“We do,” Ben said. He nudged Koios in the side.
“We sure do!”
“What?” The word echoed around them. Koios refused to look anywhere but Cosmo. He’d let Ben handle all the dirty looks.
Cosmo beamed as the king began talking about love and mating and the power of love being a curious thing or something. Koios squeezed Ben’s hand until he worried he might actually break something.
“Breathe,” Ben whispered.
“You breathe.”
Cosmo brought a long strip of flowers and began wrapping it around their hands. Oh, it was happening now. Right now.
Koios tried to listen to the words. He really did. Blah blah love always wins. Blah blah you’re my inspiration. Honestly, did the king have to talk for so long?
Ben coughed and drew Koios’s attention.
“I do!”
Cosmo smirked.
Ben groaned.
“What? No take backs, Ben Jerrick. You’ve already defiled me. You’re stuck with me now.”
The entire crowd snickered.
“Oh crap, we’re on the magic microphone things, aren’t we?”
“Sure are.”
“Uh, not defiled. Just kidding ancestors. He’s a lovely man. Honorable. Nothing to see here.”
Cosmo burst out laughing.
The poor king looked like he was going to join his mate.
“Do you have the rings?”
The rings. The rings. Oh! The rings.
“I do!”
“You said that already,” Ben teased.
Koios huffed. He spread his wings as he held his hand up dramatically. He’d been practicing the move for a hot minute. He looked pretty sexy if he did say so himself.
A pile of gold dust glittered in his hand. Koios pushed a little magic into the gold and it flowed up and out of his hand. As it swirled, two golden rings formed before settling against Koios’s palm.
Koios looked up at Ben and grinned his evil grin. His mate had that look on his face. Not the doctor one. Or the evil one. Or even the determined one. No, Ben had his boner face on. Oh yeah. Koios was the best mate in the world. At least he hadn’t gotten hard in…oh hell, scratch that.
His stamina still wasn’t all that great, no matter how much they practiced.
“That was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Ben whispered. He pulled Koios close and kissed him, right smack on the mouth in front of the king and everybody.
The entire crowd cheered.
“And now the rings,” King Silenus yelled.
