Chapter 7
Tyler
Sunlight spilled over my face, rousing me from the most incredible sleep. I don’t think I’d rested like that in my whole life. I felt it in my bones. In my soul. Like everything that had ever caused me fear or pain simply evaporated the moment I closed my eyes.
Heaven. Hudson.
Recalling only brief glimpses of the events that had wrapped me in that deep state of rest, my eyes snapped open. I was in Hudson’s room. That had really happened. He and I… we’d crossed that line, after so many years.
My inner jock did a small victory dance.
Despite my total lack of clothing, I was so warm. My hand went to the arm around my waist, fingers threading into the ones on my stomach. “Morning, baby—”
That was not Hudson’s hand.
“Morning, gorgeous,” a low growl rumbled in my ear, tickling my neck.
I might not have been a paranorm, but the way I leapt from the bed, practically throwing myself out of the embrace to stand, was the most superhuman thing I’d ever done. “What the FUCK, EMERY?!”
“Ugh, hell, Tyler,” Emery groaned, rolling over and shielding his eyes from the sun. “Too early for your drama. Keep it down.”
“My drama?” I roared, grabbing the sweats of Hudson’s I’d worn the night before from the ground. “How did you—when did—where is Hudson?!”
“How should I know?” he grumbled, rolling out of bed to sit on the edge. “I was in here spooning you.”
I glared, feeling my cheeks burn red. Cuddled by Emery Evans against my will after the most glorious night of my life. What a way to wake up.
Em raised a brow, wearing a smirk I wanted to punch right off his ruggedly handsome face. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did you still not know you were gay?”
“Fuck you,” I spat, completely beyond being able to form a better comeback.
“Well…” Emery patted the mattress beside him, positively giddy. “You gotta come back to bed for that, sunshine.”
“You wish, puppy dog.” I rolled my eyes, turning to stomp from the room.
“I dunno,” Emery called after me, practically singing. “That kiss you gave me last night said different. Think a little doggy-style might do you some good.”
I froze on the spot. “K-Kiss?” With a swallow, I turned back to him, finding him sprawled out back on the bed in all his glory, palming his cock through his pants and staring at me with fire in his eyes.
“You don’t remember?” Emery’s bravado flickered away.
“N-No?” I had kissed Emery? But I’d been with Hudson. That I remembered. I’d fucked him like my very life had depended on it, right there where Emery was laying. Right up until…
My eyes went to the balcony window, some strange mix of horror and horny boiling up in my gut.
“Oh my god…” I’d taken Hudson to the window. I had put him on full display for Emery while fucking him. Our first time, and I’d turned it into a show. What had I been thinking? Of course, Hudson hadn’t stayed in bed with us. He was probably mortified. “Hudson!”
I turned on my heel, storming out into the hall with Em following right behind.
I was already in deep shit with Hudson, now I’d gone and pulled Emery into it?
What the hell was wrong with me? It was like no matter how much I cared about him, no matter how badly I wanted to fix things, I was genetically coded to ruin it.
“Hudson…” Turning off the landing toward the kitchen, I found him, sitting there at the kitchen island with his face in his hands, staring into the grain of the countertop as if it held all the secrets of the universe and he was intent on becoming one of them.
Yeah. Mortified.
“Hudson, I’m so sorry,” I started, walking toward him. “I don’t—”
“You’re sorry?” He snapped his head up, looking completely lost. “Why are you sorry? I’m the one who did this.”
Em stepped into the kitchen behind me, opening a cupboard to grab some coffee grounds.
I cast him a glance as he started brewing a pot, feeling a little on edge over discussing last night’s events with him there, but…
I had been the one to make him a part of it.
“Okay, yeah… I remember you mentioned him first, but… I’m the one who crossed that line. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Hudson stared between me and Em, opening and closing his mouth. He balled his fists on the countertop, grinding his jaw as his eyes dropped again. I braced myself, ready for him to tell me to go. “Ty… I don’t… regret what happened, but…”
“Magic?” Emery interjected over his shoulder as he grabbed three cups.
Slowly, Hudson nodded without looking at us, chewing his cheek.
“I heard you,” Em continued. “Some… disembodied version of you, I mean. Not what you were actually saying or…” Averting his eyes, he swallowed. “...You know, the sounds you were making.”
