Chapter 24

Luke

"Oh, you're Bonded all right," Betts said, smirking at me as she sat at the table, a plate of fruit and cheese in front of her. "I can smell it from here."

I looked from Betts to Hel, to Rhuyin in confusion, but felt Rhu's fingers tighten around mine. We'd made our way back to our floor in the Pavilion and quickly tried to track down Elex and Helios. Betts had been in the common area with Hel. Elex had joined us shortly afterward, but he was pacing behind us in agitation at the news.

"But—how?" I asked. "We didn't go through the ritual!"

Hel shrugged and Elex sat down next to him.

"Elex and I didn't have a ceremony either, so I don't have an answer for you. Your family seems to be a special case. You all should come with warning labels," he said, flicking a grape at his Bonded.

Elex snatched the fruit from the air, popped it in his mouth with a smirk, then lurched back to his feet.

"You. With me. Now." he demanded, pointing at Rhuyin.

"Lex—" I began warningly.

"I won't kill him," my brother bit out. "…yet."

Rhu looked at me.

"He won't hurt you. He is probably going to threaten you, though," I sighed.

I can handle him,he signed with confidence.

He waited a moment to make sure I had understood him. He had been teaching me sign language and said I had taken to it extraordinarily fast. I'd blushed when he said it, not telling him that I had could speak four languages already. Or that I had spent almost every free moment glued to sign language videos on the laptop Illyria had provided.

He gave me a slight grin and shrugged, then followed Elex into the hall. Betts and I watched as Hel's gaze followed my brother into the hall.

"Ew! Gross!" Betts exclaimed, throwing a pillow at her brother. "You're watching his ass!"

"He's my Bonded," Hel answered with equanimity as he grabbed the pillow out of the air and settled it behind his head. "I'm supposed to watch his ass."

"Back. You're supposed to watch his back. Besides, I don't want to see that," she muttered. "Keep that shit private."

"Just like you were oh-so-subtly ogling the breasts on that one Mageia?"

"That's different!" She exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "Everyone likes breasts."

I chuckled as the two bickered. It was nice to see this side of Helios from time to time. Hel had almost been Bonded with Ri, Betts older brother, but an attack had killed him before they could complete their Bond. It had left him scarred in more than just physical ways.

"So where've you been, Betts? Haven't seen much of you since you dropped everyone off," Hel said, stabbing his straw into a cup empty of anything but ice.

"I've been reviewing logistics for the new Bonded training program," she said, settling back against the cushions, her dark braids falling around her face. "Daros Theophos is the head of the program and he's an ass. He and that toady of his, Kopanos, have been managing Tetradymo training, and it's not enough. We keep losing young Bonded pairs to stupid mistakes."

I stiffened at the mention of Kopanos.

"Karl Kopanos?" I asked. Betts nodded.

"Guy makes my skin crawl," she admitted. "But he has Theophos' ear. Their families have been friends forever, or something. Anyway, when Theophos was appointed Internal Security Leader two years ago he appointed Kopanos to manage the Tetradymo training."

"What is Tetradymo training?" I asked.

"Well, when a mommy Mageia and a Daddy Soma love each other very much…" Betts began condescendingly, but then squeaked as Hel tossed a piece of ice from his cup to land squarely down the neck of her scandalously low-cut blouse.

She jumped to her feet and began scrabbling around inside her blouse for the offending piece of ice. Finally, she resorted to untucking her shirt and shaking everything around until the small frozen intruder skittered off under one of the couches.

"Tetradymo training is where we send all newly Bonded pairs to learn how to use their new elemental affinities and how to work as a team," Hel answered, ignoring his sister's antics. "Most of the Mageia we've had join us over the last several years have a lot of battle experience from having been in the Legion, but they aren't used to trusting anyone to protect them. Just because you've magically Bonded with someone doesn't mean you one-hundred percent trust them, and if you don't trust your partner it can make for a dangerous combat situation. Trust is earned."

"You mean, like you and ‘Lex?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Your brother is the least trusting person I've met in my life. I know I'm going to have my work cut out for me earning his trust."

