Mated in the Stars (Starscale Mates #6)

Chapter Fifteen

Nelum

Most people where I come from meet their true-mates. It was something we all took for granted. We had long lifespans and perhaps unusually good luck. I didn’t know a single mated pair who weren’t true-mates. Maybe they made some pact with whoever doles out fates or where souls are born. I’d probably never know but I never doubted that I’d meet my true-mate. I didn’t know there would be two of them. I didn’t know they’d know who I used to be. I didn’t expect to meet them while hunting a boar or that I’d meet their children first. I expected to meet them under the blue moon. The giant rock out in space orbited so slowly that only once every twenty-three years did it pass by each location on our world and stick around. The first night it was visible was always a celebration. Most people met their true-mates at that celebration. Since they didn’t happen often people would travel from all around the planet to be there. Sometimes visitors from other planets came to see what all the fuss was about.

While we didn’t romp like newly met mates or singles mingling might have, I swore we ate better than if we had been at the feast. Fred cooked every bite of food in the house and insisted on bringing it to Elio and I while we lounged around inside the nest with their egg.

“Do you have any kids?” Elio asked while Fred was off in the kitchen cooking.

“No,” I shook my head. “Not unless you count some of the chickens and pigs that I hand raised. I’m single. I’ve always been single. It’s just sorta what you do back home until you meet your person. I’m not a virgin, though,” I added the last line quickly. “Sex happens. Romping happens. Usually at festivals with other singles but sometimes out in the woods if you arrange it.”

“And no one has kids from that?” Elio asked.

“I’m sure some people do. I never did. I was careful, though,” I explained. “I want kids, of course.”

“That’s a good thing. Fred has six of them counting our egg and I don’t think he’s willing to exchange them for puppies at this point,” Elio laughed trying to break the tension that hung in the air.

We fell into another long bout of silence and I wondered if this was normal behavior for Fred or if he was somehow keeping his freak out off his scent. I almost asked Elio about it but wasn’t sure how much they wanted me to pry into their lives. They’d invited me into their home and into their nest but we were so new to each other.

“Is Minter your first kid?” I asked, trying to find something to fill the silence with.

“He is,” Elio nodded. “He’s a handful sometimes but I adore him. He’s the one who told me about you.”

“Does this get easier? The whole mate thing? The knowing what to say thing?” I asked.

“It does. After the claiming vows it gets easier for most people. Fred and I had some complications. He believed I had fooled him into thinking I was his true-mate for some dark magic reason. I’m good at magic but I’m not that fucking good,” Elio laughed, turning onto his back and staring up at the ceiling. “For us three? I think it’ll get a lot easier. Right now, I think Fred is cooking and eating his feelings. He misses her. He’s processing. I think he thought he processed it all before but I don’t know that he’ll ever fully process her loss. I don’t think he’d be Fred if he did. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not dancing around ghosts or competing with dead foxes. It’s not like that. It’s just in some ways, she’ll always be in whatever room Fred’s in.”

“I think it’s nice,” I said and hurried to add. “Not just because I was Lotus but because think about it. If something happened to one of us, it’d be the same. As long as he or anyone who ever knew him was alive, it would be like we were too. They’d talk about us or talk about how he talked about us. My whole life I’ve just sort of been a farm kid who hunted too. I had some fun at festivals. I’ve had some good friends, but I’ve always felt so insignificant. It’s like I was a bit of dirt buried all the way down. Only important to the other little bits that touched me but thinking about how you both were waiting on me – I was just never some tiny bit of dirt. Maybe in the grand scheme of things I am but ---” I took a deep breath. Plenty of folks hated when I waxed too philosophical back home.

“Go on,” Elio said and moved his hand closer to mine until our fingers brushed together.

Acting braver than I felt, I entwined our fingers together. I waited for him to pull away and say it was too soon but Elio only gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and asked me to finish my thought.

“Don’t leave a dragon hanging like that,” he smirked.

“I think I’m catching Fred’s dramatic flair,” I chuckled and squeezed his hand back. “But maybe none of us are as insignificant as we feel sometimes.”

“We aren’t,” Elio shook his head. “Well, we are, and we aren’t. We are because were no more important than the next dragon but the next dragon isn’t more important than us either in the grand scheme. Especially, the grand scheme of the flight here. You’re one of us now. You’ll see how it goes.”

