Their Taydelaan (5 page)

without their Taydelaan. “Just for tonight,” he assured them.

Mitchell surprised him by nodding in agreement, and then he

helped Zack to his feet and climbed back onto his own. “We’ll

explain it all to her,” David said confidently, “and hopefully we’ll be able to set something up tomorrow night.”

Zack grabbed his lover’s hand and squeezed reassuringly.

“And if that doesn’t work?” Mitchell asked anxiously.

“Then you can always visit her in your dreams.”

David winked and left them to tidy up.

* * * *

Jade paced back and forth. They’d traveled the rest of the way

back to the house in silence. Jade could still feel the lethargy from her embarrassing orgasm. But of course her baby sister was still trying to convince her that everything was okay.

“No, no, no, this doesn’t make any fucking sense, and I refuse to

listen to any more of your bullshit.” This was ridiculous. How many

times did she have to tell Kayla she wasn’t buying the shit she was shoveling? Kayla looked upset by her attitude, and Jade was too tired to care. If Kayla didn’t want to have this conversation all she had to do was walk away. Her sister looked angry enough to spit, but she

suddenly calmed and a slow smile spread across her face.

“Fine. Whatever,” she dismissed with a flip of her hand. “Ignore

me. It’s been a long day. Why don’t you just go and get some sleep?”

Sleep? Oh, that was such a lousy idea. Sleep was what started this

whole mess in the first place. Sleep wasn’t going to help her, not by a
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long shot. Her sister’s smirk told her everything she needed. “You

know,” Jade accused in a tight voice.

“Know what?” Kayla asked in that innocent-sounding voice she’d

tried to use since the day she’d been old enough to lie.

“You know about the dreams.”

“Now, how could I know about the dreams,” she said lightly.

“According to you I’m delusional and not actually hearing my

partners’ thoughts in my head. Isn’t that right?”

“No, I mean yes. I mean, what the fuck do you want from me?”

Kayla looked upset at her expletive. Well that was just too damn

bad. Jade might’ve refrained from using swear words around her baby

sister while she was filling the role of substitute parent, but according to Kayla, she was a parent now herself, so tiptoeing around her

younger sister was no longer necessary. And quite frankly, Jade was

just a little too freaked out to care about a swear word or two.

“Jade,” Kayla said with a sympathetic smile, “I just want you to

be happy. Zack and Mitchell are great guys, and if you just take a

chance you’ll learn that for yourself.”

“Okay,” Jade said tiredly as she turned toward the room she’d

been using. “I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything. This is all just a little too freaky to take in all at once.”

“I know how you feel. The day I saw the matter transporter

dissolve a dozen boxes in the living room really freaked me out, too.”

She smiled fondly at the memory. “But I gave it a chance and I’ve

never been happier. I want that for you, too. You deserve to be happy, Jade. Just let it happen.”

Kayla reached over, pressed a kiss to Jade’s cheek, and whispered

softly, “Pleasant dreams.”

* * * *

Mitchell was too agitated to do anything needing more thought

than pacing back and forth required. He’d spent the last half hour

Their Taydelaan

35

rubbing soothing lotions all over Zack. Hell, the enzyme had given

him far more strength than he’d thought possible and he could’ve hurt both his mates badly. Thank the goddess that Kayla and David and

Zack had been able to protect Jade from him. When she’d challenged

him with that sassy stance, he’d nearly lost it. Every primitive

emotion had risen to the surface, and he’d only been able to think in single words—dominate, subdue, possess.

He shuddered again as he imagined how frightened Jade would’ve

been if he’d been able to follow through on his baser instincts. He

swallowed painfully. What if he’d done to her what he’d done to

Zack? Heat burst through his abdomen at the thought, and his cock

roared to life once more. Damn.

“Babe,” Zack said from his position on the bed, “come here.”

Mitchell went to him gladly, relieved to hear his lover’s

command. He’d always assumed that being the more confident, more

dominating of the two of them, that Zack would automatically be the

partner to produce the enzyme. Feeling it build in his own body the

moment he’d seen Jade had been quite frightening, the explosive

effects terrifying.

“Don’t,” Zack said, again obviously hearing the fears in

Mitchell’s head. “You did nothing wrong. And you didn’t hurt me.”

Mitchell closed his eyes again, still having difficulty believing his lover’s reassurances. A firm hand lifted his chin, and Mitchell opened his eyes to stare in his partner’s beloved face. “I quite enjoyed it

actually.” When Mitchell huffed in disbelief, Zack smiled and said,

“Maybe not the part where you almost smooshed me through a door,

but I loved how much you needed me, how much you wanted me, and

I’ve never felt more loved. Look into my heart,” he said reassuringly,

“see the answers for yourself.”

Mitchell did just that. He’d refrained from looking too closely at

his lover’s emotions since their lovemaking—if you could call that

rough claiming making love—terrified of what he might find hidden

in the depths of Zack’s emotions. But when he finally opened his

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heart and his mind to his lover, all he saw was nothing but love and deep respect. He closed his eyes in relief.

“Thank you,” he said sincerely, trying to let Zack understand

every emotion he owned.

Zack pulled him closer. “I love you, babe. No matter what

happens with our Taydelaan, we’ll always have each other. I promise

you. Any time you need some relief from the enzyme, I will be here

for you.”

Mitchell nodded his head and curled into his lover’s embrace,

more than a little relieved to be held this way. “I need you,” Zack

whispered, echoing Mitchell’s earlier words.

* * * *

Jade woke as she moaned in her sleep. Confused and disoriented,

she moaned again as a featherlight touch whispered over her skin.

Was this really happening? Or was she still sleeping? She didn’t even know what to believe anymore.