My eyes narrowed on him, fists curling.
“Ty, stop,” Hudson sighed.
“He was listening to us fuck, Hudson.”
“Are you hearing what he’s saying?” he snapped, throwing out a hand.
“There was magic fueling what we did last night, Tyler. Or… aiding it, or something, I don’t know.
” He pushed off the stool he had been sitting on to pace the kitchen.
“Ever since high school, I do this… thing. Once a month. It’s just meant to be a sort of…
self-empowerment ritual. An offering of a…
” He swallowed, then gave a shrug. “Sexual nature.”
“Jerking off under the full moon?” Emery asked, wholly unbothered.
“Yeah.”
“Nice.”
I growled in my throat, rolling my eyes. Magic was so weird. Even if it was apparently capable of being incredibly hot. Although, that wasn’t news. Hudson always made it seem hot. “So… what? We all just got crazy horny because you were horny?”
“Hey,” Husdon barked, pointing a finger at me in accusation. “You’re the one who came into my room bare-chested. You practically threw those perky man tits at me.”
“You’re the one who grabbed my dick,” I shot back. “You were crying, and I came to console you.”
“You got hard while I was having a breakdown!”
“That’s true, call it even?”
“Deal.”
For a brief, wonderful moment, our eyes lingered on one another. Hudson’s lips curled, ever so slightly, and he laughed.
Not pissed off at me. Well… no more than usual. I can work with that.
“I still don’t get why you’re apologizing to us, Hud.” Emery began passing out mugs of steaming hot coffee as he poured them. My initial irritation for interrupting my moment with Hudson vanished as he handed me mine, one cream, one sugar, exactly as I liked it. “You think you forced us into that?”
My heart broke as Hudson stared into his black coffee, visibly dying inside. “Hudson… no.”
He gave a defeated shrug. “The circle was broken when Ty came into my room. I dropped a candle, and it went out. It shouldn’t have continued after that, but… I was careless. Must’ve relit. Probably more of my crazy ass magic I can’t control.”
“Okay, but…” Em leaned forward over the counter with his own mug, trying to get Hudson to look up at him. “You’re forgetting the basis of the magic you started.”
Hudson’s eyes snapped up.
Emery raised his brows, waiting for him to catch up. “This ritual of yours—it’s an offering, right?”
I didn’t know nearly as much about the supernatural as the two actual supernatural beings I was standing in the kitchen with, sipping coffee.
In fact, they usually tried to spare me having to listen to their theories and nerd-out sessions over the arcane.
The less I knew, the better. Because if anyone in town ever thought William Hargraves’ son was partaking in the occult, there’d be hell to pay.
But the way Em managed to wipe away the sadness in Hudson’s eyes and fill them with hope was most definitely magic.
“You…” Hudson breathed, shifting uncomfortably against the counter. “You think the same rules apply? Even if it was accidental?”
Emery shrugged, taking a quick sip of his coffee. “You’d know better than me, and I can’t speak for Ty, but my offering was definitely not forcibly taken.”
Something about the way he said it had me adjusting my pants. Which both of them noticed as they turned to me. Fuck I was getting so worked up every time I thought about what we’d done.
I fought through the haze, giving up on restraining the way my cock insisted on standing at attention as I tried to sort what had been going through my head last night.
“No…” I muttered, meeting Hudson’s eyes.
“I don’t… know what came over me. It was like…
” Blowing out a heavy breath, I had to look away from him as I spoke.
“I was so fucking into everything about you last night, Hud. Every little detail was driving me wild. The faces you made, the sounds coming out of you. It was insane. I felt—”
“Intoxicated,” Hudson said with a nod that made my heart skip a beat. “Same.”
“Yes!” I couldn’t stop the smile on my face, knowing he’d been right there with me.
“It was like… It didn’t matter what you needed from me, I had to give it to you.
Even…” Fighting back my embarrassment, I met Emery’s eyes.
“Even Em. And then… it wasn’t just for you anymore.
I…” Busying myself with a long swig of coffee, I felt my face burn hotter than the mug pressed against my fingertips.
“You were so into it,” Emery said, chuckling.
