“You might want that, but that’s not your choice to make, babe.” Nic was stroking Sage’s hand. “Paranormals don’t get addicted to things, but from what we’ve seen, the only time a person can genuinely get free of the substances they’re addicted to is when they are mentally ready to do it. They have to want to do it.”
“I know that, I do.” Sage sighed. “I don’t think they’ll ever change.”
“We can make rehab an option for them if they ever change their mind, but this will keep you away from their unpleasantness in the meantime.” Luc decided some decisions were in order. He and Nic were still hopeful their sweet third would share a bed with them that night, and that meant showing they could be the mates Sage deserved. “All we want, as your mates, is to protect you from people who don’t understand how wonderful you are, and spoil you because you’re cute and serious, and you belongwith us…” He trailed off. “I’m not sure that came out right, but hopefully you get the idea.”
“Exactly,” Nic agreed. “We can set up the legal side of things, a trust fund for them, and things like that. They can deal with a completely indifferent and trusted third party who can check out the status of their rent and see whether or not their medical needs are being met. Let us do that for you. Let us shield you from them.”
Sage’s shoulders sagged back into the couch. “You don’t know what a relief that would be,” he said. “I carry so much unresolved anger and hurt from things I witnessed growing up. I know this, and I have to learn to let it go. They don’t care about me and never have. I have to accept that.”
“Well, we do care, and if you learned about mates, then you know we always will,” Luc said firmly. “We’ll keep you sheltered from them and anything else that comes along for as long as you need us to.”
“Thank you.” Sage looked down to where his hands were being held. “That’s my horrible secret. Is there anything else I need to know about you, before any claiming goes on?”
Luc didn’t have any, but he looked at Nic. His mate didn’t have to say anything – it would make no difference to Sage – but…he grinned as he saw a determined tilt to Nic’s jaw.
“When I met Luc, he was always a bit of a nomad, but my past hadn’t been so simple,” Nic said. “You deserve to know what I did before he and I met. It has something to do with how I got that growth thingy on my tentacle.”
Chapter Nineteen
Nic
It was a lot easier telling his story for a second time. Nic had spent years always worried that Luc would somehow find out about what he considered a sordid past, but as he recounted the details to Sage, Luc was listening in, with his hand resting comfortably on Nic’s shoulder.
There’s something so freeing about telling the truth,he realized, as he quickly recounted the story about his captivity and the things he did when he didn’t believe he had any other choice. With Sage stroking his hand, and Luc offering solid support, even more now that their claim had already been made, Nic felt cherished in a way he never had.
“So you see, that’s probably why I have that mark on my tentacle,” he said when he’d finished his story. The sun was setting as the days were still quite a bit shorter in Iceland. Nic was hoping they could order some dinner soon.
“They used to play a game where they would put a chain and a padlock around one of my tentacles. It must have always been that one. And then they would time me to see how long it would take me to get it off. They always had to make it really tight because, otherwise, of course, it would just slip off. I would spend the longest time trying to get free, and it was all for the crowd’s amusement.”
“That’s absolutely horrible,” Sage said. “No one had the right to treat you that way.”
“We know this now,” Luc said, “and yes, there were laws against the captivity of shifters back then, too. But the cases were rarely reported.”
“I remember reading about different cases like that when I was in university. Carnival attractions and circuses were very popular before the days of social media. One of the most common reasons they got shut down was because of their inhumane treatment of their attractions.” Sage shook his head before resting it briefly on Nic’s chest.
“To think that you were tied up in one of them is so desperately sad. I’m really, really pleased that you and Luc have created such wonderfully successful lives for yourselves since. It gives me hope that the other people who might have been caught up in a similar situation have also found their happily ever after.”
“I’d never thought of it that way before,” he said quietly, risking a quick stroke of Sage’s hair. Nic didn’t want their third feeling uncomfortable with him.
Although Sage didn’t seem to mind. “So how did you and Luc meet again? Didn’t you mention it wasn’t that far from here? After what you’ve explained, coming to help me with the giant squid must’ve been so difficult for you, even if the human audiences who used to mock you are probably long dead, seeing as it was more than fifty years ago.”
Nic’s eyes widened over Sage’s head as he looked at Luc, who grinned. Yeah, neither of them had thought of that.I’ve been carrying that fear for years for no reason.
“We met about probably eighty to a hundred miles north of here. We were both in our full kraken forms and literally bumped into each other,” Luc said.
“It was a wonder our tentacles didn’t shatter when they touched because it was so darn cold.” Nic chuckled as he remembered. “I was caught up with a whale. I had no idea how krakens lived in the wild, and just assumed because I was so big that I could eat anything in the sea. The whale and I were having a bit of a tussle.It’s pitch black, visibility was almost nil, and then all of a sudden I see this huge eyeball, which was pretty much the same size as mine. I was so shocked I let go of the whale, and he shot off…”
“And left us two krakens just staring at each other deep under the sea – two pairs of eyes and a mass of tentacles not sure what to do next.” Luc was laughing too. “We knew who we were to each other. Our krakens had excellent instincts when it came to that. But yes, that was our meeting, basically bumping into each other the way we did, so totally random in such a remote location.
“It was definitely the hands of the Fates involved on that day. I had actually gotten lost. I thought I was a lot farther south, but I took a wrong turn somewhere, which was how I ended up near the Arctic in the first place. It was clearly meant to be.”
“It was so cold,” Nic mock shivered. “We couldn’t shift up there, or we would’ve frozen our bits off, so we swam for days. It was handy in a way, at least for me. I was able to watch Luc and see what he was doing for food and basic survival in kraken style. By the time we’d hit the warmer water streams, I had a pretty good handle on how a kraken was supposed to live and act. Luc never knew there was anything different about me. We shifted and met each other in person…well, that didn’t quite go as planned either, but we’re here now.”
“I still think it’s fascinating,” Sage said. “With all that time together, and that both of you made the agreement not to claim each other until you met me. I wasn’t even born when you two met.”
“A lot of that was because of me,” Nic said. “I hope you don’t take offense, because now we’ve met you, I can’t wait until we’ve claimed you properly. But back then, I always worried that if Lucfound out what had happened to me before we met, he would think I was not worth having.”
Sage patted his hand. “I feel the same way sometimes, believe me. But then you only have to look at the people who love you to realize that you are worth something after all, even if it’s to them. To suggest otherwise is actually an insult to those people, and you wouldn’t want to do that now, would you?”
