Naiad was determined not to let Leon go, and her time was running out. She could feel her magic power slowing, which was why she had decided to call in Leon’s side of the deal rather than wait.

Normally, her magic power flowed through her body like a river, speeding up as she grew more and more powerful. However, she had noticed that that river of power had been slowing down for some time and only continued to decelerate at a faster rate as time went on. In other words, her water magic was starting to become more and more like slow, stone-like earth magic, indicating that her transformation from a river nymph into a gorgon had begun. Right now, her skin was still smooth and flawless, without a single snake-like scale to be found, but that was only a matter of time, whether months or years, she couldn’t know for certain.

When Leon had been brought to her by her lesser nymph, it had been like she had seen a light at the end of the tunnel, a way out that didn’t require her to expose herself to the world at large and run the risk of being killed for not being human—an all too common occurrence, given that lesser nymphs had the tendency to consider humans prey. When Leon had refrained from mating with her, though, it had taken her completely by surprise, and she ended up relenting to his human notions of love and sex rather than the wilder and far less consensual river nymph version.

She set off from her underground cave a little over a week before arriving at Leon’s villa, leaving her lesser nymphs to be taken in by other Naiads—she didn’t intend to return for a long while. As she left her cave, she had the conviction to take her due, regardless of Leon’s protestations, but she moved through several large human settlements on her way to the Bull Kingdom’s capital and she hadn’t been able to stop herself from stopping to observe the people, to ascertain the truth of what Leon had claimed.

At first, what she saw had infuriated her. She had followed a group of Legion marines that had disembarked from a Legion warship in Ariminium and gone to a brothel. Taking this as proof that Leon had lied to her about humanity needing time and trust to mate, she grew so angry that the water around her roiled and churned and capsized half a dozen small fishing boats in her vicinity.

She left Ariminium furious, intending to push Leon down, take what she felt was hers, and kill anyone in her way. She would stay as long as Leon failed to impregnate her, continuing until the deed was done and she no longer had to fear turning into a gorgon.

However, as she sped through the Gulf of Discord at a blistering speed, her anger cooled, and reason returned to her. She had only witnessed a single instance of human mating outside of when her lesser river nymphs would mate with Talfar fishermen, and she decided to see if she could see more—just for educational purposes, it wasn’t because she was simply curious about sex, that wasn’t it at all.

At least, that was what she told herself.

She stopped next at a small fishing village—the same one, in fact, that Leon and Alix had visited before dealing with the smugglers right before the war with Talfar. There, she saw proper human courtship, or rather, as much as was possible to see in such a small village. She spent a day observing that village with her powerful magic senses, and she saw that some of the mortals that inhabited it did have sex completely without emotion, but most of the sex these mortals had seemed to be with loving mates. Naiad saw more proof that Leon lied about being incapable of mating with her, but she also saw proof of the love and of familial loyalty that he had spoken of just before they forged their contract.

She started to think that it was more complicated than she first realized. The life of a river nymph Queen was simple, solitary, and rather impersonal, after all, and such complicated social ceremonies weren’t something that she completely understood. Still, Naiad was more than intelligent enough to realize that maybe Leon wasn’t lying to her about human mating rituals after all.

By the time she emerged from the Naga River by Leon’s home—concealing her own presence along the way so that Leon wouldn’t be able to use their connection and know that she was coming closer—she had resolved to wait as long as Leon needed, though she wasn’t going to leave him alone during that time.

Throughout her journey from the western regions of Talfar to the center of the Bull Kingdom, though, not once was she tempted to simply write Leon off and mate with someone else more easily tempted. She was a Naiad, and after seeing Leon’s power, no other partner could compare. She was determined to give her daughters Leon’s lightning, and there would be no settling for men with lesser, more human blood.

Still, when she finally met up with Leon, she found the vampires attacking him. That wouldn’t do, so she killed them without hesitation—dead men can’t mate, after all. Initially, she had thought that that would’ve been enough for Leon to comply and fulfill his contract, and yet, when she spoke to Leon after he returned to Emilie’s estate the next day, he still refused. Even after revealing that she killed another potential enemy, he still refrained from giving her what she wanted.

It was clear to Naiad that she had to do something about that, she had to take away Leon’s trump card and get his primary mate on her side. To that end, she now walked straight to the back gardens of the estate, to where Elise was supervising the estate’s servants as they put her painstakingly grown herbs into pots to transport to her and Leon’s villa.

When Naiad exited the estate into the expansive garden the entire group of a dozen servants froze—most of them were men, and she felt them staring at her with varying levels of both lust and fear of her obvious power. They were all beneath her notice, though, and she ignored them completely in favor of walking straight to Elise.

For her part, Elise rolled her eyes and barely managed to conceal a scowl upon Naiad’s arrival and ordered the workers to get back to it. The order was hardly followed to the letter, as it was clear that many eyes were still following Naiad as she walked over to Elise, though for the most part the two ladies were left alone.

