Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
LOCHLAN
Fated mates.
I’ve heard the words before, Cas might have even mentioned something, but I’m not sure I totally understand the concept.
A thrill runs through me anyway, like there’s a more primal part of me that understands it perfectly and gets a bone-deep satisfaction from hearing the words.
Maybe I’m just relieved to have an explanation for why I’ve been reacting the way I have to Roman.
I sniff the air, drawing in their mingled scents. Roman’s musky cinnamon scent stirs heat in my gut and makes me feel feral, and Jareth’s earthy lavender scent is love and comfort. Together they smell like home.
They’re both staring at me, waiting for a reaction. I really don’t get the looks on their faces though. This is good news. It’s great news. But Jare looks like he’s getting ready for a root canal and Roman looks guilty and nervous, shifting his weight and keeping his eyes down.
“This is amazing.” My head is still pounding and I’m feeling kind of queasy, but that doesn’t stop any of my enthusiasm.
Jareth winces and Roman’s head snaps up, his eyes flooding with hope and something beautiful and tender as they meet mine.
“It is?” he rasps. “You’re happy?”
“Of course I’m happy.” I fling the blankets off and shuffle down the bed towards them. I reach for Jareth’s hand, sliding my fingers between his. “Now none of us have to be jealous. We can both love Jareth like we always have, but now we don’t have to fight over him. We can love each other too.”
Jareth sputters a laugh. “Honey, I think you’re still a little drunk.”
He tries to tug his hand out of mine, but I tighten my grip and look at Roman for support. He has to see it, right? Fate wouldn’t put us together just to break Jareth’s heart. Fate picked us for each other because it knew we both already loved Jareth enough on our own, without a freaky mate bond.
Roman nods, either agreeing with what I just said or somehow understanding exactly what I’m thinking. Either way, we’re on the same page.
“I imagined the two of you kissing a hundred times. Every time you touched or did that thing where you rub your face on his neck…”
“Scenting,” Roman mumbles, supplying the word.
“Right… and every time I pictured it, I was so fucking jealous I couldn’t breathe.” I look back and forth between the two of them, still clinging to Jareth’s hand so he won’t bolt before I have the chance to convince him how good this really is. “But then yesterday, you two kissed.”
Jareth blushes and Roman gets a look on his face that’s defiant and guilty at the same time.
“In the fae realm,” I remind them. “The memory is hazy, but you kissed, and it was… hot.”
“What’s your point, Loch?” Jare asks quietly.
“What does any of this have to do with the bomb I just dropped on you? Roman is your fated mate. You’re right that you don’t have to be jealous of anyone anymore, because he’s all yours.
No one can ever take him from you.” His voice cracks and my heart answers with a twinge of pain.
Roman lets out a quiet whimper and moves closer to Jareth at the same time.
I shake my head and sit up on my knees. “I want you to kiss again. I want to watch.”
Maybe if I show him how well the three of us can fit together, he’ll believe it.
“This is crazy.” Jareth tries to tug his hand free again, and this time I reluctantly let it go.
He rakes his fingers through his hair and looks at Roman with his eyebrows raised and his eyes full of expectations.
“Would you talk some sense into him? Explain to him how the whole fated mate thing works.”
“How it works is that I’m biologically driven to give my mate whatever he wants,” Roman growls, and the deep, sexy sound strokes my cock to life and raises goose bumps on my skin. I didn’t even know I could still get goose bumps as a vampire.
Roman moves closer to Jareth and slides an arm around his middle, pulling our mage right up against him.
Jareth’s hands land on Roman’s broad chest and I can see the way his fingers curl, digging into the fabric of his shirt and the flesh underneath, his breath hitching and his body visibly shuddering.
I can smell the spike of arousal in his scent too, in both their scents.
I probe every corner of my mind and heart for the slightest shred of jealousy and find none. All I feel is desire and a desperate kind of hope.
“What about what I want?” Jareth whispers.
“Of course I care about what you want. I always have,” Roman assures him, putting two fingers under Jareth’s chin to tilt his head up slightly, bringing their mouths less than an inch from each other.
I can’t look away from that sliver of space between their lips, from the way their fingers sink into each other like they can’t bear the idea of being separated.
