Justin knew how much Taylor had given up to keep him safe. If he ever knew that the Teacher was telling him one thing, and making deals with Taylor, and then turning around and threatening Justin, Taylor would have lost his mind.
Now, it just didn’t seem to matter. Nothing did. Whether he was sick or a vampire, he still wasn’t really wanted. Sure, Taylor wanted him, but Justin often wondered if it was a love of convenience. Taylor was so used to caring for him, protecting him, that Justin didn’t think Taylor knew how to do anything else.
That was why he had wanted Chase to claim Taylor. He knew, once Taylor belonged to Chase, that both men would find happiness together. They were both strong men with a deep need to protect those that they cared about. They were more alike than either of them wanted to admit. They were perfect for each other.
And, vampire or diabetic, Justin knew he just didn’t fit into their perfect little world. No matter what he was, he was different from them. His needs may have changed a bit if he was indeed a vampire, but he still had them. He would need blood instead of insulin. His diet would have to be carefully watched just like before. Justin didn’t even want to think about the whole garlic and no sunlight thing.
He was already a freak.
Justin turned and looked over at Danny and his mate, avoiding Taylor and Chase, who he could see staring at him with twin expressions of exasperation on their faces. “Is there somewhere that I can lie down? I’m feeling rather tired at the moment.”
The prince frowned as his eyes danced between Justin, Taylor, and Chase, and then back to Justin. He sighed deeply as Danny nudged him with his elbow, glaring down at his mate for a brief moment.
“I told you that you could stay as long as you wished, Justin. Please consider this your room for as long as you want it.”
Justin glanced at Taylor and Chase out of the corner of his eyes. “Somewhere private?”
Dominic’s eyes cut to Chase and Taylor, and then he frowned. “I suppose that can be arranged.”
“No, it cannot!” Taylor shouted as he rushed across the room to grab Justin’s arm and swung him around. He started jabbing his finger at Justin, his nostrils flaring with anger. “I don’t know what in the hell is wrong with you, Justin, but enough is enough. I didn’t go through all of that shit with the Teacher just to give you up because you have a fucking stick up your ass.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Justin pushed away from Taylor, feeling like the man was jumping up and down on the last thread holding his nerves together. Too much more, and he would be a blithering idiot.
“Damn it, Justin.” Taylor’s fists clenched at his sides.
“Vampire or diabetic doesn’t matter, Justin,” Chase said. “I’ve already claimed you. There is no going back now.”
Justin’s shoulders slumped. He walked over and sat down on the side of the bed, staring down at his hands. He refused to look up when someone sat beside him and the bed dipped. He knew it was Chase from the faded color of his denim jeans. Taylor was wearing dark denim jeans.
“Is being mated to me so bad, Justin?” Chase asked.
“No, but…” Justin just didn’t have an answer for Chase, not now.
“I thought you wanted to be my mate.”
“I did, but…” Again, Justin didn’t have an answer. It seemed like everything he wanted was mixed up with everything he had given up. He just didn’t know what the right answer was, or even if there was one. “You don’t understand.”
Justin instantly realized what he had said and how it might have sounded when Taylor started snickering. He rolled his eyes and then raised his head to glare at Taylor. The man quickly pressed his lips and then covered his mouth with his hand. It didn’t make Justin feel any better.
Neither did Chase’s response.
“So, explain it to me.”
Justin shot Chase a deadpan look. “You first.”
* * * *
Chase dreaded this moment and had prayed that it would never come. But here it was, and he had no way out of it. If he wanted Justin to understand that it hadn’t been his sickness that kept him away, Chase had some explaining to do.
“Would you excuse us?” Chase asked the prince and his mate.
He watched as the prince nodded and the two men left the room, leaving only Taylor and Justin to hear what Chase never wanted anyone to know, what he had only shared with a few men in his entire life.
He ran his hand down his face, glancing up at the ceiling as the memories began to fill his mind. “I’m a mercenary, or was.”
Yeah, that was
straight to the point.
It was the best way Chase could think of to start the conversation off.
“Like ‘gun for hire’ kind of mercenary?” Taylor asked as he sat on the carpeted floor in front of Chase and Justin.
