Questions, boxes and presents

Shaking herself free of her daydream, Seph looked at her mates, who were both looking at her with silly grins on their faces. “You liked us,” Kayla said softly. Seph had never admitted to feeling the mate bond immediately; at the time, she had half wanted it to be fake. She didn’t know what to do with the twins, two mates. And two wolves? Plus, she had to admit to being intimidated by Theo; she could now anyway.

“You could smell us too,” Theo added, putting his box on the floor as he returned to Seph’s side. “I don’t know how I restrained myself; I didn’t care that anyone else was there; I wanted to fuck you on that wall and mark you right there… but then Kayla tried to claim you too; I wanted to kill her. And when Dextra appeared? I could see you were so nervous and scared, but I couldn’t work out what the problem was, and she was looking at me with those eyes….” Theo’s voice trailed off; he had told the story before. He felt immediately drawn to Dextra, just as she felt pulled to him but wouldn’t leave Seph.

“I just can’t believe how stupid we were to behave like that. We should have been calmer, and we knew you weren’t a wolf and might not understand” Kayla shook her head. “Either that or I should have killed him”, she added playfully.

After a few minutes, they all fell silent again. Tangled together comfortably in silence.

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Eventually, Kayla spoke, breaking the silence. “Hey, Seph, I’ve been meaning to ask you something”, she said softly.

“Mmm? Yeah?” Seph mumbled softly, rubbing her shoulder softly.

“How come Dextra keeps talking to me now, and I can understand her? She told me when you were looking for me yesterday,” Kayla asked curiously.

“Yeh, Archer could always understand her, but then once you marked me, she can talk in my head directly”, Theo added; he hadn’t really thought about it before, but now that he did, he realised it probably was worth questioning.

Sky blinked up at the ceiling, thinking. “That is weird… I guess she’s in the same kind of ballpark as Archer and Remi; that is why they can understand her; it’s just taken a bit of time to tune in, maybe? But you guys, I’m not sure. I guess it’s something to do with me marking you?” Seph offered apologetically, not being able to fully explain. “Maybe it’s a bond thing or a dragon-kin thing?”

The twins seemed to consider this before shrugging their acceptance “that’s what I thought too,” Kayla said, curling back into the cocoon of bedding and her mate.

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Seph looked over at Theo, who was now pulling the tape off the box he had been delivered, trying to be quiet and stealthy. A grin on his face, a hopeful little smile, betrayed the happy, excited and cheerful feelings he was trying to hide from the girls. Archer was shaking like an excited puppy in the back of Theo’s head, he couldn’t wait to share, but first, they had to check that everything was in order and make sure that Seph didn’t see what they had in the box for her. Hunching over it, Theo carefully examined the box’s contents, clearly trying to block the girl’s view with his back. Dextra pushed her way free of Seph’s chest, ‘Archer… Archer…’ they all heard before she fell silent, clambering up onto Theo’s shoulder.

“Theo… what’s in the box?” Seph asked, sitting up slowly.

“Yeah, brother… what do you have?” Kayla added, leaning over the bed and Seph’s legs towards Theo.

Theo turned towards them, still hiding his box protectively behind his back. His eyes were wide. Clearly, he hadn’t thought this far ahead. He had nothing to say to the girls, no way to put them off until he was ready to give them their gifts.

“Are you going to tell us, Theo? Dextra?” Seph asked curiously. “Archer?” She added, tilting her head to the side.

Dextra chattered eagerly, fidgeting restlessly; no one could make any sense of her chirrups and chuffs. Theo shook his head slowly, still trying to work out what to say to them.

“You’re not going to tell us? None of you?” Seph clarified unnecessarily as she slowly inched closer to Theo, who looked more like a deer caught in headlights.

