Page 96 of Blood of Two Crowns

The tether between my two male counterparts endowed me with a sense ofbrotherness.Like I could trust these males with my life and that I would protect them with mine. Not that I had any idea as to how much of a life I actually had.

My soul reached out towards Mareina and then Nakoa to see if I could somehow summon them as I walked the shore naked and turned in a circle, eventually settling on the mountainous horizon.

The beat of my heart leapt into my throat when they appeared in front of me. A strangled cry tore from Mareina’s throat when her eyes landed on me, and she launched herself at me, tackling me to the ground.

Laughter bubbled up, though it was cut short when I recognized the shaking of her shoulders as she sobbed against my chest.

“Oh,tessari mú.”

My heart ached for her, for how she must have mourned me.

Nakoa stepped forward, staring down at me. His scarred face and black eyes tense as he held his wings aloft to avoid the sand, tail swaying restlessly in the air behind him in vaguely feline way. The visceral force of his magic pressed upon me as though I could feel it in my chest before I realized I was also feeling a phantom of his emotion.

I clutched onto Mareina though I seemed unable to tear my gaze away from his. The scar on his upper lip pulled one side a little tighter than the other as a tense smile tilted his mouth. The glistening in his eyes had my heart cracking in two, and my hand reached toward him.

He stepped forward and knelt in the sand beside us, draping his long, thick arms over mine and Mareina’s shoulders. My heart swelled to bursting.

Family.

This is what family feels like.

I’d nearly forgotten.

Mareina was the only person I was close enough with to consider family for over half a century since my mother was killed.

What a bizarre and incredible place the physical worlds could be. How fate could alter things in such a beautiful way, no matter how unforgiving.

This felt like a second chance. Even if I didn’t deserve one.

Now that Mareina was in my arms again, a fucking bath was at the top of my to-do list. I couldn’t help but wonder if I looked that filthy,smelledthat filthy, or if Nakoa was just that intuitive,but the moment wefoldedback, he strode into the bathroom to run the shower.

Still carrying Mareina, I followed him inside and set her down. He turned to leave, and I felt the pinch of Mareina’s longing in my chest as if it were my own.Perhaps it was my own…

My stomach gave a nervous leap as the word caught him at the threshold of the bathroom door.“Stay.”

Mareina’s breath stilled as Nakoa stopped, looking at us over his shoulder. Despite the unreadable mask shielding his expression, I could feel the pang of vulnerability bleed through the bond between us. His eyes met mine before dipping to Mareina.

“You wish me to stay,lohane thili?’”

Mareina gave him a watery grin, nodding.“Please.”

Mareinawilledaway the paper-thin, white shift dress she was wearing and stepped beneath the shower. The sight of her nudity had my cock thickening, and by the time my eyes landed on the peaks of her breasts, pebbled beneath the hot water, my cock was already aching and jutting out like an extra extremity in front of me.

And I could see Nakoa, who hadwilleda blood-crusted pair of fighting leathers away, was having the same issue.

Shit’s about to get weird.

For all the debauchery I had partaken in, in all my 250 years of life… I’d never shared a female with another male. Much less the female who possessed me mind, body, and soul.

Mareina’s eyes lifted to mine as I stepped beneath the shower, sliding one hand up my abdomen to my chest. Nakoa returned to the shower, and she reached behind her to pull him against her.

Mareina’s nervousness was palpable, and I failed to stifle a grin. With teeth and fang, she tugged on her bottom lip to hideher own smile as her eyes dropped to the ground but incidentally landed on my cock instead. I took her chin between my thumb and forefinger to return her gaze to mine.“Tessari mú.”

Her lip began to quiver with her emotion like it was begging for the tenderness of my affection.

“You’re different now…”

I nodded, caressing my thumb against her jaw.

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