Railed by the Yule Cat

Railed by the Yule Cat

DALIA DAVIES

Copyright © 2023 by Dalia Davies

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

No part of this book was produced with the use of AI. No part of this book may be used to teach or program an AI

This book is a work of fiction. Any and all references are used fictitiously. Names, characters, places and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblances to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Interior Illustrations by Sophie Zuckerman (@Dextrose.png)

www.daliadavies.com

For anyone who’s ever felt out of place in the “real” world

Content Warnings

Some elements of this book may be triggering to readers. Please see the following list of CWs to ensure that you are comfortable reading this book before you continue.

Biting/Clawing

Bondage, light

Cinnamon Stick Strap-on

Death, Mentions of

Explicit Sex

Is it Vore if no one’s getting off? Someone gets eaten (non-sexual)

Tail Play

If you feel something was missed in this list, please contact Dalia via the form on her website.

Want to skip straight to the spicy stuff?

If you’re here to return to the world of the old gods, go ahead and flip through to the beginning, but if you’d like to jump straight ahead to the spicy bits… find that here.

Enjoy this book however you want.

BITCHES, I DON'T TRUST 'EM BUT THEY GIVE ME WHAT I WANT FOR THE NIGHT

- TOVE LO

Here Kitty Kitty

CALICO

Every time I leave the old gods’ realm, it feels like I don a mask instead of shedding one.

That unsettled feeling burrows under my skin and it stays until I step back into Babel. It floats around me now as I lead this rat back into his trap.

The man behind me thinks he’s getting lucky tonight. He feels safe. That’s why he let me lure him out of a crowded bar and lead him through a dozen dark alleys with the vaguely implied promise of—as he called it—“that fine ass.”

He hasn’t noticed that he can’t touch me. He doesn’t know the magic that protects me here in the mortal realm. He doesn’t know that same magic is the real reason he’s drawn to me.

The fool thinks he’s got the upper hand. No matter where I plan to take him, he can’t imagine the night will end poorly for him.

He’s used to being the one controlling the situation.

And that’s the reason I have him now.

That’s why he follows me so willingly into the one place no man like him should ever venture.

There are dozens of entrances to Babel. You just have to know where to find them.

He asks no questions, so I tell him no lies. I lead him to the crooked arch near the subway entrance for South Wells.

Maybe he thought I’d give it up in the corner of the ruined courtyard beyond it.

But there’s no courtyard there for a quickie.

That is a trick of the mind. This is one of the places where the old gods’ magic seeps into the mortal realm. It’s a tear in the carefully crafted fabric that should keep us out.

Stepping across the threshold of the old gods’ realm—how long have I thought of it as my own—is like shedding an itchy wool sweater. The weight of the mortal world falls away like I’ve been washed clean and made whole again.

Maybe that’s just because the transition between realms transforms my clothes back into Lako’s preferred leather and lace. The strappy white outfit covers everything it needs to, and nothing else.

My tail and ears and whiskers reform as well. I don’t hesitate to put my mask back on.

Even if this realm has started to make me one of its creatures, I don’t belong here.

Not really.

But the man behind me belongs even less.

I spin on my heel, snatching his face, and force him to meet my eyes. “You’re mine until the gods deem it otherwise. Do you understand?”

My claws indent his cheeks, but I don’t draw blood.

He nods, pupils dilating and contracting, undulating in the neon darkness. And then, through his fish-puckered lips, he says, “I’m yours.”

Giving him my protection—Lako’s protection through me—leaves me with an icky static sensation across my skin. I slap a plain demi-mask over his face, and he sways when I release him.

It won’t save him if one of the other old gods should step in and take him away from me before I’ve delivered him to Lako. But it will keep the other devotees in their various masks from trying to steal him away to have their fun. It gives me limited control over him to keep him from doing something that would get him into trouble with those other gods.

“Good boy.” Patting him on the head, I lead the way through the glittering green and purple of the club-like liminal space and ignore the dark shadow that looms… always watching with its star-bright eyes.

Gren’s true form should be something I don’t even notice anymore, but complacency and the old gods are a dangerous combination.

I focus on Babel instead of the faint dread that always washes over my skin when I look directly at them.

Lights hang in the air, flickering like fireflies at the distant edges of what I can see. They’re hazy, taking on a bokeh effect.

Babel is a beautiful illusion and an enticement.

The man behind me slips on the icy floor and I don’t reach back to steady him. If he falls, he falls. Big boys can pick themselves up. But I catch a glimpse of him in the reflection and his eyes are too wide.

I wonder what he sees.

The gods’ individual domains are entirely of their making. But Babel… Babel is governed by rules I don’t understand.

I do know that all of the gods have a stake in this place, though. They send their devotees here to spy and flirt with and harass each other.

Goats and bulls pinch at each other. Bears and bats huddle close, hands touching. Butterfly wings and striped caps share whispers.

The gods’ devotees lurk. Their tasks are often as unsavoury as mine.

The gods among them are even more unsavoury.

They play with their mortals with feathers and leaves and horns and tentacles, some of them crueller than others.

But those masks are so helpful. It’s nice to know who belongs to whom.

Not that I can trust any of them.

There’s only one mortal, behind one mask, who wouldn’t tear my heart out if her god asked it of her, and I don’t see her yet, even though I know she’s here.

She wanders while I hunt.

That is our bargain with Lako. I collect snacks, Minx collects secrets.

The little rat I’ve brought back isn’t worth toying with.

“Be a good lad and sit in the corner.” I tell him, pointing absently to a tiny chair that faces the wall.

He nods and goes, listing like a drunk. I watch him wobble, amused, when he sits on the floor, instead of the chair. He scooches as close as he can, nose to the point where the icy walls meet.

It’s a bit too close to the literal command, but he’s out of my hair for the moment, and that’s all I want.

This section of Babel is usually quiet. People don’t venture to the teardrop shaped bar unless they see someone here with a drink already in hand.

It seems untended to most. Drinks appear and glasses disappear without any sign of who delivered them.

Unless you’re like me.

Holding out my hand, I don’t look at the ghostly apparition of the bartender. I preferred it when I couldn’t see them… but they appeared on the fifth anniversary of my deal with Lako. They’d been more unsettling than the tail and second set of ears I’d suddenly grown.

I don’t know which of the gods they belong to. Their face shift so often it makes me nauseous.

But drinking the sparkling liquid they hand me is something to pass the time until Minx returns to me.

It’s not alcoholic… I’m not actually sure what it is. It tastes like whatever I crave at the time. Today it’s blueberry waffles.

I’ve nearly finished it when I see her.

Minx saunters through the club. The black bands of leather straps that wrap around her match her mask, and her tail as well. If not for her pale skin and blonde hair, she might blend into the shadows completely.

But her smile shines like sunlight when her gaze falls on me.

“Welcome back, gorgeous.” She steps into the V between my thighs and her hands slide from my knees up to my waist. “I’ve missed you.”

I don’t tell her that I’ve missed her too. She knows.

Instead, I spear my fingers through her golden curls and draw her to me. Kissing her like I’d drink her soul if she let me.

She smiles against my lips before she kisses me back.

If not for the man in the corner, I would drag her to some secluded place and show her just how much I’ve missed her.

I was only gone for three hours in the mortal realm’s time, but I don’t know how long it was for her. Time is broken here. It’s another thing I don’t understand. Another thing I don’t trust.

And that’s why I cling more tightly to her.

She is my anchor.

I love her more than I’ve ever loved anyone else… bar one.

The Cat that Swallowed the Canary

MINX

There’s a chill that pervades Babel tonight.

Heim is pissed off as usual, and the god of winter’s foul mood seeps out to assault us all.

I can’t find it in me to care, though. It gives me an excuse—one I don’t actually need—to snuggle closer to Calico.

Her trips into the mortal realm always leave me anxious.

I don’t know how long she was gone this time, but it felt like days.

Even though it’s ridiculous, I’m always afraid she’ll be trapped there by some trick of the gods.

She always comes back to me.

She hooks her leg around me and draws me closer still, kissing me like she was gone for years.

Her teeth catch on my lip and I taste blood.

The sharp little fangs are the one change neither of us has managed to get used to.

But the bite heals quickly and the blood simply stains our lips red.

We’ve been devoted to Lako for so long, it would be easy to forget how many years it’s been… but every five years, something changes.

At five, we grew tails and soft ears on top of our heads.

At ten, we grew whiskers and claws and our teeth turned to sharp little fangs. 

This will be Calico’s fifteenth Yule—and my twelfth. I think we’re both a little scared of what might happen to her.

Pulling back from her, I take a deep breath and smile, even as she frowns.

“You taste like blueberry pancakes.”

“I thought it was waffles.” She finishes her drink and glances over her shoulder. “I suppose we should lead the lamb to the slaughter.”

“Not a lamb.” I remind her, finger on her chin, turning her to face me. “A rat.”

They’re all rats.

I don’t know the man’s crimes, but I know the criteria for Lako to drag them into this realm. He hurt someone and now he’ll pay for it.

“Let’s see if number twenty-four tells the same lies as all the others.” She says, lacing her fingers in mine and raising my palm to her lips.

She kisses me softly and I shiver. “They always do.”

This is lucky number twenty-four. He’s the last of the men Calico will collect for Lako this year.

The Yule Cat’s bargains are predictable. For most devotees, the bargain is the same. Lako punishes the man of your choice and in return, you collect five more men for their punishments. If you complete the task before the last day of Yule, you earn your gift and your bargain is done.

Fail to bring her five, and your bargain resets for the next year.

Calico and I are different.

To finish my bargain, I have to tell her twenty-five secrets the other gods don’t want her to know. Calico’s bargain was twenty-five men.

All three of us know that we’ll never collect the twenty-fifth of either of our deals. We’ll reset every year until eternity fades away. Because winning Lako’s game means losing everything.

We’ve been here so long… I can’t imagine going back to the mortal realm. The time I’m from is archaic compared to the one Calico came from. I know too much about the future to return to the past.

Even if I could take Calico back with me or if she could steal me away to her future… it would mean leaving Lako. And that’s not something I’m willing to do.

So we’re stuck here, perpetually pretending to play Lako’s games.

“I can feel them watching me,” I say, glancing over my shoulder, even though it’s not far enough to catch sight of which devotee’s gaze bores into my back.

Calico’s fingers tighten on mine. “That’s all they can do.”

She’s right.

They look, but they don’t touch.

And we do need to get back to Lako’s domain.

I left while the rest of Lako’s devotees decorated.

But when winter reigns in this realm and Yule approaches in the mortal one, it means we’re both at risk.

Lako could tire of us and give us our gifts despite our deal being unfinished. I shiver and Calico scowls.

“You,” Calico says to the man with a snap, and he jumps to his feet.

Turning to her in a daze, his face is slack.

I’ve always wondered if they’re aware during this. If they’re inside their own minds screaming that they want control back.

Calico crooks her finger. “Come here.”

I don’t know if I like what passes for fashion in the version of the mortal realm she dragged this man from. He wears a glaringly bright yellow shirt that has an ugly saying spelled across the front in blocky black letters.

Hopping off the ledge-like seat, Calico twines her fingers in mine. 

It’s not a long walk through Babel, but I feel dozens of eyes on us as we go. People whisper and titter. Only a few have been brave enough to come up and actually say something to us without us approaching them first. But that’s one of the reasons Lako has put up with our games for this long.

It amuses her that we are coveted… and that she is technically the only one who has a claim to us.

She gets to punish anyone who tries to interfere with us.

A man in a bull mask pulled my tail a few years ago. Calico broke his wrist on the spot and Lako appeared a moment later, claws sunk into his back, playing with him like a puppet as she took him back to his god. I don’t know what happened to him after that.

I do know that everyone in Babel saw what happened. Whispers and rumours were all that was required to make sure no one else ever tried it again.

All of her devotees earned their safety on that day. Some appreciate it more than others.

Those covetous creatures can creep, but anything more, and Lako will see that they crawl.

They move out of our way and I catch Calico’s tail with my own, holding it like I hold her hand.

There’s no one else in this realm I pay attention to unless they have something I want.

The interesting ones all seem to find themselves bound to their god. Devotees still, but something else entirely, as well.

What lucky creatures they are. To be loved so wholly by a god is something the rest of us can only imagine.

For the briefest of moments, I thought our god might be able to do the same.

But we are simply her favourite toys. And that has to be enough.

