Chapter Twenty-Eight

Melody knew she was being uncharitable by being pissed at them now. After all, she’d been the one who told them to work out their issues when she left. And the truth was, she’d spent the last three weeks trying to mentally prepare herself for the eventuality that they worked them out so well they never actually came for her.

Hell, for all she knew now, they had merely shown up to tell her she was right—that they really did love each other after all and to thank her for showing them the truth.

She could live with that, couldn’t she?

Garen’s looming shape stepped up behind Skye, a protective glower on his face as he watched Alec disappear into the house with her mother in his arms. When Alec disappeared, Garen’s expression softened and he rested a hand at Skye’s waist, fingers digging in ever so slightly. Melody didn’t miss the gesture.

Still, their expectant looks confused her. Her irritation subsided in the midst of it. If they’d found each other finally, and for real, who was she to get between them? Her heart ached at the thought of losing them both, but she would survive if she had to. Coming home had made her realize that much, at least. If her mother could last two decades, so could she.

Except goddamn if she didn’t already know who she loved now, just as much as her mother had known she loved Alec all those years ago—enough to wait for him. And waiting out a relationship between two men who clearly loved each other just as much wasn’t something she thought she could do. Especially not when the two of them could outlive her by several centuries.

In a shaky voice, she said, “You guys should come inside so we can talk.”

They both eyed the front porch with some trepidation. Melody sighed. “He’s fine. As long as Mom’s fine, anyway. And if she isn’t, then Alec’s got nothing on what I’ll do to you. Come on.”

They trailed after her like a pair of puppies—two very large, chastened yellow Labradors, with their shining golden hair and wide shoulders. They all paused just inside the door at the sound of Melody’s mother cursing like a sailor.

“I’m fine! I don’t need any more fucking ice. I need to see those two again. Prove to myself they exist! Naked men don’t just appear out of thin air in my goddamn garden every day.”

“Naked men, huh?” Melody asked, stepping through the door. “I think you might’ve gotten heat stroke, Mama. They’re right here and they’re definitely not naked.”

“Oh, there you are, honey. And you didn’t see what I saw, either. That one …” she pointed at Garen, “Is hung like an ox, and that one …” she aimed an accusatory finger at Skye, “Had an ~erection~ when he saw me. It was pretty damn huge, too.”

Skye cleared his throat and Melody heard him mumble, “Thought she was you …” when she glared at him.

“Are you all right, Mama?” She glanced at Alec who was still crouching at the edge of the sofa beside her mother, a kitchen towel filled with lumpy ice cubes held in his hands.

“I’m fine, honey. Are you going to introduce me to your well-endowed friends?”

Melody closed her eyes, wishing for patience and fortitude and maybe to just disappear. After a second of gathering her sanity, she opened her eyes again and smiled. “This is Garen and Skye.”

Her mother directed her gaze to the men standing just behind her and smiled broadly. “I’m so glad you two could make it. We’ve been expecting you. Melody’s told me so much about you both.”

To her surprise, Garen and Skye both stepped forward and one at a time, bowed low, taking her mother’s free hand in theirs and kissing the smooth back of it.

Her mother looked positively delighted at the deferential treatment, her blue eyes lighting up. She sat up a little straighter, looking more like a regal figure in spite of her messy hair and dirt-streaked plaid shirt that was tied in a knot at her waist. “You’re staying for supper. I’m making a rib roast with summer squash. Melody can show you where to clean up.”

“Mama, are you sure you’re feeling all right? They don’t have to stay, and you ~don’t~ have to cook.”

Her mother glared at her. “Honey, it’s my house. And I’d really love to know how they got here.”

Melody let out a deep breath and shot a beseeching look at Alec. He nodded, resigned understanding clear on his face.

“Julia,” he said. “We need to have a talk—one that’s long overdue. And I’m sure Melody needs some time alone with her friends.”

Melody grimaced inwardly at the conversation that needed to happen the second she did get them alone. Their gazes kept slipping to her. She did her best to keep her focus on her mother while they stood there, both exuding a kind of pent-up need. Not for sex, she didn’t think, but that was precisely where her mind went. Making love to them both within hours of each other had been her tipping point, and seeing them now made her realize how off balance she still was, even after weeks away from them.

The fact that she still wanted them both like crazy didn’t help matters at all.

Her mom tried to object to Alec’s insistence that they go to their room to talk. He gave up arguing and her mom let out a yelp of protest when he hoisted her in his arms.

“I’m not waiting another day for this, Julia. Twenty years is long enough.”

“Alec!” Melody’s mother yelled, but her subsequent words were quickly muffled by his mouth over hers.

Melody raised her eyebrows, impressed at the man’s persistence. He carried her mother to the stairs and kept going, kissing her the entire time.

Their intense affection made her heart ache and she was hesitant to turn back and look at the pair of huge men standing in her mother’s living room. She could feel them both there, their expectant blue and gray gazes on her. They’d come as she’d hoped, but why?

“What do you want from me now?” she said softly, refusing to turn around to face them. “You’re together. That’s all I wanted for you when I left. Why are you here? I broke the contract. It’s over.”

They remained silent while her heart pounded hard in her chest and her entire body ached with the need for their touch.

Garen moved first. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him take a step, as if anxious to get to her. Something in his posture made it clear he intended comfort. That was his M.O., after all.

Skye grabbed his arm and held him back. “It isn’t over, Melody. We need you. I won’t play games with you anymore. We both love you. And we did as you asked, but neither of us is whole without you.”

