by Jeanne Allen
Sebastian, most likely picking up on my intention, puts a hand on his eldest sister’s arm. “It’s wonderful to see you, sister. I can assure you we’ll let you all know the plan tomorrow, but for tonight, let’s all get some rest. We’ll need our strength in the coming days, I suspect.”
Sylvia gives him a tender look and another silent nod. Without a word to the rest of us, she sweeps away to one of the doors, opening it like she’s been here before.
Chapter 13
“If she’s going to pretend to be me, she has to be, like, one hundred percent less graceful,” I mutter, watching as Birdie and Lakshimi follow Sylvia into one of the apartment’s four bedrooms.
Keagan and Raul head into the room opposite them.
Lucas snickers. “More like a thousand percent.”
My best glare does nothing to dissuade his sparkling eyes. Instead, he picks me up and hauls me into one of the remaining rooms, princess-style.
“Put me down!” I shriek. Even with my genetically gifted boyfriends, I’m still not used to being handled like I’m a foot shorter and a hundred pounds lighter.
Lucas laughs and sets me down gently on the soft carpet of the master bedroom. The room looks so similar to the rest of the apartment that I’m beginning to think that Jackson only told the decorator his two favorite colors, cream and blue. The color scheme is a sharp contrast to the vibrancy of the Better Homes bachelor pad where they stayed when I met them for the first time.
Sighing, I fondly remember the adorable house. We sold it while staying in Phósopoi, since it made no sense to keep a house they essentially bought while they searched for me.
Now it looks like we might not make it back to our second home, the Phósopoi Mansion, any time soon, though I doubt Jackson will sell that one. Silently, I mourn my obnoxiously extravagant closet full of clothes that seemed to multiply every time Jin left for literally any reason. I also say a silent goodbye to Fox and my photos of Mary, though I’m sure Anders, our butler, will keep them safe for me.
The master bedroom in Jackson’s suite is a pretty good consolation for leaving those comforts at home. It’s complete with a bed that looks big enough to fit all of us, which takes up pretty much the entire back wall, resting next to the door we enter through. The bed faces more floor-to-ceiling walls that look out into the city. The sun has gone down, so we’re treated to a view of the skyline lit up and sparkling in all its glory.
Standing in the middle of the room, I’m awed by the uninterrupted view. Clear window glass and lineless panels make it seem like we stand on a ledge, overlooking the city. The view is so beautiful I almost don’t notice when Jin begins tugging at my t-shirt.
“What are you doing?” I swat his hand away, annoyed at his interruption.
I was having a moment.
Jin rolls his eyes and huffs. “Trying to get this thing off you so we can get ready for bed.” He gestures to Forrest, who holds a set of silk pajamas that look to be in my size.
It should shock me that Jackson already has clothes here ready for me, but I’ve learned to expect these sorts of things with my guys, and with Phósopoi in general; especially the Royals. I don’t know how many Kladí servants Jackson employs and most days, I don’t even want to know.
The sight of the comfy-looking pajamas prompts me to quickly finish what Jin started. I take off my shirt and jeans and am halfway through unhooking my bra when I realize I’m undressing in front of my Kladí for the first time.
When we Bonded, I undressed in the bathroom, and before Bonding, I was too shy to even take off a swimsuit coverup around them. Looking back, all that modesty seems useless, though I know I had genuine anxiety at the time. Now, either because of the Bonding or because of everything I learned from Kin, I’m able to comfortably undress without hesitation.
With a grin at my ogling boyfriends, who stopped what they were doing to watch my little show, I unhook my bra and let it fall to the floor.
A glassy-eyed Sebastian steps away from his position of leaning against the closed door. He stalks toward me, and before I can say anything, he dips down to lay a sweetly sensual kiss on my starving lips.
I lean into the kiss, reveling in the connection and the love I feel from my Kladí. After we part, I notice the rest of our Omás has inched closer, eyeing each other to see who would pounce next.
“No, none of that,” I scold, leaping to grab the pajamas from Forrest and shimmying into the pants. “We have to talk, now. It’s important.” I emphasize the last part as I finish buttoning up the top.
