“I had that hundred once.”
“You did, T.” Nico stopped glaring at Ben long enough to meet Teilo’s forehead with his own. “You did, and I know how much it meant to you because of the pictures on it. You liked them, and that money got taken from you. I couldn’t stop that happening and I’m sorry for that.”
He raised his head to meet Ben’s eyes again. “We were told beasts couldn’t have any money. But that’s not important. You missed the point of what T was trying to say. You talk about us sharing all the thingsyouhave. What do we bring to this mating you talk about? We already owe you the clothes on our back and the food in our guts. What do we have to do for that? We’ve got nothing to give you in return. We have nothing… at the moment.” Nico figured he could find a way to get something to share. “Have you got a list of people for us to kill? Is that how we can get the island we’d want to share with you?”
A look flashed over Ben’s face. There one minute, gone the next, and Nico didn’t understand what it meant. It wasn’t a look he’d seen before. “It’s not like that with mates…” and then Ben winced. “Sorry, I am using that word again, and my only excuse is that it’s really important to me. Look, I’ve been raised since I was tiny to know that the Fates that guide us send shifters like us a special person, or two persons—or sometimes even more, but for now let’s focus on the three of us—to be together and stay together.
“We three are mates. Our animals know it and so do I. I imagine you two feel something being around me—you want to keep me the same as I want to be with you—but you might not understand why these feelings are so strong.
“Being mates means we’re perfect for each other in every way. Mates don’t lie to each other, they don’t cheat on each other, they always protect each other, and they stay together until the end of their lives. In fact, when one person in a mating dies, the other two will die, too. Simply because the bonds between us will be so strong. I’m your mate, Nico. I’m Teilo’s mate, too. You two are mates with each other, and you are both mates with me.” Ben must’ve noticed Teilo’s confused expression because he added, “I’m not explaining this very well, am I?”
Not really.But Nico was good at picking up cues from people. He knew Ben was telling his truth, as he knew it. That was important. “I’ve not heard of these Fates you speak of,” he said slowly. “I’ve never questioned my closeness with Teilo. We were cage brothers. I can’t imagine my life without him. I think I don’t want to be without you, either. But nothing you’ve said explains this sharing. How did you get this money you have to buy an island?”
Ben shrugged, and he looked out to sea. “I inherited some from my family. I’ve earned a lot of it myself through working and investments. I’ve lived a long time.”
Family. Inheritance. Working? We could work.“How much do you have?” Nico tried not to look so threatening. “I mean, is there work me and Teilo could do, so we could earn this money and share it with you for our island?”Surely that was fair.
But Ben’s face was twisting up like he was sitting on a prickle. Then his face cleared, like someone had wiped a hand across it, and he actually smiled. “There are lots of things mates share that have nothing to do with money. Money is just one part of a relationship, and not a very important part, either.”
Says the man who has a lot of it.Nico had spent months wishing he could present Teilo with the hundred dollar note that they’d taken from him.
“Mates is more about caring for each other.” Ben inhaled slowly, and then let it out again.
He’s bracing himself to say something he thinks we won’t like.Nico found himself tensing, too.
“You and Teilo have no problems being in each other’s personal space, agreed?”
“We’ve barely been more than a foot apart our whole lives.” Nico nodded.
Teilo pulled his head up from where it’d been resting on Nico’s shoulder. “When they tried to separate us, we fought and scratched and hissed and bit people, and we wouldn’t do anything they told us no matter how much they beat us.”
Nodding—at least he seemed to hear what Teilo was saying—Ben explained, “I see your closeness as something worth sharing. Not in a monetary sense,” he added quickly. “When you learn more about society and living life among other people, you’ll realize that exchanging money for closeness is not considered acceptable in a lot of places. But to me, when I see you two together—if I could share that closeness with you, that would mean more to me than any amount of money. Does that make sense?”
It sounded confusing. “You think cuddling with us and buying us an island as being worth the same?” Nico felt this could be a turning point.If hugs were money…
“Cuddles with a mate are worth more.” Ben sounded very firm about that.
Nico was more pragmatic than his cage brother, but Teilo latched onto what Ben was saying, as if it were carved in stone. “So we don’t have to go and kill people to make money? We could just include you in our cuddles and that would be sharing like you sharing an island for us all? Nico, Nico. Can we do that? Is that allowed?”
The hope on Teilo’s face hit Nico on his insides, much like his memory of the first sunrise he’d seen. The sea was sparkling, and the sand was clean and free of blood. He inhaled the scents of salt and the trees that moved as if they were dancing in a light breeze. He could hear birds and insects going about their day with no concerns about anything. No stench of death. No humidity. No trainers and scientists sticking them with drugs and pushing them into unspeakable acts.
Ben wasn’t pushing them. Nico knew that on a soul level. He was a man who simply wanted to share in something he saw as precious—something Nico recognized as special, too. “Scoot around,” he said to Teilo, as he pulled his arm away from Teilo’s neck. He held out his free arm. Teilo did the same. “We will share our cuddles with you, Ben.” He paused for a moment, testing the words on his tongue. “Our mate.”
Chapter Nine
Ben
Ben was more than happy to be included in the cuddling. He’d admit to being in heaven on the plane when Teilo had shifted and rested his head on Ben’s feet and Nico had followed. Damned adorable. The feel of the dipping sun against his back wasn’t as warm as the two men who slung arms around his shoulders sandwiching him between them.
He inhaled their scent, his cat purring in satisfaction. The water lapping at the edge of the shore was peaceful, and his mind drifted as he laid his head on Nico’s shoulder. The assassin stiffened for a moment, then his arm tightened around Ben.
The frustration that had gathered during the conversation and not being able to explain himself subsided. It was becoming more evident just how little his two mates had experienced of life. They’d known nothing of what they were to each other or to him. His anger wasn’t directed at them, but at the bastards who’d reared them purely as a commodity, not worthy of basic decency. He’d wracked his brains to come up with a way to explain how money wasn’t the issue. Only Nico was right. He had plenty of it and they had none, so how could he help them understand.
How must that feel?
Never once in his privileged life had Ben wanted for anything. He’d never been in a position where he couldn’t have anything when he wanted or needed it.
What he acknowledged were the assassins in Paraguay, the scientists bred for a different reason. One he wasn’t able to fathom, not fully. What did they achieve by treating them like beasts? Was it to assess their animal’s abilities when formulated in a test tube? Had they been looking to create the perfect killing machine that obeys without thinking? Lack of care, of love, was that on purpose?
