Martin kissed the top of my head and released me to face the four angry males behind me. It seemed that Deryn wasn’t the only one who had jealousy issues. Fox’s jealous face was the most surprising of all.
“Guys, this is Martin, my best friend. Martin, you know Deryn. This is Rhys, Fox, and Nico,” I introduced them.
“Martin, your ex-boyfriend?” Fox asked, taking a step closer to me.
It seemed the best thing to do would be to ignore them. So, I turned around, putting my back to the foursome.
“Do you know where we are going?” I asked Martin.
“Yeah. Deryn sent me the address beforehand. I’ve actually been there a couple of times. It’s a gorgeous place. You’ll have a ton of fun,” he told me and opened the passenger door of the SUV for me.
Before the guys could object, I climbed inside and buckled my belt. The four jealous males climbed into the back, glaring daggers at Martin who climbed in the driver’s seat with a wide smile on his face.
“All set?” he asked them, draping his arm across the back of my seat to turn around and look at them.
“Martin,” Deryn growled in warning.
“Great!” Martin said and started the car. “Jo, do you want to pick the music?”
Martin was obviously doing this to rile them up. Why? I wasn’t sure, but I was sort of enjoying it. As twisted as that was.
“Thanks,” I told him and started shifting through the various stations. “Hey, remember that time that we snuck out of town and went to the country music concert?”
His driving had always been great, so I didn’t worry about distracting him. He tugged on my hair and then twirled it around his finger. “Oh, you mean that night that you got so hammered, that I had to pull you off of the stage and you almost puked in my truck?”
“Was that the night that we ended up sleeping in Mr. Archer’s corn field?”
He nodded. “We woke up covered in dirt and leaves,” he said and laughed. He turned to look at me while we were stopped at a red light. “You still looked beautiful, even covered in dirt.” He winked and there were at least two growls behind us.
“Oh,” Martin whispered and reached into the center console. “The girls sent this for you.” He pulled out a bracelet of braided hair.
“What is this?” I asked, confused.
“It’s their tail hairs. They took turns plucking hairs from each other’s tails and then braided it into a bracelet for you,” he explained.
I gingerly took the bracelet and felt tears stinging my eyes. “Oh, wow.” It was very soft and was made up of a few different colors.
“They told me to tell you, ‘we love you, Auntie Jolie and we hope to see you soon’. They wouldn’t stop talking about seeing you for like, a week.”
“I wish I could see them more,” I mumbled and sniffed against the tears threatening to spill.
“No reason you can’t,” Martin reminded me. “We’re living in the same city now.”
“I told you. You know why. And don’t for a minute act like a part of you doesn’t agree with me.”
He sighed and set his hand on my knee. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to start a fight.”
“Get your hand off of her,” Rhys ordered him with a snarl.
I turned and faced the four, incredibly angry, males. “Hey! You four need to chill out.”
“Stop flirting with him,” Fox accused.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not flirting with him. We are talking as friends. He is my friend. He has a mate who he loves and two daughters with said mate. His mate is my other best friend and I love his daughters. I would never come between them, even if there was something between us. But, there isn’t! You all are being incredibly jealous, and I don’t appreciate it. Not one bit.”
Thankfully, the four of them had the decency to look cowed, even though I knew that they likely weren’t done being jealous.
Martin had removed his hand, but as he faced forward, watching the road ahead, I saw the smirk on his lips. Did Dan have an ulterior motive in sending Martin to drive us?
“How long will it take to get to our destination?” I asked Martin, turning to face the front.
“About an hour,” he answered.
An hour of awkward silence between my males and me. Mine. When did I start thinking of them as mine? They did call me their queen, and the bond made, them my guards.
“Jolie,” Fox whispered.
I turned slowly towards him, and found them all staring at me with various expressions, but luckily none looked mad.
“What are you thinking about?” Fox asked.
“Nothing,” I mumbled and turned away, looking out the window to my right to avoid all of their gazes.
“She’s always been a terrible liar,” Martin said to the guys. “She thinks she is good at it, but she’s quite terrible.”
“We know,” Nico replied tersely.
No more words were spoken on the rest of the drive. Our destination turned out to be a gorgeous field of green grass with a few trees and a beautiful lake not far off. Martin helped the guys unload everything and then hugged me tightly before leaving.
Standing alone, I looked out over the sea of grass and watched it sway in the breeze.
“We’re sorry,” Fox whispered behind me.
“It’s fine,” I whispered back and headed towards the lake.
“Can I walk with you?” Rhys requested.
“Sure,” I replied, but still didn’t turn to look at him. This land was beautiful, but it reminded me a bit of home.
His fingers laced through mine, and he walked by my side silently. I stopped at the edge of the lake and looked out at the clear water. I could see all the way to the bottom, even far out from the beaches.
“We didn’t realize how much it would bother us to see you with another male, since we all share you so easily,” he whispered to me.
“I wasn’t with another male,” I reminded him. Seriously, what type of girl did they think I was? Oh, right. A girl that slept with one of them the first night she’d met him and went out with them all in the same week.
