“And you wanted me touching you when you took Sorin in your mouth,” Bron rumbled. He, too, looked thoughtful now.
Kayla shook her head. “I don’t understand. What does that have to do with anything?”
“It’s one of the aspects of the Xi-46 we’re still exploring,” Sorin explained. “We wanted to know why an unmated female would end up with a particular male when the compound started affecting them.”
“Especially if she was in a crowded area,” Bron went on. “Why pick one and not another?”
“Okay, I’ll bite—why?” Kayla asked.
“It turned out that whatever male she was touching at the time she inhaled the Xi-46 was the one she asked to help her with her needing,” Sorin said.
“And usually the one she bonded with soon after,” Bron went on, giving his friend a significant look. “But If Kayla was touching us both at the same time she inhaled the compound—”
“And she was! Remember, she stumbled and we both grabbed for her to keep her from falling,” Sorin exclaimed. “And then we both helped her through her needing but she wanted both of us touching her the whole time.”
“Oh my God…” The full implications of what was going on were beginning to get through to Kayla’s numb brain. “What are you saying? That if I had another attack—”
“We would both have to help you again,” Bron rumbled. He frowned. “And if you picked one of us to bond with—”
“That’s the thing—I don’t think she could. Pick just one of us, I mean,” Sorin said. “Not if touching one of us without the other results in such severe pain.”
Bron glared at his friend. “Beast Kindred don’t share.”
“So you pointed out to me earlier at the High Council meeting,” Sorin replied icily. “And I believe I told you that Blood Kindred are also not in the habit of sharing mates.”
“Stop it!” Kayla put up her hands. God, this was exactly what she’d been afraid would happen if she ever tried to pick one of them.
“But Bron is right—neither Blood nor Beast Kindred share mates like Twin Kindred,” Sorin pointed out.
“Who said I was going to pick one of you?” Kayla demanded. “We’re all just good friends, remember?”
“Small one…I think you know that time is past.” There was sorrow in Bron’s deep, harsh voice. “I wish it wasn’t but…”
“But nothing!” Kayla insisted. “You two are good together. And you were together a long time before I came around. I’m not about to break up your friendship—I refuse to be your Yoko!”
“What?” A look of confusion spread over Bron’s strong features. But Sorin, who was something of a connoisseur of Earth music, got it.
“She’s making a reference to a band that was extremely popular on Earth in the 1960’s,” he told the Beast Kindred. “They were called The Beagles and they were broken up when one of the members of the band fell in love with a female who ruined their group dynamic.”
“It was the Beatles,” Kayla snapped. “But otherwise, you got it right. I’m not going to break the two of you up.”
“That’s a noble sentiment, Kayla, but at some point I think you’re going to have to choose between—” Bron began.
“Oh my God, this is too much for me.” Kayla walked away from them both, heading for the door that led from the kitchen to the hallway and her bedroom. “Look,” she said, turning around in the doorway. “This is a non-issue because I am fine. So neither one of you is going to have to help me ever again the way you, uh, helped me in the lab. So we’re going to drop this right now and never talk about it again. Understand?”
Both of them looked a little shocked, she thought. She usually was soft-spoken and easy-going with her guys. But this was serious business and she could stand up for herself when she had to.
“Well, since you haven’t had another attack,” Sorin said slowly. “I guess you’re right—it’s a non-issue.”
“Other than the fact that she can’t touch one of us without the other unless she wants to experience severe pain,” Bron growled.
“And why would she need to touch us?” Sorin demanded.
“What are you talking about?” Bron frowned. “You touch people you care about—hug them, hold them…it’s what you do. It’s what my people do, anyway.”
“Not mine.” There was a cold remoteness in Sorin’s voice that Kayla hadn’t heard before. She remembered the way he always said he came from a “repressed” family but he would never elaborate on it.
“All right, Bron has a point,” she said reluctantly. “The three of us do touch each other a lot. Bron is always hugging you or me, or both of us together, Sorin. And you’re always giving him or me neck-rubs. And I like being close to both of you.”
“True,” Sorin admitted stiffly. “I…enjoy our contact as well.”
“I’m going to miss it,” Kayla said wistfully.
“Why should you?” Bron asked, frowning. “We can still touch each other—we just have to be careful and be sure both of us are touching you at the same time.”
“That sounds like a lot of coordination for a hug or a neck-rub,” Sorin pointed out, frowning.
“Fine.” Bron glowered at him. “Would you rather go without? Just stop touching each other altogether?”
“I didn’t say that,” Sorin said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I just said—”
“Look, the two of you are going to have to figure this out on your own,” Kayla snapped. “I’ll go along with whatever you decide but I will not be fought over like a bone between two dogs. Got it?”
Bron gave her a lazy salute. “Yes, Ma’am!” he rumbled.
Sorin said quietly, “Agreed.”
“All right, good.” Kayla nodded at both of them. “Now I’m going to go grab myself a protein bar and pack. We need to go find an antidote to this damn lust potion ASAP so I can get cured and we can get back to our normal lives!”
Then she turned on her heel and stalked out of the kitchen. But inside she was wondering if anything would ever be normal again.