I feel guilty for teasing them. They feel about as starved for physical affection as I do, since we held off pretty much everything but light kisses when Sebastian was in his coma. It seemed rude, somehow, to develop our relationship as a unit with one member unable to participate.
Sheepishly, I eye the varying degrees of disappointment that flash through five pairs of eyes. I vow to make it up to them later, then focus my attention on Forrest. Either because we’ve already connected in that way or because of his innate gentlemanliness, he’s the only one on board with operation Talk-Now-Sexy-Time-Later. “She’s right. She was out cold after the Bonding, and we all can feel that more happened than the usual Bonding Connection and our new or improved Gifts. There’s something… different about you, Rose.”
“Different how?” I’m worried now that projecting my conscious into the Land, or whatever it was that I did, messed with me somehow.
Am I going to start growing grass for skin like Kin?
I swear to all that’s good and jelly-filled that I would not be able to keep it watered properly.
“Nothing bad, just, I don’t know, more…”
“Calm,” Sebastian finishes for him. His eyes have returned to their normal baby-blue, his alpha-male persona safely put away now that we’ve intrigued his more intellectual side.
“I wasn’t calm before?” Nearly all of my foster families, the good ones anyway, remarked on my weirdly calm and logical personality. I once had a foster mom tell me that, if I was bit more “childlike”, they might have kept me, despite the weird voice-control thing.
“No, you were. Way calm. Super calm. But now you’re like… umm…” Lucas looks to his brother for help.
“Peaceful,” Lyle provides. “Like you got some of the answers you were looking for.”
The rest of my guys nod.
My eyes widen as I blink at their serious faces. I hadn’t realized how much they could pick up on my inner insecurities and worries. I had talked about them at some point, but even I didn’t know how worried I was about how unique our Omás is, and how powerful my Agora power is, until Kin explained it.
Thinking of Kin reminds me of why I brought them all together in the first place.
“I am more peaceful. I understand a lot more. About everything,” I admit. “This is going to take a while. We’d better sit down.”
I move toward the bed. If I was going to tell them their origin story, then we might as well be comfortable.
“Wait, she thinks you’ll be pregnant within a year? She doesn’t know?” Sebastian questions.
I shake my head, or what I can of it. I’m squished between the beefcake-formerly-known-as-Forrest on one side and lanky-lanky-boneman who sometimes goes by the moniker Jin on the other. Apparently, “get comfortable” is Phósopoi code for squishing an entire seven person Omás on one bed. Jackson is propped up on the other side of Jin and Sebastian and the twins sit cross-legged on the end of the bed, facing us. I’m in a prime spot to see how deeply disturbed they all are by my story.
Maybe disturbed isn’t the right word.
The twins show identical expressions of shock and awe. A quick glance at Jin and Jackson show a weird mix of pride and apprehension. Forrest looks like we’re discussing what kind of tea to drink with breakfast. The only one showing disturbance, actually, is Sebastian, who looks like I’ve just told him I joined the flat-earthers or something.
Out of all my Kladí, I never
would have guessed Sebastian would take the news that I’m the new Phósopoi not-so-virgin Mary so poorly. He’s always been my Mr. Black-and-White. He takes things as they are and doesn’t often worry about things that are not. That’s Lyle’s job, but it seems like they’ve switched roles tonight.
Or maybe my Mother Hen is still too shocked to fuss properly.
I gather my courage to ask Sebastian, “What’s wrong?”
I really don’t like the panicked look in his eyes or the way his mouth twitched the entire time I told them about my encounter with Kin.
“I, well… it’s… ughhh.” He gives an uncharacteristic grunt and runs his hands through his shaggy blond hair.
Thankfully, I’m not the only one staring at Sebastian in shock. The twins, who gave me glazed hero-worship eyes, snap out of it to stare at Sebastian like he’s the one recounting how he met the alien Phósopoi deity.
We wait patiently for our youngest to take several calming breaths before settling down enough to meet my gaze. His eyes are the particular shade of ice they turn when he’s at his most serious.
