The words had me stumbling, unsure of my footing on the stone path. "I... what?"

"Aren't you and Shannon consorts?" Elada asked, silver eyes so like Elatha's holding my gaze immobile as we reached another portal archway and Manannan waved us through.

"Yes." Visceral and raw, everything in me roared at the recognition that Shannon was still mine. After so many years spent not expecting a soulmate, those possessive instincts had warred within me to not rip Elatha away from Shannon this morning, even as part of me gloried in her enjoyment.

Yet taking control of his orgasms, making him cum on my demand, had sent an unexpected surge of primal satisfaction through me. He'd been mine, too.

They both were. Maybe not both my soulmates, but both mine, regardless.

"Shannon and Elatha are married, so in Fomorian culture, you are also married to Elatha. You are a triquetra. That makes you part of our royal family, as well as your own," Elada said when we reached the other side.

Alarm spiked, sending a flash of warning through me as my muscles tensed. Catching myself at the last minute, I kept from tripping again. Are the Atlanteans expecting Shannon and me to leave Asgard? My gut clenched, rejecting the idea instantly. There is no way I'll give up Asgard. Not ever. Nor will I give up Shannon. And maybe not even...

Elatha sighed and shoved Elada's shoulder. "I wasn't going to drop it on him quite like that, Brother."

"Well, they are both going to need to learn Fomorian culture, just like you're going to need to learn Asgardian if you are going to be our ambassador," Elada said, shrugging.

Blinking, I looked between the two brothers as we walked between pine trees and dried needles crunched underfoot. Clearly, I'd misunderstood something.

"I hadn't yet told Loki or Shannon that Mother gave me permission to move to Asgard and be the Fomorian Ambassador," Elatha said, dragging a hand through Kara's curly red locks.

Elada frowned at Elatha. "Well, what in the shell did you talk about when he dragged you off yesterday?"

Relief had my muscles loosening and gait returning to its usual smoothness. I had misunderstood. Elatha was fine joining Shannon and I in Asgard. Good. There were definitely some things I wanted to teach my two consorts. Just thinking about it had my step lightening, heat stirring, and a smile teasing my lips. I met Elatha's eyes, currently hidden in Kara's form. "We had other, more personal, things to discuss." Even in Mist's illusion, my purred tone came through.

Elada looked at Elatha, then at me, then back at Elatha. "Why do I get the feeling there wasn't a lot of talking, but a whole lot of fucking?"

"You couldn't hear us talking?" Shannon asked, then looked at me when Elada shook his head sideways.

My smile widened.

Of course, I'd put a sound-dampening barrier on our room. While I liked to tease Shannon in public, I almost always hid her with an illusion, covering all senses, including sound, vision, and scent, since I didn't truly want to share her with others.

But it was all kinds of fun to keep her from noticing it, and taunting her with the exhibitionist potential of it.

I didn't always hide us, as Kara, Mist, and Thor would attest. They had the knack for walking in on us. Of course, I always heard them coming and could have hidden Shannon and I... but what fun would that be? She always came hard and fast when she wasn't sure whether or not the risk of being seen was real.

There were few limits I wouldn't push to drive her wild.

Including adding Elatha to the mix.

Handsome fucker that he was, perhaps this two-consort thing wouldn't be so intolerable. How would he beg? What lovely pleading sounds could I draw from his throat? Entertained by my wandering thoughts, we walked for a couple of hours through a forest of pine trees with the crunching of needles, as the path turned from stone to dirt trail, accompanying our passage. Woodpeckers tapped at the tree trunks, and the occasional small rodent rustled in the dry grasses.

Eventually, we were transported through another arched stone portal gateway to a wide cove with the loud, rhythmic sound of waves impacting the coast. Rough limestone steps led down to the rocky shoreline, where grey and brown seals and sea lions lounged. Selkies, perhaps? They didn't move away as we approached, but watched with deep, dark brown eyes. Is one of them Shannon's father? With the illusions hiding us, Dylan wouldn't know Shannon was here.

Manannan nodded to a few, and they nodded back, but he didn't stop or talk to any of them. Instead, he strode past to immediately head into the water. It piqued my curiosity, even as we followed.

