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.