Page 5 of Chosen Spirits (The Bartender Mage #4)

Standing on his tiptoes, Leif did a couple of short hops as he tried to spot his boyfriend amongst the crowd of people leaving the airport terminal.

He was at the right gate, he was sure. Perhaps behind the slow-moving bulwark of orcs in business attire that were headed to a company shuttle?

Leif craned his head, peering between suits, dresses, robes, and bare flesh… but no.

"Hey, darlin'," he heard a familiar voice say from behind him.

Gasping in surprise and delight, Leif spun around, but barely had time to register the approaching boyfriend before he was engulfed in a tight hug.

His first attempt at a return greeting failed on account of his face being smushed up against a muscular chest that was made only slightly softer by the flannel shirt covering it, but after Tucker finished sniffing around his head and neck, he was eventually allowed to pull away and try again.

"Hi!" Leif looked up at the grinning face of his shifter boyfriend, whose eyes were squinched shut and was wiggling his shoulders with delight. "Welcome home. How was it?"

Tucker ducked his head down to give Leif a quick kiss, then grabbed his luggage case and proceeded to put it in the back of Leif's car, parked curbside. "Fun and frustrating in equal measure. I'll tell you about it along the way."

Nodding agreeably, Leif watched for oncoming traffic before getting into the driver's seat. Once he and Tucker were properly buckled, he eased his way onto the road and began the short trip back home from the Minneapolis airport.

"I loved the pictures you sent," Leif began, noticing Tucker adjust his seat as far back as it would go. "It looks like an amazing place to visit!Were the Free Glades as pretty in person?"

"The parts that I saw, yes," Tucker said."Especially Tenabrut itself.I know it's a tourist city, but they take pains to cultivate flowers and greenery throughout, so it was a lot easier on the eyes and the nose than Minnie."

"What was your favorite part?"

"Hmm, tough choice.The public transit system and walkable parts of the city were nice, but I think I'm gonna go with having all the amenities being just more accommodating and spacious.

It was like half the city was sized for orcs and shifters!

Bigger seating booths, bathroom stalls, even the hotel showers. "

Leif glanced at where Tucker was sitting with his knees still nearly touching the glove compartment. "We should plan a trip out there with Rahul."

"Oh, he'd love that, darlin'. We've talked about going a couple of times before, but never actually went.Depending upon where you stay, it can be almost as expensive as vacationing in Hawai'i."

"Should we ask him to plan us an itinerary?"

"We should, and it'll make him as happy as a cat in a sunbeam, but expect to lose him for a few days while he holes up in his office researching every potential site."

"Ha, got it!"

Leif kept his focus on the road while Tucker elaborated on the rest of his ten-day work trip. He told Leif of a few of the places he visited, guided by a familiar face, the druid Joseph Hernandez.

"So yeah, darlin'," Tucker was saying as they pulled into their home driveway, and Leif clicked the button to open the garage door.

"If we do decide to make a trip, maybe we can shoot for this fall so we can attend the shifter festival?

I wouldn't mind picking up a couple of new enchanted outfits. Oh, Rahul's home?"

"He must have gotten back while we were at the airport," Leif said, pulling in next to Rahul's vehicle. He noticed Tucker hurriedly unbuckling his seatbelt, and then undoing the buttons of his shirt while Leif finished parking.

"Thank you, love you," Tucker said in a rush, giving him a quick kiss but still pausing to stroke the side of his face before leaving the vehicle and charging up to the house, tossing aside his shirt as he went.

Chuckling to himself, Leif secured his boyfriend's phone that he'd left in his seat, then gathered the luggage from the trunk before entering the house proper.

Picking up Tucker's discarded clothing as he went, Leif rolled the luggage case to the living room, peering up the stairs to the second floor and seeing a final shed jockstrap. Muffled, joyous barking combined with the faint sounds of a shower told him where his two boyfriends were.

Wait. Shower? Barking? Putting two and two together, Leif rushed to strip off his own clothes. He was still working on his socks when he heard a thunder of footsteps.

"Leif!"

Looking up the stairs, he saw Tucker, now in his massive were-beagle form. Lean, muscular, and coated in short white fur with yellow patches, Tucker was a wondrous sight to behold.

