thought I would be to choose one small, black-eyed woman…
The bed fits us all. There is some chafing and butting heads, and I have to smack both Aska and Griffin and separate them, placing them on either side of the bed. It’s so large that my mates can lie comfortably without touching. For once I simply sprawl in their midst, in the middle of this huge...huge monster pile.
Their hands seek me out in the dark, stroking my skin, touching and holding, and each caress sparks with power and love.
Even my wolf is here, lying on the floor by the bed, his eyes watching me as if guarding, as if memorising. It’s strange. When this is over, I need to learn more about him somehow. It feels important, but first I must survive tomorrow, something that fills me with dread.
I’m not a leader. I could barely keep myself alive, so what sort of example do I set? I kill anyone who annoys me, which is surely not a good fit. But Lucy seems to think so, and everyone was adamant.
Maybe I could do it for a while and just see how it goes while they put all the other council members in place, and once they are there I could resign. I guess only time will tell, but for now I push all that away, just enjoying being lost in my mates.
We have never all been in the same room.
It feels so right. I know we can’t spend every day like this. They would kill each other, but for tonight, one night, there’s a truce. I feel it.
Staring up at the large, ornate ceiling decorated in murals of battles, blood, and death, I let myself relax for the first time since before all this began. Since before I was taken, before I was killed. Before I met that ass monkey ex. There was never a time I felt this...complete, though, this happy. This right, as if I was always going to end up here.
“Thank you for coming for me, for staying, for fighting with me,” I whisper into the dark. Their hands contract on my body, and I feel their eyes looking to me. “You didn’t have to, so thank you.”
“I told you, Little Monster, I’ll always come for you. We all feel the same, we could never walk away from you,” Nos murmurs, and I turn my head and meet his white eyes. The fact he’s relaxed in this form tells me he at least feels comfortable with everyone, if nothing else.
“But why? And don’t say because we’re mates, there has to be something else. A way to resist that if you wanted to.”
“Why would we want to?” Jair inquires.
“Draya, we search our whole lives for a place to call home, a family. Happiness. You are all of that. Why would we ever walk away when we find love in your arms?”
“And fucking great sex,” Griffin adds, and then I hear a yelp as someone kicks or smacks him.
“A chance to be what we want, to not follow the path spread out for us, but to make our own. Neriso, we stay, we came for you not because destiny told us we had to, but because if we didn’t...we would never be happy again. Our moon rises and sets with you.” Aska croons.
“Get that from one of your shows?” Griffin snorts.
Their back and forth makes me smile. So they aren’t here just because of destiny or because they had to. But because they wanted to.
“Of course we did, Little Monster. We choose to mate you, to follow you, because we love you,” Nos insists, and pulls me closer. Sighing, I lay my head on his chest as Griffin snuggles closer to my back. Aska picks up my feet and drapes them over his chest, one hand locked around my ankle. Jair rubs against my legs as Dume’s arm stretches across him to touch my thigh.
I let their warmth fill me, replacing all those dark parts with shades of grey until I start to feel more whole, even if something inside me reaches out beyond these walls and down the hallway to someone else.
Lucy.
I shake my head, that man...that demon will decide his own rules. Always will, I can tell. He’s not like my other mates, he never wanted a family or a home...or love. If he chooses to walk away, I have no choice but to let him, even if a tiny part of me cracks at that thought, feeling