Chapter Eight
Nic
By the time the sun had started sending light into their penthouse suite, Nic’s worry was morphing into full-blown panic.
Luc hadn’t come back into the computer room – leaving Nic alone with his thoughts and those words that had a ring of finality about them - a dangerous place for Nic to be.
From the way Luc had been talking – he’s putting this on me?
In fairness, Nic could see why Luc might be thinking that way.
But as the hours of the night crawled toward dawn, Nic also wondered – worried – that Luc could be getting tired of him.
Fifty years was a long time, and while Nic still craved his mate, probably more than he had when they first met, he couldn’t guarantee Luc felt the same way.
I still don’t think I was being unreasonable. I’ve put in the years. I deserve to have just one night of passion with my mate before we take a third – don’t I?
The issue is that you found fault with our third from first sight.
Complaining about his glasses. Nic could feel his kraken’s disgust seep through their body.
Great way to make you look like a “pick-me” when Luc’s arms have been around us for fifty years.
Neither the Oracle nor the Fates makes mistakes.
I don’t understand what value a short-sighted human will bring to the great relationship I have with Luc.
It’s a shame you didn’t take the time to find out.
I’ve got a right to be cautious.
His kraken didn’t have a reply to that, but then his tentacled half didn’t want to leave the computer room either. Nic watched, alternating between fretting about Luc and seeing Sage go about his job.
About three in the morning, Nic noticed Sage took a break. Unlike other staff, he didn’t go to the restaurant – he brought his own sandwich. Nic glared as he noticed George being particularly attentive.
To his credit, Sage didn’t seem interested.
He didn’t leave his chair behind the reception desk at all, yawning and nodding a few times at something George was saying, but it wasn’t like he was actively engaging in conversation.
In contrast, Marty spent as little time behind that desk as possible.
But all that proved was that Sage was different from Marty, and Nic already knew that because Marty was a shifter.
Nic kept watching, believing that any minute Luc would come back and they could talk.
Just after seven in the morning, Barry came in to start his shift.
Sage nodded, smiled, and picked up a backpack that had to have been stashed under the counter, and came out from behind the reception desk for the first time.
The first thing Nic noticed was that Sage wasn’t tall, but he did walk with a certain confidence. No, that’s not confidence, Nic decided, watching as Sage ducked his head and smiled as George held the door for him. He walks with purpose. How? Why?
Nic’s kraken wouldn’t settle, even after Sage was gone. I need to talk to Luc. We haven’t had an issue we couldn’t solve yet. I won’t let it happen this time either. But when he went to their bedroom, the room they had been sharing since they first took over the Regis Hotel, Luc wasn’t there.
Oh, no. He's sleeping in one of the spare rooms. He doesn’t want to be with me. The pit of despair in Nic’s stomach got bigger as he forced himself to lie down and get a couple of hours’ sleep. He was going to need his wits about him if he was going to get back in Luc’s favor.
Nic and Luc had argued before. They were two alpha-type personalities who both had very clear ideas on what they wanted in life and from each other.
It was only natural for them to have disagreements at times.
But from the day they met, they had always shared a bed.
Tossing and turning, unused to having so much space to himself, Nic found he didn’t like sleeping on his own anymore.
By nine o’clock, he was back out in the living area, wondering if Luc had ordered breakfast.
Luc was sitting at a table out by the pool, but his casual look from the previous three weeks was gone. He was wearing a suit, his jacket buttoned as if he were attending a business meeting. He’s even wearing shoes. For some reason, those shiny black loafers made Nic feel worse than ever.
Ducking back into the bedroom before he was seen, Nic pulled on a pair of pants and fluffed out his hair – that’s all he could be bothered with – before going through the living room and stepping out onto the patio. “Morning, hon. Did you already have breakfast?”
Luc barely looked up from his phone. “Yep. Yours is in the oven.”
No warm look. Not even a good morning. Nic realized that Luc was barely looking at him at all.
Deciding coffee was more important than having anything to eat, Nic poured a mug for himself from the small trolley left by the staff, and then, to show he was thinking of his mate, poured a fresh one for Luc as well, setting them both on the patio table.
Luc seemed engrossed in something on his phone, although he put it in his jacket pocket when Nic sat down.
“I spent a lot of the night thinking about our current situation.”
Nic froze in the act of taking a sip of coffee. Luc’s tone was the one he used when talking to a banker or an accountant instead of his mate of fifty years. But Luc hadn’t finished, and it got worse.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not sure I want anything to do with this hotel anymore.”
Nic’s blood turned to ice in his veins. “This is a joint venture,” he said, quickly taking a swig of his coffee. “It always has been.” Maybe he was still dreaming and needed to wake up. But the heat from the drink on his tongue reminded him he was definitely awake, and Luc still didn’t look happy.
