Maverick Danker [Beyond the Marius Brothers 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour ManLove) (14 page)

A few people calmed down then and stopped letting the mob mentality fear turn them into idiots. Mav answered questions for about fifteen more minutes and then it was over. When we were alone, I waited for my mate’s wrath for stepping in. Instead, I got something else.

“I love you,” Mav growled as he pulled me into his arms. I let out a surprised yelp because that was the last reaction I’d been ready for. “You are so smart, and sexy, and sweet, and I’ve never had someone jump in and defend me like that before. You totally brought the group back to reality all to protect me.”

“I didn’t like the way some of them were talking to you. It was either smack them verbally or my wolf was going to start biting people in the ass.”

Mav’s smile fell. “You heard what I said, right? That first part.”

“Yeah,” I whispered, staring at his nose instead of his eyes. I couldn’t deal with what I might see there. “Saying thank you sounds lame, but I’m not sure what else to say. Can I ask that you give me a minute to process that? I’ve never had anyone say they loved me before, and I honestly don’t know how I feel about it.”

“Do you know how you feel about me?”

“Yes,” I answered instantly, taking the chance and meeting his gaze. “You’re my everything. You and Asterio are the two most important people in the world to me and my heart is yours.”

“Then I can give you all the time you need,” he said in a husky voice. I knew what that meant and my hole quivered in anticipation. Next thing I knew, I was plastered between the two of them naked as they took turns fucking me. It was fantastic.

They cleaned me up as I practically purred in Asterio’s arms and then they re-dressed me. He carried me as if I was the most precious thing in the world to the media room.

“Hey, cat,” I said brightly when I saw Rory was here.

“Hey, dog,” he shot back and stuck out his tongue. We’d been teasing each other like this since we’d met, and I really liked the little guy. “You smell like sex.”

“Shame for you that you don’t.” I stretched as I waggled my eyebrows at him.

“I just shower after my fun.” Rory giggled. “My mate takes good care of me especially during the full moon.”

“Oh god, the full moon,” I gasped as Asterio lowered me to my feet. “Ah, I kinda forgot to tell you guys something about how the full moon affects shifters.”

“You get hornier than normal?” Mav asked in a teasing voice. Wow, he didn’t know how right he was.

“You know how you get on my blood?” I waited until he nodded. “That’s how I’ll be for three days.”

“Awesome!” Asterio exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air. “When is the full moon?”

“In a few days.” I laughed, glad they were taking the news so easily.

“Which is why when Barnabas told me you guys wanted to do a dance, I thought I should come right over and start the planning before I was too distracted.” Rory batted his eyelashes as if he was the most innocent person in the world. Yeah, right.

“Let’s start with the music. I think Barnabas has an iDock somewhere and we can play with ideas,” I suggested. Mav, Rory, and I told Asterio we’d be right back and went to go get our stuff and some planning tools. He nodded and said he was going to play with the TV a bit and learn how to use it.

I smiled and gave him a kiss before we left. Barnabas ended up joining us along with the Queen, getting a portable iDock and his mates’ iPods for songs as well. It took us less than ten minutes until we were back at the media room… And walked in on Asterio dancing.

Oh, it wasn’t just dancing though. He was moving his hips to the M&M’s commercial that had LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” in the background. My seven-and-a-half-foot-tall mate was taking dance lessons from a cartoon candy.

“I don’t know whether to laugh or start groping him,” Mav said as we walked into the media room.

“I like this song,” Asterio announced with a smile. “But I don’t understand how you guys know which candy to eat?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, not catching on even remotely as to what he was talking about.

“Well, if some of the M&M’s dance. How do you know which ones to eat so you don’t get a live one?”

“We never explained cartoons to him, did we?” Mav was biting his lip so hard to keep in his laughter that I was surprised his lip wasn’t bleeding.

