Homelands Pt 03 Ch 05

Part Three picks up where Part Two left off. Be advised that if you haven't read Part One and Part Two, the story may be quite difficult to follow.

This is primarily an incest story, but it is also sci-fi/fantasy, and supernatural elements are not incidental to the plot. Additionally, most chapters will feature elements of other categories, particularly group sex and anal.

All characters are over eighteen. All acts are consensual.

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My breath caught in my throat and my pulse accelerated. I'd looked up from the book I was reading and noticed that Brianna was dancing. She stood in front of the stove, working on dinner, grooving to whatever tunes were playing on her headphones.

Not for me, and not seductively. Just having fun. A few hip shakes here, a shimmy there. Nothing more than that. And she was wearing a loose pair of sweatpants to boot.

But even so, the gentle shake of her little ass and the graceful roll of her hips had me hard as steel. I couldn't explain why. Maybe it was just the mood I was in. Or the way my feelings for her had been changing. But it was driving me insane. If she'd been wearing a more revealing outfit, or putting some real effort into it, I might well have exploded.

I marked my page, put my book down on the glass coffee table, then crept up on my cousin. Once behind her, I placed a hand on her hip. She gave a gentle start, but a moment later pressed her ass against me and gave it a good wiggle. Then she turned her music off and slipped her headphones down to her shoulders.

"Hey, you," she said in that unbearably cute voice of hers.

"Just wanted to tell you how sexy you look, standing here, dancing with yourself."

She laughed. "Right. Sexy. I'm wearing your sweatpants, which are all kinds of too big. I don't have any makeup on. And my hair's a mess. What could possibly be hotter?"

"Damned if I know."

She scoffed.

I kissed her cheek. "I could watch you dance for hours."

"I wasn't even dancing. Not really."

"Doesn't matter." My lips moved to her neck. "You're just about the cutest thing ever."

"Mmm. Frank. I'm trying to make dinner. You know how rare that is."

Yet her tone was hardly one of protest.

"I know," I said. "Not trying to distract you. Just wanted to tell you that you're amazing." I kissed her cheek again, gave her a brief hug, then walked away.

She sighed in exasperation. The warmth from her swelling Libido almost made me cum.

When I got back to the couch, I finally looked back. She glanced over her shoulder at me, turned her attention back to dinner, then to me again.

I thought she might abandon dinner and come pounce on me, but she didn't.

And I was okay with that.

Which wasn't to say I'd have been unhappy if she did, of course. But I honestly hadn't been after that. I wanted her to know that I meant what I'd said. That I was saying it because it was true, not because I wanted to get laid. If it

had

gotten me laid, it wouldn't have meant anything.

For over a week, I'd been planning to tell her that I loved her. But I hadn't found the right time yet. Would that have been it, just there? Did I need a quiet moment? A candlelit dinner? No. Nothing cheesy and romantic like that. There'd be no better time than a random moment in the middle of the day, when she least expected it.

Still, I couldn't help wondering who the hell I thought I was kidding. We kept referring to our decision to move in together, but that wasn't how it was. When I forced myself to think about, the truth always came back to me. We'd been imprisoned.

We weren't settling down together.

Whatever my cousin and I had going was just something to tide me over for now. Sooner or later, Iva was going to release us, and I was going to try to get things going again with my mother. Because no matter how much I might be in love with Brianna, no one could take the place of my mother in my heart. It might take some effort, because Uncle Bobby was apparently perfect for her, but one way or another, my mother would be mine again.

At least, Iva had certainly led us to believe that we'd be released at some point.

"You should be anyfuckingway," Brianna's voice echoed in my mind.

I shuddered.

There was no need to react like that, though. It had been less a month since we'd been imprisoned. That wasn't so long. No reason to start doubting Iva's word. I'd once been imprisoned for three years. Brianna had been for ten. A month? That didn't even count.

No. Even if she'd been telling the truth, there was no reason to expect to be released any time soon. And though it would have been nice to be able to see the rest of my family, to find out how everyone was doing, I couldn't exactly claim that our imprisonment was especially torturous. It could almost be thought of as a pleasant retreat. An extended vacation.

