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The Seduction of Seleste

From the world of the mating season

LiAnh's Choice

Chapter 77

With magical repairs still taking place in the palace, Wynn and Sylas held a feast in celebration of the restoration of the kingdom. Keme and Seleste were naturally guests of honor for the prominent part they had played in the kingdom's rescue, as were the king and queen's family, and last but not least, the frost wolves themselves.

When Sylas learned that the frost wolves - namely Nahimana - had aided them in restoring the kingdom, he magically teleported them directly to the palace. They appeared in the vast white banquet hall, the eight of them, where they attended the royal feast. Keme thought the frost wolves seemed a little suspicious and reserved, but he didn't blame them. Why should they believe that their oppressors and slave masters were suddenly willing to view them as equals? But Sylas seemed sincere in his efforts, and during the celebrations, he rose from his seat at the end of the great table and made a point of announcing that the frost wolves were hereby equal citizens.

Naturally, there was an uproar. Several mouths fell open, while a few of the foxes on the council threw back their heads and laughed. Sylas scowled at their response, and watching him from where he sat beside Seleste, Keme thought it a bit naïve of him. What else had he expected?

One of the council members finally stopped laughing - a short, fat fox with many gold rings on his pudgy fingers -- and dabbing daintily at his tears of mirth with a sky blue kerchief, he told Sylas that even if they wanted to free the frost wolves, there was simply no freeing them. To free the slaves meant to destroy the crystals; and to destroy the crystals meant to destroy the magic. The foxes would lose their powers and would then become vulnerable to the outside world.

Keme's heart burned. The foxes were too selfish to let the frost wolves go. That's what it came down to: selfishness. He glanced over at Seleste, suddenly wishing that he could trade places with LiAnh and stay. If he became a fox, he could be with her.

Keme glanced across the table and caught his brother's eye. LiAnh shook his head slowly. "I know what you're thinking, Keme," he muttered. "Don't."

Nizhoni sat near LiAnh, little Aayan on her lap as he gently suckled her breasts. He paused to lick a drip of milk from her nipple, but she hardly seemed to notice. She watched Keme sympathetically, a lick of white mane falling her in wide eyes.

Keme frowned and looked away. Everyone at the table was talking, shouting, protesting, laughing. Sylas was still standing at the end, still scowling as he argued with the laughing council members. He raised his voice, declaring that the frost wolves would be treated far better than during his father's reign. One of the council members conceded that this was admirable, and Wynn reached up, touched her husband's arm, and smiled at him with loving pride. Sylas smiled at Wynn, and Keme got the feeling that he wouldn't have been able to stand up to the council members without her. Beside every good king . . .

Around the table, the other council members were nodding in approval, though Keme noticed that a spare few were sitting stiff with anger. Perhaps, like Nizhoni, they were finding it a tad difficult to let go of past grievances. He saw his mother join in, backing Sylas as she spoke to the council in shemale. The foxes seemed to understand the tongue and listened attentively and respectfully as Avi made her case. "Here, here!" one council member shouted and lifted his wine glass. Others followed suit.

Keme glanced around the hall at the other foxes standing at the banquet tables: beautiful females in silky white gowns and gold jewelry, naked servants who scurried to and fro, muscular warriors and royal guardians in white skirts carrying feathered spears. Some of the female servants were truly lovely. Keme found himself following the slow stride of a young girl with high breasts and jutting ass cheeks who carried a gold tray. She came to Keme with the tray and refilled his glass from the gold pitcher, her gold earrings clinking, her soft breasts swinging down as she leaned near him. Her slanted eyes smiled at him, and when she turned away, the tip of her tail flicked playfully under his chin. Keme watched her switching backside go and did not tear his eyes away until Seleste slapped his paw.

"What!" Keme demanded irritably. He saw Mio laugh at him and take a gulp from his glass.

Most of the tableware was crystal -- and those pitchers and goblets that weren't were made of gold. The forks had small diamonds encrusted on their handles. The crystal spoons twinkled innocently in the candlelight. As the debate raged on at the table, Keme lifted his spoon and stared at Seleste's deformed face through it. She laughed girlishly at his fascination.