“Seeing you touch another male,” he amended. “We all laughed at Deryn for his fit of jealousy, but then we all felt it. I understand that you and Martin are simply friends, but it doesn’t change how it feels to see a male hugging you.”
“So, I can’t touch any other males?” I asked.
He sighed. “I would prefer if you didn’t, but we of course aren’t going to do that. It would help if you would just keep our feelings in mind when you do touch other males. We don’t touch other females and wouldn’t if you asked us to.”
“I’m not going to apologize for hugging Martin,” I told him and turned to face him.
He smiled and rested his hand on my cheek. “We don’t want you to.”
“You keep saying, ‘we’ instead of ‘I’. Why?”
“Because we all agree on these topics. We’ve all discussed them.”
“How could you have discussed this when we were silent in the car?”
“Text message,” he replied with a chuckle.
I rolled my eyes, but laughed too. “I should have known.”
He lowered his head towards me, seeking a kiss, but hesitated. “Are you still mad?”
“No,” I replied honestly.
“Can I kiss you?”
“You may.”
His lips brushed mine and then he kissed me firmly.
“You said you won’t touch other females. Does that mean ever? Like, you four won’t sleep with other women the rest of our lives?” I asked him softly.
He nodded. “You’re our queen. You’re my queen. You are the only female for me. If I took another lover, it would divide my attention and you could be hurt or killed due to my distraction. Plus, I care about you and I wouldn’t want to hurt you by being with another female.”
“What if I said you could?” I asked him. I truly didn’t want to know or see them with other lovers, but it just didn’t s
eem fair to them.
“You want me to have another lover?” he asked, his hand still on my cheek.
“No, but you four are sharing one female between you. It’s hardly fair.”
“As long as you are in my life, and I get moments like this, I will be happy.”
His statement made me ridiculously happy and made me feel even more selfish. It should be wrong for me to be so happy that they only wanted me. I was an incredibly selfish creature and I didn’t deserve any of them.
“Rhys, can I see your dragon form?” I requested. “I didn’t really get a chance to admire your other form the other day since we were running away from vampires.”
He kissed the back of my hand and bowed. “As my queen wishes.” His body glowed and then he became a dragon, easily twice the size of an SUV. His scales were red and shimmered in the sunlight with an almost pearlescent quality to them. He had horns on his head and his nostrils were huge. He was magnificent.
I stepped forward and slid my hands along his scales, which were smooth, but very thick. his tail had a few spikes on it, reminding me of a dinosaur I saw in a museum. Did he use it in fighting?
He exhaled and smoke puffed out of his nostrils, drawing my attention. It was definitely warmer up by his head and I waved my hand through the smoke, giggling like an idiot. He lowered his head and I stared into his large dragon’s eye, seeing not a dragon, but Rhys.
“You’re gorgeous,” I admitted to him.
He shifted back and smiled. “I’m glad that you think so. I was worried that you might be scared of me in that form.”
“Would you ever hurt me?” I asked him.
He smirked. “Only if you wanted me to.”
I laughed and playfully pushed his arm. “Brat.”
“Jolie, why did you and Martin break up? You two are very close.”
“That’s not a story I’d like to relive right now,” I whispered and felt my chest tighten as panic started to set in at the onslaught of memories.
“Okay, we don’t have to talk about it,” he promised and pulled me into a hug. He smelled like he always did and it made me instantly relax.
“Hey, you going to help us set up the tents?” Nico called.
“I guess we should get back to them,” Rhys said with a sigh.
“We should,” I agreed.
Rhys took my hand, and we walked back to the others to help get camp set up. Once everything was ready, we went to an open area and all of them, except Nico, shifted.
I leaned against Rhys’s massive side with Deryn’s wolf head on my lap, and Fox lying on my chest with my arms around him. Nico sat next to me, his side touching mine from shoulder to ankle.
“I could get used to this,” I whispered as I dozed happily with them.
“We could do this more, but Rhys is a bit too large in his dragon form,” Nico replied.
He was right, but I hadn’t wanted to say it.
Rhys huffed and smoke rose from his nostrils. I chuckled and patted his scaled side. “It just means we will have to make more trips away from the city, so I can spend time with you in this form.”
My butt was starting to hurt, so I set Fox to the side and stood up, stretching my arms up over my head. Deryn stretched and then dropped his front paws down and wagged his tail in an invitation to play.
I reached out and tapped his shoulder before running away. “You’re it!” I yelled back to him.
He yipped and charged after me, his long strides ate up the ground between us and he bumped his nose against me.
I turned and ran back after him, but tapped Fox who was just watching us. He squawked in shock and then started chasing after me.
Deryn ran with me, but at the last second, Fox bumped Deryn, making him it. He ran over to Nico and bumped him with his nose and then hightailed it away.
Nico stood up slowly, but then reached back and touched Rhys before running as fast as he could towards us. Rhys growled and charged us, his massive size made each step shake the ground and I stumbled, falling into the grass as he rested his nose against me.
Groaning, I leapt up and raced after Nico, who was the closest to me. He was fast and nimble though, so I couldn’t get him, but focusing on him had made Deryn drop his guard and I slapped his shoulder as I ran by, hiding behind Nico.
