Now she didn’t understand why Ain and Cail suddenly looked…
“Okay, you two. What’s up?”
Ain sat back on his heels. “What?”
“What?” Cail echoed.
“Why do the two of you look borderline guilty?” She knew they hadn’t cheated on her. That was a given. Of all the emotions she might ever experience toward her men at any given time, she’d come to accept she didn’t have to be jealous in that way about them. They would never cheat on her.
Ever.
“It’s a stress reliever sometimes,” Cail muttered.
“What he said,” Ain agreed. Ain sounded unusually abashed.
She knew laughing wouldn’t help the situation, so she did her damnedest to choke it back. “You’re telling me that it was the horny bonehead who went celibate all this time? I never even saw you guys do that.”
“Shower,” Cail said. “Maybe once or twice. Okay, three times.”
“Twice for me,” Ain said. “Sorry, babe.”
Now a giggle burped free. “Okay, apologies sooo not needed, but I have to really give Brodey a lot of credit, here.” She reached up and palmed Brodey’s cheek. “That was so sweet of you, but I honestly don’t mind if in the future you take care of things yourself.”
Brodey looked uncharacteristically bashful. Of her three men, that wasn’t the last descriptor she’d use for Brodey, but it certainly was low on the list.
“If it means anything,” he said, “I promise I’ll never issue you an edict in the future preventing you from masturbating or having an orgasm without us like I did that one time.”
“I agreed to it that one time.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Yeah, she loved all three of her men and there was absolutely no way to say she loved one more than the other. Despite nearly identical appearances, they were each different in their own ways, with individual strengths and weaknesses and personalities. And as infuriating as her bonehead could sometimes be without even meaning to…it was the times like this where the depths of his love and devotion for her and their family nearly broke her heart from the intensity.
“Come here, you.” She pulled him down for a kiss. Not even a greedy, sexy, Brodey kind of devour-you-from-the-mouth-down kiss. Sweet and sincere and loving.
He rested his forehead against hers. “Guess I can wait until last now,” he joked. “Save some energy for me, please.”
“Always, baby. Love you.”
His voice choked. “Elain, I don’t have the words to tell you how much I love you.”
“How does he always manage to upstage us?” Cail asked Ain.
“I don’t know.”
Brodey settled in next to her again, and it was him she was kissing while Cail was relegated to shoulder-nibbling status. When she found Brodey’s cock and wrapped her fingers around it, though, he placed his hand on top of hers and didn’t let her stroke him, even though he was already stiff again.
Maybe he was closer to the edge than he’d admit.
Ain donned one of the condoms and carefully positioned himself between her legs.
“Just do it,” she nearly begged. “Please!”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“For chrissake, you’re not going to.”
They both let out needy moans as he slid his cock deep inside her pussy and paused for a moment to savor it. Then he started moving, and they didn’t even have to edict her to get her to come again for him like that. The way his body glided across her clit with every stroke, the way his shaft perfectly hit all the good spots inside her, it was its own form of magick.
She quit kissing Brodey long enough to stare up into Ain’s eyes. In this light, the grey looked nearly black.
“Love you,” he said.
She smiled. “Love you, too.”
By the time Ain had come, she knew Cail was already close to the edge. Ain had no sooner moved out of the way than Cail was rolling a condom over his cock and kneeling between her legs. “Gonna give me another one, baby?” he whispered to her.
“Maybe.”
He smiled as he slid deep inside her and stretched his body along the length of hers. Like this it felt just as wonderful in a totally different way than it had with Ain. “Come for me,” he whispered, the soft edict still powerful in its force.
Her pussy clenched around his cock as she climaxed again and Cail started fucking her hard and fast, catching up and finishing with her.
He nuzzled the hollow of her throat. “Love you so much,” he whispered.
She ran her fingers through his hair. “Love you, too.”
Then it was Brodey’s turn. Nestled between the other two brothers, who’d cleaned up and returned to bed, she stared up at her sweet, green-eyed wolf as he stared down at her. He lifted her legs, her ankles over his shoulders as he never broke eye contact with her.
Each man had a different connection with her. None better than the other, just different.
Something primal connected her and Brodey, something less domesticated. He smiled down at her after slowly thrusting for a moment. “I know what you really want.” He pulled out, flipped her over onto her hands and knees, and entered her from behind.
She let out a moan that Ain silenced by slipping two fingers between her lips.
Brodey folded himself over her back, kissing a trail down her spine. “Oh, our beautiful mate. I wish I could make you shift and fuck you like that but I don’t think the condom would hold.”
He grabbed her hips and started pounding her, pulling one more orgasm from her without any edict needed. “There’s my girl,” he said, his voice strained as he quickly finished and fell still.
She was a little surprised that, after Brodey left the bed to clean up and return that Ain moved over for him to have the space next to her tonight.
Lifting her head, she didn’t even need to ask the question. Ain apparently anticipated it.
“I’ll take baby duty tonight,” he said. “I think Brodey’s earned side-time. I kind of feel a little ashamed of myself.” Brodey returned and climbed into bed.
