Trinket (Reverse Harem)

A Study In Tents

The hot summer outside felt like cold fresh air on my flushed skin.

Oh, wait, that was just Korr.

I bumped into him as I fled the Temple. But it took a second to realize that the rock-solid slab was in fact not a statue I'd accidentally bumped into, but... Korr.

I stared at his chest from the length of my smushed-against-him nose, then raised my eyes. Shit.

"Was my brother rude to you?" he inquired. He seized me by the waist and spun me around him as if protecting me. "Brother, what did you do to our pet? She is flushed like a rose."

"I am not!" I protested, trying to squirm out from behind Korr.

"Perhaps it's none of your business what your brother gets into. Or who," Itek said.

"In the Temple?" Korr said.

Ethat walked out of the Temple—honestly, big dragons sort of lumber along—and fluffed all his scales, sending up a shower of petals, pollen, and grasses. Itek chuckled, and Korr spun me back around so I was once agains pressed against him.

"Stop it," I said softly. Being eye-level with his Trinket made it obvious he was just being horrible. Through our sheer, light summer fabrics his body's curves and dips pressed into mine, including the shape and bulge of his phallus, which nestled in the line between my hip and mound. The flush started again, but at least this time I could blame it on the sun, even as his frozen body pulled all the heat I was producing out of me.

His blue eyes were their own sky: azure and racing with clouds and storms. What was he looking for?

The wolf guards at the door coughed. One said, sternly, "This is the Temple, Lords."

Korr released me. Itek nodded and looked up and to the side. We all looked—a couple of ravens crouched in the shadows of some ornate marble sculptures on the face of the High Temple. They cawed at us in unison.

Itek placed a hand on the small of my back and guided me through the courtyard. I tried not to shiver from his feather-light touch. Ethat sprang into the air and caught a wind, spiraling lazily up into the sky, to circle about higher than the ravens could fly.

We passed back through the city, with Ethat watching from above. What were these guys expecting? Birds seemed to perch in every crevice and ledge, watching and cawing, although half of them were just regular birds trying to grab a meal.

I didn't like them looking at me, either.

Upon our return to the house, a young man was waiting in the courtyard. He jumped up when we entered.

"How did you get in here?" Itek demanded instantly. I instinctively pressed behind Korr. Above us, Ethat swept low and landed on the roof, his claws crunching a couple of the stone shingles.

The young man, a human, a few years older than I was, with hair gathered at the nape of his neck in a short tail, and wearing a dyed, plain robe of a (presumably poor) scholar jumped backwards, knocking over the deck chair and clutching his leather bag against his chest like that might shield him from a griffon's claws. "I—I— the gate was unlocked."

"That is a lie," Itek growled. "I locked it."

"I swear, it was unlocked and open," the young man protested, backing up as Itek matched him pace for pace, herding in a large arc towards Korr, but the scholar hadn't noticed it yet. His little four-corner cap slid to the side. "I'm Maris. You requested a tutor for your um—ah—"

"And the guild sent you?"

"Ah, yes, Lord-Griffon," Maris stammered.

Itek growled. "We requested someone capable of training our pet, not being distracted by her pretty face. We will have to train you on proper professional behavior."