“It really does stretch as far as we can see.” Teilo kept his voice low. He knew Nico worried if he drew attention to himself—nothing good ever came out of doing that—but he couldn’t help the wonder in his tone. The view was so much more than his imagination could conjure up.
The plane trip was meh. Teilo and Nico had been on private planes before, although usually in animal form. Teilo hadn’t been comfortable sitting on the seats Ben indicated, especially when Ben explained they had to wear seat belts. Shucking off his clothes, which chaffed his skin, Teilo shifted and curled up on the floor at Ben’s feet. Within seconds Nico had done the same, and they bunted heads in a way that made Teilo’s inner self sing, trying to get comfortable on Ben’s feet.
They didn’t shift back, or dress again until the plane was firmly back on the ground again. It was all a bit of a blur after that. Traveling in a black SUV made Teilo nervous, even with Nico and Ben beside him. Too many horror trips had been done in black SUVs. The boat trip was interesting, mostly because it involved salt spray in their faces—something that reminded Teilo he was well away from the horrors of the jungle.
Their destination was worth the discomfort from traveling, though. Yellow and white sand was warm and crunchy under his now-human feet and the sea sparkled a brilliant blue with white caps all the way to where the sea met the sky. The island Ben had brought them to had an enormous house and trees, but all Teilo could look at was the way the sea moved. Better yet, when he inhaled, the only scents he could pick up apart from Ben and Nico were old ones.
“Look Nico, this is what freedom looks like,” he said, and his mouth did that funny thing where it curled up at the edges. Ignoring it, Teilo folded his legs and sat on his butt, curling his arms around his knees. He looked over his shoulder to see Nico and Ben both watching him. “I dreamed this, or a place like this. My sand was wider. Bigger, more that way,” he splayed his hands out from his legs, “but this smells just as I imagined.”
“This isn’t ours, though. This belongs to Ben’s friends.” Nico sat beside him, same pose, their shoulders brushing. “How do we do this, Ben? You live in the world. You’ve lived longer than us. How do we get something like this for us… all three of us?”
Teilo’s heart felt like a fizzy pop bottle that someone had suddenly taken the lid off. He’d seen a person do that once. One scientist had a bottle of pink stuff and for a moment Teilo had been quaking inside, worried it was going to be injected into him. But the scientist was laughing with the big dark man who came in with him, twisting the top off the bottle and the liquid just bubbled out. Real bubbles Teilo could smell. That was what his heart felt like, and he hugged his legs tighter, trying to contain the feelings. He didn’t want his heart spilling all over the sand.
Although it threatened to do just that all over again when Ben sat on the sand, right next to him. Sitting, just like he and Nico did, with his feet planted in the sand and his arms wrapped loosely around his knees. This close, Teilo could scent him, and he would’ve closed his eyes and savored it, if not for the fact that the sea and the way it glistened still fascinated him. It was like watching a sea of diamonds and sapphires.
“My friends, the Thalassas do own this, yes. They are a very special kind of shifter, and they have lived a very, very long time. They have this space so they can have somewhere private away from the rest of the world.”
Teilo could see the benefit of having a place like that. “Do we have to live a long time, too, to have an island like this one?”
“No, my mate. It takes money, which you two now have because you’ll share mine, we’ll find someplace we can buy that suits our needs.”
Teilo’s ears pricked up at the money concept. He knew what it was—or he thought he had a fair idea. He remembered a job once where the man they were sent to kill was using hundred-dollar bills to light his cigars with. He had grabbed one, after the job was finished, because he thought the picture on the note was pretty, but their handler snatched it away from him and he never saw it again.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had money.” Teilo glanced to his side to see Nico watching Ben closely.
“Beasts don’t need money,” Nico growled, mimicking the words the scientist had said when he snatched the hundred dollar note Teilo had.
“Abused shifters living in cages in the jungles of Paraguay might not have access to money, or the means to earn any. But you’re free now, and I have plenty of money to buy us an island and have more to share with you to buy the things you want. Like boots and things like that.”
Teilo liked how Ben’s voice was very soothing. It took all the tightness out of his shoulders, and he leaned more into Nico’s shoulder. But Nico’s shoulder was hard and tight. His cage brother was angry about something.
And it came out in his tone. “Why would you buy us an island? Why boots and clothes? Why would you share the money you have with us? You don’t even know us.”
“Because we’re connected.” Ben slapped a hand right over where his heart would be. “Because I can feel you both in here. Because we’re mates and that’s what Fated Mates do for each other.”
“But we don’t have any money to share with you!”Did that mean they couldn’t be together anymore?“Nico. Nico.” Teilo turned, so upset at the idea of not having Ben around, he knew it showed on his face, but he couldn’t help it. “We have to find a way to get some money or Ben can’t stay with us. Shall we go back? Find that dark man. He always had money. We could take it from him. We killed enough people for him. He always said we were worth our weight in gold. We weigh more now. We’ve been eating. Surely we can take some money and then Ben can stay with us. Nico, we must do this. We must.”
He could see Nico working out a strategy to do as he asked when he felt Ben’s hand on his back.
“I don’t want you going back to that forest.” Ben’s voice was as calm as ever, but there was a note of tension coming through his hand. “I don’t know who this man is you want to take money from, but you don’t have to do that. We’re mates. That means we share what we have together. All three of us.”
“We don’t have anything. You saw that. You found us in the cages.” Teilo didn’t look back at Ben, even when he felt Ben’s hand move across his shoulders. It was Nico he was focused on. “If they let us borrow the plane. It wouldn’t take long… we have to get money. Then Ben can stay with us because we’ll have some to share.”
“You don’t need it.” Now there was an edge in Ben’s voice. “Damn it. You’re shifters. Don’t you understand what being mates means?”
Teilo flinched. He didn’t mean to, but Ben sounded angry, and his cat didn’t like it when Ben wasn’t happy. Ben’s hand dropped from his shoulder like it scolded him. Unsure, Teilo moved closer to Nico.
“How would we know what this mate’s business is you keep talking about?” Nico growled right back, hooking his arm around Teilo’s neck, and pulling him against his torso. “Who would teach us? The human scientists? The guards? The men who took us out on leashes so we could kill for them? Who?”
~/~/~/~
Nico
Nico was angry, but not at Ben. He was angry at himself for not learning more, for not knowing about how men acquired money and islands. He wanted to protect Teilo, and Ben, too, but he couldn’t do any of that if he didn’t understand the way of the world.
Ben’s scent had soured. He was upset, possibly angry, too, at the way Nico had spoken to him. Nico couldn’t be sure, but Teilo had valid concerns and he would fight until Ben understood that.
“We don’t know about this mating business. You haven’t told us anything. You keep using the word like it means something, but Teilo and me don’t know how to live in your world. You said you have money to share. Money to buy an island. Money means nothing to us because we’ve never had any—”
