by Zoe Chant
She smiled at that text, which arrived while she was at work on Saturday catching up on all the last-minute crises the election commission always ran into before election day.
Is Laurence coming home too?
Ugh, Laurence, Sorin replied. Who cares.
At the same time she got a text from Radu: Monday, I believe.
Who cares though, Sorin insisted.
Well, I asked, Hannah offered, smiling.
And your wish is our command, Radu replied.
He followed that with a snapshot of a directory list covered with checkmarks and highlights lines. He and Sorin were continuing their canvas, trying to speak to literally everyone in Gray’s Hollow about the mayoral election. Saturday was turning out to be a busy day for that, as they caught people at home who had been out at work when they tried earlier in the week.
Right, back to work, Sorin texted.
Hannah sighed and got back to work herself.
They continued that way until Monday morning. The day before election day felt like a Friday in town hall.
Gus was hosting a sort of open house in his office on his last day as mayor, since the winner of the election would be sworn in tomorrow night as soon as the results of the election were in. There was a general party atmosphere, but Hannah caught enough suspicious or speculative looks from people coming to visit Gus that she soon shut her own office door.
After that there was a distinct atmosphere of neighbors-having-a-party-you’re-not-invited-to, which was much less fun.
She did a little work, but she’d gotten everything caught up and put in place for election day, so there wasn’t anything urgent. She was just considering slipping out past the crowds when her phone buzzed with a text.
She smiled even before she looked at it. She felt happy every time she got a text notification, knowing it would be Radu or Sorin.
This time it was Sorin, and another picture of the directory he and Radu had been using. Every name and address on the page was crossed out.
Done! He texted. Twenty hours to spare!
Twenty hours to wait, Hannah thought.
“This is silly,” she said out loud.
Why wait anymore? She’d made up her mind days ago. She’d stopped being angry, and the twins had apologized. Their relationship might not be easy, or perfect, but she knew perfectly well that she’d already chosen them.
Now she just missed them, and wanted to be with them. She didn’t know why she’d been holding them at arm’s length even this long.
She hit the button to call Sorin. As soon as he picked up she said, “Can Radu hear me, too?”
“Yes, I’m here.” She pictured Radu leaning close to Sorin, almost cheek to cheek over Sorin’s phone. “Is everything all right?”
“Everything’s great,” Hannah said. “Except that I’m here and you’re there. I miss you, and I forgive you, and I love you, and you’re done canvassing and I have nothing left to do here.”
“Oh,” Sorin said. In a single syllable she still somehow knew it was him and not Radu. He sounded happily stunned.
“Meet me at my house,” she added. “We can... figure things out from there. All right?”
“Yes,” came the fervent answer.
Hannah laughed a little, delightedly, when she realized that the twins had spoken in unison.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” she said. “If you get there first, the back door is open.”
“We’ll be there,” Radu said. “Hannah, we’ve missed you too.”
“And love you,” Sorin added. “And—right, we’re going, we’re going!”
Hannah laughed again and hung up, grabbing her purse and striding quickly to the office door.
She was actually surprised for a moment by the crowd in the hallway, spilling out of Gus’s office. She glimpsed Gus himself through the doorway, and she winked and waved to him.
Gus grinned hugely and nodded, waving her off. Clearly he approved of her taking a personal day for this.
Hannah hurried through the building, barely even noticing whether anyone looked at her, let alone what they seemed to think of her. It didn’t matter. They would vote however they wanted to—make whatever choice they were going to make. She would still have her mates. One way or another she would come back to work on Wednesday morning.
For now, she had somewhere much better to be.
Hannah was grinning as she stepped out the front doors of the town hall and hurried along the sidewalk. My mates are waiting for me at home.
When she turned onto her own block she saw Radu standing on her front porch in his suit, waiting for her with his hands clasped. Hannah stopped for a moment, overwhelmed with delight and love, eagerness and regret for wasted time.
Then she stopped wasting time and hurried down the street to meet him.
“Where’s Sorin?” she asked, even as Radu caught her in his arms and pulled her up for a kiss.
Back door, she heard in her mind, while Radu’s mouth was busy on hers. We were keeping our bases covered.
Hannah pulled away to laugh and looked toward the front door. Sorin had come inside and was standing just behind the screen.
He was holding a bouquet of flowers, strategically placed because he was wearing nothing else.
“So you see why he stayed in the backyard,” Radu murmured, kissing just behind her ear.
Hannah let her eyes trace up and down Sorin’s beautiful body while Radu held her pressed against him.
Sorin bounced on his heels, enticing but not asking.
“Come on,” Hannah said, tugging on Radu’s shoulder.
He gave her one more kiss before letting her feet touch the ground again. She took his hand and towed him inside, where Sorin greeted her with another kiss, rubbing up against her with his whole body. He was already hard, blatantly eager beside Radu’s restraint.
Bedroom? She thought, trying to push the word to both of them the way she heard them sometimes.
Yes, Sorin replied immediately, while Radu said, Wait.
Hannah was still holding his hand. She squeezed it as she broke her kiss with Sorin and turned to look at him.
“In the proper order,” Radu said firmly.
