One Week Ago (Asgardian Calendar)

I pushed my food around my plate. Eating had become a chore. What had once been my favourite meal of spicy fish, shrimp, and sea vegetable pasta was now bland and boring. If it wasn't for the fact my mother had scolded me for losing weight, I wouldn't be trying to finish the meal at all. I had no appetite.

But then, I'd had no real appetite for anything over the last ten months or so. Not since... I pushed away that thought. I didn't want to remember. Better I forgot. Moved on.

Snorting, I rolled my eyes and forced myself to take another bite. Mechanically, I ate the rest of the dish and shoved away from the table.

Perhaps a swim would get my mind off her.

After leaving the rest chamber I'd selected for my week-long visit of this outpost, I jogged down the centre circular staircase and out of the silver spire tower. I was on a mission to evaluate all of our outer ring outposts on Tír na nÓg. Or as I liked to think of it, my mother's 'Keep Elatha Busy and Not Pathetically Moping Tour'. But by the first shell, it was hard being here at this particular outpost, the closest to the Tunnels of Glass. This was where I'd first... but no. I needed to stop torturing myself from remembering her gorgeous curvaceous form, so lushly pregnant and womanly.

Clenching and unclenching my fists, I jogged down the white stone path to the water gate. I needed to check on the recent reef plantings to see how they were establishing. The aquaecologists were hoping to grow carbon-sequestering seedlings here that could be transplanted to Litaui's waters to fight back some of the climate change effects humans had caused in their oceans. My older brother, our Queen's representative for our Litaui-based outposts, was due for a visit and wanted an update on the progress.

A mental checklist of observations I needed to make for the project distracted me enough that the sound of the water gate's activation startled me. Instead of gazing blindly at the path, my head shot up as I jogged the last fifty metres to the silver circle in the green energy dome. A familiar, broad shouldered, blue-haired muscular elf, far more strongly built than was typical for Tuatha de Danann, stepped through. But then, very little was typical about Poseidon, including his choice to return to using to his lesser known birth name.

"Sea God!" I called out with a wave of my hand.

"Prince Elatha, it's been a while. We just missed crossing paths last year when you assisted Princess Shannon. How are you?" Manannan asked, acknowledging my wave with one of his own.

I faltered in my stride, stumbling and fighting not to react further to Shannon's name. I couldn't even blame the smooth path, with not a rock, ridge, or crack to be seen that could catch a toe.

Manannan cocked an eyebrow at my uncharacteristic clumsiness as I reached him.

I shrugged to hide my discomfort. "I'm fine. Yes, the queen told me you'd helped Prince Loki"—that fucker—"and a Valkyrie who were tracking Shannon..." I swallowed after saying her name. It hurt. By the shell, it fucking hurt. "Tracking Shannon through the seas and up to the planet's surface. I reunited her with the Asgardians half a day's walk from the treaty plains."

Manannan clasped me on the shoulder. "I was only a day or so behind that reunion, I think. Mist, the Valkyrie who'd been with us, came to find me to let me know. It looked like you'd had a couple of battles with the Wild Hunt. Just you and Shannon to fight them off, and her, eight months pregnant? That must be quite the harrowing tale... care to share?"

As comfortable as I was with Manannan, who I'd known for hundreds of years and might even be my sister's father, I wasn't sure I could relate that story without breaking down. It was still too vivid. We'd experienced such extremes, despite the few short days I'd had with Shannon. Never in my one thousand years had I felt such spine-melting terror as when I'd feared for her life.

Nothing of those days had left my mind. Every single detail was indelibly imprinted in my memory.

Even now, nightmares that I wasn't fast enough, wasn't strong enough to save her and her child plagued me. It didn't seem to matter that Thor had come to tell me Shannon was safely out of danger, and had given birth to her son, little Aidan, within a few weeks of returning to Asgard.

Yet, the opposite tortured me as well. 

Memories of her voice, her laugh, and even her frustration would bring a smile to my face. And in the darkest hours of the night, when I was at my weakest to resist, her scent, taste, and feel against my body came back to me in a riot of erotic senses. The heated wet clench of her sex griping me tightly haunted me. The craving to taste of her on my tongue turned everything else to coral dust. And like the siren tales of Niflheim, the music of moans that told me she was close to orgasm tormented my mind with its melodic remembrance. 

