Chapter Eighteen

Jackson

"Oh gods, that was such a bad entendre," Delaney whines, her legs aimlessly scrabbling for purchase around my ass.

"I thought it quite clever actually," Ash says with a throat clearing, reminding us all he's just beyond this messy sandwich we're making.

I'm not supposed to want to be this close to my brother, but it's so damn hard to feel bad about it when it feels this incredible.

Delaney is…a fucking angel.

I move inside her once more, August's fingers on my hip, Delaney's nipples rubbing against me, every single part of my mind and body engaged. I can forget about the tangled mess we made of our relationship if this is my reward for being brave enough to not only come to my senses, but to work through my demons and take accountability for the major part I played in making us crash and burn.

But finally the three of us are reunited. Things are going to be different now that she's got other mates; I'll have to learn to share her even more, but that just means we have to wring more orgasms out of her. Surely that's the way forward. Very logical.

I still my hips for just a moment, wanting to breathe her in.

I take her mouth and I treat it gently, even though we're covered in sweat and her slick, because there should always be time to be tender with the woman I love. "I love you so much. Buried inside of you is my favorite place to be, but just feeling you against me, kissing you, a man could survive off this alone."

"I…don't know if I can hold back anymore, Jackson. It's getting hard to control. It hurts."

She bites her lip and pulls away from me, trembling as she buries her face into my neck.

"What hurts? What are you guys doing to her?" Ash asks, sounding somewhat frantic.

My brother is asking questions as well, confused, but I let my shield drop and I feel it. There's a deep pull of magic coming from her, wanting me to wrap myself in it and never look back.

I reach for her hand, the one connected to her mate marks, and I link our fingers together and lay it on her side so I can see her arm clearly. Then I kiss her shoulder and make my way down her arm, as far as I can go without pulling myself from the warmth of her body. "Your magic needs out?" I ask, just to confirm.

"Just…give me a minute," she pants.

"Give her relief! You spoke of wanting to do to it all for her—here is your first chance and you're failing! My mate is suffering. You will fix it!"

Delaney reaches for Ash after his demands, but she can't go anywhere speared onto us both like she is. "Can you kiss me? It might help."

Ash doesn't even take the time to formulate a response, if it's within his grasp he's going to give it to her. I can sense that.

They have to kiss over me, with Ash more or less leaning on top of my naked body, but he's still clothed so it's not too awkward.

"Can somebody please explain what's happening with her magic? Why is she uncomfortable?" I really need to have a conversation with my brother on how to access the parts of his brain that think critically when he's using his dick.

"I think she needs to let her magic fall where it wants to fall. She's having to hold it back, and being active with us like this is…not comfortable?" I ask Delaney, hoping for clarification again as I do my best to figure it out.

She nods, trying to burrow between my brother and I more.

"Let her magic…" August puzzles out loud, still not getting it.

"My magic wants to claim you," She finally shouts.

"Then what the fuck are you waiting for, woman? I'm buried inside you, kind of feels like this could be the perfect time to make that happen." My brother, ladies and gentlemen. Quite the evolved sense of romance.

Delaney's eyes open to look to me first before she can reply to him, because she still must believe that I didn't mean it when I said I needed her. She's looking for approval, for permission, because she thinks she's being some sort of damn inconvenience by accepting a gift from the goddess.

We can't have that. "Baby, we are blessed to have found you. You say you wear these marks for us, that means we're already yours. We were yours that first goddamn day we saw you at the ball, and nothing else matters.

"If you're struggling to keep yourself in check you have two options. One, you don't touch either of us again until you're ready for that step; or two, you say fuck it and let us be claimed the way the goddess intended for us all. That one ends in some incredible orgasms, so I must admit I'm rooting for that one.

"If you want the first option though, we support that. We know we're working towards that outcome regardless, and maybe this timeline is faster than we were thinking, but that doesn't make it wrong. It can't be wrong if it's you and it's me and it's August. Nothing about us is wrong, do you understand me? Tie us to you. Make us yours in body and blood and allow us to become your mates."

August doesn't say anything else, but I do see a tear slip out of his eye as he leans over to press a kiss to the side of her head. Then to remind her what they were doing, just in case she somehow forgot, he begins to thrust inside of her. Slowly.

"That's, oh—"

"Too right," I say. "You going to make a decision or are you going to make us force it out of you?"

"I—"

"Brother?" I ask, knowing he'll know exactly what I mean.

"Brother."

With a nod, we give in and take over. "You might want to scoot back just a bit Ash, you're definitely in the splash zone."

"Just take away her discomfort, please. Don't make her wait for something she needs."

He crawls to the foot of the bed, staring at her toes curiously. Whatever. He can have ‘em.

As for me and my brother, we begin to set our pace, sawing in and out of her. We start at a slow even pace that says it's Sunday afternoon, but then we're ramping it up until we're thrusting like a couple of sluts on a tailgate at the overlook.

"Fuck!" Delaney is sounding quite impatient.

"We...are…" I bite out, wondering where the confusion lies.

"I didn't mean…oh my gods, you're really going to force me to do this aren't you? Aren't you worried about this? You can't take this back when you decide you're done playing with it."

