Page 39 of Hexes & Heartstrings (Shifters of Bastion Keep #2)

Following Sergiy upstairs to his quarters, Bruin fought to control his hammering heart.

Here it was, the consequences of Bruin's rash words.

He'd betrayed his mate. Sure, everything had turned out alright, but if that shadow beast hadn't shown up when it had, there's a chance that Lady Yi would have won the challenge, leaving Sergiy in a precarious situation.

Yeah, it all could have gone so much worse. What had he been thinking ?

Russell's grip on his hand tightened encouragingly, which helped a little.

Sergiy entered his living room, his back to them. As Russell shut the door behind them, Bruin watched as Sergiy lowered his head, shaking it back and forth.

"Bruin…"

He shook his head again, gesturing in the air vaguely.

Bruin swallowed. "I'm sorry. I just got so angry at her last night, you should have seen what she did. I know I messed up, and I'll do anything—"

"You wonderful, perfect little mate!" he exclaimed, laughing. "Yes, chudovy, very splendid!"

Sergiy spun around and rushed Bruin, knocking him back against the wall. His lord was kissing him? Shocked, Bruin couldn't do much more than hang his mouth open.

Apparently not content, Sergiy shifted into his weredrake form, picking up Bruin around the chest and swinging him in a couple of circles before kissing him again.

"Messed up?" he hissed delightedly. "Bruin! You spoke for me! You acted in my stead, as my promised, just like in the books!"

With Russell helpfully opening doors, he found himself carried to Sergiy's bedchambers, then thrown onto the bed before being pinned down by an amorous weredrake who kissed, licked, and bit him across his torso, removing his bracelets, necklaces, and crystals as he went.

"Yes, there will be kisses for you too, Russ," Sergiy said after he'd finished stealing Bruin's breath and wits.

Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, he grabbed Russell's hand, then guided the teary-eyed man into taking a seat on his lap.

"My wonderful, loyal wolf. I know today wouldn't have been easy for you. "

"Mm," Russell said with an eloquent rumble, his hands clutching at Sergiy's clothes before enfolding him in his arms and squeezing him.

While Sergiy consoled and praised their boyfriend, Bruin was at last able to breathe and collect his thoughts. It didn't seem to grant him much added insight into Sergiy's behavior, though.

"I don't understand," he said eventually, after giving his two boyfriends a few minutes to catch up. "I thought you'd be mad."

Sergiy grabbed Russell's large hands in his, putting them together and stroking the backs of them before looking over his shoulder.

"Bruin, I'm only one man, and a fallible one at that.

I can't be everywhere and see everything.

It's why I trust my pack to have my back on the battlefield.

It's why I trust you. You saw something in the way that Lady Yi was behaving that neither I, Marka, nor Markos had seen.

You held Bastion Keep to a higher standard than I'd been doing. "

"So I didn't step on shifter culture, or Bastion Keep tradition or anything?"

"Ha! No." Sergiy pivoted towards him, and Bruin took the invitation to scoot closer, allowing their lord to wrap an arm around both his and Russell's waists.

"But why go through with that? Either of you, for that matter?

I know neither of you like conflict. I guess you must really like this place, huh.

Maybe enough that my mate will consider staying after his three years are up… ?"

"Yes," Bruin blurted, putting a hand up on Sergiy's shoulder. "Yes, I'm absolutely staying."

Sergiy's grip on his waist tightened, and he released Russell in order to put the other hand on his chest. His golden eyes were bright, and he looked like he was about to say something, but Bruin discovered that he was babbling over him.

"I have to stay, of course I do, you're both here!

And of course we argued with that tiger bitch, she was being mean and cruel!

You'd never do the things that she did, because you're way more amazing, and I've grown to love this place as much as I love you, with its people, and its fluffy canines, and even Teresa, even if she's kind of muleheaded like—"

Sergiy put a finger up against his lips, quieting him at last.

"Go back a few seconds," he said softly. "Did I hear that right? You love me?"

Bruin's mouth fell open, but no words came out, just a kind of inarticulate orcish grunt. Eventually, he nodded, then nodded harder.

"My stubborn little witch." Sergiy growled, putting his mouth up right against his ear as he trailed a hand down his torso.

"It's about time you admitted it, but your timing could be better, so listen carefully.

Very shortly, I am going to go downstairs to the war room and finish warlord business.

I will be exactly thirty minutes and not a second more.

