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Izel flipped his wrist, and Orion felt kind of woozy. When his head stopped spinning, he gasped as he looked around. They were in a dense forest, the sunlight trying to break through the canopy as what looked like dust particles floated all around them.
“Where in the hell are we?”
Orion spun when Duncan spoke. This couldn’t be real. Orion was still in the hospital, dreaming all of this, from those hunters shooting up the place to this very moment. It was all a very vivid dream.
It had to be.
“We are safe,” Izel said. “If you wish to find answers, I suggest you stow your attitude.”
A very naked Duncan grabbed Orion, shoving him behind him. Orion pushed at Duncan, moving away a few feet. “I don’t know either of you, so keep your hands to yourselves.”
Izel cocked his head, studying Orion. “Just because we are strangers to you doesn’t mean we are dangerous. I am a reaper, but I have no intention of reaping you. Duncan is a cheetah shifter, but he is your mate, as am I.”
“Did… Did you just say you’re a reaper, as in the kind that goes after dead people?” Orion looked around, trying to find some familiar point of reference to ground himself. But the forest around them was a solid wall of trees. “I’ve completely lost my mind.”
“I’m sorry this is such a shock to you,” Izel said.
“Stop talking to my mate before I gut you,” Duncan snarled.
Orion rubbed his temples, wondering what kind of drugs the doctors were pumping into him. This had to be a side effect. He really wanted to believe he was still in the hospital, dreaming all of this, but somehow, he knew this was all too real. “I don’t even know what a mate is.”
With insanity all around him, that was what he’d focused on? Maybe he should have listened to his mom and stayed home.
“Izel is full of shit,” Duncan spat. “He’s not your mate, Orion. I am.”
“Tell me you don’t feel our connection?” Izel asked, though Orion wasn’t sure who the guy was talking to.
“I feel the need to maul you if you don’t get out of here,” Duncan said.
“A mate is someone that fate has handpicked for a preternatural,” Izel said to Orion, though Duncan was glaring daggers at the guy. “You were handpicked to belong to both me and Duncan.”
“You’ve lost your marbles.” Orion backed away. “Take me home, now!”
“Fate wouldn’t be that shitty to me,” Duncan said. “There’s no way I’m mated to a reaper.”
Orion’s heart pounded as he took another step back, his eyes darting between Izel and Duncan. “I’m not anyone’s mate. I’m just Orion, a human who got caught up in some crazy shit.”
Izel took a step forward, his hand extended in a placating gesture. “Orion, I understand that this is a lot to take in, but I promise you, it’s all true.”
Duncan’s dark gray eyes flashed with anger. “I’m not an idiot. There’s no way I’m mated to a reaper. It’s not possible.”
Orion staggered back until he sat on a log behind him. He rubbed his hands over his face, wondering if this day could get any worse. All he’d wanted was some steak. He didn’t want to be in a forest with these two.
Admittedly, Orion found both men gorgeous, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be stuck with either of them. This could not be happening.
He looked up when Izel cursed. One second, he was standing there looking scrumptious, and the next, he was gone. Poof. Nowhere to be found.
“Don’t you dare leave us stranded here!” Duncan shouted.
“Where’d he go?” Orion stood, looking around, feeling like he’d fallen down a rabbit hole.
Duncan held his arms out, clearly forgetting, or uncaring, that he was naked. “You know about as much as I do, Orion.”
“You don’t have to be testy with me,” Orion argued. “I didn’t ask to be here.”
“Neither did I,” Duncan said. “Wherever we are.”
Fantastic. Orion had been transported somewhere, and now Izel was nowhere in sight. Just close your eyes and wish really hard like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and you’ll wake up in your hospital bed. When Orion tried it, he groaned when he saw it didn’t work.