The main entrance to Lako’s domain is a winter wonderland. Trees press out into Babel, like she’s stretching out her paw and lazily taking up more space than she ought to. The boughs are a purple shade of blue and green beneath snow disturbed by tiny paw prints.

I don’t know when, but Calico made a joke about Narnia—whatever that is—and from that point on, anyone who wishes to enter must push through vaguely damp fur coats.

But Calico never leads her catch that way.

We slip through one of the slivers in the veil that separates Babel from Lako’s snowy domain.

There are back doors and secret paths into every god’s domain.

We found half of them by accident. But this one… Lako showed us this one long ago.

It’s not sneaking in. Lako knows we’re back. She always knows where we are.

She’s never said so, but I think she always knows where all of us are.

And right now, there are too many of us to count.

Her devotees always number the highest in the days leading up to Yule and on that auspicious day, almost all of them will flee this place, never to return.

Calico will enjoy the peace and quiet.

The man follows us, looking up at the dark boughs with an awe that tells me he has no idea what’s in store for him. The snowy forest crowds close and I should be freezing, but I don’t feel the chill here anymore.

Other devotees appear in those branches, peering down at us behind their own cat masks. For the first time, the man flinches away from the trees.

He should. Sphynx is terrifying.

The man’s pace quickens. He knows he needs to stay close. 

Kittens slip from their hiding spots, landing softly in the snow and follow behind us at a safe distance.

They’re afraid of us too.

It’s better that way.

When the trees thin and open onto a round clearing with a raised dais at its centre, those kittens fan out, keeping their distance.

Lako sits on her ever-changing throne. Like her autumnal primary, she has fickle tastes that rarely remain the same—with one exception.

Today, her throne is a gorgeous asymmetrical chair, all dark wood and garnet-coloured velvet between an enormous brazier and an even bigger tree trimmed with cranberries and oranges and little wooden mice.

She lounges in it at an angle, one leg thrown over the lower arm, watching us with her glowing green eyes. Wrapped in a purple fur blanket, she studies Calico’s quarry and that hungry look makes me shiver more than the snow littering the ground in her domain ever could.

For now, her fur is grey. It shifts so often, I can never be sure how she’ll appear when we return to her.

She chooses to look the way she does depending on her mood, on the other gods present, or on the tone of the snivelling from the men in front of her. Lako is rarely the same cat twice.

But whatever she looks like, she’s always ethereally beautiful. No matter the size or shape she takes, she always chooses femininity over form.

“You always bring me your rodents so quickly,” she says, her voice a strange modulation that reaches the man’s ears and snaps him out of his daze.

He locks eyes on Lako and stumbles toward her.

Awe isn’t a strong enough word for the way he looks at her.

I don’t listen to what he says. It’s always the same.

They grovel at her feet, they spew words about her beauty…

They completely miss the fact they’re at the feet of an old god who is best known for devouring men and spitting them back out broken.

Lako lets him fawn over her, but she looks down at him unimpressed, her tail twitching.

A low growl is the only warning before she snaps. “Enough.”

His mouth slams shut as though he’s been muzzled and his spine goes rigid.

“Do you know why you’re here?” She watches him, white patterns appearing on her fur, as though the snow has started to stick. It shifts like slow-moving clouds.

And he doesn’t answer her.

I’m not sure he could if he wanted to.

Lako toys with a snowflake, not letting it fall to the ground. And I glance at the woman who asked for this man’s punishment.

Ragdoll is what Lako named her when she changed her mask. She’s the oldest of the kittens this year. Her white hair put up in a perfect French twist. She watches him with a blank expression.

“Rebecca Porter told me what you did.”

His eyes go wide.

They always go wide at this part. The one where they finally realise the danger they’re in.

Lako doesn’t even seem to notice. “Did you do it?”

He shakes his head and then takes a deep breath, ready to defend himself. But Lako doesn’t let him get that far. She pinches her short, round fingers together and his lips pout out as if she is actually holding them closed.

“Are you willing to be found in a lie?”

She lets him go, and he mashes his lips together for a moment before he says, “I’m not lying.”

“I suppose we’ll see.”

The kittens around us titter in anticipation, and I grit my teeth as Lako unhinges her jaw. The man stumbles back as her mouth stretches impossibly wide…

I hate this part.

Turning away, I drop my head to Calico’s shoulder and close my eyes. 

There is an ugly crunch and slurp. Calico pets my hair as I screw my eyes more tightly closed.

She watches Lako swallow the man whole.

It’s a pattern I’ve been present for so many times.

Leaning into Calico, I wait for him to be spat out again. Wait to hear the crunch of bones on the stone flags beneath her throne.

It happens more quickly than usual and I take a deep breath before I turn back.

The man sits on the flags in a daze. Eyes wide—like he can’t unsee what he’s just seen—he whimpers, shaking like a leaf.

 He’s covered in the same spit that pools around him, and his skin is scuffed and scratched.

He fought all the way down.

But Lako doesn’t look impressed as she wipes her paw across her lips.

“It would have been better for you if you’d simply admitted your guilt.” She inspects her claws. “Easier… less painful, too.”

With a snap of her fingers, he’s stripped bare. He screams as he transforms into an actual rat—the furry scurry kind, not the “I cheated an old woman out of everything she owned” kind that he already was.

With a squeak of sheer panic, he bolts into the snowy forest undergrowth and with squeals of glee, the kittens run, chasing after him.

Ragdoll is the last to go. She dips her head in thanks to Lako. And then she hurries away too.

They’ll catch him and they’ll toy with him. And by the time he comes back to Lako, begging for a deal with Death, he won’t be much of a man anymore.

Lako watches them go until it is only the three of us.

“I assume he’s the last of them you’ll bring me this year,” she says, turning back to us. “You don’t want the gift.”

The gift… on the last day of Yule, the devotees who have paid their debts and completed their bargains finally win their rewards in the shape of a little black box with a neatly tied bow.

There are already stacks of them beneath the enormous tree to her left.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Calico says, and I can hear the smile in her voice. I know the exact shape of her lips as she says it.

Lako can play her game. We will play ours.

What’s Up, Pussycat?

CALICO

Lako doesn’t believe me, of course.

She’s an old god. She knows more than either of us could fathom. She knows when we’re lying and when we know she knows we’re lying.

It’s why she chuckles under her breath and rearranges herself so that she is sitting more firmly upright in the chair.

“Come here.” She holds out her paws. “Both of you.”

Her paw elongates until it is so similar to our hands as I place mine in hers.

She smooths her palm along the side of Minx’s face.

Minx leans into it, and I don’t blame her.

Lako is an old god. They’re all beautiful and enticing and dangerous.

The fact that she likes us doesn’t change that.

The fact that we like her doesn’t either.

“There are whispers,” she says, releasing Minx and turning to me. “Sharp and sure enough, they’ve crept their way into my domain.”

“What whispers?” I ask.

“They think I’m cruel, that I’ve tricked or trapped you.” She lifts my chin.

Her face is so close, it wouldn’t be anything at all to kiss her. And I know that’s what this pause is. An invitation…

But I don’t close that short distance.

She toys with us all.

We may not be rats like those she punishes, but we might as well be mice.

She bats us around, playing with us as she pleases. I don’t trust the ways I want her.

Neither does Minx.

Lako tuts, releasing me and shaking her head. “But this place isn’t a cage, and you are not mice.”

I don’t like when she does that.

She’s told us she can’t read our minds, and I want to believe her, but then she does that…

Dropping her feet to the flags, she stands and emerald fabric falls around her legs, pooling at her feet. That deep purple blanket becomes a plush stole, and she holds it close, as if she’s cold.

“Will you come to me tonight?” she asks. Looking from Minx to me and back again, she waits for our answer.

Because it’s never a command.

But it’s a request I can never deny. “Always.”

Almost fifteen years, and I’ve never said no.

She looks to Minx too, because it’s always a choice we each have to make.

“Of course.”

Lako bends and brushes a kiss across Minx’s lips. And then she turns to me and does the same.

She walks away from us, her throne shimmering into nothing, and the sky fades with her as she goes. The brazier’s flames flicker in the new darkness.

Mix laces her fingers in mine and takes a deep breath.

“Did you want to say no?” I ask, watching Lako disappear.

“No. I never do.”

And I wonder if she hates herself for that… just a little. The same way I do.

She must.

Why else would she let me make us linger in the snowy forest of Lako’s domain? She lets me lead the way down the cleared path to the hot springs where most of the kittens spend their evenings.

I don’t understand it, and Minx loathes it, but the bubbling liquid isn’t water. It’s hot chocolate and little marshmallows bobble on the surface.

One word pops into my head on a disgusted repeat every time we’re here. “Sticky.”

No, thank you.

Minx clutches my hand tighter and the women there watch us with suspicious gazes. They know how long we’ve been here. They know we don’t want to leave. But they can’t imagine why. Only a few of them have been brave enough to ask.

But we never tell.

Sphynx has caught the rat I brought back from the mortal realm. She dangles him off the ground, playing with him like he’s a yo-yo—Lako was cruel enough to give him a stretchy tail—she gives me a sharp smile, though her teeth are normal.

In another life, I think I would be the one who was afraid of her. If we were just two women in the mortal realm, I’m sure we’d be friends.

But this route we take is all for show. I climb the teetering stairs that spiral up and around the base of an enormous white fir, Minx right behind me.

The others watch us go. The little bower we claimed as our own a decade ago hangs within the boughs of this one. It’s a swinging bed draped in gauzy curtains where no one else dares to venture.

We pass through it, drawing those curtains closed as if we’ll be there all night, but we never fall asleep here.

Minx slips her hair free, the golden ringlets never flattening, no matter what she does to them, and helps me slip off my heels and stockings. We won’t need them… and it’s best to be silent when sneaking through a domain with so many spying eyes.

She presses a soft kiss to my chin and I tip her face up to kiss her sweet, soft lips. “Do you think she’d come find us if we waited here for her?”

“No.” Minx shakes her head and her hair makes a soft sweeping sound over the lace at her shoulders. “Our god doesn’t chase.”

We both know that too well.

The bower swings as we hop from it to the next tree, climbing even higher and balancing on the tiniest of all the catwalks in Lako’s domain. The forest seems to extend upward forever and I haven’t taken the time to find out if there are tops to these trees.

Minx won’t look down as we slip between the trees on the plank that is barely wider than our feet. We’re so high up, the kittens playing below us look like toys. If they’ve caught a rat, I can’t see it at all. But this path isn’t meant for prowling or prying.

Three branches—left, right, right—and we reach an icy wall, bathed purple in the never ending dusk that exists over this place.

There’s a crack in the ice here, just wide enough we can slide through and narrow enough we come out the other side wet and peaked.

I shiver, and Minx rubs at her skin. This is the only place we ever feel cold. But we’ll warm up soon enough.

Three more steps down the barely shoulder-wide path, the icy floor turns into a slide and I sit—ass stinging against the chill—and Minx gives me a little push.

She’s right behind me.

At the bottom, we spill out into Lako’s private sanctum and she snickers at us from where she lounges on one of her many thrones.

“You could use the front door,” she says, lazily swatting at a feather that never makes it to the floor.

We don’t argue with her. We never do. But the front door is for the one she eventually chooses to keep. And we already know… she doesn’t plan to keep us.

She would have by now, if she did.

We prowl to her instead.

There is no icy chill here. Fires—four copies of the one that burns beside the Yule tree—keep the cold back against the ever-melting walls.

Lako pulls us to her. Our feet moving across the floor as though it’s covered in a sheet of ice, and when she takes hold of me, she kisses me like I’m a treat. Like she’s never going to get enough of me. And I let myself pretend that’s true.

Her fingers pinch me and my nipples go immediately erect. If I was naïve, I’d think that was from some magic of hers, but she’s never needed any magic to make me feel this way.

“Such a pretty little kitty.” The words are backed by a purr.

Her claw slides through the leather strap and doesn’t mark my skin, but the straps fall away, baring me to her.

She looks… hungry.

Minx winks at me. She’s waiting her turn.

“You were gone too long this time.” She brushes the back of her hand across my breasts, soft fur making me shiver. “I don’t like sending you away.”

But I have to go, and she can’t refuse me when I ask for a name. 

“I’ll always come back.”

“Don’t make promises you aren’t certain you can’t keep. Especially to me.”

She turns me and I land on my back on yet another of her thrones and Minx takes hold of my wrists, keeping me down.