As badly as he wanted to say no, Chase wouldn’t lie to his mates. He just prayed they didn’t hate him when all of this was over. “Yes.”
“Wow,” Justin breathed out slowly.
Chase wasn’t sure if that was a good wow or bad wow. “A few years back a man approached me. He said I had a special talent that he could put to good use.”
“So you just went?” Justin asked, seeming enthralled with what Chase was revealing to is mates. Maybe he didn’t truly understand what Chase was saying.
“You have to understand, Justin. My life really wasn’t going anywhere. My home life sucked. I thought my mother was dead and that my father was a drunk. I was searching for something, but I didn’t know what. I wanted more out of life. I felt like I was just floating along.”
“Have you ever killed anyone?” Taylor asked.
Chase sighed. He really did not want to have this conversation. He would rather chew nails, with a side of broken glass, than reveal to his mates what he had done for the past few years before he got out.
“Yes.”
Justin’s eyes widened and he looked dazed, but Taylor scooted a little closer, as if he didn’t want to miss a word. Of all the reactions he had played through his mind if he ever decided to tell his mates what was going on, these didn’t even come close.
He imaged them turning their backs on him. He imagined them calling him a killer. He had even imagined them telling him to fuck off and never talk to them again. But Chase never expected both of them to look as if they were hanging on his every word.
“But only when it came down to me or them.”
“I don’t understand,” Justin said as he slid an inch closer. “If you were a hired gun, why would you only kill someone if it came down to you or them?”
Chase reached up and cupped the back of Justin’s neck, pulling his mate close and kissing his temple. Gods, the man was so damn innocent. “I worked for an agency that specializes in neutralizing security threats. And before you ask, I’m going to leave it at that. The less you know the better.”
“Fair enough,” Taylor said. “No questions about who you worked for. But I want to know why you felt you couldn’t claim us.”
“It is
worked
, right?” Justin asked. “I mean, you don’t still work for them, do you?”
“No, I don’t work for them and haven’t for about a year now, but I still call in favors when I need them. There are people, dangerous people, out there that owe me. The problem is, when I call in these favors, it brings them closer to you two. They may owe me, but some feel I’m a threat to the agency since I no longer work for them, yet I still know all of their dirty little secrets. They would rather put a bullet in my head then let me walk around breathing.”
“Oh, gods,” Justin whispered. “And you’re afraid they would use us against you.”
“Exactly,” Chase replied. “They would use the two of you to force me to come back.” Chase shook his head, feeling the fear and tension he had held for so long take control of him once more. “I can’t go back.”
“Why can’t you just tell them that you won’t tell any of their secrets?” Justin asked.
Chase wished it were that easy. But he wasn’t as naïve as Justin. He knew a pinky promise wouldn’t cut it with these men. Some of the men he had worked with were so ruthless that Chase still had nightmares about them.
“It doesn’t work that way, Justin,” Taylor replied for Chase. “If I go by what Chase is telling us, these men would stop at nothing to silence him.” Taylor’s eyes widened as he jumped up from the floor, taking a step back as his eyes filled with horror. “You called them!”
“What?” Justin asked as he looked between Chase and Taylor, confusion drowning in the depths of his green eyes.
“Chase called them to help locate you,” Taylor said as his entire body began to shake.
Chase stood, pulling his mate into his arms, soothing Taylor as he cursed himself for putting so much fear into both men. This wasn’t what he had wanted. He had wanted to keep them sheltered from the harsh truth of his former life.
“What can we do?” Justin asked as he jumped up from the bed, hurrying into the circle of Chase and Taylor, his hand grabbing at Chase’s arm. “How can we stop them?”
“I’m not sure,” Chase confessed the truth. “They are already on their way.”
Justin’s eyes filled with tears as he took a step back, darting his eyes away from Chase and Taylor. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t left, you wouldn’t have called them.”
Chase growled. There was no way he was going to allow his mate to put this burden on his little shoulders. He was sick and tired of arguing and pleading with his mates. It was high time they pulled together and worked as a team. “This is not your fault, Justin.”
