Once there was a time that I thought my Princess bathing in her sacred pool was the most beautiful sight that could ever exist.

I was wrong.

This... this is something simply magical. She moves with sensuous grace, her body rocking gently in time with the river's current. Her eyes are closed as she rubs her hands through her hair. It's slick from the river, tangles and curls of dampened flame that flow down her back. She looks peaceful. Did she ever look so happy and relaxed in the above? I can't... I don't think I ever saw her that way. Her red lips are curved in delicate smile. Gold dust shimmers over her nose and cheekbones.

The oil from the Crone River flows over her gorgeous body. Holy gods, her curves. They're not as thick as they were before, but they are still so sweet. My fingers twitch as she rubs the water over her belly, her thighs. I should volunteer to help her scrub. I have larger palms, I can do a good job of cleaning her.

But I don't touch her. Those days, all alone in the above. Starving. It nearly shattered her. All my fault, isn't it? Sure, I can blame Love and the damned First House, but she was always mine to protect and twice I have failed her.

I won't fail again. I will protect her with my soul.

Which means I can't destroy Lier. He is Basru again. I can fucking feel the connection. My adorable, forgiving Princess gave him a second chance.

I nod at the dark male, dismissing him. He doesn't need to stay by the river to guard her now that Thelios and I are here. My brother slams the flat of his hand on Belen's back before he motions for the green-eyed male to leave.

Thelios and I step forward together.

Mara inhales, her body tightening as if the chords between us just tightened. Thelios steps into the river as she spins around, but I stay on the dock. I won't intrude, no matter how badly I want her to be mine.

"Thelios," she gasps out. Her eyes don't even flit over me. I'm invisible, unworthy, rejected.

"I almost wondered if it was all a hallucination," she smiles as she wraps her arms around his neck. He returns her embrace, looking intently down at her face.

"My Sprite," he murmurs, peppering her face with kisses, hands roving over her bare body. He pulls back just enough to wipe her tears and let his eyes wander with his hands. "You are well, love? Still hungry? Are you cold in the water? Sprite, I'm so fucking sorry about everything. I couldn't remember you. How could I forget you?"

"Shh, my heart, I know," she shushes him, slim fingers covering his lips. "Don't dwell on the past."

My limbs are numb. My eyes burn but I don't drop my gaze. I need to see her happiness, even if it's in my brother's arms. Don't dwell in the past, but what I did can't be forgiven so easily. Fuck, it shouldn't be forgiven.

She kisses him. Pulls his head down and fuses her mouth to his in a carnal acknowledgment of her male. I see her body quiver, pressing into him as if every piece of her recognizes him as hers.

Thelios groans, a half-moan, half-growl that makes Mara laugh softly as she pulls away. "There's my demon male," she teases him.

"He has missed you like fucking nothing else, Sprite."

"I love you," she says, smiling.

The groan slips from my lips before I can stop it. It hurts. I think I would rather be in chains, dangling in the pit of the damned, rather than be here. At least then I thought that Parijan was still mine. Maybe she is. Maybe the memories of my sweet Fated are all I have. She is gone forever and Mara isn't mine.

"Sorry," I say stoically as they both turn to me. I'm not sure what I'm apologizing for. Everything.

"Thane," she says my name carefully. The slightest bit of confusion flits across her eyes.

I bow my head, my chin on my chest. I can't look at her eyes, those gorgeous dark eyes that are my everything.

I hear the ripple of water over my own raspy, shallow breaths. Her touch comes as the lightest caress on my cheek. The moan that rips from my core is embarrassingly loud. It's like I just came like an adolescent from just the merest brush of her fingers.

"Thane," she says my name more sweetly, "why are you so upset, my male?"

My brother hauls me back to my feet, roughly. It wakes me up... fast. I come up swinging. A hard left hook is blocked, but my knee hits his thigh.

"Fucker," he grunts. His elbow smashes into my nose as we fall.

"Stop it, you two!"

We ignore Mara. Even the precious male she loves ignores her... until she snaps out, "I will call for my father!"

"Fuck, Sprite," Thelios tears himself away from me.

I try to get one more solid hit in. "Thane," Mara says warningly.

"Yes, Princess?" I murmur. My eyes don't leave my brother. He is glaring with those creepy eyes fixed on me. Of course, I'm sure I look just a damned creepy. Fucking twins.

"Princess," he mocks.

"Sprite," I give right back.

We both posture towards each other again.

"Enough! Lier! Belen!" Mara calls out.

"Princess!" Lier appears at the top of the wall so fast that he had to have been spying on us. Damn fool. I should have hit him harder. He's a tough fucker, though.

This is the moment that five gargoyles tumble over the wall, chortling gleefully.

Mushu squeals, clapping his hands and runs to the bottom of the stairs, waving his hands and arms madly with a flourish as if to say, 'leave this way, assholes.'

"Moosh, I missed you," Mara clambers up to the edge of the dock and is tackled by Alnue and Mishu while Momo leaps around and Harku carefully sets down... are those clean robes? Gods.