“I have a bit,” I nodded. “I like the food points.”

“Some people do barter their stuff, but I think it’s mostly a hobby,” Elio shrugged. “No one needs any of it to have the important things. We all contribute, though. I don’t know how things will work as more people come onto the worlds. I don’t know how trading with other groups will work. I imagine it’s something we’ll all have to vote on every time because technically all the food and stuff belongs to all of us flight members. Maybe we won’t trade at all. Maybe we’ll decide that’s the easier way or the better way.”

Elio rolled onto his side again and brushed a lock of hair away from my face. He studied my expression as if he was committing all of me to memory. He was gorgeous too with his eyes alight with hope and a bit of lust. He smelled the same as the expression he wore. Though, if Fred didn’t stop feeding us, we’d forever be on the cusp of lust.

“The kitchen will run out of food eventually,” Elio laughed, picking up my thoughts over the flight link.

“But they’ll just bring more,” I smirked.

“That’s the idea.”

It wasn’t until I was dozing off in the nest with Elio and Fred that night full of food I had never tasted before that I realized maybe Fred had cooked all that for me. I had spent a great deal of my life complaining and bemoaning the lack of variety in my diet. He hadn’t served me a single egg that I could discern.

After we’d finished eating, Fred and Elio polished up the egg and we all settled down. We talked life in circles – them about the kids and how the Starscale Dragon Flight worked. Fred talked a little a bit about his life on Earthside and I told them about the farm and hunting back home. We talked ourselves to sleep.

***

I woke the next morning as hard as a rock and life feeling more surreal than ever. I was asleep in a nest with an egg. A nest that smelled like my true-mates. My two true-mates. The egg was theirs. I was here with them. I was in their house. I was sleeping in pajama pants borrowed from Elio. Everything smelled like them.

I blinked the sleep out of my eyes and tried to clear away the fog of surrealness. Fred and Elio weren’t in the nest. Their egg was still here. So they hadn’t gone far. I rolled onto my back and let out a long, slow breath. The nest was just as comfortable as any bed I’d ever slept in. Maybe a bit more now that I was surrounded by my two new favorite scents. I glanced over at the red egg, my only companion in the nest currently. It wasn’t even up to my knee yet, but it had grown a tiny bit over night. I rolled onto my belly and grabbed the polishing towel and scrubbed out a smudge. My reflection shined back at me in the shell.

“They really keep up on this stuff, huh?” my dragon chimed into my thoughts.

I strained my ears to hear where my mates had gone off to. Surely, they hadn’t left me alone in the house with their egg. They hadn’t known me long enough for now. I blushed when my ears found them. A soft moan echoed from another room. So soft and sweet as if Elio tried his best to keep me from hearing him. Part of me wanted to tiptoe down the corridor and watch them. Only without asking first, that was a creepy thing to do, and I wasn’t a creep. Even if the back of my neck burnt like I might actually go into heat.

Instead, I pushed myself upright and after double-checking nothing that could hurt the egg was left in the nest, I tiptoed into the kitchen. Someone had already made coffee and left out all the fixins. From staying with Sunny and Laken, I learned that Starscales liked their coffee extra bitter and often skipped out on the sugar. Moonscales or ‘Moonys’ drowned everything in sugar. I fell somewhere in the middle but if I had to choose a side, I’d err on the side of too much sugar, rather than not enough.

I made myself a mug and waited for them to finish up their really good morning. Their scents hit my nose when the steam from the shower leaked into the rest of the house when they opened the door. I blushed harder than I had the day before, imagining their bodies twisting and moving together – groping, squeezing, touching each other with abandon in only the way lovers who had been together many years could without worry.

I crossed my legs. They’d still smell how hard and slick I was, but crossing my legs felt like the appropriate thing to do.

“Stop over thinking it,” my dragon spoke up. “They’re our mates. I think they’re sorta stuck with us. Besides, after what we heard it would be an insult not to be aroused.”

“Hope we didn’t wake you,” Fred said, walking into the kitchen first.

He smelled like soap, something fruity – the shampoo maybe?, and of course, Elio. Because they were true-mates who had exchanged the claiming vows they always smelled a bit like each other but that morning it was more pronounced than ever. Maybe that was just in my head because of what I knew they’d done.

“No,” I said, shaking my head quickly.

