  me,  Eeiran?
You're  my  baby  brother.  No  matter  who  or  what  you  were
before, you are, right now, my baby brother, and of course I'm
not  going  to  freak  out  because  the  veil  fixed  what  it  obviously
saw as a flaw in you."

Wait. The veil had… fixed me?
"What?" I asked, the thoughts in my brain slamming to a

halt.

Eeian chuckled again, shaking his head fondly. Leaning

forward, he placed a light kiss on my forehead. He sighed as if
he had to deal with the most annoying person on the planet, but
he filled it with love and caring as well. I instantly relaxed. Peace
filled me and I took the first real breath since I'd begun freaking
out moments before.

"Eeiran. You've always been a very masculine person—

not  in  looks—but  as  Eeirana  you  were  very  beautiful. Yet  you
always had this… sadness in your eyes. I noticed it every time I
saw you, like you always felt wrong. You were just like the rest
of  us.  You  played  rough  and  tough.  Had  it  not  been  for  the
physical  evidence  of  your  femininity,  I  would  have  sworn  you
were a boy the entire time. You're still you. It's just you're now
playing the game with the right equipment."

I stared at my brother, my mind spinning with the

implication of his words.

"I-I-I don't understand," I whispered.
I knew what they were trying to say in a general kind of

way but I couldn't understand how it applied to me.

"You're what we humans call transgender, Eeiran."

Thomas's voice piped up from behind me.

Oh yeah, we were having this very personal conversation

in front of everyone. Lucky me.

"What's transgender?" I asked. In all of my studies of

humans and their world, I could not remember ever coming
across the word transgender. At least not in my way of thinking.
I couldn't be transgender. Being transgender was a decidedly
human situation, not a Fae one.

"A transgender person is someone whose gender is one

thing, but their sex is something different. They identify one way:
male or female, but their physical body is the complete opposite
of that." Steven's voice now. I swallowed thickly, my eyes still
locked on Eeian's face even as I listened to the words of the
other men in the room.

"And that's what you think I am, Eeian? A transgender

person?" I questioned him.

"I can't tell you what you are, Eeiran. That's for you to

decide. This is your journey. Your walk. Your truth. So you tell
me." Eeian stared at me intensely, his brown eyes blazing in the
lights from my bedroom, looking almost black. "Are you happier
now as a man than you were as a woman? Do you feel more
comfortable? More whole and complete? More like yourself?"

I considered my brother's words. What did I feel?

Looking past the sheer freakiness that was my trip through the
veil, how did I feel now that I was a man? I thought about the
many years—twenty-two human years as a female—where I'd
always felt uncomfortable. I'd always been sad, alone, angry for
some unknown reason. But now…

Now that anger and sadness was gone and I felt… like

all of me was on the same page, in alignment.

Right.
"Yes." One word. One simple response to Eeian's

multitude of questions and my world tilted and then righted itself,
looking, for the first time, exactly as it was supposed to.

The sound of my cell phone broke the wonder of the

moment and I jumped. Steven raced to answer the device and
then walked it back out to me.

"It's Philip."

Chapter Six

Wherein Philip asks Eeiran out on a date and discovers

what jealousy actually feels like.

I listened for Eeiran, clutching my cell phone to my ear

tightly. I heard shuffling and the low murmur of voices before I
heard the sweet sound of Eeiran's voice.

"Hello?"
I swallowed deeply and exhaled slowly. "Hey Eeiran. It's

me, Philip." God, so lame. Of course he knows it's you,
Steven probably told him.

"Yes, I know. How are you, Philip?"
I shivered where I sat in my bedroom and swallowed

back  the  moan  that  threatened.  Dammit,  how  was  it  possible
Eeiran  could  affect  me  so  strongly  just  by  saying  my  name?  It
was almost like I was under a curse and some other force drove
me  towards  him.  Some  voice  telling  me  we  were  meant  to  be
together… which was an absolutely ridiculous statement because
I  didn't  even know Eeiran, and yet I wanted to go out and get
matching 'his and his' towels.

"I'm fine, Eeiran. How are you?" I responded back

finally.

"I'm doing well. Are you calling me because I called

you?" he asked.

My eyes flew open. When had I closed them? The

involuntary responses I kept having because of Eeiran baffled
me. We hadn't touched or kissed yet, but I continued to act as if
I were love-struck, which was weird because I couldn't say for
sure I even believed in love in the first place.

"Yes. I'm returning your call," I responded. "Although, I

would have called you as soon as you walked out of the
restaurant had I gotten your number instead of giving you mine."

The slight catch in Eeiran's breath made me smile. The

thought of hearing that same noise while I drove my aching cock
into his ass made me want to jump through the phone and take
the younger man on or against whatever hard surface was
nearby. "I was wondering if you were free to go to dinner
tonight?"

The sound of rustling made my eyebrows lower in

confusion as I tried to listen to what was going on. I heard

muffled  voices  as  Eeiran  spoke  with  someone,  his  deep  voice
being surpassed by the deeper voice of another man. Did Eeiran
have  someone  else?  Why  didn't  he  tell  me?  Hurt  and  angry,  I
almost  hung  up  the  phone,  but  Eeiran's  breathless  response
stopped me.

"I would love to go to dinner tonight, Philip."
I wouldn't ask who that other guy was. I wouldn't. I'd

restrain myself from being a complete jackass and debasing
myself over the phone. I just wouldn't do it.

"So who was the guy a moment ago? You know, the

one you were talking to?" I asked, very proud of myself for not
sounding like a complete and total possessive nut job.

"Who?" Eeiran asked sounding confused.
I cleared my throat. I didn't know if Eeiran really had no

idea who I spoke about—how many men could there have been
talking to him—or was he just being coy? I didn't like the idea.
Coy was a little bit too much like a game of LIFE, and I was too
old  to  be  playing  games  with  men.  I  sighed.  It  looked  like  I'd
have  to  say  goodbye  to  Eeiran  since  he  seemed  like  the  type
who  enjoyed  the  constant  back  and  forth  manipulations  and
wasn't that a shame? We would have been so good together.

"Look, Eeiran," I started before taking a deep breath.
"Do you mean my brother, Eeian?" Eeiran's voice

sounded genuinely flabbergasted and just the tiniest bit amused.

"Your brother?" I asked stupidly, my brain momentarily

checking out of the conversation to go and sit in the corner to
knit.

"Yes, my brother, Eeian. His partner is Thomas?

Thomas has a brother named Steven? Steven and I came into
McDonald's together? McDonald's… the place I met you?
Remember?" He burst out laughing.

I winced. Of course I knew Eeian and Thomas. How

could I be so stupid? Dammit, goddamn jealousy surely knew
how to rear its ugly head at the wrong time. Instead of me calling
things off with Eeiran—before they even started—he would now
be ending things with me. Dammit, Philip, keep your fucking
mouth closed sometimes.

"Look, Eeiran, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to jump to

conclusions. It's just that we just met and you seem like you're
from out of town and I didn't know if maybe you just had a
boyfriend or something in another state and you were just here

boyfriend or something in another state and you were just here
visiting. I hope I didn't offend you and you still want to have
dinner with me."

Eeiran's laughter, which sounded like the purr of an

oversized  cat,  flowed  through  the  cell  and  over  my  heightened
senses. The sound penetrated my skin and caressed the deepest
recesses of my relationship-scarred, darkened soul. I hadn't felt
anything like it in a long, long time. Had I ever? Thinking back
over my past relationships, I realized I had never felt as if the sun
rose  and  set  with  the  smile  of  another  human  being.  I  hadn't
experienced  the  almost  certain  truth  that  plants  needed  the
laughter of my love interest to grow.

I didn't understand, couldn't understand how I could be

so attached and possessive of Eeiran in so little time, but the truth
broke through even as thoughts took root in my spirit and began
to grow. I also didn't know what to do with the newfound
knowledge. I had a connection to Eeiran, a new, never-felt-
before-and-it-scares-the-crap-outta-me connection. Now what?

Oh yeah, dinner.
"Please don't apologize for being jealous, Philip. I can't

remember the last time anyone got jealous over me. As a matter
of fact, I don't think anyone has ever been jealous of me."

Eeiran's words rang with humor and just a touch of self-

deprecation but I found myself floored. How could that even be
possible? Had Eeiran and Eeian lived in a place filled with a
bunch of blind and deaf idiots? How could they look at Eeiran
and not see what a gorgeous, boner-inducing, treasure he was?

"I think that's the sweetest thing anyone has ever said

about me," Eeiran said.

Shit. I'd said all of that out loud. Not that it wasn't true. It

was.  Glaringly  true,  actually,  but  still,  no  one  wanted  to  speak
their  innermost  thoughts  out  loud  to  someone  they  wanted  to
impress. I mean, how quickly would Eeiran take off if he knew I
watched Drop  Dead  Diva,  True  Blood,  and The  Game  on
television religiously?

"I love those shows! Eeian and Thomas always make

fun of me because I watch them. Oh, and House Hunters and
Flip This House, too. But they're just so good," Eeiran said
excitedly.

Goddammit, how many times would I speak my thoughts

out loud to this man? Okay. Enough was enough. I needed to get

out loud to this man? Okay. Enough was enough. I needed to get
this conversation back on track before I made the mistake of
telling Eeiran how madly I wanted to taste his ass on my tongue.

I paused, waiting to see if Eeiran responded to that last

thought. When no words were forthcoming I breathed a sigh of
relief. Thank god. Good to know I wasn't a total and complete
spazzoid.

"So, about dinner tonight… I'll pick you up at about

seven o'clock? Is that enough time?" I questioned him.

"That's more than enough time. It gives me a whole six

hours to get ready."

I smiled at my reflection in the mirror. My eyes took in

the sight of my room. Plain but functional—a set of dresser
drawers with my every day, casual clothes; a hutch, given to me
by my deceased grandmother, with my underclothes, workout
clothes, socks and ties; and my work uniforms were hung up in
the closet, as were the suits and tuxedos I owned. I considered
what I would wear and then I thought about Eeiran. What would
I like to see him wearing?

Nothing at all, but I doubt there's a nudist restaurant

here in Tonawanda, or in Buffalo for that matter.

"Wear something nice but not too fancy. Like a suit or

something," I informed him.

"Will do. I look forward to seeing you tonight, Philip,"

Eeiran said, his voice deepening and growing slightly husky.

I swallowed thickly. My dick, which had been half hard

the entire time I'd been conversing with Eeiran, thickened to full
mast in the blink of an eye and I bit my bottom lip hard to keep
myself from groaning aloud. Calling forth an image of my still-
living, very rotund grandmother the last time I'd seen her and had
to help her up from the bathtub, my erection deflated rapidly and
I breathed a sigh of relief.

"I look forward to seeing you tonight as well, Eeiran."
"See you at seven."
"I'll be there."
I hung up and placed my cell phone back on my

nightstand. I took five deep breaths before I stood up quickly
and rushed over to my closet. I had to find something to wear for
my date with Eeiran that night, and I only had six hours to get
ready.

* * * *

When I showed up at Eeiran's apartment after having to

call and make sure I'd gotten the directions right—wait, you live
how close to McDonald's?—I finally arrived at the correct
building. The blinds in one apartment were pulled open and then
closed rapidly. I walked up the stairs and heard shouts, laughter,
and the panicked pounding of feet moving away from the front
entrance. I gripped the dozen roses in my hand tightly, stopped
in front of the apartment door, and did a quick breath and armpit
check.

"Good. Still smell fresh."
I looked around the empty space. The stairs leading up

from the street were abandoned and I stood in between two
doors. I was the only one there and I was talking to myself.

"Yeah, that's sure to bring Eeiran back for more: the fact

you talk to yourself," I muttered quietly and knocked on the
wooden front door.

"I don't know, it just might bring him back for more. My

brother-in-law is known for having many quirks and talking to
himself is just one of the small things he does that we find
amusing."

Thomas stood before me, and I lowered my gaze with a

big smile. Eeiran was shorter than me at six foot two inches, but
Thomas would be considered an itty bitty thing compared to my
own  six  foot  four  inch  frame.  Thomas  made  people  want  to
cover him up in bubble wrap, stick him in a protective box, wrap
that box in the most colorful holiday wrapping paper, and then
open  the  box  up  on  Christmas  morning.  He  was  all  sunshine,
puppies  and  cute  babies.  Which  had  to  be  why  his  daughter,
Lily, proved so fucking adorable.

"Hello, Philip." Eeiran's voice snatched my attention,

almost viciously, away from Thomas, and I found myself
enchanted once again by the sheer magnitude of Eeiran's beauty.

I only had a distant awareness of Thomas heading back

into the house and Lily's excited squeal when Eeian did whatever
he was doing to the little girl. My gaze focused on Eeiran. Eeiran,
whose eyes were trained on me. The rest of the world faded
away, and yes, that sounded like some romantic comedy cliché
and I sounded like I should be in a movie starring opposite

Jennifer Aniston or Ryan Reynolds, but it was true. I could only
see Eeiran in that moment. I could only hear Eeiran in that
moment.

I could only taste Eeiran in that moment, and fuck me

twice without lube, he tasted delicious.

"Hi, Eeiran." I couldn't make any other response.
I turned and offered him my elbow and then guided him

downstairs. I could only hope our dinner went a lot smoother on
my part so I wouldn't feel like a total failure.

I never should have tempted Fate… that whore.

* * * *

Dinner didn't start out as a complete disaster, though it

ended it up that way. We walked into Salvatore's Italian
Restaurant and were immediately shown to our seats. I held out
Eeiran's chair for him and smiled when he giggled at me. God,
did he have to be so fucking cute?

I walked back to my side of the table and sat down only

to jump back up when Eeiran knocked over his glass of water in
my direction.

"Oh, shit! Oh, Philip, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry," he

apologized profusely, grabbing a napkin and trying to dry the
tablecloth—effectively knocking over my glass of water—once
again, in my direction.

"Fuck!" I yelled and jumped out of the way of the liquid

and backed into a waiter holding a tray of food, who dropped
the  contents  and  plates  on  top  of  Eeiran  and  me.  I  fell  to  the
ground, covered in waiter, lasagna, rotini, garlic bread, marinara
sauce,  and  parmesan  cheese.  Silence  reigned  in  the  restaurant,
and  all  eyes  were  on  me  and  the  felled  waiter.  I  groaned  in
embarrassment, frustration, and yes, a little bit of anger while I
waited  for  the  server  to  get  to  his  feet  before  climbing  to  my
own.  My  clothes  were  ruined,  my  hair  a  mass  of  wet,  dirty
clumps with food particles wrapped in between the strands, and
I could have sworn I had marinara in my shoes.

I turned to Eeiran, maybe to, I don't know, yell, growl,

laugh, but when I saw the tears rolling down his face, my heart
broke. Shit.

"I'm sorry, Philip. I'm just not used to going out on dates.

No one's ever wanted to date me before. Ever. I'm nervous and

No one's ever wanted to date me before. Ever. I'm nervous and
I'm so sorry. I'll completely understand if you never want to see
me again."

Could words cry? Could they sob and wail and break a

heart with the depths of their heartbreak? If so, Eeiran's words
did to me in right then. They broke me. They tore at my heart
and I stood in Salvatore's with bits of my heart intermingling with
the shards of glass and remnants of what smelled and tasted like
a very good meal, all because of one man: Eeiran.

"Waiter? I'll pay for the damages, but can we place an

order to go? I think it would be safer to have dinner at my house
rather than in your fine establishment."

Chapter Seven

Wherein Eeiran and Philip have sex… finally.

Lily would call me a chowder-head. I'd effectively

ruined my first date because I got so nervous I couldn't keep my
hands still. I'd managed to soak Philip and the waiter—and even
a few of the other customers—in water and Italian food all
because of a guy! One guy.

Granted, I'd spent the last month or so dreaming about

that one man every night. The man chosen for me by Fate—the
one who currently poured food out of his shoes onto the
sidewalk outside.

So embarrassed I could barely look at him, I said,

"Sorry." My own shoes, a pair of black loafers, looked very
interesting to me in that moment.

Philip walked up close and placed his fingers on my chin,

lifting my face up to his. I swallowed thickly, drowning in the
pools of amber flecks and the gleam of emerald shining back at
me in his eyes. The side of his lips quirked up and I melted. In
the human realm, I would be considered tall standing at six foot
two inches, but in Fae I was more on the short side. Standing in
front of Philip, I felt short, but I also felt safe, protected…

Right.
Tall and muscled Philip smelled like Italian, Axe body

spray, and another, headier scent that filled my nostrils and my
lungs. I wanted more. I wanted to wrap my arms around his
neck and my legs around his waist and beg him to fuck me. Fuck
my pu—

my pu—

Wait.
How would anal sex even feel now that I no longer had a

pussy?  I  mean,  with  Steven,  I  would  have  topped,  but  with
Philip?  I  wanted  him  to  be  the  one  penetrating  me.  How  odd.
And  a  little  confusing,  but  maybe  it  shouldn't  be.  I  was  a  man
now—happier, more comfortable in my skin than I'd ever been
before. I no longer felt like an imposter when I got dressed, or
like I inhabited someone else's body. The whole feeling like my
consciousness got trapped in the form of some other being while
my own body lay lifeless somewhere else was gone.

Finally.
And while I'd always enjoyed having anal sex and had

preferred it, clitoral stimulation made it even more pleasurable,
and sometimes two different Fae men would fuck me at once. I
couldn't ever remember a time that I'd had anal sex when my
pussy hadn't been stimulated in some way.

I could try to be the top with Philip. Fucking someone

else was natural to me since I'd spent a time or two pegging the
other men of the Seelie court. But Philip didn't seem the type to
let anyone fuck him, which meant he'd be screwing me and I
didn't have a pussy to be stimulated simultaneously. Would I
even get pleasure out of the act without having one?

Thoughts ceased in my head when Philip lowered his

mouth  down  to  my  own.  A  small  kiss  at  first,  him  trying  to
reassure  me,  and  I  accepted  his  reassurance.  The  embrace
quickly changed, however, and I wrapped my arms up around
his  neck,  my  fingers  burying  themselves  into  Philip's  hair,  my
mouth opening when his tongue swept inside to tangle with my
own.  I  pushed  myself  closer.  My  erection  pressed  against  his
and  I  moaned  low  in  my  throat. A  distant  memory  of  an  orgy
from  the  year  before  flooded  my  mind—two  Seelie  Fae  males
having sex on the floor next to me while another Fae fucked me.
One  of  them  had  his  legs  around  the  other's  neck,  his  hands
wrapped  around  the  back  of  his  lover's  head  while  his  partner
pounded his ass with a very thick cock. I wanted that. I wanted
that for Philip and me. I forced myself closer, dropping my hand
to the front of his pants and palming his rampant hardness.

The honking of a horn and the distinct clearing of a

masculine throat snapped both of us out of the lustful fog we'd
found ourselves in. I stepped away from Philip quickly, looking

found ourselves in. I stepped away from Philip quickly, looking
around nervously. Philip's car had been delivered to us by the
valet and the owner of the restaurant stood a few feet away from
us holding a large bag of what I assumed to be our meals and a
rather long sheet of paper. From the different human television
shows I'd seen, I could only assume it was our receipt. It looked
rather long to only contain two meals.

"Your validation ticket and the credit card you left, sir, to

pay for your meals. The owner has decided to comp your dinner
after your little… mishap," the waiter said.

I grimaced. The mishap I'd caused. Once again guilt and

embarrassment washed over me and I wanted to run and hide.

"Thank you, sir," Philip said with a reassuring smile in my

direction.

His eyes softened. His grin let me know that he wasn't

really upset with me, while the small twinkle in his green gaze
indicated he found the whole situation slightly amusing.

Philip hustled me inside his car, a 2009 red Chevy

Camaro with an 'I Heart Obamacare' bumper sticker on one
side of the rear bumper and another that read 'Equality for All'
on the other. I applauded Philip's support for the US president,
but the whole fight for gay, lesbian, and transgender equality
humans engaged in saddened me.

Fae spent centuries searching for their mate, some never

finding  them  and  finally  dying  away  after  spending  years  alone.
Not many of us ventured into the human realm, never considering
the  possibility  our  mates  might  well  be  human.  Gay,  lesbian,
straight,  bisexual,  transgender—these  things  didn't  exist  in  my
world,  and  I  couldn't  understand  why  the  labels  were  needed,
much less used, here in the human one. It baffled me.

