Chapter Sixteen

Elio

After a nap and a quick blowjob in the shower from Fred, I knew I had to talk to Marsin and find out what my uncle and the other leaders were up to. At the very least, I had to let him know I was okay. I knew what I was honor bound to do, but I didn't want to leave the bedroom. I didn't want to leave Fred's side for a second. On the plus side, he hadn't accused me of being a liar once since we woke up wrapped in the messy sheets. Thankfully, the Medwin 2 had a full-service laundry room.

We were redressed but lingering in the bedroom. We stood between the bed we made love in and the bed where Fred's roommate had slept on the journey to Starscale 1. I was all wrapped up in his arms with my head resting against his chest. We swayed to music that only echoed in his memories. The claiming vows had shown me just how much he liked to dance. It was as if music pounded in his veins instead of blood.

"I never knew the song stuck in your head could migrate to mine," I teased him.

"Welcome to having a true-mate," he laughed. "All my problems are yours now."

"Well, I'll see that and raise you all my problems."

"Fair enough," he shrugged, and took my hand and spun me around to the song still stuck in his head.

A knock on the door made him scowl and for a second I thought he might blow out more fire to make the point that we wanted to be left alone.

"Who is it?" Fred called out, putting on what I could only describe as his customer service voice. Unfortunately, customer service was something we had in common with Earthside.

"Me, Dad!" Teddy called back. "Are you guys decent?"

"Decent enough," Fred nodded. "Does Castor need something?"

"A guy named Marsin is at the door. He wants to talk to his brother. He did this whole thing that I think is supposed to be a joke. He comes in peace or something. I don't know if it's a sex joke or what, but he thought it was hilarious."

"It's not a sex joke," Fred shook his head.

His adam's apple bounced as he held back a laugh.

"It's an old alien joke," Fred said a second later.

"That's my brother," I whispered to Fred.

"Does he come in peace?" Fred asked me.

"I don't know. He hasn't blown anything up or set anyone on fire," Teddy said.

"I can hear you rolling your eyes, egg brat," Fred laughed.

"Well, he has news from Uncle Shutup or someone," Teddy said.

"Uncle Hush," I corrected him.

"Does he ever?" Fred arched a brow and glanced at me.

"Nope. Well, only when we need him to say something important," I laughed.

"Teddy?" Fred called to make sure his son was still on the other side of the door.

"I'm here. What do you want me to tell him?" Teddy called back.

"Just give us a minute. We'll come out. If he says to take him to your leader he doesn't mean Clarence," Fred teased.

"I'm starting to think you hit your head when you passed out," Teddy said as he walked away.

"I love that kid," Fred laughed. "Though, I'm not sure your brother is old enough for those references."

"We've both read a lot of Earthside stuff. It was the second home of our flight. Not a lot of people read it anymore, but we've been working on this for years, Fred. Seriously. YEARS."

"I believe you. How's your brother going to take this? Does he know about us?"

"Everyone knows about us. I've asked everyone for help. Most of the dragons here just thought it was impossible. It should've been, but we didn't give up. Besides, Marsin might never meet his true-mate if we don't get connected to the Other World gateway network."

"Let's go meet him and find out what they made of me trying to cook you."

"I've seen worse lovers' spats than we had today," I shrugged and slid my arm through his. "Come on. I'll introduce you."

Chapter Seventeen

Fred

Marsin was taller than Elio. His smell told me that he was an alpha. He was as bare chested as his brother preferred to stay. His star scale wasn't orange like Elio's. It was bright blue. He ran a hand over it absent mindedly when I glanced at it for a bit too long.

"So, this is Fred?" Marsin asked.

He and the other crew members of the Medwin 2 were gathered in the dining room. Someone had set out a snack table and made enough coffee to boil crabs in. Teddy handed me a mug and I passed it off to Elio. The egg brat flashed me a sheepish smile and returned to the coffee pot. I'd always been like that with Lotus too. She got hers first, no matter what was in question. Some habits died hard and resurrected right when you thought they couldn't hurt you anymore. I didn't blame Teddy for not thinking of Elio. He might've heard the facts, but I knew in his heart my true-mate would always be his mother.

"Thanks," I said when Teddy handed me another mug of coffee.

I'd lost track of the conversation going on between Elio and his brother. Marsin didn't smell like a threat and didn't register much on my dragon's radar. It was Elio's scent he homed in on and stuck with. As long as Marsin didn't piss him off we'd get along just fine.

"So, Uncle Hush isn't mad?" Elio asked and took a sip of his coffee.

He screwed up his face and then stuck out his tongue. It was too sweet for him.

"No, he's not mad, but it looks like they're trying to poison you," Marsin teased.

"I think they brewed it with sugar syrup rather than water," he said, running his hand over his tongue.

"That's how Dad drinks it," Teddy shrugged.

"How does it not turn to caramel inside of you?" Elio laughed and handed the coffee to me.