For at least an hour, I played tag with my guards, only stopping because I was too tired to run more and dropped onto my back, my chest heaving.
“I give!” I told them and raised one arm. “I surrender. I’m too tired to do more.”
“Here,” Nico said and handed me a bottle of cold water.
Greedily, I gulped it down and exhaled loudly after finishing it. “So, what’s for dinner?”
“I guess it is dinner time,” Deryn replied after shifting back to his human form. “I’m always hungry, so I wasn’t really thinking about it.”
“I’ll start the fire,” Nico said and headed towards the rock circle that we had made for the fire pit.
Rhys shifted back and lay on the ground beside me, his arms behind his head. “That was fun. I can’t remember the last time that I played tag.”
“Me neither,” I admitted and snuggled closer to him, putting my head on one of his arms. “Turtle,” I said and pointed up at the sky.
“Turtle?” Fox asked and looked up where I was pointing. “Oh, the cloud shape!” He laid his head on my shins and pointed in the distance. “Monkey.”
“That’s an octopus,” Deryn argued.
“It’s clearly a squid,” Rhys argued back.
“Rhys, come cook the meat!” Nico called from the campsite.
We all went with him, and I sat on a log that they had carried over, drinking ciders that Fox had brought for me. The four of them went about making dinner, bantering with each other and acting like they would have, if I hadn’t been there. It was nice to see them happy and doing something without me being the center of attention. Could it be like this after we defeated my dad and the strangers who were trying to kill me? Could we have a life like this all of the time?
My number one worry was that they would try to make me choose. I couldn’t choose. I loved them all.
Wait? Love. Had I just admitted to myself that I loved them?
“What is it?” Fox asked, kneeling in front of me. “Why are you scared?”
Stupid bond!
“Nothing,” I whispered and knew I was blushing as I looked away from him.
“You can’t lie to us,” he reminded me. Gently, he picked up my hand and kissed my knuckles. “What is it, Jolie?”
I shook my head and walked away from them, headed towards a set of trees not far away so I could think without them being near me.
Love? Did I truly love them? Wasn’t it too early to be in love? The bond had accelerated our feelings, so it was hypothetically possible.
I pictured my life without them and immediately felt fear, anxiety, and a few other things swirl within me that I didn’t like. No, I couldn’t live without them. Not any of them. There was no possible way to choose between them. And, I didn’t want to live without them all either. Thinking about them being hurt sent a pang of pain through my entire body.
Dammit. I was in love with them. All four of them.
“Talk to me,” Fox whispered and slid his hands and up down my arms. “What’s going on in that head of yours? Your emotions are all over the place.”
“I can’t live without you,” I whispered. “Any of you. You all mean so much to me that thinking of living without you now, hurts.”
“We feel the same way about you,” he told me. His arms wrapped around me and held me in a warm hug. “You are our world, Jolie. Nothing else matters, but you.”
Was he saying what I thought he was? Did they love me too?
“Dinner is ready!” Rhys called to us. “Get it while it’s hot.”
Dinner turned out to be hamburgers and hot dogs, which I was perfectly fine with. I made my plate and sat on the log with them all around the fire o
n other logs.
“What would you be doing right now, if I wasn’t in your life?” I asked between bites of my burger and drinks of my third or fourth cider. I had lost count already.
They all tensed and it took a minute for one of them to reply.
“We would be playing games online together, most likely,” Fox replied.
“Would you be with females?” I wasn’t stupid enough to think they were virgins before me, but thinking about the with another female made my blood boil.
“Perhaps,” Rhys agreed.
“Why are you asking this?” Deryn asked, his shoulders tensed.
“It just seems like I have changed your lives too much,” I admitted. “Like I’ve stolen what your life should be like.”
“You’ve invaded our life for sure,” Nico agreed. “If we went back in time and could change things, we wouldn’t change meeting you or you entering our lives. We are happy with you.”
“Our lives were boring before we met you,” Fox said.
“You mean it was quiet because you didn’t have to keep saving or rescuing a human girl,” I said and chuckled. “My life has definitely been noisier since meeting you all.”
“What would you be doing right now if you hadn’t met us?” Rhys asked.
I shrugged. “Playing games with my clan, most likely. Or trying to find someone to date.”
If I hadn’t met them, I wouldn’t have gotten them tangled in the cursed web of my life.
“You’ve become entangled in our hearts,” Deryn told me. “There is no way for you to leave, no matter how much you might try to hack at the vines entangling you.”
I was envisioning myself standing within a heart with vines covering it and wrapped around me.
“You make it sound like it is a prison,” I said and smirked. “Being with you guys is anything, but awful.”
“We are glad to hear that,” Fox said with a smile.
“So, is this what you usually do when camping?” I asked. “You play games, eat some food, and hang out?”
They nodded.
“We also make s’mores,” Deryn said and grabbed a bag of marshmallows and sticks.
“I’ve never had one,” I admitted. “I’ve heard about them, but since I have never been camping before…”
“They’re amazing,” Fox said and came to sit next to me. “I’ll help you make the perfect one.”
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