Chapter Eleven

And then it was just us, and the elephant that had stepped into the room before we were interrupted.

"So we are both your mates?" I had to reiterate the fact, mostly because my panther wanted me to. Fyn had been bold in telling us that we were his mates and, despite my hesitation, relief flooded me.

Walking away from him and Zeus wouldn't have been easy.

"Yes," Fyn said, blushing and biting on his bottom lip. Adorable. I couldn't wait to do some nibbling on him myself.

"That's really good. I was so disappointed when you said you had already made a match and it wasn't me," I chuckled, and Zeus did as well.

"I have to say, when I saw you on the train, there was an instant connection. Had no idea that I would come here and we'd share an omega, but I'm not sad about it. Not one bit."

I took the motel in, noticing a large common area that had been neglected for quite some time. Broken benches and a large forgotten fountain all that had been mostly reclaimed by the earth with her twisting vines and weeds that could grow no matter the soil.

"That's a fairy queen," Thia said, tugging on the leg of my jeans.

"What is?" I crouched down to her level. I'd never really been around children much, but I'd seen parents get down to their level to speak to them. Thia, I'd learned on the train, was a chatterbox, but I needed to know what the princess saw in the garden.

"See that lady?" She took my chin in her hand and moved it a bit. She was talking about the statue of some goddess that was once the pinnacle of the fountain.

"I see that lady. You think she's a fairy queen?"

"She is." Thia rolled her eyes. "How do we bring her to life?"

How indeed? Thia became busy with waving her wand, tapping different blades of grass and telling them to wake up. Princess. Fairies. Wands. Before long, I was caught up in all sorts of ideas, painting the garden into a wonderland in my mind.

"Ripley." Fyn's voice grabbed my attention and dragged it out of my dreaming.

"Yeah?" I asked, standing up and trying to stamp all the ideas firmly out of my head.

"Did we lose you there? We were talking about our picnic." Zeus reached down to pick up Thia once she stopped blessing the plants and had her arms up for his attention.

"Yes. Sorry. It's not you two. It's me. I got caught up in envisioning what that garden could be like. It would certainly invite tourists to come visit. Hell…heck, I mean, it could be an attraction all on its own."

Fyn and Zeus looked to the garden, but their gazes lacked enthusiasm.

"Forgive me," Zeus said. "Are you a landscaper?"

I nodded. "I am. I actually own a landscaping business."

Fyn scoffed. "Don't let him fool you into thinking this was some kind of grass-cutting side hustle, Zeus. Ripley owns this huge landscaping architecture place. He's been in every magazine and has planned celebrity home gardens. He's landscaper famous."

"I handed over ownership of that company recently but this place is begging for attention."

"What did you have in mind?" Zeus stepped over so that he could stand shoulder to shoulder with me. Thia put her hand on my shoulder.

"The fountain could be restored, but I was thinking something whimsical and purely fantasy. Maybe a unicorn shooting water from its horn. The benches could be turtles, so people could sit on their backs…" I went on, detailing everything I saw in my head.

"I don't know if I can afford all that yet," Fyn confessed. "I have all these renovations on the motel and the cost of getting it up and running."

"One day," I said with confidence.

"It's amazing that you can see all of that. What an imagination."

"Daddy, I'm hungry." Thia's exclamation ended all my daydreaming and brought us back to the present.

The princess desired sustenance.

The weight of our situation weighed on my heart. If Zeus, Fyn, and I were going to embark on this relationship, then that meant we would be a family. Thia would have three dads now and, while that made me happy for the tiny princess, it also made me nervous. I'd never been a father before, but my panther already saw the little one in Zeus' arms as mine. We would protect her from everything. Take care of her as though she was born from this mating.

"I can just find her something to eat if you two don't want to go on a full picnic. We can do it another day."

Thia's bottom lip sticking out ended me.

"Fyn, do you know somewhere we can picnic? And a store we can stop at for food?"

Fyn nodded and took my hand in his. My panther whirred inside me. "We can stop and I know the perfect place," he said. "There's a small park as well."

"Excellent. Then let's go," Fyn said. He tugged on my hand, but when I didn't immediately move, he chuckled. "Ripley?"

"I'm sorry. When I get wrapped up in a design, it kind of takes over. What if I took over the garden? I'll take care of everything."

Fyn sighed. "It's probably a lot more than you were expecting."

"Why not?" I asked. "We're mates, right? And this is what I do."

Fyn and Zeus nodded. Zeus said as we walked over to the car, "What else needs to be done, Fyn? Tell us everything."