Chapter 5
Chloe Landry
Icome awake slowly, my brow creasing from the lack of sounds as I realize I’m not at home. I can’t be, because by now one of my younger sisters would be yelling and bringing down the house.
I open my eyes, and my gaze lands on Sebastian in a chair across the room from me, flipping a wicked looking knife in his hand. He’s dressed in newer clothes, but they’re much the same, a white lawn shirt and brown pants that make him look like an explorer.
I glance about the room and take in the white canopied four poster bed I’ve been sleeping in. I look under the covers and find I’m dressed in a soft linen shirt and nothing else. I’m willing to bet it was Sebastian who changed me.
“Oh good. You’re awake.” Sebastian smiles, getting to his feet and making his way towards me, and I can’t help but smile at the boyish grin that lights up his face.
He reaches my side and bends down to kiss my forehead, sending warmth and affection soaring through my chest. I’ve dated lots of men over the years, but I’ve never had a mate, never felt this driving need that now seems to permeate between us.
“How are you feeling? Do you want some water?” he asks, reaching for a glass on the bedside table to hand to me.
I wave him away with a shake of my head, my gaze searching as I realize I’m missing something.
A wide grin pulls across Sebastian’s face, and he nods towards the open window blowing a soft breeze into the room. “He left a bit ago but will be back soon.”
A sinking feeling enters my chest when I remember how the ceiling caved in and how I could have lost them both, or never found them at all.
My spirits lift when my mummy walks into the room, the corners of my lips turning up at the sight of him.
He’s very handsome when not covered in the mummy wrappings.
His head is bald and a deep purple like the rest of him.
He wears oversized flowy white pants and a matching shirt like beachwear, unbuttoned.
“You’re awake,” the mummy says, his voice deep and smooth like velvet, not omnipotent like before.
“Hi,” I say, blushing when he does the same as Sebastian and moves to kiss my forehead before smoothing my brow.
“Hello,” the mummy answers, his purple face morphing into a smile as he pulls away.
“I’m Chloe.” Introducing myself, even though we’ve already made it to first base, and I watched him reach third with Sebastian.
“I’ve been called many names, my Chloe, and you can call me whichever you would like, but I am most known by the name Ausar,” he says, with a bow.
I can't help but notice his biceps ripple beneath his shirt as my jaw drops.
“Umm, where are we?” I ask, trying to peek around them to the window.
“Bermuda,” Sebastian answers with a wink, leaning back against one of the columns of the canopy bed.
A memory of Ausar saying that before I blacked out comes to mind. “Blow me to Bermuda?”
“Exactly,” Sebastian grins.
“We’re safe here, as this place is where I would travel to seek solitude before my imprisonment.
May I see your arm?” Ausar asks, and I hold it up for him to see.
He frowns, but doesn't move to touch me, only shakes his head. “It should’ve never happened this way. The bracelet should never have hurt you”
“I’m fine. Sebastian healed me up while we were in the tomb,” I say, showing them my unblemished wrist and giving them both a smile.
“What he’s trying to say is that we would never want to hurt you, Chloe,” Sebastian says, crossing his arms over his chest. “The magic wasn’t supposed to do that.”
I smile to myself a little as I watch Ausar do the same, sitting on the mattress while leaning against the opposite bedpost to talk with us.
I realize it could be like this always. These men are my mates.
“I’m sure you have lots of questions for us?”
I nod and try to think of where to even begin.
“We should start from the beginning, so she knows everything,” Ausar interjects.
I give him a grin and settle back into the pillows, pulling the blanket cozily over me. I wish I had popcorn. “Yes, please. I’d love to know all about you both.”
“Go on then, let’s hear the story,” Sebastian says, climbing onto the bed to lay his head on my thigh.
“Eons ago, my ancestors arrived on your planet and eventually came to rule Egypt.”
Oh my gosh, he really IS alien.