“That is true. We had many happy hours choosing this place, redecorating it, employing staff, and overall putting in a lot of hours, making this place a success. However, after your dismissive comments made last night about our third, and your failure to give me a single reasonable reason why you’re suddenly so against even meeting the man, I genuinely feel I can’t stay here anymore.
” Luc’s tone was firm. He meant what he was saying.
“I understand we have the party tonight, and I won’t embarrass you in front of the staff or our guests by failing to be here.
But come New Year’s morning, by seven thirty, I’ll be gone. ”
Once Sage’s last shift ends. The timing wasn’t lost on Nic at all.
“You’re making the decision to sell the hotel without me?
” The penthouse suite was Nic’s safe space.
The grand building with its extensive renovation and friendly staff was Nic’s giant FU to the world that’d always treated him as though he was a freak.
Luc shook his head. “Unlike your recent actions, I won’t make decisions on your behalf.
I know this place is important to you. I’ll sell you my half.
I’m sure our accountants can work out a fair market price, and I know you can afford it.
Put simply, the events of last night have tainted any positive memories I might’ve had of this place, and with no resolution in sight, I have to get out of this hotel. ”
And out of my life too. That’s what Nic heard, even though Luc didn’t say the words.
It was obvious in Luc’s tone and the way he wouldn’t even meet Nic’s eyes.
“You’re making these huge life-changing decisions simply because I wanted our claim to be done privately between the two of us, before we took on our third.
I don’t think that was an unfair request.”
Nic had to try one last time. He could feel he was on the edge of a cliff, where one wrong step could lose him everything, including the man who he had loved for fifty years.
“You said yourself that threesomes are always uneven. I’m not trying to make that any worse.
But your determination to claim Sage before me breaks my heart. ”
“So you’re jealous of a man you don’t know anything about?
And what part of three of us together has me claiming Sage before you?
” Luc shook his head. “Believe it or not, this isn’t about Sage specifically.
It’s the fact that you would prefer for me to break our vow, or go without our third entirely.
Was this always your intention? Did you want us to cement our claim and then treat Sage as someone of no consequence?
Or did you believe that if our claim was made – something that can’t be undone – that you could convince me not to claim Sage at all. ”
“No!” Nic was stung that Luc would even think that. Although, in fairness, he could see where his longtime companion might come to that decision. “It’s just I met you first.” Oh, how Nic wished he had a verbal rewind button because his words had just confirmed how pathetic he was being.
“I don’t understand what’s going on with you, I truly don’t.
” Luc didn’t look confused, though, he looked sad.
“We made that vow together. We’ve dreamed of this moment since the day we met and realized we would have a third.
My kraken is pushing me to track Sage down, find out where he is outside of this hotel, and before you open your mouth again and spew more shit, this has nothing to do with wanting him more than I’ve always wanted you.
“He’s a human out there in the world with no protection – he could get hit by a car, attacked by another person.
Does he have a proper house? Enough to eat?
Does he have any support in his life, or is he on his own?
Don’t you get it? Sage is our gift from the Fates, our path to him, given to us by the Oracle.
I’m not going to presume for a moment I know better than them. ”
Nic’s kraken was pushing to get out. Luc’s comments about a car accident… I can’t worry about that now.
Well, you damn well should.
Ignoring his other half, Nic said, “It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Why can’t I be enough for you? That’s what I don’t understand.”
“I know you don’t. And that guts me more than you could ever know,” Luc said.
“You’ve stopped trusting me. You don’t trust in my love for you anymore.
You don’t trust in the relationship we already have.
Instead of welcoming a third, knowing that the Fates put Sage in our path for a reason, you decided you’d rather cut him out before we even get a chance to say hello?
Do you know how many times I wanted to go down to that reception desk last night and introduce myself? ”
Probably as many times as I did, Nic thought, but he didn’t say anything. He was well aware that his kraken instincts were totally at odds with his human way of thinking.
“After the life we’ve had, I can’t believe it’s come to this,” Luc said.
“But as far as I’m concerned, we made a vow, and I intend to keep it.
When Sage walks out of this hotel at seven in the morning of New Year’s Day, and the Oracle’s deadline has passed, I’m leaving, too.
I’m not going to chase him, I’m not going to look for him, or stalk him in any way.
“Being human, he won’t feel the mating pull because we haven’t met, so I am going to pray the Fates keep him safe without us. We can’t guarantee that. The Oracle clearly gave us a deadline for a reason, and humans have a very short life span compared to us. Maybe that’s why.”
Luc inhaled sharply. “Regardless, unless you’re actually going to tell me the goddamn truth for the first time in fifty years, as to why we couldn’t even meet the man the Fates crafted for us, then this” – he waved between the two of them – “this between us is over. That’s not an ultimatum, that’s simply my decision.
This is a case of speak now or forever hold your peace, beloved, because it’s the last chance you have.
I would rather spend the rest of my life in the murky depths of the deep alone than live with someone who doesn’t trust me. ”