No Escape From Destiny (27 page)

Anstice didn’t rouse at all while the two males dried her off and placed her in the center of the king-sized bed. They then finished drying each other off and crawled into bed on each side of her.
Adrian
lifted Anstice’s head and placed his arm under it. She immediately turned onto her side and curled herself around him.
Nikkos
was soon to follow, wrapping himself around Anstice’s body from behind and laying his head on
Adrian
’s arm, too.

With his arms around Anstice, he moved his hand up
Adrian
’s chest until he got to his mating mark on his neck. He slowly drew circles around the now-permanent mark.
Adrian
opened his eyes and looked down at him with a look
Nikkos
couldn’t read. It was look between sadness and anger.
Nikkos
swallowed the lump in his throat. “What’s wrong,
Adrian
? Are you mad because I marked you as mine?”

A tear slipped from the corner of
Adrian
’s eye.
Nikkos
hesitated only a second before he reached up and wiped it away. He closed his eyes and sighed. “I’m sorry. I thought that you wanted me to. I know I wanted you to mark me. It’s all I have been thinking about for a while now. I know you’re my mate, and I want everyone to know. I’m sorry. I thought you felt the same way. I’m
sor
…”

Adrian cut him off with his hand over his mouth. “Look at me.”

Nikkos
shook his head.

“Look. At. Me.”

Nikkos
slowly opened his eyes but couldn’t look
Adrian
in the eyes. He had screwed up again. He had marked
Adrian
, and he didn’t want to be marked by him. He didn’t understand. He knew they were mates and would be proud to let everyone see the mark
Adrian
left on him. Why didn’t
Adrian
want to be marked?

Adrian removed his hand from
Nikkos’s
mouth and placed a finger under his chin to lift it toward him.
Nikkos
finally met his gaze.
Adrian
whispered into his head, “
I’m not mad that you marked me. I am proud to wear your mark for everyone to see and know who I belong to
.”

“Then why do you look sad and angry?”
Nikkos
asked.

Adrian closed his eyed for a brief second. When he opened them, he looked like he couldn’t say the words out loud, so instead he thought them to
Nikkos
. “
I am sad because we should have claimed each other a long time ago. I have known for a long time that I’m in love with you. I knew that there would be no other for me. Somewhere deep down, even though we didn’t have the bond, I knew you were my mate. I’m sad because it took us so long to get to the point of claiming one another. And I’m angry because I should have fought harder for you when I realized it. I should have told you all my feelings a long time ago and made you admit that we belong together. We have wasted years that we could have been together on denying our feelings for each other
.”

Nikkos
let out the breath he was holding while he thought his mate was mad at him. Then he carefully said, “I’m sorry, baby. You are right. I have denied my feelings for so long. We should have been together for years now instead of just the last few weeks. I was scared, and it was all my fault, not yours. But…” he hesitated, and then spoke into
Adrian
’s mind, “
Please don’t take this the wrong way, and please know that I do truly love you and want to be with you no matter what.
”

Adrian finished his thought for him. “I know what you’re going to say, and I agree. If we had been together before now, we never would have found her, would we have?”

Nikkos
nodded, and then shook his head. “That was exactly what I was thinking, but I didn’t want you to think the only reason that I’m with you is because she is here. It’s not. The pull I have had toward you keeps getting stronger and stronger, and I’m not sure I would have been able to deny myself loving you much longer. But yeah, I don’t think we would have found her if we were already together. I know that I am your mate and you are mine, but somehow I think something would have always been missing if we hadn’t found her. I know that we would have been happy together, but I don’t know if we would have been—”

Adrian
cut in. “Complete?”

Nikkos
smiled. “Yeah, complete. As corny as it sounds, she completes us.”

Adrian pulled them both close and held them to his chest. “I love you both,” he whispered.

* * * *

Adrian held them for a long time, wondering what would be next for them. What would happen when they found Kassie? Would Kassie remember Anstice and want to be with them? He prayed that everything would work out with them, but there were just too many questions that needed to be answered.
BellagioBellagio

Chapter Twenty-Six

Anstice woke snuggled between her two males. She didn’t want to wake them, but she could smell fresh coffee somewhere and needed her caffeine fix for the day. Ever so gently, she wiggled out from between them. She stood at the foot of the bed, watching as they nestled together in her absence.

She had heard part of their conversation last night, and somewhere in the part of her brain that didn’t think she was good enough for them, she had thought they wouldn’t need her now that they realized they had each other. Her fears had been put to rest when she heard them agree that she completed them.
Nikkos
was right. It did sound corny, but it put her mind to ease that they still wanted her.

She slipped into one of
Adrian
’s T-shirts and left the room, quietly shutting the door. She wanted to surprise them with breakfast, so she headed to the kitchen. Someone had apparently beat her to it. The dining room table held not only all the fruit and chocolates from last night, but now it was also full of covered dishes and any kind of pastry a person could want. In the kitchen she found the coffee she had been looking for and poured herself a cup. She took her caffeine back to the dining room and chose an apple Danish to go with it.