Does he not trust Shannon's father? Is Dylan not as solidly Summer Realm as Manannan had told us previously? With our son's life at stake, I appreciated Manannan's caution. I'd hate for a selkie spy to give away our route to the Unseelie.

I clenched my jaw while the water closed in over us.

Fucking Unseelie.

That they'd tried to prevent us from leaving Alfheim, sending the Wild Hunt out against us, was the height of arrogance on their part. The bloody bastards had broken the treaty, again. Once my son was safe, it was something I'd need to discuss with my father. Odin was not going to be pleased. I didn't know how he'd want to proceed, but I knew he'd want some consequence or our treaties became meaningless.

As we dove into the water's depths and sped from sight of the curious selkies, I let the illusions evaporate. Despite the intimacy last night and this morning, I'd used a lot of energy in battle with Camulus, then healing Shannon and Elatha. Now, I had little to spare after maintaining that many illusions over such distance.

I hoped Mist, Kara, and Maeve weren't still battling the Wild Hunt, but surely Maeve knew the travel time for us to reach this cove. Battle strategy was both her and Kara's strengths, so I'd have to trust they'd taken it into account. I shook my head and smirked. Of all the elves, that Shannon's mother is the Goddess of War and Lust. Such irony.

Elatha moved in front of me as I shifted into the body of a dolphin. Seeing him back in his own body reignited the white-hot burning in my veins. I'd fought to suppress my anger since I'd seen his blood streaming down his leg, dark flesh torn open almost to the bone. That he hadn't immediately spoken up about needing medical attention infuriated me.

Stupid fucker.

I gritted my teeth. He needed a damn lesson in endangering himself. If he hadn't been so injured, I'd have wrung his neck or paddled his ass.

He seemed to be moving well as I examined his thigh, but I knew I hadn't been able to fully heal the injury. Those fucking claws had come within a millimetre of nicking his femoral artery. A millimetre of me losing him. Whether I would have been able to heal him fast enough to save his life if it had... it wasn't something I wanted to test.

Thrashing my tail through the water, I snapped my teeth.

No way could I have him breaking Shannon's heart by dying on us. He needed better fucking armour. Or maybe better training, since I hadn't had the chance to really evaluate his hand-to-hand fighting skills as I fought Camulus. Not my first time fighting that bloody vicious bastard, but my attention was always split protecting others while we fought.

And Crom had kept himself hidden from me. Blood pounded in my veins with the fiery need to kill him. To end his sick existence. I wanted to roar my fury at his escape, but my dolphin body didn't allow for it as I let loose a series of clicked curses.

My eyes flicked to Shannon, swimming between Elatha and I. Her eyes met mine, an eyebrow raised at my profanity. Probably wondering at the seemingly random outburst and missing our mental connection as much as I.

She'd come far with her skills and wanted me to spar with her. I'd been unwilling, worried about hurting her, but maybe I needed to push them both. If I was going to have two consorts with all the enemies I had, then I'd damn well better make sure they could defend themselves.

Perhaps it was time I tested each of them to evaluate the range of their skills.

A warm glow grew in my chest. She had done well today, deflecting Camulus' knife and killing any hellhound that got through, while keeping the banshees away. An instant of icy terror had almost frozen me when I'd spotted that blade heading towards her. Yet my goddess had flicked it off with a wave of her graceful fingers.

Those same fingers she stretched out now to caress my streamlined form. Unable to resist, I playfully slapped her with a flipper as I rolled. She laughed and I let the joyful sound cool the last of my anger.

Manannan led us onward, with Elada behind Shannon, Elatha, and I.

Speeding through the blue depths, we passed brightly coloured corals, schools of silvery fish, several eels, and even an octopus that hid itself at our passing. Light from the Summer Realm skies filtered down in a faint illumination from above. Without a telltale glow of the bioluminescent vegetation from the underground seas, it was dark below us. We changed directions multiple times. To ensure no one followed us? As far as I could tell, there were no visible obstacles in our route that he diverted us around.

Angling further into the dark depths after several hours of swimming, we dove deeper, until at last, one of the Atlantean outpost domes appeared below us. Manannan aimed for the silver circle gate through the dome's energy field.