Page 30 of Taken By the Twins

She already accepted me once. Her essence tells me that she’s ready to accept Damien now.

If she takes her twins together, we can give her our essence at last, then follow it with the mate’s promise. There will be no severing our bond after that, and with it nearly irreversible, Ishould be able to see any future involving our mate once she is trulyourmate.

That’s all I want. If the shadows come… if the rain comes… if the child comes… I will either work to change the prophecy, or I will flee to another realm with my twin and our mate. There is Brille Rouge. Soleil. Even Earth, if I must. It won’t be Sombra, and my powers will significantly weaken without the shadows that have surrounded us since birth, but it was never about the powers for me.

It was about using them to protect my mate. I will do that however I can.

And if I have to protect her from Damien, I will do that if I must.

I knew how close he was to losing control.

But Tandy? She doesn’t understand. The instance we return to the cabin and Damien makes some mumbled excuse to leave her bedroom, I don’t have a vision. I don’t need to. The pain of rejection in her essence is too potent to ignore.

She hides it. With a laugh and a smile, she says he must have other plans, and that’s okay. She’d like a bath. Something to eat. A nap.

Privacy. Our mate needs privacy, and I will always give her what she requires.

So I do. I let Damien slip down the stairs to the main floor of our cabin without stopping him. Through our twin bond, I know he hasn’t gone far, so I conjure the water at the temperature Tandy prefers. I wave my hand, the shadows falling away from her body. I only give her a fleeting, heated glance as I remember how I held her naked form against me not that long ago, then I swallow roughly.

“Rest, dear one,” I say softly. “Take your bath. Sleep if you like. I will bring you something to eat.”

Her smile is both sad yet wistful. “Whatever did I do to deserve a great guy like you, Lucian? You’re so good to me.”

Because you are my mate.

Because you are my life.

Because I love you…

My claws twitch as I realize that, for the first time since Tandy’s been in our home, did I think of her as mine.

Not Damien’s, too. Justmine.

But she isn’t. She can’t be. She belongs to both of us—and as soon as I make something worthy of her to eat that isn’t simple bread and cheese, I will remind both Damien and myself of that fact.

I findDamien over the stove. In one cooking vessel, he’s brewing a tea. At first, I think he realized how close he came to losing the last of his essence and started the ashbalm potion that bolsters our twin bond.

But then I sniff it, and say, “Ergol.”

“For Tandy. It’ll help calm her. After the way that male spoke to her, I thought she might need it.”

No. What she needs is the support of her true mates, but before I snap that at Damien, it hits me that thisishis way of supporting her.

He will always tend to emotions first. I deal with the tangible. Things I can touch. I can do. I ran her a bath. I fluffed her bedding to make it more comfortable. I came downstairs to get her something to eat…

Damien has already done so. There is a hash made oftybirs, ungezmeat, and herbs sizzling on the pan. It smells bothdelicious and comforting, and between that and theergoltea, Tandy will feed both her belly and her heart.

I nod at my twin. “You should serve her. I think she would appreciate it.”

Damien shakes the pan so that they meat doesn’t stick. “I’d rather you did, brother.”

“Damien—”

He glances at me. My claws cut into the flesh of my palm as I squeeze my fist.

His purple eye iswhite.

My twin is no longer my twin. If I looked in a scrying glass, would my eyes both be purple? I won’t look. Ican’t. But if his eyes are white like those mindless creatures that can’t escape the shadows, how is he standing there so calmly? He’s speaking in the English language because we both know it makes Tandy feel more comfortable since she does not yet understand Sombran. A fully demonic male has no essence, but he is able to access Tandy’s.

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