It made me wish, for only a moment, I was back in

Faery.

The scenery of Buffalo faded away and turned into

Tonawanda. I couldn't help the hot rush of disappointment that
filled me when I saw we were heading to my street. When we
drove right past my apartment complex, I exhaled in relief before
my brain caught up with my heart—that big ass organ in my
chest.

"Where are we going?" I finally asked Philip.
"My place to have dinner and… dessert." Philip turned

his head in my direction for a brief moment.

I smiled and nodded my head before deciding to share

with him all of the lovely, hilarious things Lily said or did on an
almost daily basis to my brother Eeian for the rest of the drive.

* * * *

When we arrived at Philip's home, my mouth fell slightly

open in shock. In front of me stood a two story blue house with
wide picture windows. With a flash, I saw myself standing in
front of the house, five small children playing outside with Philip,
and all of them laughing while they wrestled in the grass. When
the vision began to fade, my future-self turned to the side and I
gasped.

I was pregnant!
"Hey? You okay?" Philip's voice broke me out of the

trance I'd fallen into and I jumped slightly.

I swallowed and nodded. Yeah, no way would I tell

Philip  I  was  a  Seer,  much  less  that,  as  a  Fae,  I  could  get
pregnant,  whether  I  happened  to  be  male  or  female,  which
brought me to the whole I-used-to-be-a-girl thing. Some things
didn't  need  to  be  divulged  on  a  first  date.  While  this  was
technically the first real date I'd ever been on, I still knew some
things  weren't  kosher.  Steven  and  I  had  spent  a  lot  of  time
together,  hanging  out  and  getting  to  know  each  other  better,
essentially  dating,  but  the  first  time  we'd  actually  gone  out  on
what could have been considered a date, I'd met Philip. I gave
Philip a wobbly smile when he continued to stare in my direction,
hoping  he  would  take  the  sudden  change  in  my  demeanor  for
nervousness and not for what it really was: Heart-stopping fear.

I couldn't do this.
I, like every other Fae in existence, had been looking for

my mate since I came of age. I'd searched high and low for the
person  fated  to  be  with  me  for  the  rest  of  my  life.  I'd  heard
stories  of  mated  pairs  who  had  gone  off  to  do  amazing  things
with each other. I'd witnessed in my own brother the peace and
joy  that  emanates  from  one's  entire  being,  like  the  brightest  of
stars,  when  they  found  their  other  half.  I  thought  I  wanted  the
same,  and  a  part  of  me  still  did,  but  at  what  cost?  Did  I  mate
Philip  without  ever  telling  him  my  true  identity?  How  would  I
explain  the  tattoos  that  would  appear  on  his  body  from  out  of

nowhere? Did I not tell him about the fact that if one is mated to
a Fae and both the Fae are male that one or both could
conceivably give birth? What should I do? What should I reveal
and when? Was there a time limit for these things?

"You're thinking way too hard about this. It's just dinner

and dessert. Nothing will happen you don't want." Philip's words
filled the interior of his vehicle and embedded themselves in my
skin, but never went any deeper.

He thought his words were truth; I knew no one could

promise that nothing would happen they didn't want to happen. I
smiled though, coming to the firm realization that nothing would
get accomplished if we just kept sitting in the car.

"Let's go in and have dinner," I said and chuckled softly

when Philip let out a small whoop of excitement. It seemed I
wasn't the only clumsy one, nor the only one looking forward to
whatever waited us inside.

* * * *

"Dinner was amazing. Thank you."
Philip smiled and collected the dishes from the table and

took them into the kitchen. When we'd come in, he'd given me
the  tour  of  his  home  and  I  had  to  admit,  I  was  thoroughly
impressed.  With  five  bedrooms  and  four  and  a  half  baths,  it
would  definitely  be  a  home  for  a  family,  which,  according  to
Philip,  it  had  been.  His  grandparents  had  bought  the  house
intending  to  fill  it  with  children.  When  they  only  had  two  kids
rather than the four they'd hoped for, they'd passed it onto their
eldest,  Philip's  father.  Philip's  dad  hadn't,  unfortunately,  broken
through the barrier of children either, and Philip jokingly told me
it was a good thing he was gay, otherwise he'd be telling his wife
they  would  probably  have  to  adopt.  I'd  given  him  the  bravest
smile I could even while my mind swirled with the image of him
rolling around the grass with four children who all looked like a
mixture  of  him  and  me,  and  me  pregnant  with  baby  five.  Fae
were extremely fertile, and whether I was man or not, Philip and
I would spend the rest of our lives having children.

Once I told him what I was and everything.
Philip walked back into the dining room and I smiled up

at him when he held out his hand. Putting my palm in his much
larger, calloused one, I rose to my feet and he jerked me

larger,  calloused  one,  I  rose  to  my  feet  and  he  jerked  me
forward into his arms. I collided against his chest with an oomph
and  barely  had  time  to  breathe  before  my  lips  were  taken  in  a
hard,  bruising  kiss.  I  didn't  have  time  to  think  because  Philip's
hands were on my ass, squeezing and caressing the globes. I'd
been extremely happy the bubble butt that had suited me so well
as a woman still existed on my male body. Glad to know, for the
most part, I was still me.

That proved to be the last coherent thought I had before

my brain short-circuited when one of Philip's hands went to the
front of my black slacks to flick open the button and slide down
my  zipper.  I  moaned  into  his  mouth  when  he  squeezed  my
throbbing erection tightly and my hips thrust forward. My fingers
threaded  through  his  hair  and  I  shivered  when  the  strands
wrapped around my digits as if to keep me from ever leaving the
heat of Philip's body. He pushed down my boxer briefs—what
an  amazing  piece  of  clothing  they  were,  keeping  all  my  private
parts wrapped in a snug, soft piece of heaven—and my slacks,
without breaking our kiss.

His hands on my ass, he lifted me up in the air and I

kicked  off  my  shoes,  slacks,  and  boxer  briefs.  I  wrapped  my
legs  around  his  waist  and  whimpered  when  he  settled  me  onto
the  dining  room  table.  The  buttons  on  my  black  shirt  ripped
when  Philip  divested  me  of  the  silk  item  Thomas  had  recently
bought  for  me.  I  bit  down  gently  on  Philip's  bottom  lip  and
sucked lightly, thrilling at the groan he gave. When I released his
mouth from my teeth we froze for a moment. Only the sounds of
our  panting  filled  the  room.  Though  the  distant  din  of  a  usual
Tonawanda  night—the  off-key  singer  over  at  Club  55  singing
Cee-Lo's  "Fuck You"—could  be  heard  even  at  Philip's  place,
the  drunken  revelry  sounded  muted.  They  were  the  noises  of
humanity, and to me, in this place, staring up into Philip's eyes,
they were the bass beat to the song of our lovemaking, with its
own dominant chords, high C's, and harmonies.

I closed my eyes and tilted my head back, allowing the

music of it all, the fated moment, the rapid thumping of Philip's
heart,  in  sync  with  my  own,  to  trail  over  my  skin.  My  cock
throbbed along with the beat, and when I lowered my chin and
opened  my  eyes,  I  saw  the  sharp  emerald  gaze  of  my  future
lover staring back into my own. His chest rose and fell rapidly,
and  the  lust  inside  of  me  ignited  brighter  and  hotter  and  my

and  the  lust  inside  of  me  ignited  brighter  and  hotter  and  my
second sight kicked in at the same time as Philip's frantic need to
possess  me.  Something  about  being  naked  while  he  still  wore
clothes  seemed  erotic  and  naughty,  but  so  much  better  when  I
ripped open his own button-down shirt while he quickly yanked
down his pants.

The fires of our mating blazed red now, swirling around

us, filling the room and making us hotter. I needed to feel him in
me. I didn't care if it hurt, I yearned for him. I ached to feel him
pounding his way inside of me.

"I need you, Philip. Now. Please." The first words I'd

spoken since we'd kissed and they were a plea for him to take
me. To claim me. It seemed fitting.

My hands smoothed their way up over his lightly furred

chest and he growled low in his throat. His green eyes darkened
when he stared at me and with a flash, his hand reached up for
the  back  of  my  head  and  his  fingers  buried  themselves  in  the
shorter,  but  still  longish  and  thick,  black  locks.  He  yanked  my
head back and lowered his lips to my throat, biting down hard
on the side of my neck, pulling the abused flesh into his mouth
with  a  hard  sucking  motion,  and  I  imagined  the  feel  him
enveloping my cock and I trembled. I would bear a mark on my
neck when he finished, but if the contented sighs he made were
anything to go by, I considered the bruising worth it.

Philip reached out to grab a bottle of oil on the table and

he knelt down between my legs. This part I understood. I knew
what happened next. Spreading my legs, I tilted my head back
and struggled to clear the haze from my brain so I could detach
myself from the entire process. While living as a female Fae, I
enjoyed sex up until the point of penetration because the feeling
of complete wrongness seemed to settle within me. Now I knew
why, but old habits were hard to break.

Sensing my hesitation, nervousness, and possible

withdrawal, Philip's fingers, now coated with oil, rubbed and
pressed on the tightly puckered entrance of my ass and his
mouth descended on the head of my cock, which leaked copious
amounts of pre-cum onto the flat planes of my abdomen.

"Oh. Oh! Gods alive. Nnngghh uuunngghh," I moaned

and babbled when Philip's mouth worked wonders on my cock.
His tongue lightly traced around the head of my prick and he
sucked on the shaft furiously, as if he were determined to suck all

sucked on the shaft furiously, as if he were determined to suck all
the cum from my body.

Philip pressed one finger inside my hole and the muscles

in  my  ass  tensed  then  relaxed  when  he  paused  to  allow  me  to
adjust  to  the  intrusion.  He  bobbed  his  head  up  and  down  my
cock.  I  became  lost  in  the  amazing  feelings  of  my  dick  in  his
mouth  and  his  fingers  in  my  ass  because  one  became  two  and
two turned into three. I spun out of control in my desire for him,
my yearning to have him within me, and I didn't know whether to
thrust up, to embed my cock more fully in his mouth or to press
down and impale his digits more firmly in my ass.

Philip's thrust three fingers in and out faster, deeper,

harder, and grazed over something that felt so amazing I saw a
bright flash of white before my vision exploded in bright neon
colors.

"HOLY FUCK!"
Philip's chuckle around my cock when I burst with the

profanity sent tremors through my entire body and his fingers
continued grazing the spot of pure nirvana in my ass.

"C'mon, baby. Give it to me," he ordered, lifting his

mouth from dick.

"Give. You. What?" I panted.
I felt it then. The tingle at the base of my spine. It

wrapped  itself  around  my  spinal  column  and  shot  up  into  my
brain  before  raging  throughout  my  entire  body.  Fire  and  ice,
thunder  and  lightning,  electricity  and  heat—gods,  so  much  heat
—and I slammed my head back against the table and screamed
out  Philip's  name  at  the  top  of  my  lungs.  I  couldn't  tell  if  the
brilliant  lights  exploding  behind  my  closed  lids  came  from  the
hard knock my brain had just sustained, or if from the terrifying,
all-consuming  orgasm  that  ripped  my  body  apart  and  turned  it
inside out.

Just when I didn't think it could get any better, I became

distantly aware of Philip collecting my cum and spreading it over
his cock. His hand trembled slightly as he pressed the head of his
cock into my relaxed ass. I groaned simultaneously with him as
he slowly pushed into my tight channel until he bottomed out.
Once he got fully seated inside me, I looked up at him with new
eyes. Having sex had never felt like this to me. Not once. My
body felt so full, and I felt so complete and whole when Philip
slowly dragged his cock out of my chute before thrusting back

into me slowly. I moaned and clutched his head as he tenderly
began to fuck me. My legs, which had been resting on the table,
lifted to wrap around his waist as he pulled me to the edge of the
table and his thrusts began to speed up slightly.

As the head of his cock grazed over the piece of nirvana

in my ass, my spent cock stirred and grew hard again. I had a
quick recovery time, but this was short even for me.

"Fuck, baby, you're so tight and gorgeous," Philip's voice

rasped and his hips slowed and he began to stroke his cock
slowly in my ass again.

He rolled his hips and I whined his name. My mate was

a fucking god. As if he could sense my complete surrender to the
wonder that was his cock, Philip's rhythm sped up once again
and he began to drive his dick in and out of my ass hard and fast.

The table moved, the legs scraping across the floor as

Philip fucked my hole like a wild beast. The snarls, growls, and
whimpers coming from the both of us adding accuracy to the
statement.

"Shitshitshitshitshitshit," Philip panted.
He was close to coming as his rhythm grew frenzied and

choppy. Not to be outdone, my own orgasm rapidly approached
and like Olympic synchronized swimmers, we both fell headlong
over the edge in bliss, our voices shouting to the heavens as we
exploded into each other's arms, becoming reformed as one as
we descended back to Earth.

Chapter Eight

Wherein Philip discovers the truth about Eeiran and has a

slight… negative reaction

I made love to Eeiran three more times that night before

collapsing into my bed next to him at five o'clock in the morning.
As my alarm went off two hours later, I called into work to let
them know I was sick and wouldn't be in. Then I curled my
body back around Eeiran's smaller one and fell back asleep.

* * * *

"Philip? Philip, can you wake up please?" Eeiran's voice

pulled me up from the sweet vestiges of slumber where I made

love to him fiercely and passionately all night long without
stopping.

"Whu… Huh?" I winced at the harsh, raspy sound I

made when I slowly woke up.

I needed to try and not scream when making love with

Eeiran. It was hell on my vocal chords. I stretched and slowly
blinked my eyes open, expecting to find Eeiran laying on the bed
right in front of me. I was slightly disappointed to find him sitting
up in the bed instead, staring at me and twirling his long, black
hair nervously.

"Fuck, you're so cute," I muttered.
Eeiran blushed and pushed his left hand through his hair

and his right hand fiddled with the edge of the sheet spread over
his lap.

"Cute?" he whispered the question, and it made my heart

melt just a little more.

Leaning up, I kissed him gently, not caring about his

morning  breath  or  mine  as  our  lips  touched  and  a  frisson  of
desire zipped its way through my body. I could see myself doing
this every morning, waking up to Eeiran's face, his hesitant smile,
black  hair  mussed  from  our  exuberant  lovemaking  the  night
before and blue eyes gleaming as he looked at me. A hazy image
of Eeiran appeared before my gaze then. He looked almost like
a woman, a striking woman with handsome features and then the
hazy  image  faded  and  I  saw  another  image  of  Eeiran,  this  one
showed him pregnant and smiling at me.

What. The. Fuck?
My mind had obviously been fried by all of the hot sex

from the night before, because I didn't often spend my time
imagining men as women, and I definitely didn't sit around
thinking about men getting pregnant. I guess I should be happy
the sex had been so fucking amazing the night before it made me
crazy today right? I lifted my hands to my eyes and rubbed them
furiously.

"Maybe I just need a shower. Or coffee. Definitely

coffee," I muttered.

"Why? What happened?" Eeiran's voice sounded

desperate and I peeked through my spread fingers at him.

"Nothing, baby, I'm just seeing stuff. I looked at you and

you looked almost like a woman, you know? And then you were
pregnant. It was insane!" I chuckled, fully expecting Eeiran to

pregnant. It was insane!" I chuckled, fully expecting Eeiran to
join in my amusement.

I didn't expect him to burst into tears.
"Oh, gods above. I wanted to tell you before we got to

this place. Before you saw it yourself, you know? But how do
you tell someone something like that?" His words were frantic.

I lowered my eyebrows in confusion. "Tell me what?" I

reached out to pull Eeiran into my arms in an effort to soothe him
when dark markings on my left shoulder caught my attention.
"What the hell?"

Leaving a sobbing Eeiran on the bed, I rushed over to

the  mirror  and  saw  the  new,  perfectly  formed  tattoo  on  my
shoulder. He'd marked me? He'd given me a fucking tattoo and I
slept  through  it?  How  the  hell  did  that  happen?  What  kind  of
psycho had I wound up in bed with? This was absolutely insane.
No. No. I refused to believe Eeiran was crazy and had given me
a tattoo while I was sleeping. He wouldn't do that. Besides, if he
was  crazy,  Thomas  or  Steven  would  have  told  me.  Wouldn't
they?

I continued to look over my skin and noticed two healing

marks, close together underneath my ear. I leaned closer to the
mirror, squinting my eyes as I tried to figure out what they were.
Needle marks? Puncture wounds?

"They're bite marks." Eeiran sniffled from the bed and I

turned to look at him.

"You bit me?" Why the hell was my voice so soft? I

should have yelled that question, not whispered it like I was
scared. I wasn't scared. I was bigger than Eeiran. A few inches
taller, muscled—there was no reason for me to be afraid of him.
I was intimidating to the bravest of men. Right then, however, all
of my internal organs were quivering in fear.

"I had to."
I stared at Eeiran in shock. Had he honestly just said he

had to sink his teeth into me with a straight face? Maybe Thomas
and Steven didn't know Eeiran was crazy? Although how
someone would hide this amount of insanity was astounding to
me.

"You had to. You had to? What are you, some kind of

vampire or something?" My laugh sounded slightly hysterical, but
I couldn't do anything about it.

I felt like I was losing my mind. Maybe Eeiran was a

special brand of crazy, the kind that was contagious.

"No. I'm not a vampire. I'm a faery," Eeiran whispered

before lifting his eyes and pulling back his top lip allowing me to
see his teeth.

Hiding among his pearly whites were two fangs. Two

real fangs.

"Holy FUCK!" I yelled and stumbled backwards into the

dresser behind me.

Eeiran jumped out of bed completely naked and my eyes

—damn them—took a moment to appreciate the physical beauty
of my lover. My Fae lover. Holy fuck—a faery!

I began laughing like a loon then.
"Philip? Philip are you okay?" Eeiran asked as he

stepped close to me.

"You're a faery!" I snorted and fell to my knees, my arms

wrapped around my waist as tears streamed down my face.

"Um… yes, I am." Eeiran's voice sounded hesitant and

slightly fearful. "Are you going to lose it?"

His question made me chuckle harder, and I fell to my

side, my firm grasp on reality slowly starting to slip out of my
mental hands. If Eeiran was a faery, something which was
looking to be a big reality what with the bite and everything, then
what else existed out there? Vampires? Elves? Werewolves?

I snorted again. Right. Werewolves were real and they

had  real  jobs  and  everything.  An  image  of  shape-shifting
cowboys  flashed  in  my  mind  and  I  screamed  in  insane
amusement.  I  had  officially  lost  my  mind.  Shape-shifting
cowboys?  Really?  Why  didn't  I  just  take  it  a  step  further  and
make  President  Obama  an  angel  trapped  in  a  human's  body?
That was completely feasible.

My chuckling finally eased off and I sat up. Leaning

against my dresser, I looked in Eeiran's direction; he stared at
me. What happened now? Was he going to eat me? Turn me
into a toad? What exactly did faeries do anyway?

"Explain." Smooth, Philip, real smooth.
"Ummm… what do you want me to explain?" Eeiran

asked me.

"All of it. The tattoo, the bite marks, the fact that you're a

FUCKING FAERY!"

Eeiran winced when I shouted and I felt a flash of

remorse, but it didn't last long. He'd lied to me. Maybe not
deliberately, but it was a lie of omission and those were just as
bad.

"The tattoo and the bite mark are because you're my

mate. I had to bite you to start the bonding. I couldn't help it, it's
instinctual. The tattoo forms once the bonding is in place," Eeiran
began explaining, and I held up my hand to stop him.

"I'm your what?" I would focus on that part first.
"My mate. The other half of me. My fated partner,

created just for me by the gods to complement me and to spend
eternity with me."

I yelled out angrily and pushed up to my feet. Hell. No. I

didn't even know Eeiran, this faery person, and now he thought
we were destined to spend the rest of our lives together? He was
nuts. I was crazy for sleeping with him. And what about the rest
of it?

"And the image of you as a female?"
Eeiran looked away nervously and then back. "I was a

female back in Faery, the fae realm, but when I crossed into the
human domain I turned into a man. Perhaps now that we are
mated you are able to see both my past and my present form."

"Wait! So you're not even a real man? You're an illusion

of one? You're really a woman and only because you crossed
the veil you became a man?" I asked incredulously, anger filling
my tone with venom as I spat the words at him… her.

