Epilogue #3
“I’ll get it. Go.” Damian palmed Jun’s rear and squeezed a handful. “Just take Bear and Téméraire with you and get them down to the car with Artemis.”
“Can I pack my own tags?”
“Yes, you can do that.”
Jun left the closet area and went to his personal space.
He opened the lid on the green velvet case where he kept all the tags Damian collected for him.
His favorite was the one Damian had gifted him when they’d come back from Seoul, a long dangle, with a butterfly cut from jade at the top and a wire outline of a stick figure man hanging below it.
It was a beautiful representation of the story his mother had told him, in the same materials as the last gift she’d given him.
Beside the tags was the jade buddha he’d carried so long.
He didn’t wear it anymore. Something had settled.
Before, it had never left his body because nothing was safe.
Leaving it in his room now was an act of trust, one he took with pride.
He had a home. The doors and the locks meant something.
He could put his precious items down and know when he came back, they would still be there.
His fingers trailed over the buddha and his lips pulled wide in a smile. The surfaces were a bit smooth from all the times he’d clutched the little figure over the years. But it was still clearly defined.
He didn’t want to wear the jade butterfly tag while being chased though, just in case it got lost. He chose a smaller one, just a stud, that he used for working out, and kept the bright blue and silver one he was already wearing. The rest would be there when he came home again.
This trip was just for the men of The Residency. And Artemis. Though she would probably sleep through half of it.
The past was precious, but it was going to be the past, at least for the next few days. He was in the present now.
He touched the jade buddha one more time, whispered a blessing, and closed the case.
Damian
Dinner at the Estate that night was a simple affair émeric had brought with them. They sat in the sunken breakfast nook, the glass ceiling showing the night sky above, and ate in quiet starlight.
“Collin, in preparation for tomorrow, I’d like you to rest away from émeric and I tonight.” Richard said. “You can stay with Jun, if you like and he wants.”
Damian nodded to Jun. “Take my bedroom.”
“You still want us to spend tonight apart, too?” Jun asked.
Damian nodded.
“Together?” Jun asked, glancing at Collin.
Collin blinked and turned towards Richard, uncertain.
“Rest with the wolfling, Kitten,” émeric said, a bit of gentle encouragement in his voice. “You’ll both be very focused on your dominants tomorrow. So have some time together tonight.”
“Take a bath, relax,” Damian said. “There’s bath bombs in the cabinet.”
Jun grinned at Collin. “I think they’re kicking us out.”
Collin bit his lip and looked like he wanted to pout.
Jun scooted around the table until he was sitting hit to hip with Collin, then scooped a bit of desert into his mouth, getting cream on his lip.
He licked it off in an exaggerated fashion, staring at Collin.
Tempting, so tempting. Damian forced himself to look away.
It was good he was sending Jun off to sleep separately.
They’d had a long talk and Jun had communicated that doing so would make the chase more thrilling for him.
It also built up the anticipation on both sides.
But he hadn’t wanted Jun to be alone. So he’d asked Richard and émeric for perspective.
The solution had been natural, considering what they were planning for Collin.
Collin dissolved into giggles and leaned into Jun.
“Go rest,” émeric said to Jun and Collin. “We’ll clean up.”
Jun stood and stretched, his shirt rising up on his waist, showing his abs. So close to being healed. Faded vestiges of green and brown were all that were left. They covered too much skin, but they were marks of what he’d survived. Of what The Residency had helped him survive.
Jun reached out and took Collin’s hand. “Come on, little brother. Let’s go get clean and pretend we’re frogs.”
Collin gave a burst of surprised laughter and followed Jun out of the kitchen.
Richard watched them go. When they were out of earshot, he said. “They’re good for each other.”
“They are.” émeric stood and started clearing dishes.
“And you, Pup?” Richard tilted his gaze towards Damian, asking, without fully asking: Are you good?
“I hope he’s ready,” Damian answered, putting his primary fear out in the open for Richard to see.
“He is.”
Damian gave a deep sigh. “Every time I see the scar on his arm and the bruises on his side, I wonder.”
“Trust him.”
Damian nodded.
“And trust yourself.”
“Are you ever afraid you’re going to go too far with Collin?”
“All the time. Collin thrives on the edge, on the overwhelm. But I trust his want and his need, and his desire to please. He knows if he goes too far, he’ll break my trust in him.”