I smiled. He didn't realize it, but he'd already come farther with my brother than I would have thought possible.

"I don't want to offend, but why would they have an unbonded Soma involved in Tetradymo training? I asked.

"No offense taken, hon. We don't have that many Tesseris Mageia. Certainly not enough to teach all the new ones who've developed over the last two years," Betts answered. "Since I'm already a Dual Mageia I can assist with training to block the Elusian Suppression ability. When I'm not on the Chrysalis I'm assisting with Tetradymo training."

I mulled that over for a bit.

"So, you and Rhuyin, huh, Luke?" Betts asked finally, settling back into her chair.

"Looks like," I said, blushing.

"Good for you, kiddo. He seems like a good guy."

"Kiddo? Really? You aren't that much older than me," I teased.

"But I am oh-so-much wiser…" she teased back.

"So what are you going to do?" Hel asked.

"Do? I mean, what can we do? If we're Bonded, it's not like there's much we can do about it."

"You—you could try to break the bond," he suggested, raising an eyebrow at me. "It's been done before."

"No!" I was on my feet without even realizing it. "I would never do that to Rhu!"

Hel's grin widened and Betts glared at her brother.

"You are such an ass, Helios Asimenios," she said.

"I just wanted to make sure. I'm really glad to hear it. I knew you were good people, Luke. I'm just glad you're going to give it a chance. Give him a chance."

"More like he's giving me a chance," I muttered. "I'm still trying to pin down when exactly it could have happened. Did you notice the Bonding scent earlier?"

He shook his head.

"I didn't notice anything until you guys arrived a few minutes ago. Granted, I'm still getting used to my and Elex's scent, but it did seem stronger than normal when we were around you in the hospital. I just thought it was the stress of the situation affecting everyone."

More mystery.

"Soma history talks about the gods meddling in Bonds," Betts said thoughtfully.

"Gods? Really? Aren't we a little—beyond that now?" I asked, gesturing at the room filled with technology. "Religion is all well and good for those who believe, I guess. But gods are myths."

Even as I spoke my thoughts flew back to the vision I had of the man bound beneath the earth.

Betts grinned and her laugh brought me back to the here and now.

"Myths generally have a basis in facts of some kind. I had a dream once that I was chosen to be a goddess…" she said, laughing.

"Was that before, or after, you ate those mushrooms Ri brought home from the east? You were saying the sky was pink for two weeks, and that the unicorns were coming through the walls."

"I did not!" She said indignantly, then a thoughtful look came over her face. "At least, I didn't say anything about unicorns. Everyone knows they're not real. The sky really did look pink to me, though."

"Maybe that means we Bonded during the explosion. I don't think I've ever used that much power that quickly before. I was kind of surprised at how easy it was, but it's rare that Elex and I are able to really cut loose, so I wasn't sure," I responded, thinking about how the sphere had surrounded us much like the shields had during the Bonding ceremony.

My gaze shifted to the doorway Elex had led Rhuyin through. My brother could be way overprotective and I was afraid of what he might do to Rhuyin under the guise of "protecting" me.

"Do you think I should rescue him?"

Hel followed my gaze and shrugged.

"Your call. Do you really think he would hurt him?"

I glanced at the door then back at Hel.

"No, not on purpose," I said, a note of doubt creeping into my voice. If he really thought Rhuyin intended me harm, Elex absolutely would hurt him. I just hoped my brother would trust my judgment. I grinned at the Soma.

"He'll put the fear of the goddess in him, though."

"Kind of like what you did to me?" Hel chuckled, popping another grape in his own mouth and raised an eyebrow at me.

I blushed.

"Not my finest hour," I admitted.

"Oh, do tell!" Betts said, leaning forward expectantly, but Hel just smiled at me.

"I knew you meant well. I was glad to know someone was in his corner."

I saw Hel stiffen and felt a flush of rage. Before I could make sense of my feelings, or ask what was wrong he was on his feet and out the door. The same door Elex had led Rhuyin out. This was not good. I raced after him.

