Page 83 of Beltane

Miri had to get married to inherit her father’s fame and fortune, something that had taken a year’s worth of pleading with the king of England to accomplish. But in his eyes, neither Carter nor Lex were suitable options.

Me, on the other hand…well, I had the name and the formal background, and four of my direct ancestors had been president. My genetics made up for my gender and nationality, and once Miri became pregnant with Donnelly, there was only one solution—put me on the birth certificate and silence the deliberation about which man in our union was the baby’s father. Sure, the world would still speculate, but it no longer mattered. Any baby that came out of my body would be Miri’s, and any baby that came out of hers would be mine. End of story.

I repeated the same vows that both Miri and I made, waiting for Lex and Carter to echo the sentiments before proclaiming them married in the eyes of Virginia and all the human realm.

Then, it was over. Our closest friends and family gathered around us, kissing and hugging my spouses.

“Holy Hell, I thought this day would never come,” Kit said, rolling her big ice-blue eyes.

“Don’t forget you still owe me twenty bucks for calling the couples.” Jon nudged her in the shoulder with his, and I swallowed back the retorts I had about my siblings betting on which ones of us would get married.

“Jon, be nice.” Lizzie shook her head and wrapped her arms around her big brother, who pulled her into a hug.

“I think someone needs a nappy change.” Edward grimaced and held the miniature version of himself out to anyone who would take him.

“Oh, I’ll do it,” Carter’s mom said, her grin stretching from ear to ear. Renee had recently moved to Virginia to be closer to her grandchild (and any future ones). Out of all our parents, she’d handled the news the best, which had surprised none of us. She’d likely seen this coming four years ago.

“No, that’s okay. Thank you, Renee. I can do it,” I insisted as Edward handed Donnelly to me, pretending to retch, and after catching a whiff of my son, I figured it was urgent. But as I kissed his ginger head and turned to the bathroom, I thought I saw chestnut hair and a tattooed shoulder with vines twisting around the upper arm. I walked to the end of the church sanctuary and glanced back and forth in the dark hallway.

“Hello?” I called, seeing no one. “Siobhan? Is that you?”

Donnelly let out a whine and gripped my white jacket with his chubby fingers, and despite the sneaking suspicion we were among fairies again, I took my son to the bathroom so I could use the changing table.

In the two years since we closed the veil, there were moments when I thought I heard Siobhan reaching out to me mentally or times when I’d wake up in the middle of the night certain I’d been running from Alberich or Diana in my dreams. But then I’d try to enter Lex’s head or talk to Carter telepathically, and nothing happened.

It’s over,I reminded myself.We’re done and it’s over.

“The gift is gone, right, my little bug?” I cleaned Donnelly and refreshed his diaper before picking him up to take him back to our family. Even though he’d come out of Miri’s body and looked more like Carter the older he got, he’d become most attached to me. I was the only one who could get him to go to sleep when he had colic, and when he got scared, I was the one he searched for first. “When do you think we should tell them about your little sibling, huh?”

He grinned up at me with his silly smile and I kissed his face, thankful yet again that it had all worked out the way I wanted it to. While we didn’t know who Donnelly’s father was, and we never wanted to find out for certain, I did know who had impregnated me. I was just over twelve weeks along, which would be the time when Miri and Carter went to Scotland for a month, just the two of them. Lex and I had torn the house apart…and now I faced the consequences.

I laughed to myself at what the sixteen-year-old version of me would think—married to Miri, pregnant with Lex’s baby, certain to fuck all of them tonight. Her brain would explode, but I wouldn’t have changed anything about my story if it ended this way every single time.

My heart had never been so full, and I swore to protect it. Any deities, fairies, or media monsters that came for us would have to go through me first.

I was Ivy Fucking Washington, and I had finally claimed my life for myself.

I intended to keep it.

* * *

CARTER

My mom had takenour kid for a sleepover, leaving the four of us to spend our official wedding night in our cabin, far away from the prying eyes of the rest of the world. After the way the Washingtons, the Fairfaxes, and the Stuarts had treated my spouses, I thanked my lucky stars my family had always been accepting of whatever I chose to do with my life. They wanted me to be happy, and after seeing the way I interacted with my spouses, Mom needed no more convincing. She would have been just as thrilled if I’d married Miri or Ivy that day, but I understood why the girls had chosen to do what they did. Which left me with my moody, broody DC, not that he was a consolation. The opposite, in fact.

He stood at the end of the bed with an arm draped over Ivy’s shoulders, leaning into our ginger-haired wife with mischief echoing behind his eyes. They’d spent the better part of the last hour undressing Miri and me as slowly as possible, now whispering in cahoots over what would happen next.

“Do you remember that night in Faerie?” Lex said, eyes glittering, lips curling into a smirk.

My heart pounded behind my ribs as I recalled the same look echoing out of Miri’s eyes on the night in question. It felt like ages ago, despite only being twenty-four-ish months. Our princess and I had held them down and taken them how we wanted, knowing it might be the last time we ever did.

“I do,” Ivy said, refocusing her attention on me, steel gaze burning with retribution.

“How about a little payback?” Lex smiled like a wolf with a rabbit between its teeth, amping up my anticipation as Ivy crawled over my prone form, her white lingerie hiding all the best parts of her. My cock twitched as Miri turned in to me, biting my earlobe before pressing up to kiss Ivy. Our queen allowed it for a moment before pushing Miri back down next to me, sitting back on my pelvis, rubbing her laced cunt right over my sensitive flesh.

Fuck, they’d been at us for an hour—biting, licking, demanding we do the same to each other. I didn’t know how much more of this I could take. Lex handed something to her, and when the jingles of the metal clasps on her strap-on rang out through the air, I shivered with anticipation, my balls clenching at what would come next.

“Oh, look at that,” Ivy said as she tightened the straps. “Are you excited for me to fuck you?”

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