"I am not an illusion! I'm a real man." Eeiran's blue eyes

had darkened, not with passion but with rage as he glared at me.
"My brother believes the veil fixed what was wrong with me
because I was always miserable as a woman, but I'm so happy
as a man."

I shook my head in denial as I listened to him, her,

speak. I couldn't believe this entire situation. What had I done so
wrong and horrible in another life God would curse me this
way? Did I deserve to be lied to, deceived, and manipulated?
How was this fair? And how was it fair I was listening to Eeiran
and feeling guilty? I'd had sex with him, her, and he, she, hadn't
told me about this, this, fucking huge news. Plus, we'd had sex
without a condom!

"So, because you're a guy now you can't get pregnant,

right? And you're some sort of paranormal, supernatural,

mythological creature so you can't get sick or carry around
diseases, right?" I asked, wondering if I needed to make a trip to
the free clinic to get tested.

Fuck that, I would go to a clinic regardless. I'd just had

sex with a fucking faery.

Eeiran looked away in shame and I walked up to him,

her, gripping his, her, arms tightly in my hands. He, she, winced
and cried out when my hands continued to squeeze while I
freaked out. Okay, okay. As I completely lost my shit and acted
like a maniac.

"No, I don't carry or contract human diseases," he, she,

reassured me.

"What about the whole pregnancy thing?"
Eeiran sighed and my heart stopped in my chest.
"Fae can get pregnant regardless of whether they are

male or female."

Yep, just what I expected to hear, because my morning

wasn't fucked up enough.

"Get dressed. I'm taking you home. Now."
I heard Eeiran gasp and I released him, her, and turning

away I left the room. I would put on whatever I could find in the
laundry room. I couldn't stand to be in the same room with
Eeiran any further. It was time for me to forget that last night and
this morning had ever happened.

I needed to forget I'd ever met Eeiran.

Chapter Nine

Wherein Eeiran learns how to be independent and asks for

his brother's help to disguise his new… development.

"Hey, you've reached Philip. I'm sorry I can't get to the

phone right now. Leave your name and number and a brief
message and I'll try to get back to you. With the new job and the
new house it may be a while though."

Beep
"Hey Philip. It's um… Eeiran. This is my fortieth time

calling you. It's been about four months since we last saw each
other or spoke or whatever and I was kinda hoping it'd been
long enough. I miss you and I need you. You're my mate which
means I'm yours. Plus… Philip, you're going to be a father. I

found out for certain today. I'm pregnant and you're the father.
Please call me back. Please."

I hung up the phone and sighed, laying my hand over the

very small pouch in my belly. I'd been ecstatic when I found out
there  had  been  a  reason  behind  all  of  my  nausea,  constant
sleeping, mood swings, and weird food cravings—chocolate ice
cream with cayenne pepper, white rice, and grilled chicken was
by  far  the  most  delicious  thing  I'd  ever  had  in  my  life.  I  was
expecting  Philip's  baby.  I'd  hugged  Thomas  and  Eeian  tightly
when the test had come up positive.

Then reality kicked in.
The father of my baby didn't want anything to do with

me, with our baby. My mate had rejected me.

I hissed at the searing pain blooming in my chest and

rubbed the spot. I'd originally thought perhaps the pain was
simply heartburn, something to be expected when all one ate was
McDonald's for every meal, but after speaking with Eeian, I'd
come to the realization I was suffering a broken heart. A broken
heart. Me. I'd only recently come to the realization I could love
anyone outside of my own family and now I had to deal with a
broken heart because of that. Stupid emotions. They did nothing
but cause problems.

As if my unborn child had a problem with that, I felt my

stomach churn and ran to the bathroom, shoving Eeian out of the
way. Kneeling before the toilet, I proceeded to return the entire
meal from the fast food restaurant into a watery grave. Once I
was finished giving my offering to the toilet gods, I groaned and
leaned back against the bathroom counter.

A wet washcloth was placed against my forehead and a

small cup of mouthwash was offered to me and I accepted both
with a happy sigh. "Thanks, Thomas."

"While I love my mate and find him sexy, I have no

desire to be him. I would much rather be me so that I could
make love to him."

Eeian. Smug bastard.
I cracked open one eye and looked up at my brother,

who  stood  smiling  down  softly  at  me,  concern  etched  in  his
features.  His  lips  curved  in  a  small  smile  while  his  brown  eyes
shone tenderly. At me. Wow. When was the last time someone
had  looked  at  me  like  that?  A  flash  of  Philip's  face  in  the
restaurant  raced  across  my  brain,  and  I  hissed  at  the  blinding

restaurant raced across my brain, and I hissed at the blinding
pain slashing its way across my heart.

"Baby brother? Are you okay? Are you sure you don't

wish for me to go and speak to Philip for you?"

I shook my head. "No. He made his choice. He chose to

run and ignore my phone calls. I will raise this child on my own
and we'll both be okay."

Eeian nodded. "You won't be alone. Thomas and I will

help. You know this."

I smiled. My life with my mate may have blown up in my

face, but every day my relationship with my brother got stronger
and deeper. He'd been my rock over the past few months. I
think I would have tried to throw myself back through the veil
had it not been for Eeian and the fact that when we had collided
it had sealed itself shut, for reasons no one knew.

"Thanks, Ee. Hey, can you and Thomas help me? Men

don't get pregnant here. I need some way to disguise it, and I
can't live with you guys after the baby's born." I'd been thinking a
lot about the dilemma and I knew what I had to do. I had to be
independent and stop wallowing over Philip. I had to be a good
dad for my unborn child. Plain and simple. End of story.

"Of course, we'll help. What were you thinking?"
I took a deep breath and then exhaled loudly.
"I need you to help me look like a woman again. My hair

has grown long enough now, but I need to go shopping for
clothes and shoes and makeup to hide my stubble. I need to go
back to looking like a woman."

* * * *

It took four days, ten different department stores, three

shops,  and  copious  amounts  of  money  that,  surprisingly,  Eeian
had  a  lot  of,  before  I  was  outfitted  properly  enough  to  go  out
and try to find a job. I didn't know what I was qualified to do.
My gift as a Seer seemed wasted on the few humans I'd met and
received  a  vision  or  knowledge  about.  None  of  them  had
changed their ways at all and because of that, they'd either been
dumped, fired, beat up, or in one case, killed by a jealous lover.
I'd finally come to the conclusion maybe it would be better if I
didn't attempt to try to help others when my life, as it were, was
in a rut.

in a rut.

Eeian told me I didn't have to work; he had enough

money for everyone. Thomas had assured me of the same thing,
and though they meant well, I couldn't continue to lie around their
house and eat food and just keep getting fatter. And man was
that happening. I'd gained ten pounds in a month. Me! I'd spent
my entire life feeling decidedly smug about the fact I had a fast-
acting metabolism and could eat whatever I wanted without fear
of getting fat, but not anymore. All because of the baby growing
inside of me.

I hadn't given my unborn child a name yet. I think a part

of me still hoped Philip would come to his senses and beg me to
take him back, but I knew that was a crapshoot. So I clung to
the unborn, unnamed, child within me—the only link I had to its
father. I desperately needed that link. The pain in my chest had
increased  until,  at  times,  I  could  barely  breathe,  which  caused
Thomas to freak out and Eeian to grow angrier and angrier. Even
Ir-nae, who I could have sworn hated my guts, became livid and
forbade  me  from  ever  speaking  Philip's  name  in  his  presence
because he, and I quote, 'abandoned his mate and their unborn
child.  That  is  not  a  man.  That  is  a  coward.  I  don't  suffer
cowards'.

I about pissed myself in shock.
None of them understood why I still pined away for

someone who had rejected me so thoroughly, but how could I
explain the dreams I had about Philip and how happy he'd been
about  our  baby?  How  did  I  get  them  to  understand  about  the
visions I had of Philip, looking just as miserable as I felt, saying
my  name?  I  noticed  their  looks  of  pity  in  my  direction  and  I
ignored  them.  Philip  would  come  back  to  me.  I  just  had  to  be
patient.

* * * *

The 7-Eleven across the street from our house called me

in for an interview and I got dressed slowly, being meticulous in
everything I put on and how I looked. My black hair had grown
down  past  my  shoulders.  The  pregnancy  had  made  my  hair
glorious,  thick,  shiny  strands  of  inky  black  darkness.  My  eyes
looked bigger and the color was a deeper blue than they'd ever
been.  Thomas  and  Steven  both  remarked  my  eyes  looked  like

been. Thomas and Steven both remarked my eyes looked like
twilight. I'd thought at first they meant the movie with the
sparkling vampires, but one night they took me outside and I saw
it, the gorgeous, deep blue, almost black color, and my breath
caught in my chest.

"My eyes look like that?" I'd whispered, not wanting to

break the spell the night had cast over the area.

"Yeah. It's so beautiful, Eeiran." Thomas held my hand.
I turned to look down at him and Steven and swallowed

the lump in my throat at the love and caring I saw shining in their
eyes.

"I miss him. I miss him so much it hurts," I confessed in

the stillness of the darkness. "It's this constant ache, a hole that
will never be filled."

Thomas nodded. "I know you miss him. I like to believe

that, somewhere, he misses you, too."

I'd agreed and then crumpled into the outstretched arms

of my brother's mate, my brother-in-law, and wept.

I stepped inside the door of the 7-Eleven and tried to still

my trembling limbs. I'd been forced to start speaking in a falsetto
to disguise my deep, masculine voice and the makeup on my
face was practically caked on over my jaw and under my nose in
order to hide the darkness of my stubble. I'd spent much of my
life subconsciously detesting my smooth, flawless skin that made
me look so feminine and now I longed for it only because it
would have made fitting in with the humans that surrounded me a
whole lot easier.

Walking up to the register, I smiled at the pretty brown-

skinned girl standing behind the counter and introduced myself.
"Hi. My name is Eeirana Seelie. I'm here for a job interview."

Not the most creative last name, but Eeian had pointed

out our true Fae surnames would be difficult for humans to
remember. He suggested Seelie and we'd all had a good laugh
over it. My heart had screamed out for me to use Philip's last
name as my own, but I couldn't because it would hurt too damn
much.

"Hold on. Let me go and tell the manager you're here,

Ms Seelie," the young woman, Trecee, said.

I smiled and nodded, looking back out the door when

she walked into the back room. Two minutes later she returned
and led me back to the interview area.

"Thank you so much," I said and she returned my smile

before walking off.

Knocking gently on the door, I stepped in and gasped.

"Philip?"

I watched when he stood to his full height from the desk

he sat behind. Had he grown taller or did my imagination play
tricks? More muscled? More gorgeous than ever before? I let
my eyes drift down over his chest and to his groin. His erection
was evident where it pressed against the front of his slacks. Holy
shit. It even looked like his cock had grown bigger. I whimpered
helplessly and looked up.

He didn't speak. He looked me over and then closed the

door,  the  snick  of  the  lock  making  a  loud  sound  in  the  small
office. Without a word, he lifted up the bottom of my black skirt,
with the maternity flap in the front, and put his hand on my hard
erection.  I  refused  to  wear  women's  underwear  and  could  no
longer fit into my boxer briefs, so I'd taken to going 'commando'
instead.  I  laughed  loudly  when  Steven  had  explained,  in  great
detail, what the phrase meant.

Steven had stepped up when I announced my

pregnancy. He rubbed cocoa butter on my stomach to prevent
stretch marks, horrible signs from the devil no one had warned
me of, and he would put his head on my stomach and talk to the
baby about Philip and me, Eeian and Thomas, and what it meant
to look for and find your mate. Steven had become a treasure,
and if I hadn't been so hung up on Philip, I would have made a
play for him.

I hissed when Philip pressed a dry finger against my

asshole and slowly pushed it in, the burn causing an ache to settle
inside of my body.

"God alive I missed you," he muttered angrily, as if he

didn't want to make, or believe the truth of, that statement.

"I missed you, too, Philip. So much." I choked on the

words, my eyes filling up with tears.

When Philip's eyes rose from where they'd been staring

at my stomach and clashed with mine, I gasped at the raw need I
saw shining in the green depths.

Our lips slammed together in a kiss so hard and rough

that had I not been aching for it, I would have protested. It felt
so good to be back in his arms. The rest of the world faded
away and he fumbled around in his pants pocket, searching for

away and he fumbled around in his pants pocket, searching for
something. His happy grunt, followed by the slick slide of two of
his lubricated fingers, made me let out my own happy groan.

Two fingers became three, and it wasn't long before he

was slamming four fingers in and out of my tight, needy hole. I
jerked my lips away from him. I needed more. I was dying for
more.

"Please, Philip. I need you now. Please."
With a growl, Philip shoved his pants down and lifted me

up in his arms. I wrapped my legs around his waist and sighed
with relief when the thick head of his cock popped into my
entrance.

"Fuuucckk," Philip groaned loudly.
For a minute I worried about his coworker hearing us

back in the office, but then he seated himself fully inside of me
and all thought ceased. I was where I belonged, in Philip's
embrace, with his arms around me.

"This is gonna be fast and hard, baby. It's been too

fucking long," Philip warned me before turning to lay me down
on top of his desk, pushing my legs back until he practically had
me folded in half.

With a loud growl, Philip slammed his dick in and out, in

and out, harder, faster, deeper, oh gods, so, so, so deep inside
my ass. Stars swam behind my closed eyelids, papers flew off
the surface, and my hands moved around frantically, desperately
searching for something to hold on to, something to anchor me
and bring me back to Earth. My head rocked back and forth as
Philip's thrusts increased.

My groans joined his, creating a melody that rose and

fell, widened and narrowed, rising up, up, up into the clouds
before it crescendoed into falling stars, lightning, thunder, and the
swirling mist of a mating predestined, foretold, and fated since
the dawn of time. I yelled out his name as he screamed out mine
until we were both hoarse and clung to each other as we drifted
back to the present.

Afterwards, I lay on Philip's desk, sweating and panting,

my skirt bearing flecks of my splattered cum, Philip's semen still
resting  deeply  inside  of  me,  even  while  some  leaked  out  and
trailed down my ass to puddle on the desk. Philip collapsed on
top  of  me,  his  dick  the  only  thing  keeping  all  of  his  seed  from
escaping.  He  panted  in  my  ear,  muttering  my  name  over  and

escaping. He panted in my ear, muttering my name over and
over again like a prayer. I could do nothing except run my fingers
through his hair as I shared the same reaction.

Were we typical for mated couples? Was the sex always

so explosive? And dear gods above, what the hell were we
supposed to do now? We were expecting a baby together, but I
barely knew him, he barely knew me, and he was still obviously
freaked out by the whole me being a Fae, a former female, and
currently a pregnant man. We had a lot of hurdles to cross, but
as long as we stuck together, we would get through them.

"This changes nothing," Philip growled.
My heart, which had filled up with gobs of fear and

hope, shattered into a million tiny pieces and landed at his feet.

My mate truly didn't want me or our unborn child. That

sucked ass.

Chapter Ten

Wherein Philip becomes a Grade-A asshole and decides it's

too late for him and Eeiran.

I know. I'm an asshole. But what else could I do? I was

supposed to see Eeiran and suddenly everything would be just
worked out like rainbows, sunshine and happy bunnies? I didn't
live in a fairy tale, or some $3.99 romance book I could buy
from the grocery store. This was real life for me and while it had
suddenly expanded into worlds I did not expect or understand, it
was still my life and I needed to maintain a semblance of control.

Some kind of way.
I watched in resolute sadness when Eeiran gasped and

then pushed me off and out of him, before standing to his feet.
He fixed his clothes and rearranged his hair before, after giving
me one last scathing look, he turned and left my office without
another word.

I didn't call him back even though my heart yelled for me

to do so. I trembled when I determinedly walked back to my
desk before collapsing into my chair with a weary sigh. I missed
him already. When he'd walked into my office, my stomach
dropped, but the bulge in his had promptly melted my heart and
fried my brain.

Eeiran was pregnant.
With my child.

With my child.
I was going to be a dad. A co-parent.
With a faery.
The idea didn't bear thinking about. So I'd done the only

thing I could think of. I'd fucked the one man who had been
haunting my dreams and my every waking moment for months.
I'd fucked him so hard that I now dropped my hand down to my
crotch just to make sure my dick was there and not still inside of
his firm, tight ass.

I groaned and shuddered as I remembered the feel of

him, my hand coming away from my still exposed cock, sticky
with cum. I lifted my fingers to my lips and licked away the fluids
there, wishing I had thought to lick Eeiran's cum from his own
cock before he'd walked out of my life… okay, okay, before I'd
pushed him out of my life.

Again.
Trecee's voice sounded when she walked back towards

my office and I hastily shoved my still hard penis back in my
pants, wincing as I struggled to close the zipper and button. I'd
just managed to make myself and my desk look somewhat
presentable when she stepped in, her nose scrunching up as she
sniffed the air.

"I thought you were gay," she said.
I rolled my eyes. Trecee and I had worked together at

McDonald's for years, and when I quit the restaurant, because it
held  too  many  memories  of  the  first  time  I'd  met  Eeiran,  she'd
followed me, asking me where we were going to work next. I'd
been  devastated  and  feeling  alone  so  I  hadn't  gotten  annoyed
when I found out she'd left the job because of me. I only told her
7-Eleven was hiring and so we went there to apply, both of us
getting the job on the spot. She'd been my best friend since the
day  she  started  working  at  McDonald's  and  knew  everything
about  me.  Well,  almost  everything.  I'd  told  her  Eeiran  was  not
who I thought he was and that I'd called it off because he and his
family were a part of some weird religion.

For the first time since I'd met her, however, Trecee

didn't take my side. Instead, she told me I was being a bigoted
asshole and the thought of me dumping someone because their
beliefs were different from mine shocked her down to her core.
Apparently she'd never seen me as happy as when I talked
about or thought of Eeiran. Right, during the whole two days I

about or thought of Eeiran. Right, during the whole two days I
knew him before the confession from hell, and she wanted me to
be happy. I couldn't fault her for her care and concern, however,
even if it made me angry.

"I am gay." My mind conjured up an image of Eeiran, no

Eeirana, as the application stated, in women's business attire.

I'd never been one to be attracted to men who cross-

dressed,  I  didn't  understand  the  appeal,  but  something  about
Eeiran's cock and ass being easily accessible in that skirt made
my  dick  harden  in  my  pants.  His  black  hair  had  grown  longer
and his eyes seemed much bluer than the last time I'd seen him.
Even  with  the  stomach  that  wasn't  overly  big,  but  still  readily
apparent  if  one  knew  to  look  for  it,  Eeiran  was  gorgeous.  My
heart  lodged  in  my  throat  and  I  swallowed  back  the  tears  that
threatened to fall.

"So you were having sex with that woman back here to

what… prove it to her or something?" Trecee asked as she sat
down on the chair in front of my desk.

"Shouldn't you be out on the floor taking care of the

customers?" I hedged, not wanting to explain that the woman in
question was actually Eeiran in drag.

Even though I wasn't with him anymore and couldn't in

fact see us being together ever again, I didn't want Trecee to
think bad about him. It made absolutely no sense to me, but I
couldn't delve further into my psyche to figure out why, on the off
chance it meant something more than what I wanted to.

Just in case Eeiran was right and we were meant to be

together.

"No need to. Damon's here. He's up front working on

the register now." Trecee's voice came from lower than before
and I focused in on where she sat. She was leaning forward and
picking up the papers that had been pushed onto the floor during
my romp with Eeiran. I smothered a chuckle with my hand when
she lifted one of the pages from the floor and sniffed it before
grimacing and setting it onto my desk.

"So answer the question. What was going on with you

and the prospective employee, the woman who was in here
earlier? Why would you have sex with her if you're supposedly
gay or whatever?" Trecee asked and sat back with her arms
folded.

My brain zipped through plausible explanations even as I

rose  to  my  feet.  I  had  to  answer  her  questions  because  there
Trecee wouldn't let it drop if I didn't. I walked out of my office
with  her  trailing  behind  me,  calling  my  name  even  as  I  kept
thinking  of  a  way  to  respond  without  making  myself  or  Eeiran
look too bad. I didn't want to make him look like a stalker, and I
didn't  want  to  make  myself  look  like  a  douchebag,  even  if  I
acted like one.

