NecessaryDecision (9 page)

“I was small for my age.”

“But you weren’t weak.” Gable moved closer, the intensity in
his eyes making Kylar hold his tongue. “You were strong and you’ve only gotten
stronger in spite of how hard that man has worked to keep you down. You’re one
of the best trackers I’ve ever seen, and so much braver than I thought you were
when we first met. Your bravery is… Well, it’s one of the things I’ve come to
love most about you. So please…don’t turn into a coward on me now.”

“Get out of my house.”

“Your father has never told you the truth. He’s played on
your insecurities and your fears and used them to manipulate you. He doesn’t
love you the way you deserve to be loved.” Gable swallowed and his hands fisted
at his sides. “The way that Varek and I love you. We still want to be your
family. Love doesn’t just give up because things get hard. I know you’re scared
and hurt, but—”

“Get out,” Kylar said, refusing to soften. He wanted to
believe Gable was as sincere as he looked, but he couldn’t. Gable was a gifted
liar. “Get out or I’ll have you whipped tomorrow. In front of the entire
Pride.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

Gable nodded slowly, a new sadness tightening his face.
“Maybe you would.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “It doesn’t
matter. I won’t be here tomorrow.”

“What?”

“I’m leaving. Tonight. Right now.”

The thought made a fresh wave of pain roll through Kylar’s
heart. Gable and Varek were running away together. As a Free member of the
Pride he was obligated to stop them, but he wasn’t going to. Let them go. After
all, he believed all slaves deserved their freedom…just not at the price of his
heart. “Wonderful,” he said. “Good luck to you both.”

“Varek isn’t coming with me,” Gable said. “He doesn’t even
know.”

“What? But—”

“This is my fault. It was my idea to try to love you, and
now…” Gable shook his head. “I couldn’t live with myself knowing I’d taken all
the love in your life away from you and made Varek miserable. I want you both
to be happy.”

“I’ll be happy when you’re out of my house,” Kylar said, but
his voice broke on the last word. A house. This was just a house now because
only Gable and Varek had made it feel like a home.

“I love you,” Gable said, nothing but care in his eyes. “I
want you to be that man who dreamed with me and hoped for a future filled with
love. I don’t want your father to take that from you. You deserve to be loved.”

Kylar laughed, but it was a mean sound. “You think so?”

“I know so. And Varek loves you. Believe that if you believe
nothing else.”

Kylar paused, and some of the bitterness seeped away in the
silence. “Maybe,” he finally whispered. “But he loves you more.”

“He’s loved me longer,” Gable said, “but he doesn’t love
like that. There’s no pecking order. When Varek does something, he does it all
the way. He loves you, and I know you two could be happy together.”

Somewhere, deep inside, Kylar felt Gable’s words ignite a
spark of hope inside him. Maybe he was telling the truth. Maybe he really was
here to sacrifice himself so that the people he loved could be happy. Maybe Gable
was as good a soul as he’d believed from the first. Maybe…

“Your happiness and Varek’s…they’re the only things that
really matter to me.” Gable took a step back toward the window and Kylar’s
heart screamed in protest. Could he really let Gable go, just let him walk out
of here and never see his face again? The thought was…unthinkable. “And maybe…”
Gable took another horrible step. “Well…maybe your father won’t be as angry
about a traditional warrior mating.”

“Fuck my father.”

“Not if he were the last man on earth,” Gable said.

And then Kylar did something even more shocking than the
hope. He smiled, a faint curl of his lips that made a laugh rumble through his
chest. “Gable, I—”

“He can’t take you up on your offer.” The voice came from
outside the window just seconds before Varek vaulted up and over the ledge,
squeezing through with a bit more difficulty than the slight Gable.

“Varek!” Gable’s eyes went wide. “What are you—”

“I can’t let you do this for me. Or for Kylar.” Varek’s eyes
met Kylar’s, asking silently for his help. “You’d never survive alone, Gable.
It would be suicide.”

“No it wouldn’t,” Gable said.