She turned finally and looked at them both. The sight struck her dumb. Their hands were clasped tightly as though for mutual comfort, and their gazes were fixed solidly on her, so intense she believed she might burst into flames from the way her skin came to life. Her heart rejected her body’s need in spite of the pained look on Garen’s beautiful face. Skye’s own face was lined with fatigue and worry that made him look even older than the last time she’d seen him—though he’d always looked as though he carried some great burden.

Almost too breathless to speak, she managed to force out more words. “You left me. Both of you rejected me. So in my mind, ~you~ broke the contract. Maybe not the written one, maybe some unspoken one, but you failed me. Why should I forgive you for that?”

Skye looked up toward the ceiling where the floor creaked above them with Alec’s footsteps moving into the master bedroom. “Because it’s what he wanted for you. You were meant for a dragon. His blessing as good as aimed you right at us.”

“Oh? So what the hell do I do now? The two of you are clearly together. Don’t tell me you’re prepared to give that up so that one of you can have me.”

“We agreed it would be your choice,” Garen said, his voice low and soft. He released Skye’s hand and glanced at the other man. “Whichever one of us you don’t choose will leave.”

“Just like that, huh? What if I don’t want anything to do with either of you?”

“Then we’ll both go,” Skye said. “But I know that isn’t how you feel.”

“I wish you wouldn’t spy on my emotions that way. Can you even help it?”

“I may as well stop breathing. It’s simply another sense for me and not easy to suppress unless I distance myself. I sense your emotions the same way I can smell how aroused you are right now. And I love how you ~feel~, Melody. It’s so beautiful it hurts sometimes. I fell in love with that aspect of you.”

Melody’s throat tightened. From the floor above, she heard a muffled cry that was distinctly not distress, followed by Alec’s deep, coaxing voice. Great, now her mother was getting lucky and she was standing here faced with the most impossible decision of her life.

“I can’t do this now,” she said, and turned and ran from the room.

The tears came just as the screen door banged shut behind her. They wanted her to choose? How on God’s green earth could she possibly pick between them? She stumbled down the steps from the back deck and fled down the garden path, her sight blurry, but she moved on autopilot, her legs carrying her toward her personal sanctuary.

The path down to the creek was eroded from lack of use, and she nearly fell twice as the leaf-strewn slope gave way beneath her feet. The sound of the rushing water calmed her the closer she got, as did the cooler air coming off the mountain stream as it burbled over the rocks. She found the large, worn boulder in spite of being nearly blind and breathless from crying and finally fell to her knees on its sun-dappled surface.

Familiar sounds washed over her, the rustling of the trees in the wind and the buzz of the forest reminding her of all the hours she’d spent in this very spot as a young girl, enjoying the solitude.

Today it failed to have the same effect, however. She no longer wanted to be alone. By spending the last few years intent on her goal to travel the world with her mother, she had never made room in her life for love—had strove for the opposite, in fact. But now that Alec was back and her mother’s happiness wasn’t in question, Melody had lost her purpose.

Seeing Alec and her mother together again made her heart ache to have what they had. But what Skye and Garen offered would only fulfill half of her need.

She turned her head sharply at the sound of leaves crunching behind her. Wiping her eyes she blinked at Skye, worried at the stricken look on his face. She followed his progress toward her, yet he avoided meeting her gaze directly until he stood only a few feet away from her resting place on the rock.

He seemed to struggle with words for a second. His lips parted but nothing came out as his throat worked with a harsh swallow.

In a rough voice he said, “It isn’t easy for us, either. We’d be losing something, no matter what choice you make.”

“Why?” she said, beseeching him for some kind of answer. “Why are you making me do this?”

He turned his gaze away from her, staring down at the rushing water of the creek. “You should choose him,” he said. “I don’t deserve you, and you may be the only woman on earth who he can be with—who fulfills him.”

“But you fulfill him, too,” she whispered. “He loves you.”

Skye turned an agonized gaze to her. “I love him, too. And you. The contract was only intended to break Kol’s bond with you, to take advantage of the blessing Alec gave you in the hope that you’d make a good mate for me. Kol owed me a favor—I was meant to take over the bond, but you and Garen grew so close … When I saw that happen, I knew you had to be for him.”

She gaped at his confession, her chest tightening like it was trapped in a vise. “Then why did you make love to me the way you did? Why did you let me fall in love with you?”

“It’s my nature to possess beautiful things, Melody. My instincts took over in spite of my wish for the opposite to happen. I hoped that if I took it too far, it would push you away … push you closer to him. But it was too late for me to back down and it was too late for me to hold my own feelings in check. He made me promise I would let you choose, but I’m here to tell you it has to be him. I can easily find another mate. It won’t be so easy for him, though.”

“I’m glad I’m so easy for you to replace,” she said, shocked at the bitterness in her tone. She hated him a little bit for his suggestion.

Skye winced and shook his head. “You are irreplaceable, Melody. You and Garen are the two people I love the most. I would rather see the two of you happy together than to hurt either one of you. I can survive simply knowing you both have someone.”

“No.” The vehemence in her tone made him jerk his head up from staring at the ground.

“What do you mean?”

“I won’t choose. Not today. I need more time.” She really wanted to tell them both to leave, to be together and be happy, but something stopped her. Her heart ached to be near them again, even if it was only for a few days before she sent them away. Even if she didn’t intend to touch either of them, being able to just see them for a little while before they were out of her life for good would be worth it.

“Fine,” Skye said, nodding. “We’ve been allowed leave from our other duties to see this through. We’ll stay until you make a decision. I hope you’ll consider what I told you, though.”