Page 14 of The White Stag
Reagan just looked so happy. Fae had a deep connection to nature, even if they weren’t an earth sign. Cyrus was an Aries in every way possible, but he was still out here every day, singing to the garden to help it grow. Oisin was an Earth sign, so he nurtured any sick plants. I was a Leo, so my job was to dramatically yell at any pests that took up residence in our garden and convince them to leave.
Even the ugly arse wee bugs who invaded the gardens and destroyed crops had a purpose in the ecosystem. So it was best to convince them to go eat their food where things were growing wild. And a big fuck you to people who hated all Leos just because. Iownedbeing a Leo, and if I needed to go out and holler at some insects so people didn’t starve, I happily did it. They should bethankingus.
Cyrus and Oisin were taking point on showing her what everything was. I sat back and watched happily. She could have been losing the plot right now, but she was just taking it all in. Nothing in this garden remotely resembled what she was used to seeing, and Cyrus had planted a bunch of carnivorous plants for funsies. Ours weren’t amusing little houseplants that ate gnats and flies. Those buggers would bite your finger off and eat the fucking thing right in front of you. Cyrus found that amusing because he was a psychopath.
And now Reagan was reaching right for one. Estrella would have our nuts if we brought her back minus a finger. Everything was moving in slow motion, and I was too far away to stop her. Oisin started screaming, and Cyrus swooped her up and carried her halfway across the garden.
“That one will bite your nose off if you try to smell it. It likes to draw its prey in by looking pretty and its heady scent, but it has really sharp teeth, and it’s savage,” Cyrus said.
“That’s fucked up, Cyrus. Why do you have this planted here?”
“Because this plant is the epitome of an Unseelie woman—beautiful to look at and inviting, but if you get too close when she didn’t ask you to, you’re going to get mauled,” Oisin said.
Only an Earth sign and Cyrus would think this kind of plant was remotely sexy. It could have bitten Reagan’s nose off if Cyrus hadn’t picked her up like a caveman.
“Let’s go swimming,” Reagan said.
Finally, a sane suggestion. There were harmless wee fishes in this lake that might nibble at a toe with their little fishy gums, but they weren’t going to bite anything off. Even the snakes out there were friendly. If you asked them to share the water with them, they were happy to play with you without biting you with their fangs and venom. Many people were scared of snakes, but they only bit when you stomped into their territory without permission. My mum was a Basilisk, so I was well versed in snakes.
We led her through the woods to the lake, and she took one look at it and let out a huge whoop. Before we could even stop her, she started stripping her clothes off and kept going. Cyrus would swoop in and save her from getting her nose bitten off by his favorite plant, but he wasn’t about to touch her with her shirt off because he’d gethisnose bitten off by Reagan’s mum.
She went charging into the water, naked as the day she was born. We were all just standing on the bank with our mouths open, holding the clothes she’d flung at us. Her knickers were hanging off Oisin’s antlers, and he looked like he was having an existential crisis about that.
So was I. Why hadn’t we made sure she went to her bedroom and changed into one of the many swimsuits in there? They probably would have been too big on her because she was much thinner than we were expecting, but it would have been better than Estrella skinning us alive for going skinny dipping with her daughter.
We all cleared our throats and turned around. Cyrus let out a little growl and yanked Reagan’s knickers off Oisin’s antlers. Reagan hadn’t even noticed. She was happily splashing in the water, oblivious to the fact that she was a grown ass woman now, and we were three definitely grown ass monsters.
“The water is great. Get your asses in here with me!” she called.
“You’re naked,” Cyrus said.
Way to state the obvious, ya wanker. She was gloriously naked. We all got a marvelous view of those lovely legs and firm arse. Why was this even my life right now? I didn’t even get a chance to warn the snakes before she started stripping. Won’t someone think of the snakes?
“So?” she demanded.
That cheeky little minx. Estrella would string me up by my bawsack if she knew I peeked. And I totally did. We were all just standing there with our cocks in our hands, trying to figure out what to say to her.
“Didn’t you tell me Unseelie women take what they want? I want you to come swimming with me. No one has to know.”
Well, that made sense. Leos weretotallylogical. I threw Reagan’s bra at Cyrus, hollered to the snakes we were coming, and charged towards the water with all my clothes on.
“Don’t you dare!” Cyrus roared.
I was already up to my knees when I heard Oisin use some pretty damned good logic too. We weren’t skinny dipping with her if we all left our clothes on. Estrella couldn’t get mad that Reagan wanted to get naked, and we didn’t join her in the nudity. We were just swimming.
And Cyrus might not want to join us, but he wasn’t a filthy snitch either. He wouldn’t breathe a word of this to Estrella.
Oisin
There wasn’t a damned thing wrong with nudity and all three of us knew how to behave around a naked woman. This wouldn’t even remotely be taboo to Estrella or us if Reagan had grown up where she was supposed to. All our bathhouses were communal, and it was common to sit in the herbal sauna with all genders. But Reagan grew up with humans and wasn’t raised like we were, then spent a lot of time around Alastair. I guess Alastair couldn’t take everything Unseelie from her.
I knew Cyrus and Finnan were stressing that Alastair had hurt her sexually. They were waiting for her to bring it up or the right moment to ask. I was born in the Unseelie Court, but my parents told me about how things went in the Seelie Court. He’d done terrible things to her, but not that.
The Seelie didn’t care what happened to a woman after she was married. She was her husband’s property after that. But before that, she was her father’s, and there was this whole stupid purity culture that many humans still held on to. Men were expected to go out and lose their virginity as soon as possible and were celebrated for it. It wasn’t the same for women.
The humans stopped with the whole purity tests ages ago, but it was still a thing in the Seelie Court. If there was even a hint a woman wasn’t a virgin before they sold her to her husband, the deal was off, she was ruined, and they all came together to shame her, even if she had been raped and said so.
As much as Iloathedto say this, Alastair needed her to pass that shitty test if he had any hope of the Seelie accepting her and going along with his plan. It was already going to be a hard sell as it was. First, he’d have to convince his people that while he had her, he turned her into the perfect Seelie woman, and he hadn’t.