I stopped at the back of the store and smiled as I

watched  Damon  interact  with  the  customers.  Short,  with  red
hair, green eyes and slightly chunky frame, Damon was all twink.
He'd been flirting with me for months now and I had repeatedly
turned  him  down.  Maybe  I  should  take  him  up  on  his  offer.  I
would never be able to get away from the idea of Eeiran and me
unless I replaced it with the image of me with someone else. Like
a  flash  of  lightning  I  figured  out  a  way  to  explain  my  earlier
actions to Trecee without looking too bad.

"That woman was Eeiran's twin sister, Eeirana. She

came in for a job interview, started talking about Eeiran and she
looked so much like him I couldn't help myself," I lied. "When it
was all over, she felt bad and I felt bad so she ran out of here,
promising to say nothing about it to Eeiran."

Trecee stared at me intently, looking over my face to see

if I looked to the left slightly, or if my cheek twitched, the tell-tale
quirks of a lie, and seeing none, she nodded. I wasn't proud of it,
but I was an excellent liar. If I wasn't, there was no way I would
have let Eeiran leave out of my office earlier the way he had. I
was such a good liar, I could even lie believably to myself.

"So wait. You just slept with the pregnant twin sister of

your  ex-boyfriend?  A  woman  who  walked  in  here  pregnant,
which  means  she  was,  or  is,  involved  with  another  man,  the
father  of  her  baby?  You,  my  friend,  are  one  fucked  up
individual,"  Trecee  commented  before  turning  her  dark  brown
gaze toward Damon.

We watched for a while as he interacted with the

customers and smiled his charming smile at them. I squared my
shoulders and got ready to walk toward him to ask him out on a
date when Trecee grabbed my arm to stop me from moving.

"If you're thinking about going after Damon, you might as

well forget it. He met some guy last night over by the canal while
he was out walking, and he said they had fucking amazing sex
and now he and the guy are connected for life," Trecee

and now he and the guy are connected for life," Trecee
explained.

My eyes widened. My gaze flew back to Damon and

yes, there underneath his ear were the unmistakable puncture
wounds from a bite. Damon had a Fae mate, too? What were
the odds of that? And why in the fuck were these fucking faeries
showing up now to find their mates and wreak havoc? Why not
at another time? Like during tax season or something?

"Well, damn. I guess there goes my shot, huh?" I

muttered, rolling my eyes when Trecee snorted.

"Don't know why you would even try, what with you still

being all hung up on Eeiran and everything," she pointed out.

"Doesn't matter. Things between me and Eeiran are

over. Finito. Never to return or begin again." I sighed and
winced when pain lanced through my chest at the thought of
never seeing Eeiran again, or of never holding him in my arms or
kissing him or tasting him or…

I gave myself a mental shake and ignored Trecee as I

walked toward the front of the store. Regardless of whether
Damon was actually mated to another Fae, I needed to warn the
little guy and look out for him. He was living in Tonawanda all on
his own since his parents had kicked him out for coming out as
gay, and I'd immediately taken him under my wing.

And a small frisson of awareness raced up my spine and

I wondered how many other Fae creatures might be lurking
around our town.

Chapter Eleven

Wherein Eeiran meets Charla and feels his baby kick for the

very first time.

I was shocked when I showed up home from my

disaster of an interview over at 7-Eleven to discover my eldest
brother, the heir to the throne of Seelie, Eeireek, standing with
his  hands  clasped  behind  his  back,  in  the  middle  of  the  living
room without a member of the guard with him. Eeian had Ir-nae
as  a  member  of  the  Unseelie  court,  but  Eeireek  almost  always
had at least two guards flanking him at all times. The heir had to
be  protected.  Seeing  him  without  anyone  shocked  me,  but
everyone's reaction to him did not. Everyone was looking at him
in  awe  and  I  grinned  in  delight  when  I  saw  him.  His  presence

in awe and I grinned in delight when I saw him. His presence
was a balm to my tattered soul.

"Eeireek!" I squealed and ran forward to launch myself

into his arms.

"Eeiran!" he yelled back happily and wrapped me in a

tight embrace.

Eeian gasped, because while the Seelie were much more

uninhibited and laid-back about a lot of things, the Unseelie were
not.  Eeian  really  should  have  been  born  Unseelie  with  his
extremely conservative and strict personality. I'd always enjoyed
teasing  him  when  I  was  growing  up  and  he  doted  on  me
completely, he and Eeireek both did. I didn't mind it, though. I
was  the  only  one  who  knew  Eeireek  had  a  wicked  sense  of
humor, loved to play pranks on people, used to sneak into my
room  to  watch  reality  TV  shows—he  had  a  very  unhealthy
obsession  with  Snookie  &  JWoww  and  the  Kardashians,  very
unhealthy—and  secretly  watched  the  show Happy  Endings
because he thought it was fascinating.

I heard Eeireek's quick inhalation of surprise before he

slowly let go of me, his eyes trained on my stomach. I blushed
heavily and pushed my hair behind my ears while I waited for his
reaction. I adored my eldest brother and, of everyone in my
family, his opinion carried much more weight than anyone else's.

"So it's true? My baby brother is having a baby?"

Eeireek whispered, his eyes filling with tears.

I didn't understand his emotional response until I realized

I was the first of all of our siblings to get pregnant. I would be the
one to give my parents their first grandchild. I was immediately
humbled and honored and… nauseous.

"'Scuse me," I mumbled before stumbling out of his arms

and racing to the bathroom to vomit.

Thomas voiced his confusion about my still throwing up

past the first trimester, for whatever reason that was, and Eeian
and Eeireek trying to explain things to him. Male Fae tended to
be sick throughout the entirety of their pregnancy which differed
from human females most of whom stopped being sick after the
first three months. A cold washcloth landed on the back of my
neck and I turned to see Steven standing behind me.

"Thanks, Steven," I whispered when he helped me stand

and stood by silently while I brushed my teeth and gargled with
mouthwash.

mouthwash.

"You're welcome." Hesitation filled Steven's voice and I

looked at him, waiting for whatever it was he was afraid to say.

"How'd your interview go?" he finally asked.
Like a flash of lightning, I remembered the horrible

meeting  with  Philip.  Being  fucked  over  his  desk  and  then  his
hurtful  words  to  me.  I  couldn't  understand  it.  Philip  wasn't  an
asshole… not to me. Not usually. Regardless of the few months
we'd spent apart, I'd seen his face. His eyes looked haunted, his
cheeks  were  hollow,  and  he  looked  as  if  someone  had  taken
away the most precious thing in the world. He missed me and I
knew it, but there was something, some reason, beyond his fear
of my being Fae, and beyond the thought of my being a pregnant
man, that scared him.

"Horrible. Philip's a manager over there. He was

conducting my interview." I sighed dejectedly as I walked past
Steven towards the living room.

"Fuck. That sucks. So what happened?" Steven's voice

followed down the hall as he walked slowly behind me.

For once, I spoke without checking to make sure Lily

wasn't in the room first. Beyond anything else, that showed how
truly upset I was about the whole situation with Philip. "He
fucked me on top of his desk and then told me it changes nothing
between us and when I left, he didn't even chase after me."

I sniffled and then became extremely aware of all the

eyes in the room being focused on my face. I checked the room
quickly, breathing a sigh of relief when I saw Lily was not in it. I
sniffled  again  and  wiped  the  moisture  I  found  rolling  down  my
cheeks. There seemed to be complete stillness in the room and I
felt my skin growing itchy. That is, until  Eeireek  spoke.  Then  I
felt  like  shit  and  wished  I  was  still  standing  in  a  room  full  of
glaring, confused, angry, but silent adults.

"Who are we talking about? Your mate?" Eeireek asked.
I could tell a lie like a champ. It wasn't something I was

proud of anymore, but definitely a statement of fact. The only
problem? I was incapable of lying to people I cared about and
Eeireek knew that. Biting my lower lip, I mumbled out a
response, fiddling with the cuffs on the suit jacket I wore.

"I'm sorry, what was that, Ree?" Eeireek growled and

stepped even closer to me.

"I said: my mate has rejected me even though I'm

pregnant with his baby!" My voice rose with each word until I
shouted at Eeireek.

When the tremors of my words faded away, the room

had gone deathly still. Without a word, I looked up at Eeian and
whimpered. I needed him in that moment, I needed someone
who had been there when I'd changed coming through the veil.
Someone who had been here when Philip had dropped me off
after our first date and said he didn't want to see me again.

Eeian stood up from where he sat on the couch next to

Thomas and strode towards me quickly. I trembled and choked
back a sob. Eeian wrapped one arm around my shoulders and
when my knees gave out, swung me up into his arms and carried
me back to my bedroom. I didn't cry, my body shook too hard
to do anything but hold onto Eeian and hope the world didn't
splinter apart around me.

"Ssshhh, baby bro. I've got you," Eeian whispered

against the top of my head and sat down on the edge of my bed.

I buried my face in his chest and every muscle in my

body tightened, the shaking ceasing completely, and every cell
tensed as if waiting for something, an explosion of huge
proportions. A rush of fire swept up from my stomach, my belly
revolting, my heart shattering, and a harsh sob roared from my
chest like a wolf.

I couldn't understand why, how, my mate could reject

me and our child. What was it about me? Why was I so flawed,
so screwed up that I just never seemed to be enough for people?
Never seemed to be able to meet their expectations? Fate had
completely screwed me over. It offered me an amazing mate and
then made me too unique for him to ever want to be with me.
What a rotten deal, a fucking shit hand, I was dealt by the gods.

"We will take care of this, baby bro. Don't worry."

Eeireek's voice was a low growl, his rage pulsing through the
words and pressing against my sensitive psyche.

The thought that anyone would stand up for me, want to

kill someone because they'd hurt me, made my shredded soul
feel slightly better.

"He works at 7-Eleven." Ir-nae's voice sounded from the

doorway.

I sniffled loudly and turned to look at him. I hadn't even

heard or noticed him following my brothers and me to the

bedroom, but I was certainly glad he had. Eeireek was big, he
looked to be almost the size of a barn, but Ir-nae was just as big
as my brother and twice as scary. I knew Ir-nae would have
absolutely no problem with killing Philip if he had to.

I didn't want my mate dead, however, I just wanted him

talked to, reasoned with.

I just wanted him to come back to me.
"Don't kill him guys," I pleaded, even as I continued to

cry silently.

"We won't," Eeian promised over the protests of Eeireek

and Ir-nae.

They sounded so disgruntled I could do nothing but

laugh. They were like children being told they could no longer
play with their favorite toy.

"Fine," Eeireek promised with a snarl. I looked over at

Ir-nae and noticed the guard was looking at everything but me.

"Ir-nae? Please. Don't make me command you. I want

you to want to keep him alive not because I ask it, but because
he's my mate and because he's the father of my unborn child," I
implored.

"You can always find another mate, Your Highness,

especially if this unacceptable one dies. I'm sure the next one
would care for your child as if it were his own," Ir-nae reasoned.

His emotionless eyes would have scared anyone else,

but the faint glimmer of gold that flickered every so often in his
left eye was one of caring. He was trained to protect the royal
family and their mates and to Ir-nae, that meant protecting me
both physically and emotionally. I couldn't fault the man for
caring enough about me to want to do that.

Even if it did annoy the shit out of me.
"I won't though. Philip is my mate. I saw it before I met

him," I confessed.

Eeireek's eyes widened and he gasped before he stood

back up, quickly moving away from me slightly. My heart broke
when I watched my eldest brother, my favorite brother, looking
at  me  like  I  was  some  type  of  disgusting  alien.  I  didn't  know
what  to  say,  so  I  looked  up  at  Eeian  who  just  gave  me  a
sympathetic  glance.  I  nodded  and  turned  back  to  Eeireek,
stretching out my hand to him and beckoning him to come closer.

"You're a Seer?" he asked quietly.
I nodded. Some Fae revered Seers; they admired and

I nodded. Some Fae revered Seers; they admired and

almost  worshipped  them.  Others,  however,  saw  Seers  as
something akin to piranha and thought all Seers should be placed
in an abandoned part of the kingdom where no one could have
access  to  them  and  they  could  keep  their  visions  and
foreshadowing  to  themselves.  It  broke  my  heart  to  discover
Eeireek might be in the latter group.

"Yes, Eeireek," I admitted quietly, rising from Eeian's lap

and walking slowly towards Eeireek.

I was happy he didn't back away from me, but slightly

disheartened when he eyed me warily. Didn't Eeireek know all
the rumors about Seers hurting those who disputed their visions
were  nothing  but  a  myth?  Didn't  he  realize  I  would  never  hurt
him?  My  already  fragile  heart,  torn  and  barely  functioning  after
my  run-in  with  Philip,  shattered  completely  and  sank  to  the
deepest  recesses  of  my  stomach.  I  swallowed  thickly  and
reached out a hand towards Eeireek.

"I won't hurt you, Eeireek. You know that, right?" I

asked, and my voice trembled.

I barely restrained from crying out in emotional pain. The

soul  of  my  unborn  child  reached  out  to  me,  sending  soothing
energy  to  my  battered  spirit  and  I  took  a  shallow  breath.  My
child  would  be  not  only  a  Seer,  but  a  healer  as  well.  I  was
honored the gods saw fit to bless me in such a way. It also made
me miss Philip a whole lot more.

Eeireek's body visibly relaxed and he gave me a

sheepish smile. "Sorry, baby bro. Sort of an instinctive reaction. I
know you would never hurt me. Come here," he said, and jerked
me into his arms, kissing the top of my head.

"Thank you," I whispered brokenly.
My heart shakily got to its feet and attempted to heal

itself from all of the blows it had received recently. Suddenly
Eeireek's presence in the human realm and his acceptance of my
new identity smacked me across the face.

"What the fuck are you doing here and why aren't you

freaked out about me being a guy?" I asked as I pushed away
from him slightly.

Eeireek chuckled. "I was wondering how long it was

going to take you to ask that." He sighed deeply before walking
over to the window to look outside. "To answer the simple
question: You've always been my baby brother, Eeiran. Even

question:  You've  always  been  my  baby  brother,  Eeiran.  Even
when your body was that of a girl, in my head you were always
my  little  brother.  You  acted  just  like  the  rest  of  them  and  I
always  knew  something  was off  or wrong  about  you.  I  just
didn't  know  what.  When  I  followed  the  trail  here  to  you  and
Eeian and he told me what happened when you passed through
the veil, I breathed a sigh of relief because I'd finally figured out
what was wrong with you. I finally understood why you always
seemed  so  sad  and  angry,  never  satisfied…  so  lost.  It  was
because your inner man wasn't happy and couldn't accept your
outer shell. Now that the two parts of you are in sync, you seem
right and just like you're supposed to." He turned to look at me
and shrugged. "The other part of your question isn't so easy to
answer."

Ir-nae came into the room fully and closed the door

behind  him.  I  realized  then  that  they  all  knew  something,  or
sensed  something,  I  didn't.  As  a  Seer  that  almost  never
happened. As  nosy  and  starved  for  all  information  as  I  was,  it
was  an  impossibility.  I  didn't  know  whether  to  be  annoyed,
angry, or intrigued.

Intrigue won.
"What's going on, Ee?" I asked hesitantly as I sat next to

Eeian on the bed.

Eeireek smiled softly, a tinge of sadness dulling his eyes

as he began talking. "We received word the portal was going to
close.  We  also  received  word  that  all  Fae  who  were  unmated
and of age would find their mates on the human realm. I am not
the  only  one  who  has  come.  All  of  our  brothers  and  sisters,
foster brothers and sisters have come. We came because of our
mates. We also came because…" Eeireek hesitated and I felt an
icy  heat  slither  down  my  spine.  "We  learned  that  those  who
kidnap,  imprison,  and  sell  Fae  and  other  paranormal  and
supernatural  creatures  are  here  in  the  human  realm  and  are
preparing for something big. We all came to help."

"So wait—what are you saying?" I blinked slowly, my

brain stumbling along trying to catch up with Eeireek's statement.

"I'm saying that the Fae, as well as other creatures such

as elves, angels, demons, shifters and even the Malowi, have
entered the human realm to find their mates and to stop those
who seek to do harm to our people."

Well… life certainly just got more interesting.

Well… life certainly just got more interesting.
"Malowis are here? How do you know? Have you met

one? Are they truly as amazing and beautiful as everyone says
they are?" I babbled excitedly.

Malowis were typically known as demi-gods. The

offspring  of  the  creators  of  all,  the  Malowis  were  powerful,
gorgeous,  wise,  and  could  turn  into  whatever  form  or  creature
they wanted. Few had ever met them and there were only twelve
in  existence  that  anyone  knew  of.  All  were  unmated,  but
generally because of the fact that the mate of a Malowi had to be
the strongest, wisest, purest of hearts and of souls, and so many
of us were flawed individuals. Filled with bitterness, revenge, and
selfishness.  There  were  few  who  truly  possessed  a  pure  heart,
much  less  a  pure  soul,  so  Malowis  often  returned  to  Heaven
mateless.

The shy smile on my brother's face gave me pause and I

watched as his normally tanned skin took on a pink hue. What
the hell was going on with Eeireek?

"Yes, I have met one. He's um… he's—" Eeireek

cleared his throat before grinning broadly at me, "He's actually
my mate."

"You found your mate? And he's a Malowi?" Eeian's

voice was soft, reverent, and I could understand how he felt
instantly. We would not only meet a Malowi, but welcome him
into our family. How did we get to be so lucky? So blessed?

"Yes. His name is Damon."

* * * *

I walked down Broad Street later on that night, still

trembling over the startling revelation Eeireek had given us about
the  Malowis  and  the  brewing  events  surrounding  the  other
realms. These  kidnappings  go  a  lot  deeper  than  what  we
know and the reasons behind it are a lot more sinister than
we  can  even  begin  to  comprehend.  It's  the  only  reason  the
demi-gods, angels and even the demons would get involved.
Demons  weren't  all  bad  and  angels  weren't  all  good,  but  they
were all powerful beings. I had always wanted to meet an angel
and a demon… almost as much as I wanted to meet a Malowi,
but  had  never  expected  to  actually  have  a  chance.  It  definitely
looked as if that was all about to change.

I turned the corner of Broad Street onto Main, stopped,

and  gasped  at  the  sight  before  me. A  beautiful  woman,  whose
skin looked like Amaretto, her blonde tresses a waterfall of tight
curls spilling over her shoulders, walked in my direction. From a
distance,  I  could  tell  she  was  taller  than  me  and  her  thin  frame
gave her an appearance of wispiness, as if she were a delicate
waif about to blow away in the wind. However, the smoke that
swirled  around  her  head  and  her  fingers,  and  the  wind  that
seemed  to  blow  continuously  around  her  and  only  her,  laid  to
waste that idea.

"Witch," I said, enthralled by her beauty and the power

that radiated forth from her person.

My unborn child moved within me and I placed a hand

onto my belly, wishing I'd thought to come out dressed as a
woman, rather than hoping that no one would be out on the
streets of Tonawanda this late at night.

"Hail, Fae." The witch smiled as she approached.
My eyes closed as the smoke that hovered around her

came to swirl around me before floating back to her. That was
the weirdest thing ever. It was as if the smoke was scanning me,
but that was impossible. Smoke was not sentient, so how could
it do anything?

"Hail, witch," I responded and opened my eyes.
My eyes widened at the sight of the witch standing

directly in front of me. How the fuck did she move so fast?

"Hhhmmm. You are more than just a Fae. You're a royal

Seelie Fae. One whom the veil fixed as he came through," she
mused, her eyes trailing over my body.

"How the fuck do you know that?" I asked her, keeping

my voice low through sheer force of will.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You really shouldn't use such profanity

when you are expecting a child, you know," she cautioned
before reaching out a hand towards my stomach.

I jerked back. No one but my family was allowed to

touch my belly… and maybe Philip—if he ever wanted to.

"You pine away for your mate, the father of your child,

little one. This I know. I know you were miserable when you
lived in Fae because your soul, your male essence, was trapped
in a female form. The veil fixed what biology screwed up. I also
know your family and your people will experience much change
during this time of preparation."

during this time of preparation."

How did she know so much? I was the Seer. I was the

one who was supposed to walk up to total strangers and give
them words of wisdom and of caution. She was just a witch.
How in the hell did she know anything?

"Your arrogance is showing, Your Highness," she

mocked with a smile.

