Chapter 4 #2
I nodded. I wasn’t sure what to do. Nothing.
Nothing was probably the correct answer.
At least until I spoke with my mates and figured out what I really wanted to do.
Most people would want time on their own to figure things out after a discovery like this but I wanted my guys.
I wanted to curl up between them. To be safe in their warmth.
Just to be home again between them. My palms itched as if magic lingered there.
Once one of them grew a seed that was now inside Uriel’s soul.
Raziel’s soul. I corrected myself. Raziel was a dragon.
Uriel had come back as a dragon. I really hoped whatever brought his violent streak in his last life didn’t show itself this time.
I slept alone in the magic house that night, but I didn’t wake up alone.
I woke up right where I wanted to be. For a second, I thought the house had fallen in on me, though.
A heavy arm and leg trapped me in place, squeezing me against Silas.
It took me a few seconds to orientate enough to recognize what I thought were pieces of the ceiling as the position Kodiak took to squeeze both Silas and I against him when he was stressed out.
Silas faced me, his arm around me too. His fingers behind me, entwined in Kodiak’s grey t-shirt. I breathed in their scents, sucking them down deep into my lungs. This was home.
“Wait,” I grunted. “Where are the kids?”
“With Cody and Micah. Xander and his lot are visiting. So they’ll have plenty of hands around,” Kodiak yawned.
“Did Xenos tell you?” I asked, catching his yawn.
“That you were here? Yeah,” he nodded, scratching his beard, but keeping his leg over both of us.
“No, that…” I stopped myself and glanced at Silas, who was still asleep. “That we know who he is and that you know him already.” I didn’t want to tell one without the other. I didn’t want to tell the story twice.
“How have you not responded to him if we know him?” Kodiak squinted, looking at me and then around the room like Uriel might be hiding out in the shadows.
He rolled onto his back and Silas yipped in his sleep, demanding that Kodiak’s bear-fueled warmth come back to him.
Then Kodiak’s eyes shifted to that of his bear and I knew he knew.
I knew he recognized what had happened. He put the pieces together slowly, working backwards from what he knew until he arrived at the who.
A growl echoed from deep inside of him and Silas sprung up, ready to fight and mumbling about taking someone’s balls and shoving them down their throat while they were still attached.
He made lots of threats when he was woken suddenly or had nightmares about the days before he was with Kodiak and me, but I hadn’t heard him make that particular threat before.
Quietly, I told them what I’d witnessed the night before in my memories.
I told them about my realization. Once Kodiak calmed down I could tell he was imagining what our lives might be like if Raziel were part of them.
Raziel was a dragon. A son of Star and Zeke.
He seemed to have little patience for cave-alphas this time around.
Unless he tried to pry me away from my guys maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
At least if Raziel stopped fleeing every time he saw me.
“That must hurt so much,” Silas said, pulling a bottled coffee out of his bag and handing it off to Kodiak.
He handed me one and then pulled out another for himself before continuing.
“Like, they said he remembers and he probably does from how he reacts. Sure, he’s wearing pheromone blocker spray, but you’re not.
He smells you. He’s smelled you over and over and never acted upon it. ”
“He owes him that much,” Kodiak said, opening his coffee. “After what happened last time. I think we wait for him to be ready, mates. I think if we act too soon we mess things up. Obviously, he doesn’t think he’s ready yet.”
“Or he thinks he’ll never be ready,” Silas said. “That he doesn’t deserve another chance.”
I wasn’t sure if I was ready to give him another chance either. So waiting was just fine with me. Silas took my hand and entwined our fingers.
“Ouch! Your hand poked me!” he laughed and turned it over to look at it.
“Do I have a hangnail?” I asked wondering if the past had broken something in me.
“No, your palm,” Silas said, running his finger over it.
There it was in the center of my hand. It was the same little dome of skin I’d seen all those eons ago.
That was a seed. For a horrifying moment, I wondered if going back had undone my bound with Uri—Raziel.
I had to think of him as Raziel now. If our paths ever did cross, I needed to let him be Raziel. Barry was right. Uriel was dead.
While my mind reeled, Silas picked up my other hand and looked at it too. Glancing down, it had the same dome. What the heck? Had just learning about the seeds given me the power to make more?
“Did you get hurt in your memories?” Kodiak asked, his voice filling with concern.
“No, um…” I wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t give them a lot of details about my bonding ceremony with Uriel – Raziel- out of kindness to all three of my mates. “Can I ask you two a question? It might be rude.”
“Sweetheart, if he can play nice, he can stay with us all,” Kodiak said as if I meant to ask if they’d leave me if I pursued Raziel.
“Not that -- well, thanks. I… If you could be my true-mates too would you want to?” I asked, staring at my hands.
“Yes,” they both said without skipping a beat.
I wondered if I should explain more to them, but instead I ripped into one palm with a long elven canine then the other.
“Creon!” Silas gasped, trying to pull my hand away from me.
“This will do it! These will do it!” I said, ripping into the other palm to free the other seed. Both were large sunflower seeds. “This is where it’s all stored. At least for me.”
“Do we eat them?” Silas blinked at me, questioning the method more than the theory.
“No,” I shook my head and pressed one palm onto the shoulder that wasn’t already claimed by Kodiak.
The seed sank into his skin with no resistance.
That meant he really did want to be my true-mate too.
If he hadn’t it wouldn’t have penetrated down into him.
Nothing much happened but it was inside of him now.
I turned to see Kodiak had already taken off his shirt.
Even after all these years, the sight of Kodiak without his shirt on brought up the dirtiest thoughts in my head.
He leaned in close and I pressed my other palm against his warm, naked skin.
He had light body hair across his traps.
Most bears did even if it was too light to see.
His body skin inhaled the seed. The three of us sat frozen, waiting for something to happen.
Nothing changed except for the seeds were now inside them.
I hoped Xenos would forgive us but we romped on the living room floor of his little extra house.
No claiming glands rose on their skin but we romped anyway because we’d been apart too long.
Maybe we didn’t need the claiming vows because we’d been together long enough.
Maybe the seeds would take a lifetime to germinate into claiming glands.
I didn’t know but I knew that whether the magic recognized them or not, Silas and Kodiak were my mates just as much as Raziel, if not more in this lifetime.