Homelands Pt. 03 Ch. 06

Still, I just couldn't accept it.

How did I even know that she really meant it? If she wanted to give us another chance, would she have said so? Maybe she was testing me. Maybe she just needed to know that I wouldn't give up that easily. Or maybe she was trying to convince herself. It would certainly be easier to just accept the new relationships we'd each fallen into than admit we were both in relationships we needed to find a way to get out of, even though they weren't broken.

No, I just couldn't take what she said at face value.

I had to try to get her back.

My mother was absolutely in love with her brother. There was no doubt about that. I saw it in her eyes. Felt it in her Libido. But there was a certain disappointment there too. A longing for more excitement. More passion.

He'd never hurt her. Never make he cry. But neither would he ever make her cry out his name as intensely as she sometimes did mine. That wasn't all that mattered. But it still had to mean something.

Didn't it?

#

When I awoke, I was alone in bed. I heard the shower running though. For a moment, I considered going and joining my cousin.

Who, so far as I knew, still believed herself to be my wife.

But my body didn't respond well when I asked it to carry me out of bed. And, on top of that, the sound of running water suddenly died off.

I heard the grate of metal on metal as the shower curtain was drawn back.

Lest my cousin climb back into bed with a sweaty, stinky pig, I burned a little energy to make myself as clean and fragrant as if I too had just showered.

The bathroom door opened and Brianna stepped out, wearing a towel as if it was a dress. She was in the process of drying her hair with another one. When she saw me, she came to a dead stop. "Oh. Um. Good morning, Frank. Didn't realize you were up."

Bobby appeared in the doorway behind her, wearing a pair of boxers and nothing else.

"Morning, sweetie," I said, flatly. "Uncle Bobby."

He waved good-naturedly. God bless him, the man must have been immune to irony.

The tension went out of my cousin's shoulders. She turned around, went up on tiptoes, and kissed our uncle on the cheek, then whispered something in his ear. He hugged her, whispered something back, then headed for the door. "If you don't take too long, there might be breakfast waiting for you," he said. Presumably to both of us. Then he waved to me again and said, "See ya, Frank," before slipping out of the bedroom.

Brianna dropped her towels and jumped into bed beside me. Literally. Light as she was, though, the mattress barely reacted. "Sooo," she said, sweeping her wet hair back from her face, "I guess you see that I've caught up too. No more veil for Brie. Even though you didn't invite me to your little party last night."

I drank in her naked body. She didn't have my mother's curves, no. And I couldn't pretend that didn't matter to me, even if I felt like it shouldn't. It did. Without question. But there was still no denying that she was incredibly sexy. Not in the same way as my mother, but she was.

It was her attitude as much as anything. She simply exuded sexuality.

Not that her body lacked for charms. Disappointed though I might be with her breasts, she did have nice hips and legs and a great ass.

Heck, even the tattoos that I'd apparently been preventing myself from seeing for so long were really starting to grow on me.

"You said you were too tired for sex."

She slapped my arm. "With you, yeah!"

I laughed. "Thanks. Glad to feel appreciated."

"You know what I mean," she said. Her hand returned to my arm, but not violently this time. "I've been wondering what this long-lost uncle of ours might be like."

"And? What's the verdict?"

She laid down atop the blanket I was still under and nuzzled my neck. "Kinda boring."

"Yeah?" I asked. With a thought, I made the blanket disappear.

"He's pretty fucking hot," she added. "And I wouldn't say he's inexperienced, or particularly weak. But he's not exactly at the high end of either of those scales either. And he's way, way too sweet. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah. And we know sweet ain't your type."

"Really isn't," she said, as she straddled me. Then, in a more neutral voice, she said, "I mean, he's great. As an uncle. Like, an actual uncle, in normal families. I wish he'd been around when we were growing up. And I can see how a different woman, a woman who wanted to be adored and cherished more than she wanted to be excited and challenged, might think he's pretty damn perfect. Speaking of which, don't let that little princess of yours get near him, or she's liable to forget about Josh." She paused for a moment to wait for me to nod in agreement. "But, yeah, not for me."

"You think he's good for my mother though?"

"Do you?" she asked.

"Yeah, probably."

She studied me silently for a few moments. "Glad to hear you say that."

