Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
Colbie
“B ut… that would mean…” Before Brodie can say his name, Titus returns, and he’s accompanied by none other than Nox. He blinks unsteadily but recovers quickly then looks around the room. The pleasant albeit polite smile that is on his face drops, and he gapes at me in shock.
“Colbie?” His gaze shifts to the men around the room before settling on King Loki and Aramis.
“Your Majesty.” He bows his head the smallest amount before glaring at him. “I was under the impression you were bringing me here for a job offer, not to ambush me with a past I have worked hard to put behind me.”
Ouch. I flinch at his words, and he must see the reaction, because he shakes his head at me.
“I meant about being a shifter, not being with you,” he explains in a hurry, and I keep my face neutral, even though I am desperate to grab hold of him and never let go.
“It’s one and the same really,” I tell him flatly before switching my attention to the other asshole in the room.
“Were you ever going to tell me?” I ask him, and his eyes widen ever so slightly. If I wasn’t looking for a reaction, I probably wouldn’t have noticed.
“I was undecided,” he tells me bluntly, dragging that damn hood off and tossing it over the back of a sofa once more. His green and silver wings burst free, and he shakes his head, tossing his long, green hair back over his shoulder.
The goddess scoffs. “I call bullshit. Your innate curiosity would have outed you, even if the mating bond isn’t driving you nuts.”
Nox stares at Titus now that he has removed his hood. “I know you.” He points a finger at him, and Titus smirks.
“I’d say you know me intimately,” he purrs suggestively, and Nox glares at him. What the fuck are these two talking about? Do they know one another? And how?
“Where did you go? What did you want with me? I’m assuming you were just scoping me out for your king?” He stabs a finger in my father’s direction.
Titus ignores him, and Nox looks to me for help. “Colbie, what’s going on here?” He sounds desperate, and I sigh, deciding to put him out of his misery.
“Nox, this is the goddess Aramis,” I say, “and my dad, Loki.” Nox’s eyes widen at my words, but it’s Loki’s reaction that has me feeling all emotional.
“You called me Dad.” His voice is choked up with emotion, and he moves across the room in a blur of speed. He’s so fast, I can barely see him, but then he appears in front of me, throwing his arms around my shoulders and pulling me against him.
This close, I realize he’s quite a bit taller than me, and my ear rests against his chest where I hear his heart beating a million miles an hour, much like mine. I return his embrace, and tears stream down my cheeks at how right this feels.
“My precious girl. Can you ever forgive me for what happened?” he murmurs.
“Ah, Dad, I don’t blame you. You were as much of a victim as all of us. Let’s put the past behind us and move forward from this point,” I reply, making a split-second decision to let everything that has happened go, and his whole body shudders with relief.
“Seriously, what the fuck is going on? I came for a job interview, but I have a feeling that’s not what is happening here.” Nox sounds pissed off. Well, he can join the fucking club. I’m the reigning president.
My father and I pull apart, and I glance around the room, a wave of exhaustion rolling over me. My stomach rumbles like a hungry bear, and my father snaps his fingers.
“Let me send for dinner. We can at least get some food into you while we talk a little longer,” he offers, and I gratefully accept. I’m starving and would dearly love to have a shower and go to bed, but I know we have a few more issues to deal with before that can happen.
I turn my attention to one of the issues, whose fists are clenched and wears a look of fury on his face.
“Nox, there are a few things we need to tell you,” I start, but he interrupts me.
“How did you find me? I deliberately left my home after I found out you were the incoming queen because I didn’t want to be found,” he snaps, and his words feel like a stab in the heart.
“Actually, your parents told us where to find you,” Hunter drawls, sounding deceptively casual, but his eyes show his dragon, and I don’t doubt he’s seconds from shifting and teaching Nox a lesson. He does not like the way he is speaking to me. I send calming, soothing vibes down our bond, and I watch as he relaxes somewhat.
