Page 10 of Bottoms Up (Mythic Beast #4)

One year later

Silver

I was so excited about going to Will, Davy, and Micca’s wedding. Okay, so technically it was Will and Micca’s wedding, and then their commitment ceremony to Davy. All three of them were glowing in the leadup to the big event, I was so freaking happy for them.

And a little sad for me. Julian and I are perfect together. We fit in all the ways that matter. He’s mine and I’m his, but it seemed easier to just not tell anyone about us. Not even the band.

Because how do you explain that the man who feeds from your throat, who holds you like you’re precious but then turns around and breaks you apart until orgasms spill out — is someone else’s property?

Yeah. A for-real slave. Not a kink thing. Not pretend. Not just vampire politics.

A slave .

I mean, everyone in the band knows about vampires, so it wasn’t like I had to keep it secret because of that, but still. I kept him hidden, like I was ashamed of something that had nothing to do with him. And I wasn’t ashamed of him . I just…

I wanted him to be free.

I’d even asked Marco if I could buy Julian’s freedom. An easy fix, cut a check, problem solved.

But Marco said it wasn’t that simple. There are contracts, responsibilities, laws older than most countries on the planet.

I let it go after that. Or I told myself I had.

But it was still there. Poking at me.

I have millions of dollars and I rarely spend any of it, so why not buy his freedom? Except I can’t. Money doesn’t buy everything, after all.

But it buys a lot. I have a house and a car. I’d sold the SUV and bought an Audi R8 since I drive curvy mountain roads so often these days, but even that hadn’t made a dent in my assets column, and the money just keeps piling up. Benji invests what I don’t spend, and that works for me.

I don’t actually use my house a whole lot, since I split most of my time between the Beast Castle and Homewood. When we’re writing new stuff and practicing a lot, or when Julian is traveling, I’m with the band. Otherwise, I’m mostly at Homewood.

My invitation to the wedding was for a plus-one, and since I wasn’t taking Julian, I figured it was time the band and my friends met my brother.

When I first found out Hailey and Ghost are stepsiblings, I got so mad.

It isn’t right. It made me sick to my stomach.

Physically ill. At some point, Hailey asked me which of my stepbrothers I wanted there to be more with, and her question made everything click — why I was having such a huge problem with even the idea of it.

I’d had a crush on Benji when we first met, but after a couple of months, I never considered the possibility of more with him.

He’s my big brother and I love him more than anyone else on the planet.

Would anything have happened if I’d wanted to change our relationship?

I honestly don’t know, and it probably doesn’t matter at this point, but I’m glad Hailey asked the question, so I’d realize why I was so pissed about her relationship with Ghost.

And really, it isn’t necessarily gross with them. Their parents split up when they were kids, and they didn’t see each other for a decade. By the time they reconnected, it was a different kind of relationship.

But Benji and I are still siblings. There was never a break — he’s been a video call away from the day circumstances moved us away from each other, and we see each other multiple times every year.

It doesn’t matter we aren’t blood related, he’s my big brother and he’s always been there for me. At least, since we met.

He flew into Chattanooga, rented a Toyota Land Cruiser, and we drove to the resort in North Carolina, with breathtaking views in every direction.

Highlands is only a few miles from Transylvania County, known as The Land of the Waterfalls for a reason, and we planned to spend the week after the wedding hiking, climbing, and enjoying time together in the wilderness.

The SUV was packed with gear: camping supplies, ropes, packs, food to last for days.

But we weren’t roughing it the entire time. We’d booked a few nights in scattered B&Bs, including a mountaintop Swiss-style resort I was dying to see, and we planned to end our trip at a luxury spa in Asheville.

Okay, so maybe I do spend money sometimes.

The spa suite alone was fourteen hundred dollars a night, and that didn’t include the massages, facials, or all the other overpriced pampering we had on the schedule.

I reserved it under my card, which meant I beat Benji to it for once, and yeah, he’ll probably try to make up for it by covering meals, but I don’t mind.

He usually plans our trips and ends up paying for most of it anyway.

Not that it’ll make a dent in either of our accounts — he’s well on his way to being a billionaire, and while I have no desire for that much money, I still have more than I know what to do with.

