Homelands Pt. 03 Ch. 08

PUBLIC BETA

Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.

You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.

Click here
jdnunyer
jdnunyer
608 Followers

"Well. I was wondering if your sanctimonious side had died when you fell in love with Brianna. Or if maybe you'd finally realized that you've made enough bad decisions in your time to think twice about passing judgment on others. Neither one, apparently."

I stood up.

"Sit back down, young man. I'll tell you when I'm done with you."

I sat back down.

Why did I do that? What made me let her order me around so?

My mother jabbed her finger at me like it was a knife. "You've got no damn right looking down on me. Would I go to lengths you might not in order to protect my family? Yes. Yes, I would. And you know what? I'd call that one of my better traits. One I got from your grandfather. Who, by the way, was twice the man you'll ever be. You? You offered your nephew to Iva so she'd agree to be your Shadow, and offered my sister to Silas so he'd let you marry a woman you barely knew. A woman who disappeared not long after, though no one but you seems to know why. Did you trade her away too? Or just get tired of her?"

It was a wonder that none of my bones snapped, that my teeth didn't crack one another in half, so tightly were my muscles contracting and my jaw clenching.

Had I felt guilty up until that point about not telling my mother the truth about Lily? Damn, had that been a good call.

Brianna had been right. I could never tell my mother the truth about what had happened with Lily. She wouldn't understand. She'd only throw it in my face.

"Are you done now?" I asked.

She smacked her shot glass off the table. "Yes. Get the fuck out of my sight, Frank."

I was all too glad to do just that.

#

A few days had gone by, and I still hadn't been to see my sister.

The experience with Mom had shaken my confidence in my ability to repair damaged ties. Which wasn't a good excuse, I knew. And to hear Todd tell it, it wouldn't have taken a great deal of diplomatic acumen to make peace with Nat anyway. But the idea of having another blowup like the one I'd experienced with Mom was more than I could handle.

Well, and, truth be told, Brianna was giving me very little incentive to leave the house. Since I'd told her about the fight I'd had with my mother, we'd been having incredible sex. Without any of the kink that she usually got me to agree to.

It wasn't healthy. I was starting to have an easier time recognizing that very little about our relationship was. She'd convinced me that she was the one for me by reminding me of all the terrible things I'd done. By driving home that no one besides her would be give me a pass for what I'd done to Lily.

She'd made me dependent on her.

Then she'd exploited that dependency to make me go along with things that I'd probably never have consented to otherwise. It would be unfair to say I derived no pleasure from the kinkier stuff. But it wasn't really my style.

I was becoming someone I didn't really want to be.

Someone who was less likely to hurt those he cared about, yes. Which was, obviously, a good thing. But someone who was too willing to allow himself to be hurt, too. And that wasn't so good. Someone who was afraid of his romantic partner.

Why couldn't I pull myself away, then?

Partly because that's the very nature of dependency, of course. But also partly because she was damn good at knowing when to use the carrot and when to use the stick. Or riding crop. Or whip. Or paddle. Or whatever it might be.

In the days following my fight with Mom, though, it was only the carrot.

That didn't make it okay. But it did make it a whole lot harder to remember why I needed to start pulling away from her. For a few days, she was everything I wanted.

It wasn't just the sex either. We spent just as much time doing puzzles together, or playing video games, or watching movies, as we did in bed. In their own way, those things were just as intoxicating. Though I'd come realize that I was genuinely afraid of my cousin, I'd also realized that she was not just my lover, but my best friend.

Pathetic as it was, when I finally went to go see my sister, it wasn't because I'd finally worked up the willpower to give up time with Brianna. It was because Todd had informed us the day before that Her Majesty had declared that Todd, Brianna, and I were to start patrolling the court in six hour shifts, to both prevent and investigate crimes against or within our growing refugee population. So, whether I liked it or not, I was going to have to be away from Brianna for twelve hours a day anyway.

It was during Brianna's first shift that I went to see Natalie.

She held court outside the palace, in the front garden. Amidst the flower beds, trellises, and fruit trees, I found a tiled square and a makeshift throne. The latter was no more than the stump of a felled great oak. To be sure, a place for her to sit had been carved into it, and she had an embroidered cushion to sit upon. But other than that, it couldn't have looked less like a traditional throne. I did note, though, that the stump was tall enough that she'd look down upon anyone who came before her, even with her sitting and them standing.