Nox’s eyebrows jump, and his lips purse in surprise. “They did?” He sounds hurt, and I’m sick of beating around the bush.
“Yes. When they found out that this is your bond group and I am your mate, they thought we had the right to know, especially since I can’t become queen without sealing the mating bond with all of you,” I say flatly, and the room is silent as Nox absorbs everything I just said. His golden tan is pale as his eyes dart from me to the guys in panic.
He stammers, but doesn’t get a chance to form any words before he is cut off.
“If you are Colbie’s mate as well, then why hasn’t the telepathic bond clicked into place?” Liam glares at Titus, breaking the awkward silence covering the fact that Nox hasn’t said a word about the big revelation. I can feel that my mates hurt as much as I do at his lack of a response.
Titus waves a gloved hand. “I wear a ring much like the pegasus’s necklace that blocks the telepathic bond. As soon as the mark appeared on my chest, I conjured it up. I was in the palace at Aramis at the time, and I couldn’t risk being found there. I wasn’t sure who wore the matching bond marks until I spoke to Lucas a little later.” He turns his attention to me. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to do anything about it until I realized the queen wore the matching mark, and I didn’t have much of a choice,” he admits without taking his eyes off me.
My creatures snarl internally. Part of me wants to say, “Fuck you, I don’t want you either,” while the other part of me wants to chase him down and make him submit. I can’t stop the low growl that leaves my mouth, and he has the nerve to smirk at me.
“Don’t be an asshole,” the goddess snaps at him. “You pretend to be cold and calculating, but I know deep down you’ve always longed for a mate. Well, I gave you one. Don’t spit on the precious gift just because you think you need to keep up an aloof front.” I don’t know if he’s brave or stupid by risking her turning her wrath on him.
“You’re my bond group, and Colbie is our mate?” Nox finally finds his tongue, and we can practically see the longing in his eyes before it fades and they become shaded with fear.
“Yes, and we don’t give a flying fuck if you’re a pink pegasus or a pink flying pig, so how about you pull your head out of your ass and prove you belong with us by stepping up and doing the right thing,” Gem says bluntly, and Nox’s eyes widen in surprise.
Brodie chuckles darkly, so unlike his usual happy-go-lucky persona. “Though if you continue to hurt our mate, maybe we will appeal to the goddess to fix this clusterfuck. I don’t know why we need either of you.”
There’s a knock on the door, and Loki stands, holding his hands up. “Hey, whoa, how about we all take a moment to calm down? Let’s have something to eat. We don’t need to figure this all out today.”
“Actually, we do. I have other shit I need to focus on,” I reply as he lets in the staff who wheel in six carts covered in all kinds of food. We are silent, and the tension in the room is thick as they lay it all out on a large dining table farther in the room. It’s big enough to seat all of us, and when they leave, Loki gestures for us to move over to it. My mates get up and head in that direction, ignoring the two elephants in the room. I turn to the goddess.
“Can you fix this? These two obviously have no desire to be my mates, and I don’t want to be with anyone who is being forced. As it stands, I can’t be crowned with them still a part of the bond, so can you sever it?” I ask frankly, and she gapes at me, looking slightly horrified.
“You want me to sever the mate bonds? That will cause you immense pain,” she warns, though she doesn’t admit if it’s something she can do.
I shrug. “Probably no worse than what their emotional detachment is doing right now. My chest hurts with the need to bond with them, and it hurts even more every time they say something against it.”
“No!” Nox exclaims, lunging toward me. Titus does the same thing. When the three of us collide, I feel a lurching motion, and I squeeze my eyes shut, my stomach rolling with nausea.
When it stops, I open my eyes and don’t recognize where I am. Gone is the dining room and my mates, Father, and goddess, and in its place is an opulent bedroom with elegant furnishings and a massive bed with luxurious bedding and a mountain of pillows. It’s surrounded by gauzy curtains and so many plants, it’s like a tropical greenhouse in here. I don’t even know where to look, but then something catches my eye. In the plants, at the top of the four-poster bed, I see something slither. It’s bright blue with beady eyes and a tongue that flicks in and out, and it’s definitely not a vine.