Lako’s gaze leaves me for the barest moment—just long enough that she can send an appreciative glance Minx’s way.

“You can say no,” she reminds me, and I shiver as her claws slice through the fabric at my hips and both leather and lace fall away, leaving me completely naked for her. “You two are always in control here.”

We’re very aware.

How many nights have we come to her and withheld ourselves? How many nights have we come here and played only with each other, trying to provoke a reaction?

Lako has never so much as twitched a whisker at our machinations. 

We amuse her. That’s all we can hope for.

“I don’t want to say no.” I never do.

She smiles, sharp teeth gleaming, and when she dips her head, nuzzling me, I look up to where Minx stands, over my head, holding my wrists and stroking my skin with her thumbs. She smiles at me like I’m her favourite person in the whole world.

Lako’s tongue rasps over my clit and I gasp, closing my eyes tight.

The first time, her rough tongue had been a surprise. The fact that I loved it, even more of one.

I rock my hips, aching with want.

Wanting more is a torture I’ll endure.

“Such a greedy little kitten.” She laughs against my skin and her teeth prick at my clit when she settles in to suck. Cool ice presses into me, slick as it melts in the heat of my pussy.

She wants me to come. But she’s right, I’m in control here.

I wrestle myself out of Minx’s grasp and use my thighs around Lako’s neck to turn us over, straddling her head and letting her lick her fill.

Her claws sink into the flesh of my ass, but the way she purrs… I’ll take any torture. It will all be sweet.

Like a Cat in the Cream

MINX

Calico is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and when she rides our god’s face… I can’t help but touch myself. Tongue caught between my teeth, I slip my hand between the soft satin of my underwear and my warm skin.

A throne appears behind me, but I don’t sit. I kneel on it and use it to get myself to the level of Calico’s lips, kissing her as I delve my fingers into my slick pussy.

My claws never pierce me and I use my fingers, just enough to coat them and make my toes curl.

Lako distracts Calico so well that when I draw back from her kiss and take my fingers to her lips, her pupils flare with surprise, bright hearts bursting deep within their darkness.

She sucks the taste of me from my fingers and moans when my lips latch onto her nipple.

Making Calico come is easy. She’s so pliable… so perfect.

When she releases my fingers, gasping at the sensation Lako draws from her, I wrap my hand around her neck.

It’s a gentle squeeze, but it’s all she needs now. Lako did all the work.

Lako led her to the cliff. I just pushed her over the edge.

Calico comes on a cry that’s sharp and echoes through the room. She writhes and chirps and for a moment, I think she might weep. Lako doesn’t let her go until she’s wrung out—a puddle of a woman on one of Lako’s many thrones.

But once Calico settles, Lako’s gaze turns to me.

Her eyes glow a pale aquamarine, like glacial ice, and her smile shows her sharp teeth.

She crooks a dark finger at me and I step over the back of the throne and then down to the cool floor in front of her.

Lako pets my cheek, tracing the line of my mask.

“Sweet little things like you need to be careful.” She leans forward, ducking down and nipping my chin. “Others might find out how tasty you can be.”

“No one who isn’t in this room gets to know that.”

“No?”

I shake my head. “You are my god. I’ve forsaken all the others.”

“Such sweet things from such sweet lips. But your candy coating hides the truth, doesn’t it?” She presses a kiss to the skin just below my ear. “You are a little thief.”

“I’ve never taken anything that wasn’t freely given.”

Lako chuckles and bites my ear. “What would you take from me?”

“Everthing.” The truth is one I probably shouldn’t tell her, but when it slips from my lips, I refuse to try to take it back.

She drags a claw up the front of my underwear and they split, just enough that she can reach inside and slide her finger along my wet pussy. “Will you be happy with whatever you get?”

Calico’s foot trails up my calf and I wrap my tail around her ankle, squeezing her once before I let go.

“Happy? Yes.” I draw back from Lako and go to my knees. “Satisfied? Never.”

With a deep purr, Lako sits in the throne that appears behind her. It’s so low to the ground, I’m practically on my stomach when I push her thighs wide.

Lako has been my favourite flavour since I first got a taste.

She tastes like oranges and mulled wine. Bright, heady, and intoxicating.

She is the perfect creature—perfect even among the gods. And she’s ours, for however long we can keep her.

Every time I lick her pussy, I wish my tongue was longer, wider, rougher… anything to be able to give her more.

I want her soft moans to be louder. I want the grip she takes on the back of my head to be stronger.

Fingers laced through my hair, Lako’s hand covers the whole of my head, but she doesn’t move me. She doesn’t try to guide me this way or that. It’s almost like she’s holding on to be sure I’m real.

The vibrations of her purrs roll through me and she whispers encouragements I only partly understand.

The old gods’ tongue has a magic of its own and it slithers through my veins like a drug.

I honestly have never felt so powerful as I do when I make Lako come.

This time… If she’d been standing, I would have brought her to her knees.

I wring her orgasm from her as a punishment for throwing us away every morning and drawing us back every night.

She comes with a yowl and ice crystals form in my hair and I shiver as the hard, cold chips touch my too-warm skin, but I don’t stop feasting on her pussy.

I know I only get what she gives me, but I like to pretend I am stealing this.

It’s a crime that always comes with the same punishment.

Lako flips me over, so quickly I would have cracked my head if I’d landed on the icy floor. But, we’re in her bed, all three of us.

The enormous red circle of sheets and pillows is surrounded by a dense ring of greenery. Thick ribbons hang from the ceiling like a canopy overhead.

They’re all I see for a moment before Lako crawls over me, her hooded lids dimming the brightness of her eyes.

She’s the daughter of winter, yes. She can be cold and cruel and bitter, but she is also the daughter of autumn: changeable in every way.

She is in the habit of pleasing herself, and I will never tell her “no.”

I reach out my hand, taking hold of Calico’s and lick my lips when she scoots nearer to us.

This tiny bubble within the old gods realm is my idea of heaven. The three of us, alone together, with no obligations or demands from anyone else.

Just us.

Lako’s small white brows pinch. “One of us,” she says, “has done all the work and got none of the reward.”

Whiskers twitching, she flicks the tip of her tail at me like she’s wagging a finger. But there’s no fur on it anymore.

It’s smooth skin now. It moves behind her and threads between her legs as she nudges mine open.

Somewhere along the way, all of our clothes disappeared, and when I spread myself for her, her tail slides along me, slipping through the slickness already there and stroking my clit, to draw out even more.

When Lako kisses me, it’s almost like a distraction. But she doesn’t give me a moment to complain when she breaks away.

Her tail presses into me and I draw in a shivering gasp. I don’t remember the last time she did this for me.

Eyes screwed shut, hands clenched to fists in the cool sheets, I bite my lip to keep from begging.

But I force my eyes open when the mattress shifts. Lako moves up, just enough she can grind her clit against mine and she helps Calico to her knees, too.

My throat feels parched and I reach for Calico as she moves to straddle my face. She curses when I pull her down so I can drink her in and I don’t release her, even when Lako moves us both to stabilise her.

I couldn’t stop if I wanted to, because Lako’s tail hasn’t stopped either.

With the two of them over me, with Lako in me, I lose all grip on reality. All I am is subject to the whims of my building orgasm.

I hear Lako praise Calico between kisses. I hear them talk about me like I’m their favourite being in either realm. But it’s all drown out by the overwhelming need to come.

I don’t know what flicks the switch this time, but when it hits, I jerk. Hard.

My claws sink into Calico’s thighs, and I can’t release her as I come, the sound of my cries swallowed by her pussy.

It’s my turn to be wrung out and I remember that some call it a “release”. How apt.

I barely feel human as Calico and Lako move me around between them, settling me with soft kisses and cuddles.

I snuggle close to them both, wishing I could stay right here for ever. But my lids are too heavy and exhaustion drags me into a dark and dreamless slumber.

And like every morning… I wake to the fresh cool air of Lako’s domain, holding tight to Calico in our bower, instead of with her.

It’s a Rat Trap, Baby…

CALICO

A faint breeze rocks the basket-like bower we claimed as our own so long ago, and I snuggle closer to Minx. She’s already awake. She always wakes before I do.

I don’t know if it’s Lako’s magic that rouses her when our god puts us back where we “belong” or if she simply can’t sleep in this bed.

She pets my hair and hums a lullaby she won’t tell me the words to.

“Good morning.”

“Morning.” She never calls them good.

I kiss her, hoping that it might change her mind about it.

We lay there for what feels like hours, languidly tangled together.

But we can’t stay hidden away the whole day. She’ll call for us and the last time she sent someone into the forest looking for us, the other kitten treated us like we’d grown boils and sores.

Clothes righted and masks very firmly in place, I’m the one who leads her out of our little sanctuary.

But we don’t get far.

A shadow falls over us and I take Minx’s hand, drawing her away, so she won’t look up. She’ll feel Gren. She always does. But she’s never seen them as they are now.

Before we take two steps into the snowy forest, sharp branches—coiled like greedy hands—grab hold of the back of our necks and haul us backward.

They shouldn’t be able to do that.

We should be safe inside the bounds of Lako’s domain.

But the rules are always fuzzy with the god of autumn… the god of change.

We land in a pile of brittle leaves, scattering them in the darkness of Gren’s domain. The trees here have no snow on their boughs. They wear all the colours of autumn and their leaves flutter and fall to the ground, but they never touch, and the branches are never bare.

More leaves fall from the dark green overhead. Not a sky, not a ceiling, something else altogether.

The falling leaves flutter and swirl around us. Minx dodges them, but I don’t bother, and when one lands on my shoulder, it turns to a dark and spindly spider.

The creepy crawlies never bothered me and once I learned their secret, I rather found I liked them.

I snatch it from my arm and bite it in half. It doesn’t crunch.

They’ve been pretzels and popcorn and once it turned into a chicken drumstick. This time it’s gummy, like candy. That makes my skin prickle.

As a general rule, when the spiders are sweet, the news is not.

But Gren doesn’t wait on their throne.

I see the dark shadow of their true form in the water before the ripples of our footsteps break that mirror reflection.

When we stop in front of the twisted branches and melted stone throne, the stillness lingers.

“Do you think we’d make it back to Babel if we ran?” Minx asks, leaning close, the humour in her voice is weak.

I shake my head. “Not a chance.”

As if those words have summoned them, Gren’s shadow falls over us like a foul wind.

The leaves rustle and a chill skitters up my spine. I flinch and Minx spins around like someone’s pulled her tail again.

I force myself to stay perfectly still, even as the instinct to run grips me.

Gren was smoke and shadow a moment ago. Now they are a little… man? They certainly wear masculine features today, beneath the twisted wooden crown that grows from their head like a circlet of antlers and ivy.

Their pale green face is dappled with fawn spots and they watch us with eyes so dark, I’m not sure there’s anything in the sockets.

Nothing ever feels settled around them.

They are one of two that Lako can’t actually protect us from. And we are both perpetually lucky that Heim is too busy pining over the loss of his wife to bother with us.

But Gren… Gren has watched us with a calculating eye from the moment I brought Minx to them and asked to take her to Lako.

I think they knew neither of us was going to do as we were told. But amusement so often fades to irritation. It was only a matter of time.

They shift as I watch them. Subtle changes that I’d miss if I wasn’t focused on their face, their shoulders, the arch of their posture…

“You time is running thin, kittens,” they say, dropping one wicker hoof to the ground with a heavy clatter as pebbles spill from the holes and send ripples across that dark mirrored pool to us. “You’ve been here too long. Finish your bargains with my daughter, or I’ll take you away from her.”

I hear Minx’s sharp inhale, but can’t look at her. Squeezing her hand, I don’t draw her close.

Gren leans forward—that ever looming shadow stretching even larger behind them. “And we all know you won’t enjoy what I will make you do to release yourselves from my grasp.”

Gren watches us with doe eyes now. They hold themselves perfectly still otherwise.

And something in that stillness stays my tongue.

One does not argue with an old god—especially with one of the Primaries. I’ve never figured out exactly what they can do that their children cannot, but the things I do know are terrifying enough on their own.

“I will take your silence as agreement,” they say.

What other choice do we have?

Snickering, as though they heard that thought, their gaze settles solely on me. “Hold out your hand, Callista.”

They say my real name and I hate the way it makes my stomach twist, but I do as I’m told.

A golden circle drops into my hand. The chain on one end wraps around my wrist with the momentum of the fall.

