Chapter 22

Ronan popped his head around the doorway.

His new master and Micky were cuddled up on the huge bed. They looked so small and delicate, like two half-grown children but Ronan was not fooled. While Micky was pure Fayle and Ricky just looked mostly like one, he knew that between them they wielded great power.

He had no intention of giving up this prized position. His grandmother was going to have a fat-attack when she read the letter that he would send her. Being the personal servant to the Regent of the Tear Islands wasn’t a job one scoffed at.

He still didn’t understand why Ricky had simply accepted him as being trustworthy. He knew that he would never break a confidence that Ricky bestowed on him. He had never done it to the madman, so why would he do it the man who had rescued him?

He knocked gently on the door. “Master, mistress, I have some food ready for you.”

“Thank you, Ronan, we won’t be long,’ mumbled Ricky.

Ronan grinned and hurried to make sure he had the table set properly. He was a little disappointed that they didn’t dress for dinner but then who was he to say what should happen in his master’s home.

Tricky let Ronan priss around the table for a bit as he brought in the first serving of the meal he had planned. Then he said, “Ronan, go get your plate and pull up a chair.”

Ronan looked at Ricky with total shock. He spluttered but stopped when Ricky put up his hand. “Here, I am Ricky, and we are just friends and family. When in the treehouse we are just friends and family. You can do all the serving the master crap whenever we go to one of my townhouses, okay?”

“Yes, Master, um, Ricky,” Ronan replied. He bowed and then hurried off to get his plate and cutlery. He brought the next part of the meal with him. Once he was seated in the chair that Ricky pointed to. He had to chuckle ruefully.

“He’ll learn,” Ricky said, and then he grinned at the others two, and he rubbed his hands together.

“Rub-a-dub-dub, it’s time for grub, once we are done, it’s time for the pub.” He then happily grabbed the bread roll and started breaking it into pieces into his mushroom soup.

“What was the purpose of the odd little rhyme, Master Ricky?” Ronan asked as he observed Ricky’s even odder table manners.

Ricky shucked his shoulders. “My dad told me it was a bushman’s form of grace.” He could see both Micky and Ronan were confused.

“A bushman is a person who lived off the land when between jobs. He would work on what you two would think of as big estates when they needed extra hands and then move on. Now, grace is like saying a little thank you prayer to the Gods for the food, the grub.”

Ronan let Ricky savour the soup from his spoon before he asked, “Then what is a pub?”

“It was what my dad said my granddad had told him was an Inn. He had said that if they served up ale as bad as he had found here, back where he had come from them the owner would have had his throat slit.”

“Where did your grandfather come from?” Micky got to ask.

“Well, my dad wasn’t really sure. He told me that granddad Matt just called his world, the Earth. He said it was a long way, away, in another solar system and it was very different to here because most Earthlings didn’t believe in magic.”

“He said that was changing because they had found other planets in another solar system that did have magical beings, so he wasn’t that surprised when he woke up one day on this planet and found out people practised magic here.”

“Now the question is, Ronan, were you born male or do you just prefer to be in male form?” Ricky asked so he could eat, and they could talk.

“Neither,” Ronan blushed. “When I worked on the fish boats, it was better if I took a male form, so most of the townspeople thought I was a male. When the trouble started, most people forgot that I was even a shifter until I went berserk.”

I was in male form when I met your great-uncle, and he didn’t approve of males having sex with other males, so when I agreed to join his service, I was left alone. Because I spend so much time in my male form, it also meant I didn’t come into season very often, so this was good too.”

“Having sex with a female while I was in male form did ease those times, and it helped me keep my secret. The others just thought I was just very picky who I did it with. Why did you ask?”

Ricky touched the side of his nose and then slurped on the next big spoonful of the lovely mushroom soup so that a chunk of the soggy bread roll also slipped into his mouth.

“Damn,” swore Ronan as he then realised, he was experiencing the beginnings of a season.

“So, your options are that you stay male and screw me when you need to, or you change, and I get to screw you. I’ll take you in whichever form you prefer,” Ricky wiggled his eyebrows at Ronan.

“Why can’t he screw me?’ Micky asked. She too had broken her bread into the soup to see why Ricky had done it, and she had been happily digging out the soppy chunks and slurping them off her spoon with the chunks of mushroom.

“My dearest, Micky, I never said he couldn’t. I can’t tell you who you can and can’t screw, it is your body. Since you can also shift your gender because you have been with me long enough now, you can offer him or rather we should say her, the same options.”

Micky frowned and closed her eyes for a moment. “Did I change?” she asked as she opened then again and looked down.

“Nice,” Ricky said and nodded.

“Ooh, You are a cutie,” Ronan said with a grin.

The sight of Micky as a male and her hormones triggered Ronan’s desire to change too. They then looked at Ricky expectantly. Ricky sighed and made them giggle when he changed to his female form. He did look a little odd wearing that horrible shirt with his nicely rounded titties poking out.

Ricky then said, “Yep, I can live with either or both of you. Just remind me that when we are in bed that if you don’t like same-gender sex, you have to change or ask me to. I make love to the person; your gender is simply a version of you and all the same to me.”

“So, if I wanted to stay female most of the time it wouldn’t bother you?” Ronan had to ask.

“Nope, but you do need to tell me if you want to conceive or not when you are in season. It seems that one of my new abilities is that I can control if and when I conceive or impregnate another,” Ricky informed them.

“You would willingly have a child with me?” Ronan asked in shock. She still considered herself a servant.

“Of cause since you are now one of my consorts,” Ricky told Ronan. Ronan went to disagree, and Ricky got up and went over to her. He changed back to his normal form and gently kissed Ronan. To say he rocked her world would be an understatement.

“Hum, yes, you are one of mine. I think I’ll like having a couple of sexy shifters to keep me company in the winters. Just remember that I will not get jealous if you two also wish to spend time together and without me.”