[Let’s talk,] Naiad said into Elise’s mind.

“Let’s not,” Elise responded, her tone a few shades more hostile than her noble upbringing would usually permit. She drew a few curious gazes since it seemed to everyone else that she was talking to herself, but no one was so rude as to actually ask what they were doing.

[If you don’t want to talk, then I shall simply take it as approval on your part and do what I please,] Naiad said with a mischievous grin.

Elise frowned, then said, “Fine.” She then led Naiad back inside to her library, which was the closest unoccupied room, what with other servants taking care of other parts of her personal wing of the estate.

They sat down in nearby armchairs, but Naiad didn’t immediately speak. Instead, she just slowly let her eyes take stock of Elise, as the river nymph Queen hadn’t yet done so. The only person she had properly paid any amount of attention to since arriving at the villa was Leon.

Elise, feeling uncomfortably naked under the scrutiny of such a powerful person, asked with a tone of irritation, “What do you want?”

[I understand why he would take you as a primary mate,] Naiad said, mostly ignoring Elise’s question. [You are a stunningly beautiful example of humanity, more than a match for most Naiad’s I’ve seen… Decent strength, independent attitude, I get it…]

“Your point?!” Elise demanded.

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[Ah, please forgive me…] Naiad said, simply spouting off some words that she’d heard many times on the way to the capital when someone had offended another, but she didn’t really mean them. [I want to mate with Leon, and he won’t do it without your approval. I have come for that approval.]

Elise’s gaze grew sharper and a modicum of killing intent began to leak into her aura, but inside she was quietly proud that Leon was still resisting.

“Who do you think you are?” Elise asked out loud, her voice quiet but hateful. Her killing intent grew a bit sharper, but it was so weak compared to Naiad that the river nymph Queen barely even felt it.

Naiad cocked an eyebrow in amusement at Elise’s question, smiled, and replied, [I am the woman who saved Leon, you, and everyone else who was there last night.]

“You didn’t come here to save us, if you were pure in your intentions then I might be a bit grateful, but instead you came here to try and steal what’s mine!” Elise retorted.

[I am trying to steal nothing,] Naiad replied, unfazed by Elise’s comment. [I have no intention of usurping your position as Leon’s primary mate, I simply want what has been promised to me. Besides, isn’t life a fitting payment for life?]

“You mean about that gorgon thing?” Elise asked as she steadied herself and got her tone back under control.

[You know about that?] Naiad asked, a bit of concern entering her voice for the first time. When no answer to her implied question came, Naiad simply assumed that Leon had told her and clarified, [I suppose that, yes, I do mean the gorgon thing, but I also mean new life we were going to make together…]

“Meaning you want to stay with him?!” Elise asked in uncharacteristic alarm. She gripped the armrests of her chair so hard that they were crushed into dust under her fourth-tier strength.

[Not really, but he owes me a child,] Naiad replied. [As I said, I have no desire to supplant your position, just that Leon gives me the life that he owes. I don’t mind if you join us while that happens, too. While I’m here, I’d even help you two defend yourselves from interlopers, and given what I’ve seen so far, you two need the help…]

“Why him?” Elise asked in a commanding tone, quickly calming her alarm. “You could have anyone, so why him?!”

[You could have anyone, too,] Naiad shot back. [Why do you like him?]

Elise stared at Naiad, not intending to reply.

[Whatever,] Naiad said. She hadn’t expected a reply, but gave Elise the opportunity to, anyway. [I suspect that whatever might have initially attracted you to him was the same that piqued my interest: that powerful blood… I can’t help but want that blood for my own daughters, and there is no other blood that I have seen that can compare!]

“So, you don’t love him?” Elise asked with mild disapproval, ignoring the bit about Leon’s blood. “You insist upon him so much that it seems like infatuation to me…”

‘Hahaha, ‘love’,’ Naiad thought with more than a bit of scorn. There wasn’t room for love in the wild, and she had never once considered the possibility of falling in love with someone. However, she was passingly familiar with the concept from stories from her own mother and from her week spent observing the citizens of the Bull Kingdom on the way to the capital.

[Love is a strange thing to me and I’m not sure if I even know what it is. That being said, judging from what I do know about the concept, I can say with reasonable certainty that, no, I don’t love Leon. His blood, however, is something that I can’t, under any circumstances, pass up.]

As she said this, Naiad smiled and sat back, as if she were proud of what she had just said. It was true that she thought about Leon a lot since he had first been delivered to her, but occupying her thoughts wasn’t the same as love. Neither was the desire to be around him, in her mind, just that his blood was that attractive.

There was no doubt in her mind that that attraction would go away by the time she was with child.

“I’ll find you someone better!” Elise suddenly burst out, to Naiad’s entertainment.

[No, you won’t, not in the time I have,] Naiad confidently replied. She felt it was perfectly possible for Elise to find someone more attractive than Leon if given enough time, but Naiad didn’t have that time. More attractive in terms of power, at least.