Sorin nodded and offered her the flowers he was holding. All her favorites were there, and little purple flowers she didn’t recognize to contrast prettily with the yellow and orange.
“Thank you, they’re beautiful.” Hannah looked back and forth from Sorin, now entirely naked, to Radu, still perfectly buttoned up.
She grinned. “Would you like me to wear some?”
“Oh, better than that,” Sorin said, and made a flourishing gesture at Radu.
“We love you,” Radu said. “And we wish to be very clear that we want you for our mate. Will you choose us?”
Hannah hesitated, not so much because she didn’t know the answer as because she suddenly wasn’t sure what would happen if she said yes. She knew there was some kind of special mating ritual among dragon shifters. No one really talked about what it entailed. But she knew it had to do with why Cara always wore a gold bracelet on each wrist, and why Becca always wore the same anklet.
She knew it was important, and for keeps, and probably kind of weird. It wouldn’t be so mysterious if it were just another kind of wedding.
But she wanted them, and she wasn’t afraid. Her schedule was clear for the rest of the day.
“I will,” Hannah said. “I do. Sorin, Radu, I want you for my mates. I want to be yours.”
“Well, you know what that means, then,” Radu said very seriously.
Hannah shivered, anticipating.
Sorin bounced over and slipped his hand into Radu’s jacket pocket, bringing out a velvet-covered box.
“Presents!” He snapped the box open to reveal a glittering pendant of emeralds and diamonds set in gold.
Hannah laughed, startled. But she reached for it at the same time so they wouldn’t think she didn’t want the gift.
“Let me,” Sori
n said, tugging the necklace free from the box and stepping behind her to place it around her neck.
“It’ll look better when it’s the only thing you’re wearing,” he murmured in her ear, his fingers slipping down to toy at the buttons of her blouse.
Hannah looked from him to Radu. “Is that a hint?”
“No,” Radu said. “Not nearly subtle enough to be a hint. Just a statement of fact.”
He brought out another little box from his pocket and revealed a matching bracelet. Hannah offered him her left wrist. He nudged her sensible, inexpensive watch very gently out of the way as he fastened the bracelet. She had a feeling something more diamond-studded was going to appear on her nightstand soon.
There was a second of expectant silence. Hannah looked back and forth between Radu and Sorin. Her mates.
“Is that it?”
Both of them went wide-eyed.
“We can get more,” Radu said immediately. “Do you want more?”
“We have plenty, the whole hoard, when we make it official—”
“Okay, just that,” Hannah said quickly. “I meant—this is beautiful, it’s plenty, but it doesn’t make it official?”
“Oh,” they said in unison, making her smile.
“No,” Radu said. “To make it official—we give our hoard to you.”
“And you give yourself to the hoard,” Sorin added, “which doesn’t mean you have to stay in the cave afterward, you just—”
“Carry some of it with me,” Hannah finished, thinking of the gold that Cara and Becca always wore and never removed. She’d seen Cara’s bracelets closely enough to know that, while Gus adjusted them to whatever shape suited Cara on a given day, they never had clasps. They were always solid.
Radu nodded, watching her intently, but Hannah looked right back. She knew that mates were forever. She’d chosen them.
“So we thought we’d try to get a day without breaking anyone’s heart before we got to that,” Radu said. “For now we could just... enjoy being together.”
“Oh,” Hannah said, and then laughed a little at how much she sounded like both of her mates had a moment ago, when they finally understood.
It did sound like a nice way to spend the day—playing hooky from work just to enjoy some time with Radu and Sorin. Nothing official. Just a day together.
“That sounds just perfect,” Hannah said. “Wherever should we start?”
“Since apparently I wasn’t clear enough before,” Sorin said, his hands going to her buttons again and slipping the first few open this time. “I think we should get you naked. And then I think we should do a lot of anything you want. Everything you want.”
“That could take some time,” Hannah said, her heart beating fast and her pussy getting wet.
“We’ve got all day,” Radu murmured, pushing back her jacket.
“And all night,” Sorin added, slipping his fingers into her half-unbuttoned shirt to caress her breast. Pleasure thrilled through her, and she tilted her head back against Sorin’s chest.
“Then I suggest we take this to the bedroom,” Hannah said. “Or at least shut the front door, one of you.”
“Bedroom,” Radu and Sorin said together, decisively. They hurried her along, pushing and pulling her clothes off while she was distracted holding on to her flowers and her balance.
They didn’t let her fall until she reached the bed, and then Radu made short work of the rest of her clothes while Sorin slipped behind her. He loosed her hair from its knot and ran his hands through it.
“God, I’ve missed you,” he murmured.
Hannah had missed them, too, and she ached for them. Her pussy had never felt so empty, and she didn’t want to waste time letting them apologize to her when she just wanted her mates.
As soon as Radu stepped back to strip off his own clothes, dropping them to the floor with hers, Hannah pulled away from Sorin. She rose up onto her hands and knees, facing Radu.
Sorin, behind her, would have a perfect view when she spread her knees apart. His hands were on her thighs at once, and she heard him moan a little.
“God, sweetheart, you’re so wet,” he whispered.