"Don't need any damn receipts," August hisses out, flipping us so that he's now on his back and I'm moving my legs farther apart to accommodate topping both of them. Because that's absolutely what this feels like.

I bite her breast until I know that my teeth will leave a mark, the roughness inside me rising to the surface and clawing itself out. My hips are pumping furiously now, the bed is creaking madly, and my back is starting to strain but I won't stop until she's screaming and letting go of all that hard won control.

"You want to keep playing baby? Give in. It's going to feel so damn good." I can feel her magic so close to the surface now that my barriers are all gone, and I'm desperate to know what it will feel like to be really hers.

"Perhaps I can be of assistance," Ash says at hip level, snaking a hand between us with a polite ‘pardon me.'

He begins to work her clit, his other hand inching its way towards her neck where he begins to put pressure, choking her enough to make her focus that much harder.

I feel the telltale signs of impending doom, her body tightening around me and pulling at me, punishing me for daring to fuck her so thoroughly. I feel that extra muscle pull deep within her body and I know I don't possess nearly the same amount of control in this department as she does, because I cannot hold this orgasm back any more than I can control the tides of the ocean.

With my fingernails digging into August's shoulders beneath me and my whole body fucking sacrificing everything to get Delaney where she needs to go, she finally gives in completely.

Time suspends itself as she comes all over me and my brother, her body rippling internally and choking me out, her scream bouncing off the walls and coming back to us. I'm actually worried about the integrity of the windows after that decibel if we want to swap thoughts.

As long as she's screaming, we continue to pump, regardless of the amount of sweat now pouring off of us. Every thrust is met with a wet squelch, and I decide to press the issue a little further.

"Fucking love you, Delaney. Want you to be mine forever. Til' my balls are wrinkly and my hair is gray and your tits are down to your belly button. Want to spend weekends in bed and fight over stupid shit like who forgot to put milk on the shopping list. I need you more than I need anything else in the world. Please, make me your mate. Give me your heart and trust that I'm going to worship it forever. I promise to support you in all things, to care for you and make sure you're always as happy as you can be."

"Make us your mates," August chimes in too, "because the thought of living any single second without you would be torture. We were made to love you Delaney, and you were made to let us."

She rapidly blinks as her eyes as her whole body goes lax, arms flopping back and her mouth hanging open as her head lulls slightly to the side. I still, worried that something bad happened, but then I feel it. A tingly, cool wave washes over me, singeing the inside of my skin and racing down my arm, branding me.

It messes with my head, rewriting who I've been my entire life, putting everything into the perspective it should have always been in. She's my center now, my reason for doing anything.

The fear of having no thoughts outside of her suddenly feels comical. The circles on her arm begin to fill in from top to bottom, first my brother's and then mine, each an identical shield bearing two swords crossed behind them (how incredibly fucking appropriate), and a metallic rose etched in the middle. The only difference between the two is that August's shield has a gold rose while mine is rose gold, matching the marks that appear on our arms like tattoos. Right after that, a thick band wends its way around the base of my fourth finger, marking me plainly for anyone that cares to look.

And then it's done. My life is irrevocably tied to my soul mate and I feel like crying and smiling and fucking and…just all the things.

"Mine," I say, taking her mouth in a kiss and breathing her in. I pass her head to August as I roll to the side to prevent him getting squished any more, and I feel the connection that we all share now just under my breastbone. A tether linking all of us together.

"Well done," Ash says, stroking her calf. "That was beautiful. I'll get the shower going for you guys and bring up some water. Congratulations."

The weird thing is he actually means it. He's congratulating us for making his mate ours as well. It's that that allows to me relax a bit further, letting the smile win over in the fight for dominance. "I just got mated."

"I think you mean we, dear brother. What else can we do together? I bet we can tackle anything. Might need to keep our mate at the other end of our cocks to accomplish it though. You reckon that's doable?"

"Maybe later. I think I just worked my dick down to a nub. It needs to regrow first."

This statement is either more shocking than I expected it to be or it has caused the other two people in the room to have a spontaneous deep moral think on the issue. Because they're both silent, filling the room with nothing but the sounds of heavy breathing and…

"Oh my gods, are you being an astronaut again? I thought we were past that part in the sex thing," Delaney wheezes to my brother.

"Hey, if he wants to be an astronaut, let him be an astronaut. You want him to lose all his dreams because he dicked you down like you wanted? You should just…we need to get you cotton candy. Surely that will fix…everything."

I stumble out of bed to the sounds of my brother being an absolute legend with his rocket noises and do this super cool slinky move down the stairs. That needs to become a permanent part of my daily routine; why have I never gone downstairs like that before?

When I get to the bottom I'm on my head with my spent nubby cock still out, trying to make sense of the scene in the living room. Ash is speaking in angry noises to a man that looks like an older version of him.

"You stop that! He's my cotton candy supplier and I'll not have you threatening our happiness! What do you want, anyway? You can't come here; you're wearing the wrong color shirt!"

I shove the man out the door and I lock it, dusting my hands off and pushing a stunned (likely by my amazing prowess in defending his keep) Ash Wilder— can we talk for a second about how fucking epic his name is? I need to tell him this.

