by Macy Blake
“Goddess,” Asher whispered. “Quillon, you have to…” His words drifted off as he stared at his partner in wonder.
“Do you mind?” Quillon checked then waited for Mikey’s nod of approval before lifting the charm in his palm. He gasped when his eyes lit up. Mikey stared in wonder as his other form took shape and showed itself to him. A lion’s body with a man’s face and big glorious wings. His tail was long and crooked at the end, like it had been broken before.
“So that’s what you look like,” Mikey said as he cupped Quillon’s cheek. “I caught impressions of it earlier, but not like this. I’ve never seen anything like you before. You’re beautiful.” Quillon ducked his head, but Mikey tilted his chin back up. “Beautiful,” he repeated.
Solomon cleared his throat. The distraction snapped Mikey out of his daze.
“May I?” Solomon asked, gesturing with his hand toward the charm.
“Oh, uh, yeah.” Mikey stood and leaned over the table so Solomon could touch the charm. The moment he did, Mikey was flooded with the vision of his hellhound form, could feel its hot breath on his face. “Oh, shit,” he said as he jerked away from the vision.
The chain holding the charm broke as he slammed back into his chair, pushing it away from the table. Asher and Quillon were on their feet in the blink of an eye, Asher snarling at Solomon while Quillon snatched the pendant back.
“Mother Goddess.” Solomon blinked and shook his head before raising both hands in surrender. “Okay. At ease, boys. I’m not going to take your mate,” he said.
“We’re not really friends,” Mikey corrected. “They don’t even know me.”
Solomon tilted his head to the side and grinned. “Not that kind of mate, Mikey.” Then he winked.
“What? Mate?” Mikey was confused for a moment before it dawned on him. Mate. Partner. Lover. That kind of mate. “I thought you two were together?”
“We are, but it would seem the mother goddess has favored to give us another,” Asher said.
He shared a look with Quillon, who nodded.
“We would be honored if you would—” Quillon started, but Mikey stood up and walked away.
“Hold on here. What do you mean another? You can’t mean me.” He paced around the living room. It was a small place, especially with three other men sharing the space, but he managed.
“Yes, we mean you,” Asher assured him.
“But, I couldn’t. I—”
“Then you wouldn’t even consider such an arrangement?” Quillon asked.
Mikey didn’t need to see their faces to feel the disappointment pouring from them. He felt it as easily as he could feel Solomon’s power.
“I didn’t say that,” Mikey confessed. He tried to grab both Asher and Quillon by the wrist to keep them from leaving but wound up catching a handful of Quillon’s shirt and smacking Asher’s hand. “Things are just…crazy. With the…and then this….”
It wasn’t the most dignified plea, but he couldn’t just let them leave. Not when these two men, well more than mere men, seemed to be offering him something. And to never see them again? Fuck that. He just needed to think for a minute.
Finally, he exhaled. “Just, please. Stay. For a while.”
Quillon smiled and turned his wrist to catch Mikey’s hand. “We would love to stay. For as long as you will have us. Forever.”
“Man, you’ve got to stop saying things like that. It’s freaking me out a little. I mean, I’ve known my entire life something was different about me. I don’t fit in. I’m weird, you know? Who sees things like I see? No one, that’s who. And now you spring mates? Did you two even talk about it? Can you communicate telepathically? Is that what you were doing earlier? Are you psychic? Oh shit, can you read my mind?”
Asher chuckled and put an arm around Mikey. “No, we can’t read minds. We just have the benefit of experience on our side.”
“Well, this has been very illuminating, but I have to report this to Meshaq,” Solomon said.
“But you said— ” Quillon started objecting, but Solomon cut him off with a wave of his hand.
“Don’t worry. Your little human will remain safe. Anyone the mother goddess has chosen to bless with her protection will never have to worry about retribution from us. But you must teach your mate. He’s being thrown into the deep end of a world he’s only glimpsed until now.”
