Page 10 of Mates in Memory

I reached down and wrapped my hands around their dicks, pushing them together so that I stroked them at the same time. Creon leaned his head back reveling in the warmth of our bodies and Kodiak let out a growl that made me want to squeeze. So I did. I pulsed my fingers against their skin as I stroked up and down.

“If Kodiak doesn’t want more babies, maybe you should do him,” Creon said.

It wouldn’t be the first time. I didn’t know how other couples or polycules worked but I figured anyone together long enough would try sex just about every way imaginable. Creon liked to watch me top Kodiak. It wasn’t something that came up often but from time to time over the years. There was something soul soothing about the act. At least for me. I never spoke the words aloud because everyone had the right to say no but there was something about a versatile alpha that made me feel safer. Like he knew he liked it sometimes and he didn’t have some giant ego shoved up his ass like a broomstick to get in the way. Not that Kodiak would’ve described himself as vers, but then again it’s not something that we had to label because the three of us just did what we were all in the mood for. Life was simpler without the labels. Besides, we outnumbered him and already put him through his paces. If he was the only one to ever top anyone, he’d hibernate for months at a time trying to keep up with us.

The idea of sliding into my mate while my other mate rode his dick made a drop of precum form on the throbbing head of my dick. So I checked in with Kodiak over our mating link to see where he was with the idea. He reached out for me and pulled me down for a long hard kiss before flipping Creon over so that he was on top of him.

“Lube’s in the glovebox if you didn’t bring any with the picnic,” he said and kissed Creon’s neck as the other man laughed.

Five minutes later, I’d lost track of everything except the pleasure that poured onto me from every angle. Sure, eventually we’d have to contort ourselves into new positions because Creon and I needed to be close enough to bite but we had time. We’d really be together forever now. No matter what life threw at us.

I lost myself to moving inside Kodiak’s tight body as he moved inside Creon. Our cries of pleasure filled the clearing, chasing birds from trees and causing the rest of nature to fall silent except for the cicada sounding every now and then. When they came out there was no shutting those fuckers up.

Pleasure danced over my skin and shimmied into my core as Creon bit into Kodiak’s claiming gland. I thought back to the farm where Kodiak and I were first together before we knew Creon would be ours too. Everything was so uncertain and I was only alive because of my friends. I was determined to take out Brone but we hadn’t yet. Kodiak and Creon came into my life exactly when I needed them the most. I hoped we’d all do the same for Raziel. Maybe I should’ve been angry about being tied to him, but we’d been tied together since the second he let us be Creon’s second chance mates. Besides, there was little I could deny Creon. Still, I’d wear his scales as a hat if Raziel hurt anyone else.

Our mating link was already shifting and expanding when Kodiak bit into Creon. I thrust faster, seeking out a way to satisfy some deep, needy longing inside me. I clutched Kodiak’s hips, reveling in the warm feel of his flesh under mine. Creon cried out and the sound vibrated through me. I knew that cry – that calling – he was so close to cumming that everything inside him ached. Kodiak thrust into him harder, faster, giving him more and more. Every time he drew back from Creon’s body, he sank deeper onto my dick, as if he meant to make us both cum with the same fluid motion. My nails dug into his hips and he growled as his pleasure pulsed over our mating link.

Life had turned out so fuckin good. I’d gone from hunting for food that my father claimed didn’t belong to me and trading for blankets to leading my people – but it wasn’t the power that made it good. It was moments like these and the family that sprung forth from them. It was knowing that whatever uncertainty came that I would never have to face it alone again.

Everything inside me drew up tight and, unable to hold my wolf back, I bit Kodiak’s shoulder. He growled, his body tightening around my dick as pleasure drew up everything inside him. Creon clung to him, panting, and smiling at me over his shoulder. We had him right where we wanted him. Kodiak was all ours. For now. Forever. They were both mine and I belonged to them too.

I thrust deep into my mate once, twice, three more times and I couldn’t hold back anymore. I threw my head back letting my wolf howl out his deep, throaty pleasure to the skies. Any little animals who hadn’t scurried off made a quick exit, fearing they’d be my post-coital snack. None of us fell still until there wasn’t a drop of pleasure left in any of us. Sure, we’d go for another round soon, but for now, just being in a tangle of limbs with my guys was the best place in all the universe.

“I think the food’s still warm,” Kodiak said, glancing over at the bags of food from the takeout place.

