37. Ezekiel
37
Ezekiel
L eaving Sam to work the next morning was difficult, but he wasn’t the only one with a to-do list he could no longer ignore. There were two meetings that had to happen. Things that needed to be said and done that couldn’t wait any longer.
The first, a whole-unit meeting about Gloria, was easy to manage. All of us wanted to ensure that her next… visit happened on our terms, not hers. With only two days to go until the deadline, we needed to be ready.
Sam had filled me in on everything he could remember from the encounter which, honestly, wasn’t much. He kept fretting about a particular detail he knew was evading him, but he couldn’t remember what it was.
I was trying not to stress about it—it wasn’t like I could do anything to make him remember. If it was important, it’d come back to him.
Hopefully.
With the work the others had put into the wards overnight, and the help Harlow had supplied, there was no chance of Gloria cracking them again. She had no way of stepping even a single toe onto our property.
Which was ideal. Even on a whole other plane, Gloria was too close to my mate as far as I was concerned. I’d feel much better if we killed her.
Permanently.
Executing a high-ranking official such as Gloria wasn’t an option though, not unless we were willing to go to war with all of Heaven. As much as it left a sour taste in our mouths, we had to play the long game here.
Namely by undermining Gloria’s power where we could while building a case against her. We also needed to quietly gather others to our cause without raising any suspicions. If we were accused of raising a rebellion, all of our necks would be on the line.
Seeing as we didn’t want to remove all of them from power, just Gloria, we had to be careful. Battle was the last thing we wanted to bring to our doorstep.
Especially those of us who had mates to protect.
It wasn’t as though we had any way to contact God. She chose who she convened with and when. We just had to hope that one day soon, she would choose one of us.
Until that happened, we had to build an airtight case against Gloria. We wanted a mountain of evidence so high that there’d be no chance of her wriggling out of it. She’d talked herself out of messes before, and there was no fucking way we were letting her get away with this. Not after threatening both Nox and Sam. It was personal for all of us, but especially Micah and myself. We had to weigh up our need for revenge and justice against keeping our mates safe.
It was strangely easy to do. As much as I fucking hated Gloria, I wouldn’t risk Sam, not even to save the whole world.
With a plan to deal with Gloria’s threat in place, the first meeting passed quickly and uneventfully.
I suspected I wasn’t going to be able to say the same for the second one.
As everyone got to their feet to leave, Micah and I exchanged a look before he cleared his throat. “Theo, Nate. Stay behind please.”
The two exchanged a sullen look before sliding back into their seats.
Micah waited until the room was clear before lacing his fingers together on the conference table. “Okay. Something is going on with you two, and we need to know what it is.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Theo muttered darkly.
“What he said.”
I raised a brow at Micah, and he nodded for me to take over. “If that’s the case, then how do you explain the uptick in fights between you?”
Neither of them spoke, not even with one of the silent looks they often shared. Ones only they understood.
I let the silence drag on for near a minute before caving. “Really? Neither of you have anything to say?”
“Nope,” Nate said curtly, rapping his knuckles on the table. “There’s nothing to tell.”
I exhaled slowly as the monster growled. This is for Sam, I reminded myself. They need to sort their shit out for his sake.
“We don’t buy it,” Micah said simply. “Especially with that last…incident. Ez, Noah, and Benji all reported that there was a viciousness between you that they hadn’t seen before.”
“S’not true.” Theo sniffed. “We’re always like that.”
“No,” Micah said firmly. “You’re not. This was something different. You’ve always settled your disputes this way, but it’s escalated to a point where we can’t let it slide any longer.”
Nate sank lower in his chair, crossing his arms. “So what if we’re a bit violent? It’s only towards each other. Doesn’t damage anyone else.”
“Except it does.” Two pairs of lilac eyes flew up to mine. “It’s damaged Sam.”
They stiffened simultaneously, but it was Nate who spoke. “We didn’t hurt him, did we? He was okay, right?”
“Physically, yes. Emotionally though? Nate, he watched you murder me. Noah’s body was only a few feet from him. He knew nothing about our way of life, and you introduced him to it in the cruellest way possible.” The monster wanted me to whack their heads against the wall until they saw sense. “Can’t you understand how that might’ve been traumatic for him?”