“Of course,” Asher pledged with a nod, echoed by Quillon.
Solomon nodded one more time before tearing a burning hole in the air and disappearing into it.
“Could this day get any weirder?” Mikey asked.
Quillon
Quillon burst into laughter at Mikey’s question. He couldn’t help it. So much had happened already. The fight he’d had with Asher was a minor irritation compared to the roller coaster of the last— Goddess, had it only been an hour? He’d been through a spectrum of emotions in that time making it seem like days had passed: confusion when he felt Mikey’s gift pull his manticore forward, concern when Mikey collapsed in front of them, a moment of outright terror when the hellhound showed up. Not to mention the anger at Mikey’s story and a determination to keep him safe, followed by crushing disappointment when their mate seemed to reject them and then elation that he had not.
He was left with overwhelming relief when the hellhound didn’t take Mikey away, as well as a sliver of hope when Mikey asked them to stay. Realistically, he knew they had a long way to go. He’d studied humans long enough to know they were drastically different from his kind, regardless of sharing similar anatomy. Most didn’t believe in mystical forces and prophecies determining their path. Even when presented evidence to the contrary, humans fell back to their own traditional teachings, however flawed. Most reached for a logical explanation based on what they had been told by other, more narrow-minded scholars who had enough clout to get their ideas adopted.
It was a sore spot with Quillon. A very annoying sore spot.
When he looked up, both Mikey and Asher were staring at him as if he’d lost his mind. That launched him into another round of snickers.
“I’m okay.”
“Isn’t that my line today?” Mikey asked, setting Quillon off again.
“Sorry,” he said as he dropped down on a chair. “It’s been a bizarre day.”
“You’re telling me,” Mikey said as he sank into the middle of the couch. “So much of my world has just… shifted. I never really believed any of this existed, and yet….” he motioned at them.
“We’re sorry this has been forced on you,” Asher said.
“Hey, nothing you guys have done has been, like, afflicted on me or anything. This shit…it’s….” Mikey let out a heavy sigh.
Quillon wished he could remove the weight from Mikey’s shoulders, but he knew the human would have to work through this at his own pace.
“It’s a lifetime of suppressing what I knew to be true, what I had actually seen with my own two eyes. Of being told I was wrong, that there was something wrong with me,” Mikey said.
That Quillon could understand all too well. He moved to the couch and set his hand on Mikey’s knee. He didn’t mean it as any kind of overt move on him. He simply wanted to offer comfort to his mate and maybe get a little in return. He took a deep breath and looked at the floor as he exhaled.
“I am a manticore.”
“So that’s what you are. I’ve heard of them, but I’m afraid I don’t know much about them. Not many in popular culture. Not like dragons,” he said, motioning at Asher before putting his hand over Quillon’s and giving it a little squeeze. “I look forward to learning.”
Quillon appreciated it. “When I was young, I lived with my pride.”
“Pride? Like lions? Duh, you have a lion’s body. Of course, like lions, idiot. I’ll shut up now.” Mikey shook his head and Quillon squeezed his knee.
“One day we got separated. I was found by a man. He said he’d help me find my family, but…”
Asher moved to sit on the arm of
the sofa. He wrapped a hand around the back of Quillon’s neck for support. Asher knew the story. It never got easier to tell, but having Asher there helped.
“But he didn’t, did he?” Mikey asked carefully.
“No.” Quillon took a moment to organize his thoughts. He focused on Mikey’s hand holding his and Asher’s on his neck. “No, he was a… collector, I guess you could call him. He had captured others of our kind. Eventually, the hellhounds found him. They returned those of us they could to our families.” He left what happened to the others unsaid. “I wasn’t there long, but it was long enough.”
“Quillon,” Mikey said before Quillon was engulfed in a hug. He readily accepted the comfort Mikey offered. “Thank you for trusting me with this.”
