Chapter Six
Meanwhile, up on the Penthouse Floor…
Nic
“My tentacles are tingling. Are yours? Surely that means our mate is in the building? This has to be it. He’s here.”
Nic looked over to where an excited Luc was propped up at the other end of their pool on the rooftop of the hotel.
It had been a long-ass day, and well after night had fallen, they were no closer to achieving anything beyond arranging for the statues to be moved from the middle of the front lobby to the basement.
He was tired, nervous, and worrying about everything from the time restraint the Oracle had placed on them, and what their mate might be like, through to how to deal with Luc’s excitement when he wasn’t feeling it himself. Nic had no idea why.
Their only clue about their mate so far was Barry letting them know there was a human who was temporarily working at the front desk for five nights - covering the graveyard shift, which was from eleven at night until seven in the morning. Now, in other words.
“I’m guessing it’s after eleven then,” he said, aiming for a casual tone. “I was feeling something in my tentacles, but it could’ve been cramp or an itch for all I know.”
That was clearly the wrong thing to say. Luc actually glared at him. “Why are you trying to bullshit me? Your kraken will be feeling the same way I am – he can sense our mate. Our mate is here.”
“He’s hardly here, here, but fine, we can assume he’s in the hotel.
” Heaving a sigh, Nic pulled himself out of the water, letting his tentacles recede as his human legs appeared.
“I’ll go and check the computers because I’m sure that’s what you want me to do, isn’t it?
” He hesitated and added, “I’m just...Don’t you think we should claim each other first?
Surely it would be less stressful on a mate if they knew we’re already an established couple. ”
“We’re known all over town as an established couple,” Luc said firmly. “Our mate would’ve had to have been hiding under a rock if they didn’t know who we were. Go and see if our mate is at the reception desk.”
What if I don’t want to? Nic had tried to swing Luc around to his way of thinking on the way home.
“We’ve got five days,” he’d said. “We have the time.” And then, when they’d arrived at the hotel and finally tracked down where their elusive human was likely to be, Nic had tried again.
“We could claim each other first, and then claim our human on New Year’s Eve.
It would be romantic, and a great way to start the New Year, don’t you think? ”
Is it too much to ask for some intimate private time with you first?
We’ve been together so long… But Luc had been determined and had put his foot down.
He wanted the three of them to claim each other all at the same time, so that their mate didn’t feel as though they were the third wheel coming into an established relationship – even though he is, and nothing is going to change that.
Nic could understand Luc’s point of view, and if he wasn’t so nervous about meeting their third, he might have been happier about the whole thing.
Stalking across the patio and into the apartment that he shared with his mate, Nic didn’t bother putting on any clothes.
It was their private space, and no one, not even the staff, entered without permission.
That was the one thing that he and Luc had insisted on when they had first taken over the hotel.
The business had been flagging when Nic and Luc bought it, but Nic could see the potential.
He’d always wanted a home base – a grand building standing tall among its peers.
The Regis fit their needs perfectly. Or it had.
Things are going to change, Nic thought, and that was something he couldn’t muster any excitement for, even though he’d previously thought finding their third was the answer to his and Luc’s prayers.
It’s easier to hope for something when it’s an abstract concept.
One of their spare bedrooms had been given over to a mass of computer screens, all wired into the hotel security system.
The dedicated security office was on the second floor of the hotel, but Nic and Luc liked to keep their eye on things as well.
There were cameras in every public part of the hotel, and it was one of the reasons that the Regis was one of the safest places to stay in town.
Flicking a switch, Nic watched as all of the screens came on, some showing nothing but empty hallways, others showing the staff going about their duties. He noticed food being delivered to various rooms, which was a good sign. It meant the kitchen was still busy.
Because they catered to a paranormal clientele, Nic and Luc decided to pay extra to keep staff on twenty-four hours a day, and it had paid off.
The extra money for room service, extra housekeeping, and various other services – yes, some wolf shifters liked a bath and a trim in their shifted form –helped keep the hotel not only profitable, but somewhere all paranormals knew their needs would be met.
Nic scanned the screens looking for the front lobby cameras.
There were three of them covering every inch of the front of the hotel.
If there was going to be any trouble with guests who’d got their bookings wrong, or guests that didn’t want to pay, or objected to the additional charges they’d racked up to their room, that was all going to happen at reception.
Discreet signs were posted at the entrance and by the elevators, reminding their clientele that they were being recorded.
Nic checked on the gargoyles at the front door first. They were another important part of the security, stationed there purely and simply, because there wasn’t another paranormal around - with the exception of a kraken - who could actually face off against a gargoyle. George and his brother were in place.
Scanning over the bottom row of screens, Nic frowned. Reception. Reception. Then he realized he’d been looking for their statues – a feature that had been hard to miss. But now they’d been removed. We’re going to have to do something with that flowerpot. It just looks weird.
For a moment Nic couldn’t see anyone on the screen from the camera that faced the reception desk. That was unusual. That desk was always manned. But then a face popped up from behind the counter, as if the person was suddenly sitting upright.
Nic zoomed in. The face was sweet with a strong jawline.
The man had a mass of soft, brown, wavy curls.