At the end of that thirty minutes, I am going to return, and then I am going to fuck you.

And then Russ is going to fuck you. Understand? "

"Yes," he squeaked.

Sergiy sat up and away, nearly ripping his own shirt in his haste to remove it before falling back against Bruin, pressing his hot chest against him.

"Russ, it's not every day that a mate confesses his love. I hope you won't mind if I focus a little bit more on Bruin, first."

Russell crossed his arms. "He said he loves me, too. I get half."

Bruin lifted his head up sharply, dislodging a growling Sergiy. "Wait, I did? When? I mean…"

"You said it here." Russell laid a thick finger against Bruin's chest, over his heart. "I heard it."

"Oh," he said. "Well, I do love you, Russell. Just to say it out loud. Light forgive my slowness, but I do love you both."

And then Sergiy sat on one side of him, and Russell sat on the other, and their hands moved across his body and they kissed him.

He couldn't catch his breath.It felt as if he were being carried swiftly down a river towards a raging waterfall, floating both above and below the water's surface, tumbling through its currents.

It felt wonderful.

When Sergiy stood up to leave, adjusting his tight pants in order to better contain—certainly not hide—his burgeoning erection, Bruin sat back on the bed, panting.

"Thirty minutes on the dot," Sergiy said, looking at the two of them with a smoldering promise before leaving the room.

Bruin turned towards Russell, reaching a hand up to scratch his chin.

"So…"

Russell simply grabbed Bruin, flipped himself backwards on the bed with Bruin on top, then tilted his head.

Bruin snorted, then leaned down for the requested kisses.

The next stretch of time felt like no time at all.

By the time that he'd stolen some last few kisses from Russell, showered, performed the accommodation ritual so that he could comfortably bottom for werebeast cock, and grabbed a few other ingredients for a special charm he wanted to cast, Sergiy was already striding back inside.

He was back in his human form, but had a very dragon-like hunger in his eyes when he entered the bedroom, finding Bruin and Russell cuddling on the bed with their hands gently roving.

"That wasn't thirty minutes," Bruin said teasingly, watching avidly as his mate tossed aside his pants and underwear. Sitting on the edge of the bed beside him, Russell started humming, tapping his feet against the floor. "Not unless I'm light-addled and don't realize, or at least heart-addled."

"It's been twenty-two minutes," Sergiy said, looking in his dresser before seeing Bruin pick up and wave the bottle of lube that he'd already grabbed.

"Yacob said I smelled like a dog in heat, and Marka said I was too obviously distracted to continue, so they rushed the meeting.

Even Lady Yi got a dig in, saying that I needed to depart and allow my consorts to fulfill their duties. "

"Mmhmm, I see," Bruin said. "So this is just a job for us, huh?"

"Not by half."

Sergiy's chest rumbled as he walked up to them, his scarred chest rising and falling. He seemed to need a moment to put his thoughts together, so Bruin waited patiently, running a hand over Russell's thigh while his boyfriend rubbed the back of his head.

"Bruin, promised mate," Sergiy said. "You're nothing that I'd ever asked for, but everything that I needed."

Bruin worked his jaw, wincing as he tried to think up a reply, and saw Sergiy blush.

"It sounded better when I was rehearsing it on the way up the stairs," he admitted.

"We can all agree that you're an adorable and skilled fighter," Bruin said, shifting himself back until he was fully on the bed. "But your sweet talk could use some work. So how about you stop talking and do something else with that mouth?"

Sergiy growled, making the shift into his weredrake form and pouncing onto the bed, pressing Bruin down until he was above him.

"That's my line, witch." He lowered his snout down, sniffing Bruin's neck before giving him a tender bite. "And besides, if I stop talking, then I can't order you to wrap that fuckable mouth of yours around my cock, can I?"

And with that, Sergiy thrust his hips forward, his stiffening rod slapping up beside Bruin's tusks.

Bruin turned his head so he could wrap his lips around Sergiy's bright pink shaft, a vivid color against the pale gold of his smooth underbelly. When in either of his drake forms, Sergiy lacked the foreskin that his human self had, so Bruin made sure to take things more gently.

As he pleased his mate, he felt it as Russell moved down to his legs, running his thick, calloused hands up and down Bruin's smooth body. After receiving permission, Russell began stroking Bruin's far-too-hard member, his hand warm as he gripped him.

Bruin kissed the tip of Sergiy's erection, looking up at his straddling mate.