Chapter 6
Chapter
Six
Mercury was fairly sure he was just going to sleep forever.
It really sounded like a good idea.
He could simply lay here with his stone in this bed that was warm and comfy.
That was it. That was the whole thing. Only that.
I’m not going to let you lay here in bed forever.
He didn’t open his eyes. Talon could hush. You don’t have a choice.
Yes, I do. You have to eat.
I’m not hungry.
I’m going to pick you up, bathe you, and give you food.
I can’t hear you. Leave me alone. I’m—Pouting? Tired? Irritated? Lazy? Exhausted? Worried? He’d go with tired.—tired. I’m tired.
“No, you’re not,” Talon said aloud. “You’re sad. And you’re allowed to be. But you need to suck it up and get off your skinny ass. I am not losing you to you.”
My ass isn’t that skinny.
“Mercury, I think you’re hot. Your ass is skinny. You’re skinny. I want to feed you. I have food that isn’t fish.”
Talon was going to make him laugh. He didn’t want to laugh. He wanted to be grumpy and tired with his eyes closed. But his lips wanted to smile.
“I saw that. We could have patty melts. Lasagna. Ham and cheese sandwiches. Bacon. Bacon-wrapped bacon. Deep-fried bacon. We could have spicy stuff; we could have creamy stuff. How do you feel about chocolate?”
I’m going to bite you. He started chuckling. He couldn’t help himself.
“That’s okay too. Not to eat me, of course, but for fun. But you need food to have energy to do stuff like that.” Talon sighed, plopping on the bed. “I’m getting needy.”
“Me too. This is no fun being sick and tired, and sad all the time. I don’t think it’s very fair either.
I haven’t been awful. It’s not my fault that I can do things I can do, and I’ve never done anything bad with them.
I mean, I swear I never done anything terrible or even really naughty except for doing it when I wasn’t supposed to. ” That was reasonable, wasn’t it?
“Using your natural talents is not bad. You are not bad. This situation?” Talon rolled his eyes, leaned against him. “It sucks.”
“So, I know everybody’s mad at me. Still, since it’s been a couple of days, you think I’m gonna get forgiven?”
He rocked himself gently, and then Talon scooped him up and rocked him too. “You haven’t done anything to be forgiven for. You are amazing.”
“I don’t feel—am I supposed to feel amazing?
I feel like I’ve messed everything up, and I—Well, I’ll be honest, I don’t even know what I did.
” Mercury forced himself to sit up, finding himself incredibly dizzy.
He just made himself be stable. This was ridiculous.
He was being serious. “I want to be real in here. I thought that once I found my stone it would be like amazing, and I would feel like I belonged, and everybody would like me, and it’d be a family, and we could have kisses and sex and maybe make food together and play games, and it’s not going to be like that, is it? No matter how much I want it.”
He started crying, tears sliding down his cheeks, hot and wet, even as Talon shook his head.
“It doesn’t have to be hard. What happened was scary.
” Talon held his hands up. “Bad shit happens. We deal with it. Reno and Kami are ready to be buddies. Kami is excited to become friends with somebody like you. I think the other guys, once they get to know you, the other omegas, the other alphas are gonna have a ball with us. We’re going to be— No.
” Talon stopped there, shook his head. “We already are a family. You and me. We’re a family.
Right now. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts or whens. We are a family.”
“Do you really believe that?” He wanted to. He truly did.
Talon nodded. “With everything I have in me. You and I are a family. This part of your family is hungry. The you part of our family needs to think about learning how to be hungry because you’re going to fade away, and you have to eat.”
He reached out and twined his fingers with Talon’s, a frisson of hope building inside him. “What should we start with? Can I have a milkshake? Is that something you can do?”
“I can make a milkshake. I can order a milkshake. I can order us a flight of milkshakes.”
All right, that was different. “They have flying milkshakes?”
“A flight—it’s a bunch of different flavors of mini-milkshakes.”
“Oh, let’s get that! That way we can choose a favorite.” He wasn’t hungry, but…he knew that Talon was right, and more importantly, he wanted to make Talon smile.
Perfect. Talon did give him the grin that he wanted—bright and happy, those eyes lighting up. And then he got a kiss right on the tip of his nose. “Let me call and order a flight. We will figure out what else you want. This should have enough fat and protein in it to start.”
He didn’t know enough about nutrients to know why that was important, but it still made him all wrinkly nosed.