"Who isn't," I said, reaching between my legs to guide myself inside her.

But before I could, she climbed off me, and started to get out of bed. "Don't you think we should go down for breakfast?"

Assuming she was just teasing, I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back.

But she pushed me away and said, "No, seriously."

"Oh. Okay. Sure," I said.

She gave me a quick peck on the lips. "Don't pout. It's a real a turn-off."

I didn't think I'd been pouting, but arguing wouldn't get me anywhere.

I laughed awkwardly instead. "Got it."

So we got out of bed and started getting dressed. I slipped in a few kisses, and copped a few feels, but it didn't take long for us to finish getting ready. Then we headed downstairs.

Mom and Bobby were sitting at the table, drinking coffee and eating breakfast. Brie and I fixed some for ourselves. Unsurprisingly, she opted for a banana, yogurt, and a granola bar. Myself, I took full advantage of the bacon and eggs. And melted some cheese over the eggs while I was at it. And then decided to toast a bagel and make a sandwich out of it.

While my cousin and I ate, the four of us made small talk. Initially, that revolved around the weather and our plans for the day and whether anyone had ideas for movies the four of us could watch together that night. Gradually, though, it took on a more flirtatious tone. And before long, the subtext stopped lurking beneath the surface and became the actual topic of conversation. It was just one of those things. I wasn't sure how it happened, but once it started happening, it gathered momentum so quickly that we all knew we'd be fucking each other's brains out soon.

Before I even ran a bit of water over my empty plate, Mom and Brie were going at it.

Which was not exactly how I thought things would start off. Mom wasn't really into women, and Brianna wasn't really into my mother. But I wasn't about to complain.

Bobby and I watched, shit-eating grins on our faces.

"Have you ever seen her with another woman?" I asked.

My uncle shook his head.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Sure is," he said.

At first, the two of them made out with one another while feeling each other up. Tame as that was, it was still pretty fun to watch. They had such different bodies, but if you looked closely at their faces, you could see a strong family resemblance. Things really got interesting, though, when Brianna laid my mother atop the kitchen table and starting eating her out. And doing a damn good job of it, to judge by my mother's reaction.

My cousin knew how to use her tongue, as I could well attest. But when her fingers joined the party, my mother really started to squirm. Two fingers quickly became three, became her hole fist. The next thing I knew, Brianna was slurping on her aunt's clitoris while fucking the hell out of her with her forearm.

It was more than I could take. I came up behind my cousin, grabbed one of her hips, lubed up both her holes, grew a second cock, then double-penetrated her.

Meanwhile, Bobby straddled my mother's ribs and titty-fucked her.

We continued like that for some time. I didn't love the sight of my uncle's ass, but the whole thing was just too damn enjoyable to let that ruin it for me.

A few minutes later, I was wearing two bodies, and so was my cousin. Naturally enough, one of those bodies was a shemale. Between the two of me, my uncle, and the one Brianna that had a dick, my mother and the Brianna that didn't were both getting DP'd. One of me was lying down on the floor while Brianna rode me cowgirl and our uncle fucked her in the ass. The other me was sitting in a chair, fucking my mother in the ass and holding her legs spread wide so my cousin could fuck her pussy.

While she fucked my mother, Brianna slapped her heavy breasts over and over. Harshly. The look on her face was equal parts amusement and disdain. I could almost hear her thinking, "How can anyone be so obsessed with these things?"

The little orgy didn't last that long though. Nowhere near as long as I'd have liked. During what I thought was just a brief break, the small talk we were having quickly grew more serious, and started to threaten to become the awkward conversation Mom had mentioned last night. The one where I'd finally learn what happened after she left, and what Bobby's deal was, and where I'd finally come clean about Lily. I wasn't sure how that had happened, any more than I'd understood how our banal conversation earlier had turned to dirty so quickly. But it was obvious that it was happening.

"So," I said to my uncle. "It sounds like you've heard all about me already. But I don't really know anything about you."

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

Of course it wasn't true that I didn't know anything about him. I knew enough, for example, that it surprised me not at all that he kept a perfectly friendly tone, despite mine.

My uncle may or may not have picked up on the fact that I was mocking him, but Brianna certainly had. As had my mother. The both of them gave me reproachful looks.

