Page 27 of The Maestro's Mates
“No, no, don’t you dare. It’s about time you found yourself someone to care about. Orsomeones, I guess.”
“It’s not going to happen.” Justin had to be crystal clear on that, especially with Anthony. Once the coven masterdecided on something, he was as tenacious as a dog with a bone.
Justin turned to Sebastian, hoping for backup, but the tall, thin man tucked his long legs up underneath him, smirking like he was watching a particularly exciting housewife fight on a reality show.
“Why not?!” Anthony crossed his arms and sat across from Justin. “Explain.”
“Yes, Justin, please explain,” Sebastian seconded in his infuriating, teasing tone. Justin looked back and forth between them. These two were peas in a pod.
A dam burst inside of Justin. “Because I owe too much to this coven, and I haven’t even started to pay it back! Because I fall in love and then tragedy strikes! I mean, God, Anthony, the last time I had a crush, Oscar and Trent nearly died!”
Anthony sighed, his face softening. “Justin, you made bad decisions. But you were in a tough situation, and you wanted to protect your aunt. You’ve more than made up for it. You are a valuable member of the Grosvenor coven, and more importantly, everyone here wants you to be happy. That doesn’t mean living like a monk.”
“Yes, Imakebad decisions when my heart is involved. I won’t drag Sebastian, or Pavel, or this coven down into my mess.”
Anthony turned to Sebastian. “What do you think about all this?”
Sebastian shrugged. “I’m a chaos witch. In my experience, everything works out, usually in the most ridiculous way possible. He’ll come around.”
Anthony rolled his eyes, then leaned over and grabbed Justin’s hand in his own. His fingers were cool and comforting.
“Justin. You deserve to have partners, people who support you and love you. What if these two are your mates?”
Sebastian rocked back and forth a little, a gleeful expression on his face. “Oh, wedefinitelyare.”
“See?” Anthony’s piercing gaze was a laser into Justin’s brain, carving out some tumor it found there. “If fate thinks you should be together…”
“Sometimes fate isn’t enough,” Justin whispered. Anthony’s kind words had leached away some of his fear, but he couldn’t let go of his doubt.
“Justin’s right.” As one, all three turned to see Pavel walking through the stairwell. And…he was completely naked.
“Well, at the very least, you two lucked out in one department,” Anthony said, and all the blood rushed to Justin’s face. The vampire buried his head in his hands.
Jumping up from his seat, Anthony headed to a closet back by the door to the kitchen. He rummaged around inside and pulled out a black trench-style topcoat decorated with a subtle navy-blue pattern. He draped it over his arm and bounced back over to Pavel.
“Here. This is Freddie’s, so it should be plenty big enough to cover you up.”
Anthony was right. The coven master was tall enough that the bottom of the coat brushed the floor when Pavel put it on. The gargoyle wrapped it around himself, tying it at the waist.
Anthony gestured to an empty chair, but Pavel shook his head, demurring. Anthony shrugged and plopped back down.
“What do you mean, I’m right?” Justin asked, his embarrassment slowly draining out of him.
“Fate is all well and good,” Pavel said in his rumbling masculine voice, “but circumstances matter. If Justin doesn’t wish to be mated, he shouldn’t be. And no one should want to bemymate.”
Sebastian collapsed back in an exasperated, albeit performative, gesture, his limbs flinging themselves every which way.
“How did I end up saddled with the two of you? The whole point of fate providing mates is to skip this boring shit and get straight to the boning.” Sebastian sat up again and swept his long black hair out of his face with flair. “Don’t you want to get to the boning?”
Anthony giggled, which didn’t help Justin’s confidence. It was a bad sign if the coven master’s mate was aligning himself with Sebastian. They were each unpredictable enough on their own. Put them together and…not good.
Pavel closed his eyes and breathed in, like he was addressing a toddler. “I’m sure any boning would be very fun. But being mated to a gargoyle is no picnic. Especially one as old as me.”
“How oldareyou?” Anthony asked. “You look all of, I don’t know, forty?”
“I’m over three thousand years old.” Pavel sighed. “I’m set in my ways, and I’ll only get more so with time. I’m slowing down. Soon, I’ll…”
“You weren’t so slow when you shot us out of the roof of the Manhattan Lyric Opera!” Sebastian said, squealing and clapping. Justin couldn’t understand why Sebastian was excited by the memory.He’dbeen terrified.
