I sat in the canteen, drinking. Bartholomew was curled against my side. The new humans were terrified. Most had retreated to their rooms, but a few had braved the canteen, huddlingtogether at a single table. Seth and Vince were in the corner near the long window on the back wall, talking and laughing. Kalvoxrencol was beside them and looked like he’d swallowed a knife.
Dontilvynsan watched the pair with narrowed eyes. He was probably following more than the flow of words, planning how much he would have to protect Pest. If Seth left him, our brother wouldn’t recover, but I didn’t need to read Seth’s mind to know that wouldn’t happen. Seth loved Kalvoxrencol. He wasn’t going to change his mind. Vince was pining for nothing.
Seth pulled out his screen and showed Vince his and Kalvoxrencol’s kid. I grinned. Seth was not going anywhere.
Neither was Bartholomew. He was coming home with me, or so he’d said. But he might change his mind.
No. He was staying. He’d promised. After Dontilvynsan chased Vince and Bartholomew away in the dock, he’d lectured me about trusting my mate. My quick claiming of my mate hadn’t gone unnoticed. My older brother was right. Bartholomew had decided to stay, and I needed to believe him, as I wanted him to trust me. We would puzzle through everything else, my work, racing—and everything it brought—later.
We would forge forward together.
“I’m ready to go to bed.” Bartholomew placed a lingering kiss on my arm.
My cock perked, and I swallowed. Stars above, it took nothing for my mate to stir my body. “Don’t you need to talk to Vince?”
“Later. He and Seth are busy, and to be honest, I don’t have any interest in watching Kal glare at them.”
Zoltilvoxfyn was currently trying to calm Kalvoxrencol while Caleb infiltrated the pair of humans with a sunny smile. It was going to be an interesting trip home with everyone and the high tensions.Though, I thought as I tickled Bartholomew with thetip of my tail,that means we can spend most of it alone. No interruptions.
“Bed sounds amazing. I’m exhausted,” I whispered.
“Hmm,” he said. The indecipherable noise I loved and hated. “So you’re too tired for me to ride you? Too bad.”
I swallowed a groan. “Mate, please.”
He ducked his head. “I love when you beg.”
“Then take me to bed, and I will beg prettily for you and you alone.”
“Fuck, Mindy.”
Laughing, I looked at his groin and noticed a bulge. “Are you having problems as well?”
“It’s your fault.”
I caught his chin and angled it toward me. “I love that I affect you so.” I rested his hand on my own stiffening cock, grateful the table hid us from view. “You do the same to me.”
“We can’t move.”
“No. I am not into public displays.”
“You don’t like holding hands, hugging, or kissing in public?”
“That I do not mind, Flower,” I said. “I don’t have a problem with physical affection in public, but sex, that’s between you and I alone.”
“I agree.”
“Good.” I pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. “I like playing with you in the halls, though.” I had chased him multiple times through the corridors, and I enjoyed racing after Bartholomew and Pookie. The thrill of catching my mate—growling, biting, throwing him over my shoulder—stirred my blood.
“I do too.”
“That is very good.”
“Does it bother other people?”
“Would you care if it did?”
“Perhaps,” he replied.