Realizing where things were heading, they also cleaned themselves up and put some clothes back on. Bobby and I followed suit.

"How did you end up in Winter?" I asked, after I was dressed. "And why didn't Mom know about you until your letter?"

I suddenly remembered that I'd never known about Tara before I met her. Mom certainly had though. Given that precedent, I tacked on a question for her. "You didn't, right?"

Mom laughed softly. "No, baby. Mommy didn't know she had a brother."

"I myself didn't know who I was until recently. Not really, anyway," he said. "I went through that whole 'turns out you're someone quite different than who you thought you were' thing once. Well, of course. We all do. That's what coming of age is like for our kind, I suppose. No matter which court we belong to. At any rate, what I mean is, until recently, I'd been convinced that I was a leo. I had no idea that I was an Orwin."

A leo?

Brianna shrugged at me in answer to the unasked question.

"Sorry, leo is short for snow leopard. For House Sammerkhan. Ellen keeps reminding me that your houses don't have totems like ours."

House Sammerkhan. That sounded familiar. Maybe I'd heard either Iva or Wendy mention it at one point. Or maybe it had been during my period as a wanderer. "That's not Daphne's house, is it?"

"No," my uncle said. "She was originally from House Duvanna. But, of course, she was the last of its scions, and she renounced her heritage, so House Duvanna is now defunct."

"Of course," I said. Everyone knew that.

Brie kicked me under the table. When I winced, my mother gave her a nod of approval.

Bobby paid no attention to any of it.

"She claims no house of her own, these days, and has established four new ones," he continued. "One for each of her brothers. They have no names, only totems. The white fox, the polar bear, the elk, and the snowy owl." He took a sip of his coffee. "Anyway, listen to me. You don't want a heraldry lesson. The point is, my mother was queen before Daphne ousted her. Hers was once a great house, but Daphne Devoured all her kin, despite having promised to spare them if my mother stepped aside voluntarily. She'd been pregnant with me at the time, and so I was spared by virtue of my mother being spared." He paused a moment. "Or so the story went."

I took a long sip of my own coffee. "How did you actually end up with her?"

"Apparently, your grandparents sent me to her the night I was born, and never told anyone here in Autumn about me. It seems this Kaitlin character said that she'd wipe out House Orwin if she had the chance, and Noreen wanted some insurance that her husband house would live on."

Mom looked at me, silently begging forgiveness, though I couldn't have said what for.

Marrying my father?

Devouring her father when he'd wanted to kill Grandma Kaitlin?

Not knowing that she'd one day regret making peace with House Farrier?

But it was I who put a Farrier back on the throne.

From what I knew of Grandma Kaitlin's time as queen, there was no way Mom could have known then how near the truth those words had been. And if Grandpa Dick had avenged Grandma Noreen, my father just might have killed me and his other children.

I didn't want to interrupt my uncle's story, but I reached across the table and patted the back of my mother's hand. She smiled back and nodded.

"From what she told my mother," Bobby continued, "that is, what my real mother told my foster mother," he added, "she didn't really believe Kaitlin could or would. But apparently, she was a cautious woman." He looked to my mother, who nodded her agreement with that characterization. "Perhaps even paranoid. But then, I guess anyone who holds one of these thrones for any length of time must be."

Brie cleared her throat. Loudly. "Sorry. Bit of granola went down the wrong tube."

I smiled at her. She blushed and looked away.

Uncle Bobby shrugged. "Anyway, long story short, I'm something of an insurance policy. Not the most flattering thing a man can hear, but it is what it is."

"Strange then that you might never have known you were an Orwin," I said. "Grandma Noreen should have told your foster mother to tell you the truth when you came of age."

My uncle forced a laugh. It was a brief, mirthless thing. "She did."

"Oh," I said.

"Your grandmother knew that my mother," he stopped, cleared his throat. "I mean my foster mother. Still getting used to that. Anyway, my foster mother had every reason to take care of me as if I was her own. Which was why your grandmother chose her. But it was also why she never told me the truth. My foster mother feared that I'd leave her to search out my real family if I ever found out."

"Looks like she was right."

Mom flashed me another dirty look.

