by Maggie Walsh
Destrain couldn’t stop the small laugh, saying, “Your mom sounds like a very wise woman. I hope to meet her one day.”
Tobias drew away, sniffled, snorted and then said, “Maybe one day I’ll get to remind you that you said that. She’s in Arizona. I keep trying to get her to come to Maddox, but she says Arizona is her home. I hate that she’s all alone. I usually talk to her every day, but it’s not the same.”
“Well, maybe when we get back we can visit, so Clove and I can meet her,” Destrain softly replied.
Tobias’s lips curved into one of the brightest smiles Destrain had ever seen, and his eyes seemed to sparkle with joy. It made the man even sexier than he already was. Shit, Destrain knew at that very minute, he would do anything to always have that bright and shiny look on his mate’s face.
Wiping his eyes, Tobias said, “I have to be the luckiest ferret in the entire world. To be gifted with two of the sexiest men in the world. Not only by heart and soul, but body as well. You with that gorgeous long white hair that flows to your ankles and Clove’s, just as long but black. One day, I hope to feel all of it rubbing all over my body at once. Touching me. Loving me. Covering me from head to toe.”
Destrain let out a low growl, walking to Tobias and drawing him into his hard body, pressing his lips firmly to his mate’s.
Tobias opened to him immediately and Destrain wanted nothing more than to bend his man over one of these rocks and feel Tobias’s ass wrapped around his hard shaft.
Suddenly Tobias wiggled out of Destrain’s hold, panting and wagging his finger at Destrain. “You are not getting out of my question that easily, Destrain. Now tell me, is feeling so alone what you want to talk to Clove about?”
Destrain sighed, “You are going to give me blue balls.” Tobias raised a brow and pursed his lips. Letting out a deep breath, Destrain said, “Yes and no. I know I must, but I’m also afraid he would hate me even more than he does now, if I did.”
“Clover does not hate you, Destrain, and I know whatever it is, this something is hurting you, so like I said, talk to me and maybe we can figure it out together.”
Destrain hesitated a moment and then just blurted out, “I don’t feel as if I am actually mated to Clove. I don’t feel the pull at all.”
Destrain closed his eyes waiting for the reprimand from Tobias. Instead, Tobias started muttering so low under his breath that Destrain had to strain to hear. “Huh, Dezzy doesn’t feel mated and Clover feels guilty because he didn’t miss Dezzy when in the gardens. I bet they’re connected.”
Destrain’s eyes widened, not just because of the little nickname Tobias used, but because he was shocked to hear Clove didn’t feel the same loss. “Clove really didn’t feel the loss of our mating when he was in the gardens? I thought I heard him say that at the bar, but I—I hoped I had heard him wrong.”
Tobias gasped, then his shoulders drooped, and his head dropped forward. “Shoot, I wasn’t supposed to say that out loud. Clover is going to be so mad at me.”
“No, I’m not,” Clove said from behind them.
Destrain stood and turned. “What are you doing here? How did you know—"
Clove chuckled. “Desi, how many times would I find you here when you had things you wanted to think through? Do you really think I wouldn’t know where you would go to get away from everyone?”
“Why are you here?” Destrain asked.
Clove looked at Tobias and back at Destrain. Destrain gasped, “You thought I would harm Tobias?”
Shrugging, Clove replied, “You did order his death, Des.”
“That was before you told me he was our mate,” Destrain argued back.
Clove scoffed, “Like I figured you were even listening or believed what I said. I came to get Tobias and bring him home.”
“Well as you can see, he’s just fine and we were talking. I will bring him home when I’m ready to return,” Destrain stated louder than before.
“He will return with me now. Tobias, come along,” Clove ordered.
Tobias looked at Destrain and then Clove then back to Destrain when he hissed, “Tobias, stay where you are. Clove may not want to be my mate, but you said you did and I need a mate right now.”
Clove snarled, “I never said I don’t want you, Des. I said I needed some time. You are the one who has apparently not felt mated to me since my return. It makes me wonder if we were ever mates at all!”
