Page 22 of Mated in the Stars

“I don’t need to see it,” Nelum shook his head. “I believe you. Well, I believe my nose anyway. I believe my dragon.”

“Me too,” I nodded. “And I’m not depressed. I’m pensive. Nelum’s not depressed either. At least he doesn’t smell that way.” I leaned over to sniff his shoulder. My head spun. That was a mistake or was it? I laughed and leaned my forehead against his shoulder. He went rigid next to me, and I waited for him to shove me away. My head spun with memories and his new scent. He smelled like he had before but different at the same time. I rubbed my forehead against him trying to make sense of thesurreal moment unfolding before me. We’d found each other in this lifetime – twice now. I laughed again, feeling more than a little out of sorts. Out of sorts probably wasn’t the best way to put it. For a second, I thought maybe I had lost my damn mind but then I remembered the first time I met Nelum. Well, the first time I remembered meeting him anyway. That had made me a little crazy too.

“I’m not depressed,” he said, his pitch rising and voice cracking.

I pulled away as his scent turned nervous. I never wanted to make him smell like that.

“Too much?” I asked, meeting his dark gaze.

“No,” he shook his head and scooted closer to me. “I just realized now that I know this is actually happening, I want you two to like me and I’m like the third wheel and---”

“No,” I shook my head. “You are not the third wheel. You could never be the third wheel with me around. Wherever I am, there will always be space for you. Both of you,” I glanced at Elio.

“Well, yeah,” Nelum let out a nervous laugh. “I want him to like me too! You think you have it hard? Either of you?” his tone turned teasing. “Sure, you’re getting me back. You’re meeting me for the first time while I’m living but I’m meeting you both at once and that’s --- That’s a lot. That’s --- It’s perfect and it’s too much and it’s not enough because you’re not touching me, and I don’t know every detail of your lives and then I worry you’ll think I’m some dumb farm kid and ---”

“No,” Elio squatted down to be on our level. “We don’t think that. Farming is important. People have to eat and have other stuff grown. Do we need to go check on your parents or lend a hand? I know we look like pretty boys, but we are still dragons. He conquered a town once.”

“I did not conquer a town,” I laughed. “I helped keep a town safe.”

“He conquered it. Well, sort of,” Elio laughed.

“They’re okay. I got a message to them and everything,” Nelum said. “But yeah, you’re pretty. Hot. Whatever word you like.”

“He’s flustered, mate,” I grinned at Elio because I couldn’t help it.

“Maybe we should’ve opted for somewhere with more privacy,” Elio said, flashing me a sheepish smile.

Neither of us had considered that the three of us might want more privacy and not less when we plopped our asses down on Laken’s porch. I wasn’t hard, yet. He smelled delicious but his anxiety leaked onto his scent and made me more aware of our surroundings. I had to keep both of them safe now.

“I’ll keep both of you safe,”Elio said over our mating link.

“I have a room here, but I don’t know how private it is,” Nelum said.

Elio and I shared a look that was one hundred percent about our egg waiting in the nest. If we stayed anywhere long, it had to be our house.

“How attached to that room are you?” Elio asked Nelum, pushing himself upright again and holding out a hand to each of us. Sometimes he liked to make a show of pulling me up without my help but today I wasn’t in the mood to be tugged on until he found his center of gravity. So, I rose with his pulling.

Upright, we all stood close. Almost too close and at the same time, not close enough. I put an arm around each of them and pulled both of them in close. Elio let out a long breath and Nelum squeaked, his face turning bright red. He was hard and his dick pressed up against me.

“It’s okay, mate,” I whispered against his temple.

He nodded and buried his face in my chest. I kissed the top of his head, feeling at home in a whole new way now that he’d come back to me. Part of me never believed that I’d stand herewith both of them at the same time. No one could be that fucking lucky but somehow, I was.

“What are you going to do to my room?” Nelum asked a second later as if he’d only then remembered the question.

“Nothing?” Elio said, bemusement lacing his words.

“You asked how attached I was to it,” he said.

“Oh, I meant in staying there. We don’t destroy homes here. We’re not demo crews trying to build parking lots. We sort of have someone waiting at home and we need to be there for them.”

“You have another boyfriend?” Nelum asked, pulling back from us.

“No,” I laughed. “We have an egg in the nest. We also have a toddler who you have already met.”

“Yeah. He calls me mum too now. Just so you know,” Nelum rolled his eyes.

“He likes to emulate his older brother,” I frowned. “Sorry about that. We’ll talk to him.”

---