Chapter 34
They’d all agreed that Mace and Blade would be present when Scotty told her parents about their bond.
But for the boys’ safety, Scotty insisted they wait outside the manor. That way, if Ares took the news badly, the guys at least had room to maneuver. They wouldn’t run, but they might need to dodge.
Still, Scotty didn’t think her father would freak out, despite what Aleka said. He loved Mace and Blade, and he would want his daughter to be happy.
And she was.
As she stood in her parents’ great room, she could feel her mates, a comforting, faint awareness that they were alive and well. And maybe a little nervous.
No doubt they could sense her anxiety as she waited for her parents’ response to what she’d just told them.
“Congratulations, honey,” Cara said as she crossed the room to give Scotty a hug. “I don’t understand how it all works, but the three of you make sense.” Cara pulled back and turned to her husband. “Don’t you think so?”
Ares had yet to say a single word. Or have any expression besides an unreadable blank one.
“Darling?” There was a note of alarm in Cara’s voice, so subtle that anyone who didn’t know her well might miss it.
But it made Scotty’s hackles rise.
Crap.
Ares pushed out of his chair, rising to his full, imposing height. His size had never intimidated Scotty, but right now, he was a mountain casting a huge shadow. Had his shoulders always been so wide? Surely, he had never been that tall, either.
On his arm, Battle reared up. The stallion sensed his mood, and it was ready to fight.
This was so not good.
“Where are they?” he demanded. “If they were too cowardly to come with you—”
“They’re right outside, Daddy,” she said quickly. “They wanted to come inside with me, but I made them stay.”
Wordlessly, he stormed out the door.
In a panic, Scotty chased after him, her mother on her heels.
Mace and Blade were standing near the base of the stairs, but they backed away as Ares charged down the steps like a rampaging bull.
“To the arena. Now!” His command boomed like a thunderclap, scaring birds out of the trees and drawing the attention of the Memitim who were currently sparring in the arena.
The Memitim scattered as Mace and Blade entered, jogging just ahead of Ares.
“Weapons,” Ares snapped as he summoned a sword.
“Daddy!” Scotty caught up to him. “What are you doing? I told you, they saved my life. You can’t hurt them!”
“How much they hurt depends on them.” He glanced over at Cara. “Take her.”
“What?” Scotty croaked. “No—”
Cara gripped her hand and drew her away. “It’ll be okay, Scotland,” she said in a soothing mom-voice that might have worked if Scotty had been sick with the flu, but not when her mates were about to be slaughtered.
“But—”
“Let him handle this.”
Mace and Blade scrambled to arm themselves from the weapons rack.
A sword and shield for Blade, a pike and chain for Mace.
Scotty knew the strategy; Blade would distract Ares with a tank assault while Mace used his speed and agility to knock him off his feet.
It was a good plan that would be effective against most opponents.
But not Ares.
“I need to help,” she whispered, and her mother gave her hand a comforting squeeze.
“Did it occur to either of you to talk to me before you trapped my daughter in a lifelong bond?” Ares shouted.
“She was dying,” Blade argued. “We didn’t want to waste time or risk something happening to her.”
Good answer.
And yet, her father only got angrier. “So, you’re saying you only mated her because she was dying?”
Oops.
“Hell, no.” Mace planted his pike in the sand and propped himself against it as if he didn’t have a care in the world. That was his disarm-the-enemy move, and it was born of desperation, because he knew full well that Ares wasn’t easily disarmed. “We love her.”
Ares swung his sword in a motion so fast that Mace didn’t have a chance to react before his pike was sheared in half, and he landed on the ground.
“How long have you loved her?”
It’s a trap. Every question is a trap. Scotty held her breath. Be careful, guys.
“For years,” Blade said, and Scotty’s heart melted.
Her father had a different reaction. “So, you’re telling me you’ve been lusting after my daughter for years?”
“Well, yeah.” Mace picked himself up off the ground. “Look at her.”
Oh, Mace. Wrong thing to say. But she knew why he’d done it. Ever impatient, he wanted to get this over with. Antagonizing a Horseman was certain to jumpstart a battle.
Ares lit into him so fast and hard that Mace, forced to retreat, went down twice more before Blade distracted Ares with a shield bash into his flank.
“Prove you’re worthy of my daughter,” Ares growled, intensifying his relentless attack, knocking Blade back with mighty swings of his sword and flinging Mace around with his bare fist.
“Prove it?” Mace yelled, his temper sparked, his eyes going gold. He was magnificent in his fury, and Scotty’s chest expanded with pride. “We’ve been proving it to you for thirty fucking years!”
Mace launched into Ares like a linebacker, a move her father didn’t see coming. They tumbled to the ground, Mace’s fists pounding into Ares’s face. Blade pinned his legs, and for a heart-stopping moment, it looked like Mace and Blade might actually claim victory.
