Chapter 207 Heart and summons

Chapter 207 Heart and summons
“What do you mean?” I stared up at Mordaine with a confused frown.

The temperature was dropping at last, pure bliss after such a hot summer's day. Our clothes billowed in the wind as dried leaves cracked and popped beneath our feet. 

“For irreversible sun warding,” Hale spoke from beside the dragon. “Those unique fangs of his only need to come in contact with a hybrid’s blood. Specifically a witch from a pure line like…” he leaned forward to meet my gaze.

“The bells.” I shivered, my mind still on the events in Korea. “But you said his bite could kill a hybrid. In Korea.”

“I also said it could make them immortal or turn them into a beast.” 

“At the cost of my own abilities,” Finn spoke up now, and I turned to find him staring thoughtfully at a distance. “No.”

“There will be no cost to your abilities,” Hale remarked.

“No.”

There was no further discussion on warding, or any other similar topics that could pull us to the elephant in the room. Instead, we fondly recalled the past, mostly our days in Seoul as we walked up dusty trails, sticking to the hillside.

By the time we were moving past the columns into the mansion, it was complete darkness outside. 

“Shower, dinner,” Mordaine said to me, his mood markedly darker. I gave a quiet nod, turning for the staircase. 

Hale and Finn walked in front of me, and my cheeks heated as I forced my eyes away from those well-sculpted man-butts shifting beneath their pants.

On our bedroom floor, I turned away from the stairs. But the man walked on, by all appearances, heading for Finn’s bedroom on the floor above. 

A hot flush of jealousy made my muscles twinge. I wandered into our bedroom and shut the door a little hard. Then proceeded to step out of my dress. The night was full of possibilities, but as I was uncertain where we all stood, especially Finn, I forced myself not to make assumptions.

I drifted down the stairs sometime later, calmer and draped in a lightweight flowing dress. The living room was in partial darkness as I made my way towards the dining area.

Large hands grabbed my waist suddenly, and I drew in a sharp breath. “Your smell,” the dragon groaned deep, his warm breath fanning my neck from behind. “It’s intoxicating.”

My tongue ran across my bottom lip, partly nervous. Still clutching my waist, he turned me around.

I stared up at his face that was bathed in shadows, at his black hair that seemed to have disappeared in the darkness, and my heart started to beat a little faster.

He raised his hand up, and stroked my hair. “You left your braids in. Good girl.” My eyes closed to the feel of his hand.

We were firmly in the Dom-Sub domain at this point. I further confirmed this when I opened my eyes again and saw just how dark his own had gotten, how every muscle on his face was set.

Heat seemed to roll out of his pores, much hotter than usual. I swallowed hard, expecting him to cancel dinner and lead me back upstairs. 

But when his hand took mine, it was to lead me out the front door. “Come. They are waiting.”

My mouth opened and shut again. I was in a lingerie dress and flip-flop. Why were we heading out the front door? And then we were…

I halted, freezing at the sight before me. The wind whipped from every side, lifting my hair and flapping it around my face. All around me, the city twinkled with night light, a beautiful dance of blue and gold and red and black. We were standing on an empty helipad. 

Only, this place had been transformed into a fancy rooftop single-table restaurant. I stared at the pink and silver balloons dotting the floor, the ribbons that danced in the wind, and the men standing by a carefully laid out table in the center of it all. 

Mordaine released my hand, moving towards the table. Finn fussed unnecessarily with the table cloth and place settings. Hale flashed me that charming smile and clapped once. 

All three men straightened up and launched into a birthday song.

Joyeux anniversaire
Heureux Anniversaire

By the third line, I was giggling through my tears, still frozen to the spot as they sang and clapped. It’s enough. It was finally enough. In that moment, it was like watching every part of me in three of them. My soul, my heart, my life.  

This was the highlight of all my lifetime. This was how I wanted to remember life, all three of them standing together, watching me, sharing in my happiness. 

Yesterday, I turned down my friends’ offer to take me out on my birthday, and asked Tamar to handle all the gifts and cards from my supporters because, at the brink of unavoidable death, I was not feeling very festive.

But from the moment Mordaine woke me up with a kiss this morning, I had felt differently. He had kissed life into me, and with each man that walked into our home, that life bloomed into something bright that was threatening to levitate me now.

I crossed the helipad towards them, sweeping through the balloons as the men ended the song and lit all twenty-seven of the candles on the birthday cake.  

Hale placed a gentle hand on my back as I leaned over the cake, and Mordaine moved to pull my braids up to my back. I blew the candles out without making a wish. All I wanted was here with me. 

We settled to the carnivore-centric meals. A large rack of lamb, pan-seared pork chops, ribeye steak, and a side of buckwheat pasta. But by the time we turned to the selection of dessert, there was a crackling tension in the air.

My hand shook as I brought a piece of cake to my lips. The men were speaking casually among themselves as usual, none of them looking at me. But I was keenly aware of how conscious they were of me.

In the last hour, their voices seemed to have dropped, their bodies more controlled than languid. And sitting with them, I felt like prey. It was as unnerving as it was thrilling. 

There was no need to take a wild guess as to what they all wanted. It was me.

I saw it in the way Mordaine watched me now over the top of his glass. I felt it in my mate-bond with Hale that was at the moment like a hot flush in my abdomen. And when I looked at Finn at the opposite end of the table, his hands were bunched into tight fists on the table, despite the relaxed, careless air he had about him.

When our eyes met, I swallowed hard.

Setting my fork down, I reached for the bottle of red wine again. But the dragon snatched it out of my reach just before my hand closed around it. 

“I need you sober, pet.” Then he stood up suddenly, his chair scraping the floor. “Home. The wind is getting nippy.”