He kept on going as if I hadn't said anything. "She wanted me to give her children. Had been dropping hints for a while, really. And over time, they grew less and less subtle. Eventually, she resorted to outright pleading. I told her that Daphne wouldn't allow it."

"I thought Daphne didn't care about that," Brianna said.

"She never repealed the law. Just refuses to observe it herself. The first house that failed to grasp the distinction was wiped out. Every last one. Even those who weren't involved."

"It's good to be the queen," my mother said wryly.

Presumably in reference to the ability to openly flout the law.

But maybe she was saying something about that particular law.

Would my mother want to bear my children? I'd once thought we'd already crossed that line. That had been silly, of course. We'd never discussed it. It had just been that one strange, powerful moment we'd shared, when I thought I was reading her mind, and thought that she was fantasizing about me giving her a son. But ever since then, it was a thought that returned to me over and over again.

"One night, after she'd had too much to drink," Bobby said, "she told me that I didn't need to worry about the rules against inbreeding, because she wasn't really my mother. When I asked what she meant, she claimed she'd simply misspoken. It only took a few days to wear her down after that slip-up though."

I frowned. The poor woman. Her entire family had already been taken from her.

Though perhaps I was somewhat predisposed to sympathize with her because I didn't like the fact that Bobby had basically taken my own mother away from me.

"Afterwards, she was terrified that I'd disown her, leave for Autumn, and never return," he said. "I tried to tell her I'd never do that, but I did want to at least meet my real family. That only gave her so much comfort though. So I eventually decided to write to your mother in hopes that she'd come to me. I thought that if I at least got to meet my sister, maybe my curiosity would be satisfied."

Mom smiled sadly and rubbed his thigh.

Well, of course that hadn't worked.

Who could meet my mother and not want to be with her forever after? She wasn't the kind of woman you spent a few wild nights with and then moved on.

At least, not in my mind. But, apparently, my father didn't quite agree. He'd spent more than a few nights with her, to be sure, but all the same, he didn't seem to have had any difficulty cutting her out of his life.

Her, and all of their children.

I wondered if that had bothered him even a little.

"Even after I met Ellen," my uncle continued, "I still had no intention of abandoning the only mother I'd ever known. I tried to talk Ellen into staying in Winter with us."

"But I couldn't," Mom said. "I considered it, but the thought of never seeing my children again was more than I could bear."

Children. Plural.

Well, it wasn't like I wanted her to say that she didn't care if she ever saw Todd or Nat again. But didn't she have one child in particular that she was dying to see again? For reasons that were a little different from those that applied to her other kids?

"Finally, I proposed that my foster mother join us here in Autumn. There was nothing tying her to Winter, as far as I could tell. The court she'd once ruled had all but forgotten her. The nobles that had once supported her had either gone over to Daphne or been killed."

"So what I'm getting is that Daphne is a real softie," I said.

Brianna snorted.

"Something like that," Bobby said. "Anyway, I couldn't see why she would want to stay. I guess it wasn't that she didn't want to leave Winter so much as the fact that she didn't want to be an outsider. That she feared being forgotten once I had a whole new family."

"She tried to kill me," Mom said, with about as much emotion as she'd have told me that we were having chicken for dinner. "So Bobby did the hardest thing anyone can ever do, and Devoured the only family he'd ever known."

Mom and Bobby stared into each other's eyes for a few long moments and I suddenly felt like Brianna and I had no business being there.

How was I to compete with that? I couldn't very well prove my love for her by killing my mother. There were just a few problems with that.

"I guess that's pretty much it," Bobby said at last, turning to face me. "Not the cheeriest of tales. But it has a happy ending."

I felt my mother's Libido grow warmer still at that last line.

Fucking gag me.

My uncle finally broke eye contact with my mother and turned back to me. "I understand you were married for a time?"

"Yes, whatever happened to that darling wife of yours?" my mother asked.

That wasn't fair. She hadn't even met Lily.

Not that it mattered, I supposed. She probably wouldn't have liked her any better if she had. But still. It felt like she was basically saying, "I told you so," when she didn't even know the story. Which I'd always known was what she'd say when she found out. I'd spent a year avoiding Autumn in no small part because I wanted to avoid exactly that moment.