“We could force it,” Rob sassed, earning him an elbow to his gut.
“Not worth it.” Sasha grumbled.
Looks like they were still connected.
“Yeah, ya brut.” I winked. “Not worth it.”
“I was just sayin’.”
Rob bit Sasha’s earlobe, and I instantly wondered how it would feel when he did that to me the first time. If I kept thinking like this, I was going to have to go to the bathroom to rub one out before bed, because it was too soon. Or maybe it wasn’t. I just needed not to think about it if I was going to say what I had to say.
“Go on,” Rob encouraged.
“We need to go back to the red dragons and rescue Bart,” I spit out far too quickly.
“Bart?” Sasha growled. Sexy lion.
“The guy I knocked out with a frying pan.” I let out a slow breath.
“Fuck no,” Rob boomed.
“Hear me out. Bart’s not like them. He had been helping me regain some of my powers on the sly, and he told me to knock him out and escape. But he is sick. So very sick. He needs Malinda.”
“He owns you?” Sasha pushed to sit up. Looks like knotting time was over. Too bad because that was sexy as fuck.
Rob and I both joined him in, each of us sitting on the bed, me the only one with any clothing on.
“He does.”
“What are you thinking, Sasha?” Rob whispered in his ear, loud enough for me to hear even if I hadn’t been a shifter.
“I’m thinking we arrange a meet with him. Offer to buy Samuel and then arrange the exchange here so we can help him.”
Good mate listening to my needs even though I could practically see his lion pacing in frustration over helping another man, especially one who, by all accounts, did me harm.
“Great idea, but it won’t work.” I’d thought of that as well. It was flawed, sadly.
“Why is that?” Sasha took my hand.
“Because, technically, his dad owned me, and he was going to sell me tomorrow, which was why Bart helped me.”
Chapter Seven
Sasha
We talked through most of the night. Samuel told us some things about his time in captivity, things that made Rob and me push aside our raw desire to mate with him and, instead, shelter him between our bodies.
Keeping our omega in our nest of safety and warmth.
I woke with a smile on my face. I lay on my stomach with Samuel plastered to my side, his hand splayed lazily on my ass. I turned my head, careful not to disturb him to see Rob just as plastered to Samuel’s back, their legs tangled.
Samuel’s mouth opened slightly while he slept. It would be so easy to take advantage of it, slip my tongue in and kiss him awake.
But he needed time. He had been a hostage for almost twenty years, and we had the rest of our lives to satisfy ourselves.
I slipped from the bed and started the shower. Samuel’s scent had infiltrated the space from his shower the day before. I got in, letting the hot water wake me up like most people let hot coffee wake them up. I’d just begun to soap up my torso when a gust of cold air hit my skin, alerting me.
I opened my eyes to see Samuel stepping into the shower with me and Rob following close behind.
“Good morning,” Rob said, a sly smile on his face.
“Morning. Good thing I have a big shower.”
My first thought after seeing them was that this would turn into a hotter shower than I’d planned, but as everyone grabbed a bar of soap or shampoo and started to wash themselves, I knew this would just be life for us from then on. The three of us, together. When I’d built this cabin, I’d put in a huge walk-in shower with multiple heads. People, including Rob, told me they thought it was ridiculous.
Now I knew it wasn’t at all.
“I have some clothes you can wear, Samuel. They’re probably pretty big, but we’ll get you some new ones when we go into town today. Are you ready to see your grandmother? Do you remember a lot about her?”
“Sasha, slow down.”
Samuel looked as if he was physically straining to remember. His eyes were squinty, and he was biting his lower lip.
“How about some tea? Coffee?” Shit, I was bad at this fucking alpha thing. Well, not in the bedroom, but apparently in all other areas of life.
“I’ve never had either.” Samuel shrugged, wriggling into the pair of pants and T-shirt I gave him.
“Well, I’m going to fix that.” Rob and I walked into the kitchen together. He followed unusually close to me.
I put the kettle on the stove and turned it on high while Rob set up the coffee machine. Then, in sync, we leaned against the counter side by side, crossing our arms over our chests.
“This is going to take some getting used to.” His voice was softer than usual.
“We’ll be okay if we follow our instincts. He belongs to us just like I’ve always belonged to you somehow.”
Rob nodded.
I went on. “What are we going to do about living arrangements?”
Rob looked down at the floor and shifted from one leg to the other. “I have things to do in the city. I can’t just sell my place. Then again, I can’t just leave you two here. It’s not in me anymore to be without either of you.”
It felt strange to be alone for so long and then, overnight, not know how to rearrange your life around two people you simply could no longer live without.
“There’s nothing keeping me tied to this cabin. I could move to the city.”
Rob turned to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “No, this is your home. I know you need this space and the quiet that Haven affords you. Besides, I like the quiet out here, too.”
I kissed his temple, something I’d never done before. Even the dynamic between Rob and I had shifted. No longer just about furious fucking, there was something deeper.
“We could always go to the city during the week and then back here for the weekends or whatever fits your schedule. I’m sure Samuel would enjoy seeing the city.”
The kettle whistled behind me. I made two cups of English breakfast tea and added sugar and cream.
