Page 37 of Mated in the Stars

The half open mating link made my head spin. I couldn’t hear Fred at all, but Elio’s thoughts came in loud and clear. Only he couldn’t hear me when I answered. I shook my head as if I could shake away the confusion but only time and magic would clear that away.

“Someone tell me what to do?!” I whined, the heat creeping back into my brain. “Thrust or bite?”

They were both quiet and for one insane second I feared that they didn’t hear me at all. Then Fred was outside my body again and pulled me back. He turned me to face him and shoved my head in the crook of his neck on the side that was naked of any claiming bites. Elio followed his lead, sliding into my body andlaying his claiming bite. Had they planned over the mating link? I hadn’t heard anything on Elio’s side of things.

“I gotcha,” Fred said, wrapping his arm around me. “I gotcha both.” His words were laced with need but more so with a comforting tone that rained down over me. I licked at his swollen claiming gland and Elio slipped back into my body as his mouth found mine. I wrapped one arm around Fred and moaned against his gland. A second later, my dragon forced his canine back out of my mouth again and I bit him. Fred tasted like a freshly poured shot of liquor into a fruity drink. I almost laughed from the giddy feeling flooding into my brain. Somewhere in the background club music pulsed through my blood and if I weren’t held tight between the two I might’ve danced myself out of the bed. This was the past. This was the before but this was also so fucking much my right fucking now. The music throbbed inside me, pulsing through my atoms. We danced. This had to be Glitter Bomb. Fred grinded on me and I rubbed my ass all over him working him into a frenzy despite the crush of the bodies on the dance floor. He’d dick me down like I deserved in payback when we made our way upstairs tonight. I shook my head. Fred and Elio had been ‘dicking me down’ most of the evening. More memories came. There were our ‘egg brats.’ There were the doctors and my friends. That damn band that was everywhere on the Earthside internet. The Grim Howlies or whatever they were. My parents. My babies. My Freddie. My music. My late night dinners at Mama Dragon’s. My concerts. My friends. They all swirled inside my head as if I’d bitten my past life self rather than Fred.

Then the memories shifted and I saw more of him – as a club owner, a conqueror and whipper-into-shaper of Green Bay before it was The GGB territory. Him staring down the trigger side of a gun to keep his people safe. He was my Freddie. How hadn’t I known that from the moment I saw our kid in thewoods? How had I ever forgotten him or Elio? Sure, Elio was new but were living brains so much dumber than souls that they could forget so many important people so easily? Was death so powerful. Tears welled up in my eyes. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want death to have the last word.

“Never,” Fred shook his head, picking up my thoughts bright and clear now over our mating link. The flight link was sometimes patchy for me, but the word was clear as crystal. “I can’t promise that none of us will ever die but I do promise I will find you again. You and Elio. Whether I’m dead or alive or somewhere in between. Death doesn’t get the last word on that. Where we are concerned there will never be a last word uttered because I will always find you again.”

I met his gaze, blinking away my tears. Elio, still inside me, kissed my cheek and nodded his agreement. Freddie was right. Of course, he was right. We were back together now, weren’t we? And probably not for the first time. Elio was with us too now.

“Do you need to take a break?” Fred asked us both.

“No,” I shook my head. “I really need this. I feel like I’m on fire, Freddie.”

“We got you,” Elio said and thrust forward into me.

A moan bubbled over my lips and this time I didn’t even have the brain cells to rub together to bite my lip. I let it tumble out of me as I clung to Freddie for dear life. He rocked his hips until our bodies aligned and the thick head of his dick rubbed against my shaft. Once he found his place, he kept it, rubbing us together over and over matching the pace of Elio moving inside me. I lost myself to them. Everything else had to wait. So many loose ends from my past life floated in the back of my mind but they’d wait too. I was here – back with my Freddie and Elio. Back where I always wanted to be.

Elio’s dick twitched inside me and his pleasure rained down on me over our mating link. Everything felt so fucking good thatmy brain pulsed with it. I leaned my forehead against Freddie’s shoulder to ride out the sensations hitting me in every direction over our mating link.

