She was so wet his fingers slid around effortlessly, first one hand and then both as he knelt between her thighs, circling and rubbing her clit, plunging inside her, stroking her labia and making her gasp, her fingers digging into his flesh.

His thumb pressed against her clit and she came, a wonderful release that had her clinging to him as the world spun around her.

“Like that?” Bael murmured against her breast.

“No. Hated it. Try harder next time.”

He chuckled and nudged her with his cock. “Do you want this?”

“Gods, yes. Fuck me, Bael.”

His mouth found hers as he slid inside her with agonizing slowness, so thick he filled her completely. Kett’s hands clenched his buttocks, pulling him deeper inside her until he could go no farther, and then she found herself holding him, cradling him, both arms wrapped around his back.

He felt so real, so big and hard and wonderful, so right.

“Bael,” she whispered, and he kissed her cheek, her jaw. “This isn’t a dream, is it?”

He pulled back an inch or two to look at her. “I thought it was.”

“Your dream or mine?”

“Well, I didn’t think it was yours.”

“It’s too real.”

He rocked his hips against hers. “Feels real.” Frowning for a second, he said, “Wait, let me try something.”

She thought he was going to introduce her to some new kink-or at least attempt to, because there were few kinks a shapeshifter couldn’t discover-but he closed his eyes as if concentrating and Kett felt the ground underneath her change, sand to grass, and the sky lightened.

They were lying in a meadow dotted with flowers. The grass tickled Kett’s back.

“This is near my house in Angeland,” Bael said. “It’s my dream.”

Kett closed her eyes and thought about Koskwim, and when she opened them it was to find herself lying on the bed in her room there, the canopy supported by marble angels, the sheets soft beneath her back.

“This is my room on Koskwim,” she said, figuring she was going to have to tell him eventually anyway. “It’s not your dream.”

“But I took us to the meadow.”

“And I brought us here. Does this look familiar to you?”

Bael admitted that it didn’t. As he twisted to look around, his cock slid out of her a little, and Kett wriggled against him.

“Look. This isn’t important. Weren’t you going to fuck me?”

He turned back to her and smiled. “I was.”

She flipped him onto his back and sank down on him fully, rubbing her breasts against his chest and kissing his face. His jaw was rough with stubble, abrasive against her skin.

“This,” she said, sitting up and riding him, “is Koskwim. Home of the Order. An elite group of highly trained mercenaries for hire.”

Bael put his hands on her hips and urged her on faster.

“Are you listening to me?” she admonished.

“Yeah. ’Course. Order. Hire. Elite. Uh, what do you do?”

She shoved his shoulder, squeezed him with her internal muscles, and he grinned.

“Mercenaries,” she said. “We spy, rob, fight, kill. Train armies. Run police forces.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Captain Tanner in Elvyrn, he’s one of us. A Knight. And Striker. And Chance.”

“You’re a Knight?” He slid his hands up her stomach to cup her breasts.

“Yep. No armor though.”

“Shame. Bet you look hot in armor.”

Kett smiled, leaning down to kiss him. She’d no idea how real any of this was, but it would surely be easier to repeat herself once she was awake. Once something had been done, it usually got easier to do.

Her smile faded as she realized the last thing she had to tell him.

Got to be done, her brain told her. You got yourself into this mess, you’re the only one can get you out.

Closing her eyes, she rose and fell on Bael’s thick, delicious cock, and concentrated on the memory of Marisa. It came easily, the dream assisting her, and she knew when she’d gotten there by Bael’s sharp intake of breath.

“What the hell?” he shouted. “Okay, now I know this is my dream.”

“No,” Kett said, opening her eyes. “You’re not imagining this. Bael, does it feel like a dream?”

He shook his head rapidly, scrambling off the bed and away from her, pushing her off him just like he had in the tavern.

“This is not funny,” he said. “This-I was going to tell her, you know, I was going to own up. She still thinks she’s tied to me, even after what I did to her. I was going to bloody tell her!”

Kett knelt on the bed, her body feeling oddly empty without him. “Bael, it’s me,” she said. “It’s Kett.”

He stared wildly at her, pacing back and forth, running his hands through tousled hair.

“Shapeshifter,” she reminded him, and turned herself back. “See?”

“But-” Bael looked like she’d just slapped him. “I- I-

“I think I’m going to wake up now,” he mumbled, and suddenly vanished.

Kett swore but a second later someone was shaking her by the shoulder, and she opened eyes that she didn’t think had been closed to find herself back in her bedroom at Nuala’s house, Bael peering worriedly at her in the moonlight.

“I know all about Marisa,” Kett said, and Bael wanted to die.

“I was going to- Wait, how do you know?”

“You’re not paying attention,” she said impatiently. She was sitting up in bed, her arms folded across her bare breasts, the room in darkness. Bael could see her just fine, thanks to Var’s enhanced night vision, and Kett wasn’t complaining, so he guessed she could see in the dark too.

“That wasn’t your dream. Or rather, it was yours, but it was mine too,” she said. “How else do you think we got to Koskwim? In point of fact, Bael, how else do you think I know what happened in your dream?”

He ran his hands through his hair. “You ever shared a dream with anyone else before?” She shook her head. “Me neither. Maybe it’s my latent Mage powers finally making themselves known.” A bloody shitty power, but anyway. “Look. I was going to tell you about her, but then I found you with that-that-”

“Very hot, skilled man who did absolutely nothing for me,” Kett said.

“I don’t want to hear about how hot and skilled he was!”

“You’re still not listening,” she said, and grabbed hold of his arm to dig her nails into it. Bael flinched, because her nails were damn sharp.

He looked down. She’d manifested claws.

“I’m a shapeshifter,” she said. “I can change my shape.”

“Yes, all right.” He tried to extract his arm but she held on to it.

“Mostly I imitate things, it’s easier that way. Like drawing a picture of something that’s in front of you. I mostly do animals, things with the same sort of mass as a human body. And occasionally, I change my appearance.”

“Like when you turned to stone?”

“Yes. And like when I turned into a floozy barmaid who drugged you, dragged you to bed and woke you up by sucking on your cock.”

Bael gaped at her.

His first thought was, How did she know? How did she know I slept with Marisa, and how did she know all those details?

His second thought was, Is she serious? I’ve seen her change shapes. Just because Var is limited to animals doesn’t mean Kett is. She could change her eyes, hair, skin-she could look like anybody.

His third thought was, Does this mean I didn’t cheat on her?

His fourth thought was, Damn, even bruised and sulky she’s gorgeous.

“It was me, Bael. I was trying to prove I wasn’t your mate. I didn’t know if you’d go for another woman, so I figured…”

Bael tried to shake off the fog of lust and confusion clouding him. “Why?”

She let go of his arm and plucked grumpily at the bedcovers. “I don’t want to be tied to anyone. I never did.”

“You got married once.”

“Yes, when I was very, very drunk, and it ended very, very badly. I don’t like fate, Bael. It tells you what to do-”