“But—”
Chase grabbed Justin’s arm, pulling his mate until Justin was against his body and planted a heated kiss on his mate’s lips. Gods, the man tasted so fucking good. Reluctantly, Chase pulled back, rubbing his thumb over Justin’s cheek.
“I could counter your argument and say that none of this would be happening if I hadn’t gotten mixed up with the agency in the first place.”
“I could argue that…” Taylor bit his lip and then shrugged. “Yeah, I got nothing. But I was trying to feel a part of this.”
Taylor blushed heavily when Chase chuckled and pulled his other mate closer. “Nice try.”
“Actually,” Taylor began, his blush deepening. “I was trying for one of those kisses.”
Justin snickered.
Chase growled. “All you have to do is ask, baby.”
“Wait!” Justin said as he stuck his hand between Taylor and Chase’s lips.
Chase wanted to nip Justin’s fingers for stopping him. Taylor looked just as exasperated. “Yes?” Chase turned to Justin.
“So, that’s why you didn’t claim us?” Justin asked. “You stayed away not because you thought I was sick, but because you were trying to protect us?”
Duh.
Chase had thought he made that very clear to both his mates. “Justin, you being sick doesn’t matter to me. Well, I cared that you were sick, but under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t have stopped me. I would have just had to care for you as Taylor did.”
“And that wouldn’t have bothered you?” Justin asked suspiciously.
Chase was ready to put Justin over his knee and paddle the man’s ass until he saw the truth. “You are my mate, Justin. I take you as you are, diabetic, vampire, or a plaid alien with tentacles coming out of your cute little backside. It doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is that fate gave both of you to me, and I plan on taking damn good care of both of you.”
Damn it
.
Why did Justin look like he was about to cry again? Chase wasn’t sure if he would ever figure the man out. When Justin was mad, he cried. When Justin was happy, he cried. Chase briefly wondered if he would see tears in his mate’s eyes if he fucked him into the next century.
Sighing inwardly, Chase knew it was a something that he would get used to. Justin was sensitive. He didn’t mind having a sensitive mate. He just hated to see tears in the man’s eyes. He felt powerless when Justin looked on the verge of crying. He wanted to slay the dragon that made his mate cry.
But how could he slay himself?
Ugh, this was complicated.
“That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard,” Justin said as he smiled, wiping at his face.
“And I’m chopped liver?” Taylor asked.
Justin made the cutest face as he pulled Taylor into his arms, flashing a dazzling smile as he nipped Taylor on his chin. “Never. You say the best things to me as well.”
“Better kiss up,” Taylor mumbled as he grabbed Justin’s ass, pulling the man closer as he smashed his lips against Justin’s.
Fuck, if the sight didn’t have Chase’s cock rock hard within seconds. He had seen the two men have sex before, and Chase had always wished he was a part of their coupling. He was definitely going to make sure that he was a part of the chemistry he could see between the two men before the night was through.
Besides, he still had a mate to finish claiming.
Chase could feel the sizzle of lust in the air even before Taylor released Justin and turned to look at him. He was practically salivating and licking his lips as he watched Taylor turn Justin in his arms and pulled the man’s back against his chest. He leaned over Justin and trailed his hand down his lover’s finely sculpted chest.
“Isn’t he pretty, Chase?” Taylor asked as he stripped the shirt from Justin’s body. Even through his thin cotton shirt, Justin’s body was a work of art, but without it, he was even more gorgeous.
Chase nodded rapidly, swallowing hard.
“He’s yours now, you know. Yours and mine.”
Chase’s snapped up to meet Taylors. “Yours and mine,” Chase repeated, feeling like he was in some sort of hypnotic daze.
“You don’t have to stay outside anymore and watch through the window as Justin and I put on a show for you.” The widening of Chase’s eyes told Taylor that the man hadn’t realized they had been putting on a show. “You can play, too.”
“Ohhh,” Justin groaned. “I like playing.”
Fuck!
Justin was going to send Chase into a coronary. The man’s chest was rising and falling so fast that Taylor worried Chase would hyperventilate. And that would really suck, especially now that they were all on the same wavelength.