“Sorry,” Fred grinned, opening the fridge and taking out the orange juice. “I tried to keep him quiet but that’s not an easy feat. You’ll see.”

I bit the inside of my cheek trying not to blush, but it happened anyway. It was probably written all over my face. I wanted to know how loud he was and what Fred had done to him to bring that noise out of his depths. I wanted to know what he sounded like with me – with us both. I let out a long breath and looked around for anything akin to a temperature gauge.

“Don’t make fun of me, but is it warm in here?” I asked.

“The kitchen is the warmest room of the house,” Fred said, pouring a glass of juice, “but it’s not that warm in here.”

“Thanks for not pointing out the obvious.”

“We don’t want to make you uncomfortable. Flustered, sure, if you want to be,” Fred shrugged. “You’re going into heat doesn’t mean we have to do anything. I’ll call the ship’s healer and get you a fast-acting heat shot if you like.”

“I’m okay. I read about them online when Laken and Sunny mentioned them. I’m not risking losing my ability to breathe so my dick sits down.”

“Fair enough,” Fred nodded. “Not here. We don’t have the equipment here but back on Earthside they run this quick allergy test thing to ensure you won’t react to it before they give them out now. It’s not that widely known but it was in some memo Clarence sent me recently. You met him at Sunny’s place, right?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “He stared at me a lot like he was trying to figure out if I was her too. That’s going to stop eventually, right?”

“I want to say maybe but Lotus always held everyone’s attention when she walked into a room,” Fred grinned. “Maybe I’m biased, but I think you might have the same affect on people.”

“What affect is that?” Elio asked, walking into the kitchen dressed only in a fluffy, orange towel around his waist.

“Everyone always stares at him,” Fred said, handing Elio the juice.

“Definitely,” Elio nodded. “Can’t take my eyes off him.”

“Or you,” Fred said.

“You’re going to go cross eyed, then, alpha,” Elio laughed.

“I’ll have to grow another pair.”

“You have enough testicles for three dragons,” Elio shook a playful finger at him.

Fred grabbed his hand and pulled him in for a long, slow kiss that took my breath away and I wasn’t even the one whose mouth his tongue was sliding into.

“Says the man who is still wearing only a towel,” Fred said, sliding his hand down Elio’s back to grab his butt.

“I’m not gonna have a whole basket of laundry to do because I change clothes every time we romp for the next month.”

“Do matingmoons last that long here?” I asked, legs still crossed as I leaned forward to hear more.

“Sometimes,” they answered at the same time.

“Depends on the pair and their jobs and other obligations and of course, just how long they need. The flight is good about filling in the gaps in work when people need time off. They’ll bring us our food and most reasonable requests,” Elio explained. “Do they not do matingmoons where you come from?”

“They do. Maybe a week if you’re lucky and have someone to watch your farm or your animals for you,” I shrugged.

“We have Teddy,” Elio laughed.

“We’re lucky to have Teddy,” Fred added.

“Never said we weren’t,” Elio said.

“So, you’ve argued over Teddy before?” I arched a brow. “Noted he’s a sore subject.”

“No, him not following our naptime wishes is a sore subject,” Elio said, pouring himself more orange juice.

“Ummm… Elio,” I said gently. “I know he’s Fred’s kid, but I think Teddy is a little old for you to put down for a nap.”

Fred laughed and Elio shot me a bird. I couldn’t help it. I wanted to banter with them too. I wanted to be kissed and groped and grabbed depending on what my response warranted.

Fred beckoned me to them with the wave of a single finger as he pushed the cups and juice aside. Swallowing hard, I stood up and crossed the room. Walking made it near impossible to hide that I was hard, and the scent of my arousal filled the kitchen giving away how turned on I was by their whole morning of exchanges.

Elio’s eyes slid down to my crotch and his hand touched on the orange starshaped scale on his chest. Was his burning hot too?

“Yes,” Fred nodded for him. “It’s the effect the true-mate responses have on them. They feel weird for other reasons too sometimes but it’s the most common one almost everyone experiences.”

“Not everyone, though,” I reminded them to distract myself from how my body ached for their touch. “Or you wouldn’t have needed Other World gateways here.”

“True,” Elio nodded as Fred reached out and wrapped his arm around my waist.

I went to him as he pulled me in close. I wasn’t quite touching his naked torso when he stopped pulling, but I leaned forward to close the gap between us. He traced my jawline with his thumb and gazed into my eyes. For a moment, I wondered if he was looking for her, but he shook his head as soon as the thought crossed my mind.