Inden seemed just as fascinated by all the crystal, if not a little confused. He didn't seem inclined to eat because of it, and when Keme saw his wings twitch nervously, he knew the winged warrior was remembering the window and the glass that had cut them as they burst through. Of course, once things had settled down, several fox healers had looked over them, sealing up wounds and aches - one female even gave Keme a massage - but Inden's new fear of glass was still there. He sat stiffly beside Keeno, his dark eyes watching Wynn with soft affection where she sat at the opposite end of the table with Sylas, Avi, and the debating council members.

In contrast to stiff and nervous Inden, Keeno and Mio seemed to be at ease. Keeno tucked into his plate with relish and ordered more wine without pause. He talked cheerfully with Mio, who seemed very relieved that Wynn was safe and everything was over.

Zee, solemn as ever, hardly said a word and ate quietly from his plate. Every now and then, LiAnh would speak to him and he would answer, but besides that, he remained silent. Watching him, it occurred to Keme that Zee probably missed the summer village, his wife and his child, and just wanted to go back. He smiled to himself: it was strange to think of Mio and Zee with families when they were both so young. Looking at them, Keme thought they might have been eighteen.

"Thank you, Nah," Seleste said happily.

Keme glanced over at her. Seleste was speaking to Nahimana who, like the other frost wolves, had been invited to the feast with her lover, the tall and beautiful Wichahpi. The two of them sat beside Seleste, talking to her quietly as the debate further up the table roared on. Seleste and Nahimana did most of the talking, speaking as intimately as lovers - to Keme's irritation - and laughing softly as the candlelight danced in their eyes. Wichahpi watched Seleste with interest, and Keme knew exactly what sort of interest. He cleared his throat to draw Wichapi's eye, and leaning back in his chair, he put a meaningful arm around Seleste. Wichahpi smiled in amusement and Seleste rolled her eyes.

"You are Keme, Seleste's mate," Wichahpi said and graciously inclined his head. "You have nothing to fear. I wouldn't dream of it."

"But that's exactly what you were doing," Keme said and frowned.

Wichahpi laughed softly. "You're worse than his majesty the king. If there were a tax on just looking, you and I would be beggars."

The serving girl from before strutted by, smiling at Keme as she went.

Keme averted his eyes. "Point taken."

Wichahpi lifted his wine glass, watching Keme now with the same intensity. Keme shifted uncomfortably under the searching stare of those narrowed pupils. His eyes were incredibly beautiful. They gleamed in his handsome face like stars. _Hungry_stars.

"Is it true you smashed the great crystal with your bare paws?" Wichahpi asked Keme.

"It's true," Keme answered curtly. He looked away. Couldn't Wichahpi stare at someone else? He felt those bright silver eyes like a hot light and couldn't help but look at Wichahpi again. Keme swallowed hard: the male had leaned forward, forearms on the table, and was peering hungrily at Keme as he licked the wine from his lips. His tongue moved slowly. Deliberately. Keme felt himself threatening to stiffen. He tore his eyes away and heard Wichahpi's soft laugh.

"You are incredibly strong then. But I know your weakness," the male said and chuckled as he took another sip from his wine glass. He looked at Keme again and licked his lips a second time.

Keme was glad when Nahimana laughed, momentarily drawing Wichahpi's attention away as she gave her lover's cheek a stroke. She and Wichahpi looked at each other fondly, and his long lashes fanned down as he smiled at her. "Stop teasing Keme, Wicha. He's quite shy." She looked at Keme and fluttered her lashes prettily - something she did subconsciously and without thinking at all. Her mannerisms were elegant and graceful, something that seemed to make Seleste stare like a horny teenager. Keme tried not to scowl.

Wichahpi looked at Keme again, his intense gaze as palpable with hunger as before. "So I see." He smiled.

Before he had realized it, Keme smiled back. He held down a shiver as those intense eyes raked over him. Wichahpi too handsome to be true. His eyes bore into Keme's face, and a lick of white mane fell across his faint smile and the fierce hunger burning bright in his gaze. He drank slowly from his glass without taking his eyes from Keme. Keme felt his heart thumping.