"Ash, buddy. Can you roar for me? Your name…something about cotton candy. Do you have cotton candy?"

He doesn't respond but continues to stare at the door I locked like a good boy, so I walk him to the bar stool nearby and help him into it (read: shove him onto his ass) and walk to his fridge to retrieve him a refreshing beverage.

I start collecting accoutrements and piling them on the counter, wanting to make him the most bomb drink ever.

Of course he chooses that moment to come to his senses like a total wanker. "What on earth are you doing? Are you aware you just threw my father, the pride male, out of my home? And you're completely naked. Do you realize you're not wearing any clothing?"

"We decided to start a nudist colony. But only when we're here," I add, searching his cabinets for a glass.

"For goddess' sake, please stop. Why are you behaving like this?"

"Did you see my nub of a wiener that Delaney left me with? Do you think I can still piss out of it? It's so little now." I frown down at it, flicking the side of it hoping that will do something.

"HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!" my incredibly handsome brother screams from the bedroom.

"Oh no," I say, immediately scrambling for the love of my life and my twin brother who has likely just discovered his nub as well.

"I'm coming brother!"

I decide the slinky thing isn't as effective when I'm going up the stairs, because apparently there's still gravity here even though my brother clearly flew us to the moon. So I crawl my way up the stairs and to where I left my bedmates.

"Oh thank goddess. Can you help me get him into the shower? He won't walk. He keeps saying he doesn't have the correct breathing apparatus."

"Well he's right," I inform Delaney, but maybe I can breathe for him since I'm not an astronaut.

"Two for one and one for two!" I pull him over my shoulder and aim for the bathroom, doing another good boy job of getting the water on so I can retrieve our mate and look for the rest of my wiener while we bathe.

I think I need to look in depth between her legs.

"What on earth happened between you all finishing and me walking downstairs? Did you all decide to take some recreational drugs or something? Are we all hallucinating? Somebody please make it make sense!"

I blow a raspberry at Ash as I lay out some towels for us, making a nice butt print on the glass of Ash's shower door for later.

"Since I mated them and I'm a conduit and a bodysmith, they're high."

"From what though?" Ash asks, like a total downer.

"From me. My mother warned me about this. It's rare because bodysmiths don't take formal mates often, being that there are so few of us that are conduits, but it's really potent. It will wear off in a little bit, I promise it's not permanent."

I look to my darling mate so I can pull her into the shower, only to see she's laughing at us without laughing at us. Do you know what I mean? She has that look on her face that says she finds us hilarious but she doesn't want to laugh out loud so her face is just a bit wrinkled up and her mouth looks all funny.

"And this will happen…each time you have intercourse with a mate?"

"…yes?"

"But why aren't you affected the same?"

She shrugs as she finally enters the domain of the bathroom. She has to speak louder to Ash in order to be heard over the sound of the shower. "Because I'm the cause of it. If I were to…swallow the cum of someone I'm bonded to, I'm told that that would get me high."

"Told by whom? Who the hell knows these things?"

"Ash baby, you need to get your dick wet. Come on. You'll feel better." Look at me doing another good deed.

"I will not!" Ash very stubbornly chooses to remain dry, not at all concerned about any rogue aliens that may be in the atmosphere.

"Come see my moon rocks, Ashy!" August taunts.

I laugh because August is just cupping his balls. The joke is that he's pretending his balls are moon rocks, playing on the astronaut thing he's got going on. I think it sounds fun to deceive Ashy in this way, so I tell a fun fib, too. "Yeah, come see his moon rocks!"

Delaney peeks her head out of the shower, leaving us with the sight of her delicious ass. "I think they literally just want you in the shower. They want you to get wet with us. You don't have to touch the moon rocks, I promise."

Ashy comes in finally and my brother and I go in on a group hug because we're brother mates now. "We're gonna be the best of friends, Ashy."

My brother nods, counting backwards to blastoff before leaning over and blowing a gloriously long raspberry into Delaney's boobs. Fuck that's admirable.

"Delaney?" Ash asks, sounding somewhat terrified.

"Sorry, Ash, but you'll likely be ridiculous later too when we get to this point. Enjoy being sober?"

He looks to me and my brother, biting his lip like he's just not sure about his pizza toppings, then goes all in on hugging Delaney. "I feel like we need to have some discussions about your family and the knowledge they impart to you. You promise these two will go back to normal in a little bit?"

"MOONROCKS!"

"Those are testicles, August," Ashy tells him.

"Damnit. I thought I really had something there." My brother holds a straight face for a whole three seconds before snickering and then spewing laughter all over us. Gross. That's kind of an icky visual, isn't it?

Then I have to glare at Ashy because my brother then starts to cry, because how dare Ashy call him out like that. I leave Delaney to deal with Ash's lack of imagination, but she pets my head before addressing Ash, so we're all good.

"I promise they won't stay like this. And…I'm sorry about earlier, the roar thing. My lioness didn't like you being so far away. I'm more in control now."

"You don't need to control yourself around me." He leans down and kisses her, effectively ending their conversation.

Good for them. Honestly, tongue is always the answer. Tacos, too.