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“I cannot remain polite when dealing with…with those people!” The mix of volatile feelings made it even harder to understand his words coming through clenched teeth. “They put my mate in mental and physical harm, and I will not do the human act of playing happy family with those kinds of people.”

Oh.

Well, his emotions had a very rational starting point.

“How am I supposed to be polite to people who could have allowed his brain to be damaged?” His words said it was a question but his tone and volume said it was a lecture. “How can a good mate accept that?”

They could not…and they could also not sit by quietly while another was in pain.

“And a Daddy?” His tone broke as I rose and came up behind him. “No. We do not accept those kinds of behaviors.”

Wrapping my arms around him, I pulled him away from the broken plate and stepped us back from the basin Shiloh called a sink. We both watched as it was cleared and the plate reformed, but Zorin closed his eyes as his breathing remained ragged.

Remembering Agent Murphy’s words, I tightened my hold on my mate and pinned him to me with his back against my chest. “The only thing we can control is what happens going forward. He has given us his submission because he knows he can trust us to take care of him.”

Shaking, Zorin nodded and swallowed hard. “We…we won’t let anything like that happen to him.”

“Because his is our mate and that’s more important than any people, lineage, or world.” There was nothing more important. “They lost mates. They lost everything and only had leaders who had to make terrible decisions to get through an unimaginable crisis.”

I could not pretend to know what the seers had been thinking but I would never support a plan that changed our children.

“All we can do now is to help our mate.” To Zorin, it seemed like it would never be enough and I could feel his emotions rising again. “And you already have. Do you think the scared mate we met on that first day would complain about the color of dinner and run to another little who promised him chicken nuggets? No. He would have suffered quietly and eaten food no matter what he wanted. You have given him the confidence to be silly and complain.”

About pasta.

The food had been unexpectedly good considering it was basically putting fruit on pasta.

“You have given him the confidence to involve himself in little activities like chicken nugget time. Our shy boy would not have done that on the first day he arrived.” He would have given himself a heart attack. “I bet he has never played with other littles before. None of his stories talk about friends.”

Relaxing in my arms, Zorin’s breathing slowly became deeper as we waited for his storm to pass. “He knows you will be there for him and he is gaining confidence. Who knows, eventually he might perform a fit just to get attention.”

That had my stressed mate chuckling softly. “He also has a mate he knows will not put up with fits, but he might find a reason to get a spanking. He liked that.”

They had both liked that.

“He loved that and he loved spending time with us after it.” He’d also loved teasing his Daddy by sharing his spanking feelings. “He knows he is safe with us and he is slowly opening up. We know it will be a long journey but that was why he was given to us. The fates knew his flight through life would be so hard he would need strong mates to lift him up.”

We would not fail our mate.

“You are one of the smartest minds on our world when it comes to our history and researching our past. If anyone can find the spells to understand what was done, it is you.” I sighed to get another happy sound from Zorin. “And I am stubborn enough to support both of you, which the fates must have known as well.”

Shiloh had been given two incredible mates to support him.

Zorin’s faint shift had me relaxing my hold, but he only turned around to rest his head on my shoulder. When he was settled again, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly as his emotions quieted again. “He doesn’t understand how dangerous it was. The spell was put in the vaults because while there were times it needed to be used in our past, those who received it always died in the end. Our minds were not meant to hold that much knowledge.”

There must be logic we were missing but they may have just felt that desperate. The area outside the gate now seemed to be a thriving country in a modern age, but it was not like that when the portal had closed. They had gone to what the Americans would call wilderness camping and were never able to find civilization again.

Magic would’ve made everything easier but they’d slowly lost much of that as the generations passed. Whatever visions the seers were given must have scared them into doing the unthinkable but that didn’t mean we had to support it now.

“I don’t know what they were thinking but what I do know is that we have a mate who is safe, healthy, and happy. That is an incredible place to start a bonding and to form a life together.” And one I would not let Zorin forget even when his emotions overtook him. “Think about our mate. Do you hear his giggles?”

I knew Zorin would have tightened his bond down as much as possible, but I could feel his mind brighten as he opened it up to our mate. “He finds something that is happening very funny.”

Zorin chuckled and nodded against me. “He’s very relaxed and feels steady.”

“And he knows that all he has to do is reach out to us if something makes him uncomfortable.” Zorin’s dramatic sigh made me wonder what he was thinking.

“Like pasta that is the wrong color.”