"Keme," LiAnh hissed.

Keme looked across the table at his brother and felt his face getting hot. Oh god. Had LiAnh just witnessed that entire thing? He cleared his throat and leaned forward, bowing his head as he took a sip from his glass.

"Stop flirting and go check on Dad," LiAnh scolded.

Keme glanced around. Until that moment, he hadn't even realized Kilyan was missing. No one else seemed to have realized it either. Everyone was too busy arguing and shouting and eating and drinking. On Keme's other side, Keeno and Mio were playing a drinking game, while Zee looked on, anything but amused. Inden picked at his plate as he continued to cast Wynn looks of longing, and Nizhoni was absorbed in breastfeeding Aayan, her small fingers curling in the boy's white mane as she smiled at him. Avi had shot up from her seat and was yelling, face to face, with a fat female council member. Sylas stood as well, shouting for order. Wynn finally snapped a stream of angry words in shemale, and the council member in Avi's face reluctantly sat down.

"Over there," Seleste said to Keme. She nodded her head and Keme followed her gaze.

Keme could see an archway that opened on a balcony. White curtains drifted on the breeze there, and beyond them, Keme could also see the shape of his father against the inky night sky. Kilyan was leaning on the balcony rail, gazing off in thought.

"Why can't you talk to him?" Keme demanded of LiAnh. He glanced at Wichahpi, who was now watching Seleste's high breasts and the way they moved behind her dress. He was damned if he left Seleste alone for a second.

"I'm probably the reason he's outside moping," LiAnh said tonelessly.

Keme sighed. He took the wineglass from Seleste as she was tipping it back for a gulp and set it firmly some several feet away. Seleste started to protest, but he said over her, "Not one sip."

Seleste narrowed her pretty gray eyes and folded her arms. "I'm not a pup, Keme - it's not even wine in my glass! I do have _some_self-control!"

Keme looked at her incredulously. "The hell you do."

Nahimana laughed. "We will guard her, Keme."

Keme snorted. "That's what I'm afraid of." He rose from the table with Nahimana's laughter ringing after him and went to the balcony.

"Go back to the feast, Keme," Kilyan said at once. He didn't turn.

Keme passed through the curtain regardless. He sat on the armrest of a nearby chair and set his heel on the edge of a low table. He didn't know what to say. He had never seen Kilyan so quiet, so . . . sad. His father's strong black back, so tight with muscles, flexed glossy against the glow of the feast behind him. Kilyan bowed his head as he leaned against the railing, and his long black mane spilled forward, hiding his face. It took Keme a moment to realize he had done it on purpose.

"I heard the arguing," Kilyan said softly. "Thinking of staying here too?"

"No," Keme lied.

Kilyan laughed bitterly. "Can't fool me, pup. All my children seem destined to come to this place. I thought I'd never see your sister again when she came here. Her pregnancy was supposed to last a hundred years. The gates would have sealed themselves to keep her safe. Some kind of weird . . . fox magic."

"I gathered."

"I guess I should be happy. The gates are open again. She can visit . . . They can visit. LiAnh is staying. Sylas is going to turn him, as he turned Wynn. Tomorrow, he'll go down to the river and drink."

Ah. So that's why they weren't allowed to drink the water.

"But LiAnh _can't_stay," Keme protested at once and shook his head darkly.

"They'll give him some herbs or something, lock him away until the transformation is complete. Nizhoni told me she'd sit with him, that she sat with Wynn during hers." Kilyan sighed. "That poor girl. She tried so hard to comfort me when they came to me with the news. But no one can comfort me now. Who knows? Maybe it's for the best."

"What?" Keme's ears pricked forward. He scowled. "How can you say that? If I didn't think he'd hate me forever for it, I'd knock LiAnh out and carry him home over my shoulder! He was right all along. Look what this place did to Wynn!"

Kilyan was silent.

Keme stared at his back, incredulous. "Kil - Dad, listen to me! What about the fur-back throne? What about the summer village? What about cust --?"

