Ezra and I both watch her when she suddenly stabs it into her hand. Ezra rips it from her before both of us hiss in pain, and when I look at my hand, I see an identical wound to hers, though hers heals quickly while ours slowly heals. Ezra places the nail file down away from her, eyeing her worriedly.
“I’m tied to you, that’s how Josiah was able to heal,” she explains before sliding off my lap and rushing out of the room before either of us could grab her.
I focus on my hand, while Ezra stares at his own before wiping it on the towel he still has around his waist. Our hands were healed.
“So she can heal now, like the Gemini,” I whisper to myself.
Just as I was about to ask where she went, she returns with the journal. She flicks through the pages before stopping on the page about the Gemini Healer. “It doesn’t say whether you are tied to me, or I am just tied to both of you,” she stresses.
Ezra sighs before grabbing the nail file and stabbing his hand with it. Kat hisses and looks at her hand, but there was no mark like we had when she did it to herself.
“I can feel your pain, but your injuries don’t affect me,” she thinks out loud before nodding. To her, it made sense, while to me, it made none, all this curse stuff gave me a headache.
Ezra wipes his hand on the towel again to reveal it is healed once more, and Maddox presses forward.
“I don’t know what it means,” Kat huffs in frustration.
Kat is frantic inside. Her thoughts are tumultuous. Through the newly formed bond, I can tell she is terrified of something, panicked every time she glances at me. She shakes her head and comes back to me, climbing into my lap.
She is alright, that’s all I care about. Anything else we will deal with later, but for now, she seems fine. Ezra moves closer to me, their mixed scent invading my senses. Hers is stronger, seeing as I marked her already. My eyes instinctively go to his neck as the longing to mark him takes me over.
Ares also wants to mark him as he presses beneath my skin, peering out at our mates, Kat runs her fingers through my chest hair, and I grab her hand, kissing her fingertips. I don’t feel adequate compared to them and am undeserving, yet I can’t live without them. I need them.
“I love you,” Kat whispers, looking up at me. I lean down, kissing her soft full lips, they part as she kisses me back, her tongue brushing mine softly before she pulls back.
“I love you too,” I admit, wondering what she was so fearful of. Ezra watches us, or more specifically Kat, like he expects her to evaporate into thin air. He wants to touch her, his hand trails up her bare thigh before he leans down, pressing his lips to hers. He sucks her bottom lip into his mouth, and she moans, wriggling on my lap and her excitement sparks through the bond. My cock throbs at the sight of them. Ares whines in my head, he wants both of his mates. It makes me wonder if Ezra would ever allow me to mark him.
Ezra pulls back before startling me when captures my lips with his own, not gentle like he is with Kat, but demanding and dominating as he leans over the both of us. He grabs the short hairs at the back of my neck and forces me in place as he thoroughly kisses me, his tongue invading and controlling mine before he pulls far enough away to bite down on my bottom lip just until blood wells and he lets go with a hungry smirk.
I stare at him. It is still hard to believe this is really happening, that Ezra of all people had just kissed me, and a possessive kiss like that, like he wants to show me just who I belong to. Is it the bond he’s reacting this strongly to, or did he want to kiss me? It is hard to tell. Ezra has always been good at hiding his emotions, he had to, he was Alpha, if he hadn’t learned early on how to do it, the rest of the world would have torn him to shreds.
Glancing down, I notice Kat watching us with a small smile on her lips, and I forgot she could tell everything I felt, making my face burn.
“Mateo wants to mark you,” Kat remarks, and I stare. She raises her eyebrow at me like she is daring me to deny it.
She is right. I do want to mark him, I have since I was 18, but I have loved him even longer than that. I would have taken him as my chosen mate at 14, I have always loved the man, but now with Kat, things are different. I love her just as much, but I know if push came to shove and I had to choose. She would be my choice. I know that is what Ezra and I both would want. She is ours to protect, ours to love, just like we are hers.
“You only have to ask, Mateo,” Ezra growls. “And, since when do you get tongue-tied? Usually, I can’t get you to shut up,” Ezra adds, and I realize I am just staring at him yet haven’t agreed or denied what she said. I swallow, suddenly overwhelmed at the thought.
Ezra
I stare at him, waiting for an answer. He is the most over-opinionated person I know. Who always has to throw in his two cents worth or some unnecessary comment, and now he is speechless? He’s staring at me like I grew two heads and tentacles.
“Just mark him already,” Maddox orders, becoming annoyed that he wasn’t answering.
A growl escapes me, which seems to snap him out of wherever the hell he just went. This is hard enough for me because he is a man, I am not sure if I want to kiss him again or kill him for the weird things he is stirring up within me.
“Is he alright? Has he suddenly changed his mind? Did he just get us to switch sides for no reason?” Maddox snarls, becoming anxious at the thought. “I don’t want to be gay if he doesn’t want us. This was not part of the plan, Ezra. He can’t back out!”
“We haven’t switched sides. There just aren’t any when it comes to him,” I correct Maddox.
“Mark him. He looks stunned,” Maddox snaps.
Kat stares at me, alarmed, and I realize she can feel Maddox thinking Mateo is rejecting him.
“I did not cross any boundaries for him to chicken out now, Mark him Ezra, or I will,” Maddox threatens.
Kat moves off his lap, sitting beside him, giving me plenty of room for what I need to do. “Mateo, I’m going to mark you now.” I don’t give him a choice because he can’t even form a sentence. Yet it feels wrong somehow, I don’t want to mark him and have him regret it, despite Maddox pressing beneath my skin urging me forward.
I sigh, and pull away to glance at Kat, hoping for some answers. She can feel him better than I could.