“Hey, if it doesn’t bother me,” she said, “don’t let it bother you.” She looked over her shoulder at Cail. “Either of you. Okay? I’m not upset.” She leaned in and kissed Brodey. “I wish you’d said something. I would have given you a hand.”
He wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I didn’t want to bug you.”
Tipping his chin toward her, she waited until his gaze finally met hers. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Realizing she wasn’t going to drop it, he finally answered. “I didn’t want to. Not without you. I didn’t even try. Because I knew that without you there, I wouldn’t be able to, anyway.”
“What?” That wasn’t just Elain, but Cail and Ain.
“Do we really need to discuss this now?” Brodey muttered.
“I’d like to, yeah,” Elain said.
He let out a resigned sigh. “I haven’t tried doing anything yet, but I don’t think I can come anymore if I’m not with you.”
“How do you know if you didn’t even try?”
“Because it’s a feeling I have. Trusting our guts, right? I just know it.”
Now Elain really felt guilty. It was one thing to teasingly edict each other not to come to amp up the tension.
It was another thing entirely—and not something she wanted to happen—for them not to be able to come without her, period. “Did I do that to you?”
“No. I realized it a while ago. So I didn’t even bother testing it out now. I didn’t want to anyway.”
“But you said—”
“I know what I said, and it wasn’t a lie. It was a…loophole.”
Guilt flashed through her. Yeah, she understood those all too well. “Okay, sweetie.” She leaned in and kissed Brodey. “If it’s something you want to work on—”
“I don’t. I waited my whole life to find you. I spent enough time alone and having to take care of business on my own. Now
with you, it’s not worth even doing it if I’m alone. It’s not worth anything if I’m not with you.”
On that note, she snuggled into his arms, her arm draped over his chest, Cail spooned along her back and Ain over on the far side.
Her sweet bonehead certainly was full of surprises.
Chapter Eighteen
Back in Florida on Monday morning, the Triad convened again, this time at Lina’s house with Mom and Kael babysitting.
Mai was apparently ranting about something that happened over the weekend. “I’m going to cut up those two men’s credit cards if they try to bring home one more toy for that little girl.”
“You’re complaining that your guys are shopping for BettLynn?” Elain asked.
“Not just shopping, but letting their little girl wrap them around her fingers. I’m turning out to be the tough guy parent, while they’d buy her the whole dang store if she gives them those big green eyes.”
“Not like money’s an issue for you guys,” Zack said. “Let them go shopping if they want to.”
“That’s not the point,” Mai insisted. “I don’t want to live like that or raise BettLynn thinking money will solve everything. I’m proof that you can go from having a comfortable life to nothing and struggling to survive and back to comfort again. My parents weren’t rich, but we were fine growing up. They kept us reined in and raised us as normally as they could. They didn’t spoil us. We had to do chores. My parents both worked for a living, even though they had a savings account my uncle blew through.”
Mai snorted in disgust. “There’s a man whose balls I wouldn’t mind Elain popping.”
“That can be arranged,” Lina darkly muttered.
“No, I don’t want him dead. But I want us to raise BettLynn as normally as I can. I want her to learn how to do things for herself. Just because she has Down syndrome doesn’t mean she can’t be independent. I want to teach her to do chores. That little baby board that Dad made her a few weeks ago? That was absolutely fantastic. She loves it, and the occupational therapist said it was perfect.”
Elain’s father had made two of the simple but ingenious devices, one for Joss and one for BettLynn, although the Beasts were having fun with it, too. Lots of little things like light switches, door safety chains, cabinet latches—all sorts of things to keep busy little hands busy, as well as help teach fine motor skills. He’d seen it in a baby magazine and surprised BettLynn with it.
Even more surprising to the adults was watching as George and Luke figured it out first and then set about helping BettLynn learn how to do everything.
Mom was now at work on making a similar set of play blankets that had things like zippers, buttons, and other types of activities.
“So you’re not happy your guys want to spoil BettLynn rotten?” Elain asked.
“I don’t want anyone spoiling any of our kids rotten. Not even BettLynn. Especially not BettLynn. I already have a feeling I’m going to be butting heads with the Beasts as they get older and want to do things for her. I mean, I get it, their hearts will be in the right place, but it’s looking more and more like if we keep working and pushing BettLynn, we’ll be able to keep much of her developmental delays to a minimum. That means one less hurdle for her. If George and Luke try to help her with everything, instead of letting her do it for herself, she won’t develop to her full potential.”
“No, I get it,” Lina said. “I see exactly what you mean.” She turned to Elain. “You missed it. Saturday night, everyone came over to our place for dinner. Jim was feeding BettLynn a sippy cup of juice and was showing her how to hold it. Working with her, right? Trying to get her to do it on her own, and she was struggling a little, but she was getting it. Then George literally crawled over to Jim, snatched the sippy cup out of his hand, and held it for BettLynn. Then he glared at Jim like he was defying him to take it back.”
Elain’s gaze widened. “No way!”
“Way,” Lina said. “I mean, we were all speechless. Stunned. I personally was mortified. Especially when Luke crawled over to help George and back him up. It was like the mini dragon mafia. I think Jim was scared to stop them. None of us knew how to react. I feel like I’m raising two dragon enforcers or something.”