“Tell me to stop. Tell me you don’t want this. ”
“It’s insane,” he mutters.
“That’s not ‘stop,’” Roman points out.
“It won’t work. Who’s ever heard of a throuple where two of them are fated mates and the other is just some random third wheel?” Jareth huffs.
“You are not random.” I’m on my feet and standing next to them in the blink of an eye. Man, vamp speed is cool. Up close, their combined scents are even more intoxicating.
Jareth scoffs and shakes his head.
“If anyone should kiss, it should be the two of you. As soon as you stop worrying about me and stop fighting fate, you’ll see that everything will be easier if I just leave you alone and let you forget about me.”
“We already kissed, Jare, and it didn’t make either of us forget about you,” Roman says.
“Well, that was before you both knew you were mates, right? You were still feeling guilty about all of it and worrying about me. So, do it again. Kiss for real, right now.”
“Fine,” Roman growls. “If you need that to prove something, then fine. But sit your ass down and don’t you dare try to go anywhere, because we’re nowhere near done hashing this out.”
He lets go of Jareth and points to the nearest chair, at the foot of the bed where they were both sitting, waiting for me to wake up earlier.
“The cuck chair. That’s appropriate,” Jare mutters as he sinks down into it.
Roman’s expression is thunderous and wild when he turns his attention back to me. There’s nothing gentle about the way he grabs me and hauls me up against him, or the way his fingers dig into my hips, his claws elongating and dragging along the bare patch of skin where my shirt rides up.
“Do you know what it means to be my fated mate, Loch?” His voice is even deeper and more guttural now, and his eyes shimmer and turn a glowing shade of yellow.
I shake my head.
“It means that when you’re ready for me to mark you, we’ll spend eternity bound to each other.
It means that protecting you, taking care of you, and making you happy will be the most important thing to me…
” He tears his eyes off of mine for a fraction of a second and glances over at Jareth.
“One of the most important things to me. It means you’re mine.
” The way the word mine rolls off his tongue, carrying the full weight of possession and desire makes my cock throb and my cool skin feel suddenly hot.
I hold his gaze for a long moment, and then I grin and try the freaky mind thing that Cassius is so good at, pushing my thoughts directly at Roman.
“Kiss me. And don’t hold back. We need to show Jareth that it doesn’t matter what fate says; we’re not complete without him.”
The grin that stretches across his lips makes me think it worked, that he heard me, and even more importantly, that we’re still on the same page. All those things he just said, I want them. Fuck, I want them. I want him. But not without Jareth. I’ll fight the fates myself if I have to.
Roman slams his lips into mine. His mouth is hot, and even without the lingering flavor of blood between us like the last time we kissed, his tongue sliding between my lips is still the one of the most intoxicating things I’ve ever tasted.
I groan against his lips and scramble into his arms, wrapping my legs around him and trusting him to hold me.
He carried me to bed last night, after all. I still have the hazy memory of it.
I tangle my fingers in his hair and deepen the kiss, sucking his tongue and matching the hungry rhythm of his mouth against mine, giving in to the undeniable draw I’ve felt towards him since I scented him at that bar a few days ago.
Has it really been such a short amount of time?
Why does it feel like I’ve been waiting for this exact moment for an eternity?
ROMAN
Loch didn’t want me to hold back, and I’m happy to give him exactly what he asked for.
I swallow his moans and let him feel the heat of my hard, throbbing cock between his legs, pressed right up against his.
I barely know him, and I don’t know why exactly fate picked him for me or how we’ll fit together, but just the fact that his first thought on hearing the news was that this would make it easier for all of us to be together tells me everything I need to know about him.
I don’t love him yet, but I will. I’ll get to know his generous, open heart and learn the ways he needs me to protect it.
He nips at my tongue with a sharp fang, and I hiss against his lips.
The copper tang of blood mixes with the sweet flavor of his mouth and turns the kiss into something hungrier and even more desperate.
He bucks and grinds against me, making my cock throb and my balls tighten.
The base of my cock pulses too, my knot eager to swell inside of Loch, to fill him until neither of us can move another inch and then shoot my load so deep that he can taste it in the back of his throat.
I growl around his tongue and dig my fingers roughly into his ass cheeks.