What exactly did that mean for me and Brianna? As usual, I'd run myself in circles. On the one hand this, on the other hand that. We couldn't really be together, not in any lasting sense. And we both knew that. We just were making the best of a bad situation. That was all. Except it wasn't. There was a very real, deep connection between us. Not strong enough to keep me from my mother, but not weak either.

And that was after just a month.

Suppose Iva never released us? Or didn't for a very long time? If I was this in love with my cousin already, might a few years together with her make me forget about my mother?

I lowered the book I wasn't really reading anyway and stared at her again.

Fuck, but she

was

sexy. Not as voluptuous as I liked, but she still oozed sex appeal. And I felt like I could be myself with her. Didn't need to try to live up to expectations, the way I did with my mother. And exactly how much did my mother and I have in common?

Just the other day, Brianna had observed that, if anything, I was more like her mother than my own. Which I myself had once noticed.

Liz was gone now, and so was the well-mannered, well-behaved, goody-two-shoes I'd once been. But the man I'd become probably wasn't necessarily any more similar to my mother than the shy, nerdy, responsible boy I'd been was. Rather, I'd gone from being a good match for Liz to being a lot like Brianna. If my mother wasn't, well, my

mother

, I probably wouldn't even be so attracted to her.

And I knew that.

I hadn't told Brianna about Lily at first, but she knew the truth now. And she'd been more understanding than I could have asked for. Could I expect the same of my mother? Or would I get a big fat order of "I told you so"?

Maybe Iva could be counted on to react the way Brianna had, if I ever told her exactly what happened, given how many skeletons were in her closet too. Assuming she didn't know already. Which she probably did.

Not that any of that mattered. I'd been mistaken about my aunt in a lot of ways. She might be able to accept who I'd become, but I wasn't sure I could say the same of her.

Among those women I still cared to be with, Brianna was probably the only one who could hear the cold truth about what had happened with Lily and take it in stride.

Just then, my cousin covered the pot of stew, moved it to the back burner, spun around, and headed towards me. The look in her eyes was priceless.

"Hi," she said, as she climbed atop me.

"Hi," I said, with a chuckle.

"You're a jerk, you know that?"

I laughed. "Why is that?"

"I thought you were going to have your way with me earlier. But no. You just left me there, all hot and bothered."

"Thought you were making dinner?" I asked.

"So? Wouldn't be the first time we burned dinner."

"True."

She cupped her breasts, which I was less and less inclined to think of as modest. They weren't large, but they fit her perfectly.

Nonetheless, when she augmented them, making them grow a good two cup sizes, I felt no need to complain. She might look damn good even without enhancing them, but I'd be lying if I said she looked

worse

with a bigger pair.

Her hands grabbed mine and guided them up towards her girls. "Got a little treat for you," she said, as if I might have failed to notice.

"You don't need to do that," I found myself saying.

And more or less meaning it.

"I know," she said. "Which is why I don't mind."

I pulled my hands away, slid them up to her shoulders, and pulled her down for a nice, long kiss. When I finally let her up for air, I said, "I love you."

She just stared at me, expressionless.

"I tried to resist it at first," I continued. "But I can't deny it anymore. I'm madly, painfully, crazily in love with you."

After a few moments, she said, "Don't fuck with me, Frank."

"I'm not."

"That's not something you just say."

"I know."

"We're supposed to pretend that doesn't happen," Brianna said. "That it's just sex for us. Total bullshit, of course, but we work hard at maintaining the fiction."

"Believe it or not, I'm aware of that."

She grabbed my wrists, took my hands away, and placed them on my chest. "What about your mother?"

I hesitated for a moment. "Nothing's changed there. But she's not here. And my feelings for her don't make my feelings for you any less real."

Brianna drew a deep breath. "And when we're released?"

"Which will be when?"

She nodded. Slowly at first. Then a bit more vigorously.

"I love you too, Frank." She closed her eyes and exhaled heavily. "Fuck me. I've never told a guy that." Her eyes opened, and the emerald orbs stared back down at me once again. "I can't say I ever imagined that the first time I said it, it would be to a guy I new was in love with another woman either. But damn if these past couple weeks haven't been perfect."

I offered her a wan smile.

We did, of course, end up burning dinner after all.

