Page 41 of Controller's Obsession

Half an hour later, Peni had forgotten about the dishes waiting for him back at the house. He was following Silas along a winding river, enjoying the scent of things growing, and the sound of the birds competing with the running water.

“You haven’t been saying much.” Silas nudged him gently with his shoulder. “Yet I sense you have a lot on your mind. Are things going all right with Merihem?”

“He’s being wonderful.” Peni sighed. “He would spoil me all day, every day if I let him. It’s not the big things, you understand, it’s more that he clears the dishes when we’ve finished eating, and he makes a point of wearing pants even in his demon form, and apparently, that’s really unusual for him. He just gets me, I suppose.” Clasping his hands in front of his chest, Peni smiled at his friend.

“And yet,” Silas prompted.

“Have you met the Demon King, Asmodeus?” There was a rustle in the bushes back from the river, but Silas didn’t seem worried about it, so Peni didn’t worry either. It was probably Dakata trying to be invisible.

Silas shook his head. “No. Dakata has mentioned him a few times. It was Asmodeus who had an issue with Dakata in the demon realm after his rampage and punished Merihem for what happened during Wanda’s rescue.”

“I’m glad she’s all right, too. That must’ve been really scary for her, being down there.” Merihem had told Peni that story, and now he’d been to the demon realm, too, Peni could understand how brave Wanda had been.

“She’s doing all right. We can’t be separated from our trees for too long, and that was the biggest concern.” Silas smiled. “Butwe care for our own around here, and we rescued her before anything major happened. Tell me about Asmodeus. What’s he like?”

“He seemed really lonely.” Peni struggled to put his thoughts in order. “He was super interested in the idea of mates and blissful ones, wanting to know what the difference was. I surprised him when I told him they were the same thing. He said about how Dakata and Merihem had both changed since claiming us…”

Silas’s laughter made the leaves dance. “That’s because we’re special, and our demons put us first in everything. Most demons aren’t like that. Dougal, the troll who has lived in this forest since the first trees started to grow, told me about that. That demons traditionally only care about themselves.”

“See, I thought that, too.” Peni nodded. “But Asmodeus was genuinely interested in what me and Merihem did together, and how Merihem behaved with me. He said there hadn’t been a case of any demon finding their blissful ones for so long he truly believed they were a myth.”

“And yet here we are.” Silas’s giggle bounced off the trees.

“Asmodeus is well aware of that.” Peni had to giggle, too. “I was sitting in his private living room. You know, when I first saw him I thought I was going to pee my pants, but when he pulled Gebre into the throne room, and Merihem was going to fight him, Asmodeus just sat me on his arm. I felt like a parrot, I really did, and he told Merihem to come and find us when he was done. Behind closed doors, he’s really different—kind and interesting.”

“I guess that’s why he’s king.”

“Well, that and he’s as big as a house.” It was nice, wandering along, chatting to a friend who Peni knew wouldn’t judge him. “Asmodeus said he was passing on everything I’ve said to his scholars, people he has who record all the goings on in the demon realm. Apparently, you and I are really important. He even asked about our… you know, the stuff that goes on in the bedroom.”

“Oh, my goodness. Were you all right about that?” Silas draped his arm over Peni’s shoulder. “I know that’s not something you’re comfortable talking about.”

“He was really nice about it. I guess he could see how embarrassed I was. My red cheeks don’t lie.” Peni pointed to his cheeks which were heating up. “But he was asking me about children and whether or not I ever wanted any.”

“That’s not something Dakata and I have talked about yet, either, but, oh, you should come and see. We already have children. My tree has three new sprouts that have shot up since Dakata and I got together.”

Peni let Silas direct him back to the tree. “You call them your children, even though they’re your trees. Do you call all the trees around here your children, too?”

“No. No, although they feel like family to me.” Silas stroked a tree as they went past, and the leaves all rustled in his direction. “But my tree is an important part of my relationshipwith Dakata. You could say my demon and my tree have hadrelations.”

“Mr. Dakata fucked your tree?” Peni slapped his hand over his mouth and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that. It just came out.”

“It’s fine.” Silas was still smiling. “It’s not like my demon stuck his dick in a tree knot or something, but the tree is part of me, and now it’s part of us, and we have three new sprouts, which is wonderful as my tree has never sprouted offspring before.”

Peni grabbed hold of Silas’s arm and stopped him walking, even though he could see they weren’t far from Silas’s oak. “Is there… is it even possible for two males to have babies?” he whispered. “Only after Asmodeus asked about kiddies, and I did say I thought that would be a cute idea, but I had no idea how it could happen, he said that he did. I thought he meant, you know, the type of sex Merihem and I haven’t had yet. But now…”

“Now?” Silas’s eyes widened and then he did a head tilt thing, looking Peni up and down. “Have you taken Merihem’s sperm into your body in any way?”

“That’s what was so embarrassing when I met the king,” Peni insisted. “We did the mouth thing, both of us, and I smelled like Merihem. Like I couldn’t smell anything else. Do you think Asmodeus could smell it, too? Maybe that’s why he did that weird thing.”

“He’s a demon, so I imagine he could smell it, but what weird thing did he do? Weirder than perching you on his arm like a parrot?”

Peni looked around, but his goat couldn’t sense anyone else was around. “First, he sniffed me, and then… and then he blew on my face. And then in this really deep voice, he said, ‘Your wish is my command,’ like some person in a movie, but it wasn’t a movie, it was me—he did that to me.”

“How did you feel afterward? Did it make you sick? Did he have bad breath?”

Silas was teasing, but Peni remembered the moment as if it had just happened. “I know it seems like nothing, but there was magic in that breath, and I felt it go right through me. All over my body, right down to my toes. I didn’t tell Merihem, and I felt all right afterward. But now… I’ve been getting a grumbly tummy in the mornings… I’m just being silly, aren’t I?”

“I don’t think you are.” Silas tugged him over to the giant oak that towered high over the forest. Resting one hand on the bark and the other hand on Peni’s shoulder, Silas’s smile grew. “I knew it, and I think you know it, too.”

---