"To hell with custom," Kilyan snarled, so angrily that Keme sat taken aback. Kilyan's paws tightened on the rail. "Custom never got any wolf anything but heartache. Look at you, my son. Custom took Seleste from you. Custom dictated that you had to marry or forever be branded a tail chaser. Custom_in the sun village said you had to hide your shemale heritage. And _custom tore your mother from me. . . . a long time ago."

Kilyan shook his head darkly. "Do not speak to me of custom."

Keme remained silent. Once again, he didn't know what to say. It was the first time in his life he'd ever heard someone speak with such disdain of custom - well, someone like _Kilyan_anyway. The wolves who complained about customs and traditions were usually the wolves who suffered directly because of them: females and tail chasers. Kilyan was neither. And yet, there he stood, rigid with anger at the very suggestion that LiAnh should bend knee to custom and return to the summer village.

Kilyan glanced over his shoulder apologetically. "Pay no attention to me, Keme. I've simply had my fill of traditions and taboos . . . What are you doing out here, listening to an old male go on? Go and join the celebrations."

"Li and I were worried about you," Keme said, not budging. "And . . ." He gave a half-smile. "You're not old, Dad."

Kilyan smiled at him. He turned to face Keme, and his face smoothed solemn with thought. "You really don't want to stay here? I heard what they said. The frost wolves can't go free of this place. One day, Seleste will have to come back. Forever."

Keme glanced miserably at his lap, but he looked at Kilyan again, and his face was determined. "Li and I can't both stay, Dad. Someone has to go back, be her mate and be chief. I can't let anyone else be at her side. I . . . can't."

Kilyan nodded. "Maybe they'll give up their selfishness," he said. "We don't know, son. Seleste coming back here . . . it may not be forever." He moved close and gave Keme a fond clap on the cheek.

Sitting on the armrest of the chair, Keme watched as his father went not to the feast but to the left down the corridor.

Keme returned to find a hush had fallen over the banquet hall and many wolves had already dispersed. Now only low murmurs and the soft clatter of gathered forks and knives could be heard. A few council members had remained behind and were standing on one side of the hall with Sylas, talking in low voices. Inden, Keeno, and the others were no where to be seen, and Keme could only assume they had gone to bed. Seleste, Nahimana, Wichahpi, and all the frost wolves were also absent from the table. The only ones who remained were the high-breasted servant girls. They gathered the empty plates and wine glasses onto their gold trays, and the one who kept flirting with Keme smiled at him, brushing her delicious musk against him with her tail as she switched by.

As Keme drew close, he noticed a figure still at the table. Wynn sat at the end in her husband's high-backed chair, her head tilted down in thought, one slender paw toying with a crystal fork that she passed off to a bowing servant. Dragged from her thoughts by the sound of his approaching feet, she looked up as he drew near and smiled.

Keme sat near his sister at the table. "Just finished talking to Dad."

Wynn's pretty eyes crinkled up with laughter, and he was glad to see they had stayed green, in spite of her transformation into a fox. Looking at her now, he had to wonder what she'd looked like before. LiAnh was going to become like her tomorrow: his muzzle would shrink and his ears would grow larger and his fur would turn rusty red, and he would strut around the palace with magic at his command . . . Keme glanced around as it hit him: LiAnh was going to live in this gorgeous palace! The bastard.

"Every time I look at you," Wynn said in amusement, "I think you are Dad." She tilted her head as she studied him, and her pretty black curls tumbled down around her rusty red face. Her thick black lashes fluttered with thought, and above them, the green jewel in her gold tiara winked.

Keme smiled at her. He was glad to see her clad in a white gown and not naked, as she had been in the bedchamber. Somehow, being naked seemed to lower her to the level of a servant girl or a village peasant. No, his sister was princess of the shemales and queen of the foxes. He hated the thought that she could be any less. Her regal elegance, her power and the command in her voice when addressing her subjects, it had made a vast impression on him. A strength seemed to emanate from her, burning out through her bright green eyes. She was queen body, mind, and soul. It was there, in her bearing, in her voice, in her look. It reminded him a great deal of Avi, who he admired for all the same reasons. A powerful female was, for him, a female to be admired.