Rob came up behind me, snaking his arms around my hips, and massaged the front of my jeans. “Any chance I could persuade you to make us pancakes? I’m starving. You wore me out last night, and we’ve got to keep our strength up.”
I tried like hell to quell my grin. “I’ll cook if you clean up. There are no housekeepers out here in the woods.”
He chuckled, and I felt his hot breath against my back. “I can wash dishes. I simply choose not to. But, for my mate, I will make an exception.”
Damn, it sounded good to hear him say that finally.
Samuel came into the room and sat at the counter, watching our interaction.
“Come here, Samuel. See if you like tea.” He walked into the kitchen, and I held up a cup for him. He took a sip and closed his eyes.
“I like that…a lot. Can I try coffee?”
Rob offered him a cup, to which he had almost the same reaction.
“I’ll take both, please.”
He sat back at the counter and alternated drinking from both cups. I turned on the TV to the news, and Samuel’s attention was locked on it.
After mixing up the batter, I cooked a heaping stack of pancakes and served Samuel’s on a plate with tons of butter and honey.
“Eat up. We need to put some weight on you.”
“Thank you. You’re going to take care of me.” He said it like a statement, not a question. And there was no question about it. Rob and I would take care of this unicorn until we were no longer on the Earth.
“We will always take care of you,” Rob assured him, stealing a pancake from the stack, folding it in half, and shoving it into his mouth. Mouth full, he pressed his lips to mine. “And we will always take care of each other.”
“I can’t eat any more.” Samuel had less than one bite left on his plate. “Look.”
He stood and lifted his shirt to show hi
s once concave belly already with a bulge in it from all he ate for breakfast.
I held onto the counter when I realized what else he looked like with that tiny pooch. Samuel and Rob both noticed my stiff posture and stared then mimicked me, looking at Samuel’s belly.
“Will I one day have your young?” he asked, so innocently.
“We hope so, don’t we Sasha?”
“I didn’t even realize I’d hoped for that until just now,” I answered honestly. The idea of our trio hadn’t even fully cemented into my mind, but now there were so many other possibilities. We could be a family—me, Rob, and our precious omega.
“Let’s go see your grandmother. I’m sure she must be anxious.”
Rob added, “She’s been looking for you for a long time, Samuel.”
“I don’t know much about her.” He seemed uneasy about the prospect, but it wouldn’t be right to keep him from her another day.
“We will be there with you. We won’t leave you alone with anyone.”
“And Malinda is there. She won’t let anyone hurt me,” Samuel said under his breath.
How he knew Malinda would protect him, we didn’t know, but he was right. Malinda’s wards were strong, even more so in her own home. No one could do harm in that house or on that property. They would face severe consequences.
“No, not those. We need to burn those.” I handed Samuel a pair of flip-flops from my closet when he attempted to put on the shoes we’d rescued him in—rather, the shoes he was running in when he barreled into us.
“Let’s go, mates.” Rob took Samuel’s hand and then mine. Nothing had felt more right in my entire life.
Chapter Eight
Rob
My phone buzzed so often with messages from my competent but overwhelmed PA, I finally called and told him I didn’t care who wanted me or for what. For at least the next seventy-two hours, I was not reachable. Tell them I was meditating in an ashram or retreating in a monastery or climbing Everest again. I’d done all those things more than once. But the only good reason for calling me was if he, himself, had a medical emergency and thought he needed one of my organs—not that they’d match, but point made.
“Okay, gentlemen,” I said, powering down the device and pocketing it—I trusted Alfonse, but some of those who wanted to reach me could be persistent and wear him down. “Let’s hit the road. We have an anxious grandmother waiting to see her precious is in good health.”
It didn’t take long to arrive at Malinda’s place. Sasha’s cabin was tucked back in the woods, but only a few minutes from town. We piled out of the truck and knocked on the door several times before it became apparent no one was going to answer.
Just as we were about to give up, voices floated to us from around back. Sasha grinned. “In the garden, of course. This way.” He headed around the house, Samuel after him, me at the back. Protective mode, always. Even if we managed to quell the danger against him, I had a feeling he’d be in the middle for a long time.
As I rounded the corner into a beautiful garden filled with perennials and raised beds hazed pale green with the sprouting annuals of spring, I heard a gasp, and a frail, elderly woman flung herself at Samuel, sobbing.
Behind her, a short woman wrapped in a voluminous apron of an age I could not determine stood, her arm resting on a young man’s shoulder. Sasha moved toward them and hugged the woman. He waved me forward. “Malinda, this is my Rob.”
I smiled and nodded at her, extending my hand, but she enfolded me in her arms, the scent of sandalwood and growing things, lavender, rosemary, and other plants I couldn’t name surrounding us. “Finally. I wondered when he’d bring his mate home.” She held me at arm’s length and studied my face then glanced past me at Samuel still hugging his grandmother. Now they were both crying. “Or mates, as the case may be.”
I gave her a light squeeze and stepped back. “Sasha said you were a witch.”
And this”—she reached for the hand of the young man behind her—“is Grey. He’s not only another unicorn rescued from the red dragons, but your mate’s cousin.”