“Eventually that task fell to my family for some time. My sister was a beautiful and sweet-tempered soul who only wanted to love animals and help the unfortunate, until my father regrettably bartered her to a monster. My father was a good man and saw that the neighboring kingdoms to the south were slowly being overrun. A warlord from a far land came to Egypt, seeking to overtake those who couldn’t protect themselves, but he made it known that he wanted Nefertiti, my sister, as a wife.
My father, in my absence, bade my sister marry him. ”
“What happened to her?” I murmur, knowing it won’t be a fairytale if that’s how I found him.
“My father was easily influenced, and his advisors urged him to broker my sister’s marriage behind my back in the hopes that the bloodshed would end.
Once I discovered what they'd done, I traveled to the warlord’s stronghold, expecting to find and return her home.
Instead, she turned on me the moment I arrived.
In the short time after her marriage, she had met a powerful sorceress, the warlord’s head adviser.
She’d twisted my sister and turned her from sweet to cruel and vindictive.
Nefertiti locked me away in that tomb, cursing me,” he says, his head hanging in shame.
“Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry,” I reply, unsure how anyone could be that cruel to a sibling. I barely tolerate my family most days, but locking them in a tomb forever? That’s a new level of cruelty.
“And there I stayed until—”
“Until me, which I’m sad to say didn’t help matters,” Sebastian cuts in. “In 1882—”
I gasp, and both their attentions snap to me. “Sorry. It just hadn't fully clicked how old you guys really are,” I mutter, feeling strange and very much like an infant with only thirty-one years under my belt.
“Over five thousand,” Ausar says, with a shrug of one shoulder.
“I’m a youngster in comparison, only a hundred and forty-three,” Sebastian says, bouncing his brows.
I give a laugh, and they both smile in response, forcing me to tamp down the thread of desire that rears its head.
“I was hired by a wealthy lord to excavate a burial site in Egypt,” Sebastian admits, raising his blonde head from my leg.
“Then how were you guys still down there, Sebastian?”
“I’m getting to that part. Also, call me Seb,” he says, flashing a grin.
“I was on an archaeological dig in Egypt and fancied myself a card sharp. Lady luck and the card tables were my first love, and I did well for myself too. Until one night in Cairo, when agent took offense and accused me of being a cheat. He’d heard tales of another tomb, so labyrinthine that people would get lost within it.
He had a handful of his men lie in wait to ambush me. I’m sure you can guess the rest.”
I blink, knowing I probably look like a fucked-up owl, but hello? I’m mated to an ancient being and a gambler from the eighteen hundreds.
“Right. And how was the bracelet supposed to work?” I ask, gesturing at the now massive gold cuff on Ausar’s arm.
“That was my fault, I think,” Seb confesses, his brows pinching into a scowl.
“How?”
His face clears as he moves to sit beside me at the head of the bed, tugging me so I lay against his chest. “After I was left for dead in the tomb, I ventured through the tunnels for days until I found the throne room, except it didn’t look like it did yesterday.”
“My power was much greater then,” Ausar offers.
Seb waves a hand in the air. “There was far more gold and opulence everywhere.”
“What happened?” I ask, wondering why there were only a couple gold pillars left when I was there.
“I was injured and half dead by the time I made it to him, is what happened. In saving me, he sacrificed part of his magic. After a few years, I fell for the big dope,” he grins, and kisses the air in Ausar's direction.
It makes sense, as sometimes mate bonds can grow from love alone.
Ausar laughs in response, and the corners of his eyes wrinkle with laugh lines.
“Then why the bracelet?”
“After about a hundred years, his power started failing, but when we found out about you, we knew that you could free us all.”
I stiffen and tilt my head to look up at him. “What do you mean you found out about me?”
Ausar clears his throat and my gaze tracks to his. “The gold and trappings are tied to my magic, you see. I performed a spell seeking out any other potential mates, hoping that he or she would free us from my sister’s prison. I spent a great bit of my power to send my arm cuff to the location.”