As far as he was concerned, most food was like fish. It just didn’t taste very good, and it was salty, and he didn’t like it. That was why he had been given the tuna in the tower, no doubt. It was to punish him for being something they didn’t want him to be.
“Nope.” Talon took Mercury’s chin between his thumb and forefinger gently urging Mercury to meet his gaze. “We’re not going to think about the tower. We’re not going to think about what happened for right now. Anything that happened before right now is off the table.”
He scowled in mock anger because he thought that sounded like a wonderful idea. “For how long? What if I want to talk about it?”
“Then we’ll talk about it later, but not when we’re having milkshakes.
” Talon reached for the house phone with his other hand, never looking away from Mercury.
“Hey, I need to order a flight of milkshakes. Let’s do chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla.
Oh, and maybe caramel. Uh-huh, no that’s perfect—just like bigger than a shot but smaller than a full milkshake. ”
He had to grin because Talon just asked for things that he wanted and people gave them to him. It was sort of baffling to Mercury.
“Thanks. Yeah, cookies and some… Yes! Charcuterie would be great.”
He waited for Talon to hang up before he poked a finger into the middle of that broad chest. “I thought you said we were just getting milkshakes.”
“We are getting milkshakes, but I’m super hungry, so I thought I would get some meat, cheese, and cookies too.” Those amazing eyes all but glowed for him, and Talon waggled his eyebrows. The scales in the middle of his forehead sort of popped out as his brow wrinkled up.
How such a huge, imposing warrior could be cute, Mercury didn’t know, but it was the truth. Talon was adorable.
“Well, perhaps I will try a nibble of all of it.” And if he did that, then he would probably sleep for another twenty-four hours at least. But that was okay.
Talon shook his head, but he never stopped grinning. “You’re such a little prince, my Mercury, my mate. You’re a wonderful, hailee, you know.”
“And you’re a fine braaken. Do you think sometime soon we could go outside? I saw the mountains when we first got here, and I know there’s a lake, but I’ve seen so little.” Mercury picked at the coverlet because he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to ask for things like that.
“Babe, we can do anything you want. This is a safe place. It really is. I know there was a lot of shouting when you first woke up, and I feel awful about it. So does everyone else, believe it or not. But trust me, you’ll like it here.”
Mercury wanted to believe Talon’s words, but he had never found a safe place in his whole life. Everything for him was fraught with danger because of what he could do. He didn’t shake his head; he wasn’t going to be obstinate, but in his heart of hearts, he didn’t believe it.
Talon reached up with one hand and cupped his cheek, thumb rubbing over his cheekbone. “Sooner or later, I’ll prove it to you. And if I don’t, we’ll find a new place to be together.”
Tears stung his eyes, because if Talon was willing to leave his family and friends just for him, then he deserved for Mercury to try and fit in.
It wasn’t like it was hard. He wanted to fit. He wanted to do this. He wanted to be okay.
“Milkshakes, meat, and cheese—right?”
In other words, please. I want to try to do this as much as you want me to try and do this.
Relax, hailee. This doesn’t have to be hard. We don’t have to make it hard.
Shaky breath and he nodded. “I don’t want it to be hard either.” He leaned against Talon’s chest and closed his eyes. “Do you think one day, we’ll be able to make love together?”
“I sincerely hope so. I ache for you, hailee. I was made for you.”
That was what he needed to hear. And he was so glad that he got to. He lifted one of Talon’s hands up and kissed his knuckles. “Thank you, braaken.”
“You’re most welcome. I already love you so much. I can’t imagine how I’ll feel in a week, or a year.” Talon kissed his nose. “Thank you for waking up and talking to me.”
“I wanted to. I was…frustrated and angry, you know?” He thought that was fair to share with his mate. “I want to be…someone you want to be with.”
“You are. Never doubt that. And I don’t think for a moment anyone sees you as bad, love. They simply worry about everything new. I accused them of being as hidebound as our old keeps.”
“Maybe they aren’t that bad…” They didn’t lock people in a tower, after all.
“Well, Kami’s an utter fucker.” Talon winked at him. “I should know, I’ve known him for a long time.”
“How did you two meet?” Mercury was curious about everything in Talon’s past. How did his mate get all those scars? What was the keep like that Talon and Triton were from?
He wanted to know it all. Every single minute of everything.
Talon chuckled at him, his eyes dancing with laughter. “At a bar.”
“A bar?” That figured.