“Where the fuck are we?” Nox asks, grabbing his head.
I point to what I think is a snake amongst the foliage. “What the fuck is that? And why the hell are we here?” I demand, taking a step away from the bed.
“My room. I thought it would be better if we discussed this privately without any interference from anyone else.” Titus brushes past us, peeling numerous weapons from his body and placing them on a cluttered desk on one side of the room, as well as tugging off the gloves covering his hands. “And that is Fluffy, my Shaylian tree viper.” He reaches out to run a finger over the top of the snake’s head. The snake arches into him just like a cat, his eyes slitted with pleasure. I wrinkle my nose.
“You named your snake Fluffy?” Nox asks incredulously.
“You know, I was willing to put up with Stormheart and his psychotic ways, but I draw the line at a pet snake,” I tell them flatly, crossing my arms, and Nox’s eyes brighten at the mention of his blasted cat. “Why are we here?”
“You asked the goddess to sever our bond,” Titus growls, facing me and crossing his arms.
I scoff. “Both of you have made it perfectly clear that neither of you want to be mated to me. So what if I asked her to remove the bond? I thought you’d be happier that way, and what was that comment before? How do you two know each other?” I ask him, and Nox stalks up to Titus and stabs his chest with a finger. I have a feeling Titus is letting him. I doubt many get to lay a finger on the assassin spy.
“Did you know who I was when we hooked up?” Nox asks, and my eyebrows jump in surprise. Well, this just got interesting, but I keep the scowl on my face for now and stay quiet. I don’t want to interrupt.
“Of course I did. I wouldn’t disrespect my mate by cheating outside the mating bond. I assumed since Gem and Gryffin hook up, she wouldn’t have a problem if others did.” He tilts his head to the side, staring at Nox with cold eyes. “But you didn’t feel the same way. You were happy to go outside the mate bond.”
“Hey, whoa, no. My necklace blocks most of the bond. I didn’t know for sure if our mate had been marked. All I knew was my bond mark throbbed more than usual. I put it down to the magic of the necklace wearing off,” he claims, panic in his tone. Nox looks at me with imploring eyes. “I swear.”
I shrug, not feeling sympathetic to his plea. “You’re kind of preaching to the wrong person. You already slept with me before you knew I was a shifter. You weren’t interested in saving yourself for your mate.” I sigh, deciding to give him a little grace. “But don’t sweat it. None of the others were celibate either. I wouldn’t have expected any of them to be until their mate appeared and they knew for sure.”
He heaves out a sigh of relief.
“But none of that matters if neither of you want to be mated to me. I can’t be crowned with unsolidified bonds, which is why I asked Aramis to sever them. I refuse to give up my crown,” I explain unapologetically, and they both frown. I know my tune has changed since I was first marked, but I’m grabbing my destiny with both hands now.
“I want to be your mate, Colbie,” Nox says, taking one of my hands in his. “It’s a dream come true. All I could think about as I drove away was the fact that bond groups don’t get to be with queens and kings. I didn’t care about my past trauma, I would have run headfirst into bond group life for you, but I thought it wasn’t possible. Had I known, I would have accompanied you to the shifter zone then and there.” His eyes beg me to believe him, and I think I do.
“Take off your necklace,” I order him, and he drops my hand to comply, reaching up and tugging the cord, which snaps, then he tosses it onto the cluttered desk with all of Titus’s weapons. My chest is flooded with the same, needy aching feeling I felt when I first met Nox, only it’s ten times stronger. Somewhere inside me, I always knew this man was mine. I stagger slightly, and Titus jumps forward, putting a hand out to steady me.
“Easy,” he croons. “Give it a moment for the bond to settle.” My creatures thrash inside me, and my head spins, but my gaze catches on the ring on his finger now visible without his gloves.
