Reeves, who looks and sounds a whole lot like Thoren except for his penchant for wearing suits that make me think of Big Band Era musical directors and swing dancers, looks like he ran afoul of someone’s claws. There’s three sharp gashes on his cheek, though he’s not bleeding and the exposed flesh looks shiny like obsidian rather than pink like I’d see with a human. “Shouldn’t take long,” Reeves assures us, gesturing for us to take the lead out of the command center.
I follow Thoren out and poke him in the back, muttering, “Maxime agreed, but you need to agree too since they’re your cards.”
Thoren throws me a side eye. “We all have cards. I just usually do the mission readings because my cards are more cooperative than the others. Our collective decks elected mine as the representative deck.”
“Do you all use Tarot for magic? No wait, first, acknowledge that I will not be going on missions with you again.” I can’t let him distract me.
Thoren leans over and nuzzles my hair. “I promise to work all available alternatives before approaching you for a mission, but I am not promising to leave you out of mission briefings if the cards think you’d be a valuable addition. You’re downplaying your importance on this one. You’re the one who convinced the tinkral not to invade. We could have stopped them withoutyou, but we prefer not to kill people if we can help it. Peaceful resolutions are far superior to bloodshed, and you’re the reason we were able to avoid mass casualties this time. I’m not going to arbitrarily sign away the ability to call on you because you don’t see the importance of your being.”
My insides ooze with warm gooeyness at the way he talks about me like I’m important. It’s like maybe he thinks I’m worth keeping. “Oh. Um. Ok. I guess that makes sense.”
Thoren pulls me through the door to the conference room and sits with me on his lap, ignoring Reeves for another minute. “Somehow you’ve convinced yourself that you’re not important, I think, so let me correct that thought. You are important. Even if you hadn’t been the linchpin of this whole mission, if we were just talking about you being here doing the job you do, I would say you’re important. I’ve been around a long time, sweetness, and I’ve never met a person or creature who wasn’t important.
“I wasn’t sure about your employment here at first—you were filling the shoes of a man who’d been with us for ten years, who we were heartbroken to lose—but you’re an excellent butler and an asset to this home. Even if you weren’t already mine, I would keep you. So I promise that I will refrain from bringing you on missions when it’s unnecessary, and I promise to take you off world on vacations to show you the beauty of my homeland and the planetary wonders of this universe, because I plan to keep you for a very long time.”
That’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me. It takes me a moment to really wrap my head around that. He thinks I’m important, and the idea that every person is important sinks into my soul. I don’t think I’ve ever considered that I have value beyond what I can do for the people around me. I am valuable because I exist. What a novel idea. My mere existence is important. How revolutionary.
“Thank you,” I whisper as I wrap my arms around him and hug him tight, burying my face in his neck and breathing in his orange grove scent. I’m going to fall so in love with this guy. He’s the man of my dreams, and if he’s keeping me...
“I’m keeping you too.”
After Reeves debriefs us, which is basically an interview with detailed answers, Thoren takes me back to his room and tears my clothes off of me, saving the lacy thong and bralette from his claws so he can admire how I look in white. Something feels different between us when his wings surround us, blocking out everything but the softness of the bed beneath me.
He leans over me, kissing his way up from my sternum to my neck, along my jaw, and finally he meets my lips, tangling his tongue with mine as something between us, a liminal space that never existed before, suddenly cracks open. I moan with the pleasure of falling through that crack with him, and the low rumble of a minor earthquake with an epicenter in his chest echoes the same pleasure back to me.
I tear my mouth free, panting heavily as my hips lurch upward, seeking friction against his. “What is that?” I demand as my hands frantically search for a handle and my body prepares for a ride or a fall or a rollercoaster—I don’t know; I need something because whatever is happening is so fucking big.
Thoren forces my legs apart and shoves my thong to the side, prodding my entrance with his slick cock over and over until my pucker relaxes enough to let him in with a sucking pop that makes me bow up from the pleasure and force of it. He meetsmy lips again and sucks on my tongue as the chasm between us welcomes us both in with a gaping maw. There’s no fear in me; there’s happiness, delight, excitement, and undiluted lust, but no fear.
“Thoren!” I rasp, holding him as tightly as I can because we’re falling into something that I can’t stop—
No. That’s wrong. I can stop it. I could reverse the fall with a thought and bring us both out of it. It’d be easy. So easy to stop this fall and close the chasm pulling us into it, but I know if I do that, I’d be missing out on something I want. I don’t even know why I want it. I just want...
Oh. I see what this is now.
We’re bonding. Falling into the same liminal space to occupy it together. We’re creating a path that we can walk along together, a life with space for us both, a bond that will keep us in tune with each other. This place is for us, but as I relax into it, the vision of the place comes to my mind, showing me that we’re two people connecting in a network of bonds like a complex cave system, where every cave is connected to every other cave. Thoren is inviting me into his family, and I desperately want to join.
With a slow breath, I open my eyes, focusing on Thoren above me, who’s staring with an intensity I’ve never known in my life. He’s not moving; we’re just connected right now, staring at each other.
I swallow, overwhelmed with the invitation and the beauty of the bond he’s offering. “I’ve only ever wanted someone to keep me.”
Thoren holds himself up on one elbow and delicately traces the lines of my face with the tip of his claw. “I think you’ve always been kept, sweetness. First by your parent, the uncle who loved you, then you kept yourself. You sought and found your calling, and you should be proud of who you are. And now we would keep you if you let us. Every person in this family wantsto welcome you, and I want you. I’ve wanted you since the first time I saw you, even if I didn’t recognize that want in myself. If you let me, I will keep you forever. Longer than you’d expect. If you bond with me—with us—you will share with us everything we have. We want you. I want you, but the question is, do you want this too?”
“Oh course I do,” I reply without a mote of hesitation, remembering that not only does he think I’m important and a keeper, but that I am those things even if he didn’t think them. What an extraordinary thing to learn.
I close my eyes and fall back into the chasm, pulling Thoren down with me. The bond that links us cracks us open, invading our hearts, minds, and bodies, and linking us inextricably into a network of bonds that suddenly occupy my soul. The strongest, largest channel exists between me and Thoren, but the others are there too, smaller bonds, but navigable if I want to use them.
Thoren pulls me out of that place with a kiss that ignites all my carnal desires again. He traps my arms with the hands on his wings as his other hands play my body like an instrument he’s mastered. The thick flare on his shaft rubs my p-spot over and over until my body succumbs to the pleasure and I shoot off, orgasming hard and crying out as stars detonate in my vision and I finally, finally find my forever home.
As I come down, awareness of the bond between me and Thoren lights me up inside like fireworks going off. Under that bond are seven other connections, each singing celebratory notes. None are quite like the others, but together they sound like a symphony of celebration. It’s beautiful and crazy. I love it.
Thoren inhales deeply as he slides his cock out, rolls with me onto his back, and wraps us up in a cocoon of his wings. “You fit in perfectly, my Dec.”
I sigh, smiling, and reply with the most important thing I can think of to say that would encompass the feeling of wholeness inmy chest. “Undecided. My name is Undecided Scion because my mother was an asshole. I’ve called myself Dec since I learned my own name.”
Thoren chuckles softly and kisses the top of my head. “Whatever your name, Dec Scion, you’re important, you’re mine, and I’m yours.”
Epilogue: Thoren
