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The brunette nodded, and they lapsed into silence again. Duncan let out a deep breath, feeling the weight of the world lifting off his shoulders just a little. For the first time since meeting both his mates, he felt like he could breathe.
“So this is how you handle what happened?”
Duncan glanced over his shoulder to find Orion right behind him. He was the last person Duncan had expected to see there. “Orion?”
“I’ll let you two talk.” The brunette got up and walked away.
Lips pulled down in a pissed-off expression, Orion slid onto the stool the woman had just vacated. “I’ll have a beer,” he said to Jake when the bartender asked.
“What’re you doing here?” Duncan turned in his seat, looking Orion over. Fuck, his mate was a desirable pocket-sized human. Dark hair, gorgeous hazel eyes, and a fiery attitude. The kind of man that flipped Duncan’s trigger. He could just imagine how wild Orion would be in bed.
“I guess the same as you.” Orion took a drink from his bottle. “I was hoping alcohol revealed some sort of solution. You?”
“Same.”
“By flirting with a woman?” Orion eyed him skeptically.
“She asked if she could sit. I said I couldn’t stop her.” Duncan turned back around, unsure he wanted to keep ogling a mate he couldn’t have, though his cheetah was going apeshit to pull Orion close and seal their bond.
Orion looked around before whispering to Duncan, “I never knew reapers were real.”
Duncan snorted. “I did, but I never thought fate would screw me over with one.”
His mate peeled the label on his bottle. “I met some guy named Panahasi. When I was in the hospital. He was there with two other guys named Maverick and Christian.”
“You met some of the Ultionem?” Duncan was impressed.
“I have no idea what that word means,” Orion confessed. “I just know it was scary as hell to meet them.”
“Why don’t we take this to a booth so no one overhears us?” Now Duncan wished he hadn’t had those two shots. He was feeling slightly woozy as he got up from his seat and waited for Orion to join him.
Duncan led the way to a secluded booth in the corner of the bar, with Orion following close behind. Once they were settled in, he turned to face his mate. “The Ultionem is a council made up of some of the most powerful preternatural in the world. They’re the ones who keep the peace among our kind and make sure that humans don’t find out about us. They’re all pretty intimidating, but they’re also fair.”
“The more I find out about your world, the more I’m not sure I want to be a part of it,” Orion said. “Look at today. We were transported without any kind of traditional transportation, all new to me, but I did witness Panahasi opening up some kind of hinky portal in my hospital room.”
Duncan had heard of the demon leader’s portals, but he’d never witnessed it firsthand.
“It’s not like I use magic to get around,” Duncan said. “I use my feet, my ride, or my cheetah. What Izel did blew my fucking mind.”
Orion chuckled. “Mine, too. I thought I was going to piss myself when I saw we were in an enchanted forest. I was waiting for the trees to come to life or for Tinker Bell to whiz by.”
Duncan laughed then sobered. “I saw something before Izel got us out of there.”
Orion eyed Duncan. “Two red eyes?”
“You saw it, too?” At least now Duncan knew he hadn’t imagined them.
Orion nodded before he took a drink from his beer. “What about Izel? I’m completely confused about him…and you.”
“Honestly?” Duncan ran a hand over his hair. “You’re not the only one. I mean I’ve heard of preternatural having two mates, but I never thought it would happen to me. Hell, I never thought I’d find my mate.”
“But isn’t Santee Beckett’s mate?” Orion asked. “If your brother found his, why do you think you wouldn’t find yours?”
Duncan didn’t bother telling Orion that two of his brothers were mated. “Because finding one’s mate is like hitting the lottery,” Duncan explained. “Some preternatural go their entire lives without one.”
“Aside from being told that a mate was handpicked by fate, I have no idea what being a mate entails.”
Duncan hoped that was Orion’s way of saying he would give this mating thing a shot. He didn’t want to live out his life without either man, especially knowing that one of them lived in the same town.