It’s a pocket watch covered in engravings of leaves and berries, and it pops open, ticking so loudly I want to snap it shut again or drop it so I can cover my ears.

There are no numbers on its face, just two hands. One with a mouse at its end scurrying away from the other… tipped with a prowling cat.

“You have until you’re caught.”

Minx makes a little sound and Gren turns to her so sharply, it sounds like twigs breaking. “Speak, Mina. If you have something to say, I wish to hear it.

“Lako doesn’t release anyone from their bargain until Yule,” she says.

“Then perhaps you need to find a way to make her change her rules. Or maybe I’ve given you until Yule. The question is if you are willing to risk it.”

They reach out, and their fingers grow like willowy branches, hard twigs catch when they trail through my hair. “Go finish your bargains, or I will give you new ones.”

Swallowing, I clasp the watch in one hand—it snaps closed in my palm—and take Minx’s with my other.

The sooner we leave this domain, the better.

“Kittens?” Their mocking tone makes me clench my teeth.

We turn back to them and their smile is wide and sharp and hollow.

“Say nothing of this to your mistress.”

…And You’ve Been Caught

MINX

Gren may have snatched us away from Lako’s domain, but they make us walk all the way back.

Calico doesn’t let go of my hand. Grip tight, our tails twined, she holds me closer than she needs to as we make our way through Babel.

The space between domains is too loud and too dark. Devotees in ugly masks laugh too loudly and I’m grateful when Calico pulls me away, drawing me to one of the few quiet corners. She tugs me down to sit on a velvet sofa that reminds me of Death’s wife and tucks my hair behind my ear.

“You should ask her for another name,” I say.

“No.” She shakes her head and her hair starts to unravel. “Not until I know you’re safe, too.”

Safe. I’m not sure that word applies to us anymore.

I pet her cheek. “We’ve been fooling ourselves for too long. We knew we’d have to leave, eventually.”

We’re mortal. Mortals don’t get to live forever. No matter how much love they have left to give.

Leaving doesn’t just mean losing Lako. Leaving means losing each other.

By the time Calico was born in her time… by the time she is born, I’ll be long dead. Time is the truly cruel one here. The gods simply wield it with a precision no mortal could hope to achieve.

If we stay… “The best we could hope for is being sent to Diyo.”

She takes a deep breath and looks at the glassy floor. “Who would be the worst? The gremlin?”

“The tooth fairy?” I guess, remembering bodies in pieces.

“She’s perfectly nice anymore.” Calico laughs mirthlessly and looks away from me. “If we have to finish this, I’d rather it be with Lako.”

“Me too.”

The decision settles over me like a weight, and I’m the one who stands, dragging Calico back up to her feet. “It’s time to go make our final requests.”

She looks like she wants to say no, but she doesn’t drag me deeper into Babel. She draws me close and kisses me. “There might be another way.”

“There isn’t. Gren won’t let there be.”

She doesn’t hold my hand as I lead the way back to Lako’s domain. And when we find our god, she sits on her throne, tail twitching as she watches us approach.

“Where were you? I don’t like it when my kittens disappear without my knowing.”

“Gren needed us for a simple task,” Calico says. It’s not even a lie.

Her jaw twitches. She doesn’t like when Gren uses us for the small things like collecting someone else’s devotee or setting an intricate chain reaction in motion. But they do it often enough, she doesn’t ask what they made us do anymore.

“They like using my devotees so much, they should get some of their own.”

There aren’t any other kittens around and I don’t want her to think too hard on what we might have done for Gren.

I climb up onto the throne with her. There’s no one around to witness the insolence. And Lako purrs instead of tossing me away like she might another.

“What game are you playing, little Minx?”

“No games.” I kiss her, because I want to and because I know my chances are dwindling in number. Then, I ask the one thing I’ve never asked before. “Will you tell me the secret you wish most to know?”

Lako’s eyes narrow and they shift from me to where Calico stands behind me and back again. “Are you so eager to leave me suddenly?”

Because that was the caveat to my bargain. Twenty-five secrets… or the one thing she most wishes to know.

I can’t lie to her. I won’t. “Bargains have to end.”

She takes my chin in her hand, forcing me to meet her gaze. “Yours doesn’t. Yours never has.”

It’s not a lie for her. And yet, it is for us.

Her pupils are thin slivers of pure black and I swear her teeth are longer when she turns those deep green eyes on Calico. “And are you here to ask for that final name?”

I don’t look back, but from the confusion twisting Lako’s brows, I know that Calico has nodded.

She doesn’t throw me off of her, but she does set me down and rise from her throne. Her fur is puffed like I’ve never seen it. 

“I have decisions to make.” She turns away from us and for a moment, I think we’ve made a misstep. But she stops a few steps away and turns to look back at us. “Come with me.”

This time, it’s a command. This time, we follow her through the trees and all we can do is walk the path made by the train of her champagne gold dress.

Lako’s domain is vast—sometimes, it seems unending—but she leaves most of it to the whims and follies of her kittens.

She lets us all escape into that forest and have our own privacy unless circumstances require her presence. I’ve rarely seen her anywhere other than her constantly changing throne beside the enormous tree, or on the path between there and here. She doesn’t even go to Babel anymore—unless someone makes her.

The entrance to her inner sanctum is glaringly rigid among the soft and snowy boughs.

The juxtaposition feels like a more appealing version of caution tape and red signs stamped with universal symbols.

Warning! Stay away!

It practically screams the silent words at us.

The bright blue of the glacial column juts out into the trees, pushing against them as if Lako made it just a little too big.

Everything she makes feels like it’s trying to take up more space than it was told it could.

Unlike the secret entrance we take, this one a wide triangular arch cut in the glassy blue ice. It’s an entrance befitting a god. The long tufts of fur on her ears drag along the diagonal ceilings, like she’s forgotten how big she is… or maybe she’s too mad at us to shrink herself down.

But once we’re past that she grows even larger. Calico told me a story once, about a little girl who grew big and small depending on the things she ate and drank, but Lako’s size is too often indicative of her mood.

“Why do you suddenly wish to leave?” She prowls close to us. “Is there someone making you uncomfortable out in Babel?”

The soft fur of her fingers brushes against my chin before she grasps it in a tight grip and makes me look up at her.

“Tell me their name and I will tear them to shreds for it.”

“It’s nothing like that,” I say. And I get away with it because it’s not even a lie.

“But you want to leave?”

She drops her hand from my face and have to catch myself before I fall forward.

I wouldn’t lie to her about that, even if I could.

“We need to,” Calico says.

“But you don’t want to.”

It’s not a question, so I don’t answer it.

“I don’t want you to either.” Prowling between us, she studies us like she’s never seen us before and her eyes narrow on Calico’s hips.

She plucks the pocket watch from where it was twisted in the white straps there, but she doesn’t open it. She stares at it for a long moment, brushing the pad of her thumb across the intricate carvings.

“Completing your bargains will separate you.” She says it quietly enough, I know she’s not actually talking to us. I wish I could say something—anything—to make all of this stop. But I keep my mouth shut instead.

Tucking the watch back into Calico’s straps, she brushes the back of her paw beneath my chin and tips my face up again. “There is no two of you.”

Lako looks at me, purring low in her chest. “You are one and the same. Halves of a whole. There is no one without the other.”

I breathe as deeply as I can, without giving away this feeling of dread inside me.

“If you leave here, you leave together.”

“That wasn’t our bargain.” Calico says softly. Not an argument, a reminder.

“Bargains can always change.” She sits on one of the thrones I hate. It’s narrow and made of an ugly golden leather. It forces her to take a smaller shape and squeeze herself down to a fraction of what I’ve always thought to be her true form.

I don’t ask any of the questions swirling in my mind. I don’t want answers to half of them.

But Lako doesn’t make us ask. She doesn’t make us wait.

“I don’t want to give you up, but as it appears you have to go…” She pauses, flexing her hand and her claws make puncture marks in the leather. “I will change your bargains, if you agree to it.”

“What kind of a change?” Calico asks, stepping close beside me. But she doesn’t touch me.

We’ve both learned not to trust a bargain, even one from Lako.

“No more men, no more secrets. You are mine until the end of Yule.”

I don’t remind her that we’re hers either way.

“Define the ways we would be yours,” Calico says.

“You have no obligation beyond staying with me unless I send you on an errand.” Her tail flicks in annoyance. “If I am to be deprived of your company, I want my fill of it before you leave me.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to say yes. I don’t know what she wants to offer in return, but it’s the bargain I would have begged for at the start.

“If you do, I will let you choose which time you can both return to.” She looks back and forth between us. “If I cannot keep you, I will not let you be parted.”

“Okay.” Calico says it with a curt nod of her head, but one look at her tells me she’s scheming. What, I don’t know.

I’m not sure I want to know.

“We’re already yours. But if we have to go, and you will let us leave together, how could I possibly refuse you anything?”

Lako lets out a shaky breath. “Good.”

Then, she holds out both of her hands, the objects in them jingling. It takes me a moment to realise what they are. A length of black leather with a silver bell in one hand, white with gold in the other.

Collars.

“If you change your mind, all you have to do is take them off and you will revert to your original bargain.” She straps them around each of our necks, jangling that bell before she lets us go.

“Not too tight?” she asks.

We both shake our heads and the bells jingle again.

“You may do what you wish, but for the moment… you’re not to leave my sanctum.” She says it with a soft command before petting our cheeks and then disappearing out the front entrance, leaving us alone.

“I didn’t think she cared that much.” Calico says, looking at the sliver of light she disappeared into.

I did.

The Cat’s Pyjamas

CALICO

Lako doesn’t come back for ages.

It’s an odd feeling, being in someone’s home when they aren’t here. Even with permission.

We’ve used the Easter Bunny’s domain as an escape while he and his bride are in the mortal realm… but this is different.

The Yule fires spark and sputter, and I trail my hand over each of the random thrones scattered around her sanctum.

Lako is nothing if not a glutton for soft and cushioned surfaces—though not all of them fit that bill.

All of these will clutter around her throne, like the seats for an audience, on the final day of Yule, and then, any kitten who has fulfilled her bargain will be released.

And us along with them this time.

It makes me sick to my stomach, even knowing that Minx will be with me. I don’t know how we’ll cope. But we must.

The throne in front of me now is made of soft blocks of pale blue fur held together by her magic and nothing else.

I pull one away and the cube shivers in my hand as if it’s alive.

When I drop it to the floor, it bounces and squeaks, and jumps back into place among the others.

The last time I sat on that one, it nibbled.

The one Minx lounges in is the only one I’ve ever felt comfortable sitting in. It’s one Lako rarely uses outside of this sanctum.

It’s the one she gives Calico and I every time she hands out her gifts.

I go to the back of it, not sitting with Minx—not right now—and pet the deep blue velvet. It turns emerald beneath my touch and then purple and back to blue. It’s scalloped, like a misshapen clam.

“That one is my favourite.”

I look up from the dark velvet beneath my fingers and meet Lako’s gaze. “Aren’t they all your favourites?”

“Of course not.” She takes my hand away from the fabric and presses a feather-soft kiss to my knuckles. “If everything is your favourite, then nothing is.”

“How many favourites could you have?” Minx asks, looking up to her with pleading eyes.

“I could have two.” She pets my cheek and says, “I have dealt with the last man who needs dealing with and I am tired.”

I don’t argue with her that the gods don’t get tired. How would I know if that was true?

She hooks a finger under the strap that runs over my left shoulder. “This isn’t any good for sleeping.”

When she lets go, the strap doesn’t snap back to sting my skin. The white fabric transforms into a long, soft gown that falls from the collar to the floor with nothing underneath.

She does the same to Minx and those straps and the lace that covered her vanish as the fabric unfurls down her body.

Half of me expected the nightgowns to be sheer, but they’re not. Soft fabric falls from our necks down to the floor. It’s positively modest, despite hugging our bodies like lovers.

I move, and gooseflesh sprouts over my skin from the way the soft fabric brushes against me.

She does love soft and pretty things. Purring, Lako looks us both over once more and then goes to a throne made of deep red leather and burnt wood.

“We didn’t need these.” Minx stands and goes to her without beckoning, nuzzling the fur at her throat and climbing into her lap.

“This isn’t a part of the deal, little Minx.” Lako’s thumb brushes across her cheek. “You don’t have to give yourself to me again.”