There was no might’ve about it, and from how the twins’ skin paled, they knew it too. Theo was the first to speak. “But he knows now that it’s fine, right? It’s just what we do. You’re okay, Nate didn’t actually hurt you.”
I tensed as the monster roared. My phone buzzed on the table, a message from Sam on the screen.
Sam
you okay? Need to take a lap?
Just the question had me calming. I could do this. I could be strong for Sam.
Zeke
I’m fine. Thank you, baby.
I put the phone down and gave the twins a withering stare. “Sam might understand, but that hasn’t stopped him being pissed at you.”
Theo’s jaw dropped. “He is?”
“Yes,” I ground out. “At the end of the day, he saw you hurt me. The fact I healed fast doesn’t change that, not for him.”
“We can make it up to him,” Nate said quickly, shame warring with regret in his eyes. “We’ll apologise. Right now.”
“No.” I held up a hand to stop them standing. “You won’t approach Sam, he will approach you.”
“But…how will he know we’re sorry if we can’t tell him?”
I glared at Nate coolly. “I guess you’ll have to come up with other ways to make it up to him.”
He rolled his eyes. “Or we could just speak to him. That’d be easier.”
“He’s scared of you,” I said bluntly, taking no joy in how my words made Nate recoil. “He hasn’t admitted as much, but I know. Especially now we’re bonded. Logically, Sam knows you can’t hurt me. I don’t think he believes you’d hurt him either. But logic doesn’t take precedence in Sam’s brain. Emotion does, especially fear. And, thanks to what happened, you’ve given his OCD enough fuel for a lifetime.”
“Bollocks,” Theo said, dropping his head into his hands. “We really fucked up.”
“We did,” Nate said heavily, reaching out and squeezing his twin’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, brother.”
“Me too. Ez, I’m sorry about what happened with Sam. We’ll make it up to him.”
“We will.” Nate’s lips thinned as he shook his head. “The fact he’s scared of us makes me feel sick. I can’t stand it.”
It was good, but it wasn’t enough. Not when the risk of this happening again was so high. “That’s great, but you need to tell us why it happened.”
“Ez is right,” Micah said. “What happened was inexcusable, but I trust you both to make it right with Sam. You’ve stepped over the line, and we want to know why.”
They exchanged a long look, and I knew one of their silent conversations was taking place. Eventually, Nate turned back to us with a sigh. “It’s stupid, really. Petty jealousy on my part.”
“It’s not stupid,” Theo said hotly, reaching over to grab his brother’s forearm. “If this was the other way around, I’d feel the same. I’ve been tactless.”
Micah looked as confused as I was feeling. “Jealousy about what?”
Theo glanced at Nate, who nodded encouragingly. “I can feel my mate. I don’t know where he is, and he doesn’t appear to be in danger, but yeah.”
My jaw popped open. What was the likelihood of yet another mate coming out of the woodwork so soon? Millennia had passed with only Grace and Breann being fortunate enough to find one another. Now, Micah, myself, and apparently Theo were on our way to eternal happiness.
“Are you sure it’s your mate?” Micah asked.
Theo shrugged. “Fairly sure. It’s a tug, like my instincts telling me to go and find him. It’s not insistent, but it’s there. Has been for a few weeks now.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “If you can feel your mate, why aren’t you searching for him?”
Theo’s gaze slid to his brother, whose eyes were fixed on the table. Suddenly, the pieces clicked into place. From the pity in Micah’s gaze, he understood too.
“You should,” Nate muttered, like he could feel all our eyes on him. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
“But I do,” Theo said. “We always thought we’d either share a mate, or find them at the same time. It’s not right that?—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Nate cut him off. “The fact is that you can feel your mate, and I can’t. It doesn’t matter what we’d planned, fate has other ideas.”
Theo frowned stubbornly. “I don’t give a shit. We’ve done every milestone together, and we’re going to fall in love at the same time too. Fate might be ready for me to meet my mate, but until yours is ready too, they’ll just have to wait.”
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
Theo lifted his chin. “You didn’t ask me, but I’m doing it anyway.”
Aw, fuck. As much as I understood where Theo was coming from, fate would only wait so long. If the pull became too great for him to ignore, Theo might not have a choice. The twins had been through everything together. It seemed almost cruel that fate was now forcing them down separate paths.
