Page 17

S erena is my mate.

I’ve thought about her nonstop for years, but now it’s different. This isn’t a constant ‘what if’; she’s mine.

“I know you're happy you finally got your dick wet, but could you please pay attention?” Pike’s words make my cheeks burn, but I bite back any smart-ass comeback because he’s not really wrong.

I wasn’t paying attention, and while the way he worded it was crude and not at all the reason for my distraction—well, mostly not—Serena is.

She’s the reason for everything.

Keep your heart eyes to yourself, you're not my type. He throws his head back and laughs as I shoot him a glare.

I don’t have heart eyes, but even if I did, you have no room to talk. You're just as in love with her as I am. Besides, you fuck someone who has my face! What do you mean, I’m not your type?

That only makes him laugh harder, doubling over with his hands on his knees.

“For your information, I’m usually the one getting fucked, thank you,” he chokes out, and by the gods, I wish he hadn’t.

Before I can stop it, my mind makes a mental image, and I’m left gagging as I try to think of literally anything else.

“Holy hell, why would you say that?”

Pike is on the ground now, laughing hard enough that he has tears rolling down his face, and, honestly, I can’t even look at him.

I don’t give a shit what he and Storm do, but damn, I did not need the mental image of my twin fucking him.

It’s too much like myself, and I love Pike, but not like that.

“Your face!” Pike wheezes as he hits the mat below him, gasping for air, and I hope he passes out. “Oh my god, your face! That was amazing!”

Once again, I feel my cheeks heat, this time for a totally different reason.

It doesn’t take more than a thought for me to transform. Large paws taking the place of my hands as I fall toward the mat, and I’m on him in a second. He shifts just as fast while we roll around on the ground like children.

We jump apart before facing off, muzzle to muzzle. His tongue flops out, drool dropping to the floor. While neither of us is human right now, I can see the excitement, read the way he’s baiting me, trying to push my buttons.

It’s working, but I know better than to move first. Pike is big, but he’s also fast and a superior hunter, even when he’s messing around.

When he was younger, his father used to make him catch his meals, or else he wouldn’t get to eat.

So while all our beasts can hunt and are predators, only Pike has ever had to rely on his to survive.

I used to think Pike’s father was the worst man I ever met, and while I still think the world would be better if Lyle had killed him, I think Draven’s kid has it worse. His father is like a real-life supervillain.

Pike whines, unable to stay in one spot for long before he finally caves, darting forward to drag his fat, wet tongue up the side of my face, leaving a line of slobber so thick it’s dripping down my face onto the mat.

That’s it!

I move to lunge for him, but I never make it as I’m plucked out of the air.

‘Children…’

Even in my mind, I hear Blair’s lack of amusement. He stands, transformed from the waist down, his tail wrapped around my waist, holding me still only inches from Pike.

‘Save it for combat training. The fact that I can still reach into both of your minds so easily tells me you're not taking this seriously. If you don’t want to learn to shield your mind so you can hear all about the way we fuck each other.

Or worse, end up susceptible to each other's feelings and feel it as we fuck each other…’

He doesn’t finish, but he doesn’t need to. Instead, he looks between us, brow raised, as if to ask what we want to do.

“If you want to play, that’s fine, but stop wasting Queen Rosalynn’s time.”

I shift back, slipping free from Blair’s tail, and manage to land on my feet instead of my ass, thankfully. The last thing I need is to give Pike another reason to laugh at me.

“It’s fine, Blair. The boys are quite entertaining.

I always hoped to have more children, but the gods didn’t will it,” Queen Rosalynn assures him as she moves to join us on the mats, but I heard the way her voice hitched.

“The gods didn’t will it, but then Serena found us, and I was elated.

I never dreamed that the castle would be so full.

You might not be my children, the way Garrett is, but you are in my kingdom, and you are Serena’s mates, which makes you family in my eyes.

Seeing them playful is refreshing, especially with the state of things lately. ”

She doesn’t need to elaborate for us to know what she means.

Lyle.

Ever since Draven changed him, things have been different. Serena’s been different. Now that I’m not in danger of dying, she has a one-track mind set on finding a way to save him.

Not that I blame her. We all want him back, but while the rest of us have been trying to balance life and saving him, it’s consuming Serena.

My heart feels as though it’s being squeezed as our combined sadness pulses through the bond.

Ouch. Pike and I both clench a hand to our chest at the feeling.

I’m not sure if it’s only our pain or if we just got a hint of Serena’s.

She in no way knows how to close herself off the way we’re attempting to learn, hasn’t a care in the world to learn right now, and I’d be lying if I said I hope she never does.

Feeling her emotions, hearing her thoughts, knowing where she is.

It’s the best feeling in the whole damn world, making me feel complete in a way I wasn’t aware I was missing before we sealed our bond.

Blair remains as impassive as usual, but I can see the way his brows pinch, and I know he feels it too.

“Alright, back to the lesson.” Rosalynn claps, and the sharp sound echoes off the courtyard and castle walls.

“You need to picture a wall, much like the ones that protect the castle, but it needs to be erected in your mind.”

Erected… Pike snorts a laugh in my mind and apparently in Blair’s, as well, because it earns him a smack upside the head. Pike lets out a yip that’s more wolf than man as he rubs at his head and glares at Blair, but says nothing.

If Rosalynn notices them messing around, she ignores them as she continues the lesson, and I try to pay attention to her instructions.

“You can build the wall from the ground up if you need to. Brick by brick is sometimes easier than just throwing down a wall, but it’s up to you on how you do it.

