Two

Micah

I put my shields back up as we reached the stone bungalow I'd called home for more than a decade. My dad was a fire mage, so having a house that wouldn't burn down was kind of a must, though he had much better control of his magic now than when he'd first bought this place. I'd always loved our house, because it'd felt strong and impenetrable to me. No one could get to me or those I loved as long as those stone walls were between us.

Of course, the fact that my dads were a fire mage and a vampire also helped me feel safe when I was younger, and Dad's familiar, an eagle owl named April, had watched over me for years when I first came to live with them, before doing the same for my younger brothers, Mateo and Miles.

Since there were two dragons, two mages—Cam's older sister Amelia was also a mage—and a vampire inside, the front door had been left unlocked, so I didn't need to dig for my keys as we stepped inside.

Papa's purple eyes snapped up the moment I stepped through, and a wide smile spread his lips, giving off a peek at his fangs as he shot to his feet, rushing over to us with his vamp speed. "Micah! Cam!"

Dad and Cam's dads shot to their feet as Papa threw his arms around me in a tight hug, and I hugged him back, relaxing in his familiar cool embrace. Fuck, I hadn't realized just how much I'd missed this, missed my family, until now. I clung to him like I used to when I was younger and had a nightmare, and I had to bite my lip to keep from making a sound when Dad's big, warm arms wrapped around us both, squeezing just a little too tight like always. The contrasting cold and hot feel of my dads was as familiar to me as my own skin, and I soaked it all in, allowing my heart and soul to settle back into place.

I could've stood there for hours just hugging my dads, but then Mateo piped up. "So, are we going to get to hug our big brother or what?"

Giving a warm, rumbling laugh, Dad pulled back, and Papa followed suit, giving me a sheepish grin.

Cam was wrapped up in three sets of arms, his dads and his sister holding onto him. The sight made me smile, and then I grinned as I pulled Mateo and Miles into a tight hug, ruffling their blond hair even though they were quite a few inches taller than me. No matter how tall or old they got, they'd always be my little brothers, and they'd do well to remember it.

"It's good to have you back, X," Mateo said, and I rolled my eyes at the old nickname. It served me right for introducing him to the world of comics.

"I missed you, my little night owls." I squished them both closer, much to their disgruntlement. They were twenty-three now, but I still remembered them as the tiny little barn owls who loved getting naked and shifting into their owl selves whenever they could get away with it.

"Ha ha, very creative. Now let us go so we can hug our brother-in-law."

"Yeah, we missed him a lot more than you, after all," Miles added with a sly grin, and I gasped, pressing my hand to my chest.

"How dare you!"

Laughing, they pulled back, taking a step away from me, and then Cam's dads and Amelia hugged me, while my family hugged Cam, because over the years, we'd all grown quite close to each other. Cam and his dad, William, were the only ones who shared a blood bond—and Miles and Mateo, of course—but all of our bonds were strong, because at the end of the day, we were all family.

I really had four dads and three siblings. Cam's family was mine, just like mine was his. Cam's dads had grounded me just as many times as mine, and they'd taken care of me just as much too.

Back in that basement cell in Ravenshire, the mage island where I'd been imprisoned as a kid because my telepathy was considered 'evil' for reasons I hadn't understood, I never could've imagined that this would be my life someday.

"How are you here? We thought you had no plans of visiting yet," Papa asked once everyone was done with the hugfest.

Before I could answer, Cam's stomach growled. Loudly.

He grinned sheepishly, while Dad grabbed his arm and led him to the couch. "Sit. I'll get you two something to eat."

Smiling softly, I watched him hurry into the kitchen, and I got the feeling he needed a moment alone. My dad was a big bad fire mage, and also a big freaking softie. He was probably a little overwhelmed by our sudden arrival. I glanced over at Papa, and we shared a look as he smiled at me before making his way to the kitchen to check on Dad.

Joining Cam on the couch, I took his hand in mine, answering Papa's earlier question since I knew they could still hear me.

"We're not visiting."

"We're home for good," Cam finished, and Raiden—Cam's dragon dad, whom he'd started calling DD for short as a kid and never stopped—sat forward on the other couch, his eyes going wide.

"You're staying?" he asked hopefully, and I nodded.

"Oh, that's great to hear, you two," William, Cam's Dad said, his green eyes so like Cam's lighting up. "We've missed you. The whole clan has."

"Except Caleb," Miles piped in with a smirk, making me chuckle. Out of the twins, Miles was the quiet one, but when he did speak, he was a sassy little shit.

Caleb, a wolf shifter, had been the frequent target of Cam's pranks as we were growing up, for no other reason than because Caleb could be a tad grumpy, and he always got riled up when Cam pranked him. Luckily for Cam, Caleb's mate was the sweetest elf in existence, and he never let Caleb retaliate.

"Aww, I've missed Caleb. I bet he doesn't look half as pretty without glitter in his fur," Cam joked, and I rolled my eyes. Knowing him, he wouldn't miss an opportunity to glitter bomb Caleb even now. I'd have to be careful when we visited the packland.

"Here you go," Dad said as he came back with a dish piled high with food, offering it to Cam. Papa always made more food than we could eat, and I took my plate eagerly when he held it out to me. I'd missed his cooking.

As we ate, our family caught us up on everything that had happened in our absence, which wasn't much in the grand scheme of things.

Even before we'd left, Mistvale had become mostly a supernatural town after Raiden had bought out most of the human-owned residences and businesses, renting them to supes who came to town, selling only once Raiden was sure the supe was a good person.

Not all supes in town became a part of our clan. Our clan was mostly made up of people who knew each other or were related by blood, and new members usually joined when they ended up mated to one of the members, or if they were close friends with someone who was mated to a member.

