Van’s face goes pale as his cool, fluid energy wraps itself fully around me. He’s inches away from me. I could slide my hand forward in my lap and touch him, but something makes me hold back. Something in his eyes. Van wasn’t expecting this.
He blinks as if he’s confused. “I had no idea. I… She never said…” His breath catches.
I place my hand over the medallion and breathe deeply, feeling the sensation of the four of them settle just a tiny bit. I feel so close with all of them, like we’re one person… almost. But that isn’t exactly right.
Awesome. I don’t know how I know it, but that word comes from Angus. I can’t hear him say the actual word, but I can tell that’s what he’s thinking as clearly as if he had.
Marco is smiling at me and when I focus on him, all I get is an overwhelming sense of devotion from him. I get the sense that he’s thinking about the three of us in bed and the thought makes him really, really happy.
“What is this?” I ask, turning to Van, wanting to feel his cool watery cocoon again. But when I focus my attention on him, it’s like a dark wall has been put up, blocking me out.
He shakes his head. “I wasn’t expecting…” Van says. “Salma said…”
“What?” I ask. “What’s wrong?”
Van won’t look at me. “Salma said this was meant for you. That we would know when it was time. I didn’t expect… I can’t do this.” He turns away, his face flushed as he walks out of the living room and leaves me there, staring after him, wondering what the hell is going on. I hear him head down the hall and grab his coat from the hook, then head outside into the snow. A patch of cold air rolls through the room from the hall.
“What just happened?” I ask. I feel like something died.
Angus takes my hand and smiles. “Give him some time.”
“Time for what?” I ask.
“I don’t know. Just time.”
Chapter Four
JOELY
Angus and Marco and I sit up in Marco’s bed, talking about Tobias until well past midnight. It’s weird hearing them describe Van’s twin, as if I wouldn’t recognize him if I saw him in person. It’s strange to think of another Van. An identical twin. But it’s also oddly comforting to be able to picture his brother so clearly.
I know Tobias a little bit, but only as a wolf. He’s been appearing in my visions since my magic sparked. He’s huge and white, like Van’s wolf, but where Van’s cool and watery, Tobias feels sharp and edgy, almost rough.
I turn Angus’s forearm and trace my fingers over the tattoo he has in Tobias’s memory. It’s almost the exact scene I saw when Tobias first appeared to me and told me that their blood calls to me.
“I feel like I’ve overstepped somehow,” I say, weaving my fingers through Angus’s. “Like Van doesn’t want me here and now I’m in his head.”
We try to pretend that Van hasn’t come home, and but I know that they feel the weight of him. I know it because I feel it too. I felt all of them before they gave me the medallion, but now it’s like I am part of them. Like I’m no longer just receiving the signals, they are all around me all the time.
Marco lifts another slice of pizza from the array of scattered dishes at the foot of his bed. “I don’t think that’s it. I think he’s struggling with all of it.”
“All of what?” I ask.
“All of you.” Marco smiles and offers me a bite of pizza. He leans forward and eyes Angus on the other side of me and the two of them smile.
“You feel like sunshine and soft puffy clouds. You know that?” Angus says.
“That’s exactly it. Right on,” Marco says. “Like I’m lying in the sunshine.” He grins as if he’s been struggling to quantify the sensation and just found the words to describe it.
I laugh and realize they are describing my energy, my essence. “Really?” It’s oddly reassuring to know that they experience me in that way, just like I do them.
Angus closes his eyes and runs a finger down my arm. “It feels exactly like the sun on my skin, only there’s power behind it. That’s the puffy part. You’re not just warm, you’re strong and firm.”
Marco nods. “Firm. Right.”
“So, you’re saying I make you feel firm?” I bite my lip and look sideways at the two of them, placing one hand on each of their thighs in a very suggestive way.
Marco snaps his fingers, and the room lights switch off, leaving the three of us illuminated by a string of colorful twinkle lights Marco draped over the headboard as a holiday decoration.
“Clothes off. Both of you. Now,” I whisper.
“Yes ma’am,” he says.
I shimmy down onto the pillow as Angus helps me out of my leggings. He makes a point of leaving my panties in place because he knows how much Marco enjoys taking them off me. I can't help but smile. It’s something he just started doing the other day, but I know it’s because of Marco. As strange as it is being with two men at the same time, it's interesting to watch how they care about each other's experiences with me together. They don’t talk so much as they just seem to know what the other wants to do. And they both read my cues like masters.
Marco pulls off his sweatshirt and steps out of his jeans and boxers. The muscles in his arms and his ass bunch and flex as he leans back onto the bed to give me a quick kiss. I run my hands over his torso, tracing the lines of his many tattoos which run from his waist to his shoulders and then down his left arm in a sleeve to his cuff. He draws my mouth to his and plunges deeply with