Mishu stops his grand gesturing for us to leave and slumps his shoulders, pouting. "Liiieer," he hisses a greeting at the stone-faced guard before scampering to join the pile of gargoyles that has my Princess laughing with joy.

"Off, beasts," Thelios grins. "Off with you now, we have things to discuss." The way he says it makes it sound very intriguing.

All of the gargoyles look at Thelios with narrowed eyes. I watch Momo carefully; he's a biter.

"Now, my sweethearts, can you give us some privacy?" Mara says. "As Thelios said, we have things to discuss."

"What things, Princess?" I move to her side quickly, before my brother can, but I stop short a foot away, giving her space.

She begins to speak again, but Thelios sidles up to her side and wraps his arm around her waist, giving me a smug look.

I growl in my throat, glaring his way, before turning to Mara with a forced smile. "Yes, Princess?" I prompt her softly.

She just looks between us, warily. Her dark eyes settle on me. Something passes over her face. An awareness, or a knowing.

"What is it, Princess?"

"You were never so... real, as Thane of the First House," she muses out loud. "I thought I knew you, but I didn't at all, did I?"

If I drown myself in the river will it work here?

"I was different. Arrogant. Misguided."

"Did you love me?" she asks softly.

I'm a little stunned. "Yes."

"But... you signed for my execution, Thane."

I have to tell her the truth. "I was convinced you betrayed me," I remind her. "I think it was easier to know you were dead and still mine than alive and able to be claimed by another male." That's sick. I'm sick.

"I was claimed, by Thelios. And yet you seem so much better now."

I stick with my promise to be truthful to her, "I died, sweetling."

Her body jerks. "We all died, didn't we?" she says quietly, shaken at the thought. My heart sinks like a stone. We all died.

"But I fucking killed you," I drag the wound over razor blades for maximum pain. I just can't forgive what I did, so how can Mara?

"You cursed, oh great and powerful lordling," Thelios jabs at me. Unwittingly he rescued me from that discussion. I scowl before realizing that it was on purpose. Thelios will rescue me, especially if it means that Mara is kept happy. I could have done worse for a twin. Gods, think of if Lier was my brother? What a disaster that would be.

Mara kisses Thelios cheek while murmuring a scolding, "be nice."

"I am being nice. I'm just surprised that the Lordling over here said- oof, Sprite." He rubs his side where Mara elbowed him.

"I was raised to speak properly in front of a lady," I take the opportunity to poke fun at him.

"And I was raised by a pit viper."

"You're not the only one."

"Males," Mara sighs. "You both are terrible. Maybe Urto is a better cho-"

We are on her in an instant. Hands, mouths, bodies. Wings are wrapped around her, blocking her from leaving or being seen. She lets out not a single protest. Instead, her small hands travel our skin, her mouth dancing along ours, one then the other. She rubs on us like the naughtiest of brothel dancers. She would out-earn them all with this performance.

Then, her teeth sink into the base of my neck. The flesh gives way, and soon, the blood is flowing. I'm staggered. Shocked that she chose me to drink from. Maybe she thinks that Thelios can't take more bloodletting?

She pulls away and purrs, "my sexy Basru, why are you so stiff?"

"I want you to be comfortable, Princess," I say. It comes out so stilted. Gods know that I'm not comfortable with my rock-hard cock sliding along her wet body. Damnit.

I just leapt at her with Thelios and would have taken her, right here against this stone dock for the all the Underworld to see.

She lets out a husky laugh. "I've been locked in a watery cairn for days. My Basru, do you think I'm not comfortable?" Her eyes meet mine. My eyes travel her face. Her lips are bright red. Dark eyes shine up at me, full of joy. Her cheeks are flushed with health and my and my brother's blood.

"I don't think I've ever seen anything so exquisite," I murmur.

Her smile grows, revealing white teeth and her tiny fangs. "May I drink now, Thane?" she asks pertly.

A smacking noise makes her jump in my arms. She turns, spinning to glare at Thelios. "You hit me?"

"A spanking," he says huskily. "You were very naughty, sending us here without you."

Her eyes widen, she looks back at me. "I thought you would have been the spanking sort," she says to me.

I throw my head back and laugh. When I stop, I look at her wickedly, "I am, Princess."

She pouts. Then, she brightens. "You know what I would really like? Sex and drinking. Can we do that?"

Yes, my gorgeous female. I try to speak, to agree, but my tongue is clumsy. Earlier today Mara was starving in the above and the river we are standing in flowed with bones and broken dreams.

Now, she is here, in our arms, asking to be fucked in a river that is miraculously clean of filth.

Thelios chuckles, lifting his head from trailing kisses down her back. "Drink from Thane, Sprite, and we'll handle it from there."

She smiles brightly. Those little fangs flash before she sinks them into my neck again.