Looking out the wall of windows, she noticed Damian sitting next to the pool, coffee and a scone in hand. Deciding her males needed some rest, she joined him. She chose a chair close enough they could talk but not so close her overprotective males would throw a temper tantrum.

Anstice watched Damian stifle a laugh when he looked at how far away she sat from him. She knew he was going tease her. “I won’t bite, princess. I promise to be a perfect gentleman.”

She gave him an evil look before giggling like a little girl. She hesitated for a minute before moving to the chair next to him. “Better?”

Damian paled and looked toward the windows. “I was only joking. You know
Nikkos
and Adrian are probably going to attack me when they see you sitting next to me. We males can be very protective of our mates. We don’t always think before we react to someone so close.”

She looked at him, and then toward the villa before speaking. “I know they are protective, but you are
Nikkos’s
brother and are going to be living with us, so they are going to have to get used to you and me spending time together. Especially if you love my daughter as much as you seem to.”

He sputtered quickly, “It’s not like that. Please believe me. I love her as a brother would love a sister. I would never think of doing anything wrong with your little girl.”

She cut him off. “I know that, Damian. I didn’t mean to imply anything different. I know the only reason you exchanged blood with her is because you love her and needed to keep her safe. I cannot thank you enough for what you have done. I never would have known she was alive if it wasn’t for you. I will have my little girl back in my arms soon because you love her so much. What I meant was that I’m sure you will want to spend time with her and want to take care of her, too, just as much as I will. That means we will be spending time together.”

She sat on the edge of her chair and leaned in to hug him. Tears filled her eyes, and she couldn’t stop the sob that came from her. Damian wrapped one arm around her shoulders and softly stroked her hair with the other. Closing his eyes, he whispered, “Shhhh. Please don’t cry. Everything will be fine. We will go get her, and you will have your daughter in your arms before nightfall.”

* * * *

She sobbed harder and said something, but her words were muffled in his chest. Damian could do nothing but hold her and let her get it out. He knew his brother and Adrian would probably kill him if he was caught holding their mate, but he couldn’t push her away. Not when she was in this much pain.

Just as the thought crossed his mind that her mates would feel her pain and come to her rescue, she was ripped from his arms with a scream and someone very large had him pinned to the lounge chair he was in. He could feel and smell the anger coming off the other male and knew it was
Nikkos
before he even opened his eyes.
Nikkos
had him pinned by his shoulder and throat, and when Damian dared to look, he saw his fangs fully extended.

He could hear Anstice struggling with
Adrian
, and he was suddenly afraid for her. He knew no male would ever hurt his mate on purpose, but both of her mates were a lot bigger than her and furious. He tried to struggle, but it was a lost cause.
Nikkos
had him pinned, and he was going nowhere without being let go.

All of the sudden he heard Anstice yell, “
Stop!
” and
Adrian
grunt. Instantly, she was standing next to them with her hand on
Nikkos’s
shoulder. He tried to shrug her away, but this little girl was strong and knew how to handle her mates. She soothed her hand down
Nikkos’s
arm and carefully peeled his fingers from around Damian’s throat, the whole time whispering in his ear. He gasped for air but didn’t dare move a muscle.

* * * *

Nikkos
could feel Anstice’s anger. She was royally pissed off, and he had an idea he was going to hear about it. She softly whispered in his ear to calm him down as she pulled him away from Damian. “
Nikkos
, baby, please listen to me. It wasn’t what you think. I was upset, and I hugged him. He was comforting me. You know I would never touch another man besides you and Adrian. Damian is your brother, and he wouldn’t do anything to me. Please, let him go.”

The only response he made was a grunting noise, but he pushed away from Damian and walked to the other side of the pool. When he saw
Adrian
sitting with one hand rubbing his right eye and the other holding his ribs, he rushed and knelt in front of him. He took
Adrian
’s hand away from his face to see a black eye starting. This infuriated him even more. He couldn’t figure out how Damian had hit him. He started to stand to go back and hit his brother when
Adrian
stopped him. “It wasn’t Damian. It was Anstice. I wasn’t close enough to him for him to hit me, remember.”

Nikkos’s
jaw dropped open. “She hit you? Why the hell would she hit you? We were only trying to protect her.”

Adrian grinned with what could only be described as pride. “Our little mate has quite a temper when we protect her when she doesn’t need it. I wouldn’t mess with her if I were you. Her elbows are pretty hard. I’m gonna have a black eye and sore ribs for a while.”

Nikkos
couldn’t believe she would hit
Adrian
. He turned around to look at her and saw red again. She was kneeling by Damian, holding his hands and whispering to him. He was ready to go attack the male again, but she glanced his way with a look so cold he was frozen to the ground.
Nikkos
kept watching, though, just in case she needed him.

As he watched, he had to give Damian credit. He was trying to take his hands out of hers without being forceful enough to hurt her, and was telling her he was fine and she needed to go talk to her mates, not to him.