The sight in the hallway stopped me cold.

I had guessed that Elex would try to pull the big brother schtick and take it a little too far. The way Hel had taken off, I had fully expected to see Rhuyin bound or threatened in some way by Elex. I did not expect to see Rhuyin holding my brother against the wall by his neck, his feet dangling several inches above the floor, pinned there by a seriously pissed off Soma.

Rhu had partially shifted. He had grown several inches taller, his fingers now sported black claws and red and black fur had sprouted from the back of his arms. His ears were now pointed, and his nose had elongated almost to snout proportions. A flash of white from his extremely sharp looking fangs peaked from his mouth.

"Take. It. Back." I heard him hiss at my brother through bared teeth.

Rhu was oblivious to Helios approaching him from behind. I saw Hel's snow tiger claws extend as Elex began turning an alarming shade of purple. Shit. I had to stop this, and quickly.

Without thought I reacted to the scene in front of me, gesturing as if I were going to physically separate the two combatants from a distance, flinging them against separate walls with my magic. I saw them fly in opposite directions from bursts of air, slamming against the hallway paneling. Rhu just shook his head slightly and began to ready himself to re-engage with Elex, but Helios was suddenly between them. Elex slid down the wall and shook his head dizzily. I knew my brother could take a hit, so I wasn't worried about him. Besides, he had obviously done something to seriously piss Rhu off.

Rhu growled and stepped forward. I saw Hel's claws flash out to defend his Bonded. Without thought, I surrounded my Bonded with a shield. Hel's claws bounced off the shield harmlessly. The shield of air that I had just created. I looked down at my arms and saw the rings of earth, air, fire and water rotating around them. Just like the ones my brother sported. Holy fuck. I was a Tesseris Mageia! I didn't have time to focus on that, though.

"ENOUGH!" I yelled, allowing my power to leak into my voice and all three turned to look at me in surprise as the ground shook beneath them. I heard Betts enter the hallway behind us. Even Rhu knew I'd done something, because he turned to look in my direction.

"Helios, take ‘Lex for a walk," Betts ordered peremptorily. "Let's all go for a walk."

"But—" my brother began to object, but his Bonded tugged him away.

"Later," I heard Hel bark as he and his sister almost dragged his Bonded down the hall. I wasn't too worried about him, though. I knew Elex well enough to know that he wouldn't have been so easily diverted if he hadn't wanted to be.

I walked over to where Rhuyin stood, still in his partially shifted shape. He was panting heavily, his rage and frustration evident on his face. While my shield of air kept Hel out, it had also kept Rhu in. I silently dissolved the shield as I approached him. Even with the changes in his form, his eyes were still the same glorious green they always were. I kept my gaze locked with his and used the sign he'd shown me was his name.

Rhu, S-T-O-P.I signed, spelling the word in the alphabet I'd been learning. I couldn't remember the correct sign, but I remembered the alphabet enough to make myself understood.

Rhu's eyes slowly lost their rage as I laboriously spelled out the word.

"It's easier to just use the sign for stop," he said, his face transforming back to human. He held his left hand out and brought his right down on it in a chopping motion. Stop.

"Well, excuse me for not remembering the right sign at the moment, since you were attacking my brother," I said in exasperation, making sure I was staring directly at his face. "What the hell was that about?"

He flushed, glancing down the hall to the door Hel had dragged Elex through.

"I—he—," he spluttered for a minute before finally spitting out, "He said you couldn't take care of yourself!"

I sighed. I had always suspected that Elex felt responsible for me, but this was taking it to new heights. I slowly processed what he'd done and a surge of affection for the man in front of me rushed through me.

"Wait, let me get this straight…" I said, stepping closer to him.

"My brother, one of the deadliest men in the world even without using his magic, said I couldn't take care of myself and you threw him against a wall?"

His face turned redder.

"He's your brother! He should know better than anyone how amazingly strong you—" he began, but I cut him off with a kiss.

The velvety soft touch of his lips against mine was addicting. I could feel fire racing through my body as his body heat spread to mine. My heart was racing at the feelings this man was stirring within me. My cock was swelling as I leaned into him, wrapping my arms around him.