Quillon was a little surprised at Mikey’s statement. And at the anger coming from him. Usually it was pity and platitudes, or the completely useless to him I’m sorry that happened to you.
“Manticores have a stinger like a scorpion at the end of our tails,” Quillon explained.
“That’s...I’m not going to lie, that sounds utterly terrifying,” Mikey said. Quillon and Asher both chuckled. “But when you touched the charm, I didn’t see…”
“No,” Quillon shook his head. “There is a legend that if you crush the tail of a young manticore, their stinger will never develop.”
Mikey pulled back and stared at him with a horrified expression that was quickly replaced by one of overwhelming fury.
“That bastard,” Mikey growled before he pulled Asher down into their hug.
Surrounded with their strength and warmth, something slotted into place. Quillon finally understood what had been happening for the past few months. He was certain Asher could feel it, too. Their bond had been growing looser for months which had terrified Quillon. But now, suddenly, he recognized it for what it was: their bond was simply expanding to make room for this extraordinary human.
“Hey, can people be brought back after the hellhounds get them?” Mikey asked.
“I have never heard of it,” Asher said. “Why?”
Quillon assumed Mikey wanted to know what would have become of him if Solomon had taken him, but his human surprised him once more.
“Because I want to bring back the fucker who hurt Quillon so I can kill him myself.”
Mikey
Mikey was startled when both Asher and Quillon erupted in laughter.
“You are truly exceptional,” Asher said after he pulled back from the hug.
“I didn’t tell you my story to make you feel sorry for me, or to play who had it worse,’’ Quillon said. “I just wanted you to know that I get it. I know what it’s like to be different. To have others judge you for something outside your control. To be surrounded by people who do not understand, who cannot comprehend what you deal with on a daily basis. My family, they…” Quillon began, then stopped and shook his head sadly. His family hadn’t known what to do with him at all afterward.
“Okay, now I want to have some words with those assholes.”
“No, that’s not necessary. They didn’t treat me badly. They just didn’t really know how to react. And the fact that my tail had been cut—”
“Wait. Cut? That fucker cut your tail?”
“He didn’t want to wait to find out if the legend was true, so he clipped the end off.” Quillon shrugged like it was no big deal. “He knew I would use it against him if I could.”
Rage washed over Mikey that was so intense he would not be surprised if his eyes glowed red. He really wanted to fucking hurt someone. No, screw that. He wanted to kill someone. The vehemence of it shocked him. He’d never felt like this before. Usually he kept an even keel. Sure, he’d get upset when asshole customers harassed his baristas, or when the payroll company screwed up and shorted his employees. But this, this was an all-consuming rage he felt tingling in his fingertips. He wanted rip a hole in the very fabric of time to tear the man apart, this sub-human who dared to touch his…his…his something.
“Thank you, but it was a long time ago,” Quillon said.
“That doesn’t matter. Someone hurt you. Deliberately. He should… He has to…” Mikey growled as he got up and paced in front of them. His wrists ached from clenching his fists so tightly.
Asher stood up and pulled him into a hug.
“He has paid. Dearly,” he said quietly. “And no one will ever hurt Quillon again. Or you. I pledge this.”
Something in his touch or his words, or hell, Mikey didn’t know, maybe a combination of the two, calmed him a little. Distantly, he understood why. All the stories he’d read about werewolf mates or dragons hoarding played in his head. Given that context, he understood his protective rage over what had been done to Quillon and to Asher’s touch.
“But mates are just a myth,” he mumbled.
“As are dragons and manticores and every other of our kind you’ve ever seen.” Asher cupped Mikey’s cheek gently. “Is it really so much to accept us as mates?”
Mikey shook his head, as much to agree that mates could exist as to assert there must be some mistake. He couldn’t possibly offer anything to this relationship.
Asher dropped to one knee and closed his fist over his heart.
“Oh shit,” Mikey said.
“I, Asher, of the Volsunga clan, take you,” he started, but Mikey scrambled to pull at his arm, trying to get him to stand back up.
