First Came Trust

By Jess Mahler

A chance meeting on a beach. A last-minute rescue. Secret pledges and disapproving family members. These are the things that make a great love story.

But this isn't a love story -- not yet.

With Lilah's life on the line, ey will take the chance that Noble Bethania offers em. But with that chance comes risk. Love may come later, but first, they will need to trust.

First Came Trust is a short story with a HFN ending.

The First, Next, Last trilogy tells the story of three siblings struggling to rebuild after their lives are destroyed. The trilogy will end with a HEA for all three siblings.

Content notes
torture, pronouns are private, pups need packs, consensual noncon (nonsexual), collars FTW, Dalma isn't having any of it, Lilah wants to be a martyr, ey has good reasons for it, Bethania has better reasons not to, dehydration is bad, how did Lilah get bit anyway?, queer characters, welcome home

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jess Mahler
• Release date: Dec 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005545192

Jess Mahler

Jess’ weird fish-out-of-water life has left them with an enduring love/hate affair with common tropes. The relationship counselor recommended they break it off, but they just keeps coming back to play with tropes (and fuck them up) some more.In between their tropic indulgences, they write queer fantasy with aromantic, neurodivergent, and generally ‘weird’ characters, take care of their family, argue halakha, and try to do a bit of educational activism on the side.Their website ‘digital garden’ updates semi regularly, and they're active on Tumblr, Mastodon, and a few other spots around the web.

Book preview

First Came Trust

by Jess Mahler

Dedication

To Rachel.

You know why.

Acknowledgments

Rachel stepped up as proofreader in the middle of so many life crisis.

Newsletter folks kept me going.

Star and the kids put up with me.

Delyth Angharad made the beautiful calligraphy.

Nebulos gave everything a last once-over.

Part 1

Lilah had expected the guards to come. Had been expecting them for over a day, in fact. But ey hadn't expected how the guard had come. No quiet knock to escort em away. No apologies or sympathy for what must be.

The door burst open, broken down by a battering ram, though it had not been latched or locked. Guards poured into the small home Lilah shared with eir siblings. They swarmed over Lilah, knocking em to the floor. Lilah didn't resist, didn't protest. Not until ey heard Sherzod and Dalma, saw eir siblings thrown down on the floor beside em. Then Lilah protested. But eir protests were short-lived. The beast within em, the beast that had been growing stronger ever since that night in the woods, nearly slipped eir control.

Almost, ey let it. Almost ey let the beast rip through em and seize control, tear through the guards who had betrayed em. Who ey had gone to for help.

But ey was afraid. Afraid that the beast would turn on Sherzod and Dalma. That the beast would kill and kill and not stop, as the stories all said. So ey didn't fight back. Ey let the guards bind em, followed them without complaint, and turned all eir will to fighting the beast within em.

The guards loaded them in a cart and drove out of the village along the shore road. Dalma and Sherzod fought and cursed the guards, frantic not just with fear but with ignorance. They had no idea why the guards had broken down their doors and dragged them from bed. No more than they knew why their sibling had been so secretive, so anxious, the past few days. It wasn't until they had been