holding open the screen door, and Chayton had his back against the main door, holding it open from the inside for Tate and me to pass through. I looked at each of the ursa, who returned my gaze with questioning looks of their own.
“You aren’t allowed to fuck me, are you?”
Chayton dropped his eyes and cleared his throat, then laughed. “No. No, we aren’t. Did Gray explain that to you?”
“Stuart, actually. But I think it just hit me why. It’s because I can’t rationally consent, isn’t it? Not with all the…” I wiggled my fingers around my head, “…magic, right?”
They exchanged glances, then Tate sighed and took my hand again. “There’s a lot more to it than that. You want to come in and let us lay it out for you?”
“Yeah, preferably with a stiff drink. It’s a bit involved and a little scary, if you ask me,” Eddie said, crowding in behind me as he let Gray enter, the screen door swinging shut behind him.
“It’s already been a bit scary even without the constant need for dick,” I said. “But let’s see if I remember where Dad stashed the good stuff.”
I headed back through the house, past the kitchen, through the wide arch into the library. I was struck again by the presence of all the handmade knick-knacks of mine my mother had collected over the years. This room felt like all the love I’d missed from her growing up, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. If she’d been alive, why hadn’t she come around? Why stay away, when she clearly cared?
I went to the built-ins to the left of the fireplace and squatted, pulling open one cabinet, then reaching in and around to the corner section that was too tough to access to bother storing anything important in. Stretching back blindly with one hand, my knuckles bumped a dusty bottle, and I pulled it out, grinning proudly.
The blue glass gleamed, and I tilted the bottle, the liquid clearly near the top. Cracking the lid, I sniffed, and my eyes immediately watered from the strong aroma of vodka. I took a quick swig then handed it to Chayton and plopped down in the center of the oversized twill sofa that faced the fireplace.
Chayton eyed the bottle then stared at me. “Um, maybe you shouldn’t drink this stuff. It’s not meant for humans.”
Stuart leaned in to look when Chayton held the bottle up. The room filled with soft curses and deep chuckles, and I glanced around, waiting for someone to share the punch line. Gray took mercy and sat down beside me.
“It’s turul vodka, which is distilled from a magic berry that only grows inside turul enclaves. It tends to be highly effective at getting our kind drunk. It’s stronger than human vodka.”
“I’m a bit more than human though, so I should be fine, right? Now, who wants to start explaining the whole ‘no fucking’ thing?”
I looked around the room. Tate had disappeared, but the others just stood around looking uncomfortable.
“This is your territory,” Stuart said, gesturing to Chayton.
A moment later, Tate returned with an armload of firewood and proceeded to stack it in the fireplace. “Go ahead,” he said, glancing up at Chayton.
The dark-haired ursa pursed his lips and raked his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, well, consent isn’t actually a factor…”
“Of course, it is,” Eddie interrupted. “You want something, you have to ask for it. Explicitly. Ursa law.”
Chayton scowled at his friend. “I didn’t finish. You’ve already felt how the magic builds when you’re having an episode, right? Well, without a way to offload that power, you could actually self-destruct. Unmated females typically don’t leave the Sanctuary until after their first estrous is complete, because they need to be near males who can help get them through it. We just act as conduits to funnel the magic back to Gaia.”
“So if we were mated, it’d solve the issue?”
“No, you’d still go through it every four years. Being mated just means you’d have easier access to a couple male ursa.”
“And then we could legally bang, right? I don’t quite get why we can’t do it now, as long as you’re available.”
Tate stood and brushed off his hands, leaning against the side of the mantel while Murdoc knelt and breathed flames into the fireplace.
He speared me with a grave look. “Because the only thing more dangerous than an unmated ursa female in estrous is an unmated ursa female who is pregnant. The power generated by the new