Chapter 117: Inseparable

Daphne

It was so painfully quiet I expected a cricket to start chirping at any moment. The three of us sat around the table, the tension so thick you could have cut it with a knife. Louis looked like he was in pain, and Nash looked like he was ready to kill someone.

“Look,” I finally broke the long, tense silence. “I realize this isn’t what any of us were expecting…”

“Damn straight!” Nash growled. He was particularly good at growling for a man who wasn’t a werewolf. And the sound of it sent little tingles of sexual excitement up my spine. Never mind that this was a totally inappropriate time to be thinking about sex. “How did this even happen?”

Louis shook his head, “The Goddess…”

“Oh don’t give me that b.ullshit!” Nash slapped a hand down on the table. “I’m human. I don’t believe in your moon goddess. How the hell did I get mixed up with–” he looked at me, and I saw a flash of guilt cross his features.

“It sometimes happens,” I said, taking a quiet, reasonable tone, like I would with a distraught patient. “Human-werewolf matings aren’t common, but it happens. And triad matings are rarer still, but…”

Nash shifted with agitation, like he was struggling to remain seated. “Yeah, but between brothers. Right? Twins, like your brothers. Or with people who have a kink for sharing, like…” he shut his mouth on the name of whoever he was about to list as an example. “But I don’t have a brother,” he cast a sharp look at Louis, “I’m not into sharing. And no offense, but I’m not into dudes."

A muscle ticked in Louis’s jaw, but he remained quiet, his face unreadable.

“Nash,” the name was still a little foreign on my tongue. “You’ve been dealt a lot today. Why don’t we get you settled into a room, and you can just take some time to relax and process.”

“Eternity wouldn’t be enough time to process this!” He snapped. He finally couldn’t contain himself, he shoved away from the table and stood, and Louis mirrored his actions, inserting his body between Nash and me, taking a protective stance. “This is b.ullshit!”

I stood up and stepped around Louis, and reached for Nash, but he practically jumped away. “Don’t touch me!” He strode toward the door, practically ripped it off the hinges, and went out into the hallway. “How the hell do I get out of this place?”

The king sighed, and his shoulders drooped. “Leah? Will you show Mr. Turner to the exit please?”

A uniformed servant that I hadn’t even known was in the connecting room appeared, as if by magic. She did a little bow to Louis and then stepped out, gesturing for Nash to follow her down the hallway. The sound of their footsteps echoing in the passage faded away.

I sighed heavily. “Well, that went well.” I rubbed at the pain that was growing in my chest.

Louis turned his troubled gaze on me. “How could it have gone any better?”

He lifted a hand to his sternum, like he was feeling it too. He extended the other hand toward me, and I gladly took hold of it, desperate for the rush of comfort. He tugged me into his body, and wrapped both hands around me, resting his chin on my head. Warm tingles chased the ache from my body. “What a complicated mess. How did this happen?”

“I suspected…” Louis said, drawing back to look down at me.

“You did?”

“Yes. You see, I never felt anything towards you, until…” he placed a hand over my stomach. “It was the baby… his baby, his scent co-mingling with yours. It changed everything.”

“You are right,” I agreed. “Nash is the connection.” I felt a sinking feeling in my heart. “But he’s not going to accept it.”

“Can you blame him?” Louis’s voice was thick. He ran a hand over his face and turned away from me. “He’ll have to reject me.”

“No!” the word ripped from my throat in an agonized cry. If Nash rejected Louis, who knew what would happen? It would tear all of us apart. I suspected it wouldn’t just break his bond to Louis, it would break Nash’s bond to me, and my bond to Louis. “He can’t do that!” I put a hand against my stomach. Rejection was a physically agonizing experience that could kill the rejected partner. I might be strong enough to withstand it, but what about my baby?

And what about Louis? Louis had already survived the loss of one fated mate. How could he lose his second chance?

I wrapped my hands around him from behind and rested my cheek against his strong back. “My brother Byron always says that the Moon Goddess doesn’t make mistakes. There is a reason she chose the three of us to be together, even if it makes no sense right now. We just have to have faith.”

Under my ear I could hear his breath, hear the steady thumping of his heart. “That’s easy enough for you and me,” he said sadly. “But what about Nash? This would be hard for a werewolf to accept, Daphne. This isn’t his world.”

“But it will be. We will show him that he can belong here, with us. We’ll find a way to make it work.”

“But he left,” Louis pointed out as he turned to face me again.

I smiled. “No he didn’t. He’s blowing off some steam, but he won’t leave. He’ll be back.” I wasn’t sure why I felt so certain, but I was. “He’ll stay because of the baby.”