(The Marriage Groups)Elian (11 page)

Did he give a flying fuck? Not one little bit.

“So he’s asleep?” Corbin inquired softly as he led the way down the stairs and to the library. It was their usual meeting spot. The room where they discussed private matters, where the three of them—now four—went to make love. It was where they went to discuss things without having to stand on ceremony.

It was their sanctuary.

And after having almost lost their coração, their husband, the young man they were all starting to fall for, they needed the library. They needed that sanctuary, that place of peace. They needed each other.

“Yes,” Gaige nodded.

The library door swung open when one of the servants standing outside of it pressed a sequence of buttons to unlock it. The entire palace had been placed on lockdown during the failed kidnapping attempt and the servants were trying to return things to normal, but they were all a little shaken up.

They’d almost lost Elian, the Royal Coração.

“What the hell is going on?” Nevin asked angrily, slamming his fist down on top of the desk he had moved to sit behind. Gaige looked at his husband and watched as Nevin speared his long, thick fingers through his thick black hair and felt his groin tighten. This was not the time to be getting aroused. It was highly inappropriate and not something that Gaige would usually find so arousing, but he found he couldn’t help himself.

He heard Corbin chuckle and he turned to look at him. Quirking an eyebrow, he waited for Corbin to speak, which meant waiting for him to stop laughing. When his laughter had tuned into gasping pants of laughter, Gaige realized that his husband was in shock. He turned to look at Nevin, intending to ask him what he thought they should do about Corbin only to find the older man muttering, raking his fingers through his hair, and then slamming his fist down on the table. When Gaige felt his cock squirt pre-cum into the satin drawers he wore, he realized that he and his husbands were all reacting to the stress they’d found themselves under. They were all handling it differently, but they were dealing with it in their own way. Corbin was laughing hysterically, Nevin was ill-tempered, and Gaige was aroused.

He wanted to fuck. He wanted to fuck one of his husbands. He wanted to crush Elian to his chest and reassure himself that the other man was still alive.

As if his thoughts had conjured him, Elian whispered his name and Gaige whipped around to look at him. Corbin’s laughter stopped abruptly and Nevin leapt from his chair, the piece of furniture collapsing to its side behind him.

“Elian?”

“Are you okay?”

“Shouldn’t you be resting?”

“How are you feeling?”

“Do you want something to eat?”

“Did you have a nightmare?”

Their questions jumbled together, all of them tumbling over the others and Gaige felt his head swimming with the barrage of words. Which would explain why Elian blinked slowly at them as if he were in a daze.

“I’m fine. I’m not tired. I’m confused. I’m not hungry. And no, I didn’t have a nightmare,” Elian answered each question and gave them a small smile. “I woke up alone.”

Gaige looked at Nevin and then over to Corbin before looking at Elian. None of them had even considered how Elian would feel when he woke up and found them missing. Especially after everything that had happened.

“We’re sorry,” he apologized.

Elian shrugged, “It’s okay. Just—just why did you guys come in here?”

Gaige echoed Elian’s shrug and felt his face flush slightly. “This is sort of our—”

“Sanctuary,” Corbin and Nevin spoke simultaneously. They all laughed and Gaige’s gaze followed Elian as he stepped further into the room. He opened his arms, hoping Elian would step into them. He was pleased when Elian did so and breathed in the intoxicating scent of his lover when Elian laid his head on his shoulder. Peace washed over him as he held his small husband against his chest, shoving away the disturbing images of what could have happened had they not defeated the intruders from earlier. The horrible things that could have occurred if Andalusia had not taken over Elian’s body.

“El G?” he queried softly.

“Yea?” Elian responded, lifting his head to look up into Gaige’s gaze.

“How did it feel?” Gaige asked curiously.

“Being filled with Andalusia you mean?” Elian asked.

Gaige nodded, still in awe over the fact that his husband had been chosen and used by the deity to defeat their enemies. He watched as Elian’s brows furrowed as he thought about how to respond. Gaige waited patiently and was distantly aware of Nevin and Corbin doing the same.