"You can read my mind?" I asked.
"I can read your aura. Arrogance is a pulsing,

shimmering brown that inflates the original aura like a balloon.
Your original aura is a delicate, graceful, yet deep and throbbing
indigo. You feel so deeply and are very intuitive, but you are
sensitive and that is both a gift and a curse in these times."

I stared at her in shock. Although I was a Seer, I must

admit I didn't have much belief in witchcraft. At least, I didn't
until that moment. How the fuck could she know something like
that, about me when we'd only just met? Not many people took
note of my personality, even when they'd known me for quite a
while and I didn't know how to really deal with her. No idea
how to talk to her or what to say next. I guessed she sensed my
confusion and my brain slowly spinning out of control.

She spoke again. "My name is Charla. I am a smoke and

air witch. I am here to find my friend, and I am here to help in the
impending  battle  between  good  and  evil.  To  finally  help  put  an
end to the kidnappings and the slavery that is taking place among
paranormals. This goes much deeper than you can even begin to
imagine and there are a lot more paranormals and supernaturals
and magicals out here than you are aware of. More than that, this
thing is a lot more dangerous and involved than you are currently
prepared  for.  Do  not  despair,  Your  Highness,  goodness  will
prevail,  but  it  takes  people  standing  up  and  getting  involved.
Those  who  these  matters  affect  and  those  who  are  allies,  we
must all play our part. Be ready Eeiran."

Chapter Twelve

In which Philip meets Eeian, Ir-nae, and Eeireek, the oldest

son of the Seelie royal family who dotes on his baby sister

brother, learns about other paranormals, and finally decides

on his future with Eeiran.

I never made my way to Damon. Just when I stepped to

the edge of the doors, they flew open and Eeian and two other
men stood there, all three taller and bigger than me and one
looked like he'd swallowed a mountain.

"Eeireek!" Damon squealed, running around the edge of

the  counter  and  flying  into  the  mountain's  arms.  I  opened  my
mouth  to  caution  him,  but  my  jaw  hung  open  when  the  big
mountain  man's  face  softened  and  he  lifted  Damon  up  into  his
arms, kissing Damon fiercely and passionately before putting him
back down on his feet with a happy sigh.

"Hello, mate," Eeireek said with a grin.
Who the hell names their child Eeireek?
"Hi, baby," Damon responded. "What are you doing

here? You just dropped me off to go and find your two younger
brothers. What happened?"

Eeireek shook his head as if he was completely

flabbergasted and a sick feeling settled in my stomach. I knew
Eeian and Eeiran were brothers, and since Eeian was standing
with Eeireek now, that must mean…

"I found them. They live just across the street and I

found out my youngest brother Eeiran has found his mate, but his
mate has rejected him so I came to teach him a lesson," Eeireek
said, his voice rumbling with a growl.

Damon gasped. "Your brother's mate rejected him?

Who would do something that stupid? That foolish? That's cold-
hearted and cruel and—" Damon's voice trailed off when he
followed Eeian's gaze to me.

I swallowed thickly when I realized all of them were

glaring at me as if I were the Republican presidential candidate
and they were all middle to lower class citizens who were either
gay, a minority, or without health insurance. I tried to back away
only to bump into Trecee.

"Dammit, Philip! What the hell are you doing?" she

growled.

"Philip? That's Philip? That's the guy who has my baby

brother curled up in a ball sobbing his eyes out?" Eeireek's voice
was commanding.

I had the insane urge to whip out my cock so he could

see whose was bigger, although with the way my luck was going,
his would probably unfurl down to the floor and then the big
faery would laugh at me.

faery would laugh at me.

I felt like public enemy number one as a collective growl

seemed to rumble from all of them. I wanted to say something,
come up with a way to declare my innocence, let them know I
was justified in shunning the only man who made me ache for an
eternity with him, but nothing came. Trapped by the menace
shining in Eeireek and Eeian's eyes, my words got trapped in my
throat.

"Come here, human. We have much to discuss," Eeireek

said.

With a gulp, I took a step forward toward him, hoping

and praying I would live to see tomorrow.

* * * *

I was going to die. There were no ifs, ands, or buts

about  it.  Eeiran's  brothers  were  going  to  kill  me.  I  sat  at  the
mahogany  dining  room  table  in  my  home  on  one  side  and  the
three  oversized  men  sat  on  the  other.  They  stared  at  me  and  I
watched them cautiously. I didn't trust them and they didn't trust
me. Where we differed was that whereas they wanted to kill me
for what I'd done to their brother, I only wanted to stay alive…
and  if  I  were  being  completely  honest  with  myself,  see  Eeiran
again.  I  wanted  to  feel  him  in  my  arms,  taste  his  lips,  talk  with
him—actually get to know him. I knew almost nothing about the
man who had so captured my life and haunted my dreams, but I
was  more  than  fascinated  with  him.  I  was  slightly  obsessed.
While my mind balked at the idea of  being  with  someone  who
was a faery or a man who could get pregnant, who used to be a
woman,  my  heart  told  me  it  didn't  matter.  Time,  gender,  sex,
color, religion, education… none of those things counted when it
came to love and happiness and I wanted to be happy. I wanted
to be in love.

I needed Eeiran to have both.
"So you rejected my brother as your mate?" Eeireek,

one of the biggest men in existence, Eeiran's oldest brother,
finally spoke.

I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief that the silence had

finally been broken, but I somehow knew that wouldn't be the
right decision to make at this point.

"I don't know what you mean," I lied.

"I don't know what you mean," I lied.
One of them, Ir-nae, by far the scariest of the three of

them, growled at me.

"I can smell the lie on you, human," he sneered.
My hackles rose at his condescending tone and I opened

my mouth to tell him off when Eeian stopped me.

I didn't know Eeian as well as I knew Thomas and

Steven.  Large  and  handsome,  with  brown  hair,  he  had  brown
eyes  that  seemed  to  suck  everyone  in.  He  always  smiled  and
seemed  very  nice,  but  right  then  he  seemed  ready  to  tear
something apart with his teeth. Namely me.

"You cannot be offended that Ir-nae speaks of you in

such a manner, Philip, when you rejected my baby brother
because he is Fae," he softly cautioned me, anger giving his voice
a deep, dark, and menacing rumble.

I shut my mouth immediately and sat back with a huff,

folding my arms over my chest angrily. I hated it when I was
wrong and others pointed out my shortcomings. Arrogant?
Yeah, maybe. I didn't mean to be and could confess to myself I
used it as a defense mechanism. Who would want to be around
the guy who thought the world revolved around him? No one. It
saved me from having to deal with people and their issues.

It prevented me from being hurt.
Again.
"So you had sex with my younger brother, got him

pregnant, had sex with him again and then tossed him out? What
kind of man are you? Why would you do something like that?"
Eeireek asked me.

His rapid fire questions gave me no chance to answer.

Not that I would know what to say. I couldn't explain my actions
to myself. I wanted to be with Eeiran. I longed for him, but it
was just too much. The being a faery thing, the male pregnancy
thing, the used to be a woman thing. I didn't know who he was. I
couldn't wrap my mind around it. I knew transgender people. I'd
had conversations with them and they had explained what it felt
like to them, being trapped in the wrong body all their life until
they finally took steps to change. I got it. I'd swear I did. I just
didn't know if I could accept it. Everyone said they were tolerant
and would be okay with things; I'd said those words myself, but
the reality was just completely different from the fantasy.

Eeian shook his head. "You do not deserve my brother.

He  has  his  flaws,  but  he  was  happy  for  the  first  time  in  his  life
from  what  he  has  told  me  and  what  I  know  of  him.  He  is
exceptionally smart, giving, and intuitive. You are going to miss
out  on  the  best  thing  that  ever  happened  to  you  because  it's
different  and weird." He snorted. "That makes no sense to me
at all, Philip. Do you even care that you're not only making my
brother miserable, but you're making yourself miserable as well?
And what about your baby? You're telling your unborn child that
its father is wrong, a mistake, an abomination, and not worthy of
love, affection, or a soul mate, because of something he had no
control over."

Eeian's words pierced my heart and my stomach

clenched with each sentence, my eyes burned with unshed tears.
How could I explain it to them? How could I explain it to
myself?

Anger, fear, frustration, guilt, shame, and hurt mixed

together in my gut, invading my soul and coating my skin until I
felt  dirty,  unclean,  and  unworthy  of  affection  and  forgiveness.
Eeiran  had  lied  by  omission,  hadn't  told  me  everything,  but  I
knew  also  that  Eeian,  who  always  seemed  to  be  a  person  of
fairness  and  justice,  at  least  based  on  the  things  Thomas  and
Steven always said about him, spoke out of protectiveness and
love. All  of  that  compounded  with  my  own  guilt  just  served  to
make the acid in my stomach boil and clog my throat.

I was a living, talking, breathing piece of shit and I was

well aware of that fact at this point. The only problem? I had no
idea what to do about it.

Leaping up from my chair, I ignored the angry snarls

coming from Ir-nae and instead focused on that place inside of
me that wailed and threw itself against my ribcage begging to get
out. It was also the piece that ached for Eeiran. It was time to
finally give in to it and give that part of me what it longed for:
honesty, release, freedom.

Eeiran.
"I know! You don't think I know I fucked up? That

Eeiran is the best thing that ever happened to me? You think I
don't know how lucky I am to have been chosen by him? I know
this. I know all of this! But it doesn't change anything. I can't get
my mind to stop. I can't make the voices that tell me he's a freak,
a faery, a fucking woman posing as a man to shut up! I know it's
not true, but I can't help it. And I'm aching for him so bad I can

not true, but I can't help it. And I'm aching for him so bad I can
barely breathe to stay alive. I need him because he makes me
happy. He makes me smile. I believe he's the other part of me. I
want to have children with him. Raise a family with him." My
words cut off then as I struggled to catch my breath. "It's just not
enough."

"What is not enough?" Eeian asked me.
I took a deep breath and exhaled shakily. I choked on a

sob and struggled to compose myself. Men didn't cry, right? We
didn't  have  emotions  whatsoever.  At  least  according  to  some
people.  I  knew  it  was  a  load  of  horse  manure,  but  that  didn't
stop my instinctive reaction to stop the tears from falling. I could
only suspect that Eeian thought I was a crazy person, but there
was nothing I could do about it at this point, people thought what
they thought and that was all there was to it. I had a decision to
make  in  that  moment.  I  could  either  choose  to  live  my  life  the
way  I  wanted  to,  or  I  could  try  to  change  myself  to  fit  some
super macho image that only existed in romance novels with torn
bodices  and  horse-drawn  carriages.  My  emotions  were  true,
how I chose to display them was the only choice that I had. And
in that moment I realized that when it came to Eeiran, I had to be
true to the chaotic turmoil that flowed within me.

"Loving him. Wanting to be with him. Aching to be inside

of him or touching him or kissing him." I sighed and lifted my
eyes up to the other men, my heart a lead weight in my chest.
"It's just not enough to make any promises to him."

Eeireek, Eeian and Ir-nae all gazed at each other before

looking back at me with devious grins on their faces. Dread
flooded my body like mud, leaving a nasty aftertaste of anxiety.
What the fuck were they about to do to me?

"I guess it's up to us to show you how wrong you truly

are," Eeireek said with a coldly maniacal smile and I swallowed
hard.

I had such a bad feeling. What did they plan to do to

me?

* * * *

I was surprised when they took me to a bar. I don't

know exactly what I was expecting from them, what I expected
them to do to me or where I expected them to take me, but a

them to do to me or where I expected them to take me, but a
club type place was not it. They didn't seem like the type to take
me  to  a  hangout  spot,  especially  since  I  had  rejected  their
youngest  brother  as  my mate,  but  that  was  what  they  did.  It
completely  amazed  me.  That  is,  until  they  took  me  inside  the
building and I saw what it actually was. The place was filled with
people  I'd  expect  to  see  in  horror  movies  or  Disney  movies.
Hell,  they  belonged  in  HBO's True Blood.  I  saw  fangs,  wings,
pointy  ears,  and  a  woman  who  was  sprinkling  glitter  over
another  woman.  Holy  fuck,  I  saw  wands  and  tails  swishing
around,  and  trolls,  angels,  and  demons—all  of  whom  were
drinking  beer—and  a  man  changed  from  being  a  man  on  two
feet  into  a  wolf  standing  on  four  paws  just  before  he  leapt  at
another  man  who  looked  like  he  was  an  overgrown,  muscled
elephant.

Where the fuck was I?
"Welcome to reality, human. These are the people, this

is  the  truth,  you  never  see  because  we  protect  you  from  it.
Paranormals,  supernaturals,  magicals  were  all  here  before  you
were, and we have lived and survived alongside you your whole
existence with you none the wiser," Ir-nae said. "These are the
ones  who  live  in  the  human  realm  without  needing  the  veil  to
cross  through  as  the  Fae  do.  They  have  lived  among  you  for
millennia  and  you  were  never  aware  of  it. You  have  no  doubt
slept with them, befriended them or been taught by them."

The large man huffed out a dark chuckle and my skin

pebbled in unease with the truth he was no doubt telling me.

"You have reacted negatively because now your eyes

are opened to what is really around you, but this is nothing new.
It has been here forever, before humans even existed. You and
your people are the new kids on the block."

I could almost hear the disgust in his tone. Boy did he

have a problem with humans.

I opened my mouth to say something when Eeian's

phone rang. I looked over with my left eyebrow quirked and my
heart pounded in my chest when he greeted the person on the
other end.

"Oh, hey, Eeiran." He paused and glanced in my

direction. "You just met who? Charla? Who's that? Oh. She's
looking for who? She didn't give you a name? I don't know who
that is. Did she touch your stomach at all? She said what about

that is. Did she touch your stomach at all? She said what about
the baby and Philip? Are you okay? Do you need us to come
home?"

Bile rose in my throat, fear assaulted my mind as all

types  of  nightmarish  scenarios  flashed  across  my  brain,  and  I
stepped  towards  Eeian.  Had  Eeiran  been  assaulted?  Had
someone hurt him and our unborn child? Was he all right? Did he
need  me?  Did  he  need  to  go  to  the  hospital?  Who  was  this
woman who would dare to put her hands on my man? My mate?
I had never hit a woman before, but if she'd hurt what belonged
to me I would have to make an exception.

"Calm down, Philip. Eeiran is fine. He merely had a

disturbing  encounter  with  a  witch  named  Charla,  who  warned
him  about  events  that  will  occur  in  the  future.  Everything  is
perfectly  okay  with  him.  But  perhaps  you  should  ask  yourself
why  you  got  so  worried  and  were  so  upset  by  the  thought  of
Philip  being  hurt  or  in  trouble  when  you  rejected  him  to  start
with."  Eeian  sounded  bored,  nonchalant,  and  almost  apathetic,
but  I  could  tell  he  tried  to  get  me  to  understand  what  he  was
saying. More than that, I totally understood what he wanted me
to  see.  The  emotions  I  had  buried  so  deep  inside  of  me  for
Eeiran,  the  ones  I  had  for  him  but  had  tried  to  ignore.  I  felt
deeply for him, wanted to be with him, wanted to raise children
with him, but could I deal with everything?

"Rather than focus on the fact he's a faery and used to be

a woman in Faery, think about how he's a human male here in
your  realm—rather  than  pay  attention  to  the  fact  he  can  get
pregnant  and  is  even  now  carrying  your  child—why  don't  you
focus  on  what  all  of  that  means.  Because  he  is  Fae,  he  has
certain powers. It makes him exotic and unique. He's not another
species,  he's  not  an  animal.  He's  just  a  different  race.  He  was
always supposed to be a man and biology screwed him up and
made him born female, but because he is Fae and had to come
through a veil to come here and meet you, he was changed into
the gender that is right for him. Since he is Fae, you will be able
to have children who are biologically part of both of you. I only
see good here," Eeireek finished without looking in my direction
once.

I felt chastised, reprimanded… but more than that, I felt

hopeful. I had never thought of things from that angle. Now that I
had, the warmth of hope filled my being. Maybe I could do this.

Maybe I could overcome my hesitation over being with Eeiran
and make us both happy.

Maybe I could actually be Eeiran's mate.

Chapter Thirteen

In which Eeiran and Philip get to know each other better

and begin to date.

I woke up the next morning and screamed.
"Philip?! What the fuck are you doing here?" I yelled.
Was I still dreaming? Was I being tortured? Maybe I'd

died in the middle of the night and this was hell. I was going to
spend the rest of eternity being haunted by images of my mate
who'd rejected me.

When the image of my mate moved and leaned over me

with a sad smile on his face, I definitely knew I had to be
dreaming. Philip wanted nothing to do with me, had made it
blatantly apparent that while he was attracted to me physically,
he was not attracted to the rest of me. A huge lump of emotional
pain tore itself away from my heart and tried to escape through
my mouth only to get caught in my throat. I swallowed painfully
and blinked back the tears that threatened to fall. Pushing myself
up into a sitting position, I covered my face and sobbed harshly
into my hands.

"Why are you haunting me? Why won't you just go away

and leave me alone? I'm sorry. I didn't mean to deceive you or
get  pregnant.  I  can't  regret  it,  though.  I  love  the  fact  that  I'm
carrying your child and I love the fact that fate chose you for me
or me for you. It means we're perfect for each other. Regardless
of  everything  else,  you  and  I  are  meant  to  be  together.  So  go
ahead.  Haunt  me,  don't  haunt  me,  show  up  while  I'm  sleeping
and when I'm awake. I don't care, but I will love this baby dearly
and tenderly because it is part of you and part of me. I will never
speak badly of you to him and for me there will never be anyone
else. Ever."

My words were muffled as I spoke them into my hands

to  the  apparition  on  my  bed.  I  could  only  hope  that  since  I'd
spoken  the  words  from  my  heart,  spoken  my  truth,  that  the
gorgeous  image  of  my  mate  would  disappear.  Even  with  his
broad chest and muscled frame, wrapped up in a tight navy blue

shirt that looked as if it were two sizes too small for his bulging
biceps and a pair of tight, black jeans that hugged his long,
thickly muscled thighs and made my mouth water.

"Oh god, baby. I'm so sorry. I'm such a fucking idiot,"

the vision said, rubbing his hand over my head and I jerked my
head away, my eyes widening.

Holy.
Fucking.
Shit.
Philip was actually in my room. He was here. He was

here and he was calling me baby and apologizing. I rubbed the
left side of my chest as I let out a harsh choking sob. He was
here. He was actually here. I wasn't imagining him. He'd finally
come to me. Come for me. I wasn't a loser because the one
person I was meant to be with, the person I'd fallen for, the one
I'd pledged my life to, hadn't dumped me, tossed me to the side
and forgotten all about me. Yes, he'd dumped me and tossed me
to the side, but he'd apologized and come back.

I wanted to sob in his arms, soak the front of his shirt

with  my  tears  and  with  the  evidence  of  my  pain.  I  wanted  to
crawl into his lap and wrap my arms and legs around him tightly
and  never  let  him  go.  I  wanted  to  clutch  his  hair  in  my  fists.  I
wanted to yell at him, hit him, slap him, push him away from me,
then bring him back and hold him for all eternity. I wanted to be
the  very  image  of  an  overly  emotional,  hormonal,  pregnant
woman I'd seen on television and in the movies. I didn't want to
be strong anymore. I couldn't be strong anymore. I couldn't deny
the  boiling,  rolling,  searing  emotional  pain  that  lacerated  my
insides any longer. So all of the things I wanted to do?

I did them.
When my emotional tidal wave was over, I opened my

eyes  expecting  to  see  nothing  but  the  broken  remnants  of  my
room and to smell the burning rubber of Philip's shoes when he
ran away from me as fast as he possibly could. My room was
intact  and  the  only  thing  smelled  was  the  deep,  full-bodied,
musky,  refreshing  fragrance  of Cool  Water,  Philip's  cologne.  I
looked up at Philip who held me tightly in his arms. His face was
streaked with his own tears, his emerald green eyes glistening, his
lips trembling when he smiled down at me.

"Hi," he said.
"Hi."

"Hi."

* * * *

An hour later, I was showered and dressed and walking

into McDonald's with Philip, wearing a pair of baggy pants, an
oversized t-shirt that I borrowed from Eeireek, and with no
makeup on whatsoever. I was back to being myself, though, in
the extra-large clothing, I looked like I'd been stress eating,
which wouldn't be too far away from the truth.