Destrain stormed over to Clove, shouting, “I wonder the same thing, since you didn’t give one rat's ass about being parted when you left me!”
“I never left you, Des! I died! That is not the same thing at all!” Clove shouted back.
“Left—Died—it’s all the same thing when the man who was supposed to be the other half of your very soul couldn’t give a shit that he wasn’t with you in the fucking gardens, Clove!” Destrain snarled.
“Oh? And you not feeling the pull of our mating since my return is any better? Des, you are such a fucking hypocrite! Here I felt so guilty for causing you all that pain and I find out that you couldn’t give a shit I was even brought back!” Clove snapped back.
“Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!” Tobias shouted.
Clove and Destrain both turned around. Destrain felt his heart practically seize up as he saw his mate with his eyes tightly closed and tears streaming down his face, as Tobias held his hands over his ears.
Slowly, Tobias lowered his hands and opened his eyes as both Destrain and Clove started towards him. He quickly held up his hand, shouting, “No! both of you stay right where you are. I have something to say and both of you are going to listen. Now, go sit on the bench.”
“But you just said to stay where we were,” Destrain replied with a soft laugh.
Tobias slapped his hands on his hips and started tapping his foot. With a raised brow, Clove snorted, “We’d better do as he says, he doesn’t look like he wants to be messed with right now.”
Destrain and Clove both went to the bench and sat down. Destrain watched as Tobias dropped his hands and started pacing in front of the pond. He didn’t say anything for a few minutes, and then turned towards Destrain and Clove so fast, both men sat further back.
“Clover, when we were having those drinks with Jensen, and you told him how you felt so guilty for knowing how much Dezzy suffered, and you didn’t. He said something that has me thinking,” Tobias said, still not looking at them.
“What did Jensen say?” Destrain asked.
Tobias turned to Destrain. “He said that the reason Clover didn’t feel the loss was because he would have had no loss to feel. When Clove died, he had to take all of his soul, but he also had the other half of yours with him. This way, when you died, the souls would find each other and join once more. There was no way Clover could miss something he never lost. However, Dezzy, when Clover died, his soul was literally ripped from your chest. Now, you not only didn’t have him, but lost a piece of yourself, too.”
Tobias turned and started pacing as he continued to talk. Destrain just wasn’t sure if the man was still talking to them or himself. “If Clover took all of his soul with him, it would only make sense that he still has it all now. I mean, I don’t think the Gods returned everything as it was. They only returned Clover. Dezzy said that he and Clover haven’t had sex since he got back, so how much do you want to bet that they are going to have to mate again to bring their souls back together?”
“Wait! What?’ Clove asked sitting up straighter.
Tobias turned to Clove, “Think about it. You took all of your soul with you to the gardens, Clover? Isn’t a mating when everyone in the mating’s souls come together? It only makes sense.”
“That doesn’t explain why I don’t feel the pull,” Destrain replied.
Tobias looked at Destrain, smiling. “I think you do. It’s why Clover not talking with you or spending time with you bothers you so much. It might not be like you felt the first time you set eyes on Clover, but that’s because you knew who he was from the start this
time. Dezzy, look at Clover. Are you saying your heart doesn’t sing just by being near him?”
Destrain turned to Clove, looked into his beautiful silver eyes and felt everything in him start to tingle. Damn, they still twinkled like stars from the sky. Destrain felt his cock hardening by the second. Looking down, he noticed that Clove was just as aroused as he was. “My heart is like a choir singing Hallelujah.”
Clove gently ran his finger down Destrain’s cheek. “I’ve missed that look, Des. Every time you walked into a room, you would give me that very look and I was putty in your hands.”
Destrain leaned into Clove’s touch, softly saying, “I was the putty, my love. You would walk to me, never taking your eyes from mine, then drop to your knees and I would grant you any wish you asked for from that moment on.”
“I always loved your taste, almost as much as the feeling of you sliding in and out of me as we made love throughout the night,” Clove whispered back.
