Authors: Joyee Flynn
“We’ve got some surveillance to get done,” Tiny said as a way of reply after a few moments.
Austin
let him go. He really didn’t have any room to be giving relationship advice, and he of all people knew that. But they were his friends, and
Austin
would give his left nut to see them happy.
He grimaced at the image of getting that part of his anatomy cut off. Okay, so maybe not his ball, but he’d give a
lot
to see them happy. Even if he never knew it would be with each other. He’d have to talk to Gabriel, though, to see if he’d ever heard of two dragons mating. But if that’s what made them happy, then so be it.
Focusing on his own mate,
Austin
chuckled at the gorgeous, passed-out man in his arms. He was already half in love with both his mates, and he didn’t really even know them that well yet.
Half in love? Keep telling yourself that.
Austin
snickered at his own inner monologue as he stood and quickly cleaned his mate up.
When they were both presentable and re-dressed, he carried Garreck up to bed. As he tucked his smallest mate into bed,
Austin
realized Dante was awake.
“You know Garreck pointed something out to me,” he drawled as he whipped off his shirt and crawled over to his injured mate.
“What was that?” Dante asked, eyeing him over hesitantly. Ever since he’d brought his mates back home, Dante had been withdrawn and down.
Austin
had hoped time would snap him out of it, but maybe it was attention the man needed.
“That there are other ways to take care of my mates besides just sex.”
“Is that what I am,
Austin
?” Dante whispered, his eyes filling with tears as he looked away. “Am I your mate?”
“Yes, of course,” he gasped, not realizing Dante questioned that. He pulled down the sheet covering the man’s body but then froze. “If you want to be, that is.”
“I do.” And that’s all
Austin
needed to hear. With a huge smile on his face, he pulled the sheet down and leaned over so his face was in Dante’s groin.
Austin
gave the soft cock in front of him a few swipes of his tongue, troubled when it didn’t get hard. “Please don’t.”
“W-Why not?” he blurted out as he stared up at Dante with wide eyes. “I thought you wanted to be my mate?”
“I do, but I don’t think I can ever be a part of that anymore,” Dante answered, gesturing to his groin as he turned away. “I haven’t gotten hard since—well you know since what.”
“Is that why you screamed out last night?”
Austin
asked gently as he pulled the sheet back up. Dante nodded as he moved to lay alongside his mate.
“It was different than what happened when we were held captive. We were forced to do that stuff. It was my choice this time, and I hate myself for doing it.”
“No, baby,” he whispered as he wrapped his arms around Dante, careful of his injuries. “Don’t say that or feel that way. It was my fault, not yours. Never yours. If I’d just talked to you guys, you wouldn’t have been upset and ran when you then saw what happened with Peter. All the blame rests on my shoulders, and I will never forgive myself as long as I live for putting you in that position. I’m so sorry.”
“I’m scared I’m impotent now.” Dante sniffled and turned to bury his face in
Austin
’s neck. “I sleep in the same bed as the two hottest men who I care about deeply, and I can’t get hard. What’s wrong with me?”
“Nothing’s wrong with you, Dante.”
Austin
’s heart broke. He had no idea that Dante was suffering like this, and didn’t that just once again make him a shit mate. “After what happened with Peter, his betrayal, I couldn’t get hard for a long time. And then I’d start to panic about not being able to get hard, so then there was all this pressure and then I really couldn’t seem to get excited. It’s like a circle of distress.”
“What did you do?” Dante asked so quietly
Austin
barely heard him. “How did you get better?”
“By forgiving myself,” he answered honestly, knowing now wasn’t the time to hide anything from the man. “I realized what had happened wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t the fucked up one. Peter was. And once I understood that and calmed down, my dick started working again just fine. When you’re ready to move on, you’ll wake up with morning wood and realized everything’s fine.”
“What if it’s not? What if I did damage to myself mentally and physically and my cock will never work again? You guys won’t want some impotent loser.”
“I’m going to let those disparaging comments slide after everything you’ve been through,”
Austin
ground out. “But if it ends up not working once I’ve convinced you that you’ve done nothing wrong, then we’ll do whatever it takes to fix it. In my heart I know I’m right. Once you let go of the grief and guilt that you feel, you’ll be getting boners all over the place.”
“I’m sorry I betrayed you and Garreck,” Dante whimpered, and not in that sexy, having-great-sex kind of way. It was more a don’t-hit-me whimper that crushed
Austin
’s soul to hear from his mate.
“You did no such thing, baby,”
Austin
said firmly, taking Dante’s face in his hands. “I was
never
upset with you. I was furious with me for giving you reason to run. You did what you had to when you thought you and Garreck needed somewhere safe to go. None of this was your fault.”
“It’s neither of your faults, you big dummies,” Garreck mumbled from the other pillow. “It happened, and it’s horrible. The whole thing was horrible. But it’s not anyone’s fault but that slimy truck driver’s. You guys both rock, I love you both, and I will spend as long as it takes to get you hard, Dante. Just hush up and take a nice nappy nap with me and we’ll play when we get back up.”