“It was weird. Powerful. Humbling. I felt as if my body were being heated from the inside out, but I also didn’t feel as if I had any control over what was going on. I felt both powerful and helpless at the same time.” Elian’s gaze lowered and his brown skin tinged with red. “Sort of how I feel when you're making love to me.”

Gaige grinned and smiled at his husbands over Elian’s head. That was the best compliment he’d ever received in his life. Who knew that making love to his husband would feel like being possessed by the most powerful deity alive? Gaige wanted to beat his chest and howl like an animal, but he knew that if he did that his secret would be out, and he’d been keeping it much too long to slip up and expose himself now. He’d learned the hard way that Kardalusians were not all affable towards Zevinxians. Many were afraid of the power, the insight into Andalusia that many of them possessed. They were afraid of the animalistic properties of the Zevinxian nature and while his people hadn’t always been ostracized—had in fact once been considered Kardalusians themselves—nowadays displaying any of his Zevinxian nature could have him incarcerated.

After being beaten to a bloody pulp.

He didn’t believe that his husbands would do that to him, but he also knew that Nevin adhered strictly to the laws passed down by his fathers. Gaige was still attempting to encourage Nevin to think more for himself, to pass his own laws and to do away with the ones that were discriminatory, but to no avail. Nevin always smiled at Gaige and told him he would take it under advisement. Meanwhile, Zevinxians continued to be hunted in the streets and jailed merely for being who they were.

“Where did you go, Gaige?” he heard Elian’s voice as if through a fog, and he blinked away his musings.

“N-nothing much. Just the Zevinxians,” he admitted the half-truth.

He heard Corbin’s snort and grimaced. Corbin’s distrust and dislike for Zevinxians went back to his brother, Jestin, who had been severely injured when he was attacked by a group of Zevinxians. The attack had left Jestin in a wheelchair, dependent upon his family and friends. Corbin had left his younger brother outside when he’d gone to pay their bill at the Lowez, one of the most reputable restaurants in Kartas, and returned when he heard the shouts and pleas for help. Ever since that moment, Corbin had detested Zevinxians, and when Gaige had joined Nevin and Corbin’s Marriage Group, Gaige hadn’t the heart, nor the courage, to tell them both of his heritage.

And he didn’t have the balls to do so now, either.

“What about them? You know, I’ve never really understood why they are so hated, so detested,” Elian admitted, his face still pressed into Gaige’s chest.

Gaige’s chest tightened as he heard Elian’s words. They were spoken with such innocence, and Gaige felt himself wanting to pump his fist at his husband’s compassionate statement. He gave a small smile and looked up into Nevin and Corbin’s faces. Both men had speculative looks on their faces and Gaige waited to see what their reactions would be before he said anything. He watched as Corbin and Nevin shared a look before they both smiled fondly at Elian.

“Your view is not common, El,” Nevin responded. “Most Kardalusians don’t care too much for Zevinxians.”

Elian pulled away from Gaige and shrugged. Gaige swallowed back his whine of protest, his arms suddenly felt empty without the smaller man nestled in them. He couldn’t understand this need he had for the other man, especially so quickly. It made no sense.

“It makes them no better than the humans on Earth, discriminating against and hating those who they don’t understand or don’t agree with. At least in my opinion,” Elian stated firmly.

As Corbin and Nevin talked to Elian about the Zevinxians, Gaige let his mind wander back to the moment when one of the Zevinxian priests told him who his coração would be.

****

G
AIGE
stepped into the chapel and immediately knelt. Making the sign of Andalusia, he muttered a quick prayer for guidance before rising to his feet and walking towards the altar. The gold wood platform was covered in candles and incense wafted up from the center, a delicious aroma of carnoses, night blooming jasilies, and vanilamon. He knelt before the altar and began to pray:

Greatest Andalusia, I find myself at a loss. My friends are all marrying their coraçãos and entering into Marriage Groups and I am still alone. Perhaps it was my own arrogance, but I have always felt as if I were meant for something more, something greater; that my coração would be something special and that it would, in turn, make my marriage to him special. Perhaps I am called to be alone? To devote myself to your service for all my days? Please guide me and speak to me clearly.