These days, the only humans in town were tourists, and a few residents who had refused to sell. Raiden had debated the merits of allowing humans to stay. He'd wondered if it might be best to cut Mistvale off from the rest of the world and turn it into a town that was for supes—and humans in their family—only. In the end, he'd decided against it because of Ravenshire.

Ravenshire, the island I was born on, had once been a haven for mages, but now it was nothing but a toxic place full of archaic ideas and people who shunned anyone the least bit different. Raiden hadn't wanted that to happen to Mistvale, and I agreed with him. I'd felt the effects of it firsthand, and I'd never want my home to turn into a place like that.

I was looking forward to meeting the new residents of Mistvale, and seeing the older ones again. It felt good to be back home.

After we'd finished our meal and caught the dads up on all the places we'd visited—and Cam had shown off the million pictures on his phone—Raiden and William returned home, while Cam stayed behind with me, my brothers, and Amelia. It'd been years since we'd had a sleepover, but despite the tiredness tugging at my bones, I wasn't ready to sleep yet. I wanted to catch up, to hear everything I'd missed.

We all gathered in my room, and Dad and Papa carried in some extra mattresses so everyone could sleep comfortably. Then, they kissed everyone on the forehead—including Cam and Amelia, like always—before bidding us good night and disappearing into their room.

"I still can't believe you two don't live here anymore," I said as I petted Saaya, my familiar. Saaya was a black cat with pretty green eyes who could travel through and hide in shadows, and she didn't like anyone except me. Not even Cam. He'd been trying to win her over for more than a decade now, and yet nothing. She spent most of her time hiding in my shadow, and only came out when she thought she could get me to pet her.

"Well, we are twenty-three," Mateo said, his brown eyes sparkling as he grinned. "Not that we're judging you." His tone was teasing, but I knew they truly weren't.

Like me, I was sure our dads had sat them down when they reached eighteen and told them in no uncertain terms that this would always be their home, and they'd always be welcome here.

Dad and Papa had told us that since we were supes and would live a long, long life, we had no business sticking to the human rules if we didn't want to. We didn't have to move out at eighteen or figure our whole lives out. We could take as much time as we needed. We were lucky to have such great parents.

I knew Raiden and William had told Amelia and Cam something similar—which made me think they'd discussed it with each other beforehand—and that they'd both taken their dads up on the offer.

"We had a few...awkward encounters with the dads," Miles explained, the tops of his cheeks turning pink as he ran his fingers through his messy blond hair, and I groaned.

"I'm sorry," I commiserated, all too familiar with the bone-deep embarrassment that came with catching your parents in an intimate act. At least they didn't have to accidentally hear their gushy, vomit-inducing thoughts.

Cam cackled, then shot me a wide grin. "You know what I do? Whenever I stumble upon them in a compromised position, I just stop and wait as they scramble to make themselves presentable. Then, I look them in the eyes and remind them that I did that, that they are together because of my meddling. Then I hightail it out of there."

Cam snickered as I shook my head, wondering if he ever planned to grow up. Not that I wanted him to. I knew I could get too serious sometimes, and he knew exactly how to keep me from getting too in my head. Cam made me laugh unlike anyone in the world, and I didn't think I'd be the person I was today if he hadn't befriended me when I first came to Mistvale.

Sometimes, I wondered what my life could've been like if I'd never met Cam, and I couldn't imagine it. I didn't think I would have much of a life without him.

Before I met Cam, I'd been terrified of my powers. I'd hated that I could read people's thoughts, because it made everyone wary of me, but I'd also been scared of trusting people, so I'd used my powers to peek behind the words they spoke so I could judge if they were good people or not.

Dad and Papa loved me, and their thoughts had only cemented that fact in my mind, but there were still thoughts I wished I couldn't read, like the thoughts they had about each other. Especially Papa. That man could write soliloquies about the taste of Dad's blood.

I used to dream of the day I'd be all grown up, and I had this plan to buy a tiny cabin in the middle of nowhere, like the one Tate—a werewolf in our clan—used to live in before he came to Mistvale. I'd dreamed of cutting myself off from everyone so I'd have some blissful silence in my mind for once in my life.

But then, I met Cam. Bright, bubbly Cam who was always rushing around, and whose mind worked faster than his body. He'd taken one look at me and declared we'd be friends without caring what I thought about the whole thing.

Cam's thoughts were always, always loud. They were also all over the place, like someone had left open multiple tabs on a computer and they were all running simultaneously.

But the best part? Cam's thoughts were so loud they drowned out all the others, and when he told me that I was free to 'tune into his thoughts' like it was a radio channel, he'd offered me a lifeline, and I'd grabbed it with both hands.

I still had permission from Cam to listen to his thoughts whenever I needed to, whenever it got too hard to hold up my mental shield, or if I just needed some comfort. Cam never hesitated to say what he was thinking, so there were no unwanted surprises in his thoughts either.

Cam understood me like no one else, and as much as I loved it, it also worried me. What if our other mates didn't understand? What if my power got on their nerves? What if they hated it? Hated me ?

"Micah? Micah!" Mateo smacked my knee, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Sorry, what did you say?" I asked as Cam squeezed my other knee, pulling my gaze to him.

You okay? he asked through the link, and I nodded quickly, not wanting him to know about my doubts. I was so glad he wasn't the one with the telepathic powers.

Leaning closer, he pressed a kiss to my cheek before resting his head on my shoulder, and I sighed softly as I pulled him closer.

I needed to get over my doubts and trust in Fate the way Cam seemed to. It was the only thing I could do.