32. Tyson

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

TYSON

T he sunset streamed through the window, bathing my room in oranges and golds. My colors. Lux sat on a chair next to the blindfolded Og with his tail wrapped around Jay’s ankle. His dick twitched but was spent.

I still had to be the better dragon.

“I’m done, Tyson,” Jay said. “I do not have another orgasm in me.”

I looked into my mate's green eyes. She glowed with lust and joy. Trust spiked her aura along with a hint of excitement. It was far from the most rigid erection I’d had all night. I wasn’t that far away from Lux, but my dick hardened.

I nipped her ear. “I think you have one more.”

Over the last few hours, I’d had her every way the sex swing allowed us. I’d touched every part of her, picked apart her moans and noises, and even helped the less experienced air prince so we could elicit new sounds.

But now, it was just us…sort of.

I slid my dick into my mate slowly, as if moving too fast would break her. Jay trembled and wrapped herself around me. I rocked us. Instead of moans of passion, Jay’s aura dimmed, and our mate bond stilled. Her colors slid into a gradient of light red and green that I was starting to associate with love and trust. Her breathing slowed, and she fell asleep.

I froze, momentarily offended, before my chest bloomed with a warmth I’d never experienced before. My mate trusted me enough to fall asleep naked and still impaled. My heart exploded harder than my dick ever could.

I motioned to Lux, who helped me unstrap her until all her weight was in my arms. With the ropes gone, Rehan and Og could easily pull their hands off her skin, leaving her curse free to shock my balls. I didn’t want this to end like that. I slid out of her. Instead of taking her to my bed, I looked at Lux.

“I have a lot of gloating to do.” I handed her to our fourth mate, who glowed with every positive emotion I could identify at the same time as he pulled her into his chest. “Don’t wake her up.”

Lux nodded and padded out of my room.

I turned to Og and Rehan, still tied to their chairs, and put my hands on my hips. With my chest puffed and my sexual prowess thoroughly displayed, I raised my voice. “Who should I untie first?”

The ropes around Rhean exploded with his sheer strength, and the water dragon stood, pulling his blindfold off. “We’re even, Sparky. And if you ever drug my coffee again, I will put out your fire for good.”

I hummed. “Too bad all the nicknames for fire still sound cool.”

Og stood, the ropes on his arms literally decaying with his earth magic. I looked for a snarky comeback from the warlock, but Og only looked at the floor. His aura swirled unhappily.

“What’s wrong with you?” I asked.

Og’s face pinched, and he started to speak before biting his lips shut.

“He and Lux need to have a chat,” Rehan clapped me on the shoulder. “There’s no way he’s upset because you drugged his coffee, tied him up, and made him listen to you repeatedly give our mate orgasms.”

I cocked my head to the side. “The way you said that makes it sound like that might be what’s upsetting him.”

Rehan grunted. “Og, we’re on Coaimhe duty. She got a lead last night on a pub collectors like to frequent.”

The two left my room, and I was alone.

I spun around as the last of the sunset vanished. My ropes hung from the ceiling. My little vibrator that had spent the entire day in my mate lay on the floor. A pile of clothing I picked out, with only minor input from Lux, sat next to the door, ready to get packed into a suitcase, though it hadn’t occurred to me to purchase one.

I pulled on a pair of shorts and a simple white button-down before shoving my feet into the flip-flops Rehan loved so much. A few flights of stairs and a hallway brought me to the swanky tasting room Cikku somehow always had stuffed with tourists. I welcomed myself to a table in the back.

An older couple eyed me while a trio of women in their late thirties gave me a heated once-over. I was hot, and they could look all they wanted, but that was it.

“I’m in love, and she loves me back,” I declared to the group of strangers. “Help me pick a wine to celebrate. What are we tasting?”

I learned the hard way to hide my new toys. I didn’t know when Jay snuck in and took my vibrator and ropes, but my plan to trap her in the shower again the following morning did not come to fruition. Maybe I should have let Lux do his repeat after me thing a few more times.

A knock sounded at my door, breaking into my sulking.

Rehan cracked it open. “Have you seen Jay?”

I shook my head.

Rehan narrowed his eyes. “Let me guess, you're sulking because she took your stuff.”

I turned and roared. Before I could light anything on fire, Rehan shut the door.

Even if she hadn’t said it, she trusted me. She loved me. Why did she run every fecking time?

The day dragged by with no Jay. I got bored enough that I even sought out Rehan and Lux for some training.

After a few punches and kicks, I turned to Lux. “Did you have a good morning?”

Lux took an annoyed breath, and his aura greyed. “She snuck out while I was still asleep. We didn’t have the conversation I wanted.”

“Did you get to talk to Og?” I asked, remembering him turning the same color yesterday.

“No,” Lux got even greyer. “This morning, when I walked into the kitchen for breakfast, Og walked out.”

Rehan slid up to us. “We’re not here to chat, but remember how to kick.”

