Five years later.
I was feeling like the proudest daddy in the world. Looking at my fully trained team, I couldn’t help but feel prideful and satisfied. Satisfied because I knew I did an amazing job with them. Our world was almost fully back to normal, magic wise, but we still found some comfort in visiting other worlds and learning about them. I wasn’t leaving anymore, but through my team I felt like I experienced it too. Now my latest team was heading out on their very first real adventure. If a tear escaped my eye, no one knew but me.
Nix came up and patted me on my shoulder. “We should get back home to our mates,” he said, smiling proudly at the teamas they left through the portal, this one reaching a whole new world.
“We should,” I agreed, turning away from the portal and meeting his gaze head on. “Dinner at our place?”
He grinned, “deal.” Nix and his mate had moved in next to me and Remi, and on our other side Nolen and Derek had built their own house, connecting us together. Our mates had all bonded over the situation with their father, finding comfort in each other. Remi and Nix’s mate had gotten off to an awkward start, possibly because he was Remi’s old professor! But now they were like family. We all were.
Waving goodbye to Nix outside his home, and heading the last few steps towards my own, I couldn’t help but breathe in this feeling of contentment. Having Remi was like finding my other half.
“Are you coming in or?” I heard the amusement in Remi’s tone as he opened our door and smirked at me. He had sold his newest idea to the biggest tech company in our world, and they had offered him a permanent position there. He finally got his dream job, spending his working hours coming up with ideas and working with his own team on how to make it a reality with magic and technology.
I was so damn proud of him.
“Coming.” I grinned, closing the space between us and grabbing him into my arms. I loved my job, but being with Remi trumped all that.
“I invited the others for dinner tonight,” he said, closing the door behind us. “I figured you wouldn’t mind.” Sometimes it scared me how alike we thought.
“I already talked to Nix about it,” I replied, kissing him softly.
“Good. I guess that means Nix was there too?” Nix had his own team he trained, but since one of them got hurt during training earlier today, he’d been at the hospital helping out.
“He was. The boy is fine, but Nix wanted to wait until his parents got there.” Some parents lived further away and since we started training them at the age of eighteen, many still lived with their parents. We knew once someone found their mate they wouldn’t want to leave this world, so it was strictly unmated people we chose. We still had teams visiting Remi’s old world. There was a new mate occasionally, and since their biological father had actually done some sperm donations too, we couldn’t be certain when the sperm would run out. Nix’s mate hadn’t been a donor child but an unexpected pregnancy, from the woman’s perspective at least. We knew by now that there had been no accidents and that everything had been carefully planned and calculated by the man now in prison. So there would likely be more of those cases in the future.
I followed Remi into our living room, where we sat down and snuggled up together on the couch. This was our daily routine, pretending to watch TV while we talked about our day, before we would prepare dinner. It was perhaps a boring routine for some, but we loved our life exactly as it was.
“I’m working from home next week,” Remi said, his head resting on my chest as we watched our favorite reality show. “I need some inspiration for the next ideas to work on, so I might take some walks or something.”
“I’m off for a month if you want me to join you?” Sometimes Remi preferred to walk alone to truly clear his mind, and I respected that. I could easily find something else to occupy my time with before my next team started.
“I would like that.”
I smiled, brushing my fingers through his hair the way he loved it. “My dad wants to visit too.” We saw him once a week, so he wasn’t feeling neglected or anything. He had been somewhat disappointed that we weren’t going to have kids. We talked about it but it just wasn’t for us. Remi had voiced what I feltperfectly. That he’d been missing something for most of his life and now that he had found it, he couldn’t stand not being selfish with his time. I’d only felt that way since I’d turned eighteen, so I understood.
“He can come tonight too,” he reminded me. Our friends loved my dad. Nolen’s parents lived in another country, but Nix’s came over occasionally whenever my dad was here.
“I’ll text them,” he said, holding out his slate and typing out a message for both my dad and Nix’s parents, reading my mind instantly. We truly were in sync.
Remi’s slate was one he’d designed himself. It was lighter and waterproof, plus he’d added a few features the other slates didn’t have. I would get my own soon, Remi had assured me of that. I was so proud of him. My mate was this brilliant man that could come up with ideas so easily. I found it extremely sexy whenever he would talk my ear off about how his ideas would work and explain the process. He still seemed surprised whenever I asked additional questions. Knowing he hadn’t had anyone to share his passion with before, I knew it would take time to erase the negativity, but I was determined to succeed eventually. I did, after all, have forever on my side.
We hadn’t seen Remi’s parents since I put them to sleep. Remi thought it would be punishment enough to leave them guessing and never knowing if his biological father was alive or not. They probably feared he would return and get mad at them for losing Remi, but we didn’t care.
Remi had stalked Jason on his socials, making sure he was doing okay. He’d decided to message him, stating he still lived in Klumven, but could communicate with him once in a while. He just hoped Jason would never want to visit. They chatted once a month and I found that I liked Remi having a friend he could talk to back in his old world.
“He found his mate!” Remi’s excitement stole all my attention, and I looked at the screen. “Portal Matchmaking” had its first season, filming actors to reenact how we’d found our mates in Remi’s world. Some wanted to share their stories and others didn’t. We’d decided not to do it, Nix, and Nolen too. But I had to admit it was fun to see how it had turned out for others, even if they were actors.
“She’s running away too!” I laughed, knowing in this mated pair’s case that he’d run after her. “Why didn’t you chase me down and demand I love you?” I laughed even harder at Remi’s pout.
“You weren’t ready for that,” I told him, not for the first time. We’d shared both our sides of things and how we’d both felt whenever we’d seen one another and even talking about Hayley was easy now. She’d been a big part of Remi’s journey of self-discovery, and even though she had made mistakes that had hurt his feelings, she was still just human with insecurities and emotions too.
“Oh, I completely forgot,” Remi said, no longer laughing with me but more serious as he got up from the couch. I made a whining sound, not liking he’d left me until he opened his pants. Then I was totally fine with being left behind now. “Look!” He proudly showed off the top of his underwear.
“Is that?” I asked, feeling myself grow hotter as he slowly slid down his pants a little more, revealing the lace panties we’d created together with a designer. It was a business we kept secret from our friends and family, since it wasourthing, and we would begin our online store soon.
“This is the first pair, finally finished and ready for testing,” Remi said proudly, still not showing me the whole thing. Ineededthe whole thing.Now.
“Let me see!” I complained, reaching for his pants, feeling desperate.
