Chapter 6
When Marcus had finally woken up, a huge weight had come off my chest. Now, he was right back to being passed out in the guest room, and Dom had shifted again so he could lie next to our sleeping mate.
I peeked into the room and couldn’t hold back a small smile. If one ignored the circumstances, that sight was pure domestic bliss, and seeing them there… It made me happy. If I’d had any doubts about Dom, Ell, and me all being mated to Marcus, that feeling wiped those clean away.
But there were other things to consider. I walked down the hallway to the living room, then through to the open-concept kitchen where Ell was pouring the tea Dom had made for Marcus into two mugs.
I walked up to Ell from behind, pressing my body against him and closing my arms around his middle. In response, he pushed a mug of chamomile tea toward me.
“He should be fine in a couple of days,” Ell said. “I can run him to the hospital for a CT if he wants that confirmed later, but I’ve always been excellent at diagnosing concussions after minor head wounds.”
I kissed Ell on the neck. “I trust you.”
Ell gave a wry chuckle. “And isn’t that the issue? You do. Did you see how scared he got? He’s human, Linc.”
Marcus had been scared, then pissed off, then uneasy. We’d all seen and smelled each emotion that had run through him. “We’ll tell him as soon as possible. We have to.”
Ell leaned against me. “Maybe Dom has the right idea. It’s good he gets to see us shifted, gets used to it.”
“Didn’t one of your pack mate a human?” I let go of Ell and grabbed the tea instead. I walked to the couch, and he followed me.
“Yes. Claire found her mate when she went to college. She likes to say she had to chase him down to get him to date her, and once they were in a relationship, she told him. The way she tells it, she waited until he told her he loved her.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “That’s not going to be an option for us.”
Ell nodded, narrowing his eyes. “When is that Steven person getting here?”
I hoped he never would. I desperately wanted to know what was up with him and our mate, but Marcus had been tight-lipped. Intellectually, I understood why he wouldn’t want to tell us his life’s story, but it was still frustrating as hell.
“Late afternoon, I guess.”
Ell nodded. “Marcus didn’t seem to want him here.”
Dom growled from the guest room. I was sure he would happily kick Steven to the curb. Then again, we all would.
“We’ll see. Maybe he’ll tell us more once he wakes up again.” I sagged back on the couch and Ell leaned against me.
He nodded, then went into thoughtful Ell mode.
I sipped some of my tea, then nudged him with my elbow. “What?”
“He might reject us. Maybe not all of us. He might reject the idea of being with werewolves or being with more than one partner.” He absently ran his hand over the cushion Marcus’s head had been on. “I suppose we should be glad he’s at least into men.”
“I hadn’t even considered the possibility that he might not be.” That would’ve been a mess. Well, messier than this already was.
Yet, while Marcus was still out and resting, there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. We just had to face whatever came at us when it did.
We all heard it when Marcus stirred awake again. We’d all been listening for it, after all.
Ell went into the room first. I followed, but remained at the door. Dom was still there, keeping watch, his body snug against Marcus’s.
“Hello again.” Ell was using his doctor voice. He sat on the chair he’d put by the head of the bed, gave Marcus a moment to get his bearings, then put his hand against Marcus’s forehead. “You poor thing.” He pulled the thermometer from his bag to check Marcus’s temperature again.
I came closer to peek over his shoulder. 103. We had a hurt, sick human mate to take care of. Well, it never just rained, always had to come pouring down.
Marcus eyed Dom, and Dom gave him his friendliest puppy eyes. He was a younger sibling, and according to his mom, he had perfected that look.
“What did you give me?” Marcus’s voice was raspy.
It made me want to cuddle him close, but it was way too soon for that, and he was still suspicious; I could see it in the way his eyes were darting from one of us to the other, in the way his expression was closed off.
The fear in his scent was impossible to miss.
“Paracetamol and water.” Ell smiled. “But maybe some tea with honey is in order, and then some soup once you feel up to that.”
Dom whined quietly. He probably wanted to shift, climb under the covers with Marcus, and hold him close. That was exactly what I wanted to do, but we had things to discuss before that was even close to being an option.
“Marcus,” I said, and our mate looked at me. He had blue eyes; not like Ell’s, but much lighter, silver almost. Moonstone eyes. “There are things we need to talk about.”
Marcus shivered, and Ell touched our mate’s shoulder. “It’ll be fine.”
It sounded as if Ell was saying that as much to us as to Marcus.
I’d never told anyone about our kind—never had to—so I had no idea what the best way was to broach the subject.
I lowered my head but maintained eye contact.
“I’ll be blunt, but rest assured, we can talk everything through in detail later, after you’ve had a bit of time to adjust.” I took a steadying breath, half hoping that Ell or Dom would jump in, but of course they didn’t.
So I said, “The three of us are werewolves, and you, Marcus, are our mate.”