“No, maybe now would be a good time before he starts trying to set free all the chocolate in the house,” I joked. Asterio looked at us like we were nuts, and the next thing I knew, we were all laughing so hard I swear I thought I might pee my pants.

When we calmed down, Rory was actually the one who explained about animated drawings that could be seen on the TV and given voices. And like some of the movies he would see were just make-believe. Asterio nodded along, listening intently until Rory was done.

“Okay, good. Because I liked that chocolate Tyler gave me, and I would have felt bad if I’d eaten someone in the process of enjoying it.” I gave Asterio a hot kiss in response. My mate was sweeter than any chocolate and had a heart of gold. I was a lucky wolf because I actually had two of them.

Asterio

I loved how my mates were so patient explaining everything to me. Sure, they laughed sometimes, but now I understood that it wasn’t at me, or that they thought I was stupid. It was more the amusement at how I saw the world. If nothing else, I knew that would keep our relationship interesting.

“I found the answer,” Queen Magdalena said with a smile as we all sat down.

“The answer to…?” I asked, trailing off as I eyed her over. She sure looked like the cat that ate the canary.

“To why your blood affected Mav the way it did.” I watched as she brought out a very old, very large book that I vaguely remember having been in her library back on our plane. “I remembered something about vampires in the writings about why our plane was created originally. It seems in ancient times, all paranormal creatures used to persecute the fae for having strong magic.

“The vampires in particular used to think they could absorb our power if they drank our blood. They were wrong, but it seemed, according to the writings of our ancestors, that being wrong didn’t stop them from trying. So, while our ancestors figured out a way to build our plane from our magic, they cast two spells to protect us from the vampires.

“One was the creation of our warriors. They blessed all the pregnant fae to have babies that would grow to almost twice the normal size of a fae. They were to be stronger, faster, and able to protect their race. The second was to bespell our blood so if a vampire drank it they would not only no longer wish to hurt us but become overwhelmed with the desire to please us to the point of insanity.”

“That seems like an accurate description of how you were acting,” Tyler drawled as he shot Mav a smirk.

“Is there a way to reverse it?” I asked nervously, afraid of the answer. “I need to be able to provide what my mate needs.”

“Hey, none of that,” Mav said gently as he took my hand and raised it to his lips. “You and Tyler give me everything I need.”

“Tyler enjoys it so much when you bite him and I know you like doing it that I feel like something is missing between us since you can’t bite me.” It was hard to admit, but he had to know the truth.

“Fear not,” the Queen sang. “Our ancestors foresaw that the fae might have vampire mates and put a reversal spell in here. Mav needs to bite you, but not drink until I say the incantation, and then your blood will no longer affect him that way.”

“Okay, let’s do this,” I said excitedly, yanking my mate onto my lap. Mav laughed and gave me a quick kiss.

“Thank you for wanting to try this,” he whispered in my ear. “I’d love to bite you.” I shivered at his tone as I felt his fangs against my neck. The Queen gave the signal and he sank them in my flesh. Then she muttered something under her breath and I felt power surround us.

“You may drink. It’s done,” she informed us. I moaned as Mav drank from me, enjoying it just as much as I did the first time. Hell, I was fighting the need to blow in my pants. He must have understood my predicament because he only took a little. Then he licked the bite closed and lifted his head.

“You taste like a normal human now,” he said with a smile. “Sweeter, but not like anything else is in your blood.”

“Oh thank the gods,” I whispered in relief.

“So you don’t feel the need to shove me off the couch if I touch Asterio?” Tyler joked, giving our mate a wink.

“No, but I might spank you,” Mav growled playfully.

“Promises, promises.” Tyler laughed, shaking his head.

“Seems we got here for the interesting part,” a woman drawled from the doorway. Rory instantly was on his feet, racing to her. She laughed as he hugged her. “It’s nice to see you, too, Rory.”

“How have you been, Elena? I haven’t seen you in forever,” Rory asked with a bright smile. Oh, so this must be Elena Marius and her mate Desmond, who I saw standing behind her.