I clear my throat and lift my head, meeting his eyes. “What about you? Do you want this bond?” I ask him, and without removing his gaze from mine, he reaches for the ring on his finger and yanks it off before tossing it onto the desk to join Nox’s pendant.
I stagger again, and this time, both of them catch me. “I want you more than I want my next breath,” Titus tells me, making my heart skip a beat. My creatures thrash harder, pushing me to bite both of them so they can’t get away, but I’m still cautious. If they are only telling me what they think I want to hear and I bite them, there is no reversing that. I would hate for both of them to grow to resent me, but before I can voice my concerns, I see them exchange a glance over my head.
“I can feel you,” Nox murmurs into my ear, pressing his body into my back and pushing me closer to Titus who puts his hands on my hips, tugging me against his own body. “Your soul is reaching for mine. My mouth waters at the thought of biting you and adding my mark to the ones already on your neck. I’ve never hoped this could happen to me, and I’ve never wanted anything more.”
My spine tingles, and my heart thumps harder inside my chest. A finger presses against my chin, lifting my head for me to look at the fae in front of me. “The goddess was right. I have always wanted a fated mate. I couldn’t ever hope for one because it’s rare for hybrids to get them. I would never spit in her face or turn my back on my dream, but it is hard for me to trust. I can count the number of people I do on one hand. Be patient with me,” he asks, and it’s the most serious I’ve heard him since we met.
“What are you? Fae and…” I trail off, but I’m pretty certain I know what he is.
“Fairy shifter,” he says, confirming my thoughts. “I actually still have family in Aramis, though it’s been a while since I visited them. Not since my teen years.”
“How do fairy shifters bond?” Nox’s words brush past my ear, and goosebumps erupt across my skin.
A wicked grin crosses Titus’s lips as he slides a hand into the back of my hair and tilts my head to the side before taking my lips. He tastes like chocolate and chili, both sweet and spicy, and he kisses me with enthusiasm. His tongue plunders my mouth, caressing my own and licking like I’m the best thing he’s ever tasted. My mind goes to what it would feel like for him to kiss my pussy the same way, and I shudder in their arms. When he pulls back, I’m breathing heavily, but he hardly seems affected. His hand slides out of my hair and yanks Nox toward us, and I turn my head as he treats Nox’s mouth to the same decadent kiss he gave me.
Holy shit. My core throbs, and my nipples pebble. Nox is breathing as heavily as I am when Titus pulls away again, and they both rub raging hard-ons against my body.
“Apart from the mer and phoenix, all shifters bond through biting. Same with the rest of the supes, aside from witches. They do some weird sex ritual.” He smiles, and I feel my eyes widen when I catch sight of his fangs.
“Holy shit, were they there the whole time?” Nox mutters as I reach out to press my finger against the tip of a fang, but he pushes his tongue to the roof of his mouth, and they retract into his gums before I can.
“Don’t you think you would have felt those on your cock if they had been?” Titus replies dryly, and I feel Nox shudder behind me, but I’m not sure if it’s from disgust or lust. I certainly know what I feel.
“Do you drink blood?” I ask him.
“Not for sustenance like a vampire, but it is enjoyable for both parties during sex,” he tells me.
“Right, well, ah, okay.” I slide out from between the two men, trying to wrap my head around everything I just learned. Just when I thought I was getting a handle on everything, this threw me for a loop. I just need some space from the two of them to clear my head. Nox’s scent of cinnamon and sugar blends so well with the decadent scent of chocolate with a hint of spice that comes from Titus. Combined with the way my body is screaming to bite these two and lock my final mates down, I just need a moment to get my bearings and make sure they actually want this.
“So, uh, what you’re both saying is that neither of you were rejecting me, you’re just assholes with a whole load of issues?” I ask, pacing back and forth in front of the giant bed. Both of them are watching me, Titus with cool amusement and Nox with a sort of desperate concern, like he fucked up everything and is certain I’m going to reject him much like a whole heap of people in his past.