But with a roar that shook the arena, Ares exploded to his feet, knocking Mace and Blade off him as easily as if they’d been nothing more than pesky insects.
Blade stood, brushing sand off his shirt, but his gaze was locked on Scotty. She’d always been able to read him, and it was no different right now.
I won’t let you down.
Gods. Of course, he wouldn’t.
He held out a hand to Mace. Their hands clasped in a strong grip, and in an instant, they were side-by-side, forming a wall in front of War, Second Horseman of the Apocalypse.
And they weren’t afraid.
Her heart swelled to near bursting. After all these years, those breathtaking males were hers.
As a unit, they advanced on her father.
“We love her,” Blade said, his deep, rumbling voice dripping with truth that could only come from the soul. “If I have to die to prove it, I will. Because I’ll know that Mace will still be here for her.”
“Same.” Mace wiped blood from his nose with the back of his hand.
“I will die for her. I will die for Blade. I will die for this entire family. And you know that. So, if you’re going to kill us for loving your incredible daughter, do it.
But know this. We won’t make it easy. Because we fight for her. ”
Tears filled Scotty’s eyes, and when she looked at her mom, her eyes were brimming with tears too.
“Fate chose well, Scotland,” she murmured.
Scotty swallowed the lump in her throat. “I know.”
Silence stretched. The air stilled. The Memitim watching from the sidelines were frozen in place.
Ares regarded Mace and Blade with cold, battle-hardened eyes.
But as they moved toward him, he smiled.
“You have my blessing,” he said, his voice echoing through the arena. “And my respect.”
With a sob of relief, Scotty threw herself at him. “Thank you, Daddy.” She wrapped herself around him for the biggest, tightest hug ever. “I love you.”
His big arms caged her against him. “I love you, too, my littlest warrior.” He hadn’t called her that since she was a child, and the hitch in his voice put a lump in her throat.
“And those two knuckleheads.” He pulled back and smiled down at her.
“But don’t think this means I’ll go easy on them when we train. ”
She laughed. “No one would ever think that.”
After that, there were hugs and “I love yous” all around. Her parents contacted the Sem families and offered to join in with the existing party planning. An hour later, Scotty found herself back at the compound with the guys, snuggled on the couch to play some video games.
She’d once dreamed of this, of Mace leaning over to kiss her, and Blade doing the same, and now, here they were.
“Maybe we should discuss living arrangements,” Blade said, after he shot a couple of pixelated bad guys.
That was probably a good idea. “I’ve thought about it a little.” She bit down on her bottom lip as she considered her next words. “I loved being with both of you, but I don’t think I want that on a daily basis, you know?”
The memory of being between them, of being engulfed in so much sensuality, made her flush hot and reconsider what she’d just said.
“Agreed,” Mace and Blade said at the same time.
“But maybe like, once a year on our anniversary, we can be together like that.” She took their hands in hers, loving the instant comfort and affection that linked them. “You know, strengthen the mate-bond magic?”
“I don’t think that’s how it works,” Blade said, his voice going a little huskier at the topic of sex, “but it can’t hurt. If that’s what you want, we can work something out.”
Mace shifted on the couch to face her. “But what about the rest of the time?”
She inhaled a ragged breath as a wave of love and arousal washed over her, transferred through the bond from the guys. They were going to need her soon, and she couldn’t wait.
“What if you guys got adjoining suites?” she suggested. “We could have a door installed between them. We can just kind of play it by ear and need then.”
“I like that,” Blade said.
Mace agreed. “I do too.”
Another wave of desire rolled through her, and she realized that the guys were no longer paying any attention to the game. Their eyes, smoldering with banked heat, were on her.
She shivered with delight. “Technically,” she murmured, “it’s still our mating day. We could strengthen the bond even more—oof!”
She laughed as Mace hauled her into his arms and kissed her. Then her laugh turned to a moan as the kiss got hotter. A moment later, Blade was there instead, kissing her senseless.
Winding her arms around his neck, she held on as he lifted her off the sofa and carried her to the suite where they’d changed their lives forever. Mace kicked the door shut and prowled toward them, stripping off his shirt as he crossed the floor.
Smiling with anticipation, she let Blade put her down on the bed, where she admired her new dermoire that announced that she belonged to not one, but two of her best friends.
They’d all known that nothing would ever be the same after the bonding ritual. And they were right.
Just not in the way they’d expected.
But now that she knew what to expect, she lay back on the mattress to watch the guys strip and soak up her good fortune. Someone Aleka could probably name had once said that greed wasn’t a money issue. It was a heart issue.
If that’s the case, she thought as two big, naked warriors descended upon her, I’m very greedy, indeed.