“Forever as in a few days ago.” She giggled. Introductions were made and then they sat down and joined us. “Congratulations on your mating. Desmond and I were thrilled to hear of it.”

“Thank you.” Mav gave an appreciative nod. I knew he’d met Desmond before, but I was pretty sure this was the first time he met Elena so I didn’t feel like I was odd man out. Well, more than usual since I’d come over to this world.

“Tyler, I know we’ve been discussing that property and working on plans to turn it into a small community of homes,” Desmond said with a sly grin. “But it was planned as a future project. Well, Elena and I just came from the county office and officially had the land broken down and rezoned.” He handed an envelope to our mate. “This is for you and your mates as a mating gift.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Tyler whispered as he opened it up. His eyes went wide as he read the paper. “You gave us five of the acres? This is too much.”

“Nonsense,” Elena said firmly. “A wolf needs land of his own to run when he needs to, and our developer should have the best plot of land of the group. You’ve been teaching the other wolves how to work construction, so we’ve set aside two acres for each of your team as their payment. The rest we’ve split up into fifty-six plots of two acres as well. If people want to build two houses on each or whatever, they can.”

“This is amazing. Thank you.” Tyler looked close to tears. Mav moved to the seat next to me and we pulled our mate onto our laps, hugging him tightly. “We have a home. We have the land and I can build us a home.” I felt him shake as the news finally pushed our mate over the edge of the emotional roller coaster he’d been on today.

Elena glanced at Mav, her eyes full of concern. “I thought this would make you happy, Tyler.”

“It does,” he sniffled as he nuzzled my neck, rubbing his scent on me. When he didn’t elaborate, I did.

“It’s been a crazy few days, and Tyler’s old Alpha came after him today.” I tried to think of a way to explain everything to people I didn’t know and came up short, so I went with simple. “There’s just been more going on than we’ve been able to process yet. I think your generosity has been part of the roller coaster, but one of the turns.” I looked at Mav for confirmation I was getting that right.

“Close enough,” he said with a wink. “Why don’t you stay and help Rory plan the dance with Barnabas and her highness. We’re going to give Tyler some room to breathe for a bit and be back.”

“I’m fine, really,” Tyler said, his voice cracking slightly. “I’m just—”

“We know, cub,” Mav whispered as I stood and lifted our mate into my arms. “Everyone needs a time-out to let stuff settle for a bit. I could use one, too.”

“Yeah?” Tyler looked at Mav as if he wasn’t buying, but I agreed actually.

“Yeah, we got our time-out earlier while you were taking care of us,” I explained gently as we left the other. I followed Mav, having a clue what he was plotting. “We were scared after you got hurt and you comforted us. But I think you were so busy helping us, you didn’t have time to deal with everything.”

“Maybe,” he sighed, snuggling in my arms. “So what do I do? Just take a nap?”

“No, we’ve got another way to let go in mind,” Mav said cryptically, and I knew for sure where we were going. Tyler didn’t say anything as we went downstairs to the lower level of the estate. He just looked around curiously until Mav led us to a room with shackles hanging from the ceiling. Then he shivered.

“You don’t have to do this,” Tyler whispered as I set him on his feet. “I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to just because you saw it in my head.”

“Undress, cub,” Mav said firmly as he eyed our mate over. “You’re going to let go as we fulfill your fantasy. You’re not forcing us to do anything. We want to do this.”

“Oh yeah,” I moaned as Tyler got undressed. “We’re going to take good care of you so you are not to worry about us or anything else. All you’re going to do is let go and enjoy.”

“Yes, Asterio.” He stood before us naked, shivering with desire. That was better than earlier when he was shaking from the overwhelming emotions he’d been dealing with today.

“Do you have a safe word, slut?” Mav asked as he grabbed Tyler’s wrists and dragged him over to the chains.

“No, you won’t hurt me or do anything bad,” Tyler answered immediately. “You love me.”