Just before Seph could reach him, Theo threw his arms into the air in a gesture of surrender, “ok… ok, I’ll tell you.” He told Seph at last. He didn’t know what else there was to do or how he would ever surprise them both together in the future, and he would have to work on that at some point. “I bought you presents… you know to say sorry for being a dick.” He finished, looking up at Seph nervously. Theo hadn’t wanted to do this today and wasn’t sure if it would work. Archer had said that Dextra said this would be a good present, but still, Theo wasn’t convinced now it came to it.

“Oh Theo, that’s sweet… you didn’t have to do that.” Seph answered, softly putting her hand on his thigh and giving him a small smile.

Kayla laughed, “he didn’t, did you, Theo? It was Archer, wasn’t it?”

“No, I mean, he helped me pick something, but it was my idea to get you a gift to make up for… everything,” Theo told Kayla firmly.

Kayla continued to stare at Theo intently; Theo returned her stare, not wanting to look away because Kayla would more than likely interpret that as an admission of guilt.

Seph sighed loudly, shaking her head and sitting back as the twins glared at each other. She crossed her legs and looked between the two of them. After almost five minutes, she climbed off the bed “ok, well, you two have fun doing… whatever the fuck this is… I’m going to grab a shower.”

Theo shook himself out of the trance, darting off the bed and following Seph, “what? No, don’t go! I bought you a present; you need to get it… then forgive me.”

“Theo, you were too busy staring down, Kayla”, Seph said with a sigh, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Theo knelt between Seph’s feet, pulling his box around the bed to be near them. “I hope you like it… Dextra gave me some advice, and I don’t know if I can trust her.” He sounded adorably nervous as he pulled out a practical leather harness belt type device with strange-looking sheaves. Followed by a pair of triangular blades, they had wide bases with intricate, jewelled, H-shaped handles. “They are Katar’s. Apparently, it’s an Indian style of blade, first seen around the 14th century. Dex said you would like them. Oh, and this button makes the blade open, so it has three points. And Dex told me you’d like these too” Theo seemed slightly more confident now that he had the main blades out of the box. He pulled out a large set of throwing knives and stars with straps to fasten them to limbs and attach them to the holster for the other blades. “I’ll show you how it all goes together another day, but I’m not sure how to use those blades. Maybe Odilio will know?”

Seph was too busy looking at the katar in her hands, Kayla having claimed the other to examine. She didn’t respond to Theo, though he could feel that she was happy with her gifts, genuinely pleased and intrigued.

“Am I forgiven?” Theo asked, shuffling closer to Seph. “Am I allowed to touch my mate at will again now?” Archer added.

Seph rested her hand on Theo’s shoulder gently. “Theo, I love them, thank you. And Archer, I’m not mad at you, but you can’t touch me when you want because that’s not good. You need to make sure I’m ok with it too.”

“Hold up, how come he’s forgiven, but I’ve given you all the space you needed, looked after you, bought your blades, and got a bloody great tattoo on my back, but he’s the one who gets forgiven just like that? That’s not fair! Please, Seph, please, I hate this. I want you back,” Theo begged, laying his head on her thigh.

“Well, it wasn’t him who fucked whores… he didn’t want to, so yes, I have no issues with Archer. You did it to hurt me, though, Theo, and even if I know it wasn’t all you, you were under a spell, but it’s hard. I will try to forgive you, and I want to move forward.”

Theo nodded, still looking a bit put out even as he slowly wrapped his arms around Seph’s middle.

“Oh, come on, Theo, you were such a dick; you can’t blame her for not forgetting it all right away, especially after everything that happened. Suck it up and deal with the consequences of your actions.”

“On another note, I have presents for you two too, but you can’t have them yet”, Seph interrupted happily. Grinning at her mates.

“What? What did you get us?” Theo asked

“why can’t we have it yet? When can we have it?” Kayla demanded, sucking on Seph’s mark to try and encourage her to speak.

Seph just grinned wider at them, shaking her head again and nudging Kayla off her shoulder. “Right, we need to start getting going, and breakfast will be here soon. The shower is mine first,” Seph said brightly, nudging Theo off her middle.

“Bagsy showering with Seph!” Shouted both the twins as Seph stood up.