This was going to end in disaster, and there was nothing we could do about it. Just be there to pick up the pieces when it finally happened.
From the set of Micah’s jaw, he knew this too.
“I’m glad you told us,” Micah said. “I understand that this is a new and difficult situation for the two of you to navigate, but I expect you to find a way to do so that doesn’t involve violence. We aren’t the only beings in the house now, and Sam’s needs come above ours. Understood?”
The twins nodded.
“If you can’t figure out a way to resolve something, find me,” I said gruffly. “I’ve been trying to work on my temper recently. Might be nice to have someone to walk the path with me.”
There was a beat of surprised silence before Theo smiled. “Thanks, Ez. We’ll do that.”
“And we will make it up to Sam,” Nate added. “We’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Yes.” Theo’s head bobbed. “Any ideas on where we could start?”
A smile slowly stretched over my face. “I’m so glad you asked.”
A fter giving the twins a very detailed list, I left them to get on with it and set about hunting my mate down.
As I’d expected, he hadn’t moved from in front of his laptop. What I hadn’t anticipated was the task I found him fixated on.
My cock lengthened as I closed the bedroom door firmly, leaning back on it. “Did I not satisfy you earlier?”
Sam didn’t glance away from the porn on the screen. The grunts and slapping of skin from the three men filled the room. “This is for work.”
I snorted, crossing the room behind him. “An excuse I’m sure many men use. You don’t need to do that with me though, baby. I don’t have a problem with you watching porn.”
“It’s not an excuse, it really is for work.”
“Sure,” I said in bemusement, watching for a moment as the top moaned. “Seems very work related.”
My fingers snaked under his shirt to tweak at his nipples. Arousal threaded through the bond, making me realise it had been absent up until now. Sam must’ve been telling the truth.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” I said, continuing to tease his nipples. The action on the screen might not have been doing it for him, but knowing he’d been sat here watching it was doing it for me. “How is this work related?”
“It’s for one of my clients,” Sam said, dropping his head back against my stomach and closing his eyes. “They wrote a threesome scene in a book I’m alpha reading, and the logistics were hurting my head. They sent me this link so I could see what they were getting at and hopefully help them explain it better on the page.”
“That makes sense.” I watched the scene with renewed interest. “So basically guy A is being railed by guy B, who in turn is getting fucked by guy C.”
“That about sums it up,” Sam said. “Not really that complicated, but from how the author described it, I’d conjured up visions of acrobats.”
“Watching this doesn’t turn you on?”
“It would if I were watching it with the goal of getting off, but for work? Nah. I’m viewing it through a clinical lens, trying to think of ways to describe it rather than what’s actually happening on the screen.” He hummed as my hand dipped further south. “You feeling me up like this though? That’s definitely turning me on.”
I licked my lips, swivelling his chair around slowly until he was facing me. “Got time for a quick break? It’ll help you, I promise.”
“Really,” Sam drawled. His cock was straining against the cotton of his joggers, begging for release. “How’d you figure that out?”
“You can’t concentrate with an erection like that. How will you be able to focus on the logistics?” With a wink, I sank to my knees between his spread thighs. “I best take care of it quickly for you. You know, for the good of your clients.”
“I’m sure they’d be most appreciative.” Sam’s words ended on a moan as I freed his cock. “You’re going above and beyond here.”
I swiped my tongue over his shining head before smirking up at him. “That’s me—overachiever extraordinaire.”
His legs trembled as I sucked him into my mouth. There was no teasing from me as I took him deep straight away, using my tongue to apply pressure in all the right places.
On my knees in that bedroom, silent aside from Sam’s moans, it hit me. This was my life now. This right here. A quiet peace with a mate who made me laugh, who saw all my red flags and loved me anyway.
I wasn’t letting anyone take him away from me. Ever.
I closed my eyes as I savoured the taste of him. Having this revelation while giving him a blow job was probably weird, but it felt right.
I was giving my mate pleasure. It was my name he was moaning. His hands gripping my hair. My throat swallowing down his come.
Sam was mine to love and protect.
And if Gloria thought she could take him from me, she was in for a nasty surprise.