Destrain felt tears filling his eyes once more. “Clove, I can’t tell you how sorry I am for the way I’ve been acting since you were brought back into my life. I may not have felt as if we were mated, but I still love you. I have always loved you. I have never stopped loving you.”
“I’ve never stopped loving you either, Des. I just feel so guilty for the suffering I’ve put you through. I just couldn’t face you knowing how much pain you were in and I was so at peace,” Clove replied, wiping at a tear from the corner of his eye.
Destrain gently took Clove by the back of the neck and brought their foreheads together. “Clove, I would have suffered a thousand times more had I known that you were at peace.”
Clove pulled back and then brought his lips to Destrain’s in a soft sweet kiss. Destrain could have sworn his ears wiggled as an electrical zing ran through his body. Pulling back, Destrain rasped, “I want my mate back.”
“And I want my mate back, too.” Clove rasped back.
Destrain stood up from the bench and took Clove by the hand. He started making his way towards the door when he stopped and turned to take Tobias’s hand as well. His heart about stopped when he didn’t see Tobias. “Where did he go?”
Clove rushed back to the bench, picking up the clothing their mate had been wearing. Looking around Clove shouted, “Tobias! Tobias, where are you?”
Hearing a chattering noise, Destrain looked and couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A small brown and white ferret was swimming towards the waterfall. Pointing, Destrain whispered to Clove, “He’s by the falls.”
Clove looked in the direction Destrain was indicating and smiled as Tobias’s little legs moved him through the water, and he climbed on a small rock just out of the fall's harsher stream. He lifted his head and shook his long body. Jumping off the rock, Tobias swam to a shallow section of the pond and turned so he was lying on his back. Destrain walked to the pond, asking, “Tobias, what are you doing?”
Tobias flipped around, arched his back and hissed when he realized he was under no threat. Destrain couldn’t stop his smile, as their little mate started chattering and squeaking as he stood on two legs, then dropped back down into the water over and over again. “I believe our mate is playing.”
Clove joined Destrain and knelt in front of the pond. “Tobias, please come here.”
Tobias stopped his chatter and Destrain watched as the ferret slowly entered the water and swam to them. Clove removed his shirt, picked the ferret up, and gently covered him, drying Tobias off as best he could. “Will you shift back so we can talk?”
Tobias started to squirm in Clove’s hold. Clove turned and placed Tobias on the bench. A shimmer and ripple in the air occurred just as Tobias shifted back.
“Tobias, what are you doing?” Clove asked.
Tobias sat, not looking at them as he replied, “I figured I would kill some time. Besides earlier at the council building, I haven’t shifted in a while, so I figured while you guys were—well, you know, I would take a swim.”
“Do you not want to be our mate?” Destrain asked in concern.
Tobias gasped and looked at Destrain. “What?”
“You didn’t think we were planning to mate without you?” Clove asked in surprise.
Tobias looked adorable and confused, wrinkling his nose and tilting his head to the side. “You want me to join you?”
Clove and Destrain knelt in front of Tobias, Destrain saying, “Tobias, you are a wise and wonderful man who we have been blessed to call our own.”
Tobias gave a sad smile. “It’s okay, Dezzy. You and Clover need some alone time.”
Clove took Tobias by the hand. “We don’t want alone time. We want to renew our mating and we can’t do that without you. We know you don’t love us and we accept that, but I know that after we spend some time together and get to know each other, we will have a strong loving mating, just like all our friends.”
“Will you be our mate, Tobias?” Destrain asked.
Tobias sniffled, giving them a wary look, sighing, “I want to, it’s just—it’s just, I—I don’t know where I belong. And—And I don’t want you to mate with me out of pity.”
“Tobias, we are not asking you out of pity. Remember, I told you about what happened when Clove refused our mating in the beginning,” Destrain whispered.
Nodding, Tobias replied, “I remember.”
“Then you should know a mating is not done out of pity. As for whether you belong with us or not…Fate brought you to us and you know as well as we do, that means we were meant to be together. If you doubt that, look at Clove and I. Since his return, we have not been able to come into a room together without fighting, and you, Tobias, not only brought us together, but had us really look and talk about our issues,” Destrain stated with conviction.