“I know,” she says, and I hear her purr as her fingers feather into Lako’s fur, making her look up. “I want what I want. Will you give it to me?”

“If I can.”

Minx kisses her and Lako’s arms tighten. If either of them were anyone else, I’d be simmering with jealousy. Right now, I’m just a little sad.

Sad that these moments are numbered and soon will only be memory.

But Gren is trying to take everything from us. I watch Minx a moment longer and purse my lips before I join her. I’m determined to be selfish with whatever time we have left.

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, I Love You

MINX

Lako lets me kiss her.

She lets me spear my fingers through her fur and tip her face upward to kiss her.

Everything she lets me do makes me want to scream.

I draw back and look her in the eye instead. “Do you want us?”

“Of course I do.” She hooks her fingers in the leather strap around my neck, but she doesn’t pull me closer. “I’m just not certain you want to be here anymore.”

“We didn’t have to take this bargain.” I remind her and Calico hops up onto the throne beside us, murmuring her agreement. “She could have demanded a name instead, I could have pushed to know which secret you need. We didn’t have to be here.”

“We don’t want to be anywhere else,” Calico says.

Lako’s brows pinch. “Then don’t leave.”

I hate that she makes me say it. “You know better than anyone that this realm chews mortals up and spits us all out, eventually.”

Her jaw twitches and she scowls at us both. “I don’t want that for you.”

I don’t think she can stop it. But I don’t tell her that.

I kiss her instead.

It probably shouldn’t be this easy to distract a god. And maybe it isn’t. Maybe she’s just letting me pretend I’ve managed it.

I tell myself I don’t care, and I kiss her with every ounce of longing in my being.

For all I know the cat could catch its mouse and we’ll be torn away from her at any moment. I plan to make every second count. For all of us.

Drawing back, I turn her face to Calico and she does exactly what I hope.

Lako leans close and Calico kisses her just as fiercely.

Slipping backward off the throne, I step behind Calico and I catch her arms, pulling them behind her. Her shivering sigh is approval enough, but she bends over backward with a smile, and kisses me, too.

The kiss is cut short on a gasp and we both look down to where Lako has sunk her teeth into Calico’s breast through the nightgown’s soft fabric. Right over her heart. Calico whimpers, but it’s not in pain. I feel her move and I know she’s rocking her hips against Lako. Her body already—always—craving relief.

Lako will give it to her, eventually.

Calico jerks when Lako pulls back, rough tongue rasping against her nipple, even through the fabric.

“Let’s get the rest of this off you.” She tugs at the gown and it pulls away from her like it’s made of cobwebs.

She reaches around and snatches mine away too.

“You’ll get them back later. I like when you’re just you.” She catches up my hand and then Calico’s, bringing them together to nuzzle our fingers. “I would like it better if you were just mine.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her we are. But that watch—now clasped around Calico’s wrist—catches the light, reminding me it would be a lie.

“We’d like that too.” But for the moment, we’ll have to pretend instead.

Lako hums, discontentedly, and drags her claws softly down Calico’s stomach. “I guess I’ll just have to try to get my fill of you before you abandon me, won’t I?”

Another one of her thrones flies up behind me and all but scoops me up. It happens so quickly, there’s no time to release Calico and I wind up dragging her back with me.

The throne doesn’t hold us for long and a moment later, it flips us over, spilling us out and we land on the floor beside each other, on our shoulders and knees. Except, it’s not the floor. A hard metal bar presses down on my back, so I can’t get up. Calico’s eyes go wide as they meet mine.

I’ve never seen a mouse trap in Lako’s domain. I certainly never expected to find myself trapped in one big enough for the both of us.

“Trapped” isn’t the right word. A simple shift of my shoulders tells me the bar isn’t set. It’s holding us down, not keeping us in place.

Claws rake across my ass and Lako clucks her tongue at us.

“Maybe this is where I should keep you, so you can’t get away.” She catches my tail in her hand, stroking up it before releasing it and doing the same to Calico’s.

She purrs and shimmies her hips.

She wants exactly the same thing I do.

I glance back, over my shoulder and between us

Lako wears a deep purple dress tonight and her fur is a ghostly white dappled with pale red blonde. The dress pools at her knees when she drops to them, and then coils away like smoke. Her golden eyes meet mine and she winks at me.

“Such pretty pussies,” she says. “And they’re all for me.”

Her hand squeezes my cheek and then leaves me. Cool air washes over my skin in its place.

All of Lako’s attention goes to Calico and I lick my lips as a sigh parts hers.

My beautiful, mortal lover deserves every stroke and sliver of pleasure she can get.

I watch her face tense and ease. I listen to the sweet and soft whimpers that make her eyes flutter closed, and I want, so desperately for it to be my turn.

But I wouldn’t steal this away from her for anything.

Wriggling my arm beneath me, I slick my fingers through my pussy and bite my lip so I don’t make any sound.

I don’t think Lako would be mad, I just don’t want to distract either of them.

Lako works her magic, painting a perfect picture of pleasure on Calico’s face. I soak it in, enjoying it for the art it is.

Toying with myself, just enough to keep myself patient, but not so much I get distracted is a fine tightrope. One I should probably be better at by now.

I ease my knees further apart and lay my tail flat down my back.

I’m so ready, my eyes threaten to cross, but the noises Calico makes pull my focus back to her with a pinpoint precision.

Her eyes pinch tight and her mouth opens wide and she jerks and screams and struggles.

A sharp twang echoes through the room and the spring holding the trap closed snaps. Freeing us from the device that was never truly confining us.

Calico slumps forward, along the wooden surface, sobbing and begging through her orgasm. I want to crawl to her, to drink in the sounds she makes and kiss her to ease her through it, but I don’t move. I stay planted in the spot where Lako trapped me and I wait.

Patience will reap its reward.

That may not have come from a book about my god, but it certainly applies.

Lako’s hands press tightly into the skin of Calico’s hips, so she can’t actually squirm away. Not that I think Calico wants to get away.

She wriggles as Lako licks and sucks and purrs, and I know it’s only a moment before Calico—

She comes again and her cry is almost drown out by Lako’s purrs.

Our god may not love us back, but she does love to make us come.

Calico’s body eases, as if her bones have all liquified, and Lako pulls back, licking her lips with an utterly satisfied smile on her face.

That smile turns wicked when it falls on me.

She pets me with the soft fur on the back of her hand. “Such a good girl, staying where she knows she ought to.”

Her purrs vibrate my skin as her lips trail along my spine. But she’s silent when she snatches my hand away from its rotation on my clit. “Maybe not such a good girl after all. Who told you you could touch yourself?”

“No one.”

She hums. It’s a thoughtful, disapproving sound. “I suppose I didn’t tell you not to either, did I?”

“No.”

“This aching clit and swollen pussy deserve some relief, don’t they?”

“Yes,” I say, remembering my manners at the last second to add, “please.”

With Lako behind me, I pretend that bar is still tight over my shoulders. It’s so easy to forget she’s just as cruel as the other gods when she’s giving me exactly what I crave. Even when it comes with sharp claws in my skin.

Lako spreads me wide before she licks me. The abrasive swipe of her tongue hurts in just the right way. And when I let out a shuddering breath, she chuckles against me. “My little Minx. Already so ready for me.” Her teeth rake across my ass cheek and she presses something hard and warm against the wet heat of my pussy. “I know what you like. Don’t worry.”

She flips me onto my back and all I see is the bright white of her smile between my legs before she presses the implement deep inside.

I don’t know what she fucks me with. And I don’t care.

It fills me while her rough tongue tortures my clit and I hold onto her while her claws keep me firmly in place.

Whatever the cock-replacement she’s chosen, it tingles, warming me even more and makes me want to pull her head up so that I can see what she’s tantalising me with.

But she bites me and all I can do is drop my head back and let the spiral take me.

I smell… cinnamon. The heady spice fills the air around me and I hear Calico chuckle.

When I roll my head to the side and see her, she looks like her whole world’s been torn apart and turned upside down. There’s a sadness in that bliss and I want to crawl to her. I want to wrap myself around her and protect her from the sucker punch we both know is coming. But I’m fully in Lako’s grip.

And Lako does know what I like.

My eyes roll back in my head and I can’t do anything but let my orgasm drag me under.

My toes curl, my claws sink into Lako’s fur and I stretch toward her, giving her as much of me as she wants while I shatter.

I come down softly and slowly and I stretch again, this time reaching out for her, but all I find is Calico’s soft skin.

I blink back to awareness, gowned again and curled at the centre of Lako’s bed.

Frustration fizzles through me, killing the last whispers of pleasure that clung like memories to my skin.

Dragging Calico across the bed, I snuggle into her.

But I can’t sleep.

That is my only real secret from her. I can’t sleep without Lako.

My body and mind can’t settle without her. Which is why, as soon as I know Calico won’t wake, I slip away from her.

The soft gown moves silently across my body as I climb the ribbon-like stairs that lead out of Lako’s bed.

And when I cross out of the wreath, the silent bubble stays behind me. So, it’s not difficult to find her.

She sits on a long, uncomfortable-looking throne, shaped like a chaise carved from stone, staring at the flames in one of her braziers. I’m not certain she sees me as I make my way around the circular border of her bed.

There is a bright brass vase on the arm of that throne and she idly knocks it off, letting it clatter to the ground.

The moment it stops ringing, it unwinds, as though made of shining thread, and spins itself back into place beside her.

She knocks it off again.

“You should be sleeping,” she says without looking at me.

“There are a lot of things I should be doing.” I hold my hand out. “Most of them with you.”

“And yet, you’ve chosen to abandon me.”

My heart aches, bruised and unravelled like a vase she likes knocking to the ground to hear the sound.

“No,” I say, even if I shouldn’t. “This isn’t what I would choose if it was up to me.”

Lako’s expression softens. She sits up and looks at me, vase forgotten. “Then who is making you? Who has chosen for you?”

The air fills with the sharp ticking of a clock—the clock. “I can’t tell you that.”

“I could demand it.”

Gren didn’t say she couldn’t figure it out on her own. “I can’t tell you. It doesn’t matter which magic you use. This magic supersedes yours.”

She mutters something under her breath and turns back to stare at the fires.

“You should be sleeping,” she says, again.

“Come back with me and I will.” I am so tired. “Be with us as much and for as long as we have left.”

She hesitates.

“I want what I want,” I say, echoing myself. “Will you give it to me?”

Holding out my hand, I hope the answer is the same.

She slides her fingers through mine. “If I can.”

Biiig Stretch

CALICO

My eyes flutter open, but instead of the faint light filtering through our basket bower’s curtains, the ribbon-like canopy of Lako’s bed greets me.

It isn’t going to last. It shouldn’t make my heart flutter the way it does. I shouldn’t snuggle close to her and I definitely shouldn’t love that she’s settled between Minx and I, holding us close to her as we sleep.

And Minx is still asleep.

I’ve never woken before her. It makes me want to cry. This is where she belongs. This is where she should be able to stay. Forever.

Lako purrs lightly and she scritches the spot between my shoulder blades I can never reach well enough.

Her lazy green gaze meets mine, and for a moment, I wonder if maybe it’s a dream. Her pupils don’t turn to hearts.

“Good morning,” she says as if mornings and nights truly exist here.

I kiss her instead of returning the sentiment. Loving her lips languidly as her soft fingers trail over my shoulders, my back. 

“I hate that you want to leave me.”

“What we want doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters.” What was a purr turns to a growl. “What you want has always mattered.”

Maybe. Maybe she’s just telling me what I want to hear.

“You should have told us to finish our bargains a long time ago.”

“You wanted to stay.”

She says it as if it was ever that simple.

“Gods aren’t in the habit of letting mortals do whatever they please.”

She laughs, drawing a finger along my cheekbone. “How foolish you are if you think that I could refuse either of you anything.”

Minx stretches against us, her hands balled to fists and her spine making quiet, but sharp little snaps. She mutters as she finds her way to wakefulness and Lako tips her face up, kissing her and drawing her out of her dreams.

Lako looks at her the way I want to. She looks at her like a god who loves a mortal and I can’t blame her.

“I would stay here with you all day if I could.” She traces a knuckle along my chin. “You can stay or go. Whatever you want to do today is up to you… I have a handful of more evildoers to deal with.”

Ticking Timepiece

MINX

Lako leaves us in her bed, still dozing, and I don’t rise until Calico does. The nightgowns Lako gave us appear and disappear as though they have a mind of their own.