“Yes, it would.” Varek lifted his hands, pleading with Kylar
to protect the man they both loved.
Loved.
He still loved Gable and his
good heart, he still loved Varek and his fierce, protective spirit. They were
still the people he’d come to care for so much. He’d seen through to the core
of them where lies could never survive. Gable’s attempt to right the wrong he’d
done wasn’t a lie, and neither was their love.

“Please, Kylar,” Varek begged. “Don’t let him go.”

Kylar took a long, hard look at Varek’s face, but found
nothing manipulative or selfish in the other man’s expression. All he saw was
care and concern and regret. Varek didn’t want them to end this way. This
wasn’t about who was Free and Unfree, it was about three people who were meant
to be together.

Kylar suddenly didn’t care how the three of them had begun,
just so long as they ended up a family.

“I’m going,” Gable said. “I’m a big boy and—”

“You’re not.” Kylar stood up from his chair, new life
coursing through his veins. It felt like he was seeing clearly for the first
time since he sat down in his father’s study. “You’re a runt and the gentlest
person I’ve ever met. You’d probably be eaten alive before you made it to
Seattle. But…those are two of the things I love about you.”

“They are?” Gable asked, looking at Kylar with eyes that
still feared to hope.

“They are. And I don’t think you should go anywhere.”

“You do?” A shy smile curved Gable’s lips. “You don’t?”

“I do,” Kylar said, turning to Varek. “And I’ll say ‘I do’
to both of you whenever you’re ready. I’ll fucking say it tomorrow if we can
get the Elders to perform the ceremony. Screw my father and everything else.”

“Really?” Tears rose in Gable’s eyes as a real smile broke
across his face. His grin lit up the room, set fire to the last shred of doubt
inside Kylar and burned it to ash.

“Really.” Kylar smiled back. “I love you. Both of you. We
might have started with a lie, but the way we feel about each other is real.”

“It’s the most real thing I’ve ever known.” Varek reached a
hand out to him. Kylar took it and reached his hand out to Gable, who laughed
and threw his arms around both of their necks.

“This isn’t a time to shake hands!” Gable pressed a kiss to
Varek’s cheek, and then to Kylar’s. There, he lingered for a moment, sighing
against Kylar’s skin before moving on to Kylar’s mouth. Their mouths met and
lips parted and Gable’s tongue twined with Kylar’s, sending sweet spirals of longing
through his entire body. And then Varek was behind him.

Varek’s thick arms wrapped around Kylar’s waist far enough
to grab fistfuls of Gable’s shirt and pull them all closer. Gable’s body
pressed against Kylar’s, bringing the hard ridge of his arousal tight against
his own. Behind him, Varek’s erection nudged into his back with an insistence
that left no doubt how much Varek wanted him.

Love ahead, love behind and Kylar wasn’t going to let any of
it go to waste.

“I think we all need to be wearing fewer clothes,” he
mumbled against Gable’s lips. “Now.”

Gable smiled and reached for the bottom of his sweater while
Kylar worked open Gable’s belt and Varek’s busy hands took care of Kylar’s
clothing in record time. “Going for the lube,” Varek said, and took off toward
the master bath. It was the last place they’d used it, when they’d shared a
shower early that morning. Kylar was so glad he wasn’t going to have to go back
to showering alone, or doing anything alone, ever again.

“Hurry.” Kylar stepped out of his pants and reached for
Gable. He ran soft fingers over Gable’s olive skin, down his flat abdomen to
the thick thatch of black hair that sheltered the base of his cock. “It would
have been a shame not to see this ever again,” Kylar said as he wrapped his hand
around Gable’s erection and gave a gentle tug.

“A crying shame.” Gable’s breath caught as Kylar found a
slow rhythm with his hand. A naked Varek returned just as Gable’s head fell
back with a moan.

“You two are…” Varek trailed off as Kylar turned and found
Varek’s cock with his other hand.

“We’re what? Cat got your tongue?” Kylar asked, a hint of a
smile on his face that Varek obviously didn’t miss.

