I also owe a HUGE thank you to the talented Gus Li for awesome cover art. (Gus is also a very talented writer. On Tinsel Wings is one of my all time favorite stories.)
Rating:
Tentacles and Chain contains a virgin merman, lots of explicit, on-the-page sex between males, sensual tentacles, bondage, D/s, a little pain play, "fairy tale"/"mythic" kidnapping, and some seriously dubious consent. If any of these things offend you, hits a trigger, or is just plain icky, please click the "back" button now.
Dub Con:
For reasons I can't explain, characters, especially those in myth, fairy tales, and fantasy, can get away with things that in real life would see a person arrested and thrown in jail--or at the very least, a restraining order would be taken out. Yet on the page, some of us find things like dub con, or dubious consent, and even the idea of forced slavery extremely sexy.
Dubious consent is NOT however, a part of real life BDSM; real life BDSM is all about Safe, Sane, and Consensual play. That doesn't mean kinksters don't occasionally enjoy a bit of role playing where we act out a rape or kidnap fantasy, but at the end of the day, it's consensual or its abuse. Even couples who engage in consensual slavery acknowledge (and emphasize) that whole consensual part. (And by consensual, I mean there are no mind altering substances involved, no psychological or emotional manipulation, blackmail, or coercion, and that all parties are over the age of consent and have the appropriate mental/emotional faculties to agree to the scene. Clear? Good.)
But this isn't real life. This is fantasy. In other words: don't try this at home, boys and girls. Charming Princes may be able to ride into castles and kiss sleeping girls in Disney stories, but in real life, Prince Charming would get butt thrown in jail and the Belle's father would be in just as much hot water as the Beast for selling his daughter to a hairy monster who imprisoned her in his castle. Enjoy the story for what it is, play whatever games turn you on in the bedroom, and above all, don't feel guilty about them, because you are only playing out a very natural fantasy.