“Yes, but when you put it that way, it sounds really bad.” Titus’s gaze swings upward, and his eyes widen. “Fluffy, no!” He moves faster than the eye can see, but he’s not fast enough. I feel something drop down onto my shoulders, and I freeze, a very unladylike squeal barreling up, but I clamp my lips closed so I don’t scare the viper that just wrapped itself around my shoulders, its tongue caressing my cheek.
“Oh fuck. Is it venomous?” Nox asks quietly, and Titus nods, standing just out of reach, frozen so he doesn’t startle his pet.
“Deadly,” he mutters, not taking his eye off the snake. “Stay still, love, and let him scent you. Hopefully removing the ring and lifting the block on the bond will help you smell a little like me.”
It takes everything that I have not to scream and fling the snake across the room, but I have a feeling that won’t be good for any of us, so I allow Fluffy to become acquainted. He slithers his way around my body, his tongue flicking out constantly like he’s trying to taste my essence. He sticks his head into the cleavage of my top, burying it between my breasts, and I narrow my eyes as he makes this very quiet purring sound that I hadn’t expected from a snake.
“Well, I guess this is a nicer greeting than the one I got from your pet,” I hiss quietly at Nox, and he just chuckles and nods, though his eyes are still shadowed with worry.
“Stormy will get used to you,” he tells me as Titus steps closer and gathers his pet in both hands. The viper happily lifts his head out from between my boobs, and he kind of looks like he is smiling.
“Seriously? Your pet is a perv,” I snap at Titus as he takes Fluffy to another plant on the far side of the room, far away from the bed.
“On a more serious note, are you sure you want this?” When he turns to face me again, his eyes are clouded with doubt.
“What do you mean? Of course I want this, you’re my mate,” I tell him, wondering where the doubt is coming from.
“Yes, but you will be the first queen with a crossbreed mate,” he tells me. “I’m not sure how well that is going to go down with your subjects.”
I shake my head. “Changing the law that outlaws crossbreeds is at the top of my to-do list. I don’t care and nor should anyone else. You can’t help who you love, and you shouldn’t be punished for it. That’s just as bad as punishing people for loving the same sex. I won’t stand for it, and I will be proud to be the first queen with a fairy fae hybrid as her mate, so screw what anyone else says.”
“And anyone who says anything to either of you will have to deal with the rest of us,” Nox agrees firmly. I knew he wouldn’t have any problems with it. His own experience with prejudiced assholes would make him completely sympathetic to Titus.
Titus studies us with serious eyes. I guess he’s trying to gauge how genuine we are. Do the fae have mental powers I don’t know about? Can he read my mind? His lips quirk up on one side, and my eyes widen as he lifts a hand and snaps his fingers and my clothes disappear. Nox shouts, and when I turn, I find his have disappeared as well.
I let my eyes wander his naked body and smirk. “Well, that is certainly handy. Will I be able to do that in fairy form?” I ask Titus who stalks toward us and waves his hand, and both of us go flying backward, tumbling in a tangle of limbs, onto his bed. “Telekinesis too.”
“Sorry, my pretty little mate, but those are from my fae side. The plants and snake are my fairy gifts.” He snaps his fingers, and his own clothes disappear. I swallow down any retort I was going to make.
“Holy shit,” I murmur quietly, and Nox chuckles.
“I know, right?”
Titus is all glittery pale skin and elegant, sleek muscle, and his wings shimmer behind him, drawing my eyes.
“Will I have wings?” I ask absently, distracted by all the naked flesh as Nox pushes me onto my back and leans over me, blocking my view of Titus.
“Probably,” I hear him reply, but I’ve lost interest as my hands skim over Nox’s beautiful, familiar body.
“I missed you,” I tell him quietly, and he smiles.
“You have no idea. I was so close to coming after you. It’s why I came to the Chaos Kingdom. I figured a little more distance may make things easier, but it didn’t. I’m so glad I’m your mate.”