In his half-form, Rhu was taller than me, but I felt him slowly shift back to his normal size as my lips gently brushed over his. They were deliciously soft, but so freakin' hot I wouldn't have been surprised if blisters had risen on my skin. Unlike with Kopanos, though, I would gladly have endured this pain over and over.

"I don't think anyone has ever given me a nicer compliment," I whispered before laying another gentle kiss on his lips.

Rhu froze under my touch.

Cold anxiety grew in my belly, and I stilled. For just a moment as he remained quiet under my touch I wondered if I had misread the situation. Maybe, like Kopanos, Rhu wasn't interested in a sexual relationship with someone of the same sex? Hel had said that not all Bonded pairs were in a sexual relationship, though most were.

"I'm sorry," I muttered and started to pull away, wondering how much power it would take to have the earth open up and swallow me in my humiliation, but I should have trusted that Rhu would never be anything like Kopanos.

As I started to pull away a low growl grew in his chest and he surged forward, his hands grabbing hold of either side of my head, pulling me into a devouring kiss. The searing caress seemed to go on and on as he ravaged my mouth before finally gentling into slow, deliberate movements. Heat rushed through my body as I stood, crushed against his front. One hand stroked up his back while the other gripped his hip. Arousal surged through me, my cock thickening with aching urgency as the kiss continued. I might have felt embarrassed about that, but pressed together as we were, I could feel Rhu's very obvious arousal as well.

Finally, he pulled back. His chest still heaving, but all sense of the rage that had been in him just moments ago had disappeared.

I looked at this wonderfully resilient, sensitive, amazing man as he gently pushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear.

"You are one of the strongest people I've ever met in my life," he said as if echoing my thoughts about him. "If he can't see that, then he's the one with the disability."

I felt the corner of my mouth quirk upward.

"I like how you think, soldier," I whispered.

"Soldier, huh? Guess that makes you the General."

"Hm. Might make for some interesting roleplay," I said, waggling my eyebrows suggestively at him.

He laughed and pulled me closer. The sound was pure joy, and I felt like I could listen to it forever.

I took his hand and began walking down the opposite hall.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

I just grinned at him and said nothing. I wanted to do this now, before I lost my nerve.

I led him back to my room, closing and locking the door behind us.

Suddenly uncertain, I paused and rested my head on the door. I still couldn't believe that he had decided that I might be a good partner. But really, had he decided? Or was this just a trick of the fates? There'd been no ceremony after all, it's not like either of us had chosen this.

"Talk to me," I heard him say, his voice low and rough. "I can feel your worry, feel your fear, but I can't do anything about it unless you talk to me."

I turned to look at him. Rhu was all glorious lines of muscle and strength. He sat on the one chair in the room. His dark hair hung across his forehead, and I saw him brush the straight black strands back from his emerald-green eyes. They seemed to glow in the dim light.

"I've lived most of my life without choices. As a child, I was told what to say, what to think, how to act. In the Legion, even the pretense of choice was taken away. I know what it's like to be a slave to someone else, to something else. The last thing I want to do is take your choice away, Rhu. I can't do that to you."

He looked at me, confusion on his face.

"You didn't take my choice away, Luke," he said.

"I feel like I did. Like this is all my fault, somehow. We're going to be going into war. If something happened to you, I—"

In a flash he was on his feet, his body crowding mine against the door.

"Listen to me, Luke Alexus. I want to be very clear on this."

I had no choice but to look at him, he was so close, I could feel the heat of his body burning against mine. I had never heard anyone call me by my full chosen name before. It felt… strange. Strange, but good. I saw his lips tighten and eyes narrow at me slightly as he spoke.

"I have been training my whole life to fight the Alexandrians. I had almost given up on the thought that I would ever find a Mageia of my own. Actually, I had given up, really. I—I signed up with Omada. When I thought you had found someone else… I was not in a good place."

The realization that he had signed up with one of the suicide squads we had heard about made my heart freeze. I felt the truth of his words, the echo of despair that rang through the bond between us.