Quietly, but firmly, he states, “What I’m about to reveal to you is a thousand-year-old secret no one in my family line has breached to anyone; not even our partners. Had I not been the first in a long line to be born with an Agora, I would know if one’s Omás was also to be kept from the truth, but since I am the first, I chose to wait until everything settled down to figure out what to do.”
The room falls unnaturally still. Even the bright lights of the buildings surrounding us seem to hold their breath for what comes next.
“Only those of the Taylor line know the story. And, even then, we have to prove ourselves worthy before the elders tell us. As you may know, we were once called the Hippolyt line, Grecian warriors known for the particularly strong women Kladí in our family. The legend of the Amazonians stem from our line, but those human tales are not the only ones passed down.”
He pauses before continuing. “Long, long ago, when my great-grandmother was a young girl, she lived in what used to be our capital city, Athens. It was there that she claims to have been given a vision by a beautiful woman with branches for hair who walked on the earth as if it was part of her and she a part of it.”
I gasp. The woman must have been Kin.
Sebastian nods in my direction, affirming my assumption. “The woman did not name herself but told my great-grandmother that she was the mother of all Phósopoi, and thus my family has always referred to her as simply Mother. The Mother gave a vision of a world stripped of its glory, of fantastical places ruined by the dark forces of Chaos. She told my great-grandmother that being born of Chaos, like her brother, only ever brought darkness to that which they touched. She warned her that she must prepare the Phósopoi to battle such a creature, and that those of her line would be in the forefront of the war.”
Sebastian’s story brings clarity to his earlier expression. He hadn’t been disturbed at the idea of the coming battles or our part in them, he was being put face-to-face with the legends his family had been guarding for centuries.
“Did she say anything else?” I whisper.
Sebastian shakes his head slowly. “Only that we must prepare ourselves. It’s why my line is always one of the strongest. We’ve been training for centuries.”
“For a war you had no way of knowing when would happen,” Jin cuts in.
Sebastian shrugs. “We were warriors, even then. I think Kin recognized that we would be needed if the Phósopoi were to win.”
“That’s why the Games—” Lucas bursts out.
“What?” I interrupt, but Sebastian only nods.
Lyle explains, “The Hippolyt line, what we now call the Taylor line, were the first to suggest the Games. Ostensibly, it was to help prepare Phósopoi to deal with the threat of the Keńos. Though, now that I think of it, the Keńos have never been strong enough to warrant the brutal battles at the Games. From what we know now, it must have been a way to prepare us for battle without giving away Kin’s secrets.”
Again, Sebastian nods. His face lost all of its earlier candor and his eyes revert to their usual serene baby-blue.
Jim rubs his jaw. “I wonder how many other families she’s appeared to that have kept their secrets, like the Taylors guarded your grandmother’s visions?”
I turn to Jackson, who looks thoughtful at Jin’s suggestion. “Does your—”
“No, not that I know of,” he finishes before I can finish the question.
I look at the rest of my Kladí who shake their heads in the negative. It looks like Sebastian is the only one to have family secrets to share today.
“Well, testing one another in feats of physical prowess has been something the humans have done throughout their existence, so I think that the Games are probably a natural inclination even without Kin influencing the decision,” I offer.
Jackson and Jin give me warm looks tinged in exasperation. I turn to the twins and Sebastian. Lucas grins at me, his eyes as Goblin as I’ve ever seen them. Lyle looks like he desperately wants to sigh but is afraid of hurting my feelings. I can tell that’s what he wants to do because that’s what he does every time I interrupt something serious with my random cultural facts.
“What?” I turn to Sebastian who just gives me his trademark serene smile. A smile I now recognize as one he shares with at least one member of the family. “I’m just saying… the Phósopoi are following along lines of cultural development common in—”
“We know, Rose. You don’t have to explain yourself. We all think it’s cute when you cut in with your anthropology stuff.” Forrest reaches over to pat me on the head.
I should be indignant and angry at my life’s passion being called cute, but I’m too distracted by the way Forrest’s muscles tense as he reaches over.