But Benji has the answer to that, because he invests my money for me. I play around with a small portion, but he gets way better returns than I manage.

The wedding was beyond beautiful, and I met another ancient god. It seems Jupiter has taken an interest in Will’s threesome, and he wasn’t content to just attend. He insisted on officiating both the wedding and commitment ceremonies.

He had a little spiel he said before the wedding part of the ceremony, and the words touched me.

“Fully committed love makes us braver, it allows us to go forth into the world knowing the shelter of someone’s love awaits us at day’s end.

And yet, we are most vulnerable when we love unconditionally.

True love gives us a sweetness beyond any we’ve ever tasted, a treasure beyond any measure of value we’ve ever known. ”

The words hit me like a sledgehammer.

True love .

Is that what I have with Julian?

Did I love him unconditionally? Did he love me unconditionally?

I couldn’t think of any I’d put on him, or any he’d placed on me. He accepts and loves me completely as I am. Unconditionally .

And I’d never asked him to be anything but mine.

Except…

I hadn’t told my friends who he really is to me. I hadn’t introduced him to the band. Not properly. Not like someone I was building a life with.

All because of the one condition I hadn’t wanted to name.

His slavery to Marco seemed to be a condition I’d put on us. Not on him, but on us , on who we are to each other, because I was waiting until he was no longer a slave before I told my friends about him.

Julian has no reason to be ashamed, so why was I feeling shame on his behalf?

My silence, keeping him a secret — that was an unfair condition.

Maybe it was time to stop waiting for freedom papers that might never come. Maybe it was time to tell the people I love who Julian really is to me.

And so, while I watched the most brilliant sunset ever form behind three people officially merging their lives into one, I decided it was time to introduce Julian to my bandmates when I returned from my vacation with Benji.

It didn’t quite turn out that way, and it took a little longer to make it happen, but I didn’t know that, at the time.

After the ceremony, at the reception, imagine my surprise when I found out my brother knew one of the vampires, Bran Petrescu.

I know what Bran is because he’s close to both Hailey and Micca, and he’s been to the Beast Castle a few times, so I was shocked when Benji shook his hand as if they were old friends.

But I didn’t have time to ask about it, because I was needed on stage.

We performed a new song for the first time publicly during the reception.

Will wrote it for Micca and Davy and had kept it a secret from even them.

Honestly, if you just read the words, it’s way over-the-top with the starry-eyed romance, but Hailey worked her magic with the music, and it works when you hear it.

I took a dress for the wedding, but I changed into a suit for the reception, which means that’s what I was wearing when we performed.

I took the tie off during the performance because it bothered me, so it was draped around my neck when I walked away from the stage afterward to talk to Benji and Bran, who seemed to be waiting for me.

“Let’s step away from the crowds for a minute,” Bran told me. “If it’s a good time?”

I looked around, saw Will holding both Micca and Davy, and nodded. “Seems to be.”

“I made a phone call at your brother’s request,” Bran said. “I’ve verified you’ve been oathed by Josef, but I need you to also confirm it for me.”

I glanced at Benji and looked back to Bran, my pulse flickering a little faster. Why was Bran asking this in front of my brother?

I did a mental check. Would confirming it break the oath? After a handful of seconds, I said. “Yeah. Josef. Tall, dark, and handsome.” And dangerous, I figured.

“Okay then, you’ve both been oathed, and you both know I’m a vampire. Remember, neither of you can tell other people’s secrets, but otherwise, the two of you can feel free to talk about vampires.”

The world tilted a little.

Bran looked at me, considering. “This is going to be tricky for you. It’ll feel like there’s something you can share with him now, but it wouldn’t be appropriate.

The person in question will have to be the one to share what he or she is, should he or she wish to, and should they be able to obtain permission to do so. ”

I worked through what he was saying, and it hit me like a splash of cold water.

I couldn’t tell my brother I’ve been dating a vampire. If Julian didn’t want to tell him, or if Marco said he couldn’t, then my brother wouldn’t be able to meet the man I’m dating. And if he somehow found out, that’d be breaking the whole not-my-secret-to-tell thing.

I sighed. “Okay, I see what you’re saying. Thanks for pointing it out.”

Bran left, and Benji said, “Please tell me you aren’t dating a vampire.”