#

Another two months went by. In that time, we received two more visits. One was from my father. Brianna was more pleased to see him than I was, but I'm not sure even she was exactly delighted by his decision to drop by. She never was as interested in him as was in having me think she might be anyway. Or in having him think she was, so that he'd be more interested in her. I wasn't sure which. Maybe a little of both.

The other was from my grandmother. And that wasn't any more welcome, however pleasurable it had been in a strictly physical sense. Which, of course, it was. Afterwards, Brianna and I had a fight about the fact that I hadn't tried to coerce her into releasing us. But I was pretty sure we were just going through the motions. I didn't call her on it, but I sensed that Brianna knew that I couldn't have tried even if I'd wanted to. Kaitlin had been laying it on

thick

, and neither of us had been able to resist.

Perhaps it would have been easier to just admit that even though we were neither one of us weak, we were still no match for Kaitlin. Nor did we have the same skill at using what raw power we had as my grandmother did hers. Yet for whatever reason, giving voice to those fears felt too much like admitting that we had no control over whether we'd ever set foot outside our prison again. The thought that we were completely at the mercy of House Farrier was not exactly a pleasant one.

What if my grandmother decided to Devour us instead of keeping us locked up forever? Or instructed Iva to do so? Would we have any chance of resisting either of those two?

Perhaps I would. I'd survived an attempted Devouring once before. Granted, Lily wasn't as strong as either my aunt or my grandmother. But, precisely as a result of that event, I was a lot stronger now than I'd been then. All in all, I thought I'd at least have a

chance

.

But Brianna?

She'd once been a good deal stronger than me, and probably stronger than Iva as well. But she wasn't much stronger now than she'd been then, whereas Iva and I had both grown a lot more powerful since. Especially Iva. And I could only assume that the next time we saw the queen, she'd be even more powerful still.

Those thoughts weighing on our minds, the first few days after my grandmother's visit weren't particularly pleasant. But, gradually, those concerns receded.

It wasn't like my grandmother had given much indication that she intended to go to that extreme. In fact, she went out of her way to remind us that she had no hard feelings against us personally, she just didn't have any desire to see the throne pass back and forth between Farrier and Orwin any more. Naturally, it was hard not to think that if she really bore us no ill will, she wouldn't have had Iva imprison us, but reminding myself of those comments made it easier to believe that the risk of being Devoured was relatively low.

So, with the exception of those two visits, and a few days immediately following the latter one, my cousin and I mostly managed to enjoy our time together.

We had our ups and downs, to be sure. As any couple might. We argued about all kinds of things, from what to watch, to what to eat, to what we'd done to each other in the past, to what the future held for us. Especially that last part. But we also had a lot of fun.

Sometimes, when I least expected it. Which was to say, Brianna's sadistic side was alive and well. She wasn't expressing it in the same way, but it was definitely still a part of her.

Even though she made me do a lot of things I'm not proud of, however, she also showed me a side of myself that I wouldn't otherwise have discovered. And for that, I was grateful.

We opened up to each other in many other ways as well. It wasn't just physical. We told each other deeply embarrassing, but ultimately meaningless, incidents from our youth, shared our deepest fears, and everything in between. With each passing day, I found myself feeling more and more comfortable with her, and more and more terrified at the prospect of things changing between us.

For that reason, as much as I hated the idea that we'd never be able to leave unless Iva freed us, I almost came to dread seeing my aunt again.

On the one hand, I couldn't imagine not pursuing my mother again. She was my

mother

, after all. The woman who'd brought me into this world, and the woman who'd introduced me to what lay beyond the mortal world. The first woman I'd ever really loved.

But I genuinely loved Brianna too. And what we had felt more real, less like a silly fantasy. Things would unravel for us when I started chasing after my mother. Which I wouldn't be able to keep myself from doing. Yet I didn't really want that to happen.

So it was with both relief and disappointment that we greeted the arrival of Her Majesty.

One moment, my cousin and I were alone in the treehouse, and the next we weren't.

For a brief moment, I thought I'd felt the air stir. But it wasn't the air. It was the world itself. But only for a moment. And then Iva stood before us.