Similarly, my sister's garb was far more modest than anything I'd seen Iva wear since my aunt had assumed the throne. She wore a brown dress that revealed only a modest amount of cleavage up top and reached all the way to her ankles at the bottom. True, it was tight enough to leave little doubt about how incredible her figure was, and the richly embroidered red, orange and gold leaves along the hem and bust were getting close to extravagant. But only a little. And though she wore a circlet of interlocking golden leaves, it was relatively thin, entirely free of precious stones, and overall a lot less ostentatious than Iva's tiara.

My breath caught in my throat. This beautiful woman, who managed to come across as dignified yet modest, was my kid sister?

The former cheerleader and queen bitch?

I went down on one knee, head bowed. "Your Majesty."

"Frank," she said in a tone that suggested she was rolling her eyes, "Get up."

"Sorry," I said, rising back to my feet.

Natalie slipped down from the throne. As she descended, her dress billowed up around her, giving me a brief glimpse of her shapely legs. Not too brief either, since she fell no faster than a feather would. It was like gravity itself knelt before her.

"Sorry I waited as long as I did," I said.

My sister waved the comment away. "It hasn't even been a week."

I shrugged. "Shouldn't even have been that long."

"I've had plenty to keep me busy, don't you worry," she said, taking me by the hand. She led me towards the palace.

"I can imagine."

She glanced over her shoulder at me, eyebrow raised slightly. "Do you ever miss it?"

"Not at all," I said. "In fact, I wish I'd stayed away from politics to begin with."

With a flick of her wrist, Natalie made the huge double doors open themselves. "Do you mean that? You're not just telling me what I want to hear?"

Why do people ask that? If I was, would I tell her as much? She wouldn't want to hear that, after all, would she?

"Well, I wish I could take back all the pain and suffering I caused," I said. "If I'd never gotten involved in politics, I'd never have met Lily, and Josh and Val would never have been born. That, I wouldn't want to undo. But besides that? I'm not sure anything good came of it all. Maybe this court? I don't even know about that."

She led me past the antechamber to a sitting room. There was a shallow pool in the corner, a fireplace against the far wall, and a chaise lounge in the middle of the room. Natalie settled down upon it slowly, crossing her delightful legs after she did. A slit formed in her dress, giving her the room to do so comfortably.

But even as a pleasant expanse of leg came into view, that wasn't where my eyes went.

I wasn't really into feet. Grandma Kaitlin had made me appreciate the reason why some men were, perhaps. But, as a general rule, it just wasn't something I tended to notice. Let alone get aroused by. But suddenly, I noticed that Nat had really pretty feet. Slender, delicate, and with nicely defined ankles. They looked damn good in those heels too.

Of course, everything about her was pretty. So, in some sense, it wasn't surprising. But it wasn't the part of her I'd have expected my eyes to gravitate towards.

Maybe it was a power thing. Foot fetishists tended to be into submission, to find powerful and authoritative women arousing. Grandma Kaitlin certainly fit that bill.

And, I supposed, so too did Natalie. Now. Which would explain why I'd never really taken notice of her feet until now.

"I feel like I'm supposed to grill you instead of just taking that confession at face value," my sister said. "But for some reason, I don't feel like it." She arched her back and ran her hands through her medium-brown hair. The gesture demanded that I shift my attention from her feet to her other assets. Damn, but she had nice, full breasts. Not huge ones, like our mother, or Iva, or Valerie. But definitely not modest. "Maybe it's because it's not as hard to believe you when you say that now as it once would have been. I've got to say, I did not expect you to step aside and let someone else ascend the throne. And when you did, I figured it was a ploy of some kind. But you haven't made a single move to take power since. Haven't even been keeping up with affairs of court, if I'm not mistaken."

"You're not," I said.

She nodded. "That's almost unfortunate, because I could actually use some advice. But all things considered, I think I'd call it a pleasant surprise."

I took a tentative step towards her. When she didn't react, I took another. And another. Then sat at the foot of the lounge and wrapped my arms around one of her legs. Her thighs were perfect. Well-muscled, and shapely, but still soft and smooth.

"I'd still be glad to offer what advice I can," I said. "But, yeah, I honestly don't have any idea what's been going on. I assume it's Iva you're worried about, but that's just a guess."