Clove nodded. “Tobias, I had not told a soul what I was feeling until you came along. You got me to bring that out in the open as you did with Destrain. Because of all of that, we now understand what has been going on and how to fix it.”
Nodding, Destrain quickly said, “And because of that, we can be together again. Tobias, you are just as important to our mating as we are. You are that missing piece we have searched for since all of this started.”
Tobias sniffled, looking at Destrain with hope. “You really think so?”
Clove took the man’s face in his hand and waited until their eyes met. “We know so. Tobias, I am half in love with you already. I know it’s quick, but your sweet soul calls to me and I want to answer.”
“We will not complete our mating unless you are a part of it,” Destrain stated with conviction.
Tobias gasped, “But—"
Destrain cupped the other cheek, whispering, “Please, be our mate.”
Clove removed his hands from Tobias’s face then held one out to Tobias, whispering, “Please.”
Tobias slowly stood, raised his hand, and placed it into Clove’s.
CHAPTER 7
Tobias was slightly apprehensive. He had only had sex twice in his twenty-five years, yet here he was getting ready to join two men who were thousands of years old and had been together on the most primal levels for centuries. What if he sucked? What if he— “Oh my.”
Destrain was behind him pressing into his back, with his hands on Tobias’s waist grinding his hard cock into Tobias’s naked ass as Clove pushed into his front, pressing his hard shaft into Tobias’s own, causing a friction that had Tobias about ready to explode.
Destrain kissed one shoulder as Clove kissed the other. Tobias couldn’t stop the goosepimples from forming all over his body and the slight shiver that coursed through him. Tobias let out a small whimper when Clove stepped back and unbuttoned his pants. Destrain took that opportunity to wrap his arms around Tobias and take Tobias’s painfully hard, weeping shaft into his hand, slowly stroking him, whispering, “Watch and feel, my mate. Watch as our mate reveals his body to us, an offering of what is to come.”
Tobias whimpered and did his best not to close his eyes, but Destrain�
��s hands on his cock and balls made that slightly difficult, but Tobias didn’t want to miss the show Clove was putting on for them either. “Oh Gods.”
Clove removed the last of his clothing, until there was nothing left to hide of his sleek toned body. Clove then sauntered to Tobias with his hard cock bouncing up and down. Tobias licked his lips, wanting to taste the gift Clove was offering, but the man took hold of Tobias before he could drop to his knees and turned him to face Destrain, whispering in a low sultry voice, “Now it’s time to see how beautiful our other mate is, Tobias.”
Clove started stroking Tobias’s shaft as he alternated between nibbling on his earlobe and kissing and licking his shoulder and neck.
Pre-cum flowed from Tobias’s cock as he felt what Clove was doing and watched Destrain reveal his luscious body. Holy shit, the man was amazing. Destrain’s muscles were more than proof to his strength and power, they also had Tobias wanting to lick every part of the man’s body.
Once Destrain was naked and his large thick shaft was there for both Tobias and Clove to see, he slowly made his way to them, and did something Tobias would never have expected a king to do. Destrain dropped to his knees and took Tobias’s shaft in hand. Destrain licked the weeping tip and let out a humming sound that, had Clove not been holding him up, would have made Tobias fall.
“Oh Clove, you should taste our mate. He is even more sweet than I dreamed,” Destrain whispered.
Clove bent Tobias forward so Tobias was forced to hold onto Destrain’s muscular shoulders and then slowly kissed his way down Tobias’s back. Tobias couldn’t hold in his yelp of surprise when Clove spread his ass cheeks and pressed the tip of his tongue into his hole. “Oh! Oh! Oh!”
Destrain wrapped his lips around Tobias’s mushroomed head and lightly scraped it with his teeth, then slowly ran his mouth down to the base of Tobias’s cock and back up. He continued his motions over and over as Clove licked and suckled Tobias’s hole. Tobias wasn’t going to last. It was too much. “I-I—Help me! Oh Gods, help me!”
