I pull up his text thread and click over to his contact info. The Find My Friends map blanks out for a moment and I touch it, pulling up the full size map.
Why the hell is he out in the middle of nowhere?
Present Day
Phineas
I think I missed something important about Gael. He leads me to the bathroom and starts the shower as I observe him. Something freaked Sin out about Gael’s body, but there’s nothing wrong with him. He looks exactly like he did when he left. Well, his hair is a little longer, and there’s stress lines there that weren’t there before, but that’s normal when someone is dealing with grief and loss.
“What was he talking about?” I ask as Gael shoves his pants off.
The sight of his naked body draws up my arousal again. I’m never going to get enough of him, but I really need him inside me before I’m really going to be satiated. Both of them, plus I want my other mate mark.
Gael turns on the water and reaches for me, undressing me like he always does, like he never left. “I’ll explain over dinner, I promise. Tell me all about the last few weeks with Sin. He told me he loves you. Do you love him?”
“Of course,” I respond without a doubt or hesitation. “I love you both. He told me you love me. Is that how you wanted to tell me?”
Gael finishes stripping off my socks and stands up, pressing his body to mine and pulling my face down to his. “I would have told you with my own lips the first time I kissed you, but that would have been too soon. I love you, Phineas. You are mine as much as Sin is. You two are my favorites, and I plan to keep you for the rest of our lives.”
A wave of relief rolls through me. “Me too,” I confirm.
Gael kisses me again and pulls me into the shower with him. He washes me head to toe exactly like he loves me, listening to me talk about the last two weeks with Sin. I wish I could tell him about my grandfather, about my job, about the challenges we’ll face going forward, but I can’t. Bound by secrecy, I can’t even utter the words that would explain why I can’t talk about anything about me with them. By the time we sit down for dinner, I’ve nearly forgotten that he still has to explain something to us, consumed as I am by the devastation of losing the semblance of a normal life because destiny gave me two men for mates and my grandfather despises me for it.
Chapter 13
Present Day
Sin
Gael looks completely normal—as in he appears exactly as he did the day he left. He hums happily when he sees the creamy coconut and ginger shrimp on the table and his heaping bowl of white rice. While he picks up chopsticks, Phin sits next to him wearing nothing but a damp towel. He’s still getting used to using chopsticks for most meals, but he’s not clumsy when he picks them up and adjusts them into his hand.
They’re both calm, beautiful—hell, radiant even. My heart flutters with affection and happiness at having them both together again. I missed Gael like I always have, but having him back is better than it’s ever been, even if a small voice in the back of my head keeps chanting “What the fuck? What the fuck?” over and over. I need answers, but first I serve my men tea and watch them eat the food I’ve prepared.
Shrimp, rice, dumplings, seaweed salad, and kimchi. It’s not a welcome home feast, but it is one of Gael’s favorite meals. I sitat the end of the table, knee touching Gael’s leg, and he hooks his ankle around mine. I don’t interrupt our meal with questions, and even though my stomach churns with nervous energy, it’s also empty, so I eat almost as much as Phin does, refilling both his rice bowl and mine once before finding a resemblance of satiation.
Gael slows down long before either of us and waits for us to finish before smiling at me affectionately. “I’m ready, if you are.”
He reaches out his hand and I take it, marveling at how right it feels, like I should never have stopped holding his hand when we were children. “Tell me what the fuck happened.”
“Is happening,” Gael replies.
Phin scoots his chair back and stands, walking between the two of us. He scoots Gael’s chair back, picks our man up and sits again with Gael in his lap.
Gael kisses his cheek and threads his fingers with mine again before looking me in the eye with a solemnity I’ve rarely seen in his face. “Sin, I love you, and I’ve been forced to keep secrets from you since the day we met. The only reason I’m even speaking to you right now is because the man to whom I made an oath of silence is dead and no one else has the authority to make me take another one.”
The words fill me with dread, but Gael is my ride or die, and the dread is directed toward the outside force capable of making Gael keep secrets from me. “Tell me,” I rasp, throat unnaturally dry and tight.
“I’m not human. I’m not even partially human. I only look this way because millions of years of evolution decided that blending in with my food source is better for hunting than standing out. I’m a mare—mara—as in, the word ‘nightmare’ comes from whispers about my people.” He pronounces the word the second time with an accent that makes it sound like it comes from the icy parts of Northern Europe:mohlr-eh.
Phin jerks and stares at the side of Gael’s head, and Gael pats his cheek while his beautiful blue eyes stare at me with calm, visceral confidence. He’s not even a little worried that I won’t believe him, and he’s right.
“What is a mare?” I ask, reflecting back his calm and saying the word the way he said it. I believe him, of course I do. I saw him basically regenerate right before my eyes. I don’t know what that means, but I believe him.
Gael pulls my hand up to his lips and kisses my fingers one by one before explaining with a smile that makes me want to curl up with him and Phin in that chair. I wish we’d moved to the bed or the sofa, but it’s too late now.
“A mare is a species of people that feeds from human energy. There are subclasses of mare, and I’m of the class that consumes metaphysical energy, specifically a higher frequency energy that happens when humans are in a state of energetic arousal. I prefer sexual arousal, but some of my cousins are champion MMA fighters because they prefer violent arousal. It’s simply a matter of taste, so to speak.” He pauses to give me a chance to ask any questions.
I have many, but I prefer to glean as much information before asking, but this is going to take more than just sitting here and listening. “I need a notebook,” I tell him. “You talk, I’ll write down my questions, if you answer them I can cross them out, if you don’t, I can ask when you’re done.”