"Fuck, Lios." My eyes meet my brother's. He looks desperate. I can see the question in his eyes. I hope he remembers Mara from the above, his loving relationship with her. And not his 'servicing' of the goddess Inanji.

"Go first," I mouth to him. It's only fair.

As Mara drinks we pick her up. One slim leg wraps around my waist, the other spreads, supported over Thelios' bicep. I literally groan, the sound coming straight from my gut and traveling upward. Her open position is unbelievably sexy and truly uninhibited. She is pink perfection.

"Now that's a beautiful flame," Thelios mutters. I don't think he meant to say it out loud, but I grin, suppressing my laugh as Mara drinks. I can't see her as well as he can, but the awestruck look on his face tells me that what he's seeing trumps all the other miracles we've seen in the Underworld.

Thelios kneels in the water. Mara's teeth sink in further, her soft moans of pleasure rumbling into my body. Her soft thigh presses against me and I know that I am leaking cum all over her skin.

Thelios stands and we adjust Mara gently before he slides into her. He sobs, actually lets out a deep sobbing moan, as he enters her. The sound helps center me, chasing away some of the natural jealousy that rises up when another male, even my own brother, takes my female.

We become one writhing, fucking animal. Mara is a wild thing until we've made her come three times. Then she settles down, drinking from us both, smiling like a pleased little cat.

"Thane," she murmurs, "your turn."

I smile down at my demanding little Princess. "Fast, Princess, you're getting cold," I tell her.

Thelios sits one the dock and holds her for me, his hands on her hips to hold her steady. His eyes won't meet mine and I understand. He's not enthusiastic to share his sweet prize, either. But he will, because Mara asked and because we have to make this work.

I brace myself, my claws digging into the stone on either side of my brother's hips before I plunge into our female.

Her soft cries of pleasure mix with my own groans. It's pure paradise here. So different from our time together in the above, when she hated me so.

She doesn't love me, but at least she doesn't hate me.

"Princess," I whisper huskily. Her eyes drift open and she smiles languidly at me. "Tell me, Mara, who is fucking you?"

Thelios stiffens behind me.

"My male," she purrs.

"Which one?"

"Basru," she responds.

"And who had you earlier? Hmm?"

"My Captain," she tells me.

I grin and Thelios meets my eyes, finally. I wink. I'll be her Basru. Assuming I'm the only Basru she has who fucks her.

Thelios smiles. I turn back to Mara in time to see her arch her back, her body trembling with release. I howl and shudder, finding my own and planting myself deep.

I won't lie. I would love to see Mara swell with a babe.

Panting, I press my head to hers until I feel her shiver, despite being pressed between us. I pick my head up and smile down at her. She's practically asleep.

"Time to go, Princess."

"Thelios is still hard," she murmurs.

He laughs. "Can't fuck it away every time, Sprite. We'd never leave this river."

She shivers in our arms. "Not a bad thing. Can we stay here, forever?"

I kiss her forehead. Thelios looks at me, worried. "Let's go, Princess."

---

Mara

I'm fully awake, just resting. And hiding. I'm not sure what got into me earlier. Maybe it was another Heat? I burrow myself deeper in Thelios' arms. No, it wasn't Heat. It was all me. Having my males with me, so sexy with the water dripping down their muscles and their eyes looking at me as if I'm everything they love in life... it was too tempting. What female, dead or otherwise, could resist?

I smile against Thelios' shoulder. Peeking out, I watch Thane's taut buttocks flex with every stride he takes. The few servants we see move out of his way, tossing glares at him and smiling at Thelios and I.

I frown. Why do they not like Thane? I peel my eyes off of his sexy bottom and just take him in. He shoulders are back, wings folded and partially tucked away, but still on display. His strides are unforgiving, ground-eating. He doesn't turn his head at all to make eye contact with anyone we pass.

"Throne room," he barks at one hapless guard.

He acts like he owns the place. Gone is the joking, sexy male at the river and the battler in the yard. Here is the Lord of the House.

"What's wrong, Sprite?" Thelios asks me.

"Why is Thane acting like this?" I whisper to him.

"It's just an image, Sprite. I think it's all he knows when dealing with all this." Thelios waves his hand around to indicate the grandeur of the palace and the souls that are now creeping out of other rooms and hallways to watch us pass by.

"You don't act like that," I point out.

He shrugs, "I wouldn't know how, Sprite. Who am I? A pit viper's spawn?"

I bite my lip. Oh, I have my work cut out for me.

Outside of the doors to the throne room, my male sets me down. Thane waits for us, his eyes roving over me protectively.

Smiling at him, I grasp Thelios' hand in mine and caress Thane's cheek with the other. His proud facade cracks just a fraction as he nuzzles my hand slightly. "Princess," he rumbles.

The doors swing open. I feel icy anticipation thrum through my veins. A wicked smile curves my lips.

Blue eyes filled with hatred fix on my palm cupping Thane's face, then travel lower, to my fingers entwined tightly with Thelios.

"Hello, Inanji," I purr.