Philip sat me down at one of the booths and walked

away to get our lunch after making sure I was okay three times.
Things were going well so far between us, and I was hopeful—
but trying not to be too optimistic. I could only wait and see what
would happen, because while Fate told me he would be perfect
for me, she had not told Philip the same thing. It would be up to
me to make him see it.

It was time for me to woo and win my mate.
I looked around at all the customers there and wondered

if any of them knew of the things supernatural, paranormal, or
otherwise that surrounded them every day. Fae, elves, shifters,
vampires and others had been around forever, but we had spent
much of that time hiding ourselves away from humans, trying to
help them keep their delusions about being the only beings in the
world.

We didn't mind walking amongst them and pretending to

be like them. Let me rephrase that. Not all of us minded. There
were always those who wanted to expose the true existence of
us  all  to  the  human  realm,  but  they  were  small  in  number.  Our
biggest threat wasn't exposure; it was extinction at the hands of
the  kidnappers  and  slavers.  I  looked  up  when  Philip  walked
back  over  to  the  table.  I  smiled  up  at  him,  happy  we  were
together again.

He smiled nervously. "I got you a number one because

you're eating for two now."

"Thank you so much, I've never had a Big Mac before.

Although I am not sure this is good for the baby," I teased.

I watched his face carefully, hoping he could take my

joke without being too tense around me. And he was tense.
Very rigid and cautious. He'd been that way since the moment
I'd gotten out of bed and gone to take a shower. My stomach

I'd gotten out of bed and gone to take a shower. My stomach
had grown larger since the last time he saw me. It was always
that way with the Fae. We could go from having no stomach, to
having a small pouch, to looking as if we were ready to give birth
all in the span of forty-eight hours. As we neared the end of our
gestation we would grow larger and larger until we were placed
in  the  birthing  room  in  order  to  wait  for  delivery.  Eeian  and
Thomas didn't really have a birthing room for me yet. I think we
were  all  hoping  for  Philip  to  come  to  his  senses  so  I  could  be
back  in  his  home  when  our  baby  was  born. As  time  went  on,
however, we realized we would need to have the laboring room
for  me.  Philip  hadn't  come  to  his  senses…  at  least  not  before
today.

I glanced over when he sat down across from me at the

table.  He  had  spread  out  our  meal  on  the  tray  and  I  looked
down to see it overflowing with food. Philip hadn't just gotten me
a  Big  Mac  meal.  He'd  gotten  me  a  meal,  twenty-piece
McNuggets, apple pie, two cherry pies—they were my favorites
—and a large strawberry milkshake, which I'd discovered I was
extremely  in  love  with.  I  wasn't  sure  if  I  was  addicted  to  it
because  of  the  pregnancy  or  just  because  it  was  so  goddamn
delicious.  I  mean,  how  could  anyone  go  wrong  with  something
that tasted like melted strawberry ice cream with whipped cream
and a cherry on top?

I loved the cherry on top.
Philip had a crispy chicken sandwich meal in front of

him, a twenty-piece McNuggets, two apple pies, a cherry pie—
he'd told me he didn't really like them, not as much as me—and
a large chocolate milkshake. I couldn't understand how he could
drink the stuff. I hated the taste of chocolate. Any type of
chocolate… unless maybe it was chocolate poured on top of
Philip.

Clearing my throat and shifting in my seat, I was infinitely

glad  my  mate  was  not  a  wolf  shifter  or  any  other  type  of
paranormal,  supernatural,  or  magical  being,  because  if  he  had
been, he would have smelled the arousal emanating from my skin
in  that  moment.  The  lustful  grin  Philip  shot  my  way  made  me
think perhaps he knew anyway. Picking up a handful of fries, I
shoved them in my mouth and chewed. The salt from the potato
sticks  soaked  into  my  tongue,  the  flavor  giving  my  taste  buds
delicious shivers and making me smile widely. Philip chuckled at

delicious shivers and making me smile widely. Philip chuckled at
my reaction and I grinned, giving an unapologetic shrug.

"What? They're good." I laughed in return.
Philip nodded his head in agreement. He completely

understood how I felt about the fries, I mean, he'd worked there
for years and I'm sure he'd eaten the food a time or two. We ate
in silence, both smiling at each other during the meal. A sense of
ease washed over me, and I felt myself truly relaxing for the first
time in months. This was how things were supposed to be with
us. We were supposed to always be comfortable in each other's
presence, should have been able to be with each other no matter
what.

Philip cleared his throat and I looked up, my heart

pounding  in  my  chest  at  the  serious  expression  on  his  face.  I
didn't have to be a Seer to know we were about to have a very
serious  conversation.  I  wiped  my  mouth  with  a  napkin  and
placed  my  hands  in  my  lap  demurely.  Never  let  it  be  said  that
Eeian's constant lectures on proper etiquette and royal behavior
hadn't had some sort of effect on me. I waited, glancing over at
Philip in anticipation, knowing he would tell me whatever lay on
his mind as soon as he was ready to. I guess a part of me hoped
he  wouldn't  freak  out  on  me  and  run  again,  but  a  part  of  me
expected  it  to  happen.  I  didn't  like  to  be  so  doom  and  gloom,
was annoyed, in fact, by those who seemed to always expect the
worst to happen. Yet at the same time, ever since meeting Philip,
I'd seen my own expectations for happiness and love sink further
and further down the toilet.

Philip turned his gaze away from me as if he were

ashamed of what he was about to say, and I felt anger rush
through my veins like molten lava, burning away my compassion,
my sympathy and my understanding. If he was going to dump me
again then he was going to have to man up and do it without any
help from me. He cleared his throat again and then looked at me
beseechingly, his eyes limpid pools of begging even as he ran his
fingers through his hair.

Fuck.
I knew I would end up helping him dump me even

before I started my mental rant.

"So was there a reason why you came to see me today,

or was it just a coincidence? Because the last time I saw you, I
distinctly remember you telling me nothing had changed between

us and you never wanted to see me again," I reminded him, even
as  I  sat  back  in  my  chair,  placing  my  hand  discreetly  over  my
stomach in an effort to quiet the babe within me. It had picked
up on my distress and began to move and kick in order to get
my  attention.  "Ssshhh,  little  one,"  I  soothed  underneath  my
breath, aware I would not be able to stay for too much longer. I
needed to get back home. Back to safety where it wasn't weird
or detrimental to the Fae race for me to be a pregnant male. I
couldn't leave until Philip had his say, however.  If  only  to  save
myself this grief and heartbreak later on down the line.

Bastard.
"Umm." He rubbed his hand over his throat before

reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. "Yeah. I remember
what I said and I'm sorry about that. I really am. I was—am—
still freaked out about the whole faery thing." He whispered the
word faery and I pulled my lips in as a last ditch effort not to
explode into laughter.

Leaning forward, I looked around the area as if making

sure no one could hear me and gestured him closer. "I still have
moments when I'm a little freaked out about the whole human
thing."

His jaw dropped and I exploded into chuckles seconds

before  he  gave  a  great  bark  of  laughter  and  smiled,  his  green
eyes  glistening  with  the  tears  of  his  mirth.  Philip  happy  was
gorgeous,  definitely  one  of  the  most  beautiful  creations  in  the
world, superseded only by the look on his face when he was in
the  throes  of  an  orgasm.  Only  then  was  he  at  his  most
magnificent.

Fuck. There I go again.
My rampant erection pressed firmly against the front of

my  borrowed  jeans  and  I  was  more  than  aware  there  was  a
large possibility that my dick would bear the marks of the zipper
in  its  flesh.  The  pink  flush  on  Philip's  cheek  and  his  discreet
adjustment of his own hardness made my own discomfort worth
it. I closed my eyes and sniffed the air, the scent of hot vanilla
and a waterfall filled my nostrils and I moaned softly and happily.
My body shuddered when I exhaled, and I gripped the edge of
the  table  as  I  very  firmly  told  my  libido  that  I  would not  be
jumping across the table to sit on Philip's hard cock and try to
turn our one baby into two.

At least, I thought it only one baby. I couldn't really tell.

There were definitely moments when I could swear there was
more than one inside me. Those moments had increased as I'd
gotten further along in my pregnancy, but I shouldn't bring the
idea up with my skittish mate. Especially since I wasn't entirely
sure he was back in my life just yet.

"So, are you still freaked out about it?" I asked him

hesitantly, crossing my ankles underneath the table, hoping they
worked just as well as fingers.

"Not as much as I was before," he admitted, and I

breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good. That's good then." I smiled.
"Yeah. I had a visit from your two older brothers and

their friend and they took me to a bar I'm pretty sure I will never
forget for as long as I live. It showed me that the world I live in is
not  the  true  world.  It's  not  the  world  that  really  exists  for  so
many."  Philip  sighed  and  shook  his  head  as  if  warding  off  an
unwelcome  thought.  "My  denying  you  because  you  are  not
human  is  like  my  denying  someone  else  because  they  were
black."

I nodded in agreement with his statement. I was so glad

Eeireek, Eeian and Ir-nae had gotten him to understand. I hadn't
known what to say to get him to accept our mating. I felt as if I
fought an uphill battle and I was beyond ecstatic they'd given me
a boost up.

"My rejecting you because you were female in Fae,

because  you  are  what  we  call  here  in  the  human  realm,
transgender, is just like me rejecting someone because they were
born  with  webbed  feet  that  they  had  to  have  corrected. Yes,
they  could  live  their  life  with  the  defect  and  be  fine,  but  they
wouldn't  be  happy  and  they  wouldn't  feel  like  their  feet  were
right, because of some biological mix-up. They didn't ask to be
born that way; it was just a genetic mistake."

I didn't exactly know how accurate his analogy was, but

if it meant he would return to me in the end and wanted us to be
together, I was all for it. I would have to look up his statement,
however. How could one be born with webbed feet? Wouldn't
they have to be a fish or a mermaid or something?

I shook my head mentally and focused back in on

Philip's face, hoping I hadn't missed anything important in what
he was saying.

he was saying.

"—know I feel a connection with you regardless.

Whether that makes us mates or just two lucky men who ended
up meeting each other, it doesn't really matter. All that matters is
we are together."

Dammit, I'd missed his entire speech. I'd bet it was

good, too.

Nodding my head, I took a sip of my milkshake before

staring  at  him  with  what  I  could  only  hope  was  an  unwavering
glance, but I was sure looked much more yearning than anything
else.  Squaring  my  shoulders,  I  wrapped  a  rather  large,  thick
strand  of  my  hair  around  my  finger  and  struggled  with  what  to
say. I realized I didn't know what to say because I couldn't be
exactly certain of what he was asking me… or telling me.

"So what do you want, Philip?" I figured a direct

question would be much better than guessing and being an ass by
assuming.

"I want to date you. For real this time. I want to date you

and get to know our baby a whole lot more than I know now. I
want us to be together if it all works out, and I want to be there
to take care of both of you," he responded.

My heart melted at his words. This was what I'd wanted

from the moment I'd realized he was my mate. This was what I'd
been longing for and searching for.

This was what I thought mating was supposed to be.
"I'd love to date you, Philip."

Chapter Fourteen

Wherein Philip and Eeiran date, Philip meets Eeiran's family

and learns the truth about his own family, before leaving…

again.

I had never been so happy to go to McDonald's before

in my whole life. While I'd worked there I'd hated the place.
Many of the customers were rude, the employees didn't take the
job seriously and the pay was shitty at best, but McDonald's had
given me one amazing thing for which I'd forever be grateful:
Eeiran… twice.

After our lunch that first day, we went back to the

apartment he shared with his brother and his brother-in-law's
family. When we walked into the door, it sounded like there a

family. When we walked into the door, it sounded like there a
party going on and the smile that lit up Eeiran's face sent deep
warmth flooding through my heart and made me feel almost
lightheaded on his joy.

"Quinteieen!" Eeiran exclaimed, letting go of my hand

and rushing towards another man who looked alarmingly like
him.

"Quinteieen?" I asked softly, wondering who the man

was and why he was holding onto my mate so tightly.

Shit.
Had I just called him my mate? When the hell had I

started to believe in and accept the whole 'mate' thing? I jumped
slightly when a low, menacing growl exploded in the room and
everyone looked at me. Who the fuck had growled? Eeiran
giggled, a sound I'd never heard from him and practically
skipped back to my side. He stood on his toes and placed a kiss
on my lips before turning back to the room.

"Forgive my mate. He's a little possessive apparently.

Something neither I nor he knew until this very moment," Eeiran
announced with a cheeky smile.

Heat suffused my face when I realized the noise had

come from me. When had I started snarling at people for no
reason? And it was no reason, right? I mean, all the stranger had
done was hug Eeiran.

Closely.
Tightly.
And pressed his face into Eeiran's neck, intimately.
"Ssshhh, love. I'm right here next to you. I'm not hugging

Quinteieen anymore," Eeiran soothed me, squeezing the back of
my neck and pressing tightly against my side.

Ah hell. Had I been growling again? That was something

I'd have to try to get used to. It apparently wasn't going to go
away just because I wanted it to. I should have expected that by
now. My feelings for Eeiran hadn't gone away just because I'd
wanted them to either. The amused smiles around the room did a
lot to ease my embarrassment.

My eyes took in the different inhabitants, and I counted

ten different men who all looked like my lover and six women
who looked like what I imagine Eeiran or Eeian would look like
as females. There were another ten men who had been hanging
around outside, who seemed to all favor each other and seemed

around outside, who seemed to all favor each other and seemed
extremely  conservative,  even  to  me,  although  one  of  them  had
stared at Steven intensely while Thomas shot daggers at him with
his  eyes  before  they  left  to  find  a  place  stay.  There  was  a
smattering of other men and women who seemed to drift in and
out of the apartment, checking in and giving their names before
leaving again. Some of them were largely muscled, while others
seemed  to  be  pint-sized  versions  of  full-grown  adults.  I  smiled
nervously fully aware I was one of three humans in the room. I
don't  know  how  I  knew  the  other  people  inhabiting  the  room
weren't  human,  but  it  seemed  to  be  information  I  had  readily
available.

"So, little brother," Quinteieen began, grinning broadly

when he walked towards Eeiran and me where we stood in the
doorway to the family room. "Do you plan to introduce us to
your mate?"

Ahh, Quinteieen, who stood almost as tall as Eeian, but

who looked like a number 2 pencil with his extremely thin frame,
was another of Eeiran's older brothers. He had brown hair like
Eeian and blue eyes like Eeiran, and had I not already been
slightly obsessed with Eeiran, I would have found him extremely
attractive. However, I held the one man I couldn't seem to be
able to stop thinking of, the only faery that I wanted.

"Oh, forgive me," Eeiran apologized before smiling

happily. "Everyone, this is my mate Philip. Philip, let me
introduce you to everyone I know. My brothers in birth order:
Eeireek, Eeian, Quinteieen, Quincee, Eeivien, Eeidon, Quintee,
Quinxee, Eeinison, and Norris," Eeiran said.

I'm not proud of it, but my head snapped towards Eeiran

as he named all of his brothers. A pattern had definitely
formed… at least until the end.

"Norris?" I questioned him in confusion.
The brother in question, who was by far the shortest,

thinnest  of  all  the  brothers—I  put  his  height  at  about  five  feet
even and his weight at about a hundred and five give or take a
pound or two—stepped forward. He smiled. His black hair hung
down in long, artful waves to his waist, his eyes were a startling
lavender, and he walked as if he were dancing in a ballet recital.
I  found  myself  hypnotized  by  him  for  only  a  moment  before
Eeiran  jabbed  his  elbow  into  my  ribs  and  I  coughed  in
embarrassment.

"Sorry," I mumbled.
Eeiran grunted, in either annoyance or anger, before

wrapping his arms back around my waist and hugging me tightly,
possessively.

"My parents named me Norris after Chuck Norris.

They'd  just  heard  of  your  human  program Walker,  Texas
Ranger  when  I  was  born.  They  thought  perhaps  my  being
named after him would induce my body and mind to become that
of  a  strong,  athletic  man.  They  were,  unfortunately,  completely
wrong  about  that."  Norris  chuckled  and  all  of  Eeiran's  siblings
laughed along.

I nodded in agreement. I could understand his parents'

fascination with Chuck Norris. Most people I knew were
similarly enchanted with him. It was completely justified.

Eeiran introduced me to the rest of those he knew in the

room and I was overwhelmed by it all. Eeiran and his biological
siblings  were  all  Seelie  Fae.  Eeian  had  been  fostered  to  the
Unseelie Fae as a child and had grown up with them while they'd
sent over one of the royal sons from their home to grow up with
Eeiran  and  his  siblings.  Their  foster  brother,  Orl-tone,  looked
completely menacing. His long, white blond hair was pulled back
into  a  ponytail,  but  though  he  looked  dangerous,  he  never
stopped  smiling.  Perhaps  that  was  what  made  him  so…
fearsome.  His  lips  never  lowered  from  the  fiercely  happy
expression.  Never.  He  grinned  as  if  he  knew  a  secret,  as  if  he
were waiting for something to happen. I didn't sense anything evil
or  dark  coming  from  him,  but  at  the  same  time  I  watched  him
warily.

I gave myself a mental shake. Wait, what? Since when

did I sense anything?

"I see you're starting to tap into your latent power," a

woman's voice, soft and husky, said from behind me.

"Charla!" Eeiran exclaimed.
"Who the hell is Charla?" I questioned, but Eeiran waved

his hand to let me know he'd explain later.

"Charla is a smoke and air witch," Damon said when he

came to stand next to me.

I looked down at my young co-worker and raised my

eyebrows in surprise and confusion that he knew so much about
the woman.

"I'm sorry… what? She's a witch?" I gulped and looked

back  at  her,  part  of  me  wanting  to  clutch  Eeiran  close  to  my
chest to protect him from the gorgeous woman. She could be a
lovely  woman,  nice  and  sweet.  Maybe  she  even  conjured  up
puppies for sick children and flowers for little old ladies, but she
was still a witch and she had her hands on my mate's stomach.
My  body  grew  larger  and  I  growled.  The  rational  part  of  my
brain had a minor heart attack when my body expanded to two,
almost  three  times  its  normal  size.  My  hands  curled  as  if  I
prepared to call down fire from the sky, and my eyes filled with
heat.

"Take. Your. Hands. Off. My. Mate," I snarled angrily.
"Look, Daddy! Philip kind of looks like the Hulk," Lily

chattered happily.

"I see that, honey. Now be very quiet so he doesn't turn

around and eat us," Thomas whispered back.

"Whatthefuck?" Eeiran's voice sounded almost afraid

and I turned to look at him, his fear like ice in my veins.

"What's wrong with me?" I whispered. My voice

sounded soft but still powerful enough to rattle the windows.

"You're a Malowi?" Damon breathed out in amazement.
"A what?" I asked, my forehead scrunched down in

confusion.

"No way. I would have sensed it, wouldn't I have?"

Eeiran asked.

He turned to Charla. The witch shook her head and gave

me a soft smile.

"Philip, I pose no danger or harm to your mate. I give

you my solemn vow and pledge," Charla stated.

Her words flowed over my skin like the softest of

fabrics, soothing the beast within slightly. I exhaled and glanced
at Eeiran in hesitation. I didn't know what a Malowi was, but my
sudden  transformation  completely  freaked  me  out.  I  needed
Eeiran. My mate. I needed him to tell me things would be okay
and  let  me  know  he  still  wanted  to  be  with  me.  I  needed  that
more than anything. I would claim him as my mate, stop freaking
over the fact he used to be a woman, accept and embrace the
fact  he  was  a  man  who  was  expecting  a  baby,  my  baby,  if  he
would only smile at me again, if he would only hold me again.

"It's okay, baby. I've waited too long for you to come

back to me for me to turn away from you because you happen

back to me for me to turn away from you because you happen
to be a demi-god," Eeiran stated matter-of-factly.

I exhaled loudly and grinned when the hair on Eeiran's

head  fluttered  slightly.  My  skin,  muscles,  and  bones  retracted
from  their  over  large  size  and  I  returned  to  normal.  Or  so  I
thought.  I  could  tell  even  before  Eeiran  told  me  that  I  was  still
larger than I'd been before.

"I like it," Eeiran reassured me as if he'd heard my

words. "I mean, you were already gorgeous, but now you're
even more so because you're like the same size as my brother
Eeireek."

