Brief Encounters

Title: The Elf, the Cat & the Human
Author: Sasha L. Miller
Length: 15,000 words (40 pdf pages)
Publisher: Less Than Three Press
Genre: m/m/m fantasy
Rating: C+

Blurb:

The truest form of trouble is a love triangle…

Teric is a cat shifter, too shy to ever admit the growing crush he has on his roommate and best friend, Edric—and too petrified to ever admit to his feelings for the haughty elf Akeid. Then Akeid asks him out, and begins to return his feelings with interest.

Edric has had a crush on Teric for ages, but has never known how to approach his best friend and say it. So he distracts himself at the clubs, hoping someone will be distracting enough. Then Akeid slips in and steals Teric away, and Edric wants badly to strangle the condescending, untrustworthy, far too beautiful elf.

Humans and mongrel cats are beneath him, but a bet is a bet, and Akeid means to win it. Until he loses sight of the bet, all his attention on the pretty cat slipping beneath his skin—and the hissing, spitting, jealous human dogging his every step.

Review:

This was a sweet non-explicit menage story, but the ending left me a bit unsure about the feelings of some of the participants. Teric and Edric have been roommates at college for two years and while both are crushing on the other, neither wants to make a move for fear of ruining their friendship. One night they go to an elf club, but Teric makes great effort to tame his ears and tail (he’s the kind of shifter who always has his tail and ears out) and he is hit upon by elf Akeid, however Edric soon whisks Teric away. Akeid is in a class with Edric and soon determines he’s crushing on Teric, so decides to hook up with the cat simply to make Edric angry.

However soon Akeid actually likes Teric, but the elven rules say they are superior and should not get attached to anyone beneath them. Akeid denies it, but his brother insists they break up or he’ll tell their father. While in Edric and Teric’s room to break up with Teric and to annoy Edric, Edric and Akeid get into an argument which ends up in a kiss, which Teric sees. Although Teric and Edric soon realize they’ve been liking each other for years and act on it, Akeid is not looking so healthy and drowning his sorrows in a bottle of whiskey, and Edric soon determines to set things to rights.

My confusion lay in Teric, while he initially upset when he caught Edric and Akeid kissing, he was soon over it and while he liked Akeid, he didn’t seem all that heartbroken by it and was just having a good time. So I wasn’t sure why he was pushing so hard for a threesome, and I wasn’t sure if Akeid and Edric’s attraction just stemmed from a “you annoy me, let’s have sex” kind of thing. I just wasn’t sure about the feelings of each of the men, except that Edric and Teric had been crushing on each other for years. But then again, these are college students, so perhaps their behaviour is typical of that of a young adult.

There was enough information about the world to make it interesting without overwhelming the story. You found out a bit about the supernatural hierarchy through Akeid and his brother’s discussions and comments thrown out. You also know Teric is rare where they live and he gets annoyed by everyone looking at his ears which was kind of cute and I liked how his tail kind of had a mind of it’s own. So there were definitely positives to the story, but I never felt any great draw for a threesome, and I wasn’t sure it was a HEA, but perhaps a HFN, after all, they are only 19 or 20 years old.