Levi (20 page)

Lyndon shuddered and twisted his head enough that Levi thought he could see Oscar. Oscar blanched and tried to move back but Lyndon showed his quick speed by grabbing Oscar’s wrist. “Where are your brothers?”

Oscar gulped and didn’t seem to know where to look. “They should be waking up, I hope. They were hit twice by those darts—Drake three times, I think. I just got one, probably because of my size. Drake tried to fight, I guess. He has some gouges, so does Orion but it looks like his is from falling against a big rock.” Oscar tried to stand again but Lyndon didn’t release his wrist.

Instead Lyndon pulled against Levi’s hold on him. Levi let up and watched as Lyndon rolled onto his back then pulled Oscar down, halfway on his chest. Lyndon wrapped Oscar in a hug and said roughly, “It’s…it’s okay, Oscar. I’m not mad at you. I’m grateful, really. I just wish there’d been another way—but there wasn’t,” Lyndon added when Oscar sniffled. “There wasn’t. Albert was nothing like you or your brothers. He was full of hate and greed. You did something that was hard for you, I know it was, yet you didn’t hesitate. You weren’t selfish. I’d be honoured if you’d let me call you brother.”

Oscar’s answer turned into a sob, and Levi reached for his brother and Lyndon, pulling them into an awkward but comforting embrace. He held them as well as he could until his dad and brothers found them.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Lyndon was grateful Levi’s family was willing to hold off on much of the questions they had until the next day. Oscar answered what he could, but he hadn’t heard all of the exchange between Lyndon and Albert. When he’d had to explain how all of his father’s children were being pitted against each other, he’d thought Marybeth was going to hunt his father down. He’d worried about it enough that he’d pointed out his father’s death wouldn’t change the will.

Marybeth had answered with an avowal about how the will could be fixed before the man’s death.

Lyndon was kind of in awe of the woman, and kind of scared of her. And he still didn’t know how they were going to get his father to change his will, or if Marybeth had some diabolical plan in mind she wasn’t sharing with him. It wouldn’t surprise him if that were the case.

“How are you feeling?” Marybeth asked him, giving him a long look that encompassed his entire body.

“I hurt,” Lyndon admitted, seeing no use in even trying to lie. The way Albert had clawed him in the side, almost exactly where his father had, seemed fitting. Wounds from his family, nowhere near as deep as the ones he’d carry inside. His shoulder had needed stitches, and that had been a painful experience Lyndon didn’t ever care to repeat. The other gashes and bruises he had would heal soon enough, but in all honesty he was more worried about Oscar, and he knew everyone else was, too.

Looking around the den in Henry and Cheryl’s house, he noticed Oscar had slipped away. Despite the warmth of the room, made cosy by clusters of pictures and paintings as well as carvings by Levi, Lyndon felt a chill when he realised Oscar was gone.

“How is he?” he asked Marybeth.

Levi gave him a watery smile and stood up. “I’m going to go check on him.”

Marybeth watched Levi leave before answering. “He knows he did what he had to do, but killing takes a toll on one’s soul—if they’ve got a soul.”

Guilt ate at Lyndon as it had ever since Oscar had ended Albert’s life. “I’m sorry, Marybeth. If I could—”

“No.” She cut him off firmly, cutting her hand through the air between them. “None of that. It happened as it had to. Oscar is strong.
So
many people don’t see it. They see a cute little boy with a messed-up hand, and they’re stupid for being so blind. If you’d have had to kill your half-brother, it would have done more harm to you than it did to Oscar. It’s worse when the life you take belongs to someone you should care about but can’t because of—” Marybeth shook her head and looked away. “Oscar also worries about what he has done. He’s afraid eventually you’ll hate him for it. I told him you were a better man than he was giving you credit for being, but you’ll have to reassure him.”

“I will.” Lyndon would tell Oscar every day, as often as he had to until Oscar believed Lyndon didn’t hate him for Albert’s death. That was all on Albert’s soul, and their father’s. If they didn’t have souls, well, there was a debate Lyndon wasn’t up to. But Albert and their father had made their choices, forcing an innocent man to commit an act he should never have had to make. Lyndon had made his choices as well, and doing so meant accepting this family and the place in it they offered him. Taking care of them, and, he was sure, loving Levi. The kernel of the emotion was there, growing stronger each moment they spent together. He knew it was only a matter of time before he had to confess it, before his heart swelled and the need to speak the words couldn’t be repressed.

But something had been pricking at his mind ever since Marybeth had said it. He scooted forward on the chair until he was almost knee to knee with Marybeth. She gave him a smile that made him think she knew just what he was going to ask. He was tempted to ask her some off-the-wall question just to throw her, but he figured she’d probably know the damned answer to it.

“You know what I’m wondering,” he began, and Marybeth’s uptilted lips confirmed it. Lyndon ploughed ahead, sure she wouldn’t just tell him unless he asked. “You mentioned knowing something about what was happening between Levi and me, or thinking you might. Have you had a chance to figure it out?”

Marybeth stood and held out her hand to him. “Come outside, get some fresh air. I feel like taking a walk.”

Okay then, a private conversation it is.
Lyndon placed her hand on his forearm and crooked his elbow enough so they were both comfortable then he escorted her outside. Once they were on a well-worn pebbled path sheltered by thick tree limbs overhead, Marybeth began to talk.