I didn’t know how to help Lux, but I knew how to kick. I flashed the Pretty Parakeet a grin before kicking towards Rehan’s face. Unfortunately, The Fish expected it. He caught my foot and twisted. I managed to roll with the motion and hook his knee with my toes. We went down in a ball of limbs, grappling for control.

“Damnit, Tyson,” Rehan growled, his face turning purple as we matched strengths. “This is not training Lux.”

Suddenly, the water dragon stopped fighting and rolled backward. I scrambled forward, desperate to pin him to the ground, but the Eel kept moving until he hit a grapevine.

Not even a second passed before a man came running out of the house yelling at us in Maltese. I didn’t know the words for grape, old, or expensive, but I’d bet they were in there. I tried to laugh it off, but the stranger’s aura glowed with pure concern while shame streaked Rehan’s. I’d done that. I hurried back into the villa, the man's string of angry words hurting even though I’d technically not done anything. Technically. It was just a plant… and Rehan hit it… Technically.

I let out an annoyed breath. I wasn’t doing as well with ‘technically’ as I used to.

I spend the day trying my hand at different tasks around the winery. After a few hours, I was one hundred percent sure the color of frustration was a reddish-yellow, as almost everyone turned that shade before shooing me away in broken bits of English. I didn’t want to learn how to make wine anyway. Whisky was still my first love. I found myself the perfect rock to sunbathe on and parked my arse in the hot sun.

The afternoon faded into evening, and I was more than ready for another round of Caoimhe watching.

According to Cikku, Og and I were in the finest bar in Valletta. The space reminded me a little of my old suite: wood-paneled walls, leather chairs, and gold accents. Despite Jay ‘assigning’ Lux and Og Caoimhe watching duty, I found myself sitting with the warlock. Like the last two nights, the fire nymph ordered a virgin cocktail and started a conversation with anyone and everyone about Gorm’s Casket.

The dark aura around Lux this morning still bothered me, and Og’s wasn’t that much better.

“Lux wants to have a conversation with you,” I said, not really sure why I was sticking my nose in this.

Og looked at me. “I also want to have a conversation with Lux.”

“Then why the feck aren’t you talking,” I asked.

Og pursed his lips. “It’s a complicated situation.”

I rubbed my spiky hair. “Now you sound like Wiggles.”

Og took a sip of his beer, watching me. “Why do you care?”

A man sat down next to Caoimhe, and the two started chatting.

“I don’t care.” I snapped, hiding the truth under anger. “I just want to understand my, um, competition.”

Ogden’s aura turned bright red. “I know you don’t like me, Tyson, but we’re in this together.”

I gritted my teeth and forced myself to take another sip of beer. I didn’t need to hide my feelings anymore. “I do like you, Swamp Monster. That’s part of the problem.”

Ogden’s aura pulsed a darker red once before fading into a yellow-orange. “Swamps would be more water dragons, don’t you think?”

“They’re undefined, like your warlock earth, whatever.” I rapped my knuckles against the table. “Ah, feck it. I’m still seeing colors. And I’m seeing patterns in those colors. And now that I can see people's emotional responses to what I say, it’s making it hard to be me.” I ran a hand down my face. “I gave Wiggles to Lux last night. Our pretty mate lit up like a Christmas tree, and it made me feel good. But I didn’t have Wiggles, he did! That shouldn’t have felt good. I didn’t win.”

Og froze before speaking slowly as if I was a wild animal. “Except you did. We don’t crave winning. We crave the endorphins winning gives us. You don’t have to be first to get that rush.”

I scowled at my beer, not liking how Og’s description matched my feelings last night.

“I’m not making this up.” I smacked the table, rattling our glasses. “I blamed Jay for giving away her firstborn, and her aura just dipped to nothing. And it destroyed me. I couldn’t think of anything else until I made it up to her.” Ogden’s aura shifted from color to color as he processed my words. “Right now, I’m watching you go from anger to pity, to curiosity and now disbelief. Fecking pick an emotion and land on it.”

Og put his hands up. “That is definitely not how emotions work.”

I scrubbed my hand through my spiky hair. “It fecking should be.”

Og grunted. “I won’t argue with that.” He studied me. “You are literally the last person I thought I would open up to, but when Lux was rutting, I spent the night with him. We didn’t talk about it, and then your show last night felt like a slap in the face.”

I blinked. “Is this going to happen a lot?”

Ogden put his hands up. “I mean, not if I’m the only one who wants it. I thought Lux enjoyed it. We kissed with Jay in between us, and she loved it.” Og pulled on his chin. “I mean, we’re all doing stuff together. Jay shouldn’t have to blow all of us if I enjoy the experience, right?” The warlock bit his lower lip and looked up at me as if I had answers.

I pulled my jaw off the table, barely wrapping my head around the situation. “I meant,” I spoke very clearly. “Are you dumping shite on me now that you think I’m empathetic?”