"Certainly one of the things on my mind. And the one I'm most interested in hearing your thoughts on. If it's all the same to you, I think I'd rather not tell you too much about what else is giving me headaches."

I nodded.

For a moment there, it had seemed like she'd already forgiven me, completely. But of course she hadn't. Yes, Todd had said she was hoping to reconcile. But even so, it couldn't be that easy. Nor should it be. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn't want to divulge too many details either. On the off chance that I was still plotting to retake the throne, anything she shared with me was a potential arrow in my quiver.

"So. You basically want to know if you can trust her, right?"

That's what Mom had said, anyway.

My sister nodded. One hand traveled up her thigh and found mine. Her delicate fingers slid over my hand, ever so gently. The tiniest little blue spark of ecstasy arced from her hand to mine. I shuddered, and it was a wonder I didn't cum.

"I guess the short answer is that I don't know," I said. "I want to say yes. But I wonder if I'm just trying to see the best in her because I still have some feelings for her. That's what Brianna would say, at any rate." You should be anyfuckingway. "Seems like she could have done a lot worse to us already, if that was her goal. But maybe that's not saying much. It's not like you're asking me if she's Hitler."

Nat snickered. "No. I'm not." She gave my hand a gentle squeeze. "And for the record, you're not the only one who wants to think the best of her."

I raised an eyebrow at that.

My sister sighed. "When I first met her, I think I pretty much fell in love with her."

I remembered that wonderful night and the threesome I'd had with Nat and Iva.

"I never would have thought I'd fall in love with a woman," she continued. "I mean, threesomes are fun and all. But I can't say I'm that into girls. But she's just...you know? It's like no one understands you the way she does."

Wasn't that the truth.

But it was a supernatural gift of hers. Not kismet.

"Not even Todd," Natalie added. "And he's known me my whole life. Gone through a lot of the same shit I've gone through. Experienced first hand the things that I'm carrying around with me. That make me who I am. Still, a few hours with Iva, who might as well have been a complete stranger for all that she's family, and I found myself amazed that it was possible for someone to understand me so well."

"What did you and Todd go through?" I asked.

My sister glowered at me. With her head lowered, so she could stare at me over the rims of the glasses she wasn't wearing.

When had she started to look so much like our mother?

"Frank," she said. "Don't be dense. And don't change the subject."

"I'm not trying to. We can talk more about Iva. We should talk more about Iva. But I honestly don't know what you mean."

"Really." It was technically a question, but it sounded nothing like one.

"Really."

"It never occurred to you that Todd and I had a hard time figuring out who we were, where we fit in, following in the footsteps of not one but two legends?"

"Legends?" I asked.

"All the bad kids knew who Dom was. What he'd gotten away with, and what he hand't. And all the teachers knew me as 'Frank's sister' and Todd as your brother. Half the kids in our classes had older siblings that loved or hated either you or Dom, all for different reasons. But one way or another, an awful lot of them knew who you guys were."

"Oh," I said.

What else could I say?

She was probably right. It should have occurred to me.

And I guess that hadn't changed much even after we left the mortal world behind.

My sister might be queen, but Dom had been Brianna's Shadow, and I'd been king. So she was still following in our footsteps.

"Anywho," Nat said, with a faint smile. Was she amused that this all came as a surprise to me? "Back to Iva. I was a stupid teenager, with all these feelings, aching for someone to notice me. And she did. She made me feel special."

Where had I heard that before.

"So I get where you're coming from. Wanting to believe her heart is in the right place. That she's just doing what her mother tells her so she can gain the power to do what she believes needs to be done, blah blah blah. Myself, I find it harder to see it that way, given what she did to Dom, then Patrick. But I get why you still see her the way I used to. She never took anyone from you who you really cared about."

Ouch.

I wanted to protest, but I wasn't sure I had any right to.

"But what if you're wrong, Frank? What if the Iva we both fell for is an illusion? What if she's just another self-deluded power-monger?"

"I don't know," I said.

"That's it?" Natalie asked, her voice bordering on squeaky. "Some help you are."

So I told her everything I could remember about the two interactions I'd had with Iva since handing power over to her. Whether there was anything in there that would be of help to her, I wasn't sure. But it was all I had to offer.