I glanced over at the brother in question and jerked my

head upwards in a sign of non-verbal greeting. I grinned when he
returned the gesture and looked back down at Eeiran, who
seemed a whole lot shorter now that I had gone all demi-god on
everyone. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at right then, but I was
more than aware I couldn't do anything about it anymore.
Amazingly, I was okay with that. Being a demi-god with a Fae
was not as strange as being a human with a Fae apparently.

That was my story and I was going to stick to it.
"How is he Malowi?" Eeiran asked.
Charla smiled softly in my direction. I turned to look

over both shoulders before I realized the gesture was for me.

"An ancestor of Philip's was Malowi, one of the first.

Malowis  are  hard  to  kill,  but  it's  possible  to  do  so.  Someone
discovered  how  and  killed  him.  His  spiritual  essence  and
signature floated around in the heavens and on Earth looking for
a  descendant,  the  right  one,  to  fill.  He  found  Philip  worthy,"
Charla explained.

Everyone in the room nodded in understanding.

Everyone except me. I looked around in confusion and then
looked at Eeiran in exasperation. How did they all accept the
witch's explanation without asking for more information?

"Why is it, if I've always been a Malowi, or whatever, it

just showed itself today?" I asked.

The room went still, as if everyone finally realized there

were a few things that just didn't add up.

"The strand is very diluted inside you, Philip. While your

mother was human, your father was only part human," Charla
said with another smile.

The air left my lungs. What did she know about my

father? I barely knew the man. He'd been killed when I was five
years old and my mother had remarried a year later. She hadn't
really  given  me  any  information  about  my  father,  though  I'd
asked  repeatedly;  she  merely  told  me  he  was  a  great  man.
Which  said  absolutely  nothing.  If  this  Charla  person  knew
something about my father, I wanted her to tell me, as soon as
possible, rather than dragging the questions out of me. Eeiran's
eyes  were  on  me,  staring  holes  into  my  face  as  I  studiously
avoided his gaze.

"What do you know about my father, witch?" I asked

her.

"All I know is that your father died an honorable death

saving  a  mother  and  her  four  children  from  a  fire  in  California
while the dad ran to get groceries. Your father was known quite
well among the West Coast Council and packs for being a hero
of  sorts.  Apparently  the  oldest  son  of  this  woman,  named
Alexander  Diseon,  is  both  a  fire  witch  and  a  Malowi  from  his
father's side in addition to being a wolf shifter from his mother's
side. He came into his powers at the late age of sixteen, though
he'd  displaying  some  of  the  fire  witch  powers  from  the  age  of
four. Which is still quite young for our kind," Charla explained.
"It  was  quite  a  sad  story.  The  paranormal  and  the  magic
community  mourned  your  father  and  we've  kept  our  eye  on
Alexander  since  then.  I'll  be  sending  someone  out  to  see  him
soon as a matter of fact, something big is about to happen to him
and  it  will  affect  the  faery  community  just  as  much  as  the
paranormal and the magical one."

I nodded. We'd lived in California before moving to

New York shortly after my father's death. My father had died a
death of honor, and I couldn't have been prouder, though I still
knew next to nothing about him. "I also know he was half-human
and half-wolf shifter," Charla said.

Time slowed down and sounds ceased to make sense as

my brain struggled to process her words. It couldn't be true. My
father  was  part-wolf  and  I  was  part  demi-god?  How  was  that
even possible? My mother was human, she had to be human, so
if my father was also half-human and half-wolf shifter, where did
the  demi-god  part  come  in.  Unless  my  mother  was  a  demi-
god…  my  world  was  rocked  as  my  parents'  true  identity  was
revealed to me and my head began to spin.

Without a word to anyone, I turned and left the room,

ignoring Eeiran's calls for me to come back.

Chapter Fifteen

Wherein Eeiran has a baby.

I was really tired of my mate walking away and leaving

me. It was really growing old. Blowing out a huff of frustration, I
turned back to the room to see numerous looks of pity darkening
the visages of those who surrounded me.

Fuck.
I hated being the person at the center of some

heartbreaking  situation.  It  absolutely  wreaked  havoc  on  the
psyche and self-esteem. It made me nervous and uncomfortable,
like I should go above and beyond to be entertaining or to prove
I  was  still  me,  still  able  to  function  and  be  happy.  It  was
exhausting to be the one garnering sympathy. It was depressing
knowing  that  I  was  receiving  it  because  of  my  skittish  mate…
again.

"Give him some time, Eeiran," Charla said.
Just as I turned to ask her what she meant, Philip came

back into the room. Well, he stomped back into the room, fury
coloring his face as he stopped directly in front of Charla and
growled.

"You, witch woman, tell me everything you know about

my father, my mother, my family and me," he commanded before
turning to me. "And you, come and sit in my lap while she does
so. I'm going to need your support and your scent around me
while I listen."

The room went quiet for mere seconds before people

began to move and shift out of the way in order to make room
for  Philip,  Charla,  and  me  on  the  couch.  While  I  didn't
appreciate or relish the idea of being ordered around by Philip,
one  glance  let  me  know  my  mate  was  on  the  verge  of  falling
apart  and  he  needed  me  to  anchor  him  and  keep  him  from
splintering.

He needed me.
Now we were getting somewhere. Maybe things actually

could work between Philip and me.

Charla sat and Philip settled down next to her, with me

on his lap, and we listened while she told him about his
grandfather, an upstanding shifter who was known for doing
things for others, no matter the cost to himself. Philip's father and
grandfather sounded absolutely amazing and an hour later, I felt
just as emotionally drained as my mate. His father wasn't alive,
but at least Philip finally had the answers he'd been searching for
his whole life.

We bid my family goodnight and I dragged Philip back

to my room where we lay on the bed simply staring at each
other.

"Are you okay?" I asked, running my fingers lightly

through his hair.

Philip's hand lightly traced his name over my stomach

and he nodded. He swallowed and I could detect the faint trace
of salt water when he blinked back his tears. I couldn't lie to him
and tell him I understood what he was going through. Both of my
parents were still alive, and I'd never had a parent I never knew.
I did, however, know what it felt like to have someone you loved
leave  you.  I'd  experienced  the  pain  and  the  agony  that  rips
through  the  soul,  the  anger,  the  soul-gripping  anguish  and  the
self-loathing  that  ran  amok  in  one's  brain  when  they  blame
themselves for someone leaving. I didn't know what to say to my
mate, and at any other time I would have used sex to make him
feel better, but subconsciously I knew that wasn't the best choice
this time.

Thankfully, our child—or children, I wasn't sure—chose

that moment to move and kick my ribs, and Philip's hand jerked
away in fear even as his eyes widened comically.

"What the fuck was that? Is the baby okay?" He

breathed out shakily.

I laughed softly. I took Philip's hand back in mine and

placed it on my belly, letting him feel our child moving within me.

"The baby's fine. He, she, they are just moving around

and kicking because we weren't giving them enough attention," I
said, letting him get used to the feeling.

For the first time, I was glad he hadn't been around for a

few months, else he would have seen how I'd behaved the first
time I felt the baby—babies—move inside of me. I'd screamed
and raced to Eeian and Thomas and explained that I needed to
get to the hospital because something was wrong with the baby.
When Thomas asked me what had happened, I'd revealed

When  Thomas  asked  me  what  had  happened,  I'd  revealed
breathlessly  what  was  going  on,  even  as  I  tried  to  pull  both  of
them with me to the door so we could get to the clinic. Thomas's
chuckle before he told me that all I'd experienced was what was
called a 'quickening' had almost annoyed me, then the realization
that  I  was  actually  pregnant  with  Philip's  baby  had  flooded  my
mind and I'd giggled like a loon.

Me.
Giggling.
It was still surreal when I thought back over it.

Something I never would have expected in all my years, but I'd
stood in the middle of the living room and giggled over and over
again until I'd felt it again and then I'd breathed out an exhale of
wonder. While I'd grown used to the moving and kicking, I was
still completely in awe over the fact that I was pregnant and
would give birth to a child soon. Or children. Or, yeah,
whatever.

"That's. So. Cool." Philip sighed before placing his head

on my stomach in order to talk to the baby.

I ran my fingers through his hair and smiled happily, my

lungs expanding as I inhaled the scent of my mate's skin. My
cock, which had been half hard the entire time, attempted to rise
up in a need to be touched, but I held it back. This was family
time, this wasn't sexy time. That time would come. For now, it
was all about me, Philip and the child—or children—that were
mixtures of the two of us.

* * * *

Two months went by and they were absolutely the best

months of my life. Philip and I went out on dates, got to know
each other better, and did a lot of making up. We made up in his
bathroom,  in  his  kitchen,  in  his  bedroom,  in  his  shower,  on  his
couch… one time we even made up in the backseat of his car,
late at night, in the parking lot of McDonald's. I'd never been so
happy for there to not be cameras outside of a building before in
my life. Philip was slowly becoming used to the fact I was Fae
and  he  was  part-shifter,  part-Malowi.  Damon  had  even  taken
him out to the canal one night and the two of them had practiced
and  trained  their  powers.  Philip  came  back  to  report  that  the
bridge  over  the  canal,  where  the  other  Fae,  supernaturals,

bridge over the canal, where the other Fae, supernaturals,
magicals, and paranormals had come in from, was totally dark
and cold, almost as if it were completely cut off from life.

When I'd asked Eeireek about it, he told me the veil

there was one way only and they'd all been given a limited time
to get through. The veil had been closed and the veil at the tree in
our backyard was locked. It had been that way since I'd fallen
through it as Eeian was entering and Ir-nae was jerking him out
of it. The collision had so warped and distorted the veil that she'd
locked herself down with no one being able to come out and no
one being able to go in.

I couldn't say I was all that disappointed. Philip didn't

really  have  any  familial  obligations  to  keep  him  in  the  human
realm, and if the veil that allowed someone to enter Faery wasn't
locked,  we'd  be  forced  to  return.  The  worst  thing  was  not
knowing if I would return to being a female when I went back
through  the  crossover  or  not.  It  was  extremely  daunting  and
scary and…

Absolutely didn't bear thinking about.
I shook my head and focused back on the television

screen.  I  hadn't  heard  from  Philip  in  hours  and  I  started  to  get
worried. So worried, in fact, I sat on the couch crying. Although,
to  be  fair,  I  cried  all  of  the  time  over  nothing.  The  Allstate
commercial where the spokesman talks about a little girl who lost
her family home in a fire and the insurance agents brought her a
teddy bear? Made me weep like a baby. The episode of True
Blood  where  they  kill  off  Christopher  Meloni's  character,  who
was the hottest, coolest Guardian in existence? I curled up in a
ball and sobbed with my head in Thomas's lap for over an hour.
I'd heard pregnancy hormones made people cry and have crazy
mood swings, but no one told me they'd just make me crazy.

And don't even get me started on the food cravings.
Macaroni and cheese smothered in chocolate syrup?

The  breakfast  of  champions.  I  wanted  to  eat  the  combination
every morning. For brunch, I would have a glass of milk with a
dash of hot sauce, three raw tomatoes sprinkled with salt, and a
plate of fries smothered in vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, and
sugar.  Dinner  was  usually  with  Philip,  and  I  tried  to  curtail  my
crazy eating habits, but it was extremely hard to do. I mean, who
didn't want to eat a steak smothered in grape jelly with lettuce,
tomato,  cheese  in  between  two  slices  of  whole  wheat  toast?  I

tomato, cheese in between two slices of whole wheat toast? I
know I sure did.

We tended to eat in a lot.
So as it was the middle of the day, I sat on the couch,

eating my homemade fries, tomatoes and milk when I finally
decided to just call my mate. Jerking my iPhone into my hand, I
began to dial numbers, focused on calling Philip and trying to
watch television simultaneously.

Greatest mistake of my life. The click of the phone

alerted me to the fact that someone had picked up.

"Hello?" the male voice answered hesitantly.
My eyebrows scrunched down low. Philip's usual dulcet

tone was absent. The person who'd answered his phone had a
light, musical voice that niggled at the back of my mind. I felt as if
I should know who the person was. Shoving that thought away
because it was Philip's phone and he was the only person who
would answer, especially with my due date so close, I
responded.

"Umm… Philip?" I tried to mask the hurt in my voice,

but I'm afraid I failed miserably if the lump in my throat was any
indication.

"No, this is Maurice. You dialed the wrong number," the

stranger on the other end responded.

My heart leapt for joy in relief. My eyes closed and I

sighed.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I thought I was calling my mate-um…

boyfriend," I explained, stumbling over my words and
explanation.

I'd already shattered the world of one human… um,

almost human. I wasn't going to be responsible for another one.

"Ee-an?" the voice on the other line whispered and my

heart slammed against my ribcage.

Who was this person and how did they know my

brother? More than that, how did they know the Unseelie
pronunciation of my brother's name? Only the noticeable sound
of tears in the other man's voice restrained the suspicious,
paranoid, Eeiran bitch from exploding forth.

"What? Um… no, this is his sis… his brother, Eeiran," I

explained, still completely baffled as to the other person's
identity.

I looked up as Eeian walked into the room.

"Would you like to talk to him? He's standing right here

next to me."

"Yes, please. If it wouldn't be too much of a problem.

Can you let him know that Ma-rice wants to talk to him?"

I turned to Eeian, my face a mask of helpless confusion.

I knew the name, Ma-rice, I just didn't know from where.
Placing my hand over the mouthpiece, I quickly explained to
Eeian what was going on.

"I dialed the wrong number by mistake. I was trying to

call Philip, but got another number instead. The person knows
you. As a matter of fact, they thought I was you," I explained,
smiling slightly at Thomas and Steven as they walked into the
room, Lily perched up in Ir-nae's arms as he trailed behind them.

"What's his name?" Eeian asked me.
"Maurice. But he told me to tell you Ma-rice," I said.
I jumped in fear and surprise when Eeian yelled Ma-

rice's name. Ir-nae slowly put Lily down on the ground and
covered his face with his hands.

"What the fuck is going on, Eeian?" I yelled at him.
"Ma-rice is my younger brother who was kidnapped

over a decade ago! Oh gods, let me talk to him Eeiran, please,"
Eeian begged.

I couldn't understand how I had dialed Eeian's missing

foster brother by accident and tried to remember what number I
had  called.  Spooked,  because  something  or  someone  had
obviously  made  me  dial  Ma-rice,  I  handed  Eeian  the  phone
without any more hesitation and looked over at Ir-nae who knelt
on  the  floor,  trembling  and  whispering  Ma-rice's  name  like  a
chant  or  a  prayer.  The  Unseelie  family  had  been  devastated
when their son had been kidnapped. Perhaps my Seer powers
had  caused  me  to  dial  Ma-rice  when  Eeian  was  sure  to  be
around and available? Maybe Ma-rice needed Eeian, or would
need  Eeian  and  the  magic  that  lived  within  me  had  made  my
calling  him  possible?  Whatever  had  caused  it  to  happen  made
me shake just a little.

Eeian's breathless voice when he answered completely

flabbergasted me as I observed him talking to his foster brother.
I'd inadvertently found and reunited them with when I got
concerned about my mate after not hearing from him in a few
hours.

"Ma-rice?" Eeian practically whispered.

"Ma-rice?" Eeian practically whispered.
He paused and clutched the phone tightly to his face.

Tears streamed down as he listened, and he began to tremble
slightly as well.

"Oh gods," he responded. "Ma-rice, we thought you

were dead. No one's heard from you… no one has seen you in
over eighteen years. Where have you been? Where are you
now?"

I almost felt bad for Ma-rice. How the hell could he

respond with Eeian throwing out question after question rapid-
fire? I almost told him to slow down and let his brother answer
when Thomas's hand landed on my arm and he mouthed for me
to be quiet, shaking his head at me. I would let Eeian have his
reunion, but man I'd have to have a conversation with him about
letting people talk later.

Much later.
"What did they do to you, Ma-rice?" Eeian whispered,

and my heart dropped into my stomach to be kicked and pushed
around by my unborn children. I was pretty sure I was having
more than one in that moment. Very sure.

Eeian swallowed loudly and his Adam's apple bobbed.

Whatever Ma-rice had said or not said had completely shaken
my older brother and I placed my hand on his left shoulder while
Thomas pressed himself against Eeian's right side.

"Okay, Ma-rice. Where are you? Can you tell me that?

Can I come see you and introduce you to my mate and our
family?" he asked in an almost hesitant voice.

Why did Eeian sound so cautious? Wouldn't his brother

want to see him?

I jumped again when Eeian began shouting and

screaming into the phone, asking Ma-rice what was wrong, what
was happening. My heart pounded in my chest and I listened to
my brother begging and pleading with whoever had taken Ma-
rice to please return him. I startled and slammed my eyes shut
when Eeian growled and threw my phone across the room and it
shattered against the wall.

Ir-nae had already risen to his feet and watched Eeian

expectantly as if awaiting orders.

"They took him again. I was talking to him on the phone.

I had him right there and I listened as they took him again. I have
to go get him," Eeian stated.

to go get him," Eeian stated.

"Let's go," Ir-nae agreed.
I straightened my shoulders. "I'm in too."
I had a faint recollection of Ma-rice, his porcelain white

skin and long black hair. People had often times thought he and I
were related, but whereas I was told many times I was beautiful,
Ma-rice had been breathtaking, even as a child. He'd looked like
a porcelain doll and the thought of him escaping his kidnappers
only to be kidnapped again…

"No, brathair," Eeian said, slipping into the Unseelie

dialect, showing his extreme upset. "You're pregnant. Expecting
your first child and I cannot wait. Besides, you need to be here,
close to Philip for when you go into labor. I appreciate your
offer, but please stay here."

Turning to Ir-nae, he smiled and clasped the large

guard's  shoulder  in  his  hand.  Ir-nae  had  been  bound,  through
words spoken by Eeian, to forever protect Thomas, his children,
and  all  other  descendants  for  eternity…  or  for  as  long  as  he
lived.  Eeian  reminded  him  of  this  duty  and  pleaded  with  the
guard to stay.

"But, Your Highness. He is my prince as well. I failed

him, too," Ir-nae responded, his voice sounding filled with
emotion.

"You did not fail him, but I will find him and I will bring

him back," Eeian promised.

"And we'll help you," Eeireek stated. I looked up and

took in the sight of all of the different paranormals, supernaturals,
and  magicals  who  stood  in  the  room.  I  hadn't  noticed  them
arriving, too shocked, and too wrapped up in what was going on
with  Eeian  and  Ma-rice  to  be  aware  they'd  all  assembled.  I
didn't know how they all knew to be there, but I noticed that Ir-
nae clutched a phone in his hand. The guard had obviously been
calling  around  while  Eeian  had  been  on  my  cell  and  I  had
completely  missed  it.  There  were  a  few  angels  and  some
demons,  pixies,  elves,  witches,  warlocks,  wolf-shifters,  cat-
shifters,  bird-shifters,  and  faeries.  They  all  stood  at  the  ready,
waiting to hear from Eeian where they were going and why.

"Thank you, all," Eeian nodded. "Going by the area

code, we're heading to Texas, to the Tate Pack ranch. I have
some friends out there we can ask to help us. That's where we'll
start our search. We are looking for Maurice, or rightly Ma-rice,

start our search. We are looking for Maurice, or rightly Ma-rice,
an Unseelie prince, my younger foster brother and the biological
brother of some of the Fae here. Ma-rice was kidnapped over
eighteen years ago, escaped and has been re-abducted today.
Let's find him. Now."

The entire room erupted in a chorus of agreement and

they  all  turned  to  leave.  One  of  Ma-rice's  eldest  brothers,  Le-
eon,  the  oldest  of  the  Unseelie  princes,  rubbed  a  small  golden
stone in between his fingers, chanting low beneath his breath. I
turned  my  head  to  smile  at  Thomas  and  when  I  looked  back,
Le-eon had gone.

Not too long after that everyone else followed Eeian out.

Eeian kissed Thomas passionately before saying goodbye,
ruffled Steven's hair, and clutched Lily to him tightly and gave her
a peck on the forehead. Hugging me, he made me promise not to
give birth without either him or Philip present and I agreed. After
he left, I smiled wanly at Thomas who returned my almost-grin
with one of his own.

An hour later I felt my first contraction.
One hour after that I felt another one.
Thirty minutes later I laid on the couch, groaning from the

pain.

Fifteen minutes later I grit my teeth and held the hand of

a very freaked out Thomas.

