Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80439 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 402(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 268(@300wpm)
“I don’t think that will be necessary. One spectacle should have been enough to prove my conquest of the pair of you.” Drako deadpans the response, ignoring my sarcastic tone.
“So conquered,” I respond. “Oh, my gods, how will I ever handle how conquered I am?”
Drako reaches out and grips the hair at the back of my head in a firm fist. My words die off into a light squeak.
“That’s what I thought,” he says.
“You love us,” I say. “That’s why you kept us. You kill people all the time. You love me and you love Thor and you want to kiss us and keep us as your own forever, and that is fine, but I would like more dessert options.”
Drako cocks his head at me, and I know he’s working out whether or not I can take another fucking right now. I absolutely cannot.
“You are going to be a very sore, very well bred girl for a very long time,” he says.
I tend to agree.
He releases me and drops a sweet, almost chaste kiss on my lips. “I do love you,” he says. “And yes, Thor, in a different way, there is love for you too. The two of you came to my world having escaped death, and over and over again you survived when you had no right to. You are strong, and you are righteous, and a little insufferable, but you are wise. I claim you as much as I claim her.”
I feel tears pricking my eyes. I never thought Drako would admit out loud that he actually likes Thor.
Thor gives Drako a long stare. “You’re a monster,” he says. “A very bad person. You kill without consideration for life. You take what you think is yours without any concern as to whether it is or not. You are possessive, you are driven like a madman. You are unpredictable. You are violent.”
“And?” Drako is smirking like he’s waiting for the words we all know are coming.
“And you are my family,” Thor says. “Like family, I don’t get to choose the fact that I too, I love you.”
Silence follows that declaration. I can’t fucking believe he admitted it. I thought for sure he was going to give a speech about justice and all the dead people, and I do wonder about justice and all the dead people. This little expedition of ours has led to untold loss of life. It’s not exactly our fault, but it is definitely Drako’s.
Thor takes a breath and keeps talking. “The three of us have survived a world that tried to kill us at each and every turn. And you and I, Drako, we have been locked in a battle for survival beyond it. If I had won, you would have died. I would have taken you back and seen you hung. In turn, all you wanted from us was a public display of…”
“How hot we are?” I interject. I am feeling more than a little lightheaded at all of this. The adrenaline of being hunted down and publicly mated until my brain didn’t work anymore is starting to fade, but there’s not really a whole lot of good sense left in its wake.
Thor gives me a look. “I love you as a blood brother,” he says. “We have fought for one another as hard as we’ve fought against one another, and the blood bond will stand as long as I remain in your realm.”
“Is that your way of saying you’d still try to have me hanged if you could?”
Thor gives a little shrug. “We are in your custody, Drako. You have won, and our mate is going to have our baby. We are going to be a family. The three of us are bonded. Forever. What I might do if circumstances were different doesn’t matter anymore. We have all fought well. You were the victor. Enjoy your spoils.”
I have been sassy and elated, but hearing Thor finally fucking drop the whole wanting Drako dead thing fills me with emotion. He’s right. The three of us are bonded forever. We can’t exist without each other. My baby is going to need his or her daddies, and I am going to need my mates.
Tears run down my face as the two men I am deeply and inexorably bonded with affirm what my gut has been telling me is true. We are all terrible in our own ways. My sins have not been itemized as Drako’s have been, but I know what they are. I am selfish. I am thoughtless. I am reckless. I rushed to the stars because I was sad that my past no longer held the reality of the memories I held so strongly. In doing so, I abandoned my family.
But I have found new family. I have found those who will grow a new world, the same way my father once did. This is what I was made to do. These are the men I was made to belong to.