"I wish you would have said something," I whispered, raising one hand up and tracing the line of his jaw.

"I had been rejected so many times already. With my hearing challenges, I was certain no Mageia would ever choose me, ever want me. Even you. Especially you. I mean, fuck, I know you want to deny it, Luke, but you are royalty. Whether you want it to mean something, or not. There are Somas out there who have all their senses. If I really cared about you, I would let you go and Bond with someone else."

I saw the agony on his face. His eyes were filled with a soul-deep longing.

"But I'm selfish. I look at you, and in your eyes I see someone who sees me. Not my challenges. Me. And I desperately want that. I'm too selfish to let you go."

"I don't think it's selfish if I want the same thing," I whispered. "You don't look at me like people look at a prince. You don't want anything from me. You don't even look at me like most of your people look at Mageia. That combination of hope and desperation is overwhelming. So it's my turn to make something absolutely clear, Rhuyin Katastrofis."

I seized him and pulled him in for a kiss. The feel of his lips on mine made me shiver, little earthquakes of pleasure rocking through me. When I finally let him up for air we were both gasping; the warmth his kiss generated spreading through my entire body.

"I want you. I choose you."

His smile lit the room as he read my lips.

He leaned back, pointed at himself, then cupped his hands in pulling motion, as if grasping something and pulling it toward himself, then he pointed at me.

"I want you," he responded, teaching me the signs. He pointed at himself, then made a sign like picking something up with his thumb and forefinger, then pointed at me.

"I choose you."

I repeated the motions, then leaned forward hesitantly this time. He met me halfway, his gaze focused on my lips. Unlike our first kiss, this was slow, delicate, gentle. I could feel his warm breath whisper across my cheek, and he brought one hand up to twine in my hair. I shivered at the feel of his strong hands threading through it.

I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him closer. He felt so damn good pressed up against me. My heart was racing, and I couldn't seem to get enough of the gentle brush of his lips against mine, or the feel of his hands hungrily roaming over my body.

Before I realized it, we were both on the bed, Rhu's legs tangled with mine, both of us tugging at each other's shirts, trying to get them off. As we both moved I brushed up against him and the feel of his arousal was clear through his pants.

Fuck. Something else I needed to tell him.

"Rhu…" I gasped, his lips trailing kisses down my throat. "Rhu, wait."

He froze, his worried eyes turning to mine.

"Am I going too fast?" he asked.

I shook my head.

"Goddess, no! I just—I need to tell you something."

He stopped moving, his eyes serious. I felt the blood rushing to my face and echoes of the Panicked Prince haunted the edge of my vision.

"Shit." I said, running my hands through my hair.

"Luke, we don't have to do any—"

"I want to!" I exclaimed, clapping my hand over his mouth before he could say anything else.

"I want to. I just—I've never—never willingly…"

"Oh." He said, then his eyes went wide in understanding. "Oh!"

"Yeah, oh."

"You mean you never…" his voice trailed off as I shook my head.

"Elex was a great protector. Which was awesome, when I actually needed protection. Not so great when I didn't really want it. Sometimes he's a little too protective, as you may recall…"

Rhu nodded in understanding.

"I can see that about him," he said, chuckling. "So, what do you have experience with? Are you a top, or a bottom, or do you switch? Do you know what you like?"

I could feel my face heating as he asked.

"I'm not even sure what those words mean," I said, ducking my head. "Someone gave me a blowjob once. I've given a few."

"Wait. One blowjob. That's the extent of your experience?" He asked incredulously, then his eyes turned thoughtful.

I looked away, shame flooding me.

"The extent of my c-consensual experience…" I said, my voice trailing off.

His hands tightened on me, and I closed my eyes, unable to face the inevitable revulsion I expected in his eyes.

"Those bastards," he growled quietly. My eyes flew open in surprise. I don't know what I had expected, but the glowing green fire in his eyes was not it.

"So…the blowjob….What did you think? Did you like it?"

"The blowjob?" I laughed at the unexpected question. "What's not to like about a blowjob?"