He’s wearing glasses, Nic thought. That’s really unusual.
Most paranormals had no issues with their eyesight, hearing, or anything else.
But Sage, the one human on their payroll, wore glasses.
Nic watched as the man tapped his earpiece, clearly speaking to someone on a call.
He was typing as he spoke. He knows how to do the job, which is something.
His kraken stirred, eager to get downstairs and meet the man who was making his tentacles tingle.
But Nic still wasn’t sure. Is it so wrong of me to want Luc to claim me first?
I’ve been with him for so long… Surely, I deserve that.
Although as fast as those thoughts were going through his head, Nic was worried that just thinking them made him appear insecure and clingy.
Words Nic didn’t like using about himself.
“What’s the hold up? I thought you would’ve come back out to the pool by now with the laptop. Is he there? Have you seen him? Where is he? Show him to me.”
Nic sighed, stepping aside and pointing at the relevant screen. “Our mate wears glasses.” The words just fell out of his mouth. “How is he going to be able to go swimming with us if he’s wearing glasses?”
/~/~/~/~/
Luc.
There were very few times in their fifty years together when Luc wanted to bash Nic around the ears.
This was one of them. “You’re complaining about his glasses.
What’s the matter with you? You know, once we’ve claimed him, our mate won’t need his glasses.
He’ll gain a lot of the characteristics from our shifted side – swimming underwater, getting stronger, seeing things better…
My gods, he’s so cute. Smaller than I expected, although we thought we’d get a shifter, but he’s definitely cute. ”
“Cuter than me?”
Luc shook his head before rubbing between his eyes with his middle finger.
“This is getting tiresome,” he said softly.
“Since we’ve been together, you’ve rarely shown any insecurities, and now that’s all I’m seeing.
” He pointed at the screen. “That man is our intended.
Our mate. A blessing from the Oracle. A gift from the Fates.
“Just seeing him on a screen, my kraken wants to smash through every floor until his tentacles are at reception – he wants to grab him and whisk him up here. Don’t you feel anything like that at all?”
“You know I do.” Although Nic didn’t sound very convincing, and he wasn’t even looking at the screen.
“It’s just everything’s going to change between us.
It’s so difficult with three in a relationship – two people leaving the third one out.
You’ve talked about that yourself, citing dozens of kraken relationships over the years, so you can’t tell me you haven’t thought about it.
Why do you think I wanted us to claim each other first? What if I’m the one who gets left out?”
Luc stepped back as if he’d been slapped – he couldn’t have felt worse if Nic had punched him.
“Where is all this insecurity coming from, Nic? Even if you discounted the deep love we have for each other, which you seem to be doing, we’re best of friends, too.
We’ve supported each other through everything we’ve been through for the last fifty years.
“I genuinely don’t understand what’s going on. This is what we’ve been waiting for. He’s what we’ve been waiting for,” Luc pointed at the screen.
“Now you’re acting like you don’t want our third at all.
You’re rejecting him before we’ve even met him, and what’s worse, you’re now doubting the love I’ve had for you since we met all those years ago.
How could you? If you turn our mate down, then we will be forever the two of us, just the two of us, there will be no chance of having children… ”
“You didn’t want children anyway. You and I could claim each other, and things could go on just the way they always have, except this time we’d have the claim I’ve waited fifty years for.”
Luc knew when Nic got defensive, he wouldn’t back down.
Usually, that was Luc, but not this time.
Staring into the eyes he loved so much, Luc said, “I don’t understand what’s changed your mind about our third.
We made a vow. Fifty years ago, you and I made a vow, signed in blood, that we would not claim each other until we claimed our third.
If you’re not ready to claim Sage before the New Year, and he leaves, then you and I will never be claimed.
The best we’d have is what we already have.
“You seem to have forgotten” - and that broke Luc’s heart, too – “that by you refusing to even meet our mate, you’re depriving me of our third, too. Is that what you want? Is that how little you think of me?”
Unable to even look at his mate anymore, Luc left, hurrying down the hallway to another spare room. Closing the door, he flopped on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
The image of their mate working in the reception, just downstairs, was burned into his brain.
A sight Luc knew he would never forget. What does it say about fifty years’ worth of relationship, he thought angrily, when seeing our third on a screen might be the closest I ever get to being claimed.
Watching my mate answer our guests’ calls while working at the graveyard shift of our hotel.
In that moment Luc just wanted to sell the damn place and be done with it, and Nic, too, for that matter.
Nic had shown flashes of insecurity over the years, something Luc never understood then or now.
He’d always believed Nic was perfect – confident, gorgeous, well spoken, fun to be with – and he believed he’d shown Nic his love in everything he did.
Sage might be fun and loving, too, but there’s a good chance we might never know about it. Tears filled Luc’s eyes as he thought about the Oracle’s deadline. Did she know…? Silly question.
The bigger question was more what did she know?
What had she seen in Nic and Luc’s relationship over the years to give them their biggest gift and their most difficult challenge all at the same time?
I wish I knew the answers, Luc thought desperately, because he did know, deep in his heart, that if Nic didn’t come around, and their window for claiming Sage passed without the claim being made, then Luc wasn’t sure if his and Nic’s relationship would survive.