The dark lines of his tattoos are barely visible through the deep tan he’s acquired since I first met him. Canada doesn’t get a lot of sun, but the last few weeks in Phóspolis before we left had been sunny enough for a man who spends all of his time outdoors either training or treating animals.
“Rose?” Jackson questions.
I can almost feel him follow my line of sight to Forrest’s muscles. His breath deepens, and Jin’s soon after. The two of them move in unison.
Jackson gently knocks Forrest’s arm away to gather me into his arms. In a move too smooth to be unpracticed, he rolls me over his hard stomach to snuggle between him and Jin, who moves to wrap his arms around my waist, his long fingers pushing up under my sleep shirt.
The rest of the guys catch on to where this is going, the twins move to take off my bottoms. I lift my butt to help them out, happy to find that the act doesn’t give me even an ounce of hesitation. Apparently, the new-found boldness I gathered with the Bonding and my visit with Kin has spread into my deeper issues with intimacy. I don’t even look to see where they are. My gaze is caught up in Jin’s bottomless eyes, the ones that captivated me since the first time I saw them.
Jin caresses my chin softly with one thumb as he gently pushes it up so that our mouths meet. His kiss is slow and intense. The Bond between us hums with pleasure. The strings of our Bond are far more physical now than they were with the pre-Bond, and rather than strange, they feel like they’d always been there, as do the strands of my other Bond-branches, reaching out toward the rest of my Kladí.
Humming and pulsing, the Bond with Jin spikes in energy and feels strongest. The Bond, like my own Agora Power, seems to be sentient enough to guide us to who needs to connect with me the most. Again, without words, the guys sense what to do. I feel a few gentle caresses from the twins and Sebastian before they get up to leave the room.
Their sudden absence surprises me. “You’re leaving?” I can’t shake how pitiful I sound, whining at them as they head toward the door.
Sebastian turns, his calm eyes reassuring me more than words.
Jackson caresses my head, bringing my attention back to him before he speaks for the group
. “We’ll give you two time to strengthen your Bond. It will be that way until we’ve all had our chance to worship you. As long as that’s fine with you, Princess-Agora.”
I don’t know if it’s because Jackson says his words while breathing in my ear, or the kiss he lays carefully on the skin behind my earlobe, or the fact that it’s the first time he’s referred to me by my title, or maybe a combination of all three, but whatever it is, I’m left too hot and bothered to even notice when he and Forrest leave, or when Jin makes quick work of the rest of our clothes. All I know is one second I’m panting like cat in heat, and the next, I’m skin-to-skin with my most dangerous Kladí.
“You are more beautiful than I could have ever imagined,” Jin breathes so softly I almost don’t hear him. He eyes my body carefully, heat and other emotions I can’t name shining through as he drinks in the sight of me.
The same heat crawls up my spine as he makes his way past my breasts to rest on my face, and he gazes into my eyes. Then he gives me the most beautiful smile, and I’m gone. Done. Destroyed. My breath catches as I stare in wonder at the beautiful man hovering over me. I want to tell him… something. I don’t know what, but something cool and sexy.
All that comes out of my mouth is, “I’m glad I shaved.”
Jin looks at me for a long moment before breaking out into that gorgeous laugh I don’t get to hear often enough. When we first met, Jin was so serious. He rarely smiled and never laughed. Now, he will on occasion, especially when teaming up with Lucas for something probably annoying. But I’m so happy every time I get to hear the peals of his laughter. It’s quickly become one of my favorite sounds.
I grin, then grimace. “Did I ruin the mood?”
Last time I had sex, I was hyped up on Agora aphrodisiac. It’s highly possible I may, perhaps, be slightly awkward when it comes to the No-Pants-Dance.
Jin smiles at me, the brightness of his laughter still prevalent in his eyes, lightening them enough so I can actually read his expression for once. He’s amused, to be sure, but the look he gives me is one I catch often from the guys when they think I’m not looking; the look of adoration. “No, beautiful. We, I, love you for who you are, random personal facts included.”