So many times over the past months, I'd stroked myself to the glorious vision of her as she screamed her release.

No one else interested me. All other females paled in comparison. I only dreamt of one.

I shook my head. "It was close, and we kept each other alive, but it isn't really my story to tell. You should ask Princess Shannon." 

Yes, I needed to remind myself that she was not mine, despite my heart's desire.

A speculative gleam appeared in Manannan's deep blue eyes and I winced. I'd given myself away somehow, although I wasn't sure what I'd done.

"I saw the memory Loki ripped from that foul dwarf's mind, the one that had kidnapped Shannon and was draining her life's energy. And I met Shannon earlier in her pregnancy. I know how bad off she was when she met up with you. How much weight she'd lost trying to supply energy to her son during her weeks of captivity. Shannon is the Goddess of Forests and Seas, but her mother is Maeve, the Seelie Goddess of War and Lust," Manannan said.

Sea squirts! No wonder Shannon couldn't get enough energy from the sea with her mother being the goddess of lust!

Manannan smirked at the shock I couldn't hide. "Ah, I see you didn't know who her mother was. Neither does Shannon. I only found out recently when I spoke to her father. Given Shannon's pregnancy, despite her newly immortal status, I suspect she's a fertility goddess as well."

No doubt. She absolutely has to be with Maeve as her mother.

Still, I winced. I knew where Manannan was going with his logic. It was like an on-rushing tsunami I couldn't escape. Of course, whether I'd survive the deluge or end up a tangled seaweed wreak on the shore was still uncertain.

"Elatha, I saw the dead bodies from the Wild Hunt. I've sparred with you. Unless you've suddenly gained new abilities, I know what you are and aren't capable of. Those acid-like burns, the daggers in throats, and the teleportation... that's not part of your skill set. Shannon had to have used a lot of energy she didn't have to spare." Manannan's eyes were intent, watching my face.

He knows. Of course he knows. "What are you really asking me, Manannan?"

"Did Shannon need help with her energy levels from you, just as any pregnant Fomorian would from the males aiding her?"

Yeah, I figured that's what he was getting at. But why?  "Is there a particular reason you want to know? Shouldn't that be between Shannon and I?"

Manannan looked away for a minute. It seemed he was trying to make a decision.

"There is a matter that has come to light that concerns you and Shannon. I'm actually on my way to discuss it with your mother, Queen Ethniu, on behalf of my daughter, Queen Aine, and the Summer Court. I would have preferred to discuss it with your mother first, then you, as it was her choice to keep you in the dark."

Keep me in the dark? About what? 

My confusion was mounting, and I opened my mouth to ask, but he held up a hand.

"I know you must have questions, Elatha, but first you need to know that six years ago, the two queens bound you and Shannon in a hand-fasting ceremony," Manannan said.

"WHAT?" I blurted.

"Patience Elatha. I'll explain what I know."

I shook my head, confused. Married? I was married? To Shannon? I tried to focus on his words.

"As Shannon was only a one-year-old babe at the time, it was thought there'd be a hundred years to tell you of your marriage. Yet her father, Dylan, in his stupidity and ineptitude, gave Shannon to a mortal couple to raise on Litaui. As you're aware, time moves five times faster on Litaui compared to here. Neither queen knew what Dylan had done, so you had no warning. Nor did Shannon." Manannan snorted in disgust. "She ended up growing up thinking she was human, with no access to her powers, and no knowledge of her heritage."

I'm married. To Shannon.

"The only part of the ceremony that was remaining was the consummation, which was to occur once Shannon reached adulthood."

The meaning of his words finally penetrated. I'm married to Shannon! We'd consummated our marriage without even knowing it.

"So you see why I'm asking, Elatha, if Shannon needed help from you in that way? Did you consummate your marriage to her?" 

Manannan was watching my expression when he asked and winced when I nodded. 

"Well, that certainly adds further complications to this already seaweed-snarled political situation."

By the first shell! I'm married to Shannon! She can finally be mine!

"Wait, political situation?" Oh blasted barnacles. That fucker, Loki—her soulmate and consort.