And when we step out into the snowy wonderland of Lako’s domain, the gauzy fabric vanishes, leaving us in the normal straps of lace and leather Lako puts all of her devotees in.

I won’t complain.

We already draw too much attention, and right now, I’d rather blend in.

Calico leads the way through Lako’s domain, keeping us out of sight, while within earshot of their whispers.

The kittens titter and laugh, gossiping and talking about their plans for when they leave.

Almost all of them have completed their bargain and are simply waiting in Lako’s domain to receive their little black box.

Those have begun to pile up under the enormous tree near Lako’s throne.

We wind our way up another tree and to one of the hammock-like sofas that swing between branches. Twining our legs together, we watch Lako from afar.

Another kitten leads her catch to Lako. Another man tries to deny what he’s done.

This time, I do watch. We’re far enough away, I don’t have to hear the slurps and crunches.

The Lako that eats men is so different from the Lako I know… the Lako I love.

Jaw unhinged, her magic pulls the man in and she chews a little before she swallows, and then, her stomach is full of lumps and bumps and she picks at her teeth with her claws as they all wait.

“Why do I only feel ‘right’ here?” I ask Calico for the thousandth time. “Why can’t I accept that the mortal realm is where I belong?”

I shiver as the man is spit back out, landing on the stones in a crumpled heap. Lako knows whether they’re guilty the moment she sets her eyes on them. I’ve seen a dozen men set free without any punishment. But I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds more who go through this torture before they confess.

 “Everyone here wants something from someone else. Or wants to hurt someone or…” I swallow my next words and glance at her. Because she likes hurting people.

“I’m not offended.” She fixes one of my curls. “You know exactly who I am. And I’m lucky enough that you still love me.”

“Always.” I take a deep breath and try to drive away the sadness that pricks at my eyes. “In either realm. In any time.”

She snugs me closer to her. “I love you too. Always, everywhere, any time, wherever we wind up.”

The kittens chase this rat just as quickly and as viciously as the last and Lako looks from them, up to us and gives us a soft smile before turning to the devotee at her feet.

“I think she loves us too.”

The pocket watch is warm where it rests against our hips and it ticks so loudly Lako should be able to hear it. I lift Calico’s hand, twined with mine and look at the golden disc dangling there. She reaches out and pops the catch. When the cover falls open, the cat is closer to the mouse than it was before.

I can’t be sure, but… the mouse might be slowing down.

“Do you think they actually gave us until the end of Yule?”

I can’t lie to Lako, but I can lie to Calico. “Yes. There’s no way she’d let us go before then. They’re just making sure we go through with our bargains this time.”

The gods are cruel. Gren won’t let us get all the way through the end of Yule. Lako won’t let us go before. We’re going to lose this particular game unless we find a way to stop it.

Whiskers in A Twist

CALICO

Lako sends Minx away on some small errand and I take my chance when the other kittens are gone, too.

“I know that look.” She tangles a claw in my hair. “You’re about to tell me something important and you’re afraid I won’t take it seriously enough.”

“You need to change your bargain.”

She freezes, eyes tracing over me. “And what change do you want me to make?”

“Keep Minx.”

Lako looks at me, her green gaze steady and then she stands. Back to me, she walks to that enormous tree with its steadily growing pile of gifts. “I made the bargain with her. She is the only one who has the power to change it. And I think we both know she won’t. She isn’t going to abandon you to the mortal realm… no matter how much she hates it.”

“I know you care for her.” I don’t go so far as to accuse her of love. I know better.

But Lako pauses at my words.

“I don’t know why you play these games. If you bind her, she can stay here forever. It’s what she wants. It’s what you want. So why don’t you just do it?”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Why not?”

She doesn’t answer. I hate the pinch of her brows and the way she won’t look at me.

But I have to know. “Why not?”

“Because I can’t bind you both and I won’t separate you.” Lako turns to me and lets out a long and shaky breath. “The deals are done. We don’t have to be happy about the end results, we just have to live with them. Do you understand me?”

“I think I do.”

I’ve been here long enough, I know that tone.

She’s done with the conversation and I… I can’t be here right now.

I’ve never run away from a problem before. I’ve never doubled back when I had a plan. But I run now.

Even if it’s a measured and purposeful walk, not a sprint. That’s still what I’m doing.

I walk straight out of Lako’s domain—she can see me there, no matter where I might try to hide.

But Babel is a loud and crowded mess.

I can’t think here. And that’s what I need: to think.

Five words ring in my head.

I can’t bind you both.

Five words.

Fitting.

The divine number is as cruel as the gods themselves sometimes.

There’s only one place that might give me the peace and quiet I need.

I cut through one secret entrance to Diyo’s domain and slip out another before they can notice I’m there. The god of pleasure’s domain is a strange jungle that I’ve spent far too much time in.

But it’s the quickest way to get to where I want to be.

And when I step through yet another hidden door, the veil of the Easter Bunny’s domain slides across my skin, soft as rose petals.

I get halfway across the meadow-like expanse before I realise it’s not as empty as I thought it would be.

The god himself is in residence… despite the fact I know Ester has given him the ability to go to the mortal realm with his wife, as he chooses.

The enormous white rabbit looks at me with an amused quirk to his brows. “Calico, where is your shadow?”

Minx, in her black mask and tail… how many times has Lily teased us about that.

“She’s busy.” I say, swallowing and wondering if he’ll let me borrow a small corner of his domain to scream. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think you were here.” We can be coy and flippant with other mortals, but with the gods, we must take care.

I look around for Lily.

I know this is after they’ve met—though I have wound up in this domain after I met her, but before he’s able to be with her, time is a real trip here. If that’s what’s going on now, I should leave. Quick.

“It’s fine,” he says, “You look a little lost.”

“I shouldn’t bother you two.”

“Lily has her task to fulfil, tell me what’s going on. It will help pass the time.”

I’ve never actually spoken to the Eebie without Lily and Minx here too.

He sits, waiting for me to speak. The throne behind him would be gothic if it wasn’t white. Twisting and ornate, arching to a point, like a cathedral window.

It reminds me of just how much his domain has changed since his bride arrived.

“You’re going to bind Lily when your daughter is old enough, right?”

“My daughter…” he smiles and looks me over with a sharper scrutiny. “When are you from?”

Shit. “That’s not important.”

“Maybe not. As for your question. I will bind myself to Lily the very moment she allows it.” His lips twitch with a smile that disappears as quickly as it graces his face. “I am not a patient god… but she has to make the choice in the end.”

“Could you bind a second?” I hold up my hands as quickly as I can. “I don’t mean me. It’s a hypothetical.”

He looks me over like he doesn’t believe my curiosity is idle—no one’s ever claimed the Eebie wasn’t smart.

“No… I couldn’t bind another. And not simply because I don’t want to.” He takes a deep breath and sits back in his flower strewn throne. A wild rose drops onto his head and he doesn’t seem to notice. “The primaries won’t allow it. Our devotees belong to us, but they also belong to our primaries.”

“I know.”

He looks at me and I wonder what he sees. “I’m sure you do. But when I am finally able to bind Lily to me, she is mine alone. Neither Ester nor Juun can touch her.”

“And they don’t want that happening more than once?” I guess.

“The primaries won’t stand for any of us lesser creatures creating that kind of devotion.”

“Oh.”

“If it’s any consolation, I think she would bind you if she could.” He doesn’t look at me when he says it, and I’m glad, I don’t want him to see my face right now. “I may not like her for my own, very specific reasons, but Lako doesn’t keep women around if she doesn’t like them. There have been dozens before you who didn’t finish their bargains quickly enough. She got rid of them one way or another. And yet you’ve been here for, what, decades?”

“Almost fifteen years.”

His brows fly high and his long white ears twitch.

“But she can’t bind you both. Maybe it’s a decision she can’t make because she’s too greedy to choose. Maybe it’s because she’s not cruel enough to let one of you go while she keeps the other. I don’t know why Lako does anything she does, unless it’s to torture the rest of us.”

He looks me over again. “But I don’t think she wants to torture you.”

I see him visibly shift, his shoulders ease. The flower falls from his head as he turns to look at the entrance to his domain.

I don’t know why. But I don’t want to see Lily right now.

Probably because I’m certain seeing them together would make me cry.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I may collect a favour later.”

Pressing my lips together, I nod and leave his domain as quickly as I can.

Cat Got Your Tongue

MINX

I don’t know where Calico is. I don’t like when I don’t know. It makes me nervous.

It makes me do things like go to the hot springs so I’m not alone. 

The other kittens are all wonderful. I adore them, even if they shy away from me—even if I’ve made sure they do so. But this is my favourite time of the year.

So many of them are happy.

So many of them have completed the terms of their bargains and will get to go back to the mortal realm, back to their old lives—forever changed—or off to new ones where they can flourish.

Lako, despite the cruelty she can inflict, is kind to the women who come to her… in her own way.

I sit on one of the warm rocks beside the pools, wishing they were water. I might shed my leather and lace and join them, but I’ve never actually been tempted by the bubbling hot chocolate. I dip my fingers in, remembering how much I used to love to swim.

“I saw Angora drink some of it the other day,” Calico says from behind me, scowling down at the chocolate. “I’m not that brave.”

I don’t think brave is the word she actually wanted to use. I laugh as she yanks a towel free. Masquerading as petals on a giant terrycloth poinsettia growing near the edge of the pool, the towels are always the right size.

I wipe my hand on the fluffy red fabric. “Where have you been?”

“Prowling,” she says, taking the towel and dropping it at the base of the poinsettia bush and watching it turn white and dissolve into the snow. “Come with me. I’m tired.”

I take the hand she offers, and I let her lead me back to Lako’s sanctum.

She waits for us and I don’t like the cautious glance she sends Calico’s way. Something happened… and I wasn’t there for it.

But before I can ask, Lako reaches out, flicking the bell on my collar and our normal lingerie changes to chunky knit sweaters. The wool is so soft, I snuggle down into it, distracted from the question swirling in my head.

“Come with me.” Lako motions for us to follow and leads us up a staircase that circles up the icy walls of her domain. I’ve never seen it before, but I know it’s been here all along.

The steps are cold, but not slippery beneath my bare feet and even though they seem endless, we reach the top too quickly for what I see outside.

I’ve never tried to reach the top of the trees in her forest, but I know they’re hundreds of feet high. Here, they spread out like a swaying shag carpet.

“I’m on top of the world,” Calico says with a little laugh, something I’m sure would make sense to anyone from the time she came from.

One of Lako’s braziers stands at the archway we exit, one of her thrones waits a few metres away.

“It’s your birthday, little Minx.”

Time doesn’t work right here, so I’m not sure that’s true.

Calico chuckles, her hand squeezing mine. “You look pretty good for having a few centuries under your belt.”

I bat at her arm. The time I came from may be far in the past, but I’ve only been “alive” for thirty-six actual years. Thirty-seven, if it is my birthday.

Tipping my head back, I look at the infinite glitter of the stars above us.

They flicker and twinkle and it takes me a moment, but I’m certain it’s the mortal realm sky… somehow.

Lako presses a soft kiss to my cheek and her tail passes beneath both of our chins as she goes to that throne. It’s an invitation. It’s always an invitation.

We go to her without hesitation, or the need to discuss what we want—what we need.

Curled together on her favourite throne we snuggle for what feels like hours, watching the sky shift—lightening here, darkening there—Lako’s head tips upward and she stares with pupils so wide, her eyes are completely black. It’s like she’s trying to count all the stars in the sky.

A shooting star races across the sky and I close my eyes, I take a deep breath and make my wish.

I wish Gren would change their mind and let us stay.

A cold wind washes over me and I shiver. But Lako doesn’t let me snuggle closer. She looks concerned, glaring out at the night like we’re not alone.

“Go back downstairs and warm yourself by the fire. I’ll be there in a moment.”

I don’t want to go, but she shoos us away and a deeper chill settles over me.

I glance back as we descend. Gren is there, smiling cruelly down at their daughter. They look as though they’ve formed this body from reeds and willow sticks. Fragile and bent and ready to break at the first breath of an ill wind.

My skin crawls when they look at me, eyes like burning coals.

Calico yanks my arm—hard—and I hurry away with her.

There’s an enormous present waiting for us between the three remaining fires. Not the little black boxes beneath the tree, this one is the size of a small house and wrapped in glitter swirled paper with an enormous purple bow.

