Havermouth, Present Time“Hey,” Cameron started awake as Rhett lay down next him, coming out of a confusing dream of fog and darkness, into a space he didn’t remember, and grabbing hold of the one thing that he would know anywhere – one of his mates.It took him a moment to remember where they were, the shapes of the shelves and janitorial equipment in the darkness confusing. After Rhett’s last trip, Cameron had claimed a gym mat and carried it through the bathroom into the janitor’s closet. It was getting late, and Rhett had refused to leave without Cameron. As Cameron couldn’t leave with his hand intact, that meant Rhett would be spending the night in the gym too, so Cameron had reasoned that if they slept in the closet, and the Van Helsings did something, Cameron at least had a chance to shove his mate through the vent to safety.“I fell asleep, sorry,” Cameron was contrite for falling asleep in the middle of an emergency. He’d put the mattress in and sat down to wait for Rhett’s r

The Coast of Alden, Nine Hundred and Forty Years BeforeThe ocean sparkled in the bright afternoon sun, the glare making it hard for Thaelen to make out the fishing ships that bobbed gently on the waves. He squinted, watching as a woman, basket on her hip, made her way from the beach up the sand dunes to where his hut was.“Ettel is coming,” he said.“Stay still,” Delwyn scolded, placing her fingers under his chin in order to change the angle of his head.Thaelen hummed his sigh wearily.“Looking very pretty, Thaelen,” Ettel smirked as she approached and set her basket down on the floor, taking the stool that Besafora had recently abandoned, and drawing it closer. “What is the occasion?”“He needed a haircut,” Besafora left the hut, holding a small wooden bowl and stirring its contents with the stylus that she had fashioned from the feather of a large seabird. “And Delwyn needed to practice her skills. This is the traditional way that a man of our people wears his hair and beard.”“It

The Coast of Alden, Nine Hundred and Forty Years BeforeThe ships’ holds were crowded and uncomfortable, but the villagers were not secured or restrained within and had access to both barrels of water and to the top deck for bodily eliminations. Many of the men and the young boys chose to remain above deck and helped the sailors with the ropes and sails, making themselves useful in the fresh air rather than remaining in the stuffiness of the hold.Most of the women chose to remain below and, as the ship left the mouth of the river and entered the ocean, Thaelen hovered at the stairs, waiting for the inevitable trouble that would arise. It was just a matter of time, he predicted grimly.Sure enough, as Etrait and Concordia became a dark shadow on the horizon, some of the soldiers decided to seek “comfort,” laughing as they nudged the youngest amongst them, joking that he should get some experience before battle and whilst the women were “fresh.”Thaelen had positioned himself with a cr

Etrait, Nine Hundred and Forty Years BeforeThe smaller man cupped Thaelen’s cheek. “I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw you queuing before the priest, a f-king mess of golden hair having just arisen from bed, and I thought to myself, that I wanted you in mine,” he said with a smile. “I had to trade three bottles of good whiskey to have your intake assigned to me.”“I hope that I’m worth it,” Thaelen rumbled in reply.“We’ll find out soon, won’t we?” Johil drew Thaelen’s face down to his. His kiss was direct. It was not an exchange of affection, but a prelude to sex, sampling what Thaelen had to offer him. When Thaelen went to draw Johil’s body flush to his own, the soldier turned the action, sliding his leg between Thaelen’s and stepping him back against the trunk of a tree.Thaelen grunted in surprise. Johil’s handling of his body wasn’t precisely aggressive, but the other man knew what he wanted and how he wanted it – and that was for Thaelen to be the passive partner. Gera had u

Havermouth, Two Weeks BeforeSparrow calls woke Talen just before dawn. They had left the curtains open and in the grey sky, a host of sparrows dipped and dove, reminding Talen of Meguitte’s familiars. He pressed a kiss into Morgana’s hair. She lay over him, her cheek and hand on his chest and her leg over his, her knee nudging up against his c-ck. He lay for a moment, enjoying the intimacy of laying skin to skin with his sleeping mate, breathing in her scent, marvelling at the miracle of the woman in his arms.He had to get up and leave, he told himself. He wanted to get Tony to meet at the Zeus site before it opened for the day. There were minimal security cameras at the site – just around the office – but he wanted to see if they had caught any unusual nocturnal activity. He would stop by the MegaStore on his way and purchase whatever security cameras they had. With a bit of luck, they would be able to install the cameras before the site became active and the night would bring answ