Chapter Five
“Well that was a fucking mess,” Bron rumbled, frowning as they watched Kayla exit the food prep area in what could only be described as a state of high dudgeon.
“It wouldn’t have been if you hadn’t tried to force her to choose between us,” Sorin snarled. He didn’t know what hurt the worse—the fact that his best friend had finally shattered the glass ball of camaraderie the three of them had lived in so long or that he had shown more interest in bonding Kayla to him than in keeping their friendship, which Sorin has regarded as the best one of his life.
“Damn it, Sorin—she’ll have to choose eventually,” the Beast Kindred growled. “Don’t pretend you don’t know that. We’ve both wanted her from the minute she first walked into our lives.”
“I never—” Sorin began.
“Don’t say you haven’t wanted her from day one,” Bron interrupted. “Don’t you remember? You bit your lip because your fucking fangs suddenly got so sharp—you know as well as I that a Blood Kindred’s fangs don’t get sharp until he meets the female he wants to mate.” He sighed. “And I wanted her too. The moment I saw her and heard her sweet voice, the mating fist at the base of my shaft began to ache. We both know it—Kayla’s fucking perfect for us.”
“Don’t you mean perfect for you?” Sorin asked coldly.
“No, I mean us,” Bron said, frowning. “Because like it or fucking not, she can’t touch one of us alone. We have to both be touching her at the same time or we can’t touch her at all.”
“I choose the second option,” Sorin informed him. “No touching is fine with me.”
“No, it’s not.” Bron’s voice was suddenly soft. “Sorin…when I first met you, you were aching for touch. So fucking lonely I could feel it coming off you in waves.”
“What are you talking about?” Sorin demanded, but his voice wavered just a little. Bron shouldn’t be talking about this—it was unspoken between them
but never expressed aloud. It felt like his friend was breaking the rules.
“It’s true,” Bron said, still speaking quietly. “I saw how your parents act when you took me home to Tranq Prime for the star-blossom festival or whatever the fuck it was. They barely ever touch each other—let alone you. That couldn’t have been an easy way to grow up.”
“Oh, and your family is so much better?” Sorin glared at him.
“My family is loud, angry, rude and crude and they’d punch you in the face as soon as look at you,” Bron admitted. “But there’s never been a lack of physical affection. They hand out hugs as easily as punches. It’s in their nature—my nature—to be physical and affectionate.”
“What are you saying?” Sorin raised an eyebrow at him. “Could you get to the point, please?”
“I’m saying don’t cut yourself off from something you need—something we all need, Kayla included,” Bron said. “You may not feel like hugging me now—you’d probably rather fucking punch me. But eventually you’ll get over that and need a hug. Everybody needs a hug sometimes.” He looked meaningfully at Sorin. “And I want to be able to give you one when you do. And to hug Kayla too.”
Sorin pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to push back the tension headache that threatened. Only Bron would be so upfront about his desire for physical affection—his need to hug and be hugged. He was the kind of male who wore his emotions on his sleeve and didn’t give a damn who saw them. Probably because he was big enough and scary enough that no one would ever dare make fun of him for it.
Sorin just wasn’t like that. He hadn’t grown up in a demonstrative family and though he was comfortable enough to enjoy being enveloped in one of his friend’s bone-crushing hugs, he most definitely wasn’t comfortable enough to talk about it.
“I…need to go,” he said at last. “I need to pack. We have to outfit one of the shuttles with the right equipment.”
“Fine, go.” Bron shook his head. “But know this, Brother—we’ll have to deal with this sooner of fucking later. If Kayla has another episode of needing, she’s going to need both of us to get her through it.”
“She’s not going to have another episode,” Sorin snapped. “What happened in the lab was a one-off. She said so herself.”
“You know damn good and well that just because she’s only had one episode so far doesn’t mean she won’t have another,” Bron growled. “This damn virus can lay dormant for days before it comes back even stronger that the first time. Kayla isn’t safe from having another episode until we find an antidote for it.”
“Then let’s find an antidote!” Sorin snarled. “Until then, I think it’s better if we keep our distance.”
Without waiting for Bron’s reply, he turned and left Kayla’s apartment. It was the first time he had ever turned his back on his best friend in anger and it made him feel sick inside.
But not as sick as Bron’s insistence that eventually Kayla would have to choose between them.
Because then, he thought, I’ll lose them both.
* * * * *
I’m going to lose them both, Bron thought as he watched Sorin stride angrily away. Gods, how had everything gotten so thoroughly fucked so fast?
Maybe he shouldn’t have pointed out the obvious—that eventually Kayla would have to choose one of them. It had been an unspoken issue between them from the moment the curvy little elite had walked into their lives but all three of them had been ignoring it as hard as they could and pretending they were all just good friends.
Friends who want to fuck each other, Bron thought grimly. But not just fuck—bond. He wanted to tie Kayla to him for life…but he didn’t want to lose Sorin in the process.
Unbidden, the image of the three of them in the lab together came to his mind. He felt an erotic charge when he remembered her lying in his lap, sucking the head of his cock while he gave her his cream. But when he remembered watching and touching her as she did the same for Sorin, his shaft surged again, as strongly as it had before when he’d remembered her sweet lips wrapped around the head of his own cock.