Gaige’s prayer was interrupted by the feel of a hand on his shoulder. Opening his eyes, he turned his head and found himself looking into the eyes of Wellyne, one of the high priests of the Zevinxian temple. He gave the older man a smile and rose to his feet, turning to face him directly. He looked into the glowing red eyes of the priest and tried not to shiver. He would never get used to the red eyes all of the priests developed after devoting themselves to Andalusia. It wasn’t that the color scared him, it just… freaked him out a little.

“You are seeking the wisdom of Andalusia, young Mr. Nobriga?” the priest asked him.

Gaige nodded, lowering his head in deference to the other man’s exalted position. Wellyne was one of the tallest priests in the temple and yet Gaige had a whole foot on his five-foot-six-inch frame. He watched as Wellyne’s eyes moved over his body slowly, assessing Gaige’s appearance, and he shuffled his feet nervously. He knew that Wellyne’s gaze wasn’t sexual, but it still caused a riot of butterflies to fly throughout his belly.

“And what has our lord revealed to you?” Wellyne asked.

Gaige shook his head. Andalusia had revealed nothing to him. He had no answers for his questions and felt just as lost as he had before walking into the chapel. He heard Wellyne’s grunt and then watched as he grew extremely still. The older man’s eyes glowed and his hands trembled, a white light shining around the digits. Gaige watched in fascinated horror. He knew that Wellyne was experiencing a prophetic episode and he felt honored and privileged that he was able to witness the spiritual occurrence. There weren’t too many Zevinxian priests who received prophecies, and Kardalusian priests who had them were practically nonexistent. A low groan emanated up from Wellyne’s chest as if he were experiencing the most euphoric feeling, as well as the most horrific of pains, simultaneously. Just as soon as it started, Wellyne’s body returned to normal and he looked at Gaige with wonder lighting his eyes.

“You have been chosen to bring about a new Kardalusia, Gaige. Your coração will give birth to the first Kardalusian female. She will possess great strength and power; she will be touched by Andalusia himself. And she will not be the first, for your coração will give birth to a number of girls, and it will spark a change in the wombs of all coraçãos and our planet will become stronger for it. But be watchful, for this prophecy has been received by one who seeks to do harm to your coração, for it is not only the daughters he will have that makes him a treasure, for he is the first Kardalusian who will be able to choose his own destiny. He is a marvel and should be treated as such. You must travel to Kartas, for your place is no longer here among our people. You will be a royal in Kartas, you will bring change, not just for our people, the Zevinxians, but also for Kardalusia as a whole.”

Gaige listened intently as Wellyne delivered the prophecy and felt his body begin to quiver as the enormity of the priest’s words settled on his shoulders. Why had he been chosen? Why him? He had done nothing to warrant being given such an amazing calling, such an important duty and yet, it was to him the words had been spoken.

Unable to speak, Gaige nodded to Wellyne and turned to leave the chapel without a backward glance.

****

G
AIGE
shook his head to dispel the cobwebs and looked at his husbands, all three of whom were looking at him now. He offered them a small smile, knowing there was no way he could share his memory with them. He hadn’t come this far only to have his heritage take away everything he’d gained. No, he would hold onto his secret until the right moment, the perfect moment to reveal all.

He only hoped he would know exactly when that moment would be.

Chapter Eleven

Elian

E
LIAN
watched Gaige’s face carefully, unsure what his husband had been thinking of, but pretty sure that whatever it was wasn’t pleasant. He watched as a gamut of emotions shot across the other man’s face and looked over towards Nevin and Corbin to see if they had any idea what was going on in Gaige’s mind. When both men looked at him with expressions of confusion that no doubt matched his own, Elian knew that they would be no help in that regard. Looking back at Gaige, he pleaded with the blond man to return to them and away from whatever memories were currently haunting him.

It was with a breath of relief he saw Gaige’s eyes blink slowly and then focus on his face. Elian didn’t know what expression he held on his face, but the grimace that passed Gaige’s let him know that it wasn’t an appealing one. He wished he had more awareness when it came to his instinctive facial expressions. Maybe then he would be able to control his subconscious reactions to people.

“Gaige?” he called out softly and gave a small smile when the other man looked directly at him. “Are you okay?” he asked.