Chapter Sixteen
Magnus
Ayelet climbed out of the hotel pool dripping wet.
Harbor called out to him. “Come back.” He held up his beach ball.
Ayelet walked into the shade, grabbed a towel, and lay back on a lounge chair. “Your turn to play with him,” he said. “Our omega never runs out of energy.”
I’d rented a private cabana where a waiter brought us drinks and food. The pool was one of three huge pools at the resort, so it wasn’t too crowded. This was how all Saturdays should be spent.
I got up and walked to the edge of the deep end then dove in, swimming underwater all the way to where Harbor had been left behind. Dragons loved to swim.
I grabbed him around the waist and lifted him out of the water.
Harbor squealed and fell back in a wave of cool water, losing his beach ball. I grabbed it. We played keepaway for a few minutes then a game of volley. He was like a kid, never wanting to leave the water. When I finally got him out, we joined Ayelet and ordered an afternoon meal to eat underneath our cabana.
“Who knew unicorns were water babies, too?” Ayelet remarked.
Harbor puffed out his pretty, hairless chest. “Horses swim very well, I’ll have you know.”
“Unicorns aren’t horses,” I said.
“Well, unicorns only like virgins, too.” He smirked. “Yet here I am.”
“That’s a myth,” Ayelet said.
“Is it?” Harbor wiggled his eyebrows at him.
“That has me wondering,” Ayelet added. “Are unicorns virgins themselves, all pure and chaste until they meet their fated mates?”
Harbor scratched his wet head. “You must be confused. That’s hawk shifter culture.”
Almost one month together, and we were like a family already. We got along well, bonded like magical fated mates were supposed to, and spent all our days off and every night together.
But the time I’d planned to be in San Diego was coming to an end.
The food arrived: dripping cheeseburgers, fat steak fries, tossed salads. We’d all worked up an appetite swimming.
As we ate, I felt it was time to have a serious discussion about my situation.
“Mates, I need to talk about something serious with you both.”
They looked up, eyes wide.
“I only planned to be here a month. I’ve got to go back to the East Coast. My business partner lives there and is demanding I go look at properties in upstate New York.”
Harbor gulped his bite of food. “You’re leaving?”
“I have to. My home is in New York. That’s where my business offices are. And my partner. My clutch. It’s where I grew up.”
Ayelet dropped the French fry he’d been holding and wouldn’t meet my eyes.
Harbor stared at me. “The East Coast?”
I nodded, looking from him to Ayelet and back again.
“Well,” Harbor said. “I suppose I can live anywhere doing my job remotely. I’m not tied down.”
“That’s just it. I’m asking you both. Will you two come with me? I own a beautiful penthouse there. Big enough for the three of us.”
“With double doors and two stories?” Harbor asked.
I reached out and ran my hand down his back. “Not with two stories. But yes to the double doors.”
“I’m in. I like adventure. Maybe I’ll like it.”
I turned to Ayelet. “You’re very quiet.”
He nodded then looked up at me. “I just transferred my job here.”
My heart fell.
“But,” he continued, “maybe I can do some work remotely. Or transfer again.”
“I don’t want to disrupt your life.”
Ayelet gave me a small smile. “Magnus, you don’t disrupt my life. You enhance it. Everything else is a side gig.”
Harbor grinned. “I love that. Are you saying he’s the main course?”
“Yep.”
“What about me?” Harbor asked.
“I’m always hungry,” Ayelet said. “So the Fates decided I get to have two main courses.”
Harbor beamed. “Steak or fish?”
Ayelet reached out to bop him gently on the nose. “We can’t ever get you out of the pool in a timely manner, so fish it is.”
Harbor laughed.
“Ayelet,” I began, still worried about the proposition I’d just put to my mates. “I’m sorry if this disrupts everything.”
“I came to San Diego because of you,” Ayelet said. “Because of the memory from three years ago. I came to look for you. Now I’ve found you. Like I said, my job will have to adapt to me.”
“We’ll take it slow at first. See how we settle.”
Both Harbor and Ayelet nodded.
“Plus, we can always come back here for extended vacations.”
“Can we stay at this very same resort again? In the penthouse?” Harbor asked.
“Yes, we can.”
I looked to Ayelet, sensing hesitation through our bond. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah. I am. Wherever you two are, I am complete.”
I believed him, but I also knew he loved the ocean and had wanted that in his life, as well. Sand. Salt. Seaweed. I loved it, too.
“We’ll come back. Several times a year,” I said. “I promise.”
Harbor clapped his hands. “I love it here. Vacations in San Diego. What more could I ask?”
“We’re in agreement, then?” I asked.
My mates nodded.
“Can you both be ready to go in five days?”
“Oh no. What will I do with my van?” Harbor hung his head.
“We can store it. And later, have it delivered,” I said.
“Yeah. Okay.”
“I’ve barely unpacked myself,” Ayelet said. “I’ve been spending all my nights with you two at the penthouse. It will be easy to be ready. I’ll store the new furniture and washer and dryer I bought.”
It was settled. But that night, I sensed a sadness in Ayelet. In bed, I embraced him gently. He bent to me, asking to be filled.
My beautiful, willowy gazelle was graceful in all areas of life, including this. It was like doing a dance to make love to him. Harbor lay alongside him, kissing him, stroking him from the front. Together, we brought our gazelle to peaks of ecstasy, reminding him how greatly loved and revered he was.