“Shut up,” I grumbled, unable to stop the grin that crossed my face. Until Hudson, I’d been with a lot of girls. Even attempted to lie to myself a couple of times after him. I’d never been with two people at once, though. If you could call it that.
“I wanna do it again,” Hudson blurted suddenly, making me choke on my drink. Emery actually spat his onto the counter, narrowly missing Hudson.
“Wh-What?!” I sputtered, coughing down my mouthful. “Are you serious?”
“It wasn’t a complete spell.” Hudson shot me an adorable pout that he knew would lower my defenses. Little shit. “Emery was only watching, and it’s dangerous to leave magic unfinished. Who knows what could happen if we don’t do it right.”
Both of us shot him looks of total disbelief as Emery mopped up his mess with a paper towel. “You are so full of shit,” Em chuckled.
“Even I know that’s bullshit, warlock.” I grabbed our empty mugs, taking them to the sink.
With a dramatic sigh, Hudson’s pout intensified. “Worth a shot.”
“You’re still leaving, Hudson,” Emery said with a bitter edge that resonated in my soul. “You don’t get to take us for a ride like that and then hit the road.”
“Yeah…” Hudson muttered, ditching the guilt trip on his face. “Yeah, I’m sorry. That’s… not fair to you guys.”
And just like that, even though we’d somehow broken through the crazy of the night prior, my heart sagged into my stomach. He was still planning on selling the house and going back to Bay City.
He was still leaving us behind.
“Ty…” Hudson reached a hand across the counter toward me. I couldn’t meet his stare, but I took his hand anyway. “Ty, look at me.”
I forced myself to lift my head, fighting back tears.
“It’s not safe for me here, Tyler,” he whispered, squeezing my hand. “If I stay… I have to claim all of my family’s magic. I have to be the Garland Sovereign. The last one. And that makes me a target for any cursed being out there.”
“Cursed being?” I mumbled, trying to understand. He’d have magic, wouldn’t he? He’d be more powerful than ever.
“Werewolves, banshees…” Emery sighed, shaking his head as he washed the dishes we’d used. “Hell, maybe even vamps. They’d all come after Hudson, either for revenge on the Garlands or trying to find a cure.”
“There haven’t been any vampires around here in centuries,” Hudson muttered. “Everyone knows that.”
“But you’d have us,” I said, more forcefully than I intended, taking Hudson’s hand in both of mine. “We’d be here. We’d help you.” I turned to Emery, begging him to back me up.
Em leaned back against the counter, throwing a dish towel over his shoulder. “If that’s what Hudson wanted, then yeah. Hell yeah, I’d be here.”
“See?” I whipped back to Hudson, begging with my stare. “Hud… you wouldn’t be alone in this.”
With a slight mist in his eyes, Hudson glanced between the two of us. He placed his other hand over mine. “Thank you. Both of you, but…” He closed his eyes, shaking his head. “I have a life back in Bay City, Ty. And I couldn’t put you both in constant danger like that. And your dad—”
“Fuck him!” I spat, pulling away from Hudson.
I curled my fists in my hair, no idea where I was going with all of this.
No idea why I was suddenly okay with the idea of whatever the hell I was proposing here.
Me, Hudson, and Emery, one big gay magical-slash-not-so-magical family or some shit.
I didn’t care anymore. Whatever it took. “Just… fuck him.”
“Tyler…”
“I gotta go to work.” I turned away from both of them, hiding my tears. “I’ll stay at the inn tonight.”
“Ty!” Hudson called after me as I left to go grab my things.
Emery grabbed me around the bicep, holding me in place. I whipped back to him, fully ready to throw a punch, but when I met his eyes—
—I froze.
It was like, for the first time, Emery and I connected. Really connected, even more so than when I had my tongue in his mouth. Without a single word, he said everything to me. Everything I needed to hear.
Don’t you dare give up. Not now. Please, Tyler. Do not. Give up. On him.
I wet my lips, blew out a steady breath, and nodded. I turned back to Hudson, hating the hurt look I’d put on his face. Loathing the tears in his eyes. “I still want to talk. Can I call you?”
Hudson released a shaking breath, swiping at his cheek. “Yeah. Yeah, I’d like that.”