I sat both mugs down on the table and focused on Elio. Castor passed him a glass of water which he gulped down gratefully.

"I usually drink it black," Elio said.

"You don't know what you're missing," I shook my head as we sat down.

I put my hand on his knee, and he blushed, but when I started to pull it away, he put his hand on top of it to keep it there.

"Uncle Hush says that our treaty with the Moonscale Flight was never resolved. The treaty allowed for safe passage in and out of both territories. So, while the ship is unconventional, it's not trespassing and neither are you guys," Marsin said, looking at me. "He'd appreciate anymore lovers' spats being kept out of the landing field, but besides that he's not really interested in any of it. He's our leader, but he doesn't think true-mates are part of the political landscape."

"What about Other World gateways?" I asked.

"He and the leaders of Starscale 2 and 3 voted on that a decade ago," Elio said. "They're all for them if they pop up or someone else takes on the job of getting them set up. They just can't be bothered to put in the work."

"That was the first time the proposal was approved," Marsin added on. "The first ten times it was brought up all before we were born it was shot down because they didn't want the human governments of Earthside trying to come over. Our ancestors really loathed those fuckers. They had the most arcane and asinine laws."

"Not to mention the warmongering and mass starvation of people they didn't agree with. Hell, they didn't even have to disagree with them. Sometimes they just wanted them out of the way," Elio frowned, and I was glad I'd set the mugs down.

"They're dead, Alpha," Elio laughed. "Dead and gone. Every evil empire falls. You can't go killing them now."

"I'll find a necromancer," I winked at him.

"I bet you could, if anyone could," Elio said and squeezed my hand.

"Are you two going to take your matingmoon here or at the house?" Marsin asked his brother.

Elio glanced at me.

"What do you think, Castor? Your ship and half your room," I said to our fearless leader.

"You can take it aboard the ship, if you like. I can bunk down in the dining room. I don't mind. It'll make midnight snacks easier, anyway. Might be quieter for you all too. We've talked about it and outside of Sunny meeting with Hush or the other leaders we won't venture into the world until everyone is ready to go. It seems quiet now, but I don't trust the tides not to change."

"They'll get bored of you guys soon," Marsin said.

"Yeah, we know how to mind our own business."

"Mostly they'll go quiet because you're the only omega aboard," Marsin said to Castor.

"And what does that have to do with the price of scales in London?" Castor arched a brow. "Either you're insinuating a bunch of alphas want a mate or omegas aren't as ballsy and won't knock down the door to find out if they're true-mates with one of these guys."

Marsin shrugged and kept his mouth shut. Smart man. I didn't even want to know which way he meant it.

"You don't have to worry about anyone hurting Castor here not because they want to be his mate anyway," Elio said over our mating link. "If he tries to fight someone then he'll be as at risk as everyone else who tries that."

A few minutes later, Elio hugged his brother goodbye for now and I finished both cups of perfectly sweetened coffee before heading back to the bedroom. Castor sprinted ahead of us and we waited in the hallway as he packed up all the stuff he'd need. I couldn't imagine us taking weeks or months under the current circumstances, but stranger things had happened. All bets were off when it came to true-mate magic.

I double checked that Teddy had informed his siblings and Clarence that we had arrived safely and of our current unprecedented situation. He had. That egg brat could always be counted on to be on top of things. Castor grinned carrying his trunk out of the room.

"You two have fun. This is a good thing believe it or not," he said, aiming the last part at me. "Marsin was talking about a Star Room and ---"

Castor fell quiet and glanced down at his trunk. I turned to Elio who shot him a dirty look.

"Sorry, I should've known you'd want to be the one to tell him about all the new stuff here," Castor looked up, flashing us both a sheepish grin.

"No worries," Elio said, entwining his fingers through mine.

"You two have fun," Castor said, heading off down the hall.

"Thanks, Cas!"

I didn't ask about the Star Room until we were behind the locked door again.

"I think it would be easier to show you when it's time," Elio said, kicking off his shoes and sinking onto the edge of the bed.

"I guess we can unbolt Cas's bed and push it over next to mine now," I said, choosing to ignore the new information Elio was withholding. The claiming vows had worked. I had to give him some space and a little grace on account of that.

"I think we can both fit. I mean we did earlier," he smirked, leaning back on the bed with his feet still planted on the floor.

I raked my eyes over him. He was clad in pants that were sort of like Earthside sweatpants, but when he leaned back like that they left little to the imagination.

"Babe, if you keep sitting like that, we're not going to do much talking," I said, ignoring my now my half-hard dick.

"Who said we had to keep talking? This is our matingmoon," he chuckled and slid one hand inside his pants and wrapped it around his dick. That was it. He had undone me. Everything inside me craved more of him. Now that we were alone there was nothing to stand in my way of having him again.

"And just so you know, I prefer babe to dude," Elio said, stroking himself.