Austin
’s jaw dropped open in shock at the wisdom and fierceness of the man’s words. And he did catch the fact that Garreck said he loved him for the first time. But right now wasn’t the time to think about that given Dante’s stress.
“Bossy little thing.” Dante snickered as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and laid on his back. Then he glanced over at
Austin
. “You really still want me? You’re not disgusted by what I did?”
“Yes, I want you, and no, I could never be disgusted with you, baby.”
“Glad that’s settled.” Garreck yawned and rolled over so he was sprawled at Dante’s side, giving his chest a few pats. “Now go to sleep or neither of you is getting a piece of my ass for at least a week.”
“I love you, too, Garreck.” Dante chuckled and kissed the top of his head.
Austin
moved so he was pressed against Dante’s other side, so he felt surrounded by the ones who cared about him the most. He prayed that this was the first step in healing his mate, because if anyone had already suffered enough in their lives and deserved nothing but happiness… it was his men.
* * * *
Dante woke to the sounds of soft laughter… and kids? "
What the hell?"
he thought as he opened his eyes. Glancing around, he realized that Garreck and Austin were watching the first DVD in the learning series Kelley had gotten him. And more importantly, they were sitting on either side of him holding his hands. He’d never felt more safe and loved in his life.
“I can go through these faster than the guidelines, right?” Garreck asked as he looked over at
Austin
. “I know how to talk just fine, unlike little kids. I mean, I doubt I’ll ever forget what dog looks like now when I read it.”
“Yeah, the goal is just to start with these as basics,”
Austin
answered with a nod. “Next we get you one of those LeapFrog readers for older kids. You can run the wand over the words you need help with. Plus, they’re all easy stories we can read to the baby after he’s born.”
“Babies you mean,” Dante corrected, his eyes going wide at the bombshell he let slip out.
“W-What?”
Austin
gasped and turned to him. “Babies? When did you find out?”
“Couple of days ago,” he whispered as he sat up and pulled away from them. He leaned against the headboard and pulled his knees to his chest. “The day we got back I was a little loopy from the pain pills and decided to go find the tests Kelley got in the middle of the night. I’m not really sure why. It sounded like a fun idea when I couldn’t sleep and you guys were out like a light. But then the test was positive, and I was scared to tell you.”
“I really want to kiss you and wrap you in my arms, baby,”
Austin
said gently as he moved towards Dante. “But everything about your posture and how you’re sitting says you don’t want me to.”
“Are you mad? I was going to tell you both. I mean, it’s not like you wouldn’t find out eventually and all. But I needed to know you weren’t disgusted with what I did before announcing I was carrying your child and all of that. I wasn’t sure—”
Austin
cut him off by mashing his lips to Dante’s. At first he didn’t move, scared at what this all meant. But then
Austin
dragged him onto his lap, and Dante submitted. He moaned as their mate’s tongue explored every inch of his mouth. As soon as they broke apart for air, Dante had seconds to take a deep breath before Garreck took over.
“Baby, you’re hard,”
Austin
whispered in his ear.
“Of course I’m hard.” Dante snickered as he went to grope Garreck. “I’ve got two hot men touching and kissing me.”
“Dante, you are hard. You have an erection,”
Austin
said firmly but slowly as he took Dante’s face in his hands. And suddenly the light bulb went off over his head. He glanced down just to make sure, even though his body knew that he was hard.
“I’m hard!” he shrieked and then winced. Dante had never heard that sound come from him before. “Okay, someone do something about it before it goes away!”
“Gladly,” Garreck purred and sucked him down. He moaned and squirmed in delight as his men took care of him. Garreck gave him a world class blow job as
Austin
fingered his hole. When it was all over, he gasped for breath as they ran their hands over him in a calming manner.
“I’m not defective,” he sighed and snuggled up to
Austin
’s chest.
“Never thought you were.”
Austin
chuckled and kissed his temple. “But I am going to claim you officially soon. I know you got knocked up when we had sex, but to me it’s not real until I bite you and make you immortal and mine.”
“Give me a minute, and we can do that next.” Dante chuckled, thrilled he was over this hurdle.
“Umm,
Austin
you need to see this,” Garreck said, gesturing to Dante’s back. “Didn’t you say after you mated us we would heal faster and all of that?”
“What’s wrong?” Dante asked as he started to panic. “Did I pull a stitch?”
“No,”
Austin
whispered after he turned Dante over so he could see. “Go get Kelley. Tell her to get the doctor.”
“I’m on it,” Garreck said immediately and leapt off the bed. Before Dante could even ask what was going on, he started to whimper as
Austin
brushed his hair off of his face.
“I don’t know how this all happened, baby,”
Austin
whispered. “The mating knot isn’t supposed to come out unless I bite you. You are not supposed to heal this fast unless I bite you. But somehow you did. Nothing’s wrong other than your wound is healed and the skin is starting to grow over the stitches. It shouldn’t be happening this fast.”
“So why do you look so upset?” Dante asked as he stared up at his man, feeling confused.
“Because once again, I’ve screwed up.”