He was also dripping wet, and apparently eager to share.

"I missed you, too, so very much!" Tucker vaulted down the stairs, landing gracefully and sweeping Leif up into his sodden arms, lifting him two feet off of the ground and swinging him in a circle.

"I was gone for so long, and I've been wanting to hug and kiss you forever, especially ever since I saw you at the airport, and now I can! "

Entirely helpless and not minding it at all, Leif happily succumbed to the licks and kisses his needy boyfriend planted all across his face before setting him back down. Leif started brushing off the water droplets.

"All better?"

"Mm-hmm," Tucker agreed, lowering his muzzle to inhale Leif's scent. "Yes, thank you. You are a nice and wonderful boyfriend."

Reaching forward as Tucker knelt down, Leif started massaging the base of Tucker's short floppy ears, earning him a pleased, sustained rumble.

"Our cub is pretty awesome, isn't he?" Rahul asked rhetorically, making an appearance. Coming down the steps, he had one towel draped over his head and shoulders, and was carrying two more. "Alright, puppy, you're getting water everywhere. Shift back human so we can dry you off easier."

Tucker tilted his head at Rahul and started hunching his shoulders. Leif quickly made his massaging more vigorous, hoping to forestall a mischievous chase through the house. Either his attempts were successful, or else Tucker sensed his sudden alarm and decided to play nice.

After drying a human Tucker off together and leaving a trio of towels on the floor to absorb the puddle, Leif headed towards their couch but was picked up and swung over Rahul's shoulders like a sack of potatoes.

"Um," he asked Rahul's ass, before tapping it like a drum as he was carried upstairs, accepting whatever fate was in store for him .

"It's been four days for you and I," his mountain of a boyfriend answered, his rear muscles flexing with each step he took. "And a week and a half for puppy. One way or another, we'd end up in bed. So let's just cut out the middle part and start the cuddles up there."

"Very sensible, babe," he heard Tucker say, then the sound of a kiss.

Relaxing his body, Leif allowed himself to hang limply, his arms swinging side to side.

All too soon, though, he was thrown onto their massive bed that could comfortably fit five or six.

Smiling up at his two boyfriends as they shared a hug and a few heartfelt whispers, he scooted himself to the edge so he could take off his last damp sock.

"Don't get comfortable yet," Rahul told him when he noticed him crawling back over to sit at the headboard. "You need to show us your certification, first."

"Oh, that's right!" Shimmying back off of the bed, he hurried down the hall to his upstairs personal room, where he kept his computer, clothes, and spare bartending supplies. Grabbing the gilded scroll case off of one of his dressers, he made a hasty return.

"C'mon, let's see it!" Tucker said, patting the edge of the bed between himself and Rahul.

Hopping onto the bed, he held the case up while his boyfriends each wrapped an arm around him. Slowly, he twisted the latch on the case and began pulling out the scroll.

One inch free.

"Cub?"

Twoooo inches free.

"Darlin'," Tucker said, and the chastising tone caused Leif to start giggling. "There's teasing, and then there's whatever in tarnation this is. Show us what you're packing, already!"

"Behold!" Leif said through his laughter, unsheathing the scroll. Holding it by the two quartz dowels, he unrolled the parchment.

He couldn't stop a helpless grin as Tucker growled proudly while hugging him, and Rahul traced the shimmering words and elaborate signatures with a finger.

After a moment, Leif stored the scroll away, setting the case on the nightstand before settling into a comfortable cuddle at the head of the bed.

"Have you decided what you want to do with it?" Rahul asked him, running his warm hands up and down his arm.

Leif sighed. "Thought about it, but haven't made a firm decision. I know I want to at least finish my bachelor's degree, first, before I focus too much on a side career. Less than a year to go! In the meantime, I think being a potion supplier for DOMA is working out well enough?"

"Executive Director Wu is going to want to start seeing a little bit more than that on her investment," Tucker said.

He took hold of Leif's left hand, gently tracing the multitude of white scars.

"Not that you haven't already done more than plenty, so don't feel obliged to do so when she brings it up.

But since you're not going to be doing weekly training with Julia anymore now that you're certified, if you want to work more hours than what you get making the weekly supply, you could make yourself available for non-emergency field missions. "