Bron frowned and for the first time realized that what had happened between the three of them in the lab wasn’t quite right. He shouldn’t have been willing to stand by and watch the female he wanted to Claim sucking another male’s cock—even his best friend’s. His Beast Kindred nature should have asserted itself and made the sight intolerable. He should have wanted to kill the interloper—the male who was trying to take his prospective mate.
Instead I watched while Kayla sucked him. Not only that, I took fucking pleasure in the sight. Hell, it made me hard and ready to let her suck me again, stroking her beautiful breasts and watching while she took his shaft down her throat. And Sorin did the same. He was angry at first, thinking she had chosen me. But when it became clear she needed to suck him too, he was more than willing to share. We both were.
Bron frowned. That wasn’t natural—wasn’t normal. Blood Kindred and Beast Kindred did not share their females. The very thought ought to send them both into Rage. Instead, they had sat down on the lab floor with Kayla and given her what she needed—not just once but many times. Gods, it had been sweet—the three of them so intimately connected, watching as she took Sorin’s shaft and then his own deep into her soft, hot mouth…
No! Bron pushed the memory away uneasily. What was happening to him? Why wasn’t he angry when he thought of how another male had been intimate with the female he wanted for his own? For that matter, why hadn’t Sorin been angry when it happened either?
Is it the Xi-46? Does it affect males too in some way? Make them more willing to share?
But in their survey of the Mother Ship, he and Sorin hadn’t found a single other case like theirs. With the exception of unmated females who had ended up with Twin Kindred, the women who were affected by the lust compound had chosen one male exclusively to help with their needing.
So what was going on with him and Sorin? And which of them would Kayla choose if and when they found an antidote for the Xi-46?
Bron had no answers and for now, it seemed, no friends. The rift in his relationship with Sorin and Kayla lay heavy on him as he went to see to the packing of the equipment for their upcoming mission.
It’s going to be a fucking awful mission if none of us is talking to each other and Sorin and I can’t touch Kayla without shocking her, he thought morosely. What a fucking mess!
But there was nothing he could do about it except send a swift prayer to the Goddess that everything would be resolved soon and go pack.
Chapter Six
The trip to Carnal Four was grimly silent, made worse by the fact that because of the way the planet was situated in its orbit, they were unable to fold space directly to it. The fold created by the Mother Ship—which looked like a red gash in the blackness of space—spat them out at the edge of the Carnal solar system. Which meant they had hours to fly together before they got to their destination.
Bron was piloting while Sorin sat in the passenger seat and silently researched the culture of the planet they were going to. They had requisitioned a Twin Kindred shuttle since there were three of them—which they often did when they took trips together. Kayla was sitting in the center seat, between the pilot and passenger but she had to be careful not to touch either of them for fear that she’d get another of those awful, electrical shocks.
It was miserable and Kayla couldn’t help comparing it to other trips they’d taken. The laughing and camaraderie—the casual touching and jostling against each other if Bron banked too sharply, making them all fall together with Kayla giggling and insisting she was being squeezed to death between the two big lugs…
I miss it, she thought sadly, looking from Bron to Sorin and back again. Both had serious, stern expressions on their faces without an ounce of humor. Having heard a little of their conversation after she left the room, Kayla knew why.
They’re fighting over me. Hating each other because of me. Just the way I always knew the
y would if I tried to choose between them.
Which was ridiculous since she literally couldn’t choose between them right now, since she couldn’t touch one without the other. But it didn’t matter—the fact that they both wanted her had finally been brought out into the open. And it wasn’t going away again.
The silence was deafening—apparently her guys weren’t talking to each other and, as a consequence of that, they weren’t talking to her either. In desperation, Kayla tried to make conversation.
“Hey, guys,” she began brightly, speaking to both of them. “Remember that weekend trip we took to Primus Six because there was a microbe there Bron wanted to collect and study? Remember how we didn’t realize until we got there the entire planet was composed of males only?”
“Who reproduced asexually,” Bron remarked, joining in the conversation. His golden eyes crinkled thoughtfully at the corners. “They thought females were cursed—bad luck.”
“So I had to put on one of Sorin’s shirts and put my braids up and pretend to be male,” Kayla went on, encouraged that maybe they were beginning to talk.
“And the males of the planet believed you were male, because none of them had ever actually even seen a female before,” Sorin remarked, looking up from the research on his holo link.
“Fucking idiots,” Bron remarked. “But the food was really good. Remember that horvath cheese we tried?”
“Don’t forget the groon’up bugs,” Sorin said, a reluctant smile twitching the corner of his mouth. “Kayla loved their meat until she caught sight of what they looked like.”
“Like giant Dalmatian-sized cockroaches!” Kayla shivered at the memory. “Horrible!”
“They tasted good,” Bron protested. “Who cares what they looked like?”
“I care!” Kayla exclaimed. “And remember that dinky little room they put us up in for the night at the inn?”
Sharing a Mate: A Kindred Tales M/F/M Novel (Brides of the Kindred) Page 5