Tala. According to the Mirror of Pavati, Tala was going to be his daughter, the future chieftess of the summer. He must teach her to exude the dignity and strength of her aunt and grandmother, of the shemales before her. Perhaps his child would even change the customs Kilyan so hated. Perhaps the future Chieftess Tala would make a real difference.

"What are you thinking, Keme?" Wynn wondered quietly. She drew a half-empty wineglass to herself and toyed with its narrow neck in her slender fingers.

"How much I love and admire you," Keme returned seriously.

Wynn lifted her brows and stared at him, startled. Her slanted eyes turned away again, and she smiled at the wineglass. "And here I was convinced you were thinking of that serving girl."

Keme cleared his throat. "Ah . . ."

"Lyriza is her name," Wynn continued. She cocked an eyebrow. "I could have her sent to your chamber tonight --"

"What!" laughed Keme.

"I thought you and Seleste might enjoy her. I've seen the way your sister looks at me, the way she looks at that frost wolf friend of hers . . . so I thought . . ."

"Wynn!" Keme cried.

Wynn laughed incredulously at his indignation. "What? Don't be coy, Keme. We both know you and Seleste swing both ways, it's clear as day. I just thought . . ." She frowned sadly. "I owe you and Seleste my life. My very life. Anything you wish of me, it is yours. You have but to ask . . . little brother." She smiled.

Keme studied her sympathetically. "Would the crystal really have killed you all?"

"Eventually," Wynn returned. "Even if I got back in my body, I wouldn't have been able to wake. The crystal had already become too corrupt." She frowned sadly again, her bright eyes fixed on the wineglass as she twirled it in her fingers. She suddenly tossed her head back and took a gulp.

"Wynn . . .?"

"Mm?"

"What exactly is the transformation like?"

Wynn studied Keme a moment. "Not thinking of staying here, are you? Dad will have a heart attack."

Keme shook his head. "Was just wondering what LiAnh's chances are . . . I mean, this is insane - he could die!"

Wynn looked at him somberly. "Keme . . . he already feels dead."

Keme was silent as he remembered LiAnh's wife, the fires, their childless home. LiAnh probably thought he had nothing to lose. But what about his brother? His family? He was going to lose them if he stayed here. Keme glared at the table.

"Keme," Wynn said - in such a gentle, soothing voice that he looked up quickly. She smiled at him and touched his shoulder. "It's his choice," she said firmly.

"You spoke to him?"

"Yes," Wynn assured Keme and smiled. "Boy," she said with a huff that lifted the hair from her eyes, "you really are a pudding face. Just as Li said."

"Shut up."

Wynn laughed. "You worry too much, Keme. Reminds me of Grandfather. And much like Grandfather, you seem to think that you can protect everyone from every_thing_. But you can not, little brother. LiAnh made his choice. If he doesn't survive the transformation, we will all mourn him. But . . . it is still his choice."

Keme swallowed bitterly. "You sound like Mom."

"That's a first. All my life, all I've ever heard is that I don't sound enough like her."

They fell silent, and the murmuring of the council became apparent in the background. Sylas was in the process of dismissing the council, though several extended the conversation and were reluctant to leave things as they were.

". . . further discussion on the morrow, your majesty," one of the council members was saying. "We must insist."

Sylas laughed. "First thing in the morning, eh? Can't your king have a moment's peace after everything . . ." He sighed. "Fine, fine. Wynn!"

"That's my cue," Wynn said. She quickly set down the wineglass and adjusted her tiara and the black curls that cloaked it. "Sylas and I are going to bed. Inden should be waiting for us."

Keme felt his face getting hot. He tried and failed to hide his astonishment. Wynn laughed at him. He was pleasantly surprised when she leaned across and kissed him on the cheek.

"Have a good night, little brother," she said. "A very good night. I know I intend to."

Keme swallowed hard. "Is Inden really waiting for you and Sylas so . . .?"

Wynn's eyes twinkled mischievously. "So they can have sex with me? Yes." She added with a twisted smile, "Someone should be waiting for you as well."