A tag hangs from that ribbon with my name on it.

“Do you think there will be cake?” Calico asks a moment before she squeezes my ass.

“There can be anything you want.” Lako slides her hands around our waists and holds us close, nipping at both of our necks.

I want to ask her what Gren said… but it’s not my place and I’m honestly afraid of the answer.

“Would you like to open your present?” she asks, her lips brushing my ear.

“Yes.”

She lets me go and I tug the ribbon. It unravels and the box falls apart, leaving my gift on display.

I blink at it for a moment, a little unsure of what I’m looking at, but Calico laughs.

“Is that a cat tree with a sex swing?” She hops up on one of the many platforms and bats at a string with a… butt plug on the end. “This is more fun than a fast-food chain’s play set.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“I know.”

And she’s not going to tell me.

There are chains of bells and coils of silk ropes and hammocks and a hoop-like swing hangs from one of those little platforms. It’s not quite the basket-like contraption I’m used to, but it will serve a similar purpose.

“Would you like the second half of your gift?” Lako says in my ear with a low purr.

“Yes, please.”

Her hands trail down my sweater, pulling up the hem until her fingers trace the tops of my underwear

“I considered giving you an orgasm for every one of your years, but we don’t have the time for that, do we?” She can’t know how right she is.

Walking me forward, she slides my underwear off and bends me over that hoop.

Calico comes to me too, sitting on the plush carpet beneath me and raising her lips for a kiss.

“The best kinds of gifts,” Lako says, “Are the ones where I get to be selfish, too.”

Her tongue delves into me and I can’t help but squirm.

Jingle Her Bells

CALICO

Minx is so sexy when her face contorts in pleasure. Her tongue peeks out to wet her lips and I kiss them again, loving the way she sacrifices stability so she can get a hold on me.

I know the moment—I know the particular gasp—when Lako presses her tail into Minx.

She’s always loved penetrative sex, even if she’s never loved men, and Lako loves to give it to her.

Feet dangling, the neck of her sweater pulled down over her shoulders, and with her eyes screwed shut, Minx pants and writhes. She murmurs pleas and whispers thank yous. And then, she reaches for my hips.

I roll onto my back, hooking my feet into the hoop so I can press myself up to her.

She sucks at my clit like she’ll die without it. The ferocity—the pain—it makes my eyes cross and I can’t help but purr.

My sweater falls down, pooling at my breasts, but I reach beneath it, rolling my nipples between my fingers, pinching to help with the need that being with them always courses through me.

But Minx releases me as she lets out a sobbed moan.

Lako has withdrawn from her, looking at both of us with a coy smile as she sucks Minx from her tail.

She crooks her finger at me and I reach up to ease Minx’s claws from my skin. Rolling away from her, over my head, I have to crawl under one of the platforms to get back to Lako.

“Do you want to help me with the next part of her present?”

“Of course.”

She smiles as she kisses me. “I knew you would.”

Patting one of the platforms, she says, “Get her set here, please.” And then steps away, drawing pieces of her gown away. They fall to the floor and dissipate like wisps of smoke.

Minx looks a little dazed as I help her up onto the platform that is perfectly placed. I set her right at the edge and Lako jangles a pair of the silver chains lined with bells and at their ends… little clamps.

“Are those for me?” Minx asks, with a soft smile, gaze moving from them to me, and over my shoulder. “So many presents…”

She holds herself still, presenting herself and when I’ve got the clamps in place—each one receiving its own sweet gasp—she holds my hand as she lowers herself back to the plush carpet.

The nipple clamps make her keep her back arched, and she lets herself down enough that they tug at her pretty pink breasts.

I see her abdomen move and wish I was inside her, somehow, to feel the way she clenches at the sharp tug on her nipples.

Her skin flickers and she laughs through a clench-toothed smile. But she holds herself up with her elbows so they don’t actually hurt her—not any more than she wants them to, anyway.

Lako flicks the bells and listens to them ring before she says, “I could hang you both on my tree. You’d make pretty little ornaments.”

“But then, you’d only be able to look at us.”

She shakes her head. “I’d be able to take you down and play with you whenever I wished.”

But it’s too late for that. “You can play with us now.”

“If that’s all I get.” Lako holds an enormous cinnamon stick in front of me. I would bet it’s the same one she fucked Minx with the day she caught us in her mouse trap. But this time, leather belts dangle from it.

“It’s your turn to wield it,” she says.

We’ve played with straps dozens of times, but never like this. The things she gave us were always emerald or ruby. Jewels that barely warmed to our body heat before we were done with them.

The things with a potential to harm—cinnamon sticks, and candles, and pinecones and strings of icy berries—those were hers to wield alone.

“Promise I can’t hurt her?” I ask.

“Not in any way she won’t enjoy.” Her purr is so loud, it reverberates in my chest.

I take the stick, holding tight to it and reminding myself it’s tree bark… but if Lako says it won’t hurt her, I believe it.

Lako ties and buckles the straps on to me and Minx watches us both with heavy lids, her lip caught between her teeth.

She waits, silently, but she rubs her thighs together, the small movements tugging on the chains that keep her arched in that odd position.

“She’s still wet and wanting.” Lako says, nudging me toward Minx.

And Minx does, immediately, spread her legs when I get close. She shimmies her hips closer and gasps when the clamps pull tight and the bells jingle.

Wet and wanting certainly describes the soft pink folds of her pussy, and when I hold the stick and drag that rough, curled end across her, she’s the one who moves so that it enters her.

She’s the one who takes it, and I stand there just watching as she starts to fuck it all on her own.

“Don’t make her do all the work,” Lako nudges me forward, and Minx drops her head back when I push fully into her.

The cry she makes is so sweet, even as the air fills with spice.

I move my hips and work her open to this cinnamon cock. The bliss she wears when she flips her head back up is half covered by her tangled hair, but I recognise the particular hearts in her eyes. I know the sweet smile that parts her red lips.

Minx lives up to the name our god gave her. Dishevelled as she is, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met, but like this… not even the gods could compare.

“She’d make even Ester jealous,” Lako says, her hands taking hold of my hips and guiding me as I fuck her.

“Yes, she would.”

“It’s a good thing she’s ours, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is.”

“And you’re ours, too, aren’t you?”

“Always.”

“Should we take her together?” Lako asks. Her tail weaves between my legs, stroking me as she presses against Minx’s already fully pussy.

The hearts in Minx’s eyes seem to burst and spark.

Lako’s laughter jiggles me as she presses closer against my back.

“Is that what you want, little Minx? Do you want us to stretch you wide and fill you until there’s no space left?”

“Yes.” Her breathless plea makes me clench. My pussy kisses Lako’s tail and she flicks my clit with the tip of it.

Behind me, she chuckles and her whiskers tickle as she leans down to place a biting kiss on my shoulder. “Do you think there’s room inside her for me too?”

I nod. My senses are too full to allow me to speak.

Her tail pushes its way along me, pressure and slickness against my clit and I rock on her, shallowly thrusting into Minx with the same movement.

I know when Lako actually starts to push in alongside the cinnamon cock. Minx lets out a little sound of bliss and arches her back even more than she already has.

The bells jingle with their new found freedom, and Lako wraps her arms around me, one hand at my stomach, one hand on my breast, holding me to her as she uses her hips to move mine, as she uses her tail to stroke me while it fills Minx.

Mewling, Minx comes in broken sobs and soft cries, pleading for relief even as her body moves on us, keeping her open, driving her toward more.

Lako stills me and we both watch her for a moment, enjoying the lustful autopilot of her body.

And then, Lako pulls me back, but she doesn’t release me. “It’s not your birthday, but you get a present too.”

“I’ve already received so much.”

“You deserve so much more. But a little will have to do, for now.”

Her tail is still spiced by the cinnamon when it enters me, tingling as it fills me and her fingers brutalise my clit.

Her hand wraps around my throat the way Minx’s does when she knows how desperately I want to come. And I do.

I come so hard, I think I might have broken Lako’s tail had she been mortal… if mortal people had tails.

“Why are you laughing at me?” She strokes my cheek and I shake my head.

“Not at you, not at anything worth telling.”

“Alright then, your secrets are always yours to keep.” She releases me and with a brush of her fingers the cinnamon strap is gone.

I sink to the floor and watch as she unhooks Minx and gently collects her.

She tells her what a good girl she is and Minx smiles up at her. They could be happy if Lako bound herself to Minx.

She lays Minx down in the middle of her bed and the ribbon canopy unfurls as she comes back to me, separating her from us, but only for a few moments.

“You still won’t do what I ask?”

She picks me up and nuzzles my neck. “No.”

I want to weep. I want to kick and scream, but I don’t have the energy for anything like that.

“Sleep now.” She pets my hair and kisses me softly as she lowers me to the pillows and settles in between us. “You can defy me to your heart’s content in the morning.”

If only it was that easy.

Change Your Stripes

CALICO

The entrance to Gren’s domain is never the size it seems. Sharp antlers cut me as I slip through the too-small opening and into the knee-high leaves that litter the ground. This place never truly changes. Always-falling leaves, always the dark lake with its ripples and reflections… But Gren isn’t here.

Their throne isn’t there.

I follow a faint whistling through the pool and out the other side to the place where mortals can enter Gren’s domain freely, if they dare.

I’ve come and gone this way a hundred times. The walls here are enormous tree trunks, grown together. The forest just stops and you have to too.

The roots form enormous steps and I climb up and up and up until the trees turn to rock and the steps turn to stone. A moment later, I step out of Gren’s domain and into the mortal realm… into the broken temple that used to be an enormous greenhouse. Now, it’s a ruin littered with the remnants of that great green marble edifice.

I should be a cat out here, but their magic permeates the mortal realm tonight.

I slip through the crumbling arch that should separate the mortal realm and this piece of the old god’s domain that has seeped into it.

Ferns and catnip and tangles of herbs brush against my waist the further I walk into this place. The once enormous temple no longer has its roof. The wild foliage has taken over everything and left this place green and overgrown.

Gren sits on top of the grotto I’ve exited, staring up into the night sky overhead, watching the universe shift far over our heads.

“Your time isn’t up kitty cat. You should be working toward your goal, not wasting your minutes with me.” Gren watches me with eyes so large and so green, they make the god of autumn look amphibian.

“You are the god of change. Change the rules.”

They don’t ask what I mean. They don’t want my opinions. “It’s not that simple.”

“Why not?” I put my hands on my hips, claws digging into my skin. “Why would you be afraid of Lako being loved by two devotees for an eternity? What threat would that pose?”

“You are a child, Callista. You and Mina both need to grow up, finish your bargain and come back to the mortal realm where you belong.”

I look up at the stars. So many of them streak across the sky when they should stand still.

There’s no way to reason with them.

There’s no way to make an old god understand why we don’t want to return to this realm.

But the gods like their tricks and if the only way to save Minx from coming back to the mortal realm is to trick an old god, maybe that’s what I will have to do.

Lako might be willing to send us back to the mortal realm together, but Minx doesn’t want to go back at all. And if I can keep her from having to do it…

“You claim that you crave change, and yet you constrain yourselves with rules that are over aeons old. I’m not asking you to give her the endless power to bind herself to others. I only ask for one exception.”

“And if I give you an exception, I will have to give others the same.”

“You don’t have to do anything. You’re a god. You can do as you please and fuck anyone who says anything about it.”

They laugh. It’s a single cruel breath.

“As you say, I can do anything I want.”

“Is it that you don’t want to break those rules that constrain you? Or is it that you’re too weak to do it?”

The world goes deathly silent around me and my stomach churns, but I know I haven’t gone far enough.

“Weakness is a concern for mortals, you know that better than I.”

Weakness isn’t an inherent insult to a god. It’s simply an untruth.

“You’re not acting like a god. You’re acting like a tyrant.”

“Aren’t all gods tyrants in the end? What are you up to?” They catch me around the throat, their hand turning to a wicker cage around my neck and they pull me off the ground and up to them.

They draw me so close to their eye that it seems to merge into one, so enormous I could fall through if they decided to push me inside.

“Did you truly think you could anger me enough to break my own bargain?” They move me closer still and have to press my palms against the hot, glassy surface to keep from being crushed into them. “No… You wanted me to catch you, little mouse. Because if you spring the trap on your own, it gives them time to thwart me.”

They tsk their tongue as they draw me back.

Now, their entire face is just that one eye and they blink at me.