"Wait, what?" Nat said, interrupting me when I got to the part about Iva's invitation for me and Brianna to have dinner with her. "Why you?"

"Guess she too expected me to take the throne," I said.

"Hmm," Nat said. "Well, obviously, you're still going. And you're going to tell me everything she says."

"Of course," I said with a laugh.

My sister wasn't smiling.

"No, seriously," I said, voice flat. "Why wouldn't I?"

Perhaps because I'd once thought I might be in love with Iva, and had never thought that about Natalie?

But a lot had changed since then.

"This could be big," Nat said.

"Maybe. Or maybe since I'm not the king and Brie's not the queen and neither of us really knows anything, it'll just be dinner."

"Then she needs to think that one of you is planning a coup," Nat said.

"Are you serious? You're telling me to start planning to overthrow you?"

"No," she said, firmly, "I'm telling you to let Iva think that you are."

I sighed. "Fine. I can handle that."

"What about Brianna? Will she play along?"

"Yeah." I gave her fingers a kiss. "At least, I think so. But if I'm a potentially biased judge of Iva's trustworthiness, I'm absolutely not credible at all when it comes to Brianna."

"Right. About that," Nat said. "When we first figured out what we were, I think I liked her a whole lot more than you did."

"You could say that."

"Granted, after what she did to Aunt Liz and Uncle Jim...well, that was why I retired. The first time. But from what I hear, she does seem to be different now. Haven't had the chance to spend any real time with her myself, but it sounds like she's gone from being obsessed with power to being obsessed with you. I'm not sure if that's healthy. Sounds like I should either be really happy for you, or really concerned that she's going to make you miserable. Make you push away everyone else you care about. But, to be perfectly honest, that's your problem. What I was worried about was whether she was planning a triumphant return to politics. And it doesn't sound like it. So if you say we can trust her not to get in the way when I ask you to do something for the good of the realm, I believe you."

"Can't see that she would."

"Good," Nat said. Her face softened. "I didn't mean what I said about it being your problem. Of course I hope she doesn't end up hurting you. But I just have too fucking much to worry about as it is. I'm sorry, Frank. I hope it works out. I do. I just can't be the one to give you a advice about whether she's good for you or not."

"That's okay," I said, kissing her fingertips again. "Wasn't asking."

"And, for the record, I'm sorry about what happened with you and Mom."

I shrugged.

"I probably shouldn't tell you this, but Skye has been seeing a lot of Uncle Bobby."

"Skye?"

But, then, it actually made a lot of sense. They were the two nicest, shyest, most modest, most boring people I'd ever met.

"I don't know if that means there's still hope for you with Mom or not. And if you end up trying to drive them apart, I'll deny ever having said anything to you. Because it really is none of my business. But I still thought you should know."

"Thanks. Appreciate it."

My sister gave me a sad, almost apologetic smile.

That made my heart ache. How could I have been so blind to what a beautiful person my sister was, on the inside as well as the out?

"Long as we're switching from politics to personal stuff," I said. "How's Todd?"

One of my sister's feet slid down between my legs and started to gently play with my cock and balls. Even with her heel still on, it felt pretty damn good.

"I don't know. Haven't really seen him much lately. He and Holly went through a rough time. And now they're pretty focused on trying to figure out how they feel about Troy and Rose. They need some space. But hopefully, after things calm down a bit...well, we'll see."

"There was a time I didn't think he'd stay interested in Holly too long after their kids grew up," I said. "But I guess you have me to thank for the fact that they still seem pretty crazy about each other. If not for me, Holly would never have become one of us."

"Oh, I've got nothing against her," Natalie said. "That was something you did right, by the way. Earlier, when you were talking about reasons why you don't regret getting involved in politics? You can add her to the list."

I shrugged. "Yeah, that's true. But I'm surprised to hear that you think so."

"I can see why you'd expect me to be jealous of her. I'm definitely in love him. To be sure, there are guys who are better in bed than him," she gave my cock a good twirl as she said that, "but I feel like I can be myself around him. Can sing along with songs I don't know the words to. Can quote Spongebob as often as I want. Can be as goofy, stupid, bratty, and immature as I want. But that doesn't mean I have to have him all to myself. In fact, I have this fantasy of the two of them moving in here with me. I mean, who says relationships have to be one man and one woman?"

jdnunyer
jdnunyer
608 Followers