Brianna pressed up against me and squeezed my hand tight between hers.

"Your Grace," I said, bowing to my aunt. "You look lovely."

Lovely wasn't the word for it. She looked damn good. Regal, yet sexy as all hell too. The bejeweled tiara and red silk cape, which was, of course, trimmed with ermine, established a certain air of nobility. The leather corset, translucent panties, and sheer thigh-high stockings and matching gloves, made a striking statement as well, but one of a rather different kind.

Of course, she always looked good. But I didn't think it was just the fact that I hadn't seen in her some months that had me thinking she looked even better than I remembered. When last I'd seen her, I thought there were a few more signs of age to be found in her face, a few more grays in her hair. Now, she actually looked younger. Moreover, I thought her eyes might have been bigger, her lashes fuller, her teeth whiter, and her legs curvier.

Then I noticed the real change. The one that might well account for the others, if indeed they weren't simply in my imagination. Her Libido, which she hadn't bothered to mask, was so potent that I gasped the moment I glanced at it.

"What is it?" Brie asked. But she must have thought to check for herself, because a moment later, she muttered, "Holy fucking shit."

That about summed it up.

When last I'd seen her, she was already more powerful than her mother, who was one of the strongest women I'd ever met. But now, I'd have to say that Kaitlin was as weak compared to her as my daughter was compared to me.

"Thank you, sweetie," Iva said.

She undid the clasp on her cape, swept it off her shoulders, and tossed it aside. It faded away like it had been made of smoke. Then she tapped her tiara with one finger and it burst apart. A sheet of sparkling dust rained down about her, like fireworks.

"It's," Brianna said, hesitating a moment before adding, "a pleasure to see you again."

Iva smiled at her, but it was a smile without warmth. In fact, I could almost think that Iva was disappointed, maybe even hurt, by Brianna's tone.

"Can I offer you something to drink?" I asked.

The smile she offered me was closer to genuine. "Like I'm a guest. Oh, Frank. Thank you, but no." Then she stopped and tapped her lips. "On second thought, yes, I would. And, in just a minute, I'm betting you will as well. So how about we split a bottle of wine?"

I wasn't much of a wine drinker, but I wasn't categorically opposed either. So I went over to the kitchen table, summoned a bottle of chilled white wine and three glasses, and set about pouring for the three of us before taking a a seat.

"I realize I owe the two of you an apology. And an explanation. Hopefully you'll at least find the latter compelling."

Brianna glanced at me, face expressionless.

I sipped my wine, using that as an excuse not to acknowledge the look.

The women came and sat to either side of me. Brianna gave Iva a war look as she reached for her glass. That put a frown on the queen's face.

After a generous swig of wine, Iva said, "You've been gone for about a year."

"You made a prison world where time goes

slower

?" I asked.

She nodded.

I'd never even considered that. It seemed like every time someone created a new world, time passed more quickly there. At least, that was true of the seasonal courts with respect to the original courts, and our echo of the mortal world in comparison to the lands of Autumn. And every other prison world I'd ever known about.

"Believe it or not, I didn't really like the idea of imprisoning you at all. I figured if I was going to do it, best to make sure it wasn't for long. At least as far as you were concerned."

I actually would have preferred to have more time with Brianna. But of course I didn't say as much. Who complained about being released from prison too soon?

"I am sorry that it came to this," Iva said. She looked at Brianna. "Please know that I'd have rather kept you by my side, if I could. But I just couldn't."

Brianna held the queen's gaze for a few moments before turning to her wine.

"It's not like I-" Iva began. Then she cut herself short, sat up straight, and continued in a calm yet firm voice. "You won't be returning to the Third Autumnal Court. Instead, I've decided to establish a Fourth Autumnal Court. I'll be sending some of the nobles over with you. None of whom, of course, are powerful enough to compete with House Orwin for the throne. You can decide amongst yourselves which of you will rule. I assume that will be one of you two, if the other Orwins have any sense, but it's really none of my business."

"Not me," Brianna said quickly. "I've had my fill of playing queen."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "I was just going to say it should be you."

"Nuh-uh," she said. "I don't trust myself. Neither should you. And you can be

damn

sure the rest of the family won't either. No. Once was enough for me."