“My dragon is looking at yours,” he whispered as if we could speak quietly enough that our inner beasts couldn’t hear us. A second later, Fred’s eyes shifted to the golden flamey color of his dragon’s. His hand found my hip and he arched a questioning brow. I licked my lips more ready than I’d ever been to kiss someone. He kissed me softly to start and Elio stepped behind me. I was gloriously trapped between them with their body heat radiating into me. The room grew warmer with each flick of Fred’s nimble tongue around my mouth.

Elio’s hands found my hips and kissed up and down one side of my neck. My fingers shook and I wasn’t sure where to put my hands. Elio took my wrists and set my hands, palms down, against Fred’s broad chest. He cupped my chin and kissed me deeper. My knees wobbled, making me lean on him for support. He pulled back, coming up for air, or so I thought, but he turned me around to face Elio whose hands went straight to cradling my face as his lips found mine. Fred’s hands found my hips as his dick hardened to its full length against my ass. I leaned back against Fred, letting Elio lean against me so that our alpha took on both of our weights.

I could’ve kissed them forever. I could’ve watched them kiss forever. Elio rose to his tiptoes and kissed Fred over my shoulder before kissing me again.

“Do you want us to help you get off?” Fred asked, cutting straight to the chase so there was no confusion in what he meant.

“Please,” I managed to get the word off my tongue despite how hot I blushed.

Elio met Fred’s gaze over my shoulder and nodded.

“Let’s take these off,” Elio said, playing at the hem of my borrowed pajama pants. “Okay?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Please.”

The kitchen was a little cooler once Elio had stripped me naked. In doing so, his own towel fell around his ankles, and he tossed it onto the table with the pants. I raked my eyes up and down him taking in his beautiful lean, muscular body. His cock was as hard as my own as he dropped to his knees on the kitchen floor. The smell of his arousal mixed with mine, sending my heartrate into overdrive.

“You good down there?” Fred asked, looking around as if a pillow might appear in the kitchen for Elio to kneel on.

“I’m good,” Elio nodded, pulling his hair up into a ponytail on the top of his head with a hair tie that seemed to me to appear out of thin air. I wasn’t sure how some people with long hair managed to pull that magic trick off.

Fred wrapped his arms around me and ran his big, strong hands all over my torso before stopping to toy with my nipples as Elio took me in his fist. He squeezed me, sending out tiny shocks of pleasure throughout my body and making my knees wobble. My breath hitched and came out in a slow, happy sigh as Elio slid his fist down the length of my shaft. His hand was soft and nimble. His touch followed the natural curve of my body as he worked me over sending little sparks of ‘feel good’ all over me. I bit my lip and Fred nibbled on my ear until I had to open my mouth to let a moan out.

“Don’t make yourself bleed,” he whispered in my ear. “The day’s only starting.”

I whimpered. The sound shimmied up my throat, startling me. I’d never heard such a desperate sound coming from my own throat. I wanted them. Needed more of them. Elio stroked my cock, stopping at the base this time and placed a warm, full-lipped kiss against my tip. I rubbed my ass against Fred as Elio’s tongue snaked out of his mouth to tease me. My knees wobbled again, and Fred held tighter to me, keeping me upright. How did this feel so good? It was as if every nerve ending, I possessed decided to stand up at once.

My eyes drifted closed and I gave in to the pleasure pulsating and spiraling around my dick. My hands found Fred’s arms and fingers dug into his flesh and muscles. He licked over my ear again as Elio’s warm, supple mouth slid over the head of me. I let out a long breath, reveling in the slick warmth spreading down my shaft as he took me into him. His freed hand found my hip, holding me tight against Fred who I held onto for dear life.

I’d never been with two partners at once before. Was that why everything was so intense? Was it the mating responses? The heat? Was I in heat? Was I just close to it? Was it Fred watching intently as Elio slid his mouth up and down my dick again and again, pulling some primal sensation out of me that made it hard to stay upright or to think in a straight line? Sparks exploded behind my eyelids as I came hard and fast into Elio’s warm, welcoming mouth. I’d never come with so little provocation before. It was definitely them. Both of them. What the hell I been so nervous about just minutes ago? I was right where I wanted to spend the rest of my life.