“Go be with the creatures you love, Callista. You don’t have much time left.”

They drop me and I fall through the bushy ivy, back down and into Babel. A failure.

They won’t let me trick them. They won’t give me what I want.

They’re going to steal us away from her. I feel the ache of that certainty in my bones.

And I don’t know if that would be better or worse than being sent away.

At Yule’s End

MINX

Calico has been gone for too long and when she comes back to me, she looks… defeated.

I hold my hand out to her and she takes it, squeezing my fingers.

“What happened?”

She shakes her head. “Later.”

But the way she says it, I don’t think she thinks there’s going to be a later.

The clearing around Lako’s throne and her tree is cluttered with all of her thrones. They fill the space and kittens fill them.

There is only one left and only because it doesn’t appear until we arrive.

Calico sits beside me on the sofa-like throne Lako said is her favourite.

We’re the furthest away from her, the furthest away from the tree and its glut of presents.

It’s the last morning of Yule. The fire burns low in its brazier. And by the time the last of the gifts have been given, it will have burned out completely.

It’s almost like an hourglass in that respect—just embers and flame instead of sand.

I count the boxes silently and wonder how many of the kittens will be left when we’re gone. There are more than usual and I can’t count them all. Too many are tucked beneath the boughs.

It has caused a stir among the other kittens. Some of them glance back at us, and I wonder if they think we’re staying.

Calico stretches and her spine pops before she lays across my lap but she doesn’t relax. I pet her hair, hoping that we haven’t simply fallen into another trap.

The excited titter fades to silence when Lako stands.

She is almost petite today as she kicks the train of her dress to the side, snow fluttering away from the golden fabric. Her fur isn’t quite grey. It’s black tipped with white.

And her jade green eyes coast over all of her kittens, pausing ever so briefly on us.

The throne behind her is the same every time the gifts are given. A sharp-looking chair made of cedar boughs, green and tall and hung with oranges and cranberries. It suits her.

No greeting passes her lips before she holds out her hand, and one of the boxes flies into her grip.

There is no tag to read.

“Sphynx,” she says, holding out the gift and the woman runs forward, hands trembling as she takes her freedom.

The box bursts like dust in her hands, and now, she cradles a leather jacket, black jeans, and a clunky-looking pair of boots. Tattoos form on her shaved head.

I don’t hear her thanks as she runs away from Lako.

It’s a familiar pattern. A box is selected, a kitten’s name is called. They get their new clothes and then they disappear into the forest to change, and—with their new clothes securely on their backs, they dash for the exits. Leaving the old gods’ realm for good and being glad of it.

Angora is next. She’s one of the oldest women I’ve ever seen come to Lako. Her gift is an enormous white coat and a glittering blue ballgown.

It makes me wonder who she is in the mortal world. 

On and on and on.

Box, name, clothes, flee.

Box, name, clothes, flee.

Box, name, clothes, flee.

Until we’re the only two left.

Tawny clutches her clothing tight to her chest and spares us a worried glance as she runs into the snowy darkness. 

There hasn’t been a year in all the time I’ve been here where every woman fulfilled the terms of her deal.

That’s not how deals with the old gods work. They are designed to trick and trap you. Designed to make you think you’re winning a race that was rigged from the start.

But it’s just us, and her… and two more boxes.

She doesn’t reach for them.

She crooks her finger and the sofa we’re on slides toward her as though it’s on well-oiled casters.

We stop close enough to her our knees touch.

“I have gifts for you,” she says, “looking at the tree and the pair of dark cubes there, their ribbons fluttering in a chill wind.

But those boxes are tiny. Far too small to have clothes inside of them.

The clicking of the watch is frantic in my ears now and I feel the chill. She isn’t letting us go.

I’d believed… more the fool me.

A chill brushes over my arms and the throne bursts beneath us, but we don’t fall onto the hard stone. We splash into the dark pool at Gren’s feet.

“Time’s up.”

The Gift

CALICO

The watch pops open in my sodden lap and the hand with the mouse is broken, it’s tip gone… the cat is fat, with a tail hanging out one side of its mouth as it lounges, lazily on the watch face.

“She wasn’t going to let us go.” Minx whispers, staring into the water, unseeing.

“She was.” The boxes were small, but they only needed to exist. Gren snatched us away just as she would have freed us.

But I imagine that was always the god’s plan.

They could have taken us away from her without sending us on this fools’ errand, but what fun would that have been? Why choose the quicker option when the possibility of this torture existed.

I look up at Gren and hope they can feel the way I hate them in this moment.

But they chuckle at me like I’m a child. “Put away your claws, kitten. They won’t hurt me.”

They hold out their hand, made of clay, and the watch tears away from my lap, flinging into their fingers and they crush it, letting the twisted metal and glass fall to the water at their feet.

“Is there anything you’d like to say in these few moments I’ve stolen away from her?”

“I’ve already said what I could. Don’t play with us just because you like the sound of mortals begging.”

I might attack them if they get close.

Gren chuckles, but Minx grip tightens on my arm. “What did you do?”

“She begged me to save you, sweet little thing.” Gren reaches for her and I’m on my knees so fast water sloshing in front of me.

“Don’t touch her.”

“I hadn’t planned to. I was just checking that you meant what you said before.”

Minx clutches my arm. “What did you say?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“She tried to make me take her away before the clock ran its course. She wanted to take away my daughter’s need to choose and save you both by sacrificing herself.” Gren leans to the side so that they can look at Minx. “She is just as cruel as any god could be, don’t you think? Wanting the two of you to mourn her for eternity.”

She says my name, so quietly I barely hear it. But I feel the sadness and a moment later, I feel the sharp bite of her claws as her hand squeezes tight and we both scramble back when Lako crashes into the water in front of us. She’s so large, she towers over Gren, bent down to them as though she might swallow them whole as well.

“You do not take my kittens, green one.” Her voice booms, her growl making the water ripple.

But Gren looks up at her amused, not frightened by her razor-sharp claws, or irritated by the insolence of her posture.

“Calm down, daughter.” Gren laughs, and the sound reminds me of breaking twigs. “Yes, I took them, as is my right. But the one you dress in white should wear silver… to match her tongue.”

Lako watches them suspiciously, shrinking back down to a reasonable size—though she’s still far larger than I’ve ever seen her before. She keeps herself between them and us, or at least she tries.

With a twist and a turn of their hand, Gren draws us forward, swirling us around her before their power releases us and we drop to the water once more.

“She has convinced me to change the punishment I had planned for them.” I look up, meeting their eyes. Red now, and starting to drip from their face. “I would have sent them back from whence they came, a punishment, I’m sure we all agree would have been just, and dire at the same time.”

Their head turns, placing their focus on Minx. “Dire, indeed.”

She swallows and shivers as the water drips from us. “What punishment have you decided on, then?”

With a gleeful tap of their feet, they hold out two cubes, one in each upturned palm.

They’re mimicries of the boxes beneath Lako’s tree. But these are wrapped in dry and brittle leaves. Those break away under our touch and leave behind boxes made of sweet smelling cedar.

I look from it to them, waiting for the trick.

Gren sighs with a soft heaviness that makes me uneasy. “Open them, silly kittens.”

I lift away the wooden lid, and on a pillowy bed of moss, a sharp sliver of antler or bone…

Splinters of Gren’s crown.

“How is this a punishment?” I ask, because I know what it means.

I glance back at Lako, she’s smaller than she usually is, her eyes fully black as she looks at this gift Gren has offered us.

“My daughter cannot bind herself to you, but I can give you a gift of my own. You amuse me. I no longer wish to send you away.”

Heim is the only one who has ever given splinters of themselves over to anyone beside his wife. This would make us something between god and mortal, something like what bound mortals are, but something else as well.

“Use them,” Gren says. “And no one can ever make you leave this realm.”

I glance back at Lako, because this breaks our devotion to her in different ways.

“You won’t be equals,” Gren says. “But neither will you be at her mercy… or mine for that matter.”

Gren shoos us away with hands turned to straw, sweeping at us like brooms, but we don’t have to move. Their domain fades around us like smoke and morning shadows. I shiver as the chill of Lako’s domain creeps over my still-wet skin.

She kicks her feet, fluttering them and sending droplets flying from her fur. “They’ve given you the gift I could not.”

Minx asks the question I can’t bear to. “Do you want us to take it?”

She takes my chin between her fingers, lifting my face so that I look up at her and then she looks at us both as she says, “There is nothing I want more than to keep you here with me forever.”

Feline Finale

MINX

Calico looks uncertain. So, I squeeze her hand and step forward, offering Lako my box. “Will you place it for me?”

I don’t know where I’d put it… or if I could even manage to pierce myself with it.

She takes the box with one hand and reaches out, petting my cheek with her other. “It would be my honour, little Minx.”

She tips my head up and I consider closing my eyes, but I don’t. I hold still and watch as she extends one claw. It’s so sharp it gleams.

My eyes cross when she hooks her claw through the skin beneath the bridge of the mask, piercing the place where my nose draws up between my eyes, and when she threads the splinter of Gren’s crown through, it cinches and I shiver as the splinter turns to a ring, pulling tight and the mask melds with my face.

“Only you can remove that splinter,” she says, before turning and doing the same to Calico.

The splinter is heavy, but not uncomfortable against my nose, and when I wiggle it to get the feel, the mask no longer bumps against my cheeks. Because there’s not really a mask there anymore.

I pet the soft leather there, not fur like I’d almost suspected. To a casual observer, we’d probably still look much the same as we ever were.

“You may be bound to this realm by Gren’s magic, but I am bound to you by something far more powerful.” She pulls us close, holding onto us like she’s afraid we’ll disappear if she doesn’t. “I love you. I’ve loved you for so long my heart felt like it was going to shatter when you asked to leave me. Now that I know you didn’t want to go…”

“We’ve loved you too,” Calico says softly. “We couldn’t stand the idea of leaving you.”

“You should have told me long ago.”

“You are not an easy god to love,” I tell her.

“I will do my best to be better.”

I believe her.

“And if you don’t try hard enough,” Calico curls her fingers, true claws extending from her fingertips this time. “We can punish you for it.”

Lako chuckles and kisses the back of Calico’s claws. “I promise you won’t need to. But if you do, those will pierce me now.”

She releases us, holding her arm out to Calico and she tentatively tests her claws.

When they sink into Lako’s flesh, she purrs… and Calico does too.

“Can we really change your domain?” I ask.

“Our domain will mould itself however you wish.” She kisses me, brushing her soft nose against mine. “You cannot make deals of your own and in many ways, you are still my devotees, but you are not what you once were.”

“We’re something more?” I say.

“You’ve always been something more to me.” She kisses me again and when she lets go, my whole body vibrates with the purrs from all three of us.

“What do you want to change first?” Lako asks.

Calico bites her tongue, thinking, but I already know.

I untwine my fingers from between Lako’s and run away from them, into the snowy boughs.

“Where are you going?” Calico calls after me, laughing, and they follow, but I don’t stop until the steam of the hot springs curls my hair.

Remembering how Lily wielded her power, I snap my fingers over the chocolate pool and in a flash, the churning bubbles turn white and all I can smell in the air is the crisp scent of pine.

Calico slips her arms around my waist, looking down at the water. “How long have you been thinking about that?”

“I’ve missed real water.” I kiss her nose and step back, wiggling out of the straps.

When the black lace and leather I’d worn falls to the warm stones at my feet, I slip into the hot springs for the first time, letting the warmth wrap me tight.

Calico kisses Lako, whispering something, before she strips off her clothes as well, and sinks into the water with me.

Lako doesn’t join us. She pours catnip tea on the coals near the water’s edge, filling the space around us with heady steam and lies on the smooth stone at the edge of the springs.

I might have missed water, but she still hates it. She watches us with lazy eyes, a soft smile on her lips.

“You two are the best and only presents I’ve ever wanted… Thank you,” she says with a deep and contented sigh that rings with a purr, “for being mine.”

About Dalia

Dalia Davies came up with the title for “Railed by the Easter Bunny” as a joke. But that joke grew legs and hopped right out of her brain and onto the page for you to read and enjoy with her. She writes fantasy romance that pairs old gods and monsters with mortal women who get exactly what they want and maybe a little more than they came for. Living in the southwestern US, she’s let the outside heat permeate her stories and hopes they leave you panting.

Find more info and sign up for the newsletter at www.daliadavies.com

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