“Jun trusts me.”
“Has he earned your trust?”
“Yes.” A little weight left Damian’s shoulders. Jun had earned his trust. He’d been honest during his recovery. He’d followed his doctor’s orders, even the ones he didn’t like, just to heal faster. He’d been honest with Damian from the start. “He’s always told me what his limits are.”
“And does he want this?”
Damian nodded. Jun didn’t just want this, he was pushing for it. He needed it. In his bones. Just like Damian needed it. They’d had so many almost moments, but time, and place, and injuries had never let them be as completely raw and as wild as they both sensed the other could take.
Richard put his hand on the table, leaving it open for Damian to take if he wanted. “I’ll be here, Pup. What you and Jun have is what legends are written of.”
Damian dropped his eyes. Richard always saw something more in him than he saw in himself. It was disconcerting. Out of anyone, Richard had seen the ugliest parts of him, and he trusted Damian the way he trusted himself.
“Is it bad that I hope I make you proud tomorrow?” Damian said, eyes on the table. He laid his palm down beside Richard’s. “Is it unfair to him that I’m thinking of you?”
“No.” Richard touched his fingers to Damian’s. “Tomorrow you won’t be thinking of me.”
“I think I’m going to sleep by myself tonight,” Damian said. “Give all this space.”
Richard nodded. He touched Damian’s fingers one more time and stood. “Final equipment check?”
“Let’s do it.” Damian stood and snagged the last of the dishes, taking them into the kitchen.
Being a dom was work. The three of them went down to the barn and checked over the gear they’d packed and sent up days before.
Richard confirmed the equipment drops Damian would need and Damian jogged out with a head lamp to set out the first two drops on the trails.
He’d be able to carry some of what he needed, but gear and water was heavy and Jun moved fast.
émeric was still giving a final polish to his own tack at the end of the barn when Richard and Damian had finished. Damian wandered over.
“Beautiful,” Richard said. He held his hand over some of the pieces. émeric nodded, letting Richard touch. “All this for our Kitten?”
“All of it.” émeric laid the last piece down with something like reverence. “We’ll see how much of it we use.”
“Those boots are something.” Damian nodded at a pair of knee-high boots that ended in what looked like horse hooves. In reality, they were very much like extensive high-heeled shoes, balanced so that no heel was needed. All the weight of the wearer went to the front of the foot.
émeric chuckled. “He doesn’t know. Don’t tell him.”
Richard shook his head. “You are the sadist, mon amour .”
émeric answered in French.
Richard looked abashed. “I enjoy a boy under my hand, yes.”
Damian’s cheeks tingled. This was different, something that émeric and Richard had been sharing with him in small moments for several months now, letting him see the sides of them when they did not have a submissive with them.
“Perhaps I should have you tonight, ma merveille, ” Richard said. “Make sure you have stamina for our boy in the morning, when he tempts you.”
émeric kissed Richard on the mouth. “Do not make excuses.”
“Well, then.” Richard pushed émeric up against the wall of the barn, sliding a leg between his French lover’s thighs. “Why don’t I have you here? Let you remember me in the morning, when our boy is whimpering for you.”
émeric groaned.
Damian smiled. He leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms. Sleep could wait, for the moment. And there were no beds for Richard and émeric to break here.
Jun
Jun woke with Collin wrapped around him like a lemur, both of them naked except for Collin’s cockcage.
The light outside was still soft, like the sun was only lazily slouching over the horizon.
He lay like that for a while, his fingers in Collin’s hair, until the light was full and his bladder demanded he move.
Collin mumbled sleepily. Jun pushed Téméraire into his arms in apology.
Collin wrapped himself around the giant stuffed horse.
In his sleep, he looked almost innocent.
The stress lines around his lips from the summer were starting to fade.
The dark rings under his eyes that had been there leading up to the August operation were gone.
When his family was settled, Collin was settled.
Jun kissed him on the lips and glided away silently.
He cleaned in the shower, preparing for the long list of things that could happen that day.
His clothes were laid out in the bathroom.
Cheap ones. A pair of old jeans with holes in the knees, socks, sneakers, a black T-shirt advertising a resort he’d never heard of, a light flannel shirt in green, blue and black plaid.