Naiad wasn’t sure why that distinction was important to her, but it was.

“What about your other nymphs? The ones you command?” Elise inquired. “Surely you can’t be away from them for very long?”

[They’ll find other Naiads, there’s enough of my sisters around that my girls won’t be hard-pressed to find other Queens,] Naiad immediately replied, showing just how little it mattered to her if her other river nymphs were around. [Stop trying to get out of this, I won’t settle for anything less than the reproductive process. It’s the only way that’s guaranteed to eventually result in what I want, after all…]

The two stared at each other for a long while, long enough for Elise’s anger and frustration to cool a bit. Long enough for Naiad to contemplate simply leaving and taking Leon with her, regardless of what he had to say on the matter.

“Well, then…” Elise said as she rose to her feet. “That’s that, then. I can’t stop you, I can’t convince you not to follow through on this, you’ve completely tied my hands. I hardly have a say in this, do I?”

Naiad stared at Elise with a look of muted joy given where this was going, but she didn’t interrupt.

“After what you’ve done for us, saving our lives, how can I stop this?” Elise asked as she almost broke out into tears.

She didn’t want Naiad to have Leon, but she had also told Leon to start a harem. If she were to be honest with herself, then she would have to admit that from just about any practical standpoint, Naiad would be a boon, a godsend to their family.

It still felt dirty, though, and all Elise wanted to do was to continue to insist that Naiad couldn’t have Leon until the river nymph just went away. But Naiad clearly wasn’t going anywhere, and Elise had few practical options for dealing with someone as powerful as her. Besides, the only reason that Naiad hadn’t done anything so far was thanks to the restraint she had shown on her part so that Leon would willingly agree, not because of anything that Elise or Leon had done to stop her.

“My hands are tied,” Elise repeated in frustration as she collapsed back into her chair.

[So… then…?] Naiad slowly asked since it seemed like Elise was done.

“Do what you will,” Elise bitterly said as she stared the river nymph in the eye. “So long as Leon doesn’t object, then you have my permi-“

As Elise said this, Naiad’s face lit up in unabashed joy as the final obstacle between her and Leon cleared away. She interrupted Elise’s statement by springing to her feet, grabbing Elise by the hand, and dragging the surprised young woman out of the room.

“What are you doing?!” Elise demanded to know.

[It’s only appropriate for the principal mate to go first when the harem leader takes another mate, isn’t it?! At least, that’s what I’ve gathered so far from watching human mating rituals, and it seems to me like Leon will be a lot more willing taking you before me…] Naiad replied as she all-but hauled Elise through the estate at an almost blinding speed.

The two quickly arrived back where Naiad had left Leon in her guest room. The river nymph almost broke the door down in her haste to tell Leon the good news, and Leon just about jumped out of his skin as the door burst open. He even had to fight the urge to draw his weapon and armor from his soul realm.

“What’s going on?!” he asked in shock as he saw Elise just behind Naiad, her clothes in relative disarray and her long red hair a little messy from how she had been pulled through the halls.

[It’s time!] Naiad excitedly announced. [Your first mate has assented, so it’s time!]

Leon looked to his lady for confirmation, and Elise slowly nodded, but she wasn’t quite able to meet his eye. That was it, then. If she had agreed, then there was little need to continue holding back; she had been his biggest reason for continuing to deny Naiad, and now she had seemingly acquiesced to Naiad’s demands.

He did his best to relax and mentally prepare himself for whatever came next. There would be no more arguments on his part.

[We’re doing this now!] Naiad said as she used her other hand to take ahold of Leon’s arm and impatiently dragged both him and Elise into her bedroom, her forcefulness somehow taking Leon completely by surprise despite how she had acted until now.

Naiad immediately began to pull her clothes off her body as fast as she could, but Leon and Elise were far more bashful, far more nervous about this than the river nymph. Leon bought a little bit of time by closing the door that Naiad had left open, but that only gave him and Elise a few seconds to get comfortable with the situation.

Elise closed her eyes for a few moments, took a couple of deep breaths, then stripped down, with Leon not far behind her. She then laid down on the bed, putting her well-endowed and finely toned figure on display for Leon and Naiad, a slightly strained smile on her lips wordlessly inviting Leon to take the lead as Naiad watched in muted fascination—the river nymph Queen had assured Elise that she wasn’t trying to take Leon away from Elise, and this was her opportunity to prove it. So, she lay down next to Elise without a stitch of clothing on and watched as Leon approached the side of the bed.

Once he took off the rest of his clothes, Leon hesitated. He could feel Naiad’s eyes roaming up and down his body, and it was a bit difficult to get into the swing of things when under such close observation. But, when he focused on Elise, everything seemed to drift away. His anxiety disappeared in the green of his lover’s eyes, and when Elise held out her hands to him, Leon took the last step and joined the other two on the bed.