“What’d you finally do?” Elain asked.
“What any smart mom of dragon hellions would do. I sent their dragon fathers in to retrieve their obnoxious little dragon mini-mes and take them outside so Jim could finish feeding BettLynn. Which pissed both of those little boogers off to no end, and they started squalling like they were being skinned alive.”
Elain hoped she didn’t blanch at that descriptor. It hit too close to home in some ways, to her memories of how Rodolfo suffered.
“Then,” Mai said, “BettLynn shifted, jumped out of Jim’s arms, and ran after Jan and Rick while barking and growling at them and snapping at their heels, like she was trying to protect the boys.”
Elain wasn’t sure if she should be laughing or horrified. “Okay, I know this is off-topic, but I need to hear the rest of this story.”
Zack took over. “Micah jumped up and ran after her, going Alpha on her fuzzy little ass. He actually shifted right there, dressed and everything, Alpha-rolled her and growled at her, picked her up by the scruff with his teeth, and carried her back to Jim, and dropped her in Jim’s lap.”
Mai giggled. “And then Micah tripped and face-planted on the living room carpet.”
Lina snorted. “Okay, now that was funny.”
“How’d he trip?” Elain asked.
“He still had clothes on and got tangled up in them,” Zack explained. “I mean, he literally shifted as he dove for BettLynn. It’s not like he ran a quarter mile or something in them.”
“He ended up flat on his face,” Mai said, still giggling.
“And then,” Lina said, laughing, “BettLynn started howling. I’ve never heard that sound come out of her before. We thought she was crying until she shifted back into a baby, and she was laughing so hard, these deep, rolling belly laughs, that we all started laughing.”
“At least it took her mind off George and Luke being removed from the room,” Mai said, finally getting herself under control. “It was…an interesting evening.”
“Holy crap,” Elain said. Right now, the three little offenders were asleep with full tummies from breakfast. Ellie was in the process of dozing off in Elain’s arms following a feeding, and her mom was taking care of feeding Joss, while Kael was feeding Connor.
“What the hell are we going to do when they hit their teen years?” Elain softly asked. “We’re probably going to be outnumbered. At the very least, we might be overpowered.”
Lina got up to refill her coffee mug. “I don’t know about you all, but I’m stocking up on fricking Xanax.”
* * * *
Elain passed a sleeping Ellie off to her mom once Joss had started dozing after his breakfast.
Then the Triad—and Zack—could get to work.
Elain admitted some of that weekend’s events to them. The part about talking with Baba Yaga at the rock pile and showing her their vision of the nuclear bomb explosion to get her opinion.
And the former Immortal’s admonishments about being careful with the rock pile.
When Elain finished, the other three looked grim.
“I don’t like that,” Lina finally said. “And she’s right, we can’t go bulldozing the damn thing. I wonder what the hell that thing was trying to reach out to you?”
“It sounds like it was intelligent,” Zack said.
Elain remembered how the breeze felt hot, and hadn’t been anywhere except on top of the rock pile. “You really think that’s what it was?”
“Yeah, absolutely,” Zack said.
“They never did find Aliah’s body,” Mai said, even though Elain hadn’t reminded them of that yet. “Is it possible…”
They let the suggestion hang in the air for a moment.
“Why’d you go there by yourself?” Lina asked.
> “I needed some alone time and I really wanted to see if I could…I don’t know, get any insight. Don’t you all sometimes need alone time?”
“True,” Mai said. “I can’t even get bathroom time alone sometimes.”
“Ha,” Lina said. “You think you got it bad? Wait until you have two babies.” She hooked a thumb at Zack. “And no offense to my Watcher here, but I’ll be so fricking glad when our new house is finished. Momma gets her own bathroom. First person I catch in it who isn’t me is getting fried.” She glared at Zack. “Especially when I’m taking a shower.”
“I said I was sorry,” Zack said. “Kael and Rick had the other two bathrooms occupied. If there’d been any other option, I would have taken it. It wasn’t like I could go outside and squat in the middle of the yard.”
“Let me guess,” Elain said. “You guys hit capacity?”
“Might say that,” Lina said.
“It’s not like I ain’t already seen everything you have, either, goddess girl,” Zack joked. “Through multiple lives.”
“That’s not the point. Three toilets all getting flushed within a few seconds of each other, and I damn near got scalded!”
“Okay, now we’re off-topic,” Mai teased.
“We were talking about alone time,” Lina said. “That was on-topic.”
Elain needed to steer the conversation away from home toilet capacity. “Anyway, the point is, Baba Yaga honestly can’t see a lot of stuff now around us. Including this. She’s going to try to work with Ryan Ausar. Which shocks the hell out of me.”
Elain regretted saying it as soon as it was out of her mouth. All three of them stared at her.
“Why?” they asked in unison.
Shit. She couldn’t lie or Seer Says her way out of that one, either.
She opted for a variation of the truth. “Okay, and this has to stay with us. I sort of figured it out based on what she said. I guess that the reason Baba Yaga ended up selected for the Triad in the first place, is that Ryan’s father was her lover before he married Ryan’s mother.”