Ten minutes later I let go of Thomas's hand, ordering him

to call Eeian and Philip while holding tightly to Steven's fingers.

Five minutes later I begged for someone to give me

some drugs, like I'd seen the women on the television ask for
and cursed Philip's very name.

Two minutes later my water broke.
"Get. Philip. Here. Now!" I screamed at the top of my

lungs, beyond happy that Lily had been shuffled off with one of
my sisters, Keeshae, to the playground.

"Eeian! Why is the baby coming so soon?! Eeiran still

has another three months to go. Why is he in labor now?"
Thomas asked frantically and paced the floor of the living room
next to me, his cell phone pressed tightly to his ear, his hand
slightly shaking.

Thomas's slight panic attack did not fill me with any sort

of confidence in his ability to see me through labor.

"The gestational period for faeries is only six months," I

panted out. "Why the hell would you want to be pregnant for
nine months? That's too long. It's like you're trying to grow a full
grown adult."

Thomas narrowed his eyes. "Why do you and your

brother always say the same thing at the same time?" he asked.

I chuckled when the contraction passed. "It's a Fae

thing."

Thomas groaned loudly.
"I think it may be time for you to push, Prince," Ir-nae

informed me.

I shook my head fiercely. Pain rippled through my body,

like a tight band wrapped around the base of my spine and my
stomach. My ass clenched, my stomach cramped and my mind
absolutely refused to consider exactly where the baby, dear gods
let it only be one, would come out. Fae delivered from our
rectum, male or female, it was where all babies came from. We
had a separate channel that closed our normal sphincter when it
came time to deliver, but still… it was kinda gross.

"No. I won't push until Philip gets here." I fought against

my labor, trying to clench the muscles in my ass and keep the
baby from being born.

"We'll record it for him," Steven attempted to soothe me,

wiping my brow with a cool cloth. I sighed in relief and smiled.
"But you have to push."

"Not without Philip! Not without my mate!" I screamed.
"I'm here, I'm here," Philip panted and raced into the

room, his eyes wild and unfocused and his gaze flickered around
before landing on me.

"Let's have this baby," Ir-nae encouraged.
Reaching for Philip's hand and thanking Steven as

emphatically as I could through the pushing, I let out a blood-
curdling scream and felt a rush of relief when my child slipped
from my body and into Ir-nae's waiting arms.

Chapter Sixteen

Wherein Philip becomes a dad and a fully committed mate

all at once… finally.

Childbirth was a miracle.
The fact that two people could come together and create

a new life, with ten fingers and ten toes, a brain that gives them
the ability and the need to make decisions, to live, to find
purpose, was amazing. The reality of my child, who wailed in
Thomas's arms as the smaller man raced off to clean him, was a
miracle.

A really disgusting, loud miracle.
Blood and what I could only describe as… cheese,

covered my son and the lower portion of Eeiran's body. I
swallowed back the nausea and the tears, willed myself not to
pass out and leaned over to kiss Eeiran's forehead, to thank him
for our son, when he tensed up again and swore.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," he panted out.
"No, sir, Your Highness. Looks like you have another

baby coming," Ir-nae said with a smile.

My brain shut down and refused to function after that

moment. Did he say another baby? No way. I hadn't even
ordered the one I got and now I was having another one?

I couldn't process the thought, so I offered my hand and

my inner strength to my mate, and yes, I could finally and fully
accept Eeiran as my destined partner now. He was made for me
and I was made for him. He was strong where I was weak and I
held him up when he couldn't stand any longer. It was more than
sex, and if I were completely honest with myself, it was more
than fate. It was love. Through and through, pure and true, and
oh so very, very real. I loved him.

I loved Eeiran.
My mate.
My love.
The man who'd just delivered another son and only had

a moment to breathe before he pushed again and delivered a
third little boy.

Holy.
Fucking.
Shit-balls.
I had three children? Triplets? Really? What the fuck

was it with the Fae? Couldn't they do anything simply?

"You know this is because of your fucking wolf genes

right?" Eeiran panted out as our third son was taken to be
cleaned by another of his sisters, Heeidee. Our second son had
been taken by his sister Xaree.

Oh yeah. Right. I'd almost forgotten I was part wolf-

shifter. And wolves were notorious for having between four and
six pups. We'd apparently gotten off easy by only having three.

Thank god, from whom all blessings flow.
My head spun and all I could only kiss Eeiran's forehead

and struggle to breathe. Technically I hadn't done anything
physically strenuous, but I was still exhausted for some reason. I
lightly kissed Eeiran's lips. When his sisters and Thomas come
back into the room with our children, Eeiran opened his mouth
and screamed.

I jerked my head away at the sound and looked down at

his stomach and then further down where Ir-nae had raced back
to see what was going on. Eeiran's teeth came down hard and
had I still been there, he would have bitten my lips clean through.
I breathed a sigh of relief but tried to figure out what was going
on.

"Your Highness? It seems as though there is another

baby, or two, trying to come out but it is stuck. I'm going to
either have to cut you open to take out the baby or try and get
someone with small hands and a thin arm to push their hand up
your rectum and help the baby out," Ir-nae said.

My heart stopped beating for a moment before it started

again with a racing rhythm.

"Wait. You want someone to shove their hand up my

mate's ass and help ease our baby out?" I asked, my throat
clogged with fear. My fright didn't ease whatsoever when Ir-nae
merely nodded.

"I'll do it," Steven offered.
I turned and glared. "You are unmated and almost had

an affair with mine. I don't think so," I said with a low growl.

Ir-nae's returning snarl made me turn my head back

towards him.

"Could you two stop fucking growling and focus on the

big issue here? We have to save this baby and Eeiran because
I'm not telling Eeian his baby brother died giving birth because
you two jackasses wanted to keep yapping at each other in
order to see whose cock was bigger!" Thomas yelled.

The room went still and everyone looked toward

Thomas. I instantly felt contrite and quickly apologized to Ir-nae
and Steven, who repeated the expression of regret.

"Let Philip try. If he can't do it then we can try Harparee

or Maree or even Kathee with her huge hands, but let him try
first. Please." Eeiran's voice sounded weak.

I moved into the spot Ir-nae vacated and glanced up. I

was nervous, scared out of my mind. I'd never considered fisting
my mate for pleasure, much less as a life-saving technique.

"Okay, what do I do?" I asked Ir-nae.
He nodded before requesting that Thomas bring him lots

and lots of lube.

Confused for a moment, but then I realized this was not

about sex. This was about my mate and our child, possibly, our
children. Ir-nae directed me to coat Eeiran's ass hole with lube
and my entire arm from the tip of my fingers up to my elbows.
Once I felt like a greased pig and Thomas and Eeian's sofa was
completely stained from lube, blood and baby birthing goop, I
looked back to Ir-nae.

"He's already pretty stretched from the first three babies,

but you need to see how many fingers you can get into his ass at
first and then work your way up from there," he instructed me.

Nodding, I pushed three fingers into Eeiran's ass hole

and they slid in easily. Pressing my fourth finger, my pinky, in
alongside of them, I had to pause and give him a moment to get
used to the thickness before I attempted to force in another one.

The room became deathly quiet as Eeiran breathed

heavily and I began slowly spreading my fingers apart in an effort
to stretch him out more fully.

"I can take it, Philip. Just do it. Please hurry." Eeiran said

faintly.

I wanted to rush, but I didn't want to hurt him or our

baby, babies, any more than I had to.

Once I felt the muscles in his ass relax, I pressed in my

thumb and slowly, but surely, eased my hand inside of his tight
channel. I gritted my teeth and the muscles  of  his  ass  clenched
and  clamped  tightly  around  my  arm  and  I  slowly  pressed  it  in
further. I almost up in despair and slowly began easing my hand
back out, sure my hand and arm were too big and thick, but I
felt  my  unborn  child's  head.  I  gently  slipped  my  fingers  down
around  the  baby's  body  and  found  the  problem—two  babies,
both  wrapped  in  the  umbilical  cord.  One  was  anchored  by  its
feet; the other had the cord wrapped around its neck and with
each tug by the other baby's feet, the cord wrapped tighter.

each tug by the other baby's feet, the cord wrapped tighter.

"Ssshhh, I've got you. Papa's got you," I soothed my

children and painstakingly eased the cord down and off of the
first baby's feet. Once done, I pushed my hand against the
baby's back and slowly pulled my hand out.

I looked up at Eeiran, whose face had gone extremely

pale. Shit. I had to hurry.

"Push, baby. I know it's hard, but I need you to push for

me," I said.

Eeiran nodded and his ass and stomach muscles pushed

both the baby and my hand out. I caught the first baby, and after
its umbilical cord had been snipped like the others, handed the
babe off to Harparee and turned back to Eeiran as he delivered
the fifth and final baby.

"The cord's wrapped around its neck," I cautioned Ir-

nae, who'd resumed his position.

He nodded grimly and as soon as the baby arrived, he

unwrapped the cord from around its neck and turned to place it
on top of a towel that had been laid over the coffee table.

I gnawed on my bottom lip, clutching Eeiran's hand with

my  unclean  one  as  we  stared  at  our  child.  Whereas  all  of  our
children had been born with thin wisps of dark brown hair, this
baby  had  a  startlingly  thick  amount  of  black  hair.  Its  face  was
blue and turning purple as Ir-nae attempted to perform CPR on
the  newborn.  I  had  fought  hard  against  having  a  mate,  a  man
who had once been a woman, for what seemed to be all eternity.
I'd fought against that same man being pregnant and bearing me
children. But now I'd give anything for my child to breathe.

"C'mon baby. Breathe, baby, breathe," I pleaded.
The room filled with tense silence and everyone silently

prayed and begged for the babe to draw breath and cry. Eeiran
sniffled and I glanced in his direction. I pulled him up into my
arms tightly and rocked him gently.

"He's going to be all right," I promised and could only

hope I wasn't wrong.

The smack on the baby's bottom from Ir-nae and the

baby's subsequent cry sent an exhale of relief rushing through the
room. I turned to Ir-nae with a smile stretching the muscles of my
face.

"Thank you. Thank you for saving my son," I said, my

voice rough with emotion.

Ir-nae shrugged, his cheeks glowing red in

embarrassment. "It was no problem. Just something I saw on
Discovery Health," he stated matter-of-factly.

The room filled with laughter and I leaned down to press

a kiss against Eeiran's forehead.

"We need to name the babies," he said softly, his eyes

blinking slowly as he fought against exhaustion.

"We will," I reassured him. "But for now, you've done a

lot of work. Get some sleep."

"I want to see the babies. We had five, did you know

that?" Eeiran's speech slurred with tiredness as he exhaled
deeply and slowly, the exhaustion pulling him under.

"They'll be here when you wake up. I promise. And

yeah, I know we had five. Thank you for giving me five children,
Eeiran. I love you so much," I whispered, my mouth pressed
against his damp temple.

His hair was matted with sweat, his face streaked with

tears, and his sisters, those without a baby  in  their  arms,  along
with  Ir-nae,  were  trying  to  clean  him  up.  To  anyone  else  he
would  have  been  a  mess.  To  me,  he  was  the  most  gorgeous
creature on every planet, in every realm.

"I love you, too," he whispered before falling asleep after

one last sigh of what I could only hope was happiness.

I was so happy Eeiran had fallen through that veil. So

glad  the  veil  had  fixed  the  issue  he'd  struggled  with  all  his  life,
turning  him  from  female  to  male  and  making  him  happy  and
comfortable  with  himself.  I  was  so  delighted  he'd  come  into
McDonald's with Steven and I'd gotten a chance to meet him.

More than that, I was so happy he'd never given up on

me. He was my mate, my love, and I would be there with him as
he lived his truth.

His Faery Truth.

Epilogue

Wherein we have an epilogue… because you know you need

one.

Three months after having my babies, I finally felt

somewhat normal.

Sort of.

Or at least, I would if Philip would stop coddling me. It

was getting on my last goddamn nerve.

"I'm fine, Philip," I grunted and lifted Vivianee Catrine,

our only daughter, into my arms and walked over to the changing
table to change her diaper. I smiled when she gurgled and kicked
her tiny feet, excited to be clean again. She'd been a cranky little
thing  all  day  and  I  was  glad  to  see  her  back  to  smiling  and
laughing at me. All our children were extremely happy babies as
most  Fae  babies  were.  They  began  having  expressions  at  an
early age and talking way before human babies did. Our eldest
son, Philip Eeiran, whom everyone called Pej, for Philip Eeiran
Junior, was already showing himself to be a little troublemaker.
At three months old, he would wait until someone went to check
his  diaper  before  he  would  unleash  his  special  hose  and  spray
their faces with his pee. Then he would laugh hysterically when
he did so.

Philip had already stated we'd certainly have to keep our

eyes on him. Our second son, Justin Eeireek, whom was called
Jer by all, was the quiet one. He barely cried, and when he did, it
was always very short and only to alert someone that he needed
to  be  changed  and/or  fed.  Jer  was  fascinated  by  books  and
could be quieted with the sound of turning pages almost instantly.
Our third son, Thomas Eeian, who was affectionately nicknamed
Ten,  loved  music  and  always  clapped  his  hands  and  wiggled
around when there was music playing. He was a sucker for R &
B, which completely amazed Philip, but as I let him know, Fae
children always showed signs and clues to their mates as infants,
whether they were Seelie or Unseelie. Steven asked my brothers
if maybe I'd only wanted to eat fries as a baby since I'd found
my  mate  at  a  McDonald's.  Philip  had  chased  him  around  the
room,  much  to  the  amusement  of  the  quintuplets  and  everyone
else.

Then there was Vivianee Catrine, who seemed to take

pleasure in anything and everything. We'd been watching her
carefully, hoping she'd give us some hint about her mate or her
future, to which she watched us just as carefully, always with a
small smile on her face as if she were determined to keep the
secret from us. I'd have to keep my eye on her.

Finally, there was baby John Ir-nae Steven, or Jist.

Named after John Barrowman, my newest celebrity obsession,
Ir-nae and Steven, both of whom saved his life. He was my little

Ir-nae and Steven, both of whom saved his life. He was my little
treasure. He was happiest when in the kitchen surrounded by the
sounds and smells of food and absolutely adored one of Philip's
newest hires, a young man named Grayson Kingsley. Grayson
was twenty-one, newly graduated from college with a bachelor's
in business, and planned to one day own a restaurant. Whenever
Grayson came over, he scooped Jist into his arms and carried
him off to the kitchen to cook… something. We all smiled at the
sounds of Jist's laughter when that happened. Jist was a special
baby. While the supernatural doctor we'd found had assured us
that he'd sustained mild brain damage, he'd also let us know Jist
was only slightly developmentally delayed.

Jist was our miracle baby, though, and he would do very

special and miraculous things when he got older. We just knew
it.

"What are you thinking about?" Philip asked me when

we stepped out of the nursery where we'd put all five babies
down for a nap.

"The babies. You. Our family… everything," I

responded with a smile, wrapping my arms around my mate's
neck.

I grinned when he kissed me softly before moaning as he

took it deeper.

"You can tell me all about it later. I've missed you," he

mumbled against my lips before pressing his mouth against mine,
hard and passionately.

"I've missed you too. What took you so long? I've been

ready for three months," I whined, wrapping my legs around his
waist when he placed his hands on my ass and lifted me up
against him.

"You only had the babies three months ago." Philip

laughed and walked with me to our bedroom.

His hard cock rubbed against my clenching hole and my

shaft rubbed against his abs when he traveled. Oh, I couldn't
wait to feel him buried inside me.

"I know." I smiled cheekily and squealed when he let go

of me and pushed me back onto the bed, where I bounced
slightly.

Philip shook his head and chuckled, yanking off his

clothes and ripping mine off me. Glad I'd only been wearing a
pair of blue scrub pants and a black Twilight t-shirt that Thomas

pair of blue scrub pants and a black Twilight t-shirt that Thomas
had given me as a gag gift. Both of those could be ripped and
replaced… or not.

"That's right, rip that shirt, baby," I egged him on and

moaned when he came down on top of me, his naked flesh
pressed against my own.

"I love you so much," I whispered against his lips when

he grabbed the lube from the nightstand drawer and spread
some on my clenching sphincter.

"I love you, too. More than I can ever say," Philip

responded before placing the leaking, twitching head of his cock
against my hole.

He thrust in slowly, the burn of his dick invading my ass

after three months of going without making my back arch and my
eyes roll back in my head from the pleasure.

"It can be slow and soft the next time, but if I don't fuck

you right now, I'm going to embarrass myself and blow before
we get to the good stuff," Philip warned.

I clutched his shoulders and wrapped my legs around

him tightly. "C'mon McDonald's boy, show me what you got," I
teased, moaning when he did just that.

We soared above the proverbial clouds of lust, love and

mating, and I couldn't help but thank the gods for making me into
the man I was always meant to be. Regardless of what others
thought, regardless of the fears and doubts that assailed me
every so often, I was living my truth. The fact I had a supportive
family and a loving mate who kept my head above water as I did
had become an added bonus.

And that night, after the babies were asleep and my

husband was wrapped around me tightly, his arm draped around
my waist, his hand lightly holding my flaccid cock, still sticky with
my cum, I sent out a quick thank you to my brother, Eeian, and
his mate, Thomas, who were the reason I came to Tonawanda in
the first place and got my very own Prince Charming and had my
very own faery tale.

I was the happiest I'd ever been in my life.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.

The End

About the Author

Vicktor Alexander "Vic" wrote his first story at the age of 10

about his youngest sister and her destruction of the world… with

her breath. Vic now enjoys writing about shifters, humanoids,

cowboys, firemen, rent boys, fairies, elves, dancers, doctors,

Doms, Subs, and anything else that catches his fancy, all sexy

men falling in love with each other and having lots of naughty,

dirty, man-on-man sex. Bestselling author of The Tate Pack

Series, Vic has his eyes on the stories that erase the lines of

tradition and focuses instead on love, in all its many forms. A

huge fan of the "happily-ever-after" ending, his characters all ride

off into the proverbial sunset, sexually satisfied and in love, all

bearing the scars of fighting for that love, just like in real life. No

consistent fluff writer here, Vic's stories can be slightly gritty,

dark and hard hitting, but the reason for that is, to Vic, love is

sweeter when it's been fought for and won. Never satisfied with

only one genre, every book that Vic writes falls into more than

one category and has each main character experiencing more

than one orgasm, which is something Vic is very used to hearing

in his real life.

Out and proud, Vic does not believe that love only comes in one

form, one race, one gender and that not only is gender fluid, by

sexuality as well. Vic loves to make people laugh and when he's

not writing, or rather, procrastinating in writing, he's reading,

playing the Sims 3, hanging out with his very supportive adopted

family, talking to his adopted daughter, whom he affectionately

calls "Chipmunk", about how she's going to help him change the

world or being distracted from his writing by pictures of John

Barrowman, Scott Hoying and Shemar Moore.

Vicktor loves to hear from his readers. You may contact him at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VicktorAlexander

You can also find him chattering away on social media sites and

teasing readers (in the most deliciously, viral way possible) on his

website:

www.Vicktoralexander.com

Twitter:

www.Twitter.com/VVeeB

Facebook:

www.Facebook.com/AuthorVicktorAlexander

Blogs:

http://vicktor-alexander.blogspot.com

http://imstillvic.blogspot.com

Titles by Vicktor Alexander

Available from Silver Publishing

FLIP THE COIN

Chocolate Vanilla Swirl

PASSION'S HERO

The Alpha King

TONAWANDA FAERY TALES

The Faery Truth

Available from The Rooster & The Pig Publishing

The Besties

TATE PACK

Unthinkable

Inconceivable

A Very Tate Christmas

Unassumed

A Very Tate Valentine's

A Very Tate St. Pat's

A Holy Tate Easter

A Tate Pack Memorial

A Tate Pack Vacation

A Very Tate Serial Anthology: Love, Liquor, Chocolates &

Loyalty

Impossible

THE WILGREN CHRONICLES

Mickey's Duke

Ethan's Earl

The Marriage Groups

Elian

Steamy

Too Hot to Handle

Super Gay

The Dom

Chain Me (Releases August 2013)

Head Angel In Charge

An Angelic Meeting Part I

An Angelic Meeting Part II (Coming Soon)

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Note from the Publisher
Dedication
Trademarks Acknowledgement
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue