there, I wasn’t being drugged anymore?” It had to be a possibility.
“I think part of you remembered the shifters,” Rael commented. “Your dive into the river as soon as we got here?”
Okay, that part he remembered. But he was drawn back to that cage. Why the hell would they put shifters in there with him? To calm him when he got stressed out?
“Do you remember me coming to the office that first time?”
Dellan opened his eyes and stared at Rael. “No.”
Rael swallowed. “You spoke to me, inside my head. You asked me to help you.”
Dellan had reached his breaking point. Tears trickled down his cheeks, and he couldn’t stop them. “Oh, thank God you came. I could still be there if not for you. For all of you.”
Horvan’s arms were around him, and Rael knelt beside his chair. Dellan clung to his mates, his sobs gradually dying away.
Dellan was aware of Horvan’s voice, gentle yet firm. “I think that’s all for now. He’s had enough.”
“There is one last question I think we all want to ask.” Doc’s voice was quiet. “Did you know the man who shot you?”
“I’d never seen him before.” Dellan couldn’t suppress the shudder that rippled through him. “And I never want to see him again.” Every instinct he possessed told him that the man was not only cruel, but dangerous.
“Then let’s hope he doesn’t want to see you either,” Roadkill remarked. All heads turned his way, and he nodded. “That’s what we’re all thinking, isn’t it? That someone is going to come looking for Dellan?” He shivered. “This isn’t over.”
Chapter Nineteen
DELLAN WATCHED as across the room, Rael and Horvan were making dinner. Their preparations involved a good deal of laughter, and the sound lightened Dellan’s spirits.
My mates.
Rael glanced at him and smiled. Yours. Then he returned to his task of slicing eggplants, and Dellan had to smile at how… normal it felt. Two men had walked into his life and turned it upside down. Two men he was destined to be with.
It should have been awkward, but it wasn’t. It felt right.
He should have fought the notion that someone was directing his life, but he hadn’t. Because it felt…
Right.
“You seem to have taken that part of this whole business in your stride.”
It took Dellan a moment to realize Doc was talking to him. He blinked. “Sorry. I must’ve zoned out for a second. You mean, discovering I had two mates?” He chuckled. “After everything I’ve been through, suddenly finding out that some higher power or other had decreed I should have two soul mates is somehow easier to swallow.”
“Interesting choice of words.” Doc’s eyes twinkled. “Soul mates.”
Dellan couldn’t think of another word that was more apt. “I’ve known them for less than a day.” He gestured to his body. “In this form, at any rate. But it feels like I’ve known them for much longer.” It seemed like every few minutes, one or both of them would connect with him: a light touch of their hand on his, a gentle caress of his cheek, or the soft stroking of his hair. It served as a constant reminder of two things—he was indeed human again, and there were two men who clearly cared for him. Dellan wondered if all mates felt this… connection, this overpowering need to be close to one another.
He peered at Doc. “Was it like that when you met your mate?”
Doc stilled. “Ah. Then you don’t know that part.” When Dellan gazed at him, perplexed, Doc sighed. “The fact that someone has… decreed, as you put it, that you should have two mates isn’t what intrigues us. It’s the fact that you have mates at all, when finding one is as rare as hen’s teeth.”
Dellan laughed. “I’ve never understood that saying.”
“It’s simple, really. Hens don’t possess teeth. So something as rare as that would be rare to the point of nonexistence.” Doc gave him an intense look. “Does that adequately convey why the three of you finding one another is so special?”
Holy fuck, it truly did.
Dellan reached for his mug of coffee and wrapped his hands around it. “It’s peaceful here. I like that.” This time of quiet seemed exactly what he needed.
The doc chuckled. “It’s only peaceful now because the boys have gone to the store. Once they return, it’ll be back to business as usual.” He met Dellan’s gaze. “I knew your parents, by the way.”
Dellan stilled. “Really?”
Doc nodded. “Before they got married. We were all in our early twenties.”
Dellan was aware