That was our bear. He moved to set up the food and Creon reached out for me. We shared a long, slow kiss as our sweaty bodies pressed together. He fingered the claiming gland on my shoulder before his mouth drifted that way. His lips were warm and soft against the taut skin. He licked it and sucked at it until his long elven canine broke through and flooded his mouth with the clear, magical fluid exchanged at all claiming vow ceremonies. He lapped it up, taking in memories he had already shared in. Maybe those were the best memories. Maybe he was seeing my favorite memories of the three of us.

When I bit him, for half a second I feared I’d see Uriel die. Only Creon hadn’t witnessed that. Instead, I saw our family through his eyes. We were home and hearth for him. We were the place he always longed to be. I hoped that knowing he had us forever quelled the longing. He was home now and though some things might change – him belonging with us never would.

We ate together, lounging around naked on the blanket.

“Told you no one would get pregnant,” Kodiak winked at me.

“Maybe I got you pregnant,” I said, because sometimes even when romance in under way you still have to be a smart ass. We all laughed and Kodiak leaned over to give me a kiss. Yeah, for all the bullshit we went through, our lives didn’t turn out half bad.

Epilogue

Raziel

My shoulder was killing me. I’d spent the morning sparring with my sire because I woke up a bundle of fire. My dragon wanted Creon. He wanted to take off into the sky and show ourselves for who we really were. He took these moods and my inner beast knew it wouldn’t take long to fly from my family’s territory to where Creon lived. I could be there before nightfall. Only I wasn’t going. Rumors were starting to fly. Visions were being talked about by those with mystical sights. So, instead I spent the day trying to one-up a dragon who was impossible to get anything by. Sometimes I thought my sire, Star, had an advantage because he remembered his life as an elf and a dragon back when he was two separate beings. Maybe those experiences worked on his muscle memory or something. I had been alive over three decades and still couldn’t get a hit on him.

“It’s because you’re too in your head,” he crossed his arms as I drank what must’ve been my hundredth bottle of water for the day. “You want to win. You don’t need to win. I sort of like it that way.”

“Because you want to keep winning?” I huffed, falling back onto the ground and staring up at the cloudless blue sky.

“No, because I fought my scales to the bone to keep you from ever needing to win a battle. I want it to stay that way. Not just for you. Not just because of what you think you’ll do if you taste blood, but because that’s what I want for my kids. I want all of you annoying little mini-mes to be able to rip heads off but never have need of the skill.”

“How long are you going to stop me from going?” I asked him, trying not to laugh. He’d once flicked a teacher in the forehead when I was in middle school for calling me annoying.

“I’m not doing anything you didn’t ask me to do,” he shrugged. “You’ll go for real when you’re ready. When the time’s right.”

“It feels like I’m only half alive,” I admitted.

“You’re all the way alive. You’re just—It’s a form of homesick. I get it when I’m away from your carrier,” he said.

Dad knew who I was. He reacted so calmly when I told him that sometimes I wondered if he knew before I did.

“You’re my kid,” he shrugged, picking up my thoughts from the family link. “I don’t care who you were before. You hatched from an egg I guarded. I raised you. You’re mine. I used to be an elf named Mel. I used to be a dragon named Erg. I still adore my past life best friend, and I still won’t buy cake from a bakery, but I’m me now and you’re you. Though, I’ll tell you what I’ve told all of your older siblings, if you turn into a problem for shifterkind, I’m the solution.”

I laughed. I didn’t know who Hans was this time but I couldn’t imagine murdering anyone. Then again, I couldn’t imagine the leadership of my group forcing me to take a mate against my wishes and his will. I liked to think I chose the parents I did because when I was still Uriel I felt so horrible and wanted to make it up to my pup.

“Hit the shower. It’s almost dinner time,” he said and started toward the house.

In the shower, I scrubbed at my sore shoulders. Had Dad changed out my training sword for a heavier one without me knowing?

“Ouch!” I fingered around my sore trap muscle. Why was my claiming gland swollen? It liked to pull this shit when I was around Creon, but I hadn’t been anywhere near my mate recently.

“Wrong side!” my dragon chimed off from inside his inner sanctum.

The scaley beast was right. Wait! Two? On the wrong shoulder? What had Creon done?

I reached for the sliding glass door of the shower but stopped myself. He was with Kodiak and Silas now. I’d given my blessing on that while I was dead. While I was pacing and snarling and trying to figure out how to obliterate my very soul without Frost or the Crow King’s consent.

“He knows,” my dragon whispered into my thoughts.

Even if he did, why would I gain extra claiming glands? Was I bound to all of them now? Was this Creon’s way of letting me know he knew and he forgave me? Was it the byproduct of my giving them my blessing? I wasn’t sure how I felt about any of it, but one thing was clear – Creon probably knew I was back. The only question that remained was – would he run for the hills or into my arms?