“No, you’ve got my cock. Much better.” The larger man’s eyes
sparkled as he opened the lube and squeezed a dime-sized circle on the head of
his burgeoning erection. “Only thing better would be my cock in your ass.”

“What about
my
ass?” Gable asked, his tone playful
despite the fact that his breath was coming faster with every stroke of Kylar’s
skilled hand.

“Let’s take care of your cock first.” Kylar moved his hand
aside while Varek dribbled lube along Gable’s arousal and then returned to
spread slickness over every inch of his lover’s hot length. He did the same to
Varek. He wanted them both to be ready for what he hoped would happen next. He
stroked them harder, up and down, faster and faster, until their sacs grew full
and Gable began to leak milky fluid. Only when he was certain they were both
slick and aching, both near the edge, did he turn and kneel in front of the
chair he’d been sitting on when they jumped in the window, lean forward and
spread his legs.

“Both of you,” he said, looking over his shoulder. “I want
you both to fuck me.”

Gable sucked in a breath, his eyes glittering. Varek’s cock
twitched with eagerness, but Varek still shook his head. “We don’t want to hurt
you. Let Gable and I—”

“Both. Now.” Kylar tilted his hips, showing them his tight,
pink hole. “I’ve been dreaming about this since that night by the waterfall.”

Varek’s expression wavered. “No. I don’t think—”

“What’s the point of being a shifter if you can’t push your
body a little too far in the name of pleasure?” Kylar asked, with a suggestive
roll of his hips.

Gable smiled, took the lube from the table and smoothed some
onto his thumb. “I think you’re a smart man.” A second later, his thumb was in
Kylar’s ass, probing him open, relaxing his hole, getting him so slick
that—when Gable finally dropped the lube and eased his cock inside—he triggered
nothing but a feeling of fullness and desire. A desire that only blazed
brighter when Varek’s big hands lifted Gable, arranging his knees beside
Kylar’s hips so that Varek’s cock could begin to press inside Kylar’s hole just
beneath Gable’s.

For a moment, there was a flash of pain and a burning
feeling as Varek’s thick head pushed past Kylar’s anal ring and then…more
perfect fullness than Kylar had dreamt he could hold inside him. He was
strained to the limit, forced to take all of the men he loved. He could feel
how tight their cocks pressed together inside of him, hear the moans of ecstasy
as they slowly started to move together—careful, careful, until they couldn’t
be careful anymore.

Faster, faster, deeper, deeper—Varek and Gable drove inside
of him, until all three of them were grunting and moaning and fighting not to
come. Even with nothing but the rough velvet of the chair rubbing against his
cock, Kylar was close to losing himself. When Gable’s hand found him a minute
later, it was all he could do to hold back, to keep from spilling himself into
his lover’s hand.

But he wanted Varek and Gable to come with him, wanted them
to come in his ass, wanted them to come so hard that Kylar would feel the spray
of them deep inside him.

“Come,” he panted. “Come with me.”

“Always,” Varek growled. A second later, he cried out with
the force of his release, a victory cry that sent Kylar spiraling over the
edge. His cock jerked and spasmed in Gable’s hand, making Gable shudder and his
own orgasm sweep him into the tide of pleasure.

“God, I love you,” Gable cried out and Kylar knew he meant
both of them—he and Varek—his two loves who would be inseparable from this
night forward.

No matter what came next, Varek, Gable and Kylar would face
it together. Kylar’s father might disown him, he might never see his mother
again and they might all face challenges from the Pride as the Orion people
moved toward a more tolerant, accepting future. But any sacrifice, any
hardship, would be worth this…magic they created together.

“I’m so glad you chose us,” Gable whispered as they all lay
sprawled on the carpet a few minutes later, too spent to crawl the ten feet to
the bed.

“There was no other choice,” Kylar said, running lazy hands
over the furred thighs of both the beloved people lying close to him. “I love
you.”

“And we love you,” Varek said.

“Yes. We do.” Gable sighed and then they all fell quiet.
Because there was nothing else to be said. The decision was made. They were a
family and would never face any decision alone again.