“For you,” she said, looking up into Radu’s eyes as she said it. “Because I want you. Don’t make me wait, Sorin.”
Radu was practically tearing his clothes off now. Hannah watched the bulge in his perfectly tailored pants as Sorin moved behind her. His fingers brushed over her dripping pussy and further back, just barely touching her ass.
She moaned at the thought, wanting him even there, inside her anywhere, but it would take time and patience, and she didn’t want to wait.
“Sorin,” she begged, tilting her hips.
Radu was unfastening his belt, yanking his zipper down.
Sorin’s hands settled on her hips and his cock teased at her pussy, getting wet with her juices.
He pushed into her just as Radu pushed his pants open, and Hannah moaned at how good it felt to have her mate inside her.
But it still wasn’t enough. She needed them both, and she didn’t want to wait, she didn’t want to take turns.
She reached out for Radu. He put his hand under her arm just as Sorin moved behind her, thrusting deeper into her and making her moan. She let his motion rock her forward, pushing her toward Radu.
She wrapped her hand around his cock and looked up at him, to see Radu’s eyes blazing with silvery dragonfire.
“Hannah,” he moaned. “Yes.”
“Yes,” Hannah agreed, and then she licked up the length of his cock.
Radu groaned above her. Sorin pulled out of her pussy, teasing his cock along her folds as she teased Radu’s with her lips.
She couldn’t have one of them without the other, and she wouldn’t want it any other way.
She opened her mouth and used her hand to guide Radu’s cock to her lips. As soon as she started to take him in, Sorin pushed back into her pussy, filling her perfectly. She moaned around Radu, taking him as deeply as she could. Sorin filled her pussy, and she felt perfect there between them, taking both of her mates at once.
Radu’s hand cupped her cheek. Hannah looked up at him, working her tongue against his cock as she did, squeezing tighter around Sorin inside her.
“Darling,” he said softly. “Darling, you’re so beautiful like this. So perfect for us.”
Hannah sucked him harder, rocking back into Sorin, and her mates both moved. She only had to coax them a little more before they took charge the way she wanted them to, Sorin thrusting steadily behind her while Radu moved more gently, working his cock in and out of her mouth as she sucked him.
She was pushed between them, pleasuring both her mates while they gave back more pleasure than she could bear. It felt so good to have them both inside her, both joined with her.
Sorin’s fingers just brushed over her clit and she was coming, her pussy clenching hard around his cock. Radu pushed her back gently and she gasped and cried out as Sorin kept moving inside her as she came.
Sorin pulled her back against him as the white-out crest of pleasure washed over her, and with a few more hard thrusts he was coming too, spilling his seed inside her.
Radu followed them back, and when Sorin was panting behind her, coming down, Radu was kneeling before her. He was naked now, his cock wet from her mouth and gloriously hard.
“Yes,” Hannah moaned, spreading her legs wider with Sorin still inside her. “Please, Radu, yes.”
Sorin shifted, slipping free of her pussy and helping her tilt back so that Radu could lean in over her. Radu slid into her and she arched between her mates, moaning with the perfection of it.
Radu bent his head to kiss her breasts, and Sorin’s fingers were still right beside her clit. Radu had barely gotten into a rhythm, moving inside her, before she was coming again, a long-drawn-out burn of ecstasy. She felt Radu following her over the edge, coming inside her while Sorin held her up for him.
She had them both again. Her mates. For good, this tim
e.
***
Hours later, Hannah was lying contentedly in bed between her mates. They were arguing good-naturedly about who should cook dinner. She thought she was probably supposed to be choosing one of them, but after some excellent makeup sex, a sweaty tangled nap, and showers that had led immediately into round two, she was finished doing anything.
Radu and Sorin would probably settle it eventually. Or she would get hungry enough to assign one of them to do something.
“Being the twin who doesn’t want to go to bed is not the same as being the lazy twin,” Sorin said with a sweetly dirty smirk, and then he went very still.
Radu had done the same.
They were both staring into space in a way that made Hannah sit up anxiously between them. She touched Sorin’s cheek with her right hand, Radu’s shoulder with her left.
They both snapped back into focus on her as soon as she touched them.
“You didn’t hear, sorry,” Radu said. “That was Gus. He was a bit... emphatic.”
“Is everything all right?” Hannah’s mind went automatically to work and tomorrow’s election, but Gus wouldn’t get worked up about that.
“Cara,” Sorin said. “She’s been having contractions for hours, apparently, but she didn’t tell him until he came home. Didn’t want to take him away from the farewell party.”
“So now the doctor and midwife are heading up to the big house,” Radu said, “and our presence is firmly requested.”
Hannah raised her eyebrows at that. “Is that... um...”
“Just Gus being a broody paterfamilias,” Sorin assured her. “Wants everyone under his wings when he gets anxious. I think Dad was the same—he kept all of us boys together in the upstairs sitting room when Mom was having Teddy, didn’t he?”
Radu nodded. “And Gus says he was the same when we were born, and Laurence. He couldn’t remember about Ilie—Gus was probably still in the nursery himself then. But I think it’s safe to say it’s usual.”
“Well,” Hannah said. “You’d better—”
They both gave her identical disbelieving looks.