“I don’t remember a whole lot about my people. Our people. I was only six when my family was killed. But there are little bits of information still floating around here.” She tapped her temple. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell what was a dream and what was real, which was why I said I needed some time. But, I think I’m remembering right. There were pairs in our clan who were mates.” She stopped and turned to face him, her eyes burning into his. “Not just couples who paired up, but mates whose souls called to one another. My parents were like that. I thought it was a false memory for a long time, because what child doesn’t want to remember their parents being happy and thoroughly in love? But I saw you and Levi, and I started thinking, and not just about you two, but about all the couples in our family. I remember my father saying mates would find each other no matter the distance, if possible. No one else would satisfy them. Those couples who were together and in love, without the same instinctive drive, I guess they didn’t have mates.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know about for sure. I thought it was only something that happened between snow leopards, but I met Vincent and never once wanted another man. Maybe it isn’t as strong an instinct if our mate is human, or maybe we simply call it true love, but what I see between you and Levi reminds me of my parents. They were incredibly happy together.”

Lyndon frowned even as his pulse kicked up a few notches. “Why didn’t you want to tell me this inside?”

“Because Henry and Cheryl are in love and as devoted to each other as two people can be,” she said, looking at him like he just wasn’t very bright. “How do you think they would feel if they knew there was such a thing as mates? Granted, I think their love is just as strong, but humans don’t have the same instinctual drives we shifters do. I wouldn’t want Henry to feel that he was inferior, or worse even, depriving Cheryl of her true mate.”

“But—” Lyndon’s head was starting to pound, he was frowning so hard. “You said it might just be what people call true love in humans. Don’t you think maybe it’s the same thing? Maybe the intensity isn’t as ramped up at first, but shifters have instincts that help guide us. A human would be more logical, maybe even instinctively fearful of a shifter. It doesn’t mean—in my opinion—that humans and shifters don’t have mates. You said yourself you never wanted anyone else once you met Vincent, and Levi had told me there were no divorces in the family. Don’t you think there’s a good chance I’m right?”

Marybeth considered it for a minute, then another, and Lyndon thought she just wasn’t going to answer him.

“Maybe,” she finally admitted. “I just don’t want our non-shifter family members feeling like they’re less than the shifter family members. That’s why I would prefer to keep this between us, and Levi, of course, at least for now.” She took a step back and turned a little then she peered over her shoulder. “And Oscar, I suppose. Levi, you and your brother get out here.”

Lyndon couldn’t keep back a grin when the brothers stepped out from a thick clump of trees looking like guilty children.

“Sorry Grandma Marybeth,” they both muttered.

Lyndon lifted one arm and Levi settled in beneath it, pressing carefully against Lyndon’s side.

“Come here, you,” Levi said to Oscar, then the three of them stood facing Marybeth.

“Now, obviously I knew you two were out there because I am just that sharp.” Marybeth looked very pleased with herself about it, too. “Levi needed to know, and you, Oscar.” She cupped her grandson’s chin. “You and Levi will be our family’s story-tellers. You’ve both always listened and observed, and I know you keep every bit of it in those sharp brains of yours.”

Oscar looked poleaxed, his mouth dropping open and his eyes widening. He didn’t exactly appear thrilled, in Lyndon’s opinion. Not that he was going to speak up as Oscar continued sputtering. “But—but I—” Levi just looked very…intense.

“But nothing,” Marybeth scoffed. “My father was the youngest and he was our storyteller. I had a brother, the youngest brother—I think he was three or four years older than me—who was supposed to take over when my father passed.” The sadness creeping into her eyes didn’t appear to have dulled any during the intervening years since her loss. “He was killed. I’ve watched you two since you were both born, and my heart tells me this is right. Whether my first clan had one or a dozen storytellers, that doesn’t matter. What does matter is these.”

She placed a hand over each of the brother’s hearts. “Your hearts beat good and strong. The blood of our ancestors pumps through them, filling you both with the desire for knowledge about our people. Timothy, his heart beats with it as well. The three of you will make sure what I know is passed down.” She nodded once. “And since Timothy is going back to my homeland to search for more snow leopard shifters, for more knowledge, hopefully the three of you will keep our family united and enduring.”

Marybeth patted both men’s chests then tipped her head towards the house. “Now, that’s enough deep thoughts for the day. I want to be escorted back by three handsome men.”

Oscar stepped forward and held out his arm. “Well, I’m sorry there’s only one here to escort you.”

Lyndon laughed, and Levi chortled too. He thought Marybeth was right. Oscar was going to be okay; he was strong, much stronger than he looked.

As for him and Levi, well, they were going to have a long, happy life together as mates, lovers, and best friends. Everything else, they’d handle as it came.

Epilogue

One thing Levi couldn’t deny, he had a man who wasn’t hesitant or timid. Lyndon was spread out on the bed on his back, naked as the day he was born, legs bent at the knees so his heels almost touched his ass cheeks. His arms were spread as well, his hands open palms up, relaxed, and his dick was erect and wet-tipped.

As gorgeous as Lyndon was, the hunger in his eyes was a bigger aphrodisiac than everything else. Still, Levi cocked a hip against the door frame as he stared into his lover’s golden eyes. “Are you trying to give me a hint, like maybe you’re horny?” It wouldn’t hurt to tease the sexy man a little.

Lyndon did something then Levi had never seen him do before. He rolled his eyes until all that was showing was the whites, then he rolled them back down so he could glare at Levi. “No, I’m
trying
to get you to fuck me now that I’m healed.”

“Oh,” Levi said, his cock filling so quickly he was surprised he didn’t hurt himself. He was, however, a tad dizzy, either from the rush of blood down south or just from the idea of finally being able to fuck Lyndon again. Or both.

Levi dragged his gaze down Lyndon’s body, the sight of all of his lover’s muscled, hairy flesh making him bite his lip to keep from babbling in gratitude. He wanted to just dive right in, to fill Lyndon up and ride him until they both collapsed in a pleasurably exhausted pile, too sated to move for hours. God, he could almost come just from thinking about it while he looked at Lyndon. Then he did a double take when he was studying Lyndon’s balls, because beneath them, Lyndon’s skin glistened.