“Leaving him dormant, which is how you saw him in the throne room. But I think I woke him up too many times before we tried to find you,” Seb reveals.
“Oh, my gods,” I breathe, my hand going to my chest at what they've been through.
“I performed the spell during Samhaim in the hopes of increasing the cuff’s abilities, not knowing what era you’d be born. However, it’s possible my sister’s curse impacted the magic,” Ausar muses, rubbing a hand over his smooth purple jaw.
“Every few years I would grow so lonely that I’d wake him. He’d stay with me for as long as he could, until he had to go into stasis again. After a while, I got pretty creative with how I'd wake him up,” Seb says, with a lascivious wiggle of his brows that makes me giggle.
It’s truly astonishing that he was able to wake Ausar at all if he really did spend the last of his magic to find me.
“Eventually I found the fastest way, which is what you saw.”
I bite my lip and can't help but snicker at the knowledge of how my mate casually brought a dead guy back to the land of the living one blowie at a time for years.
“And you have powers because…” I ask, staring up at Seb expectantly.
“I pushed more magic than I should have to save him and after, I couldn’t let him go.”
Butterflies take flight in my stomach when Seb squeezes me to him, and I catch Ausar’s gaze and realize how there's not a hint of jealousy between them.
Just love. My men truly love each other.
It's clear from the way they tend to answer questions for each other and the soft subtle looks between them.
“And now you have saved us both in return, Chloe,” Ausar continues.
The butterflies increase in tempo. I frown suddenly, wanting to feel them both, wanting both of their touches on me.
Getting to know them, seeing their love and how they’re so ready to share it with me, is more than I could have ever asked for.
I’m so happy, and it makes me want to strengthen our bond.
“Come, Ausar, our mate needs us,” Seb announces, rubbing a hand down my side gently.
“How did you know?” I ask, my hand going to my throat at how sultry it sounds.
Seb raises off the bed with a wicked grin. “The mate bond, my darling.”
My brows come together as they move in unison. “Wait, where are you going?”
Seb turns to me, a wide grin on his face. “Don’t worry, I’m not going far. I promise. I’ll be right back.”
He backs away to give me and Ausar space.
“I do need to ask if you want this, my Chloe,” Ausar intones from the foot of the bed, stealing my attention. “I don't want to rush or push you into something you don’t desire. I am not human, and I know that’s strange.”
“You’re magnificent. You both are,” I say, emotion trying to clog my throat.
I rise up on my knees, pushing the linen nightdress up so I don’t trip and fall as I make my way across the bed to him. Tenderness floods me when he opens his arms as soon as I get close, and he reaches one of his strong purple hands to caress my face while the other wraps around me.
I melt from just his touch, turning inward to kiss his palm.
An expression I can't read comes over Ausar as he gathers me into his arms for a full hug. Affection and warmth flood my veins, filling my being so suddenly that tears swell in my eyes.
“You’re crying?” he asks, making the sound of a distressed male.
“Kiss her!” Seb calls out, but what’s weirder is how Ausar quickly moves to obey.
Their dynamic is so very different to anything I've experienced, even in my romance books, and I find I like it.
His hands smooth down my hair, and I faintly register that it’s not as frizzy as it was before while his lips descend on mine.
His mouth is so tender, and his embrace sure as he pulls me to him. Happiness comes over me, along with a sense of certainty that, from this moment on, my life is going to be irrevocably changed. I smile against his lips as I press my hands to his smooth face.
“I never wish for you to cry again,” he says, pulling away, his lips caressing the shell of my ear.
He kisses down the side of my face, his magic becoming more potent with each touch of our skin.
“I’m crying because I’m so happy. I can’t help but feel the rightness between us. I do want you,” I tell him, stretching to nuzzle his neck, wanting to reassure him. “I want both of you.”
I reach my hand out to Seb, who takes it, kisses it, and then lets go. I wrap my arms tightly around Ausar, twisting my hands in the soft cotton of his shirt, and he claims my mouth in a ferocious kiss that sends me reeling.