The Clay dragon’s entire aura turned a rosy pink that could only be the color of embarrassment. He picked up his beer and tried to hide behind it.

The man at the bar finished his cocktail and handed Caoimhe a business card. He even tipped his hat before exiting. She watched him go, her aura swirling with a lighter green and orange that I associated with curiosity and hope. She glanced at us but turned back to the bar and picked up a menu.

By the time I focused on Ogden again, he’d stopped hiding behind his beer. He took a deep breath. “I will endeavor to not dump shite on you in the future.”

I nodded thankfully. “Your shite sounds complicated, but when I told Lux my problem, he dove into it. Last night was about evening the score.” I pursed my lips. “Lux has been shafted, literally. He didn’t join us until Wiggles had three marks. He can’t even kiss our girl without at least one of us there. Not everything is about you, Silt Soil.”

Og’s eyes grew wide, and his aura swirled with a dizzying array of colors. “That was surprisingly blunt but helpful.” Og leaned forward. “You aren’t drawing a comparison between my actions and what you did with Tia?”

“What is wrong with you?” I threw my hands up. “Lux is one of us. If you’re trying to get away from Wiggles, that’s the wrong fecking direction to be running.”

Og leaned back, his aura glowing. “I take back what I said, Tyson. I’ll be dumping my shite on your more often.”

I squished my cheeks and dragged my hands down. “Feck, how do I turn this off?”

Ogden laughed. “I don’t think you can or want to.”

“Why not?” I asked.

Ogden cocked his head to the side. “Jay has four mates. Do you think she likes having four mates?”

Another man sat down next to Caoimhe. This one was tall and thin with lighter skin than the average tanned local. His thick dark brown hair had a set of stark lines shaved into the back that looked badass, especially with the gems and gold sparkling against every available location a person could wear jewelry. Confidence and power radiated off him. I instantly knew, when all of this was over, what my new look was going to be.

The man brushed Caoimhe’s hair off her shoulder before sliding a drink I didn’t see the bartender make to her side. Whatever he said made the red-headed nymph laugh. She pushed the drink away from her but turned to face him more fully.

“I have no idea what Wiggles thinks,” I answered.

Og waggled a finger at me. “Not thinks, likes. You’re the only one of us who truly knows how she feels.” Og paused dramatically. “Because you can see her emotions. She can’t hide from you like she can the rest of us.”

My unhappiness with my re-found empathy vanished. I. Me. Wiggles fell asleep speared on my dick. She trusted me.

I took a deep breath and pulled my shoulders back before picking up my beer. Og eyed my confidence skeptically, but when I held out my glass, he clinked his to it. We lapsed into companionable silence. Maybe the first one we’d ever experienced.

The man slipped his arm around Caoimhe’s waist. His gold rings glinted before his hand disappeared from view, and his dark aura twisted with deep purple and greens. I’d worked out that darker colors were negative. All of us sparked with a bit of purple while using magic. But I’d never seen dark green.

They stood together, and she leaned into the man’s lanky frame.

I glanced at Og, who cocked his head at me. We hadn’t talked about Caoimhe leaving of her own free will. If she was obviously resisting, we knew to charge in. But she wasn’t supposed to go anywhere. Feck, Jay told us not to let her out of our sight. As an instruction that had been clear. However, with Caoimhe on some dude’s arm not communicating with us, did it mean to the letter or to make sure we knew where she went?

“She didn’t give us any signals,” I said. The drink the man slid her sat untouched. “She’s leaving of her own free will, I think. Do we swoop in and take out the guy or follow them?”

“You tell me,” Ogden gestured to their backsides as they walked past the bar toward the exit.

I opened and closed my mouth like a fucking fish before I realized what he was asking. Caoimhe's aura blurred, almost as if it had two layers. The exact same colors as the stranger’s enveloped the fire nymph. “He’s done something to her. They’re connected or something. Feck, this isn’t a science, Og. I don’t know what to do.”

They were two steps from the door.

“Are we following or rescuing her?” Og’s dark green gaze didn’t rest on Caoimhe but on me.

He couldn’t see their auras, and he was trusting me to make a decision. This wasn’t like Lux’s tower, where necessity made him trust I wouldn’t kill him. Ogden, as much as I hated to admit it, the smartest of us trusted me to do the right thing.

A piece of my soul cracked, and molten emotion leaked out of it, branding Og, whether he knew it or not. I was one of Jay’s mates, and I fecking loved it, all of it. Confidence I hadn’t felt in days clicked into place. This stranger had connected himself to Caoimhe, and a gut feeling told me killing him wouldn’t fix it.

“Following.” The single word felt like it echoed. I rose from my seat, a new dragon, and calmly pushed toward the front door with Og at my back.

Tenzin’s scent covered the fire nymph. The distinct smell was like a guiding light, and I turned left to follow it. Behind me, Og started making phone calls. Although this wasn’t a proper hunt, my instincts boiled, and my dragon danced.