He chuckled and squeezed me tight.

"I'm going to have so much fun spoiling you," he whispered. "But I want to do this right. Would you go out on a date with me?"

I looked at him in confusion. It took me a minute to remember that dating was something normal people did to get to know one another prior to mating. I'd never had the option before, as either a prince or a slave.

"You don't need to do that, you know. As your Bonded, I'm kind of a sure thing…" I said, teasingly.

Rhu laughed.

"Doesn't mean I don't want to spend time getting to know you and giving you the opportunity to know me. After all, you may come to find that my sense of humor is awful, and you don't want anything to do with me."

"Or maybe you snore? Leave your dirty socks on the floor?"

"So many opportunities to fuck this up…" he sighed and teased.

"Fine, I'll take you as you are. Warts and all. If you'll do the same for me, then yes, I'd love to go on a date with you, Rhuyin Katastrofis."

He smiled again, then pulled me down beside him and began laying gentle kisses on my skin. I noticed his lips lingered extra-long over any of my many scars he ran across. I couldn't help but hope that he would continue to ignore them. I wouldn't mind sharing my stories at some point in the future, but I didn't want to focus on those moments now.

He was moving far too slow for me, though.

"Enough," I said sharply, pulling away from him and struggling to my feet. I pointed to him and brought my hands down the front of my body, then flicked my thumbs left and right.

Undress, I signed nervously, not entirely sure I had gotten the sign correctly. I might have used a search engine to find sign language videos that taught you sexy sign language signs.

Without waiting to see his reaction, I shucked the rest of my clothes before turning back to him. When I turned, I found him naked and gloriously displayed before me. He had a small dark treasure trail that ran down his abs, ending at a closely trimmed brush of hair. His cock was long and thick, and already dripping pre-cum as he looked at me.

After seeing the pale perfection of his skin, I was overcome with a sense of self-consciousness. The scars that covered my body were not pretty. But when he looked at me, all I saw was desire.

"Well, hello, gorgeous," he said, echoing my earlier greeting to him in his fox form.

"Hey, no fair! Find your own pet name!" I teased as I moved back to the bed.

"Honey? Sweetie? Light of my life? Love of my heart?" he asked with growing saccharine sweet words.

"Oh goddess, just stop already!" I laughed.

He pulled me down to kneel on the bed and kissed me soundly. Our bodies were touching from knee to chest. I felt his arousal, heavy and heated against my body. My own rested against his hip, already leaking pre-cum.

His strong fingers wrapped around us both and I was shocked into silence by how exquisite it felt. He cupped our cocks together and began stroking us together.

"Fuck!" I moaned, throwing my head back at the feel of our bodies stroking together. It wasn't just the feel of his hand, but also the feel of his cock, hot and pulsing against my own. It just seemed right somehow.

He started moving faster, adding a curl at the end of each stroke so that he danced over the tips of our cocks. Both of our cocks were so wet from pre-cum his grip moved easily as he stroked us together.

He was panting now as his hand began moving faster. I could feel a shudder washing through him. I reached out to add my hand to his stroking. The two of us stroked our cocks together, both of us panting and desperate.

"Luke—I—Fuck, I'm going to—" was all he got out before he shuddered, his cum painting my stomach and cock. The burning feel of his cum threw me over the edge, then it was my turn to be painting his body.

We collapsed against each other, our foreheads together, our breath hot as we struggled to control our breathing. I lazily continued to stroke him, his body rolling from little aftershocks whenever I curled over his tip.

He finally grinned and pulled away to grab a wet cloth from the bathing room. He used it to clean us both up, then tossed it into a hamper. I fell back on the bed, all energy drained from me. He laid down next to me, tossing a strong arm across my waist. I sent a sated look his way.

"I like how my name sounds on your lips," I whispered.

"Luke Alexus. Luke Alexus," he grinned and repeated. "Luke Alexus." He breathed the final word into my ear, making me shiver.

"I'll say it as often as you want. You are going to absolutely wreck me, Luke Alexus."

This was a wreck I could live with.