“Please,” she whispered quietly to the empty room. “What do you

want from me?”

“We just want to love you, Jade
,
”
a voice said inside her head.

She somehow knew it belonged to Zack even though she’d barely

exchanged more than a few words with the man.
“Are you in bed?”

She nodded her head in reply, but somehow he understood her, and

she felt something akin to a wolfish grin tickle her mind.
“What are
you wearing?”

Surprised, she laughed out loud at the lecherous question.

Fortunately the voice laughed with her, and Jade sighed when she got

the feeling that he’d made her laugh on purpose. She managed to

relax just a little. “I’m sorry about before,” she said sincerely. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

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37

“Oh, beautiful,”
another voice said—she could tell this one was Mitchell—
“I’m sorry I scared you. Did Kayla explain about the

enzyme?”

“She said it starts producing when you make a strong link with

your Taydelaan. Is that what I am to you?”

“Yes,”
they answered in unison.

“Why?” she asked. This is the part Kayla couldn’t or wouldn’t

explain. “How do you go about picking your Taydelaan?”

“We don’t get to choose,”
the voice said seriously.
“A Taydelaan
is determined by nature or genetics or the goddess. All we know is
that there is one perfect match for us and you’re that one.”

“So it’s not me you want, it’s my genes?”

“We want in your jeans, yes,”
Zack joked, deliberately ignoring her question. How she knew it was deliberate she wasn’t sure, but she could tell that her question had hit a sore point.

“So how does this work? We meet, we fuck, we produce a baby,

then what?”

She could feel disapproval at her flippant question, and a small

part of her wanted to take it back, but she was being driven by

emotions even she didn’t understand now.

“Then we live happily ever after,”
Zack said just as flippantly.

She could sense his determination to trivialize the matter simply by

making it all sound like a corny fairy tale. But this wasn’t a fairy tale, it was her life, and if she was going to buy into this nonsense, she wanted to know how she—as the baby-carrying third—fit into the

grand scheme of things. It was obvious that they loved each other

deeply. She didn’t think she could live on the fringes of their love, collecting the scraps whenever they came her way.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, woman, you will drive a man insane. If I was
there, I’d flip you over and tan that perky ass. Taydelaan just means
the third partner to be found. It has nothing to do with rank or order
or anything else. We will love you exactly the same way we love each
other
.”

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“But you don’t even know me,” she said, trying to hide how much

the idea of Zack spanking her ass really turned her on.

“Don’t bother trying to hide that thought,”
Mitchell said in her head.
“Remember that dream where we tied you down and spanked

you to orgasm? We already know that you loved it.”
She flushed hot and cold at the memory. She’d woken covered in sweat and would’ve

sworn her ass was bright red if the mirror hadn’t told her otherwise.

“So you know I have a kinky side, so what? That doesn’t amount

to love.”

“Baby, if I hadn’t promised your brother-in-law that we’d give

you time, we’d be on your doorstep in five minutes quite happily

showing you how much we do know about you.”

“That’s just sex,” she said, feeling wretched inside. “You know

nothing about the real me.”

“Beautiful, if you don’t give us a chance to prove our love,”

Mitchell said in a voice filled with hope,
“how will you ever know if
you’re right?”

“Have dinner with us tomorrow,”
Zack added.
“We’ll pick you
up, spend some time getting to know each other, and if you’re not
convinced, we’ll bring you back to your sister’s place. All you’ll have
to do is tell us. We won’t stop you from leaving, but we’re asking you
to give us a chance.”

“What about the enzyme?” she asked nervously. “Will that

happen again?”

“No, beautiful,
I have a way to suppress it for a short time so that
we can get to know each other without the pressure to mate.”
Jade sensed his intense relief that he’d be able to control it. She even understood that it was a proven medicine and not some home remedy.

“Please, Jade, just give the three of us a chance.”

“Okay,” she whispered, hoping she wouldn’t regret it.

Their Taydelaan

39

Chapter Six

Mitchell frowned at the lopsided flower arrangement and scowled

at the burned first course. He’d wanted everything to be perfect, but somehow that hadn’t happened. He couldn’t wait to get back to

Sesturia. The primitive way of cooking on this planet had been the

bane of his existence for three years.

“Relax,” Zack told him as he came into the room. “Jade will

appreciate that you tried. It doesn’t need to be perfect.”

“How do you know that?” he asked, unconsciously revealing

insecurities he’d tried to keep hidden. “Is your link to her stronger than mine?”

Zack looked shocked by the question and took a moment to look

deeper into Mitchell’s mind. He frowned when he came across what

Mitchell had been trying to keep from him. “I should whip your ass

for even thinking that.” Mitchell’s cock twitched at the threat, and he tried to hide a smile by coughing into his hand. Zack grinned and

stalked over to stand in front of Mitchell. “No, my link is not stronger.

I just know Kayla. Jade took care of her when their parents died. She couldn’t have raised someone as sweet as Kayla without being a

special person herself.”

Mitchell nodded in agreement. He should’ve thought of that, but

he was just feeling so stressed he wasn’t thinking very clearly. The

fleeting thought of what Zack usually did to help him relax whispered through his mind, but he quickly squashed the impulse.

Zack pouted, but he smiled when he realized Mitchell’s reason—

Jade would sense what they were up to. “Maybe she could use a little

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stress relief, too.” He winked but didn’t push. “Do you know she’s as nervous as you are?”

“She is?” Mitchell asked, surprised that he’d missed that. He’d

probably sensed it but dismissed it as an echo of his own stress. He longed for the day when all three of them had a full mate link. Maybe that’s why he was so nervous about tonight. This was the beginning of the rest of their lives, and he couldn’t afford to fuck it up.

Zack hugged him once more and moved toward the kitchen to