After you have your wall, you must strengthen it and your mind.

Keeping your wall intact at all times will take practice.

Delegating magic to that wall while doing other tasks, both magical and not, will take some time to get used to. ”

I’m in my mind building a wall, brick by brick, with the help of my beast. I’m not sure if that’s normal or not, but I’m too focused to stop and ask. Knowing my luck, if I do, I'll lose the progress I’ve made so far.

“Once your wall is built, let me know, and I’ll check for cracks.” She wiggles her brows at us, and I get the feeling she really is enjoying this, even if it seems like it should be a daunting, pointless task for most people.

“Done.”

I’m not surprised it’s Blair who’s done first. Everyone likes to say I’m the bookworm, and while that’s true, that doesn’t make Blair less smart.

No, if anything, he’s smarter than me. He just doesn’t flaunt it, never answers questions in class unless he’s directly asked, never turns in his tests first, despite being done long before anyone else.

Blair doesn’t like the spotlight or people, really, unless that person is Serena.

I pause on my wall and peek an eye open to watch as Queen Rosalynn attempts to break through Blair's mental shield.

It only takes her a moment before a smile turns her lips, and she claps her hands. “Very good, Blair!” she praises, and I swear Blair’s cheeks look pink and not just from being out in the sun all day.

Even more determined, I go back to my wall and try to make it as strong as possible.

Which is why I’m annoyed as hell when it only takes her thirty seconds to break through.

My only saving grace is that it doesn’t take her much longer with Pike.

“Don’t be discouraged, it’s difficult, and strong emotions make control harder. You will be vulnerable in sleep or when fighting. After a few hundred years, it will be like breathing, I promise.”

Somehow I feel like a few hundred years for Rosalynn is different than it is for us, but I’m not really worried about the guys attacking my mind, more so accidentally sharing something I don’t want to.

Without permission, my mind goes back to the memory of Serena riding me. I’d woken up surprised to be alive only for her to tell me she loved me and proceed to fuck me, snapping our mate bond into place, and leaving me second-guessing if I really had died or not.

Thankfully, it’s dinnertime, and Rosalynn and Blair are already headed to the main hall to eat, so the only one who might have picked up on that would be Pike.

“Damn it, Sol, as if it wasn’t bad enough the first time, I don’t need a front-row seat,” Pike whines, and while I know he’s mostly playing, I can hear the longing in his voice.

He loves Serena just like the rest of us, and I’d bet my life he’s her mate, too. It’s only a matter of time before they are tied together as well.

He’s right, though. We totally forgot he was there until after, too lost in the moment and each other. And while I don’t regret it, not even a little bit, I don’t want to rub it in his face either.

“Sorry, man.” I rub the back of my neck, feeling a little uncomfortable under his gaze.

He holds me in his stare for a moment before his usual easygoing smile pulls at his lips, and I know he’s not mad, even if he is a little jealous.

“I know you are man, no hard feelings. Besides, I say we’re even after earlier.

” He claps me on the shoulder hard enough to make me stumble as he walks past me and out the door.

“Let’s go see our girl, why don’t we?” he calls back, and I don’t hesitate to jog after him until we’re walking at the same pace through a castle that one day Serena will be the Queen of.

Life is a little wild right now, but I have faith in us, in Serena.

I always have.

We catch up with Rosalynn and Blair easily as they talk about the gods of old and make their way to the hall without the tiniest bit of urgency.

“Damn, I hope they don’t run out of those potato things. They’re so good,” Pike whines, and I chuckle at him and his love of food.

They are good. I'll give him that, but most of the food is. A lot of it looks like things we have back home, but the flavors are different, richer in a way I can’t even begin to explain.

I want to get there too, but not for food; well, not that kind of food.

We finally make it through the doors, and Pike and Blair go to the right of the table, and I stay on the left. They like to be able to see Serena, while I enjoy being next to her, touching her.

Garrett said it was because the bond is so fresh, but I hope this feeling never goes away. I love Serena with every part of myself. So much so, that I’d cease to exist without her, unable to breathe, lost in a world with no gravity to hold me here.

As if she can hear my thoughts, she turns toward me. My breath catches, my heart hammers so fast I worry it might just stop as her eyes meet mine across the room and her lips turn up in a smile.

Not just any smile, but the same one I’d seen on her face with my brother and Pike in the library not long ago.

A smile so full of emotions that it gives me butterflies.

I feel like a kid again, back when she was the only girl I ever talked to who didn’t think I was just some geeky kid they could cheat off of.

Damn, I really have loved her for as long as I can remember, even if I didn’t realize it.

I was stupid before, but not anymore. Not with her, never again.

Tomorrow isn’t promised, and I meant what I said to her about not wanting regrets, so with all the castle occupants in the room, I make my way to Serena, my mate, and pull her up from the table to stand with me.

Her eyes are full of questions, but she doesn’t voice them, instead trusting me in a way that only cements the fact that I want this, her, forever.

With the guys, guards, servants, ladies-in-waiting, King, Queen, and everyone else around, I press my lips to hers and kiss her like she’s the air I need to breathe, because she is.

And then rain begins to fall from the sky inside of the main hall, and I can’t help but laugh when Serena squeals as the cold water falls from the ceiling.

I know I did it, a side effect of my emotions bubbling over, I’m sure.

I don’t care to bottle them up; I want to bask in the feeling of loving someone and having them love me back.

I feel her lips pull up in a smile against mine, and I’m thankful for the rain, just like I’m thankful for Serena.