“Don’t. No.”
The hurt on Asher’s face broke Mikey’s heart.
“Are you rejecting us as mates?”
“No, it’s not that.”
“Then you accept,” Asher asked.
“I don’t….” Mikey shook his head. He didn’t know what to say, or how to word it. “You don’t even know me,” Mikey whispered. His voice crumbled toward the end and he couldn’t seem to force anything else out.
Asher stood up and took Mikey’s hand. “I don’t understand. You are incredibly loyal, giving, and extremely protective of those you care about. You have been blessed by the mother goddess herself, and she has seen fit to bless us with you in return.”
“How can you possibly know all that?”
“Simple,” Asher said with a shrug. “You have lived with your gift unaided your entire life, yet remain incredibly strong and have built a successful life for yourself. You accepted what we are, even though you were scared of us. And you would tear apart the universe to avenge Quillon. That makes you an exceptional human and a truly spectacular mate. We will be honored to be at your side.”
“You can’t just say things like that.” Mikey’s head spun, endless possibilities and unknowns swirling around him. The pieces of his life had been tossed apart in the course of a single chance meeting.
“Why not? They are true.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“But it is. I don’t understand.” Asher shook his head and looked to Quillon.
Helpless wasn’t a good look on Asher. Mikey hated himself for putting it there. Part of him wanted to just give in, to let the dragon whisk him away to a happily ever after with him and his manticore mate. But the other part of him couldn’t quite wrap his brain around anything. He needed to think, to process, to figure out what having two mates would be like. Holy shit. Two mates. Two of them.
“Jesus,” Mikey whispered. He sat down in the nearest chair and scrubbed a hand over his face. His life had become a kinky fairytale.
“I don’t understand,” Asher repeated with his hands spread wide.
“Asher, sweetheart, come here.” Quillon pulled Asher into his arms. “It’s okay,” he said quietly before pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead, then to his lips.
Asher lifted his hands to cup Quillon’s face and deepen the kiss.
Mikey was a little bit ashamed of himself for finding it incredibly hot. A tiny corner of his brain whispered that could be yours, if you’d just accept them. What’s the worst that could happen? Quillon had to comfort his mate because Mikey had made him feel that way, hurt
and in need of reassurance. All the possibilities played in his head. You could be intruding in a who the fuck knows how long relationship. One that was obviously very strong, looking at these two.
Asher could just be proposing sex. Which, okay, Mikey might be tempted, provided he could be sure everyone was on board with it. Asher was pretty damn hot. So was Quillon, but Quillon could just be going along to keep Asher happy. He hadn’t said anything. Maybe he didn’t want this but felt like he had to agree because it was what Asher wanted.
“Jesus,” Mikey whispered again as more possibilities came to mind. Because he suddenly realized he didn’t want just sex. Sure, he wanted sex, but not only sex. And he really needed to stop thinking about sex right now.
Quillon broke the hug and approached Mikey. He stood next to him where he sat before dropping a hand on his shoulder, offering comfort and reassurance to him this time. “Asher, we have talked about human nature. They are brought up with a different belief system. A different set of expectations. Different societal standards.”
Asher simply crossed his arms over his chest, looking highly disgruntled.
“You sound like a professor or something,” Mikey said.
“I teach history and philosophy at the university,” Quillon replied.
“Oh, I, uh, didn’t know that.”
“Of course you didn’t. And I understand that is part of the reason for your reluctance,” Quillon said with a smile. He reached out for Asher and tugged him closer. “You don’t know anything about us beyond our species. Of course you are hesitant to jump in to something with us, even though we both know without a doubt you are what we needed, what we’ve been waiting for. You are this missing piece of us,” Quillon said.
Another piece shifted, another doubt settled. Quillon was on board, too. He wasn’t going along with Asher’s wants, not with words like that. Mikey smiled up at them. “I do look forward to learning all about you. There’s so much I don’t know.”