His pleasure spiraled over my dick and mingled with mine and Freddie’s as the latter continued to rub us together. So close. So fucking close. My nails dug into Freddie as I finally came making a mess of us. Both of my guys weren’t far behind me. Fred threw his head back in victory and a little stream of fire escaped his lips when he roared his pleasure. Elio was quieter but his pleasure vibrated through me as his warm, sticky seed spilled into my body.

We fell onto the bed in a tangle of arms and limbs. We were a mess but we were a happy mess.

Chapter Nineteen

Fred

Lotus’s heats always ran long. I didn’t allow myself to dwell on those memories too long but that night as we all fell asleep a tangle of limbs and pleasure, I knew we were in for the long run, even if a few days had already passed. Maybe I was crazy. Maybe I’d picked up some seer shit somewhere along the way but I wasn’t wrong about that being something Nelum carried into his current life.

Our lives settled into a heated rhythm of napping, talking, eating, and romping, of course. We lost hours and days to giving into the ebbs and flows of Nelum’s heat. With our mating link wide open to the three of us we might’ve sank into our own world and never ventured out if it wasn’t for our egg and Minter. Any time we walked past the nesting room, we polished the egg and spent some time with it. Then we’d remember that people outside of the house hadn’t forgotten about us. Elio and I took turns going to visit Teddy and Minter. That was the great thing about being a polycule. Did three qualify for that? Maybe. I wasn’t sure anymore. We were definitely a closed polycule, though. At least for now. Who knew what the future would bring?

One afternoon, I woke up from a post-romp nap with both of my mates resting their heads on my chest. They were out cold and wiggling away from them felt like a crime against humanity. Still, I needed a shower, a snack, and to go check on the egg brats. I kissed both of them on the forehead and neither of them stirred in their sleep. Nelum was still warm to the touch, but no longer scorching. I couldn’t remember the last time he slept longer than a few days. I wasn’t even sure what day it was.

After grabbing a shower and heading into the kitchen, I popped one of those pre-cooked meals that the flight sent over into the microwave and grabbed my phone to see how long I’d been lost to my mates. Ten days. Not the longest time I’d spent lost to the magic of true-mateship. Sure, things weren’t over yet, but they were definitely starting to calm down.

After eating I scribbled a note letting my guys know I was just across the way at Teddy’s if they needed me. So much had happened since Elio laid our egg that I hadn’t spent much time checking in with Teddy about how he felt about everything. He and Lotus were close. He adored his carrier and losing a good parent is something you never get over. Sometimes I missed mine too. They were still alive and that felt like a throat punch every time I thought about it. Those jackasses lived on while my Lotus died. I didn’t miss them. I missed who I needed them to be when I was a hatchling. I missed the people who never were. At least, Teddy didn’t miss phantoms. Lotus was real and solid and one of the kindest people I ever had the honor of knowing.

As usual, the front door was unlocked. Minter lay on his belly on the carpet with a coloring book scribbling away at making an oversized cartoon dotter a neon green color while Teddy scrolled through his phone on the sofa. Minter, his brows screwed up in concentration way older than his years, didn’t look up when I came into the house. Teddy waved but didn’t look up from his phone.

“Any news?” I asked the elder of the boys.

“Not really. Daliah’s sort of pissed that Seq hasn’t come home yet. I talked to him. He’s loving his way through the tourists of some tropical island somewhere. Not loving the hurricanes but he’s finding ways to survive,” Teddy smirked.

“I bet he is,” I laughed, sitting down in the armchair nearby. “Daliah should be more worried about Rosemary and her egg.”

“She was. I think that’s why Seq took a vacation. His whole life changed too when Daliah met Rosemary. She seems nice enough from the few times I spoke to her. Daliah wants to put something together so that we’re all back on the same planet for a day at least. She might even try roping you into paying for another wedding for them so that everyone could be there.”

“I would. She knows it too. I’ve been thinking about how to get everyone back together too, honestly, egg brat, but I needed to talk to you first. How are you holding up?”

“I’m upright,” Teddy shrugged. “Well, proverbially, anyway.”

“Yeah, you look pretty flat right now,” I gestured to the sofa.

“Yeah. We’re chilling out today. Minter’s determined to murder that green crayon down to a nub. I’m his cheerleader,” Teddy grinned.

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