“Something has to be done.” He shook my hand, standing tall but pale as he spoke. “Too many of us are still captive, subject to torture, rape…even murder. Thank you for saving my cousin.”
I laid my other hand over his, shaken by the thought of what not only our mate but others endured. “We are engaged in a war. Until all the unicorns and anyone else they may be holding against their will are free, that war is not over.” In my heart, I swore I would be part of that war until it was won. I’d fought for a lot of causes, some of which I wasn’t all that proud of. This one would now be my sole focus.
“Thank you.” He smiled and extricated his hand. “I am going to greet my cousin. I doubt he remembers me. We met once or twice when we were very small. I think he needs family.” He approached the hugging pair, hanging back a bit, but the elderly woman reached out and drew him in. Introductions could wait. Love was what he needed now.
What we all needed.
Who knew?
Not me.
I didn’t know my grandparents, who, I believe had died before I was born. My mother died giving birth to me. And my father…well, he loved me, I guess. But he was not Mr. Warmth.
“Rob,” called Samuel, the happy excitement in his voice lifting me from memories I preferred not to spend time with. “Come meet my cousin.”
And his grandmother, who couldn’t stop thanking us, insisted on baking us pies and cakes and her special strudel. I gathered Sasha had already told her her money, if she had any at all, was no good with us. Samuel glowed, hugging his cousin, his grandmother, Malinda, then each of us in turn. He was such a sweet guy, so affectionate and how he’d managed to hold on to that part of himself after what he’d been through I had no idea.
But I planned to make it up to him. To show him how much I valued him, to wait, with no pressure, until he was ready before making things physical between us, and to see to it that he never had another worry in his life. Okay, everyone had worries, but I’d do my best, and so would Sasha.
Finally, we were settled back in the truck on our way to the cabin again. Samuel chattered from the backseat for a while, still wound up from the excitement of seeing members of his family. A huge basket of dried herbs and flowers sat next to him, filling the cab with the scents of summer. As we pulled up in front of the cabin, he let out a huge sigh.
“Do you think we will ever be able to stop the red dragons from enslaving my family? And others?” For the first time, our brave unicorn’s voice held despair, and my dragon awoke, rumbling, hating his unhappiness.
The growl from the driver’s seat indicated a similar response from the lion. But when Sasha spoke, his voice was calm. “Someday. We are not the only ones who have been enlisted to rescue their captives. But it will take time. There are many of them, and they have had generations of believing they are entitled to enslave others. It won’t be easy to convince them otherwise.”
“We might have to kill them all,” I mused, not hating the idea. All it took was one thought of our feisty mate being harmed by them for that to seem feasible.
“My lion is down with that.” Sasha’s fangs showed a little, indicating how close he was to losing control of his shift. “He wants to do it now.”
“We do, too.” I spoke for my golden dragon and myself. “But, despite how much I would like to flame their carcasses into a nasty barbecue for the vultures, we may have to come up with another plan.” I snorted “Or any plan.”
Samuel’s head appeared between the seats, his eyes wild. “Don’t do anything that will get you killed!” he insisted, showing the first fear I’d seen in him. “I need you both. I need my mates.”
I closed my eyes, slowing my ragged breathing, then opened them again. “Don’t worry, mate. For today, we’re just going to head inside the cabin and make sandwiches for lunch. Then we’ll relax and decide when to head for the city so I can make arrangements to pull myself out of
a lot of things that have long bored me.”
“All your charities?” Sasha protested. “I know they are important to you.”
“I’ll still contribute to them, so they won’t care.” Sad but true. “But my priorities have changed.” I dragged Samuel onto my lap and kissed his cheek with a great smack. “Let’s have lunch.”
Chapter Nine
Samuel
“How many of these did Theo ask for?” I asked as Gram mixed yet another batch of pie dough.
She’d knocked on the door early in the morning, Malinda’s trunk full of flour, butter, and I didn’t know what. Malinda said our kitchen had more room and then pretended to be sneaky about leaving me with Gram as she went off to talk to my mates.
I’d been in Haven for three days, and, in some ways, I’d never felt more at home. I didn’t feel like a guest in the cabin even if nothing here was mine, with the exception of the clothing we’d picked up. I felt like I was truly their mates, even though they had thus far refused to actually mate me. They always mumbled about allowing me to make my own choices or some shit. I got it. They were trying to do what was right for me, but, at the same time, I wanted them to claim me, make me theirs, and not at all in the way I’d “belonged” to the red dragon.
Besides that, I was a walking hard-on, as were they. But they just weren’t ready to hear my words yet, so I dropped it. Eventually, their animal’s need to claim me would take over and our bond would be complete. I just wished it would happen already.
“None,” she answered as she brushed some flour from her brow. We’d been baking for hours, and they had asked for no pies. I mean, it was nice to spend time with Gram while being productive—not that baking a thousand pies for someone who didn’t ask for any was productive.
“Then why are we covered in flour?” Me more than her. I knew my way around the kitchen, but baking had never been my forte.
The Lion, the Dragon, and Their Unicorn Omega: An MM Mpreg Shifter Romance (The Unicorn Omegas Book 2) Page 4
